The Guaranteed Grade Point Average scholarship will soon be completely eliminated from Emporia State’s financial aid program and will be replaced with the Hornet Award. According to Elaine Henrie, director of financial aid, potentially 190 students will receive the guaranteed GPA scholarship for next year, but the official count won’t be released until final grades are in.

The new program, which was started two years ago, actually offers students more money per semester although the award will only extend over two years instead of four.

“Students are pretty excited about having a two year opportunity we found,” said Laura Eddy, director of Admissions. “I don’t think any schools in the state of Kansas guarantee (scholarship money) for four years. That’s something in the past.”

Now students will have the opportunity to be awarded scholarships based on both the ACT score and their high school GPA. On the low end of the scale, students with an ACT of 22 and a GPA of 3.0, $700 is available. On the high end, $2,000 will be awarded to students with an ACT of 29 or higher and a GPA of 3.75 or higher.

The previous award amounts were $500 for an ACT score between 21-23 or a GPA of 3.5. The highest award amount on the old program was $1,200 for an ACT score of 27 or higher.

Eddy said that the change in program has not hurt recruiting.

For third and fourth year students who no longer apply to receive a GPA scholarship, more awards will be available from individual departments.

“(When funds come) we will push more dollars out to the departments to award,” Henrie said. “It will be a process. That will be the goal to get it pushed out to the department so that you work with your department for the last two years.”

Transfer students will also still be eligible to apply for the Hornet award.

Students who started college on the GPA scholarship will continue to receive the award until they reach their four year maximum on the award.

“Anyone who started under that, we certainly didn’t pull the rug from under them and change it,” Henrie said. “We were going to make sure that were following all the way through with that. That wouldn’t have been fair or the right thing to do.”

One benefit of the new program according to Eddy, is that it gives students more opportunities to receive scholarship money.

“We’ve been able to add an early application scholarship, a valedictorian scholarship,” Eddy said. “In the past student’s would ask us, ‘what else can I apply for?’, and really there was nothing else. It’s given more opportunities.”

The Guaranteed GPA award was created over 10 years ago under ESU’s previous president, Kay Schallenkamp.

“It didn’t require any kind of application nor did it look at students in total,” Henrie said. “It worked somewhat. It really did not take into account both the ACT and the high school GPA. The student’s who actually get that money have been more successful than some of the students in the past because we were only relying on one aspect.”

With the old program, students who had a high ACT score but low grades in high school could still receive a large award. In the reciprocal situation, there was really no way for students to get any scholarship at all.

“When we are using donor money, it is pretty important to have some accountability,” Henrie said. “We had to find the most effective ways to spend those dollars. It becomes accountability, that you took your high school education seriously and that you tried your best on your ACT.”

There was also no application process with the GPA scholarship.

“ESU was kind of an outlier for not requiring a scholarship application,” Henrie said. “If you’re really interested in a scholarship, you have to do something to apply. Rather than being based on scholarship it was almost more based on entitlement. If you’re a student who works pretty hard, I think that is a significant difference to earn your scholarship.”

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“It gets in your blood and when you start playing, you like it,” Najem said. “It has so many different skills that you need to acquire. It has so many different rotations that you can do on the ball. You can do a whole lot with a basketball but with a table tennis ball and a paddle you can do a million different things.” Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

Some things come naturally to people. For Alfred Najem, graduate student in business administration and Instructional Design and Technology, table tennis is one of those things.

“It gets in your blood and when you start playing, you like it,” Najem said. “It has so many different skills that you need to acquire. It has so many different rotations that you can do on the ball. You can do a whole lot with a basketball but with a table tennis ball and a paddle you can do a million different things.”

Najem is the 2008 U.S. National College champion and three time Lebanese National Men’s champion. Najem also won the Cyprus Open in 2000 and the Missouri Winter Games Open last weekend.

“He’s a world class athlete,” said Omar Román, 1976 ESU alumni and Emporia resident. “Before he came to Emporia he was the number one player in Lebanon. He is probably the best thing to happen to Emporia State University, having a world class athlete. He just keeps winning and winning.”

Currently, Najem is ranked number one in Kansas and is in the top 40 in the nation. He has also competed in the World Championships in China.

