Much to be desired under self-undermining medical amnesty ratification

In May 2013, the College Senate passed the Responsible Community Action Policy. Although New York’s Good Samaritan Law, signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011, offers legal protection for minors who have consumed alcohol and called in medical emergencies, Geneseo students are not exempt from Student Code of Conduct policies. In order to make sure students were not hesitant to call in help for their classmates in need, several students rallied to pass some basic form of medical amnesty for Geneseo. Unfortunately, the Responsible Community Action Policy is a step in the wrong direction, essentially codifying an ineffective, quasi-zero-tolerance policy, while doing little to abrogate student hesitancy.

The one-page policy change is steeped in cognitive dissonance: On the one hand, it accepts that fear of punishment might deter students from calling in emergencies – or at the very least make them waste valuable time weighing the consequences – and on the other, it does nothing to fix it.

Sure, the new Responsible Community Action Policy provides for one Get Out of Jail Free card, but even that is left in question with statements like, “This [change in policy] does not preclude conduct action for other violations of the Student Code of Conduct associated with underage drinking” and “Students under the legal drinking age who take affirmative action … may be exempt from student conduct sanctions for the possession and consumption of alcohol by an underage student.”

This new pseudo-medical amnesty policy is far from a model of Cuomo’s Good Samaritan 911 bill. It will do very little, if anything, to ease the tensions or hesitancy of students in reporting a medical emergency.

It is not, of course, to say that Geneseo students will not step up to the plate to help out their classmates; what is really important is the time one might spend worrying over the consequences of reporting the emergency that could have been essential to getting an emergency medical technician on the scene.

The new policy succeeds in removing all repercussions of underage drinking or illicit drugs for a student who has been the victim of sexual assault. While this is a great first step to achieving full medical amnesty at Geneseo, and a great victory in curtailing sexual abuse, the acceptance that doling out punishment under the code of conduct might deter some students from reporting emergencies undermines the rest of the policy change.

It’s a shame that such a potentially monumental change in policy has to be marred in weak language and a rigid ideology that can do nothing but slow progress. The campus’ hard limit is on “forgiving” students who choose to “Stand Up,” as well as the fact that this excusal is not even guaranteed renders the vast majority of the policy change useless.

Students will continue to hesitate on calling for help, and every second wasted over such a poorly thought out change in the code of conduct is a second wasted for people who need help as soon as possible.

Under Obama, economy sees less than complete 'recovery'

In 2008, the collapse of Lehman Brothers heralded a sustained period of global economic retraction. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession lasted from December 2007 to June 2009.Economists have hailed the subsequent anemic recovery as proof of the resilience of capitalism, the wisdom of President Barack Obama’s economic policies or as proof that the recession was merely cyclical. On the contrary, economic statistics reveal a fundamentally weakened system that is increasingly concentrating wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the vast majority. Professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley Emmanuel Saez revealed the lopsided nature of the “recovery” following the Great Recession in a report published on Sept. 3. A full 95 percent of real income growth, adjusted for inflation, in the past three years has gone to the top 1 percent of American families. This leaves a mere 5 percent for the remaining 99 percent of families to divvy up. These statistics follow a recession in which 51 percent of losses were suffered by the bottom 99 percent. The recession resulted in unprecedented inequality, with the top 1 percent of earners raking in 19.3 percent of household income last year. The last time that this sort of disparity in income occurred was 1927, just before the stock market crash and the Great Depression. Income inequality has been exacerbated by the economic policies pursued by President Barack Obama’s administration. The Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing is chief among these unequal economic policies. By buying trillions of dollars of financial assets during and after the crisis, the Federal Reserve has enabled the same stock market speculation that led to the Great Depression and the Great Recession. This is a massive transfer – $85 billion per month – of tax dollars to the banks. Moreover, quantitative easing, an inflationary measure, decreases the purchasing power of anyone whose wages are not increasing at least as fast as inflation. While not reaching hyperinflationary levels, quantitative easing certainly squeezes many families’ budgets. Quantitative easing has been coupled with a decrease in the civilian labor force participation rate. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the civilian labor force participation rate decreased from 66 percent on the eve of the recession to 63.2 percent in August. The decrease explains the drop in unemployment rates, despite a minor increase in jobs available. Of those who can find work, there are 7.9 million employed part-time for economic reasons. Catherine Rampell, an economics reporter for The New York Times, said, “These trends are part of the reason that many people believe the standard unemployment rate of 7.7 percent understates the extent of underemployment. If you include both part-time workers who want full-time work and people who have stopped looking for jobs but still want to work, the unemployment rate is actually 14.3 percent.” These contrasting worlds – one of stagnant wages, low growth and mass unemployment; the other of wealth, obscene growth and stock bonanzas – are the reality of a supposedly recovering American economy.

