A WISE program

While it first inspired criticism and confusion, due in part to its initial, Orwellian-flavored name of "NewEntity," and to the whirlwind fashion in which it was introduced to the UT community during UT President Lloyd Jacobs' Second Annual Address, the UT Learning Collaborative has come to potentially offer this campus a number of positive things and to make the phrase "extreme student centeredness" less of a hollow talking point and more of a staple of the UT academic experience.

One of the most exciting and arguably beneficial aspects of the UT Learning Collaborative and its focus on student retention and success is the Women in STEMM Excelling mentorship program. WISE pairs first-year students majoring in any of the scientific, technical or professional disciplines here at UT with seniors, graduates and local professionals that would help mentor the students in their studies and provide them with a community to which they can belong.

This is attractive not only because of the progressive and egalitarian ideology the program promotes, but the initiative also stands to have palpable benefits for society as a whole. This program will encourage more students to become pharmacists, doctors and scientists capable of offering valuable services to society, but the particular utility that their education will have for the female community puts extra significance on the initiative.

Current medicinal and pharmacological trends, as both fields are dominated by males, tend to focus more on those diseases and disorders that predominately or exclusively affect men and less on those that primarily or exclusively affect women. Research on ways to combat osteoporosis, breast cancer and cervical cancer, for example, might experience astounding progress if more pharmacists and doctors are female.

What may prove even more beneficial than revolutionizing the study of such diseases might simply be developing a different approach to detecting a disease prevalent in both sexes like cardiovascular disease, and educating more women about it. According to a September 2005 article written in The Times by Susan Crompt ("Heart of the Matter"), women experience different heart attack symptoms than men, experiencing chest tightness and discomfort akin to the feeling of indigestion as opposed to the severe heart pains often felt by men. Doctors often misdiagnose female patients experiencing heart problems. Women also have heart rhythms subtly different than men's hearts, according to the article, leading electrocardiogram machines that are programmed for a male heart beat to miss abnormalities in female patients.

Despite this, women are not traditionally educated about heart disease. More often they are educated about breast cancer, which claims less female victims annually than does heart disease.

When one considers the numbers, the encouragement of more women pharmacists and doctors becomes less of something to be suggested and more of something to be mandated. According to the Americanheart.org, "nearly 39 percent of all female deaths in America occur from CVD," numbering "483,842" in 2003.

WISE and programs like it need to be encouraged to promote a stronger and a more just future healthcare state.