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USC Football Player Awake and Communicating After Surgery
Tweet Share on Facebook September 30, 2009 Comment (11)Yesterday, we chronicled the scary weightlifting accident that crushed USC football player Stafon Johnson's throat and forced him into emergency surgery at the California Hospital Medical Center. Today, Johnson has come through surgery that repaired his larynx and vocal cords and is in stable condition, the Daily Trojan reports.
The senior running back was apparently awake and communicating after surgery. Had he not been in peak physical shape, he would have died, Dr. Gudata Hinika, the hospital's trauma medical director, told ESPN.
"Had that been any one of us, meaning me, we would have not survived," Hinika said. "His neck was so solid, so muscular ... and the discipline that one learns from being athletic also really helped him to calm down and just do what he needed to do. He took instruction very well. All this combination and his physical fitness contributed to his outcome."
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Yale Considers Workplace Safety Push
Tweet Share on Facebook September 30, 2009 Comment (10)Tragedy brought the Yale University campus to a halt when graduate student Annie Le was brutally murdered in a Yale lab facility. An investigation resulted in the arrest of Raymond Clark, a lab technician in the same lab, and it prompted new concerns about workplace violence.
Well, during the hubbub surrounding Le's murder and the ensuing investigation, Yale University police arrested a retired Yale employee, John Petrini, when he came to campus with a rifle and a butcher knife. According to the Yale Daily News, officials believe the man's actions were related to a dispute Petrini had with Yale human resources.
So, with two significant incidents in the same month, Yale is taking action, the Daily News reports. The university published a short article in its human resources newsletter asking for suggestions on carrying out a workplace-safety campaign on campus. The campaign will aim to ensure that workplace safety remains a priority, the report says.
"It's an unfortunate occurrence that both [incidents] happened in the same time frame," Yale's Director of Human Resources and Administration Communications Hellen Hom told the Daily News. "The combination of the two just brings to light the need for more awareness."
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University of Nevada Cuts E-Mail System
Tweet Share on Facebook September 29, 2009 Comment (6)Knowing that Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, and so many other websites offer free E-mail accounts, the University of Nevada has cut its free E-mail service for students. The service, which lasted some 20 years, gave students E-mail addresses through the school's database.
Infrequency of use and the need to cut costs made the decision to close the service rather easy for the school, the Nevada Sagebrush reports. "Best we can tell, only about 20 percent of existing [university] E-mail accounts assigned are used," Steven Zink, the university's vice president of information and technology, tells the Sagebrush.
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Scary Injury for USC Football Player
Tweet Share on Facebook September 29, 2009 Comment (2)University of Southern California football player Stafon Johnson had a scary moment last night. While working out at Heritage Hall on campus, Johnson lost his grip on the weight bar of his bench press. The bar landed on his neck, crushing the 5-foot-11, 210-pound senior's neck and larynx.
Johnson underwent surgery on his throat yesterday, the Daily Trojan reports. ESPN.com reported this morning that Johnson is in critical but stable condition after surgery. Doctors realigned Johnson's vocal cords. Although the injury threatened the 21-year-old's airway and will force him to miss the 2009 season, ESPN reports that Johnson is expected to make a full recovery.
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With G-20 Summit Over, Pitt Students Describe Experience
Tweet Share on Facebook September 28, 2009 Comment (3)Last week, the G-20 summit rolled through Pittsburgh like a tornado on the plains of Kansas, leaving behind a path of destruction. According to The Pitt News, more than 10 businesses were damaged and more than 40 people were arrested. Now, the city and its namesake university are left to pick up the pieces.
On the University of Pittsburgh's campus, students are still angry about the way police treated them during G-20 protests late last week, The Pitt News reports. Police used tear gas to disperse crowds, but The Pitt News editorial board says that more force than necessary might have been used. In fact, for possibly the first time in the United States, police used a long-range acoustic device as a weapon of last resort when protesters didn't follow commands. The LRAD emits a "piercing sound" that immobilizes those in its path. (If you've seen the show Whale Wars on Animal Planet, you are familiar with the intense power that these devices possess.)
