UVSC College Times, 1998-11-04

              ill TT ! I fT fT?1T TfTf WW f Y INSIDE THE 'X-PHILES' This week's "The Edge" features everything thai you need to know about abduction and little green me. Don't be lell in the dark. WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 4, 1998 Volume 27, Issue 18 Opinion Watch out for the Christmas shopping frenzy Life! Amulti rainbow of 'Colors' comming your way 13 8 Sports Basketball kicks off the season Marketplace 14 See page 11 I." tab iiilln SUIe Cellcp IKWIIrttUlsBn a n it I IN I WW IFWTT IT1 Blind med student defies odds by Sharon Cohen I ADISON. Wis. (AP) He bends down, scalpel in his left hand, ready to pluck at the insides of the liteless arm. Are we head first?" he asks, his nnse nearlv touching the cadaver's limb dangling over the side of a coffin-like steel tank. He edges closer and pulls at white and reddish-brown strands, nerves and muscles bundled like a nest of telephone wires. "Tim. stick your hand in there," a voice suggests. He gingerly runs his forefinger along veins that feel like cold spaghetti, following the stringy road map until he reaches a tangled, cavernous spot. He has hit the armpit; it is called the axilla. "Tim, have you felt this?" He moves his fingers to a braid of nerves, thick and solid; it is called the brachial plexus. This is Anatomy 711. It is the first step in a long, long journey for Tim Cordes. Within seven, maybe eight years, he will leave the University of Wisconsin with a medical degree and a Ph.D. Within weeks, he will have to identify 19 forearm muscles, many the same size, some stacked on top of one another. He will have to put his fingers inside a head, and identify eight nerves, six blood vessels and six muscles in an area no bigger than two ice cubes. He'll have do all this with a clock ticking. So when the four-hour lab is over, he heads to a study session. But first, he leans down and unfurls a leather leash coiled around a table leg. Up pops Electra. his German shepherd guide dog. Tim knows he will have 10 do what some consider impossible. He will have to identify these body parts without seeing them. Tim Cordes is blind. Tim's life has followed a predictable, if extraordinary, pattern. He decides to do something blind people normally don't do, and the world says: (a.) You can't; (b.) You shouldn't, or (c.) Young man, that's courageous, but it's best not to even try. Then, just as predictably, Tim , succeeds. Doubters become champions. He takes it in stride. He insists he's no one's profile in courage. When people keep telling you that you're special, I have to keep reminding myself, I'm not." he says, his words a staccato burst of a young man in a hurry. "When you start thinking you're special, you have to rely on that. 1 can't do that." What Tim does rely on is hard work, whether it's mastering anatomy by navigating his hands, day after day, around hundreds of minuscule routes in the human body, or mastering martial arts by being hurled onto mats, hour after hour, bloodied and bruised. , ,.. , . , his work ethic has paid off. . Consider the resume of Timothy John Cordes, born legally blind, totally sightless at 1 6, now 22 and studying to be a doctor specifically a medical researcher. Valedictorian at the University of Notre Dame. Black belt in jujitsu, tae kwon do. Canoeist, water skier. Music composer. Biochemistry researcher. His lowest college grade: a single A-minus in Spanish. When Tim entered Notre Dame, alma mater of his father and two older sisters, he started as a biology major and encountered a familiar response: skepticism. "They had a textbook there," Tim recalls, "and they handed it to my father, and flipped open to a picture of a kidney and said, 'How's he going to do this?'" As always, he found ways. There were books on tape and in Braille, raised drawings he could feel and a high-powered computer that simultaneously reads into his earpiece whatever he types. SEE ACCEPTED CONTINUED ON PG. 4 :jr;-aiS3inJ3 Rocking the vots Senator Robert Bennett will hold office once again as he was voted in by 31 5,070 Utah voters. ': See page 3 Ad U U l mm IS SECOND BIRTHDAY The Red Cross, Conoco Oil Company, and UVSC pitched in to help out a young lady from Russia who needed an operation. K E L L I E E D I T O K E N I N G L E II A C II I K K R I) T Oksana Martyn will be able to achieve dreams she never thought were possible, thanks to a surgery that turned her life -around. Martyn, a 15 year old and native of Nar' Yan Mar" Russia was told that there was nothing that could be done for her severe case of scoliosis, a double curvature spinal problem. With the help of Shriners I lospital and Conoco Oil an operation was performed on Oct.6, the day Oksana and her mother see as her second birth. "It's my second birthday," Martyn said. "It's the day that, gave me a new life." The Red Cross in Martyn's home tow n, provided the air transportation to Moscow. Conoco Oil Company, which has several areas of business in the energy rich city, north of the Arctic Circle prov ided airline tickets to Utah for Martyn and her mother. Shriners Intermountain Hospital provided the surgery. To correct the scoliosis, an incision was made from the back of Martyn's neck to her tail bone. A titanium rod was then inserted along the vertebrae of ' SEE RUSSIAN GIRL CONTINUED ON PG. 3 , ,.m II. li. i. i . .mil minim, .11 l U'f"". .."i"'",U'D '" '." i '-. II ' " """ I' ; ! i I ' ' ;.'