Hazing Prevention Week preaches safe drinking: sound familiar?

This week is National Hazing Prevention Week and Geneseo is hosting a full slate of programs and presentations to raise awareness on the dangers of hazing that, according to the College, is any act that has the effect of “humiliating, intimidating or demeaning the student or endangering the mental or physical health of the student, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.”In other words, the things that students do, often unwillingly, when pledging or being initiated into certain organizations. Those familiar with Greek life specifically know that the pledge process often involves the “initiation night” followed by four to six “dry” weeks during which the hopeful new members spend intensive time with the organization doing sometimes humiliating and mortifying tasks, all in a sober state. From basement sleepovers and full-body criticisms to baby carrots and cats, we’ve all heard the hazing rumors; true or not, things happen out there during those six weeks that have nothing to do with alcohol or anything that would pertain to Gordie or the Keg Stand Queens. That said, what should be a week-long schedule that focuses on unraveling the hazing cycle and its psychological and social implications has formed into another scare-tactic attempt to deter students, women especially, from binge drinking. It’s an educational program that feeds into the stereotype of Greek life as heavily alcoholic, ignoring the dangerous psychological abuse that occurs otherwise. We understand that there is considerable overlap between binge drinking and hazing, but we also know that most students are already well aware of the dangers associated with binge drinking, whereas many do not see their hazing “chores” as harmful. Hazing Prevention Week at Geneseo seems to be to a transparent attempt to send an oft-repeated message about drinking under the guise of hazing awareness. In the attempt to deter binge drinking, the College continuously and problematically exploits stories of students who have died as a result of hazing are indeed tragic, deeming the programs as shamelessly manipulative. It is plain wrong to use a person’s death to make a point about hazing that has been made time and time again. These tributes tug at the heartstrings of those watching them without actually educating their audience on how to prevent hazing, what to do if you are being hazed, or why it’s done in the first place. Addressing hazing is necessary, as is National Hazing Prevention Week. While we do not condone alcohol education, we hope that in future years a well-rounded program can be developed that delves into the tradition, continuation and acceptance of hazing, both with and without alcohol. Until then, ineffective programming will continue to allow for real hazing that can be just as damaging and abusive as binge drinking.

Who’s next? The looming future of Detroit and major U.S. cities

Desolate neighborhoods and darkened streets. Hordes of unemployed. Tens of thousands of vacant buildings. No emergency services, but an “emergency manager” with dictatorial powers. This isn’t a post-apocalyptic scenario or even the burnt out shell of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It’s Detroit, separated by only a few decades from its heyday as the center of American automobile manufacturing. Detroit’s economic crisis is a result of economic forces, but its creditors are making Detroiters pay.

For anyone who thinks that the Chernobyl-Detroit comparison is too hyperbolic, pictures and statistics of Detroit reveal a decaying metropolis. The city has become a decrepit shell of its former self, caused largely by the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt. As free trade was lauded as the hallmark of the new global economy, corporations outsourced to countries with nearly nonexistent labor laws. Meanwhile, many companies moved their headquarters out of Detroit to avoid paying taxes to the municipality, while those with means moved to the suburbs. Left with only the desperately poor within the city limits, Detroit’s tax base shriveled.

At the same time, expenses are large enough to bleed the city dry. Pension obligations total about $3.5 billion out of the $14 to $18 billion that Detroit owes to its creditors. Pundits portray these pensions as unsustainable – and they’re right, as the pensions are currently funded.

