Students living in residence halls at the University of Iowa have it good when it comes to the speed of their internet.
While non-University residents may have to pay an extra-fee to receive ultra-high speed internet, the University provides its own network for students living in residence halls, and at all University computer locations. What’s best is the charge is included with tuition.
Ashley Stover, a recent graduate of the University of Iowa remembers when she moved into the dorms her freshman year and booted up her computer.
“It was so much faster than what I had back home,” said Stover. “My parents the old-school dial up modem, so it was really slow. Not to mention it tied up the phone line too, so if I wanted to talk to my boyfriend on the phone, it couldn’t be while anyone else was on the computer. The only thing I didn’t like about it was I got in trouble for downloading songs, but I can’t blame the University for that one. I have since started to pay for my music when I got iTunes.”
Rules and Acceptable Policies
A row of computers at the ITC in the Main Library connected to ResNet
While the University network may be extremely fast, there are strict guidelines that users must follow when connecting to the network. According to the University housing website, the following rules are the acceptable use policy.
Student is responsible for all activity originating from this connection. Student must take reasonable precautions to prevent unauthorized use by others of this connection, and his/her accounts, programs, or data.
Students should not engage in activities that consume excessive amounts of network bandwidth.
Student must not modify or extend Residence Hall network services and wiring. This applies to all network wiring, hardware, and in-room jacks. The only device you can connect is a personal computer. You may not connect servers of any type, hubs, or network printers.
Residence Hall connections are provided for individual use only. Student may not create accounts on his/her computing system that provide campus network access for anyone else.
Residence Hall connections are for University-related activities only. Student may not conduct a commercial business via the Residence Hall connection.
Student may not run sniffers or any other software or hardware designed to intercept packets or to disrupt the security or operation of the campus network.
Student may not participate in illegal activities such as software piracy—either the distribution of copyrighted software or illegal attainment of software or other copyrighted materials—from the Residence Hall connection.
Student may not host chat lines from computers connected to this network.
Capable of high speeds
According to Jay Ford, Senior Network Engineer of ITS-Telecommunication & Network Services, the network is capable of some extreme speeds.
“I’ll give you four different scenarios and each one has a different speed capability,” said Ford. “We have speeds up to 10 Gbps externally (to Chicago and Kansas City.) 10 Gbps mesh within the core of the campus network among key routing locations and data centers. 1 Gbps to and within most buildings, and 1 Gbps to most user jacks.”
“We already use fiber heavily within the network,” said Ford. “Fiber to edge user devices is not required because we can provide 1 Gbps on copper, which is much cheaper and better supported in user equipment.”
Ford also added that the University’s network is often times faster than Mediacom.
“Our standard user service is 1 Gbps, full-duplex and symmetric,” said Ford. “Service offered by ISPs like Mediacom and Qwest is usually in the 3-20 Mbps range, usually full-duplex but often slower in one direction than the other.”
However the University does not plan charge users andoffer ResNet as an option for internet service to non-resident hall students like Mediacom does.
Kirk Baruth, Communcations Specialist at the University IT services, said the University pondered the idea, but decided against it.
“We’ve pondered it in the past on a few occasions,” said Baruth, “But delivering network connectivity to off-campus residences gets pretty far afield from our core mission. Instead, we maintain sufficient external connectivity so we don’t have a problem reaching ISPs that do provide residential access.”
While students at the university are not able to access the internet if they are not in a residence hall or the university-based computer, for those that do use the network on a daily basis, the speed of the network is on par and higher than anything else they can get for the price.
Science and religion have long been seen as opposing forces, and there remains a lot of conflict between them today. With that in mind, how does a biology student reconcile their philosophical or religious beliefs with their chosen area of study? I asked Chris Ajluni and Asad Hashmi about the areas where science and religion intersect.
Religion Among Biology Students
Both agree that, even among people who value science very highly, there’s a wide spectrum of belief. “There are plenty of biology students who are really religious, even ones who believe in evolution,” Ajluni said. “It doesn’t have to be one way or the other, but it does influence the way you think. {Studying biology} has definitely added to my experience. Learning more about how the world works has influenced my outlook.”
Hashmi elaborates on his own personal beliefs. “Rather than science being against religion, it’s more of an explanation. In my view, that’s all science really is. An explanation, not a challenge.”
The Dividing Line
Ajluni believes that there are some things that cannot be explained by science alone, but doesn’t know where the line should be drawn. “I don’t know what science ‘should’ explain or what religion ‘should’ explain, but they both have their place.”
Their views differ somewhat in the role that religion takes in modern scientific debates. Hashmi believes that religion provides a strong and useful moral voice. “I believe that when religious people involve themselves in scientific discussions, they’re drawing the line for human limitations. Morally, I think that when very religious people get involved, they have a very valid point to make.” According to Hashmi, sometimes the urge to be advance the frontiers of our knowledge can cloud a person’s thinking. “With research, sometimes people forget what we’re actually physically doing, and just think about what we can achieve from it. These people aren’t asking us to stop progress, they’re just asking if there’s not a less questionable way to achieve it. “
Ajluni thinks that religion plays a more ambiguous role in current scientific discussions. “{Religious commentators} are entitled to their moral opinions on what is right, but a lot of the time, these people just don’t know what they’re talking about in terms of science. Some of them have good arguments based on good data, but a lot of them don’t. “Ajluni is more focused on the ultimate ends than the means. “I wish they would look at the results, the possible benefits of research like stem cells or cloning. But a lot of the discussion is shaped by politics, more than any real health or moral issues.”
Maybe the conflict between science and religion is a false one. It might be necessary to recognize that there is a disconnect between the study of science or religion, and the political issues that arise from those studies. Hashmi believes that the historical conflict between religion and science is really just the byproduct of power struggles unrelated to either discipline. “I actually think the strife between science and religion is politically-based. When Galileo said that the earth wasn’t the center of the universe, it was challenging the church’s authority. Since it was against their beliefs, it discredited them. It’s about power. It’s a way of challenging power, rather than anything fundamental about science or religion.”
The Iowa City community has been facing some huge issues concerning diversity.
First the idea of the high schools district lines being redrawn, and secondly a new Chief Diversity officer at the University of Iowa.
The Chief Diversity Officer will be the figure head of diversity at the University and something that all candidates agree on is the fact that they cannot solve Iowa’s issue with diversity by themselves.
“Don’t hire me and expect wipe your hands and say now this is your problem…cause it won’t work.” Said candidate Terryl Ross Director for Community and Diversity.
A big part of solving the diversity issue in Iowa City as well as the University of Iowa is having the community behind the issue.
Katherine Betts Assistant Director of Diversity Programs of Cultural Centers believes that the community plays a pivotal role in increasing diversity here at Iowa.
“The community must be accepting of diverse students…and I think that’s something that many students don’t feel in the community. I mean just look at the issues of our high schools.”
With the Iowa City community and the University of Iowa so closely connected if diversity is failing in one it is most likely failing in the other.
Rene Rocha a professor at the University of Iowa thinks that in order to change the diversity in the Iowa City community, kids must be introduced at a young age to different cultures.
Rocha believes, “that many students come from Iowa with this lack of cultural acceptance simply because they are not exposed to it in their hometowns.”
In order for the diversity problem to be solved officials believe that diverse students that come into the high schools or even the University must feel that they have some type of cohesiveness with one another as well as their environment.
Nicole Nisly the Interim Chief Diversity Officer believes this to be an important part of any successful diversity program.
“If students come in and don’t feel they have someone there to rely on, they aren’t going to stick around,” said Nisly “there has to be some level of acceptance and cohesiveness between the students and the community.”
The question then becomes who will become an example of a successful diversity program first the University of Iowa or the Iowa City high schools?
Nisly said, “It’s going to take a lot of time, nothing is going to happen overnight. The state is 90 percent white, its going to take a lot patience and persistence on everyone’s part.
And this is something Chief Diversity officer candidate Ross believes in also.
“We have to be prepared for the long run, sure there are going to be bumps in the road and the true test will be where we stand after we hit those bumps.”
Even with given these historical upsets, gender is still a topic that’s very entrenched in the modern system of higher education. There remains a clear division between the majors that men and women choose. Math and hard sciences are still seen as men’s work, while liberal arts and communication draw more women. How can these divisions still exist as more and more women seek college degrees? And what is it like to be a male student in an increasingly female-dominated undergraduate population?
Any males reading this article should pay close attention to the words of Douglas Buchan and Jared Proctor. They are two of 57 males in the college or nursing at UI, a department with 697 total undergraduates. As women continue to gain ground on men in the world of academia, the collegiate experiences of Buchan and Proctor will become closer and closer to the norm.
How can the gender gap within college majors remain steady even as the proportion of women to men keeps increasing? The answer probably goes far beyond biology. “There are a couple of biological differences between men and women. Psychologists have looked for like 200, and out of those 200 they find five or six,” said Sociology Professor Steven Hitlin. “Men are better at spatial relations- type of things. Of course, men play with toys when their boys that help teach them that kind of stuff. Women are a little bit more verbal by the time they are adults, but they’re also reinforced for that. For the most part, we’re pretty similar, and it’s all a bunch of stereotypes.”
Most CEO’s are male, most social workers are female. Because of this, we raise our boys to grow up to be CEOs and our girls to be social workers. Because the next generation of CEOs will be mostly men, most of the children raised to be CEOs will be boys. Because these stereotypes have been entrenched for so long, we end up applying “masculine” or “feminine” qualities to a profession no matter how arbitrary the label might be. “You start confusing the position… with the gender who’s in that position,” Hitlin said. “A lot of this is unconscious, but it shapes the way you perceive the world.”
To transcend these gender roles requires some combination of strength, self-assuredness, and nose-thumbing defiance. “I am a free thinker that is open to looking at opportunities beyond their face value, “Proctor says. “{I} feel that I see the world from a different, less-tainted, viewpoint.” Having experience with independent women may also make it easier for Proctor to work in No Man’s Land. “I was raised by a single mother from a young age and that has helped me to move beyond a lot of gender biases. I feel a little more in tune with women than most men, and I don’t have any hesitations {about} being around women as co-workers or superiors.”
Proctor’s Zen-like musings are nicely counterbalanced by Buchan’s no-nonsense approach. “I don’t care about stigmas,” Buchan says, “and I don’t put up with BS either.”
Why Work, Anyway?
There also seem to be differences in the criteria that men and women use to evaluate job opportunities. While there aren’t many biological differences between men and women, there’s one big one that affects how we choose our careers. That undeniable, concrete difference is the ability to bear children. “Women, I think, in our country are socialized to want to be mothers. Sometimes, then, women choose career paths that allow them to juggle children and work,” Hitlin said. “Other countries have different ideas about who should stay home more, making it easier for both men and women to stay home without a penalty going back into work. Society could make it so that it’s easier to have kids and go back {to their careers}, in which case women might not have to choose their jobs the same way.”
According to Hitlin, men tend to choose their careers based off of the monetary rewards available. “Men are more likely to select into the jobs and majors that are better paying, and for whatever reason, we reward math and science more,” said Hitlin. “Math and science are things that men are told they’re supposed to be good at all throughout their lives, even though women do better in school. So men go into these majors, and they get these higher-paying jobs, and men have more status and money.”
Thus, people who don’t want their lives to revolve around work might be drawn to traditionally female majors. “I love that I’ll be free to practice medicine and still be able to carry out a life with a strong family focus,” Proctor says. “As long as I can pay my bills and provide for my family I’ll be happy.”
The Classroom’s Odd Man Out
There are differences between the behavior of males and females in the classroom from the very beginning of their academic careers. “Boys get more attention, good and bad. Boys seem to think they’re more entitled to attention. They’re less concerned about what people think of them,” Hitlin said. “By the time you’re in college, that stuff has been around for a long time, and it’s going to seem natural.” But, in a situation where men are in the vast majority, the tables could turn. If the topic of discussion is considered an area of female expertise, women will talk more and men will get crowded out.
Being the only person who’s different in an otherwise homogenous classroom is going to affect your educational experience, no matter what criteria you use. “If you know that you’re the only person from Iowa in the class and everyone else is from Illinois, you’re going to feel a little different,” said Hitlin. “It’s just a very human thing; we tend to notice who’s like us and who’s not.”
Proctor thinks that the overwhelming gender gap in his major might affect the type of communication going on in the classroom. “I feel that instructors in the field, at least at an entry level, seem more attuned to women,“ he said, mentioning that “it can be a little difficult for men to grasp at first.
Buchan had similar sentiments. “In the pre-nursing classes I have had, the teachers … spent class time with fluff and feel-good bogus. We spent two lectures going through the lecture hall introducing ourselves,” Buchan said. “The girls in the class were fine with it while they texted away. The guys in the class, all four out of a hundred of us, were mumbles and grumbles about the waste of time.”
Buchan also acknowledges that being outnumbered by women makes him alter his interactions with his peers. “Really there is a challenge in watching what you say, what you do. You can’t be ‘One of the Guys’ in a group of females. But this isn’t unique. Females have been doing this since they entered the job market.”
Proctor also makes it clear that, even with the difficulties he faces, he has it easy by comparison. “I really feel that gender biases have only really been hurtful to women in the past, and that women entering a ‘man’s’ field have the real challenges or preconceived notions to hurdle.”
There may even be a few upsides to being the only swinging bachelor in the nursing program. “You can’t be surrounded by women all day and not get a better feel for how they act,” Buchan says. “Plus with all the whining and moaning about husbands and boyfriends, you get a good long list of things not to do.”
So, as always, change will be slow and laborious. But always remember, you and I are the ultimate source of the BS that Proctor and Buchan refuse to put up with. By being more aware of the social forces that push the genders in different directions, we can work alleviate the burden associated with taking that big step across the gender gap. By educating ourselves and maintaining open minds, we help ensure that the female engineers and male nurses of our future will have to put up with less BS than their contemporary counterparts.
For a look at some more major-specific issues, click here.
When you are in the process of purchasing a puppy or a dog, sometimes it is good to hear what others have to say about their own experiences. Here are a few stories to help you gain some perspective as to what dog and resources might be right for you.
Erin McMahon and Jaxson
Erin got Jaxson, her miniature dachshund from Grundy Center at Century Farm Puppies. She decided to go with a
Erin and Jaxson (photo contributed by Erin McMahon)
breeder because she wanted to try and raise a puppy at eight weeks at least once in her life. Another reason she wanted to find a breeder is because she wanted a miniature dachshund and those are hard to come by unless you come across particular breeders.
When she began her puppy hunt, she looked at a lot of different places, mostly around Dyersville, Iowa. She found that most of those breeders only had one litter at a time and many puppies were already sold before she could see them.
After she brought Jaxson home, she didn’t notice any major health issues until he started vomiting frequently. She took him to the veterinarian and it turned out he was eating food that didn’t agree with his digestive system. Other than that, he had no main health issues.
Erin abhors puppy mills and thinks they are a terrible thing.
“I am appalled that these people will do anything to dogs to make a little extra money with no concern to the dog’s health,” says Erin. “I have never had personal experiences with puppy mills, but I have seen a dog that was at a puppy mill. She had no teeth, was scared to death at any sudden movements or loud sounds, and she had a number tattooed on her stomach. Sad!”
Erin does have some advice for those who are looking to buy a new furry friend.
“Make sure you know everything there is to know about the breed of dog you are choosing and make sure it is a breed that fits your lifestyle,” she says. Certain breeds need certain things and you will probably not be able to change that.”
Erika Tahmasebi and Lucy
Lucy and Erika (photo contributed by Erika Tahmasebi)
Erika Tahmasebi, a University of Iowa alumni who graduated in 2008, took a different route when finding her true love, Lucy, a maltese-shih tzu mix. Lucy is short for Lucille Lucius Vorenus Bluth and she is now 4 years old.
Lucy caught Erika’s eye when she gazed at her through the glass window at Petland one day in March of 2006. Erika used to go to the humane society to play with the animals and would always get upset and leave in tears. Her friend took her to Petland to play with the animals there, thinking she wouldn’t feel guilty when she left.
The second she set her eyes on the little maltese-shih tzu mix, she feel in love and purchased her that night. She says there was something about her that made Erika had to have her. The fact she was from Petland made her think twice about purchasing her.
“My whole life I have been against puppy mills and had always gotten my animals from either breeders (the dog I had as a child, Sophie, a Scottish terrier) or humane society (two cats, Oliver and Kirby),” Erika says. “I think puppy mills are disgusting and when I think about all of the wonderful and perfectly fine dogs at shelters without homes, I feel incredibly guilty for choosing an animal from a store. That being said, I love my dog more than anything, and I absolutely do not regret purchasing Lucy. But I know my future dogs will be from either an animal shelter or breeder– most likely a shelter.”
Lucy did not have any health issues and Erika feels very lucky about that. She advises other puppy-seekers to go another route than she did.
