OSWEGO, NY — Earth Day 2019 marked a time of service for SUNY Oswego. Students from all across campus had united to take part in the “Shining Waters” Lakeside clean-up in celebration of the preservation of the earth. The Department of Community Services had sponsored the Lakeside cleanup, which took place at the very edge of Lake Ontario itself. Students collected trash and non-recyclables on the ground to dispose of and help to make a difference on campus.

“I feel like a lot of more people need to get involved, it needs to be put out there more,” student David Hagen said. “It’s actually pretty good that we’re actually helping our environment on its most important day.”

SUNY Oswego has already attempted to promote sustainability and proper disposal of materials on campus. The students hope that those on and off campus can still contribute to improving the campus community and the world for the better.

“We can all do, like, little cleanups like this. Like, this only takes about an hour to clean up just a little bit,” student Kristie Reitz said. “There’s parts in Oswego that need cleaning up that other students may not know about. Everybody could just do a little bit in their own area and that’ll make a big difference.”

For more information about sustainability on campus at SUNY Oswego, visit oswego.edu/sustainability.

Earth Week may be coming to a close, but what did you miss? Quite a bit tobe frank. This past week SUNY Oswego celebrated everything that earth does for us and demonstrated support for environmental protections. This week the campus celebrated and presented the contributions that students and faculty have made thus far in order to preserve our schools beauty and environment.

On Monday we discussed how the removal of plastic and wastes from around campus and the dining halls has genuinely made a big impact on the amount of plastic that is discarded on a day to day basis.

On Tuesday we participated in reducing car usage by being able to use amenities provided to us through the Sustainability office such as bike share where you can rent a bike from the office located in Hewitt and bus share which provided alternate transportation for commuter students.

On Wednesday a climate change panel co-hosted by the Environmental Advisory Council and the Sustainability office discussed the challenges within the concept of climate change which will feature multiple different faculty members all representing a different program of study at Oswego.

On Thursday we focused on using alternate search engines that give back to the planet such as Ecosia which has been using their profits since 2009 to plant trees which has resulted in over 54 million trees being planted. We also focused on our new printing program Lakerprint which is projected to save around 120,000 sheets of paper a year due to getting rid of banner pages and sheets with our names.

However on Friday Lucas Grove a senior philosophy-psychology major will present the progress he has made in the “Fresh Water for All” project.

If you would like to learn more about Earth Week or simply would like to get involved around campus you can email the Director of Sustainability on campus Jamie Adams at jamie.adams@oswego.edu or call the office at 315.312.2500.

The University Police Department is participating in an intensive campaign to ensure that students and faculty buckle-up during their commutes. The program has been a success for the past twelve years.

Police are looking for violations on campus, although the traffic stops may be made off campus.

As part of the nation-wide ‘Buckle-Up Day And Night’ campaign, University Police will have special patrols out looking for motorists who are not wearing their seatbelts.

People not wearing a seatbelt are 30 times more likely to be ejected from a vehicle. Assistant University Police Chief, Kevin Velzy, has been involved with university police for thirty years.

“Because we are a Police Department on a college campus, the majority of our drivers are of college age. We do have some older people, older drivers, that are employees or some people just passing through campus,” said Kevin.

According to the New York State University Police Department, Motor Vehicle accidents are the number one cause of death for those aged up to fifty-four in the United States.

It has been proven that just wearing a seatbelt reduces the risk of death or injury by fifty percent. As a matter of fact, airbags are not a substitute for seatbelts.

More than half of teens aged thirteen to nineteen and adults aged twenty to forty-four who died in crashes in 2015 were unrestrained at the time of the crash.

Men are more likely than women to be unbuckled.

“The crashes have dropped. Our compliance rate, what they also look for in these grant programs, has gone way up. When we first started our compliance rate was about seventy-five percent, which means seventy-five percent of the people that are required to wear a seatbelt in the front seat of a vehicle. Seventy-five percent of them were, and twenty-five percent were not,” said Kevin.

