Editor’s note: The following three letters were published in Friday’s Red & Black

Cartoon created ‘uproar’ at the Pharmacy school

[To editorial cartoonist] Mr. [Bill] Richards,

I am sure you are aware of the uproar your cartoon in today’s paper has created among the pharmacy school. I am a pharmacy student that participated in running Dawgtoberfest, so I would like to share with you why this cartoon causes so much offense. I always enjoy The Red & Black and the work that the paper as a whole puts into most stories. However, I have been dissatisfied with the quality of your drawings for some time now, and this one just pushes it over the edge.

I would urge you to look up the facts before you draw your cartoons. The first fact you have wrong is our ability to pay for flu shots. The school placed an over $5000 order for 500 flu shots to be available. Because there is a shortage of flu shots, we could not obtain that order. Please ask your doctor and he will likely tell you he is having the same problem. It was our intention to set aside money to have flu shots, but it was not the point of Dawgtoberfest. Please ask any of the volunteers who spent time, knowledge and resources to discuss important aspects of health care with our students and faculty. Does that mean nothing?

Your cartoon implies such. The whole point of this activity is to offer free health care information for the campus. I would challenge you to find any other student run organization that puts on such a huge helpful event and attempts to offer such resources as free flu shots.

Secondly, before you imply our funding of the school expansion took the place of paying for flu shots, look at where the money is coming from. The large amount of the expansion was paid for by an internal organization wanting to offer the University of Georgia pharmacy students a cutting edge facility. Your implication that this expansion was a waste of money is offensive.

I know you have to make fun of something for a cartoon to be funny, but suggesting that the school expansion wasted money that could be used for flu shots is absurd. Please get your facts right before you bash such a philanthropic event and suggest that our efforts are not good enough.

I do believe you owe the entire School of Pharmacy an apology for undermining our terrific efforts to enhance the minds of our fellow UGA students free of charge.

Rachel Doyle
Grad. Student, Lawrenceville
Pharmacy

‘Disappointed’ in cartoon’s ‘misguidance’ of students

To whom it may concern,

My name is Walter Williams and I am the president of The Academy and Student Pharmacists. We are the organization that puts on Dawgtoberfest every year. I am writing to address the misrepresentation of our organization/event in the Cartoon in today’s paper.

This cartoon undermines all of our efforts to provide a public service in the form of a health fair for our community. We placed roughly a $5200 order for 500 flu shots and did not receive them because of the shortage (not because of a lack of funds). However, the Red and Black charges us to advertise for a public service to the same community that they provide news service for. As far as I know, no other venue (especially a student run organization) gives free flu shots to students, but we made every effort to provide a service with flu prevention kits. We also gave out FREE glucose checks, blood pressure evaluations, HIV testing, T-shirts, and food that was paid for through our student organization and sponsorship from Walgreens.

I am very disappointed in the Red and Black’s misguidance of the UGA community and to what our organization is all about. Many students spent countless hours volunteering their time to provide a public service for UGA students, faculty and staff. In the future, please be more informed on the facts of the flu shot shortage and try not to undermine our efforts to donate our time in helping fellow students.

I hope for the best in our future relations, and thank you for your time.

Walter T. Williams
Grad. Student, Pharmacy

Paper owes school and students a formal apology

Dear Editor in Chief and Red and Black staff,

I am a second year pharmacy student at UGA writing in concern with the political cartoon in Thursday’s Red and Black. First I would like to thank you for all of the hard work you put into our school’s fantastic news paper.

I have been a huge fan of the Red and Black.

This morning I read the Red and Black and was quite disturbed by what I saw. The political cartoon chosen to be in today’s paper was a direct insult and an unnecessary undercut towards both our professional Pharmacy program and the student health care community at our university.

I am a huge advocate for increasing political savvy and trying to illustrate an opposing view of an issue, but this cartoon was blatantly attempting to bring down the reputation of our program and our attempt to provide a public service to our community.

More so it was attempting to do this with false information.

