San Francisco State UniversityWeb A-ZFind it Fast
CampusMemo

Volume 51, Number 31   May 3, 2004         

    Announcements    Events    News    Newsmakers

Newsmakers

Bringing medical information to Iraq
On April 8, KGO-TV, Channel 7, ran a feature story on business communication Professor Gary Selnow. One computer connection at a time, he rebuilds communities and health-care systems in countries disrupted by war, conflict or rampant illness. Selnow recently returned from Iraq, where his nonprofit organization WiRED International set up 10 Medical Information Centers. The centers use computers and a CD-ROM library to provide education on a broad range of health-care topics. "Medicine touches everybody, from the richest person in the country to the poorest," Selnow said. "What we're doing is making available the skills to help."

Still fabulous at forty
Cars are "an identity statement," Gilbert Herdt, professor of human sexuality studies, said in an April 16 Detroit News article on the 40th anniversary of the Ford Mustang. "And the kind of car you have, whether it’s a Volkswagen or a Ford Mustang or a Jaguar, is a very strong identity statement."

Computer science majors needed
The soft market for tech jobs has led to a large drop in students majoring in computer science, reported NPR's Morning Edition on April 19. Sam Gill, chair of the Information Systems Department, is worried that the decrease will hurt the United State's ability to create new technologies because students are more likely to have innovative and creative ideas. "The Internet was not built by people like me in their 60s. It was built by people who didn't know different," he said. "So basically they didn't listen to 'this can't be done.' They just went ahead and did it."

Literature as a window to the Arabic world
Works of Arabic literature can help U.S. citizens better understand the peoples of the Middle East, says Matthew Shenoda, lecturer in American Indian studies, in an opinion piece that appeared in the April 25 edition of Newsday. "A survey of any of the major forces in contemporary Arab literature teaches us that while U.S. media have painted Arabs as villains of humanity, the truth is that dignity and a connection to place are central to Arab identity," he writes. "We learn that the preservation of a peaceful life in one's home is a major theme in Arab literature. We learn that resistance as an innate part of people who deeply love their home and their humanity comes second to a celebration of life."

Selling passion at home
Following a model pioneered by Tupperware, in-home passion parties showcasing products to enhance sex have become popular, reports the San Francisco Chronicle in its April 25 issue. Deborah Tolman, director of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality, said that the parties' popularity makes sense because women have less opportunity to get together and talk about these issues once they leave college or are living on their own. "We all have so many pressures of life, and we are all tired and have people to take care of," she said. "Sex doesn't often get at the top of the list. ... In what venue do you talk about it?"


For more SFSU people and programs in the news, see the SFSU in the News page on SF State News.

SF State News home

San Francisco State University Home     Search     Need Help?    

1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132 415/338-1111
Last modified May 3, 2004, by the Office of Public Affairs