Last year, The Point News began an experimental article style. Right to The Point is a rapid-fire News-in-Brief article type, inspired by and with permission of FiveThirtyEight’s “Significant Digits.” With this segment we aim to catch readers up with all the facts The Point News was otherwise unable to report on in our traditional format.

SixthSt. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) was

awarded sixth place by the Princeton Review in their “Guide to 375 Top Green Colleges.” SMCM earned a 97 out of 99 possible points for the College’s efforts towards being an exemplar environmental institution. “[At SMCM] 63 percent of energy consumption from renewable sources, [and] 115 percent of total electricity consumption through Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs),” according to the SMCM Newsroom. The aforementioned “renewable sources” include geothermal heating systems, and solar panels. Efforts to become energy neutral are guided by the “Climate Action Plan.” This plan —signed

by former-President Urgo in 2012— aims to have 100% of SMCM’s emissions offset by 2020. The Office of Sustainability, and the incoming Sustainability Club are expected to be instrumental in these continued efforts. Read more about these efforts in the next issue of The Point News.

61 out of 48,000 SMCM professor of educational studies

Angela Johnson had a paper published in September Issue of The Physics Teacher. Her paper discussed the underrepresentation of women of color in Physics and the response of collegiate faculty to address those issues. Professor Johnson writes in her paper that, “Women of color are deeply underrepresented in physics. [...] 1% of graduating physics majors were Black women [between 2001 and 2012] and another 1% were Latinas; only 61 American Indian women total completed degrees in physics in those years (out of 48,000 physics majors).” Johnson told the SMCM Newsroom that she intended her paper to be of use to “any professor who wants to make their department a healthier place for women students of color.”

517

The number of SMCM alumnus and current students who joined together in a Facebook group to “show support for Kelly [Schroeder, longtime Director of Student Activities and Assistant Dean of Students], and send a unified message to St. Mary’s that Kelly has positively impacted and supported generations of students at St. Mary’s,” according to the description of the Facebook group. The groups administrators continued to say, “[Schroeder] is an integral part of St. Mary’s, and we strongly disapprove of her job being jeopardized.” At a SGA student speak-out students voiced their concerns about Schroeder seemingly sudden removal from her role at the school.

15-15From Sept 15 to Oct 15 SMCM celebrates

Hispanic heritage month. The banners around campus —specifically near route 5 and the library— have been switched-out to honor “historic and contemporary figures who have helped increase the awareness and impact of different cultures” according to the College. Alongside the banners, the College has offered events and food which pay homage to Hispanic heritage.

By Scott ZimmermanEditor-In-Chief

Right To The Point: Print Edition

St. Mary’s Campus Bi-Weekly • 78th Year, No. 3 • October 12, 2017 • St. Mary’s City, MD

www.thepointnews.com

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The Wellness Center has recently ushered in a number of changes to the way they serve student health. The Point News sat down with Director of the Wellness Center Kyle Bishop and Interim Assistant Director of Health Services Stephe-nie Gutridge-Snode to discuss the history of student health services at St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM).

As announced at a Student Gov-ernment Association meeting earlier this September, the Wellness Center now works with a physician’s as-sistant (PA). A PA has the ability to write and renew prescriptions, making them a vital resource for students, many of whom don’t have immediate access to their general physicians. The PA, who is con-tracted through MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, can now also suture lacer-ations on-site, providing the injury is recent enough and does not require more serious medical attention.

Before the addition of the PA, the Center was in contract with a number of nurse practitioners from the St. Mary’s County area. Those practitioners had similar capabilities to a physician’s assistant, but worked on more incon-sistent schedules. In addition, the primary nurse practitioner most commonly contracted by the Wellness Center was a pediatric nurse, meaning she could only write prescriptions for clients under the age of 21. “It created hurdles for students where there didn’t need to be hurdles,” said Bishop.

The new PA is available Monday through Friday from 1:00-4:30 pm, and will be a more de-pendable resource, accessible to a wider portion of the SMCM community. Other changes that have come to the Wellness Center include an increase in the number of walk-in hours for both Health Ser-vices (Monday through Friday, 9:00–11:00 am), and Counseling Services (Monday through Friday, 1:00–3:00 pm), as well as a revamped system for electronic health records, including a student portal where students can access information about their appointments and healthcare services.

Access to a prescribing body and someone who can provide more advanced healthcare on campus is especially important at a school like SMCM,

where many students feel particularly isolated from local healthcare resources. Students coming from larger communities like Baltimore and the D.C.-metro area feel a sharp contrast in the avail-ability of health services in Southern Maryland.

Speaking to that isolation and dearth of resourc-es, Gutridge-Snode said, “I think that definitely is not only an issue for students on campus, but our county is actually listed nationally as an under-served county.” According to a County Health Ranking report detailed by MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, there are 2,350 citizens for every one physician in St. Mary’s County—with Lexington Park being of particular concern, with its elevated numbers of residents living at or below the pov-erty line. “There are barriers for receiving care for most people in the community,” continued Gutridge-Snode.

Access to mental healthcare has also been a concern on the St. Mary’s campus. According to Bishop, the Wellness Center sees more than 25% of the student population for mental healthcare, above national averages, a sign that she interprets as positive for the accessibility of the Wellness Center’s counseling services. Bishop pointed

By Rebecca RitterNews Editor

STUDENT HEALTH AT SMCM: CHANGES AT THE WELLNESS CENTER

out that SMCM has no limit on the number of counseling sessions that a student can schedule, in comparison to a school like the University of Maryland College Park, which limits individual counseling to eight sessions per 12-month period.

Bishop and Gutridge-Snode both pointed to alcohol and drug abuse as one of the biggest challenges to student health at SMCM. “It’s an issue that we see come up time and time again that contributes to so many factors, like mental health, physical health, sexual assault, academic,” said Bishop. “It affects so many different areas of students’ lives.” Both brought up SMCM’s par-ticipation in the Maryland Collaborative, an entity made up of 15 colleges and universities who aim to “reduce college drinking and related problems,” according to their website, as one of the ways in which the school is tackling this issue.

