Student Health Services warns of bronchitis infection

Bronchitis is spreading through campus this fall, Student Health Services officials said.

The number of cases is usually high when students return to school, said Student Health Services Director Isabel Goldenberg.

“We always feel that September is busy,” Goldenberg said. “We compare notes with other universities through an Internet group and nationwide we’re seeing the same trend.”

“I have a friend who has been sick for a long time and to hear her coughing really makes me sympathetic,” said junior Lisa Marie LoCricchio.

Goldenberg said students should eat and sleep well, refrain from drinking alcohol and from smoking to avoid infection. Most cases of bronchitis are viral, so students should wash their hands often because viral infections are transmitted by hand-to-hand contact.

“It is the beginning of the year,” Goldenberg said. “Students are all in contact and are exchanging new germs with new people. By the end of October and November, more students are studying, so there is less contact and less germs are exchanged.”

“Since I haven’t gotten sick yet, I think chances are good that I won’t,” LoCricchio said.

February and March will be busy months as well, Goldenberg said.

September was a warmer than average month, which Goldenberg said contributes to a rise in allergies and illness.

Goldenberg said she recommends students get inoculated with the influenza vaccine during the student health office’s annual drive in October.

“Influenza is much more serious,” she said.

– Mica Schneider

GW hosts graduate and professional school fair

GW will host the 21st Annual Graduate and Professional School Fair in the Smith Center Monday and Tuesday.

The graduate fair provides an opportunity for juniors and seniors from the Washington consortium of universities to meet graduate school representatives from all over the country, said Wilfrieda Kulish, coordinator of the event at GW.

American, Gallaudet, George Mason, Georgetown, Marymount universities, The Catholic University of America and the University of Maryland at College Park are cosponsoring the event with GW.

Kulish said she hopes attendance will surpass last year’s graduate fair, which attracted more than 1,600 students.

Each year, the fair attracts more than 300 admissions representatives during a two-day period, and about 207 schools will send delegations to the fair. Graduate school staff members also will bring information about individual schools and programs.

The fair will run from 2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. both days. Monday’s fair is geared toward students interested in graduate school, but Tuesday’s fair will focus on students interested specifically in law school.

In addition, Kaplan Educational Centers, The Princeton Review and GW’s Center for Career Education will provide information on test preparation for students applying to professional schools.

Registration is not required for the free fair. For more information, students can access the Graduate and Professional School Fair home page at http://www.gwu.edu/~gradfair.

-Jason Steinhardt

Theta Delta Chi awards scholarships

GW’s chapter of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity held its first presentation of the Theta Delta Chi Educational Foundation scholarships Friday.

Three freshmen were awarded $100 scholarships from the fraternity at a dinner at Bertucci’s.

Winners were chosen from a pool of applicants who wrote essays about the importance of community service and the impact community service has had on their lives, said Diego McDonald, Theta Delta Chi scholarship chair.

Members of Theta Delta Chi’s Central Fraternity Office and its educational foundation attended the presentation.

-Francesca Di Meglio

Faculty and student senate review academic and social issues

The Joint Committee of Faculty and Students discussed wide-ranging topics at a meeting Friday.

Members discussed strategies to maintain student writing skills. Student members said the lack of emphasis on grammar in non-writing classes remains a problem. One idea called for revamping the Columbian School of Arts and Sciences requirements, which poses possible problems, members said.

Adam Siple, student co-chair of the JCFS, said the group will address GW’s sexual assault and rape policy at its next meeting in October. A sub-committee is planning to meet in the near future to address the issue.

A JCFS resolution also was introduced to change the characterization of the Z-symbol on transcripts. The “Z” is not a grade, but an administrative notation, the resolution said. The JCFS said students use the Z-symbol to prolong their years at GW.

Siple said the resolution encourages academic progress.

“(The resolution) insures there’s a schoolwide standard to insure that students make satisfactory academic progress,” Siple said.

Siple said a resolution on continuing research fees for doctoral students was passed in the Student Association Senate. He said the SA does not believe it is fair to charge graduate students per credit hour. The issue will be discussed further at the next meeting.

The JCFS also addressed its role in the class size issue. One member said professors must ensure they do not supersede the caps put on individual classes.

-Steven Postal

New Internet link to improve computer resource performance

The Computer Information and Resource Center ordered a new Internet link to provide faster and more efficient computer resources to students and faculty members, said CIRC Director Brad Reese.

“The new link will be invisible to students,” Reese said. “They will access the Internet exactly as they do today. The only difference they should notice should be improved performance.”

The decision to increase system performance from three to 15 megabytes per second was ordered by Director of Technology Services Guy Jones. The upgrade was ordered because CIRC’s current link is often at full capacity, Reese said.

Students often experience delays when accessing the Internet from the University’s network, but the new link should alleviate such problems, Reese said.

This means accessing Web sites or e-mail will take much less time.

“Our current link is too often at its maximum capacity now, meaning it sometimes takes too long to access Web sites and other Internet information,” Reese said. “Increasing the speed of our link will remove it as a bottleneck.”

The order for the new link already has been placed and CIRC is waiting for Bell Atlantic to provide the service. CIRC officials have no projected date when the system will show evidence of improvement, Reese said.

-Russ Rizzo

Pakistani Student Association hosts `Samosa Bowl-a-thon’

The Pakistani Student Association hosted the “Samosa Bowl-a-thon,” a free social event Thursday evening.

“It gave people the chance to have fun and eat the best samosas in town for free,” said Atif Qarni, former PSA president. Samosas are popular potato-filled appetizers from the Indian subcontinent.

“The samosas were a great idea because it added something that was different,” said Heidi Wicker, Program Board International Cultural Affairs co-chair.

Qarni said 200 people attended the bowl-a-thon, which was the second event PSA has hosted this year.

The event was attended by members of the South Asian Society, Student Association and PB. Presidential Administrative Fellows also were present, Wicker said.

“Personally, I thought it was a great event because people were taking advantage of the fact that the bowling alley is now free,” Wicker said.

The PSA hosted a dinner and movie night for new members earlier this semester.

A two-part lecture series featuring a discussion on nuclear proliferation and a picnic on the National Mall also are scheduled.

An event featuring a guest speaker and comic acts will be held Nov. 14.

-Francesca Di Meglio