But all these expenses, the bulk of which are entirely reasonable for running a city, pale in comparison to the massive economic prowess of Detroit, dwindled though it may be. There are billionaires that are active in Detroit, including Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans, who are buying up city blocks “as if they’re Monopoly properties,” according to The New York Times.

And the auto companies are still reaping profits: Chrysler’s Jefferson North Assembly Plant recently rolled out its five millionth Jeep Grand Cherokee, and the plant has only been running since 1991. In those 21 years, that and other plants have been highly profitable. But instead of using those profits to pay off Detroit’s debt or provide a high standard of living for employees, the money has gone to executives saved from annihilation only by a taxpayer-funded bailout.

One of Chrysler’s legal representatives during its bankruptcy trial has been appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to navigate Detroit’s dire financial straits. Emergency Financial Manager Kevyn Orr was appointed using a controversial law that essentially cedes all financial power from Detroit’s municipal government to him.

Orr labeled Detroit as “dumb, lazy, happy and rich” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal and on July 18 filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Bankruptcy will give him the legal authority to reduce pensions, fire workers and ensure that those bankrolling Detroit’s debt receive a return on their investment. Yet Michigan’s state constitution prohibits infringing on the vested pensions of public workers, and this issue may make Orr’s job difficult.

Detroit is just the first massive American city to file for bankruptcy. Business Insider reports San Diego, Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York and Newark, N.J., as approaching bankruptcy, and federal and state governments are unlikely to grant aid, leaving cities – and their workers and retirees – in the lurch. While Detroit is the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history, it might not remain so for long.u

Worker strikes highlight need for wage reform

On Aug. 29, fast-food workers engaged in strikes and protests in dozens of major cities across the country. This dissent reveals a growing militancy among workers in the heavily-exploited service sector. Democratic, religious and union leaders, however, are diverting this resistance to odious conditions for their own ends. Fast-food workers must instead look to their fellow workers and assert their rights independently.

The strikers are asserting their right to a living wage – $15 per hour, to be specific. The current median wage of fast-food workers is a mere $8.94 per hour, according to MSNBC, which is essentially a starvation wage. Meanwhile, the executives of these highly exploitative corporations are pulling in record profits; for example, McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner made $8.75 million last year, according to Bloomberg. This was his justly deserved reward for the profits that McDonald’s made from their employees’ blood, sweat and grease, which was $5.5 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.

This pattern is repeated across the food services industry. According to The Guardian, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s reaped a total of $7.35 billion in profits last year, whereas most of their employees made less than $11,200.

McDonald’s and Visa – yet another corporation making millions off debt servitude – collaborated to release a budgeting guide for low-wage employees. This monthly budget, as ThinkProgress.com points out, contains several wholly unreasonable aspects. Most jarringly, the budget has a line for a second job, which creates a workweek totaling 50-70 hours of hot, oily servitude. The budget leaves a measly $600 for rent, which means that cashiers – at an average age of 28 and a quarter of whom support a child – will get to share an apartment.

When the budget was first released, it included a grand total of $0 for heating costs. Any resulting health problems would supposedly be remedied using the $20 allotted for health care. This budget would be hilarious if it was a piece for The Onion, but it instead illustrates the continued appalling treatment of low-wage workers.

This is part and parcel of the post-recessional economy. Good middle-class manufacturing jobs have been eviscerated or eliminated, replaced largely with low-wage service jobs. President Barack Obama’s administration is spearheading this transition, most notably with the 2008 General Motors bailout, which included the condition that new hires’ pay would be halved. The United Auto Workers agreed to these highway-robbery conditions, illustrating the inability of unions to mount a consistent defense of workers’ rights and salaries.

Despite this recent history, the unions continue to pose as a bulwark against exploitation. The primary union organizing the strikes is the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU’s International President, Mary Kay Henry, appeared on “The Colbert Report,” where she cited the reasoning for the strike and demonstrated its necessity as well. When Stephen Colbert joked that she hates capitalism and corporations, however, she merely sidestepped the issue.

As well-paid liasons between workers and owners, union leaders’ fates are tied to the same conditions they purport to oppose. The conditions are indeed the problem, but unions are not the solution. An independent defense of working conditions and living standards is required.