ABC News on Campus reporter Brian McBride blogs:

Maricopa County public health officials are using a new software program developed by the business school at Arizona State University to help them quickly determine where to send new doses of the H1N1 vaccine as the Centers for Disease Control sends them into the state.

One of the software creators, Dr. Ajay Vinze at the W.P. Carey School at ASU hopes to facilitate "Efficiency, effectiveness and equitability."

The Maricopa County Department of Public Health often has to decide where to send new doses of the vaccine within a couple of hours.

"What existed before was that you would get all this data from so many sources," Vinze said. "What this is doing is that it consolidates the data for the health department."

The software uses criteria such as the type of vaccine and the people who've already received them, based on that, the program tells the health department where new doses should go, then distribute the
vaccines accordingly.

The system does not make decisions at the individual level, such as who gets the vaccine, but rather ensures that the vaccine is allotted in a manner that would reach the critical groups most effectively.

"The system only makes a recommendation, not the decision," he said.

The software was custom built for MCDPH in regards to the immediate needs of Maricopa residents and is updated procedurally by Maricopa Health officials. Data sent by the department sets up all the locations
where vaccines can be sent to and administered.

"The system aims to make sure there is an equitable distribution to the people in Maricopa County while accounting for the CDC guidelines on the priority sequence for the recipients." Vinze said.

Before the software was used, the health department was using spreadsheets and figuring out distribution methods by hand. In an attempt to quickly keep track of doses, Maricopa County asked ASU to
help them better allocate vaccinations.

"Recognizing the critical and sensitive nature of the allocation decision, they (MCDPH) wanted something immediately and felt information technology would help." he said.

The program is just a few weeks old, and there's still no name for it, but Maricopa County officials have seen great progress in the program's short time.

"It was impossible without this software," said Bob England, the Director for the Maricopa Health Department. "It would have quickly become impossible as the amount of vaccine increased. This was the
only way to spread out the vaccine in a way that allowed us to target it to those who needed it most and at the same time send it to where it was getting used quickly."

England sees this program as not only helping the department better distribute vaccinations, but also quickly preventing others from getting the virus by receiving vaccines faster.

"The bottom line is that it's making a difference in people's lives," he said.

ABC News on Campus reporter Michelle San Miguel blogs:

I never met Thomas Britton Schultz.  And yet I stood before a crowd of hundreds to tell them about a man whose life – until a few months ago – was unknown to me. 

I told them about Scultz’s love for London, where he studied abroad the fall of 1988 because he believed it was the land where history was made.  I told them about Schultz’s career ambitions.  He was a student at Ohio Wesleyan University, who aspired to be a lawyer and had plans to work on Capitol Hill the summer after returning to the states. 

The crowd that gathered before the Wall of Remembrance on the Syracuse University campus was there to pay tribute to people like Schultz, who was one of the 270 victims who died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.  The aircraft was destroyed by a bomb, leaving pieces of the plane scattered over Lockerbie, Scotland.  Aboard the flight was Schultz and 34 other students who were studying abroad with Syracuse University. 

Nearly 21 years have passed since 270 lives were lost in what was arguably, at the time, one of the deadliest terrorist attacks against the United States.  But Syracuse University continues to remember the event.

Every year, Syracuse University selects 35 students to be remembrance scholars.  These scholars are responsible for planning events for Remembrance Week, the week in which the university commemorates the victims who died in the bombing.  Each scholar is assigned a victim to remember.  I was responsible for remembering the life of Thomas Schultz. 

To better understand who Schultz was, I went over to the university’s archives where I found several files with information on him.  As I looked through each document in the file, I felt like an interloper, meticulously reading about a man whose death had connected me with his life.  I was left in tears when I encountered an article that mentioned that Thomas’s brother, Andrew, had died in 1978.  Thomas and Andrew’s parents had lost both of their children.  Clearly, I had a big responsibility to fill.  I had to make people aware of this man. 

This year was a historic time to be a Remembrance Scholar.  Most of the scholars, including myself, were born the year of this tragedy.  While we were too young to remember the day of the bombing, we were alive when it happened.  For every subsequent group of scholars, the bombing will be a chapter in history.

The only person convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 was released this year.  On Aug. 20, 2009 the Scottish government released Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds because medical evidence showed he was going to die of prostate cancer within months. 

Remembrance Week concludes with a rose laying ceremony, a time for the scholars to pay tribute to the victims. We spoke to the crowd about our respective victims and laid down a rose in memory of him or her.  I had the honor of giving the opening remarks at the ceremony (seen above).  As I made my way to the front of the crowd to give the address, I knew there was an assortment of people in the crowd.  Among me were dozens of students, professors who once taught these students, and several relatives and friends of the victims. 

