PCC Courier, July 14, 2005

Serving PCC and the Pasadena community since 1915 шГ ^ Pasadena City College ^ Courier July 14, 2005 pcc-courieronline.com Warped Tour Page 6 Vol, 92, Issue 1 They Want YOU The military is after students’ personal information Meningitis Vaccine Advised for Students Keith P. Lubow Contributing Writer The Pentagon announced last month that it has contracted a private marketing firm to maintain and mar ket a database of students and other potential military enlistees due to dwindling military recruitment fig ures. The announcement has sparked fury among privacy and civil rights advocates. c .... ■ The. Massachusetts based data¬ base marketing company BeNOW will manage the Joint Advertising and Market Research Recruiting Database, which may include person al information on high school stu¬ dents 16 and older, all current college students, and even those who have, asked to be removed from any future recruitment lists. This database will include social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, e ntail addresses, ethnicities, and college majors. It will be used to aid recruiters in waging more precisely targeted recruitment campaigns Sources for the data include Department of Motor Vehicles records and comnter rial information brokers and vendors, as well as existing military records. The website for the Pentagon’s Joint Advertising Research Studies division, which manages recruiting research and marketing for all four branches of the military, describes the database as “arguably the largest repository of 16 to 25 year old youth data in the country, containing rough ly 30 million records." Officials from the Department of Defense said that the personal information collected will be “restricted to those who require the records in the performance of their official duties” and will remain confidential by the use pf passwords that are changed periodi cally. According to Master Sgt. Ricliardson of the Pasadena Marines recruiting office, this information will be used to do background checks “to ensure that you're not a terrorist." “This is scary,” said PCX student Nicole Miller, 20. “I don’t feel com fortable with anyone having (hat information about me, even my par ents.” According to the I, os Angeles Times, the issue of the database has emerged as the Army and, to a lesser extent, the Marines struggle to meet their recruitment goals. With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq making deployment into a war zone a realistic fear for both potential soldiers and their parents. Pentagon officials have said that the recruitment situation is expected to worsen in 2006. The Pentagon fears this “is not a short term slump, but a long term crisis' threatening. the viability of the all vol unteer military.” Although the public was informed about the database on May 23 in a Federal Register notice, the database had first been formed three years earlier, the undersecretary of defense, David Chu, told the New York Times. This may be a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974, which requires government agencies to make notice and accept comments from the public before forming any new system of records. Chu said that the depart ment did not realize until May of 2004 that no privacy act notice had yet been filed. According to the Pentagon, slu dents can choose to “opt out” of the database so recruitment offices know they do not want to be contacted. In order to do this, they need to give detailed information, w'hich will be kept in a "suppression file.” . This information will be compared with the database to ensure that recruiters will not contact those who opted out. The database has drawn criti cistn, most notably from a coalition of eight privacy groups, the .American Civil Liberties Union, and a group of seven Democratic senators. These groups claim that the hiring of a pri vale firm is a way for the Pentagon to side-step the Privacy Act, and it puts (lie Sensitive information contained in Military - л Page 4 Beware: Do You Know What You’re Swimming In? Chantal Mullins Features Editor The temperatures are rising and people are feeling hot, hot, hot. One thing on everyone’s mind is a trip to the beach for some fun in the sun. One may immediately envision blue skies, warm sand, and the crashing of waves as they come crashing in. But before diving into that enticing water, you may want to think about what, exactly, it is you’ll be swimming with. Every year the news reports on high levels of bacteria, various spills and other hazardous pollution contaminating beach water. Many people have witnessed yellow tape and warning signs scattered across the beach. This year, reports of bacteria began occurring in early May, before the real beach season even started. that lead into the ocean. Storm drains are the biggest source of water pollution and are often contaminated with motor oil, animal waste, pesticides, yard waste and trash that How directly into beach water. According to the organization’s website, healthebay.org, the Beach Report Card is based on levels of bacte¬ ria found that indicate pollution from various sources, including fecal waste. However, this test doesn’t measure trash or toxins that can also be found on Kate Murray Editor-in-Chief A new vaccine against the disease meningococcal menin¬ gitis could prove to be a vital item on transferring students' to-do lists. According to the American College Health Association, the typical college lifestyle, including irregular sleep patterns, sharing of per¬ sonal items, and especially crowded living situations - i.e. dorms - significant^ increases the risk of acquiring the disease. “College students need to be aware that this is a very serious disease that can strike without warning," said Dr. Ralph Manchester, director of health services at the University of Rochester, “The only good strategy to decrease their risk is to get the vaccine before they get into the high-risk period in the first year, in a residence hall.” The