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Students roll up their sleeves
by Glee Jesteadt
CoUtgim Staff
“You've got a special gift up
your sleeve.... The gift of
life!” — a pledge drive motto
for Erie Community Blood
Bank.
Sponsored by Tau Kappa
Epsilon and the Behrend
Sorority Interest Group, the
community blood drive for this
semester is being held in the
old library.
The blood drive, which
began yesterday at 10 a.m., is
being held to assist the
Community Blood Bank
increase its blood supply.
There are many people that
need blood everyday. A local
hospital uses an average of 40
units of blood every 24 hours,
but out of the people who are
Three tier students
by Bridgette Gesek
CoUagia* Staff
Sheila Tobias came to Behrend on a
mission: in order for people to learn,
they must feel welcome and that they
belong.
The 1994 Spring Feminist Scholars
Speaker Series brought Tobias, a noted
scholar and author of seven books and
more than ISO articles, to Reed Lecture
Hall this past Thursday.
Tobias’ lecture, “They’re Not Dumb
They’re Different: Stalking the Second
Tier,” focused on the problem of
women being lead away from the math
and science fields.
Her lecture included many factors
leading into why women and some
men feel unwanted or unwelcome in
the fields of mathematics and science.
She posed the argument of a plot to
keep women out of these fields. This
would require to imagine the world as a
patriarchy defined as a male governed
society designed to keep women in
lower class positions.
Tobias believes that math and
science are the “paths to power” and
making women feel out of place in
these environments is a way of holding
women back.
"Females are not being attracted into
science and math in the number needed
to put them into the power positions,"
Tobias said.
“Any group of people who find
themselves in a place where they do
not belong or feel welcomed, it will
result in them feeling anxiety,” Tobias
said.
Getting to the actual classroom
where anxiety occurs, Tobias has
divided students into different tiers or
categories.
The first tier of students are die ones
that are naturally motivated by the
subject and remind the professor of
themselves as they were once students.
Professors tend to focus their
attention to this group and they often
do not cater to the interests of the
second tier of students.
eligible to give, only S percent
do.
"I think that the people who
don't give blood and can are
being selfish," said Kelly
Joseph, a member of BSIG.
"You don't realize how many
lives you save by taking a half
an hour out of your day."
When you donate blood you
are asked a series of questions
about your general health and
medical history.
There are some health
problems that can stop you
from donating your blood; a
cold, the flu, and major surgery
are some reasons, along with
heart disease and diabetes.
According to the
Community Blood Bank, a
donor cannot contract AIDS or
any other infectious disease
This group is quite capable of
handling the material but they have it
"sold” to them.
In her research with graduate students
that were in the fields of history,
literature, and anthropology, "the
second tier,” she had them participate
in a physics course.
She found that keeping up and
understanding the material was not the
problem but the packaging was.
The students commented that they
did not find the material relevant in the
sense that they could not connect it
with their own lives. Take note that
these second tier students are generally
interested in many different ideas.
Second, they thought that the
classroom was very tension producing
even though they did outstandingly
well.
Third, they found these courses
intellectually bearing. This left Tobias
to believe that people leant in different
ways and in order to interest more
women in these fields, we must change
the approach to teaching this material.
"Too many students in the second
tin are being lead to other fields
because of the notion that they're not
supposed to do well in this area and
also because of the style of teaching,"
Tobias said. "They're not playing to
their strengths."
Dr. Marilyn Livosky, assistant
professor of psychology, agreed with
many of Tobias' points.
"Anything to identify why women
are not active in these fields is a
relevant matter," Livosky said.
In the future these stereotypes will
hopefully not hamper women in their
decision of picking a field in
mathematics or science.
Tobias is a fanner associate provost
of Wesleyan University and former
associate at the Institute for the Study
of Aniexty in Learning at the
Washington School of Psychiatry,
Washington, D.C.
Tobias is currently involved in
evaluating numerous science
foundations such as the National
Science Foundation.
from donating Mood. Needles
are never reused. A new sterile
needle is used for each donor
and is immediately discarded.
The entire donation process
takes approximately 45
minutes.
Drawing a pint of blood
takes five to seven minutes.
"I gave blood before," said
Marsha McHaddon. "I belong
to the Alpha Sigma Tau
sorority and this is one of our
philanthropy activities."
There may be a pinch when
the needle is inserted into a
vein near the elbow joint
"It doesn't bother me, I have
been doing this since I was
17,” said Pamela Baccus. "It is
like a habit.”
The blood drive will end
today at 4:00 pm.
Jen CcMn/Phalo CoonSnttor
JUST RELAX: Making a fist, a Behrend student rolls up his
sleeve and donates blood during the recent blood drive which
ran yesterday and will still be going on today until 4:oopm.
Fifth-Annual
iHWii
'■ Semi-Formai Dance
>jln (evening
one ono/n/tom
March 19,1994
Get your tickets NOW!
$8 Single
sl2DouUe
Tickets available
11:00am -1230 pm
in front of the Gorge
For more info call SPC at x 6221
Thursday, March 3, 1994
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