Technician
tuesday october
20 2009
Raleigh, North Carolina
Fair remains crowded despite H1N1 N.C. State Fair officials worry about fairgoers transferring flu to pigs Joanna Banegas Staff Writer
Instead of keeping humans protected from unhealthy hogs, N.C. State Fair officials want infected humans with the flu to stay away from the fair’s healthy pigs. Officials are concerned about infected humans passing the the virus on to their animals. Swine influenza, or H1N1, is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. The virus is contagious and spreads from human to human. Signs are posted outside petting barns asking visitors to wash their hands before and after touching animals. Signs also request fairgoers who have been sick in the past week stay away. The signs say, “Our animals are healthy. Are you?” Tina Jones, one of the owners of Sonny Brothers Livestock in Barnesville, N.C., had hogs at the swine competition and said she was glad they put the warning sign up to keep sick humans away from their healthy pigs. “I felt better knowing that they were
trying to get the people that were sick out of here,” Jones said. “Hopefully the public knows that you can’t catch the flu from the fair hogs because they were vaccinated.” The fair has set up two barriers between fairgoers and the animal competition pens. “The public can’t get into certain parts of the exhibit areas due to the barriers,” Jones said. “That way we can keep people out of there and the animals remain safe from the public.” Jones also said she hasn’t seen a decrease in traffic through the exhibit area because of the people fearing the pigs. “This barn has been crowded all day,” Jones said. “It looks normal to me, I try to go to a couple of exhibits and it was like so crowded.” Jones said there is a vet that checks the hogs and animals exhibited for competition and they must pass through an inspection station. “Our pigs were vaccinated,” Jones said. “They had to do that as a public relation necessity.” Restaurants and dining areas at the fair believe the H1N1 flu has not affected business. Lori Tingen, co-manager of the Apex Lions Club, which serves hotdogs, cheeseburgers and biscuits at the fair, said business has been booming since the fair opened.
Amanda Karst/Technician
The reserve champion barrow lays in his pen at the North Carolina State Fair. Harris Teeter bought the barrow from Makensie Mohrfeld for $6,000 during the Junior Livestock Sale of Champions.
“We have a lot of people ask if our hotdogs are either beef or pork,” Tingen said. “But I can’t say it’s because of people fearing the flu.” This is the first year the restaurant has put out hand sanitizer for the customers’ own usage and personal
hygiene. “We put hand sanitizer right before you get to the food station to encourage people to utilize that. It’s just a precaution,” Tingen said. She also said people are funny about what they eat but that has been a con-
sistent factor in the customer’s personal choice of meat for a long time. “Most of them are looking for beef,” Tingen said. “So I guess in that perspective they are being a little bit more conscious of what they’re eating.”
Bottle ban has environmental, economic benefits for state
Career Center reaches out with social networking
Implementers of new law hope students see multiple reasons to recycle
Career Center implements Twitter, Facebook accounts to help students find employment
Jessica Neville Staff Writer
The North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation, effective Oct.1, which bans wooden pallets, oil filters and plastic bottles from landfills. The bill promotes recycling for environmental benefits and economic incentives that come with reusing these products. Students on campus will not be forced to recycle the items; however, there could be ramifications later for the University if landfill standards are not met. Scott Mouw, an environmental supervisor from the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, said his office supported the bill when it was being considered and gave input on how it could be implemented. “Although it may not happen in a day, over the course of time we hope that recycling will become much more widespread throughout the
Andy Musselman/Technician ARchive Photo
Nicole Machado, a freshman in textile apparel management, and Aileen Rodriguez, a freshman in animal science, tie up a bag of cans during tailgating. Rodriguez said they participated in WE Recyle “to raise awareness on recycling. There is tons of recycleable material at tailgates that just gets tossed away.”
