BY SHANNON WILEY
News Editor @TheShannonWiley Maryland residents will have the opportunity to vote on Nov. 4 for local and state candidates and while some Salisbury University students are taking advantage of it, many are still choosing to not participate. “I’m not voting,” sophomore Avery Ezell said, “It’s just not that important to me.” Some students are not aware that there is an election coming up, but for others the election is very important to them. “I want to because (voting) is a privilege we have that not a lot of people our age take advantage of and I don’t think they realize how lucky we are to be able to have a say in how our state government is run and how important their contribution can be,” sophomore Phyllis Blessing said. “Other countries don’t have that freedom and privilege.” This year, SU’s Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement brought TurboVote to the university, a service that keeps track of local and national elections that are relevant to the user and provides forms and information on how to register, update voter registration and request an absentee ballot. In the past two months when it was being advertised, 273 students of over 8,000 students signed up for TurboVote. Almost 50 paper copy voter registration packets were handed out, as well. PACE Interim Managing Director Robby Sheehan is not discouraged by the seemingly small numbers. “For our first year using the service, that is a very exciting number,” Sheehan said. While some students register to vote in Salisbury, many others chose to register in their home towns. “In Maryland, the law allows our voters to determine for themselves where their domicile is and thus where they should register to vote,” Wicomico Election Director Anthony Gutierrez said. “So long as they are voting, that’s what really matters to us.” BY SHANNON WILEY AND ASHLEY CHAFIN
News Editor and Advertising Manager @TheShannonWiley and @AshleyChafin Salisbury University students and staff have reflected on campus safety as the search for University of Virginia student Hannah Graham has ended due to the finding of her remains, although police are still questioning whether she had been raped. The FBI defines a forced sexual offense as an “offense against chastity, common decency [and] morals.” Incest, indecent exposure and statutory rape and all attempts of the like are included in the definition, making the label “forced sexual offense” fitting for Graham’s case. National trends for forcible offenses have seemingly been rising according to FBI crime statistics, which noted a 184 percent increase between the years of 2000 and 2004, provoking Salisbury University students to examine their own surroundings. SU ranks as one of the more unsafe campuses, including off-campus student housing, for these types of crimes when compared to other local universities, according to statistics from those schools. In the past three years SU has had 18 reported cases, 33 percent occurring in 2013. BY SHANNON WILEY
News Editor @TheShannonWiley A Salisbury University student has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, as announced in a campus-wide e-mail that was sent out on Wednesday from Student Affairs. The student is currently being treated and has been taken out of classes. “There is no risk of additional exposure to SU Students, faculty or staff and the risk of infection from previous exposure to the student affected is small,” Wicomico County Health Officer Lori Brewster said. Now, the University and the Wicomico County Health Department are working together on preventative measures to make sure no other students contract the virus. The WCHD has contacted classmates of the diagnosed student and others who may have had an encounter with the student. These people will be offered the opportunity to be tested for TB. However, it is unlikely that an outbreak will occur since the virus is difficult to catch, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It usually takes at least eight hours of close proximity in a small room for TB transmission to possibly occur, and the air space is only contagious when the untreated patient is actually present,” Brewster said. “A healthy person cannot be infected from casual exposure such as walking through the halls or eating in the same room as the affected person.” The university attempts to keep viruses like TB away from the university by requiring certain immunizations, recommending others and requiring a TB screening as well as a TB test if risk factors are present in the screening within six months of the start of a semester. International students must take a TB test before attending. Other immunization requirements include those for Meningitis, Measles, Mumps and Rubella, and Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis (Tdap). An Salisbury University student has been diagnosed with tuberculosis , as announced in a campus-wide e-mail that was sent out on Wednesday from Student Affairs.
The student is currently being treated and has been taken out of classes. “There is no risk of additional exposure to SU Students, faculty or staff and the risk of infection from previous exposure to the student affected is small,” Wicomico County Health Officer Lori Brewster said. Now, the University and the Wicomico County Health Department are working together on preventative measures to make sure no other students contract the virus. The WCHD has contacted classmates of the diagnosed student and others who may have had an encounter with the student. These people will be offered the opportunity to be tested for TB. However, it is unlikely that an outbreak will occur since the virus is difficult to catch, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It usually takes at least eight hours of close proximity in a small room for TB transmission to possibly occur, and the air space is only contagious when the untreated patient is actually present,” Brewster said. “A healthy person cannot be infected from casual exposure such as walking through the halls or eating in the same room as the affected person.” The university attempts to keep viruses like TB away from the university by requiring certain immunizations, recommending others and requiring a TB screening as well as a TB test if risk factors are present in the screening within six months of the start of a semester. International students must take a TB test before attending. Other immunization requirements include those for Meningitis, Measles, Mumps and Rubella, and Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis (Tdap). |
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