4A the university daily kansan
opinion
wednesday, September 17, 2003
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Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish Kansas editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
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A car coming down the same side of the street as you at 12:30 in the morning is not a pleasant sight.
Mmmmm. Suitcase meat.
I can hear what you are thinking.
I was thinking that they should move Sex on the Hill to Wescose so that they can call it Sex on the Beach.
--so everybody is talking about the price of utilities going up, and nobody is taking energy conservation.
Why is everyone wearing their hats crooked like Ashton Kutcher? Word to the wise: It does not look cool. Stop it. Wear them normal.
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--so everybody is talking about the price of utilities going up, and nobody is taking energy conservation.
The guy on the main KU Web page looks just like Slick Rick.
so everybody is talking about the price of utilities going up, and nobody is taking energy conservation.
Hey silly: There are 13 million people in Peking, China.
so everybody is talking about the price of utilities going up, and nobody is taking energy conservation.
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I think we should change the name of KU Info to KU I don't know.
Hey, I live on Daisy Hill and I can actually tell my grandkids that I did have to walk up a hill both ways to get to class.
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I still see a few mullets on campus, and it is disturbing. It is wrong that I have a physical reaction in their presence?
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Did you really have to take the trash bags?
Does my fish know that I am naked?
We hate your comics. Let's get some quality here.
翻
To all of the bus drivers that play cool music on the bus: You rock.
Just because you are a graduate student doesn't give you the right to be an asshole.
Hey I am one guy that is interested in the three chearleaders. Tell me how to get shold of you.
Is it wrong to move in on a best friend's ex-girlfriend? I think so.
To the girl who just tripped at Budig. You made my day.
Call me a hopeless romantic, but I don't know if I can live in a society where Ben and Jan can't co-exist as one unit.
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Elizabeth Willy for The University Daily Kansan
perspective
Gay blood donations issue unclear
Some issues just won't die. But the people they impact will.
Take, for instance, the tortured question of whether sexually active gay men should be allowed to donate blood.
My answer is a qualified no, and is less clear every day.
When I last wrote about this issue, in March 1999 in The University Daily Kansan, the answer was much clearer. The HIV test used by most blood banks at that time tested not for the virus itself, but for antibodies to the virus. As a result, there was a "window period" after infection, during which time potential blood donors could test negative for HIV even if they were infected and capable of passing the disease to others. Because of that window period — which was often many months long — it was essential for blood banks to make decisions about whether to accept a donor's blood based in part on which risk groups that donor belonged to.
That meant asking a lot of nosy questions about sexual behavior, among other things. Answering "yes" to most questions meant a one-year deferral.
COMMENTARY
But one question was different: "Male donors: Have you had sex with another man, even one time, since 1977?" Saying yes wouldn't get you banned from donating blood for a year, but for the rest of your life.
"I can see their point, but blood donation is not a matter of equal opportunity," William Dixon, a Watkins Memorial Health Center physician, told a Kansas reporter in 1999. "It is both reasonable and good public policy that men who have had sex with other men not be allowed to donate blood."
Rachel Robson opinion@kansan.com
Gay rights groups protested that such a lifetime deferral was unfair.
I chimed in, in a March 12, 1999, column.
And I telllush that sort of.
And I will think that things have changed. But since 1999, things have changed. Our ability to detect HIV in blood has improved drastically, and three separate tests for the virus are now routinely used to screen donations. The demographics of the HIV epidemic are slowly shifting. Gay men are still the group most at risk for new HIV infection, accounting for 42 percent of all incident HIV cases while representing a mere 5 percent of the total U.S. population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. But in 1999, gay men accounted for 49 percent of new HIV cases — so its fraction of the total American HIV burden is, happily, down.
Scientists who study the safety of our blood supply have similarly mixed feelings. The Food and Drug Administration, the agency which mandates what questions all volunteer blood centers must ask donors, commissioned a study in 2000 to determine whether allowing gay men to donate would compromise the blood supply. That study found that permitting men who had not had a homosexual encounter in five years to give would add an average of 1.7 additional HIV-contaminated units to the blood supply every year. Removing the ban on gay male blood donors entirely would mean about six additional HIV-infected units going to unsuspecting patients every year. Right now, with the restrictions in place, about 10 HIV-tainted units — of the total 14 million units donated — enter the system every year.
That study has since been confirmed by other researchers.
Even with improved tests to detect HIV, a change to FDA rules that would allow gay men who have abstained from sex for the past year to donate blood would result in about one additional HIV-infected unit entering the blood supply in the United States every year, research in the journal. Transfusion, showed in January 2003. Affording this high-risk group the privilege of giving blood would increase the total number of blood donors by just 2 percent.
