Students wage war on SF State campus mess April 2009 Four years ago, when Charlotte Ely found

out that the United States produced enough garbage to wrap around the world six times and then reach half way to the moon, she was disgusted and determined to make SF State compost more. Now, the project the environmental studies alumnus spearheaded, with ECO Students and the Cesar Chavez Student Center, will blossom, adding new composting bins all throughout the student center April 23. Once the bins are placed, volunteers will man each station to demonstrate to students how to compost and recycle said Emily Naud, the student centers sustainable initiatives coordinator. Students should be educated on composting and recycling, Naud said. It helps students to know why theyre doing it, adding that it gives them incentive to help not only themselves out, but the planet as well. The new bins will not be the first time for composting initiatives at the student center. When ECO Students performed a waste audit in spring 2006, Ely said the results were striking and smelly. We were knee-deep in the student centers garbage, and it was mostly messy mountains of stale bagels and orange rinds, coffee grinds and paper plates, and murky stir fry, burrito innards and pizza crust mush, Ely said in an email. Why send all this organic goodness to the landfill to emit methane - a greenhouse gas 22 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it could be composted into a valuable soil amendment? ECO Students met with the student center governing board and proposed a three-part proposal for composting with food vendors and areas where students eat and utilizing compostable food ware. In fall 2006, food vendors began to compost leading to composting pilot stations for students, faculty and staff in spring 2007. Further expanding its composting program, the student center added new bins to the West Plaza in spring 2008. As of April 23, all of the student centers compost will be collected. Our goal is zero waste by 2020, but hopefully before that, said Naud. Zero waste suggests that the entire concept of waste should be eliminated and instead be thought of as a residual product or simply a potential resource, according to Zero Waste Alliance, a non-profit promoting zero waste strategies. Ultimately, there is a need to reduce the landfills because they cause pollution to local environments, said Naud.

From soil and water contamination in the off-gassing of methane, peoples health are being negatively impacted, she said. Composting is a zero waste strategy aimed at protecting the environment and peoples health. Ely hopes the bins will convey a message. Landfills are the largest anthropogenic source of methane, she said. By diverting organics from landfills, we are helping to fight climate change. But the biggest challenge with having the green bins on the student center floor will be ensuring that students properly dispose of their food scraps, she said. This is why ECO Students and volunteers will be at each bin station, according to Naud. Anyone who would like to help monitor and educate about the bins April 23 can email Emily Naud at emilynaud@mac.com. Internet dependency affects students focus May 2009 If it were up to Paul Bie, he would stay away from the Internet and lead a more exciting life. But the World Wide Web's alluring ways make it difficult for him to do so. "It has something to entertain you all the time," said the 21-year-old Spanish major. "It sucks you in. You go to website after website and click on link after link. You just end up losing track of time." Just last week, Bie deleted his Facebook account. "It killed my productivity in school," he said unable to count the number of times he would log on daily. I had it on my IPhone so I would always click on it. It may have been a smart choice Facebook users had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, a B, compared to non-users with GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0 according to a study released by Ohio Dominican University last month. Bie recalled of a typical day in his life. "I would wake up, go to school, go to work and hang out with some friends," he said. "And then at the end of the day, I get on the computer and just sit there." The next thing he knows, five hours of his life are gone surfing sites like Digg.com, a social news website where users can discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet. Bie is far from being the only one seduced by the web's charm. He mentions all of his friends are the same way. In a recent Stanford study, researchers interviewed 2,513 adults to screen for problematic

Internet use. In the results, 68.9 percent were regular Internet users and 13.7 percent more than one out of eight respondents - found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time. In addition, 12.4 percent stayed online longer than intended very often or often and 12.3 percent had seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point. Bie may think he qualifies as an Internet addict, believing he fits into all the categories of the Stanford research, but SF State health educator Alberto Angelo doesn't think so. Angelo leads Student Health Services health education workshop on "Understanding Addiction and Codependency." Angelo says addiction is a kind of action that could range from drinking to sex to gambling. People know it's not good for them and feel like they can't stop which result in harm to them and their loved ones, he said. "This person says, 'I'm online too much, been using too much Internet, so I'm going to remove my Facebook,'" said Angelo. "That's not an addiction. Why? Because he was able to do it." Some may question the amount of time they spend on the Internet, but Angelo stresses it isn't addiction unless it's causing harm to a person's way of living. "At a young age, you might not see the damage," he said. "You're in college. You don't have an eight to five job, you don't have kids at home and you don't have a mortgage. But if you lose your job, neglect your children or isolate yourself, then you're going to see more damage." Angelo says college students have a hard time identifying what is an addictive behavior because not a lot of harm can happen. "It's the same thing with smoking," he explained. "40-year-olds are going to quit, but 18-year-olds are like, 'Yeah, this is bad for me, but I don't see anything wrong. Nothing's happening.'" Some students, like Sherry Espia, feel like they are addicted because they depend on the Web for everything. Espia, a 23-year-old psychology major, uses the Web for family and school and constantly checks her email. I depend on the Web to keep in contact with family, said Espia. On Google, we have a group that keeps the whole family in contact. And even in school, most of my teachers use email or ILearn to keep in contact with students. There is nothing wrong with being dependent on something, according to Angelo. "I'm dependent on breathing," he said. "But if I'm dependent on marijuana, cocaine, heroin, then there's a problem because now there's going to be a cost on physical health and safety. I'm dependent on the Web myself, but it's not causing me harm."