“Please don’t go the route I did. The first place you should look to find a pet are the animal shelters in your area,” she says. “Do your research on what kind of dog(s) you not only want but fit your lifestyle. If you have no yard, don’t get a large, active dog. If you want a friend to go running with, don’t get a poodle. Your dog should be a part of your family– he or she will love you unconditionally, so make sure you are prepared to do the same. Thousands of dogs abandoned every day by irresponsible pet owners, so please make sure you are ready for a commitment before you bring an animal into your home.”
Amy Braun and Loki
Loki and Amy (photo contributed by Amy Braun)
Amy Braun, the pet counselor from Petland in one of the previous stories, wanted a breed that most pet shops don’t carry. She wanted a pit bull, a breed that many fear because of its “dangerous” nature. She currently has one dog, Loki, who is a mix between a pit bull and a mastiff/Chesapeake bay retriever.
Her first pit bull, Killian, was from Animal Control in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“I wanted to feel comfortable living by myself and nobody was going to mess with me. I wanted a pit bull because they are huge and nobody will mess with them,” she says. She does think that pit bulls are some of the sweetest dogs underneath all that stigma.
She let a friend take care of her dog, Killian while she was in Germany for a year and after many attempts of trying to reach her friend, she found out her dog died three days before returning to the United States. Apparently her friend allowed another friend to watch the dog and she had gotten into some antifreeze. She was taken to a vet the next morning, but didn’t survive.
When she returned to the states, she went on the dog hunt again. She wanted another pit bull, but had trouble finding one. All the breeders she looked at seemed sketchy except those that lived in Louisiana, Idaho or Ohio. Luckily she knew what to look for when searching for a breeder. She noticed that many of the puppies weren’t checked over by a vet or didn’t include any papers according to the Web sites. They also didn’t come with warranties and the breeders didn’t ask Amy any important questions that she expected.
“For a solid pit bull I was planning on paying $1000-1500 dollars,” says Amy. “Pit bulls for $200 are sketchy. If you are selling them for that cheap, there has to be something wrong. Most pit bulls run $700-1500.”
She ended up finding Loki, her current dog, from Cedar Valley Humane Society in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Loki is a mix and wasn’t what Amy was looking for at the time, but she fell in love with him. He didn’t have any major health issues. Loki does have a chronic ear infection in one of his ears, but compared to all the other things he could have, Amy considers it to be nothing.
Amy is appreciative of the way Cedar Valley Humane Society handled everything when she was adopting Loki.
“Before they send your puppy home with you, they make sure the dog is kept up to date with vaccinations,” says Amy. “They fix the puppies if they aren’t fixed before they go home with you and are excited to send a puppy home with a new owner.”
As a pet counselor, Amy has offered many helpful tips to people seeking a new pet. Her advice when thinking about purchasing a new dog is to:
“Sit down and make a list of what you want in a dog. Go through everything. Do you want him to be super intelligent, super playful, really friendly with people, a protector dog, etc.? Different breeds fit different desires. Does your lifestyle match up for the breed? Really do your research.”
Please take a look at the slideshow of some of these adorable lil’ doggies! (Photos were contributed by dog owners).
So what should you take away from these other people’s experiences?
Different people are better with certain breeds. Research what specific temperaments would be a good match for you and don’t base your decision on how a dog may look. You may think a Golden retriever is gorgeous, but if you live in a tiny downtown apartment and can’t take him/her on walks, you are going to run into some trouble.
Not only should you research the breed, but where you intend to get the dog from. Meet with an animal shelter, breeder or pet store owner a few times before you make your decision. Ask questions about the facilities. Make sure they ask you questions. Pay attention to how they treat the purchase – is the puppy they are something they are trying to get rid of and get their cash or do they take a genuine interest in the puppy’s wellbeing with you?
It is rewarding when you find the dog that is right for you. With all these new tips and things to watch out for, I wish you only the best when searching for a new furry companion!
*Disclaimer: The dog photographed above is not a puppy mill dog and is only used for purposes of visual enhancement of the story. Photo by Nawaar Farooq
Health Issues Associated with Puppy Mill Dogs by Nawaar Farooq
According to the Iowa Voters for Companion Animals, puppy mill dogs are often subject to terrible conditions that can lead to many health complications in their lives. Some of these conditions include:
overcrowding in small wire cages or makeshift enclosures
stacking of crates so that dog excrement falls from higher crates to lower ones
no nurturing human contract, socialization, or veterinary care
exposure to climate extremes in buildings with poor ventilation and temperature control
rarely taken out of cages except for breeding purposes
bred every heat cycle until their bodies wear out or they develop other health issues
“disposed of” when they can no longer reproduce – sometimes they are shot, abandoned, or in rare cases, relinquished to animal rescue organizations.
Veterinary technician Jesse Henderkoff from Bright Eyes and Bushy Tails Veterinary Clinic in Iowa City has seen many dogs in her day and knows what signs to watch out for when purchasing a new pup. She gave me a rundown of some common problems that puppies face, especially those that are bred and raised in puppy mills.
Henderkoff lists the following issues as symptoms and conditions you should watch out for when buying a new puppy:
BREATHING COMPLICATIONS: An elongated soft palate will interfere with a dog’s breathing. As the surviving mill dogs grow older, they are more prone to developing respiratory ailments and pneumonia.
CONJUNCTIVITIS: The membrane that lines the inner sides of the eyeball up to the cornea is called the conjunctiva. If it becomes infected, you’ll notice a discharge from the corner of the dog’s eye. The discharge may be clear and watery or opaque and thick. Typically this is the result of a bacterial infection. Your veterinarian can give you the best diagnosis.
GIARDIA/PARASITES: Though an infection with Giardia is not initially fatal to your dog’s health, it can develop into a very serious condition. These parasites are found in dirty or contaminated water. Since the Giardia organisms interfere with the normal absorption of your dog’s food, this can result in malnutrition, weight loss, and other serious symptoms. In addition to this, due to the frequent diarrhea that most dogs experience when infected with Giardia, a dog may also become severely dehydrated.
HEART MURMURS: A heart murmur is one of several types of abnormal sounds your veterinarian can hear when listening to your pet’s heart with a stethoscope. Normally, two distinct sounds are heard when listening to the heart of a normal dog. This is normally caused by a turbulent blood flow. Hearing a heart murmur during a routine physical examination will often be the first hint to your veterinarian that your pet has heart disease. This is not something to panic about, but you should get checked out regularly.
HIP DYSPLASIA: In dogs, a femur that does not fit correctly into the pelvic socket, or poorly developed muscles in the pelvic area. Large and giant breeds are susceptible to hip dysplasia, and a few smaller breeds suffer from it. In dogs, the problem almost always appears by the time the dog is 18 months old. Dogs might exhibit signs of stiffness or soreness after rising from rest, reluctance to exercise, bunny-hopping or other abnormal gait (legs move more together when running rather than swinging alternately), lameness, pain, reluctance to stand on rear legs, etc. Some dogs do recover, although it can be problematic as the dog gets older.
KENNEL COUGH: Also known as canine tracheobronchitis, kennel cough refers to a highly contagious class of viral and bacterial ailments which spreads rapidly among dogs in close quarters, such as in a pet store or veterinarian. Both viral and bacterial agents play a role in the complex, much as in human bronchitis, making the syndrome difficult to diagnose. Once kennel cough has been contracted, the treatment course is much as it is for humans with similar infections. Antibiotics are prescribed if bacterial causes are determined, as well as a week or so of naptime in a freshly scrubbed room away from other dogs.
LUXATING PATELLA: The patella is the bone we know as the knee cap. A groove in the end of the femur allows the patella to glide up and down when the knee joint is bent back and forth. In so doing, the patella guides the action of the quadriceps muscle in the lower leg. The patella also protects the knee joint. In some dogs, because of malformation or trauma, the ridges forming the patellar groove are not prominent, and a too-shallow groove is created. In a dog with shallow grooves, the patella will luxate (jump out of the groove) sideways, especially toward the inside. This causes the leg to ‘lock up’ with the foot held off the ground. Smaller breeds of dogs have the highest incidence of patella luxation.
NEUROLOGICAL/SOCIALIZATION DISORDERS: Due to the frequently poor breeding conditions in puppy mills, puppies bred there often suffer from health and/or social problems. Puppies raised in a cramped environment shared by many other dogs become poorly socialized to other dogs and to humans. Dogs are then transported over long distances in poor conditions, sometimes resulting in animal stress and death.
OVERBITES/UNDERBITES: Puppies and dogs with overbites and underbites may need to have dental surgery because the Constant contact between upper and lower incisors can cause uneven wear, periodontal disease, and early tooth loss. Many times the tips of the teeth are shaved off or the problematic teeth are removed altogether.
PARVOVIRUS: Parvovirus is a viral disease of dogs. It affects puppies much more frequently than it affects adult dogs. The virus likes to grow in rapidly dividing cells. The intestinal lining has the biggest concentration of rapidly dividing cells in a puppy’s body. The virus attacks and kills these cells, causing diarrhea (often bloody), depression and suppression of white blood cells — which come from another group of rapidly dividing cells. In very young puppies it can infect the heart muscle and lead to “sudden” death. Vaccinations usually are given at around 2-3 weeks and after the first series of shots, puppies are given boosters every 2 weeks until they are around 13 weeks old.
UNHEALTHY COAT: What a dog looks like on the outside is likely an indication of what is going on in the inside. If a dog’s coat is matted, dull or has an unkempt appearance, chances are that the animal is unhealthy and should be looked at by a veterinarian. The dog may need more fatty acids and nutrients in its diet than what it is getting.
These are just some of the symptoms and conditions that puppies and dogs from puppy mills might exhibit. Other puppies born in normal conditions may have these conditions as well, but these are just some of the most prevalent ones found in puppy mill puppies. There is no reason these dogs and puppies should be subject to these conditions. The new legislation regarding puppy mills should be very beneficial in curbing many of these commercial breeding facilities where dogs are produced for quantity and profit.
How many times have we gone to a pet store and seen the perfect little puppy look up at us with those inviting eyes saying “Please take me home?”
I know I’ve been there. I go to the pet shop and I want to play with at least four puppies, two of which I normally contemplate taking home with me. In fact, one time I did do just that.
However, there are many things to consider when buying a puppy. They aren’t just something you can toss to the side when you get bored with them. They need attention and care, just like us.
When you are considering getting a puppy, you should know about where you are buying from. Many people think they know the right answer when the go looking for a pet. Purchasing puppies and dogs without having any idea of their background and history can be dangerous and you might wind up with a dog from a puppy mill.
What is a puppy mill, you ask? A puppy mill is pretty much like a farm for dogs, and not one of those cozy, homey ones. It is more like one of those giant cattle farms where the cows are mass bred to be slaughtered for your dinner at night. Not a very pretty sight. What’s especially scary is that Iowa has the third largest number of puppy mills in the nation with more than 400 facilities.
To be an educated puppy buyer, you must know where you can get dogs. There are three main places that most people look. These include pet shops/commercial kennels, breeders and animal shelters.
After talking to many people about where they buy their puppies and talking to people who sell puppies, I’ve come up with a list of things you can expect when you go to each of these places seeking a pooch. Keep in mind that all of these can be viable resources if you do your research and pay attention to some vital signs.
BREEDERS
Many people like seeking breeders when looking for a new pet. Breeders can be tricky. Some breeders are essentially mass breeding through puppy mills and they have Websites that look amazing. People can get fooled by these Web sites and assume that these are reputable breeders. However, really they are just puppy factories waiting to ship out many litters to whoever will take them.
So how do you tell if your breeder is a good one that you can trust? Here is a list of things you should look for when getting a puppy from a breeder according to pet counselor Amy Braun from Iowa City.
Good breeders ask a lot of personal questions. They might ask who you live with, how many hours you work,
Photo by Nawaar Farooq
what your housing is like and what kind of guests you normally have. They want to know this so they know that the puppies they are offering go to good, safe homes where they will have a good life. If your breeder doesn’t ask you questions about yourself, stay away!
Good breeders will often provide a warranty or guarantee of some kind. The best breeders will offer lifetime guarantees, but even if you are offered one for a year or a few months, it is a good sign.
If for some reason you absolutely cannot keep your dog, a good breeder will take back the dog, even if they didn’t actually breed the dog. Many good breeders are also involved with rescuing whatever types of dog they breed. This isn’t a surefire way to tell if your breeder is a good guy, but it definitely earns them some points.
If you are getting a purebred puppy, Krista Mifflin from About.com says there are a few things that should be included and that you should pay attention to. These are:
A pedigree that goes back a few generations (usually three)
Any titled champions within the first two generations (parents/grandparents of puppy)
Eyes have been CERFed and don’t have genetic abnormalities
Care and grooming information
Right of refusal, if you need to give up the dog for any reason
Puppies should be healthy and socialized with humans that adjusts well to others being around
Porter Jack, a beautiful dog up for adoption at the Adoption Center, Photo by Nawaar Farooq
ANIMAL SHELTER/CITY ADOPTION CENTER
Another option when purchasing a new pup is to go through a local animal shelter. Iowa City has one called the Animal Care & Adoption Center.
Maggie Winegarden, a temporary animal center assistant at the City of Iowa City Animal Care & Adoption Center has been working there for two years and thinks animal shelters are a great resource when looking for a new pet.
“These animals already exist and are in need of a home,” she says. “Breeders and pet shops encourage more litters when there are already many animals in need of a home.”
Why not adopt a dog that already exists instead of constantly trying to produce new ones?
Here are a few of the other reasons she gave as to why people should look to animal shelters when looking for a new furry companion.
These animals already exist and are in need of a permanent, loving home.
Breeders and pet shops encourage more litters, which can lead to more dogs ending up in the shelter or with people who can’t take care of them. –
Puppy mills are rampant in Iowa. When you go to a breeder or pet shop and don’t do your research, you may end up with an unhealthy, unsocialized dog that will cause you more problems in the long run.
When you get a dog from the animal shelter, you have a history of where they are from and a good idea of what their health is and any behaviors they exhibit. Their temperament is thoroughly tested. When you get really young puppies it is harder to tell sometimes. You can’t usually tell a puppy’s personality until they are about 6 months old.
Volunteers at the adoption center constantly work with puppies to be socialized (if they are not already) and are taught basic commands. You usually can’t assume that when buying from any breeder or pet shop.
The adoption center also offers financial assistance for spaying/neutering to prevent having any unwanted litters.
Please view the following video to see some of the current dogs up for adoption at the adoption center in Iowa City:
PET SHOPS/COMMERCIAL KENNELS
Another option that you can look to (but might want to be wary) of is purchasing a puppy from a pet shop. There have been rumors that many commercial kennels take puppies from puppy mills and because of that pet shops have received a bad rap. Of course, this isn’t always true, and with any situation, it is the consumer’s responsibility to do their research before taking on such a hefty responsibility.
I have purchased a puppy from a pet shop and haven’t had any issues so far, but I was as careful as I could be when I did.
There are local pet stores and franchise pet stores. Both can have a great pet waiting for you inside and some can have sick animals. You should never buy a pet on impulse, no matter how cute they are. Instead, make sure you get the breeder history (if possible), so you know what breeder the puppies came from.
Pet Counselor Amy Braun used to work at Petland in Iowa City. She knows about the stigma attached to Petland and its rumored association with puppy mills.
“ With how much they are talking about puppy mills in the news, it leads the viewer to believe that puppy mills are around every corner,” she says.
Amy doesn’t believe that is the case and supports buying puppies from pet shops like Petland.
“Just because we are a pet store doesn’t mean we have puppies from puppy mills. Puppy mill puppies have health issues and aren’t socialized with people. Our puppies are well groomed and in general they love being around people and other dogs. We have warranties to back up each puppy. We will pay for veterinary bills regarding hereditary issues that occur within the year [up to the puppy’s’ cost]. Puppy mill puppies generally have hereditary issues, Petland puppies usually do not. You can also exchange puppies if necessary,” says Amy. “We would be completely out of business if we weren’t doing right thing.”
You can expect higher prices at pet shops. They have to make a profit, after all. If you do buy a puppy from a pet store, you should be offered the following:
Initial vet records and check-up
Warranty of some kind
Microchipping in case your pet gets lost
Take a look at what Allie Brunn, the general manager of Petland has to say about her pet shop in the video below (I apologize for the shakiness, I didn’t have a tripod with me):
Hopefully that has given you some insight as to what to look for when you are on the hunt for a new pet. Just remember to do your research and don’t buy the first puppy you see. Each of these places can help find a healthy puppy/dog a new home, but it is up to you as a smart consumer to decide which resource is right for you.
If the turnout for Earth Day: Celebrating 40 Years! is any indicator for how much Iowa Citians care about recycling, we’re screwed.
Earth Day Meeting
The event, held on April 22 at the Iowa City Public Library, featured four local guest speakers and felt more like PR for the Iowa City Sierra Club than an event that was supposed to inform the audience of what they can do to help.
