Concussions more serious than we know in college sports

[Photo taken by Anne Thompson of the university of Denver vs Loyola playoff game]

Concussions in college sports is something that has been researched for quite some time as it pertains to impacting student athlete immediately after the concussion incident as well as the impact it may have later down the road.

In the last five years, the NCAA has reported that there have been approximately ten thousand five hundred (10,500) diagnosed concussions in all of college sports. (NCAA)

“I see about two to three severe concussions every year. That’s not including the times where I see a big hit and the player gets up, takes a quick break and gets back out there or when payers lie about how their feeling,” said Josie White the athletic trainer for the University of Denver Men’s Lacrosse team.

Read more: Concussions more serious than we know in college sports

With a lot on the line players maybe hesitant to explain what they’re feeling as the fear of coming out of the game or practice may overshadow the risk, they are putting on their health, athletes are risking more than they even know.

“Players don’t understand the logistics and how minor hits, or collisions can cause a concussion. They don’t understand how the earlier we understand and treat the situation, the less severe it will be and the sooner they’ll be back,” said Ms. White

It only takes ninety Gs of force to cause a concussion, that is equivalent to hitting your head against a wall at 20 mile per hour. (Online website)

Players don’t understand that these minor symptoms add up and can make you more prone to future concussions and damage your brain in other ways such as school, social interactions or other activities.

“School isn’t easy for me at all I have pretty bad dyslexia, so it takes a lot to focus on my work, so I don’t make mistakes. Every time I’ve had a concussion the first few weeks after is such a struggle because my brain feels like it just cannot focus on anything,” said Andrew DiFrancesca, medically retired due to concussions with the Denver lacrosse team.

There are times to be strong willed and willing to risk your body for your team but when you’re dealing with something as important as your brain that is not something you want to play around with.

Your brain is something that needs to be healthy and stable in order to give yourself the best chances of living a long and healthy life. Constant or repeated head trauma doesn’t allow the brain to be the best so it can perform at a high level for a long time.

“After my ninth concussion I had a long talk with my family about what I should do, after fighting through the obstacles concussions made for me, I knew it was time to hang up the stick and helmet. I couldn’t keep risking my future for lacrosse,” said DiFrancesco.

Not only is long term trauma a huge concern but the instant trauma a concussions has can is also a huge concern and can make it hard to come back from.

“It was annoying how many weeks of school I missed because every time I had a concussion I wasn’t allowed to stare at a screen or focus on anything to intensively, so once I was ready to come back, I was out of shape from doing nothing and I was behind in school,” said DiFrancesca

Research shows that multiple episodes of mild head trauma can have a combining effect that may also result in serious long lasting conditions. For example, an individual who experiences a concussion and has a second one before recovering from the first is prone to development of a second impact. This can lead to major brain impairment and even death. (EBSCO)

Jack Hannah former Denver Men’s Lacrosse player said “I was honestly scared once I got up from my hit. I was dumb and kept playing but it wasn’t me. If I talked to the trainer and understood more about concussions, there was no way I would’ve gone back in.”

From further research, baseline testing is useful for detecting deficits following a sports concussion. A total of 223 collegiate athletes from multiple sports who sustained concussions and had both baseline and post-injury testing. Each athlete used Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT). (The Utility of Post-Concussion Neuropsychological Data in Identifying Cognitive Change Following Sports-Related MTBI in the Absence of Baseline Data.)

“I’ve done the impact testing many times I don’t feel like it doesn’t anything, but I’ll take the doctors word for it because I just show up and play if they say its fine for me to play,”

After going through repeatedly pushing your body through intense training and conditioning in college sports you tend to look the other way when things don’t feel right as most believe it’s just normal wear and tear.

“After I was hit, I got up angry like I always do but it did not feel normal, first my ears were ringing and neck kind of felt tweaked. But as I continued to play, I started to feel lethargic, even with these unusual symptoms I didn’t know what it was like having a concussion,”

Not knowing the signs is dangerous for athletes. They’re taught from a young age unless you’re not breathing, there is no blood, or you can’t walk then just keep playing.

That is why at NFL games there is usually thirty medical professionals and at least ten are on the sidelines watching carefully taking notes and making observations on certain players and plays that have happened to make sure nothing is going under the radar.

