The Gettysburgian February 9, 2017

Page 1

Page 1

Volume CXIX, No. 9

National Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the Senate to serve in President Trump’s Cabinet as the Secretary of Education. DeVos faced fierce opposition due to her lack of experience in public education and her support of school vouchers. After 24 consecutive hours of speeches aimed at getting a third republican defector, all 48 members of the Democratic Caucus and two moderate republicans, Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against DeVos. This 50-50 split resulted in the first time a vice-president was needed to cast the tiebreaking vote on a cabinet nomination. During her confirmation process, she repsonded to a question about bullying experienced by students of the LGBT community: “Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive and grow.” This resonated better with her oposition than her comments on guns in Wyoming schools: “I will refer back to Sen. Enzi and the school he was talking about in Wyoming. I think probably there, I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies.”

International Alexei Navalny, leader of an anticorruption campaign in Russia, was found guilty of embezzlement and was given a five-year suspended sentence along with a 500,000-rouble ($8,500; £6,700) fine. This court decision comes from a retrial precipitated by a European Court of Human Rights ruling which deemed the original trial to be unfair. All of this comes after Navalny targeted senior officials in an anticorruption campaign. Navalny denies the charges and promises to continue his bid for the presidency despite being barred from the race due to his recent conviction. President Putin has not yet declared his intention to run again in 2018.

This week’s “Top Stories” were compiled by Joshua Wagner and Morgan Hubbard with information from abcnews.go.com and the BBC.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Thursday, February 9, 2017

FREE

Department of Justice grant expands efforts against sexual violence on campus B y S arah K irkpatrick S taff W riter After receiving a 25 million dollar grant from the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women, Gettysburg College has undertaken a massive project to prevent sexual and domestic violence on campus as well to provide assistance to survivors of these crimes. One of College’s first steps in the initiative was hiring Grant Project Coordinator Valentina Cucuzza, a welcome addition to the Gettysburg community. “My primary role is to lead all communication and coordination for on- and off-campus victims’ resources,” explains Cucuzza, “My job is to ensure that information flows freely among all offices and that efforts are not being duplicated amongst our many dedicated on-campus partners in violence prevention.” This team of dedicated partners includes groups like Survivors, Inc., the Gettysburg Borough Police Department, and the District Attorney’s Office, but continues to add new members. As Grant Project Coordinator, Cucuzza argues that one of her main priorities is the creation of a Campus Coordinated Community Response Team (CCRT), a “multidisciplinary team of campus and community partners that meet regularly to assess, plan, monitor, and evaluate campus prevention and response efforts.” The team plans to use the groundwork established by the Sexual Violence and Healthy

Photo credit Gettysburg College Communications and Marketing

Relationships Committee (SVHR), which existed before the College received the DOJ grant, as the foundation for their group. They also look forward to working with new partners such as a SAFE nurse from the Gettysburg Hospital, the Adams County Assistant District Attorney, local law enforcement, and Ms. Jessica Ritter, a recently hired Victims’ Services Advocate from Survivors, Inc. As a new member of the Gettysburg staff, Ritter will also play an important role in providing on-campus confidential resources for students who have been the victim of sexual assault or domestic violence. Ritter is qualified to offer crisis counseling as well as medical and legal advocacy to survivors who seek her assistance in the healing process. Armed with skilled new members and ample funding, Cucuzza explains that the Grant Project team hopes to