meningococcal disease is rare but potentially deadly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it spreads quickly within the body and can kill within hours. It is spread from person to person through coughing, sneezing, kissing, or sharing cigarettes and drinking glasses. Once the meningococcal bacteria are transmitted, they attach to the mucosal lining of the nose and throat, and multi¬ ply, Serious damage can be done if the bacteria penetrate the membranes and get into the bloodstream, where they can affect the function of various organs. Most commonly the bacteria cause meningitis, an inflammation of the mem¬ branes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. If it is not detected early on, meningitis can lead to brain damage, hear¬ ing loss, seizures, limb amputa¬ tion or even death, “This is a rapidly progressive disease,” said Dr. Marjeanne Collins, co-chair of ACHA’s vaccine-preventable disease task force. “One day a student will be healthy and full of promise; the next day, he can be dead.” Symptoms of meningococ¬ cal disease include a high fever, severe headache, sore neck, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, con¬ fusion or a rash, Unfortunately, these symptoms can easily be mistaken for those of minor ill¬ nesses like the flu. To be safe, visit your college health center if you notice any of these symp¬ toms. Although the Centers for Disease Control have never rec¬ ommended that youths be vac¬ cinated to protect against meningococcal disease, the introduction of a longer-lasting vaccine, Menactra, has changed things. Menactra protects against the disease for at least eight years; however, it could cost anywhere from $70 to $100 at a doctor’s office, which might be a bit pricey for the average student. If this is the case, the CDC recommends using the older vaccine, Menomune, which requires a booster every three to five years. Getting vaccinated is a small price to pay for saving your own life. For more information on the disease and its effect on col¬ lege students, please visit the ACHA’s meningitis website: www.acha.org/ projects pro- grarns/ meningitis/index. cfm. Illustration by William Hallstrom/Couricr The Los Angeles Times’ beach report assigns letter grades to California beaches based on local levels of bacterial contamination. Heal the Bay is an organization that fights to keep our beaches clean. Its members take on polluteis and learn everything they can about beach water to inform the public about what’s in the water. They monitor beach water during both wet weather and dry weather finding that higher bacte¬ ria levels can be found in the wet season. In May Heal the Bay put out its annual Beach Report Card. Making the top 10 “beach bummers” were four Los Angeles County beaches. They were Cabrillo Beach, Avalon Beach on Catalina Island, Redondo Municipal Pier and Paradise Cove. The “beach bummers” were locations that had the worst dry weather water quality. The group attributes die poor water quality to the heavy rainfall earli er this year. The rain causes polluted runoff to whirl through storm drains beaches. The website offers diis recommendation: beach users should “never swim within 100 yards of any flowing storm drain, or in any coastal water during a rainstorm, for at least three days after a storm has ended.” The pollution not only causes unpleasant thoughts and sights con corning beach water: it can also be hazardous to one’s health. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s website, epa.gov, the most common illness attributed to bacteria in beach water is stomach flu. Other common illnesses include eye, ear, nose, and throat infections. Fortunately, these illnesses are usually treatable and short lasting. However, in extreme ly polluted water swimmers can be endangered by much more serious ill nesses such as dysentery, hepatitis, cholera and typhoid fever. The most common way to become infected is by swallowing water or simply touching contaminated water. Open wounds exposed to polluted water can also cause illnesses. The ultimate way to stay safe is to check if the beach you're about to surf the waves on is monitored and if any advisories are posted. Many people have felt the tickle of various papers and other trash while swimming in the ocean. Everyone can engage in keeping beaches cleaner by picking up trash. Littering accounts for a large part of pollution and is something that can easily be prevented. So before leaping into the ocean, take into account what, other than people, will be keeping you company in the water. William Halstrom/Courier Family with Roots at PCC Donates Aloe Tree to Garden Chantal Mullins Features Editor Many people have probably passed by the cactus/rock garden without giving it a second glance. Students might not even be aware that PCC has a cactus garden. In fact, an aloe tree growing in the gat den has a story behind it, symboliz¬ ing a tale of hope and the true spirit behind PCC. The story began in the 1950s when a poor orphan farmer from Thailand came to California to pur¬ suing the American dream. Zhalertnwudh Thongthiraj settled here and enrolled at PCC. The cant pus provided a sense of warmth, despite his fear as a new immigrant. Thongthiraj completed his associate degree in 1965 and went on to USC to complete a doctorate in public health administration. Susie Ling, an associate professor in the social sciences division, said Thongthiraj believes in the dream laid out in the Declaration of Independence and fought for in American Revolution. She described him as “a man who saw life in its many angles and [was able to] achieve more than just one goal in life.” Thongthiraj later married and had six daughters, who were encour¬ aged to follow their own individual dreams while working together as a family team. One daughter, Arree, is the artist in the family. She said that her father "encouraged me to paint figures from Thai myths right on our living room wall.” She described PCC as a Cactus л Page 4