Reported by: Kayla Murphy

A brand new club has just started here at SUNY Oswego. Their name is Team One Love.  On campuses all across America, groups such as Team One Love have begun the conversation that is set out to recognized and provide resources for victims of dating violence.

This issue is one that a lot of people are not aware of happening, when in reality, it is happening all around. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men are going to experience dating violence in a relationship during their life time. 50% of those 1 in 3 women and 40% of those 1 in 4 men are going to experience it between the ages of 18 to 24. That is the age of your average college student.

I spoke to president and founding member of the Oswego chapter of Team One Love, Amanda Kenney to learn more about the group and their mission towards a dating violence free community. “Team one love is each campus becoming a team in this effort to end relationship violence… So it’s just people joining together to end relationship violence and to get the word out and raise awareness in hopes of changing the statistics”.

Team One Love was founded in 2010 in honor of Yardley Love, who was murdered by her former boyfriend. Yardley’s mother and sister started the organization to raise awareness about relationship violence in hopes to stop future women and men from being a victim. The Oswego chapter started just last week and already has upwards of 300 members on the team one love website.

Team One Love will be hosting an event “Yards for Yardley” on May 4^th. Different athletic teams / Greek life groups and individuals will be competing to cover the most amount of “yards” to raise awareness about relationship violence. More information can be found on their website – JoinOneLove.org/Oswego.

Reported by: Morgan Rumpf

by Jamie Aranoff

Oswego, NY- 11 new lactation rooms are being added to the Oswego State campus this semester, providing nursing mothers a place to comfortably and privately pump breast milk for their children.

“It started with a nursing mother who had no official place to pump for her newborn,” Campus Planning Coordinator Linda Paris said.

The 11 lactation rooms are dispersed throughout campus and are located inside certain academic buildings, residence halls and rooms in the Marano Campus Center. “The rooms have been transformed from storage facilities and offer mothers a quiet environment with at least two different types of chairs and work surfaces,” Paris said.  

According to the New York State Department of Health, employees have the right to pump breast milk in the workspace, and should have a private place to do so. Prior to this year, there were no official spots on campus for mothers to pump their breast milk.

“Before having these dedicated spaces, you might be lucky enough to have an office where you could pump in, but if not, you might be pumping in your car,” Paris said.

The collaboration of working mothers and the Campus Facility Project was one that took over a year and a half. For working mother and professor Dr. Kristen Eichhorn, the project was more than just getting a lactation sign outside of a storage closet. The initiative was about taking the needs of mothers and working together to be part of something larger.

“Working together to create the spaces for women was more than just that, it was about working with a team to better the community,” Eichhorn said.

Scales Hall, Tyler Hall, and Wilbur Hall will be the next three buildings on campus to receive a lactation room in the coming months.