THE
BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 104
since 1891
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014
SLA protests review of mail workers’ driving routes In wake of contracting change, U. says review will not lead to outsourcing of more jobs By LINDSAY GANTZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER
TIMOTHY MUELLER-HARDER / HERALD
A panel of five administrators who deal with sexual assault policy addressed undergrads about the University’s process of examining assault allegations during the first half of an open forum on campus Wednesday night.
Undergrads critique sexual assault policy
Attendees of open forum advocate for greater prioritization of victims amid policy examination By CAROLINE KELLY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Undergraduates and other community members voiced concerns and suggestions about the University’s sexual assault policies in a two-part forum
Wednesday night co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Council of Students and the Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse. The first part of the forum featured a panel of speakers, while the second part comprised an open discussion. Hundreds of attendees gathered in a three-quarters-full Metcalf Auditorium. Several of them took the opportunity to ask passionate questions about topics of personal importance
related to sexual assault policy. The discussion was led predominantly by Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, executive vice president for planning and policy and co-chair of the Sexual Assault Task Force. Carey began by expressing the task force’s desire for student input. “We’ll answer questions about the process and what we’re doing so far … but we also really want to prioritize hearing your feedback,” he said. » See UCS, page 2
In response to the University’s decision to conduct an external review of two unionized mailroom workers’ driving routes, the Brown Student Labor Alliance hosted a demonstration outside J. Walter Wilson Wednesday. About 50 students, staff and community members rallied to show solidarity for University workers’ rights, thrusting up brightly colored signs and uniformly chanting slogans such as, “Hey Brown, step off it, put people over profit.” Elizabeth Gentry, assistant vice president of financial and administrative services, said that the routes need to be assessed to free up mailboxes in JWW. “We ran out of mailboxes. We do not have enough to accommodate all the students that are on campus and off campus,” she said. The University plans to repurpose some departmental mailboxes in JWW for student use, which may add additional departmental buildings to current routes, she said. “We do not intend to outsource
the jobs of the drivers,” said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and adminstration. Two mailroom drivers and their union representative, Karen McAninch ’74, met with Gentry and Huidekoper Oct. 15 to discuss bringing in an outside analyst to evaluate the effectiveness of the current driving route. Initially, the University planned to have an analyst from Ricoh USA conduct the review that was scheduled to take place on Wednesday, Huidekoper said. In August, after an external review conducted by Ricoh judged mailroom operations to be inefficient, the University outsourced Mail Services to the company, The Herald reported in September. After the outsourcing decision, two employees were rehired by Ricoh, two retired and one was rehired by the University to work in a different department, Huidekoper said. Mailroom driver Jesus Sanchez said in the Oct. 15 meeting, Huidekoper and Gentry “told us (they) were bringing in an analyst. (They) didn’t tell us (the analyst) worked for Ricoh USA, which is the same company that came in to analyze the mailroom and brought the jobs out from under everybody.” Workers did not express concerns until they learned the company » See SLA, page 2
Poli sci professors analyze Video aims to prevent opioid overdoses researchers win midterm election results Brown award for video, conduct
By ZACH FREDERICKS STAFF WRITER
“You don’t have to be a political science major to be interested in politics,” said Rebecca Mears ’15, head of the Political Science Departmental Undergraduate Group and the host of Wednesday’s lunch discussion about the results of the 2014 midterm elections. About 60 students gathered in Salomon 003 a day after the elections to hear a recap and analysis of the results from Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science and public policy, and Richard Arenberg, adjunct lecturer in political science and public policy. Both speakers emphasized that the Republican Party’s gains in the U.S. Senate were larger than predicted. The GOP gained at least seven seats in the Senate, beating out three incumbents in North Carolina, Arkansas
inside
METRO
and Colorado to do so. The Republicans also gained at least 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The party’s gains in the House were a more expected outcome that represents an average gain during a midterm election, Schiller said. The question that circulated throughout the panel was what caused the Democratic Party to suffer such severe losses, aside from the strong Republican turnout at the polls Tuesday. The speakers addressed the influence of President Obama and his administration on the outcomes in congressional races. “It’s unavoidable to recognize that the president’s unpopularity is very difficult for candidates to overcome,” Arenberg said. Though Democratic representatives in the House and Senate have aligned their voting records with measures backed by the president 97 to 99 percent of the time, several of the incumbents up for reelection moved away from supporting the president on the campaign trail. This distancing from the executive branch made legislators look indecisive, he added. Democratic senators did not distance themselves as much from the » See MIDTERMS, page 8
outreach to hospital workers, former inmates By LAUREN ARATANI CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The terms “opioids,” “naloxone” and “rescue breathing” are unknown to many, but the makers behind “Staying Alive On the Outside” are looking to change that. “Staying Alive,” an educational video on drug overdose prevention, serves as both a narrative about the deadly effects of opioid overdoses and as a form of instruction for what to do if someone overdoses. The creation of the video was led by a group of University researchers and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This past month, the researchers won a Bronze Telly Award in Online Video for excellence in video and television as part of the 35th Annual Telly Awards. The Telly Awards honors film, video, online video and commercials and is “one of the most sought-after awards by industry leaders, from large international firms
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
Commentary
Science and Research 3-D cell cultures can help screen for toxicants, potentially expediting research process
Computer science alum reflects on CS, offers tips to students on how to succeed in tech industry
Sweren ’15: Demolishing historic buildings betrays College Hill’s past
Al-Salem ’17: People of Saudi Arabia should not be judged based on deeds of corrupt officials
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weather
Schiller, Arenberg address causes of Republicans’ U.S. Senate takeover, national political climate
to local production companies and ad agencies,” according to the Telly Awards website. Opioids are substances that inhibit the transmission of pain and include well-known drugs such as morphine and heroin. The researchers chose to focus their efforts on preventing overdoses among recently released prisoners who have struggled with opioid addiction. This population is at high risk of an overdose when leaving prison because upon release, former inmates often revert to their previous dosage despite a decrease in tolerance. “It’s the same kind of tolerance that all of us experience after you take a break from caffeine and come back to it,” said Traci Green, assistant professor of emergency medicine and epidemiology and one of the lead researchers behind the project. “Similarly with opioids, that’s the cycle that happens with the prison inmates who are opioid dependent going into prison. When they go through a period of forced abstinence by not being able to use on the inside (of prison) and are released back into the community and back to using, their body is not accustomed to that.” “Staying Alive” offers individuals, regardless of whether they have been in prison, advice on how to help
themselves and others avoid opioid overdose. The first step for soon-to-be released prisoners is to form a game plan for asking for help and seeking treatment upon release. From there, those around them can look out for signs that may lead to an overdose, such as the mixing of drugs and high dosage levels right after prison release. Finally, the video gives comprehensive instructions on what to do when someone overdoses — calling 911, conducting rescue breathing and administering Narcan, otherwise known as naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of the opioid. “We really felt there were three things lacking from existing videos” on overdose prevention, Green said. First, other videos neglected members of this population and the unique challenges they face during their transition back into their community. Second, they did not incorporate “behavior change theory.” Lastly, they aimed only to educate viewers, rather than to also make them participate as educators themselves in preventing overdose, Green said. Rhode Island has up to 30 opioidrelated deaths per month, according to a Lifespan press release, a high rate that was an incentive for researchers » See OPIOIDS, page 4 t o d ay
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