Over the Edge + January 19 news 3 Gunman Opens Fire in Arizona Killing Six An attempted assassination on a U.S. Congress woman leaves 14 injured and six dead HANNA PETERSEN NEWS EDITOR On Saturday January 9 in Tuscan Arizona, a 22 year-old college drop-out named Jared Loughner opened fire at a political gathering outside a local grocery store held by congress woman Gabrielle Gifford. Gifford was shot in the head, and now remains in critical condition. After attempting to kill Gifford, Loughner turned his gun on the surrounding people before two-brave bystanders tackled and subdued the shooter. Unfortunately before he was tackled Loughner managed to kill six people and injure 14. The dead include a federal judge, a congressional aide, and a nine year old girl who was attending the event because she was recently elected president of her third grade class. Jared Loughner used a G lock 19 9mm handgun, which he was easily able to acquire. Former classmates and associates of Loughner are reporting the typical characteristics seen in previous mass shooters and crazed assassins. Jared was apparently asocial, an outsider, irrational, and a frequent drug user. Loughner was even rejected from the military for failing a drug test. Gifford is a moderate democrat and was holding a “Congress on your Corner” meet and greet with constituents when Loughner opened fire, shooting her in the head. Gifford was able to survive the sure fatal shot because she received immediate assistance, which subdued the bleeding, and was in surgery just 38 minutes after being shot. Also, because the bullet entered and exited strictly on the left side of her head and not in between brain hemispheres, her chances of survival were increased as the brain damaged was contained. Medical professionals are optimistic about Gifford’s recovery due to the astounding fact that she has survived so far despite the severity of her injury. Loughner is charged with one count of attempted assassination of a member of congress, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government, and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee. =a F a ONLINE SOURCE Jared Loughner If convicted, Loughner could face the death penalty. However, authorities are not convinced that Loughner acted alone. Authorities have pictures of a second suspect on scene with Loughner before the shooting. The degree and nature of the second suspect’s role in the shooting is still unknown. The tragic consequences of the shooting has some critics raising questions regarding, for example, the accessibility of guns powerful enough to shoot twenty people in mere minutes in the United States. On the Monday following the shooting, President Obama called for a national moment of silence to honour the deceased and wounded. FF FF FF FF , Fe Se DD DD | #999, 9,9 9 , Ad & v MEET AND GREET Come have some free pizza with i a m og ag your student Tepresentatives| DATE : Tuesday, Jan , uary 25, 2011 : WHERE: NUGSS Main Office TIME: 12-2 pm = oe ee oes aad SUCCESS SC REBEREREESEEEESESG Aboriginal, Small-Town Students More Likely to Drop Out Research also suggests gender divides in dropout rates and programs EMMA GODMERE CUP OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF Ottawa (CUP) Recent research out of the University of Ottawa suggests certain students are more at risk of facing obstacles than others when it comes to completing post- secondary studies. Three studies released by the Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Aid project on Dec. 13 that compared male and female, rural and urban, and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students offered several notable conclusions — including, for example, that male students are more likely than their female counterparts to drop out of college in their first or second year of studies. Ross Finnie, associate professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, was the lead author on the studies, which surveyed more than 10,000 students between 2007 and 2009. “We’re identifying the sort of students that are at risk and it’s different than what people have been assuming, which is very important,” he said, noting that he was even surprised at some of the data. Finnie explained that while educators and government have held on to their own ideas of just who the students at risk of dropping out of their studies are, this new research brings in some new information. “Things like not having a history of education in the family is a huge determinant of access, whether or not you go to university or college,” he explained. “But then to find once people are in, it has almost no predictive power as to whether or not they'll continue on, that was a very interesting and important finding.” In terms of access, one study looked at how students had saved up for their post-secondary education and found that students from smaller communities are more likely than their urban counterparts to have saved money on their for school, while students from larger areas are more likely to have family members who saved tuition money for them. On top of that, students from larger urban areas reported receiving less government aid and money from summer jobs than their rural counterparts. And another study noted that females were more likely than males to be concerned about their collection of student debt. In terms of dropout rates, males attending college were more likely to leave their studies in first or second year, compared to their female colleagues — 25.2 per cent of men dropped out, compared to 21.5 per cent of women. A larger gap, however, was found between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students, where 30.8 per cent of Aboriginal youth left post-secondary studies in first or second year, compared to 13 per cent of non-Aboriginal student who have done the same. Deborah Loosemore is director of advancement and external relations at Algoma University, where information like this is taken to heart — and acted upon. “[We] have developed programs that are specifically designed to assist Aboriginal students who often follow a non-traditional route to university and so come with a different set of potential barriers that they might need assistance in overcoming to be successful,” she explained, adding that about 20 per cent of Algoma students self- identify as Aboriginal, Métis, Inuit or First Nations. “One of the things that we have been focusing on for a number of years is really increasing the retention rate from first to second year and so we’ve instituted a wide range of student services and support,” she continued. According to Loosemore, Algoma provides a “first generation mentorship program” that matches new students with those in later years to engage in peer-to-peer support. For Aboriginal students, dedicated counselling, academic advising and cultural supports are available. Between the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years, Algoma’s retention rate from first year into second year went from 73.1 per cent to 78 per cent. Finnie says the key to this kind of success, reducing dropout rates, is to talk to students about their experiences — something that may seem to be more prominent at smaller campuses. “Because Algoma University is one of Ontario’s smaller campuses, we’re able to reach out to students in a very personal way that is difficult on a larger campus,” said Loosemore, who explained that when the Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and Brampton campuses are all taken into account, there are approximately 1,252 students at Algoma University. Finnie agreed that more could be done to reach out to college and university students if universities, researchers and even the government work together — and that perhaps this recent research can help make that first step. “If research was done in a co-ordinated fashion, we could essentially work together to direct the research to find out even more exactly the students at risk are and then, perhaps more importantly, what we can do to help them,” he offered. “If we gather forces, we can gain more insight into what exactly is going on and then we can work together at the institutional level.”