By Jon Singer

Each year in New York State, as many as 7,000 people die in hospitals as a result of medical negligence. Between 300 and 400 doctors are punished each year, and about 8,000 complaints are filed. While physicians at times try to cover up their mistakes and some problems are not reported, legally all of the reported information is available for consumers to know.

Blair Horner, executive director of NYPIRG, points to the New York State Physician Profile Website, a site that is run by the New York State Department of Health. “It’s a great website, but nobody knows it exists,” says Horner.

This is because when legislation was passed in 2000 to create the website, those lobbying on behalf of physicians were able to kill a provision that would have required the URL be posted in doctor’s offices and hospitals.

On the national level, there is the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDb). The website is hosted by the US Department of Health And Human Services and provides information regarding issues such as reported cases of malpractice. “[Before the NPDb was created] the phenomenon of ‘state jumping’ was legion,” says Arthur Levin, Director of the advocacy organization the Center for Medical Consumers, regarding the high occurrence of these cases. But federal regulations prohibit NPDb information from being released to the public. Only health care entities such as hospitals, state licensing boards and approved private practices are eligible to receive a paid NPDb account.

“Hospitals, state licensing boards, HMOs, they are supposed to check before giving people credentials,” says Horner. In New York State, issuing a medical license is the responsibility of the State Education Department, as opposed to the Department of Health. “States do this differently,” says Levin.

Also, a characteristic of New York is the fact that reports of past actions can trigger an investigation, but do not necessarily stop the license from going forward. Basic questions regarding past convictions are on the application for a medical license. Sections 10 thru 14 on New York’s Application for Licensure and First Registration deal with crime. Section 12 asks: “Has any licensing or disciplinary authority refused to issue you a license or ever revoked, annulled, cancelled, accepted surrender of, suspended, placed on probation, refused to renew a professional license or certificate held by you now or previously, or ever fined, censured, reprimanded or otherwise disciplined you?” Levin says, “In some states, answering that question in the affirmative stops the process.”

Horner says that the largest area of malpractice lies in misperscribing drugs, which accounts for 20 to 25 percent of medical errors. “New York seems to pay pretty good attention to what goes on in other states,” says Levin, adding that in New York 40 percent of medical discipline cases are based on actions taken in another jurisdiction. “You cannot presume anything about a doctor,” he says.

Today, Levin cannot say exactly how common “state jumping” is. “Many doctors are only licensed in one state,” he says, adding that doctors don’t need a license to do health policy work.

By Erin J. Mansfield

Stony Brook students rallied outside of the SAC on Wednesday, November 19, during Campus Lifetime to protest the SUNY budget cuts.

Over 100 students were in attendance; less than one percent of undergraduates were outraged enough to stand out in the cold to have their voices heard, but that did not deter the ones who came for the cause.

The protest was organized by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and the United University Professors (UUP). Representatives from both organizations spoke out against SUNY budget cuts and encouraged students to be outraged by the financial situation of the university.

Stony Brook University’s tuition is scheduled to increase by $310 in the spring of 2009 for in-state students.

John Schmidt, President of the West Campus UUP, mentioned that, “SUNY has a ‘rainy day fund’ of just over one billion dollars,” a sum of money which he thinks, given the $1.5 billion cut that needs to be made, would make a major impact if spent on the university.

USG representatives handed out letter templates to protestors. All students were encouraged to write letters to their governor, senators and assemblymen; friends and family were also encouraged to take part. If they chose not to write their own letters, they could simply sign the templates and mail, fax or email them.

“I want these letters to haunt them [lawmakers] in their sleep,” said USG President Jeffrey Akita about the letter-writing campaign.

Speakers stressed the idea that lawmakers do not care whether or not the students suffer due to the budget cuts because so few students become outraged enough to speak out against the issues or vote against their leaders.

The budget cuts will only compound in the coming years, resulting in higher tuition, lower standards of education and even more struggles for students who want to graduate on time. Representatives said that, because of this colossal drop in the quality of SUNY, many students might find that the only solution is to transfer to private institutions.

“My biggest concern is the quality of classes,” said USG Senator Daniel Graber after the protest. “Fortunately, I can afford another $300 next semester, but I can’t afford to have a sub-par education.”

Note: To all students who still want to have their voices heard, visit www.uupinfo.org or www.stonybrookusg.org to sign a letter to Governor Paterson. He can’t read, so be sure to send letters to your assemblyman and senator, too.

