Wellness survey to provide feedback

SIDNEY LOWRY Managing Editor | @sidney_lowry

Northwest Wellness Services is participating in the Missouri Assessment of College Health Behaviors student feedback survey to evaluate wellbeing and health resources on campus.

MACHB is administered annually by the Missouri Partners in Prevention,

Crime Log

for the week of Feb. 23

Northwest Missouri State University Police Department

Feb. 19

There is a closed investigation for a fire alarm in Dieterich Hall.

Feb. 18

There is an open investigation for a hit and run in Parking Lot 59.

Feb. 16

There is an open investigation for harassment in Forest Village ApartmentsWillow.

There was an accident between Brock Stout, 18, and Kurra Kovidh, 22, in Parking Lot 10.

Feb. 15 There is a closed investigation for a fire alarm in Colden Hall.

Feb. 14 There is a closed investigation for a fire alarm in Roberta Hall.

Feb. 13

There is an open investigation for a rape in Franken Hall.

Maryville Department of Public Safety

Feb. 19

A summons was issued to Kennedy K. Titus, 27, for driving while intoxicated and failure to register a motor vehicle on the 100 block of East Seventh Street.

Feb. 18

A summons was issued to Lukas D. Butler, 20, for a minor in possession and obstruction of a law enforcement officer on the 700 block of North Fillmore Street.

A summons was issued to Brylee R. Gilderson, 19, for a minor in possession on the 700 block of North Fillmore Street.

There is an ongoing investigation for property damage on the 400 block of North Buchanan Street.

A summons was issued to Bradford L. Larson, 20, for a minor in possession and possession of a fake ID on the 300 block of North Market Street.

A summons was issued to Madalynn M. Stewart, 19, for disorderly conduct, a minor in possession and possession of a fake ID on the 300 block of North Market Street.

Feb. 17 composed of 24 private and public universities across the state, to gain insight on different impacts on student wellbeing like alcohol use and abuse, mental health, drug use, sexual health, driving safety and sense of belonging through the completely anonymous survey.

There was an accident between Ronald F. Konecne 73, and Vickie A. Henry, 57, on North Main Street and East Second Street.

There was an accident between Carquest and Aaron J. Ziola, 51, on North Main Street and East Second Street.

Assistant Director of Wellness Education and Prevention Nikita Alimohammad said Northwest takes the data from the responses and uses it to mold new programs, introduce new resources based on need and assess existing programs and services.

“It gets at the heart of the idea that we want our students to be successful,” Alimohammad said. “There’s so many different aspects to a student being successful. What we can do is try to help our students be the most well healthy versions of themselves.” hammad said persuading students to take a survey, whether this one or one of the many others that are sent to student emails, is the most challenging part of the assessment.

“The hard thing is how do we convince you to take this really long survey that we know is going to be valuable for you?” she said. “And so one of the things that we’ve been trying is to make a change from year to year to help you understand how your answers have been making a difference.”

Alimohammad said Wellness Services decided to change the Green Dot Program to the ENGAGE program based on the information from last year’s survey. The 24/7 telehealth counseling was another resource implemented as a result from the MACHB data.

PREVENTION

The survey is sent out to nearly 25% of the student body every year and is open for roughly two weeks for students to complete. This year it will be open until Feb. 27. Alimohammad said for the last survey in 2022, she said the response rate was around 15% but is hoping to have at least a 20% response rate this time around.

As an incentive to fill out the nearly 25-minute survey, students who respond can enter their name and Northwest email at the end of the survey to be entered in a raffle for one of two yearly parking passes or one of three $40 dining passes.

Even despite the incentives, Alimo-

Graduation

CONTINUED FROM A1

“The Northwest Leadership Team and some other folks that might have been talking about this, do really take a lot of perspectives into account,” Gallaher said. “I feel like they are pretty thoughtful about these types of things.”

The previous ceremonies were held in the Lamkin Activity Center, which has limited seating. Hooyman said making families and friends purchase tickets is not something they want to do.

The main concern is the weather interrupting the ceremony. Hooyman said that if weather gets in the way, the ceremony time will most likely be pushed back until the weather is better. The plans will be slightly based around the weather to not experience any difficulties.

Faculty has recognized that some students are not as excited about the decision, but Hooyman said they are very flexible. If this does not work out, they are willing to go back to the conversation and find something that will work for future classes.

“Now I know for students that’s their one time, right?” Gallaher said. “It doesn’t really matter so much to them whether we did it one way before or another way after.”

Hooyman sees this as an opportunity for students to all celebrate their accomplishments together and have all the family and friends that they want to see them graduate.

“Everyone can actually celebrate together and get their diplomas and everything,” Hooyman said. “That’s kind of what we’re going to try this year.”

A part of helping students make a connection is an institution’s ability to help students find a community they want to be a part of. Tatum was asked many questions about his commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

During his time at the Montgomery, Alabama, campus of Troy, Tatum was responsible for the first Juneteenth celebration in Alabama, the Rosa Parks Museum, and implementing the Hellen Keller Lecture Series, a program that focused on individuals with sensory disabilities and discussions surrounding hardships they face in the community.

