Banner Ban Bullies Free Speech on Campus

Yale Daily News

10.8.07

 Starting this Friday, the Yale Public Health Coalition will be holding its first-ever Health Care Access Week to raise awareness and to advocate for the university to take a larger role in public health. You’ll soon see table tents in the dining halls and posters on billboards, but there’s one thing you won’t see: a banner across the Porter Gate on Cross Campus. For as long as I can remember, banners have been a symbol of the vibrant student life here at Yale. Colorful and eye-catching, they would advertise everything from a cappella concerts to cultural nights, and in our hyper-busy world, they were the perfect way to reach out to the entire campus community. But this year, after a new set of warnings and fines from Dean Edgar Letriz, our long tradition of banners across campus has all but disappeared.

Out to change the world? Don’t go it alone

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
9/25/07

Making change is a difficult business. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, but on Thursday, President Bush again promised to veto the bill, citing the same false statistics that I criticized in my op-ed. Last week, I went a step further and collected petition signatures for a better farm bill that would address obesity in the U.S. and help farmers in developing countries, but the Senate’s new draft bill still fell short. Now, this week, I fear that my lone voice will again fall on deaf ears.

Good government means protecting kids

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
9/11/07

As the debate heats up in Washington over the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (commonly known as S-CHIP), one statistic has been notably missing — according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, as many as three out of four uninsured children are already eligible for state health insurance, but they are just not enrolled.

Health issues must be addressed with action

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
4/26/07

On Saturday, May 5, I’m going to the state capital to rally for universal health care. It may be the week before finals, it may be a two-hour round-trip drive, and it may not make a difference, but these details are irrelevant. Access to health care is one of the most pressing issues for our state and for our country, and so together, we must do something about it.

Race for the top is wearing society down

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
4/12/07

April is a month that separates the best from the best.

For high school seniors, this means receiving the thick or the thin envelope in what was described as one of the most competitive college admissions seasons ever. For those of us who have already been accepted, this month means going through yet another round of applications for competitive internships, fellowships and other accolades. Now, with Tap Night coming soon for Yale’s secret societies, one can only wonder when the madness will end.

Law would protect all from cigarettes

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
3/29/07

Before spring break, you might have overlooked an article in the News about a Connecticut high-school student with a simple but powerful plan to save the world. Jessica Adelson doesn’t have an answer to the war in Iraq or a solution to world hunger, but she does have a dream to tackle an even more deadly threat to communities in the United States and around the world: tobacco.

Health system’s inefficiency is market’s fault

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
3/1/07

As I write, billions of your health-care dollars are being wasted, and you probably don’t even know it.

According to the Wall Street Journal, $20 billion are spent each year by doctors and insurance companies trying to sort out each other’s claims. Moreover, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, $66 billion are wasted on pharmaceuticals and about $147 billion are wasted on “operational inefficiencies” in the United States when compared to spending patterns of other developed countries. The total drain on our system each year? About $480 billion — more than double the annual cost of the Iraq war and enough to provide universal health care five times over.

Yale is letting sexual health responsibility slip

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
2/15/07

On the day after Valentine’s Day, it’s time to talk about sex — the good kind: safe sex.

Perhaps you think Yale is doing pretty well in this area. Indeed, last fall Yale topped a sexual health report by Trojan as the only school to receive a perfect score. Being a leader, however, isn’t easy, and as the flurry of recent news articles around the human papillomavirus vaccine and Plan B emergency contraception suggest, Yale’s sexual health policies lately have been, well, flaccid.

Global health should be a universal concern

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
2/1/07

In my last column, I called you to action. Now it’s time to discuss the details. The theme is global health and the story is how you, dear reader, can save lives today.

It’s no secret that global health presents some of the most striking instances of injustice and inequality in our world. While we are lucky enough to enjoy lives of affluence at Yale, diseases of poverty, such as malaria and TB, continue to kill millions. As Wall Street rakes in record profits from multinational corporations, the globalization of health risks, like tobacco and unhealthy food, is causing a new third-world epidemic of chronic diseases. We may think our strong public health system can keep us immune from the problems of the developing world, but as AIDS and avian flu show, disease knows no boundaries.

I know you’ve heard these stories before, so why is the divide still so large? We feel pity, and we feel guilt, but we do nothing.

Shopping classes can be good for (public) health

by Robert Nelb
The PH Perspective
Yale Daily News
1/18/07

By the third day of shopping period, you may have already chosen your courses for the semester. Maybe you don’t have a clue. Either way, this column is for you. I’m not going to describe which courses are good for your health — although excessive stress certainly doesn’t help — but I am going to explore how the public health perspective can and should guide a Yale education.