[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Huntington Bank built a 'colleague-centric' culture Employee Benefit News[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Teachers Sue Former Colleague for Secretly Recording Them in School Bathroom VICE:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/QRQDQIVBCUFMNAHNI3JOO2M2FY.jpg)
A technical training company has been ordered to pay a former lecturer nearly €90,000 after she was sexually harassed in a classroom in the presence of her students by another instructor employed by the firm.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found Socrates Workforce Solutions Ltd vicariously liable for the harassment and sexual harassment of Kathleen Ryan by a colleague at a state training centre in the midlands on April 27th, 2021.
A “flawed” investigation that followed Ms Ryan’s complaint left her “confused” and the perpetrator – named only as Mr A in a decision published on Tuesday – feeling as though he had been “vindicated”, the adjudicating officer in the case wrote.
The adjudicator upheld Ms Ryan’s complaints alleging discrimination under the Employment Equality Act 1998 and penalisation under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
The complainant told the WRC last month that Mr A came into her classroom uninvited and “leered” at her as she delivered a lecture on April 27th last year.
As she was helping a student with a piece of equipment, the man went behind her and sexually assaulted her by putting his hands on her hips and pushing his genitals into her, she told the tribunal.
“I froze – I felt him push into me. All I could feel were his private parts pushed up against my behind,” she said.
She described glancing down to see the “white knuckles” of one of his hands as he gripped her.
The alleged perpetrator told an internal investigation he “stumbled and put his hands on her and apologised” while trying to pass her in the classroom, the hearing was told.
Both Mr A and Ms Ryan made comments on the final version of the investigation report but the tribunal heard that only Mr A’s comments were included verbatim.
These included a demand that Ms Ryan apologise to Mr A and a legal threat from him, the tribunal heard.
The hearing in October was attended by three directors of the firm: Ms Ryan’s line manager Thomas Maher; James Kearney, who investigated her first complaint; and Paul Comiskey, who delivered a written warning as a sanction to Mr A after a disciplinary investigation took place that was carried out and decided upon by Mr Kearney.
Ms Ryan’s barrister Lars Asmussen BL, instructed by Sean Ormonde Solicitors, said his client did not know what sanction was applied to Mr A.
Details of the sanction were revealed for the first time during the cross-examination of Mr Kearney.
“Why was it more appropriate to give an [initial] written warning rather than a final [one]?” Mr Asmussen asked.
“I’ve no answer to that. I just made the call,” Mr Kearney replied.
Ms Ryan said that in discussions with her bosses on returning to work, she was given the options of changing her hours or her workplace or continuing to work with Mr A.
“I said I didn’t want to be moved or transferred. [Thomas Maher, her line manager] said he didn’t want to transfer [Mr A],” she said. The tribunal was told Mr A resigned voluntarily in late 2021.
“I think he’s really dangerous and a real threat to women,” Ms Ryan said, adding that she thought her former place of work was “still really dangerous” in light of how her complaint had been handled. Mr A harassed Ms Ryan further with WhatsApp texts and a LinkedIn notification in August 2021, which she reported to her employer, the tribunal was told.
Sinéad Finnerty of Peninsula, appearing for the company, said her clients had done what was required of them by law by taking “such steps as are reasonably practical” in the circumstances and that Ms Ryan had been unreasonable to quit when the company grievance process was open to her.
“Mr Kearney has said he did his best to apply the procedures. Was it perfect in nature? Possibly not. Was there an attempt made? Yes,” she said. “It is absolutely unequivocal that the investigation in this case was flawed,” wrote adjudicating officer John Harraghy in his decision.
“The fact that Mr A felt vindicated, and that the complainant was confused in relation to the inconsistent conclusions clearly demonstrates that there were many shortcomings,” he wrote.
Mr Harraghy found Socrates Workforce Solutions was “vicariously liable for the harassment and sexual harassment” – a finding he said was “fortified” by the “irrefutable evidence” that Mr A went on to harass Ms Ryan twice again.
The fact that these allegations were not investigated or dealt with by the firm “reinforced” Ms Ryan’s concern that it was “not making reasonable efforts to create a safe place of work for her”.
Mr Harraghy said he accepted that Ms Ryan had “persistently and articulately” let her employer know the effects of the classroom incident.
“When the number of actions [she] endured are taken in their entirety, I conclude that the complainant was penalised as a result of the complaints,” he wrote.
In setting compensation, he noted that Ms Ryan “had to resign” from her new job when Mr A and the three directors of the respondent company secured a contract with her new employer.
Mr Harraghy found Ms Ryan had established a case of discrimination by way of harassment and sexual harassment on the ground of gender and ordered Socrates to pay her €64,584 in compensation, double her annual salary with the company.
He ruled she had also been penalised under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and ordered further compensation of €25,000 – bringing the total orders against the firm to €89,584.
The order for €64,584 is the second-largest made this year under the provisions of the Employment Equality Act.
When Rajeev Syal joined Huntington Bank as CHRO in 2015, he had one very large task on his to-do list: transform the bank into a "colleague-centric" organization.
Nearly eight years later, he's still chipping away at that goal.
"We can start and frankly end the conversation right there, because the work around colleagues will never be complete," Syal says. "We're on a journey, and it's one that evolves every year."