I am not afraid of public speaking, and yet I was nervous to give this address.  The sense of responsibility made me anxious.  I walked to the front of the crowd, waited for the trumpeters to finish playing “Amazing Grace,” and began my welcoming address.  I reminded the crowd why it is important to remember these victims -- lives were cut short, dreams were never realized, and friends and family lost a loved one.

Since delivering my address, some critics questioned the passion that my fellow scholars and I have about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 when so many of us were born that year.  I have heard people wonder just how much of a connection each one of us could feel with someone we never met.  You need not have met these victims to feel a sense of responsibility to keep their memory alive.  You need only to be a compassionate human being who wants to educate others about an act of terrorism and those who were victims of it, with the hopes that education will lead to peace. 

As President Barack Obama continues his first tour of Southeast Asia, Chinese-American college students are eager to see what will come of Obama’s trip to China. 

Obama arrived in Shanghai on Sunday. ABC News on Campus asked Chinese students in the U.S. about their hopes for the president's first visit.

Andrew Lu, 20, from Mooresville, N.C., is a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He said he hopes the two countries will collaborate on working toward a more sustainable global society.

“Both countries should go into this conversation realizing that they have the biggest impact on the environment,” Lu said.  “I think both China and the United States need to be more aggressive in talks about environmental issues than they are now.”

 

David Meng, 21, from Scottsdale, Ariz., is a senior at Arizona State University. He says the trip is an important step in recognizing China’s clout in the global community.

“I'm a finance and economics major so I definitely feel it's important for him to go over there and establish ties, especially with the way things are looking right now,” Meng said. “China has been a rising super power and may one day be on the same level as the U.S. I think this trip will be a good indicator of how Obama might deal with that."

Many Chinese students say they are pleased by the trip simply because Obama is acknowledging the potential impact China can have on environmental and economic global issues.

Peter Sheng, 20, from Raleigh, N.C., is a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He says he has a vested interest in the relationship between the two countries because he identifies with both nations.

“As a Chinese immigrant to America, I am very excited about Obama's first official visit to China,” Sheng said. “It's great to see Obama recognizing China as a rising superpower and seeking its cooperation on global issues. This type of dialogue between China and the U.S. can only improve relations between the two nations.”

 

Sheng isn’t the only student hoping for more cooperation and collaboration between the U.S. and China. William Ong, 23, a senior at Arizona State University from Phoenix, Ariz., also shares that sentiment. He said he believes Obama’s trip will bring to light serious issues that many American citizens aren’t giving that much thought too.

“A lot of Americans still aren't aware of how fast China is moving and growing in this world,” Ong said. “President Obama going over there to discuss issues as important as global warming and North Korean weapons is a big deal.”

Ong said Obama’s trip will not only affect citizens of both China and America but also will have a positive impact on the rest of the world.

“I don't really look at this from an American or Chinese standpoint,” Ong said. “I look at it from a global standpoint and I think this trip is a good thing.”

-- Written and compiled by ABC News on Campus reporters Maxine Park and Lauren McGaha

ABC News on Campus reporter Emily Watkins blogs:

Kaki Gaines, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, is receiving national recognition for her jewelry designs after winning the 2010 People Choice Awards design contest.

Designer Kendra Scott helped create the contest, in which aspiring designers could create their own “statement necklace” to be worn during the live People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 6 and to be sold in stores nationwide.

“This contest was really appealing to me because it gave me an opportunity to actually design the necklace, rather than physically making it,” said Gaines, 21. “I’ve been making my own jewelry since 2007, but I’ve never had any formal training on designing jewelry, so I thought I would try it out.”

The contestants were able to download a custom-design program, where they could choose between different types of metals, chains, stone shapes and colors — all of which are based on Scott’s current line.

“Kendra Scott uses stones that have vibrant colors and unique shapes, which is what sets her jewelry apart,” Gaines said. “I knew that if I won, my necklace design would be a part of her collection, so I kept that in mind. I also knew it would be something worn on the red carpet so I wanted to create something that would really stand out.”

Scott announced the three finalists on Sept. 21, and submitted the designs for online voting. Gaines’ statement piece, which consists of seven turquoise teardrop pendants with black and orange accents on a gold chain, received more than 2,000 votes.

“Kaki’s unique color combination was very risky but it was one that paid off. I was really intrigued by her ability to take a chance,” said Scott. “[The necklace] is a big piece and it’s loaded with stones. No one’s going to miss this piece on the red carpet.”