The compliance rate on campus currently lies at ninety-three percent.

A ticket for unrestrained motorists is fifty dollars with no points initially deducted from the license, whereas distracted driving is worth five points on the license in addition to a fine between fifty and two-hundred dollars.

According to the New York State University Police Department, unrestrained motorists involved in a crash are almost four times as likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury compared to those wearing a seatbelt.

Tomas Rodriguez was born with a medical condition called Hydrocephalus, the condition means he was born with water in his brain. Rodriguez was treated with it since birth and has had six brain surgeries.

The Spain native held 16 Madrid records in 16 different events, even breaking those broke multiple times. He was also the national record holder in the 200 IM. Rodriguez said his greatest achievement didn’t come as a win, but for his effort.

“I also achieved, something I’m proud of… the bronze medal in the open body swim, that was huge for me.” Rodriguez said.

He moved to the United States in 2017 with his family. He’s been part of a club team in Florida, the U.S. Paralympic team and as of recently the Oswego State Lakers swim team.

Rodriguez trains with teammates without disabilities. His coach Michael Holman has positive things to say about him.

“He is far more put together and on top of managing his daily life and school and other activities than athletics, he more kids I deal with, he’s on top of it.” Coach Michael Holman says.

“So, what may seem to be my disability out of the water become my ability when I dive off the block/six brain surgeries didn’t change my life, you know swimming did.” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez is training for the 2019 Can-Am Para-Swimming championships in Vancouver. He is also going to train with his club team in Florida, hoping for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

OSWEGO, NY- Student employees at Littlepage Dining hall are expressing concerns about the conditions they work in. According to student employees, a letter was sent out by Auxiliary services addressing a student who came forward on behalf of multiple students. Many of whom had problems with the way managers treated them during their shifts.

The unidentified managers allegedly presented themselves with bad attitudes and frequently took out their frustration on student employees.

“I don’t want to be around in a workplace that’s negative, and sometimes, it gets a little too negative.” said Anisha Melton, a concerned student employee at Littlepage Dining Hall.

In a response to the allegations, Oswego’s Director of Dining services, Ruth Stevens, sent a mass letter to the student employees at Littlepage. The letter asks for feedback while providing resources for students including herself, for students who are unhappy. The letter is an effort to maintain a positive work environment and students can choose to remain confidential.

“I can learn, (and) our managers can learn.” Stevens said. “We can become better at what we do and we can find a better way of doing things. I think communication is key.”

Auxiliary services is the largest student employer on campus with over five hundred student employees serving it’s five residential dining centers.

In honor of April being national child abuse prevention month Oswego’s Child Advocacy Center, located in Fulton, New York,  has set out to spread awareness through Oswego County by placing blue and white pinwheels around the area.

These pinwheels are a part of a national campaign that multiple organizations take part in, in order to spread awareness of child abuse through communities and get the conversation started that children need to be looked out for not only by their families but their community as well.

Executive Director of Oswego County Child Advocacy Center, Karrie Damm, gave some insight as to why the Pinwheels are placed throughout the County “The pinwheel gardens that you see throughout the community are intended to start a conversation. We would like people to see those and have a conversation amongst themselves, amongst their friends, and especially with their children.” Although the conversation may seem touchy Karrie stressed how important it is to begin having conversations about serious issues such as this one. Because the first step to preventing incidents is spreading awareness, which the conversations help to achieve.

Although the child advocacy center is not well known throughout Oswego County it is an important organization that more people should get involved with. Take Craig Stewart for example, he is an electrician for the building, but STILL volunteers and aids the employees there because he does it for the unfortunate children that have to seek help at the organization.

If you would like to volunteer as well you can visit that website at oswegocac.org, Facebook message them, or call them. If you are not able to volunteer and would still like to help out this organization you can make a donation right on their website.