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April 7, 2003

Life-long learning about sexuality	El Niño a no show?	Mideast conflict sparks interest in Islamic studies	Myths of stress relief
Wrestling team pins down successful year
Return to the April 7 First Monday

Life-long learning about sexuality

The goal of SFSU’s new National Sexuality Resource Center is nothing less than to "make America safe for sexuality," Gilbert Herdt, director of the center and the University’s Human Sexuality Studies Program, told Reuters News Service for the opening of the Center on Feb. 19. Supported by funding from the Ford Foundation, the center will serve as an impartial clearinghouse for information on sexuality education for people of all ages. One of the opening highlights was a keynote speech by former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher. "There is no major center where people in midlife or seniors can go and access reliable, open and honest factual information about human sexuality," Herdt said in the story. Stories about the opening of the center also appeared in the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, San Francisco Examiner and other outlets.

 

Meteorologists were kept busy this winter, as predictions of rain levels rose and fell more quickly than a skier doing slaloms in fresh powder. Early predictions of another El Niño were followed by drier realities. "This is a good case study that El Niño is not totally predictable," said Jan Null, adjunct professor of meteorology, in the March 5 issue of Hayward’s Daily Review.

With the conflict in Iraq and a post-Sept. 11 world on college students’ minds, enrollments in courses on the Middle East and Islam have increased significantly around the Bay Area, according to a March 9 story in the Oakland Tribune. Joel Kassiola, dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, said a class in beginning Arabic is in high demand this semester and that courses in political science and Islamic culture are also well attended. He added that SFSU has already hired two tenure-track faculty with expertise in the Middle East and Islamic studies and plans to hire four more by the fall. "The University has an obligation to respond to their community’s quest for knowledge," Kassiola said. "When the public wants to know something, we have to meet that need."

The Wall Street Journal published a story on March 11 that discussed causes of stress and ways to relieve stress and anxiety. Erik Peper, director of the SFSU Institute for Holistic Healing Studies, said that computers cause added stress to people and even the most ergonomic desk setup won’t relieve all stress and tension. About 95 percent of people raise their shoulders the moment they sit down at their computer and 30 percent begin breathing slower, he said. He added that he believes computers invoke low levels of "fight or flight" responses in many people, causing an adrenaline rush.

The San Francisco Chronicle profiled recent achievements of the SFSU wrestling team on March 12. The team’s star wrestler, Mauricio Wright, was described as "the most accomplished wrestler in school history." Coach Lars Jensen praised Wright and teammates Drew Dunbar and Donald Lockett for their success this year

 

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Last modified April 7, 2003, by the Office of Public Affairs