GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Oregon health workers who got stuck in a snowstorm on their way back from a COVID-19 vaccination event went car to car injecting stranded drivers before several of the doses expired. Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that the “impromptu vaccine clinic” took place after about 20 employees were stopped in traffic on a highway after a vaccination clinic. Six of the vaccines were getting close to expiring so officials decided to offer them to other stranded drivers. All the doses were administered, including one to a sheriff’s employee who had arrived too late for the vaccination clinic but ended up stopped with the others.
UK announces sanctions against 4 Zimbabwean security chiefs
LONDON (AP) — The U.K. has imposed sanctions on four top Zimbabwean security officials blamed for a variety of human rights abuses, including the deaths of 23 anti-government protesters. The measures, which bar the four men from traveling to the U.K. or channeling money through the country’s banks, are part of a wider British push for economic and political reform in Zimbabwe. The sanctions are the first Britain has imposed unilaterally since it severed ties with the European Union at the beginning of this year.
Group discusses course revisions
Campus Life Council (CLC) discussed how to improve alcohol education in the mandatory freshman course, Contemporary Topics, at its meeting Monday. Contemporary Topics, a two-cycle course that all freshmen are required to take during their six-cycles of physical education, spends part of its curriculum discussing alcohol and drug use, specifically at Notre Dame. “One of the conclusions we’re coming to is that a lot of alcohol education is front-loaded in your first year at Notre Dame,” junior and student body vice president Andrew Bell said. Because of this, Bell said student government is planning to look closely at alcohol education on campus and determine what’s relevant and what’s not, as well as what can be reiterated beyond freshman year. Alexa Arastoo, chair of Diversity Council, said the binder of assigned readings for Contemporary Topics should include more information on low-risk drinking and how students can stay in this range if they choose to drink. “There’s no point of just demonizing it throughout the entire lesson when kids are going to do it,” she said. Fisher Hall senator Skip McShea said the section on drink equivalencies should be reformed. “I think the drink equivalencies should be expanded a lot,” he said. “A lot of people really don’t know what they’re drinking.” Similarly, Arastoo said the section on the amount of alcohol in common mixed drinks is irrelevant to freshmen who don’t go to bars. She recommended instead that the binder include shot equivalencies between different types of hard alcohol. Mike Oliver, co-chair of Hall Presidents Council, said one of the biggest problems with alcohol education in Contemporary Topics is most freshman do not actually do the assigned readings for the class. He suggested finding ways to make the readings more appealing. “I think if the first couple pages were striking statistics and graphs it’d be such a better way to catch someone’s eye,” Oliver said. Student body president Catherine Soler said one way of combating this might be to make the classes on alcohol education similar to those on diversity, which are student-led by an undergraduate who has experience with the topic. Toward the end of the class, students break up into small groups and have their own discussions. Students are then required to write a reflection paper on the issue for the next class. Kelsey Behan, student liaison to senate, said having a student lead the discussion would be a major improvement. “I think it’d be great to have someone who is closer to our age,” she said. “It gives us someone you can relate to.” Soler also said it might be helpful if the binder included a laminated page with tips for drinking responsibly that students could take out of the binder and keep after the class ends. “For example, what to do if your friend gets sick, with contact information on the back,” Soler said. Sr. Mary Donnelly, rector of Pangborn Hall, said they need to figure out not only get the information out to students, but also convince them to read it. “Whatever we can do to make this more concise,” she said. “We need to try to draw their attention in.”