For the 20,000 employees of the Ohio-based organization, which operates across 11 states in the Midwest, the ongoing cultural evolution has required buy-in from all of its team members, who are encouraged to support and check in with each other. It's an encouraged practice that started during the pandemic, but one that continues to build systems of support for colleagues.
Read more: This CHRO wants employers to redefine 'work' beyond a COVID world
From a leadership perspective, Syal and his team used the challenges of the past three years to build a stronger Huntington for the future, bolstering the employee experience with supportive benefits for caregivers and mental health needs as well as expanded PTO policies.
Syal recently spoke with EBN about creating a cultural makeover, the pandemic lessons that will help propel Huntington into the future, and what will keep the organization competitive in 2023.
Back in 2015, how did you start to shift the organization's cultural focus toward colleagues?
We had to establish a level set of principles across the company. At the time, we had 14,000 colleagues — how do those 14,000 colleagues think? Do we think the same? Differently? What do we think about our company? How do we express our culture, purpose, and values? Do we understand the vision? The first step to answering those questions was to have conversations and listening sessions to understand what our colleagues, tenured and new, felt about the company. We wanted to hear all voices before recasting our purpose and values.
What did you learn from those listening sessions?
We didn't actually have a unified purpose. We knew we wanted to do good, we knew that we supported our communities and we knew that we supported one another, but we couldn't really synthesize it. We also had a list of nine values at the company — things like trust, integrity. But they were all things that, in a professional environment, are table stakes. So we instead asked our colleagues, what do you need to have to work here? And they came back with: the Huntington spirit. And that we ended up defining as a can-do attitude, service, heart, and forward thinking. And those still stay true today.
Read more: How to create a company no one wants to leave
So after years of working to grow this kind of people-focused, unified culture, you had to face the tumult of the past three years. How did you respond?
I think we made it because of those principles we had developed as part of our cultural journey before the pandemic happened. We went back to them at every turn: looking out for each other, serving our communities, our businesses, our colleagues. A can-do attitude might mean one thing if you're working in a brand in a normal environment. But a can-do attitude in a pandemic might be calling a colleague just to see how they're doing. It was about looking out for each other.
How did Huntington leadership encourage and empower the team to actually do that, and check in and take action and support one another?
We had to create new and immediate routines. We had leadership team meetings twice a day — one at the start of the day, and one at the end of the day, both focused on what we need to do, what we're hearing from management teams, what concerns and fears our colleagues have. From there we created new programs that looked out for their mental well-being, their physical well-being, their families. We started offering child care, elder care, all these programs that were really implemented because of the pandemic.
Are those programs still in existence today?
They are. The pandemic changed the way we work, and it changed the way we look forward. Everything is a finite resource, so we knew that some things would be temporary, but we knew that others would be long-term. Other programs evolved — during the pandemic we offered emergency time off to create flexibility for colleagues who needed to support their family members, now we've blended that into incremental PTO for 2023, so whether you have an emergency or not, the time is available to you.
Read more: The former CHRO of Equifax and Coca-Cola talks DEI, ESG and company culture
During this time, where did you as a leader turn for support?
The peers that I have in regional banks and money center banks, we coordinated a group of about two dozen of us, and still to this day, every two weeks, we have a practice where the CHROs dial up, get connected for 45 minutes, and go through topical issues of the day. That was a precedent moment — normally you wouldn't call someone up at another bank and see what's going on. But while we don't share proprietary information, there are a lot of similarities in what we do. And it was a network and a respite for all of us to get our bearings and make sure we were getting peer feedback.
As we head into 2023, how is Huntington approaching talent recruitment and retention.
Our philosophy is to retain first, then attract. It's important to retain our best colleagues, and we do that through three different indices: culture, trust, and engagement. And we measure those through surveys, listening sessions and manager interactions. From there, we can attract people, because it comes down to what kind of company we are and if this is a place people want to grow their careers.
Postgraduate medicos at the Government Medical College Hospital here, who have been protesting strongly against the alleged police inaction in arresting the person accused of attacking their woman colleague while she was on duty on Wednesday, have decided to intensify their agitation.
Following their 12-hour strike on Friday at the Thiruvananthapuram MCH, when all resident doctors stayed away from duty in outpatient and in-patient clinics, the protests were taken to government medical colleges across the State on Saturday.
In a symbolic protest against the violence they had to put up with at the workplace, all faculty, medicos, and even the nursing staff came for work donning helmets on Saturday. Doctors attended OP clinics with face-covering helmets.
In the evening, medicos and other professional associations of doctors held a candlelight protest inside the Thiruvananthapuram MCH. Doctors said that the police and the authorities seemed to take a lenient view of the physical assaults they were up against at their workplaces. They were also peeved that it was mostly in public sector hospitals that people dared to take law into their own hands and assault doctors.
Attacks on healthcare workers are on the rise in the State and even though a strong law, Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2012, is in place to prevent violence against doctors and hospitals, the Act is being rendered useless by the soft- pedalling approach of the police and the local politicians. The PG resident doctor on duty in the neurosurgery ICU at the MCH was attacked, when she informed a man about the death of his wife, who was being treated for brain tumour.