“When I’m not sure on what I’m feeling the first thing I do is go to the athletic trainer some may call me a baby from time to time, but I really want to take care of my body,” said defensemen of Denver’s Lacrosse team Adam Hangland

With this kind of mindset of wanting to take care of your whole body including your brain, is important. Even though its not an injury you can see its one that will have a major impact on your life.

“There’s so much I can’t really control so I want to make sure I control how healthy my entire body is for the season but also for the future I don’t want to be thirty-five but feel or have the mind of a seventy-year-old,” said Hangland

Being a college athlete is very important to most athletes, but it shouldn’t be more important than their health down the line.

DU students weigh in on the Colorado Reproductive Health Equity Act

Facilities such as Planned Parenthood will be allowed to continue reproductive health procedures no matter the Supreme Court decision. [Photo by Lauren Schmidt.]

Colorado Governor Jared Polis has signed House Bill 1279, also known as the Reproductive Health Equity Act, into law, making guaranteed access to reproductive healthcare procedures, including abortions, state law as of April 4. 

Access to safe and legal abortions has been an issue of much discussion recently, as the New York Times reported that the Supreme Court look to preside on the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case this summer that could overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade outcome of 1973, removing the constitutional right to abortion. 

Saving face: DU administration fails to protect students despite continued druggings and assaults on campus

Image by Jamie O’Malley

TW: Sexual Assault and Drugging

April marks the beginning of sexual assault awareness month, and yet in just the last few weeks, female students have continued to report druggings at parties, coming forward to friends as well as in social media posts. 

Though campaigns through social media and student organizations have been successful in getting the administration to listen, the problem prevails throughout the school.

“I’ve known too many women get drugged on this campus and I don’t know many people that feel comfortable having an open drink on this campus” says sophomore Emma Caponetto. 

DU students zoom into their experiences with virtual learning

Students around the globe are having to learn virtually. Photo by Isabella Villalobos

Most university students faced a shock when having to adjust to a new learning environment. The transition from going to class in person every day of the week to joining the classroom from a bed was not something anyone was prepared for.

COVID-19, a pandemic that occurred on December 31, 2019, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, caused disruption throughout the globe. The response that a majority of education boards had to this new situation was to use a new online streaming website called Zoom.

Problems with RTD lead University of Denver students to avoid transit and choose bumper to bumper traffic

Passenger exits an RTD light rail train at the University of Denver Station. Photo Credit: Lincoln Roch

As gas prices rise and congestion on Denver roads returns to pre pandemic levels, University of Denver students have an alternate option of getting around the city. The Regional Transportation District has connections to both its light rail and bus network on Campus. But many students are choosing to face the increased burden of Car usage over RTD.

Sophomore Nyalla Gallager lives on campus and works in the Highlands Neighborhood eight miles away from campus. Her commute requires her to take I-25 from University Boulevard to Speer Boulevard through one of the most congested stretches of highway in Colorado. 

“Without traffic it’s only a 13 minute drive with traffic it can be anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes” said Gallagher.

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Colorado queer-gendered individuals battle dysphoria through gender transitioning

Samantha Dear, a trans woman, on her way to a concert-photo by Llewellynn Foulk.

Queer-gendered individuals struggle with not feeling at home in their own bodies every day. Transitioning is one of the best ways to solve that, according to Teagan Orse, a nonbinary student at DU.

Over 1.4 million adults identify as transgender, according to Williamsinstitute.

“The first anti-crossdressing law… was introduced in Colorado in Denver in 1886,” According to David Duffield, the author of Power Embodied. He goes on to discuss that the trans-rights movement truly began in Colorado after the second world war.

The first archived evidence of transitioning in Colorado is from 1967, found in the Transgenderarchive.

DU students react to Biden’s decision to extend federal student loan repayment pause

Additional loan repayment extensions could provide financial relief for students. [Photo by Melissa Marin]

President Joe Biden has extended the student loan pause once again in hopes of tending to the needs of the people and economic consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Department of Education. While there are signs that the pandemic is leading towards endemicity, per Dr. Stephen Parodi, a member of AMA, there are still pending issues that society needs to address from the COVID pandemic fallout.

To date, the total United Sates student loan debt stands at $1.749 trillion, and the debt traditionally grows six times quicker in a year compared to that of our nation’s economy. However, in 2021, this total debt for student loans had decreased for the very first time in our country’s history.

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Some DU students question the feasibility of the University’s carbon neutrality goals

The bicycle rack at Nelson Hall.  [Photo by Ally Olis.]