Gutridge-Snode also added that with tobacco use being a major health concern in young people today, the Wellness Center was glad that, this past summer, the school received a grant for the Tobacco-Free Generation Campus Initiative from the American Cancer Society. The money from the grant will go towards the formation of a task force

that will work on making St. Mary’s a smoke-free campus, as well as the implementation of a campus climate survey to get a clearer picture of the smoking population on campus.

Bishop and Gutridge-Snode also stressed that one of the areas where the Wellness Center is expanding their services is in reproductive and sexual-related health. Screening for sexually transmitted illnesses (STIs) has been expanded: the Wellness Center’s policy in the past was that students could only be tested if they were presenting symptoms of an STI. Now, students can request to be tested for a wide variety of sexually transmitted illnesses even if they are asymptomatic. HIV testing can also be done at the Wellness Center, whereas before students were referred to alternative services in Lexington Park for testing.

The Wellness Center’s ability to provide birth control has also been improved. Wherein the past the Cen-ter could only prescribe three months of oral birth control (BC), with the addition of the regularly scheduled

PA, prescriptions for BC can be continuously renewed, rather than the previous policy of di-recting students towards their general physicians for a continued prescription. Several “LARCs,” or long-acting reversible contraceptives, which were not previously available at the Wellness Center now are, including the intrauterine device (IUD) Liletta, which can be prescribed and inserted at the Wellness Center. Liletta will cost $50 for students without insurance—or for students who wish to pay out-of-pocket, which is useful for those who share medical plans with their parents or other fam-ily members and who wish to keep their healthcare choices private.

Longer lasting birth control options have in re-cent years become more attractive to people who want to deter pregnancy. The popularity of the IUD is thought to have spiked around the start of the current presidential administration, according to Business Insider, with many Republican figures in politics campaigning on ending federal funding to women’s health groups like Planned Parenthood and loosening regulations regarding employer-pro-vided healthcare and birth control. But of course, anyone interested in [CONT. ON PAGE TWO]

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29-26-TBDOn Sept 29, Oct 26, and an undetermined

date in Nov, the SMCM Career Center is hosting their annual “Bookbag to Briefcase” workshops, through a sponsorship with BB&T Bank. These events are predominantly focused on preparing seniors to join the workforce. According to promotional material for the event, “students will have the opportunity to connect students with industry experts for small group lectures on a wide variety of professional development topics throughout the fall and spring semesters.” Interested students can find out more at http://www.smcm.edu/careercenter/bookbag-to-briefcase/

TroisSMCM Professor Brian Gantz performed

another iteration of his free piano recitals on Sept 26. As per usual, Gantz focused on the works of Frédéric Chopin. This recital was specifically centered around “the rarely heard Trois Nouvelles Etudes and the virtually unknown Fugue” according to an all-student email regarding the event. Gantz will be performing again later in the semester. Check your email for updates.

Ethel Chance Hall, also known as The Wellness Center (Photo Courtesy of Scott Zimmerman)

2 NewsThe Point News • September 27, 2017

SMCM’s Response to Secretary DeVos’ Title IX Changes: An Interview with Michael Dunn

On Sept. 22, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced plans to rescind the Title IX guidelines that have been the basis for how colleges address sexual misconduct on their campuses. Many people across the country have expressed concern over her statement, particularly among some survivors of sexual assault who might fall back into silence if implemented.

Title IX requires schools that receive federal funds to not discriminate on the basis of sex. The law itself does not mention sexual violence, but courts and the Education Department have inter-preted it as a ban on sex discrimination, requiring schools to address sexual violence among students, since the law’s passage in 1972.

On Sept. 7, in a long-awaited speech at George Mason University (GMU), DeVos promised to continue to enforce Title IX; saying that “campus sexual misconduct must continue to be confronted head-on.” Although after her GMU speech, DeVos explicitly told CBS News that the Obama Admin-istration’s policies on sexual misconduct were not being rescinded, she has since announced their rescission. However, the current process to replace those guidelines—which will take months, if not years—will eventually lead to legal rules that are intended to replace them.

She also criticized the previous administration’s enforcement methods, saying that “rather than engage the public on controversial issues, the De-partment’s Office for Civil Rights had issued letters from the desks of unelected and unaccountable political appointees.” She referred to the “Dear Colleague Letter” issued by the Obama Admin-istration in 2011, which provided instructions on how schools must investigate accusations of sexual violence. The letter has become a powerful symbol of support for sexual assault victims, but also for the failures of due process on college campuses.

After DeVos’ remarks, St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s Director of Title IX Compliance and Training/Title IX Coordinator Michael Dunn sent out an All-Student email address entitled “Looking ahead,” confirming the College’s commitment to sustaining a campus environment where sexual misconduct is not condoned or tolerated.

The Point News (TPN) had the opportunity to interview Dunn in the hope that students would be informed on DeVos’ announcement and what it would mean for the College.

About DeVos’ plans to replace the current process and her comments on Obama’s “Dear Colleague Letter,” Dunn says that the fairness of the process has to be the central part. “DeVos was going to plan on replacing the Dear Colleague letter that came out in 2011. If you read that letter, issues regarding due process and fairness are all in there. For many years now, it’s been really important that colleges take those issues into account to make sure that no rush to judgment is made.” He continued, “[DeVos] was talking about things that were al-ready on the radar and our focus for a really long time. Reasonable people might disagree with how the Secretary characterized some of these issues.”

In her speech to GMU, DeVos introduced the launch of “a transparent notice-and-comment” process wherein the Education Department will receive comments from the public “to incorporate the insights of all parties.” As Dunn describes it, the process will be “an opportunity for anyone with an opinion or interest to share their thoughts as the regulation process continues.” From his viewpoint on the speech, he understood it as say-ing that “things are going to change but nothing is changing today,’ instead what is changing is this period of ‘notice-and-comment.’” Dunn continued, “I think it’s a good thing to have people to share their opinions and concerns, so we will see what

happens.”If the process is incorporated into Title IX,

TPN asked Dunn how it would affect the cam-pus community. Dunn put an emphasis on the College’s role to “focus on our community here in this environment,” especially in making sure that it is “safe, fair, and equitable.” He hopes to continue to provide the campus community with information so that they understand the policies and procedures, their options, and opportunities to respond and participate.