Meanwhile, media reports said that the family of the accused had alleged that the case against the accused was fabricated and that he had moved court for anticipatory bail.
ESPN analyst Steve Young scoffed at colleague Booger McFarland after McFarland claimed New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson is struggling because he grew up rich.
Wilson only completed nine of 22 attempts for 77 yards and did not have a touchdown pass in a 10-3 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday. The Patriots scored a touchdown late on a punt return to secure the win over the Jets. The Jets’ defense kept the Patriots’ offense out of the endzone and kept the game tied, which gave their offense many opportunities to score.
After Wilson‘s poor performance, he was asked if he let the Jets’ defense down, to which Wilson answered, “no.” Jets head coach Robert Saleh announced Monday afternoon that he would not commit to Wilson as the first-string quarterback for their game Sunday against the Chicago Bears.
On ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, Wilson’s lack of accountability and starting status was discussed — with co-host Robert Griffin III explaining that Wilson’s teammates would not appreciate Wilson’s lack of accountability.
“When you have outings like that, and you have negative 22 yards in the second half, everybody’s going to jump on the bandwagon of crushing ya, and you didn’t help yourself,” Griffin said. “You gave them the shovel, Booger, to bury him by saying ‘no’ in that postgame and not taking accountability.”
McFarland pivoted after Griffin used the term “accountability” and explained to the audience how wealthy Wilson was when he grew up. As a result, McFarland argued, Wilson never had to take responsibility for his actions.
“You mention one word, accountability,” McFarland added. “Let’s understand who this young man is before we ask him to accept accountability. He’s a young man who grew up with a lot of money. I don’t think he’s ever had to accept accountability, and so now, on the biggest stage, we want this quarterback to accept accountability.”
Young, who attended the same college as Wilson (Brigham Young University), quickly defended the young quarterback and argued Wilson’s family wealth had nothing to do with his lack of accountability.
“That doesn’t resonate at all,” Young said. “He’s a tough-minded kid.”
McFarland quickly fired back.
“He hasn’t had to accept accountability,” McFarland answered. “And so now, on the biggest stage, we want this kid to be an adult in front of grown men and accept accountability. It may not feel good, but what I know about it, he let them down yesterday.
McFarland argued head coach Saleh needed to step in and explain to Wilson that his actions were unacceptable.
“And I think if you’re Robert Saleh, you have to go to him and say, ‘Hey listen, I don’t know how you’re used to doing things, with how you grew up, but when you’re professional, and you go out and perform the way you did, you have to accept accountability,'” McFarland said.
Young believes accountability is just part of the job for an NFL signal caller.
“In the end, it’s a quarterback’s fundamental job, is to bring the team forward,” Young added. “And if you can’t do that, that’s fundamental to the job. We stipulate to that.”
Watch above via ESPN.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
ESPN analyst and former NFL tight end Ben Watson decided to walk off the set on Saturday when his colleague made an out-of-line joke during the SEC Network’s halftime show. The crew appeared to be having a good laugh at first when co-analyst Peter Burns joked about Watson being the only member on camera wearing a light-colored suit.
Watson then said he doesn’t care how he looked as long as his wife approves the wardrobe.
“As long as I get a text from my wife that says I look good,” Watson said. “Send me the text, baby. Send me the text.”
Burns followed up with a response that wasn’t accepted very well.
“That’s not the text she sent me,” he said.
When the show later came back from commercial break, only host Chris Doering and analyst Takeo Spikes were still sitting at the desk. Watson came back after the show was already on air, but Burns was still missing.
Doering tried to make light of the situation, asking Watson if he told Burns to “keep your wife’s name out your mouth.”
“Huh?” Watson said, hinting that he didn’t want to talk about it.
The bizarre moment caught plenty of attention on social media.
Burns later posted a photo with Watson, captioning the picture with #friendship. While Burns showed off a beaming smile in the photo, Watson didn’t appear so pleased.
According to Sports Illustrated, Watson confirmed that he was upset. The former NFL player added that Burns owes his wife a “public apology.”
A college football halftime show got interesting on Saturday when one analyst wasn’t feeling a joke his colleague made about his wife.
The trouble started after Benjamin Watson, part of the SEC Network’s halftime report during the Florida vs. Vanderbilt game, weighed in on a discussion about suit choices during the broadcast.
Watson, who wore a light blue suit as opposed to his colleagues’ dark-colored suits, said his choice of suit doesn’t matter as long as his wife texts him and confirms he looks good on the program.
Watson’s remark, however, was quickly countered with a joke that seemingly didn’t go so well with him.
“Send me the text, babe. Send me the text,” Watson pleaded.
“It’s not the one she sent me,” said fellow analyst Peter Burns, who received a boisterous reaction from his colleagues.
A straight-faced Watson later walked back onto the set after a commercial break to join the analysts table, which notably didn’t include Burns.
You can watch a clip of the joke and Watson’s reaction below.
The two later appeared to quash their on-air beef, however, as Burns tweeted out a picture of the two alongside the hashtag “Friendship.”
A college football halftime show got interesting on Saturday when one analyst wasn’t feeling a joke his colleague made about his wife.
