The Carolinian [January 27, 2000]

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HCarolinian
VOLUME LXXIX
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27,2000
CM
pp. 2.S
Phone: (336)334-5752
Fax: (336)334-3518
http://carolinian.uncg.edu
ISSUE 26" *£
HIV Crisis in Africa
By AMY GENOVESI
Staff Writer
HIV/AIDS, the most feared
disease of our time, has hit the
African nations hard. AIDS
has claimed the lives of more
than 13.5 million people
throughout the 1990's. Why
Africa? For one. until recently,
African leaders failed to for-mally
recognize the problem.
Now. countries such as
Botswana, Namibia and
Swaziland have announced
anti-AIDS initiatives, such as
promoting safer sex. Another
reason is the lack of power
women have over birth control
and condom use. Women ac-count
for 55% of HIV cases in
Africa, particularly teenage
girls because older men prey
on them. Another reason teen-age
girls are at risk is ignorant
superstitions such as sleeping
with a virgin will cure an HIV-infected
man.
But who are the other vic-tims
in this crisis? There are
an estimated 10.4 million chil-dren
under the age of 15 in
Africa who have lost both par-ents
to the AIDS virus. If no
extended family steps in to
raise these orphans, the eldest
child will be forced to take re-sponsibility.
Orphanages have
been forced to turn away chil-dren.
Some are forced to live
on the street and young girls
often turn to prostitution.
What is being done about the
HIV crisis in Africa and other
parts of the world, for that mat-ter?
The U.S. Government and
pharmaceutical companies
have ensured African access to
AIDS treatments. However,
more needs to be done. Edu-cation
about the disease needs
to be brought to Africa. Si-lence
is not the answer. Not
only do leaders need to recog-nize
a problem, the people
need to know about the dis-ease,
how it is transmitted, the
symptoms, etc. Education is a
strong factor in the fight
against AIDS. Treatments help
those already infected, but pre-vention
for those that can po-tentially
get this horrible dis-ease
is even more important.
Bill Gates' philanthropic foun-dation
has donated $2X million
to vaccine development and
AIDS prevention, but billions
are needed. The international
AIDS Vaccine Initiative
(IAVA) reports that only $300
million goes to vaccine re-search.
They are now support-ing
trials of two experimental
vaccinations. A vaccination is
a real key in the fight against
AIDS.
On the homefront, the U.S
accounts for l'h of people di-agnosed
with HIV. And as of
June 1999. a total of 8.948 HIV
diagnoses have been reported
in North Carolina. The spread
of HIV needs to be stopped. A
dangerous plague is infecting
humans all over the world. All
countries need to unite to stop
this disease from taking lives.
College Sought
PR Help After Fire
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWARK. N.J. (AP)
Within hours of last week's
dormitory fire that killed three
students and injured 62, Seton
Hall's public relations team
was holding strategy meetings
to discuss preserving the
university's reputation, ac-cording
to a published report.
At least one public relations
firm was contacted within 24
hours of the tire to prepare a
plan to deflect charges that the
university had been negligent
in its fire safety training, the
Star-Ledger of Newark re-ported
Sunday.
Seton Hall officials said in
a news release that they hired
a marketing communications
firm one day after the fire to
poll colleges and universities
Interlink
Language Program
By MADELEINE PHILLIPS
Staff Writer
On campus you may have
seen an increasing amount of
international students. Some of
these people are part of the
Interlink Language Center on
campus. Interlink is an inten-sive
English language pro-gram.
UNCG is one out of only
four colleges in the Interlink
program. The program adver-tises
in many countries and in
some instances through the US
Embassy and the Fulbright
Center, which is a scholarship
and foreign exchange program.
Students have to apply for the
program by submitting their
high school or college tran-scripts
and prove that they have
financial support for a student
about dorm sprinkler systems.
The poll, which surveyed 37
colleges in seven states at ran-dom,
showed 45 percent of
campus dormitories were not
equipped with sprinklers.
Despite the public relations
firm's hiring. Seton Hall
spokeswoman Lisa E.Grider
told the newspaper it's too
visa.
The program started in 1979
at Princeton I'niversity. It was
supposed to be a cross cultural
exchange program for Ameri-cans
going abroad and for for-eign
people to learn English.
The program has evolved to be
a program that only focuses on
See Interlink, page 8
INSIDE
THIS ISSUE
Opinions, pages 4-5
Student fees, Motherly advice,
What will we miss most about UNCG?
soon to worry about the
school's image when five stu-dents
remain hospitalized.
"It's too early for us to be
thinking about that." Grider
said.