However, since this is a period of transition, there is some uncertainty as to what the future holds. For Dunn, he agrees that “we have to wait and see how the guidance changes.” Areas where DeVos plans to change the process include the type of standard of proof the Department of Education will use, as well as questions surrounding if the preponderance of evidence will go to a higher standard.

The preponderance standard, according to Dunn, has been used in other civil rights issues. He says, “This is a civil rights issue, that’s why colleges deal with it. Sometimes people say, ‘why is the college handling sexual assault, these are criminal acts?’ We have a civil rights responsibility; sexual violence can have a discriminatory effect.”

The All-Student email addressed the school’s approach to sexual misconduct, saying that it is “rooted in many sources in addition to the Title IX regulations and the Department of Education guidance that have been issued in recent years.” In the interview, Dunn explained that many factors affect and guide the College’s process, including “the Violence Against Women Act, the Clery Act, and Maryland state laws.” He continued, “Title IX is a really important piece of the puzzle, but it’s one piece of the puzzle out of many.”

Some people called DeVos’ speech an attack on survivors of sexual assault. As quoted in The Washington Post, President Graves of the National Women’s Law Center says that “it sends a frighten-ing message to all students: your government does not have your back if your rights are violated.” TPN asked Michael Dunn if this was true.

Dunn replied that creating a “false contrast” between supporting survivors of sexual violence and having a fair process is not helpful. He says, “In fact, one of the best ways we can support sexual violence survivors is to make sure that the process-es that we have in place are substantive, thorough, and can stand up to scrutiny.” At the same time, Dunn stressed the importance of making sure that we are acting in ways that are trauma-informed so that we’re being sensitive to someone who has gone through a traumatic event and how it affects them, no victim blaming behaviors or attitudes.”

However, there are some people who are misinformed about the differences between the two narratives. So, what does this mean for our culture? Dunn replied, “Our culture is changing in some very positive ways. A lot of the shame and stigma that has surrounded sexual violence is dissipating.” With the uncertainty that comes with this moment of transition, the College’s commit-ment is “unwavering” as Dunn says, adding, “this is not going to change.”

In the meantime, and without any clear state-ments yet, there are resources and support the College offers here on campus. A lot of the work being done this year will be to incorporate sexual violence awareness in all sectors of campus life.

For students, the SMARTies and their 24/7 hotline provide peer support and on/off campus resources to students affected by sexual violence and friends or loved ones of survivors.

A new memorandum of understanding with Walden Sierra, the renewal of the 24-hour Crisis Hotline, and a new bystander intervention program this year, called ‘Bringing in the Bystander’. The program has been supported by evidence that it is effective in terms of improving pro-social behavior

any form of birth control should talk with their healthcare provider about risks and possible courses of action. Staff at the Well-ness Center can provide further information on LARCs and any other questions about

over direction of the program last fall. Di-rector Kyle Bishop declined to comment on claims that the numbers of volunteers have shifted, but said that the SMART initiative is active and healthy.

The Wellness Center is one of the most vi-tal resources for students on campus in re-gards to their mental, physical, and emotion-al health. Bishop and Gutridge-Snode both stressed that one of the most important mes-sages they’d like to get out to students is that there should be no stigma around seeking out help through the Wellness Center. Stu-dents should never hesitate to take advan-tage of the services guaranteed to them by virtue of their attendance at St. Mary’s Col-lege of Maryland, or to speak up for changes in those services when they see the need.

Changes to Wellness Center (Continued from Page 1) Physician’s Assistant with new hours: Monday-Friday, 1:00-4:30 pm

• Can write and renew prescriptions• Can suture recent lacerations on-site• Can prescribe and insert an IUD (intrauterine device)

Changes to Walk-In hours• Health Services (Monday through Friday, 9:00–11:00 am)• Counseling Services (Monday through Friday, 1:00–3:00 pm)

Testing for STIs (Sexually Transmitted Illnesses) • Students can now request testing for STIs, including HIV, even if they are not

presenting symptoms• STIs can be diagnosed and treated on-site

and decreasing the acceptance of rape myths. This approach assumes that every-one has a role to play in ending violence against women.

There is also on-going Title IX train-ing for first years, juniors, and transfer students, as well as new Title IX orienta-tion training that was very well received with mostly positive evaluations.

A grant from the Maryland Depart-ment of Health was approved for ‘A Call to Men’, a national organization brought to campus to work in particular with male-identified students and community members around violence prevention. Dunn says that it will help men learn to “support each other in not engaging in sexual violence, not tolerating it with acts that can create a culture where sexual violence is condoned, like rape jokes, sexist and misogynistic acts.”

SMCM also partnered with The Green Door to launch a campaign based on a similar one from the UK which went viral. The new initiative hopes to make it safer for people by allowing them to request help from a bartender through the use of a special code word. For a person who feels like they are not in a safe situation, “go to the bar and ask for ‘Angela’. The bar staff will know you need help getting out of an uncomfortable situation by calling a taxi for you or help you out of the bar privately and discreetly.”

Dunn said, “It gives folks a subtle reminder on the resources and bystander intervention.”

There are also responsible employees, such as staff, faculty, and RAs who are required to share sexual misconduct information with Dunn. A new resource, the Title IX Resource Card, helps both employees and those seeking help from sex-ual misconduct. The card has information on the actions employees can take if someone tells them that have experienced sexual misconduct. They can also tear the card at the perforation line to keep half of their information and provide the other half to the individual who experienced the misconduct with tips and following actions.

With this moment of uncertainty following the Secretary’s speech and actions, it has been stressful and concerning for many folks. However, accord-ing to Dunn, it is also, “a moment to reevaluate and take a fresh look on what we have been doing and what we can do better.” He continues, “At the end of the day, people of good will have the same goals, whether it is me, students, or the Secretary of Education—all of us are trying to end sexual violence on college campuses and find ways to prevent it.”

In the past, this issue was a bipartisan effort to address and get rid of sexual violence in colleges and universities, but now it is apparent that there are some divisions on how to end it.

About this matter, Dunn believes that “it is little surprising and disappointing how prevent-ing responding to sexual violence has become a partisan issue. It is important to remember that this is not a partisan issue and that we all have the same interests and desires. Sometimes the partisan nature of the political process can cloud that. Sex-ual violence is a political issue because it touches on fundamental questions of women’s rights and equality; issues that are sensitive and challenging in some ways. I think to have this issue to become so partisan becomes very difficult to work together.”

