The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page A10

EDITORIAL The Tennessean ft ioa- Thursday, may 10, 2012 CAROL HUDLER, President and Publisher TED RAYBURN, Editorial Page Editor MARIA DE VARENNE, FRANK DANIELS III, Executive Editor and Vice PresidentNews Community Conversations Editor JOHN SEIGENTHALER, Chairman Emeritus OUR VIEW Fisk, TSU need game-changers in charge track greats. But what about Fisk's program for physics research and TSU's agriculture program? As noted in a May 6 Tennessean report, one candidate who could have brought restorative success to either school, Walter Kimbrough of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, is going instead to lead Dillard University in New Orleans. With 16 of the nation's 105 HBCUs currently seeking presidents, Fisk and TSU have a lot of competition in a shrinking field. It's time for both schools to put aside their fear of change, step up and commit to a new kind of Tradition is an essential, core value at Fisk and Tennessee State universities. It also may be their Achilles heel.

Nashville's proud historically black universities one private, one public are each on the hunt for a new president at a time when the challenges for these schools are daunting. Fisk and TSU have tended to choose their leaders from longtime alumni and university administrators whose methods were considered tried and true. That's a reasonable practice for institutions whose roots date to the 19th century. Unfortunately, the "tried" methods of running historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are no longer necessarily "true." With a greater percentage of young African-American students opting to attend mainstream colleges and universities, fundraising and recruitment for HBCUs are tougher than ever. Take Fisk, whose enrollment has fallen from 800 in 2003 to around 550 today, and whose endowment is only about $20 million despite the school's $18 million annual operating budget.

The expected $30 million from sale of its Alfred Stieglitz art collection will help in the short term, but the successor to outgoing President Hazel O'Leary must help the school regain its accredi tation and boost fundraising in a short time and that's just not how old-school administration works. TSU, for its part, has a glimpse of what needs to happen from its interim president Portia Shields, who is departing in December. Brought in two years ago to turn around the school after it lost accreditation and was bleeding money with a number of non-performing majors, Shields' methods ruffled feathers among the old guard at the school but she got accreditation restored. Shields got results by thinking outside the box and putting the students first. As Fisk's trustees and TSU's governing Board of Regents ponder who the next presidents will be, they must seek individuals who have more than just academic skills and are unafraid to try new things.

Community outreach and marketing skills will be especially critical for the next Fisk president to be successful. There is a pool of younger administrators nationally who hunger to revive the dream and retain the mission of HBCUs; they also must be willing to open up their campus to the greater Nashville community. And they must do a better job of promoting their varied assets. After all, many Middle Tennesse-ans know about Fisk's Jubilee Singers and TSU's Tigerbelle TENNESSEE VOICES TEACHABLE MOMENTS Unemployment reform will clean up abuse At Promontory Summit, where the transcontinental railroad was completed. Tracking across the continent By Lt.

Gov. Ron Ramsey Last fall, I traveled the state from Mountain City to Memphis on my Red Tape Tour, looking for ways to make job creation easier. Of all the state rules and regulations stifling job creation, complaints about Tennessee's unemployment system dominated the conversation. Contrary to the insistence of the left, the vast majority of business owners do not enjoy laying off workers. I've done it myself.

It is a heartbreaking act for all con cerned. But sometimes decisions have to be made for the good of a business so that only a few people lose their jobs rather than the Ramsey scores of people laid off when a company collapses. No employer begrudges employees collecting unemployment insurance when they have been let go through no fault of their own. Times are tough, people are hurting and sometimes the next job is not waiting just around the corner. That's what our unemployment system is for: to serve as a bridge from one opportunity to the next.

Some however seek to abuse the system. We took aim at that abuse in the unemployment reform package we passed this session, the anchor of which is the Unemployment Accountability Act of 2012. Our aim was simple: Make sure everyone who is entitled to unemployment insurance continues to receive it and remove from the system those who do not deserve benefits. One of the ways we did this was by strengthening the definition of misconduct. This ensures that those who have been fired for cause theft, willful negligence, disregard of written policy no longer receive benefits.

Our reform also enacts new work search requirements for unemployment beneficiaries. $290,000 in 2012) in bonds for each mile of track laid and $48,000 (about $873,000 today) in the mountains. The Central Pacific Railroad was organized by California businessmen Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins. Dr. Thomas Clark Durant organized the Union Pacific.

The Union Pacific was sunk by the Credit Mobilier of America scandal in 1872, when it was discovered that congressmen received cash or stock for their votes in the railroad construction company affiliated with Union Pacific; the heavy bribing occurred when Rep. Oakes Ames forced Durant out as head of Credit Mobilier and took his job. Construction of the railroad brought sweeping change to America. Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans primarily built the Union Pacific portion of the railway; the Central Pacific eventually used Chinese immigrants to lay their track. Construction methods changed and, by the time the two railroads met, crews could lay up to 10 miles a day.

The path through the mountains particularly brought changes in bridge and tunnel construction, and the use of explosives, particularly nitroglycerin and dynamite. The number of deaths resulting from the construction is widely misrepresented, but credible reports put the total at less than 200, fairly close to the number resulting from the construction of the Hoover Dam Those collecting benefits must provide detailed information regarding contact with at least three employers per week or access services at a career center. Our reform also requires audits to ensure the integrity of job searches. We also and I realize this is a drastic step make it illegal to collect unemployment benefits while incarcerated. I wish I was joking but we actually found cases of people on unemployment while receiving full room and board for violating the laws of the state.

