Garlic has been used to fight off vampires and unwanted kisses, but now a study has shown it might prevent cancer, a researcher from Ohio State U. said.

A pilot study was conducted to see if different amounts of garlic stopped the formation of cancer-causing agents, said Earl Harrison, a professor of human nutrition.

Scientists have been interested in garlic for awhile.

Harrison’s group worked on the analysis part of the study. They looked at urine samples and compared the amount of garlic subjects ate against the cancer-causing agents.

By measuring compounds in urine, scientists can determine how much garlic was eaten.

The people who were given more garlic had fewer possible carcinogens in their urine, he said.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was the method Harrison’s group used to analyze the urine, and it worked in a way similar to a Breathalyzer test.

Researchers gave control group participants a placebo, garlic or vitamin C, and the experimental subjects were given garlic.

Both groups received a nitrate formula that used the same process a cancer-causing formula might.

Nitrosoproline, which does not cause cancer, was used in place of nitrosamines, which might cause cancer, because both use the same process to form, Harrison said.

Nitrates, which are used as a preservative in many foods, such as bacon, are harmless. However, they can turn into nitrites, which have been shown to turn into nitrosamines.

To be sure, garlic has not been proven to prevent cancer because of the study’s small sample size, Harrison said.

No food has been proven to prevent cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute Web site.

The study used vitamin C, which has been found to fight cancer, as a positive control, or comparison to garlic. Vegetables containing nitrates are not shown to cause cancer because they contain vitamin C, which blocks the process, according to the study.

Garlic and vitamin C showed similar results.

Five grams of garlic had the same effect as a half gram of vitamin C, the amount given to some test subjects, according to the study.

“People have studied this issue before, whether garlic has an effect on cancer,” said Harrison, an investigator in OSU’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Other fruits and vegetables might fight cancer.

Researchers have found that tomatoes might prevent prostate cancer. Also, red, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables might have cancer-fighting properties because of the pigments, Harrison said.

But more research still needs to be done.

It is not certain why garlic, vitamin C or any other fruits or vegetables fight cancer. Researchers are working to find out why, he said.

The rate of people being diagnosed with cancer in the United States has fallen along with the amount of people dying from cancer since 1975. Ohio has followed national trends, according to the National Cancer Institute Web site.

Harrison and his colleagues came from several organizations.

Harrison, who was the study’s senior author, worked on it with researchers from Penn State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Cancer Institute, according to the study.

The study was published in the journal Analytical Biochemistry.

The National Institutes of Health and an interagency agreement between the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Agriculture paid for the study, which cost $200,000, Harrison said.

Harrison and his colleagues do not plan to duplicate the study.

However, he said other groups are also looking at garlic as a form of cancer prevention.

Former U. Southern California running back Reggie Bush has been ordered to give a deposition April 23 in regard to a lawsuit filed against him in the ongoing investigation of whether or not he received inappropriate funds and gifts.

San Diego-based sports marketer Lloyd Lake has filed suit in San Diego County Superior Court looking to recoup nearly $300,000 in gifts and cash that Lake and his marketing firm allegedly provided to Bush and his family during his time at USC.

Bush was ordered by Judge Steven R. Denton to provide his out-of-court testimony for the case in order to determine if Bush needs to repay Lake’s company New Era Sports & Entertainment after he allegedly broke a marketing agreement Bush had with the firm.

If Bush did indeed receive funds from the firm, he would be in violation of NCAA regulations on agreements amateur and collegiate athletes can have with agents and marketing firms prior to their declaration for the NFL draft.

Michael Michaels, who along with Lake co-founded New Era Sports & Entertainment, was also ordered to give a deposition to the court. Michaels brought a similar suit against Bush three years ago and settled for a reported figure of $300,000.

Until this time, lawyers for Bush had attempted to prevent Michaels from giving a deposition on the matter because of the terms of the settlement agreement, but could not convince the court of the matter.

Michaels will be deposed     April 21.

Bush and his attorneys had filed a bid for a confidential arbitration on the matter in order to keep records of testimony and depositions out of public record, but lost their appeal.

Because the testimonies are now viewed as public record, the NCAA has requested the depositions of Michaels and Bush be submitted to the committee, which is currently investigating the USC as a whole.

University officials, including athletic department members, met with the NCAA infractions committee at the end of February as part of the NCAA’s investigation of infractions revolving around Bush and former USC basketball player O.J. Mayo.

