Dear Green Wave Athletics,

Have you ever met anyone who didn’t know that breast cancer exists, can result in death and affects more women than any other cancer each year? Literally every college student I have ever met already knows all of these facts. Breast cancer awareness is no longer a cause to fight for.

In general, breast cancer awareness isn’t very relevant to university women (who are usually under 40). However, if you would like to prevent breast cancer, please feel free to encourage specific healthy lifestyles, moderation in drinking (having three drinks a week raises the chance of breast cancer by 15 percent) or any of a number of protective factors rarely mentioned in awareness campaigns. These are things women may not actually be aware of. If you would like to encourage research, you could put some money into it or highlight some of the Tulane researchers working to find ways to fight breast cancer (a preliminary search reveals over a dozen). But please, don’t be ridiculous. Breast cancer awareness campaigns succeeded ten years ago.

Everyone knows about the existence of breast cancer. I expect more from a school working to develop state-of-the-art sports facilities and programs. I would love to see a new approach that would actually help people. You have the attention of a large portion of the student body. Do something real with it.

Roll Wave,

Erin Ricketts

Erin is a student in her second year at the Tulane Medical School. You can reach her at [email protected].