Coccia reflects on Rhodes Scholarship, Notre Dame years
Brian Lach I The Observer After a term defined by social inclusion initiatives, Coccia and Joyce were succeeded by Lauren Vidal and Matthew Devine as student body president and vice president last spring.Plans for the futureCoccia said his work at the Department of Health and Human Services has given him broad exposure to public policy and shown him firsthand how public social and economic policies are interwoven.“It’s easy to silo things, but it’s taught me that a holistic framework for government is what’s important in terms of addressing an agenda and what we owe to each other as human beings and citizens,” he said. “I’ve been working on projects that are within my interest areas and that expand my interests.”The comparative social policy program at Oxford appeals to him because “it’s a good balance between theory and the nuts and bolts of how to make policies work,” Coccia said.“Social inclusion as a policy framework is being discussed in the United Kingdom and France, and it’s a stated part of the comparative social policy curriculum [at Oxford],” he said. “I’ve been interested in the theoretical foundations for policy and policymaking, and from what I’ve read, the comparative degree does a great job showing the implications of how we approach public policy and how it gets shaped.”The past few years have given him a “much greater clarity” for his future plans, Coccia said, and he hopes to get involved in public policy at some level in the future. Looking at public policy from a social inclusion perspective is productive because “it’s a holistic and multidimensional account of the policy, and it takes into account all kinds of factors in terms of wellbeing and how policies influence each other,” he said.The leadership strategy he developed at Notre Dame will continue to be part of his future approach, he said. As student body president, he developed a reputation for scheduling nonstop personal meetings with hundreds of students, faculty members and administrators as he worked to develop initiatives.“I’ll still try to meet with as many people as possible,” he said with a laugh. “I will very much look forward to being a student again, but given my nature, I’ll be wanting to be involved in other ways as much as possible too.”Fellowships at Notre DameAt Notre Dame, students who apply for the Rhodes Scholarship or dozens of other national fellowships, including the Fulbright program and the Marshall/Mitchell scholarships, work with the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE).“Alex did what we hope all students will do as undergraduates at Notre Dame,” said Deb Rotman, director of CUSE. “He took his learning experience beyond the classroom and took full advantage of all the resources on campus to discern his path, cultivate his gifts and serve as a transformational leader.”Rotman said students interested in applying for the Rhodes Scholarship or any of the other national fellowships should visit fellows.nd.edu for preliminary information and contact CUSE for more details about the application process.Tags: Alex Coccia, Alumni, public policy, Rhodes, social inclusion, Student government By the time he graduated in May 2014, Alex Coccia was one of the most recognizable people at Notre Dame.He earned two monograms with the varsity fencing team, which won the 2011 NCAA title when he was a freshman.He majored in Africana Studies and Peace Studies, conducted research in Rwanda, served as a three-year FIRE starter peer educator in the Gender Relations Center and founded the 4 to 5 Movement to educate and empower LGBTQ allies on campus.While serving as the 2013-14 student body president, he led the “One is Too Many” campaign against campus sexual assault, helped change admissions policies so undocumented students could attend Notre Dame and worked to improve the campus climate for LGBTQ students.He earned a Truman-Albright Fellowship and currently works in the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington D.C., addressing issues from climate change to domestic violence prevention.And, as of last weekend, he became Notre Dame’s 15th Rhodes Scholar, the first since 2002.“It’s a big honor, and I’m very thankful,” Coccia said. “I see it as a team effort, though, so I wish I could be celebrating with people on campus.” MICHAEL YU | The Observer Nancy Joyce, Alex Coccia and Fr. Pete McCormick lead a prayer service Sept. 22, 2013, in response to a sexual assault report. Coccia, a 2014 graduate, is one of 32 Rhodes Scholars from the U.S. this year and will begin studying at the University of Oxford in October 2015.Coccia is one of 32 Rhodes Scholars from the U.S. this year and will begin a two-year Masters in Comparative Social Policy program at the University of Oxford in October.Rhodes ScholarshipsAccording to the Rhodes Trust website, 80 scholars from across the world are selected annually according to criteria outlined by the will of Cecil Rhodes. The scholarship provides funding for students to enroll in a program of their choice at the University of Oxford in England.The website lists the four criteria from Rhodes’ will as: “literary and scholastic attainments; energy to use one’s talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports; truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship; moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.”