By Jon Singer

Many Stony Brook students never knew what NYPIRG was. But that doesn’t matter anymore, because NYPIRG at Stony Brook no longer exists.

For almost thirty years leading up to the current fall semester, The New York Public Interest Research Group had a chapter at Stony Brook, one of twenty-one campus chapters across the state. Founded in 1973, NYPIRG is the consumer, environmental and government reform organization that helped pass the Generic Drug Law, replenish the superfund program, and broaden the Tuition Assistance Program. Of all the organization’s missions, one thing NYPIRG always did was voter registration. Last year, a non-election year, NYPIRG at Stony Brook registered around 1700 voters.

This year, with no NYPIRG, voter registration for the November 4 presidential election is primarily the job of partisan groups such as the College Democrats. The Undergraduate Student Government has also been registering new voters, but without a non-partisan activist group on campus, USG senator Kevin Brady sees a void that needs to be filled.

“As a new senator, I’m still answering these questions as we go along and asking more detailed versions,” says Brady. As the November election is approaching and state budget cuts in the $13 million range are affecting all aspects of higher education, the question for some at Stony Brook is: Where is NYPIRG?

Brady, who won a senate seat in the most recent USG election, joined a legislative body whose budget committee had allocated $0 to NYPIRG in the 2008-2009 USG budget. Next to NYPIRG, the sidebar of the budget document says “did not spend budget in 07-08.”

The 07-08 NYPIRG budget was $125,000.

Articles in past issues of both The Stony Brook Press and The Statesman documented NYPIRG activities over the past year. One event, ‘80s Night, involved students dressing up in whatever Teen Wolf would wear to learn about the history of recycling. The March 13 issue of The Statesman reported a crowd of about forty students at ‘80s Night, which was co-hosted by the Stony Brook Environmental Club.

In the wake of ‘80s Night and multiple other campaigns, projects and events, NYPIRG at Stony Brook planned a full program for the 08-09 academic year, requesting $150,000 from the USG. Like all other clubs, this money would have come from the mandatory $94.25 student activity fee that Stony Brook undergraduates pay each year.

Andrew Morrison is a NYPIRG regional supervisor, and has been representing NYPIRG in their current quest to get back on the USG budget. “The money that is used to support a NYPIRG chapter, every dime of it that’s used from the Stony Brook student activity fee benefits the students here.”

This becomes an issue when NYPIRG, like other clubs including College Democrats, College Republicans and The Hillel Foundation For Jewish Life, are local chapters of a broader organization. “We were supporting a national organization and we couldn’t figure out where our money was going,” said one USG senator, who requested to remain anonymous. To fight for issues of higher education, NYPIRG employs staff members working in Albany. “They’re working full time on behalf of students right up there in the capital, because that’s where the decisions about tuition and financial aid are being made,” says Morrison. “The average student isn’t going to spend fifty hours a week talking to elected officials about higher education.”

Morrison says that with NYPIRG, unlike CDs, CRs or Hillel, there is no proper parent organization. “The closest thing to it would be the student board of directors,” he says. That board, comprised entirely of students and elected by students, hires NYPIRG’s executive directors, passes the organization’s budget and chooses the issues that NYPIRG will work on.

Notice how Stony Brook is crossed off?

“Given the terms we have right now, in the state economically and then eventually financially and budgetary wise, you never want to be lacking some additional activists resources,” says Brady. The new senator went to NYPIRG meetings last semester, which he says were well attended. “It seems like they had a lot on their plate. They may not have been glamorous or sexy, but they were trying to do different things as they always are.”

A full NYPIRG program at Stony Brook included two full time project coordinators and a number of student interns. The coordinators earned a salary plus benefits, while the interns earned academic credit. “It’s just a more broader program than the average club,” says Morrison. This year The Stony Brook Press will publish its newspapers with $32,000 in budget allocation, while the Meteorology Club will predict the weather with $2,203. While NYPIRG at Stony Brook now has no budget, chapters remain funded and popular at some New York schools. But the organization’s presence is a source of controversy at others.

In July, a group of CUNY students filed suit against NYPIRG, protesting how the organization collects funds from student activity fees. Brady says that like any other institution, the USG senate “has it’s own culture.” Brady wants to see NYPIRG back on campus, but at the same time he shares the board with incumbents who thought that last year NYPIRG wasn’t doing anything.

And when all was said and done, those present day incumbents passed a budget that allocated $0 for NYPIRG. “From our perspective it’s starting to seem like an ideological thing,” says Morrison. “This small group of students with all the power seemed to oppose NYPIRG’s work.”