“Since he’s been in Kansas and Emporia, he’s taken over the number one spot,” Román said.

His love of the game began with his mother when he was about 7 years old.

“My mother helped me start,” he said. “She used to play and I would watch. I just like the game. Instead of going swimming or something else, I enjoyed watching them play.”

Being a champion runs in Najem’s family.

“She didn’t play professionally but she used to be the champion of the north region of (Lebanon),” Najem said. “She was very good. Because of her I was able to win some championships.”

At age 10, Najem won the National Junior Championship in Lebanon and joined the national Lebanese team when he was 12 years old. Throughout his competitions, Najem has traveled to over 30 countries.

“I started traveling and gained a lot of knowledge about the game,” Najem said.

Najem emphasized the need to be in shape to play table tennis.

“People think you don’t need to run, you don’t need to be physically in shape,” he said, “but it’s totally different. It’s so important. You can’t play in jeans if you want to play at a high level. You need to run and do abs, pushups. You need to build up muscle to play games.”

Najem will compete for the 2010 U.S. National Table Tennis college title on April 8.

“I’m going to do my best and hopefully I will win again,” Najem said.

Román, a former champion himself, trains with Najem.

“When we do drills, we look like Forest Gump and people say ‘wow, these guys are good,’” Román said. “But it helps in the real game.”

Formerly from Venezuela, Román was the 1985 Venezuelan National men’s champion.

“He’s elevated my game,” Román said. “I’m 57 years old and because of him I have elevated my game just by playing him. He likes working with me because I have competed in many national events and I can keep up with me. Originally when we first started I could hard get my racket on the ball. I could barely return his serves. Now, I don’t even think about it.”

In training for the college nationals, Najem practices five times per week for 2-3 hours per day at the Emporia State Recreation Center and the City of Emporia Recreation Center.

“As I get closer to the tournament, I start getting more into the technical part of the game,” he said. “When it’s two or three months away, I prepare more physically. When it gets closer, I get easier on the physical part, the running, because you don’t want to be tired, you want to be in shape.”

There are a lot of drills Najem uses to prepare for a tournament.

“You do a lot of drills on feet movement,” he said. “It’s very important to practice feet movement and serving, returns.”

The Memorial Union has sponsored Najem in each of the U.S. College National competitions that he has competed in.

“It costs around $1,500, so special thanks to them,” Najem said.

Although table tennis is much more popular in Lebanon than it is in the U.S., Najem said there are a surprising number of players.

“Back home it is much more popular, in Europe it is popular, in China it is the number one game,” Najem said. “There is a huge number of players and there are a lot of people who are opening business for supplies for these players. It’s not close to football or basketball.”

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The enrollment head count for Emporia State has shown an increase of 19 students from spring 2009, accounting for 0.3 percent increase, according to the Kansas Board of Regents.

“A whole lot of people did a whole lot of hard work during the semester to bring in some new students,” said Michael Lane, president of ESU. “I’m very pleased with the efforts of our admissions folks as well as the faculty and staff who worked with them on it.”

A total increase of 1,886, 2.2 percent, was reported throughout the state in six Regents universities, according to the KBOR.

However, ESU had the lowest increase, while Fort Hays State University had the highest increase, with 961 students, and the University of Kansas had a decrease of 39 students.

“One of the main strategies that we are working on is making sure that the campus is involved in the recruiting process,” said James Williams, associate provost for enrollment management and vice president of strategic partnerships. “It’s far more dynamic than just what the admissions staff does. It includes faculty. It includes students.”

To make up for the deficit of nearly 100 students in enrollment from last semester, an effort was made to recruit new students.

“We always try to work on improving retention. I know the most significant part of our increase was in new start students, new start freshman and new start transfers,” Lane said.

Noel-Levitz, a higher education consulting firm, will review ESU’s techniques to gain students.

“They will be doing a review of our procedures and our processes, from our marketing to our communication with prospective students, to how we recruit students,” Williams said. “They will work with us on continuing to structure (our programs).”

With the recent growth in attendance at community colleges, Williams said that it is important for ESU to try to build partnerships with community colleges to help students as much as possible.

“We need to be getting students that go to other institutions,” Williams said. “We need to be capturing those students.”