state,” Mouw said. “Ideally, whenever a business generates a plastic bottle, they will one day also offer a place to recycle that bottle.” Mouw said while recycling has traditionally been supported as an environmental issue, it is becoming an
economic concern. “The items that were chosen for this bill were selected because they all have valuable end uses,” Mouw said. “Recycling these prod-
RECYCLE continued page 3
Tufts gets tough on sexual activity in dorm rooms, ‘sexiling’ prohibited New policy attracts national attention Arth Pandya Staff Writer
A new policy at Tufts University — a private research university in Massachusetts — is prohibiting students from engaging in sexual activity with a roommate present in the room. Tufts’ 2009-10 housing handbook states: “You may not engage in sexual activity while your roommate is present in the room. Any sexual activity within your assigned room should not ever deprive your roommate(s) of privacy, study or sleep time.” In addition, the policy also prohibits “sexiling,” or kicking a roommate out so the other roommate can engage in sexual activity. N.C. State’s Director of Student
Conduct Paul Cousins said this type of behavior has never been a primary issue in the cases he has dealt with. “Most of the things that are serious enough would be assaultive behavior and threats,” Cousins said. “Behind the scenes, one of the stressors usually [was] roommates weren’t communicating, and one felt they had been taken advantage of.” Cousins said smaller private schools have a different approach to how they address student conduct compared to state schools. According to Cousins, the disparities between how the institutions handle student conduct comes from the cultural differences between a private and public institution. “If you look at some of the smaller private universities in New England, you might find a number of polices inconsistent [with] what we have,”
Cousins said. “A lot more effort here has been trying to prevent conflict.” In addition, Cousins said the roommate agreement — which is a contract negotiated between roommates on rules and regulations — has been essential in facilitating conversation between roommates on issues. “It really helps set up some boundaries and guidelines,” Cousins said. Davis Flory, a senior in mechanical engineering, said Tufts’ involvement in the students’ affairs wasn’t necessary, as roommates should be able to talk to each other about their concerns. “You have to be able to communicate,” Flory said. “Everything is
UCC,” Schroeder said. “We are always looking for up-to-date and interesting ways to deliver our services to students.” Schroeder said e-mail and dedicated Web sites, while not obsolete, are no Nick Tran longer the most popular means to Staff Writer communicate information in a time Students looking for assistance with of social networking. “We want to make sure we deliver job applications and internships can now access the University Career Cen- our message to the places students ter through the popular social net- use,” Schroeder said. Caitlin Zanga, a freshman in mework mediums Facebook and Twitter. The advance to social networking, teorology, while waiting on a career which launched Oct.1, is the latest ef- counseling appointment, said she has fort by the UCC to connect students never really seen that many people at to employers and ensure students are the career center and social networkprepared to take full advantage of po- ing is a good way to reach the masses. “It is definitely a good idea if it’s tential opportunities. The UCC provides students with going to help land [students] a job,” utilities to help them choose a suitable she said. “I assumed most branches of the University career and plan their were moving to sofutures effectively cial networking. It around their career makes sense as a way paths. Resources to reach out to stuavailable to students dents.” include resume tu“How successful it torials and samples, will be depends on tips on conducting how well the UCC an interview and markets itself and strategies to suchow it makes itself cessfully obtain a UCC Director Carol Schroeder obvious to the studesired career. dents,” Zanga said. The UCC gives Ethan Thompson, a freshman in students the opportunity to speak with counselors, who offer in-person psychology, said he found his job career advising and serve as mediators through the traditional means of between students and employers, as walk-in inquiry, but still recognizes well as career ambassadors, who are the benefits of the UCC. “If students don’t know how to go students trained to give assistance with a perspective more familiar to about getting a job or haven’t gotten a job before, the UCC can help a lot,” students. Carol Schroeder, the director of Thompson said. “It’s a beneficial idea UCC, said the move to Facebook and for students. Social networking is alTwitter is a way to use the most mod- ways a good idea to raise awareness.” Schroeder said social networking ern form of communication and reach students through the mediums they sites are no longer just for keeping in use the most. “We want more students to use the CAREER continued page 3
“We want to make sure we deliver our message to the places students use.”
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TUFTS continued page 3
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