The trouble started after Benjamin Watson, part of the SEC Network’s halftime report during the Florida vs. Vanderbilt game, weighed in on a discussion about suit choices during the broadcast.
Watson, who wore a light blue suit as opposed to his colleagues’ dark-colored suits, said his choice of suit doesn’t matter as long as his wife texts him and confirms he looks good on the program.
Watson’s remark, however, was quickly countered with a joke that seemingly didn’t go so well with him.
“Send me the text, babe. Send me the text,” Watson pleaded.
“It’s not the one she sent me,” said fellow analyst Peter Burns, who received a boisterous reaction from his colleagues.
A straight-faced Watson later walked back onto the set after a commercial break to join the analysts table, which notably didn’t include Burns.
You can watch a clip of the joke and Watson’s reaction below.
The two later appeared to quash their on-air beef, however, as Burns tweeted out a picture of the two alongside the hashtag “Friendship.”
A weekly advice column for K-12 teachers to share their joys, frustrations, and ongoing questions about teaching.
I teach the same class as one of my colleagues. We’re meant to give the same assignments, quizzes, and assessments, but the other teacher keeps changing their curriculum without telling me. I only found out because one of my homeroom students, who has the other teacher, asked me for help with an assignment.
I know everyone has different teaching styles, but I think it’s important that students learn the same content. This other teacher has been teaching the class longer than I have. What should I do? — Out of the Loop
Out of the Loop,
To answer your question, we have to zoom out.
Historically, students learned in multi-grade, one-room schoolhouses. Theorists who led school reform in the early 20th century decided that educators who wanted to build student learning should not work in isolation.
In the early 1960s, the term professional learning community (PLC) first emerged among researchers and became popular during the 1980s and early 1990s. PLCs provide teachers with an opportunity to use collective efforts to achieve a clear, commonly shared purpose for student learning.
You are PLC-ready. Your partner may not be.
PLCs arrived in my school district in the early 2000s, after I’d been in the profession for five or six years. I remember that implementation of PLCs was difficult, and there was not a lot of teacher buy-in.
PLC requirements were closely connected to student testing and common formative assessments. Administrators used testing data to determine if students were learning and some bonuses were determined by these scores. Teachers resisted because they were not willing to churn out robots who could perform well on tests but not necessarily know the content.
There are teachers who believe that all students can learn, just not on the same day or in the same way.
Your philosophy differs from your co-worker. Which one of you is right?
In the times we are facing, teaching should not feel like an episode of Survivor. If someone is isolating and not sharing information, there is a reason.
The students are not suffering and they can still thrive with either approach. It seems like what’s actually not working is the relationship between you and your colleague. Ask yourself if there are ways to build trust.
- Notice the positive. Teachers arrive to school early, stay late, bring work home, contact parents, grade papers, plan lessons, write curriculum, manage behaviors, provide social and emotional support, keep up with pop culture, redirect cell phone usage, buy materials, arrange for field trips and guest speakers, and manage whatever the principal requests on a daily basis.
Have you noticed your fellow teacher doing well at any of these tasks? Check in and acknowledge the teacher in genuine ways. Your consideration could go a long way even if it is as simple as a thank you card or a gold star sticker.
- Look for ways to help. I remember attending teacher development training at The Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. I was blown away by Kim Bearden’s personal story of divorcing while being an educator and leader at this prestigious well-known school. She suffered in silence. Some days she suffered aloud. Her story reminds us we need each other to get through the toughest times in our lives.
We have all worked with a teacher who was overwhelmed. If you haven’t, you will.
Find out where and how you can provide support. You do not know what this other teacher is experiencing. There is an unfortunate trend of teachers judging other teachers when really there are areas where they may need assistance. Ask. If that teacher does not accept your offer, then do not continue to press. Let time work in your favor.
- Trust your colleague. I have one literature class where I have to adjust my lesson plans every time. We move at a slower pace and sometimes I change the lesson completely from the other classes. I am not doing that class a disservice. I am adjusting according to their needs. When testing time comes, they will be as prepared as the other classes because I intuitively know what they should be learning and how to remove the non-essential agenda items.
The other teacher has been teaching longer than you have. I have to assume that you learned about PLCs early in your career and adapted the concepts into your pedagogy. Your teaching partner may not have. They may be operating under PLC resistance, but trust that their students are getting the information to succeed in the class.
- Do not take it personally. Let’s imagine your fellow teacher is doing the bare minimum and is muddling through this year. The lack of effort can truly be disheartening at a time when there is so much work to be done.
Please do not allow those work habits to interfere with your personal and career goals. If you were to become derailed by a fellow teacher, the students will face the problem of two distracted and possibly disconnected teachers.
Out of the Loop, workplace dynamics can be challenging. Teaching is meant to be a career and not your life. Make sure you do not fall into the trap of alienating co-workers. Get back into the loop by building an environment of trust and academic professionalism.
Dr. Kem Smith is Chalkbeat’s first advice columnist. She is a full-time 12th-grade English teacher in St. Louis, Missouri. Submit your question to Dr. Kem via this submission form, and subscribe to How I Teach to receive her column in your inbox.
If you have a rebuttal or additional advice you’d like to share with Out of the Loop, please email afterthebell@chalkbeat.org.