As a part of this effort, ESU has established programs at Butler Community College and Hutchinson Community College, as well as continuing efforts at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

“This fall, we will see the first enrollments in the business program at BCC,” Williams said. “We’ll have the first real strong beginning process with HCC. We have reviewed our agreements with KCKCC.”

As a part of these programs, it will be easier for students attending these community colleges to continue their educations at ESU.

“With Hutchinson, we’ve developed a dual enrollment program,” Williams said. “When those students transition here, they will have taken what they need to complete the degree in two years.”

A similar program will exist within the Business and Elementary Education Departments at Butler.

“We need to develop these agreements so that’s seamless transition for the student,” Williams said. “If enrollment is going up in the community colleges, it only makes sense that we need to recruit more transfer students.”

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Ashley Peaches

Dear Ashley

Which birth control pills are the safest and most effective?

Sincerely,

Cautious

Dear Cautious,

According to research done by Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, some oral contraceptives come with more of a risk of blood clots than others.

According to the study, contraceptives with levonorgestrel and a low dose of estrogen have the lowest risk of venous thrombosis or blood clots.

However, experts at WebMD said that the differences in risk are small and the risk of getting blood clots is low to begin with.

The risk of blood clots is associated with higher levels of estrogen in birth control pills.

As far as effectiveness goes, most birth control pills have about the same level of effectiveness which, when taken correctly, can be 91 to 99 percent effectiveness.

But always remember the MOST effective form of birth control is abstinence, so keep it in your pants.

Dear Ashley

Why are you always saying keep it in you pants?

Sincerely,

Confused

Dear Confused,

Well “keep it in your pants” has sort of become my catch phrase and really is the motivation and the reasoning behind this column.

“Keep it in your pants” has its literal meanings (obviously) but mostly it has come to mean that if you are still having questions, don’t do it. And it has become a funny way to help people remember the main message of this column.

Like I’ve said before, I’m not trying to pressure people into doing anything that they don’t want to do, so one of the best pieces of advice I can give someone is keep it in your pants –  literally.

And for those of you wondering, no I’m not a nymphomaniac, or a woman who is obsessed with sex (interestingly enough, the male version of nymphomania is satyriasis). This is now referred to as hypersexuality, which can be applied to both sexes, according to dictionary.com.

I’m just an honest, open and curious person who is comfortable talking about a wide range of sexual issues.

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The more than 6,000 miles that separate them means nothing to Dong-Joon Lee, junior vocal performance major, and Sun Suk Lee, 2009 Emporia State graduate. They plan to get married and live in the U.S.

“We got engaged so we are going to get married soon,” Dong-Joon said. “It’s a lot. But it’s OK. Sometimes I really miss her. Distance does not matter. It can’t be an excuse.”

But until then, Dong-Joon will not make the nearly 20 hour flight to see Sun Suk in their home country of South Korea. He said that it’s hard, but it’s only for this semester.

“We cannot see each other,” Dong-Joon said. “That’s the only part (that’s hard). Everything else is fine.”

While Andrew Thomas, senior economics major, is only a little over an hour away from his girlfriend, Megan Litchkowski, senior elementary education major, it is still hard. But not as difficult as when he studied abroad last semester in The Netherlands.

“Obviously (the biggest change) was not being able to see each other or talk to each other,” Thomas said. “Before I left, we lived together and we saw each other all day, every day.”

Dong-Joon and Sun Suk have been dating for over a year and they met here at ESU. With this being their first semester apart, Dong-Joon and Sun Suk utilize modern technologies to keep in touch.

“We have phone and email and an internet phone,” Dong-Joon said. “(It’s like Skype) but it’s a system only for Koreans. It works anywhere in the world and it’s totally free. We communicate a lot.”

Thomas said that the use of Skype also made things a lot easier to deal with for him.

“I used Skype for everything,” Thomas said. “Every once in a while I used an international cell phone, but it’s just so expensive.”

And as the saying goes, distance makes the heart grow fonder.

“We miss each other a lot,” Dong-Joon said. “That makes us keep up communication. I don’t usually express (my feelings) to her. Now I express (myself) more than before due to the distance.”