USC and the NCAA had expected results of the investigation around mid-April, but the committee’s request for copies of the depositions signals that the investigation is ongoing.

The NCAA was unable to get a sworn statement from Michaels until this point because of the confidentiality agreement in his settlement with Bush, but it will now have access to his side of the story.

Bush’s deposition will be the first time he has answered questions under oath regarding Lake and Michaels’ accusations, which first came to light in 2006.

Lake alleges that Bush’s stepfather, LaMarr Griffin, came to him in 2004 with a plan to create a sports marketing agency with Bush as their most visible client. Lake then alleges that between 2004 and 2005, he supplied Griffin, Bush and his mother, Denise Griffin, with cash and gifts upwards of $290,000. Bush’s family also stayed in a Spring Valley, Calif., home owned by Michaels after the family ran into financial trouble. Other alleged gifts included a $13,000 1996 Chevrolet Impala.

After Bush won the Heisman trophy in 2005, his relationship with New Era allegedly fractured. An article in the OC Register stated that sources said, however, that Bush attempted to repair the relationship before he hired agent Joel Segal and Mike Ornstein as his marketing representative.

Though the moment occurred in a flash, the memory of Chris Galvan’s parachute deployment into Iraq is still as fresh as the second he hit the ground.

March 26, 2003.

A strange tension ran through the plane. Each member on board waited for the mission to be called off. After all, a paratrooper combat mission hadn’t occurred since 1989. Suddenly everything went dark, yet an eerie shade of red lingered. The silence finally broke when the captain’s voice ominously echoed over the loudspeaker, sounding out the phrase uttered in many a war flick.

“Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em,” said the captain.

Twenty minutes later, a green light flashed and Galvan followed 18 other soldiers on a 1,000-foot descent into combat.

“Gone was the nervous excitement and in was the worry for my men,” Galvan said. “In all my years of combat, I’ve rarely thought about my personal safety but obsessed over that of my men. All that went through my mind was ‘Do they know where the assembly area is?, Do they remember the distance and direction of the first objective?, Did I do everything in my power to prepare them for this?’ ”

An experienced member of the 173rd Airborne Division of the United States Army, Galvan was responsible for nine troops as squad leader of a quick reaction force.

But no level of experience braced Galvan for what he was landing in the middle of.

“By the time we responded, we were facing 300 Taliban and were pretty much surrounded the whole day,” he said. “We were tasked with clearing an orchard in the valley when we were ambushed. My alpha team leader lost his leg, and I was wounded by a grenade. We evacuated him, and I stayed to fight. We ended up killing over 100 Taliban and wounded about the same.”

Galvan, now 29 and a third-year student at U. Central Florida, earned both the Purple Heart, the military honor awarded to those who were wounded in combat, and the bronze star for his valor. Branded with the names of his fallen friends on his left arm to remind him of all he’s been through, he now seeks to lead by example in the school’s Army ROTC program.

Born to be a military man

While his accomplishments show a strong dedication to obedience and discipline, Galvan originally associated himself with the wrong crowd in high school.

He grew up 20 minutes west of Cleveland, attending Lorain Admiral King High School. Friends that he had known for years tried to drag Galvan in the middle of harm’s way.

“Gangs, drugs, petty crime. The usual,” he said.

Galvan and the rest were all arrested for vandalism. He began to watch each one of his friends get into fights and drop out of school.

He desperately sought a way of avoiding the downward spiral. His outlet: the school’s Navy Junior Reserves Officers Training Corps, or NJROTC, program.

He felt as though he had been born to become a soldier. Both of Galvan’s grandfathers fought in World War II, one in Europe and the other in the Pacific. He lost an uncle in the Vietnam War while two others served at the same time. He also has several cousins who have military experience.

However, the family history did not make the decision any easier on his mother.

“I did a lot of crying and soul searching,” Patricia Galvan said. “I prayed that he would be trained well enough to take care of himself, but I was really happy for him. I was so proud that he went head first into the right decision.”

While he thought for some time that the Navy was where his heart lied, he started to feel differently. He did not like the idea of the Navy choosing his career path among his top three choices.

But, one visual alone ignited Galvan’s passion toward the Army.

“What changed my mind was when I saw a video of a bunch of paratroopers jumping out of planes and kicking some ass,” he said with a sense of pride.

