Registration is now open for the Spring Involvement Fair. Sign up online at miami.edu/coso. The fair will take place on Jan. 26 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Daily Princetonian (Princeton)

(U-WIRE) PRINCETON, N.J.-The senior thesis of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito ’72, which along with some 300 others was lost during the 1970s, resurfaced Monday when Alito’s thesis advisor provided a copy to the University.

Walter Murphy, the McCormick Professor in Jurisprudence Emeritus, sent a copy of the thesis to the University’s Mudd Manuscript Library.

While much of the document deals with how the court came to be and the history of Italy’s justices, one chapter focuses specifically on the court’s work on questions of church and state.

“I chose to investigate the Court’s work in this area because it is important, because it has probably been the most controversial, and because it is the area in which the clash of interest groups can be observed most clearly,” Alito wrote.

Alito’s ruling in the 1991 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which challenged Pennsylvania’s requirement that women seeking abortions notify their husbands, has become a focal point in the debate.

Dramatic research findings just published in The New England Journal of Medicine show that lowering an infant’s body temperature to about 92 degrees Fahrenheit within the first six hours of life reduces the chances of disability and death among full-term infants deprived of oxygen or blood to the brain during birth. The study was conducted at 15 medical centers across the country, including Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.

Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) happens when an infant’s brain is deprived of oxygen or blood before or during birth. The condition may result from a number of causes including compression or tearing of the placenta, compression of the umbilical cord and rupture of the uterus. It is estimated that HIE occurs in about one of every thousand births. More than half of the babies with a severe case of HIE die, and those who survive all experience a major disability.

A total of 208 infants took part in the study, and at random they either received the experimental cooling/hypothermia treatment or the current standard of care, which includes basic newborn intensive care supportive therapies.

Seeking to unite the campus as a whole through understanding and inquiry of various cultures, traditions and religions, Students Promoting Acceptance and Necessary Change (SPANC), was recently formed on campus with active official student organization status.

Spearheaded by president Daidre Azueta, SPANC is a group without requisites for membership.

“Basically one of our goals is to increase the amount of interaction of students of diverse backgrounds,” Azueta said. “It’s human nature to feel comfortable with those [that one has] many commonalities with. We want to raise awareness of stereotypes and generalizations, we want everyone to become aware of the biases they might have.”

Going beyond the realm of simply uniting individual students, SPANC wishes to bring together entire campus organizations in adhering to their desire to expand their membership and knowledge of diverse groups.

“We’d like to do an exchange program between different student organizations,” Azeuta said. “We want more interactions between students who wouldn’t ordinarily have that interaction.”

Another promising activity involves visiting the Veteran’s Hospital to learn directly from those who’ve experienced intolerance firsthand, a unique way to delve into the past and uncover contemporary, deep-seeded biases.

“We’d like to go to the VA hospital, collecting oral histories from people who’ve experienced hatred between different groups, and how they’ve experienced culture shock,” Azeuta said.

Other projects to nurture and diffuse experiences include in-school discussions addressing stereotypes with local children, administration of surveys and flyers to raise awareness, poetry slams and performances to share novelties about diverse groups and the creation of an on-campus peace garden and mural.

Meetings, which are projected to be held bi- or tri-monthly, will involve workshops and activities exploring culturally pertinent issues, like discussing ethnic ambiguity and the origins of classifications and also forums that invite leaders of other student organizations to encourage integration as an entire student body.

“Most people agreed that a group like this was needed on campus because it’s not that integrated,” Azueta said. “I think people will join because they’re curious to see what SPANC is about. Everyone wants to be tolerant of others.”

Deltavier Frye, junior, joined SPANC to support a cause she feels passionate about.

“For me, this cause is appreciating and respecting other groups as well as bringing different people together to discuss important issues,” she said.

SPANC’s staff, already a microcosm for the diversity they wish to emulate, consists of Azueta, a native Belizean, Jamaican vice president Gail-Marie Stewart and treasurer Sunil Matthew, of Indian descent.

“Everyone’s welcome,” Azueta said. “The more people, the more diversity, the better.”

Teressa Dalpe can be contacted at t.dalpe@umiami.edu.

The pivotal win against Virginia Tech was not contained in Blacksburg alone, as victory celebrations reached Coral Gables Saturday night. The Rat was alive and buzzing with students clustered around the few televisions with functioning cable on campus. It was in the midst of the victory that three students allegedly jumped into Lake Osceola to express their enthusiasm.

Shortly after, a Facebook group detailing the incident emerged. The group, titled “I’m a drunk idiot and went swimming in Lake Osceola,” featured “drunk lake swimmers” Nicholas Gonzalez, 21, Kellen Horney and Leo Swayze, 22, as well as “professional instigator” Josh Layton, 21.

The Facebook group included an officer position of photographer, held by Jacqueline Coleman, 20, whose profile displayed a photo album labeled “VT Game/Boys in the Lake.”

Captions under the pictures, which featured each member of the group soaked and standing near the lake, made statements such as “after the dive in” and named those involved as “the water boys.”

Under Section VII of the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook, which lists disciplinary violations, “swimming in Lake Osceola or the adjacent waterways is prohibited.”

This incident comes almost four years to the day that freshman Chad Meredith drowned in Lake Osceola. Meredith, who was rushing for Kappa Sigma, went swimming in the lake with two fraternity members on Nov. 5, 2001, shortly after 5 a.m. Police later said Meredith’s blood alcohol level had been 0.13, almost twice the legal limit in Florida.

The dean of students’ office was notified of the incident Wednesday morning by a Resident Coordinator and could not comment on the situation, but Dean Gregory Singleton said it would be investigated.

The office of student affairs said Wednesday afternoon that it would be contacting the students involved in the alleged incident soon.

