Inside

Section A
Vote for Barack Obama; and outsider politics.

Soccer takes title

UT earns the MAC regular season title; and football loses by a point to Central Michigan.

Honoring the past

UT celebrates historic legislation; and a review of "Pride and Glory."

Todays weather

Independent Collegian IC
The
Monday, October 27, 2008

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Sports, B1

Arts and Life, B4

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www.independentcollegian.com
89th year

Serving the University of Toledo since 1919

Issue 17

University presents financial forum White

By Melissa Chi News Editor

Considering the current state of the economy and the 4.75 percent Ohio budget cut, UT offered the community a chance to see its own finan-

cial records last week. Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Scott Scarborough hosted an open financial forum for the UT community Thursday. He had his financial staff on hand to answer specific

questions from the floor. The state budget cut will cost higher education about $22 million in state appropriations. But the State Share of Instruction, capital appropriations and need-based aid were exempted from the cut,

which are the largest portions of the budget, Scarborough said. That is only a small piece of our appropriations from what we receive, which is about $130 million a year, he said of the area receiving

cuts. The estimated 2008-09 impact on UT will be approximately $700,000, primarily in the clinical teaching line. Its not a challenge thats
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Frigid fight

Hall intruder arrested

By Melissa Chi News Editor

MCO alumna treats her own breast cancer while stuck at South Pole research center

Photo courtesy of the National Science Foundation

The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station sits below the aurora australis. The station is where Jerri Nielsen, a 1977 graduate of the former Medical College of Ohio, spent a year as its physician and had to treat herself for breast cancer because a rescue operation was impossible during the Antarctic winter.
By Joe Griffith News Editor

Standing in the vast expanse of Antarctica, she found herself surrounded by 360 degrees of nothing but ice two miles thick. Jerri Nielsen, a 1977 graduate of the former Medical College of Ohio and author of Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Story of Survival at the South Pole recalls her experience battling breast cancer at the South Pole as the best year of her life.

We all learn in our own time, and in our own way, she said. It matters not what choice you make or what road you take. It is how you take that road, and if you think about it at the time. Of all the experiences she has from the year she spent at the South Pole, Nielsen draws vividly on seasons of the Antarctic. During the summer of the light, the sun circles above your head in a perfect circle, she said. If you get up at noon, its exactly the same as

if you get up at three in the morning. Bright and spectacular, and so bright that it can burn your eyes and give you whats called snow blindness. As summer turns into autumn, the sun slowly revolves in a larger circle in the sky. The entire world, not just the western sky, but the entire world, top and bottom and everywhere,

is

washed in the colors of the sunset pinks and purples and oranges and its incredible, Nielsen said. After three weeks of autumn in Antarctica, the sun disapAs Nielsen pears. sunlight left them, Nielsen and 41 other

scientists and researchers held out for six months of a dark winter. The sun dips down over the horizon, and it is dark, she said. It is black for six months, but there is still the phases of the moon and the stars of the southern sky, and the incredible aurora australis. Throughout the changing seasons of the Antarctic, the only constant element is the cold weather and silence of
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UT Police have arrested a Toledo man for breaking into White Hall and watching occupants as they showered. Kenyon Cuffie, 29, is charged with burglary, voyeurism and criminal trespass. He is not a student and could not provide any valid reason for being on UT property, according to the report from UTPD. UT Police Chief Jeff Newton sent an e-mail last Friday to inform the UT community of Cuffies arrest. Newton had also sent an e-mail on Oct. 10 warning about a male suspect who was seen entering the female shower area in the building. Some residents were familiar with the suspect, Newton said, and witnesses said it was common knowledge that Cuffie was entering the womens shower area. People have seen him hanging out at the residence hall, Newton said. Rachel Juchnowski, a sophomore majoring in biology pre-med, was one of the girls who saw Cuffie in the shower room. "I was more afraid than anything [when I saw him], because it was only me and another girl in the showers, she said. I didn't say anything at the time because I didn't know what was going on. She said after showering she went to the front desk and then approached UTPD. Kate Ball, a freshman majoring in pre-law living in White Hall, said she feels less safe in the building after the incident.
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Online and Active

Have thoughts about the safety in UT residence halls? Leave them on our message board.

