opinion 9
observer.case.edu
Horwitz: Save our Delta Gamma Refugees Avi Horwitz Staff Writer COVID-19 has been causing mass death for over two years. We’re sleepwalking towards authoritarianism and climate catastrophe. Not to mention all the other symptoms of living in a white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist society that we face. When it was announced that Delta Gamma’s housing would be taken away for a semester, that was the last straw for Case Western Reserve University students, for whatever reason. Shortly after the new year, a petition began circulating on social media attempting to reverse a move by CWRU to use the Delta Gamma sorority’s house as housing for students quarantined due to COVID-19 infections. As of the writing of this column, the petition has garnered just under 2,000 signatures. This reflects seriously unhinged behavior. As one self-described “Case Parent” wrote in the petition comments, “the audacity and absurdity of the white privilege and entitlement is stunning. Kudos
to Case for putting the health and safety of all their students over 19 Greek life peers. Voting so folks can read that fellow Case parents know that this is absurd and an utterly privileged, poorly understood stance.” While this parent hit the nail on the head with their assessment, my main gripe does not focus on the literal validity of Delta Gamma’s petition. As the petition points out, there are other spaces, such as an unused fraternity house, that the university could have chosen to designate as quarantine housing. The true absurdity of the situation lies in its outlier status. It’s well known that CWRU students live in a “bubble.” There are few groups on campus that go beyond performative and exploitative philanthropy in favor of truly challenging the status quo. These groups tend to get far less attention, likely due to our inclination for resume building over solidarity. I’ve all too often heard my peers lament that they don’t have the time
or don’t know how to galvanize collective action. Well this has now been disproven. The ease and quickness with which Delta Gamma obtained the significant number of petition signatures, poetic Instagram stories and heart-wrenching Facebook posts shows that CWRU students have the capacity for action when their privileged conditions are immediately at risk. This is not to say that we should follow the exact strategy followed by Delta Gamma’s supporters for more serious causes. Awareness-building methods, such as petitions and social media posts, will never be liberating on their own (or even effective as the main focus of action). In this sense, it reminded me of the much more warranted uproar to the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) recognition of Case for Life (CFL), formerly known as Students for Life (SFL), in the spring of 2020. Students quickly mobilized to share the petition for a student referendum and garnered the nec-
essary 500+ signatures. The referendum succeeded in momentarily overturning the recognition. However, beyond the initial spurt of support, no long-term base was built to harness this energy. CFL would succeed in receiving their recognition, with little widespread opposition, less than a year later. What needs to become commonplace is the supportive energy displayed under the two scenarios mentioned above. As I discussed in my last column, community organizing is the best way to harness that attitude to build a better world. So, maybe, just maybe, instead of going through Greek Life recruitment this month, you can join a community-based organization. The people you meet in these organizations—those who will march in the streets with you on a cold rainy day or work through mundane strategy at a weeknight meeting—are far better “family” than whatever “brothers” and “sisters” you get through Greek Life.
Radwan: LinkedIn is a great tool to plan for your career Aziz Radwan Staff Writer Since LinkedIn launched in 2003, professionals have used it to network and develop their careers. Today, it has become an indispensable tool for job seekers to post their curricula vitae (CVs) and employers to post jobs. We can see that the LinkedIn platform allows members to create profiles listing their education, skills and achievements, while employers and recruiters post positions or search for qualified candidates. Because of this, LinkedIn has gained enormous popularity, including earning the “premier digital platform” title for professionals to network online. It has come a long way since only having about 20 sign-ups a day. Because it managed to optimize its platform with personalization features and company advertisements, the number of LinkedIn connections has skyrocketed to over 800 million registered members worldwide as of January 2022. Perhaps the most notable advantage of LinkedIn for students and professionals is personal branding, which is in the member’s profile. Sections such as About, Activity, Experience, Education, Skills and Recommendations help
members brand themselves as they try to make new connections or interact with existing ones. Additionally, after creating your profile, you will find out that your name is searchable, and more than likely, your LinkedIn profile link will appear on the first page of Google Search results. People who want to get to know you better will likely visit your LinkedIn profile page. Remember, your profile page always leaves the first impression about you, so uploading an appropriate profile picture and writing a good summary in the About section is essential. Pamela Green, author of “Think Like a Brand: A 7-Step Strategic Brand Plan to Increase Your Career Satisfaction and Success,” describes a personal brand as “the emotional experience you want people to have as a result of interacting with you.” Green’s idea is that as a job seeker, you need to be intentional in how you interact with professionals—be it in person or digitally—so you can leave an impression that drives an emotional connection. Another advantage for college students is the profile updates of professionals. As a student, you may want to
connect with professionals in your field. Skills posted on their profiles can aid you in planning what skills you should strive towards gaining during your education. For example, a computer science student will need to develop technical skills, including data analysis, software development, technical writing and mathematics. Other soft skills such as attention to detail, communication, organization and time management can be equally as important as technical ones in job hunting. Technical skills are typically acquired through classwork and internships, while soft skills are learned first-hand from student clubs and activities. Although LinkedIn is an excellent platform for students and professionals, it is not without its downsides. One of the downsides I get annoyed by is seeing some connections posting non-careerrelated activities; it seems as though they don’t know there are other social media platforms for this purpose, such as Facebook or Twitter. LinkedIn engagement should primarily be in the realm of career or business development. If we keep seeing personal or social content on LinkedIn, then it will be a waste of time
to check updates. Another flaw of the platform is the abundance of malicious activity by scammers. For instance they may stalk users by sending fake job offers, which can lead to stealing the user’s information. As it is probably known, stealing personal data is fuel for identity theft. Scammers lure users into filling out their personal information such as their full name, home address and credit card information. This can result in selling the user data to other criminals and creating phishing attacks. Hence, it is important for LinkedIn users to be aware of such activities and not share or post any sensitive, personal information on any social media site. All in all, LinkedIn is a powerful tool for connecting with colleagues and professionals. It helps us create our personal brands, find jobs, make connections and stay updated on others’ professional lives. It is a great resource to grow our professional network. However, as we build our LinkedIn connections, we need to keep an eye out for scams, so we don’t fall prey to criminal activities, especially identity theft.