“The University is aware and we are investigating the situation. The University considers this a serious offense,” Pat Whitely, vice president for student affairs, said. “There are signs posted and this is not something we will tolerate.”

Swimming in the lake has been prohibited for more than 20 years, Whitely said.

The individuals in the Facebook group said they were unaware that discipline action would be involved in the situation until they were contacted by The Hurricane for comment.

“All my friends and I were joking around,” Horney, senior, said, referring to the group on the Facebook. “I wasn’t aware that it was a big deal, but we didn’t go into the lake.”

Horney also said the photos do not show students swimming in the lake.

“We just took our shirts off after the game,” he said.

Gonzalez, also a senior, said that being in a group on the Facebook didn’t imply any wrongdoing.

“I don’t know if I jumped in the lake,” he said.

The Hurricane attempted to contact Swayze and Layton, both seniors, leaving them voice messages Wednesday afternoon. The calls were not returned.

The Facebook group was removed shortly after 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Coleman’s photo album was also removed.

Possible sanctions on these students have not yet been detailed by the administration.

“It’s not fair to comment [on possible disciplinary action],” Whitely said. “We need to discuss with students first, but it will be very serious.”

According to the handbook, possible penalties listed for this violation are Final Disciplinary Probation, Strict Disciplinary Probation or a Disciplinary Warning. Final Disciplinary Probation, the worst penalty that could be received, lasts for the remainder of the student’s course of studies. If this probation is violated, the student could be sanctioned with suspension or expulsion.

Stacey Arnold can be contacted at s.arnold@umiami.edu. Patricia Mazzei can be contacted at pmazzei@miami.edu.

TODAY

Haitian Student’s Day of Unity will be all day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the UC Patio.

University of Florida professor of philosophy John Biro will present “One Thing at a Place: Problems with Co-location,” a philosophy colloquium, in Memorial 110 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

SATURDAY

Rumble on the Green will be from 11 a.m to 4 p.m. on the UC Green. Student organizations will compete against each other in outdoor games and obstacle courses.

South Florida hip-hop radio station 103.5 FM The Beat will host a concert at 7 p.m. at the UM Convocation Center. Artists scheduled to appear include Bow Wow, Mike Jones, Marques Houston, 3-6 Mafia, Omarion, Youngbloodz, Dem Franchize Boyz, Jahiem and more to be announced. Tickets are $15, $20, $35 and $50, plus service charges.

Bat Boy: The Musical, the story of a half boy/half bat creature who is discovered in a cave near Hope Falls, W. Va., starts today at the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre at 2 p.m. The show will run through Saturday, Nov. 19.

Canes Night Live will show The Dukes of Hazzard movie at 9 p.m.m on the Rock, with free food and activities for all.

SUNDAY

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Bill Cosford Cinema, we will be showing a free movie every Sunday in November. Schindler’s List, the second movie in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Bill Cosford Cinema, show at 3:00 p.m. in the Bill Cosford Cinema. The movies is free and open to the public

IN MEMORY: University of Miami students know what natural disasters can do, probably better than a lot college students. In that spirit, students gathered Tuesday night at the Rock for a vigil to remember the victims of the earthquake in Southeast Asia that occured on Oct. 8. The latest figures have estimated that 70,000 people have died in Pakistan and India-many were unable to get help until it was too late. Hurricane Wilma doesn’t even compare to such a tragedy, but empathy was still alive and well among students on campus.

In the eyes of many students, slavery is a thing of the past. Yet conservative estimates put the worldwide population of slaves at 27 million-more than any time in history. The sisters of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., raised awareness about the issue Tuesday as they hosted Freedom Day: Slavery in Sudan.

A captivated audience listened and watched as the situation in Sudan was explained at length, complete with gruesome photos and stories of individual slaves.

“I was surprised that slavery still exists,” Philip Laramore, senior, said. “I thought we had risen above it.”

Lattisha Rowe, vice president of Sigma Gamma Rho, got the idea for hosting the event as part of her sorority’s Founder’s Week after she read a story detailing one slave’s experiences in Sudan.

“The main goal is to raise awareness about slavery in Sudan,” Rowe said. “I think it’s important to open people’s eyes about that. I could speak to someone today who could spark a change.”

Edmund Abaka, directory of the Africana Studies program, gave a brief overview of the political turmoil in Sudan that has resulted in slavery. Embroiled in civil war for almost half a century, the Muslims of the north have been fighting the non-Arab Sudanese in the south in a battle that has left more than two million dead and four million displaced.

“Because of the long civil war, there are ethnic animosities,” Abaka said, which have resulted in the current situation of slavery today.

The presentation detailed the harsh conditions that slaves in Sudan endure, including daily beatings, gang rapes and loss of identity.

Abaka advised students to take the steps needed to bring awareness to the conditions of the Sudanese today. He urged everyone to talk to senators and congressmen and to make it a priority for other governments to intervene.

“The main thing is that people’s rights have been abused. They have been oppressed,” Abaka said. “And therefore we should push it strongly as a human rights case. Sudan should be the opening front for this battle.”

Students walked away with a new understanding of slavery in the world today.

“I think it was very informative and I was surprised to see that something as terrible as slavery still exists.” Shajena Erazo, freshman, said. “It really opened my eyes.”

“I know that slavery exists [in the] present day, but I didn’t know that there were that many slaves, especially in Africa,” Emanna Louis, junior, said.

Rowe wants to expand the workshop to next semester, possibly adding speakers.

“Hopefully we can make it an annual thing,” Rowe said. “There is still slavery in the world today-slavery is not history.”

For more information on the issues of slavery in Sudan, visit www.ibolish.com.

Megha Garg can be contacted at m.garg2@umiami.edu.