Relationships between international students usually break up when one person involved leaves, Dong-Joon said.

“Most (international relationships) break up,” Dong-Joon said. “There are barriers between students from other countries. They like hanging out with students from their own country. After finishing their degree, they go back to their country and it’s easy to break up.”

Back in Korea, Dong-Joon’s family lives in Seoul. Sun Suk is currently about an hour to the south in Uiwang.

“It’s not that far, not that close,” Dong-Joon said. “I’ve been there once last summer to meet her parents.”

Now that Thomas is back in the U.S., Litchkowski has moved to Olathe to student teach.

“Now we see each other every weekend,” Thomas said. “It’s a lot easier than it was.”

Thomas said that with two and a half years already under their belt, the decision to continue the relationship, through the distance, was an easy one.

“The only reason that it really worked in our situation was because we had already been dating so long,” Thomas said. “We had enough trust in each other that we were able to make it work.”

Dong-Joon advised persons considering a long distance relationship to think about the decision.

“They should think about it,” Dong-Joon said, “because (they need to know) one thing for sure – if they really love each other. You hear it a lot ‘out of sight out of mind.’ But if you really love each other, it should be ‘out of sight into the mind.’”

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Ashley Peaches

Is there such a thing as too much masturbation?

Sincerely,

Often

Dear Often,

In short, the answer is no. Physically masturbation can’t really cause you any harm. According to WebMD, masturbation is healthy, can help relieve stress and can also be a safe alternative to other sexual activities.

However, masturbation can be harmful if the amount of masturbation limits what activities are performed in daily life. You know you are doing it too much if you can’t find the time to eat or sleep or go to work. And you may actually have a problem.

Masturbation can also be a problem if it begins replacing sexual activities in a relationship.

Over masturbation is actually defined as several times per day, every day. According to askmen.com, ejaculation should be kept to a few times per week. This means that if you can orgasm without ejaculating, you’re okay.

However, when the body experiences over stimulation, it can produce too much of the sex hormones and this could cause a chemical imbalance that may lead to fatigue, hair loss and groin pain.

So if you can contain your urges and only love yourself once a day or less, you should be fine.

Dear Ashley

Is it true that having sex in a pool or hot tub kills enough bacteria so that you can’t get any diseases?

Sincerely,

Wet and Wild

Dear WW,

Definitely not. You can get pregnant and get sexually transmitted infections even underwater including hot tub, pool, lake, ocean. According to WebMD, sperm can live outside the body, or in water, for several minutes if the water is at the right temperature.

The heat of a hot tub will not be hot enough to kill any bacteria from a STI. Actually, having sex under water can increase the chances of a woman getting a urinary tract or yeast infection.

However, condoms are not a safe method of birth control underwater. The risks of condoms breaking or slipping off are increased underwater.

So the best advice that I can give you is to keep it on dry land and keep it in your pants.

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The Memorial Union renovations are set to begin on April 19 and as students wander through the union, they may have noticed that some remodeling is already underway.

“Right now everything is on schedule,” said Dave Hendricks, director of the Memorial Union.

The final plans will be discussed with the architects on Feb. 24 and from there, the Board of Regents will have to sign off before the project can begin.

“They have to approve the bond resolution,” said Raymond Hauke, vice president of administration and fiscal affairs. “They could reject it, but they typically don’t.”

The student fee that was approved last spring by a student vote will go toward payments to the bonds every semester for about 20 years.

“It would be up to them whether they wanted to roll back the fees or go into some other renovation,” Hauke said.

With the state of the economy, the actual amounts for construction are projected to be under budget, meaning there could be money left over.

“The bidding climate continues to be positive in our favor in that things are coming in low,” Hendricks said. “We fully expect that the project will be less than the budget.”

Extra money would go towards renovating the third floor of the union and possibly new furniture for areas like the cafeteria, where new furniture wasn’t originally budgeted.

“New lounge furniture is the highest priority in my mind,” Hendricks said. “Then we can move to the cafeteria, in my opinion.”

The east side of the union will be shut down in April, with the Information Desk moving to the west entrance across from the cafeteria and Conference and Scheduling moving downstairs.

“We’ve relocated the ID office,” Hendricks said. “And we are in the process of finishing up work in the old ID office, which will become the Hornet Express.”

