Student brings imagination to UU gallery. ARTS, pg. 4
Monday, April 16, 2012
Volume LXXVI, Number 104
www.mustangdaily.net
Fewer vaccinated at Cal Poly leads to greater risk ERIN HURLEY
erinhurley.md@gmail.com
Whooping cough and chickenpox are two uncommon afflictions that have appeared on the Cal Poly campus throughout the past several years. While recent cases of these unusual illnesses have been successfully contained so far, the risk of these or other diseases spreading on campus is growing. Head of Medical Services Dr. David Harris knows why — a large population of college-age students live without vaccinations. “There’s so many students who haven’t had their basic childhood immunizations because their parents rightly or wrongly believe that that was a danger to them,” Harris said. Harris said he estimates between 4 and 7 percent of Cal Poly students don’t have the recommended childhood immunizations. California State University (CSU) requirements for having proof of measles and Hepatitis B vaccinations were removed two years ago, he said, and now it’s harder to get a real sense of who has had vaccinations and who hasn’t. These childhood vaccinations include the MMR (for mumps, measles and rubella), varicella (chickenpox) and the TDP (now called the Tdap for adults, which covers tetanus, diptheria and pertussis, or whooping cough), according to Harris. Except for tetanus, these afflictions are all “devastating” in an epidemic sense, and along with meningitis they are the illnesses the Health Center is most concerned about. Harris said any vaccination requirements at Cal Poly can be waived for personal or religious reasons. However, afflictions such as chickenpox and whooping cough are not regularly diagnosed on campus. Harris said the top diagnoses at the Health Center during the past year have been related to upper re-
Fraternity raises money for alcohol awareness MUSTANG DAILY STAFF REPORT
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vaccination for chickenpox. “If it’s not really required, I feel like it’s not that big of a deal,” Hedgecock said. Figuring out the origin of illnesses that end up at Cal Poly is almost impossible, Harris said — there are students who work out in the community or go home and risk getting exposed, and others that travel and come back from all over the world. The Health Center has most of the recommended vaccinations and Harris said they can get almost anything else within a day. “We’re not cloistered little villages anymore, we’re all part of this global scheme,” Harris said. “We not only have global
A Cal Poly fraternity’s alumni teed off at a Nipomo golf course Friday morning in honor of former Cal Poly student Carson Starkey who died in an alleged hazing incident three years ago. Delta Sigma Phi alumni raised thousands of dollars for Aware Awake Alive, a non-profit that aims to increase awareness about alcohol poisoning on college campuses Friday at Blacklake Golf Course. The organization has swept the campus this year as a tribute to Carson, who died in 2008. Through hole sponsors and silent-auction bidders, the alumni raised an estimated $5,000 to donate to the Aware Awake Alive charity. The fraternity presented the check to Starkey’s parents Julia and Scott, who co-founded Aware Awake Alive in the summer of 2011. Julia said she was “overwhelmed” by the fraternity’s donation to the organization. “It shows the support of a national organization like that, and they’re really backing us,” she said. The money will be used to help promote a new online feature called the Toolbox, Julia said. The Toolbox is a recently launched resource available for free to colleges that provides multimedia content for different university departments
see VACCINATION, pg. 2
see GOLF, pg. 2
ERIN HURLEY/MUSTANG DAILY
Dr. David Harris, head of medical services at the Health Center, said he estimates between 4 and 7 percent of students at Cal Poly have not had their childhood immunizations, which poses a risk for an outbreak. spiratory infections. These illnesses covered by childhood immunizations are not new — they have been around for a long time, he said. But Harris also said higher numbers of students without immunizations mean a greater chance of a larger outbreak. “It’s going to be very, very difficult to contain something like that once it gets started,” he said. Some people have always been against vaccinations, Harris said, but in 1998 a British scientist named Andrew Wakefield concluded that the measles vaccine was a cause of autism. That study seemed to justify the argument against vaccinations, Harris said. Since then, Wakefield’s studies
