My Thoughts on Owning a Dog in College

Dogs have proven time and time again to be ‘man’s best friend.’ Dogs will love you unconditionally, keep you moving, and make you feel good that another being cares about you so much. Just a dog looking at you and wagging its tail makes me smile. I am a dog lover, but I don’t want to be a dog owner while I’m in college.

First of all, while dogs provide a stress relief to humans, I know that owning a dog would cause me more stress. I would be constantly worried about taking the dog outside for a potty break, and making sure I don’t leave it home alone for too long. Some days I am gone from morning until evening. Knowing that I have a furry friend alone in my apartment would give me anxiety.

Second, having a dog would distract me all the time. Instead of wanting to do homework, I would just want to hang out with my dog. Plus, depending on the dog sometimes they won’t leave you alone either. It doesn’t help that I am a procrastinator and have a short attention span. Owning a dog wouldn’t be the best solution to that problem.

Third, being a broke college kid doesn’t give me a budget to own a dog. The cost of food, vet visits, grooming, and the fee paid to my landlord to have a dog would add up fast. Right now, I still feel guilty ordering something not on the dollar menu at McDonald’s. Might is tight, and I can barely afford to spend it on treating myself.

While owning a dog while in college is right for some students, I know it isn’t right for me. I think I’ll be happy enough visiting the therapy dogs at Milner Library once in awhile.

College students owning dogs

NORMAL, Ill. – For most college students, the weight of finals week is beginning to crush down and cause high levels of stress. For some, ‘man’s best friend’ proves to be the best combatant of stress.

Students at Illinois State University have a love for their canine companions. In Normal, Illinois, it is not uncommon to see students walking their dogs on the ISU campus and around town. During finals week, many student dog owners are thankful for the distraction from college stress.

Dogs have proven to help people through multiple studies. In fact, according to USA Today, “. . .research shows that interaction with pets decreases the level of cortisol — or stress hormone — in people and increases endorphins, known as the happiness hormone.” ISU Health Promotion and Wellness Coordinator Erin Link added that even just the act of petting a dog can lower blood pressure.

“For students, this allows them to go back and study, or work on a project. They can focus more and just feel better. This is crucial with how much stress college puts on students,” said Link.

Link’s love for dogs has given her the opportunity to direct the ISU PAWSitively Stress Free (PAWS) program. This program brings in therapy dogs from a range of breeds to Milner Library on ISU’s campus. The therapy dogs come from Town and Country Kennel Club in Bloomington, Illinois. Students can hang out with the dogs during their study breaks at the library, or even if they just want some canine-time.

“The program started in the spring semester of 2013 and it was just a finals week program,” said Link. “We heard from students and they were like, ‘Hey, we’re stressed throughout the other times of the year,’ so starting in the 2013-2014 academic year we made it a regular program that happens once a month and twice during finals week.”

PAWS has brought forth only positive responses. This program has served over 4,000 students in the 2016-2017 year which was a 20 percent growth from the previous academic year.

“This semester, we had 825 students in two hours in September, which is huge. I would say this was a little stressful for me,” said Link.

Many of the students that participate in PAWS are not dog owners themselves. However, ISU dog owners also agree that by just petting their dog, they feel better.

ISU student Joel Hollingsworth said that having his dog, Stella, makes him happier.

“Before having Stella, it’s not like I wasn’t happy, but I can tell that just having her around makes me so much more relaxed. All I do is look at her, and when she looks back and wags her tail, I just smile,” said Hollingsworth.

There is a big difference between visiting the trained dogs at PAWS compared to owning one. Not only do dog owners have to make their schedule around taking their dog outside and playing with them, but they must make sure their dog is getting the attention it needs. For Hollingsworth, he said that he doesn’t mind the time a dog takes.

“I can’t be away from her all-day long. Honestly, I don’t really care if I miss out on social things because I can just hang out with her,” said Hollingsworth.

While Hollingsworth said he can handle the responsibility of owning a dog during college, some students cannot.

“I love dogs, but I can’t ever imagine having one. I’m so busy between work, classes, and the clubs I’m in. I barely have time to take some time to go to the gym or chill,” said ISU student Vanessa Vandermeer.

Like Vandermeer, some college students simply don’t have the time to take care of an animal. Fox Business states that owning any kind of dog requires owners to make a “complete lifestyle change.”

Another reason many students don’t own a dog is because of the cost. According to RaisingSpot.com, the yearly cost of having a dog can range from $360 to $2,520 or more. College students are infamously always saying they are broke. Owning a dog might not help the situation.

“Yeah, taking care of Stella costs a lot of money, but she’s so worth it,” said Hollingsworth.

While Hollingsworth is alright with spending more money and time on Stella, Vandermeer recognized the want for a dog on campus.

