Various campus programs came out to the Quad for the event, including Health Services and MUPD. There were a bunch of activities to participate in and prizes to win. Different pamphlets and booklets were handed out with information about early detection of skin cancer, and bicycle safety.

Free refreshments drew the crowd. There was pizza, fresh fruit, and popcorn served. It was good to see students taking an effort to become informed about things directly affecting them. President of Student Senate Kelly Matthiesen said that the whole purpose of Safety Day was to promote awareness of different safety issues around campus.

She wanted everyone who turned out for the event to gain understanding and knowledge of potential dangers, and to get to know their Student Senate. This also gave other campus organizations the opportunity to come and promote themselves. It took about a month to plan this event. The atmosphere was fun and educational.

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Continuing to support the Haiti relief was the main focus of the “Rally 4 Haiti Relief Project,” which was held in the SMC-MPR on Feb. 16. Although the turnout was small, it did not lessen the impact of the event. The rally humanized the disaster by showing the Haitian culture.

The event welcomed Candy Hozza, the community development coordinator who presented the video “Frank McKinney’s Extreme Birthday Experience,” which was of her visit to Haiti in 2008, when she participated in the Caring House Foundation Project, building houses with her friend Frank McKinney. “It costs $500 American dollars for a house,” she said.

The video shed a glimpse of the spirited Haitian culture. Men and women were playing music, dancing, and celebrating. To thank the volunteers, the Haitians found instruments and learned the American National Anthem, and performed it.

“One of the things that everyone should know, is that the Haitians are unbelievable people, even when they are in need they tried to give,” Hozza said. She was able to experience the Hispanic tradition of blessing during her visit to a home for orphans and the elderly. Whenever the children left their home, their grandmothers would bless them; the children blessed Hozza and the rest of the volunteers to show their appreciation, “We have a lot in this country, but they have the spirit,” Hozza said.

A panel was held during the event with two faculty members: Audrey Lilley from Volunteer Central, and Hozza, as well as two students, Immanuel Jean Phillipe, and Mackenzie Vernat. Sepideh Yalda, Professor of Meteorology and Interim Director Center of Disaster Relief Research and Education, moderated the discussion.

Each person took turns sharing their story of how they are participating in the Haiti Relief Project. Vernat, only moved from Haiti to America six years ago, shared his story of how the earthquake has affected him, and how he is trying to help his family and native country from the U.S.

“After this happened my mom was crying, and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. His cousin, sister, nieces and nephew were in his Haitian home when the earthquake hit and the house collapsed, which left them with a few injuries and without a home.

“There are so many diseases spreading around Haiti right now because there are dead bodies everywhere,” Vernat said. Continuing to send medical supplies, he believed should be a long term form of support. He also would like to do his part in continuing to raise money.
“I am here doing the best I can to help…we need it right now,” he said. Vernat and Phillipe as well as their brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first black fraternity, have worked together to raise roughly $1600 for the cause.

Phillipe was also born in Haiti, but left when he was three years old. It was difficult for him to talk about the earthquake, because he had lost family members. Phillipe’s family is from Port-au-Prince, located a few blocks from the President’s Palace, which is now destroyed. His grandmother was injured during the earthquake, and his aunt lost her parents.

Phillipe showed his gratitude for all who have helped support the Haiti relief, “Things are changing slowly, people are putting their heads together to help us out, and I appreciate it,” he said. Phillipe would like to see the support continue, “We can collect money, clothes and donations and try to partner with trusted organizations to collect money,” he advised.

Millersville University is working hard to aid the victims; Lilley mentioned during the panel that there is a long list of volunteers wanting to help, “I am really encouraging of students who want to get involved with this program,” Lilley said.

Special acknowledgements went out to The Slip and Score Society, who attended the event, as well as The Visual Communication and Graphic Design II class, instructed by James Pannafino, and Diane Fleishman, Director for the Office of Internships and Civic Engagement Service. Slip and Score sold donated ceramic pots made by current students and alumni during the event. All of the profits went to the Haiti Relief Project. The club raised $425 for the fund.

The students of the Graphic Design II Class designed a 10×10 composition as part of a service learning class. The posters were meant to create awareness for Haiti earthquake relief. The students picked a charity or nonprofit organization a communicated their message through the use of type and image.

