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Wednesday, December 10, 2014 | The Independent Collegian | A3
NEWS
Extended Library Hours For Finals Week
Carlson Library will be open Dec. 12 until 10 p.m. Dec. 13 it will be open 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. Dec. 14,
all five floors will be open at 9 a.m. All floors of the library will have 24-hour access Dec. 15 ‑17. The
first floor will remain open after midnight Dec. 18. Library will resume regular hours Dec. 18.
EXAM WEEK
EXAM WEEK
CRIME LOG
Campus fight
University of Toledo
Police were sent to
Presidents Hall due to
a fight on Dec. 2.
A female student was
found crying and with
visible scratches on her
neck and chest.
Her shirt was ripped
and blood was found at
the scene.
A second female stu-
dent also had a scratch on
her face along with welts
on her face.
According to the
report from UTPD, the
two had been verbally
arguing which led to a
physical altercation.
Both students were
charged with assault.
Theft at Rec
On Dec. 4, an officer
met with a student at
the Rec Center to take
a report of larceny.
The student stated
that he arrived at the Rec
Center at 5:30 p.m. to
play basketball and he left
his iPhone 5S and wallet
at the side of the court.
When he returned to
the side of the court at
6:30 p.m., he found that
both items were missing.
The wallet contained
an insurance card for his
vehicle, a MasterCard, a
driver’s license and a UT
Rocket ID card.
The student said that
his wallet is black and his
iPhone is silver/white with
a small crack near the
home button.
CORRECTIONS
In last week’s story
about the Latino Student
Union and of Fatima
Pervaiz’s departure, we
had mistakenly named
Jacob Torres as the LSU
president. Torres is the
former president of LSU
and AnaPatricia Marquez
is the current president
of LSU. We regret these
errors.
IN BRIEF
President to
hold town hall
meeting
Interim UT Presi-
dent Nagi Naganathan
is holding a town hall
meeting Dec. 10 at noon
in the Student Union
Trimble Lounge.
The purpose of the
meeting is to give the
campus an opportunity to
ask questions and give
feedback.
If you are unable to at-
tend, you can watch the
meeting live stream at
video.utoledo.edu.
To ask questions,
submit them townhal-
lquestions@utoledo.edu
or through the UT Face-
book or Twitter pages.
By Torrie Jadlocki and
Samantha Rhodes
Staff Reporter and Managing Editor
Dust off your textbooks, pull out
your notes and mentally prepare
for what’s coming — the dreaded
finals week.
Though feeling stressed isn’t new
for most students, the anxiety of
exams can be overwhelming and even
send some students into a frenzied
panic. To help keep your stress levels
under control during finals week,
the professors and counselors at the
University of Toledo are offering
some advice.
Prioritize your time
Stanley Edwards, director of the
UT counseling center, said good
time-management skills are essential
for reducing stress. He recommends
using stress-management techniques
such as deep breathing to help stay
calm when things seem out of con-
trol.
Sharon Barnes, women’s and gen-
der studies interim chair, said focus-
ing on the most important elements
of an exam and thinking about the
information strategically when study-
ing will help students perform better.
“Plan your studying, including how
long you have and how much you can
do so that you make the best possible
use of your time,” Barnes said. “Don’t
try to re-read all of the chapters in the
book. That’s not possible at this point
and not a good use of your time even
if it is.”
Communicate with your
professor
Professor of communication Brian
Patrick advises students who think
they may have missed something
during class to visit their professor,
but not to rely on them just handing
out answers.
“Do not go to the professor after
being absent the last six weeks of
class and ask, ‘Did I miss anything?’”
Patrick said. “Kind of assume you did
and ask if there is some way you can
demonstrate knowledge of the mate-
rial that you missed.”
Patrick also said asking for extra
credit is a bad idea if you’ve missed
assignments during the semester.
“Do not go to your professor in the
last week and ask if you can do extra
credit, because he or she may reply,
as I sometimes do, ‘You haven’t even
done the original credit yet,’” Patrick
said. “Try a different approach.”
And plagiarizing papers?
UT faculty gives students advice for upcoming exams
Wonder drug or addictive chemical?
By Amanda Pitrof
News Editor
The world loves
caffeine.
Second only to petro-
leum, coffee is the world’s
most valuable traded com-
modity, according to the
Global Exchange website.
Energy drinks generated
$6.5 billion in 2008, accord-
ing to Rick Nathanson in an
article he wrote for the Albu-
querque Journal.