!.: : ' i ' i-r . S l t "' I I If r i i ...t 7 -i k" . ; y; j . y- Kellie EngletiardMhe College Tin DOING BETTER: Oksana Martyn's dreams came true last month when she received the medical attention that she needed and spent some time in the United States. nm is So U.S ssoian e n n UVSC students clean compared nationally etiteo by Curt Anderson Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Wisconsin voters sent the first openly gay woman to Congress on Tuesday. But an acknowledged lesbian House challenger lost in Washington state and another was behind in California. In Wisconsin's open 2nd District, Democratic state Rep. Tammy Baldwin defeated Republican Josephine Musser, the former state insurance commissioner, to replace retiring GOP Rep. Scott Klug. Baldwin, 36, made health care a cornerstone of her campaign, saying the United States should adopt a national, publicly funded system like that in Canada. "Tammy Baldwin is a solid representative who happens to be a lesbian," said Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group that helped bankroll the Baldwin campaign. "She has broken down a very' large door," Birch added. "She has created an arch of hope that future gay and lesbian candidates will be able to walk through." Baldwin is also the first woman ever elected to Congress from Wisconsin. Another openly lesbian Democrat, for mer Army colonel Grethe Cammeremeyer, n was defeated by incumbent GOP Rep. Jack Metcalf in Washington slate. A third. Democrat Christine kehoe. was trailing in her bid to upset California Republican Rep. Brian P.ilhr iv Gay GUP Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona, bidding for an eighth term, held a solid lead with more than three-quarters of the votes counted in his race against Democrat Tom Yolgy. In an Oklahoma rematch, Republican Rep. Frank Lucas easily won a fourth term against Democrat Paul Barby. an openly gay Oklahoma City businessman. Another openly gay member of Congress, Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, was unopposed for a 10th term. Frank is an outspoken member of the House Judiciary Committee, which will consider impeachment charges against President Clinton. In most cases, the gay candidates and their opponents kept sexual preferences out of the-campaigns. But national gay rights organizations poured-money into the races for their candidates, notably $1 million spent nationally by the Human Rights Campaign. by Joseph Stone Senior Stakf. Writer Students prove themselves more 'substance free' compared to college students on a national level-, this can be attributed to UVSC urug awareness programs. Statistics show college students who abstain from alcohol on a national level totaled 19 percent in 1998. Still the present 19 percent is growth since in 1 993 college students on a' national level who abstained from alcohol was only 15.3 percent. Compare those numbers to about 86 percent of UVSC students choose not to use alcohol. "Alcohol and tobacco are known as the gateway drugs. Kids start substance abuse in fifth or sixth grade for the most part," said Connie L. Kitchens, M.S., Coordinator of Alcohol and Drug Education at UVSC. "Kids who use gateway drugs are the ones who are more likely, down the road, to use more hardcore drugs." Red Ribbons communicate a message to be educated on the effects of alcohol and drug abuse. The Red Ribbon Campaign originated when Federal Agent Enrique Camarena was murdered by drug traffickers in 1985. The Red Ribbon became the symbol to eliminate the demand for drugs. "The color purple has recently been added to the ribbon showing a broadened focus to, include violence prevention. The red and purple ribbon symbolize an awareness and commitment to a healthy, safe and drug-free lifestyle in the community." said Kitchens Part of UVSC's Red Ribbon events this month has been the use of fatal vision goggles. The goggles sinulate being under the influence and causes the wearer to be off balance. "The use of the goggles is directed to help students understand the consequences of their own. or the use of other peoples' ''drinking." ' said Kitchen. Class schedules, available at the UVSC bookstore, contain over two pages of drug information including a list of most all drugs and their acute effects, health risks and over dose effects. Paleontologist to visit campus by Eric Phillips News Reporter Paleontologist Dr. Robert Bakker will be speaking at Utah Valley State College on Nov. 6 in the Ragan Theater. The first session will be specialized to children at 7 pm and the second session at 8 pm will be for adults at 8 pm. Bakker has served as an expert on dinosaurs in many mediums. He has appeared in several television programs and has served as a dinosaur consultant on many films. Some of these films include "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World." In "The Lost World" he was even repre sented as a character in the film. npsnit.R his success in the media, BaKKer is uousiueieu a very tunuu-. versial figure in the world of paleontology. Bakker has been publishing his controversial views on dinosaurs since he was an undergraduate at Yale. Some of his arguments have included such issues as the warm-bloodedness of dinosaurs . and the idea that dinosaurs were not slow, cold-blooded beasts, but active, bird like creatures. Bakker has been active in the discovering of new species of dinosaurs from the Jurassic of North America. Bakker has been responsible for the discovery of several early species of mammals. . , Bakker's questioning the accuracy of many experts opinions concerning dinosaurs has caused a lot of debate. However,-many people believe his challenging of the old way has caused a reeval-uation of how dinosaurs are perceived. Bakker is someone who can provide wonderful knowledge and insight into the world of dinosaur. Listening to his great . . wisdom rnnrerninp dinosaurs and how he really believes they were is an expe- . . .i. . -ii i. . i. r 1 rience mat, win sureiy never ueiorgui-ten. r if vi vc 8 V t ,,1 wwpwn wiiri'M ii :ni nm.n .i i in m will '"It inniiw:'iiwi5t-..wwwpwiw u m ' mmmm.mma m i im mm Jfck FINE PRINT WHEN Novembers WHERE Ragan Theater WHO Dr. Robert T. Bakker Dr. Bakker studied at Yale and Harvard bstore he began a career of book-writing, consulting, research, and many other dinosaur related activities. He has written for several professional journals, appeared on many television productions, and has consulted for films and products that use dinosaurs as part of their themes. SCHEDULE 7 p.m. far children & adufts 8 p.m. adults, but all welcome INSIDE Sports Waterboy Ben Ruesch all shook up The Padres went home crying to their Macires after a tough season. Seepage 9 QUOTE OF THE WEEK "What comprises relaxation here is really standing on your head and looking at things from a different direction, or putting balls of water out to just float in front of you." John Glenn NASA public relations icon, during a short break from his work on the space shuttle Discovery.