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Lady Netters trash Oklahoma State — 8
An independent stuu<-,..
Ga
FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1990 • ATHENS, GEO
Jty of Georgia Community
VOLUME 97, ISSUE 105
INSIDE
A preview of the restored
epic film classic
“Lawrence of Arabia,”
coming to the Tate Ctr.
5
Weather: Today, sunny, high 70s,
tonight, fair, low 50s. Saturday,
sunny, high 80s. Give your mom a
break, you lunkheads celebrate
her day, her way.
Bomb scare
fails to stop Lee speech
Wayns Jackaon/The Rod and Black
Spike Lee was pretty laid back in his talk to a crowd of nearly 500
people at the Coliseum last night despite a bomb threat. After a sum
ming up of his career — both high and low points — Lee answered
questions from the audience. Left, Spike Lee as he speaks to crowd.
Right, students wait outside of the Coliseum during the bomb
scare for word on whether Lee will speak.
By MARGARET WESTON
and JOHN DONNELLY
Staff Writers
University police evacuated the
Coliseum last night after receiving
a bomb threat about 15 minutes
before controversial filmmaker
Spike Lee was scheduled to tuke
the stage.
Police said they received a
phoned-in threat at 7:46 p.m. Offi
cers evacuated the nearly 400 spec
tators in the Coliseum and
searched for explosives. Nothing
was discovered and Lee took the
stage at about 8:30 p.m.
Lee seemed unfazed by the
alarm, “I’m really sorry for the
delay. The plane was late so the
bomb threat really didn’t set us
back that much...This is the second
time this year we’ve had one...we
get bomb threats in the North too.”
The 32-year-old filmmaker,
sporting a New York Nicks hat, sat
back and informally told the story
of his climb through film school to
become a successful Hollywood di
rector.
He brought up racism intermit
tently, mentioning times when it
threatened to thwart his career.
At New York University film
school, he and his friend Ernest
Dickerson, who has worked as
Lee’s cameraman ever since, de
cided that as black students, they’d
have to be 10 times better than the
white students.
‘There were three or four blacks
there out of about 200 students.
We were regarded as quotas,” he
said.
Lee proved himself by winning
the Academy Award in 1982 for
best student film, but the struggle
was not over.
“I thought that Hollywood would
come knocking down my door. I got
two agents, but no work...not even
an after-school special, while my
white classmates got lots of offers,”
he said.
So he struck out on his own and
made a low-budget feature, She’s
Gotta Have It.
He went on to reminisce about
his days at Morehouse College and
the Greek system there.
"Men join fraternities for the
women. Men who, during the first
week of school, were undesirab
le...to the curb, once they got their
fraternity colors they trans
formed,” he said. "You’re laughing,
but it’s a really sick mentality.”
Lee said he based last year’s Do
The Right Thing on the Howard
Beach incident in which three
black men were chased from a New
York pizzaria. One man was killed
when he was hit by a car as they
were ran away. Lee didn’t expect
the furor his film caused.
"None of the riots the media pre
dicted happened, but a lot of white
people got scared. They waited
until it came out on video so they
could watch it in the comfort of
their homes,” he said.
After speaking, Lee took ques
tions from the audience, some of
which were critical of his Nike
commercials and attacks on black
fraternities.
Lee neither apologized for his
image nor made light of the serious
issues that he explores.
James Paul, coordinator elect of
the Committee for Black Culture
Programs, said the bomb threat
was an indication of how badly the
University needs to bring speakers
like Lee to campus.
“It shows this campus is afraid
of true controversy. It actually
shows us how much he is needed
here,” he said.
REM guitarist Pete Buck, who
attended the speech, said the
threat “was obviously perpetrated
by two losers sitting in their room
with nothing better to do. It has no
bearing on the feeling in the com
munity.”
University police wouldn’t com
ment on any possible leads as to
who placed the threatening call but
they are investigating the case.
Staff writer Mike McLe<xi contrib
uted to thin story.
University is selected
for study of gifted kids
The U.S. Department of Edu
cation has selected the Univer
sity of Georgia as one of four
universities that will research
how to identify and teach excep
tionally bright children.
The University of Connecticut
will head the five-year, $7.5 mil
lion study, which will be called
the National Research Center on
the Gifled and Talented.
Yale University and the Uni
versity of Virginia also will be a
part of the program, which will
develop new programs to help
schools reach children with ex
ceptional skills.
"Our research will focus on
ways to identify gifted and tal
ented children who are often
missed by present procedures,”
said Dr. Mary Frasier, director of
the Torrence Center for Creative
Studies, who will lead the Uni
versity’s research.
The universities will conduct
research in different aspects of
education for gifled children,
coordinated through the national
center, said Chris Cross, assis
tant director of the education de
partment’s Office of Education
Research and Improvement.
