TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Speaker: Mad cow disease likely
By Lindsey Hodel
lhodel@kansan.com
kansas staff writer
Mad cow disease has reached epidemic proportions in Western Europe and is likely to appear in the United States as well, said Michael Greger, a general practitioner specializing in vegetarian nutrition.
"Eating meat in this country is kind of like having unsafe sex," said Dr. Michael Greger, who spoke yesterday in Alderson Auditorium. "You are not only eating that cow, but you are eating every cow that cow ate." A member of the Boston Vegetarian Society, Greger asked the audience "where is the outrage?" handblock to mandatory testing of beef. too," she said
Greger delivered an enthusiastic and humorous speech yesterday to 14 people about the disease at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Mad cow disease is contracted by eating contaminated meat. The disease spread quickly in Europe because livestock was fed the remains of other animals. Because this practice is also common in the United States, Greger said the disease's potential in this country was just as alarming.
"Eating meat in this country is kind of like having unsafe sex," Greger said. "You are not only eating that cow, but you are eating every cow that cow ate."
Mad cow disease could already be present in livestock and humans in the United States because symptoms of the disease may not appear for decades. Greger said. He also pointed out how testing of livestock for the disease is not mandatory in the United States like it is in other countries. He cited the conflict of interest between the meat industry and the federal government as a
roadblock to mandatory testing of beef.
roadblock to mandating that "It seems so obvious that we aren't finding the disease here because we aren't testing for it," he said.
Yen Li, a Lawrence resident from China who attended Greger's speech, said that in China, scientists already had connected biology with human health and food.
"If animals can get the disease, people can
The threat of the outbreak of mad cow disease scares Li, even though no cases have been reported in the United States.
been repaired.
"The disease can spread all over the world because you don't know the symptoms until it is too late," she said.
By Katie Nelson
knelson@kansan.com
Kansan Staff Writer
Edited by Christine Grubbs
Student Senate is sponsoring a forum to discuss plans for a new Multicultural Resource Center.
"We want to ask people, what do you think its function is, what can we do to make it better, what would you like to see," Casey Collier, Nunemaker senator, said.
Senate is expecting about 30 students to attend, said Jonathan Ng, student body president. Getting the ball rolling on a new building has been one of Senate's primary goals, he said.
“It's more than just a structure,” Ng said. “You don't just need a building for the kind of community and service the MRC provides but a new structure will serve as proof of the University's commitment to diversity.”
The center has been working to promote cultural sensitivity since 1995. In the seven years it has existed, the center has outgrown its space, tucked behind the Military Science building. In addition, the center isn't wheelchair accessible and has a history of
"It's more than just a structure."
Jonathan Ng Student body president
Despite this, the number of students using the building for meetings, computer access and as a place to study has steadily increased. During Fall 1999, staff members recorded 153 students coming through the building. By Fall 2001, that number more than quadrupled, jumping to 672. In total, nearly 1,500 students visited the center during the 2001- 2002 school year, not counting those who came for class.
being cold, damp and at times infested with mold, said Santos Nuñez, program director, in a letter to Senate.
What: MRC Open Forum When: tonight, 6 to 8 p.m. Where: at the MRC For more information call (785)864-4350.
— Edited by Lauren Beatty
Professor delivers message of positive alternatives for safe sex
By Michelle Burhenn burhenn@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Dennis Dailey said he wanted to give KU students a safe sex message they might not have heard in high school.
Dailey, professor of social welfare, spoke to about 400 students about sex and personal safety at the Kansas Union Ballroom last night to kick off Campus Safety Week.
Dailey told students that opinions generally fell into two categories when people talked about safe sex. The most popular perspective of safe sex is abstinence, he said. And that is often the perspective most families are comfortable with.
"Many of you came from families that, if you even mentioned sex, people would, like, die," Dailey said.
But waiting until marriage shouldn't be the only thing people consider as safe sex, Dailey said.
"Many of you came from families that, if you even mentioned sex, people would, like die."
Dennis Dailey Professor, School of Social Welfare
"When most people talk about
safe sex, they are really saying "Stay out of each other's pants," he said. "I'm not saying there's something wrong with choosing abstinence. But to say that it is the only avenue to safe sex is ridiculous."
Dailey said that the audience included people with a variety of sexual backgrounds: rape victims, sex offenders, women who had terminated their pregnancies and women who hadn't.
Charlie Worth, Kankakee.
"When I went to school, they had a very religious outlook on sex." Worth said. "Tonight, I felt like I was respected."
Ill., freshman, said Dailey's frank sex talk was different from his Catholic-school background.
Dailey said he was not advising people to just go out and get laid. He just wants those who elect to have a sexual experience to have a safe, earth-shattering experience.
"Sex isn't negative. Sex is positive," Dailey said. "But there are some negative possibilities out there."
He said safe sex should enhance sexual pleasure. Thoughts of sexually transmitted diseases and parenthood most likely detract from the pleasure, he said.
"I think it would be distracting enough so that no woman would have an orgasm," he said.
— Edited by Ryan Malashoek