“Like, I get it. I wish I had a dog here with me just to take my mind off of everything going on with college. I just know I don’t have the time, which sucks, but I just have to be realistic about it,” said Vandermeer.

Owning a dog in college depends on the student. For some, it can be the easiest decision they have ever made to relieve their stress and make them happier. For others, maybe the best decision is simply attending PAWS in Milner Library to get their dog-fix.

“I think when a student is considering a dog, they should think about their lifestyle and budget first. I do think if you’re an animal-lover and it fits in your budget and fits in your lifestyle, then it will definitely benefit you, destress you and keep you company,” said Link.

How to thaw your Smucker’s Uncrustable in less than ten minutes

So, we’ve all run into this situation as college students: you have Smucker’s Uncrustables in your freezer and you don’t want to wait for it to thaw. You are hungry now and don’t want to take the time and energy to make an actual peanut butter & jelly sandwich. Well, here’s four ridiculous (but effective) ways to thaw your Smucker’s Uncrustable in less than ten minutes.

First, put it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

If you’re someone that likes to multi-task like me, don’t turn on the shower fan and steam your Smucker’s Uncrustable while you’re taking a shower.

If your microwave is broken and you don’t want to take a shower, put your Smucker’s Uncrustable in the oven for 5 minutes while the oven is preheating.

What if you’re feeling a little creative and fancy? Or you just don’t want to do any of the three methods above? Put your Smucker’s Uncrustable in a frying pan on high heat and flip it for 5 minutes.

If none of these methods are for you and you’re not in a hurry, simply do it the old-fashioned way and actually let it thaw. But where’s the fun in that?

From lawyer to sorority house mom

“I got to the point where I literally could not breathe there anymore. I felt like I was having a breakdown.”

Dawn Duggan, 46, decided two years ago that her life needed to change. She was burned out with her career in criminal defense involving child molestation and pornography, recently divorced after finding out her husband of 18 years had been cheating on her and was grieving the sudden death of her stepdaughter.

Life seemed to only be going south. One day, Dawn decided to take a leave of absence and go on a road trip out West. It was on this spontaneous journey she realized she needed to get out of the state that was suffocating her: Florida.

She went back to Florida after her trip, quit her job, sold her car and bought a Toyota Highlander. She then gave everything away that would not fit in the Highlander and said she was “moving out West, not having any clue what I was going to do once I got there.”

Just like that, she started new.

Dawn decided to take a pitstop on her journey out West to her hometown of Bloomington, Illinois, to see her family. It was in Bloomington where her long-time friend of 30 years, Teresa DeVary, asked her a question that changed her course.

“She wanted a change. So I said, ‘Hey want to be the house mom? Your expenses are paid,’” said Teresa.

Teresa had been the house mom at the Chi Omega sorority house for 18 years. A house mom is an adult woman that lives in a sorority house to make sure rules are followed and to act as a resource for the sorority women also living in the house.

Never being involved in a sorority, Dawn took the position because the living and food expenses would be paid for as long as she lived in.

Unemployed, she traveled as if she was “retired,” and began to volunteer, bought a keyboard to learn how to play and even invested in Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish.

However, money was starting to run out, and Dawn still had to pay the bills and her student loans. So, she got a job at a law firm and is now a personal injury plaintiff with civil cases in Bloomington.

“Honestly when I left Florida, I never thought I would practice law again,” said Dawn. “I was just so horribly soured by it, period.”

Civil cases are a cake walk from what she was used to handling.

Dawn spent the last three years as a public defender in Florida handling only cases involving crimes against children. There was a lot of sexual abuse, child pornography, pictures and videos. All of these things she would have to look at and watch in order to defend her client who was charged with committing these acts. She said it “just got to be very difficult.”

Dawn always dreamed of being a criminal defense attorney from a young age. Her mother was a big fan of attorney F. Lee Bailey and talked about him often.

It was in high school that her destiny in law was clenched.

Dawn served as a witness for the defense of David Hendricks in the infamous case in Bloomington in 1984. David Hendricks was convicted of murdering his wife and three children with an ax. Dawn was actually family friends with the Hendricks’. Dawn’s father was a mechanical engineer and made back braces for David Hendricks’ company. Dawn was a back-brace model for David when she was 16-years-old.

“Everyone, everywhere thought he did it,” said Dawn. “He was convicted immediately in the public’s mind. I never thought he did it, and I still don’t think he did it.”

Dawn continued her interest in law when she moved to Florida. She then had her son, Dylan, when she was 25-years-old.

“When my son was three, I decided it was time to get my undergrad. When he was three-years- old, I was working full-time, and going to school three nights a week,” said Dawn. “It took me five years of night school to get my degree and then I decided to go to law school. I didn’t take the traditional route.”