Just eight days after graduating high school, Galvan left Cleveland for basic training and airborne school. He would spend the next eight years in active service, starting with his deployment to Kosovo in 1999, right at the height of Serbian ethnic cleansing.

Serbians, under the command of Slobodan Milosevic, mutilated neighboring Albanians when Serbia seized control of the Kosovo region in the late 1980s.

“I was a young private arriving in the small town of Vitina and remember going into the town and having a 70-year-old man fall to his knees, weep and kiss our feet from the mere sight of Americans there to help,” Galvan said. “It was both humbling and served a great deal of humility to all of us. It made me realize how blessed we have it and how bad it could get.”

After participating in the Multinational Force and Observers in Egypt, Galvan was reassigned to Iraq in 2003 and again to Afghanistan in 2005. The conditions were like nothing he had ever experienced before. Scorching summer temperatures in the desert coupled with frigid winter lows in the mountains. As if that were not enough, he carried equipment the weight of a small child at all times.

He also endured the toughest combat situations of his life, claiming that the Taliban boasted extraordinary fighting skill.

“In the ‘Stan as we call it, you’re always outnumbered and fighting an uphill battle, literally,” he said.

Hitting the books

After eight years of dodging bullets and living each day like it was his last, Galvan finally returned home and decided to pursue an education.

In 2006, he enrolled at Valencia Community College and transferred to UCF.

He takes part in the school’s Army ROTC program, serving as both a student and a mentor.

“When he speaks, people listen,” said Wellington Sturrup,23, a second lieutenant and cadet in ROTC. “People want to know how things are really done in the Army. He’s a big presence in the battalion.”

Alongside his work within the ROTC program, Galvan was named the vice president of the Student Veterans Association and the junior vice commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Chapter 316 in Deltona, Fla.

His extracurricular commitment has caught the eyes of his superiors.

“His experience, what he wears on his uniform, tells a lot about him,” said Capt. Tali Hillsgrove, enrollment officer and assistant professor of military science. “When he talks, he’s not wasting my time. He has a plan of action before he opens his mouth, which I like.”

Galvan’s biggest academic challenge to date will occur later this year when he undertakes the Leadership Development Assessment Course. Conducted at Fort Lewis in Washington, the LDAC pushes cadets to the limit with five weeks of rigorous tests of tactical and leadership skill.

Cpt. Hillsgrove, though, feels that Galvan will be up to the task.

“He sweats American blood, carries the American flag and is all American, but not in a bad way,” Cpt. Hillsgrove said. “He’s not afraid to question things. He may know doctrine, but he’s going to do the best thing the situation calls for. Galvan’s going to be a great military officer.”

A representation of freedom

With the simple turn of a key, Galvan ignites his true passion: his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Since leaving the army in 2006, Galvan has owned a pair of bikes. While he can always be seen carrying his black half-shell helmet to class with him, Galvan’s love of motorcycles developed quite late.

In fact, he had never even ridden a motorcycle before purchasing one online from his base in Iraq. He called his mother to pick it up from the dealership in Daytona Beach.

Already having gone through battle, Galvan was not going to let any jitters deter him from what he called a lifelong dream. He became more comfortable with his riding, though did not look it on his initial ride.

“I looked like a fat kid on a tricycle,” Galvan said. “I had to upgrade.”

And so he did, to his second and current bike: the fittingly-named Night Train. It’s entirely blacked out and made for cruising all across the city. But for Galvan, having a bike means much more to him than just having the ability to feel the open road.

According to Galvan, Harley-Davidsons are a staple in American military culture. His fiancée, Brittany Watt, has experienced this biker brotherhood firsthand.

“We go to biker bars and the majority of attendants are veterans,” said Watt. “Chris, like all of them, is an adrenaline junkie. He tells me of all the times where he could have been dead, should have been dead even. I’m sure he’d love to continue jumping out of planes, but his motorcycle is enough of a rush.”

Most important to Galvan though is having a way to escape.

“To me, having a Harley represents freedom, simplicity and a way to get away from every worry in the world.”

Gone, but never forgotten

“Sgt. Michael Shafer, K.I.A., 25 July 05, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Joseph Minucci, K.I.A., 13 Nov 03, Iraq.

Spc. Jacob Fletcher, K.I.A., 13 Nov 03, Iraq.

SFC Matthew Blaskowski, K.I.A. 23 Sept 08, Afghanistan.”

