LOCAL/STATE

The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 7, 2002 - 3A


I

'U' female Engineering
numbers still remain low

Possible illegal
substances found
in plant pots
Suspected illegal plants were
found growing in planting pots
behind Monroe Street near Hutchins
Hall Tuesday morning, according to
Department of Public Safety reports.
The suspicious plants were located
and pulled from the pots.
Man grabs a bite
to eat in B-School
A homeless white male was found in
the lobby of the Business School Exec-
utive Residence eating from the buffet
Tuesday afternoon, DPS reports state.
After being confronted by staff, he
left the building with a cookie. DPS
officers were unable to track the man
down.
Drunk man seen
wandering around
Regents Plaza
An intoxicated subject was found
near the Cube Sunday night with a cut
on his head, according to DPS reports.
Huron Valley Ambulance transported
him to the University Hospital Emer-
gency Room.
Suspicious letters
found on South
Quad wall
DPS officers walking around the
seventh floor of South Quad Residence
Hall found the letters "M S T" written
in blue marker on the wall across from
the elevators Tuesday morning, DPS
reports state.
Man makes
suicidal threats
to ex-girlfriend
According to DPS reports, a man
voluntarily went to the Emergency
Room Sunday night after he threat-
ened to kill himself.
He was originally in West Quad
Residence Hall visiting his ex-girl-
friend. His girlfriend called DPS
after he made the threat and ran out
of her room. DPS officers located
the man.
Car burgaled,
stereo stolen
A caller reported Sunday afternon
that his vehicle, parked in the
Thompson Street lot, was broken
into, DPS reports state. The car
stereo was stolen.
Checkbooks,
Bibles snatched
from van
A caller reported Monday afternoon
that his van, parked in the Baits lot was
broken into between 9:30 a.m. and
12:30 p.m., DPS reports state.
The driver side window was broken
out and his briefcase was stolen from
inside.
The van was parked in the extreme
southeast corner of the lot next to the
woods. The briefcase contained two
bibles and two checkbooks. The woods
were checked for the property with
negative results.
Art supplies and
materials missing
from building
A number of art supplies were taken

from a metal locker in the Art and
Architecture Building between last
Wednesday and Monday, according to
DPS reports.
Items stolen were $100 worth of art
supplies, 15 paint brushes, 10 tubes of
vinyl paints and a clay working tool.
There were no signs of forced entry to
the locker.
Man injures knee
during intramural
football game
An intramural football player hurt
his knee on Mitchell Field Monday
night when he heard a popping sound,
DPS reports state.
Hunting bows
stolen out of
back of trunk
According to DPS reports, two hunt-
ing bows were stolen out of the back of
a truck belonging to a Barton-Malow
emnlovee Tuesday afternoon.

By Erin Saylor
Daily Staff Reporter
A room full of boys and only a hand-
ful of girls - female students are still a
minority in engineering classrooms.
While the University boasts of having
graduated more undergraduate women
engineers in 2000 than any other school
in the country, many feel that there is
still much to be done to even out the
ratio of male and female engineers.
"At Michigan, we're doing really well,
but we can always do better," said Deb-
bie Taylor, director of the Women in
Engineering Office.
Just 27 percent of the School of Engi-
neering, a small percentage when com-
pared to that of other colleges. In
contrast, the undergraduate population
of the School of Literature, Science and
Arts in 2001 was 55 percent female.
Engineering sophomore Erin Robbins
said it is very easy to be intimidated in
such a male-dominated field.
"Some classes are very divided, the
girls sit in one group and the boys sit in
another," she said. "They don't take the
female students seriously sometimes."
Many indicated that the disparity was
more apparent in the electrical, aero-

space and computer science engineering
programs than in others.
Debby Ross, a second-year giadu-
ate student in the College of Engi-
neering said that she noticed a lack
of female professors during her
undergraduate years.
"I think the whole time I was in
undergrad I had one female profes-
sor," she said. "Women need to be
involved in the process of shaping
the field because without their input,
that shaping will be biased."
In the 1970s Colleen McGee, a lectur-
er in technical communication in the
College of Engineering, wasn't sur-
prised when the majority of her col-
leagues were male. She says that today,
however, it bothers her that women have
not integrated more into the field. She
,added that in a national survey taken a
few years ago, female students
described the engineering community as
a "cold atmosphere."
Taylor cited the lack of information
and exposure to engineering as being
largely responsible for the under-rep-
resentation of women in the field. She
added the climate is not so conducive
for middle school and high school
girls.

"I think that a large part of the
problem is that the public is ignorant
of what an engineer does," Taylor
said. "High school -counselors don't
know what we do and so they don't
present it as an option."
Programs such as Women in Sci-
ence and Engineering are working to
change the status quo.
"I think exposure to the field is
getting better, but not the tracking of
the girls," Ross said. "I think these
programs give women a community
within the engineering community."
Taylor indicated the Women in
Engineering Program Advocates Net-
work offers a number of pre-college
programs to cultivate interest among
young girls. Summer programs
include Future Science-Future Engi-
neering, which is geared toward mid-
dle school girls, and the Grace
Hopper Project for high school girls.
Marina Epelman, an assistant pro-
fessor of Industrial Operation in Engi-
neering said that as a teacher she
wants to make sure that everyone is
encouraged to consider engineering.
"We want women to know that, yes,
this is an option you can pursue," she
said.

JESSICA YURASEK/Daily
Two contestants from Elimidate get their groove on at Rick's
American Cafe on Church Street last night. The Warner
Brothers' show, which features four daters vying against each
other in order not to be eliminated from the date, also filmed
in Arbor Brewing Company, Pizza House and one other
location.

