BSU will soon offer Web health care

By the end of the month, students living in Ball State University residence halls will be able to get their health care taken care of over the Internet.

The health clinic is testing a program that will be open from late afternoon to late night when the center is closed. Students will be able to communicate with the nurse on duty over the Internet, and the nurse will be able to send the student information, including pictures over a Web browser.

Concerns include confidentiality and how well the student will be able to look at a picture to determine an ailment.

However, if the system works, next fall it will be expanded to any student off campus with high-speed Internet access.

Prof. rants in the name of education

At a teach-in at Columbia University last month, Nicholas De Genova, an assistant professor of anthropology and Latino studies, told a crowd of 3,000 students that he hoped Iraq defeated the United States.

He went on to say Americans who called themselves patriots were actually white supremacists. He also made reference to the 1993 killing of 18 U.S. soldiers killed in Somalia and said he hoped to see it happen again.

The university was upset by this but cannot control his right to free speech. It issued a statement defending his right, but said he spoke as an individual and not as a representative of the entire university.

Pregnant athlete sues former school

Tara Brady, former starting center for Sacred Heart’s Division I women’s basketball team, is suing the university because she was dismissed from the team and lost her scholarship when she became pregnant.

Brady says a few days after notifying her coach she was pregnant, he told her that she was a “distraction” and an “insurance risk.” He also told her she was not to be on the team for the 2001-2002 academic year and she was losing her scholarship.

Pregnant athletes are usually granted a medical redshirt year where they can practice but not play in games, and she was not given this option.

Brady sued the university based on the civil rights guaranteed under the Title 1X of the Education Amendments of 1972, which says no university receiving federal funds can discriminate based on gender.

Brady claims she was discriminated against because she is a female and males do not have to deal with pregnancy in the same way.

Brady left Sacred Heart and transferred to West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Educators asked to nix war talk in class

Teachers at Irving Valley College, a community college in Southern California, have been warned not to discuss the war in Iraq in their classrooms.

Dennis W. White, vice president for academic instruction, sent an e-mail to the dean of every department asking that they not discuss the war unless it has to do directly with classroom material. Even then they should not state their opinion on it, he said.

White was concerned about issues of free speech but would not take back his statement because he says that no matter what the topic is, professors should not influence their students’ opinions.

– compiled by Raechel Remenyi