Category — In the news

The Education Trust nonprofit research institute has released a new analysis of federal data concluding that 50 public flagships, one in each state, “continue to enroll students who are far richer and far whiter” than most in their states, says Director Kati Haycock.

“The report also reveals a grievous imbalance in the way many of these institutions distribute financial aid to students. Public flagship and research universities spend millions of dollars every year subsidizing wealthy students who don’t need aid, while providing inadequate support to low-income and minority students who do.  Although low-income students receive higher grant awards than wealthy students on average, flagships spend almost exactly the same amount to aid students in the top two quintiles of family income as they do to aid students in the bottom two quintiles.

In fact, the typical low-income student at these institutions is left with an “unmet” financial need equivalent to about 70 percent of his or her family’s annual income. Meanwhile, students at our leading public universities are looking less and less like the state populations these institutions were founded to serve.”

See news release here (or download complete report)

Following is the transcript of President Obama’s speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday, as released by the White House:

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world:

I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations — that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.

And yet I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. (Laughter.) In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who’ve received this prize — Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela — my accomplishments are slight. And then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women — some known, some obscure to all but those they help — to be far more deserving of this honor than I.

But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by 42 other countries — including Norway — in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.

Continues here

Here’s a great article about $1 million Opus Prize winner Aicha Ech Channa, founder of the Association for Women’s Solidarity in Casablanca, Morocco, to help unwed mothers become self-sufficient. She is the first Muslim to win the Opus award, an annual humanitarian award which goes to “unsung heroes for their faith-based acts of compassion….”

In the 1980s, she was working for the Moroccan Ministry of Social Affairs, where unwed mothers came seeking help, even though little help was available. Under [local] law, the women were considered prostitutes, and many had their babies taken away over their objections.

Considering that unacceptable, Ech Channa launched her program in 1985. It offers women legal counseling, job training and medical and psychological support with a goal of making them self-sufficient so they can raise their children….

Despite criticism from Muslim clerics, she is committed to her faith, which she approaches from a humanist standpoint.

Humanism is about individuals and the love they have for one another,” she said. “Every human being has a flame [of love] inside them that must be fanned.”

Found this article via Muslimah Media Watch, a terrific blog worth checking out further….

I’m re-posting this entry because Ms. Martin followed up with some terrific responses she got from a host of men’s groups.  Check out the second part here.

And the original post:

Courtney Martin of the American Prospect writes about a new generation of men rejecting “traditional and toxic notions of masculinity…but they’re still figuring out what should replace it.”

While it’s thrilling that there is also a movement of young men all who want to tear down the patriarchy right alongside women, it’s dangerous that they don’t have a clear picture of what they want to build in its place. At the conference, one young man spoke up against the notion of a new “feminist masculinity,” explaining that he feared it would be one more box that young men felt they had to fit into. There’s a lot of validity to his argument, but I fear that the old adage is true: We can’t be what we can’t see. Models help us try on various identities and find one that is truly authentic. The more publicly feminist-aligned men we have, the more opportunities the next generation has to find a positive, masculine gender identity that actually fits.

Continues at What’s the Alternative to Tucker Max? | The American Prospect.

Here’s an amazing graphic that illustrates how different the economy looks when we consider race and gender…..click on the image to see the original at the NYT (courtesy of Prof. Ochoa)

Don’t miss the Spartan Daily article about Women’s Studies student Ari Eldridge, a terrific young transgender student who is enjoying her first year of college, appreciating the SJSU community, and helping educate others about transgender issues.

Ari Eldridge finds comfort in being a transgender student, but believes that too few students are knowledgeable about what transgender is.

“The definition of transgender has different meanings to people in the LGBT (lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender) community, but it means a person who does not identify one’s gender with one’s birth sex,” said Eldridge, whose male birth name no longer works for her.

Eldridge said she is assimilating at SJSU, and is enjoying her first year of college, which includes being a secretary for the transgender support group she is involved with at SJSU.
Though it was difficult for Eldridge to label herself as transgender to some friends and family, she said she is more confident because of it.

“SJSU is my safe space,” Eldridge said. “I feel more comfortable here then I ever did in my high school.”

