News Scrapbook 1984

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Union

{D. 217,324) {S. 339,788)

A 21 198

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Cindy Beezley, a political science/French major, adjusts her cap as she prepares to

march in the processional at the University of San Diego graduation ceremonies.

WilS8ri urges USD graduates to keep peace through strength By Lew Scarr Starr Writer Sen. P te Wilson, R-Calif., y ler- sional began, and the senior's in therr black robes marched slowly to their seats.

A now-banned drug ha11nts generations '/ I ve P tix of The Dally Cal/tom/an

The former San Diego mayor 1s a member of the Senate Armed Ser- vices Cor.1mittee, and he brought a call for t al unity to the largest gradual r In USD history. The m d mrmmg ceremony was a 50-yard line graduation rite, a tented affair out in the marvelous May sunshine at the university's athletic stadium. More than 8,000 guests as- sembled m the bleachers and on fold- mg chairs on the grass. Participating guests and speakers sat on the stage on aquamarine pad- ded chairs. The podium was covered with white, scalloped plastic like an arbor in the park. Promptly at 10:30 a.m. the proces-

"I was furious at the drug companies for allowing this to happen." -UINlaW••

day called on the Uniyers1ty of San Diego's Class of 1984, 65llstrong, to join mm in an effort to keep peace m the world through national strength. "We have learned the hard way that 1t is not enough for a demOC'racy to be good and just," Wilson said. 'They (the Soviets) must learn from our clear resolve that they cannot win an arms race with us because our goal is freedom." He said Americans should hold ~freedom aloft as a beacon. No na- tion can remain free unless 1t re- mains strong."

Author E. Hughes Jr., USD pr 1- dent, m hlS greetings suggested the students go on to share what they have learned with others. "Thal is the best of what this university is all about." Student Cathy Ann Campbell, who won the Alcala Award as outstanding female graduate, gave the senior ad- dress and told her classmates to "take what you have become and share it with the world. "God bless you," Campbell. an English major, said in fOnclus1on, See USD on Page -2

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Continued from B-1 A teven Andrew Callaway, an accounting major, won the Franklin Award as out- Unding male graduate. Earlier, before Wilson addressed the , he received an honorary doctor of laws degree conferred by Hughes and the ost Rev. Leo T. Maher, bishop of San Dego. Wilson told the audience he has become !armed at what he sees as a resurgence of litical excesses, both right and left. "I am troubled by an attitude to repress free expression of thought." he said. Wilson referred to the shouting down of U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick when she attempted to speak at UC Berkeley. "It "and have a nice life."

was shocking and cowardly and incredible that it occurred on a college campus," he said. When California's junior senator had concluded his comments the Class of '84 rose lo receive their diplomas. Later yesterday at Torero Stadium, Fa- ther Robert F. Drinan, a Georgetown Uni- versity professor of law who served as a congressman from Massachusetts for 10 years until he stepped down in 1981 at papal request, addressed the 27th com- mencement of USD's School of Law. Ap- proximately 60 persons with signs gathered on a hill behind the speakers' platform to protest what they said has been a pro-abor- tion stand by Drinan over the years. Law degrees were awarded to 307 stu- dents.

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El Cajon, CA (San Diego Co.) Dally calltornlan (0 . 100,271)

DES

of the drug. She and four other women - all DES children - make up the local chapter of DES Action, a nationwide educational and support organization for victims of DES · "Our goal, both nationally and locally, is to identify every DES-exposed person by the year 1990," Wake said. Besides Wake, the group includes Debbie Wingard, an associate professor at USO; Wendy Horowitz, a registered dietician; Vickie'n:lndridge; and Maureen Rafael, also a dietician. Wake said the group encourages DES children to see their doctors about every six months. The group helps people find the medical facilities with the equipment that can examine their tissue . microscopically. Special equipment is needed, smce DES-related changes may not show up in a regular pelvic exam or Pap test (the latter a test for cervical and uterine cancer named after George Papanicolaou, the U.S antomist who developed it). The group is setting up support groups, both for DES sufferers and their mothers. · "There are a lot of people with a lot of horror stories who need to talk to someone," Wake said. Those looking for support groups can send a post card to DES Action San Diego, 1172 Morena Blvd., San Diego. Or they can call 27a-1700. San Diego has been chosen and the site for the International DES Conference next fall.

through 1971 in the belief it would prevent miscarriages. The Food and Drug Administration banned DES after it was determined the drug interfered with the normal development of a fetus. Children exposed to the drug had a cnance of being rendered sterile, and - in the case of the daughter - developing a rare form of vaginal cancer. Wake's mother remembered she had been given something to prevent a potential miscarriage while carrying Wake. She talked with a physician who told her chances were good what she had been given was DES. "When my mother told me, it scared me half to death," Wake said. "At that time there was no DES action group, and very little research had been done about it." Through tests, Wake confirmed that her mother was given DES. She blames it for the formation of the pituitary tumor, as well as for the fact she 1s already post-menopausal and unable to bear children at age 34. The news has been a source of anger and frustration for everyone in Wake's family "I was furious at the drug companies for allowing this to happen," she said. "It's been only in the last year that my mother has been able lo talk to me about it." Wake soon learned she was not alone in her plight. She discovered that between one million and six million women took DES - diethylstillbestrol - between 1941 and 1971. Tbe drug was prescribed under many different brand names and f_orms, such as pills, injections or vaginal suppositories. Reports of problems with DES began to emerge as early as 1953. Since then it has been determined that the chance of a DES daughter developing vaginal cancer was about 1 in 1,000. The key age of exposure is 19. Researchers have also learned that DES is responsible for the presence of abnormal vaginal tissue called adenosis. That tissue may be activated if at some time in the future the woman is exposed to another carcinogen, causing the cells to become malignant. Men exposed to DES face potential genital problems and infertility. Researchers are studying the potential of DES as a contributor to the development of testicular cancer. Wake has devoted much of the last four years to alerting other DES children to the-potential dangers

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It didn't. "My e trogen levejs had been so messed up by that time that I still couldn'tget pregnant," she said. The breakthrough came after Wake's mother read an ·1rt1cle about DES the powerful synthetic estrogen given to millions of women from 1941

if 23 198

Est. 1888 ... EGAN HAS been

..Alim', P. C. B

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naxned as head mens basket- ball coach at the Universi~ of SanDiegQ,, A graduate of the Naval Academy, Egan has spent 13 years as head basketball coach at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He is currently alternate coach to the United States Olympic basketball team. Egan also coached and evaluated players at the Olym- pic try-outs in Bloomington, Indiana, and will be scouting South American teams in San Paolo, Brazil, this month. He is a member of the Legislative Commission of the National Coaches Basketball Association of America, and was one of 10 coaches selected by the NCAA to a committte studying the strengthening the academic requirements of in- tercollegiate athletes. ... / '

Linda Wake as a DE • daughter faced a I in 1,000 cbanc of developing vaginal cancer. The presence of the drug also Is a potential contributor to medical problems in mate offspring of mother who took the drug between 1941 and 1971.