UMHS nearing goal of 100 nurse hirngs

By Margaret Engoren
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan Health System hired
94 nurses in the last 59 days, nearing its goal of
recruiting 100 nurses in 100 days.
In response to a nation-wide nurse shortage, the
UMHS nurse recruitment program advertises on
the radio and billboards, offers refresher courses
and internships, and, among other things, holds
career-building seminars in conjunction with the
University Student Nurses Association.
"I have every expectation that we will meet and
exceed our 100 nurses goal," said Carrie Dawson,
manager of nursing recruitment for .UMHS. "We
have already hired 94 nurses and this is not even
peak hiring season. One hundred nurses is the
marker for success, but we do not plan to stop hir-
ing after it has been realized." Dawson expects hir-
ing 100 recent graduates and experienced nurses by
Dec. 15 will help UHMS grow and succeed.
"(UHMS) has been successful overall as a sys-
tem and we are positioning ourselves for future

growth," Dawson said. "We are opening positions
in preparation for that growth. We are a large health
system with a relatively low turnover rate so we
have less of a problem than the average national
health system does.
"Both new and experienced nurses are being.
hired," Dawson said. "The patients we see in the
health system are very complex, it would be unfair
to them to staff a unit with all new nurses. Man-
agers look for a mix of new nurses and experienced
ones when staffing their units."
With more than 126,000 unfilled nursing posi-
tions, the Association of Academic Health center
notified all American health systems of the short-
age. There are many reasons for the nursing short-
age and it is too complicated to be explained with a
simple set of reasons, said Carol Loveland-Cherry,
associate dean of the School of Nursing.
"Nursing has traditionally been a profession of
women and there are now more opportunities for
women in other disciplines and many are trying
them," Loveland-Cherry said. "Another important
factor is that health care is more complex and the

job is more demanding than it used to be - we
have a decreased supply and a greater demand.
Also, a large portion of the nursing population is
aging and retiring." UMHS oversees many pro-
grams to actively train and recruit nurses.
"We offer a variety of ways for people to get into
the profession," Dawson said. "People who leave
nursing to raise a family can reenter the profession
through refresher courses. We also offer internships
that allow nurses to specialize and to strengthen
their clinical skills. We started a new initiative this
year - we now present at the student nurses asso-
ciation meetings; we hold informal seminars on
interview skills, resume building, the transition into
the work force - topics graduating nurses are
going to be dealing with."
Combatting the nation-wide nurse shortage is
essential to providing safe patient care, Loveland-
Cherry said."In order to provide safe care for
patients, units must be well staffed with qualified
nurses," Loveland-Cherry said. "Too few nurses
lead to increased morbidity and mortality. The envi-
ronment is not good for nurses right now. Low

staffing patterns puts stress on nurses that can result
in negative consequences for the patients and for
the nurses themselves."
Loveland-Cherry said there are now two short-
ages: one of staff nurses and one of nursing faculty.
"The bulk of nurses are in patient-care settings,
which may help the patient-care settings, but with-
out faculty to prepare nurses, we won't have nurses
and without nurses, we will have decreased patient
care." Nursing students are encouraged to follow
their interests rather than enter hospital units or aca-
demic offices.
"We encourage nurses to enter patient settings
and academia, depending on their interests," Love-
land-Cherry said. "Some nurses work with patients
and then shift to academia later in their careers.
Their talents are needed on both sides of the field."
In an effort to bolster their enrollments and fill the
nursing ranks, the School of Nursing began a pro-
gram of intense recruitment.
"We work independently and with the health sys-
tem to create a program of intense recruitment,"
Loveland-Cherry said.

Reports of female frisking at
airports leaves many unhappy

By Lauren Hodge
Daily Staff Reporter
Though the aviation security bill
signed last year increased many aspects
of airport security, some female travel-
ers, as well as flight attendants, said
screeners were instead taking them
aside and groping them.
An Engineering junior, who request-
ed to remain anonymous, complained of
an airport security employee "inappro-
priately touching" her last summer on a
trip to New York. After her belt was
picked up by the metal detector, she was
asked to pull up her shirt revealing her
midriff and was groped in a way that
did not make her feel very comfortable.
The Federal Aviation Administra-
tion's vision is geared toward providing
a "safe, secure and efficient global aero-
space system that contributes to nation-
al security and the promotion of U.S.
aerospace safety," according to their
mission policy. But many women are
getting the wrong-message as airports
take measures to improve security.
Since President Bush signed the bill
putting airport security under the juris-
diction of the federal government, Fed-
eral supervisors replaced private
screeners in charge of airport screen-
ings in order to tighten security.
LSA sophomore Lindsey Harrison
said a friend of hers had some trouble
with federal screeners at the airport.
"My friend from camp was frisked
on her way to visit me. She said that
she was searched on her backside in
such a way that it seemed the screener
had intentions beyond protection,"
Harrison said.
USA Today reported last November
that a pregnant flight attendant based in
Portland, Ore. was "subjected to a
search during which screeners pressed
against her belly after the buttons of her
blouse set off metal detectors."
When the woman asked the screeners
to refrain from doing this, they alleged-
ly became angry and threatened her
with a strip search. The policy allows
female passengers to request female

attendants at 26 airports. Officials at
Detroit Metro Airport, which many
students will use over the Thanksgiv-
ing holiday, said they do not feel inap-
propriate searches by employees is a

problem.
"We're just doing our job. There
haven't been any complaints about air-
port security thus far," said an airport
official.

Thomas Wilkins, conductor / Blla avliduvich, pluM
HIYVANESS Symphony No. 2,
"Mysterious Muontain"
UOINK Piano Concerto No. 2
BEETHIYEN Symphony No. 4
Internationally-renowned pianist Bella Davidovich
performs Chopin's Second Concerto, and Thomas Wilkins
leads the DSO in Beethoven's Fourth Symphony.

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