Scientists from Cologne and Utrecht have found that employees are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables as well as engage in physical activity when their colleagues encourage a healthy lifestyle. Also, employees' healthy eating behavior is positively correlated with their colleagues' fruit and vegetable consumption.
However, if one colleague exercises a lot, this does not prompt others to emulate him or her. Thus, regarding physical exercise, explicit encouragement has a positive effect, but employees do not tend to model their behavior on that of other co-workers who are physically more active. The scientists conclude that overall, colleagues' encouragement and own healthy behaviors have the potential to contribute to creating a culture of health at the workplace and support all employees in making healthy choices. The study was conducted by Professor Dr Lea Ellwardt at the University of Cologne's Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology (ISS) and Anne van der Put from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University. Their article 'Employees' healthy eating and physical activity: the role of colleague encouragement and behavior' has been published in BMC Public Health.
Exercising and healthy eating are not just individual choices, they are influenced by family members, friends, or neighbors. Little is known, however, about the role of co-workers, who are another important interpersonal influence. People spend many hours at work, surrounded by mostly the same colleagues, who could therefore significantly shape employees' (un)healthy choices. The scientists studied to what extent colleagues may play a part in one another's eating and exercise behaviors by focusing on two pathways: colleagues can encourage a healthy lifestyle or act as role models whose behaviors can be observed and copied.
The team used the European Sustainable Workforce Survey, with data on 4345 employees in 402 teams in 113 organizations. 'Our study showed that employees are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables as well as engage in physical activity when their colleagues encourage a healthy lifestyle,' said Ellwardt. Contrary to their expectations, however, van der Put and Ellwardt found a negative correlation between employees' and colleagues' physical activity where no explicit encouragement was involved. 'One explanation for our negative result may be that physical activity typically takes place outside working hours, where it is hardly visible to colleagues,' Ellwardt concluded. People eat often at work every day together with colleagues, whereas physical activity takes place privately, making it less prone to social influence.
The study takes into consideration both colleagues' encouragement and their actual behaviors, addressing encouragement specific to the behavior rather than generic social support, and examining behaviors that also take place outside the workplace. Ellwardt explained: 'The study is one of the first to address the role of co-workers' behaviors using a network approach incorporating direct colleagues. This allowed for a more finely grained analysis than the aggregation of individual-level measures or relating employees who may not work in close proximity.'
Overall, colleagues' encouragement and own healthy behaviors have the potential to contribute to creating a culture of health at the workplace and support all employees in making healthy choices. The authors believe this makes it promising for managers and public health policymakers to consider. 'Our study implies that when designing health interventions, it is important to incorporate the work environment alongside other social actors such as partners, family members, and friends. Colleagues are relevant sources of social support when it comes to healthy behaviors and can act as role models,' Ellwardt concluded. Crucially, not only do colleague encouragement and behaviors contribute to creating a culture of health in the workplace, they also indirectly support the entire work population, including those not using dedicated programs at the workplace.
Future research would benefit from using longitudinal data to examine influence processes over time, the authors believe. Since individuals internalize cues from their environment to shape their intrinsic motivation, this research could show how long it takes a new employee to adapt to current workplace health norm.
van der Put, A & Ellwardt, L., (2022) Employees' healthy eating and physical activity: the role of colleague encouragement and behaviour. BMC Public Health. doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14394-0.
For many, the stakes could not have been higher when the nine Supreme Court justices met on Halloween to hear oral arguments that could alter the use of affirmative action in college admissions.
Hamilton President David Wippman and former Cornell University colleague Glenn Altschuler traced the history of affirmative action from its roots in the Civil War and Reconstruction to the case currently before the Supreme Court in an article for The Washington Post’s Made By History section. This popular section in the Post provides “historical analyses to situate the events making headlines in their larger historical context.” Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell.
It is hardly the first time Wippman and Altschuler have written about a national issue affecting higher education. Since 2019, the pair has published more than 30 articles and op-eds on topics ranging from Title IX and cancel culture, to tenure and transgender athletes. In addition to The Washington Post, the articles have appeared in The Hill, Inside Higher Education, The New York Times, The Hechinger Report, and History News Network.
College presidents, in particular, are criticized for not using their bully pulpit, a topic Wippman and Altschuler tackled in a July 31, 2022, article for The Hill titled “Speaking up about college presidents speaking out.” “We believe [presidents] should [speak out],” they wrote, “but only on issues that have a direct impact on their campus communities and in ways that protect and promote their commitment to critical thinking, active debate, and the pursuit of truth by students, faculty, and staff.”
For Wippman, speaking publicly about issues central to a college’s operations or to higher education in general demonstrates his own commitment to Hamilton’s mission and its call for students to be active citizens.
In their recent Washington Post article, Wippman and Altschuler concluded: “Yet, given the court’s conservative majority, any argument in favor of affirmative action probably won’t prevail — and many Americans fear the demise of a policy that has enriched the learning environment at colleges and universities, promoted economic mobility, and “counter[ed] the effects of societal discrimination.”
Excerpts from prior Wippman-Altschuler op-eds:
With nearly 35 percent of the vote, incumbent Monica Wilson beat colleague Lori Ogorchock to keep her District 4 seat on the Antioch City Council.
