The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, April 10, 2009 Page: 3 of 20
twenty pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
e i
I
I
Op-Ed
Teamwork integral to cancer awareness
Cancer is a devastating disease
that has affected over 10.8 million
Americans. The American Cancer
Society estimate that approximate-
ly 565,650 Americans died of cancer
in 2008. That means that across
the nation, 565,650 families experi-
enced the loss of a son, daughter,
mother or father to cancer in the
year 2008 alone.
Erica Soltero
Now, imagine this devastation
happening every year.
While not all cases end in fa-
tality, cancer brings calamity to
all to whom it extends its hand.
As busy college students, we of-
ten forget those who have had to
endure tragedy and hardships due
to cancer. We fail to recognize all
those who have overcome it. We
overlook the strength and persever-
ance of the individuals who have
emerged from intense treatment
plans, endured horrible symp-
toms and side effects and survived
multiple surgeries.
But this disease affects more
than just the individuals that it
inhabits. Cancer takes a great toll
on family members and caretak-
ers as well. These are the people
who compassionately spend their
days and nights caring for the sick.
They too must learn to cope and
remain strong.
The damaging effects of can-
cer are unacceptable and must be
stopped. We must progress to a
state where everyone is educated
about preventative measures, is
knowledgeable about early detec-
tion and is aware of the myriad of
support and effective treatment op-
tions available. We cannot allow
cancer to persist as the lethal force
that it has become. Thus, we have
declared a war on cancer.
This war cannot be fought with-
out devoted, passionate soldiers
who make a strong stand against
the enemy. At Rice, the members of
Colleges Against Cancer have come
together to take that stand. We in-
vite you to do the same. Join our
ranks so that together, we can do
something about this disease.
CAC provides the means for
college students to do their part.
With committees focused on can-
cer education, advocacy and vol-
unteer development, this club is
dedicated to raising cancer aware-
ness and promoting prevention.
By engaging the Rice community
in on-campus events such as Relay
For Life, CAC seeks to educate and
empower individuals to fight back
against cancer.
On April 17-18, CAC will once
again take a stand at th? Relay For
Life of Houston-Texas Medical Cen-
ter. Scheduled to take place at Rice's
Track/Soccer Stadium, Relay For
Life is an incredible celebration of
life that offers hope to all who par-
ticipate. It is a 24-hour event where
members of Relay teams composed
of friends, family members and or-
ganizations take turns walking or
running around the track.
Participating in Relay For Life is a
way for us to show cancer patients,
caretakers and family members that
they have our support. It is a time
to honor and remember loved ones
we have lost to cancer and a time
to give financially to further patient
service, research, education and ad-
vocacy efforts. The hope and success
brought forth by Relay For Life now
extend to thousands of communi-
ties in America and 21 other coun-
tries. We invite you to join us in this
worldwide movement.
a
We must progress to
a state where ev-
eryone is educated
about preventative
measures, is knowl-
edgeable about early
detection, and is
aware of the myriad
of support and effec-
tive treatment
options available.
99
To learn more and register for
Relay For Life, visit www.relayfor-
life.org/houstonmedicalcentertx.
It's time for you to join the fight!
Erica Soltero is a Will Rice College
sophomore. Dolapo Sokunbi and
Kelsey Lau contributed to
this column.
High testosterone highly disadvantageous
Last year, I discovered that my
testosterone levels are nearly three
times that of a normal man. For
those who know me, this fact prob-
ably comes as no surprise. But to
me, it was like discovering my race
or gender for the first time at the
age of 23.
Carl Hubbard
The explanatory power of testos-
terone levels, I soon discovered, is
at least equal to that of any other
sociological category. Testosterone
levels can predict what type of job
you are likely to work, how often
you've been injured in your life,
your criminal history, your sexual
promiscuity and even how often
you smile. And these are just some
of the dozens of traits that correlate
with the presence of this hormone
in one's body; the list could be ex-
tended to fill this entire article.
I understood myself better with
every new study I read. I realized
why I had always struggled with
authority, why I was prone to fights
in school and why I was drawn to
strength athletics. The explana-
tions are only partial, of course,
and don't account for variables like
personality, but pretty soon testos-
terone became as much a part of
my identity as my upbringing or
value system.