On if he sees this changing in the future, Dunn is

uncertain, saying, “I think that the Trump admin-istration is so unique in many ways that it seems that a lot of rules and norms are changing, so it’s hard to figure out what the next step is after this. I don’t know, but there are so many people that care so much about this issue that I believe that people will be vocal and not let change happen quietly. We can expect a lot of ongoing dialogue about this, which I think can be a really healthy thing.”

Following our interview with Dunn, TPN learned that DeVos issued new guidelines on how colleges should handle sexual assault. In an action taken on Sept. 22, DeVos unveiled the Department of Education’s new guidelines, reversing Obama-era Title IX guidelines. According to the new “Q&A on Campus Sexual Misconduct,” issued by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Department of, there are three major regulation changes.

One, Colleges can abandon the need for lower burden of proof previously required and instead mandate a higher standard of “clear and convincing evidence.” Secondly, an investigation no longer has to be completed within 60 days but “reasonably prompt.” Lastly, mediation will be offered so the accuser and the accused can talk. Critiques have come from victims’ rights groups as well as cheers from organizations representing people accused of assault. “Today, Betsy DeVos and the Trump Administration chose to tip the scales in favor of rapists and perpetrators,” the group End Rape on Campus said in a statement. “Rolling back this guidance is an affront to the students, survivors, and allies who have fought to bring the sexual assault epidemic out of the shadows.” Others who have criticized the new interim guidance include Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, saying in a statement it “will discourage students from reporting assaults, create uncertainty for schools on how to follow the law, and make campuses less safe.” She added, “This misguided directive is a huge step back to a time when sexual assault was a secret that was swept under the rug,” Time reported.

The Department is also withdrawing the policies and guidance laid out in the “Dear Colleague Let-ter,” as well as the 2014 Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence, stating in a letter, “The 2011 and 2014 guidance documents may have been well-intentioned, but those documents have led to the deprivation of rights for many stu-dents—both accused students denied fair process and victims denied an adequate resolution of their complaints.”

TPN will continue our conversation with SMCM Title IX coordinator Michael Dunn in the coming months in order to explicate the developing situ-ation as well as possible. If you have an opinion of these new regulations, please feel free to send a community letter to our opinion’s editor (opin-ionseditor@thepointnews.com). We aim to make this an ongoing conversation.

Overview of Changes

sexual and reproductive health. One area of health where the Wellness

Center also provides services is care after a sexual assault. The Wellness Center oversees SMART, the Sexual Misconduct Advocacy

and Resource Team, a group of “trained peer advocates at St. Mary’s College of Maryland dedicated to supporting survivors of un-wanted sexual experiences,” so stated on the Wellness Center website. One of the biggest services SMART provides is the 24/7 hotline for victims to either report a sexual assault or find other resources for emotional and phys-iological support. However, The Point News has heard from former SMART volunteers, including student Alyssa Leventer, who says that the number of SMART volunteers has decreased in the last year. This has sparked complaints among some members of the student body that the hotline is understaffed and unable to meet demand. SMART is cur-rently overseen by Staff Therapist and Sexual Assault Advocate Kelly Muldoon, who took

Secretary of State Betsy DeVos. (Photo courtesy of NBC News)

By Martine NiyongaboA&E Editor

3Features The Point News • October 12, 2017

money for homeless shelters in the areas near where he grew up and went to high school. He expressed concern that, since the event was so publicized, it could have just as easily been a target for the terror attacks which led him to start the Free Hugs Project.

When a video of him at a race in a shirt em-blazoned with the phrase for which he is now known went viral, Nwadike found himself quickly becoming a symbol of peace, love, and unity in times of national strain. Nwadike says that his videos are meant to educate and inspire.

With the aid of his youtube channel, Nwadike presented his project to a small gathering of students and staff members. He shared inspiring quips like “love will save the world,” a seem-ingly transcendent phrase he credits to himself.

Prior to Nwadike’s arrival on campus, many student groups expressed their concern about his views on protest. In light of the recent pub-licity around police brutality and the protests that happen in response, there was concern that

On Sept. 25, after a long day of smaller group discussions around campus, Ken Nwadike Jr., better known as the “Free Hugs Guy,” prepared to address a group of students in the Michael P. O’Brien Athletic and Recreation Center recre-ational courts.

Nwadike, a lifelong track athlete, founded the Free Hugs project in 2014 in response to the Boston Marathon bombing. He started running track in high school after years of bullying, and soon found himself sponsored by Nike and train-ing to run the mile track event in the Olympics. Nwadike credits his high school track coach with helping him find his way out of homelessness.

The activist and athlete is also notable for founding the Hollywood Half-Marathon, another publicized race in California to raise awareness for homeless youth which took place just days before the Boston Marathon of 2014. Celebrity endorsements helped Nwadike raise

Nwadike’s message discredits the importance of more active forms of protest. The activist explained that he is not anti-protest, but rather anti-violence. He even went so far as to align himself with Martin Luther King Jr, despite stu-dent questions regarding the necessity of protest in the civil rights movement to date.

Those hesitant to accept the Free Hugs Project as a political one should note that the idea was born not from police brutality, but from terrorist incidents in a time where faith in humanity seemed lacking. Nwadike now travels the country to protests in an attempt to de-escalate violence, usually wearing the project shirt that makes him a symbol of peace. He stressed to students that despite his brand being built around free hugs, his goal reaches beyond hugging away the hate from both sides of a protest, saying “This is my brand. I went into these places really to open discussion,” and showing another student’s Free Hugs Project with a slogan better representing his newer and

more politicized ideals.Nwadike says that on the front lines of protest,

he helped saved lives by assisting police outfitted in full riot gear in calming crowds, so the author-ities would not have to use force. He says that he has been called a traitor for the centrist appeal he shows in his videos, like one inflammatory scene to SMCM students showing him kicking bricks away from protesters and into the hands of police. In many of the videos, the peace activist can be seen standing just before police officers and gesturing back to crowds, relaying the need for de-escalation in more civilian terms.

