I n d ep en d en t
Issue no.
S t u de nt
V o ic e
o f
B o is e
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August
27
2012
Volume 25
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Boise, Idaho
Top Stories
Balls of fire
Boise State C.A.R.E.S. Mallory Barker Staff Writer
College life is full of stress for students, faculty and staff. Finals, financial aid, and relationships are among the numerous factors that can promote stress for students and staff. These emotions have been known to prompt behavior that can be seen as threatening, disruptive, or otherwise concerning. Acts of a violent nature have occurred at places such as Virginia Tech, and even as close to home as the University of Idaho. Boise State has established the C.A.R.E program on campus as an effort to contain those behaviors, and to ensure that all Boise State students and faculty feel safe here. Previously, Boise State had the
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program known as SOS (Support our Students), which was a behavior intervention program. Last fall Dr. Lisa Harris, vice president for student affairs, directed that the SOS program be reevaluated, to make it fully inclusive for all individuals who are members of this university, specifically including staff and faculty in addition to students. It is from this challenge the C.A.R.E. program was born. C.A.R.E. stands for campus assessment, resource, and education. C.A.R.E. has the same goal as the SOS team, but with a broader coverage and increased resources. The C.A.R.E. program is a multidisciplinary committee that includes heads from the offices of the Dean of Students, Campus Security and Police Services, Student Affairs, Human Resources, General Counsel,
Housing, and Academic Affairs. Blaine Eckles, Associate Dean of Students and one of the founders of CARE, states that CARE brings all of the vested people to the same table on numerous behavioral issues. This multifaceted program allows for various points of entry for a student or faculty member to receive help from a number of different departments located here on campus. “We want to identify those behaviors of concern that are troubling to the campus community so we can assess what needs to be done, if anything,” said Eckles. “Students and faculty are not by themselves, we are here to partner with them and help them be successful. At the end of the day we want to help everyone on campus be successful.”
The C.A.R.E. Web site states the program’s purpose is to: Help create a campus culture where the shared value of CARING is upheld. Review reports of concern about members of the Boise State University community including students, faculty, staff, and visitors. Monitor and assess activity in the campus community to identify signs of potential threat as early as possible.
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Who’s that?
Educate the campus community on by-stander intervention, bias incidents, crisis management, monitoring behavior, and threat assessment. Serve as consultants to members of the Boise State University community to support them in monitoring and assessing behavior and building plans to manage it. Maintain a database of historical reports of concern.
If you are unsure of whether or not you should file a report with C.A.R.E. ask the following questions: Is this person’s behavior distressingly out of the ordinary? Is this beyond my skill level? Is the behavior getting worse?
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Does the behavior place anyone at risk? Am I feeling like I want to talk with someone about my observations and concerns?
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Does my “gut-feeling” tell me something is wrong or out of the ordinary? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, the C.A.R.E team would encourage you to file a report so that the issue can be resolved. Those reports can be submitted online at care.boisestate.edu. Anyone that is a member of Boise State can make a report regarding behavior that is threatening or of concern. These reports could be about a friend that has made suicidal
Weather Today
statements or become withdrawn and morose, a fellow student that has made threatening remarks, or a faculty member that behaved inappropriately in their interactions with you or made you feel uncomfortable. Once a C.A.R.E report has been filed, the committee will determine what, if any, action needs to be taken regarding the issue and will work to reach a resolution.
Eckles stated that the committee aims to aid those that file the reports with how to solve the issue so that they will know how to properly respond in similar situations. Eckles stressed that this is not an emergency resource. If there is an emergency and a student or faculty member sees an immediate threat, he or she should call 911 or Campus Security at 208-426-6911. Bryan Talbot/THE ARBITER
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Students aren’t the only busy bees on campus
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What’s Inside News Briefs News Opinion Sports The Arbiter
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Amy Merrill News Editor
Did you know there are bees on top of the Student Union building? It’s true—literally tens of thousands. But the bees didn’t come first; what started it all was the rooftop garden that was planted in 2010. The patio on top of the Student Union Building (SUB) outside the lookout room wasn’t previously in use. “It’s too hot,” said Jack Rahmann, director of the Student Union. “People won’t want to go out there so the garden thing came about just as a way to put it to some use. All the food is used in the Boise River Cafe. I just delivered a couple gallons of honey yesterday.” In addition to the honey produced by the bees, the rooftop garden also provides anaheim peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, cucumbers, a variety of herbs and more. The Boise River Cafe, which buys all the produce, has made a number of
soups and salsa from the produce. “It helps pay for the investment,” said Rahmann. “They have a lot of sustainable dining practices of their own so this fits in with what we all want to do: buy local, eat local.” The produce yielded from the rooftop crops is organic, said Rahmann. “We’re growing it organic, but it’s not certified. We don’t use any pesticides or herbicides, we use all natural methods of controlling (pests and insects), like aphids. We’ll buy ladybugs and plant different things that ward off insects — certain flowers you can plant, or certain herbs they don’t like.” The rooftop garden and bee hives are tended to by interns, mainly from the Environmental Studies Program. Students sign up for 2 credits—about ten hours a week—with generally three to four interns splitting the work load
each semester. “You don’t have to work on the bee hives, obviously, if you’re allergic or afraid of bees,” said Rahmann. Rahmann isn’t afraid of bees and with a note of pride said, “Yeah, I’ve been stung. I have the most bee stings of anybody, about ten. That’s because I go up there and I don’t put on a bee suit. I just start fooling around. Bee stings don’t bother me.”
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