Daily Toreador The
FRIDAY, JAN. 25, 2013 VOLUME 87 ■ ISSUE 76
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SGA hosts 2nd smoke-free campus town hall meeting By MATT DOTRAY STAFF WRITER
Student Government Association hosted its second and final town hall designed to gather student opinions about creating a tobacco or smoke-free campus at 2 p.m. Thursday. Katherine Lindley, a human development and family studies graduate student from Colleyville, was an organizer for the event. She said the purpose of the meeting was to get a good understanding of what students, faculty and staff want in regard to a smoke-
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or tobacco-free campus. “I think we got opinions, which is what we wanted to get,” Lindley said. “I think they’re great, regardless of what side they were on. Katherine Lindley The whole goal Graduate student, was to get opinions, and I think event organizer we got a bunch of opinions to go off of now.”
I think they’re great, regardless of what side they were on. The whole goal was to get opinions and I think we got a bunch of opinions to go off of now.”
A lot of the discussion during the meetings, she said, involved health effects, individuals’ personal choices, and the current rules Texas Tech has for tobacco use. Gerron Vaughn, a freshman international business major from Odessa, attended both meetings. He said he came to the meetings to make sure the tobacco users, who are the minority, had their voices heard. “At first I was a little skeptical, but I feel like it was beneficial,” Vaughn said after the meeting. “Sometimes I feel like it’s possible for the Board of
Foster the People Tech professor brings experience to classrooms
When it comes to sexual assault on campus, even one case is too many, Lisa Viator, assistant director of the Student Counseling Center, said. That is why the counseling center is re-opening its newly modeled sexual trauma group this semester for female students who have suffered through such an attack, she said. “Research bears out that group is a really good way of treating individuals with sexual assault histories,” said Ty Stafford, a psychology intern with the center. “It can be really good for them.” Being in a group setting can help an assault survivor feel more at ease, Viator said. “It can make people feel like they’re less alone, less isolated,” she said. “I think it reduces kind of the guilt, blame, selfshaming factor.” The group will include up to eight students, Viator said, and will continue from Feb. 2 until finals week. The group is open for any survivor, Stafford said, no matter at what time the assault occurred. Students who want to participate in the group must first have a pre-grouping interview to determine whether the group would fit their needs, she said. Those who are uncomfortable with an interview can email or call the Student Counseling Center, she said, and the contact information is available on the center’s website. The group has been remodeled to focus around what Viator called psycho-
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1 in 4 women experience sexual assault STAFF WRITER
STAFF WRITER
to allow tobacco on campus, he said the current rule forbidding smoking within 20 feet of building entrances needs to be enforced. Then, he said, SGA members can decide if they want to enact a more severe rule. Claire Tafelski, a senior biology major from Wylie, said a tobacco-free campus is a good idea. She said tobacco users should not be defensive about the possibility of not smoking on campus, but should look at it as a way to create better habits.
Counseling center re-opens sexual trauma therapy group By CAROLYN HECK
By ASHLYN TUBBS Jerod Foster once wanted to attend law school, but like many college students, changed his major after discovering another career path that matched his passion. Those who know him agree this was the right choice to make. Foster’s decision to trade legal paperwork for a camera has gained him national recognition as a distinguished photographer. “I think it’s really cool just all that he has accomplished,” Savannah Leonard, a senior agricultural communications major from Sonora, said, “and just from the two class periods that I’ve had so far with him that he knows so much, but he has pretty much taught himself or taken classes and stuff, and how he was in our shoes when he started out and now he’s where he is.” Foster, who came to Texas Tech in 2002 as an undergraduate student, graduated in 2007 with a master’s degree in agricultural communications and began teaching classes at Tech soon after. He recently completed the Ph.D. program and is currently working on his dissertations. Foster lives a busy life, he said. He is a freelance photographer for many Lubbock newspapers, magazines and advertising agencies: Texas Parks & Wildlife, Texas Highways, The Texas Tribune, The New York Times, Grit, Audubon Magazine, and other publications. “Being a freelance photographer actually makes you probably a lot more available,” he said. “Of course, the competition is pretty high, but it makes you available in a lot of different areas.” His interest in photography peaked in 2004, he said, after he took an intersession photography course in Junction taught by Wyman Meinzer, the state photographer of Texas. “That was the class everybody really kind of wanted to take as a photography student, so I signed up for that, and I was headed to law school the next year and decided to change course and pursue photography a little bit more,” Foster said, “and so that class really was kind of that platform which I jumped off of in the photography industry. It’s worked out since.” Although Foster originally wanted to be a landscape and wildlife photographer, this changed after he learned the value of versatility in photography. “I quickly realized that if I wanted to
Regents and the student senate to get away from the student population. I feel like this really helps us get heard.” Vaughn said he does not smoke to relieve stress, but he is opposed to banning cigarettes on campus because it is an activity he enjoys and around which he socializes. “The fact of the matter is that I feel like it’s the choice I made,” he said. “I’m not going to get into the whole ‘Tech’s taking our rights,’ but it’s the choice I made, and I don’t feel like it’s Tech’s responsibility to change my habits.” Before Tech decides whether or not
education, which helps survivors understand what symptoms they might expect to experience after an assault. According to the center’s website, some symptoms might include posttraumatic stress disorder, difficulty sleeping, mood swings, anxiety and feelings of helplessness. The website also reports that sexual assault happens to one in four women and one in 33 men, and that an assault occurs every two minutes. More than half of those attacks go unreported, Stafford said. “People respond in different ways,” he said, “and sometimes, right there in the immediate part of it, it’s really tough to report it to someone to work on it in counseling.” What is important is that students know that they have somewhere to go if they feel they need or want to, he said. If a person has been assaulted, it is vital for them to call the police and go to the emergency room, he said. Other resources that are available include the Lubbock Rape Crisis Center, Stafford said, a city-based organization designed to aid survivors. The crisis center also has trained nurses, called sexual assault nurse examiners, who will come and assist the survivor through the emergency room process, he said. If a student needs to reach the Lubbock Rape Crisis Center, its hotline is (806) 763-7273, and its phone number is (806) 763-3232. ➤➤check@dailytoreador.com
AS WELL AS freelancing, Foster also has teamed up with Texas State photographer, Wyman Meinzer, and published several photography books.
Women’s Tennis, Sports
work in this industry, that I needed to be a little bit more than just a landscape photographer,” he said, “and so I started taking on assignments that had me photographing people, had me photographing people doing things, feature stories that you’d find in many different publications other than landscapes.” After forming a relationship with Meinzer, Foster said he began to assist him during photography shoots and projects. They formed a business together named Badlands Design and Production, a publishing house that focuses on high-end coffee table photography books shot by Meinzer focused mostly on Texas culture and issues. “It’s a very, very small outfit,” he said. “I do all the design work, I do all the editing for it, so the production side of the company is on me.” Badlands Design and Production
The Tech women’s tennis team is ready for its next match, coming off a win against Denver. SPORTS, Page 6
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publishes up to two books a year. The first book released was titled “Inspiration Texas Style,” which Foster said is a book of quotes from notable Texans paired with Meinzer’s photography. Others include “Working Dogs of Texas,” “South Plains Bison — Resurrection of the Lost Texas Herd,” and Badlands’ most recent release, “Charles Goodnight: A Man For All Ages.” “It’s a really neat organization,” he said. “We’re fortunate to be a really wellestablished organization just because of the types of books we’re putting out and who our photographers and who our authors are.” In 2011, Foster wrote a book of his own titled “Storytellers: A Photographer’s Guide to Developing Themes and Creating Stories with Pictures.”
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