9.20.13

Page 1

INDEX

Emory Events Calendar, Page 2

Crossword Puzzle, Page 8

Staff Editorial, Page 6

Police Record, Page 2

Arts & Entertainment, Page 9

On Fire, Page 11

THE EMORY WHEEL Since 1919

The Independent Student Newspaper of Emory University

Volume 95, Issue 7

www.emorywheel.com

Friday, September 20, 2013 ADMINISTRATION

Every Tuesday and Friday SUSTAINABILITY

FIGHTING FOR THE FLAG

Provost to Connect With Faculty

Sustainable Projects To Receive Funding

By Alyssa Posklensky Contributing Writer

By Naomi Maisel Staff Writer

Emory Provost Claire Sterk invites University faculty to take part in a new series that involves promoting excellence at Emory and better understanding the faculty’s goals and aspirations. The provost is the chief academic advisor of the University. Sterk is the sixth person to hold this position at Emory, according to the Office of the Provost website. Each small-group lunch conversation will be school-specific, with conversations about the School of Medicine, the Goizueta Business School, the Laney Graduate School, the Rollins School of Public Health, the Neil Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, the School of Law, the Candler School of Theology and the College of Arts and Science. Sessions will be limited to 10 members of the faculty, with the exception of the first and last sessions, which are open to 14 faculty members across the University, according to a Sept. 11 University press release. The lunch conversations will be held in the space formerly known as Caffé Antico, located in the Carlos Museum of Art, according to the University press release, except for the Oct. 4 conversation, which will take place at the Goizueta Business School. “I think that one of my most important responsibilities as provost is to listen to what faculty, staff and students have to share with me,” Sterk said. “To make Emory as good as it can be, the Provost can’t work in isolation. I value the perspectives, knowledge and expertise of the Emory community, especially the faculty who form the core of the academic life of the university.” One of the goals of the program is to draw on the faculty’s creativity to identify future directions for Emory in both education and research, Sterk said. With the series, Sterk said she hopes to replicate her project entitled “Year of the Faculty,” in which she met with faculty across Emory and was able to learn about their career aspirations, challenges in teaching and research and ideas about tenure as senior vice provost for academic affairs. Patrick Graham, the Margaret A. Pitts professor of Theological Bibliography and librarian, enrolled in one of the dialogue sessions because of the opportunity to learn about Sterk and other faculty members while bringing up issues that may not be apparent to the administration. Specifically, Graham would like to use the dialogues as a forum to discuss how Emory libraries support the humanities programs. “The Pitts Library has been experimenting with low-cost strategies that enlist the larger public in advancing research and the creation of knowledge,” Graham said. “These may be things that [Sterk] would like to encourage or about which she would like to offer counsel.” Additionally, the Office of the Provost is working with Ajay Nair, senior vice president and dean of Campus Life, to create similar sessions in the future for students to learn about and improve academic and campus life at Emory. “I believe that the Provost has signaled something very important to the entire Emory faculty — her willingness to listen to them and consider carefully what they’d like to offer,” Graham said. “Such an attitude should not be taken for granted by any faculty.”

countries and his regular engagements with Candler students through visits and seminars. But some have described Fox as “anti-gay” because of his stance on homosexuality within the church. As a result, some members of the Emory community want the honor to be rescinded. Emory Gay and Lesbian Alumni (GALA) announced on Twitter that its steering committee approved a motion opposing the award and

Emory’s Office of Sustainability is once again offering its Sustainability Incentives Fund to students who wish to implement projects that promote sustainable practices within the Emory community. These projects, which may encompass innovation in sustainable education, technology and volunteer opportunities, are meant to increase awareness about sustainability initiatives at Emory as well as implement technologies and “rituals” that decrease Emory’s non-sustainable practices and “foster cultural change,” according to the Office of Sustainability Initiative’s (OSI) website. The fund grants up to $3,000 per project and is open to Emory, Oxford and Emory Healthcare faculty, staff and students, according to the OSI website. Students must apply for this fund by Oct. 1 at 2 p.m. The winners will be announced on Oct. 23 in conjunction with a “campus sustainability day”-themed Wonderful Wednesday, according to Emily CumbieDrake, OSI sustainability program coordinator. All projects are to be completed by Aug. 31, 2014. A selection committee consisting of at least one Emory faculty, one Emory student and the Office of Sustainability Initiative’s staff will collaborate in deciding who will receive a grant, Cumbie-Drake said. The committee will judge projects based off of five criteria: project relevance to Emory sustainability initia-

See STUDENT, Page 4

See SUSTAINABILITY, Page 3

— Contact Alyssa Posklensky at

Michael Fior/Contributor

G

reek organizations competed in Powderpuff football games for Greek Week. College junior Ellen Shapiro (left) runs with the football while College senior Molly Snyder (center) and College sophomore Alison Wagman (right) reach to pull off her flags. Teams get points for winning games, and the team with the most members who show up to cheer receive an extra 20 points.