“What I proposed for my program of study as a Rhodes Scholar was that I really wanted to engage in social and economic policy with a framework of social inclusion,” Coccia said. “I applied for Rhodes last year as well as this year, and both years have just felt like there was an immense team supporting me.“I had faculty mentors who took time out of their schedules to prep me or write recommendation letters and my fellow students who helped me articulate what I wanted to do with the scholarship, so it feels like it’s really been a team effort.”Formative time at Notre DameCoccia said his interest in social policy is “a natural trajectory” from his work at Notre Dame, which focused on inclusion in many forms.“My academic experience in Africana Studies and Peace Studies helped me begin to ask the right questions that I could apply to my work in the [Progressive Student Alliance] or in student government,” he said.Nancy Joyce, a 2014 graduate and student body vice president for 2013-14, said she witnessed firsthand how Coccia embodies the Rhodes criteria.“During the time that Alex and I worked together, it was always very clear to me that Alex was – and is – motivated by the stories and experiences of those without a voice, and is willing to take up the fight for those individuals and groups,” she said. “Whether working for the establishment of Notre Dame’s first [Gay-Straight Alliance], for the healing of those affected by sexual violence, for the welcoming of undocumented students at Notre Dame or for the support of socioeconomically disadvantaged students on our campus, Alex has always been a champion of those who need one.”Ernesto Verdeja, director of undergraduate studies for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies said he was “delighted, but not surprised” by the news.“In his time here as a Peace Studies student at the Kroc Institute, he excelled in his studies and became a noted leader on campus,” Verdeja said. “He has distinguished himself as a scholar and a leader, and I wish him all the best at Oxford.”Joyce said watching both of Coccia’s Rhodes application processes makes her “genuinely thrilled and incredibly excited for him.”“Winning the Rhodes is such a well-deserved opportunity and will only serve to better enable Alex to continue championing the causes and people that most need his truth, courage, devotion, leadership and moral force of character,” she said.
Seniors discuss social work
Saint Mary’s final Justice Friday’s lecture of the fall semester engaged students and faculty in a round table discussion on social work experiences and internships, titled “Social Work Students: South Bend as their Classroom.”Several senior social work majors shared their experiences in the field, including work at RiverBend Cancer Services and United Way. Each student had a unique field placement experience to discuss, giving their audience a glimpse of what social work involves, senior social work major Meredith Mersits said.A research assistant in the Saint Mary’s social work department, Mersits said internships help prepare students for their future in social work.“Everyone’s doing something different and awesome,” she said.Senior Jessica Hoffman said she works at a charter school in South Bend where often finds herself dealing with typical high school drama.“It’s high school drama I have to sift through,” she said. “It can be from a school fight to suicide. You get the whole range of problems in a school setting.”Similar to Hoffman, senior Krista Mathews said she works with a social worker at James Whitcomb Riley High School in South Bend.“It’s a wide range of social work problems at Riley,” she said. “I’m very lucky because I get to observe the social worker there, and then I also get to meet with students one-on-one if it’s not that serious of a problem, which is good because I get to work on my interviewing skills.“I talk about things like managing stress, and that’s a lot of fun. I get to go to case conference meetings. I really become part of the school.”Caitlyn Jordan Senior Samee Chittenden said she is an intern at Kidspeace National Center, a respite center for children in the foster-care system.“We currently have 30 kids in our care,” Chittenden said. “A lot of them are respites, which means [there is a short] time when foster families can get a break and send the [foster] kids to respite care.“We work with a lot of different cases. Today we actually went over a case where a child just lashes out uncontrollably. They can’t figure out what’s going on with him. We go on home visits every week. We provide different services to all the kids. It can range from speech therapy to counseling. We have kids ranging from as young as six months old to 21 years old.”Senior Molly Smith said she currently works at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) with clients seeking drug and domestic violence treatment.