District realignment forced Ogorchock over from District 3. She finished second with nearly 31 percent, followed by challengers Shawn Pickett and Sandra White.
Ogorchock was one of two council members voting against Antioch's rent stabilization ordinance in October, which left her on the other side of Wilson. Ogorchock also publicly called for Mayor Lamar Thorpe's resignation earlier this year after his DUI arrest and sexual harassment claims aimed at him went public.
Wilson campaigned on her record of helping crack down on human trafficking, enacting police reform, the creation of a mental health crisis response team, co-authorship of the sales tax Measure W in 2018, and supporting a ban on natural gas and oil drilling in Antioch.
Wilson also said she supports building shelters, hiring a homeless outreach coordinator, and purchasing a motel to convert to transitional housing. She has also advocated for youth programs and youth involvement on city boards and commissions. Wilson also serves as chair of the Delta Diablo Sanitation District.
Copyright © 2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.
Copyright © 2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Clemson men’s tennis team completed day two of the Liberty Hidden Dual on Saturday evening. After a long delay due to a power outage, the Tigers registered a doubles win and two singles wins against Old Dominion.
“It was a tough day for both Clemson and Old Dominion with the power outage,” said Head Coach Robbie Weiss. “Old Dominion handled the long delay better than us and give full credit to them. Our energy was below our standard for doubles, and it cost us the point. Jorge played tremendous tennis at #1 and continued his winning ways. Matt Pitts also played very well and was victorious for the second day in a row.”
“Max and Spencer both lost in tough three set matches while Nini improved in his second match back after being out for two years from competition but fell short in his efforts. I could not be happier with Jorge. He is playing inspired tennis and competing at a very high level. Matt is gaining form and building confidence which is great to see. We will get back to work tomorrow morning when we play Penn State and improve on today’s performance.”
The Tigers got out to a bit of a slower start, dropping doubles matches on Courts 1 and 2, but Matt Pitts and Trey Stinchcomb were victorious on Court 3 with a dominant 6-2 win.
Jorge Plans Gonzalez registered his second straight singles win this weekend, cruising to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Old Dominion’s Van Schalkwyk while M. Pitts also won his second straight match on Court 5 by a score of 7-5, 6-4. Spencer Whitaker, Max Smith, Nini Dica and Ethan Silva dropped their matches on their respective courts. Stinchcomb and Tim Pitts also competed for the Tigers.
The Tigers are back in action tomorrow morning as they take on Penn State at 9 a.m. for the final day of the Liberty Hidden Dual.
For all tournament scores click here.
For complete coverage of the Clemson men’s tennis team follow @ClemsonMTennis on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Meghan knew something was wrong the morning after they’d had sex. The 34-year-old from Manchester had slept with someone she met on a night out; the details were blurry, but it had been incredibly uncomfortable. “It felt really unpleasant and painful, but I didn’t think much of it.” The following week, she was on the train for a work trip when she noticed a “really horrible, pungent smell”.
“At first I thought it must be something on the train, but as the day progressed I realised the smell was following me,” she says. “I started to feel really confused, embarrassed and pretty disgusting, to be honest. It was only on the journey home later, after a colleague mentioned the smell, that it clicked.”
That was when she realised: there was a tampon stuck inside her. “I got off the train, rushed straight home and into the shower, where I managed to retrieve it after a lot of dry heaving and crying,” she recalls. “It was really traumatic. Afterwards I felt really sick. I had been experiencing a stomach ache in the days leading up to it, which then made sense.”
Meghan’s experience is the kind that anyone who menstruates has feared since puberty. Generally speaking, tampons shouldn’t be left in for longer than eight hours. While it’s not possible for a tampon to get lost inside someone, it is possible – and surprisingly common – for people to forget that one is there. In these cases “it can get stuck inside the vagina high up in one of the corner spaces beside the neck of the womb”, explains a spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Most of the time, there are likely to be no long-term health implications if the tampon is removed soon enough. “But if it’s retained for a long time, it can result in pelvic infection, which spreads from the vagina to the uterus and fallopian tubes into the pelvis, which can lead to fertility problems, especially if the tube gets damaged,” adds the spokesperson. “It could also put you at risk of toxic shock syndrome [TSS].”
TSS is described by the NHS as a “rare but life-threatening condition caused by bacteria getting into the body and releasing harmful toxins”. Symptoms can include a high fever, feeling sick, difficulty breathing, dizziness, confusion, and flu-like symptoms.
The condition made headlines recently when former Love Island star Maura Higgins described what happened when she once accidentally left a tampon inside her for three months. Speaking on ITV2’s Shopping with Keith Lemon while perusing the shelves of Boots, the 31-year-old revealed she was diagnosed with TSS when she was younger.
“I did have a very bad experience,” she told the TV presenter. “I’m not a doctor: I don’t know much about TSS, but I know you are not meant to leave a tampon inside for more than, I think, nine hours – I think that’s the max.” Higgins went on to say that the doctor found it “stuck to [her] cervix”. She added, “I was so ill. I’m not going to lie, it did [smell]. We evacuated the room.”