After the winning design was announced on Oct. 5, Gaines was invited to Scott’s downtown loft and studio in Austin, where she got an in-depth look at her necklace design and got to work by Scott’s side for a day.

“I was able to see my design come to life in the studio and help them finish creating the necklace, which was really cool,” Gaines said. “Kendra told me how she got started and really spent a lot of time giving me career advice.”

Gaines and Scott are also designing a mini collection that they will pitch to retailers across the country. The mini collection is based on Gaines’ statement piece and will include a smaller necklace, cocktail ring, bracelet, pendant and a pair of earrings.   

“I think Kaki’s incredibly talented and we’re definitely going to collaborate on future projects together,” said Scott. “She’s got a good eye and a great talent.”

Gaines, who started her own jewelry line in 2007, called Kaki Designs, sells a variety of jewelry on her personal Web site and in Austin boutiques. After she graduates from UT in May, Gaines said she hopes to eventually start her own design company.

“I want to make sure I understand every aspect that goes into having your own design company. Right now, I’m really trying to get my name out there so that my business will grow,” said Gaines. “This contest has opened a lot of doors for me and it’s allowed me to see how this business really works.”

Gaines will attend the People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles in January, and her winning design will be featured on the red carpet by Kendra Scott and one other celebrity, who has yet to be named.

ABC News on Campus reporter Toby Phillips reports on the netball phenomenon:

ABC News on Campus reporter Xorje Olivares interviewed two students from the University of Texas at Austin in mid-October and asked them what it was like to get H1N1, more commonly known as "swine flu." One of the students, Emma Lacenski (left), a junior, did not have a pre-existing condition. For her, H1N1 was just like getting the "regular," or, seasonal flu. The other student, Katy Dempsey (right), a sophomore, had a pre-existing condition, and nearly died after contracting the virus. Click on the video below for the story in their own words.

ABC News on Campus reporter Julia Aubuchon blogs:
 
Students lined up across the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium at Syracuse University last Wednesday waiting to get their notebook’s autographed and pictures taken with a Playboy icon: Christie Hefner. (2008 file photo at left)

Hefner, 57, is the daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. She served as CEO of Playboy Enterprises from 1988 until early 2009, when she stepped down, making her the longest-serving woman CEO of any major media company. In 2006 Forbes magazine listed her among the “100 Most Powerful Women.”

“I never thought I was going to go to work for my father’s company,” Hefner said. “I never thought I was going to work for any business.”

Flash-forward to today and Hefner now has a hand in shaping a variety of organizations. She does public policy outreach with liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, and says she declined an offer to become publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review in favor of advising them on how to improve their business model. She also works with Canyon Ranch, a resort spa, to help expand the company. Hefner came to Syracuse to share what she’s learned via her journey at Playboy, and reflect on two decades of leading a multi-billion dollar international company.

Here are few pieces of advice Hefner offered to the packed auditorium of Syracuse University students:
 
Lose the jargon. "Try not to be either intimidated by or a captive of jargon. Even though it’s language, and language is about communication, it often exists actually to obfuscate, and to control power, and not to communicate.”
 
Don’t ever stop meeting people. “I don’t think you can know too many smart people. I don’t think you should ever stop meeting people. In the course of constantly trying to meet people, and constantly expanding my network, I met a person named Jim Clark who was the original founder of a company called Mosaic, which became Netscape, which is what turned the Internet into what we know as the Internet. And because I met him I was able to have a conversation about whether it was possible to take Playboy online, without simply turning the brand and the content over to a CompuServe and losing control of the brand and losing control of the creative commercial applications. And he said, because of his rich knowledge, ‘Why yes it is. I can build an infrastructure for you where people can simply type in ‘Playboy.com’ and they will be at your site.’”
 
Don’t ever stop trying to learn. “If you ever get to a point where you stop learning you will find your professional options and your personal satisfaction severely curtailed. Because this world is changing much too quickly.”
 
Read history. “If you do wind up in a position of leadership I would urge not to spend a lot of time reading books about leadership, which I find, in the main, a waste of time, and for sure if it’s got a number in the title. You can definitely skip those. Read history. I learned more about leadership reading about Abraham Lincoln than I ever learned reading The One-Minute Manager.”
 