Fleishman and the Office of Internships and Civic Engagement have been acting as a central coordinating site, working with student affairs and faculty to coordinate the relief effort. “The need for the Haiti relief was needed before…it is a decade long effort. We do not want students and faculty to forget about it when it is off the news,” Fleishman said.

Donations for the Haiti Relief fund are still being accepted. Visit “Haiti Response” at www.millersville.edu or e-mail Volunteer.Central@millersville.edu for a complete list of items needed. Be on the lookout for donation boxes, which will be shipped directly to Haiti through the United Nations.

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With the H1N1 (swine) flu already spreading throughout the country, and fears about it continuing to wage on, it is no surprise that many fear that the 2009 flu season could be one of the worst.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of swine flu cases continues to remain elevated from week to week. Now that the seasonal flu will be picking up too, many more people are expected to become ill.

On October 1, in the weekly address from Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that, “significant flu activity [exists] in virtually all states.”

“Most states do have quite a lot of disease right now, and that’s unusual for this time of year,” she said.

Dr. Schuchat also said that in some of the fatal cases of H1N1, a pneumonic bacteria was found to be present in cells, offering support that deaths from swine flu have been due to other factors, as well.

On October 2, the WHO reported that 340,000 cases of H1N1 were confirmed worldwide. Of those cases, 4100 deaths have been reported.

The WHO stresses, however, that countries, including the United States, have stopped reporting cases that were not severe. There, the WHO believes that the number of actual cases of H1N1 are substantially higher than the reported count.

Here at Millersville University, the feelings about the flu are mixed. The campus remains worried about the possibility of the swine flu spreading amongst the student body, much like it has at other schools across the nation.

Because of the uncertainty surrounding the 2009 flu season, Health Services has put together a detailed document of procedures to follow if a mass breakout of the flu should occur. The content of the report is based on guidelines that the WHO and the CDC have posted on their websites.

In addition, Health Services has teamed up with Millersville University’s Housing Department for any situations that may arise in any of the nine residence halls on campus.

Miniature flu kits have been put together for any resident who falls ill with flu-like symptoms. Currently, the infirmary is not diagnosing any students with the swine flu specifically; everyone is being diagnosed as influenza-A because the two strains of the virus are similar.

In addition to the flu kits, Health Services has also put together meal kits that can be delivered to students living in residence halls. This further prevents the ill students from needing to exit his or her dorm room to eat.

Health Services is also providing an excuse note so that all teachers are aware of the student’s condition.

The swine flu continues to worry many on campus, including the resident assistants who oversee 30-40 people living in a dorm. Kylie Wurster, a resident assistant in Harbold Hall, said that, “Concerns with the flu would not be as necessary if people living in a hall would have better hygiene.”

“If everyone would wash their hands a couple times a day, we wouldn’t need to be worried about this,” Wurster said. “And the problem, too, is that it seems like the flu, in general, could be pretty nasty this fall.”

“We can only continue to stress the importance of personal hygiene during this flu season.”

Regardless, if a student on campus appears to be catching the flu, the only way to find out for sure is by stopping at the infirmary to get tested.

It is important to note that these different ways of responding to a potential H1N1-infected person are coming directly from Health Services. According to a member of the Housing Department, there is no specific protocol that individual residence halls would follow if a student began showing flu-like symptoms other than to pass out the kits.

Students were told by e-mail that the Millersville campus had eight confirmed cases of influenza A. That e-mail was sent on Wednesday, September 23. Attempts by The Snapper to contact Health Services this past week were unsuccessful. Furthermore, no updates have been posted on the Health Services webpage on Millersville University’s website.

According to Millersville University’s Health Services webpage, the school cannot confirm if a student who has the flu has the H1N1 strain or the seasonal influenza A.

This, according to the site, is because the Lancaster County Health Department is no longer testing for the H1N1 strain. Millersville University can only assume that a person has the swine flu. As a result, all cases are now being treated simply as having Influenza-A.

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Dorm life in college teaches you social skills, and you experience a wide variety of new situations living in a dorm for the first time.

According to http://collegebound.net, about 40 percent of full time students live on campus in public schools. At private colleges, 64 percent of full time students live in dormitories.

Room and board on campus cost an average of $7,748 at public colleges and $8,989 at private colleges, also shown in a college and university search survey found on http://collegebound.net.

However, despite the price, the majority of students choose to live on campus in dorms.

At Millersville University, so many students choose to live on campus that it results in an over-housing issue within the dorms.