These are reasonable, common-sense reforms that bring the system in line with what most Tennesseans expect it to be. Nothing cures a society's social and economic ills like full employment. A man or woman receives not only economic remuneration from work but a significant amount of spiritual fulfillment. The sense of self-worth that a job brings to an individual cannot be overestimated. Losing a job can be debilitating mentally.

The urge to withdraw from all other aspects of life while unemployed can be compelling. I believe we do the unemployed a disservice by simply cutting them a check with few strings attached. This reform encourages accountability by those on unemployment. It ensures that they remain engaged in the job hunt and use the assistance of state career centers to get back into the job market. While the media focused on saggy pants and evolution issues legislators spent little time on the people's legislature was focused on important work like UI reform.

This unemployment reform helps job creators stay in business and aids the unemployed in their job search while protecting taxpayers from fraud and abuse. This is conservative government in action. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, is Tennessee's lieutenant governor. Zuckerman Barkin cial circumstance as it is on health care. Living in poor housing conditions, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, stress from threats of eviction, and violence not only contribute to poor child health they get embedded in one's biology and contribute to poor adult health.

In recognition of this, Congress, state governments and federal agencies have enacted laws and regulations to address in the 1930s. In addition to bringing safer and faster travel, the transcontinental railroad also provided stable cross-continent communications as the companies strung multiple telegraph lines along rights of way, replacing an earlier telegraph line that went along the Mormon Trail. The Union Pacific laid 1,087 miles of track, from Council Bluffs, Iowa; through Elkhorn (now Omaha), Grand Island, North Platte, Ogallala, and Sidney, Julesburg, Colorado Territory; Cheyenne, Laramie, Green River, and Evanston, Wyoming Territory; and Ogden, Brigham City, and Corinne, Utah Territory. The Central Pacific laid 690 miles of track, from Sacramento, through Newcastle and Truckee, over the Sierra Nevada mountains; into Reno, Wads-worth, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Elko and Wells, Nev. When completed, the railroad did not quite connect to the East Coast railways.

Train cars were barged across the Missouri River. A bridge was built across the Missouri at Kansas City later in 1869, and a bridge between Council Bluffs and Omaha was completed in 1873, tying the Eastern railroads to the Union Pacific. The route also did not pass through the larger cities of Denver and Salt Lake City. Feeder lines were built to service the two cities. Frank Daniels III Currently, 230 sites nationally use this model to improve health during childhood, which also has a chance of improving their health into adulthood.

These lawyers and doctors practice preventive law and preventive medicine at the same time. By doing so, hospitalizations are prevented and children are given a chance to reach their optimal health. Barry Zuckerman, M.D., is emeritus director of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership; the Joel and Barbara Alpert Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine; professor of public health at Boston University School of Public Health; and chief of pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. Shari Barkin, M.D., MSHS, is Marian Wright Edelman Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Division of General Pediatrics at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

The "golden spike" was driven at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, May 10, 1869, by Central Pacific Railroad President Le-land Stanford, completing the first transcontinental railroad connecting the West Coast to the East, and reducing travel time from the goldfields to the big cities from weeks to days. After about a decade of debate, the Civil War removed much of the opposition to the railroad from Southern representatives fearing competition from the West and enrichment of the North. The Republican-controlled 1862 Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act (later modified and expanded by legislation in 1863, 1864, 1865). The act created the Union Pacific Railroad Co. and authorized the issuance of government bonds to the Union Pacific (headquartered in Nebraska Territory), and the Central Pacific Railroad (a California company).

In addition to the government-backed 30-year bonds, the companies received massive land grants. The two companies were granted the rights of way, 200 feet on either side of their track, and an additional 6,400 acres (one mile along the track and the 10 miles deep) for each mile of track laid (the grant alternated between sides of the track each mile with the federal government retaining ownership of the opposite tract.) The companies were authorized to issue $16,000 (about common social factors that influence health. However, patients don't always receive the benefits or protections of these laws. As pediatricians, we see housing conditions that are in violation of code precipitating wheezing in children and subsequent hospitalizations for asthma. We see inadequate nutrition compromising children's growth and their ability to fight infection, resulting in poor attention and illness.

In 1993, Boston Medical Center did something about this. They developed something called medical-legal partnerships, in which lawyers and health providers worked together on behalf of patients to ensure these laws were followed. The notion was simple: Health-care providers identify the medical condition and treat TENNESSEE VOICES Medical-legal partnerships give patients new clout By Barry Zuckerman, M.D. and Shari Barkin, M.D. Even though the 11-year-old asthmatic boy used his medications as prescribed, he was still sick.

His uncontrolled asthma attacks kept him out of school and he was falling behind. The family and pediatrician identified that pests in the home were the root of the problem. Talking to the landlord to remedy this issue, a legal responsibility, didn't result in change; however, bringing in a specialist remedied the problem and resulted in immediate improvement, fewer medications and improved school attendance. That specialist was a lawyer working in conjunction with the health provider and family. Often, health is as dependent on so- the underlying biological issues.

Lawyers identify when adverse social circumstances represent legal violations that contribute to the medical condition. Together, they work with the family to address such identified violations. Beyond helping individual patients, opportunities for positive impact for communities are identified. In one example of effective systematic change, lawyers from a medical-legal partnership in Cincinnati discovered that a group of families with asthmatic children were exposed to substandard housing conditions in apartments owned by the same out-of-state owners. One letter crafted by lawyers on the medical-legal team to these owners resulted in changing more than 10 housing units and preventing asthma attacks in many children..