Against this background of re-
search, I thought about my time at
Rice. How did I ever get accepted
at Rice and then graduate in four
years? The odds were against me.
Education levels are negatively
correlated with testosterone: The
more testosterone flowing through
your veins, the less likely you are
to finish high school or graduate
from college.
This is especially so for private,
elite colleges like Rice. This trend
leads to what psychologist James
Dabbs calls the "Irony of Testoster-
one," which states that while high
testosterone was evolutionarily ad-
vantageous for millions of years, to-
day's society is arranged in such a
way that, other things being equal,
having high testosterone is a disad-
vantage. Statistically, it's the low-
testosterone male who gets into the
good schools and scores the white
collar jobs. The high testosterone
males tend to work blue collar jobs
and occupy a lower level in society.
U
The high testosterone
males tend to work
blue collar jobs and
occupy a lower level
in society.
99
The only solution to this prob
lem, as I see it, is affirmative ac-
tion for those with high testos-
terone. Rice admits other groups,
like racial minorities and women,
because, statistically, they have
the deck stacked against them. But
high testosterone males are at least
as disadvantaged as women or His-
panics. And while admitting ath
letes somewhat addresses the prob-
lem — college athletes have higher
testosterone than average — it does
so only in an accidental way, with-
out a primary concern for address-
ing social injustice.
The logistics would be no trou-
ble at all. Saliva sample results
could be listed alongside SAT scores
and other data. Those who have a
high level would be given special
consideration in the same way as
someone with a wooden foot, black
skin or an abusive father.
The side effects would be not
altogether unwelcome. For exam-
ple, how often have we heard Rice
women complain of male timidity
in the dating scene? Raising the
average testosterone level on cam-
pus could rectify this imbalance
within one admissions cycle. Also,
more students would tend to study
abroad, as testosterone correlates
with wanderlust, something that
the Rice faculty encourages every-
one to do.
Yes, more students would have
to take COMM 103 — testosterone
correlates negatively with verbal
ability — but Professor Mary Tobin
is a strong lady, fully capable of
handling even the proudest pea-
cocks. She handled me, after all.
And yes, more students would defy
the law and stir up trouble, but as
I see it, defiance of the law forms
an integral part of education in
the broadest sense. Just look at
Thoreau and Gandhi, and I'm sure
you'll agree.
We, the high-testosterone males
of the world, kicked ass in the Stone
Age. We played to win during the
European conquests. The Indus-
trial Revolution was entirely ours.
All we're asking for is the chance
to do the same here and now, with
the auspices that only a Rice degree
can offer.
Carl Hubbard is a tones
College alumnus.
Inadequate health plan needs
greater improvements
In a 2006 study of graduate students
on the Rice-subsidized health plan, 97
percent of over 400 respondents were
unhappy with the plan coverage and
cost. Indeed, a comparison of the plan
with other similarly-sized schools in the
top 50 US News and World Report rank-
ings shows that our current plan is well
behind our competition in almost every
way, such as co-pay percentage and
out-of-pocket maximum.
Eileen Meyer
Adding insult to injury, over the past
two years Rice's insurance provider Aet-
na made almost three times as much as
the industry average for a comparable
plan and number of lives insured. And
while students are a healthier popula-
tion to insure, Aetna's profit was worth
about 120 years of Rice tuition and
board at their current rates.
Students are feeling lipped off,
and justly so.
But that is really only the begin-
ning of the story. Since Rice gener-
ously subsidizes graduate student
health insurance, the students aren't
the only people losing money. With
all the budget-consciousness this re-
cession has brought on, how did Rice
overlook this one?
The answer was a dirty little nine-
letter word: committee.
Alas, the handful of administra-
tors charged with advising and choos-
ing a yearly health insurance plan
neither pay for this service nor use the
plan themselves. Any student of hu-
man nature can probably predict that
this leads to less than ideal results,
even if the committee had the requi-
site expertise to compare health plans
meant to serve over 1,500 students.
We have no broker for the student
plan, and no formal review process.
The only qualifications for committee
members appear to be that they have
been asked to choose the plan in the
past, which, given how truly terrible
some of these past providers and plans
were, is not particularly comforting.