Including the guest speakers, 22 people were in attendance, scattered through a meeting room that was set up to seat well over 50.
The topics ranged from a history of Earth Day, energy conservation and a student perspective on environmental causes. The event ended 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, concluding with a poem, read by North Central Junior High Student, Amy Shun.
Not a word was spoken regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The most interesting speech was delivered by Abbie Gruwell, an intern at Sustainability at Iowa.
Regarding recycling and maintaining a healthy eco-footprint, Gruwell said, “This is the issue of my generation. At this point, it isn’t even an option … we don’t get to choose, it just has to be done.”
She added that students do show initiative to recycle if given the option. I couldn’t help but wonder if she’s ever been on campus the weekend after finals when myriads of recyclables are tossed into dumpsters and furniture abandoned on curbs.
Gruwell also attended the Copenhagen Climate Summit held earlier this year. I wondered how much the jet fuel calculated into her eco-footprint.
Cynicism aside (I had just spoken with anti-recycler, Mike Sammons) Gruwell spoke of great ideas for Iowa City: Namely, a bike-exchange program that would allow students to rent bikes from the Bike Library for a specified amount of time.
During the meeting, Conservation Chair of the Iowa City Sierra Club, Jim Baker, (who made it clear that, yes his name is Jim Bake and no, he is not a convicted televangelist) applauded Environmental Advocates, the longest lasting environmental group in Iowa City for its 30 years of dedication to such issues as; yard pesticides and curbside pick-up for recycling.
Outside of the Meeting Room
Upon conclusion of the meeting, we filtered outside, where Iowa City was hosting RiverFeast. Could there be a more appropriate day for local businesses to peddle food to residents while disposing high volumes of Styrofoam, paper and plastic utensils?
To put the cherry on the sundae, many of the items were set adrift in the April breeze, sent to drift aimlessly through the community. On Earth Day!
I couldn’t help but wonder how those at the meeting genuinely felt that they were making a difference when, the moment they left the meeting room, they were confronted with the waste of their community.
Nearly ten years ago, Lone Tree resident, Mike Sammons read a New York Times article that would forever change his views on recycling.
In 2001, the Muscatine native was a self described, “dread-locked, hippy who believed in saving the world through recycling.”
That was before he read John Tierney’s article, “Recycling is Garbage,” a few years after it first appeared in The New York Times. The article confirmed what Sammons had suspected for years: recycling is overrated.
“We recycle because it makes us feel warm and fuzzy but the end result isn’t what people think,” Sammons said as he took a sip from his bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon — a bottle he had no intent of recycling.
Mike’s viewpoint is not popular among his peers, but then neither are many of his other beliefs: He is also against disc golf and “completely over listening to bluegrass.”
“I’ve been universally rejected, people just don’t want to hear about it,” he said.
“He has some interesting points, but I can’t help but disagree,” said long-time friend, Luke Mescher, who’s had altercations with litterbugs outside of his former place of employment, Falbo’s Pizza.
Mike’s main reason for believing that recycling on an individual level is a waste of time is how much big businesses throw out every year.
“As residents, we can recycle as much as we want. It’s still not going to make enough of a difference if companies continue to produce so much waste. Even if every household did recycle, we would still have a major problem … we’d have all kinds of excess recyclable-material backup, waiting to be recycled,” Sammons said, adding that glass is especially not worth the effort.
“Of recycled glass, only about five percent can be used in new products,” he said.
Sammons also lauds Styrofoam, claiming that the energy that goes into creating a ceramic mug is 1,000 times greater than that of Styrofoam.
“And don’t even get me started on paper,” he said, claiming that we waste more water through recycling paper than what we would use creating new paper.
While Sammons admits that plastic waste is bad, he references Tierney’s article when he makes the argument that cardboard and paper, though technically biodegradable, have a hard time breaking down in segregated landfills due to lack of oxygen. This results in paper products taking up much more space than their plastic-packaging counterparts.
“We spend needless time worrying about recycling paper, which is a renewable resource, Sammons said, “yet we don’t think twice about trashing cell phones and I-Pods, let alone the resources it takes to make the damn things.”
A point Dave Gilson made clear in the March 2010 issue of Mother Jones.
But what about the “go green” movement? The amount of individuals that bring reusable bags to the grocery store have to be doing something good, right?
“The only reason they’re bringing those bags is because the stores started charging for throw-away bags,” Sammons said. “The things that an individual can do aren’t going to offset the damage of industrial pollution,” he said.
Not to be entirely wasteful, Sammons does practice composting, though not because it’s good for the environment. “I compost because I have a garden, not because I give a damn,” he said.
“I’m cynical, I’ve given up hope. Let’s just enjoy the sinking ship,” Sammons said.
When the 21-ordinance in Iowa City takes effect on June 1, thousands of underage bar-goers will find themselves without a weekend refuge.
There has been much speculation about where the young party crowd will choose to spend their nights when they can no longer hang out downtown. Many have suggested that the city’s neighborhoods will see a spike in the number of house parties. Others have said that residence hall personnel will have their hands full dealing with the increase of UI students drinking in the dorms. And still others say people will stop visiting Iowa City altogether.
House parties around the UI campus are few and far between due to the city’s vibrant downtown bar scene. But under the new ordinance, the “they’ll just drink somewhere else” argument says all signs point to an impending rise in the number of house parties.
UI police vehicles outside the UI Department of Public Safety in the Old Capitol Mall
But police officials are not convinced.
Iowa City police Sgt. Denise Brotherton said only time will tell if students and others truly do migrate to the neighborhoods.
“We won’t know until it happens,” Brotherton said. “There’s always house parties, we’ll just have to see if the 21-ordinance increases that.”
Charles Green, the assistant vice president for UI police, echoed Brotherton’s uncertainty.
“It’s an unknown,” Green said. “We really don’t know what the impact is going to be.”
And while it remains to be seen, those who believe the increase is imminent say the police will be unable to control partiers once they are spread out across the neighborhoods.
Brotherton said although a reallocation of resources might be necessary, the idea that house parties are harder to control than the centralized downtown area is unfounded.
“We go to a house party, it’s just a house party. We can shut it down,” Brotherton said. “There’s more we can do to control it out there.”
Downtown is not dead
So while neighborhood parties remain a concern that both departments will monitor closely, the downtown area will not be without its police presence.
Green said UI police will continue to work alongside the ICPD, but that their primary concern would be closer to university interests.
“What happens in the outlying neighborhoods will be the concern of the Iowa City Police Department,” Green said. “Our focus will be the downtown area.”
During most of last year UI police officers put in substantial overtime in the downtown area to combat violence in the Pedestrian Mall. Green said this year the department also added a regular shift to the downtown area on Wednesday through Saturday nights even before any discussion of the 21-ordinance had begun.
Recently the Iowa City Downtown Association announced that eight surveillance cameras would be installed in the Pedestrian Mall to add extra security to the area.
Brotherton said the cameras could be a benefit for police during times when information about an incident is limited.
“It’s a good positive step,” Brotherton said. “Anything is an assistance to us.”
Green also said the cameras could benefit the department’s operations but said it’s often difficult to accurately identify an individual because of the poor video quality and said the effectiveness of the cameras acting as a deterrent to crime would vary for each individual.
Getting home safe
Another public safety concern has always been what happens to people after they leave the downtown area and head for home. With people potentially going to more house parties as a result of the 21-ordinance, some people are worried about the safety of dark neighborhood streets away from the busy downtown area.
Apart from taxis, the UI offers a Cambus Saferide service that runs until 2:25 am on Friday and Saturday nights. The UI Department of Public Safety also offers a Nite Ride van service that operates until 3:00 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
But ever since Nite Ride was first introduced there has been controversy over the fact that the service is only available to women. Many people have argued that the service should be expanded to include safe transportation for men.
Former UI Student Government President Mike Currie succeeded in extending the service’s hours during finals week last winter, but was unsuccessful in achieving his main goal of establishing a male Nite Ride.
UI sophomore Evan Willhite is among the supporters of a male Nite Ride and said the issue is more about safety than equality.
“Some type of transportation should be available for males as well as women,” Willhite said. “The university should do everything it can to maintain the safety of its students.”
Green said an Eastside Saferide Loop through the neighborhood close to campus was added in September in direct response to the calls for a male transportation service.
Green said he was unsure how much use the new route is getting, but said the department’s plans are firm.
“We have no plans to expand Nite Ride,” Green said.
Safety is personal
Both Green and Brotherton said their departments would continue to do everything in their power to keep Iowa City residents safe in the aftermath of the 21-ordinance, but stressed the need for people to take responsibility for their own safety.
Brotherton suggested traveling in groups to avoid conflicts on the walks home from house parties and said it’s important to be aware of how much you’re drinking and recognize potentially harmful situations.
“To me it doesn’t matter if they’re downtown or at a party,” Brotherton said. “If they’re over-consuming, they’re putting themselves in a dangerous situation.”
For a look at some of the health concerns surrounding the 21-ordinance, click here.
When times are tough people often turn to the tired expression, “Well, at least I have my health.”
Americans spend trillions of dollars on health care and medical expenses every year, doing almost anything they can to protect their well-being. And on June 1 an ordinance will take effect that city councilors hope will do its part to help protect the health and welfare of Iowa City residents.
On April 6 the Iowa City City Council passed an ordinance that will raise the bar entry age to the legal drinking age of 21. Effective June 1, the ordinance passed by a vote of 6-1 with councilor Regenia Bailey casting the only dissenting vote.
Mayor Matt Hayek said the ordinance is intended to alter the city’s “culture of consumption” and curb both underage and binge drinking.
The dangers of starting early
During lengthy discussions in the City Council meetings that lead up to the ordinance’s passing, many proponents cited alcohol-related health concerns and the dangers of underage drinking.
Kelly Vander Werff, prevention manager for the Mid-Eastern Council on Chemical Abuse (MECCA), said underage drinking can have both short and long-term effects on a person’s health.
Vander Werff said underage drinking can damage the brain’s frontal lobe, the brain’s decision making center, which is still developing until around the age of 25. She also said underage drinkers are more likely to drink in a high-risk way, and research has shown that people who start drinking early are more likely to become addicted.
“If everyone would wait until they are 21 we would see a lot fewer problems in the adult population,” Vander Werff said.
Environmental change
The 21-ordinance is an example of what health professionals call “environmental change” and can be one of the most effective ways to reduce widespread alcohol-related problems.
Doug Beardsley, director of the Johnson County Public Health Department, said in order to combat underage drinking and overconsumption it’s important for city law to be in alliance with community expectations.
“As it is, you do have that kind of tacit acceptance,” Beardsley said. “This [ordinance] aligns public policy and our stated desire to cut down on underage drinking.”
Beardsley said similar ordinances implemented in other areas have been successful in reducing underage drinking and thought the same was possible for Iowa City.
UI Student Health offers several programs to help students with substance abuse
Angela Reams, substance abuse prevention coordinator at UI Student Health, noted that not only is it important for these laws to be enacted, but also enforced.
“Research has shown that enforcement of the legal drinking age and enforcing legal bar entry age reduces high risk drinking and underage drinking,” Reams said in an email.
Vander Werff said Iowa City’s high alcohol outlet density – the majority of the city’s 52 bars are in the downtown area – is a major cause of the city’s alcohol-related problems.
“Having easy access to alcohol increases consumption for all ages,” Vander Werff said. “Decreasing access is the primary way people see population-level change.”
A different kind of education
But as effective as environmental change can be, Vander Werff and others agree that alcohol education is also critical to effecting lasting change in the community.
The UI already has several alcohol education programs in place which are continuing to expand.
The AlcoholEdu program is “designed to prevent alcohol-related problems and educate students on the impact of alcohol on the mind and body,” according to the UI website. For the past four years the program has been mandatory for all first year students, but will be expanded next year to include all incoming students including transfer students who are not 21 by the start of school, Reams said.
The UI also recently added the e-CHUG program which allows students to receive instant feedback on their drinking habits and provides information about how they can live a healthier lifestyle.
Reams said programs such as e-CHUG can be very helpful in curbing high-risk behavior.
“Research has shown that programs that provide assessment with instant feedback about behaviors can assist students in thinking more about their behaviors while drinking, encourage the incorporation of more protective factors, challenge social drinking norms, and decrease high risk use,” Reams said in an email.
And apart from the university, MECCA, for which Vander Werff is a prevention manager, has prevention staff working in all Johnson County high schools to educate those younger students about the dangers of alcohol.
A piece of the puzzle
But environmental change and education are still not enough.
Beardsley said the city needs more alcohol-alternative outlets for students and other underage people to participate in.
“Let’s make this a place where they can engage in social activities where they don’t drink,” Beardsley said.
UI President Sally Mason has made alcohol-alternative events for students a priority and while the Campus Activities Board and Residence Life put on several programs every weekend, the events are poorly attended. Many students still feel it’s not enough, with popular events like Night Games only being held once a month.
And while UI officials look for new ways to educate students and attract them to sober events, everyone agrees that the 21-ordinance is not going to solve the city’s alcohol problems on its own.
“There is no one solution to curbing high risk drinking, so [the ordinance] is definitely part of a larger plan including environmental change, policy change, and education along with other initiatives,” Reams said in an email.
Vander Werff echoed Reams, saying the ordinance is not the final solution, but a necessary step towards healthier drinking in Iowa City.
“It’s a piece that needs to be there for the rest of the plan to come together,” Vander Werff said.
For a look at some of the public safety concerns surrounding the 21-ordinance, click here.
Smokers at the University of Iowa and in the Iowa City community will soon have an opportunity to kick the habit.
A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health, The Treatment and Prevention Study, will seek to help certain smokers with high blood pressure to quit smoking and maintain a healthy lifestyle after they quit to prevent them from gaining weight and continuing to have high blood pressure.
“We’re trying to see if we can help patients quit smoking, stay off tobacco and try to better manage their weight and blood pressure,” said Dr. Mark Vander Weg, a physician at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and head researcher of the study.
To accomplish the goal, the study is broken up into two phases. During the first phase, participants will receive assistance to quit smoking through nicotine replacement via the nicotine patch. In addition to nicotine replacement, participants will also receive smoking cessation counseling to further increase their chances of quitting.
Those participants who successfully quit smoking during phase one will move on to phase two. During the second phase, participants will focus on implementing healthy lifestyle changes in order to prevent weight gain and reduce high blood pressure. Participants will make dietary and nutritional changes during phase two to help them achieve this goal.
Also during phase two, participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups in order to help them maintain a healthy weight and blood pressure.
One of the groups will be provided with self-help materials in order to make the necessary lifestyle changes on their own.
The second group will receive a weight-gain prevention intervention.
The third group will also receive the weight gain prevention intervention, but they will also be provided with dietary recommendations that will help participants specifically maintain their blood pressure.
According to the study’s website, those interested in participating may be eligible for the study if:
Your blood pressure is at least slightly above normal (prehypertensive) or high (hypertensive)
You presently smoke five (5) or more cigarettes a day
You are willing to quit smoking or have quit smoking within the past six (6) weeks
You are able to meet regularly on weekdays or weekday evenings for sessions
You are between the ages of 18 and 75
Interested applicants are not eligible for the study if:
You currently consume more than 21 alcoholic drinks per week
You are pregnant or breastfeeding, plan to become pregnant, or unwilling to perform a urine pregnancy test (if applicable)
You plan to travel extensively or move in the next year
You do not have access to a telephone
You have recently had unstable angina, heart attack,stroke, coronary bypass, or angioplasty
You have severe chronic lung disease
You have moderate to severe heart failure, or a history of severe liver or kidney failure
You have peripheral vascular disease which causes you to be unable to walk any distance without significant leg pains
Your blood pressure is consistently greater than 160/10
Student Interest
One student planning on applying to participate in the study is Mark Fritzsche. Fritzsche said that he has been smoking for almost two years now and has used smoking as means to deal with stress.c
Mark Fritzsche smokes outside of Burge Residence Hall. Fritzsche plans to enroll in the study to kick the habit.
He said he wants to quit because cigarettes are too expensive. He also said he worries that he is at a heightened risk for high blood pressure because of family history, though he is unsure whether he currently has high blood pressure.
“It’s just becoming a real strain on my wallet,” said Fritzsche, a 22-year-old marketing and entrepeneurship double major at the UI. “It’s also not good health-wise for someone like me to smoke, so I need to find some way to quit and stay off it.”
Fritzsche said that he had tried to quit smoking cold turkey over winter break but was unsuccessful. He said that he is optimistic that his chances of quitting smoking would be increased if he is able to participate in the study.
“I just need someone to stand behind me and give me that little push I need to overcome this,” said Fritzsche.
Smoking Statistics
Tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. According to Quit-Smoking.net, every year more than 400,000 Americans die from a tobacco-related disease. In the United States an estimated 25.9 million men and 22.8 million women are smokers.
