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WEEKEND EDITION * FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1990 • ATHENS, GEORGIA • VOLUME 98, ISSUE 36
SGA revamps 'Dead Days’
By SANDRA STEPHENS
Staff Writer
Camping out at the library all day to study
for a major test and doing research for a paper
due the week before finals may soon be a thing
of the past.
The Student Government Association voted
unanimously Wednesday night to submit a
modified “Dead Days” proposal to the Univer
sity Council’s Executive Committee.
SGA President Pro Tern William Perry said
the proposal recommends that University pro
fessors don’t make any assignments or schedule
any tests, quizzes or exams that are due the
last three days of class.
But it does recommend that grades for atten
dance and participation be collected during
that time.
Perry said he’s talked to friends and other
University students about the proposal.
“I haven’t found any opposition to it yet,"
Perry said.
SGA started drafting the proposal spring
quarter.
SGA Sophomore Sen. Will Cochran said the
proposal is something that SGA didn’t want to
rush.
It’s important that students and faculty are
happy with it and equally represented, he said.
Cochran said “Dead Days” can give students
an opportunity for more study time.
Students shouldn’t have to take a big exam
or have a paper due right before exam periods,
he said.
The School of Law has a period of a few days
between the last day of class and finals for
study days. The law school is on the semester
system.
The Georgia Institute of Technology has an
unofficial “Dead Week” which is observed by
most professors.
The Executive Committee of the University
Council will meet Nov. 26 and determine which
committee will review the proposal, said
Delmer Dunn, associate vice president for Aca
demic Affairs.
Other SGA projects include a canned food
drive Nov. 26 through Nov. 30. Collection boxes
will be placed at the Tate Student Center, resi
dence halls and fraternity and sorority houses.
“I’m hoping the response will be good for this
too,” Cochran said.
Also, boxes are still available outside the
SGA ofTice in the Tate Center for collecting
books for the soldiers in Saudi Arabia.
"It’s a worthwhile cause,” Cochran said.
Will Cochran
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas all over
Athens. The city blankets the town every year
with lights on trees and garland on street lamps
to help put Athenians in the Christmas spirit.
Here a city worker strings lights on a tree down
town.
All around the town
Ally enlisted in fight on crime
By LYNN BARFIELD
Staff Writer
The Student Government Asso
ciation, reinforcing legislation that
was signed by President Bush this
past weekend, has decided to work
with a new campus organization,
Safe Campuses Now, to help
combat campus crime.
The legislation Bush approved is
the Student Right-to-Know and
Campus Security Act, requiring
schools that receive federal aid to
disclose murder, rape, robbery and
other crime statistics. The bill will
take effect Sept. 1, 1991.
Safe Campuses Now organizer
Dana Getzinger, a senior commu
nications major, said Thursday
SGA is excited about working with
the organization to further en
lighten students about campus vio
lence.
“I think the SGA is concerned
about campus crime and really
wants to help,” she said.
Getzinger was the victim of a
1988 stabbing in her off-campus
apartment. She began Safe Cam
puses Now with her parents and
testified last March on behalf of
the bill before a special Senate sub
committee.
The SGA will help SCN form its
first spin-off campus group, Stu
dents Against Crime, by helping
co-sponsor programs and events,
Getzinger said.
Georgia House, a senior organi
zational management major and a
volunteer for SCN, said SGA will
have three senators serve on plan
ning committees with other SCN
volunteers.
‘The senators can report to other
members about plans nnd events,”
she said.
Junior Sen. William Perry, a
criminal justice major, said sen
ators were very receptive to the
ideas presented by Getzinger and
House at the Tuesday night
meeting.
The senators ns individuals
were interested because several
signed up to help with SCN plans.
Thnt’s very positive,” Perry said.
He said the SGA is no stranger
to the issue of campus crime.
The SGA Student Life com
mittee proposed the on-campus es
cort van service that began in
October 1989 to give students an
alternative to walking across
campus at night.
One requirement of the legis
lation is to have universities report
ofT-campus statistics in nddition to
on-campus statistics. But that re
quirement couldn’t be fulfilled by
most schools since university police
don’t handle ofT-campus crime.
Sgt. Joseph Walter, crime pre
vention supervisor for the Athens
Police Department, said groups
like SCN and SGA can help bring
about an awareness that students
need about crime.
He said the Athens crime pre
vention unit will give SCN full sup
port in its programs.
SCN projects include a rating
system lor buildings on- and ofT-
campus and a safety kit that in
cludes tear gas and alarm devices.
Getzinger said the kits are selling
well.
She said she hopes students will
open an ear and get involved with
SCN when the group has its first
meeting at the beginning of winter
quarter, nnd hopes the legislation
just passed will help in the crusade
against campus crime.
Massage: Pushing for new image
By BILL DAVIS
Contnbuting Writer
Massage — from neon lit bordellos to Cnlifornia-
style offices with New Age music tinkling in the air —
is changing its image.
Massage therapists are young to middle-aged mem
bers of both sexes, and they exude a sense of profes
sionalism as they wait for some sort of licensing.
Until national medical licensing comes through,
they won’t get medical coverage for their services from
major insurance companies.
The chances of insurance coverage are very slim,”
said Joe Leone, massage therapist at Henlthwise Ho
listic Health Center. There is a 5 to 10 percent
chance of the insurance company paying if we send
along written requests from a doctor.”
The outlook isn’t so bleak from Carleen Blum’s posi
tion. Blum is a massage therapist at Applied Health
Services.
“I also benefit from being a licensed professional
counselor, so I run about half nnd half,” Blum said. “If
I send along a copy of my license, the companies will
sometimes pay.”