"We want to enhance our un
derstanding of the nature of ex
traordinary abilities, improve
assessment and instruction for
the gifled and talented and de
velop sound theories for their ed
ucation," Frasier said.
The research at the University
will be coordinated through the
education psychology depart
ment. The center will work with
state education departments and
private non-profit schools nation
wide, Frasier said.
About two dozen schools na
tionwide competed for the award.
• J.D. Squillante
UGA measles cases
continuing to climb
The number of measles cases at
the University climbed to 31 as
Health Services workers adminis
tered 2,450 more vaccinations
Thursday.
Sixty-three people showed ad
equate proof of immunity, Public
Information Director Tom Jackson
said.
Faculty, staff and students who
have been inoculated or have
proven immunity from the measles
virus now total 13,420. About 12,-
000 to 12,500 still have to report to
the vaccination booths by 6 p.m.
May 18, Health Services reported.
If an average of 2,500 people a
day are vaccinated, the deadline
will be reached, Jackson said.
Campus organizations join forces
Nunn, Cleland will launch voter drive
Under Department of Human
Resources regulations, a person de
clared exempt for medical or reli
gious reasons must leave the
University until two weeks after
the last case of measles has been
reported, unless titer test results
prove the person’s immunity. The
test measures the level of measles
antibodies in the blood system.
Of the 115 people declared
exempt in the first two days of
mandatory inoculation, 63 were
administered a titer test. The ma
jority of people taking the test were
pregnant women, Jackson said.
It takes three working days to
obtain results of the test, he said.
— Peggy McGoff
By MARLA EDWARDS
Staff Writer
U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn and
Georgia Secretary of State Max
Cleland will kick off the state-wide
Vote ‘90 voter registration cam
paign at 10:30 a m. Monday at the
Tate Student Center plaza. About
26 of the University System’s col
leges and universities will take
part in the drive.
Bill Crane, Cleland’s press sec
retary, said, "You’re the largest
campus and yours is probably
going to be the most successful
drive.”
The goal is to register about
15,000 University students during
the registration drive May 14-18,
Crane said. Student volunteers
will man tables at the Tate Center
plaza Monday from 9:30 a.m. to
6:30 p.m. and Tuesday through
Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We’re figuring if 29,000 can get
measles vaccinations during the
next week, then we should be able
to get about half of that (to reg
ister),” Crane said.
Students can register to vote
more easily than ever before, he
said. In the past, students either
had to travel to their place of per
manent residence or declare a new
residence in the county where they
attended school.
House Bill 1172, which was
signed by Gov. Joe Frank Harris
March 6 and cleared the Depart
ment of Justice April 23, should
make things easier.
The new law will allow students
to register on campus to vote either
in their home counties or in the
counties where they attend closses.
It gives university or college presi
dents, or their appointees, the
right to serve as deputy voter regis
trars.
The law also establishes college
campuses as voter registration
sites.
To register, students should
bring with them picture IDs and
proof of residence, such as a utility
bill or a bank statement.
Those who :•;• «ter in Clarke
County thereby declare themselves
independent from their parents. If
their parents still claim them as
uependents on tax forms, regis
tering in Clarke County could
cause tax problems for parents,
Crane said.
Also, students who register in
Clarke County won’t be exempt
from jury duty if called here.
About nine campus organiza
tions including the Student Asso
ciation, Interfratemity Council,
Young Democrats and the Black
Affairs Council are sponsors for the
Vote *90 campaign, under the um
brella of the Student Voter Regis
tration Council.
The council is an organization
that has operated on a recurring
basis at the University since 1984,
when it was created by the IFC. It
was reorganized to assemble va
rious campus organizations for
work on the campaign and is now a
permanent appendage of the SA.
About 70 students from six
campus organizations have volun
teered to become deputy registrars
for the drive.
Phil Smith, president of Young
Democrats and a student liaison to
Cleland’s office for Vote ‘90, said,
“This is the first time in a long time
that all these student organiza
tions have banded together.
Raising student awareness and
participation in the primary is
something we can all agree on.”
The unified effort should help
pull students in to register, he said.
A week-long slate of bands that
will ploy during voter registration
also should help bring in students.
Crane said tne qualifications to
register are that students be U.S.
citizens, 18 years of age by the Nov.
6 general election and legal resi
dents of the county in which
they’re registered to vote.
Fire in ecology ruins oven, damages ceiling
By MICHAEL W. McLEOD
Staff Writer
A fire at the ecology building at
1:15 p.m. Wednesday ruined the
only large drying oven at the In
stitute of Ecology and one agri
cultural sample of a research
project.