According to a 2003 MARS OTC/DTC study, 33 percent of smokers have abnormally high blood pressure compared with 15 percent of the general population.
In Iowa, 18.8 percent of the adult population is current cigarette smokers, with Iowa 29th among all states according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Though Iowa has the Smokefree Air Act preventing smoking in work places and public places, Iowa still ranks 44th among all states with a 10.1 percent exposure rate to secondhand smoke in public or work areas, according to the CDC.
The CDC also ranks Iowa 22nd among states for its taxes on cigarettes which are currently $1.36 a pack. Iowa also has a minimum price law requiring wholesalers to mark up cigarettes by 4 percent and retailers to mark up by at least 8 percent.
For more information on the study, interested individuals can visit the study’s website. To enroll in the study, call (319) 384-5055 or contact Dr. Mark Vander Weg at mark-vanderweg@uiowa.edu. Enrollment ends May 31, 2010.
T-shirts decorate the Pentacrest for Sexual Violence Awareness Month
April was Sexual Violence Awareness month. On April 27th, the southeastern side of the University of Iowa penacrest was decorated with a plethora of colorful t-shirts. These many t-shirts gave voice to the victims of sexual violence and abuse.
“All sexual abuse is about power and control,” Said Karen Siler, the Johnson County Services Coordinator at the Rape Victim Advocacy Program.
The shirts on the Pentecrest gave some of that power back to the victims. One shirt read “men who beat women are chicken.” Many of the shirts expressed overcoming the memories that haunt them.
“Our voices will be heard,” read another shirt.
Stastistics from the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network state that one in six women and one in 33 men are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. In the United States today, there are 17.7 million women who have been a victim of rape or attempted rape.
Dispite the high number of women effected by sexual violence, more than half of assaults never get reported.
In Iowa City
Officer Allison is a key actor in the Night Ride program at the University of Iowa. The program started in September of 2007 and was created to address the amount of sexual violence in Iowa City. At the time, there were over 30 or so assaults in the Iowa City area per year. Officer Allison was quick to point out that the real number can never actually be known because of the amount of cases that go unreported.
“The program was developed to protect the people that needed to be protected,” he said, “Something they could do for free, no questions asked.”
Around 200 people use the Night Ride service per weekend. The service runs until three in the morning seven days a week. During finals week at the University, the service runs until five in the morning, to better accomadate students who are studying late. It also picks up staff and will transport them to their cars.
Siler hopes that the recently passed 21-Ordinance will help lessen the amount of sexual assaults in Iowa City as well. “The atmosphere promots a lot of violence,” she said, speaking of the bar scene. “Some of the predatory access I hope will lessen.”
In a world where women have had to fight for their rights, societies view on women has an effect on the violence and rape against them. According to Siler, the victim is often blamed for the acts commited against her, whether it be for the way she acted or the way she dressed.
“Which is terrible, saying well you brought it upon yourself,” Said Jill Kacere, President of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance at the University of Iowa.
Wearing shorter skirts may be “risky behavior,” but that is not the point, according to Kacere.
The Rape Victim Advocacy Program focuses more “on the people around and how they can respond,” said Siler.
As an example, Siler gave a situation. You see someone helping an intoxicated person into a car. Check and see if the person is all right; ask if they know each other.
University of Iowa Junior, Katie Nicklaus recalls a time where she stumbled upon a girl walking alone one night. When asked why she decided to approach the girl, she Nicklaus said, “She was obviously drunk and a chick and alone.” It’s about looking out for one another.
An inspiring sheet decorated to promote power to the victims of sexual violence.
“At least just educate yourself and get somewhat involved,” said Kacere.
According to Siler, the police and medical personnel are doing all of the right things to protect people in the community. “I think there are some good policies,” she said, “[but] the only things that will stop violence is by people making the decision not to be violent.”
The word alone calls forth strong emotions in most people, fueling political intense political debate and religious vindications. It has been in increasing debate, especially after 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, which made abortions legal in the United States.
The Debate
Many women’s rights organizations consider it a right to have a choice, including the Feminist Majoridy Leadership Alliance, and the Emma Goldman Clinic. The alliance is a University of Iowa student organizations which promotes women’s rights. The Emma Goldman Clinic is a women’s health care clinic in Iowa City.
The debate invokes the question, is the abortion argument an argument of morality or rights?
“I think it’s neither,” Said 20-year old University of Iowa Junior Katie Nicklaus. “It’s a medical procedure. It should be treated like a medical procedure.”
The Emma Goldman Clinic is one of the places in Iowa City where a person can go to get this procedure. The non-profit clinic was founded in 1973
The Emma Goldman Clinic didn’t respond to request for an interview. A letter from a supporter of the clinic and who witnessed its founding depicts her experiences on the website. “The idea of an “abortion clinic” in our community was not the way we [many of my friends and I] saw the EGC,” she said. “It was a women’s health clinic that would offer abortions as one of many services.”
The other side of the argument involves those who are against abortion.
20-year old Elizabeth Adolphi considers herself pro-life. “The argument on abortion is about both moral rights and women’s rights, but i think its mostly about moral rights,” she said. “Abortion is the act of a mother who doesn’t want her child and, to me, that’s selfish.”
Adolphi points out that a women can give the child up for adoption if she doesn’t want her child. “There are so many people out there who cant have children that desperately want one,” she said. “So, if you ever conceive through rape, incest, or sheer mistake think about your options and lean on the people who love you; they’ll help you get through it.”
There are also health risks to abortion. Adolphi says that abortion does not just hurt the baby, but it can hurt the mother physically and sycologically.
The Emma Goldman clinic lists emotional changes and silightly elivated fever under normal side effects of getting an abortion.
The History
The United States Supreme Court made their Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Yet, abortion is not a recent phenomenon that has risen out of technological and medical advances.
Raymond A. Mentzer, who researches European religious history and is the current chair of the religious studies program at the University of Iowa, talked about pregnancy and abortion in terms of through early European history. “Women didn’t really consider themselves pregnant until it moved.” He said. This is because many women were malnourished and would often miscarry. They didn’t consider themselves pregnant unless there was some sign that the conception would result in a birth.
“[abortion] really wasn’t approved of, but it happened.” said Mentzer. “It was easy to find a dead baby,” Home remedies for terminating a pregnancy were common enough that they had their own euphemism. Preperations to terminate a pregnancy were sometimes referred to as “taking the trade.”
According Mentzer, the Christian argument against abortion is founded in the idea of ensoulment. “There’s this argument made that life begins at conception,” he said.
The issue he finds in that argument is in the case of identical twins. He said, “Only after conception does it [the fertilized egg] split.”
This splitting of the fertilized egg usually occurs within a week or so of fertilization.
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Abortion has received recent attention due to its involvement in the health care legislation. A summary of the bill on the CBS News website states that no state funds will be used to fund abortions. Rape, incest, and health of the mother are exceptions to this.
Caitlin Mangin spending time with the families who are a part of Dance Marathon
The University of Iowa has remarkable students who are a part of the many organizations and philanthropies on campus. These students put their leadership skills to the test and dedicate their time to help raise money for their cause. Molly McDonnell, Caitlin Mangin and Lauren Schulze are prime examples of having leadership positions in a philanthropy/organization to help groups in need.
Molly McDonnell – QUASH
Molly McDonnell is an active member of QUASH, which is an organization to help increase awareness and raise money for those with Alzheimer disease. Many students like McDonnell enjoy the feeling of giving their free time to help others and to increase awareness of a specific cause.
When asked why McDonnell joined QUASH, she replied, “I joined the Hawkeyes Fighting Alzheimer’s group to be apart of the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. As a college kid, I don’t have much time for anything outside of the classroom setting. I have little money to make a significant impact in research. QUASH is a way for young people like myself to actually make an impact through fund-raising and just having a good time with good people for a good cause even in the chaotic and limiting college lifestyle.”
Caitlin Mangin – Dance Marathon
Caitlin Mangin also believes in McDonnell’s philosophy in fund-raising. Mangin has recently been crowned as one of the 49 Dance Marathon Morale Captains for 2011. One of the many reasons why Mangin joined Dance Marathon was because she “wanted to be more involved and Dance Marathon is a great organization to get involved in to help those with cancer.”
“Raising money isn’t that hard. If you really put your work into asking around, it’ll all work out in the end. I emailed a bunch of my family members and the money kept coming in. I raised more than the minimum and it felt great.”
So there are dancers and then there are Morale Captains. What exactly are Morale Captains? “Morale Captains promote Dance Marathon and get people to join and tell people about it. They help fund-raise and we help go visit the kids in the college unit at the hospitals.
Lauren Schulze – Kappa Alpha Theta
The Greek community is also actively involved in fund-raising such as Phi Kappa Psi and Kappa Alpha Theta. These two houses recently had their combined philanthropy event here at the University of Iowa on May 1, 2010. The two houses hosted the event at the field house for the basketball tournament.
Kappa Alpha Theta’s philanthropy chair, Lauren Schulze was in charge of organizing this year’s “Phi Psi & Theta Hoops! 3-v-3 Basketball Tournament”. Schulze let us know exactly what their philanthropy event consisted of and where the raised proceeds go.
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Lending a helping hand – The crew
Others simply join the organization because they relate to the group of people within. Many groups and philanthropies consist of members who have the same interest in the cause. If it weren’t for the members, then these groups wouldn’t exist. The work and dedication of members of certain organizations really make a difference.
Chloe Lee
Chloe Lee participated in the “Phi Psi & Theta Hoops! 3-v-3 Basketball Tournament,” where I got a chance to ask her why she decided to participate in this particular event.
“A lot of the girls in my sorority enjoy being active, physically, and on campus. We wanted to help the other Greek houses for a great cause because we know we like when we have many Greek participants in our philanthropy, too.”
Madison Sheets
Senior Madison Sheets joined a sorority because she “wanted to meet other girls that were like [her] because all of [her] best friends were off to college together and [she] was all alone so [she] thought rush would be a good way to meet people”.
Sheets’ sorority has a different approach than most when it comes to promoting their event and raising proceeds for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, which is a foundation for those diagnosed by breast cancer and those who have survived. Sororities at the University of Iowa do an excellent job at marketing their event – whether it is through social media websites or face-to-face communication, Sheets’ sorority uses the old fashion method because “it is more effective”.
Women of Kappa Alpha Theta during the 3v3 Phi Psi - Theta Hoops Philanthropy Event
“We are all encouraged to ask family members and friends for donations for the race. We also talk to businesses around the Iowa City area and the University for donations, as well. We go canning during home football and basketball games. We chose Z’Mariks and Coldstone, where they give us a certain profit and proceeds. We also go around to different fraternities and sororities and other student organizations asking them to sign up as teams so we can get more donations for the race. And all the proceeds from the race go to our philanthropic fund”.
Sheets loves giving her time to those in need because “it actually feels like your making a difference. The time, stress about making the event as successful as the last makes it all worth it – especially because you’re helping people who have their lives on the line.”
Kaitlin Brown
Like Sheets, sophomore Kaitlin Brown is also a part of a sorority and other organizations on campus. One organization she cares about deeply is Dance Marathon because she “enjoys raising money for a good cause.”
Brown ran the Chicago Marathon in 2009 – which is also a very successful fund-raising event hosted in Chicago, Illinois. Many University of Iowa students ran the Chicago Marathon last year, as well.
Each year, all participants of Dance Marathon have to raise a minimum of $400, where as those who run, or take part in another marathon have to a raise a minimum of $750.
Students usually don’t have the time to raise this kind of money but students, like Brown, tend to surprise and impress many people with the amount of money each of them raise. “I had a lot of fun and a lot of support raising this money. It makes me feel like I was able to make a difference.”
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These dancers take a quick little break and smile for the camera
A little goes a long way – The givers
Many college students already have a full schedule of classes, work, volunteer work and other activities on campus. Because of these other commitments, most students find donating money just as helpful, because it truly is.
Dominique Deery
Dominique Deery is an active giver to the University of Iowa and the associations affiliated with the University. Deery donates $25 a year to both Dance Marathon and the University of Alumni Association.
“I give to the UI because I am a big believer in improving the quality of student life and making sure it is always an improving experience for future Iowa students.”
Deery’s mother and aunt passed away from cancer and her mother always used to talk about the babies in the cancer clinics that would get the same kind of treatment [her mother] did so Deery wanted to make an impact on a child’s life.
Many students are like Deery and are a part of the University of Iowa Alumni Association because they want to better the education for incoming students. Sheets is also a part of this organization because she wants to “help make students coming to the University of Iowa have the same and better experience” like she.
“For both, I am glad to be a part of it. I wish I could give more, but I feel like every gift counts. What if they were only $25 away from having all the money they need? Then I made a difference. It makes me want to work harder to be able to give more some day.”
Katie Rosch
Katie Rosch, a sophomore at the University of Iowa, gives gifts to the Women in Business organization in the College of Business. She, like Deery, wants to see this particular organization improve and become very successful because Rosch knows “this organization will help those who want to be successful business women someday, just like me”.
Rosch continues to be an active member and continues giving to Women in Business, knowing it will “help [me] in the future. I’m in college, I have low funds but I just think of it as, I’m helping something I strongly believe in and I want this to continue in success. I can’t whip out $100 out of my pocket but I can give $10”.
Nick Eckerman
Nick Eckerman is a student who gives to organization on and off campus. Some organizations he’s been previously, and presently donating to have been Environment Iowa, Dance Marathon at the University of Iowa and United Way.
Eckerman, like many college students can’t seem to fit the time to help organize events so “giving money is the least I can do”.
“My boss takes out 5% of my paycheck for each pay period to donate to United Way. Knowing my earned money is going to a worthwhile cause makes work even more fun that it already is.”
Eckerman is ending his college career here at the University of Iowa this May. He feels great that even though he couldn’t necessarily put the time and effort like other students on campus to coordinate events, Eckerman “donated $25 every year to Dance Marathon, totaling $100”. “I give a lot of credit to those who’ve danced for 24-hours for the past four years, I know I couldn’t do it. In general though, I feel great about giving and will continue giving”.
“Well, you have to like people, and you have to be able to put up with a lot of dumb shit, and I mean really dumb stuff,” said Nick Colsch, as he put down his coffee while reading at the Java House. It’s all a part of the job of being what students call an “R.A.,” or Resident Assistant in University of Iowa student housing.
Colsch has been an R.A. for three years, working in Currier Hall and now Mayflower. After three years on the frontline, Colsch is full of stories. One of the more ridiculous experiences he has had to tolerate involved a case of oranges.
“I was compacting trash, and some f***er-resident decided to take out their screen and throw oranges at me. It’s January. I saw this orange crushed. They were throwing oranges from their window,” says Colsch.
Colsch notices a difference in the atmosphere between residence halls. “In Currier the demographic is radically different than Mayflower. A lot of kids often sign up for Currier and Hillcrest largely because of the quiet atmosphere. It’s more of a studying environment. Mayflower is the last kids to register. We have a large number of international students. It’s a zoo more than a residence hall.”
Both residence halls were searched back in April, and at least 13 students from both Currier and Mayflower were found to be in possession of marijuana. This doesn’t come as any surprise to Nick, who as an R.A. has had to intervene in rooms where students have drugs and alcohol against dorm rules. “[The] discipline level is a lot worse out in Mayflower, partly because they have kitchens, and can hide stuff. They want to seem older, so alcohol appeals to them.”
Colsch says the R.A. program has changed since he started working severak years ago. Instead of being focused on programs or activities for students living in the halls for participation, he says the training relies more on instructing R.A.s how to be more sociable, and have a hospitable presence when talking to students.
However, R.A.s can still use programs if they’d like. “It really depends on your style as an R.A. Some R.A.’s kind of program like crazy, and the residents like it, and that just works for that floor,” says John Komdat, an R.A. on Currier’s second floor. Komdat has worked with Colsch before in R.A. training, and says Nick’s style wouldn’t work for everyone. “The way that he makes the job work for him takes intelligence, and intentionality. He’s a character. I think most people would agree.”
Nick has a wicked sense of humor that gets him through most on-the-job challenges. He thinks with a little more practice, those irritating residents in Mayflower hurling oranges out the window at him could become “bombers.” Still, while Nick has a personality that almost any resident can get along with, there is a stereotype that he knows makes him stand out. Being an R.A., says Nick, “pulls you out of a normal life for a year, because you’re looked at like a fish. You’re introduced first as an R.A. rather than by your name.”
While Nick says he has enjoyed the experience of being an R.A. he says he feels burned out from the experience and plans to get an apartment next year. After that, Nick plans to graduate and is optimistic he will find a job in his major: Accounting. At least as an accountant, no one should be throwing oranges at him.
Many Things discarded in the East side Residence Halls can be recycled
Most Iowa City neighborhoods have been recycling for years, but there has been one big exception. University of Iowa residence halls are just now “going green,” implementing a new program that encourages students to recycle at every dorm across campus. Most students see it as a welcome and overdue change.