“It’s very interesting [with] a lot of different things,” she said. “The interesting thing about the drug treatment is that it allows clients to bring children. We get women who are referred to by the police, and we work with them. They can stay there for six to eight weeks. There’s actually a kids’ therapist there now, which is great. It’s a really great placement.”Senior Kelly Crooks said she also works with victims of domestic abuse at the Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County, where she also manages the crisis line from 6 a.m. to noon on Fridays.“We’re kind of like a one-stop-shop,” she said. “The idea behind the family center, we have a counselor. The special victims unit is in our building.“The CASIE Center (Child Abuse Services, Investigation and Education) is [used] if somebody thinks a child has been sexually assaulted. We also have a protective order attorney. We go over our safety training, [and] we’re working on updating all our resources right now. S-O-S [rape crisis center], which is part of the family center, [accompanies] victims to the hospital. We’re on call for the crisis line.”Senior Jessica Richmond said she interns at United Way, a new placement option for first-year social work majors this year.“United Way has just this year done a poverty transition so they’re an issue-focused agency,” she said. “The cool part about United Way is that we fund a lot of the agencies we have girls placed at. Part of my job is working some of the programs that United Way funds specifically, [and] helping the agencies in the room apply for allocations.”A double major in social work and communications, Cat Zalduendo said she works at REAL Services in the development offices to understand and get exposure to the different areas within a non-profit organization.“I’m involved in a lot of different parts of the agency from program research to donor research,” she said. “I help organize fundraisers for the agencies. I have done a lot of client interviews, just gather their stories, and those go into our e-newsletters. I’ve done a lot of grant proposals. REAL Services is an agency catered to older people, but there’s also a community service side so I’ve been able to get a sense of a lot of different programs.”Mersits said she feels those in social work are very lucky to have their select field placements to assist them in their future career endeavors.“I think the program we have here is great, and all the professors have taught us so well that we are prepared to go out into the field,” she said. “I feel we are all very equipped to enter into our field as social workers.”Tags: Justice Fridays, RiverBend Cancer Services, social work, United Way
Baumers endow men’s lacrosse coaching job
Emily McConville | The Observer Junior attack Matt Kavanaugh protects the ball from a NorthCarolina defender. Kavanaugh had four goals in the Irish win.The Baumers’ gift will underwrite the salary of head coach Kevin Corrigan, currently in his 27th season with the Irish. The Baumer Family Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach, as the position will be called, is the second endowed coaching position at the University. Former women’s basketball player Karen Keyes and her husband Kevin made a $5 million gift that endowed the women’s basketball head coach position earlier this year.“I want to thank John and Mollie Baumer for their wonderful gift and their generous support of Notre Dame and our lacrosse program,” Corrigan said in the press release. “This is extremely meaningful to me, because I know that the Baumer family, like the Corrigan family, shares a great love for Notre Dame and for the value of the extraordinary experience that student-athletes have here.”John Baumer, who earned a degree in finance from the Mendoza College of Business, serves as a member of the University’s Advisory Council for Student-Athletes, Campaign Cabinet and Wall Street Leadership Committee, according to the press release.Originally from South Bend, John Baumer and his wife currently live in Manhattan Beach, California, where he serves as a senior partner at Leonard Green & Partners of Los Angeles, a private equity firm with more than $15 billion of private equity capital raised in its history, according to the press release.Baumer cited Corrigan’s character and success with the men’s lacrosse team as important aspects of his and his wife’s gift.“We have known the Corrigan family for over 30 years and have tremendous respect and admiration for the success that Kevin has achieved in building the Notre Dame lacrosse program from virtually scratch into one of the preeminent programs in the country,” Baumer said in the press release. “The success on the field combined with the 100 percent graduation rate for the lacrosse student-athletes is a remarkable testament to Kevin’s coaching and leadership skills combined with his embracing of the core Notre Dame values.”The top-ranked Irish will play in the NCAA semifinals against No. 4 Denver in Philadelphia this Saturday.Tags: Baumer Family Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach, John Baumer, Kevin Corrigan, ND Men’s Lacrosse Class of 1990 alumnus John Baumer and his wife Mollie — a Saint Mary’s class of 1990 alumna and former varsity soccer player — have made a $3 million donation to the University to endow the men’s lacrosse head coaching position, the University announced Wednesday.