“enhance victim services, implement prevention and education programs, and develop and strengthen security and investigation strategies to prevent prosecute and respond to domestic violence” as well as related crimes such as dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The College plans to achieve these goals through a carefully designed threeyear plan, which begins with a focus on planning and training the team responsible for executing the initiative. In the year two, the Grant Project will execute strategic plans on campus, which include establishing new prevention programs designed to assist underserved or highrisk student populations such as LGBTQIA, minority groups, and students involved in Greek Organizations. By the third year of the program, the College plans to shift its focus to employing training programs, such as Green Dot Bystander training,

that will help to continue on the project’s legacy even after its conclusion. “My goal is to have all students be aware and comfortable utilizing all of the resources available to them should they ever experience sexual assault or domestic violence during their time here at Gettysburg College,” Cucuzza explains, “We want students to feel supporting and know that Gettysburg College is really committed to preventing violence in our community.” Along with the rest of the Grant Project team, Cucuzza hopes to expand on existing violence prevention programs, establish new, more inclusive prevention service, and reduce victimization on campus. She urges students to contact her if they are interested in developing a new program or training for a specific student organization or to reach out to Ms. Ritter if they require confidential resources. Many Gettysburg

students show enthusiasm for the Grant Project, hoping that it will help to transform our campus culture and reduce the prevalence of crimes such as sexual assault. “I think the grant will give the college more resources to better educate our community and put sexual assault and domestic violence prevention methods into practice,” asserts First Year Sammi Singman. Jackson Guyton, a First Year and Green Dot Program participant, echoes similar optimism for the plan. “I think the grant should be used to inform campus community members about ways to reduce the risk of sexual assault,” explains Guyton, “I anticipate that it will help Gettysburg students to be more excellent to each other.” Time will only tell whether this age-old vision will become a reality, but with new funding and plans to improve life on Gettysburg’s campus, the future looks hopeful.

Melon grant allocated to Gettysburtg College to support diversity-related efforts on campus B y B enjamin P ontz S taff W riter Gettysburg College announced last week that it has received an $800,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support diversity-related efforts on campus. The grant stems from the college’s strategic plan, a need to foster inclusion and internationalization, and it will provide funds for the hiring of six new tenure-track faculty members who “possess the experience, knowledge and skills to support underrepresented students,” according to a release from the college’s communications department. The release goes on to explain, “In

Inside This Issue

This Week’s Top Stories

their first year, these ‘Mellon Faculty Fellows’ will receive additional support as they adjust to living and working in the community, including the opportunity to teach a reduced course load and receive additional mentoring and training. A new Inclusion Partner Program will also provide faculty with training to implement inclusive hiring practices and engage in ongoing diversity recruitment practices.” In addition to hiring new faculty members, the grant will support efforts to revise departmental learning outcomes to emphasize and enhance diversityrelated components as well as to develop new

Trump’s Executive Mellon Scholar Order reflection, affects pg. 3 faculty, pg. 2

courses that represent different perspectives than those currently a part of the curriculum. Although the primary focus of these curriculum modifications may come in the humanities, Associate Professor of Mathematics Darren Glass sees an opportunity for growth even in a department such as his. “Having a diverse faculty across the curriculum is important for a number of reasons, but in my eyes the biggest one is the ways that it can help us diversify the students studying a given discipline and, ultimately, working in a given discipline,” he explains. “Traditionally, the sciences have been

dominated by white men, m u ch to ou r detriment as a community, and everyone will be better off if we find ways to nurture talent no matter where it is coming from … If we want to diversify the kinds of students that study, for example, Mathematics then it is important to give rolemodels that show that anyone can thrive in the sciences.” A s t h e coordinator for the firstyear seminar program, Glass is also eager for faculty with new and diverse perspectives to engage incoming students of all backgrounds from their first day on campus. “We have some seminars that deal directly with ‘diversity

Scientists New create Schmucker human-pig Gallery hybrid. Exhibition, pg. 5 pg. 6

issues,’ but we could always use more, and more importantly I think there are lots of other topics that would resonate with a student body that is increasingly diverse which this new cohort of faculty might be able to help with,” says Glass. “I am hopeful that this grant will help us to be able to recruit a more diverse group of faculty and just as importantly, help them to thrive at the college and want to spend their careers here.” According to the Mellon Foundation, this is the 14th (and largest) grant they have awarded Gettysburg College since 1975. Collectively, those grants amount to more than $4 million.

Opinions, please! pg. 7

Women’s Swimming finishes strong, pg. 8


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.