Healthcare: different folks, different strokes?

College Republicans and Democrats had a spirited debate which exposed the ideological differences which lay at the crux of this divisive healthcare issue.

"Is the problem with American healthcare an over-reliance on the free market or the fact that nothing almost close to a free market really exists in this country?" asked Jon Hollander for the College Republicans.

"I therefore am opposed to any healthcare solution that does not include the free market,' said fellow College Republican Tyler Trumbach.

Sarah Gidin for the college Democrats argued,"Public option is about increasing choice and ensuring that everyone has at least a basic level of care which we are sorely lacking today."

Tensions ran high at times as both sides felt very strongly about the right approach to healthcare.

"There was a lot more audience interaction for this particular debate I think because this has been such an inflamed political discussion," remarked Learned Foote, who was in the audience.

"Individuals should have health insurance of your own so that when you lose your job, you don't lose your insurance," argued the Republicans.

"Government option simply costs more money than a free market solution."

Yet, for all their differences, both speakers and the audience agreed on the importance of debate.

Kate Gorman, BC'10, said,"When it comes to divisive issues, especially something like healthcare, I think it is critically important that we have more debate about what's the best option. You know the kind of idea is that two heads are better than one, and four heads are better than two, and I think that by having more debates we clearly expose some of the options."

Columbia Medical Center Drug Study

Federal regulators suspect that a two-year medical study at Columbia was carried out with ethical and regulatory mistakes and may have caused harm to some patients. The study, conducted on more than 200 open-heart surgery patients, was testing a commonly used intravenous surgical fluid that previous studies had shown could cause haemorrhaging at high doses. According to documents submitted to the federal government by the hospital, at least two patients in the study died shortly after receiving the fluid and more than two dozen others required transfusions. Now, federal regulators are demanding that Columbia track down the patients and their families, and acknowledge that they never were informed about the "true nature" of the drug study, the risks they faced or the consequences of their participation.

Flu shots fair goes viral

This week, Columbia Health Services held two Flu Shot Fairs for students to receive a free flu vaccine. With many students anxious to get their seasonal flu jobs, average wait times ranged from 50 to 90 minutes.

If you didn't manage to get your flu shot this week, don't panic. Health Services will be holding additional Flu Shot Fairs this week on Tuesday and Thursday,as well as on November 4th, 11th and 17th. You may also schedule an appointment at Primary Care Medical Services to receive a flu shot if you are unable to attend the fairs.

Obama joins CU Nobel Prize winners

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded President Obama this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." With this Peace Prize, President Obama joins 78 other Columbia University affiliates who have been honored with Nobel Prizes for their work in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. Columbia ranks third in the world in terms of universities that have produced the most Nobel laureates, after Cambridge University and Harvard University respectively.

Today is National Coming Out Day, an internationally-observed civil awareness day, which celebrates coming out and promotes discussing LGBT issues. CTNews Reporter Lewis West files this report on how Columbia students are observing this day.

Columbians march for equality

Students from Columbia and Barnard made the pilgrimage to Washington, DC to participate in the National Coming Out Day march.

Students explained why they were participating:

"I'm marching for my uncle who came out in San Francisco, told his parents he was gay and they sent him to therapy."

"The fact that there are people like my uncle who are denied so many rights but can't even imagine having them is really ridiculous to me. And that's really the reason, I'm marching.

While some students feel the march will bring them closer to the LGBT community, others see the march as a protest against the treatment of homosexual and transgender individuals.

Said one student, "So long as we don't have equal rights, it continues to validate the kind of homophobia and hatred that we see on our streets and in our schools."

Said another, "I'm sick of sitting around and just saying that I'm angry and not actually doing anything about it. Something needs to change."

Another student explained what prompted her to get involved: "I met someone from Wyoming who saw a bumper sticker that said, " In Wyoming, we don't take offense to gay people, we take gay people to a fence." I'm marching because that's completely unacceptable. I'm all for free speech but the fact that someone would have to live with that complete slight of their identity is mind-boggling."

Yet other students see the march as a political statement and a catalyst for change that concentrates on today's youth.