Many students may be wondering why the Hornet Express was remodeled less than two years ago if it would be torn down now.

“What we did in there was market research,” Hendricks said. “One of our goals was to get food on two levels. We didn’t have any data to prove that that was a good move. We put almost $20,000 into that space knowing that it was going to be torn down in a few years. The first year, the Hx outsold the (Hornet’s Nest and the convenience store) by $158,000. We learned several things: location and we didn’t have enough. We need to have at least one other food retail area. We’ve created a pizza/pasta place that will be in the west lobby. It seems silly but going in we knew that was the plan.”

Most of the relocations will be done over Spring Break.

“Either during or right after Spring Break we are going to start some demolition on the east side of the building to tear out the current Hornet Express to get a jump start on the project,” Hendricks said.

In the beginning of July, the bookstore will move downstairs to the Heritage Room.

“At that point the east side will be completely closed down,” Hendricks said. “One of the very first thing that we will see is the building of the (east) addition. That will be online, hopefully, by Christmas break.”

Students who use the east entrance frequently will be instructed to use the South entrance of the Union.

“We will reroute them to the south side of the union, down the steps to the doors that are right across from the Hx,” Hendricks said.

The north entrance will also be closed.

“Ultimately, we will have a new entrance down into the Hornet’s Nest space,” Hendricks said. “We’ll reroute (them) down to the Hornet’s nest patio and up into the West side.”

The Student Health Center will no longer be in the union and will be relocated to the second floor of South East Morse over Christmas break.

“That allows us to create a wellness center,” Hendricks said. “The hallway that goes east towards the union will be the health center. We wanted both of (the counseling center and the health center) to be in the same area.”

With the addition of the health center in the resident halls, there will be less space for student occupants.

“In terms of impact on students, it’s a loss of about 30 spaces,” said Cass Coughlin, director of residential life. But we are going to take all of South East Morse offline next year and begin renovation work in there. So the whole building would have been shut down any way. We are only about 80 occupancy this year. We have more space than students who are interested in living in the dorms.”

Even SWARM activities to enroll new students will have to be changed.

“There is a complex SWARM plan,” Hendricks said. “The folks that plan SWARM got very creative. It’s going to be a little bit different from previous years.”

However the summer camps that are held annually at ESU will still occur, even with the construction.

“All of the major camps that use Emporia State in the summer time will be back this summer,” Hendricks said. “We felt really good that we have long standing relationships with those camps and they choose to come back.”

With all of the construction, Hendricks asked the university be patient.

“Bear with us,” he said. “There are going to be some challenges for us. The prize at the end of this thing is far greater than inconveniences that we will have to live through to get there.”

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There are many legends that tell the story of how the modern world came to celebrate Valentine’s Day. While the holiday is a western invention, countries across the globe have come to observe the U.S. version, as well as their own. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

There are many legends that tell the story of how the modern world came to celebrate Valentine’s Day. While the holiday is a western invention, countries across the globe have come to observe the U.S. version, as well as their own.

People in China celebrate Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14 in the western style with gift exchanges and fancy dinners.

“The tradition is that the ladies would pray to the goddess to become a better woman and if she’s not married, she may want to pray for a handsome husband,” said Henry Yu, graduate student in business administration from China. “Ladies who aren’t married would do art work to compete to see who has the better skills.”

But there will also be a more traditional lover’s celebration called Qi Xi, the Seventh Night Festival. This year’s celebration falls on Aug. 16., the seventh night of summer on the lunar calendar.

The story goes that the seventh daughter of the Jade Lord came to earth, fell in love with a poor farmer and married him. When her mother discovered what she had done, she was so upset that she created the ‘star river’ (the universe) to flow between and separate them.

In an attempt to help the sad couple, millions of birds made a bridge across the universe so that the farmer could see his wife again. But the birds could only hold the bridge for one day and this was the only day each year the couple could be reunited.

“The story inspired people to develop a tradition to celebrate lovers,” Yu said. “The story is unique. People around (the couple) are good and helpful and they can meet once a year. It inspires people to value the relationship they are having now.”

However, these traditions are somewhat outdated and time consuming and are no longer practiced.