Every dorm has a plethora of resident assistants, or RAs, and this year male RAs must actually share their usually single room with an incoming freshmen roommate.

Some students are even housed in “forced triples,” which is an overflow solution of putting three students in a double room.

Most forced triples are “de-tripled” within the first few days of school, but the over-

A student's overcrowded dorm room due to housing issues this fall semester

crowding in dorms could potentially become a severe issue in the future, as incoming freshmen classes seem to be increasing each year.

I interviewed three male RAs currently experiencing the effects of dorm over-crowding.

They each have a roommate instead of living alone, and had quite a bit to offer on a topic so close to home.

The RAs whose opinions shape this article are Bobby Bechtel, a Sophomore Communications Broadcasting major and first semester RA in Gaige, Matt Simkins, a Junior Physics major and second year RA in Bard, and Shawn Gilgore, a Junior Communications Broadcasting major and also second year RA in Bard.

All three RAs are currently living with roommates, and had a lot of thoughts about dorm over-housing at Millersville.

An incentive to becoming and RA is having a single room, to which all three RAs agreed.

Also, if you are like Gilgore, who had a bad roommate his freshmen year, the experience would drive one to become an RA.

Bechtel and Gilgore have freshmen roommates, who they did not expect to have, but who they both agree things are not as bad as they could be.

Simkins absolutely loves his roommate Jim, who is a transfer sophomore, but said he would not be as cool with a random freshmen roommate.

Bechtel says he does not mind having a freshmen roommate because, “it’s an easy way to make a new friend and I get along with anyone.”

The RA’s solutions to Millersville’s overflow issue included building more housing and having better communication between admissions and housing.

Simkin’s advice was that it is all a learning experience, and they just need to try different things over time, such as emptying storage areas to convert to dorm rooms.

Gilgore said eighteen rooms in Bard were originally forced triples, and it was a huge mess and overpopulated.

Bechtel’s opinion on forced triples is that they are a, “temporary solution and all residents will be de-tripled once housing is secured.”

He said he had a few forced triples in his wing but by move in day they were doubles.

Simkins’s opinion on forced triples was that it is the worst idea ever, but did say they have de-tripled all of Bard Hall.

The University is “de-tripling” first, and then moving out RA’s roommates.

Dorm life is a huge part of the college experience, and all RAs agreed it is pretty great at Millersville.

Bechtel noted that Bard and Gilbert were recently renovated and both look great.

Simkin, “feels like a freshmen every year”.

Simkin said the dorm is, “a great medium to meet everyone and connect with people of similar interests.”

However, Simkins also stated that you can not live in a dorm forever, and the process of living off campus is a good experience, a “small step into the real world.”

Simkins and Bechtel agreed in regards to living off campus that the process could be made easier, and Bechtel said, “all students should have the option to live on campus in a dorm.”

In Bechtel’s opinion, “the only way to lessen dorm over-housing is to build more dorms or to limit the number of incoming freshmen so that housing can be adequately supplied.”

All three agreed that over-crowding could be, or is a safety issue.

In case of fires it could be more difficult to evacuate quickly, said Gilgore.

Bechtel pointed out that one overloaded socket in a forced triple outlet could result in disaster.

Simkins brought up that three people in a two-person room is a mental health safety issue, causing a lot of stress.

Overall, there seems to be a mutual agreement that Millersville needs to build more housing.

Bechtel said he has, “never heard of a college that couldn’t supply housing to all students who wanted it, no matter what year they were.”

The male RAs seem to be dealing with the roommate situation amicably, Jim Leimsperger, Simkin’s roommate, is having a great time and was very excited about rooming with an old friend and meeting new ones as well.

Despite everything, Simkins still says being an RA is the best job on campus and he is fine with his roommate Scott staying in his room until another room opens up in the same hall for him to move to.

As of now, there is no timeline as to when the RA’s roommates will be moved out, but hopefully something will be done in general about housing on campus soon.

The outside of the residence hall, Bard, one of that dorms that had an issue with forced triple housed dorms, and RAs sharing their dorms with incoming freshman students

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A 2006 annual report done by the Borough totaled 150 car accidents, of the 150 accidents, close to 50 percent happened in the immediate area around Millersville University.

Pedestrian safety is taken very seriously by the campus police.  Millersville parking regulation cites eight laws which shall be followed by motorists.  The question is:, are these laws as distinct in diction as they rightfully should be?