Currently, west side neighborhood residence halls Quadrangle, Rienow, Slater, and Hillcrest all have blue bins located throughout the buildings for students to dispose of their plastic, paper, and bottle waste. So far students in this neighborhood are very appreciative of the blue bins, and don’t find separating their trash to be an extra chore.
“It was more annoying not to have one, bottles aren’t filling up your garbage. We had a bag for water bottles anyway,” said freshman Delanie McAndrews, who lives in Rienow Hall.
While students are enjoying this program on the west side of campus, students on the other side of the river are still throwing out their trash the old-fashioned way. Recycling bins are noticeably absent from the east side residence halls of Currier, Burge, Stanley, and Daum. However, there is a plan to implement the new recycling program beginning in the Fall 2010 semester.
The Roadblocks
Students on the East side of campus have wanted a recycling program just as much as the students on the West side, but their frustration will last a few more months. It has left students like Currier resident Jim Duff asking, ‘what’s the holdup?’
“I don’t recycle anything right now because I don’t have the option,” says Duff. “I don’t think it would cost that much.”
But according to the University, a full-scale recycling program is expensive and complex. “While it may seem pretty simple to offer these receptacles throughout the residence halls, it’s more difficult than it may seem,” says Dr. Von Stange, the director of University of Iowa residence services. He wanted to implement a recycling program as a small test in order to gauge the resources necessary to successfully move to a full-scale recycling program for thousands of students. Stange said, “We needed to make sure we were doing it well, and that our vendor, City Carton and their collectors could handle the recycling going on. It could mean adding additional routes.”
Dr. Stange said he isn’t trying to delay a move to go green on campus, and he understands the desire of students to do their part to recycle. Stange said he also sees the environmental need to implement recycling at University residence halls. While all those are good goals, he said, diverting tons of potential trash to a separate stream of recyclables has to be accomplished so it’s effective, economical and so the program can be managed by current staff. Stange says that’s no easy task – and it’s taken a long time to get this far.
When Dr. Stange started his job of Director of Residence Services six years ago one of the first issues he was confronted with concerned a recycling program. He says at that time there wasn’t a recycling system good enough to handle all the residence hall garbage. Not only that, there was no idea how much a recycling program would cost to put in place. “We needed to know what it was going to take to establish this financially,” said Stange. Dr. Stange estimates it may cost $3,000 to implement the program, but ultimately, it’s too soon to say how much it will cost altogether.
Putting a Plan into Action
It takes more than money to make a recycling program work. Dr. Stange says he understood from the beginning that the program was going to need the cooperation of the people who have been asking for it: the students living in residence halls.
Rather than raise room and board fees for students by $50 a semester to pay for recycling, Stange came up with the idea of employing students as workers in the new recycling program. While some students were recruited for part-time recycling jobs, there are also additional temporary positions in place to make sure things run smoothly during the test period. By being a little creative in shuffling the staff to meet the demands of the new recycling plan, Stange says the University may be able to avoid raising room and board fees at the residence halls.
However, there may still be a fee to pay at the end of the year. No one knows exactly how much money it’s going to cost to collect and process the recyclable waste generated by the dorms. The worst case scenario, says Stange, is that students might have to pay an additional fee to keep the program up and running, but he expects it would be less than $50 a year.
So, why did it take so long to get recycling going in the first place? “The hold up was making sure we had the facilities, the staffing, and the vendors to help do this,” said Stange.
Looking to the Future
Now that the pilot recycling program is operating in the west side dorms, Stange says it also uncovered a few other snags. Students had to be trained and reminded how to properly recycle. Some residence hall staff were very conscientious, said Stange, and others were “hit and miss” when it came to enforcing new recycling rules and reminding students. Developing the recycling habit will be a constant effort because each year there is a new crop of dorm residents who must learn the system.
Nonetheless, Dr. Stange still plans to move forward, and put the program in the east side residence halls next year, and the larger apartment based halls, Parklawn and Mayflower, too. The program will remain labor intensive, and it could even spawn some new jobs as recycling is extended across campus. “One of the things we’re looking at is the student labor at this point, and hiring full time custodial staff to increase management,” said Dr. Stange.
Still, it’s anyone’s guess as to exactly how much this could all add up to by the end of 2010 when the recycling program becomes more widespread, and more management jobs are added to keep it running smoothly. Students, however, seem to think it is money well spent. They see the benefit of recycling versus throwing everything in the trash.
“It’s interesting to see it change form then to now. I’m glad its there, cause it is something I use,” said Bret Scofeild, a resident living in Quadrangle.
The easiest solution, says Stange, may not be the best solution in the end. The simplest and cheapest thing to do was to ignore recycling. “Financially we found we could throw our trash away instead of recycling. But as an institution of higher learning it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s the most financially prudent model. I think we’ll find a program down the road that is strong, but not without some bumps in the road first.”
During the 2008 presidential campaign, healthcare reform was one of the top issues of concern.
Around 47 million Americans were without health coverage and millions more without adequate coverage. Americans were having to choose between putting food on the table or having to pay for much needed medication. Most Americans chose to put food on the table and, unfortunately, made due with their health.
45,000 Americans were dying every year to do either poor, or non-existent, coverage.
Going to Work
After Barack Obama was elected president, he went straight to work on repairing the ails of the country. His first project, and rightfully so, was to bailout a number of big banks to prevent another Great Depression.
But after the bailouts, Obama immediately turned his focus onto healthcare. Attempting to make due on his promise, he let the Congress know that he would not anything less than a public option in a bill that reached his desk. The Congress immediately went to work.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, began wrangling fellow Democrats to being the process of constructing a health bill in Obama’s vision.
An Unexpected Turn
While ideas of how to construct the healthcare bill were in the works, Congress went to recess over the summer months of 2009. Democrats decided to place any legislation-building on hold to win the hearts and minds of their constituents at home.
This strategy, Democrats hoped, would place the Republicans in a tough spot; to prevent them from any legislative blocking measures such as the use of the filibuster. Democrats believed their constituents were very much in favor of reforming the healthcare industry and were desperately wanting a public option.
What happened over the three months was a situation the Democrats, and the President, didn’t expect to have happen.
Republican members of Congress were labeling the public option as the expansion of the Federal government and the beginning of when the government would be telling its citizens how to live their own lives.
Hundreds of town hall meetings took place during the period, and the Republicans were on the offensive. The bad news for Democrats? The Republican message was winning.
Rise of the Death Panels
At these town hall meetings, many American citizens voiced their concerns that the government was, indeed, becoming too large and would infringe upon any rights they had as individuals.
Democratic members of Congress, all to often, came face-to-face with scared and angry constituents at their town halls and spent much of their time on the defensive.
Republican members of Congress met with the same crowd of Americans, but seemed to be more welcomed by their constituents. Republicans echoed their constituents concerns at these meetings in order to solidify their message. It was working.
Media personalities, such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity were helping to spread the Republican message. As the summer drew on, more and more pollsters found that more Americans were not favoring a reform on healthcare.
It wasn’t until August when the most damning assault on healthcare reform arrived: death panels.
Senator Charles Grassley, of Iowa, stated that the Federal government, under the proposed healthcare reform, would be “putting Grandma to death.”
This became very disturbing to elderly citizens and the message spread, like wildfire, throughout the media. Soon enough, prominent Republicans, such as Sarah Palin, began echoing the message that Senator Grassley has spawned.
Democrats realized that the road to health reform, could very well be lost.
Pressing On
By late summer, the Democrats began to wonder if a repeat of 1994 was going to occur. In 1994, the Clinton Administration had tried their hand at health reform only to have it utterly defeated by the newly elected Republican Congress. It was a bitter defeat for the administration.
While Democrats lost the message war, they weren’t losing their fight. But it became clear that a public option in the bill was not going to happen, so other means of passing healthcare reform had to be explored.
Pelosi’s Victory
It was up to House Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, to gather fellow Democrats for an historic vote. Pelosi worked tirelessly to gain the minimum 218 votes needed to pass the bill in the House.
In November, the healthcare bill finally saw voting time. The bill passed by a 220-215 margin.
While it was history in the making, the media felt that health reform was still very much in danger due to the small margin of victory and, now, having to go through a much more stubborn Senate.
Senator Reed’s Battle
Like his House counterpart, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, had to deliver enough votes on health reform.
But the problem was that Senate Republicans were going to be more difficult than their colleagues in the House. They were not going to rollover and let this bill slide through as easily. Senate Republicans wanted to amend the bill; to eliminate aspects of it that they did not agree with and, then, to push it through.
Senator Reid faced a tougher challenge than Speaker Pelosi. There was worry that, even though Republicans didn’t have the minimum 40 members required to start a filibuster, there was concern that any blue-dog Democrat, such as Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, may join the Republicans in slowing the process down, if not, defeating the healthcare bill all together.
After going through numerous committees, some changes had been made to the bill. But there was now concern that if enough changes took place, the bill would have to go back to the House for approval if the Senate were to pass it.
Speaker Pelosi expressed some concerns of that situation taking place, but was not going to worry too much about it unless it did become a reality. Senate Democrats had enough time to block Republican amendments to the bill and to speed it up to a vote.
That’s exactly what they did.
Senate Passes Reform
Senate Democrats decided that the Republican party had enough say in the health reform debate. They believed Republicans were only obstructing the process instead of bringing solutions to the table and blocked any proposed amendments to the bill; such as an abortion amendment that wouldn’t allow Federal funds to pay for a woman’s abortion.
When it came time to vote, the Senate passed the healthcare bill by a margin of 60-39.
Signed into Law
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the healthcare bill into law. History was made.
Two days after signing, President Obama went on a cross-country tour to celebrate the victory and to continue to build support for health reform.
His first stop was at the University of Iowa; a town that is as pro-Obama as you can get. During his speech, in front of 3,000 people at the Field House on the University of Iowa campus, President Obama celebrated the victory.
But what was more important to him was to let people know that, while a huge battle was fought and won, so much more work needed to be done.
Protesters of President Obama's Iowa City visit crowd the East lawn of the Old Capitol.
Gathering
On March 24, a day before President Obama made a visit to the University of Iowa, opponents of the newly-signed healthcare legislation gathered on the Pentacrest to voice their concerns of a Federal government that was expanding in size and infringing on the states’ rights and those of the American citizen.
“Our elected officials strapped us with a bill we, the people, don’t want,” said 2nd District candidate, Christopher Reed. “No more, Mr. President! Not without a fight!”
The gathering of citizens at the Pentacrest included speakers from the Republican candidates looking to challenge incumbent Democrats for their seats at the state and Federal levels. The crowd contained a mixture of Republican and Tea Party supporters.
Waking a Sleeping Giant
Signs littered the crowd showing the disapproval of the healthcare legislation. “You, the voting public, have a lot of think about,” said Reed specifically citing the midterm elections this November. “The government is usurping the Constitution. You have woke a sleeping giant, Washington.”
“Where was our Attorney General?” asked Brenna Finley who is looking to succeed incumbent, Tom Miller. “Tom Miller isn’t protecting your rights.”
A Bill not for the People
Some of those opposed feel that, not only does the bill increase the size of government, but that it also doesn’t do what it says it will do. “People would have to pay for everyone else’s health care, including illegals,” said Minneapolis resident, Jason Nessa.
“It’s a collective-type of bill. It’s a big pharma bailout. If you don’t pay, the government will fine you $15,000 and put you in jail for five years,” Nessa said.
Concern for States’ Rights
Nessa isn’t surprised that 13 state Attorney Generals are suing the Federal government over the new legislation, “It’s [the] government interfering with state affairs. Citizens are the main source of power in our country, not the Federal government.”
But Nessa believes that healthcare shouldn’t put millions of Americans into debt, “The overall system should be free. [People] shouldn’t have to go into debt for medical care. It was free for a long time many years ago.”
However, Nessa thinks healthcare problems should not be handled at the Federal government level, “I want it to be free, [but] states will decide what’s best for the people.”
The healthcare legislation, that was signed into law by President Obama back in March, couldn’t have come at a better time for many Americans.
Nearly 50 million Americans, and counting, didn’t have any form of health insurance. Harvard medical researchers have found that approximately 45,000 Americans die every year, because they don’t have any health care.
The new healthcare legislation includes such provisions as:
Not being turned down by physicians due to any pre-existing health conditions.
Physicals, and other preventive measures, will not only be more affordable, but will not be paid for out-of-pocket by the patient due to his/her health insurance/Medicare not including it in their coverage.
The freezing and, in some cases, lowering of premiums, to make health care more affordable.
Prescriptions available at a greatly reduced price.
College students can stay on their parents’ health insurance up until the age of 26.
Tax incentives for businesses that provide health coverage to their employees.
Those the Bill Impacts
That last point is one of the reasons why University of Iowa senior, Jake Shkolnick is excited about the new healthcare reform, “When I do get a job, I know I’ll have health insurance. If I get sick, they can’t take it away from me.”
Adding on to another benefit of the healthcare legislation, “[It] keeps costs down while keeping a better quality of life,” Shkolnick said. “I’ll [also] get ti stay on my parents’ health insurance.”
While Shkolnick is tremendously thrilled that reform is on its way, he realizes that the legislation still isn’t perfect. “I would certainly like to see a not-for-profit public option [and] even more tax breaks for low-income individuals if they can’t get it through their employer.”
Rick Spooner, 47 and an Iowa City resident, is all to familiar with the struggles that many Americans face. Spooner suffers from cerebral palsy and has avoided doctor visits in the past due to high costs of the visits. “I wish the free enterprise system would work, but it hasn’t worked out that way,” he said. “Somebody’s gotta do something.”
Spooner likes “reassurance of any insurance option. That you can afford a physician. As I get older, my medical condition could get worse. I can barely afford groceries now. I would prefer to pay for my own medical care [but] that isn’t the current case.”
Spooner uses Medicare and Medicaid as his means of paying for any medical costs. But those measures haven’t even been able to give Spooner the kind of health coverage he needs. “[They] can’t do preventive health procedures unless it’s an emergency. Last physical I took, I had to absorb costs.”
Uncertainty & Wanted Improvements
The lack of coverage by either Medicare and Medicaid has forced Spooner to not even see the physician when he needed. There have “been several times I would have gone into a physician just to feel better, but didn’t. A lot of existing health coverage won’t cover preventive medicine. Depends on the test too. [But] I don’t which tests are covered and which ones are not; so I don’t get them.”
Spooner also wishes the health care legislation was better to people with lower incomes. “My mobility may be affected when I get older. If I have to be in a wheelchair, who’s going to pay for that? What if I can’t do regular household duties? What if I can’t afford a maid to help me if I can’t do that when I’m 70?
“If I get a serious medical problem, I don’t know what Medicare and Medicaid will cover. The current system doesn’t remove the insecurities or absorb the costs for preventive medicine. They say preventive medicine works, but you can’t pay for them. I don’t know what else to do.”
Spooner realizes that the reform isn’t perfect, but he knows it’s a step in the right direction. “If I had one wish, it wouldn’t be to have $1 million, it’d be to go into any physician in the town I live in and not have to worry about medical costs with my income level.”
With temperatures improving as summer approaches, people are spending more and more time outdoors. This leads to an increased risk of skin damage, like burns, tans and cancer.
Few people seek shade when the sun is out.
The sun is at its most powerful in the summer months, and its rays are most damaging between the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
UV Rays
There are three different kinds of Ultraviolet, or UV rays.
UVA rays: These are the rays that cause people to tan. UVA rays penetrate into the lower layers of the epidermis. This triggers melanocytes to produce melanin, or the brown pigment that causes a tan.
UVB rays: These are the rays that burn the upper layer of the epidermis, causing sunburn.
UVC rays: These are the most dangerous of the sun’s rays. Fortunately, these rays are blocked by the ozone layer and do not reach Earth.
Sun Exposure
People spend more time outdoors when the weather is warm, and few people wear sunscreen when out. In fact, people are exposed to the most sun while doing everyday activities, not at the beach.
Younger people are increasingly exposed to the sun’s harmful rays without protection. Adolescents take less care applying sunscreen while outdoors.
“I wear sunscreen when I go to the pool or the beach for an extended period of time, but playing sports outside or at a barbeque, I never bother,” said Timothy Riphagen, 20.
In fact, 50-80% of a person’s lifetime sun exposure occurs before the age of 18.
Tanning
It is a common misconception that a tan is better for your skin than sunburn. On the contrary, a sunburn shows that your skin is fighting the damage of the sun’s rays. A tan is visual proof that your skin has cellular damage
Despite the risks, the popularity of tanning is growing. Thirty million people tan indoors in the U.S. annually; 2.3 million of those people are adolescents.
In a recent poll by Teenshealth, 80% of people under age 25 think they look better with a tan.
“Most people who tan with us are college students between the ages of 18 and 24,” said Scott Bender, manager of Planet Beach Tanning Spa.