“have been proved to be fraudulent in every regard,” and the consensus of expert opinion is that the benefits of childhood immunization “vastly outweigh the costs.” However, Harris said Wakefield’s “bogus research” convinced parents to blame vaccinations for their children’s autism. “As a consequence, it frightened enough people that they said, ‘Well we don’t have chickenpox, we don’t have polio, we don’t have these things, so I’m not going to vaccinate my child, I’m not going to risk it,” Harris said. “Well the reality is we do have them. They’ve never gone away.” Today’s college-age people are showing the effects of that scare, Harris said — for the
next four or five, as well as the past two, years, college students are the group with the biggest percentage of individuals who aren’t vaccinated. And resurgences of diseases commonly prevented by vaccinations have happened at other college campuses as well, according to Harris. For example, there was an outbreak of mumps last year at the University of California, Berkeley and one of chickenpox at Syracuse University in 2010. Recreation, parks and tourism administration junior Kelly Hedgecock said she doesn’t think it’s important for Cal Poly students to get their vaccinations if they aren’t required. In fact, she wouldn’t be worried if someone didn’t have a
Greek Week kicks off at the beach ALLISON MONTROY
allisonmontroy.md@gmail.com
Pismo Beach saw crowds in the thousands as almost 30 Cal Poly fraternities and sororities gathered to kick off Greek Week Sunday afternoon. Cal Poly’s Greek Week is an annual spring event where all of greek life joins together to engage in a week of competitive sports and philanthropic events. This year, 30 of Cal Poly’s 34 greek organizations are participating. At “Beach Day,” teams competed in a volleyball tournament, limbo contest, tug-ofwar and obstacle course.
Teams were divided randomly into seven teams based on the size of each greek organization involved. Each team has approximately 300 to 375 members. English sophomore and Alpha Epsilon member Adina Miller said the Beach Day turnout was huge. “Everyone has really good sportsmanship, cheering people on and being really supportive,” Miller said. “It’s also been breezy out, which has been really nice.” Greek Week also gives sororities and fraternities the opportunity to get to know people from different hous-
es, Miller said. Local companies, such as Albertsons, donated water and bottled drinks for Beach Day in support of Greek Week. “In my experience, I have found that local businesses do appreciate greek life,” Greek Life Coordinator Diego Silva said. “It’s individuals in government, like city officials, that often have to deal with the negatives of greek life. Sometimes we don’t get a chance to show individuals like that the great things that we do.” This week, greek organizations will give back to the community by participating in the “Mustang Mile,” donat-
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SPORTS, pg. 8
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ing blood and volunteering at the Prado Day Center. Teams can also earn points in sports events and a SLO Donut Co. eating contest. Greek Week will culminate with a lip-sync contest on Sunday. Because six of the 10 multicultural-based fraternities and sororities are participating in Greek Week this year, the MultiCultural Step Show Saturday night was added to the Greek Week agenda. “We wanted to show support for the multicultural frats and sororities,” mathematics junior and President of Executer for Greek Week Sarah Ortiz said. By attending these events
Tomorrow’s Weather: high Sunny
75˚F
low 52˚F
Ultimately, I just want everyone to enjoy themselves, nothing to go wrong and everyone to have fun. SARAH ORTIZ PRESIDENT OF EXECUTOR FOR GREEK WEEK
and winning sports games, one team will ultimately win at the end of the week. The prize: “You just get to say that you won,” Ortiz said. There will be a zero tolerance policy for alcohol during Greek Week, according to Ortiz. If anyone appears in-
INDEX News.............................1-3 Arts..............................4-5
toxicated or brings alcohol to events, they will be kicked out of Greek Week. “Ultimately, I just want everyone to enjoy themselves, nothing to go wrong and everyone to have fun,” Ortiz said. “Everyone looks forward to this week.”
Opinions/Editorial...........6 Classifieds/Comics..........7 Sports..............................8