Tuesday, October 25, 201 1 I

TechNews

campus@technewsiit.com

UTSAV GANDHI

Student Health 8 Wellness Center offering new services

By Utsav Gandhi
CAMPUS EDITOR

Early this September, over in the IIT
Tower, a major restructuring in a key student
service was initiated with the merging of what
was formerly Student Health Services and Stu,
dent Counseling Services into the new Student
Health and Wellness Center

TechNews featured the Counseling
Center in an article last semester (http://www
technewsiit:com/story/interviewestudent,
counselingeservices) in which Dr Jean Tz,ou,
Assistant Director of the new Center, dis,
cussed upcoming changes for the Center

Dr Tz,ou stressed on the fact that the
new approach of the Center is to keep in line
with the university’s mission to increase stue
dent retention, participate in student network,
ing and support services, and focus on holistic
wellebeing while serving as an integral meme
ber of the student support network within the

Division of Student Affairs:

They encourage students to more ace
tively take responsibility of their own physical
and mental health; and educate them to follow
the idiom “an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure?’ Their goal is to make the new
Center more student friendly and increase
their visibility so that students find them more
approachable

They will be offering access to many
online selfehelp resources in addition to the
Student Assistance Program (SAP), provided
by Aetna Student Health Insurance available to
all IIT students, whether or not they have the
Aetna insurance plan:

Starting Monday, October 24, the
Center will offer a new, exciting and fun stue
dent resource completely free to any IIT stue
dent: a Stress Clinic, every Monday and Thurs,
day, from 173 pm, in the MTCC Blue Room:
Students will be provided a relaxing environ,
ment, complete with game chairs, aromatic

atmosphere, candles, dim lights, soft natural
sounds/music, and the option of checking out
soothing relaxation exercise instruction CDs:

There will be a permanent room set
up similarly at the Center in the IIT Tower
They also plan to install a biofeedback device
wherein students can see for themselves the
positive results achieved by practicing stress
management exercises: Light therapy lamps
will be made available to help those students
suffering from winter blues (seasonal affective
disorder):

Apart from this new initiative, the
Centerwill continue to offer its regular services:
health maintenance, treating infections and
injuries, monitoring chronic diseases, medical
exams, allergy injections, prescribing medica
tions, lab work, and counseling services such
as individual and group counseling addressing
problems of sleep pattern, alcohol abuse, anxie
ety, attention deficit disorder, college survival,
eating problems, depression, relationship dis,

tress, adjustment, homesickness, procrastinae
tion, sexual assault, and study skills:

They plan to partner with the ARC,
Dining Services, Keating, Resident’s Advisors,
the SGA Student Life Committee, and Pub,
lic Safety in an effort to make a more holistic
and wellerounded approach towards students’
wellebeing: With new direction, new energy
and an open approach to communication, the
Center plans to make a more positive impact
on student lives at IIT

To learn more about Student Health
and Wellness Center, visit their new website
(currently under construction) at http://www
iitedu/shwcl: To schedule your first appoint,
ment call 31256777550 during work hours on
Mondays through Fridays:

For emergencies that occur during
weekends or evenings call the Aetna Student
Assistance Program 24 hour support line at
87735177889, or 80074427HOPE, HT Public
Safety at 31278086363, or 911 ifneeded:

 

MSA hosts interfaith panel on science, religion

By Tanim Taher
TECHNEWS WRITER

These days, quite often we hear about
nevereending debates surrounding topics like
“Evolution versus Intelligent Des ign," “Religion
vs Science," etc, etc:

One can walk away from such debates
with a sense that religion and science cannot
coexist, or that religion is a big barrier to science:

Indeed, if we look back at history,
scientists like Galileo Galilei were imprisoned
and barred from espousing sound scientific
theories that contradicted widelyeheld religious
suppositions:

Medical sciences during the dark ages
of Europe were suppressed in favor of exorcism

and spiritual remediesipractices based on
superstitions, yet devoid of any logic or factual
understandings

Even today, there are selfeproclaimed
religious defenders who erect barriers to the
education of women or vaccination against
diseases in less developed parts of the world:

But, does anybody know that
religious institutions and religious bodies have
historically also served in the contradictory role
as the biggest supporters of scientific discovery?

If we look at some of the most
prestigious universities, hospitals and medical
research centers today, we see that many of them
were setup and are still financed by religious
institutions and bodies:

Some famous scientists like

Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics; Ibn
Sina, the famous scientist whose books of
scientific medicine were the preeminent
medical references used by doctors for over five
centuries; and Copernicus, the father of modern
astronomy, were also religious theologians or
ordained clergymen:

If we look at this set of examples,
one may get the impression that the title of a
discussion on such a topic should be “Science
And Religion" rather than “Science Versus
Religion."