I am the president of one of the student pharmacist organizations that provides health screenings at Dawgtoberfest and I serve on the board that organizes and executes Dawgtoberfest every year. This misrepresentation was an insult to both my hard work and the hard work my colleagues put in to making this event run as smooth as possible with no cost to the student body.

This is especially upsetting because the organizations in the college of pharmacy and college of public health offer a FREE public service to the student body at the expense of many hours of our student’s time and thousands of our dollars. To see your paper publish such a huge misrepresentation of our philanthropic event with such false information is unprofessional and upsetting.

I am sure you have already heard from other e-mails how the information represented in the cartoon was false but I would like to reiterate the facts. The flu shots that were going to be provided for free at this years Dawgtoberfest were already paid for by the student organizations at the college of pharmacy.

In fact $5200 worth of flu shots were ordered months ago and were going to be donated to the student body.

We were contacted a few weeks prior to the event notifying us that we were not going to receive these shots due to the current shortage of flu vaccines in the state of Georgia.

As for the funding for the pharmacy school expansion, the largest percent of the money that paid for the school expansion came from donations from an internal pharmacy organization devoted to creating a state of the art complex to improve the quality of care we as pharmacy students and future pharmacists could provide to OUR community.

This has no bearing of whether or not we were ‘able’ to pay for flu shots this year. Insinuating that the pharmacy program wastes money on a ‘multi-million’ dollar expansion undermines this organization’s attempt to improve both the practice of pharmacy and the image of The University of Georgia.

I fail to understand how mocking an organization’s attempt to improve the quality of life for students at YOUR OWN institution, again with no cost to them, could be beneficial for your organization or the students body as a whole. The simple fact is, with flu shots or without, we are still providing an unmatched service to the student body of UGA at no cost whatsoever and if the Red and Black would like to criticize our attempts at providing this philanthropic service it would be most professional to do so with true facts rather than false information.

I believe you owe a formal apology to both the Pharmacy program and the Student body for such a vast misinterpretation of our event.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,

Steven Nakajima
GSHP President
Grad. Student, Pharmacy

Editor’s Note: All of the below letter printed online only

Dear Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Opinions Editor and Cartoonist of the Red and Black,

As the chairman of a committee that participated yesterday at the College of Pharmacy’s Dawgtoberfest, I find the cartoon you published in today’s paper very disappointing and distasteful. Students and staff members at our pharmacy school worked hard to provide free services for the UGA community and the Athens-Clarke community as a whole. We tried our best to provide free flu shots for everyone, going as far as ordering 500 shots to be administered to the public. However, due to the H1N1 situation, our order got denied because those shots would be allocated to other institutions that are in dire need of supplies. I wish the Red and Black had done more research before publishing such a disrespectful cartoon for the whole UGA community to see. How could you still call yourself a “high quality daily newspaper for the University of Georgia community”?

Sincerely,

Danh Tran
APhA-ASP AIDS Committee, Chairman and Founder
Pharm.D. Candidate
Class of 2011
College of Pharmacy
University of Georgia

Thursday’s Editorial Cartoon suggested a connection between the funds used to expand the College of Pharmacy and those used to provide free flu shots. The event provoking this cartoon was Dawgtoberfest, a student-organized health fair that serves UGA by providing quality health information to participants. Although a $5200 order for flu shots was placed this year, the vaccinations were not available for Dawgtoberfest because of a nationwide shortage.

I regret Mr. Richards’ implication that the College of Pharmacy exorbitantly wasted money on an expansion in lieu of providing flu shots. This is particularly troublesome when one considers this event is organized and largely paid for by student organizations. Although this cartoon challenged our integrity and intentions, I would like to appeal to the UGA community to appreciate Dawgtoberfest for what it is: a student-organized, free public service that seeks to promote health and wellness for all participants.

