Letters to the editor

SHAs aren’t substitutes for health
care

I am appalled at the article on the role and training of Student
Health Advocates (“Drug use training limited for SHAs,”
News, Feb. 11). Song made the SHA program appear to be mainly
designed to counsel students for personal problems, when I can
testify to the fact that the majority of my encounters with
residents is to provide medications and/or supplies to ease medical
symptoms. It is true that SHAs only receive limited drug training.
We are not, and cannot replace, health care professionals who have
undergone years of training. We provide the best care we can, and
receive an excellent training course in the administration of all
of our medications.

Song also noted that SHAs “may not be the right people to
go to for emergencies involving drug or alcohol abuse.” In
every context of medical situations, a SHA is trained to respond
appropriately and quickly. A resident adviser is as helpless as a
SHA when confronted with a drug overdose or a case of true alcohol
poisoning. Neither has the training nor the resources to
properly deal with these cases ““ only the emergency room has
these resources. Our training is to contact the appropriate
authorities when a student’s health is at stake ““
exactly the same training RAs receive.

At the same time, we do not want to call Emergency Medical
Services for an obviously non-emergency situation. I have been
consulted before by RAs wondering whether or not a situation was
severe enough to warrant an EMS call. We spend upwards of 10 hours
a week in training to know how to assess and deal with the
situations confronting us every day.

SHAs provide invaluable services to our residents, keeping them
safe and healthy. Without the first-responder training, student
safety in the residence halls could be compromised and the strain
on our medical services would be increased.

It is my hope that residents continue to approach us about any
matter, whether medical or personal.

Mark Chen Student Health Advocate

Black History Month relevant, valuable

In his recent column dismissing Black History Month
(“Black History Month divides present world,” Feb. 11),
first-year history student Garin Hovannisian totally missed the
point. His views illustrate a perception of minority culture and
history that’s ignorant both of how history is supposed to
work and of culture itself.

When dealing with the present, his assertion that
“different races no longer experience significantly different
treatment” should come across as a shock to anyone with even
a basic understanding of current American race issues. For example,
issues of police brutality and undue police suspicions come to
mind, and are significant to black communities across the
country.

Hovannisian assumes that Black History Month can only be used as
either a nod to the past or to “exploit racial issues for
personal gain,” calling it “divisive,”
“dangerous,” and depressingly
“anti-American.” He entirely dismisses a third
possibility ““ that being aware of the past is essential to
anyone wanting to survive the present and expand hope for the
future.

He writes that we “have no use for Black History
Month” since “the United States no longer has laws or
institutions that are stacked against blacks.” Setting aside
the issue of fairness in American institutions, should we then have
had Black History Month only during the heyday of slavery, Jim Crow
laws and Klan lynchings? For that matter, what are we doing still
building museums to remember victims of World War II, and why do we
still celebrate the triumph of American independence from the yoke
of British colonialism? Either the triumphs and miseries of black
history are somehow different from these things and not worth
mentioning, or the history of all oppression is just something to
be thrown down the memory hole. It doesn’t take a first-year
history student to see that it’s these views, not the
acknowledgment of basic history, that are divisive.

Sam Soleimany Fourth-year, psychology Co-chair,
Progressive Jewish Student’s Association