Tanning, however, increases the risk of skin cancer.
Basal cell carcinoma: This is the most common type of skin cancer, accounting for over 90% of all skin cancer diagnoses in the U.S. Though it is rare for this type of skin cancer to spread, it can grow, invade and damage surrounding tissue.
Squamous cell carcinoma: This cancer occurs in the squamous cells, which are scaly and fish-like. Since squamous cells are found on the surface of the skin, the lining of the hollow body organs and in digestive and respiratory tracts, squamous cell carcinoma can actually occur on any of those parts of the body. It is only 25% as common as basal cell carcinoma. Squamous cell carcinoma can metasticize, or spread, to other parts of the body.
Melanoma: This is the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Melanoma is the leading cause of death due to skin disease. It can spread very rapidly, but risk greatly decreases if it is caught early.
More than 1 million new cases of melanoma are diagnosed annually. In the past, melanoma mostly affected people in their mid- to late-fifties. However, the number of melanoma diagnoses of people in their teens and 20s is increasing.
The most common treatment for skin cancer is exision. This involves completely cutting the tumors and cancerous tissue out. Exisions performed to remove melanoma often leave large scars.
Some people are more at risk for skin cancer than others. People with any of the following should be especially aware of their sun exposure and take measures to avoid skin cancer.
People with fair skin, meaning they have less than melanin than darker skin, have a greater risk for skin cancer because they have less of that protective layer. People who have naturally light hair, eyes or who freckle easily are also at greater risk.
Excessive sun exposure increases your risk of skin cancer. Even if you were a “sun worshipper” when you were and now practice “safe sun,” there is still risk of skin cancer. Skin cancer can take years, even decades, to develop.
If you have many moles, regular or irregular, you have an increased risk of skin cancer.
If your family has a history of skin cancer, you are at an increased risk. Some families suffer from Familial Atypical Mole-Malignant Melanoma (FAMMM) syndrome. This puts you at increased risk of developing melanoma. Frequent screenings for the disease are a necessity.
If you have had skin cancer in the past, it is more likely you will develop it again, often within two or three years of the original diagnosis.
A weakened immune system also increases the risk of skin cancer. People living with leukemia, HIV/AIDS or people taking immunosuppressant drugs after an organ transplant are at increased risk.
Protecting Yourself
Skin cancer is actually the easiest of all cancers to prevent.
To protect yourself from the sun’s harmful rays, it is vital to wear sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher at all times. This should be applied 30 minutes before sun exposure to allow time for it to be absorbed.
Wear protective clothing, such as hats, sunglasses and darker clothes while outdoors.
Check your body for abnormal moles frequently. If you notice anything irregular, visit a dermatologist as soon as possible.
“I do look at moles sometimes and wonder if that was always there,” Riphagen said.
Ultraviolet Benefits
Ultraviolet rays do not have to be all bad. UV rays provide the body with vitamin D, which boosts the immune system and prevents some cancers.
“[Vitamin D] decreases the risk of prostate cancer and breast cancer,” said Bender.
Contrary to popular believe, however, prolonged exposure to the sun is not necessary to absorb your daily dose of D. Fifteen minutes of unprotected exposure to the sun provides you with all the vitamin D you need.
Still, it is unwise to spend too much time outside without sun block. You can also receive this vitamin from fish, milk and eggs, or even a daily supplement.
It is suggested that UV rays can help with other illnesses, as well.
“I have a 68-year-old man who tans here to control his psoriasis. Sometimes doctors even recommend it to treat women with seasonal depression,” said Bender. “It’s interesting to see that something can cause one type of problem and possibly remedy another.”
According to the National Psoriasis Foundation, UVB rays are more effective at treating the disease. UVB rays are minimized at tanning salons, so sunlight is the best choice.
Mitchell Stolberg, a 19-year-old secondary education English major, spent the past four years pursuing his passion as a member of the color guard in the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps. He had no idea that his love could threaten his life.
Stolberg was diagnosed with skin cancer mid-season his third year in color guard.
Colts Drum and Bugle Corps, fondly referred to as “Colts” by Stolberg, is a travelling team consisting of a hornline, drumline, full-front ensemble and color guard. From March 28th to August 15, Colts compete all over the country with other drumlines.
Competing at a national level demands almost constant rehearsal.
“We rehearse almost every day, outdoors, in the sun from as early as 7 a.m. to as late as 1 a.m.,” Stolberg said.
It was mid-June of the 2009 summer season for the Colts when Stolberg noticed a mole on his left cheek.
“It started to get this weird ring around it, a ring of pink. Then around the pink was a ring of white,” Stolberg said.
Despite its odd appearance, Stolberg thought nothing of the mole and continued with his rigorous rehearsals. By early July, Stolberg was still ignoring the mole, as it was not bothering him.
“I didn’t think of it until I started having problems with my right shoulder,” Stolberg said.
After a night rehearsal, Stolberg felt like his shoulder was “on fire,” so the next day, while in Omaha, NB, Stolberg went to the emergency room.
Stolberg called his mother, Wendy, to let her know he was seeking medical treatment, and since he mentioned the mole to her earlier, she insisted he have his mole looked at as well.
After his shoulder pain was diagnosed as subluxation, or loss of the muscle that was keeping his shoulder in place, the doctor looked at Stolberg’s mole.
“He said it looked pretty bad,” Stolberg recalls, and the doctor said he needed to send a piece of it to get tested.
On July 20, Stolberg finally got the test results. The Colts were now in San Antonio, TX.
“I came in from day rehearsals and the tour director took me into a back room and told me the doctor called. The tests were positive for cancer,” Stolberg said.
Stolberg’s mother was notified before he was. When he called his mother, it was a very emotional experience, especially since Stolberg’s parents were states away.
The doctor, tour director and Stolberg’s parents agreed that he needed to leave the Colts tour, return home and seek treatment. Stolberg was devastated.
“I had spent…going on four years of my life with these people. I didn’t care what was going on with my body. I didn’t want to leave them,” Stolberg recalls.
Since the Colts regional competition was only two days away, Stolberg decided to perform and fly home to North Dakota, where his parents lived, immediately after.
The days leading up to regionals were especially difficult for Stolberg because of his condition. He dealt with this stress almost solitarily since so few knew about his test results.
“I didn’t tell anyone else in the corps except for three of my friends and my section coordinator, Carla,” Stolberg said.
He wanted to keep the news quiet since the competition was already causing so much stress to his teammates.
On the day of regionals, Stolberg was very emotional. Not knowing the severity of the cancer, he prepared for the worst.
“I kept thinking this could be my last show with drum corps,” Stolberg said, but that did not stop him from giving a great performance.
“I had an absolutely amazing show,” said Stolberg. “I cried afterwards. I thought I could be too sick to perform again.”
After the regionals, the corps got together to discuss their performance. After getting feedback, Mitch stood to tell his team he was leaving.
“’I’m going home.’ That’s all I said, and everyone’s mouth just dropped open because I’m not one to ever give up color guard. [It] is my life,” Stolberg said.
He then told his team about the cancer, and the next day, after many tears and hugs, Stolberg packed and left for home.
“When Mitch called to tell me he had cancer last summer I didn’t believe him at first. It just didn’t seem real. Cancer isn’t for people you know about, it’s for people in stories, or on tv. You never expect it to happen to your best friend,” Katherine Nicla, 21, said. Nicla has been a close friend of Stolberg for years.
Once home to Fargo, ND, Stolberg and his parents set up appointments with dermatology clinics, so he could get the cancer removed. During the procedure, the whole left side of Stolberg’s face was numbed, and the doctors cut out “everything suspicious-looking.” They cut out all cancerous cells and sent them to the Mayo Clinic for further testing.
Stolberg was home for two weeks waiting for the results, but his mind was not on his cancer.
“I was ready just to get back on tour,” Stolberg said.
Stolberg's irregular mole
Finally, in August, Stolberg received some results. The initial results indicated that the cancer was contained to his left cheek, but the results were still considered “undetermined” and needed further testing.
Despite awaiting further results, Stolberg left for Boston, MA to rejoin the Colts’ tour.
“It was a huge relief to be back with my Colts family,” Stolberg said.
Stolberg, though concerned he might still have cancer, pushed the thoughts from his mind and prepared for the national finals.
On the way to the gate to perform the second-to-last time for the season, Stolberg’s phone rang. It was the doctor. Stolberg was informed that he had early-stage melanoma. Fortunately, since it was caught early, the cancer was contained to his cheek, and Stolberg was told that it should not appear anymore.
Stolberg was overjoyed and immediately told his team.
“Then we went in and had a kick-ass quarter-finals performance,” Stolberg said.
Though Stolberg no longer has cancer, he is now very conscious of covering his skin while outside. He frequently reapplies sunscreen and checks his body for moles. Despite his brush with cancer due to prolonged sun exposure, Stolberg has no intention of leaving Colts.
“I just need to have a giant, multi-colored sombrero on during rehearsals now.”
Tanning was not always as popular as it is today. Throughout history, tanning has gone from wildly unpopular or medicinal to a sign of wealth and everywhere in between.
4th and 5th Centuries B.C.
During this time, tan skin was a sign of health. Also, sun and air were key elements of Hippocrates’ theories.
1800s
Tanning has not been in style for centuries. It was seen as a sign of poverty, as only the poor had to spend their days toiling in the fields.
Delicate, porcelain skin was “in.” People would even use make-up to make their skin appear lighter, much like “Goths” today. Arsenic was a popular skin whitener.
Tanning did exist during this time, however. It was practiced sparingly and for medical purposes. It was believed that “sunbaths” could cure anything from tuberculosis to aggressive eczema.
1900s
In 1903, Dr. Auguste Rollier opened the world’s first sun clinic in the Swiss Alps. The clinic treated diseases by gradually introducing patients to the sun, by first starting them with bed rest. Then, they were exposed to the mountain air. Finally, they were allowed brief sunbaths.
1920s
It was not until the 1920s that tanning gained popularity. Coco Chanel is largely credited for starting the tan craze in 1923 when she returned from a vacation in the French Riviera deeply bronzed.
Also during this time, poor workers left the fields for sunless factories and mines. Now, tan skin was a sign of wealth and leisure.
Still in the 20s, the health benefits of sun exposure turned tanning into a health craze in Britain.
“I think there still are health benefits, but there are risks too. People emphasize the bad more than the good,” said Courtney Steffen, an employee at Planet Beach Tanning Spa.
1930s
Nudists were the first to tan themselves out of pleasure rather than medical necessity. In fact, the term “sunbather” originally meant “nudist.” In 1931, a number of nudist clubs opened, and nudity became standard beachwear.
1950s
The first bikinis emerged in the 1950s, making an all-over tan more popular. Brown creams and skin dyes also entered the market to help people fake an all-over tan.
1970s
Tanning was still very popular, as the danger of tanning were not yet prominent concerns.
“When I was in high school and into my 20s, tanning was a big deal. You would use suntan lotions to get a tan. The products would brag about how quickly and darkly you would tan using them. There was no SPF stuff. We would also lie on foil blankets and use baby oil so that we would burn and tan quicker. I cannot tell you how many sunburns I have had, many of them on purpose,” said Cheryl Huff, 48.
In 1979, the FDA confirmed that sunscreen could protect against skin cancer and developed a rating system for SPFs.
1980s and 90s
Tanning salons and studios emerged. These studios have gained in popularity, and indoor tanning is now a $2 billion industry in the U.S.
In 1985, the American Academy of Dermatology became the first medical group to expose the risks of skin cancer and start an anti-tanning campaign.
By the 90s, tanning salons had the technology to significantly cut down on tanning time. Also, spray tanning was greatly improved and popular with those who did not want to expose themselves to ultraviolet light.
2000-Present
Today about 24,000 tanning salons can be found in the Yellow Pages, and despite the known risks, the popularity of tanning continues to grow.
Tanning salons are more strictly regulated now, however.
“Anyone under 18 teens their parents present to give written consent,” Steffen said.
Warnings are also posted in each tanning booth.
The government even regulates how often a person can tan in a salon. In Iowa, there must be a minimum of 24 hours between each tanning session.
“I still feel like I look better with a tan. It’s hard to get rid of something you have believed for so long,” Huff said.
Our stories about local issues will be published over the next week. You can see our topics and read our work by clicking on the author’s name to the right. Enjoy!
Choosing a major is a difficult and complicated step in a person’s academic journey. Deciding on a major is a source of stress for lots of undergraduates. Even those who have already chosen their major are often plagued by doubts.
In the end, many undergrads sign up for a major based on what interests them, without knowing much about the program. Here, we’ll take a look at the most popular majors at the University of Iowa, and what type of classroom experience a student can expect from each department. To read about gender issues as related to university majors, click here.
People tend to think of biology as a stuffy, fact-oriented discipline that requires high levels of recall from students. Is it true? How does it translate into the classroom setting?
-Classes
Biology majors will find that a lot of their courses will be large lecture-type classes and discussion. Many other colleges design their biology programs so that every course you take will have a lab section along with it. According to Undergraduate Biology Advisor Amy Korthank Gabaldon, UIuses a different system. “Here at the University of Iowa, we really emphasize research. So we like to see students do a very intensive research project.” Iowa biology students are required to take only a single, intensive lab based on their area of degree specialization.
-Assignments and Skills
The type of work a biology student will perform varies from class to class. Students in lab classes will make up a significant portion of their grade through daily work, papers and lab reports. Lecture courses may be evaluated solely by exams, or through a combination of written papers and exams. Biology students will also have to create presentations and lead class discussions.
“All of the skills that you associate with being a good student are necessary,” said UI sophomore and biology major Chris Ajluni. “You have to be able to demonstrate your knowledge in lots of different forms. You have to be able to communicate what you know on tests and in papers. You’ve got to be able to present information publicly, think on your feet and make yourself understood.”
-Tests
Both Gabaldon and Ajluni agreed that tests are one of the thornier aspects of being a biology major. “You’ve got to be able to study for a long time,” Ajluni said. “It helps if you have your own system for studying, your own way of preparation. Biology teaches you how to study if you don’t already know how.”
Biology tests are notoriously tricky. “You have to apply the material, instead of a regurgitation of facts,” said Gabaldon, “So it’s not a lot of memorization, which I think that students assume that biology’s going to be. Because that, typically, is how science courses are in high school. “
As for the format of tests, most of the them will have some multiple choice and some short answer. Most of the tests also require students to fill in a diagram. “In the sciences, diagrams tend to lend themselves very easily towards exams,” said Gabaldon. “Almost all of the exams in biology will have some sort of diagram problem.”
Biology may be one of the more stressful majors a University of Iowa student can undertake. “I think it’s one of the harder majors,” said Gabaldon. “The courses, naturally, because they’re in the sciences, are very hard. A biology major, no matter where you go, is going to be very difficult. You really have to understand the material to be able to do well.”
“I think it’s more stressful than a lot of other majors,” Ajluni said. “The classes themselves are difficult, and they’re very time-consuming. You’ve got long hours in the lab. It can be really frustrating when you don’t get results. It can also be philosophically challenging, say, with religion for instance. If you’re very content with your worldview, very set in your ways, than this is not a good discipline.” (For more on the intersect between science and religion, click here.)
If biology’s got you at the end of your rope, you might consider majoring communication studies instead, in order to relax you a little. The prevalent image of communication studies portrays it as a major for slackers. But, intrapersonal learners may well find communication studies more nerve-wracking than biology. It turns out that communication studies involves a lot of communication.
-Course Content
Communication Studies Academic Advisor Monica Madura said that many communication studies majors enter the program with only a vague idea of what it entails. “A lot of them come in with a general idea of what they want to be when they grow up. A lot of people come up with a general idea of what people around them have done, but they haven’t really gotten to do internships, or gotten their feet wet in the field.”
Communication studies covers a whole lot of different areas of study and can be applied to many different careers. “There’s thousands of jobs you can do with a communication studies degree,” Madura said. “So it’s very general. Some people love that aspect of it. On the other hand, some people need to know what they’re going to do.”
According to Madura, Comm studies focuses on theory, not practice. “Are we going to teach you how to talk? No. We’re going to teach you why it’s important. I think that’s the main thing that students need to understand.”
-Classes
The format of communication studies courses change as you progress through the program. Introductory courses are often taught in a large-lecture setting. Middle-layer courses are generally smaller lectures with around 25-50 students. Upper level courses are professor-driven, and have fewer than 25 students. According to UI communication studies major Emily Pink, “Only the large lectures have a lecture format for the whole class, but those classes also have discussion groups. The discussion groups involve a lot of interaction. I would say that the majority of comm studies classes rely heavily on class discussion.”
-Assignments and Skills
As for classwork, Madura said, “We are a more theoretical type major, so a lot of our classes are going to be tests and papers.”
