You can walk the walk

by Meg Merkel staff writer

Do you like to walk? Do you want to walk for a good cause? Campus Ministry is encouraging Cabrini students to participate in Philadelphia's AIDS walk on Oct. 17. Although Campus Ministry has been involved with the AIDS walk for several years, last year they reached the goal of as many as 100 registered walkers.

Mary Laver, campus minister, explains that if the organization increases the amount of participator by 30 percent each year, they can maintain leadership among colleges. "We are looking for more students and faculty to sign up and help us recapture our pacesetter status and help raise awareness and money for research."

Although AIDS awareness programs have grown the last few years, many peo- ple still remain educated. Do you actually know what AIDS stands for? Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. What is this disease? It's a disease that damages the body's ability to fight infections, caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (IITV).

The disease is transmitted from sexual contact or sharing insterile needles with someone who is lilV positive. Some symptoms include constant fatigue, dry cough, shortness of breath, unexplained weight loss of greater than 10 pounds, unexplained fever and chills and pink blotches on or under the skin.

Karen Pollack, health educator at Cabrini, encourages students to utilize the peer educators. "This year we have six student§ participating as peer educators. These educators, including myself, are available for confidential counseling." Not only are these students trained for AIDS awareness, they also deal with issues such as drug and alcohol abuse.

The Philadelphia AIDS Walk is the biggest AIDS fund raiser and walk-a-thon in the region.

The AIDS Walk will start with a Sign-In and opening ceremonies at 9 a.m.

Peer educators and campus ministry hope to see more student IEGl5'1EI! involvement with such a charitable event. "Let's show everyone what a great community Cabrini college really .

The Walk will start and finish in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and begins at 11 a.m.

Sign up today!

The best way to learn may be to do, but when is enough enough? Those in the social work major are required to have 650 hours of interning before they graduate. This is in addition to the classes that they have to take here. Put yourself into their shoes, however. How would you feel if you had to keep a certain g.p.a. in your classes, do all of your work, and be expected to put in about 35 hours a week into an unpaid internship? We probably would hear complaint after complaint about such a program from any communications major. Have we heard any complaints from them? Before the article, most on the staff never even knew about these requirements for social work. Since changing the requirements is not an option, the best that can be done is congratulate them on their commitment. Think of what could be done if we all showed that level of commitment.

It sounds as if our current policy for objectionable material in our computer labs is lacking. Our policy simply states that anything could be downloaded so long as it doesn't offend anyone around. Who is to decide what is offensive? Are the students given the choice and the trust to decide? If the students are the ones to decide what is offensive and allowed to use their judgements on such matters, why are we not allowed this freedom on others?

To the administration, we put this forth. We would like to see some type of consistency in the rules. Confusion will abound when the policies of the college contradict. In regards to one, we are treated like adults, in others we feel like children being preached to. A little stability goes a long way.

To the students, if we want to be treated as adults, we should all just grow up. Start acting like you are capable of making good judgements and maybe you'll get the chance to prove it.