The main reason for his opposition to active protests is media coverage. He told students that in times where protests turn violent, media coverage is “always the violence, never the cause”- that violent actions fail to start a suc-cessful dialogue about the heart of the issues.

For more information, check out the project webpage freehugsproject.com. You can also find Nwadike on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.

By Georgie HardestyFeatures Editor

“Free Hugs Guy” Visits St. Mary’s

On Thursday Sept. 27, a computer science-based NS&M Colloquium titled “Organizing a Billion Images of our World,” was given by Dr. Robert Pless. Pless was born and raised in Maryland and is the new department chair of computer science at George Washington University. Pless was previously a professor of computer science at Washington University in St. Louis. His work primarily focuses on computer vision and its applications to environmental science, medical imaging, robotics and virtual reality.

Pless is involved in a project called Archive of Many Outdoor Scenes (AMOS), a dataset of over 1.3 billion images that have been collected from outdoor webcams since 2006. The images are taken every 30 minutes and are collected

NS&M: Organizing a Billion Images of our World

from over 33,000 outdoor webcams. These webcams capture an angle that is very different from satellites because they look at scenes at ground level.

Using this dataset, they found that adding a bike lane in New York City lead to an increase of bikers of rainy days because people feel safer biking. They also studied the addition of crosswalks in parts of D.C., and the effect it has on pedestrians

and traffic.Pless’ work also uses computer science to

address social issues. He is involved in a project called TraffickCam, a mobile application created in 2015 by the Exchange Initiative, used to document hotel rooms and match hotel rooms to those involved in sex trafficking. The app allows users to upload images of their hotel rooms in order to build a database of different images of

many hotel rooms. This database is able to help law enforcement

find victims, document crime locations and ultimately understand criminal networks. TraffickCam has over 100,000 downloads and 2.3 million images have been uploaded.

This work is primarily in the field of machine learning and deep learning, which involves computers learning and improving on data unsupervised. Pless acknowledges that there are biases associated with this work because the computers are learning by themselves. The data collected also comes from a convenience sample, not a random sample which also may provide biases.

The next NS&M Colloquium will be given by Dr. Sharon Lynn on Oct. 18, titled “Early Maternal Care and the Shaping of the Stress Response: Lessons from Eastern Bluebirds.”

(Image Courtesy of the AMOS Project)Screenshot of Dr. Pless’ Archive of Many Outdoor Scenes

By Lauren SmithWorld Perspectives editor

Opinions

“‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.” That was the headline for the fifth time at The Onion —a sa-tirical publication— following the horrendous attacks in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was but a little over a year ago that the Pulse night-club shooting, where 49 people died, was deemed the “worst mass-shooting in modern American history.” Now that infamous title has been transferred as 59 people were murdered by Stephen Paddock at a concert on the evening of Oct. 1, 2017.

As The Onion headline indicated, this is a unique issue which Americans face more regularly than any other nation. Shootings are an “exceptionally American” problem according to Adam Lankford, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama. His research, “Mass Shooters, Firearms, and Social Strains: A Global Analysis of an Excep-tionally American Problem,” found that there is a significant relationship between gun ownership and mass shootings. According to the Harvard School of Public Health’s Injury Control Research, “the US is an outlier on gun violence because it has way more guns than other developed nations.”

Per-usual, this tragedy re-ignited the gun-control debate. This argument, pitting “second amend-ment people” and rational, concerned citizens against one another, follows the same pattern every year: an atrocity happens, “gun-right” proponents claim it is “too soon” to speak about policy, then the passion sizzles out and the laws remain the same until more people are senselessly slain in a preventable manner.

Members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun-right activists claim that gun control would not have remedied this situation, nor that the United States has an issue with gun violence. These are both factually inaccurate.

As explained above, the United States is unique in our issues with gun violence. An analysis from The New York Times found that “[Our] level of [gun-related] violence makes the United States an extreme outlier when measured against the experi-ence of other advanced countries.” The newspaper continued “in Germany, being murdered with a gun is as uncommon as being killed by a falling object in the United States.”

According to a peer-reviewed study by research-ers from the American Public Health Association in 2013, more guns directly correlate to more homicides. States with more guns, have higher levels of gun-related homicide as reported by The Atlantic. Furthermore that article found when

states implement higher levels of gun control, there are fewer deaths. If you are not yet convinced, a review of 130 studies from ten countries from Columbia University found that, “the simulta-neous implementation of laws targeting multiple firearms restrictions is associated with reductions in firearm deaths.”

Semi-automatic weapons are sold for “self-de-fense” and fun. The NRA through its publication American Rifleman explains the prior argument, “the popularity of tactical rifles [...] has skyrock-eted. The most popular seem to be those based on the AR-15 design [...] rifles are powerful defensive firearms.” But, this argument has been proven false by many studies. Researchers have found that “Guns kept in homes are more likely to be involved in a fatal or nonfatal accidental shooting, criminal assault, or suicide attempt than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense.”

The latter argument is indefensible. Gun shop owners told NPR that their product was being sold for people to have “good, clean fun.” If your toy has the negative side effect of facilitating hundreds of deaths a year, it is not “clean fun.”

The NRA therefore knows something academic researchers do not know, or is lying to the Amer-ican people.

Ben Shapiro of the conservative publication The Daily Wire wrote on Oct. 2 that “this isn’t the time to talk gun control.” Shapiro’s reasoning is that all of the facts about the case are not yet known. “Some say [Paddock] had a fully auto-matic machine gun” Shapiro points out, implying that this is improbable. Shapiro continues to argue that federal law has made these weapons illegal since 1934. Shapiro concedes, “Modifications to semiautomatic weapons are possible, but they require planning and aren’t always reliable. We need to know such information before we can determine policy.”

Considering the facts that we now know, Sha-piro’s critique of gun activist’s response has been rendered useless. Paddock had the “planning” to “reliab[ly]” modify a semi-automatic weapon. Using a “bump-stock,” Paddock was able to convert his legal purchased assault rifle into what was effectively a machine gun. So surely we can all agree it’s time to make a policy. Due to relaxed gun laws in Nevada, Paddock was able to collect a small armory. According to Clark County As-sistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo, Paddock had a cache of guns, 42 in total between his hotel room and his home.