Really listen. “For smart people leadership is harder, ironically, because you’re already a step ahead so you’re not really listening. There’s a wonderful expression that a strategic facilitator I worked with years ago gave me that I love, which is ‘When you’re in a meeting and someone comes up with a new idea, don’t send a heat-sinking missile’, and what that means is, you know what the easiest thing to do is? Find the fatal flaw. It’s to say, ‘Well that won’t work because…’ What you really want, if you’re a leader, is to create a culture in which instead of that being the reaction, what people say is ‘Well that’s a really interesting idea, I wonder if we just twisted a little bit this way…’ So you’re nurturing ideas instead of killing them in their infancy.”
 
Learn how to learn. “If I learned to value one quality above all others in interviewing for senior positions, it was actually not IQ, although I do like smart people, it was intellectual agility. Had someone demonstrated an ability to move from industry to industry, or field to field, or job to job, had they shown a capacity for absorbing new information, and functioning in new capacities, because without that this world that is so dynamic right now, is going to be much more limited than it should be.”
 
We are each our own brands. “All the decisions you make, all the interactions you have with people, all the things you do and don’t do will accumulate and define what your brand is. I hope you treat your brand well.”
 
Former dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University David Rubin said he brought Hefner to the school because he believes she is the perfect role model for students.
 
“She had to evolve a company that was based basically on the revenues of a magazine,” Rubin said, “in an era when magazines are under enormous stress. How are you going to make the transformation from that company to something that is more multi-platform, interactive, and digital? And then she had to have this iconic bunny brand. The question is: what do you do with it? How do you monetize it? So she has so much that she can bring to us.”

Clay LePard, a sophomore at Syracuse University who attended the event, admires Hefner. “Other students asked me ‘Why are you coming? She’s a controversial speaker,’” said LePard, “but the thing is, she built this company, she took it to a new level, which I thought was just really interesting and I feel like there was a great story behind it.”

As CEO Hefner created the Playboy television channel and brought the magazine to the Web in 1994.
 
“Two-thirds of the Newhouse School now is women,” Rubin said. “So it’s important for me to have women coming through the school who are good role models for our students and as you know there are not many women who have been CEOs of major media companies. She is one. And the longest serving one ever. So she’s a perfect role model and I think you could tell from her intelligence, the way she presents, the way she fields questions, that she is really an extraordinary person,” Rubin said.
 
Hefner recognizes that not everyone agrees with the theme of the magazine, but she says women should be both respected and desired. “The reason that the most beautiful women in the world want to be on the pages of Playboy is because it is an affirmation of themselves. I think the magazine has always tried to take the approach that sex is a good thing and to treat it in a romantic way."

 ABC News on Campus reporter Katie Sanders blogs:

 

About 100 students neglected to show up for their scheduled H1N1 flu vaccinations at the University of Florida yesterday.

 

UF Student Health Care Center officials offered free nasal flu mist vaccines to the first 850 healthy students under age 25 who registered online.  

 

Several of the nearly 700 students who did get the vaccine said they chose to get the shot not because of worries about their own health, but because of other factors, such as worried parents back home.

 

Samantha Tucker, 21, a UF criminology senior, said her family became upset at the idea of her skipping the H1N1 vaccine. “My parents threw a hissy fit,” she laughed.

 

She had no intention of getting the vaccine on her own, but after her parents told her to get a dose, she did some research and deemed it a safe move.

 

Jennifer Carr, a 23-year-old wildlife conservation major, had two reasons for getting the vaccine: she works at a public library, at which she is in contact with small children, and she also lives with her father, who she says has weak lungs that may not stand up to the illness.

 

Those who didn't show up after registering to receive the vaccine paved the way for shorter lines and a quick turnaround, said Kat Lindsey, spokeswoman for UF's health center.

 

UF received about 1,000 doses from the Alachua County Health Department this week. Of those about 150 doses were reserved for students, faculty and staff who care for infants under six months old, as long as they met other medical restrictions. The nasal mist cannot be given to pregnant women or students who have asthma, diabetes, lung diseases and blood disorders, among other symptoms, according to the center’s Web site.

 

Kelly Mitchell, a registered nurse at UF’s health clinic, said the mist differs from an injected vaccine because it is a live virus that can cause symptoms such as a runny nose or itchy throat.

 

At least two other Florida universities, the University of Central Florida and the University of Miami, are also distributing the vaccine this week. Unlike at UF, where health center employees squirted the vaccine into each student’s nostril, UCF students are going to the university's Health Services in groups of no more than 50 and watching a presentation from a doctor and pharmacist before spraying the vaccine into their own noses.

 

“We’re able to give out more in a particular timeframe doing it this way,” said UCF spokesman Chad Binette.

 

At UF, registration for the vaccine opened late Monday afternoon, and all of the slots were filled by 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, Lindsey said.