“Now ladies makes chocolates and give them to her boyfriend or a boy that she likes,” Yu said. “Between the boys there is a competition to see who gets the most chocolates.”

Koreans, Vietnamese and Japanese celebrate a holiday that is similar to the seventh night festival, Yu said.

In Paraguay, the locals celebrate what they call Día de los Enamorados or Lover’s Day.

“We do celebrate Valentine’s Day in Paraguay,” said Alex Vuyk, masters in special education in an email interview from Paraguay. “Even though that is the official name, we don’t call it that.”

The method for celebrating is very similar to what is done in the U.S., including gift, flower and chocolate exchanges. Clubs in Paraguay throw anti-love parties for singles.

“It is not a day for friends, only romantic love is celebrated,” Vuyk said. “Friends have their day on July 30, which is Friendship Day.”

Ugandans celebrate a more relaxed version of Valentine’s Day.

“It’s not really a holiday,” said Strap Nkoba, sophomore graphic design major from Uganda. “People spend time with the ones they love. There’s a lot of red stuff and it’s really westernized. “

Roses are a typical Valentine’s gift in Uganda.

“We export roses,” Nkoba said. “It’s a tropical country.”

However, Nkoba thinks that affection should not be saved for Valentine’s Day.

“If you want to show affection to someone, you should show affection every day,” he said.

According to the History Channel, the most popular Valentine’s origin legends stem from stories of a war hungry Roman emperor who outlawed marriage with the belief that single men made better soldiers than married ones.

St. Valentine defied the emperor and married young couples in secret. When he was found out, he was jailed and fell in love with a young woman who visited him.

Before being put to death, Valentine wrote her a letter that he signed “From your Valentine.”

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Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

With its new dental hygiene program, Flint Hills Tech College now offers free dental cleanings and screenings to Emporia State and FHTC students.

“When you’re lacking funds, that’s something that falls by the wayside,” said Cheryl Bosilejvac, director of the dental hygiene program. “That’s why we offer the free dental service to students.”

The dental hygiene students who administer the cleaning to patients are in their second year as students and confident in their abilities.

“We started classes in June and we practiced on each other over the summer semester,” said Chelsea Zeiner, dental hygiene student at FHTC. “We started seeing patients in August so we were comfortable by the time we started getting patients.”

Each student in the program, 14 of them, can take up to four patients per week.

“We usually require two and a half hours to make an appointment,” Zeiner said.

Appointments are available on a first come, first serve basis on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, but Zeiner said that most of the hygienists in training have to search for their own patients.

“There’s 14 of us and we all need patients so students can get in pretty quickly,” Zeiner said. “A lot of the girls are having trouble finding patients. So anyone who is willing to come in and give us some experience, we really appreciate it.”

Zeiner has made all of her own appointments and relies on friends and acquaintances to fill her day.

FHTC has one of only four dental hygiene programs in Kansas according to Zeiner.

“There are not a lot of schools and the programs only accept 12-14 students so I would say that there was a big demand for dental hygiene schools,” Zeiner said. “It’s very competitive.”

The care that patients receive during the FHTC program is comparable to what any regular dentist would provide.

“It’s very thorough in our program because not only do we do it once, but our instructor comes back and checks everything that we’ve done,” Zeiner said.

Patients receive an oral prophylaxis, intra and extra oral cancer screenings, a periodontal assessment, a fluoride treatment and routine x-rays.

“People should get everything like that done at the dentist’s office,” Zeiner said.

However, if a problem is found with a patient, the hygienists to be have to refer the patient to get a second opinion.

“We see anything suspicious then we refer them on to a dentist,” Zeiner said. “We’re not allowed to diagnosis anything.”

For non-students, the cleaning costs $15.

“$15 is reasonable,” Zeiner said. “Students might not seek out that treatment if they have to pay.”

The FHTC dental hygiene program is a Central Office Dentist Association accredited program.

“You have to go through the dental assistant program first and get certified as a dental assistant,” Zeiner said. “The hygiene program is one year with the additional dental assistant program making it two years.

Zeiner said that dentists recommend that individuals get an oral check up and x-rays every six months.