Although she made light of it, Higgins wanted to speak about the importance of raising awareness for TSS. “There are people that have died from that happening,” she said. “Young girls might not have noticed: maybe you went on a night out, got really drunk and forgot. These things actually do happen, and people don’t speak about it.”
Another person it happened to is Jessica, 28, from London. She was having sex with her partner when she realised there was a tampon inside her. “He told me it felt weird and we immediately stopped,” she says. “I tried to get it out but was really struggling because of the angle. In the end my partner did it.”
Afterwards, despite the fact the tampon had been removed, Jessica started to feel unwell. “I remember seeing a lot about TSS when I was younger so I started to google the side effects and panicked as I was experiencing some of them – aching body, headache, feeling sick. I went to A&E to get checked out. It was all fine in the end; I didn’t have TSS.”
But how do you know there’s a forgotten tampon inside you if you can’t feel it or see the string? The RCOG says that “you may start experiencing or noticing offensive, foul-smelling discharge” or experiencing other symptoms to indicate that you are unwell.
If you do suspect that a tampon has got stuck inside you, the RCOG suggests trying to remove it yourself in the first instance. If you’re not able to feel anything but still have a strong suspicion that there is a tampon there, it’s best to contact your GP or local accident and emergency department. A doctor will usually be able to locate it using a speculum. Once it is removed, you might be given a course of antibiotics in case an infection has been detected.
The best way to prevent a tampon from getting stuck is to ensure you change it every eight hours. “Consider keeping an alarm alert or reminder to check and remove tampons,” says the RCOG. “And if you have had TSS before, avoid using tampons altogether.”
We need to be having more open and honest conversations about things like this
The trouble is that society attaches shame to the female body – and vaginas in particular – which can prevent people from seeking help when health issues such as this one arise. “I felt a huge sense of embarrassment when I noticed the smell,” says Meghan. “And then, when I realised what had happened, I felt anxious about knowing I’d have to try and get it out; I’d never felt so far up before, so the prospect unnerved me. I remember feeling really ashamed and disgusted in my body back then.”
Evidently, this is not just a health issue but a societal one too. Even when Higgins discusses what happened to her on TV, she recounts the story with an overriding sense of humiliation, replying, “I’m going to die!” when Lemon brings it up. Her disgust is echoed by the TV host, who jokes, “bet it f***ing stunk didn’t it?” and compares the scent to “a dead rat”.
This sense of embarrassment fosters a culture whereby people are not seeking the treatment they need. Consider the decrease in the number of people having cervical screening tests last year. Or the fact that a quarter of women who have been diagnosed with cervical cell changes feel “ashamed”. Or that many young women are even putting off smear tests due to embarrassment.
“We need to be having more open and honest conversations about things like this,” insists Meghan. “It might make people check and double check when putting in a new tampon, preventing more serious side effects.” Since the lost tampon incident, Meghan has learned to appreciate her body in a new way.
“When I removed the tampon the first time, I remember thinking, ‘so that’s what was inside of me’. It made me feel a bit more comfortable, and I’ve found things like cervical screenings a lot easier since. It’s pretty amazing really, the way your body gives you the signals you need to realise something is wrong.” When Meghan thinks about what happened now, though, the shame has dissipated. “I just think, ‘wow, my body is amazing’.”
Names have been changed
A non-team-scoring meet, the Triple Distance Meet splits swimmers into event groups (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, sprint freestyle, distance free and individual medley) and requires swims at three different distances within the event: 50, 100 and 200 yards in the fly, breast, back and sprint free; 200, 500, 1,000 in the distance free; 100, 200 and 400 in the IM.
"I'm really proud of the way we raced today," said The Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Dan Schemmel. "We put in a lot of good work this fall, battled a lot of sickness and injuries, but despite all that, this is probably the best performance we've had at this meet top-to-bottom, and I feel like that's a very good sign of things to come."
Stanford took home three of the Triple Distance titles, as Jonathan Affeld earned first place in the fly, Ethan Dang captured the breast title, and Preston Forst took the top spot in the distance free.
Affeld's title was the product of dominant swims in the 50 (21.87) and 200 (1:47.07) fly, both individual event wins that powered him to first place in the Triple Distance. His collective time over the three events of 2:57.55 beat out California's Dare Rose by two tenths of a second, while Ethan Hu took third place in the Triple Distance fly with a 2:59.12.
In the breast, Ethan Dang swam a decisive 200 (1:57.94) to take the top spot in the Triple Distance after clocking an overall time of 3:17.49. Zhier Fan was right on Dang's heels, taking second overall with a 3:18.54 and claiming event wins in both the 50 (25.08) and the 100 (54.18).
Preston Forst flexed his muscle in the distance events, sweeping the 200 (1:38.91), 500 (4:29.26), and 1000 (9:17.23) events and taking the Triple Distance crown by nearly a 16 second margin with a time of 15:25.40. Gabe Machado also grabbed a podium spot in the distance free, taking third overall with a Triple Distance time of 15:45.60.
In the short distance free, all five of Stanford's swimmers finished between second and sixth overall, as Luke Maurer led the way while nabbing silver in the Triple Distance with a time of 2:40.83, just three tenths of second behind California's Robin Hanson. Maurer took second in each of the 50 (20.07), 100 (43.75), and the 200 (1:37.01).