Etched forever on his left arm in bold, black ink are the names of four of Galvan’s friends who died in the war. He first began with the two names of his friends in Iraq, and later added the others despite difficulty of fitting the necessary information.

The families of the fallen not only appreciated the gestured, they loved it.

“Some of [their family members] asked me to design one for them as well,” he said.

There are plans to add four more names to the list, four more harsh realizations of the endless struggle in the Middle East.

He sits in military history class on a regular Wednesday afternoon, eyes forward intent on a lecture of World War I. He sports a black shirt that cuts about halfway between the shoulder and the wrist. The words on his arm are as clear and legible as those written on the chalkboard for all to see. It’s his own personal battle scar.

“I wanted to find a way to remember every detail of them for the rest of my life,” he says. “Memories fade with time, you know? This tattoo forces me to look at their names and remember their personality quirks, accents, likes, dislikes, the good times and the bad every single day.”

Brad Stevens is here to stay—at least for the next 12 years.

The 33-year-old head coach of the Butler U. men’s basketball team signed a contract last week that could keep him at Butler through the 2021-2022 season.

The exact terms of the contract, including Stevens’ salary, were not released to the public.

In a press conference Friday, the Horizon League Coach of the Year said he is excited to remain a part of the Butler community.

“[The contract] is something the university came up with, and I’m tickled to think they’d want to do that,” he said.

Only four coaches in NCAA men’s basketball history have fared better than Stevens’ 89-15 record at the end of their first three years as a head coach. The Bulldogs have been to the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championships three times under his reign, most recently falling to Duke in the National Championship game.

For the Zionsville, Ind., native, his wife and their two children, the contract is an opportunity to continue to call Indiana home.

“This community’s been fantastic to us,” Stevens said. “We recognize we have a really good thing.”

The contract does come with a buy-out clause. This would allow other schools to consider Stevens for open coaching jobs at any time during the next 12 years. In exchange, they would have to pay Butler an undisclosed amount of money.

The contract ended any speculation that Stevens would be considered for jobs at bigger universities. ”

It’s flattering to be discussed,” Stevens said. “But often times, that stuff in the media is speculation. I’ve talked to people here and there, but what I was hoping would happen is what happened.”

His players said they are happy to have their coach sticking around, at least for the rest of their time at Butler.

“It was obvious people were going to come after him for their head coaching jobs,” sophomore guard Ronald Nored said.

“He’s an Indy guy at heart. He’s fallen in love with what Butler has to offer. And, he’s winning.

“It’s also exciting for the Butler community. Brad’s their guy.”

The team met shortly after news of the contract was released.

“I could just feel his excitement for next year,” Nored said. “The great thing about it is nothing’s going to change.

“I don’t think there’s a better coach in the country.”

Nored said the team was happy to get the contract issue settled so soon after the end of the tournament.

Stevens said he is looking forward to next year, keeping in mind that whether or not they reach the Final Four or the National Championship again will not dictate their success.

“The goal is to continue to play better and to continue to get better,” Stevens said. “The goal for next year’s team is going to be to continue to try and handle all the expectations and distractions that are going to come their way and to become better men for it.”

As for any increase in recruiting as a result of the Bulldogs’ recent popularity across the country, Stevens said there is “certainly an interest.”

“If we can get better recruits than the ones who almost won us a National Championship, then I’ll be surprised,” he said.

Nored said the team is excited to be able to continue to play “The Butler Way” under the coach who led them to the National Championship game.

“The teams after us are going to get the same opportunities to do what we’ve done up until this point,” Nored said. “And we’re not done yet.”

The IHL Board of Trustees convened on the campus of Alcorn State U. on October 14-15, 2009.

On Wednesday, October 14, the Efficiencies Task Force, chaired by Trustee Ed Blakeslee met beginning at 1:00 p.m. to discuss items on the Efficiencies Task Force agenda.

The Academic Affairs Committee, chaired by Trustee Robin Robinson, assembled at 2:30 p.m. to discuss items of the Academic Affairs Committee.

The Legal Committee, chaired by Trustee Alan Perry, gathered at 3:00 p.m. to converse about items on the Legal agenda.

On Thursday, October 15, the Board met as a committee of the whole to discuss an additional 3% budget cut by the end of the academic, energy efficiencies and consolidation of academic programs.

“I want to thank the Alcorn family for their hard work and hospitality expressed to IHL,” stated President George E. Ross. “The IHL planning committee headed by Vice President Stephen McDaniel and Executive Secretary Karen Shedrick did an outstanding job. Alcorn can be proud of the level of service and expertise delivered during their visit to our campus.”