Some psychologists consider Internet addiction a behavioral addiction that is usually typed under Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, according to Angelo. Internet addiction disorder is currently not an official diagnosis but it is of great debate among psychologists to consider IAD as an addiction, disorder or neither, he said. Is it an addiction or not? Angelo said of the Internet. Who cares? Clearly no one is arguing that it could be a problem and thats the bottom line that it could be a problem. But if someone believes they have the proposed disorder, Angelo says the first thing to do is admit there's a problem and the second thing to do is stay as far away from the problem. "You can't cure something unless you know there's a problem," he said. "If you have a problem with the Internet, you want to stay away from the Internet as much as you can." You know you're addicted to the Internet when... You find yourself breaking your own promises about going online. You lie and cover up your Internet usage. Your whole world becomes the Internet and you stop hanging out with friends, your hobbies are going away and your schooling is suffering. You have the desire to stop and find yourself wishing you did not have this problem. Your mood changes to relief as soon as you log online.

Nursing Shortage Starts in the Classroom February 2009 With a large number of the older population expected to retire by 2011, the demand for health care practitioners is higher than ever. But because of budget delaying sufficient resources to educate, the road to becoming a practitioner for SF State students will not be a simple stroll in the park. In fact, it will be really competitive. SF State's own nursing program accepts 80 students in the fall and 40 in the spring, out of the nearly 800 who actually apply, according to SF State school of nursing director Shirley Girouard. Jaleel Arnado, a 5th year Pre-Med student, emphasizes the amount of preparation it takes just to get into medical school, which she is currently applying for. "On top of having the pre-requisites and good grades, you still need to volunteer, work at hospitals and take the MCAT," said Arnado. "For me, it has been really difficult because along with all these science classes, I do volunteer work, and it gets really hard. Plus, just

getting into the classes is another thing." The MCAT is the nation's medical college admissions test. Every year, about 45,000 students apply to health-related departments nationally and about 22,000 make it in, according to Barry S. Rothman, an SF State health professions advisor. Even more than that are actually good applicants, but there isn't enough space for them, he said. According to Rothman, health care became extremely privatized about 30 years ago, which drove up costs. "The more it costs, the harder it is to train more people," Rothman said. "And now, with the beginning of geriatric problems and budget cuts, it will only get worse." The baby boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964, will begin reaching the retiring age of 65 by 2011, in which assistance to these people will be in great demand by 2015, according to John Minnett, President of SF State's Nursing Student Association (NSA). There are 64 million people living in the 6,033 areas of the U.S. with a shortage of primary care professionals, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It would take 16,336 of professionals to meet this population's need for primary care providers - that is 2,000 people to one practitioner, it said. Health care staff shortages hit the nursing industry hardest, according to Rothman. The nursing shortage began in 1998, which coincided with improving quality of patient care and patient safety, according to Minnett, a 2nd year nursing student. "There is a great shortage of nursing faculty, nursing class room space, clinical sites and preceptors - people that work in hospitals with students one-on-one," said Minnett. "Until financial resources [are] allocated to address these needs, the supply of nurses will remain minimal as compared to the need." Today there are approximately 150,000 unfilled Registered Nurse positions nationally and will grow to 350,000-750,000 by 2020 based on recent projections, according to Minnett. "The department is not trying to be picky," said Minnett of the nursing department. "The reality is that there just is not enough faculty and classroom space to accommodate more students." Katie Loggins, a 2nd year graduate nursing student, applied for the nursing program at her city college, only to find out she was number 452 on the list, trying to get into a program that accepts 30 students per semester. A year and a half later, she found herself only in the low 300s of the list, when she decided to apply to SF States program.

I applied with the experience I already had, Loggins said in an email. My background is in holistic health. I am certified in Therapeutic Massage, Reiki, Thai Massage, studied East African Herbalism in Kenya and Tao Shiatsu in Japan. Though her knowledge in western medicine was minimal, Loggins holistic background was appreciated and she was accepted into the program. Herissa Magadia, a 2nd year nursing student, attributes her good planning in getting into the nursing program. I planned ahead of time what classes to take, she said. I took several of the required classes in community colleges during summer instead of waiting for a spot at one college campus [and] I did not try to cram all the pre-requisite courses at once. Its a very stressful process, Magadia says. As for those who do not get into the nursing program, some work on a minor or a different major while continuing to apply, or others pursue a different career altogether, according to Minnett. Donald Pon, a nursing student, applied the first time with just grades, but not enough extracurricular activities. The second time, Pon had the grades and experience by volunteering and doing community service. All these items may seem like they are easy to obtain and seem like minor items but they really do make a difference, wrote Pon in an email. These extracurricular [activities] really help in molding the type of person you want to be when you become a nurse. To relieve the shortage, Minnett emphasizes the need for greater funding. "If we don't increase our capacity to educate and train new nurses, the nursing shortage crisis that has yet to hit in full force will be much worse," he said. "That will translate into poor patient outcomes with a much greater incidence of patient illness and suffering in the next couple of decades to come." But until then, Minnett urges applicants to prepare to work hard to see results in an extremely competitive field. "[Applicants and students] need to really make themselves stand out in order to get into the nursing program and to get a foot in the door to that first job," he said. Advanced Life Support and Emergency Medical Technician certifications, working in hospitals as nursing assistants or other unlicensed positions and joining student organizations such as the NSA are a few surefire ways to help, he said. In addition to not having the financial support from the state for employing more

instructors, the number of students accepted into schools is strongly affected by the number of clinical spaces available, said Loggins. The economy needs to improve before any changes can be made.