Sometimes, potential clients have the wrong idea
when it comes to the nature of services rendered,
according to Pamela Gilchrist, a massage therapist
with Integrated Health Services.
“Sometimes, a call will come at night," Gilchrist
said. “I am especially explicit in my statements and
questions. If the call is coming from a hotel, I will not
handle the call. I might be refusing a client service
that actually needs therapy, like a businessman on a
trip, but I hove to take care of myself.”
The standard charge in Athens is $40 per session.
Sessions last about an hour. Some therapists offer
half sessions for those clients with a specific need or
who are on a stricter budget.
“One of the nicest things about being in private
practice is being able to use your own discrimination
in setting prices,” Gilchrist said.
Clients come in for therapy for reasons ranging
from stress management to injury rehabilitation.
Richard Zimdnrs, a client of Integrated Health
Services, uses massage therapy in a variety of skeins.
"Trying to be an artist, a teacher, bureaucrat and a
father — a little tension tends to accumulate, nnd
massage is a good way to loosen up a few of the knots
nnd kinks,” said Zimdars, chairman of the pinno divi
sion in the University’s FSne Arts department.
He also uses massage to prepnre for performances
and concerts, he said.
“I use it for a special need,” Zimdars said. “It hns a
positive effect on the state of looseness and flexibility
required for plnying the piano, though it is not a
chronic problem.”
Some local doctors refer patients to mnssage thera
pists.
“Massage is not a minor part of treatment, it can be
very important,” said Dr. Edward Novey of Athens
Neurological Associates.
Novey hns referred 50 patients to massage therapy
in the past 10 years.
There are two situations in which I will refer to
massage therapists,” Novey said. “One is if the pa
tient hns suffered a cervical injury, as a form of phys
ical therapy. I have also found that patients in this
situation are under a great deal of stress, nnd I have
found that massage therapy is a good form of stress
management.”
Even with statements like Novey’s, the field is sub
ject to professional prejudices. Acceptance by the med
ical community isn’t widespread.
When confronted with opinions of quackery, the
therapists see education as the answer.
“I deal with (skeptics) as uneducated individuals,
that they are still in the perspective of old movies ns it
is found only in houses of ill repute," Blum said. They
are really missing out on a very honorable and re
laxing therapy.”
1-800-FR0G may keep animals from going under the knife
By AL DIXON
Staff Water
In April of 1987, Jenifer Graham
of Victorville, Calif, encountered a
problem in her high school biology
class.
She was ethically opposed to the
dissection of animals, but her tea
cher threatened to lower her grade
if she didn’t dissect a frog as part of
a class experiment.
Jenifer took the problem to her
mother and ultimately to the Cali
fornia Supreme Court. As a result,
there is now a law in California
giving high school students with
ethical objections to the dissection
of animals the right to demand an
alternative method of instruction.
California and Florida are cur
rently the only states giving high
school students legal rights to ob
ject to dissection.
The law in California originally
applied to college students as well,
but was amended because legis
lators realized it couldn’t apply to
all college students, particularly
pre-med and pre-vet students.
In addition to suing the state,
Jenifer’s mother, Pat Graham,
started the Dissection Hotline to
provide information to high school
and college students with ques
tions or problems concerning the
dissection of animals.
The hotline (1-800-922-FROG) is
a project of the Animal Legal De
fense Fund, a non-profit organiza
tion of more than 300 attorneys
nationwide designed to promote
the ethical treatment of animals.
“We get a lot of calls from high
school and college students who
run into problems when they don’t
want to dissect an animal,”
Graham said. “I usually ask them
why they have an objection, and if
it is for moral or ethical reasons I
advise them to explain this to their
professor.
“If the teacher is unwilling to
offer the student an alternative, he
should go over the teacher’s head
to the dean or department head,"
she said.
The college will almost alwnys
be willing to offer an alternative.”
Graham said a college student
who has a legitimate ethical objec
tion and doesn’t plan to pursue a
career in which aissection experi
ence is necessary would have a
good chance of winning if he took
nis complaint to court.
No college students have chal
lenged their schools in court yet be
cause most colleges are reasonable
and willing to offer alternatives,
Graham said.
Yet few colleges have policies
governing such cases, she said.
‘This is a serious legal and
ethical issue that needs to be taken
seriously enough for universities to
develop specific policies respecting
students’ needs,” she said.
Graham said teachers who have
questions about alternatives to dis
section can get information
through the hotline.
Leonard Mortenson, head of the
University’s biology department,
said the University hasn't experi
enced any legal problems with stu
dents objecting to dissection.
“We bend over backward to take
care of students’ sensitivities,” he
said. “In any biology class a stu
dent with a moral objection to dis
section can go to his professor for
alternatives.
“If a student has a legitimate ob
jection and his professor won’t offer
him an alternative, he can take his
problem to me," Mortenson said.
He said non-science majors who
will not be faced with dissection in
their careers have legitimate
gripes, but pre-med nnd pre-vet
students ana students in higher
level science courses don’t.
“If you’re ethically opposed to
dissection, you shouldn't take
anatomy,” he said.
Mortenson said the University
uses dissection as a method of in
struction only if it’s necessary, and
offers alternatives such as films
and plastic models. In addition, a
computer dissection simulator is
being developed by the biology de
partment but a lack of funds has
delayed the project.
Dwight Douglas, vice president
for Student Affairs, said, “I am not
aware of any school-wide policy
that dictates what to do if there is
an objector — I would imagine it
would depend on the specific
course and circumstances.”