kansan writers win Hearst
Former staff members of The Kansan receive honors for their work on feature articles.
INDEX
Classifieds...11A
Crossword...4A
Cryptoquips...4A
Opinion...5A
Sports...12A
Sudoku...4A
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© 2010 The University Daily Kansan
HEALTH
Watkins prepared to treat flu symptoms
BY IAN CUMMINGS icummings@kansan.com
Patricia Denning, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, has a message for students who are feeling sick with symptoms of the flu: she and her staff are there to help, but they aren't handing out doctor's notes for getting out of class. Denning said such notes were not necessary unless the student missed three days of class.
"Sometimes we feel like we have appointments scheduled, not for medical reasons, but for documentation," Denning said.
Megan Hardy, a junior from Manhattan, made an appointment at Watkins to be examined for strep throat. Hardy said the staff provided her with a record of her appointment, which she delivered to her employer the next day.
Student Health Services' policy is that students can request documentation when two conditions have been met. One is that the student was treated at Watkins or has documentation of treatment elsewhere.The second condition is that he or she has been absent from school for three or more consecutive days because of illness or injury.
"They just printed it out," Hardy said. "And everything was fine."
Marta Caminero-Santangelo, chair of the English department, said her department follows the guidelines of the Office of the Provost. She said faculty has been advised against requiring doctor's notes since last year's arrival of the H1N1 virus.
WATKINS MEMORIAL HEALTH CENTER
To make an appointment:
785-864-9507
To ask questions, call:
Monday-Friday
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
785-864-9583
Weekends 785-864-9500
Barbara Romzek, interim vice provost for academic affairs, sent a memo to university staff advising them to accommodate students missing class because of illness. The memo also said that faculty were not obligated to excuse students from class.
Denning said the flu arrived on campus Feb. 1, far later and less severe than usual.
Denning said students reporting to Watkins with flu symptoms would not necessarily be tested for influenza or be prescribed medication. She said the health center had been distributing relatively little Tamiflu, the preferred prescription drug for influenza.
"What we've seen looks quite mild." Denning said.
Treatment is available for those requiring it, but the medical staff at Watkins is
SEE FLU ON PAGE 34
TECHNOLOGY
Software developer creates new apps for regular phones
BY IAN CUMMINGS icummings@kansan.com
For those students who don't have a smartphone yet, don't worry — there's an app for that. Some software developers are in the business of making apps for regular cellular phones.
David Valdiviezo, a sophomore from Mission Hills, likes Apple products but still carries a simple cellular phone.
"It's a lot cheaper," he said. "The plans for iPhones are too expensive. They're cool, but it's not worth the money."
Valdiviezo isn't alone. In March 2010, the Nielsen Company showed that up to 79 percent of U.S. consumers weren't using smartphones — phones that run third-party software such as apps and use the most advanced operating systems. Simpler models are known as feature phones. The Nielsen study projected that in 2011 the number of smartphones in use would equal and then surpass that of feature phones.
But that doesn't mean feature phone users don't have access to mobile Internet. App makers are designing their software to operate on all types of phones. Facebook, for example, just released an app free of data charges for feature phones, specifically for overseas markets.
Facebook worked with software developer Snaptu on its latest overseas app. Snaptu offers apps for Facebook, Twitter, Picasa and others that depend on Java software.
Paul Naphtali, a spokesperson for the company, said Snaptu apps
SEE PHONES ON PAGE 3A