With the USG budget, student politicians debate over a plan worth nearly $3,000,000.  Voter turnout for student elections at Stony Brook are commonly low; only seven percent of eligible voters cast their ballot last April. Thus it’s hard to determine if the USG senate is a representation of the student body and their views. An inquiry to three random freshmen sitting in the Union’s fireside lounge revealed zero name recognition for NYPIRG and a low familiarity of USG. Last year, educating students about USG was a job of NYPIRG’s.

By Najib Aminy

Not many students know about the Undergraduate Student Government at Stony Brook. In fact, last year’s election polled a total of 1,059 students for the two presidential candidates, which Jeffery Akita won by 113 votes. A thousand students may seem like a lot, but it is small compared to a total of 15,523 undergraduate students, according to the 2007 Stony Brook Office of Admissions Enrollment Guide. Mathematically, nearly seven percent of all undergraduate students voted last April for their USG president and respective senators.

To recap, last year’s USG presidential election came in with the resignation of an overly ambitious Executive Vice President, the de-funding of NYPIRG, and the possible impeachment of Jeffery Akita from his post as Vice President of Clubs and Organizations. Agreeing to talk to The Press, Akita was open in discussing his goals as USG President and responded to the critical views against him stemming from last year’s election.

Though Akita was not impeached, previous USG Senators sought to indict Akita for his failure to get in touch with clubs and execute his job properly. Akita responded saying that the prosecuting Senator’s “stance was that I wasn’t visible, which was not true. Most of their accounts that they tried to hold against me were not true, they said I was corrupt, which they found I wasn’t, I had no relationship with money. They told me I didn’t meet with various organizations and clubs. I did, and different people testified. The whole thing last semester has passed, but the whole goal was to prevent me from being in this position [as USG President] and, as you see, I am in this position today.”

However, prior to the elections, Akita did resign from his Vice President position to preserve his run for presidency. Had he been impeached, Akita would have been prohibited from running for USG president under the current USG constitution. Regardless, Akita has high expectations and goals for the upcoming year and wishes to strengthen the relationship between the executive council, the senate and the judiciary. “If there is turmoil within the council, it affects the delivery and the amount of feedback we get from students and as far as how we can do things and how we should address things,” said Akita. Outside of the halls of USG, Akita said he is looking forward to “ensuring that academics are always provided, [that] there is a healthy lifestyle on campus, the safety of students is always recognized, and to ensure that student life is actually going on as expected and that more students are getting involved and staying on the weekends,” said Akita.

Despite having articles brought up against him claiming that he was not present, one of Akita’s big plans is to become a visible president. Akita assured that he is willing to help out students as much as he can. “I am a student but I understand that I am here to serve the students, so if I am not available, then how am I serving the students?”

With Akita at the reigns of the USG, he is to face, like the rest of SUNY, a possible 10% budget cut. Though a 3% cut was announced earlier in the year, the talks of an additional 7% cut have led to speculation as to how this may affect Stony Brook students. “I want all students to know that the budget cuts are not directly affecting the student activity fee, but it will affect the things it goes towards. For instance, the prices of certain things are going to up and [the number of] personnel will be going down,” said Akita. Examples given where shift in office hours of personnel due to the freeze and possible reduction of the budget. Alongside USG, Akita is working on holding a rally during the last week of October to protest the budget cuts. In conjunction with SUNY Old Westbury and Farmingdale, USG intends on setting up petitions to let Albany know that SUNY students cannot live through a 10% cut. “Look out for the protests. It is going to be big. We are going to need everybody’s support if we really want to send a message about these cuts,” said Akita. Regarding the current club budget, a potential cut would not interfere with the money allocated by the USG for 2008-2009 USG fiscal year rather it would hinder the formation of new clubs due to the reduction of funding.

With a constricting budget, the future for clubs such as the Social Justice Alliance and more notably NYPIRG seem grim. Both the budgets of the SJA and NYPIRG were rescinded and currently have no 2008-2009 budget. NYPIRG was not given a budget due to insufficient attribution of its 2007-2008 funds, according to the USG. In response to their de-funding, Akita said he believes in his treasurer and urges whoever was denied to still apply before the upcoming deadline on September 26. “Last year was last year. It is a new year, you don’t know what is coming. You may get your money, you may not get your money. Anything that happens there is going to be a reason behind it, it is not bias or anything.” Regarding NYPIRG, Akita says he has thought about allotting money for NYPIRG. In essence, the USG would freeze money, in which NYPIRG would allocate for in efforts of documenting where NYPIRG’s funds would be going.