With its energizing effects,
it’s not surprising that caf-
feinated drinks are popular
among college students.
From a barista
Rachel Kunzweiler, a
fifth-year majoring in bio-
engineering and student
manager at the Starbucks
in the Student Union,
has worked there for
three years.
Kunzweiler estimated
that at least 1,000 people
come through the line
every day to buy coffee.
She said the ebb and flow
of students in line can vary
a little depending on when
students get out of classes, but
that it is pretty constant all day.
“We get people who are
regulars and come three times
a day and get the same drink,”
Kunzweiler said.
Among the drinks she said
she saw as the most com-
monly ordered are caramel
macchiatos and frappucci-
nos of any kind.
“If it is a cold bar drink,
the coffee is a pre-made
frap roast, which is a
highly-concentrated
form of coffee that we make
cold because it’s a blended
ice thing,” Kunzweiler said.
“If it’s on the hot bar, we use
espresso shots, which is also a
highly-concentrated form of
coffee.”
While each drink is made
with the same amount of cof-
fee — the smallest size drink
has two pumps for cold bar
items or one shot for hot bar
drinks — but many people get
extra shots.
“I’ve seen five shots to ten
shots in one drink,” she said.
How caffeine affects
the brain
Jason Levine, assistant pro-
fessor of psychology and clinic
director of the University of
Toledo training clinic, defined
caffeine as “a chemical that’s
found in many different prod-
ucts and substances,” with
the most common sources of
caffeine on college campuses
taking the form of energy
drinks and coffee.
“Essentially, what caffeine
does in the brain is it blocks
certain receptors that a chemi-
cal called adenosine binds to,”
he said. “It promotes sleep and
it suppresses physiological
arousal.”
Caffeine intake blocks those
receptors and the adenosine
can’t work, according to Levine.
He said, with caffeine, “you
get the opposite of sleep. You
get hyper-arousal instead of
suppression of arousal. And
when I say arousal, I mean
just physiological arousal.”
But it does more than just
keep you awake. Levine said it
also restricts blood vessels. This
restriction increases neuronal
firing in the brain and increases
dopamine production.
“Dopamine, very simply
put, is the reward neurotrans-
mitter in our brains,” he said.
“It’s implicated in addiction,
and a million other things
too, but we think of it as the
reward neurotransmitter.”
Positive side effects
Levine said he believes one
of the things to remember
about caffeine is that is isn’t all
that bad.
“I think it’s important to note
that there’s a lot of health ben-
efits to drinking moderate levels
of caffeine,” he said. “A lot of it
depends on how it’s dispensed.
If it’s in a big, sugary energy
drink, then there’s issues with
the sugary energy drink.”
If the daily caffeine intake
comes from a cup of black
coffee instead of a Monster or
Red Bull, Levine said there are
studies which have shown that
people who drink one to three
cups of coffee a day can be less
likely to develop diabetes.
It would depend on what
is put in the coffee though.
Sugar, for example, may
“negate some of the effects on
diabetes,” he said.
“We also know that regular
coffee drinkers — people
that drink at least one cup a
day — reduces their chances
of getting Parkinson’s, colon
cancer, other forms of cancer,
and also gallstones,” he said.
Levine said there is debate
about whether these effects
are coming from “the bean,
or the tea, or the caffeine,
but there is decent
evidence, sufficient
evidence that caffeine
does have beneficial
qualities to it.”
Negative side
effects
Until recently, there
was not a way to diagnose
caffeine-related conditions,
but there are now entries
for caffeine intoxication
and caffeine withdrawal
in the American Psychi-
atric Association’s fifth
edition of the Diag-
nostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental
Disorders.
“Caffeine with-
drawal has been
documented in the
literature in that people
who are regular drink-
ers — again, those are
people who consume
about 100 milligrams of
caffeine a day,” Levine
said.
Regular drinkers can
begin to have symptoms
of withdrawal between a
day or two after caffeine was
last consumed, according to
Levine.
“So after a day or two of
discontinuation of caffeine
the very mild symptoms are
like minor mood changes,
maybe feeling a little down,
a little fatigued, all the way
to those flu-like symptoms,
like headache, feeling even
nauseous, irritability,” he
said. “Those symptoms
See Caffeine / A5 »
SURVIVING FINALS
See Professor advice / A5 »
CAFFEINE
“Plan your studying, including how
long you have and how much you
can do so that you make the best
possible use of your time.”
SHARON BARNES
Women’s and Gender Studies Interim Chair