OSU conference participants back affirmative action

Recent legal attacks on affirmative action, such as Proposition 209 and court challenges at the University of Michigan, are sending a chilling message to the nation that, for the most part, has been met with deafening silence, President Kirwan said at a minority affairs conference May 4 on campus.

"I have rarely seen a time when there was a greater need for discussion," Kirwan said.

Kirwan spoke during "Racial Legacies and Learning: An American Dialogue," a conference at the Ohio Union sponsored by Ohio State's Office of Minority Affairs and the Division of Student Affairs.

Kirwan said the University of Michigan, several East Coast universities and Ohio State have agreed to participate in a new initiative aimed at forming collaborations between corporate America and universities to support the inclusion of affirmative action in higher education.

"We need partnerships if we plan to succeed. The work force of the 21st century will be more diverse than ever, with no clear majority group," Kirwan said. "Where will the (work force) come from if we don't cast the net more broadly? Universities must have values and provide quality educational opportunities for all of its citizens."

The conference's theme of "Racial Legacies and Learning" is a national program that encourages communication between campuses and communities on issues of race. The program, which began in April 1998, is sponsored by the Ford Foundation and designed to support President Clinton's Initiative on Race.

Representatives from 40 colleges, universities, organizations and corporations nationwide met at the Ohio State conference to discuss issues affecting minorities in higher education, including mentoring, cultural appreciation, diminishing minority university scholarships, and the role of corporations in diversity matters.

Former U.S. Rep. Ronald V. Dellums, D-Calif., who delivered the luncheon address, said following the guidelines of affirmative action is the morally right thing to do.

"America made the commitment to affirmatively act to right past wrongs and even the playing field," Dellums said. "You can't turn back the clock. History is progressive -- we can't go backward. It's in everyone's self-interest to go forward."

Dellums, a self-proclaimed "soldier in the struggle and political activist who came out of the '60s," served 14 terms as a congressman. He chaired the Armed Services Committee, and served on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Post Office and Civil Service Committee. He chaired the Congressional Black Caucus and was a representative and military panel member to the North Atlantic Assembly.

"America is a multiracial, multicultural and multiethnic society. The statistics prove that our strategies have to be those that bring us into the new millennium," Dellums said. "We need to be enriched by the diversity of the society, not divided by it. We have to expand the opportunities instead of fighting over the crumbs."

The conference included a speech by Samuel Betances, vice president and senior consultant of Souder, Betances and Associates, a consulting company that works with private and public organizations on issues of diversity.

In his opening remarks, Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost, said there has been too little honest dialogue on the issue of race. He praised the "enriching effect a diverse coming together of people and ideas" can generate.

"If there is ever a place to have dialogue on racial issues or other issues that divide, it is a university," Ray said. "We have to come together. It doesn't matter where we come from, just where we are going."

Ray, along with Betances, spoke on the issue of inclusion.

Betances said Americans need "to identify the formal and informal barriers that exist" to rid the country of discrimination and replace them with "inclusive, productive and collaborative initiatives."

"If we truly wish to seek universality, we must learn about other groups and become much more inclusive instead of divisive," he said.

Betances said it is important to understand that people have unbalanced views about each other not because of bigotry or racism, but because people are uninformed.

"We are here doing this because it's not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing," he said. "You cannot have a university community that is committed to universality that does not teach people to reject negative ideas instead of people."

Several work sessions were held throughout the conference on student and faculty retention issues; insuring the success of diversity initiatives; and responsibility of institutions to affirmative action.

Medical Center tests new generation heart pump

OSU one of three centers in America examining device

Surgeons at University Medical Center now have another option at their fingertips to help patients with failing hearts. An implantable centrifugal pump that circulates blood through the body continuously, rather than mimicking the pumping action of the heart, is being evaluated for use in patients with potentially fatal heart conditions.

Ohio State is one of three medical centers in the country approved by the Food and Drug Administration to test the new device.

When attached to the patient's failing heart, the pump -- called AB-180 -- can support the workload of the failing heart and give it a chance to rest, and perhaps heal on its own, said Andrew Goldstein, a cardiothoracic surgeon at OSU Medical Center and ex-aerospace engineer who helped design the heart pump for clinical use.

"The AB-180 is about one-third the size of heart pumps we're currently using, but it's the way it circulates blood through the body that sets it apart from other pumps," said Goldstein.

"Unlike other ventricular assist devices that mimic the pulsating action of the human heart in order to push blood through the body, an impeller inside the AB-180 rotates at more than 3,000 revolutions per minute to keep the blood constantly circulating at a preset volume and pressure. Patients on this device can actually survive without a detectable pulse."