CNN reports that there were twelve “bump fire stocks” equipped onto the weapons recovered from Paddock’s hotel room. “Bump fire stocks”

By Scott ZimmermanEditor-in-Chief

Common Sense Gun Control is Long Overdueor bump stocks modify semi-automatic assault weapons to use “the gun’s own inertia to slide back and forth and allow the firing of the weapon in rapid succession” according to retired special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Sam Rabadi.

Rabadi explained to CNN that these modifica-tions are legal under the federal law which out-lawed automatic weapons in 1934. That, combined with the ease of purchase of a semi-automatic in Nevada, allowed Paddock to have what was virtually an automatic weapon legally.

Experts’ examination of video and eyewitness accounts concluded that the fire-rate of Paddock’s guns were comparable to those of a machine gun. Richard Vasquez, a former chief of firearms tech-nology for the ATF told CNN “without a doubt it was automatic fire,” in reference to last Sunday’s shooting.

So here is what we know: Merriam-Webster defines a “Machine Gun” broadly as an “auto-matic weapon.” Machine guns were deemed too dangerous in 1986 under the Title II of Gun Control Act for citizens to own. At the time of this legislation passing then-President Ronald Reagan said that machine guns should not be owned by any private citizen. The 1986 law included an amendment which made “any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machine-gun” illegal. A bump stock is just that. Semi-automatic weapons can be purchased and modified to become virtually indis-tinguishable from automatic weapons. A massacre was committed using a tool specially created for killing people, modified to become more deadly.

Paddock put in the “require[d] planning” needed to use a deadly modification to a gun. Therefore it is time to “determine policy;” even Ben Shapiro should agree with that.

The law should be adapted to cover this loop-hole. Sen Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, has introduced The Automatic Gun Fire Prevention Act, banning the sale and possession of bump stock equipment. As Feinstein explained at a press conference re-garding the bill, “the only reason to modify a gun [with a bump stock,] is to kill as many people as possible.” In the associated press release, Feinstein explains the bill’s purpose is to “close a loophole that allows semi-automatic weapons to be easily modified to fire at the rate of automatic weapons, which have been illegal for more than 30 years.” This is simple legislation which updates the law to be more reflective of the technology we are dealing with today.

The legislation has 33 co-sponsors as of Thurs-

day last week. Most of its supporters are Demo-crats, but it has garnered some Republican support as well. Sen John Cornyn, R-TX, told reporters on Capitol Hill, “If somebody can essentially convert a semi-automatic weapon by buying [a bump stock] and utilizing it and cause the kind of mayhem and mass casualties that we saw in Las Vegas, that’s something of obvious concern that we ought to explore.”

Additionally Sen Ron Johnson, R-WI, outright stated his support of a ban on bump-stocks. Even the NRA —famous for never compromising— has suggested their support of looking into regulating these modifications. Yet, this is a cop-out. Wayne LaPierre, the Executive Vice President, clarified that the NRA opposes legislation on bump stocks, but support heavier regulations of them. As Sen Feinstein explained, “Regulations aren’t going to do it. We need a law.” Feinstein is correct. That being said this piece of legislation’s passage is not yet certain.

While it is my personal opinion that much more needs to be done to curtail gun-violence and break from this horrendous trend, this policy would be a good first step. It is the law of the land that automatic weapons are too dangerous for citizens to possess but, as the events last week showed, modern technology has made it possible to skirt around this law. In order to break the cycle of atrocities, delayed response, forgetfulness, and lack of action we must do something.

Call your Members of Congress and voice your support of “The Automatic Gun Fire Prevention Act” in both the House and the Senate. Contact information can be found at govtrack.us/congress/members. Additionally, non-profit organizations such as Everytown for Gun Safety are leading the charge towards reforming gun laws in the U.S., if you are passionate about reform, they will graciously accept your support.

Even after the news cycle moves on, we should not. These types of shootings attract an influx of media coverage due to their spectacle. Yet, gun violence is an issue everyday with suicide and domestic violence; it will continue to be so long after the coverage of this event dies out. The horrendous acts in Las Vegas are a symptom and only snippet of a much larger issue this country has with gun violence.

Nevertheless, in order to uphold the law of the land, Congress must modernize Title II of The Gun Control Act, making “bump stocks” illegal by passing The Automatic Gun Fire Prevention Act. If this had been done when Sen Feinstein initially introduced this legislation in 2013 Paddock may have been unable to carry out this massacre.

Captain and President of Club Soccer Rachel Harris (left) and Mike Miller (right).

4 Sports The Point News • October 12, 2017

On Sept. 19, the fleet of boats used by the varsity women’s crew gained another shell. The shell was donated by former SMCM (St. Mary’s College of Maryland) foundation board member and longtime campus community member Bill Seale.

At the christening of the shell, Mr. Seale and President Jordan poured champagne over the stern of the boat, freshly marked with the name it will keep for all its years at SMCM- The Tua-juanda C. Jordan.

Rowing coach Daniel Hagelberg spoke before the christening, explaining that he “came here with a vision of how to make this team among the best, with this beautiful campus, its access to a gorgeous stretch of water, and this amazing waterfront; which Mr. Seale had no small part in helping make amazing…”

Hagelberg went on in his speech to explain that “In our sport we race in a hierarchy, we have a first boat and a second and a third. Our fastest rowers compete to make the top boat, today we

By Georgie HardestyFeatures Editor

of the CAC tournament. She continues saying: “We have lots of potential to be great, more so than we did last year. I think we have the ability to go far this year.”

“Our team has changed a lot.” Egerland explained, “We have seven new freshmen and three rookies (one sophomore and two juniors)...We lost four seniors and one Sophomore (from last year) so our team is a lot younger and more dynamic this year.”

These new players appear to help have trans-lated into positive outcomes from the Seahawks so far. St. Mary’s opened up the season dramat-ically with a 2-1 victory in shootouts against Goucher College. Junior Courtney Mellon tied

The 2017 campaign marks the second season for St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) Field Hockey head coach Jessica Seay. With two-thirds of the season complete, the Seahawks have already eclipsed the number of wins they had in 2016. As of October 9th, they sit at 6-7 overall with a 1-1 record in conference.