 

Some UF officials said they thought the day would be a little more chaotic, envisioning the untested online registration system would crash under pressure, or University Police officers would be needed to corral the masses begging for the nasal spray.

 

Luckily, the center’s first attempt to vaccinate hundreds of students in under 10 hours went off without any surprises, said Dr. Phil Barkley, SHCC director.

 

“I really don’t think we could have put together a process that went any smoother,” he said.

 

Roommates Daniel Foskey, 21, and Daniel Hernandez, 20, entered the center at 2:46 p.m. and came back out at 2:48.

 

Foskey, a graduate student of UF’s College of Pharmacy, said he signed up for the vaccine because he couldn’t afford to catch the virus with final exams coming up.

 

His parents had nothing to do with the decision, he said.

 

“My dad has no idea,” he said.

 

Manufacturing delays account for why the virus has arrived later than hoped, Barkley said, but he hopes to receive shipments from the health department more regularly over time.

 

Mitchell urged students to get the vaccine because the virus is affecting the school-age demographic more than the elderly. Students may not be taking the virus seriously enough, she said.

 

Before Wednesday, Mark Hagood, 24, said he wasn’t planning on getting the vaccine because he has a pretty healthy track record — he’s never had the flu before.

 

But Hagood, a graduate student studying health administration, signed up for one anyway at the last minute.

 

On Wednesday, he sat back in the medical chair for a few minutes while Mitchell inserted the vaccine into his nostrils.

 

After the spray, he grabbed a grape lollipop on his way out, rewarding himself for taking the precautionary measure.

 

“I feel invincible,” he said.  

ABC News on Campus reporter Lindsey Reiser blogs:

On Halloween, there are plenty of stories about haunted houses, even haunted hotels -- but what about a haunted high school?

It’s rumored that a worker who died more than 40 years ago haunts Chandler High School near Phoenix, Ariz.

“He's always around, and mostly on this floor,” said Curtis Hoekstra, who has been a custodian at the school since 1994.

"He" is the infamous Chandler High ghost, who is said to roam the hallways of the English building.

Hoekstra says he can’t remember when he first saw the "ghost," but he said he’s had about five or six encounters ever since.

“Working by myself at night, [I’ve had] chances to experience some pretty unusual things,” Hoekstra said. “You look down the hall and you see someone standing there. Nobody’s supposed to be here.”

He describes the image as that of a Caucasian male about six feet tall, wearing a white shirt and blue or brown pants.

But Hoekstra isn’t the only one who claims to have seen something paranormal in the almost 100-year-old school.

Sally Pearson, an English teacher who has taught at the school for almost 26 years, said she was alone in the faculty restroom three or four years ago, but felt like someone -- or something -- was with her.

“The entire time I was there I kept feeling like there was someone else in there,” Pearson said. “I even walked around and looked in the other stall just to see if there was somebody in there standing; there was no one there. But there was certainly the sensation that there was someone else in existence in that room.”

Pearson, who teaches 9th and 12th graders, said that although her students have never reported any ghostly encounters, they’re intrigued with stories about the supposed spirit -- especially around Halloween.

“The seniors, especially, know the story,” she said. “My freshmen are starting to ask questions.”

Diane Griffith, an English teacher that also works in the building, said the only time she has experienced anything unexplainable was when she was a student at the school.

“An apparition came in, kind of paused in the middle of the auditorium, looked at us, and then went out the other side,” Griffith recalled. “I wasn’t scared; I was startled, but I wasn’t scared.”

Griffith said the most popular theory is that the “ghost” is the spirit of a worker who fell to his death in 1963 when the current gymnasium was under construction.

“But this was a much older looking image to me,” she said. “So I doubt it was that man who was killed in ’63.” 

Others, like Hoekstra, believe that the "spirit" is that of a former student. Hoekstra has even combed through old school photos and found the picture of a former student resembling the figure he says he saw in the halls at night.

Years ago, Hoekstra said, the school allowed a small group of chaperoned students to stay until almost midnight with cameras and audio recorders to see if they could capture any evidence of paranormal activity. He said, mysteriously, some of the photos didn’t develop clearly and the audio renderings were muffled.

“I think he's watching over the high school kids,” Hoekstra said.  “I think there's memories here.”

Hoekstra also said that students used to host “Ghost Walks” around Halloween, in which participants toured the school during their lunch hours. During the tours students were asked to descend the school’s old, steep stairwells leading into the basement. According to assistant principal Steve Galas the school’s administrators felt the tours presented a safety issue, so they cancelled the event.

Still, Griffith said the school's "apparition" means no harm.

“I think it’s fun to have a ghost,” she said.