The Lumberjack, February 14, 2008.

              N O R T H E R N A R I Z O N A U N I V E R S I T Y iumber jack The Independent
Student Voice
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Issue 5, Volume 97
Feb. 14, 2006 -
Feb. 20. 2008
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• Page 13
Flu hits
NAU
ROBERT OTSUBO
The Lumberjack
An influenza epidemic
ravaged its way throughout
campus this winter season; a
year which has seen 6,924 cases
of influenza nationwide.
“It is big this year,” said
Dr. Timothy Fleming of Fron­ske
Health Center.
Fleming said Influenza
A and B, or the flu, is a specific
respiratory-virus not many stu­dents
are familiar with. Symp­toms
include fever, headache,
tiredness, cough, sore throat,
runny nose and body pains.
“It is highly contagious,”
Fleming said. “Especially in
dorm situations where hun­dreds
of people share close
quarters.”
Fleming said over the
past two to three weeks, Fron­ske
has been seeing about 40
to 60 patients a day with influ­enza.
“This probably represents
a small portion of the total cas­es
on campus," Fleming said.
“Most people do not seek med­ical
care if they are aware that
there is an influenza epidemic
since they know that there isn’t
any specific treatment ”
Influenza is especially
bad during the winter season,
thus garnering the title “Flu
Season.”
Fleming said the flu
strikes hard and hastily mul­tiplies
during winter when
people tend to remain indoors
for the majority of the time due
to cold temperatures and harsh
weather conditions. k
Tory Nakamura, a fresh­man
history major, said earlier
this semester he suffered from
fevers, headaches, sore throats
and chest congestions.
“The thing is I never get
sick back home,” Nakamura
said.
However, when Naka­mura
moved to Flagstaff from
Hawaii, he started experienc­ing
strange symptoms.
“One night I was halluci­nating
and sweating profusely,
then the next day I was fine,”
Nakamura said.
Nakamura attributes the
outbreak of the flu to Flagstaff's
cold weather.
See FLU, Page 3
Kneeling students take a stand against torture an d war
Blake Batten/The Lumberjack
M EM B ER S OF THE NAU Peace and Justice Club stage an anti-war and torture demonstration in the Union. Participants were clad in black hoods
like those worn by detainees at U.S. detention centers such as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Club president Russell Crawford distributed flyers
about the costs of the war to students while club members knelt quietly with signs displaying casualty and financial figures from the war.
Tour de Fat reaches end of winding trail
KATIE CLARK
T he L u m b e r j a c k
New Belgium Brew­ings
cycling circus Tour de
Fat, which travels to 12 cit­ies
in the West and South­west,
will not be returning
to Flagstaff this fall.
New Belgium Brew­ing
announced it will can­cel
the yearly event, which
brings bikes, environmental
awareness and weekend fes­tivities
to Wheeler Park.
In a press statement,
New Belgium Brewing said
“It is with sincere regret that
after eight amazing years,
we have decided not to
bring the Tour de Fat back
to Flagstaff in 2008.”
Due to its ever-in­creasing
popularity, the
event this year found
Wheeler Park too small and
crowds waited for hours to en­ter.
■
“I waited for a long time.”
said Tanner Magish, a senior
forestry major. “1 ended up just
not going; it also looked really
crowded.”
According to the New
Belgium Brewing Company’s
Web site, this past season the
number of riders in the tours
bike parade increased by 112
percent from last year and 266
percent from 2005.
“As more and more folks
discover Tour de Fat, sadly not
all of them have come for the
purpose of moving the bicycle
to the forefront of transporta­tion,"
New Belgium wrote in a
statement. “Instead they have
focused on pushing revelry to
new heights”
According to a Jan. 31
Arizona Daily Sun article, peo­ple
brought their own alcohol
and some attendees who were
removed for disorderly con­duct
scaled the Tour s fence to
re-enter.
Wheeler Park is no lon­ger
an option for the festivals
venue due to its inadequate size
in accordance with the number
of Tour attendees.
Some people are con­fused
as to why the event does
not simply change venues.
“Why can t they just do it
at Thorpe < Park) or somewhere
else?'” Magish said.
Tour de Fat is respon­sible
for encourging more eco-friendly
behavior. Not only
through promoting bicycle use
but through recycling the ma­jority
of trash from every stop.