Chintada: Advancing the field of OB/GYN for all Latavya Chintada Staff Writer There is no doubt that medicine has significantly advanced through the decades. These advancements have improved quality of life, reduced mortality rates and decreased disease rates. For example, the use of robotics in urological surgeries has aided in speeding up the duration and precision of surgeries. Likewise, other technological advancements in imaging, such as MRIs, CTs and ultrasounds, have improved the accuracy of diagnostic exams, allowing simultaneous detection of diseases in their beginning stages. Recently, a certain medical procedure conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center made headlines when surgeons transplanted a pig heart into an 57-yearold man. This was the first pig-to-human transplant ever performed, and it speaks volumes about how far we have advanced medicine. While the ethics of putting a genetically modified pig heart into a human is a separate issue, these major advancements still raise the concern that some practices in medicine—which seem almost barbaric—still exist without major developments on them today. A field that still holds some gruesome practices is the specialty of obstetrics and
gynecology (OB/GYN). While there have definitely been significant developments in the discipline, it falls short in terms of making patients feel comfortable and at ease compared to other fields. An example is that of the insertion process of the intrauterine device (IUD). IUDs are used as a form of birth control to prevent pregnancy and are inserted through the cervix and attached to the top of the uterus. Those who undergo this procedure can experience a lot of cramping, spotting and irregular menstrual cycles as it involves a small piece of plastic being shoved inside the uterus, an internal organ. If other procedures involving internal organs such as colonoscopies can use sedation, then why can’t this one? IUD insertion has no sort of anesthetic or numbing for the patient; most patients are told to take over-thecounter pain medication before coming in for their appointment, which hardly seems appropriate for the amount of pain they will experience. As for why sedation is not deemed necessary for IUD insertions, some physicians have dismissed its need and instead raised concerns about the potential risk. However, healthcare workers allow intravenous (IV) sedation
for relatively minor procedures such as wisdom teeth removal, which is what I have experienced. While it is true that there are risks associated with IV sedation, as well as high costs, it is justifiable to demand proper anesthetic for such procedures. While patients can request IV sedation for their IUD insertions, it is less common and not commonly offered or discussed by the practitioner. Ultimately, it is the safety and comfort of the patient that needs to be in the physician’s top priority, and having a piece of plastic jammed up a sensitive organ to prevent pregnancy does not seem like the most comfortable procedure, or even something that should be a part of modern medicine. Likewise, the dreaded speculum is another element of modern OB/GYN that doesn’t seem quite updated for the times, and instead, a little barbaric. The speculum is a “hinged, two-bladed instrument” used to better inspect the cervix during procedures such as IUD insertions, pap smears and STD testing. This instrument originated from institutionalized patriarchy and racism, as its creator was a white man who tested it on enslaved
Black women throughout the mid 1800s. It seems shocking that an instrument developed by a man for women’s health is still being used in practice today, as it does not aim for the comfort of patients. Many OB/GYN patients have described the speculum as uncomfortable and a source of anxiety and nervousness. This makes patients less likely to opt for these prophylactic gynecology exams, putting them at risk for undetected gynecological diseases. However, this is not to say that there will never be any developments regarding these matters. Thankfully, teams of women are working on redesigning the speculum to make it more comfortable and less frightening. Similarly, I hope there will be a consideration to making anesthetics more accessible during certain OB/GYN practices, such as IUD insertion. When there is a long history of women being mistreated in the maledominated medical field, it is important that a specialty dedicated to women’s health has the proper tools and procedures to maximize the comfort and safety of its patients.