Goldstein said the AB-180 is designed to temporarily relieve the strain on the heart's pumping chamber and is not a permanent replacement. "The result we hope to achieve is that the AB-180 takes over the work of the heart long enough to give it a rest and a chance to heal on its own," he said.

There is reliable documentation that a resting heart can rejuvenate itself, according to Goldstein. "The heart can benefit from a rest in much the same way injured or strained leg muscles can recover if you stay off your feet for a period of time," he said.

Because of the pump's compact size -- slightly larger than a hockey puck -- the device can be sewn inside the chest cavity just below the heart. Other pumps, because of their larger size, require placement in the abdominal cavity. "The AB-180 is much easier to use because you only need a single incision to implant it and connect it to the heart," said Goldstein.

A single tube passes from the device through the chest wall to a portable control unit that monitors and powers the pump. Patients are able to move with the pump in place and can take walks if they desire, Goldstein said.

"If the monitor senses exertion, it can signal the pump to increase blood flow to the body," he said.

Goldstein said the device, made by Cardiac Assist Technologies, is simple in its design, with no valves and only one moving part.

Candidates for the AB-180 are patients with acute or chronic heart failure who haven't responded to other therapies, or patients who experience cardiogenic shock. "These patients are generally going to be so sick that without further intervention, they would die," said Goldstein. "The pump will give them this extra chance at survival."

For patients whose hearts can't be weaned from the pump, there could be the option of a human heart transplant. Although not intended to be a long-term device, Goldstein said the pump could keep some patients alive and in good enough physical condition to be a transplant candidate.

Another benefit of the new heart pump is the cost. Whereas current heart pumps can cost approximately $70,000, the AB-180 will cost less than $10,000.

Goldstein has yet to implant the device at Ohio State, but he said it's simply a matter of time before it's needed by a patient.

"It's comforting to know you have a life-saving device like this waiting in the wings," he said.

Pulitzer Prize winner, Kiplinger Fellows return for reunion

In 1974, the first class of Kiplinger Fellows began their yearlong master's degree program in public affairs reporting in the School of Journalism, under the tutelage of Stuart Loory, first passing grade in Professor Martha Brian's beginning reporting class and covered the least-coveted beats for The Lantern. Thirteen, including Miller, would make it, and 12 would withdraw in defeat, unable to meet the standards of a woman for whom "good enough" wasn't even close.

A quarter century later, when the "Kippies" gathered on campus to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Kiplinger Reporting Program, Miller was there, not as a Fellow, but to be honored as the most recent Ohio State graduate to win the Pulitzer Prize and as president of the national organization Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Some three dozen former Kiplinger Fellows and two former holders of the Kiplinger Professorship returned to Ohio State April 29-May 1 for a conference and reunion. Speakers and panelists, including Knight Kiplinger, grandson of W.M. Kiplinger, for whom the program is named, spoke about ethical and technical challenges facing journalists today.

Judy Miller

Addressing a luncheon group, Kiplinger, editor of The Kiplinger Letter and editor in chief of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, predicted an era of continued prosperity for the United States, fueled by contributions of immigrants, whom he called "an unalloyed blessing for the American economy."

Saying that journalists have "undersold the adaptability and ingenuity of people," he cautioned against accepting too uncritically the popular prophesies of doom related to economics, environment, overpopulation and technology. "We are entering an era of danger and opportunity," he said. "Our challenge (as journalists) is to lay out the best mix of both."

For her part, Miller good-naturedly recounted to the many interested parties the story behind winning the Pulitzer this year -- how she, as special project editor, led a team of 16 Miami Herald reporters in investigating voter fraud in the Miami mayoral election through a painstaking study of absentee ballots and other public records, and lots of door-to-door visits in neighborhoods with numerous questionable ballots.

And never too far from her mind were the lessons she learned at Ohio State, particularly in Brian's class, where errors were not acceptable. "I think it was seven weeks into the quarter before I got a grade above zero," she said.

Today, she says she gets the same feeling when she presses "send" on her computer that she had back then handing in typewritten homework to Brian. "I learned from Marty to have a healthy fear of mistakes -- to double-check everything, to back up the story every which way."

Another strong influence was Professor Paul Williams, who was Lantern adviser during Miller's senior year. He tipped her to possible code violations in the construction of Morrill Tower. Using public records, she discovered that fire-prevention dampers had been omitted from vertical shafts that connected all the bathrooms in the 24-floor dormitory. After her story ran in The Lantern, the University investigated and eventually made $250,000 in renovations to correct the problem.

"Paul Williams gave me courage," Miller said. "Sometimes there are things that are wrong and need to be exposed. There are things newspapers can do."

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