Andrew Darley
Doctoral Student, Pharmacy
Lyons, Ga

Dear Editors,

I am one of the many organizers of the community health outreach program, DAWGtoberfest, which is sponsored annually by the College of Pharmacy. My colleagues and I have spent countless amount of hours in between our very rigorous course schedule to plan, advertise and execute this event. Yesterday, we were finally able to see the fruits of our labor as many students, faculty and staff came into our new building, despite the intense rain that day. We were ecstatic that we still had the opportunity to give our comprehensive wellness and preventative information to our community–especially to a population (young adults) who, on average, take their good health for granted.

You can only imagine the dismay that was brought to us when we opened today’s paper. The obviously misinformed, inflammatory, derisive “political” comic left a very bad taste in our mouth–and we’re a group that is used to bad tasting medicine.

I don’t mind people complaining that we were not able to provide the free flu shots. That’s an understandable position, giving the fact that we usually provide it annually. What I do have I problem with is insinuating the cost of our new building was a factor for us “being cheap” and withholding goods. The readers of the Red & Black should be aware of a few things. For starter’s a majority of the funding for the school came from the goodwill from our alumni. Millions of dollars came from proud UGA alumni who wanted to provide us an expansive, modern, state of the art facility for our every changing field of pharmacy. Money did come from the state, however the money was appropriated years ago, after many years of careful planning and deliberation and, conviently, when the economy wasn’t in the tank. Secondly, the flu vaccines were ordered and we had the money to pay for it, however, given the recent H1N1 pandemic and the massive shortage of vaccines we just weren’t able to secure it. Thirdly, the worthless shot at a minor scandal from last year, which had to do with a retired professor and the review sessions he did on his own time had no place in an community event.

I am outraged that our postive event could be put on such a negative spin. It is quite disheartening and we would appreciate an apology.

Yemag Limay
University of Georgia
College of Pharmacy
Class of 2012

Dear Red and Black,

I’m sure by this point you have already received multiple emails from students within the College of Pharmacy, so I’ll be brief. The organizations and students within the College of Pharmacy are very disappointed with the cartoon in today’s paper.

We ordered 500 flu shots for Dawgtoberfest for donation to the student body. However, we were contacted a few weeks prior to the event notifying us that we would not be receiving our order due to the current shortages. The cartoon is incorrect.

I hope for the best in our organization’s future relations and I look forward to working with you again next October to promote Dawgtoberfest.

Sincerely,

Kyle D. Burcher
GPhA Board of Directors
APhA-ASP President-Elect
Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity
Doctor of Pharmacy Candidate, Class of 2012
College of Pharmacy
University of Georgia

Dawgtoberfest 2009 was a huge success, with well over 300 attendees, despite the lack of flu shots at the event. The College of Pharmacy pre-ordered flu vaccine in March of this year, but due to order processing and the recent vaccine shortage, was unable to receive the order in time for Dawgtoberfest. Flu shots were offered for free in 2008 because the local Health Department participated and used the event as an emergency preparedness training drill. The College of Pharmacy had hoped to offer the shots for free or at least at a reduced cost this year, but was unable to purchase vaccine from any alternate sources after learning that the initial order would not be filled. Many students, staff, and faculty members, along with community partners, worked diligently to make Dawgtoberfest 2009 a success, so thank you for all of your hard work. Thanks also go to those who attended the event and to those who sponsored the many other activities available as a part of the health fair. Seasonal flu shots are available at University Health Services, physicians’ offices, and many local community pharmacies, but supplies are running low in many places, so everyone is encouraged to get a seasonal flu shot as soon as possible. Thanks again to everyone who helped make Dawgtoberfest 2009 such a great event!

Daniel Forrister
Faculty
College of Pharmacy

The 10/15/09 issue of the Red and Black contained a cartoon concerning the UGA Pharmacy School Dawgtoberfest. It will be interesting and instructive to witness how the Red and Black deals with the information that free flu shots were organized for the Dawgtoberfest student health fair such as occurred last year. The money had once again been attained and allocated by students. A national flu shot shortage was culprit for the lack. Regulators did not see college students on a school campus as priority receivers over the elderly and more needy at a doctor’s office or pharmacy, given such a shortage. Our shipments were canceled/denied by the vendor(s) with no opportunity to order elsewhere. I would request that this be made clear to the student population that we did all that we could do to support them in good faith and pharmacy.