Ron Polonsky also took second in the IM Triple Distance, clocking a 6:31.99 overall. He also took second in each of the 100 (50.17), the 200 (1:46.40), and the 400 (3:55.42).
Stanford returns to action in the NC State/GAC Invite later this month to wrap up the fall season.
If you were to walk into your workplace, no matter how small, the likelihood is that someone there has been affected by cancer. A macabre version of ‘six degrees of Kevin Bacon’ - in which it’s suggested he can be linked to any other actor within six connections or less – cancer is so pervasive that you’re more likely to know someone who’s had it than not.
One in two people will develop cancer at some point in their lifetime, with breast cancer cited as the most common to be newly diagnosed. Given these statistics, it’s safe to assume that at some point in our careers, someone we work with is going to have been through it. Despite this, talking about it at work – particularly to colleagues currently in or returned from treatment – remains largely taboo.
According to research conducted by AXA PPP Healthcare in 2016, just one fifth of managers who had team members with cancer had discussed the illness with them, because they aren’t sure what to say. A Cancer and Employment survey by iES shows that this left many of these team members feeling under supported, with a clear need for more employers to offer a phased return, vocational rehabilitation and job redesign.
For Jessica Jackson - the protagonist in journalist and author Laura Price’s debut novel, Single Bald Female - who is diagnosed with breast cancer just days after landing her dream job as a magazine editor, quitting work just isn’t an option. Partly because she can’t afford it and partly because she just doesn’t want to – she loves her career, has worked hard to get to where she is and isn’t about to let it go easily. Though she takes the days after each chemotherapy session off, she works throughout her treatment, making this one of few modern depictions of what living with cancer might actually be like for a young woman with ambition.
“Jess’s career is important to her in terms of her mental health and her independence – she needs something to keep her going, and she doesn’t want people to feel sorry for her,” explains Laura, who wrote the book after going through a similar experience herself. Diagnosed with breast cancer at 29, when she initially returned to work, her colleagues were understanding, but as more time passed, they struggled to see her remission status as anything other than absolute.
“When I returned to work shortly after finishing chemotherapy, people were very understanding because I still had the physical signs of cancer such as a bald head,” she explains. “But later, when I still suffered from extreme fatigue and some days struggled to get out of bed, it was hard for my team to understand why I might not be up to working, or up to socialising after work.”
Now with a secondary diagnosis, Laura is once again navigating work and treatment at the same time.
“I was lucky enough to have paid leave when I underwent chemotherapy for primary breast cancer when I was 29, but I am now working full-time throughout ongoing treatment for secondary breast cancer at 40 because I have to for financial reasons, because the treatment is for the rest of my life and because I’m not too unwell to work.”
Despite what many cancer depictions in film and TV tell us, most women who have received treatment for cancer will have to return to work in some capacity afterwards. A large part of making that transition easier is having colleagues who provide adequate support.
So what is the best way to do this? It’s understandable that many of us worry about getting it wrong and as Laura points out, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but there are actions we can take to make it less of a hurdle.
Don’t make assumptions
First of all, Laura suggests following the lead of your colleague and not assuming what they can or can’t do – even as more time passes by. “Remember that even if your colleague is not going through something as intense as chemotherapy, they may still be having other types of treatment,” she says. “There is every chance they are still suffering physical or mental side effects of some form, so be aware that their needs may change from week to week. Never assume their illness is completely in the past.”
Be direct
Unlike those managers unable to overcome their own awkwardness, Laura believes it’s best to have an honest conversation and actually ask the person what they need. “Don’t pussy-foot around your colleague or assume they are less capable than they were before. Be direct with them – ask them how they are feeling, and what they need from you. A simple “What do you need from me?” will go a long way.”
And for those with the illness…
“Decide on what your boundaries are,” Laura recommends, “whether you want your colleagues to know what’s going on with you on a personal level, and how you want to be treated. If you don’t want to be treated any differently, make that clear. But if you need more help or some extra flexibility, make that clear too. I always asked colleagues to ask me directly if they had any questions about my cancer – I didn’t want anyone talking or speculating behind my back – and Jess does the same in the book. But there really is no right or wrong way to handle returning to work after illness – you do you.”
Aside from articles and books, Laura also writes a newsletter. To follow her experiences, subscribe here.
If you or your colleagues need support on returning to work after cancer, you can contact the Macmillan Work Support Service here.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/INFAMRXS2RMPNLIHTQW2GXZH7U.jpg)
OTTAWA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The Toronto Stock Exchange(TSX) said its trading platforms were now running normally after about an hour of technical issues which led to the halt of all equities trading on Tuesday morning.
TSX-operator TMX Group posted a tweet about a connection issue with Canada's largest stock exchange at 10:12 local time (1412 GMT). Soon after, all trading was halted on TMX-run markets.
TMX said it experienced a technical issue that impacted client connectivity on its equities markets.
The issue was resolved and TSX's trading system status website showed all trading platforms and all related components were functioning normally at 11:20 local time.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
nnnindonesia.blogspot.com First responders in Côte-Saint-Luc are worried and heartbroken after their colleague, volunteer Clifford Jordan, ...
COMMents