THEOLOGY SCHOOL

LGBT Groups Dispute Candler Award By Stephen Fowler Contributing Writer Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community are voicing concerns over the selection of an Emory alumni for a Candler School of Theology award because of his alleged role as an “anti-gay” leader while serving in various governing bodies of the United Methodist Church, according to Jan Love, dean of the Candler School of Theology. Tennessee native H. Eddie Fox

H. Eddie Fox, received the Candler School of Theology’s Distinguished Alumni Award for service. (‘62T) was one of three individuals who received the Candler School of Theology’s 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award for Service to the

Church, according to a Aug. 27 University press release. Fox is the world director of World Methodist Evangelism, the organization responsible for worldwide outreach of the church, and the executive director of the Emory-based World Methodist Evangelism Institute. According to Laurel Hanna, codirector of communications for the Candler School of Theology, Fox is receiving the award for his service as director for both organizations, his work in establishing and strengthening communities in more than 155

TECHNOLOGY

SCIENCE

Study Shows Virtual App Unifies Emory Platforms Clinic Helps Depression By Joe Toledano Contributing Writer

By Nisha Giridharan Contributing Writer An Emory nursing researcher’s new virtual health clinic could help young adults manage depression, according to a recent study published in Applied Nursing Research. Melissa Pinto, the lead author of the study, presented her results to policy makers at the Technology Innovations for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Treatment conference hosted at the White House on Monday. Pinto and a team of researchers found that 18 to 25-year-olds who reported having depressive symptoms for more than two weeks showed fewer symptoms after using the computer program, the Electronic SelfManagement Resource Training for Mental Health (eSMART-MH). Users log into eSMART-MH and enter a three-dimensional health-clinic simulation where they can meet with virtual doctors and nurse practitioners to talk about how they are feeling. “We were surprised by the findings [of the study] because of the reduction in depressive symptoms,” Pinto said. “Usually when you develop these kind of interventions, you don’t see an effect like that the first time around.” Depression is a sensitive topic and can often be a difficult subject to bring up in a health care visit, Pinto said. She said she hopes eSMARTMH will give young adults the confidence to share their story and work

with health care providers in a real clinic to develop a treatment plan that is right for them. “I like to say it’s like a dress rehearsal, so you get to practice,” Pinto said. “And if you mess up, you’re in, what we believe, is a nonthreatening environment. So then when you get to the real office, you feel really confident.” But the effects may go beyond enhancing communication between a patient and a health care provider. In the study, participants who used the computer program once a month for three months showed on average one less depressive symptom at the end, Pinto said. A control group who received education on healthy living, on the other hand, showed no significant reduction in symptoms. Moving forward, Pinto said, she hopes to make the eSMART-MH “smarter” by adding features that allow the program to remember a user’s past responses. She said she would also like to expand her small study to include more participants. While eSMART-MH or a modified technology may be available for Emory students in the future, Pinto is unsure of when that might be. At the moment, there are other technologies available to help Emory students experiencing symptoms of depression, including an online questionnaire developed by the Emory Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) that allows students

See COUNSELING, Page 3

NEWS STUDENTS CAN GET

OP-EDS FURTHERING

FUNDING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

THE DISCUSSION ON

PROJECTS...

LIFE

PAGE 3

...

GREEK PAGE 6

CourseGem, an application designed to provide students with easier access to school pages, has been made available to Emory University students, according to the program’s creator and Goizueta Business School senior Aaron Fisher. According to Fisher, the free downloadable Google Chrome extension provides users with an auto-generated drop-down menu of all Emory courses which a user is registered for and also simultaneously signs users into Blackboard and OPUS. In addition, it provides links to school calendars and signs into Emory email. Fisher, an Atlanta native, lives in Israel and attends college at IDC Herzliya. Currently, Fisher is enrolled in an exchange program at the Goizueta Business School. Fisher said the program first stemmed from a common scenario on other college campuses in which students were forced to access different websites for email and other course information. CourseGem is also available at other colleges around the country including the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Maryland. The application also has an international presence with an app designed for IDC Herzliya in Israel, according to the CourseGem’s website. “I decided to check one of my course websites for updates,” Fisher wrote in an email to the Wheel. “Just

Jordan Friedman/News Editor

An Emory alumnus has designed an application that enables students to sign into Blackboard and OPUS at the same time. like the previous few hundred times, I went to my school website, clicked on the web portal, entered my username and password into the login prompt, waited for a list of my courses to load and finally clicked on the desired course.” To streamline what he believes is a unnecessarily complicated process, Fisher said he decided to write the program to try to solve the problem. The program consists of a button in the browser, which when clicked, will automatically log in the user and bring them to a list of courses they are registered in, Fisher said. Fisher expanded his program while at Emory when he was persuaded by his professor, Benn Konsynski, the George S. Craft Distinguished University Professor of Information Systems and Operations

Management, to bring the application to Emory. An integral part of the program is entering and storing a student’s confidential Net ID and password on his or her browser. This feature worries some students and professors, including Emory journalism professor Lee Clontz. Emory University itself recently required all students to change their passwords in response to a breach of information technology infrastructure, according to an Aug. 21 University press release. “It does, if you know how to look, show your password in plain text,” Clontz said. “I would not be an advocate for people saving sensitive passwords of any kind on their browser.

See SOME, Page 4

STUDENT LIFE

SPORTS EAGLES RUGBY

NEXT ISSUE

STUDENTS COMBAT SEXUAL ASSAULT ... PAGE 9

TRAIN, PREPARE FOR ALUMNI

FACULTY AND GOVCOM DISPUTE EMPLOYMENT ... FRIDAY

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