DW SECTION
Swimming in silence
After starting his college career at ASU, deaf swimmer has found success with the Wildcats PAGE 7
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The independent student voice of the University of Arizona since 1899 thursday, january , dailywildcat.com
tucson, arizona
Solar panels prepare UA for green future By Jazmine Woodberry ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
“
“
We were sustainable before it was fashionable.
[The solar makeover] keeps along with both the university’s and Parking and Transportation’s sustainability mission.
—Ralph Banks
”
—Bill Davidson
”
Gordon Bates/Arizona Daily Wildcat
The solar panels on the top of the Second Street Garage provide shade for the vehicles parked on the roof level as well as produce usable electric energy for campus facilities.
The solar panels atop the Second Street Garage are the first and most visible component of an initiative to make the UA campus eco-friendly. The Second Street Garage panels, which are currently the biggest grouping of solar panels on campus, are being tested before they are used to produce energy and make the campus greener. The Sustainable Endowments Institute’s annual college report card gave the UA’s transportation department an“A”and the university as a whole a“B” for their sustainability efforts. The solar panels are a definite part of that, said Bill Davidson, marketing and communications manager for Parking and Transportation Services. The crystalline solar panels transfer sunlight into direct current electric energy, such as the energy used in a car battery. The project is taking “baby steps” towards a larger campus effort, said Ralph Banks, assistant director of engineering on the solar panel project. The photovoltaic panels were attached at a 10-degree slant on a recycled steel framework atop the garage, Banks said. “They serve as a testament to the university’s commitment to renewable energy and sustainability and that location was chosen for a reason,” said Lon Huber, a spokesman for the Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy. “That’s a prime location that can really showcase the U of A as a leader of sustainability.” Funded through tax incentives and help from utility company APS Energy Services, these solar panels cost the UA nothing up front on the condition that the UA buy the energy that is produced from APS Energy Services, who will finance, maintain and operate the system. Roughly 200 kilowatts of electricity are produced by 1,150 panels. That energy will go toward powering the garage’s operations and any excess energy will be funneled into other campus buildings. Although it’s only a
To learn more:
Fact sheets for the solar panel projects can be found at http://sustainability.arizona.edu or http://pdc.arizona.edu and more information on the UA grade ‘A’ sustainability score can be seen at http://parking.arizona.edu/. small dent in the 28 megawatts the UA sometimes consumes in the high-usage summer months, the updates should reduce the UA’s carbon footprint by an estimated 2,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. “We are excited about the solar makeover on the Second Street Garage. It keeps along with both the university’s and Parking and Transportation (Service)’s sustainability mission,” Davidson said. The panels also create shade on the upper levels of the parking garage, a major benefit, he said. Banks agreed that the panels are “multi-beneficial,” since they can provide research as well as sustainability opportunities for the university. This effort is following a heritage of sustainable building which dates back to Old Main more than 200 years ago which has features including energyconserving shutters and minimal maintence requirements. “We were sustainable before it was fashionable,” Banks sai. Four other buildings are slated to have either photovoltaic, electricity-producing solar panels or solar thermal panels, which are used to heat water, installed. McClelland Hall — the UA’s biggest future solar panel project — and McClelland Park, like the Second Street Garage, will eventually be able to generate their own electricity and reduce their carbon footprint via photovoltaic panels. The Hillenbrand Aquatic Center and the Student Recreation Center will get solar thermal panels, which will generate hot water for their swimming pools and showers. The panels should be operational within a few months, Banks said.
Abortion ban limits UA medical education By Jennifer Koehmstedt and
Gabriel Matthew Schivone
ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Medical students must travel more than five miles to get to their next class if they want to learn to perform an abortion. In 1974, in order to fund a $5.5 million addition to the Arizona Stadium, thenUA President John P. Schaefer sought revenue bonds. When the bonds went through the state House, Rep. James Skelly attached an amendment to the bill which prohibited performing abortions on campus — including the University Medical Canter. The UA accepted the money along with the amendment. Thirty-six years later, the ban remains a statute in the Arizona Constitution. When asked if UA medical students are able to observe surgical abortions on campus, Carol Galper, assistant dean of medical student education, explained simply, “No elective abortions are performed at UMC.” Natasha Bhuyan, president of the UA branch of Medical Students for Choice, said this is because of the 1974 stadium bill. “Since the procedure cannot be performed, there is no opportunity for
students to clinically learn about abortions,” she said. What medical students do receive is a 50-minute lecture on abortion as a part of the Life Cycle block of education for second-year medical students. At the annual lecture held Tuesday, an obstetrician and gynecologist faculty member projected images of devices used for different methods of abortion while using a laser pointer to explain the procedures. Abigail KeislerBaird, a first-year medical student, said that even with the lecture, observation is still necessary. “I don’t think that (one lecture) is enough,” KeislerBaird said.“I can talk to you about setting a broken bone or giving an injection or doing a pelvic exam or whatever, and we have class about that, but until you actually see a patient and perform that, it’s not good enough.” Bhuyan added that it isn’t practical or
“
helpful to students to limit this part of medical training. “It’s a bit odd that we only spend 50 minutes learning about abortion in our first two years of medical school, considering abortions are one of the most common medical procedures in the U.S.,” Bhuyan said. However, the latter half of medical school differs in Arizona from other states, Bhuyan said. “The real concern with our lack of abortion education is during our clerkships, which are the third —Natasha Bhuyan and fourth years of medical school. During these years, we do rotations in various specialties in medicine,” she said. “During the OB-GYN rotations, medical students in other states are able to observe abortions in a clinical setting.” Keisler-Baird said she feels the effect of Photo Courtesy of Clair Secomb the ban because she wants to become an Doctoral candidates Natasha Bhuyan, right, and Robert Portley practice mock procedures pertaining to reproductive health care in the College of Medicine building obstetrician and gynecologist.
Since the procedure cannot be performed, there is no opportunity for students to clinically learn about abortions.
”
Tuesday afternoon. Students have taken it upon themselves to learn procedures not
ABORTION, page 10 allowed in university hospitals because of a ban on performing abortions on campus.
News is always breaking at dailywildcat.com ... or follow us on
uofabookstores.com
(520) 621-8859
: @DailyWildcat