Even though Dawn achieved her dream to practice law, she now is looking elsewhere for her next step.

“I think my biggest thing now is I no longer like the fight. I always loved the adversarial part of the job. I loved to go head-to-head in court. I loved arguing. I hate it now. It’s totally dead to me,” said Dawn.

So, what’s next for Dawn Duggan? When asked what her dream is five years down the road, she took a deep sigh and looked around her bedroom. She said she would love to live on a horse ranch in a desolate area in Wyoming or Colorado where she can enjoy hiking in tranquility. Oh, and she wants a Jeep.

“Maybe one day, I’ll get out West where I was headed in the first place,” she said.

According to Teresa DeVary, Dawn “is going to do something that makes Dawn happy.”

My Time with Dawn

Interviewing my sorority house mom had to be one of the coolest conversations I’ve ever had. I’ve talked to Dawn many times before, but I didn’t realize that I only knew the surface story of her life. All I had known was that she had been a lawyer for her career and decided to move from Florida after her divorce to start fresh. I also knew she dealt with criminal charges against children during her time as a lawyer in Florida, but I never really asked her what that was like. This woman had to work with horrible people that molested children and defend them in many cases. She told me in our interview that she had to watch all videos and see all photos of the crimes being committed against kids. She has seen some tough stuff. I always admired for her being able to start fresh, and gained more appreciation for her through our interview. I love that Dawn’s story isn’t over yet. She still wants to keep traveling and settle somewhere out west. Her time as my house mom in my sorority house is only temporary. I am blessed to have her in the house with me and know she will continue to do what makes her happy.

Different Is What We Need

Our country is finally seeing more diversity in our politics. Tuesday marked a historical win for the LGBTQ community in the Virginia state legislature. Democrat Danica Roem beat Republican Del. Bob Marshall with 54 percent of the votes and is now the first openly transgender person to get elected and serve in a state legislature in our country. Roem said her intention wasn’t just to create history by running for office, rather she just wants to improve Route 28 and make the General Assembly more transparent. She also wishes to make Virginia a more welcoming environment for all people- no matter what they look like, where they come from, what their religion is, and who they love. The cool thing is she hasn’t always wanted to be a politician. She actually started as a reporter out of college and is the lead singer in a heavy metal band. Talk about someone DIFFERENT. The Republican she beat in the election has been involved in politics for 26 years, which hasn’t allowed a whole lot of “different” to come to the table. Del. Bob Marshall was pushing for a bill that would restrict which bathrooms transgenders could use and ban gay people from serving in the Virginia National Guard. Thank goodness Roem took the step to run for election. Our country needs different to get better.

Ethics Case Opinion

If I was the editor of the campus newspaper, I would not publish the story that a candidate for a student government office had been convicted of indecent solicitation of a child six years ago. I wouldn’t publish this story because the candidate resigned his candidacy to the student government position once he learned that my newspaper was going to run the story. The student is no longer a person of interest for student government, so publishing the child solicitation story now wouldn’t be important.

Even though the student committed a crime, it isn’t ethical to expose this crime to the whole campus. It’s personal to the student, and it would hurt their reputation greatly. Eventually, if the student ever wants to run for a political office in the future, the child solicitation offense will come up again in his background check. So, as of right now, it’s not important for the campus to know about his past.

Also, the student did lie about why he was dropping out of the student government race. The former candidate lied that he just found out he was HIV-positive, when he actually learned of his diagnosis three weeks prior to his withdrawal. Even though he lied, it still would do him a great deal of harm in the public eye to publish his past crime.

Student Government Association Meeting

NORMAL, Ill. – Educate, connect, and elevate were key words in the weekly Illinois State University Student Government Association (SGA) meeting 7:00 p.m. Wednesday at the Bone Student Center.

The strategic plan for Illinois State University was brought into the meeting as a draft by Executive Director and co-chair of University Marketing and Communications Brian Beam and Assistant Vice President and co-chair of Student Affairs Danielle Schuster. Beam and Schuster said that it was important to capture the student voice for a strategic plan that is mostly based on students.

The strategic plan is undergoing many revisions before it is formally released. Educate, connect and elevate are the three words the plan wants to follow for the duration of 2018 through 2023. The plan consists of a message from ISU President Larry Dietz, a mission and vision statement, core values, and strategic directions and objectives.

Beam and Schuster wanted to dissect the plan with members of SGA for their feedback. A big topic of discussion was the core value of diversity and inclusion.

“Diversity can only thrive with inclusion,” said Beam.

However, members of SGA said that we cannot have diversity and inclusion when the ISU Quad often has speakers that are anti-LGBT and spews hatred on non-Christians. The speakers make students feel uncomfortable and frustrated. Beam and Schuster said that as much as they agree, there is no way to combat the problem because ISU is a public institution, which means anyone can express their beliefs in whatever fashion they choose since the university is public property.