She said that in high school, it was difficult for her to express herself, because there was not a specific group of people she identified with.

“I wasn’t a very social person,” Eldridge said.
She said high school was a challenge, but despite her insecurities, she tried to seek support groups. She said opening up to her friends and family was still not an easy task.

“In high school, there was a lot of self-suppression,” Eldridge said.” I told one of my friends and it was really hard for me to say it out loud.”

Eldridge said that when she was younger, she was quite feminine, but didn’t know that the word “transgender” existed.
“I’ve always felt different,” she said. “I had a girlfriend, but it felt like I was the more emotional one, like the female in the relationship. When she would call me handsome, I would tell her to call me pretty.”

Eldridge said the LGBT Resource Center helped her adjust to her new life as a student on campus, and that it’s comforting to know that there are people who understand her struggle, and what it means to be transgender.

Article continues here

STOCKHOLM – Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak won the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer

.It was the first time two women have been among the winners of the medicine prize.  The trio solved the mystery of how chromosomes, the rod-like structures that carry DNA, protect themselves from degrading when cells divide.

The Nobel citation said the laureates found the solution in the ends of the chromosomes — features called telomeres that are often compared to the plastic tips at the end of shoe laces that keep those laces from unraveling.

Blackburn and Greider discovered the enzyme that builds telomeres — telomerase — and the mechanism by which it adds DNA to the tips of chromosomes to replace genetic material that has eroded away.

The prize-winners’ work, done in the late 1970s and 1980s, set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth. Scientists are studying whether drugs that block the enzyme can fight the disease. In addition, scientists believe that the DNA erosion the enzyme repairs might play a role in some illnesses.

“The discoveries by Blackburn, Greider and Szostak have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies,” the prize committee said in its citation.

Ten women have won the prestigious medicine award since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901, but it was the first time that two women were honored in the same year.

Nobel judges say women are underrepresented in Nobel statistics because the award-winning research often dates back several decades to a time when science was dominated by men. Still, critics say the judges aren’t looking hard enough for deserving women candidates.

“We don’t give Nobel Prizes because of gender,” medicine prize committee member Goran Hansson told The Associated Press. “We give it for scientific discoveries. As more women participate in research and make scientific discoveries, more women will win Nobel Prizes.”

via 3 Americans share 2009 Nobel medicine prize – Yahoo! News.

A group of privileged women who did not have to work for pay,  are forced by recession,  to come back to labor market. This NYT article calls these women the ” collateral damage of the recession.”

She pointed to investment losses “in the healthy six figures,” along with “some very high medical expenses for a family member and having two daughters in college. And then the value of our home and pension plan has taken a tumble.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/business/19women.html?emc=eta1

Semenya’s saga was made for the news media. A girl who may not be a girl! That chest! Those arms! That face! She was the perfect vehicle for nearly any agenda: was this another incidence of people calling into question black female athletes’ femininity (the Williams sisters, the basketball legend Sheryl Swoopes)? Was it sexist to assume women were incapable of huge leaps in athletic performance? Should all female athletes be gender-verified, as they were in Olympic competition until 1999? (The practice was dropped because no competitive edge was proved for the few women with rare disorders of sex development — it served only to humiliate them.) Should the entire practice of sex-segregating sports be abandoned?

Was that a girl, was that a girl. That’s what people kept asking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/magazine/13FOB-WWLN-t.html?emc=eta1

By Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times
Updated: 08/13/2009 11:03:21 PM PDT

California State University students have asked a San Francisco judge to reverse fee hikes implemented last month after students had paid for the upcoming fall term.

The suit, filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, closely resembles a successful action against the University of California that resulted in UC paying back about $42 million to former students. The same law firms that represented UC students are involved in the Cal State case.

“I believe it’s exactly the same thing that happened” at UC, said Danielle Leonard, an attorney with the students’ San Francisco firm, Altshuler Berzon. “This option should not have even been on the table.”

The class-action suit accuses the 440,000-student state university system of unfairly raising undergraduate and graduate fees in July, the second time in three months fees were hiked. Students at some campuses had as little as a week to pay the additional money to avoid having their accounts frozen, Leonard said. [Read more →]