University Fire Marshall
Frank Edwards said the fire
started when an experimental
sample of leaves and wheat in the
large drying oven caught on fire.
He said it started in the same
way hay in a field will catch on
fire. , .
“When hay decomposes, it
loses its moisture and that lowers
its heating point, making it easy
to catch fire. It just got too hot in
there,” he said.
The fire was contained in the
oven, and several panels of the
ceiling were damaged. Fire
fighters from the Clarke County
Fire Department said they
pumped 500 gallons of water on
the oven in about five minutes.
The fire inside the oven was
more than 1200 degrees Fahr
enheit, Edwards said, causing
the steel doors of the oven to
warp.
Institute Director Ron Pulliam
said, "We’re going to look into ex
actly what happened; we don’t
know the entire details now.
‘This is the worst time of year
to have this happen with most of
the samples coming in now,” he
said.
"What we do is use it to dry
large samples. We have a number
of smaller ovens and we’ll have to
depend on those for now. Well re
place it very quickly. I’m sure it’s
entirely covered by insurance; it
depends on how quickly they re
spond,” Pulliam said.
Mike Beare, a research asso
ciate who was working with the
sample that wa9 destroyed, said,
“Green Diant tissue is wet; to
keep it from decomposing and to
analyze it, everything is rou
tinely dried.”
The large oven was shared by
the entire institute, he said.
Beare said the sample in the
oven contained wheat stems and
leaves harvested from an experi
mental agriculture plot near
Watkinsvitte. The sample was
treated with a radioactive isotope
to examine the way plants take
nitrogen from the soil.
Personnel in the office of the
National Park Service Cooper
ative Unit, next door the room
containing the drying oven,
began frantically carrying com
puters, files, and other data out
side once they realized there was
a fire.
VOTE ’90
[m
Monday, May 14 at the Tate Center:
Speakers:
• University President Charles Knapp, around 10 a.m.
• U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, around 10:30 a.m.
• Secretary of State Max Cleland
• Assistant Secretary of State Dwight Atkinson
• Roger Marietta, candidate for sixth district U.S. Congress seat.
Musical entertainment:
• Gypsy Cab Co., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Allgood Music Co., 2 to 6 p.m.
The following speakers have confirmed that they will come to campus
during the week but days and times have not been set:
Gubernatorial candidates:
• Andy Young
• Zell Miller
• Lauren McDonald
• Johnny Isakson
• Roy Barnes
Lieutenant gubernatorial candidates:
• George Berry
• Pierre Howard
• Jim Pannell
• Bud Stumbaugh
University Athletic Director Vince Dooley will speak Wednesday •
around noon.
Musical entertainment:
Tuesday, May 15:
• Tattooed Dogs, 10 a.m. to noon.
• Craig Carmean, noon to 2 p.m.
• The Foils, 2 to 4 p.m.
Wednesday, May 16:
• Moods Amuck, tentatively 10 to 11 a.m.
• Craig Carmean, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Nathan Shepard, 1 to 3 p.m.
Thursday, May 17:
• Stonewasned Tapestry, a North Carolina band, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30
p.m.
• Blue Prayer, an Atlanta band, 1:30 to 3 p.m.
Friday, May 18:
• Moods Amuck, 10 to 11 a.m.
• Tentatively scheduled bands are The Simpletons and The Wog-
gles.
Free food, donated by area restaurants will be available to all stu
dents throughout the week. This schedule is subject to last-minute
changes.
Diamond Dog are first
in SEC, 4th in nation
By ERIC GARBER
Sports Writer
Forget about the Georgia base
ball team breaking the school re
cord for wins in a season. Forget
about the team’s 14- and 13-game
winning streaks. Forget about the
Diamond Dogs being ranked sixth
in the nation.
The Dogs know that none of that
matters now because the team is
about to embark on its most impor
tant series of the season, one which
will decide if Georgia will capture
its first regular season SEC title
since 1987 and fifth overall. The
squad that stands in its way —
Lousiana State University, in
Baton Rouge.
The Diamond Dogs (44-12) are
currently first in the conference at
18-6 and lead 14-ranked LSU by
one game. The three games against
the Tigers will complete the reg
ular season schedule. Georgia
needs one win to become co-cham
pions with LSU and two to become
the conference’s outright champ.
“We don’t want to tie for first
place,” Georgia left-handed pitcher
Dave Fleming said. “The first game
is most important. If we can win
that one, I think well be in the
driver’s seat.”
Fleming (10-2, 2.70 ERA) is
scheduled to pitch the first game of
Saturday’s doubleheader and Mike
Rebhan (10-3, 3.29 ERA) will pitch
the second. Both games will be
televised on TCI Cable’s Channel
13 at 5 p.m.
Please See DIAMOND Page 8