Another point of discussion among SGA members was individualized attention between students and staff is lacking.

“I chose Illinois State because of the individual attention. But the problem is that the bigger the class size, the less individual attention you get. I’m starting to get into my 200 and 300 level courses and there are not as any office hours anymore,” said Academic Senator Magalie Baker.

Other SGA members agreed with Baker and said that in order to fulfill the strategic objective to foster innovation, ISU first needs to focus on the individual attention it promises to students.

Student body Vice President Ashley Shannon added a suggestion to Beam and Schuster. Shannon wishes to see diversity as a general education requirement at ISU. She believes that if ISU students take a course in diversity, it will promote the strategic objective to nurture diversity and inclusion.

“I think the strategic plan is a great task force,” said Policies and Procedures Chair Jack Whitsitt. “I feel like it will implement new ideas that will really benefit the future of ISU. The plan will recognize the real issues the university faces and help those with an under represented voice have their thoughts heard on how to make ISU better.”

Secretary of Public Relations John Geary does have one concern about the task force of the strategic plan.

“My biggest concern with the strategic plan is having alumni not agree with the student voice and providing push back on what the current students want, opposed to what they would want during their years at ISU,” said Geary.

Following discussion of the proposed strategic plan, SGA members continued with the meeting by giving reports from each member. Each report was a summary of what the member did since the last meeting. Questions were then asked for any other members.

After SGA members gave their reports, an amendment was voted upon to correct a typo regarding absences in the SGA bylaws. The amendment passed easily with all member voting in favor.

Two amendments were passed to lay on the table until the next SGA meeting. The meeting was then adjourned at 8:35 p.m.

Thoughts on Student Government Association

One thing is for sure – the Student Government Association (SGA) at Illinois State University is a huge time commitment. While this was my first time sitting in on an SGA meeting, I could already identify that each student senator WANTS to be there. What I mean by this is that the SGA is not a blow-off club on campus. You don’t just pay your dues and show up to half of the meetings so you can add it to your resume. The student senators were fully invested in the meeting. I found out from the meeting that each senator has to attend so many events on campus each month and not miss any of their weekly meetings. Failure to do so results in you getting kicked out – no if’s, and’s or but’s. Even being a student senator isn’t easy; you need to be elected to a position. No one “just joined.” Honestly, I’m glad we have a group of students that take so much time out of their days to put so much effort into being a student senator. I feel comfortable knowing we have students on campus dedicated to sharing our voice to the community and ISU administration.

Scholarship recipients show gratitude at Thank-A-Donor Days

NORMAL, Ill.- Appreciative scholarship recipients at Illinois State University wrote letters to their donors at Thank-A-Donor Days on Sept. 20 and 21 at the Bowling and Billiards Center.

Laptops were set up for students to not only type their letters, but to learn more information about their scholarship and donors. Students had the opportunity to take photos in a photo booth to include with their letter. Following letter and photo completion, students collected free t-shirts and complimentary food.

Joel Hollingworth, a senior, received a scholarship through the Department of Agriculture. He said that getting the chance to thank donors is the least students could do.

“It’s great that ISU has this event so we can show what these scholarships allow us to do. My scholarship money makes my life so much easier because I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay for school. I’ve been paying for my own education, and scholarships are what keep me here.”

Elena Roth, a junior, told her donor how the scholarship she received is the reason she can achieve her dream of completing her Bachelor’s Degree.

“I wasn’t sure if I would be able to come back to school next semester. Money is really tight at home, and even though I’m working two jobs on campus, it still isn’t enough. The scholarship I got saved me from having to consider dropping out. Because of it, I can stay here and not worry about not graduating. I seriously don’t know what I would do without the money I was awarded.”

Volunteer staff was also present at Thank-A-Donor Days to help students write their letters and edit them before printing the letters out.

Emily Bozich said she volunteered to help students write their letters because she thinks it’s important to show appreciation for the donors that keep giving back.

“I want donors to feel like what they’re doing is making a difference. I received a lot of scholarships when I was here at ISU, and I always wrote letters to the scholarship donor. I feel good helping students show their appreciation through a simple letter that could make a donor’s day. If donors feel like they matter, then they’ll continue to give scholarships.”

ISU offers hundreds of scholarships annually to all students. Scholarships can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Vanessa Vandermeer said that every little bit counts towards her education.

“I didn’t receive one of the huge scholarships through ISU this year. My scholarship was small, but it doesn’t matter to me because it still covered my book expenses for one of my classes. My textbook was almost $300 and that would’ve been two paychecks at my job before I could afford that. It doesn’t matter how big or small the scholarship is, because any money helps. I’m still thankful.”