Dental services are performed at Hannah and Oltjen Orthodontics, 3021 Eaglecrest Drive. To make an appointment, call 620-341-1336.

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Ashley Peaches

This week is Sexual Responsibility Week. While it may be fun to talk about the myths and interesting situations that come with sexual encounters, you have to be proactive when it comes to your own sexual health.

Although Sexual Responsibility Week ends tomorrow, there is never a bad time to learn about what you can do to keep yourself safe from unwanted infections or pregnancies. Talking to any potential partners about what is okay for you is important BEFORE engaging in any sexual activities. Discussing boundaries beforehand can make those lines that shouldn’t be crossed easier to see.

Remember to get tested and ask your partner to get tested. Being sexually healthy is up to both partners. And making sure that protection is available can also be the responsibility of both partners.

It is up to you to guarantee that YOU are sexually responsible. Visit safersex.org to find out more about safe sex practices.

Dear Ashley

Two weeks ago, you addressed a question about whether or not a person can get an STI from saliva. Well, what happens if a girl is giving a guy head and she has an STI?

Sincerely,

Receiver

Dear Receiver,

Like I said, it is hard to pass STDs through saliva. From the data I’ve found there is actually about the same risk through fellatio as that of swapping saliva alone. Unless of course you both had open sores, in which the infections could have passed much easier.

There is almost no risk of HIV/AIDS and, according to medhelp.org, there is a small chance of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea.

My column last week talked about the risks of passing herpes, which is one of your biggest risks, along with syphilis and nongonococcal urethritis.

Nongonococcal urethritis is actually a common STI which according to WebMd is an infection of the urethra. You can get nongonococcal urethritis from a Chlamydia infection but it is also a problem within itself. It occurs often in persons who participate in oral sex due to oral bacteria persistent in the giver.

Symptoms for nongonococcal urethritis are pain and burning during urination and/or discharge from the urethra. But having symptoms is sometimes rare.

If you are really worried about having an infection, contact a medical professional. You should always wear a condom when engaging in sexual activities.

Or just keep it in your pants.

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Ashley Peaches

As we all know, February is black history month. While I’m all for celebrating culture and teaching America’s children about history, I do not believe that we need a black history month.

I don’t think that black history should even be a phrase in our lexicon. Because black history in America is American history.

However, the current school system is not made to be without a black history month and let me explain why. During the 28 days that is February (sometimes 29), children across America are filled with the ideas of the civil rights movement and inspirational leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, W.E.B. DeBois and Booker T. Washington.

The problem with our current system is that most students only learn about black history for the shortest month of the year. And what they do learn are things that will be taught to them over and over again each year (i.e. the civil rights movement). Honestly, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, read or watched “I Have a Dream.”

An even bigger problem is that while those black people that children are learning about in school are an important part of black history, there are so many more influential black people that are completely skipped over while their white counterpart is taught.

Why don’t children learn about Louis Latimer, the man who discovered a filament that worked better than the filament Thomas Edison discovered, who eventually went on to help build a company called General Electric, aka G.E.?

Why aren’t children taught about Charles Drew, the physician who developed the idea of preserving blood for transfusion – essentially inventing the American blood bank saving thousands of lives during WWII?

Don’t children need to learn about Charles Young, the third man to graduate from West Point Academy who actually stormed San Juan Hill with black Calvary fighters before Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders?

And what about Sidney Poitier, the first black man to win an Oscar and Toni Morrison, the first black person, and black woman, to win a Nobel Prize for literature?

I’m really glad that I got the opportunity to come to Emporia State where I have learned more about my own history in two semesters than I have ever learned from any K-12 classroom.

But when I think about what I did learn, I’m disappointed. Not in the teachers or the university, but really with the fact that I had to take an optional class to learn about what everyone should be learning from day one.

Why is it that part of my history can only be talked about for one month? Why are only certain ideas of what an American is good enough to be taught in American History classes?

My family has been in the United States for hundreds of years, yet I can only find one class on campus (that is only taught every two years) about any part of my heritage.

I think that students should be taught about all Americans in their history classes – American Indians, blacks, women – all of them.

So in the words of Morgan Freeman, you can’t relegate my history to a month: “Black history is American History.” And the idea of having a black history month is “ridiculous.”

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