Students question criteria for UT texting alerts

By Joe Griffith News Editor

While UTPD and students agree sending alerts through text messaging is the quickest way to reach the UT community, opinions differ on when

it should be used. With the September shooting of a UT student off campus and the bomb threat at Stranahan Hall two weeks ago, questions are arising over the use of the UT Alert system.

The program, formerly called RED ALERT, is designed for use in scenarios such as violent episodes, chemical releases and certain weather emergencies, said UT Police Chief Jeff Newton. Any situation where theres

an imminent threat to the safety of the campus community, he said. UTPD did not have enough time and information to warrant a text message alert about the shooting in September, Newton said.

Ideally it would have been great if we couldve sent one out when the student was shot just off campus, he said. However, we just were not able to get the information in a timely enough manner to have an effective alert go

out. The use of a text alert for the bomb threat was avoided in order to prevent copycats and panic among students and faculty at UT, New Texting, Page A8

In what situations should UT's text alert system be used?

Brittney Heider
Junior, comm.

I guess snow days.

Sarah Rosner
Junior, nursing

Bomb threats.

Muneelo Siddiqui
Junior, comp. sci.

Any kind of emergency, like winter storms.

Amy Copen
Fresh., criminal justice cyan

Emergencies in general.

Josh Houdek
Junior, env. sci. black

Any major emergency on campus.

Check out our story on the UT Alert system and questions regarding when to use it above.

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Independent Collegian absolutely incredible, she said. The chemotherapy kept Nielsen alive long enough for her to return home the following summer. Throughout her experiences at the South Pole, Nielsen learned about both her past and her future. When Nielsen first became a doctor, she thought she had been born too late. I wanted to go across the Sierra Nevada in a wagon train, she said. I wanted to be Dr. Quinn, medicine woman. I was looking for cowboys. After realizing the bureaucracy behind the medical field, Nielsen then thought she had been born too early. I wanted to be blasted to Mars, she said. Blasted to Mars, where no woman has gone before. Yeah, I want to be Dr. Beverly Crusher from Star Trek. After returning from Antarctica, Nielsen learned something about her search for the last frontier. The last frontier is not a place, and its certainly not a time of man. No. The frontier is here, she said as she pointed to her forehead. Where its always been, in the human mind, and always will be. Throughout her experiences, both in medical school and in Antarctica, Nielsens mind became her retreat and her own source of preparation. She said preparing students in medical school is similar to preparing American soldiers for war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We discipline our children because we love them, and thats what we want from our warriors, she said. We want them to survive so we discipline them. Without the discipline students receive in medical school, they would be unable to serve the community as doctors, Nielsen said. Without chewing up their little hearts and giving them to them in a bag thats bloodied, they arent going to survive, she said. But they are strong people, and they are strong enough to hold on to their hearts, and hold on to their souls.