University Health Services announces changes to health care processes
In an email sent to community members early Wednesday morning, director of Notre Dame’s University Health Services (UHS) Sharon McMullen announced improvements to student health care on campus beginning this year.According to the email, these changes include increased access to health care providers, implementation of the urgent care model and increased hours for both Saint Liam Hall and the Walgreens pharmacy located inside the health center. McMullen said in the email that these changes are a result of “student surveys, large and small group discussions, and one-on-one conversations” with students.In addition to extended daytime hours available for UHS appointments, students will also be able to utilize the UHS after-hours phone line “to improve students’ access to advice after hours,” the email said.“When students call the after-hours line, they can speak with a nurse who will help them to assess the situation and offer advice about what to do next,” McMullen said in the email. “Often, with advice, the problem can be handled at home during the overnight hours and the patient can wait until the next morning to be seen by a UHS provider. If the problem cannot wait, the after-hours nurse can arrange for student transport to an Urgent Care Center or hospital.”With the implementation of the Urgent Care model — which will eliminate the previous $5 walk-in fee — UHS will be able to “more efficiently care for patients with time-sensitive needs who present without an appointment,” according to McMullen’s email.“Please note that you are still encouraged to make an appointment to be seen by a provider,” she said in the email. “Without an appointment, students with needs that are not time-sensitive will be seen after those with more pressing needs. If you do not have an appointment and present with less time-sensitive needs, you can work with the triage nurse and our receptionist to schedule an appointment for another day/time.”UHS will also implement a Clinical Case Management program to provide greater care to students with chronic conditions and shorter-term conditions that require monitoring, McMullen said in the email.“Our Clinical Case Manager will work with both campus partners and patients’ health care providers to facilitate comprehensive health care and help students achieve independence so they can continue to meet their academic goals,” she said.According to the email, the changes additionally address students’ mental health requirements, as UHS has hired a “permanent psychiatry services provider for 8 hours each week to meet the needs of students who require psychotropic medications but are not in therapy at the University Counseling Center.”Tags: Health care, Saint Liam Hall, University Health Services, Urgent Care
Badin Hall hosts 10th annual Conscious Christmas
With a unique assortment of fair-trade goods including feather and tassel jewelry, cashmere and yak wool scarves, meditation singing bowls and a number of bags and totes, Badin Hall’s Conscious Christmas will work to support to support their signature charity — the HOPE Initiative — while providing gifts for mindful Christmas shoppers.The 10th annual Conscious Christmas sale will run Friday from noon to 6 p.m. in the ballroom of LaFortune Student Center. Assistant professor of industrial design Ann-Marie Conrado founded the HOPE Initiative with her Nepalese husband in 2004. “The whole goal of the charity is to use design and creativity to address challenging and often intractable social and humanitarian issues,” she said.The sale serves as one of the driving fundraisers for maintaining various HOPE Initiative projects, Conrado said. “One of the biggest projects we did last year was building a play and learning landscape for a small government school in Nepal that is named after the women of Badin Hall,” Conrado said. Kelli Smith | The Observer Proceeds from Badin’s Conscious Christmas last year went towards building a playground for a small government school in Nepal. A Badin hall alumna and an industrial design major helped plan the space.While the sale raised funds for the project, a former Badin resident and another industrial design major contributed to the design of the playground, she said.Conrado said Notre Dame industrial design students also played a role in designing some of the products at the sale, traveling to Nepal during the summer to create ethically-made products.“Through this project, our design students learn how to take their vision into production, how to make hard choices and how to make sure that it’s cost-effective,” she said. “And they get to be on site working right alongside the artisans.”Conrado said the sale will also feature purchased traditional handicrafts designed and made by artisans in Nepal that are certified fair trade or from small cooperatives who have not undergone the certification process.“When we buy from these cooperatives, we help by giving them economic empowerment by buying their goods in bulk and then selling them to the community at Notre Dame as well as other church sales,” Conrado said. Sophomore Hannah Sarkey, Badin’s service commissioner, said she looks forward to working the sale and enjoying the free chai tea they will also be providing.“People may not realize how beautiful the products are,” she said. “There are so many scarves and jewelry that are really are gorgeous, and we’ll even package the products in little bags an tissue paper.”In an age of widespread materialism, Conrado said she hopes the event will highlight the consequences of easy consumption, where low-priced goods often serve a high price for manufacturing workers.“Buying things has consequences and ramifications halfway around the world for people, their livelihoods and their ability to thrive,” she said. “I really think our special community, graced by Catholic social teaching, calls us to be more conscious of the way we make those choices and this is a really easy opportunity for students to buy something that’s beautiful, to get some of their Christmas shopping done and to do it in a way that recognizes the people who made it the hard work they put into it.”Tags: Badin Conscious Christmas, badin hall, Hope Initiative, Nepal