"Several city departments" will investigate the circumstances of the arrests made at Pitt, and students who were arrested will face the university's Judicial Board. The board, which consists of undergrads, graduate students, staff, and faculty, will review the arrests and determine if any students violated the student code of conduct.
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Colorado State University Releases Flu Statistics
Tweet Share on Facebook September 28, 2009 CommentWe heard about the inevitable uptick in swine flu cases once school began again this fall. Well, it's safe to say that flu season has arrived in Fort Collins, Colo.
More than 800 students and more than 30 employees at Colorado State University have reported flulike symptoms to CSU's Health Network and the university's self-reporting website since the website went live on September 4, the Rocky Mountain Collegian reports. The story also says that more than 170 possible cases of swine flu were reported directly to the school's Hartshorn Health Center. The CDC believes that anyone with the flu most likely has the H1N1 strain, saying that "99 percent of flu-like illnesses test positive for swine flu," according to the Collegian.
Hospital authorities have encouraged people to get flu vaccines this fall as the health community prepares for the swine flu's return.
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Penn Student's Cause of Death Still Unknown
Tweet Share on Facebook September 28, 2009 Comment (3)University of Pennsylvania student Kenneth Nwannunu was found dead on Wednesday in his dormitory while studying abroad in China. Nwannunu, a senior, was a philosophy, politics, and economics major at Penn. But the University of Pennsylvania and Nwannunu's family still don't know how or why the 21-year-old died, the Daily Pennsylvanian reports.
Nwannunu, a New Jersey native, was studying in Shanghai. Because of language barriers and the 12-hour time difference, communication with Chinese officials has been difficult, according to a previous Pennsylvanian report.
"It's being handled by the authorities [in China], and it could be weeks before we know anything," says university spokeswoman Lori Doyle.
No autopsy has been scheduled yet, but the university has already hosted several grief counseling meetings for friends of Nwannunu.
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Veterans Wait for Their Education Benefits
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2009 Comment (6)Thousands of veterans who risked their lives battling insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan are still waiting on the Department of Veterans Affairs to deliver the Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits they were promised, the Associated Press reports.
Under the new GI Bill—the most significant expansion of education benefits since the original 1944 bill—eligible students receive funding for college tuition, housing, and textbooks. But the VA has been slow to distribute this money, leaving veterans like 27-year-old father and Purple Heart recipient Brandon Thomas scrambling to borrow from family members or take out loans to pay their bills.
The VA only began making payments in August, and some 70,000 eligible veterans who filed claims for this school year are still waiting for their first checks. More than 275,000 claims for benefits have been filed so far, the VA says.
Military men and women have been trained to be patient, says Thomas, because patience often means success on the battlefield. But, he says, "Patience only goes so long."
Read more about this issue here.
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Bedbugs Shut Down a Building at John Jay
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2009 Comment (2)Bedbugs have caused administrators at New York's John Jay College to shut down one of the school's academic buildings, the New York Times reports.
All classes scheduled to take place in North Hall were postponed until Monday so that exterminators could work on the building. "The college is taking it seriously and moving as quickly as possible to treat the building," said Jim Grossman, a John Jay spokesman.
But he insisted the college's bedbug problem does not constitute an infestation. The college has classified the situation a "bedbug condition," according to Grossman. "Infestation is when you can see them swarming."
College staff members began reporting rashes in mid-August. In response to a growing number of reports, the college brought in an inspection team with bug-sniffing dogs. The inspectors confirmed the bedbug problem on North Hall's first and second floors. The "bed" descriptor aside, the bugs can survive in many locations, including buses, trains, and movie theaters.
Do you have bed bugs? Find out how to get rid of them in this U.S. News video.
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New Sexual Activity Rules Enacted at Tufts
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2009 Comment (21)Tufts University has taken a bold step toward regulating sexual activity in dorm rooms. The school, whose main campus is in Medford, Mass., instituted a new policy for students with roommates in on-campus housing: No sex while the other roommate is in the room, and no sexual activity should interfere with a roommate's privacy, study, or sleep.
The Office of Residential Life and Learning is behind the rule, the Tufts Daily reports. The office says it is responding to a large number of complaints in recent years about roommates' sexual activities.