I have not often had the opportunity to read your newspaper since my appointment at the Medical School in 1994. I did pick it up on my lunch hour on Friday (11/22/96) and enjoyed the read very much. The back page article, ("The Beaning of Ann Arbor," with "A drug in every cup") I read with interest Dr. James Shayman's comments about caffeine, most of which were accurate.
However he is quoted as saying "we would never use it in a medical setting." Never is a long time and also a rarity in medicine. In fact, caffeine and medications containing caffeine are prescribed very often. Most commonly, the use of caffeine is indicated for controlling headache pain (migraine etc.).
There are other uses, too, including treatment of apnea (interrupted breathing) in premature infants. Sorry to the weekend warriors though - there is no evidence that caffeine works very well to cure a hangover.
Medline, a computerized literature search tool, lists 500 references on the therapeutic uses of caffeine. The Physicians Desk Reference lists about 40 medications that contain caffeine. Read the labels on over-the-counter painkillers - you'll be amazed how many have caffeine in them. The nighttime remedies won't! And don't be surprised if you go to an emergency room with a headache and the doctor puts caffeine in your IV.
Best regards and good health!
Dr. Sean K. Kesterson
Clinical Instructor II, UMMC
As I sit here once again in the multi-million-dollar Media Union, the pinnacle of information technology on campus, I can't even get a printer to spit out my work. Either I spend half an hour logging on to six different machines until I find one that works, or when I do get logged on, I find out that the printer chooser is messed up so I can't even select a printer. Supposing I even get a working computer with a working printer chooser, then I have to find a working printer. Which is never the one that is two feet away, instead it's the one that is across the building one floor down. And then, when I find out that the printer is working, I also find out that it has no paper.
After this whole process, I either switch computing sites or go home screaming. Whatever my stressed-out mentality can afford, the most important thing here is that I've wasted valuable time. Often, this process takes up 30 minutes to an hour of my life.
All this frustration could be alleviated if Information Technology Division could spend a little less money buying 200 Mhz Pentiums and a little more money on 24-hour manpower to police their sites. ITD seems to have its priorities completely misplaced currently. ITD charges us for printing and then they never work, yet they seem to think that spending millions on the latest Silicon Graphics workstations is more important than a student being able to print out their project report. Students need working computers and working printers. It's just that simple. I hope ITD (reads) this and starts to notice their obvious shortcomings.
Richard Hofer
Engineering senior
As an officer of the Army, I was surprised to read of how our harassment policy actually is. I've been in the Army for more than six years now and I've never known our policy to be built on the "good old boy" network but since I read it in the Daily it must be true ("Military attacks," 11/14/96). I'm a female pilot (enlisted rather than commissioned) and have usually been the lone female in my training. I have never experienced what I perceived as sexual harassment at any point of my career, but I can see where someone coming out of high school going to basic training might be intimidated by their trainers and be too scared to report misconduct, but most people know better. The Daily used this scenario: A female is too scared to report misconduct because the "good old boy" network would punish her for reporting the men involved. Therefore she will not get promoted or advance since she rebuffed a superior.
Reality is, a female could accuse a totally innocent man of misconduct/harassment and because of this accusation, now in his permanent file, his career is over. Every promotion board that looks at his file is going to see he had an EEO complaint, and he is going nowhere despite his innocence.
The Daily suggests closer supervision. I don't know what else the Army could do besides bug all the rooms and phones, and sit with every female 24 hours, seven days a week so they control all behavior. By the Daily's reasoning that the institution (the Army) is at fault for the misconduct for these men, I'm sure the University is at fault every time one of its students or staff commits a crime. What about those sexual assaults that have been occurring on campus? I've always grown up with the belief that if you don't know what the heck you're talking about, then keep your mouth shut. I guess it's more of a challenge for the Daily staff to find a topic where they actually have some knowledge from which to base their opinions. As the EEO officer in my company, I know their pictures of how it is, is indeed not how it is.
Christina C. Doster
Engineering junior
As an alumni who can now read the Daily online, a heartfelt "thank you" and kudos for the great web site my old daily paper has! There is one issue, however, that I'd like to see addressed; the sooner, the better.
Our school has failed at finding the best football coach(es) in the region, let alone the country. Who is to blame? Not Coach Carr directly. After all, this man has done his best, but he is not of head coach caliber. The blame falls squarely on the athletic director himself, Joe Roberson. I have no ill feelings toward Roberson. He, like Carr, is the wrong man for the job. Roberson won his appointment through his connections to former University President James Duderstadt. There was no national search for the most qualified candidate. Likewise, when a head coach was needed, there was no national search for a candidate. Why not?
This practice is both unfair and misguided. If seniority made people deserving of jobs, many underqualified people might be in similarly difficult situations.
Both Carr and Roberson are good people, capable in the correct job environments - not the ones that are bestowed upon them now.
The University prides itself as a great public university to send out its graduates to compete in the "real world." What is happening in our athletic department does not reflect real-world business practices. The wrong people are being hired for the wrong job. How can the University conduct a careful and successful presidential search and not do the same for other important positions? The in-coming president could do much for his credibility and standing with the University community (which is already very good, I understand) to change this hiring and promoting practice. Both Carr and Roberson should be reassigned or asked to leave in order to let the natural selection process begin. The last time the University did this was in the late '60s. That's when they brought in a guy named Canham and a guy named Bo.
A. Yeager
University alum