Newsmakers for March 6, 2000
First Monday
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March 6, 2000

Can I alter those genes for you? Cupid pulls a fast one
A changing climate for survivors Six-figure secret
Model Making The president in-depth


Can I alter those genes for you?

The European edition of The Wall Street Journal ran a story on Jan. 6 that discussed futuristic technologies that might eventually be used to cosmetically enhance the body. Michael Goldman, professor of biology at SF State, provided a perspective on gene therapy: "We should be careful that what we are giving the therapy for is worse than the reasonable consequences." He also noted that genetic enhancement would be used only by those who could afford it since he "can't see insurance companies paying for this."

Cupid pulls a fast one

"Valentine's Day is deceptive," says SF State Professor Martin Heinstein in an article in the Feb. 10 edition of San Francisco's The Independent. With its focus on flowers, chocolate, and physical affection, "[Valentine's Day] doesn't emphasize the qualities that make a marriage last: communication, having fun together, adapting to differences between two people." Heinstein teaches a popular course called "The Psychology of Love."

A changing climate for survivors

The Jan. 26 San Francisco Examiner reported that the discovery of the ashes of a Jonestown victim after a funeral home closed has re-opened what for many is a painful subject. But revisiting the subject of Jonestown is not so painful as it once was, says Oba T'shaka, professor of black studies at SF State. He notes, "The last [Nov. '98] memorial that was held in Oakland indicated a real change. People who survived from Jonesto wn were able to vocalize. It took all these years to be able to come forward."

Six-figure secret

The Jan. 24 issue of Fortune magazine featured a personal essay by David Whitford who found that his father, before his death, had secretly accumulated a six-figure debt. Shortly after the discovery, Whitford phoned Jacob Needleman, professor of philosophy at SF State and author of Money and the Meaning of Life. After listening to Whitford's story, Needleman offered his perspective: "If I could say so, I think that if you took anybody in this world, anybody who reads Fortune, and you scratched a little bit under the surface, in eight out of ten [cases] you'll find something as startling and troubling and self-contradictory as your father's story."

Model Making

On Feb. 15, KQED-FM reported on the million-dollar grant that SF State Director of Health Education Mary Beth Love received from the California Endowment to launch the "YES WE CAN Urban Asthma Partnership," a coalition of health agencies, community-based organizations, nonprofit hospitals, educators (including SF State) and others. The grant enables the partnership to test a comprehensive model for treating inner-city children with asthma. Since many of the issues involved in treating asthma are also true of conditions such as heart disease or diabetes, one of the things YES WE CAN is doing, says Love, "is developing a model that can move into being a more effective way of dealing with all of [the other] chronic diseases."

The president in-depth

President Robert Corrigan sat down recently with KCBS radio's Mike Pulsipher and Ed Cavagnaro for "In-Depth," a spontaneous interview program that airs Sundays. President Corrigan discussed the role of the CSU in California's educational system, and the role of San Francisco State as one of the major universities in the CSU. When asked about his goals for students, he said, "We're concerned very much about a kind of educational environment in which they understand not only their culture but also other people's cultures that people end up being knowledgeable active citizens, which is one of the things that I'm most involved in these days, the whole question of values, the question of what kind of behavior our students engage in when they leave."

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