The Tour also uses solar-powered
stage and travels from
city to city by BlOO biodiesel
fuel.
“1 will miss the Tour,” said
Ashley Puller, a junior Spanish
major. “1 think it is very impor­tant
to pro m o te a m ore eco­conscience
world.”
The event is held to raise
money for both the Flagstaff
Biking Organization (FBO)
and the Northern Arizona
Pride Association (NAPA).
Last year, it raised a total of
$57,000 for both groups.
NAPA was founded in
1996 in order to educate and
increase acceptance of the les­bian,
gay, bisexual and trans­gender
community of Flag­staff.
^
According to the NAPA
Web site, “Throughout the
years there have been many or­ganizations
and efforts to make
Flagstaff and northern Arizona
more tolerant and educated.
However, many in northern
Arizona and Flagstaff still face
bigotry, discrimination and
violence”
FBO, founded in 2002 to
p r o m o t e a B i k e to W ork w e « k ,
now in almost its seventh Bike
to Work week, the organization
is thriving.
The organization also
runs bike events at local
high schools and elementary
schools. Also, they are respon­sible
for expanding trails and
have given away more than 200
bicycles. Their ultimate goal
is to make Flagstaff “the most
bike-friendly city in America.”
Unfortunately, Tour de
Fat represented almost 50 per­cent
of FBOs income.
According to FBOs Web
site, “The good news is that
the good folks at New Belgium
Brewing Company have prom­ised
not to abandon FBO by
offering us grants and event
support, however, we still need
funding ideas.”
AZ Democrats discuss youth vote
A LEX M U PP
Thi Lumberjack
NAU hosted the Young
Democrats of Arizona on
Feb. 9 for their annual con­vention;
its first convention
on the Mountain Campus
in recent years. The presi­dential
primaries have mo­tivated
many young Demo­crats
to participate and YDA
leadership suggests this will be
a continuing trend.
“Even though its all the
way up in Flagstaff and some
people had to drive four or
five hours to get here, we had
a lot of people coming out and
that shows you how dedicated
they are at being involved as a
young Democrats,” said Cole
Hickman, a political science
senior at ASU and the presi­dent
of YDA.
YDA leadership sees this
as just one sign of the growing
dedication many young people
have for the Democratic party
today, especially compared to
the campaigns two decades
See VOTE, Page 4
Lumberjack
I TALKS with members o1 the Environmental Caucus at the Young
Democrats of Arizona convention in Cline Library on Saturday.
Aid advice dispersed
ROBERT OTSUBO
The L u m b e r j a c k
On Sunday, the Ari­zona
Commission for Post
Secondary Education held
College Goal Sunday in order
to help individuals interested
in attending college with the
costs attached.
The 12th annual event
was held at Coconino Com­munity
College’s Lone Tree
and Page/Lake Powell cam­pus,
where volunteers from
CCC and NAU aided incom­ing
college students with the
FAFSA process.
“FAFSA is not the easi­est
thing to fill out,” said Bob
Voytek, director of the office
of student financial assis­tance
at CCC. “That is what
this is for. Filling out a FAF­SA
indicates what’s available
for students”
Michelle Castillo, di­rector
of financial aid at
NAU, said the event was a
collaboration between NAU
and CCC
“Thirty other sites
around the state host similar
events,” Voytek said. “Stu­dents
are doing the right
thing by applying for their
FAFSA early”
Administrators at Col­lege
Goal Sunday stressed that
filling out a FAFSA is the first
step toward qualifying for fi­nancial
assistance from both
federal and state sources.
Voytek said there is a
lot of free money available for
students, especially for need-based
individuals.
Aside from loans, there
are certain financial aid pack­ages
that do not require stu­dents
to return the money
used to pay tuition; these in­clude
the Pell Grant, Academ­ic
Competitiveness Grant,
SEOG, LEAP and SLEEP.
“There may be other
institutional grants out there
depending on the institu­tions,"
Castillo said.
Voytek said Arizona
has a new grant this year for
students who graduate a year
early from high school. The
grant, which is sponsored by
the Arizona Commission, is
provided the recipient per­forms
well at the collegiate
level. If the student’s perfor­mance
level drops, the grant
becomes a loan which must
be repaid.
Castillo said College
See AID, Pa*e 3