Pangborn Hall to open to women’s hall transfers
Starting next year, Pangborn Hall will serve as an interim housing for undergraduate women before they transition to the new women’s dorm opening in the fall of 2020, Heather Rakoczy Russell, associate vice president for Residential Life, announced in a statement Friday. “Residential Life is seeking at least 30 current undergraduate women [rising seniors, juniors and sophomores] who would choose to transfer to Pangborn for 2019-2020, and then we would assign another 70 new students (incoming first-year and transfer students) to round out the community,” Russell said in the statement. Moving these students into Pangborn will both ease overcrowding in women’s halls and prepare a community for the new dorm, Russell said. Pangborn is anticipated to hold anywhere from 100 to 131 residents. Russell said Residential Life is offering several incentives to women to transfer into the dorm. The first 10 seniors who apply to transfer, as well as resident assistants, are guaranteed singles. The first 10 juniors who apply are also guaranteed singles, and the first 10 sophomores who apply are guaranteed housing. The $500 per-semester fee for all singles will be waived for students who choose to transfer to Pangborn.The lottery number for room picks will be “tied to application order,” Russell said in the statement.Pangborn is expected to offer 15 doubles as singles for seniors, 10 additional singles, 40 doubles, three two-room quads, two three-room quads, two two-room triples as well as study rooms, a fitness area and community space.Students who want to transfer into Pangborn can apply in the Home Under the Dome portal starting Feb. 11. Tags: dorm features, new women’s hall, Pangborn, residential life
Notre Dame offers TAO as free mental health resource
Psychology Today reports that in a 2013 survey of college students, 57 percent of women and 40 percent of men experienced bouts of “overwhelming anxiety,” and 33 percent of women and 27 percent of men reported feeling depressed to the point of difficultly functioning in that past year. Notre Dame is devoting resources to try to help students through this mental-health crisis, and its latest attempt to aid students is through a partnership with Therapist Assisted Online (TAO) that is free to students. Although the University Counseling Center (UCC) offers a variety of counseling resources, the founder of TAO, Dr. Sherry Benton, recognized a gap in the resources available at universities in the United States. “I was the director of a large counseling center at a large university [University of Florida] and we could never keep up with demands,” Benton said. “We tried everything — we had groups, we had workshops, we had self-help materials. Still, we could never keep up with demand. As a matter of fact, one year we got four new positions, but it only gave us two more weeks without a waitlist.”Benton said the biggest concern with this situation was that not being able to assist students in a timely manner would begin impacting their abilities to be students.“If you make somebody wait five weeks to start treatment for depression, they are going to lose their whole semester. That’s not OK,” she said. “Because of the waitlist situation, we were inadvertently in a position of deciding who was going to flourish and who was going to fail based entirely on the date that they sought help.”Benton said she looked for programs she could buy for her university, but could not find anything at another university in the country that she believed would work. So, she started looking at programs in Europe, and saw they were pairing online educational materials with brief 15- to 20-minute therapy sessions. “I couldn’t find a system I could just borrow or buy, so we decided we would make one at my university,” she said. “We created a prototype anxiety treatment, and when we offered it to students, one of the things that happened was the students that did the online system with brief sessions with a therapist did better than the ones who did weekly, face-to-face, 50-minute psychotherapy, and at that point we realized it was a great thing. … Then we added more and more materials, we licensed it to more and more universities and then we started licensing to more types of places.”TAO is currently available at about 130 universities around the nation, which is not including the other companies and businesses that also have access to the self-help tool. Although it was originally intended to be a supplement to counseling, Benton said students can also access it as a form of self-help without going into therapy or the counseling center, as a way to cope with anxiety, depression or a wide variety of other issues. “TAO has about 400 [videos] and a couple hundred interactive exercises addressing a whole variety of common issues for adults, but particularly, it started with college students,” she said. “It is intended to be not a replacement for therapy, but good tools for people who want self-help, and a good adjunct for people who are in some kind of counseling.”Students can go to the UCC website to find guidance on how to begin TAO. Students first can set up an account, and then pick which topic and corresponding enrollment key they need. There are topics from “Leave Your Blues Behind” to “Interpersonal Relationships and Communication” to “Anger Management.”Although Benton and the UCC encourage students to reach out to qualified professionals if they need it, TAO can still be an available resource for those who are busy and just want a little extra help. According to the UCC website’s page on TAO, the program aims to “help you learn about struggles common to college students and to develop helpful strategies for navigating these challenges.”Tags: health, Mental health, TAO, Therapist Assisted Online, University Counseling Center