”We also do a whole lot of group work that typically involves a presentation…most of the papers are probably on the shorter side,” said Pink
According to Pink, presentation skills the ability to work in groups is very useful for a communication studies major. But the main skill she sees as necessary is the ability to write. “We have a lot of papers, and we do a lot of writing on exams… The majority of exams tend to be written exams with short answer and essay questions. Even multiple choice exams typically have a writing section included. I’m a person that would much rather take a test any day of the week than write a paper. However, even though I don’t always like it, I can say that it has forced me to work on my writing and communication skills. Those are two skills that are obviously important to have, so while it isn’t my favorite thing, it has been beneficial.”
Thinking about an English major? Well, it goes without saying that you better be prepared to read, but you also have to be ready to discuss your experiences with the literature. If the thought of presenting and debating your views on literary works has you shaking, you might want to reconsider English as your choice. On the other hand, you may be pleasantly surprised at the broad perspective that an English major could afford you.
Classes
The English Department is noteworthy for the intimate classroom environment it creates for majors. Classes tend to be smaller in size and are led by faculty who are either tenured or on the tenure-track. “Most of the English classes I’ve been in have had between 20 and 25 people and are heavily based on discussion,” said Senior English major Melissa Brockway. “(There’s) lots of interaction in class, both student-teacher and student-student.” Writing classes tend to be run as workshops.
Tests
According to Chair of the English Dept. Claire Sponsler “Quizzes and testing usually take a back seat to participation and written work.” English tests tend to be essay-based with short-answer or passage identification portions. “A little over half of the classes I’ve taken have given 1-2 exams over the readings,” Brockway said. The ability to recognize themes, meanings, and parallels is often stressed. “You see that on every single test: ‘Identify and give the significance of this character/this location/this event from the novel,’” said Brockway. “And the significance part is always worth more points.”
Assignments and Skills The bulk of an English major’s workload comes from an unsurprising source. ”There’s just a hell of a lot of reading.” Brockway said. ”For example, during spring break I had over a thousand pages to read in various novels, anthologies, critical theory essays, and historical background essays. Falling behind is inevitable unless you’re one of the 3% of the student population that doesn’t procrastinate.” According to Brockway, a typical one-semester English class “will require you to read 5-7 novels, 7-10 essays or articles by critics or historians, write 2-3 short essays and 1-2 long essays with outside sources.”
A Wide Scope
One of the things that Brockway finds particularly appealing about majoring in English is the wide scope of topics that are covered. Many English classes are organized around time period. In this way, majoring in English can be a great way to get a detailed snapshot of the norms and values of a particular era in history. “Studying English gives you the opportunity to sneak in other studies on the side,” Brockway said. “World War II, racism, mental disorders, zombies, paranoia, imperialism, Ebonics, the nuclear family, extramarital affairs, manifest destiny, apocalypse, religious fundamentalists.” English may be the perfect major for the eclectic or eccentric soul. “I gave a presentation on cannibalism in my Pulitzer Lit class after reading Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road. I literally stood in front of my classmates and 70 year old professor and talked about the origins and prevailing incidents of eating people. The nutritional value. The social assumptions and fears. It was awesome.”
Do you curse the fact that you were too young to vote in the 2008 presidential election? When someone mistakes Republicanism for Conservatism, do you die a little inside? Do people refuse to drink with you, for fear of getting involved in a lengthy political debate? Then Political Science might just be your cup of tea. Just don’t go into it with a closed mind and an axe to grind.
Classes
Classes in the Political Science department are divided into upper-level and lower-level classes. According to Poli Sci Professor and Chair of the Department William Reisinger, the lower level courses generally feature lectures with 60-plus students combined with smaller discussion groups. Freshman and sophomores are going to be in pretty large classes. The upper level courses are smaller and more specialized, generally running about 25-50 students. “What’s good about Poli Sci is the relatively small size of the lectures,” said sophomore Dane Hudson. “The biggest ones that I have been in have topped at around 96 people for the general lecture. Smaller ones {are great} since you have more access to the professor. In the smaller ones, there is a great amount of discussion and we can be easily sidetracked. This is mostly in the upper level classes where students are more learned in the field and have firsthand experiences to speak of.”
Tests
There’s a wide variety of testing styles in the Political Science Department. Reisinger said it’s common for tests to be divided into two equal subjective and objective portions. The first half is usually subjective, and can feature a mix of closed ended (i.e. multiple choice) and open-ended (i.e. short answer) questions. The subjective portion will be comprised by essay questions. “We cover a lot of ground so the tests take a lot of time to study for,” Hudson said.
Assignments and Skills
There’s usually not a lot of daily work in Political Science classes, so most of a student’s workload is going to be comprised of writing papers and reading the assigned texts. In the upper level courses, student participation and “creative” assignments become more prevalent because of the smaller class size. “The type of work in the classes is pretty varied, but one thing is constant and that is a heavy load of reading,” said Hudson.
The ability to read analytically and identify arguments is valuable to a Political Science major. “You have to be able to read something and figure out what is the one thing that this person wants me to remember,” said Reisinger. “You have to learn how to pull apart Political Science writings to get them. I go over it in class. ‘What’s the tune the author wants you to be whistling?”
Hudson stresses the importance of open-mindedness and tact when discussing political affairs.”Don’t be a Poli Sci major if you just like to bicker about partisan issues. You never do that in class. You never know where your professor is on the political spectrum and rarely do you know where your fellow students are, either,” Hudson said.
So you’re thinking about a psychology major, eh? Well, depending on how you plan to use it, you might need to start thinking about graduate school. And those of you who are searching for insight into the human mind might be a little surprised by the lack of a “human” element.
Classes
Majors in the psychology department will spend the majority of their time in larger lectures, with corresponding weekly discussion sections. Lectures tend to run longer, usually 75 minutes, depending on the level of the class. Psychology major Rachel Pauley thinks that the lectures are the heart and soul of the program. “I don’t know if I find them {discussion sections} that useful, but maybe it depends on the person and the class.”
Assignments and Skills There aren’t a whole lot of papers assigned in the psychology department, so the majority of the points that a psychology major will accrue will come from tests. Some classes will have daily assignments as well. Tests in the psychology department tend to be multiple choice format, but short answer and essay questions become more prevalent as a student begins to take upper-level classes. “They’re not extremely hard, so I enjoy that.” Pauley said. “Basically, if you do the reading and you go to class you’ll do fine.”
The major skill necessary to succeed in psychology is diligence. “You’ve got to keep up with the reading, and a lot of people procrastinate,” Pauley said. “You might have one or two chapters a week. You don’t necessarily have to read them, but it’s hard to catch up.”
Studying People (In Their Absence) One of the things that came as a surprise to Pauley was how abstract and theoretical the conversations were. “It’s a lot more generalized, since you can’t actually interview patients. So you’re kind of learning about how they do it, but not actually doing it.”
Graduate School Incoming freshman who want to go into the field of psychology might be signing up for more school than they bargained for. “If you want to go into psychology, you probably have to get a doctorate to get a decent job, so that’s at least five years,” Pauley said. “I didn’t know that going in.” There are other options for people who don’t entertain the notion of getting their Ph.D. “If you don’t want to do strictly psychology, you can do occupational therapy or something business-related, which are shorter.”
Iowa City has been described as a unique travel destination, even a Mecca, for people in surrounding communities. But the reason people flock to this town is not its vibrant music scene, nor its diverse theatre community, or even its rich literary tradition.
No, the predominant reason people come to Iowa City is simple: alcohol.
With bar entry set at the unusual age of 19, underage persons come in droves to Iowa City, joining UI students as they crowd into the city’s 52 bars every weekend. City residents have equated the presence of underage bar-goers, from both inside and outside the Iowa City community, with high rates of overconsumption and violence in the downtown area.
And with Mayor Matt Hayek leading the charge, the Iowa City City Council is determined to do something about the city’s “culture of consumption.”
The 21-Ordinance
On March 29 the city council passed its second reading of an ordinance that would raise the bar entry age to the legal drinking age of 21. Both readings of the ordinance passed by a vote of 6-1, with councilor Regenia Bailey casting the only dissenting vote.
Hayek has been among the council’s most vocal supporters of the ordinance, despite having opposed a similar measure two years ago that was ultimately voted down by city residents.
Iowa City City Council
“We know that underage drinkers get more intoxicated than legal age drinkers,” Hayek said at the March 23 meeting. “For the city this translates into public intoxication and other criminal offenses, problems downtown.”
And while Bailey agreed that the downtown culture needs to be addressed, she called the 21-ordinance “paternalistic” and said it unfairly targets a certain age group of young adults.
“I don’t think the local government should play the role of, I guess I call it uber-parents,” Bailey said. “Just because there are some bad apples in [a] class of people, I do not assume that entire class of people deserves to be addressed in a specific way.”
The ordinance will undergo its third and final reading on April 6, and if passed, will most likely go into effect on June 1.
Safety first
Like Hayek, many people are convinced the ordinance is necessary to help preserve the health and safety of city residents.
At the March 23 meeting Charles Green, the assistant vice president for UI police, called on the fact that Iowa City has become a “magnet for other communities” as one of the causes for downtown violence and other criminal behavior.
Green said that in 2009 a majority of public intoxication charges, 273 of 462, actually came from non-students.
“I firmly believe that a 21-law will improve the health and safety of not just our students, but young people in general,” Green said.
Opponents of the ordinance say it will force underage drinkers into neighborhood house parties which will be more difficult to police. Many opponents have also cited the fact that over the last year the Iowa City Police Department has had trouble policing the downtown area alone, with UI police often needed for overtime duty.
Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine sent a memo to the city council in which he assured the council that the department is prepared to handle any increase in neighborhood parties.
Hargadine was not available for comment on this story.
Healthy living
But for many residents the health of underage drinkers is more concerning than public intoxication or PAULA rates.
Victoria Sharp, president of the Johnson County Medical Society, said underage drinking can impact brain development and leads to higher rates of alcoholism and alcohol-related deaths and injuries.
“There’s a significant risk associated with underage drinking because the adolescent brain development continues through the twenties,” Sharp said. “This can have long term consequences for both individuals and communities.”
Sharp suggested that simply reducing access to alcohol could greatly improve the health and safety of the community.
Beardsley said over a third of all alcohol-related ambulance calls in the county are for the downtown area, and the majority of those are for 19-year-olds.
“It just screams out that intervention is needed,” Beardsley said. “The current policy says that we’re really not serious about underage drinking.”
A question of culture
But believe it or not, some say bars aren’t just for drinking.
Many residents have expressed concern that a 21-ordinance will impact the city’s culture by making it impossible for underage persons to take part in the city’s music and arts scene.
Brett Thomas, the owner of Studio 13, which caters to the city’s GLBT community, said the ordinance would eliminate a safe haven for young gay individuals.
“We’re not so much a bar as much as we are a community center,” Thomas said. “Kids use the drag shows and the dancing as an excuse to come out and feel normal.”
Other residents say they are worried about more traditional venues losing visitors as well.
Andre Perry, booking agent for The Mill and founder of the Mission Creek Festival, said raising the bar entry age would limit the number of arts events that young people could attend.
“All we want to do is make sure that these kids have an outlet, something to do,” Perry said. “Much of what we do is just focused on giving people an artistic outlet.”
And while there are already provisions in the current ordinance that allow venues to conduct all-ages shows through cooperation with the police department, people like Perry are still worried about the impact of a 21-only law.
“I’m not afraid of losing business,” Perry said. “I’m afraid of Iowa City losing culture.”
Money matters
But unlike Perry, some business owners are much more concerned about the economic impact of the ordinance.
Marty Maynes, owner of The Union Bar, told the council that his business would almost certainly fail and force him into bankruptcy if the ordinance were passed.
Maynes said he has continually worked with the council on the issue, and even said he’s paid $20,000 of his own money to increase police presence and help curb violence in the downtown area.
“There are some of us out there doing it the right way,” Maynes said. “There’s other options I believe that we can do.”
A magic bullet?
And indeed there have been an abundance of alternatives proposed. Suggestions include everything from targeting specific bars as 21-only, to a two-tiered system where alcohol is only served on one level of a bar, to maintaining a constant police presence in the bars.
And despite all the arguments for and against the ordinance, most agree that the solution to the city’s problem with alcohol goes beyond any one ordinance.
Councilor Susan Mims articulated that sentiment at the March 23 meeting.
“I don’t think any of us up here are naïve enough, nor any of you there, to think that this is going to solve the problem,” Mims said. “It’s simply one piece to a much bigger problem.”
Women are still fighting for their rights even now, in the 21st century. In Iowa City, the biggest issue is sexual violence. Another big issue in women’s rights is abortion.
“I think a lot of people would say, ‘I have everything I need. I have all my rights. I’m not discriminated against,’” said 21 year-old Jill Kacere. Kacere has been involved with the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, a University of Iowa women’s rights group, since she was a freshman.
“We [women] have most of the rights that we need,” said Kacere, “but that doesn’t mean that we’re living in a society that is completely fair.”
The United States is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. This United Nations convention is meant to protect women’s rights. Having women’s rights as an idea in our culture is important, said Kacere. The United States is an example to the rest of the world.
There are only eight countries in the world that have not signed the convention. These countries include Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.
Sexual Violence in Iowa City
Karen Siler, 43, is the Johnson County Services Coordinator at the Rape Victim Advocacy Program. She says rape is effected by how a society views gender rights. Society still thinks it is the fault of the victim when an act of sexual violence is committed against them, she said despairingly.
“Maybe they were taking a risk,” said Siler, “but they have a right to drink and a right to dress like they want.”
Kacere agreed that women should not be blamed for the acts committed against them just because they happen to dress a certain way.
“I hate that,” Kacere said, “Because it’s like, if you got raped, then obviously you didn’t follow these rules and therefore it’s your fault.” She disagrees with education that targets what a woman’s actions as being wrong. It’s not about the risky behavior, because that doesn’t address the root of the problem.
According to Siler, the Rape Victim Advocacy Program focuses on teaching people how to notice others and how to respond. For example, if someone is putting someone who is drunk and passes out into a car, check to see if it is someone they know. Find their friends.
Groups are another big way in which people can protect themselves and others. “It’s just common sense,” said 20 year-old Katie Nicklaus.
Nicklaus recalled her days in Girl Scout camp. Even councilors weren’t supposed to walk alone, she said. “If you would fall and twist your ankle, you need someone to limp you home,” she said.
Sexual violence is a huge concern for women, especially in Iowa City. “I do think that sexual violence is ridiculously out of control,” said Kacere, “especially in this community.”
Citizens are not alone on the streets at night. When you walk around the college bar scene, there is usually law enforcement present. Siler noted that police and hospitals are doing all of the right things, but “things can always be better.”
The only way to stop violence, including sexual violence, is for people to make the choice to not be violent. “All violence is a choice,” said Siler, “Even if its self-defense, it’s a choice. You have options.”
A policy that is attempting to make things better is the 21-ordinance. Siler personally supports the ordinance in hopes that it will lessen the atmosphere of violence.
Siler declined to take a stance on whether or not the 21-ordinance would have any effect on sexual assaults in Iowa City. What she is hoping it will do is create less violence.
“If it lessens the amount of people all in one place stirring things up, I’m all for it,” she said.
Abortion
Abortion in regards to the health care bill was a topic of discussion last Monday at the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance meeting. The group talked about abortion as a right not yet realized.
“I think women’s rights typically mean women’s choice,” Said Kacere.
The group hoped for abortion to be destigmatized. One group member compared it to how many religions are treating premarital sex. Religion still believes it’s wrong, but people don’t stigmatize it anymore.
“If you are really religious, that’s wonderful, live your life by that,” said Kacere. But, religion should not be brought into the argument about abortion because of the separation of church and state.
Many people still decline to make a big statement about the health care bill passed last week because they are unsure of what it entails. One thing that Kacere and the Alliance know is abortion rights were taken out. CBSnew.com has a summary for the bill on their site. It points out that no federal funds will be used to fund abortions.
Kacere disagrees, saying that the choice of abortion should be available for everyone. “You can think that abortion is cruel and wrong,” she said, “but when it comes to you, then don’t do it.”
The CBS summary of the bill makes exceptions for “rape, incest, or the health of the mother,” but Kacere doesn’t think a women’s reasoning should be a consideration. It’s all a matter of choice.
“You can do what you want because it’s your body,” said Kacere, “and whether I agree with your reasoning or not, is irrelevant.”
The abortion argument tends to be about a belief or a right. “I think it’s neither,” said Nicklaus. “It is a medical procedure” Abortion should be treated like any other medical procedure.
The health care debate has not disappeared with the passing of the health care bill, and the debate will surely rage on.
The ARH is looking for help from students for improvement, and positions for next semester.
They could be new lyrics to an old tune: “How you gonna keep ‘em down at the dorm after they’ve seen the bars?”
With one more reading, The Iowa City City Council is poised to pass the so-called 21-ordinance for Iowa City bars. It would restrict people under 21 from being in downtown bars after 10 p.m. The city council is under pressure to curb student binge drinking, and proponents of the ordinance say it’s a step in the right direction.