The Seahawks have five games remaining in the season, they will be looking to keep winning in order to make a run in the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) tournament. Sophomore goalkeeper Kelbey Egerland says that the team’s goal is to make it to at least the second round

the game at 1-1 in the second half. After two overtime periods of no scoring, senior Captain Alyssa Thompson and Mellon each made stellar goals in shootouts; propelling the Seahawks to a 2-1 victory.

Other key victories for the Seahawks have been against Susquehanna College on Sept. 17 (3-1), against Neumann College on Sept. 23 (5-0), and against Virginia Wesleyan on Sept. 26 (4-3). Within the CAC, SMCM bested Frostburg State with a 3-1 on Sept. 30.

In the 3-1 win, each goal for SMCM was scored by a different player. Senior defender Sophie Michel, junior midfielder Mollie Belson, and junior defender Brooke Steinhoff all found

the back of the net for the Seahawks. Thompson also had a career best twelve saves in the effort.

As of Oct. 9, the Seahawks are led offensively by Mellon, who has six goals and two assists on the year. Junior forward Sydney Cline has also added four goals and one assist. On the defen-sive end, Thompson has produced a 2.02 goals against average and two shutouts.

The Seahawks conclude their season by play-ing Mary Washington, Wesley College, Chris-topher Newport University, Randolph-Macon, and Salisbury. Only the top five teams in the conference make the playoffs, so SMCM will need to do particularly well in these conference matches in order to reach the tournament.

By Andrew AtkinsSports Editor

St. Mary’s Field Hockey Begins Conference Play

On Sept. 30, the St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) club soccer team took on Washington College (WAC) on SMCM’s campus. . This game was the first of a two game series to be played against WAC. On Oct. 20, the Seahawks will again meet up with to take on WAC. Last year, SMCM had their first intercollegiate game against WAC.

In the first game, the Seahawks handled themselves quite well as they notched a 6-3 win over the visitors. Club Soccer Women’s team captain Rachel Harris states; “When we scored after going down in the early parts of the game [...] It got everyone really pumped. A big part of everything was just seeing all of the efforts pay off.” In the victory, Julius Fuller scored four goals, Joona Brown had one, and Matt Yurich added one goal as well. Several team members also added in assists in order to help the effort.

If SMCM can win the second stage of the series, they will win a trophy in recognition of their sweep. Harris continues: “We’re pretty excited because our win on (September 30) puts us in a pretty good position to win the whole thing!”

This second game against Washington

Club Soccer Defeats Washington College

College will conclude the fall season for the Seahawks.

The main purpose of the St. Mary’s club soccer team is to foster an environment for anyone to

show up and have the opportunity to play soccer. They also do so in a way for everyone to have fun. Harris enjoys being on the team because “we play all of the time and we’re like one big

family. There’s so much passion for the game and I’m always learning more about soccer.”

This year the club is captained by Joe Johnson, Julius Fuller, and Harris.

Blessing the Boats: New Shell for Women’s Creware dedicating what is slated to become the shell that will be raced by our top eight women… To be named to this shell for race day will be an honor.”

Seale chose to name the shell after President Jordan because of the lasting impact she has made on the college in her time so far. Hagelberg commented that the boat’s name is one synon-ymous with the honor of racing in the top 8, an example of the achievements of strong female leaders.

Hagelberg went on to describe the boats future on the water for SMCM rowing, noting that “as boats age they sometimes find their way down some of those rungs, but one day in the distant future it will also teach new athletes how to row. So this new boat is going to live in our boathouse, but it will be woven into the experience of rowers on this team for many years to come.”

The team and community thank Seale for his kind donation and generosity to our athletes.

“The new boat inspires a lot of competition in us, for who will get to row in it. Dr. Jordan put a lot of emphasis on giving the women’s team the attention it deserves after our performance last

season, so this is a reward for us,” hopeful 1V rower Zoe Grabenstetter recalls.

“This is a stepping stone into a whole new age for the Varsity women’s rowing team”, says Thea Keppler, a sophomore on the team. “Fall season will dictate what’s going to happen in spring sea-son and I think the new boat is going to be a great

motivator for the team and the ethos of the team has shifted- we’re a lot more competitive, and pushing ourselves a lot harder. We’re a varsity team now, the energy has completely changed.”

Both the men’s and women’s crew teams face their first race of the year on Oct. 14th, in Philadelphia.

(Photos Courtesy of Jay Guo)

(Photo Courtesy of the SMCM Newsroom)Bill Seale (foreground) Coach Daniel Hagelberg (Background) and The Tuajuanda C. Jordan

By Andrew AtkinsSports Editor

(Graphic Courtesy of Rose Glenn)

(Photo Courtesy of the Associated Press)View from Interstate 495 of the “Washington D.C. Temple.” 495 is one of the highways Gov. Hogan plans to expand.

(Photo Courtesy of the Department of Defense)Senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner while in a meeting with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad, Iraq, April 3, 2017

Governor Larry Hogan is proposing a major infrastructure plan in an attempt to alleviate highway congestion in Maryland. His plan would spend nine billion dollars in order to add four toll lanes each to the Interstate 495 (Capital Belt-way), Interstate 270 and the Baltimore-Washington (BW) Parkway according to The Baltimore Sun. Hogan claims that this plan will improve “the quality of life” for Maryland citizens. Yet, The Baltimore Sun reports opposition from “Smart Growth” Groups, environ-mentalists, and transit ad-vocates who are “flabber-gasted that Maryland would spend that much money on a solution they doubt will solve gridlock.”

The traffic alleviation plan would create two toll lanes on each road going in either direction —four new lanes per road. The cost to use the toll road has not yet been announced as of Oct. 9. It is expected to cost 1.4 billion dollars for BW Parkway expansion, and 7.4 billion for I-495 and I-270 as reported by The Baltimore Sun. New roads will be built and maintained by private com-panies through Public Private Partnerships (PPP). This plan represents the largest PPP in North-America according to Hogan.

In this context, a PPP means that the pri-vate companies who win the contract for the highway widening would build the road then split the toll revenue with the state.

Proponents of the plan are “going gaga” according to Robert Poole, a toll policy ex-pert and director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation a libertarian think tank.