The dorm where
Wednesday's tire started was
built before laws required
sprinklers in new campus
dorms. Congresswoman
Carolyn Maloney. D-N.Y.. said
Sunday she plans to introduce
legislation to require sprinklers
to be installed in all campus
dorms.
"You have to protect them
where they are. We can't count
on them evacuating." said Dan
Jones, fire chief in Chapel Hill.
N.C.. who has led a national
See Fire, page 8
Apathy Sucks 2000:
Notes from the
Presidential Race
By JENNIFER BROOME
Staff Writer
Yes, voters, it's that time of
year again...election season
has officially begun. Now, I
know what all of you are think-ing:
This series of articles is
destined to be another obnox-ious
foray into the same old
issues with the same old opin-ions.
Well, my loyal readers,
you guessed wrong. For the
next several weeks. The Caro-linian
will be profiling various
presidential candidates from
the Democratic, Republican,
Reform. Libertarian. Green,
and National Labor parties,
among others. We will be cov-ering
candidates' positions and
party platforms on such di-verse
issues as education, wel-fare,
military funding and in-volvement,
the United Na-tions,
the environment, and
civil rights. If there is a candi-date
or issue that you would
like to see addressed in these
profiles, please email us at the
address listed at the end of this
article.
Before the expostulation be-gins,
the basics must be cov-ered.
So. here is a crash course
in Elections 101:
If you are 18 years of age, a
born or naturalized citizen of
the United States, and are not
a convicted criminal, you are
eligible to vote in all local,
state, and federal elections. In
order to exercise this right, reg-istration
is a must. Eligible
persons may register to vote at
the Guilford County Board of
Elections, located on the first
floor of the Guilford County
Courthouse (301 West Market
Street). Alternately, the De-partment
of Motor Vehicles
will register eligible persons
through the Motor Voter pro-gram.
Registration is free and
takes less than ten minutes.
Voters must register at least six
weeks in advance of the next
election in order to vote in that
particular election.
When a voter is registering,
they must declare some type of
party affiliation. North Caro-lina
voters may register as Re-publicans,
Democrats, Liber-tarians,
Socialists, or unaffili-ated.
Party registration affects
which primary election a voter
may participate in. The Demo-cratic
primaries are closed; this
means that only registered
Democrats may vote in their
party's primary. Republican
primaries are open, so any reg-istered
voter may participate in
the primary regardless ofpart)
affiliation. Any registered
voter may vote in the general
election.
If a voter is attending college
and wishes to remain regis-tered
in their home county,
then they must vote by abseil
tee (mail-in) ballot. Absentee
ballots may be obtained by
calling the county's Board of
Elections at least eight weeks
in advance of the election, both
primary or general. Once the
ballot arrives, the voter must
fill it out and mail it back to
the home county. Members of
the US Military who are oxer-seas
must vote by absentee
ballot six weeks in advance,
and all absentee ballot must be
received by election day.
That's about all for registra-tion.
Next week, the candi-dates'
profiles begin. If you
wish to comment on any presi-dential
candidate, or let us
know who you think should
win the presidential primaries,
email us at
apathysucks@juno.com.
Healthy Resolutions
By JULIE ORTA
GuesI Writer
Welcome back to a new se-mester
in a new millennium.
Why not distinguish this year
from the others by actually
keeping your New Year's reso-lutions?
It's easier now than
ever at UNCG.
Is one of them to improve
>our eating habits? The
Wellness Center of Student
Health Services is proud to
offer free nutritional assess-ments
to all UNCG students.
Staff and faculty may receive
nutritional assessments for
$15. If you are interested, you
will be asked to record your di-etary
intake over a three-day
period. Then the Wellness
Center staff will input the data
into a computerized nutritional
analysis program, and then
meet with you individually for
discussion and suggestions.
If you are a smoker, the
Wellness Center cordially in-vites
you to participate in a free
quit-smoking class that fol-lows
a curriculum established
by the American Cancer Soci-ety.
Classes meet four times
over a two-week period, and
are offered at different times
throughout the semester. Staff
and faculty members are also
welcome to join for $5.
As part of Healthy Weight
Week 2000, come to the
Wellness Center's table in the
Atrium on January 24 and 25
between 11:00 AM and 2:00
PM for free brochures on
healthy diet and exercise. At
the table on the 25th you can
taste-test free healthy snacks
See Resolutions, page 4
Features, pages 7-8
Review of Sega Dreamcast.
Queensryche's new album; Weekly horoscope
Sports, pages 10-12
Spartans lose to ETSU, A&T, Catamounts;
Upcoming events in UNCG sports
... and
much
more..,