Page 6
The Behrend Beacon
`Worm ate my homework,'
Rollins College students
tell teachers
by David Damron
The Orlando Sentinel
Ever since classes started for finidents a
month ago at Rollins College, a worm has
been eating their homework.
Hundreds of students at the small col
lege say this semester has been one long
computer nightmare so far. A virus-like
"worm" infected the college network,
slowing Internet use to a crawl and forc
ing some students off campus to do re
search.
"This is college," said Mike Netto, a
political science senior. "It's like, ember.
rassing, to have a kind of problem like
this."
Netto, 22, said he has little luck getting
on the Internet from his dorm room, and
one of his classes requires online research.
Netto and other students say system
crashes have caused term papers and notes
to be lost. stance, had to turn up monitoring systems to
The school's computer technology team keep away viruses, and that slowed e-mail
said Thursday that they have slain the corn- clown somewhat a few times in recent weeks.
puter contagion by going door to door on. In most cases, instead of receiving e-mail
campus until I I p.m. the last few days,. from someone in 30 seconds, it took 3() min
looking for Typhoid Mary types with in- utes.
fected computers. "It really hasn't been an issue for us," said
"For the first time, we're virus-free," said UCF spokesman Tom Evelyn.
Les Lloyd, associate vice president of the Next fall, Rollins will likely make students
college's Information Technology depart- register personal computers at a common
ment, spot to clean the machines before they are
At first, the university attempted to wipe used on campus, Lloyd said.
out the virus, knowit as "W32.Welchia," But with more than 2(X) computers open
by asking students to lug computer towers at labs and libraries, no one had an excuse
and laptops across campus to get virus-pro- not to turn in assignments, Lloyd said.
tection software. " Rollins' computer network guru said a few
Up to 300 students initially ignored or • lax students were the main problem.
missed warnings instructing them to install •"I put More faith in them than I should
a special anti-virus patch, Lloyd said, but have,'
most were reached this week.
Close to 35 students still don't have she W32.WELCHIA WORM
safety software. They were kicked off the Targets: Computers using Windows XP,
network Thursday and now face $lOO 2000,1471XF, and Microsoft lIS 5.() operat
fines, Lloyd said, adding that the'fine likely ing systems.
can be appe,aled and avoided in most cases. What it does: Makes computers download
All students probably were affected by a special Wmdows program that forces ma
the virus, he said, especially the 1.100 liv- chines to reboot s or turn off and on again. It
ing in dorms. also tries to infect other machines by send-
The Problem, as Lloyd described it, ing out a request, or "ping," that increases
started when students arrived at wain: network traffic. • ,
aratlagged computers into the Rol net- The result: Intenvitstowdowns, lockouts
work, bringing the virus with thlWri k The and crashel. •
computer code in the worm clogged up the SOURCE: Symaruec. an Internet security
network when these machines were online, company
vler
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making it impossible for clean machines to
get in.
Disputing student accounts of the prob
lems at Rollins, Lloyd said there have been
few network crashes, just slow-Internet
woes.
Some students said they could not get into
Internet chat-mom class discussions. Others
drove to class to use a college computer, only
to have it crash.
"Ws been awful," said freshman Lindsay
Phillips, 18. "Nothing was working."
Phillips said Sept. 25 was the first time
she got online from her dorm room, so it may
be fixed, but she's had to use a relatives off
campus computer since class began.
"Everything is on the Internet these days,"
Phillips said. "It kind of affected our whole
life."
Other Florida schools saw similar prob
lems this fall, but none apparently this se
vere. University of Central Florida for in-
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Friday, October 3, 2003
I HI puts periods on 1101
by Patricia Anstett
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Hate having a menstrual period or the
yucky side effects that may come with
it? A new drug arriving in stores in late
October will allow women to avoid all
but four periods a year.
Seasonale conventional oral contra
ceptives repackaged in a purple-and-pink
plastic box has pushed into public view
a lesser-known way of stopping periods
known in medicine as menstrual suppres-
By throwing out the seven inactive
pills that come with standard oral con
traceptives, women increasingly have
been opting for the convenience during
the past decade.
It's a choice better known to female
troops, physicians-in-training, honey
mooning brides and women with heavy
periods from endometriosis and other
problems.
The promise: No muss or fuss and
fewer cramps, migraines, chocolate
cravings and mood swings.
