sports
What went wrong?
monday, september 21, 2009
DW Arizona Daily Wildcat Five reasons why Arizona football couldn’t hang with the Hawkeyes
tucson, arizona
page 8
online Check out the game photos from Iowa City at dailywildcat.com
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The perfect companion to your Monday morning coffee
McCain argues health care plan
Graduate walkout dead, replaced with Mall event By Shain Bergan Arizona Daily Wildcat
The Tribune MESA, Ariz. — The latest version of health care reform working its way through the U.S. Senate fails to hold down rapidly rising medical costs and creates undue burdens on small businesses, said Sen. John McCain. Speaking at a community gathering Friday night hosted by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, the Republican senator said the Baucus bill emerging this week from the Senate Finance Committee doesn’t contain reforms of medical malpractice, a key driver of higher health costs. It also doesn’t allow Americans to cross state lines to obtain insurance policies if they are cheaper than in-state policies, and its enforcement provisions to prevent illegal immigrants from getting taxpayer-supported medical care are too weak, he said. But McCain said the most serious problem is that making health insurance mandatory and imposing fines on those who don’t purchase it will create more costs for small businesses than they can afford.“So then their only option is to lay off workers,” he said, adding “if this is such a good deal, why do we have to threaten to fine people?” The Arizona senator reiterated his frequently voiced complaint that Democrats aren’t doing enough to seek Republican input on health care reform. Referring to boisterous town hall meetings across the country, McCain said “something is going on in America that I haven’t seen before. People are aroused, angry, frustrated.” He believes a lot of the frustration relates to the condition of the economy, the skyrocketing national debt and bailouts of large Wall Street firms while small businesses struggle to make ends meet. He cited instances in which small business owners have told him they lost their lines of credit even though they had paid all of their bills faithfully. “That’s unconscionable, particularly
Emily Jones/Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA graduate students gather outside of Old Main on Friday to discuss how to react to recent university budget cuts. While a graduate student walkout has been discussed over the last several days, the graduate students instead chose to hold an informative event this Thursday on the UA Mall.
After several days of speculation, UA graduate students will band together on Thursday to express their displeasure over university budget cuts. The UA graduate student community has been weighing its options since the Graduate and Professional Student Council meeting last week. One of the options that gained rapid attention was a possible walkout meant to mirror a similar walkout within the University of California school system that will take place Thursday at noon. While the graduate students will not be staging a walkout this week, they will instead take to the UA Mall on Sept. 24 from about 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. “We’re trying to get it on the stage,” said geography doctoral student Jen McCormack, an organizer of Thursday’s event. “This isn’t just a student movement. We’re trying to create a community concept.” Organizers stressed that the event will involve faculty and students talking about how university cuts will affect them and is not meant to be reactionary or hostile. “We want it to be a positive, informative event,” McCormack said. “There seem to be quite a few people on campus who don’t know what is going on.” The announcement of the event comes on the heels of President Robert Shelton accepting a sit-down meeting with graduate leadership. The meeting will take place today in the Regents Room of the Administration Building at 4 p.m. The meeting is open to anyone, and GPSC President David Talenfeld said he expects a high turnout. The GPSC meeting with Shelton was granted after the graduate student government sent a letter to the president last week. The letter outlined three priorities, including tuition remission for Graduate Assistants in Teaching, no reduction in GAT health care benefits and the creation of a Graduate Student Bill of Rights. Talenfeld said that although he agrees with advancing the graduate student agenda, all parties involved should keep in mind that the current budget crunch just does not allow the university to run as it used to. GRADS, page 14
HEALTH CARE, page 7
Health officials offer tips to stave off flu By Angel Allen Arizona Daily Wildcat In response to a growing number of reported cases of swine flu on college campuses, a trio of U.S. health officials hosted a conference call Friday with several college newsrooms to discuss methods to limit the spread of the disease. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius was joined by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Dr. Beth Bell of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in saying that the best treatment for the disease is prevention. Duncan said that swine flu, known for-
mally as H1N1, needs to be taken seriously to minimize the impact on the education process that a spread of the new influenza strain could have. “We want colleges to be part of the solution,” Duncan said. “There has been remarkable partnership with agencies and the public. We all have collaborated to work hard.” The trio, speaking on behalf of their respective institutions, advocated three primary ways to control the spread of the virus: prevention, close monitoring and common sense. Duncan described a number of easy ways to prevent getting or spreading H1N1: wash your hands thoroughly, sneeze into your sleeve, practice social isolation when
sick, keep your dorm rooms clean, do not attend class when sick and do not return to class until 24 hours after your fever breaks. Bell said that this flu season has begun much earlier than normal, and that nearly all cases are H1N1. Flu has been reported in all 50 states but the highest numbers of incidents are in the southeast. She added that emergency room visits and activity in universities’health services departments for flu have increased, with 21 states reporting widespread influenza activity on college campuses. Bell said college students are advised to receive the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available in October. One dose will be sufficient as young people have robust immune systems.
Antiviral treatment is available for those in high-risk groups, including women who are pregnant, those with lung or heart problems, asthma or diabetes. if you are in a high-risk group and get sick, contact a doctor immediately to see whether you should get antivirals, Bell said. “H1N1 is so dangerous because it is a new strain of flu and we can’t be sure it won’t mutate into something more virulent,” Sebelius said. “Fortunately, the vaccines that we have been preparing since April are just as effective on the flu now as it was then. This is one way of indicating that the flu is in the same form as it has been for the past five months.” H1N1, page 14
Symptoms of swine flu: • fever higher than 102 degrees • body aches • sore throat • cough • runny nose • possible vomiting or diarrhea
If you show signs of sickness, call:
Campus Health Triage Nurse (520) 621-6490 Campus Health After-Hours On Call Provider (520) 570-7898
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