But it’s an unpopular idea with students under the age of 21 who frequently go out to the bars on Thursday nights or weekends to socialize. Students have argued to the UI student council that preventing underage students from entering a bar after 10 p.m. will simply make them go to house parties or other places in Iowa City to find alcohol and drink.
Enter the Associated Residence Halls
With thousands of under-aged drinkers under their roofs, campus dorms are ground zero for the movement opposing the 21 ordinance. It’s not that the UI doesn’t try to keep dorm residents sober and out of trouble. Activities sponsored by the University have always been in place around campus to offer alcohol free alternatives to hanging out at the bars. The Associated Residence Halls group has sponsored events in the dorms to promote these alternatives. While some students attend these events, many, like 19 year old sophomore Yani Anastis, are skeptical.
“Kids are definitely not going to do that,” said Anastis, who lives in the Currier residence hall. He doesn’t believe there are many activities at the dorm that could compete with going downtown to hang out on the Ped-Mall with friends on a bar crawl.
“No one wants to stay in the dorms during a Friday night, and there’s not much to do around. It’s just kinda hard,” said Anastis. He said he goes out to bars at least once a week , usually on the weekend. What non-alcoholic fun could the dorms offer to keep him entertained? “I’m not too sure,” said Anastis. “I can’t really think of much.”
The Associated Residence Hall organization admits that it struggles to keep students interested in their events, and they’ve recently begun talking about plans to beef up their programs to keep students coming back for more. ARH member Mark Schwenker works with all the other members of ARH and the student governments in each residence hall. He says ARH members have started to talk about the 21 ordinance, and they are trying to create a contingency plan if it passes next week.
“ARH is working with all of the individual hall governments on preparing for the 21 ordinance. Discussion with any others outside of residence hall government has not occurred,” said Schwenker.
The Next Course of Action
While the Associated Residence Halls hasn’t actually sought the advice of students outside their group, there are flyers being distributed at the residence halls’ dining facilities encouraging students to get involved in ARH, and to become members. Students I talked to had ideas, but they were not positive these would make any sort of difference in terms of curbing the appeal of a house party with alcohol. “Maybe more movies, cause back home we’d do that. I don’t know – it’s Iowa – so people are going to go around the rules,” says Samantha Nasca, an under-age student who lives in Rienow Hall.
The residence halls coordinators are well aware that students will still leave the dorms if the 21 ordinance is passed and find a way to party the night away with an alcoholic beverage in hand. But with a “zero tolerance” of alcohol in dorm rooms, the ARH’s Schwenker says they will continue issuing fines to students who break the rules. The dorms are committed to being “dry.”
The Plan So Far
While ARH is just beginning to consider what to do in order to offer alternative activities for students, it may be too early to say what will actually happen. “One idea is to provide more late-night events for residents going from about 11pm-2am,” said Schwenker. ARH believes that if students are able to have an enjoyable time at an event that goes later into the night, there won’t be as much interest in leaving the dorms to go looking for other activities in Iowa City.
However, students are doubtful about any plans the dorms come up with. “Nothing’s going to top going out,” said freshman Hannah Thompson, who lives in Rienow. When asked how to appeal to students like Hannah, who opt for Iowa City’s night life over the residence hall events, Schwenker said, “I ask how can we make it interesting. ARH is asking itself, ‘what makes residents want to go downtown?’”
Looking Ahead
The ARH is also aware that it needs more money to sponsor events that are more frequent and consistently fun for students. How to raise those funds is another problem. Ideas include reallocating housing contract money, or even applying alcohol fines to sponsor “dry” social events. However, students seem ambivalent towards the efforts made by ARH.
The Iowa City City council’s final reading of the 21 ordinance is scheduled for Thursday, April 6. If it passes, it goes into effect June 1. However, it could be repealed later next fall. Dorm resident Samantha Nasca was clear. “I hope it gets repealed in November,” she said.
Nick Wilson walks down the T. Anne Cleary Walkway every day on his way to class smoking a cigarette and nobody tells him not to, despite the fact that it’s illegal.
Under the Iowa Smokefree Air Act, which went into effect July 1, 2008, smoking is prohibited inside campus buildings and within 25 feet outside of a campus building. Also, those who smoke outside can only smoke adjacent to public streets.
Two students smoke right outside Currier Hall. Under the Smokefree Air Act, smoking is not permitted here, but the ban does little to persuade students to move.
With the second anniversary approaching of the Iowa State Legislature enacting the Iowa Smokefree Air Act banning smoking in certain areas, students are seeing little more enforcement of the ban than they did when it went into effect.
“It’s a stupid ban in the first place,” said Wilson, a 19-year-old sophomore from Arlington Heights, Ill. “I can’t think of one person that’s been ticketed since it went into effect.”
Campus Police Policy
Lt. H.W. Lang of the University Department of Public Safety said the policy of the department hasn’t changed much since the ban went into effect.
“When the ban first started, our policy was more about educating the public rather than fining them,” said Lang. “Now we will issue citations, but it’s on a case by case basis.”
According to Lang, the department issues citations on a case by case basis because some of the people violating the law are from out of state visiting students at the UI and aren’t familiar with the laws. In such cases, those violating the law will be instructed on where they can and cannot smoke, said Lang.
In most cases where students violate the law, they are either instructed to move to a spot not prohibited by the ban or issued a warning, said Lang. However, multiple warnings could result in a student being issued a citation.
Lang noted that the area where the most citations have been issued was the parking ramps at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. No smoking is permitted in any of the four parking ramps or along Hawkins Drive in front of the hospital under the ban.
Student Reactions
Some students are cynical about the enforcement of the ban. One student, Michael Dale-Stein, a 21-year-old senior from Edina, Minn., said there was no reason for him to believe the ban would ever be successful and should be scrapped.
“It’s not enforced to the point that anybody will conform to the law,” said Dale-Stein. “The subjectivities of law enforcement issuing citations or warnings needs to be addressed.”
He also believes that smoking has not decreased on campus since the ban went into effect and that the campus will never be smoke-free.
“The only way the campus could possibly become smoke-free is if cigarettes are federally outlawed,” said Dale-Stein. “As college students, we feel impervious to the dangers of deadly activities such as smoking; therefore, there’s no way college students will nix the habit.”
Dale-Stein said the highest concentration of smokers on campus can be found on the north side of the Main Library and by the English-Philosophy Building. His hypothesis is that areas of high stress like the Main Library or parking ramps at the UI Hospitals and Clinics harbor greater numbers of smokers.
On the other hand, another UI student, Derek Wilson, said that he thinks the ban is working. He said that he believes he has seen a decrease in the amount of smokers on campus since the ban went into effect.
“I don’t see as many people smoking on campus, so it must be doing something,” said Wilson, a 21-year-old engineering major from Tama, Iowa.
Wilson also said that since people have to move away from campus buildings, he has noticed a reduction in the amount of cigarette butts on the ground near buildings.
“I see a lot more people actually throwing their cigarettes into the trash since they’re smoking near them,” said Wilson. “It’s nice because the campus looks a lot better and it’s better for the environment.”
Iowa City Police Policy
The Iowa City Police Department has seen very few complaints about violations of the ban and issued no citations since the ban went into effect, according to Sgt. Troy Kelsay.
Kelsay also emphasized that the Iowa City ordinance is different from the University’s ordinance. An example is people who smoke in their car while inside an Iowa City parking ramp cannot be ticketed, but if they smoke inside their car in a University parking ramp, they can be ticketed, he said.
The difference exists because the Iowa City Police Department views the Iowa City parking ramps as an extension of a public street, and the rules of privacy inside a car on a public street apply inside the parking ramp, said Kelsay.
As for bars and restaurants, there have been very few complaints, said Kelsay. When complaints were made to the police, the bar or restaurant owner was contacted and told to deal with it, he said.
“We’re not saying you can’t smoke in Iowa City, just not in a select few areas,” said Kelsay. “The state says you can’t smoke in bars and restaurants, but the University is saying you can’t smoke anywhere.”
I owe this entire project to the Iowa City Yacht Club’s Tuesday night Dance Parties. If not for the obscene amount of plastic cups we bartenders dole out to thirsty patrons, I may have never noticed the lack of recycling done by downtown businesses.
Then again, strolling through downtown alleys, the problem is pretty much in your face.
The fact is, in a city that seems to pride itself on shopping locally and boasts a very hip bicycle culture, it’s a bit surprising to learn that, as a community, we suck at recycling. A fact that is only confirmed by many local businesses and apartment dwellers.
Why residents don’t recycle
As many local apartment dwellers know all too well, the city doesn’t offer on-site recycling services to buildings with more than four units.
This is a serious –and complicated– problem that city officials are hoping to address within the next few years.
The problem with offering recycling to larger buildings is that the system currently in place doesn’t allow for expansion to large units.
In order to implement recycling in larger units, each unit would be issued a small receptacle for curb-side pick-up. This would be both expensive, and a logistical nightmare come pick-up day, according to Iowa City Recycling Coordinator, Jennifer Jordan.
Even the 55 to 60 percent of Iowa City residents who have the option to use the city’s curbside pick-up service for their recyclables don’t always opt for the service, and though there may be a variety of reasons for not “going green,” when it comes down to it, there is one simple explanation.
“People absolutely hate sorting their recyclables,” said Jordan.
The system currently in place calls on residents to do the labor prior to pick-up. So, even if you only have to walk the stuff to the curb, you still have to organize it beforehand.
If you live in an apartment, chances are you have to haul the load to one of the six recycling centers in town.
“I’m busy with too many other things,” said downtown resident Colin Zhalhofer, “my cans and bottles go to the bums and everything else goes in the trash.”
Why businesses don’t recycle
Businesses are responsible for paying for their own means of recycling, according to Jordan.
However, it is apparent downtown that, even if a business paid for recycling bins, in many cases there simply isn’t any room for more receptacles.
“It’s really sad that Iowa City thinks of itself as such a progressive place and all that crap yet they have no system for recycling downtown,” said Iowa City Yacht Club Manager, Pete McCarthy.
McCarthy stores all of the bar’s cardboard in an unoccupied room. When enough cardboard has accumulated, the owner of the bar, Scott Kading takes it to City Carton on Benton Street.
The bar’s liquor bottles get placed in the alley, where they are left for the taking.
Plastic, however, goes right into the garbage.
New Belgium Brewery sponsors beer specials at local bars, requiring the bars to use plastic cups bearing the brewery's logo.
“We’re a small bar and usually only use plastic cups for dance party,” said McCarthy. “Bars like The Union use plastic cups every day and I know for a fact they don’t recycle.”
The Union and The Yacht Club aren’t alone. On a grander scale of waste, restaurants like The Airliner and Quinton’s don’t recycle anything but cardboard. Considering they are getting large food service orders in weekly, the waste adds up quickly.
“We recycle our cardboard but not our plastic. Though I wish we would, because we throw away a shit-ton of it,” said Quinton’s employee, Zech Ward.
Ward also worked briefly at the Atlas, and said that they were much more sensible about the environment than most restaurants he’s worked at. The Atlas recycles metal, cardboard and plastic.
The Airliner uses plastic cups, plates and silverware daily, all of which are thrown away, according to employee, Kori O’Brien.
“It’s too much work to not use plastic. Without it, Airliner would be overrun with dirty dishes,” said O’Brien.
The more restaurant and bar employees I spoke with, the more it became apparent that, when it comes down to it, the businesses don’t want to pay for recycling services, regardless of the restaurant’s size.
Even a large chain like Red Lobster tosses recyclables, according to employee Courtney Taylor.
“It’s a choice (the businesses) make based on willingness and ability,” said Jordan.
Solutions
“We’re in the midst of the go-green trend, now’s the time to (recycle) by their own merit,” Jordan said of why local businesses should take it upon themselves to reduce waste.
However, Jordan doesn’t see that happening without a push from the city.
She has proposed a variety of ideas to the city, based on what has worked for other cities in the area.
Cedar Falls and Waterloo have an incentive program for businesses to recycle. The program gives official recognition to businesses that recycle by awarding them with a sticker they put in their front window.
The city may also consider offering financial incentives for businesses that choose to recycle.
Another option would be for the city to make recycling mandatory for businesses and force apartment complex owners to provide recycling dumpsters for their tenants.
The problem here is that the recycling regulations could be at odds with other regulations in place for property owners, according to Jordan.
An example would be parking issues. Currently, the city requires apartment complexes to have a certain amount of parking spaces, depending on the size of the complex. In many cases, the lots bear the minimum amount of spaces. If recycling dumpsters took up another parking space, owners may be penalized for not providing enough parking.
Yet another option would be for the city to take over recycling and garbage removal altogether. Which would not be in the best interest of small waste removal companies.
“I hope you’re starting to see that this is a very complicated issue,” said Jordan.
Jordan has presented two ideas to the city recently: single-stream recycling and dual-stream recycling. These practices, though expensive to implement, rid the public from the hassle of sorting almost completely.
Both Des Moines and Cedar Rapids have successfully implemented single-stream recycling. As a result, Cedar Rapidians recycle over twice as much as Iowa Citians (70 percent, 32 percent).
However, Jordan is leaning more toward dual-stream recycling due to contamination problems with single stream. With dual-stream recycling, cardboard, magazines and paper would be separated from everything else.
“With single stream, we may see a 15 percent increase in recycling but a 20 percent increase in contamination,” Jordan said, adding that with dual-stream recycling, the risk of contamination is significantly lowered.
Jordan hopes to implement dual-stream recycling in Iowa City by July 2011. While the service would initially only be available to residents with access to curbside pick-up, she hopes the program will expand to include businesses and apartment complexes.
“We’re trying to come up with a system that doesn’t cost the city a lot of money and is easy for the public to use,” said Jordan.
Iowa City has been going through some changes within the last couple of years.
There has been an influx of people from Chicago moving into Iowa City, specifically the Southeast Side.
This has caused lots of turbulence within the community and has even started some racially fueled debates.
A product of these events was the segregation of local high school, West High and City High. One high school being known to house almost all the minorities and the other being for the majority or whites.
The School District has now been trying to redistrict the schools in order to desegregate the community.
This movement has been met with much protest within the community.
Many parents fear for the well being of their children along with an increase in violence.
At a recent protest parents said, “The quality of education would drop if the schools were to be rezoned.”
University Professor Rene Rocha lives in one of the neighborhoods that is most likely to be rezoned. “My neighbors are pretty upset with this whole situation,” said Renae “they ask me what I think but I don’t think they realize that I am a minority myself.”
Mr. Rocha is of Latino decent and thinks that the ordinance would be a great way for cultures to meet and build racial tolerance at an earlier age.
Other neighborhoods do not think this is such a good idea.
The current school board made up of seven members has the ability to vote on several different scenarios.
The School Board has involved teachers in their redistricting committee but has had a hard time meeting to discuss any further action.
After trying to meet for several weeks the committee finally had March 24 to discuss the the redistricting of the High Schools.
The committee came up with some criteria in which the redistricting should follow:
Demographic Considerations- this is the ability to have children from different socioeconomic backgrounds at different schools.
Fiscal Considerations-this is the ability for the redistricting to be within the school districts budget.
Neighborhood Schools and Neighborhoods Intact-students should attend schools that are closest to them but the lines should not split neighborhoods.
Building Utilization-the lines should maximize student attendance without the danger of exceeding capacity in the future.
These four ideas are the building blocks of not only the committee’s concerns but also the Iowa City community.
Something that Dr. Bruggs, member of the committee, emphasized was the ability for this plan to eventually encompass all grades.
The committee has already arranged 5 scenarios for the Elementary, Junior High and High Schools.
Each one of the plans illustrates a different way to intergrate the schools but one important topic for the Iowa City community is the building of a third high school in North Liberty.
Parents of the North Liberty area have been pleading for a third high school for years and this may be their time to get it.
Due to the fact that North Liberty has been overcrowded for some time some officials thought it was about time to finally start building another high school there, said Tuyet Dorau a member of the redistricting committee.
Another alarming fact that Sarah Swisher another board member brought up was that West High would soon be at capacity making huge problems for Iowa City.
With the population continuing to grow board members not only have to deal with demographic issues but also the feasibility and ability for application of each scenario.
Something that all board members are ready to cope with is that fact that not everyone will be satisfied with whatever option they take said Pattie Fields president of the board.
Until the whole Iowa City community comes to a compromise on a scenario nothing can be done and nothing will be.
So for now the community must cope with these problems, and find a resolution that is both fair to all of its constituents but also a move in the right direction for future of Iowa City.
People tend to think of biology as a stuffy, fact-oriented discipline that requires high levels of recall from students. Is it true? How does it translate into the classroom setting?
If biology’s got you at the end of your rope, you might consider majoring communication studies instead, in order to relax you a little. The prevalent image of communication studies portrays it as a 
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