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reWes ,ZnhUunizati°n r tlu season USC pharmacy students to give out flu pamphlets BY GABRIELLE SINCLAIR THE GAMECOCK Flu season begins in late October, and the Association of Student Pharmacists (ASP) wants you to be ready. It’s sponsoring its third annual Project Immuniza tion, ASP’s national project for the year. Members of the ASP and Student National Pharmaceutical Association are teaming up to volunteer and assist nurses at vaccination sites throughout Columbia by performing jobs such as filling out paperwork and filling up syringes. USC’s chapter of ASP has won national acclaim for its work on Project Immunization. Susanna Fowell, ASP president, is proud to be involved in the pro ject. “American Pharmaceutical Association wanted to get local chapters involved,” she said. “It’s important because there’s almost a back order of the vaccination. We want to try to help organize be cause it’s such madness. At one site last year, there were almost 400 people.” This year, along with volun teering at vaccination sites, the i ASP is taking its goals one step further, via the brainchild of USC students Sara Long and Christine Tracey. “The big thing this year is try ing to promote,” said Long, a first year senior in the pharmacy school. Long and Tracey believe there are many people who are confused about some myths they’ve heard about flu shots. They hope to educate people throughout Columbia and en courage them to get their vacci nations. t “A lot of people are afraid that they’ll contract the flu from get ting a flu shot,” Long said. “And that’s not true at all. Unfortunate ly, this belief dissuades many peo ple from getting a very important vaccination.” The participating students will also talk to people at the sites about who is a candidate for flu shots. “Elderly people are the most at risk” Tracey said, “as well as small children. But every one needs to get a flu shot. The strain of virus changes every year.” “It’s a huge project,” said Tracey, who has been contacting sites such as Kroger, Dutch Square, and the YMCA for sev eral weeks to get organized. Booths will be set up at these places and about 15 others in the coming weeks. The South Carolina Board of Review donat ed pamphlets. The Thompson Student Health Center will charge $7 for a vacci nation beginning in early October, while doctor’s offices won’t offer vaccinations until December, -which might be too late. The Tri County Home Health Center will charge $10 for a vaccination. Project Immunization is a semes ter-long campaign. Kappa Epsilon (KE), a phar macy fraternity, will also man the booths. “We wanted to make this a bigger project to help edu cate everyone we can,” Tracy said. A Project Immunization booth will be stationed outside the Russell House today from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Volunteers will hand out in formation about the flu and re minders of when and where to be vaccinated, as well as how to con tact the Thompson Student Health Center. They will also give a quiz to inform students of some sur prising facts. “Once you have the flu, a vaccination won’t help you,” Long said. Long believes many students feel they “never get sick,” and so the flu should not be a problem. “It spreads so easily throughout cam pus,” Long said. “If one person gets it, then it will easily spread throughout dorms. And why would you want to suffer through finals week with the flu?” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. Price quickly wrote a list of goals stressing the need to sup port gay and les bian students while organizing educational ac tivities on cam pus for the entire student body. This handwritten note would later be used against him in court as an example of the group’s refusal to take the process seriously. At the end of the 1982 school year, Price received a letter from the school. He remembers it said the school found it most inap propriate for a state-funded uni versity to support such an orga nization. Frustrated at everything that he had been through, Price con tacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which connect ed him to local attorney Herb Buel who took the case without charge. The school delayed discussion with the student and his lawyer until, after a final delay in December 1982, Price decided to sue for violations of his First Amendment rights. “There was just the two of us, but .the school had a whole slew of attorneys,” Price said, recall ing the scene in the federal District Court where he fought USC and won “across the board.” Following the victory, the group returned to campus, or ganizing a membership of over 30 students by the fall of 1983. Twenty years after the col umn was printed, the BGLA is an active part of the USC communi ty and receives supplemental funding from the Student Government just like other or ganizations on campus. Funding goes toward events like the drag show “The Birdcage: Gamecock Style” that is returning for a fourth year. The event, on Oct. 9 in the Russell House Ballroom, seeks to educate students about diversi ty. The BGLA is also preparing events for National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11 and World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. Through the years, the orga nization has tried to balance be tween being a support group for young people coming out and trying to voice concerns of gay and lesbian students on campus. One project the group put their voice behind was urging the board of trustees to include gays and les bians in the university’s “no dis crimination” policy, a move en dorsed by the Student Government Association last spring. The trustees have yet to act on the request, but current BGLA President Jeff Crews says the or ganization plans to have it in front of the trustees this semester. “It’s hard for any student group to remain strong on cam pus for 20 years,” said Price, now on the advisory board for OurSmart in the Midlands, a group started to support teen agers dealing with their sexuali ty. “I’m glad to see the group growing stronger today.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. BGLA After 20years, work remains to be done CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 for your cause in front of your own peers, then point your fin ger at yourself, not me.” Price took those words to heart and decided he would not be embarrassed and go back in the closet. With three other stu dents, Price organized the Gay Student Association. The idea of adding “lesbian” and “bisexual” wasn’t an issue back then. “For the women, for all of us, the term ‘gay’ was about unity,” Price said, point ing out that the term “bisexual” wasn’t part of the vocabulary when fighting for gay and les bian issues like it is today. Now, the BGLA continues to offer support to students with al ternative lifestyles by develop ing an open, expressive commu nity. With 30 to 40 active mem bers, the group meets Wednesday’s at 8 p.m. in room 201 of Gambrell Hall. But soon after it began in ‘81, the organization fell on hard times as Price watched his co founders pull away for one rea son or another until he was alone in asking the school for recognition as a student organi zation. The USC administration was not prepared to help. After an ini tially positive reaction, school of ficials wanted more information about what the organization planned to do. Columbia^ Weekly Specials \ Thursday *1.50 House drinks kJ College Night *1.50 Rolling Rock *3.00 for Students 21 with valid student ID Saturday *2.00 Drink If you are under the age of 21/ it is against the lew to buy alcoholic beverages. All ABC regulations enforced. Our unique WAREHOUSE CONCEPT means lower overhead and allows us to put the savings back into youf pocket! Items valued up to $1,000 ■priced 25% to 75% lower than competitors' prices. 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