DePaul senior Sarah Musur did not need to rush to Grant Park to catch a glimpse of Ben Stiller working on “Little Fockers,” the newest movie in the “Meet the Parents” series, as it filmed in various Chicago locations earlier this month. Instead, she came home to her apartment on Tuesday, Oct. 5 to find Stiller sitting on her couch.

“I came straight from nannying and I did not expect to meet him,” said Musur. “I had on sweat pants and a sweat shirt and I looked a mess and I met Ben Stiller!”

Though Stiller’s presence in her living room at that moment was a surprise to Musur, she had known since the summer that her apartment building would be one of the filming locations for “Little Fockers.”

During July, the location manager for the movie drove all around Chicago, reading the script and trying to find a place that matched the description of Stiller’s apartment. He loved how Musur’s apartment looked from the outside and one day a crowd of people with cameras gathered outside her place. Musur and her 2 roommates asked why they were there, and they simply said they were scouting locations for the movie “Little Fockers.” After contacting the condo association and getting the greenlight from her landlord, the crew secured Musur’s home as a filming location for the movie.

Although she lives on the first floor and in the movie Stiller is supposed to live on the third floor, her apartment became “the hangout space” on set, according to Musur.

Stiller decided he did not want to go all the way to his trailer for make-up touch ups, so they did that in her living room instead. Then, “The director started using our bathroom,” Musur said. All day long, as the cast and crew worked from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., people filtered in and out of Musur’s apartment, hard at work.

“We had to leave [the apartment] every time they started to work,” she said.

Though this seems like quite the inconvenience considering the fact that filming took place during midterms week, “Little Fockers” compensated Musur and her roommates $500 each.

In addition to the cash compensation, Musur can now brag that she got to meet Stiller and Robert De Niro.

“[Stiller] was nice, he was quiet,” Musur said. “He loved my dog!”

“De Niro didn’t interact with anyone in the crowd, he’s paranoid,” she said. “It’s understandable because he’s such a big deal.”

Musur has seen the first “Meet the Parents” movie but still has yet to see “Meet the Fockers.” She did go out to buy one of Stiller’s first-ever movies, Heavy Weights, a comedy in which Stiller is not even credited because he was not yet famous.

“I had to go out and buy the movie right away because I was like, I just hung out with him,” Musur said.

Now, Musur and her roommates must patiently wait for “Little Fockers” to premiere in July. “I really just can’t wait to see the movie and be like, ‘I live there!'” said Musur. “It’s going to be a story that I can tell forever.”

Celebrity brushes and bragging rights aside, the experience is not one that Musur is itching to relive in the future. “I had a lot of fun, but we would never do it again!” she said.

On Thursday, October 29, 2009, Dr. Kimball P. Marshall, professor of Marketing, MBA Program, will hold a national Webinar sponsored by the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) of Mississippi State.

The webinar is the culmination of the grant provided to Dr. Marshall and Alcorn State U. in 2007 for the purpose of designing a curriculum and program for
encouraging people in rural areas with limited resources to become involved in Internet-based E-Commerce.

An initial presentation was made to extension workers in summer 2008 and the national meeting in Nebraska. With guidance from that audience, the final program was developed and submitted to SRDC. SRDC then enhanced the materials provided and developed the interactive materials
to be presented and explained at the webinar scheduled for October 29.

Alcorn State University is a Land Grant university with a strong commitment to both economic development and to serving rural populations in Mississippi, it is important to support efforts that encourage e-commerce among rural populations. The rural people of Mississippi have many cultural treasures and important rural life and crafts skills and talents that can be profitably shared with others outside of our region.

Basic e-commerce, whether in the form of personal web pages or participation in on-line selling sites such as E-Bay and Yahoo stores, offers opportunities for rural people, even those with limited resources, to offer their products on the national and international stage. “The more people become aware of their valuable skills and ways to profit from them, the more rural economic development is encouraged through individual entrepreneurship.

The talents and skills of our people are exciting, and the ideas that have come from this project can provide an opportunity to showcase them,” explains Dr. Marshall.

The webinar scheduled by SRDC for October 29 will be the first “roll out” of a whole series of educational programs developed by Alcorn State and
other SRDC grantees to help extension workers bring rural populations into ecommerce.

