All Posts Tagged With: "Texas"
What students are talking about today (Sept. 24 edition)
Texas tuition freeze, a stabbing & mandatory women’s studies
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
1. Two people were stabbed during a fight at a house party near McMaster University early on Sunday. This isn’t the first stabbing at a house party near McMaster. Many of the people in attendance were from out of town, police say.
2. Rick Perry, the conservative Texas governor who ran for the Republican presidential nomination, has endorsed a four-year tuition freeze at state colleges and universities. Anti-tuition advocates usually have more success with left-wing parties, but this statement won’t surprise anyone who has heard of Perry’s push to create a $10,000 degree in the Lonestar State.
3. The York Federation of Students is pushing for “a mandatory equity or women’s studies course to help students gain awareness of the root causes behind sexual assaults and violence.” A professor in York’s the School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies says it may not be the best idea and that there is no guarantee such a course would actually reduce sexual assaults.
Continue reading What students are talking about today (Sept. 24 edition)
Texas to spring breakers: avoid Mexico
Even resort towns may be unsafe
Photo by shinya on Flickr
The State of Texas has released a warning for “Spring Breakers” telling them to avoid traveling to Mexico as a result of nationwide violence.
The report is significant, because it references resort towns like Cancun, Acapulco, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. “Rape and sexual assault continue to be serious problems in resort areas,” as does petty crime, wrote Department of Safety Director Steven C. McCraw in a statement.
“The Mexican government has made great strides battling the cartels,” McCraw noted. “However, drug cartel violence and other criminal activity represent a significant safety threat, even in some resort areas.”
The release says that 13,000 narcotics-related homicides were reported the first nine months of 2011 and the number of U.S. citizens murdered in Mexico rose from 35 in 2007 to 120 in 2011.
University of Victoria student dies of meningitis
Texas requires vaccines
The University of Victoria mourned Wednesday at a funeral service on campus for a student, Leo Chan, who died on Jan. 18 from meningococcal disease, also known as bacterial meningitis.
The disease kills roughly one-tenth of those who get sick and disables another 10 per cent.
Because of the elevated risk in young people who are in close contact with each other, a new law in Texas requires that all students under the age of 30 have proof of vaccination by Jan. 31.
Health Canada recommends vaccinations for children under five, adolescents, and young adults. Coverage varies by province. Some meningitis vaccines are free in Ontario for those aged 15 to 19.
An average of 298 cases are reported annually in Canada. Symptoms include weakness, fatigue, fever, vomiting, stiff neck and sometimes a blotchy rash. The disease spreads mainly among people who are in close contact with each other and swap saliva through smoking, drinks, food or kissing.
Chan lived in on-campus housing. Nineteen people who are at risk of exposure have been given preventative antibiotics, Vancouver Island Health Authority officials told Saanich News.
B.C. student may have died of meningitis
Rare disease kills one in 10 who get it
Thompson Rivers University is warning staff and students after a fourth-year theatre student, Bradley Munro, died of what appears to have been meningitis. Meningitis is a swelling of the brain that is caused by viruses or bacteria. The more rare bacterial form (Meningococcal meningitis) causes death in roughly 10 per cent of those who get sick and permanent damage, such as deafness, in another 10 per cent. There are between 160 and 350 cases reported in this country each year, says Health Canada. The disease is contagious and signs of infection include vomiting, fever, severe headache and stiff neck. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas signed a law earlier this year that will make his state the first to require that all university and college students be vaccinated against the disease.
Texas first to require vaccine for students
Rare disease kills 10 per cent of victims: Health Canada
Photo courtesy of skippyjon on Flickr
Texas is the first state to require that everyone who attends college in person be vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis (also known as bacterial meningitis), reports the Texas Tribune.
Gov. Rick Perry signed the bill in May and it will take effect in January 2012. One Republican state representative, Charlie Howard, lost a son to the disease and supported the bill. But other Republicans saw the new law as an intrusion into family health decisions and therefore opposed it.
Meningococcal meningitis is rare, but often deadly or debilitating. It kills roughly 10 per cent of those who get sick and causes permanent damage, such as deafness, in another 10 per cent, says Health Canada. The number of cases reported in Canada ranges from 160 to 350 per year. There was an outbreak of the disease in 2001.
Continue reading Texas first to require vaccine for students
Guns on campus OK, says Texas senate
Students and employees would be allowed to carry licensed, concealed weapons
The Texas state senate has approved a bill allowing university students and employees to carry concealed weapons on campus, as long as they have the neccesary permits.
The controversial legislation, which passed 19-12 yesterday, would allow college students who are at least 21 years old to bring their weapons into buildings at state universities. University hospitals and athletics facilities would remain off limits, and private universities would retain the option of banning firearms.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, the Republican state senator who introduced the bill said he did so because of the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, where he said victims were “picked off like sitting ducks.”
Katie Kasprzak, a recent graduate of Texas State University, testified in favor of the bill before legislative committees.
The bill, which has been widely opposed by university administrators, faces an uncertain future in the state’s house of representatives, where the bill died last week when lawmakers ran out of time.