“In my eyes, you know, diversity talks about the opportunity to be a part of the perspective,” he said. “... It’s a deliberate process, you know. You have to be intent and looking for opportunities that will attract students from outside of Maryville, outside of this county. And then when you get them here, you have to make sure there’s opportunity for them to get engaged and get involved.”

At Troy, Tatum is involved in international enrollment and recruitment, something Northwest has focused on in recent years. With the decrease in first-time student enrollment throughout the country, he said he has experience trying to diversify where institutions look for different types of students.

Tatum said after finding those students, it goes back to connections. He said students need to find a place they feel they belong on campus and a way to do that is through activities that involve them.

A part of that home is the community in which people are surrounded by. With that, some members of the University and

Not only is the data from this survey used in wellness education and prevention, it is also shared with different offices around campus based on the category. Information from the category about student belonging and campus involvement is shared with the Office of Student Involvement, and other information is shared with the counseling side of Wellness Services.

With the survey being open for only a few more days, Alimohammad is hoping students take the time to fill it out so changes can be made from the results.

“Honestly, it’s just kind of encouraging students to do their part,” Alimohammad said. “One of the things that we say on the poster is to tell us how it really is because it is anonymous. It is confidential. There’s absolutely no way that we can track it back to you. So if students are afraid or anything like that, they have nothing to be afraid of.” throughout the community have felt divided since the announcement of former Northwest President John Jasinski’s departure. When asked about how he would deal with that type of disconnect, he said he would focus on trust and transparency.

“I’m always reminded of this statement, great universities stir great emotions,” Tatum said. “And those great emotions are connected to history, tradition, but they’re also connected to people. I think the important thing is for whomever the next president here at Northwest, is to make sure that those groups who feel like they need some healing are given an opportunity to do that.”

Relationships are something Tatum likes to focus on. Whether that be with students, faculty or community members, he said he thinks it’s important to be someone people can talk to. Tatum said he didn’t want to be the kind of president no one knows. He wants people to say hi when they see him off and around campus.

“It goes back to relationships and building relationships and communicating to the different constituencies outside,” he said. “But I think it’s important to understand that a president has got to continuously engage and connect to outside groups.”

Having spent nearly the last three decades in higher education, meeting students almost every day, he said this position is more than just the next step in his career, it’s what he’s meant to do.

“This is not just a job for me,” he said. “This is a real calling. Higher education, for me, is something that I’m passionate about, and I’m passionate about students. … I want people to know I’m not just looking for a job. I’m looking for a place that I can impact, and then I can make a difference.”

MAKAYLA POLAK Editor-in-Chief @kaypolak

If there is a consistent variable in the majority of sexual violence cases, it’s the “he said, she said,” factor. The undeniably wrong, yet driving factor in these cases.

For many of us, we first heard that term in our early stages of life. Something happened, and our teachers or parents would tell us that they can’t do anything because it’s a “he said, she said,” scenario.

For those of you that have managed to have yet to hear the term, let me break it down. It’s actually pretty simple, it means that there are two conflicting reports of something that happened, usually in the incident involving a woman and a man.

To no surprise, this term has circulated sexual violence cases for years, destroying lives and dismissing cases.

Police and investigators will work tirelessly to find who assaulted another person, but when it’s a sexual assault, the assailant can be sitting right in front of an officer, sheriff or even a judge, and they will still say “there isn’t enough evidence.” Whether you put “sexual,” in front of the word or not, it’s still assault, treat it as such.

I am sick and tired of watching cases get thrown away because there is no evidence. Is it not enough evidence that I am screaming crying in the courtroom telling you about how the man sitting at the other end of the room assaulted, raped and violated me? No, it’s not. Because as long as his story doesn’t match up with mine, then it becomes a “he said, she said,” situation, and suddenly, the case is dismissed.

People already don’t believe survivors. Their words get twisted, their actions are misconstrued and alternate stories are made up in place of the truth.

For every 1,000 sexual assault cases, only 310 will get reported, and 50 of those will lead to an arrest, according to RAINN. To make things worse, 975 of the assailants will walk free.

The worst of it, though, is that the number I just gave to you doesn’t come as a shock. “He said, she said,” has become too prevalent in the reality of sexual violence, making more and more cases end in dismissals.

How about for once, we take a minute to think about the lives at stake when we put “he said,” in front of “she said.” We need to start listening to women, and when they open up about something that happened to them, it should be taken just as seriously as any other case.

Using an excuse, saying that the stories don’t match up, isn’t enough to let a case fall through the cracks of a broken justice system. Nowadays, it is more socially known that you should get an order of protection rather than fight a case to get the assailant arrested or charged. Unfortunately, you have an extremely better chance at receiving the former than you have at winning the latter.

It’s our justice system and our social norms to accepting rape culture. We live in a “he said, she said,” world, and it is nothing shy of inhumane.