Future topics in the series that are scheduled for November and December include “Web Site Basics”, and “Marketing Specialty Food Products
Online.” More information on the webinar series can be found at http://srdc.msstate.edu/ecommerce/webinar.html.

On Thursday, October 15, 2009 Alcorn celebrated its annual Homecoming Coronation.

This has been a longstanding tradition here at Alcorn State University which showcases some of its finest students based on academic merit, achievement, heavy campus involvement, and being overall positive assets to its campus and devoted servants to the student body.

The evening began a bit dreary due to the weather. However, the decorative environment, festive occasion, high spirits and positive students, alumni, and faculty helped to  transform this night into an enchanting and elegant one.

Among the participants in the coronation were: Alcorn State University Student Government Association President, Mr. Ryan Martin, Miss Alcorn State University, Miss Jessica L. Hinton, Miss Senior, Victoria Brinkley, SGA Vice President Donovan Booth, Miss Junior and Junior Class President Sheryl Carpenter and Justin Mathis, Miss Sophomore, Candace Felder, SGA 2nd Vice President Kevin Spencer, and Freshmen Class President Mr. Marcus Mercy who served as escort to Miss Freshman Megan Henderson. This select few that are voted into their respective positions by their peers make up the “Royal Court.”

A new online social network for college students is growing quickly, but has yet to expand to the Tufts campus.

TheFacebook.com has 38,327 registered users and an average of 1,000 new registration requests daily, and the growth of the online network is surprising even to its founders.

“We’ve all been blown away by the response from Harvard, and as time goes by, to all the schools that we expanded to,” said Chris Hughes, founding member and press relations manager for theFacebook.com.

“We realized pretty quickly that this could be big,” Hughes said. The site, which resembles the popular online social network Friendster.com, enables students within a university community to create personal profiles that may include their contact information, class schedules and a variety of other personal details.

Hughes called the site a “collaborative effort” between friends who grew tired of waiting for an official facebook promised by the university.

Since its inception at Harvard University in February, theFacebook.com has expanded to 12 universities. Its network now includes Columbia University, Stanford University, Yale University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, New York University, Brown University and Princeton University.

Hughes said it was “just a matter of time” before the site expanded to more universities, depending on the capacity of the site’s servers to handle new school networks.

“It’s a fun project which a lot of people seem to enjoy,” Hughes said.

The popularity of theFacebook.com sparked tongue−in−cheek social commentary at participating universities. In a March 11 editorial, Harvard’s daily undergraduate paper, The Crimson, called the site’s expansion “manifest destiny.” Meanwhile a March 5 Stanford Daily article said students were skipping classes, ignoring work and “spending hours in front of their computers in utter fascination.”

Kim Truong, a graduate student at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, said that the site might have social drawbacks. “I heard from undergraduate students that they have been feeling stressed out due to theFacebook.com, because they have to add all of their activities,” she said. “I think they might feel pressured to have long lists of activities, quotes and an overall presentable profile.”

Truong added, “I personally think it’s fun and not supposed to be taken seriously.” Tufts students have shown some interest in the website.

“This kind of online social network is positive for a university community because it helps students to reach out to their peers in a less intimidating way,” Tufts senior Joey Rhyu said. “People who are more reserved about introducing themselves to people in real life can use this manner of communication to break [social] boundaries. I would use it, especially for help with school work,” he said.

Senior Teri Wing called the online facebook sites “creepy,” because of the nature of other social networking sites, which often include racy content.

“I feel like people would show off more than they normally do on such sites. If I just need to send an e−mail, I don’t necessarily want to know what the other person wants people to think,” she said. “Think of Friendster – people put up some weird stuff – and being young, much of it’s sexual, which I don’t really need to know about my classmates.”

Senior Alper Tonguc agreed. “I guess the people that I care about are the people I talk to, and I guess I’m just not interested in reading random people’s profiles.”

According to Hughes, theFacebook.com is not a dating service or a way to meet strangers, but “an extension of real−life interaction, so it’s [used] not as much to meet random people, but to foster friendships and relationships with these people you knew previously. It’s a way to bring tangentially connected people together.”

The site offers detailed privacy settings that could, for example, allow a student to make her class schedule available only to friends, or restrict contact information to students living in her dormitory. Even with the privacy settings, Wing said she would probably not make use of such a site.

“I don’t think that it would give me information about my friends that I wouldn’t be able to get from them otherwise,” she said.