Thank You.

Richard D. Miller
Graduate Student, Walhalla, S.C.
Pharmacy

To the editorial staff of the Red and Black:

I am a student in UGA’s College of Pharmacy, and I take great pride in attending such a state-of-the-art, well-respected school. I was very offended by the cartoon in the Opinions section of today’s Red and Black. Just one day prior to the printing of today’s issue, the College of Pharmacy hosted Dawgtoberfest, a widespread health fair open to the entire university population. This annual fair is organized and executed completely by student and faculty volunteers, and many hours of hard work are dedicated to this event to make it feasible. Due to a NATIONAL SHORTAGE in flu shots, the coordinators of Dawgtoberfest were unable to receive the pre-ordered shipment of five hundred flu shots that were to be administered AT NO CHARGE to the UGA population. The cartoon is insulting to all of the volunteers who made Dawgtoberfest possible. The College of Pharmacy may have a new, multi-million dollar extension, but that is most certainly not the reason why the unappreciative staff of the Red and Black did not receive their flu shots yesterday.

Sarah Chapman
Graduate Student, Eatonton
Pharmacy

The editorial cartoon by Bill Richards in today’s Red & Black has upset many of the students and faculty in the College of Pharmacy because in inaccurately portrays the rationale for not providing “free” flu shots to those who participated in yesterday’s Dawgtoberfest. According to the student organizer of the event, the flu shots were purchased to a cost of approximately $5200 but none were received due to the shortage. To suggest that money was “wasted” on the new building and not the flu shots is misleading. I hope that the newspaper will consider printing a response from the College of Pharmacy as a Letter to the Editor to address this misleading cartoon.

Regards,

Mandi Murph, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Georgia College of Pharmacy
Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences

Dear Carolyn Crist,

As current pharmacy students we are very disappointed in the Red and Black’s lack of taste and knowledge when it came to today’s political cartoon. This cartoon failed to reflect that our college spent a large sum of money to build an environmentally friendly building equipped with up to date technology so that we are given the tools to be the best in our profession. The reason we were unable to supply free flu shots for yesterday’s Dawgtoberfest was due to a shortage with Novartis, the company that is generous enough to supply us with enough flu shots for the UGA community. We paid thousands of dollars for these flu shots, the lack of flu shots at yesterday’s fair were not due to lack of effort or funding on our part. These flu shots are normally supplied free of charge along with numerous other services such as:

HIV Testing
Blood Glucose Testing
Body Fat Composition Analysis
Blood Pressure Readings
Depression Screenings.

All of these are in addition to the invaluable education we provide to the Athens community regarding disease states, immunizations, and other things they can do to help improve their lifestyle and overall state of being. Mocking our efforts demeans the infinite hours we pharmacy students put into both planning this event and time spent studying and preparing ourselves to be better pharmacists. This is no longer just an undergraduate degree. We volunteer our time to help educate the Athens community and the rest of the University of Georgia population and this lack of support by the Red and Black is appalling.

We appreciate your time in reading this email and we hope this helps influence the Red and Black’s decision in selecting political cartoons for their paper in the future.

Sincerely,

Kayleigh R. Marx
Jordan M. Chambers
Olivia S. Johnson
Pharm D. Candidates, Class of 2012
University of Georgia
College of Pharmacy

To whom it may concern,

I am writing in reference to the political cartoon placed in the Red and Black on Wed. Oct. 14 concerning the new pharmacy building and free flu shots. I believe this cartoon is a misrepresentation of what the pharmacy school was trying to accomplish with Dawgtoberfest. The pharmacy school made every effort to give out flu shots for free but did not recieve the order due to the shortage of flu shots. This cartoon undermined all of our efforts that were put into having a health fair for our school.

Kristen Ann Bozeman
Graduate Student, Madison
Pharmacy