Sir Barnett Cocks, former United
Kingdom Clerk of the House of Com-
mons, once quipped, "A committee is a
cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured
and then quietly strangled." Unfortu-
nately, though perhaps not unpredict-
ably, the process of "choosing" a plan
has settled down to the process of ac-
cepting, without too much questioning,
whatever plan the current provider puts
in front of the committee.
The only exceptions to this sad
tableau in recent years have required
monumental efforts by the students ob-
serving the process, taking many hours
of effort away from their research to
take surveys, call insurance companies,
research alternatives and educate our-
selves about the real expectations for an
insurance plan. The fact that a massive
report had to be written to even get stu-
dents into a meaningful debate about
the plan benefits speaks to the real
nature of this committee, which sees
its duty as one to be dispensed with, as
quickly and painlessly as possible. This
cannot be considered ideal.
An article referencing a 2008 issue
of Business Week suggests that "college
administrators are often unfamiliar
with the insurance industry and do not
negotiate the best deals," further as-
serting that "the relative health of most
college students makes the market very
lucrative." Research in the same article
showed that while large insurers spend,
on average, about 80 percent of premi
ums on medical care, many college-rec-
ommended plans were found to be defi-
cient, spending "well below 70 percent
of premiums on care."
Unfortunately, the Rire plan is on
pace to be almost twice as bad as quot-
ed here. It is a sad fact about America
today that a single accident or illness
can bankrupt a person overnight, and
it is even sadder to watch it happen to
someone who thought they had paid to
be protected from that possibility.
The fairly obvious solution is to treat
choosing an insurance benefit the way
any business would: bring in some
competition. After a lengthy report from
students oudining this position last De-
cember got almost no response from the
informal committee, a formal letter was
addressed to President Leebron.
Anxiously, we waited to see if
our suggestions for a formal com-
mittee process, student-paid broker
or self-funded plan would be taken
seriously. At length, we received a re-
ply which indicated very little would
change. Again, the balance swung in
favor of the status quo, as it has so
many times over the sad history of
health insurance for students.
Despite much language in the re-
sponse indicating approbation for
student input and ideas and promises
to implement changes, the students
advising the committee were treated to
an abrupt announcement shortly there-
after that the plan had been chosen for
2009-10, without even the appearancr
of a discussion. A telephone query
about this oddly incongruous behavior
was met with a sharply-worded remind-
er that students have no real right to any
vote on the health plan at all, and that
our position is merely "advisory." What
exactly was the harm in giving students,
or their representatives, a choice?
This argument isn't about blam-
ing the administrative committee
members, who have been signed up
for a thankless job. This isn't about
some idealized "right" to health care,
or even about what is ethical for Rice
to do with its large population of stu-
dent-employees straddling the pov-
erty line. It's about what's smart.
After all, Rice is a private institu-
tion and under no obligation to do
anything for graduate students in
terms of health benefits, just as it's
not obligated to have competitive sti-
pends, good facilities or anything else
that might attract top students.
But for all the talk of Rice's vision
and unconventional wisdom, it's
hard not to get a little cynical when
encountering neither in day-to-day
dealings with the inertial forces of
the status quo. Instead of looking at
student initiative as a nuisance to be
quashed. Rice administrators might
be better served by harnessing that
enthusiasm for application to the
very real problems students are hav-
ing. Instead of countering every com-
plaint about the current plan with an
excuse and a shrug, maybe a change
could be made which benefits both
the students and the administration.
However, this would require giving
students a few real seats at the table,
with a real vote in the process, indi-
cating real representation.
It might require actually changing
the way we do things.
Recruiting better graduate stu-
dents to our programs has to be a ma-
jor pillar in the effort to improve them,
and making the health insurance
benefits as good as, or even better
than, our competition could have real
value in that effort. Instead of settling
for mediocrity, we could be bucking
the trend so noted above. Certainly
that would be considered unconven
tional, and maybe even wise.
Eileen Meyer is a physics graduate stu-
dent and GSA Community Service Chair.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Michel, Casey. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, April 10, 2009, newspaper, April 10, 2009; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443096/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.