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CAMPUS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Workshop offers students problem-solving techniques
RACHEL SALYER
rsalyer@kansan.com
From homesickness to procrastination and finance help, the Bounce Back workshop Wednesday at McColum Residence Hall covered potential problems a student could encounter throughout their academic career and beyond.
The workshop collaborated with different departments around the campus to offer students advice on a variety of problems such as procrastination, time management, academic achievement and even job and internship searching.
Students attending the work
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2012
shop began by filling out a questionnaire to identify three key areas of focus and were assigned different booths, represented by different University departments, to gain incite on how to solve their problems.
Alahna Broadway a junior from Jacksonville, N.C., appreciated the one-stop-shop setup at the workshop.
"Using a sounding board of experts helps students understand if what they are doing really works."
those things."
"It's really nice because all the organizations that you would need to be successful are in one place," Broadway said. "You don't have to make appointments, you can just go around to each one."
Broadway utilized the time to speak with the career center about potential jobs and internships.
Sheryl Adelman Kimmel, a senior advisor for the University Advising Center helps oversee the program. She said while it helps students with an array of problems, some of the most common are time management and academic standing.
"It was really insightful because I didn't really know what to do after college," Broadway said. "So, I got help with a resume and got some internship information. Now I feel better about both of
"It's a good way for students to check in," Kimmel said. "Using a sounding board of experts helps students understand if what they are doing really works."
Kimmel said for students struggling with academic standing, the workshop can help students learn how to communicate with professors and truly understand if they need to drop the class or if they
SHERYL ADELMAN KIMMEL University Advising Center
can turn things around.
Kristen Scott, associate director for the KU Academic Achievement and Access Center, said one of the easiest ways to avoid
procrastination is by keeping a planner and working backwards.
we're all so busy," Scott said. "We all have a million things going on, but by noting an exam or project in your planner, then you have the opportunity to work backwards and schedule time, even if it's small steps. If you've got a paper to write, write the cover letter. Giving yourself a good starting place is really key to having a strong finish."
Additional Bounce Back workshops are Feb. 28 at Hashinger Hall Theater and March 13 at the Sabatini Multicultural Resource Center from 4 to 5 p.m. No registration is required.
Edited by Amanda Gage
NATIONAL
Emergency officials crowd a blocked off intersection at the Rutgers-Newark campus during an evacuation on Wednesday, Feb. 8, in Newark, N.J. Officials evacuated a dorm building while the FBI searched for potentially hazardous substances.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Substance mailed to Congress
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Some congressional offices outside Washington and media organizations have received threatening letters containing a suspicious powdery substance that was tested and proved to be harmless, the FBI and the Senate's top law enforcement officer said Wednesday.
Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer said in a memo to Senate offices that the letters were sent to three state and home district offices. A district office of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, received one of the letters, spokesman Kevin Smith said.
A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that so far fewer than 10 members of Congress had received letters.
Letters were also sent to several media organizations. FBI spokesman Peter Donald said agents had responded to Viacom and at least one other location in New York. Preliminary tests showed that the powder did not pose a threat, he said.
"So far, none of the letters have contained a hazardous substance," FBI Special Agent Jason Pack said. "We are working with those law enforcement agencies affected to determine if the mailings are related. We take these matters seriously and will investigate fully."
The letters tell the recipients that there is a "10 percent chance you have just been exposed to a lethal pathogen."
Even though none of the letters that have been tested have contained harmful substances, Gainer told staff to be extra vigilant.
"The author of these letters has indicated that additional letters containing a powdery substance will be arriving at more Senate offices and that some of these letters may contain an actual harmful material," Gainer's memo to Senate offices said. "Although all letters received thus far have proved harmless, it is essential that we treat every piece of suspicious mail as if it may, in fact, be harmful."
The letters bore a return address from "The MIB" and were postmarked Portland, Ore.
The Portland return address on the letters appears to be phony. The combination of the address given — 2413 NW Burnside, ZIP code 97209 — does not exist.
The sender wants an "end to corporate money and "lobbying," an end to corporate "personhood $ ^{a} $ and a new constitutional convention. The Associated Press obtained a copy of a letter.
The threats raised memories of post-9/11 incidents that rattled Washington. In mid-November 2001, authorities closed two Senate office buildings after anthrax attacks on Congress. Those attacks came after four people — two postal workers in Washington, a New York City hospital worker and a Florida photo editor — died from exposure to anthrax.
Also at that time, an unopened envelope sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., resembled a letter mailed the previous month to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. The Leahy letter was discovered in the 280 barrels of congressional mail quarantined after a Daschle employee opened a powder-filled envelope.