NOVEMBER 8, 2006

THE CADRE @e 19

LOCAL

aking control of Brown’s Court

Katie Smith Contributor

Brown’s court is getting much better in terms of parties and damage, says the director of property management for one of the properties in the area. Dan Sampson of Killam Properties said the company has taken a number of steps to “calm the place down” and has been fairly successful thus far. “We’ve installed surveillance cameras around the parking lot

because we’ve had a lot of vandalism |

as a result of the parties, people breaking into cars and smashing beer bottles and stuff like that. We’ve also educated our tenants that we don’t put up with that kind of stuff.”

Brown’s Court, across from UPEI, is home to many students. Earlier this fall there was a number of complaints and police visits to the area

Kent Aitken Reporter

While ideally it will rarely need to be used, knowing about Plan B can’t hurt.

Ruth Freeman at the Women’s Centre,

located in the Student Services offices in the Student Union Building, says that she gets “five or six requests for information a week. Not that many people want it - they’re just looking for

Plan B is the brand name in Canada of a common form of emergency contraceptive, also known as the morning-after pill. That name is misleading; ‘emergency contraceptives were intended for use up to 72 hours after intercourse — the sooner the better though.

information.”

due to excessive noise, damage and partying.

It’s not a matter of stopping parties altogether, Sampson said.

“We to “step. . the congregation of crowds in the common areas and the parking lots. If students have a party, keep it in the apartment. If you bring it out onto the street and the crowds start to congregate, we will stop it.”

After Killam took over the properties in the spring, there were problems throughout the summer and early into the school year. It was getting out of control, so the occupants of 10 units were evicted, he said.

“Unfortunately, not every landlord in that immediate area is that diligent, so a lot of these people just moved into the buildings next door to us. That happened and the parties continue.”

Although Killam can only control the properties it owns, Sampson encourages other landlords to do the same.

Caitlin Brown, a second-year arts student who lives in Brown’s court, said it’s been much quieter

want

Photo: Killam Properties

Browns Court now known as Island Dale Estates

around there these days, with the exception of Halloween.

“I think the newness of it has worn off and everyone’s calmed down. Halloween weekend was a little bit loud, but other than that, it’s pretty good now.”

Brown said she feels safer walking around the area now than she did at the beginning of the year.

“It’s not that bad on weekends anymore. People just need to be a little smarter sometimes.”

There’s Still Hope: The Morning-After Pills

_ Essentially, Plan B is a spiked dosage of the same hormones that work in standard birth control pills. Both.use a synthetic hormone known as progestin that suppresses ovulation, with a 50%-80% prevention rate. However, in some cases ovulation may still occur, and it is possible but unproven that the hormonal effects of the pill can also prevent pregnancy by stopping embryos from implanting in the

-uterus. This has created some controversy over the pills, as some people believe that life starts with the embryonic stage and that a form of abortion may take place.

Emergency contraceptives are hot suggested to be a primary method of birth control as they are less effective than any other mainstream contraceptive. They also produce heightened versions of the side effects some women feel from standard birth control pills - nausea, abdominal pain, fatigue, headache, dizziness, vomiting, and breast tenderness, as well as disruptions in menstrual cycles. Regardless, they are very useful as a backup plan (hence “Plan B,” of coutse) to broken condoms or forgotten birth control pills.

Before April, 2005, Plan B was covered by UPEI’s student health plan. For better or for worse, the drug

was changed from a prescription to an over-the-counter drug which meant obtaining it in time became easier, but it couldn’t be covered. Prescriptions didn’t exactly make sense — there was no way to tell if someone would be pregnant in the drug’s effective timeframe anyway, so it just meant a time-consuming and effectively useless trip to a doctor’s office.

Currently the treatment (two pills are taken twelve hours apart) costs about $38 and the price includes a brief consultation with the pharmacist about maximizing efficiency. Plan B is available at any pharmacy, including those in the Atlantic Superstore.