The New School’s Clothesline Project 2012

We are proud to announce The New School’s Clothesline Project 2012. You may have noticed the t-shirts hanging in the Stuyvesant Park Residence Hall Lobby, if not, take a look! The Clothesline, beginning in 1990 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, has become a national awareness campaign about sexual assault and domestic violence. The New School has participated for several years, but this is the first year it is located in our residence halls.

2012 Clothesline Project Display at Stuyvesant Park Residence

By creating The Clothesline Project at The New School we encourage residents to tell their story in their own unique way, using words and/or artwork to decorate the shirt. Once finished, it then hangs on the clothesline. This very action serves many purposes. It acts as an educational tool for those who come to view the Clothesline; it becomes a healing tool for anyone who made a shirt - by hanging the shirt on the line, survivors, friends and family can literally turn their back on some of that pain of their experience and walk away; finally it allows those who are still suffering in silence to understand that they are not alone.

If you are a survivor of sexual assault and/or domestic violence, you are not alone, and help is available. Reaching out for help can be difficult, but it is the most important step in taking care of yourself and beginning the healing process.

As a New School student you may contact any of the following offices:

• Student Health Services, Counseling Services 
- Telephone: 212.229.1671, option 1
• Student Support and Crisis Management - Telephone: 212.229.5900 x3189 or x3710
• Housing - Your RAs, HRs, GHC’s and RHD’s are all prepared to advocate for any resident who has survived violence, and can help you contact other resources on campus.

The city also has resources for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors;

• Safe Horizon: Rape and Sexual Assault Hotline - 212.227.3000

• Safe Horizon: New York City Domestic Violence Hotline - 800.621.4673

• NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project - 212.714.1141

If you would like to make a shirt to add to the project please contact student health services at wellness@newschool.edu.

Please take a moment to notice the t-shirts around campus, educate yourselves on the issues surrounding intimate partner violence, and then help us to continue to be a university that will not tolerate sexual assault or domestic violence.

Surefire Ways to Stay Stressed!

Yep, you read that right. For most students, this time of year can feel like a mixture of excitement, anticipation, anxiety, depression and panic, to name just a few. Combined these feelings can lead to a little stress.

You have more than likely heard of all the ways to combat and manage stress. So, let’s take a different approach today. Want to stay stressed? Just do this:

• Eat anything you want, at any time of day.
• Never, under any circumstances, exercise.
• Pull all-nighters on a regular basis.
• Personalize all criticism and constructive feedback received.
• Avoid all of these strange “new age” relaxation strategies.
• Break off friendships as soon as something doesn’t go your way.
• Study, study, and study some more…there is no time for fun.
• Make more promises than you can keep.
• Forget your sense of humor.
• Never ask for help.
• Become a workaholic.
• Procrastinate.
• Worry about things you can’t control.
• Go to bed really late.
• Forget the “good” and remember only the “bad”.
• Compare yourself to others.
• Avoid fresh air.
• Never take a break.

One Minute Stress Buster
Everyone feels a little stress at times. Consider having this exercise
in your "back pocket" when you need to relax and refocus.
• Find a quiet spot.
• Remain standing.
• Close your eyes.
• Take 10 deep breaths.
• Breathe in through your nose to a count of 10, and then out through your mouth to a count of eight.
• Listen to yourself breathe in, and breathe out.
• Try to visualize the color white.
• Take 10 more deep inhalations and exhalations, again listening to your
own breathing.
• Roll your head all the way around very slowly, first to the right three times, then to the left three times.

• Take three more deep breaths, and then slowly open your eyes.

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From PaperClip Communications (www.paper-clip.com)