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Happy Halloween Truman! Truman mourns loss of senior student THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2018 tmn.truman.edu
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Abigail Fones, a Truman State University student, died Sunday, Oct. 21. Fones was a senior communication disorders major. Janna Stoskopf, vice president for student affairs, sent out a campus-wide email Monday afternoon to share the news and remind students there are services available to those who might need them. “The death of a peer is always difficult,” Stoskopf wrote in the email. “It may be helpful for you to talk about your thoughts and feelings in reaction to this situation with members of our close and caring campus community. There are faculty and staff who would be willing to talk with you and to share their perspectives on positive ways to cope with grief and uncertainty.” Stoskopf ’s email also provided contact information for various resources around campus and reminded students to take care of themselves during this time.
Director of Public Safety Sara Holzmeier shared a statement with The Index on behalf of DPS encouraging students to not be afraid to ask for help. “The Truman Department of Public Safety would like to express our deepest sympathies to Abbie’s family and friends,” Holzmeier wrote in her statement to The Index. “I know that the students at Truman are here to get an education and to learn, and we are here to make sure they do that in the safest environment possible. I hope that if they only learn one thing while here, it is to ask for help when they need it. We have multiple resources on campus and in the community to assist them with anything they might need. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.” Kirksville Police Department detective Justin Jones said while the investigation is ongoing, there is no foul play suspected at this time. The Index reached out to University President Sue Thomas for an official statement, but she declined.
Campus Resources for Counseling & Mental Health University Counseling Services McKinney Center, behind Kirk Memorial (660) 785-4014 ucs.truman.edu After-hours crisis line: (660) 665-5621 Janna Stoskopf Vice President for Student Affairs Student Union Building 1110 First Floor in the CSI Complexx (660) 785-4111
UNIVERSITY PLANS TO HIRE IN UCS
Truman State University is looking to make three new hires at the University Counseling Services. The part-time hires are paid for by the student health fee, which increased as a result of a student vote last semester. Photo by Daniel Degenhardt
Truman plans to hire three new staff members to help address mental health DANA BARTCH Digital Director
Truman State University has plans to hire a psychologist, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and an equine therapist as additional mental health resources for students. Brenda Higgins, director of the Student Health Center and Counseling Services, said the health center currently has a part-time physician and two full-time nurse practitioners that provide primary care services for psychiatric disorders and conditions, along with seven counselors at the counseling center. The University is looking for ways it can better serve students and their needs based on the results of the JED Foundation survey.
“Our goal is to provide as much on-campus service for students as we can and to collaborate with the JED Foundation committee in looking at what students identified as their needs and to provide that for them as much as possible with the constraints that we have,” Higgins said. The University is hiring a psychiatric nurse practitioner who will be available in the McKinney Center for half of a day every week, or more if the need is shown by students, Higgins said. Equine therapy will be offered to students hopefully starting shortly after midterm break, Higgins said. Beth Miller, an equine therapist and former Truman counselor, has agreed to return to campus on a contract basis to lead this therapy opportunity for students.
“Equine therapy is a form of therapy using horses,” Miller said. “We have a group of six to eight students, and we go out to the farm with horses, and we ask the students to do certain activities, and they are able to build metaphors that transfer to their own life and come to some solutions. Equine therapy is a solution-focused therapy where you’re engaged in action and can help come up with solutions to the reasons that they’re coming to counseling in the first place.” Miller said students can request to participate in the equine therapy group, but most students will need a referral from counselors. In addition to the psychiatric nurse practitioner and equine therapist, the University plans to hire a psychologist that will be shared with
A.T. Still University on a 50-50 basis. Janna Stoskopf, vice president for student affairs, said University President Sue Thomas and ATSU University President Craig M. Phelps came up with the idea of a partnership between the universities because neither campus has the individual resources to hire a full-time psychologist with a doctorate. “We have come to the notion that if we can bring a person into Kirksville, specifically to the Truman campus, and make that service available to both Truman students as well as ATSU students, we should share the cost of that,” Stoskopf said. See COUNSELING page 3
Sig Ep to host Fall Festival in honor of Roger Festa JESSICA VENVERTLOH Staff Writer Truman State University’s Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter is hosting a fall philanthropy festival Oct. 27 at the Sig Ep chapter house in honor of the late Roger Festa, a Truman chemistry professor who died of oral cancer last May. The festival will have a variety of team games, booths, concessions and a silent auction for services Sig Ep will provide. Senior Isaac Julius, Sig Ep member and part of the event planning committee, said games for registered teams will include cornhole, tug-of-war and three-legged race. Booths will be selling sweatshirts and fall-themed food like hot chocolate and crepes. Julius said 80 percent of the proceeds raised from this
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event will go to the Oral Cancer Foundation. The other 20 percent will go to a charity chosen by the winning team, which will also receive a plaque to be displayed in the Sig Ep house. Julius said the fraternity hopes to host this event every fall for their philanthropy to pay homage to Festa and his legacy. Festa was the faculty adviser for Truman’s Sig Ep chapter for almost 30 years and Julius said he was the glue that held the chapter together. “He’s pretty much embodied everything that Sig Ep has been,” Julius said. “He’s done so much for this chapter. Any time anybody needed any sort of thing, if it was like a financial situation they were put in, or if they just needed help with talking something through, or legitimately everything, Roger was always there to help us.”
Sigma Phi Epsilon is hosting a Fall Festival in honor of Roger Festa, their former adviser. Festa died in May from oral cancer. Submitted photo