wednesday, september 9, 2009
DW
DW
Chile Festival heats up
Spicy small-town celebration hits the big time in Hatch, N.M.
wildlife
page
sports
B1
tucson, arizona
O-line chemistry
Three heavyweight roommates push each other to conquer on the field page
A6
Arizona Daily Wildcat
dailywildcat.com
I read the news today, oh boy ...
Robotic reproduction
Faculty adjust to oversize classes By Will Ferguson Arizona Daily Wildcat
Lisa Earle/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Labor and Delivery Nurse Martha Gastelum holds a high-tech labor simulation robot named baby Hal at the University Medical Center on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Both baby Hal and his “mother” Noelle are life-size and can simulate almost all aspects of a real labor scenario to help train UMC health professionals.
Mannequins act as teaching aides for medical students learning about labor, birth
By Angel Allen Arizona Daily Wildcat It’s a happy day. Noelle has given birth to a baby. All the medical students who helped with the delivery are so proud. For some of the students, this is their first birthing experience — and definitely their first one with a robot. Noelle and her baby, Hal, are two computerized robotic mannequins that the University Medical Center purchased with a $40,000 grant from Miamibased Gaumard Scientific. Margie Neish, the charge nurse in Obstetrics & Gynecology, works with Noelle and baby Hal and said Noelle is so life-like that it’s amusing to watch the medical students who work with her. “It makes me laugh when Noelle says ‘Don’t touch me!’ and it’s so lifelike that the med students
look at each other and back away,”said Neish. Noelle says a few other things that make the simulation even more convincing.“It really hurts now!”she can say, or, “The baby is coming!”Noelle can say more than 20 different phrases and scream to show the pain of labor. Noelle and baby Hal are used to simulate labor and delivery. Many complications can be simulated, including hemorrhage ROBOTS, page A10
Visit dailywildcat.com for the full photo slideshow of the birth-bots
Employees safe from furloughs By Shain Bergan Arizona Daily Wildcat Though the UA is sustaining almost $16 million in state funding cuts, UA employees will not be forced to take unpaid time off this year. Prior to the current fiscal year, the President’s Office told faculty and staff to plan for furloughs, but not to schedule them until September at the earliest, President Robert Shelton said in a mass e-mail message to university employees on Tuesday. “When we were preparing for the current fiscal year, it was unclear
whether the state would accept federal stimulus funding,” he said. “In anticipation of further budget cuts for the (fiscal year 2010) year, furloughs became a necessary component of efforts to balance our budget.” Shelton stressed that the UA is not completely saved from its financial problems by the federal stimulus money that has been given to the university. “While critically important to our budget for this year, they do not resolve the more fundamental longterm issues that result from the state appropriation reductions,” Shelton
said. “They do, however, make it possible to eliminate the furloughs that had been planned for this year.” Gov. Jan Brewer formally applied for the federal stimulus money specifically for education in June, $146 million of which went to state universities. Of that amount, $56 million is for the UA. The UA’s decrease in revenue from state funding comes on the heels of Brewer signing off on a $40 million cut to the state’s three public universities on Friday, ending the higher education standoff between the governor’s office and the state legislature that began in
early summer. The cuts include $15.8 million from the UA, $18.1 million from Arizona State University and $6.1 million from Northern Arizona University, said Andrea Smiley, the Arizona Board of Regents’ associate executive director for public affairs. “This is what we had been anticipating,” she said. The cuts do not include sweeps from private university funds. The universities’ three presidents and the board of regents threatened to sue the state FUNDING, page A3
Students in the traditions and cultures 104 class Eroticism and Love in the Middle Ages agreed on one point when asked about the class Tuesday morning. Their professor, Albrecht Classen of the German studies department, is doing the best job he can in a new and tricky situation. Classen is one of several distinguished professors teaching more than a thousand students in Centennial Hall this fall. “It’s daunting,” he said. “I try to make the class as personal as possible.” Rather than using mechanical aids such as clickers, Classen said he is going with very simple mechanics. He said that interactive technology takes away from the class and he will stick with what he is best at: talking about his passion. With an hour and 15 minutes to lecture every Tuesday and Thursday, Classen has more time to go in-depth and address students’ questions via microphone. He said that the class setup gives him and students the opportunity to improvise. “We are all trying something new here. I don’t have as much time to meet with students individually but I feel that the longer classes provide for better discussion,” he said. However, despite Classen’s enthusiasm for the material he teaches, students brought up numerous concerns. Prior to the start of class, a group of freshmen congregated outside the building, trying to find out who they were supposed to be working with in their class discussion groups. Samantha Becker, an English freshman, said the class is interesting, but it is hard to coordinate group work when the only contact with her group members is through e-mail. “I am in a group with 10 people I have never met and not everyone wants to do the work,”said Becker. In addition, Becker pointed out that the large class size prevents some students from attending study sessions for the exams. She said numerous students couldn’t attend the first exam study session because it was full. Several other freshman students expressed similar concerns about the size and organization of the class. Cai Gutman, an undecided freshman, said the online assignments only require students to skim the surface of the material. “The expectations for the class were set too high,” he said. “There are too many students for the professor and TAs to give good feedback.” Trevor Ulmer, an undecided freshman, called the class a “clusterfuck.” Classen admitted that grading and organization are challenging aspects of CENTENNIAL, page A3
Enterprising students to focus on funding
By Michelle Freireich Arizona Daily Wildcat
Students in need of financial aid may soon have options beyond traditional scholarships and loans. The recently established Student Scholarship Services Project will hold a focus group today at 3:15 p.m. in the Regents Room of the Administration building. The mission statement of the program is “to drastically increase UA student access to outside scholarships through outreach, student
support, and a streamlined scholarship selection system,” according to Rebekah Salcedo, the Student Scholarship Services Coordinator The program seeks to make scholarships from outside the university, including those distributed by the community or private donors, more readily available to students. “We want to pull in as much external funds as possible,” said Salcedo. For this focus group, the Student Scholarship Services Project invited about 60 students who have already been successful in earning outside
scholarships to share advice about the process. Salcedo will lead the focus group with a co-facilitator, Kenneth Downs. Seven of the 60 have agreed to participate in the focus group, as well as a few others who will meet individually with Salcedo, she said. “I want this to be a student-generated project. Students know best what works best for them,” she said. In the focus group, students will discuss how they found outside SCHOLARSHIP, page A3
Tim Glass/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Nicole Esquivel, an education freshman, received nearly $10,000 in outside scholarships through various organizations. Esquivel found many of her scholarships through Internet sources.