"I think it would be very cowardly of me to hide behind the idea that this isn't my country. I'm not actually living here; I just go to school here. I think that this is really the cause of people, the world over, to fight for human right, to fight for equal rights.", said one.

"I'm really angry and fed up. Obama made all of these promises during the campaign to LGBT Americans: We're going to repeal 'Don't ask, don't tell.' "We're going to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act"...all these things and nothing's happened!"

One of the organizers told us, "The march organizers have asked the student contingent to march at the very head of the march which I think is really exciting and reflects the commitment the event organizers have made to really prioritizing the youth. It won't just be college students but also high school students who are coming for the march."

"Facebook statuses are great but they aren't real activism. I'm marching because I do everything I can but the world is a bigger place than Barnard and Columbia and eventually we're going to be out and our responsibility is to make it better."

Former housekeeper alleges abuse

A former housekeeper at the president's residence at Columbia University claims she was mistreated by her former boss, and then brushed off by the school. In a suit filed on Monday at the Manhattan Supreme Court, Irena Medvedik, age 67, sought unspecified damages for being assaulted, then forced to resign "because she is elderly and . . . of Polish national origin." Medvedik also said that Columbia forced her to sign a form, which released the school from liability, though she had thought she was signing a pension form.

To the moon and beyond

In honor of World Space Week, Columbia is currently hosting the outdoor astrophotography exhibit "From the Earth to the Universe." The display consists of twenty-five photos taken by ground-based and satellite-based telescopes. Sponsored by NASA and the Smithsonian, the exhibit has been going around the world to promote the International Year of Astronomy. Astronomers will be on hand from 9AM to 7PM until October 12th to answer questions, hand out NASA posters and pictures, and provide views through a solar telescope.

Sports Roundup

In sports this week, Columbia University women's soccer team won against Penn with a score of 4 to 2 at Columbia Soccer Stadium on Saturday evening. But, the Columbia football team could not sustain its first half lead and lost to Lafayette 24 to 21. Men's soccer, however, picked up its first Ivy League victory of the season with a 1 to 0 victory over Penn. Finally, a reminder to Columbia fans: Homecoming Weekend begins this Friday, October 16 and culminates with Columbia's match against Penn on Saturday.

On Saturday, Columbia hosted the Students for Liberty Conference, giving libertarians from all the Ivy League schools a forum to discuss their philosophies. The necessity for this event raises the question of whether there is enough intellectual diversity present in today's college curriculum.

Major concerns for political minorities

On Saturday, libertarian students from the Ivy League schools gathered at Columbia to attend a set of lectures, with the subject of dialogue being individual freedom. Jamie Maarten, the CU Libertarians President, described it as “the Students for Liberty, which is an independent organization. Basically, it’s a conference to get student groups that are liberty-minded together.”

With over one hundred fifty libertarians occupying Lerner Hall, it was a rare opportunity to see a political minority challenge the liberal Columbia community.

“There are arguments, especially right now with health care and the war we have a lot of really strong opinions, so it’s sometimes a little rough, but for the most part people are pretty accepting.”

Though students on campus may tolerate other political views, it seems that the diversity that defines Columbia does not extend into the academic realm. In a recent essay for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Columbia Professor Mark Lilla criticized the lack of conservative thought in the university curriculums, writing that if “conservatism is to be treated simply as an ideological pathology…and that the only representatives of conservatism that we know today are hosts on Fox News, that means that students on the one hand have a truncated view of our intellectual tradition as it touches on politics.”

“You’re seeing that passing of a particular generation in university faculties. They came of age in the 60s and 70s…that generation has its own particular history and its own particular view of the university.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Nigel Ashford from the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University argued that “You do get a culture of ideas that wants to delegitimize ideas that challenge them. So whereas academia should be a place for new ideas…we’ve increasingly created a situation where academic departments, what they do is they simply appoint people who have the same ideas as themselves.”

This stagnation is problematic because professors don’t just shape their students’ education but also their beliefs. As Dr. Ashford claims, “intellectuals have enormous power.”

“What I want to do is professors, whatever their views are, is to present students with a variety of perspectives and the students have to work out for themselves what they think is the right answer.”

Professor Lilla has similar intentions: “You want to make sure that all the ideas you need to think about as a young person are being articulated somewhere on campus.”