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Rachel Elias l Daily Trojan
Expressing her pain. Kacey Long says breast implants caused her to suffer from a number of ailments, including arthritis and chronic fatigue syndrome. She has since had the implants removed.
Discovering a healthy self
Speakers raise body image awareness with personal accounts of problems.
By STELLA LEE
Contributing Writer
The Extreme Measures Tour brought its nationwide campaign aimed to raise awareness of eating disorders, plastic surgery and body image problems to campus at Taper Hall of Humanities Tuesday.
Sponsored by the Women’s Student Assembly, the campaign has
made appearances at other colleges across the country.
The Extreme Measures Tour is a joint project by the Eating Disorders Coalition and the National Council of Women’s Organization.
Carolyn Costin, a prominent family counselor, spoke at the event Tuesday about the factors that contribute to eating disorders. She is the director and founder of both The Eating Disorder Center of California and The Monte Nido Treatment Center.
Two other speakers, Cheyenne Eagle and Kacey Long, explained
health problems they encountered as a direct result of their attempts to correct their body image.
Eagle recounted how her struggle with obesity developed into an image problem that spiraied into an eating disorder.
Long spoke about how she suffered health complications from breast implant surgery.
Long said she was initially unaware of the potential health risks that she could incur in getting breast implants. For her, wanting to get breast implants were a “body invest-I see Image, page 3 I
The nationwide campaign has made stops at George Washington University and Long Beach State University.
www. daily trojan.com
Class studies reactions to Body Worlds
Occupational therapy students research responses to exhibits of plasticized corpses.
"Being able to go see dead bodies like tlwt sounds like something out of a horror movie. The fact that we re at that point in our society is crazy. ” ♦
HELEN BAEK
senior
English
By SARAH FILUS
Staff Writer
An occupational therapy class of 10 undergraduates is studying how people react to the Body Worlds and Body Worlds II exhibits and how they have developed as an international cultural phenomenon.
The class plans to be the first group in the United States to publish research on this topic.
"(The research) deals a lot with how our culture is changing," said Helen Baek, a senior majoring in English who is a student in the class.
“Being able to go see dead bodies like that sounds like something out of a horror movie. The fact that we're at that point in bur society is crazy."
The student research team is officially sanctioned as a research team by the Body World Team and the California Science Center.
Additionally, they have been in touch with the creato/ of Body Worlds,
Gunther Von Hagens, said Gelya Frank, professor of the class.
Occupational Therapy 375, the Narrative of Structure of Social Action, has never before been taught with such firsthand research experience, Frank said.
Students did not know about the unique curriculum until the first day of class, Baek said.
Conceptualizing the project
Frank came up with the idea to study Body Worlds several weeks before the spring semester began while exploring the exhibit herself.
“There are so many relevant issues encompassed fn this one topic," Frank said. “I was looking for a way to engage the students and myself.”
The location of the Body Worlds exhibit in Exposition Park also contributed to the team's ability to research.
“We had this amazing exhibit right next door. It was a phenomenal opportunity to study a cultural phenom-
I see Reactions page 3 I
April 20, 2005
INSIDE
Vol. CXI. VI, No. 61
Leader in dentistiy, dental hygiene professor dies
INDEX
Colleagues remember Ruth Ragland for helping make the dental school one of the top programs in the nation.
By BRYCE ALAN PINKOS
Contributing Writer
Fellow professors and colleagues remember Ruth Ragland as a dedicated faculty member who turned the dental hygiene department into one of the best in the nation. Ragland died on March
29	at age 85 after a lengthy illness.
Ragland was a full-time professor of dental hygiene and public health in the USC School of Dentistry. She also served as the chairwoman of the dental hygiene department for 27 years.
Ragland graduated from USC with a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene in 1957. She chaired the department of dental hygiene only a year later.
Her colleagues lauded Ragland for helping take the USC dental school to
the top.
“She made the B.S. program first out of 28 natiorally in the oral health profession," said Harold Slavkin, her longtime friend and colleague and dean of the School of Dentistry.
In 1986, Ragland was the first woman to be inducted into the dental school’s hall of fame, The plaque dedicated to Ragland reads: “A respected leader in every consequential dental hygiene organization. A tireless advocate and administrator of dental hygiene education at USC. A devoted supporter of her students."
She also worked to provide students with a well-rounded education by integrating the dental program with humanities and social sciences from the time she took over the program
Ragland
starting in 1958.
“She was very intelligent and had great leadership," said Victoria Newcomer, director of public relations for the School of Dentistry.
Ragland was a chairwoman for the American Dental Hygienist Association's committee on dental hygiene education in the 1960s, which allowed her to play an integral role in reshaping the standards of oral hygiene programs around the world.
She also served as president of the Southern California Dental Hygienists’ Association.
“She provided a great example for women in the workplace." Newcomer said.
Right from the start of her career, Ragland “kept ‘SCs primary missions
in mind," Slavkin said.
When Slavkin first met Ragland in 1961 at the dental school, he said “she was already bigger than life.” The two worked together and collaborated on research for more than
30	years.
Newcomer said she first met Ragland in the 70s when Newcomer first began working as an administrative assistant on campus.
“She impressed me as a very remarkable woman," Newcomer said.
Ragland was born in 1920 into a poor farming community in Oklahoma.
Ragland's first husband went missing in action during the Korean War. Years later, Ragland married Jim Ragland, a fellow USC professor. They lived happily married until Jim Ragland died a few years ago.
“She radiated charm, wit and intelligence.” Slavkin said.
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