2.10.16 by Iowa State Daily

Religious turmoil responsible for widespread violence By Jake.Dalbey @iowastatedaily.com

The issue of religious terrorism has become more prevalent as people around the world turn on the news to hear of killings attributed to a higher power. Deaths associated with religious acts of terrorism have increased by 80 percent when compared to 2014, with almost 33,000 people killed in the last year alone, according to the Global Terrorism Index. However, these types of acts are not new to the world and certainly weren’t created in the last century. They are instead vital and bloody parts of our world’s vast history. Christians fought Muslims for the Holy Land of Jerusalem during the Crusades. Protestants and Catholics killed each other during the French Religion Wars, and Hitler enacted his anti-sematic views on the world during the Holocaust. Despite this long history, the toll of religious terrorism is often not seen in bullets but segregated divides. With the emergence of ISIS, replacing al-Qaeda for the millennial generation, speculation about the true nature of Islam and whether its extremist followers are truly following the words of the Quran has led many Muslim students to feel unfairly judged. “There’s many basics that make a Muslim a Muslim such as praying five times a day or having to donate whatever you can every week or so,” said Sultan Alsayegh, senior in chemical engineering and the president of the Muslim Student Association. “If you don’t fast in what we call Ramadan, where we have 30 days to fast in a row, then you aren’t a Muslim. I’m thinking ISIS didn’t do that. So that’s three out of the five pillars of Islam that they aren’t doing.” Alsayegh doesn’t believe American media accurately portrays Muslims and their religions and doesn’t think and picks one side that will make an interesting story,” Alsayegh said. “In my opinPEACE p4 Design: Caleb Morningstar/Iowa State Daily

I’ve-Been-Violated app makes waves Assault app helps campus victims By Jaki.Cavins @iowastatedaily.com The I’ve-Been-Violated app, created by The Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence, is being brought to college campuses in order to help victims of sexual assault. The app can be used as proof or credibility for a victims of assault by recording them once they have reached a safe place and asking them what transpired and who harassed them. The video is then geocoded, time stamped and stored as a double encrypted record. “What the app does is it gives you access to something you did make contemporaneously with your own voice and your own picture,” said Michael Lissack, American business executive, author, business consultant and director of the Institute for the

Study of Coherence and Emergence. “The chain of custody is good. You don’t have to go through a second trauma of proving that you’re credible.” The video can only be accessed if the victim wishes to come forward and contacts appropriate authorities in order to have the video retrieved. “It is a double encrypted file until you provide information to the authorities so that they can make a request for the file it will just remain on the servers,” Lissack said. One in 5 women will experience sexual assault during their time in college, according to the White House task force to protect students from sexual assault. The reality is that sexual assault on college campuses is happening and what’s worse is 68 percent of sexual assaults are not reported, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. One of the main reasons people who are sexually assaulted choose not to report it is because they are afraid of what will happen if they do.

“Survivors oftentimes don’t know how to tell someone or what will happen if they do tell someone,” said Michael Davis, assistant director for Student Assistance in the Dean of Students’ Office at Iowa State. It is for this reason that the Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence has created the four-part app suite that includes the I’ve-Been-Violated app. The app suite is available to colleges for free to help victims of assault, raise awareness and to change the way in which college students view and talk about sexual assault. Iowa State does not yet have the app suite program, but students wanting to report a sexual assault have multiple ways in which they can choose to receive help. Students can go to the police, the university or contact Assault Care Center Extending Shelter and Support. Victims can call ACCESS anonymously to talk through their experience and receive options on what they can do in deal-

ing with their assault. “I believe that students are feeling more confident with their resources and on their reporting options,” Davis said. Technology has made it easier for students and victims to receive the help they need and come forward and report being assaulted if they want to through apps such as I’ve-Been-Violated and though centers such as ACCESS, which offer anonymous help. “Seven percent of college students sleep with their phone in their hand,” Lissack said. “That’s why we did apps.” The Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence hopes the suite apps will provide victims with readily available sources that back up their credibility and foster an environment where college students can grow in the way that they are aware of and the way that they discuss sexual harassment. “What’s important is discussion,” Lissack said. “Anything that we can do to help tweak the environment so that discussion happens is a good thing.”

Students offer services to file taxes Group provides free tax preparation assistance to public By Erin.Gruba @iowastatedaily.com A group of accounting students at Iowa State are providing free tax preparation assistance to the public through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program this season. The students are trying to help people who have a household income of $54,000 or less. They will assist with filing taxes for no cost. Electronic filing is also a free service for those eligible for federal and state returns. Assistants are primarily business students focusing on ac-

counting. In order to be selected as one of the assistants, business students must register online for a class on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prerequisites include having taken intermediate-level accounting classes. The training and preparation are more rigorous because the tax assistance program is a government program. Anyone interested in the program is required to get eight different certifications that incorporate ethics training, form training and advanced military and foreign training. The current students involved have been preparing for the program since the beginning of the spring semester. Students find this program to be beneficial because it allows undergraduate students to familiarize themselves with doing tax returns, and they get to help

people in the community. “This is the closest thing that we can provide in class that gives real-world experience,” said Mike Bootsma, senior lecturer in accounting. Jordan Kulow, graduate assistant in accounting, said he believes this is much different than working in an accounting firm, in which she has prior experience. “We focus more on the lower-income level students and we do a lot of foreign returns, which I haven’t seen lot of,” Kulow said. “It’s just broadening my horizons of tax accounting and the different applications of it.” Response for this program has been positive, according to members. Appointments book within 24 hours from when they open and are full every day they have available. The program runs from Feb. 15 to April 13 and is located in the Gerdin Business Building.

Iowa State Daily

Students can consult business students in Gerdin or the Financial Counseling Clinic at Iowa State for tax advice until April 13.

Council advances budget Meeting addresses CyRide, bike paths By Christie.Smith @iowastatedaily.com Council members approved budgeting for CyRide and bike paths before passing an anticipated e-cigarette ban at a meeting of the Ames City Council on Tuesday night. A final hearing for public input on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2016/2017 is scheduled for March 1, two weeks before the state requires each city to have its budgets finalized. The proposed budget will lower property taxes for Ames residents by nearly 30 cents per $1,000 of taxable valuation, according to city documents. The city has not proposed raising any utility costs in the plan, something city manager Steve Schainker credits to careful budgeting by staff members and department heads. One of the notable increases in the proposed 2016/2017 budget is in the category of transportation. Because of a decline of federal funding for CyRide, the city has been asked to contribute an additional 4.9 percent, or nearly $80,000, to the public transportation system. The city has predicted that CyRide will provide 7 million rides this fiscal year, nearly one quarter of a million rides more than last year’s predicted growth. Iowa State University and ISU students, who make up the other two-thirds of local CyRide funding, have also been asked to increase their contributions. Students’ fees, which are built into their tuition costs, were increased from $63.35 to $73.10 per semester this year, said ex-officio representative Sam Schulte. The proposed increase in city funding will contribute to CyRide’s biggest need, according to city documents: employment.

CITY COUNCIL p3