In a tech university like IIT, it is
important to start a discussion on the topic of
“Science and/vs Religion"

To this end, the Muslim Students’
Association, (MSA) in partnership with IIT’s

Office of Spiritual Life and Service Learning and
IIT Hillel, will be hosting the first in a series of
interfaith panels on “Science ,7 Religion"

The first interfaith panel will be
held on Monday, October 31, in the MTCC
Auditorium from 12:4571:40 pm: Panelistsi
scientists and professorsifrom various faith
backgrounds will be part of an interfaith
discussion:

The “Science ,7 Religion” interfaith
panel discussion will be the first lecture of
“Science and Religion Week" (Oct: 317Nov: 4),
being organized by the MSA:

The MSA will also provide lunch,
sponsored by the SAE

More details are available at
http://msaiitedu:

 

Urban Worm Girl digs up dirt on vermiculture

By Harshita Iyer
TECHNEWS WRITER

Have you ever thought about how
awesome worms are? Even ifyou are so terrified
of them that you have had nightmares about
them crawling all over you (speaking from
personal experience)?

They move around in the soil and
loosen it up with their little worm bodies and
poop all over the soil, which is an excellent
source of nitrogen, carbon and everything that
the soil needs to be fertile: They also eat up all
your organic trash and convert it into top grade

manure: Sounds like a perfect system, doesn’t
it? Well, it is! And that is what Amber (aka The
Urban Worm Girl) wanted to talk to IIT about
last Thursday

As part ofone ofthe speaker sessions
of Sustainability Week, organized by Engineers
for a Sustainable World (aka ganGreen), the
Urban Worm Girl delivered a presentation
detailing everything one would need to know to
practice vermiculture, the art of growing worms
and using them as a source of natural fertilizer
for the soil:

Urban Worm Girl is the name of the
organization that Amber is part of, which makes
and sells “worm kits" that come with worms and
instructions on how to go about it yourself

She talked about how all one has to
do is put everyday organic waste in a little box
with the worms in it (avoid dairy or anything
smelly like onions and pineapples, among other
things), and they will do the rest! They even eat
paper, as long it is not the glossy type: The best
part was that she actually brought wormsl

During her presentation, she talked
about how when people are about to start a
vineyard, they start with the assumption of
losing 15 percent of their output: Well, once
they started maintaining 2030 percent of the
manure created by the worms in their soil, the
loss went down to 003 percent! That is how
effective something as useless as worm poop
can be!

However, this is not something that
you should just do without guidance It would be
a very bad idea to go out, catch a couple hundred
worms, and stick them in a box: You need very
specific worms, called “red wigglers," and if you
get the wrong ones, they could either have no
effect or even escape out of the box and go all
over your room:

Vermiculture is something that quite
a few restaurants and cafes are starting to follow,
using the freshlyegrown vegetables from their
own vermiculture farm: This is also something
that, with some discipline, anybody can do on
a smaller scale: So, go ahead and try it out, but
make sure you don’t set worms loose on your
roommate’s bedI

 

Don't forget your FAFSA documentation

By Office of Financial Aid

Believe it or not, spring registration
will quickly be upon us! The fall semester is
still in full swing, but we must begin to prepare
for next term as well: At this time, the Office of
Financial Aid would like to remind students of
several important pieces of information:

If you still have outstanding docue
mentation preventing your aid from disburse
ing to your bill, now is the time to take care
of any pending forms: Federal Aid cannot dis,
burse until we review certain documentation,
depending on your FAFSA information: We
have a team of Financial Aid Counselors ready
to help you with any questions or concerns you
may have: Stop by our office today to see what
needs to be completed We are located in the
Main Building, Room 104:

For those students who have taken
care of their federal aid or do not receive fed,
eral aid but still have a pending bill, arrange

for payment with the Bursar’s Ofiice imme
diately If your bill is not paid in full, you will
not be able to register for spring classes: Ifyou
are graduating and have an unaddressed bill
with the university, you will not receive your
diploma: No matter how large the bill, it is
important to start a conversation about your
situation with a Bursar Specialist The Bursar’s
Office is located in the Main Building, Room
207:

We encourage all students to be
proactive with their Financial Aid forms and
their Bursar bill: Additionally, if you have any
pending academic issues, please contact your
advisor or stop by Undergraduate or Graduate
Academic Affairs: It is better to address uncere
tainty now than wait and have a larger problem
later in the term:

If you have questions about your aid
or how to proceed with your situation, please
contact the Office of Financial Aid at finaid@
iitedu or 31256776917:

Great Lakes

[continued from page 1]

them develop microgrids and smart
grids that benefit consumers and stakeholde
ers alike:

This interactive workshop delved
into the origin and mechanics of the PPSoA
performance rating program and demon,
strate how to eliminate waste to pay for in,
vestments and ensure electricity systems are
more consumer responsive, costeefi’ective,
reliable, environmentally sustainable and
energyeefiicient: It was attended by electric,
ity suppliers, architects, engineers, utility
companies, consumer advocates and tech,
nology providers: Some of the workshop
topics included:

. The PPSoA process and Perfect

symposium

Power architecture

. Six Sigma, failure mode and effects
analysis and other quality tools

. Smart microgrid design elements

. Safety, reliability and power quality

. The PPSoA metric categories 7 Re
liability, Cost, Efficiency and Envie
ronment, and Consumer Empowe
erment

. Independent
price signals

. Cost/Benefit/ROI

System Operator

The symposium concluded with
the “Midwest energy leadership Awards"
and a tour of the Perfect Power Microgrid at
IIT The awards were categorized into three
categories: Research, Development & In,
novation, Entrepreneurship, and Industry,
Market Driver