 The University of Denver has committed to a goal of becoming a completely carbon neutral institution by 2030. 

The school’s initial claim, made in 2008 pledged to achieve neutrality by 2050, and joined the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Committee. The new timeline accelerates the original by 20 years.

The DU administration is reporting a current reduction of carbon emissions by 28%. With the provision of light rail passes for students, the installation of 18 solar panels and motion-sensored lights in many restrooms, the progression is on a steady track. 

However, some students feel as though the university fails to understand the gravity of the changes they are attempting to implement.

“A big, important step that needs to be taken is to reallocate university funding that’s going towards fossil fuel corporations and instead investing in green energy companies, organizations dedicated to monitoring the climate crisis or even local organizations that work to keep cities green,” said Ellen Bussey, a freshman international business major at the university. 

Chancellor Jeremy Haefner noted that DU in 2008 produced 53,280 metric tons of carbon each year. DU’s former executive director of sustainability, Chad King, said that 50% of the on-campus carbon emissions come from electricity. 

 Claire Broemmer, a freshman psychology and criminology major, who works for the Center of Sustainability at DU, said that she thinks that moving the initial goal was very much a PR stunt on the part of the institution as they are not prioritizing any data collection or large changes per the direction of Chad King. 

As a result, the university has yet to account for the transportation necessities of students in their new sustainability goals and has no present solutions for such an issue. 

“One of the twenty-five by twenty-five goals was to eliminate the need for students to have a car, which seems unfeasible with accessibility, especially for those of us who maintain jobs off- campus. They suggested some of us work on the project over the summer without pay,” Broemmer said. 

With the extensive outward projection that DU is working towards sustainability, this ensures the interest of environmentally conscious students in attending the school.

According to a study by the Princeton Review, 74% of students indicated that information on an institution’s environmental policy would influence their decision on where to attend. 

“It feels like these statements are being made just to ensure students who care about sustainability are coming here. They are addressing it because it’s a backburner issue a lot of students care about, but they don’t actually understand the steps that need to be taken. We don’t even sustainably run kitchens,” said Broemmer. 

DU has a lasting contract with Sodexo, which is one of the largest contributors to fossil fuels and carbon emissions in their slaughterhouses and production of goods. 

“The investments the University has made in favor of the fossil fuel industry directly contradicts what they are attempting to do with carbon neutrality. It’s something that no one pays attention to and it’s a vital element of this process that needs to be rectified,” said Aidan Philipps, a freshman political science major. 

DU has also aligned its goals with the new commitments of the presidential administration to sustainability efforts. 

An  official statement for the Biden administration by the White House says with their current policies, the goal is to achieve 100% carbon-pollution-free electricity by 2035 and reach net-zero emissions economy-wide no later than 2050. 

Some students are questioning DU’s motives in following the government’s environmental goals and whether or not that means more federal grants and compensation. 

 “There’s a lot of awards that a school can get when there’s campus engagement in sustainability efforts. It adds money and more students who prioritize environmental efforts. It’s really attractive to them and President Biden has his own goals for reducing carbon emissions and aligning with that can mean more funding on the federal level,” Kania Campbell, a freshman public policy major at the center for sustainability said.

Carbon neutrality begins with the individual footprint and in the coming years the task is to translate these changes to the scale of the entire student body, practices, and faculty as an institution. In order to fully achieve its goals, DU must be willing to divest from fossil fuels and confront the issue at its source.

DU students respond to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court appointment

DU’s Sturm College of Law, Ricketson Building [Photo by Katherine Sweeney]

The NCAA Ice Hockey Championship has dominated conversations at the University of Denver (DU), but news of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Senate confirmation has percolated among students as well. 

Jackson has made history as the first Black woman to be nominated and confirmed in the Supreme Court.

The hearings began for Judge Jackson on March 21, as Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn), questioned the judge’s reliance on critical race theory in the courtroom, how she would define the word ‘woman’, and whether she agreed that “babies are racist.”

Time management is key!

Year after year college students is seeing more and more mental health problems due to added amounts of stress due to school personal problems and other everyday college students go through.

Time management is a major factor in the success and controlling stress levels of college students that feel they have lots of things to do start.

“There are days where I feel I wake up start to work and continue to work util I’m struggling to stay awake late into the night, but still feel I haven’t made any progress int my workload.” Says Bobby McCuskey a junior university of Denver student.