So is it worth it? Is a 2-percent increase in blood donations and the knowledge that we're no longer discriminating against gay men worth the handful of new, transfusion-borne HIV cases that would inevitably result from a change to FDA policy? Are those lives worth more, or less, than our longing for equality?
I think those lives are worth more. I think the FDA policy should remain unchanged. But I no longer know.
Robson is a Baldwin City doctoral candidate in pathology.
editorial board
Death serves as reminder to safety precautions
The editorial board expresses its condolences to the relatives and friends of Eric I. Wellhausen.
Wellhausen's death is a tragic reminder of what can happen when issues of safety are ignored.
The Department of Student Housing needs to alert students to the dangers of removing window screens and urge them to exercise responsibility.
KU Public Safety Office officials say the Mount Prospect, Ill., freshman died because he fell from his seventh-floor room. He was either sitting in his window or standing on the ledge while smoking a cigarette.
This was not the first time that Wellhausen had exited his room through the window to smoke, nor was he the first student to do so. In 2001, two similar incidents occurred: A student fell from the eighth floor of Hashinger Hall and shattered both ankles. Another student fell from the fourth floor of McCollum Hall and suffered minor injuries.
In 1994, a student died after falling from the fourth floor of Corbin Hall. Authorities suspected sleepwaking, but the student had twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood.
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said these incidents created a constant struggle for the department. He said the department could employ any of multiple options to prevent further accidents from students falling from the ledges, but not all were practical or necessarily effective.
Suggestions have ranged from removing the ledges to reinstating smoking rooms in the residence halls. Removing the ledges, which were designed to shade sunlight from the windows of rooms below them, would strain the air conditioners. And changing the no-smoking policy introduces the increased risk of fire, which is a larger danger than students walking out on ledges.
Stoner said the department was considering various options, but one of the most notable is inspired by measures to prevent speeding traffic. At some stop lights, a camera snaps a photo of a car when it runs a red light, which enables the entity in charge of the camera to bill the owner of the vehicle with a ticket. Stoner said the procedure could be used in residence halls to record the moments when screens are removed from windows. Similarly, residents would receive a bill, accompanied by the photograph.
It's not too much to ask that students be responsible. As adults, they should remain in control of their faculties to make rational decisions.
The Department of Student Housing should educate residents on the dangers of removing window screens and walking out on the ledges. Though the majority of students recognize that crawling on a ledge is dangerous, the department must not disregard the minority.
If students and housing work together to increase safety, incidents such as this will become a rarity.
Donovan Atkinson for the editorial bgavr
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
The Kansas reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Louise Stauffer or Stephen Shupe at 864-4924 or e-mail at opinion@kansan.com.
letter to the editor
Portrayal of scholarship hall in Kansan did not reflect residents accurately
The article published in Mondays Sex on the Hill was a completely inaccurate portrayal of the events that occurred Margaret Amini Scholarship Hall, and such inflammatory commentary is offensive to many of our residents. The article described an isolated incident that occurred two years ago, and the hall alumna interviewed has not lived in Margaret Amini for two years. Each year new residents move into our hall, and
these women bring new ideas and personalities to Margaret Amini. We now have two new classes of women who have no knowledge of this incident. Most of the older residents do not appreciate being put in the position of explaining this article to their peers. None of our current residents were contacted for this article, and we were quite surprised to see a story surrounding a two-year-old incident printed in the Kansan.
The scholarship hall system emphasizes academics, community involvement, and leadership. Many residents of this system are leaders in the KU and Lawrence communities. Scholarship hall residents do live with a great deal of
freedom, as the article states. The individual halls decide what types of events are acceptable, and Margaret Amini does not feel that a porn night can be a hall-sponsored event. We want all of our residents to feel included in our community and believe that such an event would make some residents feel uncomfortable. Events that our women organize on their own time for their own entertainment are not hall-sponsored activities, and the hall name is not attached to these events.
Yesterday students in classes with our residents have asked them if they live in Margaret Amini, and some of our women were reluctant to claim
that they live here. We do not want our hall's name attached to a "Snowy Porn Night." Most of us do not find this kind of activity acceptable as a hall event. "Snowy Porn Night" has not occurred since this one-time incident, and there have not been discussions as to its revival. In the future, please contact current residents to discover current events occurring in Margaret Amini Scholarship Hall.
Kristen Baranek is Margaret Amini Scholarship Hall President for 2003-2004, and former president for 2002-2003. Baranek is an Overland Park senior in accounting and business.