The parking regulation has seemingly contradicted two of the laws: “The driver of any vehicle must yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian in a marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection,” and “pedestrians crossing the highway at any other point than at an intersection or a marked crosswalk must yield the right-of-way to all vehicles.”

Is the first law indicating  that pedestrians can cross the street at locations other than intersections?  If so, why is the second law stating that pedestrians are only allowed to cross at a “marked crosswalk”?

Clarity needs to be present when laws are written and Millersville should not be exempt from this rule.

The laws are only a small piece of why pedestrian safety should be called into question.
As a pedestrian, there are a number of things that haunt me: carelessness, stupidity and aggression from motorists.

The other day I was nearly hit on George St. by a lady putting make- up on her face.

Two weeks before that a concrete truck was seemingly speeding up under the assumption I would continue to walk (I did continue to walk, of course).  I am sure that many other individuals throughout the campus community have stories such as these.

Instances such as these and laws that are bleak, which are rarely recognized by motorists, seem to attribute to an overall gloomy experience of walking across the streets of Millersville.

As a college community we can help cease this inclination of tenderness toward the streets of Millersville and gracefully find our way to class nice and safely.

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In doing so, the students were given both the opportunity to purchase their textbooks used and read for classes in advance and prepare accordingly.

Students were then able to save money on books because buying used is always cheaper than buying new from university stores on campus.

Those fortunate students could then use that money they saved on things like food, rent, car insurance bills and the like.

There was one university called Millersville, however, that decided not to allow its students the privilege of the much esteemed booklist.

Instead, the only ways its students could obtain the titles of their books was to e-mail every professor on their schedules and hope that they responded in good time, get lucky every once in a while and find the titles on MyVille, or find the titles after painstakingly scouring the Millersville website. In most cases maybe two or three professors would respond; which is commendable considering they have their own workloads and personal lives to worry about.

So, the students resigned to finding out the book titles of their remaining classes by going into the University Store. Unfortunately for them, by the time the store first opened at the beginning of every semester it was too late to order and receive used books online before classes started.

Also unfortunate, for some reason there were a scant number of used books throughout the store so that students could not even buy used books there.

Sometimes multiple books were even bound together in saran wrap so that they could not be bought used in the store. With fate seeming to be pitted against them, defeated and soon-to-be broke, students paid the full price for their textbooks. Seriously though, why doesn’t Millersville offer booklists?

Most other colleges and universities do, why should Millersville students have to bend over backwards trying to find out what their textbooks are? Why should Millersville professors have to read through hundreds of e-mails that ask for textbook titles? Most importantly, why is it that with this system Millersville students have to pay full price or they will not get their textbooks in time for class?

The Millersville chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (MU SDS) has a petition floating around asking Millersville to require its professors to make a booklist two weeks in advance.

I suggest that all students looking to save on textbooks sign the petition and pass it on so that this student unfriendly system can change.

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Preparing for a night class, in which it was presentation night, I received a text message from MUPD stating, “Individual possibly carrying a rifle near Stayer, use caution.”

After rereading the message a few times, it finally sunk in. Here I was, on campus, with a possible gunman. My firs reaction was to laugh at how stupid this text message sounded. I have never heard of anyone ever using the advise of using caution, when it came to someone carrying a gun near me.

Working for The Snapper, I had the privilege of being contacted by people in the office. Trying to attain more information on the situation, I tried to call MUPD. After being told very sternly that the sirens had not sounded, so there was no lockdown, I still had no answers to my questions.

Why should the students be forced to stay in the dark while a police investigation is occurring on the same campus grounds that we are currently located? I comply with the fact that rumors or accusations are never a good thing, but what happens during the time of the police investigation while the students are nervously sitting in their classes wondering whether it is safe to emerge and walk about campus?

I really don’t think it’s too much to ask, to receive information in a timely and respective manner, when dealing with our personal well-being. The sirens should have been sounded along with a lockdown, even if this was only a rumor. We should be “better safe than sorry.”

MUPD does an excellent job during the semesters, I just feel this is one area where no matter how much students complain about “being in the dark”, we still never get the answers we are looking for during emergencies.

Thankfully, the gunman scare happened to be a student using a fake cardboard replica of a gun for educational purposes. What happens, if there is a next time, and we are not so lucky to have it be a false alarm?

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