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Monday, October 27, 2008

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unveiled it to the others. I decided that I had to tell someone, she said. Not because I wanted rescued. I the South Pole, she said. The cold is so cold that didnt want rescued, but bewhen you try to breathe it cause I wanted them to take burns, and its so quiet that two guys off work so that I you can hear the electromag- could train them intensely to netic sounds in the sky, she be physicians. Instead of accommodating said. Nielsen, the only medically- Nielsens request, the rest of educated doctor on the trip, the South Pole crew decided traveled to the South Pole in to try to save her life. The Air Force flew out in 1999. While researching through her medical books to the middle of the Antarctic help an injured patient, Niels- night at 86 [degrees] below en found a lump on her zero, dropping all the equipment we would need, all the breast. I was scratching myself, chemotherapy we would and I felt it, she said. It was need, she said. We had to this big lump, and it was in my pick it up within eight minbreast and it was hard and it utes, or it would freeze and it was solid, and I knew it was would be destroyed, but we couldnt find that last packcancer. age. For eight to The Antarcnine months of The cold is so cold tic winters can the Antarctic that when you try generate temwinter, it was to breathe it burns, and p e r a t u r e s practically impossible to fly its so quiet that you reaching 115 degrees below a rescue miscan hear the zero. In a herosion into the South Pole to electromagnetic sounds ic feat, one evacuate in the sky. weather scientist decided to someone, Jerri Nielsen stay out and loNielsen said. Doctor, author and cate the last [The mili- breast cancer survivor package of tary] said it Nielsens mediwill be easier cation, she to get you off a space station than off the South Pole in the said. In order to determine if the middle of winter, she said. So I didnt tell anybody for lump was truly cancerous, three months, because I didnt Nielsen and her two assistants had to perform a biopsy. want to scare people. I did a biopsy on myself, After she found the cancerous lump, Nielsen began put- and I taught the assistants ting medical equipment and how to help me on apples and instructions into plastic bags. dried potatoes, she said. One of the tech scientists at Simultaneously, she trained two assistants so the other the South Pole station took an 41 people could take care of old, filthy microscope, a Polathemselves when she became roid camera and a computer too ill to work as their physi- to send the biopsy slides back to doctors via the Internet, cian. After a few months, Nielsen she said. The pathologist had come noticed her condition quickly back with a very progressive becoming worse. I knew strange things were form of breast cancer, she said. happening there, she said. [I had to] start the chemo. Without proper chemotherThyroid metabolism is different, calcium metabolism is apy equipment at the station, different my mammogram Nielsen and her two assistants was normal a month before I improvised. The heavy equipment meleft we dont know about this world and what is going chanic put in my lines, which I taught him how to do, and on. Once Nielsen knew her con- then he counted every drop dition was too poor for her to that went into my body and keep the secret, she finally that is how we did it; [it was]

Nathan Croak / IC

Dr. Jerri Nielsen discusses her experiences in Antarctica while promoting her book, "Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Story of Survival at the South Pole," during a presentation on Oct. 18 in the Nitschke Hall Auditorium.

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unique to UT, he said. Its common in higher education. Scarborough referred an article from the Wall Street Journal, published on Oct. 17, Crisis Shakes the Foundations of the Ivory Tower, to show that UT is not alone with the impact from the budget cuts. The article describes how other institutions are affected. The University of Massachusetts faces a five-percent budget cut, reduction of staff and a hiring freeze. At the University of Vermont, the fi-

nance chief secured an outside $50 million credit line to ensure payroll and other monthly obligations, and the University of California, Berkeley, expects faculty to make contributions to the pension fund for the first time since 1990. Were expecting to pay $2.2 million more than what we expect for this fiscal year, Scarborough said, but added that the amount may change in the next several weeks. If the amount turns out to be modest, the university will explore options through the institutions reserve funds. If the amount is significant, it will have to make budget adjustments in the

early part of next year, he said. The governor and chancellor dont want to cut the engine they thought is important to revitalize the economy in Ohio, he said. They are trying to protect as much as they could. My concern is that some time next year well hear from Ohio, and there may be another round of budget cuts, Scarborough said. He said UT has $266 million of bonds. Some of the universitys debts have a fixed interest rate, and some debts have a variable rate. In a period where there are great uncertainties of state appropriation, were going to

have to make sure the universitys initiatives are strategic, he said. There were a number of concerns shared during the forum. Some people are concerned that were trying to do so much, Scarborough said. Some of the recent and ongoing projects are the $27 million Memorial Field House renovations, the $30 million Savage Arena renovations, the new College of Pharmacy building costing $25 million and an indoor practice facility on Main Campus estimated to cost $11 million. But Scarborough said UT is characterized as a university

in a good condition at the moment. We have a modest amount of financial resources relative to the size of our institute, he said. UTs Media Relations Manager Jon Strunk said UTs financial status has only been addressed at Town Hall meetings, and this was the first time an open financial forum was held. It was very responsible and open of Mr. Scarborough to have this forum. He didnt have to, said Krystal Weaver, a junior majoring in pharmacy and a candidate for student representative on UTs Board of Trustees. Weaver, the only student

present at the forum, said she wanted to be as informed as possible to represent the student body on the Board of Trustees. She said one of her concerns is the university may raise tuition fees to make up the cut. Scarborough said despite the cuts, the UT community does not have to be too concerned about that. We have a great team of financial advisers and staff with great leadership and great faculty and staff leaders, he said. On the whole, its a positive outlook in terms of how we handle whatever comes our way.

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