"It will change your life," says Alicia
Sokol, senior news and information of
ficer for the Cleveland Clinic who has
suppressed her period for more than a
year. "I no longer am ravenous before
my period. Before, I felt like I needed to
eat everything that wasn't nailed down."
But drugs, like almost everything else
in medicine, come with drawbacks and
possible unknown risks.
"This is homogenizing women,
chemicalizing them into uniformity,"
says Dr. Susan Rako, a Boston-based,
Harvard University trained psychiatrist
and author of "No More Periods: The
Risks of Menstrual Suppression and
Other Cutting-Edge Issues About Hor
mones and Women's Health" (Harmony
Books; $2l).
The known methods of menstrual sup
pression put women at increased risk of
osteoporosis, infertility, heart attacks,
strokes and cancer, Rako said. Menstrua
tion actually lowers blood-pressure lev
els by half each month, decreasing a
woman's risk of heart-related problems,
she says.
She calls menstrual suppression '
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sponsible and hazardous," and cites 225
scientific references in her book to bol
ster her argument.
Though oral contraceptives may pro
tect some women against ovarian can
cer, Rako particularly abhors the men
strual suppression trend among teens.
"Girls need to get to know them
selves," she says.
The drug Seasonale contains synthetic
forms of two hormones .03 milligrams
of a type of estrogen called estradiol and
0.15 milligrams of a progestin,
levonorgestrel, also contained in mod
em birth-control pill doses.
But instead of taking three weeks of
real pills and a week of inactive or pla
cebo drugs a regimen known as 21-7
women take one Seasonale tablet daily
for 84 days and then take the seven in
active pills, producing a period every
four months.
Seasonale's cost has yet to be deter
mined. It will be comparable to conven
tional regimens of about $3O a month and
some insurance plans may pay for it, a
company spokeswoman says.
Birth-control products such as Depo-
Provera, an injection that lasts 3 months,
also stop periods.
All of the choices, Seasonale included,
may cause break-through bleeding, so
women still may get caught unaware
with the sudden arrival of a period.
Birth-control pills of any kind are not
advised for women who smoke because
they carry an increased risk of blood
clots, heart-related problems such as
strokes, and certain cancers and liver
diseases. They also do not protect against
sexually transmitted diseases, including
HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.
And oral contraceptives aren't a good
choice for girls and women who forget
to take their pills the reason many doc
tors give Depo-Provera or tell women to
put pills next to some item, like a tooth
brush or an alarm clock, that they use
daily.
Dr. Patricia Sulak, who has prescribed
menstrual suppression regimens for a
decade, calls the trend to reduce periods
huge.
"When the Food and Drug Adminis
tration approved this, it was like telling
sra
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women, 'lt's OK not to have a monthly
period.' All of this will take off and sky
rocket," she says. "The redesign of birth
control pills is happening."
Sulak, professor of obstetrics and gy
necology at Texas A&M University's
College of Medicine in Temple, Texas,
and a consultant to Barr Laboratories, the
Woodcliff Lake, N.J., manufacturer of
the drug. says: "21-7 will be out the door.
This is long overdue."
The trend of suppressing menstruation
is particularly popular among young,
female obstetricians and gynecologists.
Dr. Renee Page, clinical instructor in the
obstetrics and gynecology department at
the Wayne State University School of
Medicine in Detroit, has used conven
tional pills to suppress her period for
more than a year.
"It's not convenient to have a period
every month when you work 80 hours a
week and might have to be scrubbed for
surgery," she says. "It's a big thing among
the female 08-GYNs."
She says she's observed some addi
tional breast tenderness but has experi
enced no other big drawbacks. She and
others say they don't think menstrual sup
pression regimens carry any higher risk
of breast cancer and other cancers.
"I think it's a great option," she said.
But she adds, "Every woman who con
siders it should talk to her doctor about
her individual case."
Dr. Kristina Sole, a Cleveland Clinic
obstetrician-gynecologist, recommends
menstrual suppression to counteract
moodiness, crying, irritability and other
menstruation-related problems. Asked
whether the pills cause weight gain, she
laughs and says, "If women can blame it
on their pill, they do. Some women think
they burned dinner because of the pill."
Long-term use of any estrogen prod
uct raises the risk of breast cancer, she
and others acknowledge. But given low
hormone doses in the pill, she doubts
there is a significant cancer risk.
"No medication should be taken over
time without weighing the risks involved
against the benefits," she says. "If their
quality of life is impaired, and they are
willing to assume the risks, then go ahead
and take it."
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