With the absence of NYPIRG and the upcoming November presidential elections, the USG has taken up the task to coordinate voter registration with NYPIRG’s assistance. “We’ve taken that role, but in the last senate meeting a member of NYPIRG expressed that they are still going to continue with their involvement in voter registration. They are still playing their part and are encouraging other people,” said Akita. The USG, under Sophomore Representative Kadeem Hylton, have started mobilizing people in promoting the efforts for students to register and vote. Through contacting various clubs and organizations as well as Residence Hall Association, Akita says that everyone is “coming together to work as one team to register as many people to vote.” Akita also said that Hylton is organizing a “Rock to Vote” movement, an event that educates students on the importance and essentials of voting.

Regarding Stony Brook’s own vacancy, Akita holds a chair in the Presidential Search Committee. With Shirley Strum Kenny’s lame-duck status, Akita is looking for a president “who is going to be there for the students, going to advocate for the students, provide for the students, and love to be the president of Stony Brook University. “In efforts of truly representing students, Akita plans on taking advantage of the USG Rep. center and intends on using polls and feedback from campus media organizations in what he calls “a unified effort.”

In closing, Akita made an emphasis on availability and shed light on the fact that USG is not a negative, but a rather positive institution on campus.  He said, “I am going to treat this as a business and a relationship. What has to be done must be done, what can be done should be done, that’s how this government is going to be run. And together with the students, my representatives, senators, and the judiciary, we are going to work together to make that happen. What happened last year are lessons for the future. Today is here, and we are going to focus on today move forward.”

By Tony Cai

The hot topic in last weeks USG senate meeting held in the SAC was the passing of the budget for clubs and organization. Every year, a budget committee goes over the requests for funding by all the clubs and organizations on campus and decides how much to allocate to them for the upcoming year. All would have gone smoothly if the budget committee distributed funds fairly and evenly, but that was not the case.

My name is Tony Cai.  I’m an active volunteer for an organization on campus called the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). On May 1, the Stony Brook NYPIRG project coordinator Jonathan Green called to inform me that NYPIRG has received $0 for next years budget and that it was very important to attend this meeting. I had no idea what was going on so I went to check it out.

When I got there, I was greeted by Cheryl Lynch, a chairperson of the Board of Directors for NYPIRG, former USG senator and former member of the budget committee. She explained in detail to me right before the meeting began about the current situation. The Jewish organization Hillel and NYPIRG were given $0 for next year and the budget was passed. The reason the USG gave was that NYPIRG did not submit necessary information to the USG treasury in time.

The gallery was very disappointed when the senators voted to pass the current budget as is, meaning that NYPIRG would receive $0 next year. We were all helpless in the situation while President of USG Joseph Antonelli denied the gallery members the permission to speak out before the budget plan passed. The only thing that was going through my head was: How in the world did the budget committee decide to give NYPIRG absolutely nothing, risking the continuing existence of our organization at Stony Brook?

NYPIRG’s chapter at Stony Brook started 26 years ago, and through the years it has accomplished many things. Throughout the years they have lowered SUNY and CUNY tuition many times and registered thousands of students to vote on campus. In fact, voting on campus was made possible by the efforts of NYPIRG. Whether you know it or not, every single person in that room benefits from what NYPIRG does on an everyday basis. Do you think what we do doesn’t affect you? How about the Bottle Bill? What about the seatbelt safety law? All the things we take for granted were fought hard for by NYPIRG students like you and I.

I learned about NYPIRG through a job posting on our campus last year. After working with NYPIRG through the summer, I’ve realized how NYPIRG helps every single citizen of New York by advocating for critical laws to be passed. Since then, I’ve invested a lot of time into the organization because I truly believe they do good work. Both on and off campus, NYPIRG serves as an educator to the general public by working year round fighting for the public interest of New Yorkers. NYPIRG is also one of the leading organizations in New York State fighting to protect the environment. NYPIRG at Stony Brook organizes beach clean ups every year to promote recycling and conservation. We also collect food year round for the hungry and the homeless. We register thousands of Stony Brook students to vote every year. These are just some of the reasons why I think NYPIRG is an organization that is well worth my time, and I bet there are hundreds of students at Stony Brook who can attest to that.

NYPIRG has done too much good for Stony Brook for it to end here because of a stupid technicality. That’s all I have to say. I encourage everyone to check out NYPIRG in the basement of the Union, room 079 and discover the good we do for our campus and how you can get involved!