Hogan will not be held back by the Dem-ocrat-controlled State Legislature, despite left- leaning politicians opposition to the plan. He is legally able to act unilaterally on this matter of transportation. To com-

ply with Maryland state law, the governor only needs the approval of the Board of Public Work. The Baltimore Sun suggests that this approval will not be an issue for Hogan. The plan is pending approval from the United States Department of the Inte-rior who must give over control of the BW

Senior White House Advisor Jared Kush-ner has used a private email address to conduct government business at the White House, according to one of his lawyers. Kushner —who is married to President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka— set-up the account after the election to correspond with other administration officials on White House matters, becoming part of a larger pattern of Trump administration aides using personal email accounts.

Critics point out the irony of the situation, as Trump often-times chanted “Lock Her Up” at his campaign rallies. The chant was in reference to his opponent Hillary Clinton’s usage of a private email server while she was Secretary of State.

“Fewer than 100 emails from January through August were either sent to or re-turned by Mr. Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal email account. These usually forwarded news articles or political commentary and most often occurred when someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal rather than his White House ad-dress.” Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner, said in a statement. He also added that “All non-personal emails were forwarded to his official address.”

Those colleagues, Kushner used the account to trade emails with, were senior White House officials, such as former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, and former chief strategist Steve Bannon. The subjects ranged from media coverage to event planning. There were no signs that Kushner used the account to han-dle classified or sensitive materials, which

is a statement congruent to Clinton’s during her campaign.

Politico also reported of at least two new separate personal email accounts for White House business belonging to Kushner and Ivanka Trump. These accounts are shared by the Kushner family, the third account receiving hundreds of emails from White House addresses, including non-public travel documents, internal schedules, and other White House materials. The private family domain was set up when Kushner and his family were moving to Washington, D.C.—similar to the timing of Clinton’s es-tablishment of her private email address and server as she was joining President Obama’s administration.

During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump

Jared Kushner Used Private Email for Official White House Business

By Martine NiyongaboA&E Editor

completed a 1.6 billion dollar highway ex-pansion project, but traffic levels returned to what they were before the construction within a year.

Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth has also critiqued Hogan’s plan, saying that

fearful that the nine billion dollars could strangle the budgets for other transportation projects such as Mass Transit.

Nevertheless, Governor Hogan is pushing forward. Within six months, he expects to have the private company bids. Afterwards, there is an arduous process for approval,

then a long term construc-tion efforts before the roads are ready. The Baltimore Sun reports that “It could [take] years before the toll lanes are up and running.”

The Governor has reason to rush. As his term comes to an end, an infrastructure —typically seen as a bipar-tisan— victory would help him maintain his position in power.

Hogan —a relatively pop-ular Republican governor in deeply Democratic state— is facing re-election against several Democrats next year.

St . Mary’s Col lege of Maryland (SMCM) Profes-sor Todd Eberly explained how this plan could be an electoral strategy to The Balt imore Sun . Hogan’s plan will directly benefit those in an area with a lot of voters. Eberly explained,

“These are folks who spend a substantial part of their day, every day, sitting in traffic. You have a sitting governor who is basically saying, I’m going to do something about this.” Notably, this plan will benefit “swing voters” who may propel Hogan back into the governor’s mansion next year. According to Eberly, “This elec-tion is going to be determined in Howard and Baltimore counties [...] You have a lot of middle- and upper-middle-class working professionals. These are swing voters, and people you need to persuade.”

Governor Hogan’s office expects to have challenges to the widening, but his unilat-eral authority allows him to move forward with the plan regardless. One can expect this initiative to resurface during into de-bate during the 2018 elections.

By Scott ZimmermanEditor-in-Chief

Maryland Governor Plans to Expand Highways5World The Point News • October 12, 2017

Parkway—from the current managers, the National Park Service (NPS)— before work can begin. Hogan said that he has already met with US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, and is ready to begin. However, a spokesperson from the department of the Interior denied this, telling reporters that “no decisions related to issues involving the Baltimore-Washington Parkway were made.”

Not everyone is so ecstatic. Brian O’Mal-ley, the president and CEO of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance told The Baltimore Sun that he is skeptical. He said that he expects the plan to not ease traffic levels. O’Malley —whose own website give Maryland a “D” rating for congestion— points out that in Los Angeles authorities

“cars don’t just teleport to these highways.” Schwartz has concerns about the level of traffic on connection roads.

A 2008 study of how widening the BW Parkway would affect the traffic and the environment co-authored by the US Depart-ment of Transportation, NPS, MD Depart-ment of Transportation, and the Maryland State Highway Association found that widening: would not reduce traffic levels, would “impact forests, streams, rivers, and sensitive species,” and would have negative consequences to the surrounding communities.

Mass Transit Advocates also oppose the plan such as Baltimore Democratic Delegate and House Appropriations Chairwoman, Maggie McIntosh. She said that she is

repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as Sec-retary of State, saying that she should face federal criminal charges. This new report suggests that Kushner may have engaged in the same behavior.

The National Security Agency (NSA) expressly warned Kushner and other senior White House officials against using their personal emails for work purposes, according to Politico. Kushner and other staffers con-tinued to use their private emails despite the caution. The NSA also warned that “cyber-spies could be using sophisticated malware to turn the personal cellphones of White House aides into clandestine listening devices, to take photos and video without the user’s knowledge and to transfer vast amounts of

data via Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth.”Kushner’s use of his personal emails also

brings up another problem: simply by being so close to the president everything he says and does is of interest to other parties. For-mer cybersecurity adviser, Richard Clarke told Politico, “Jared is probably one of the top five or 10 targets in the U.S. government because of his access to the president and because of the portfolios he’s been given.” He continues, “It’s a pretty safe bet that his personal devices have been compromised by foreign intelligence services. And therefore, there is some risk that meetings he attends are compromised too.” An anonymous for-mer intelligence official added, “You should just assume we wouldn’t make this big a deal about it unless it was a serious threat.”

If you would like to write about politics for The Point News, please attend one of our weekly meetings, 8:15 pm in the leadership lab!

6 ExtrasThe Point News • October 12, 2017

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The Point News PublicationsSt. Mary’s College of Maryland

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