Newspaper Page Text
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■ Rollerblading cuts to the need for speed - 2
An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia community
MONDAY. MAY 11. 1992 • ATHENS, GEORGIA • VOLUME 99, ISSUE 134
INSIDE
The five instructors
who won Meigs
Awards for excellence
are profiled.
Weather Sunnily warm. High
in the mkMJOs. Tonight,
clearly cool.
Waters, Boybutante
Ball mark AIDS Month
(All proceeds to benefit AIDS Athens)
MAY
EVENT
15
John Waters, gay film director,
will speak about AIDS.
Tate Theater, 7:30 p.m.
22
3rd annual Boybutante Ball
40 Watt Club, 9 p.m.
30
Show of Feet 5k run or walk
Athens Regional
Medical Center, 8:30 a.m.
•courtesy: AIDS Athens
virus.
By CATHLEEN EGAN
Staff Writer
In an effort to stem the tide in the
war against AIDS, the local AIDS
Athens and other nearby organiza
tions and businesses are teaming up
to educate the community about the
epidemic.
May has been designated as
AIDS Awareness Month.
Gwen O'Looney, Athens-Clarke
County Chief Elected Officer, signed
a proclamation April 17 declaring
the public should become more edu
cated about the HIV virus, which
causes AIDS.
"(AIDS) is a health problem that
affects our whole community and the
proclamation is a definite prevention
goal," O'Looney said. *The disease is
spreading among women and het
erosexuals and this shows it’s going
to spread throughout our communi
ty.*
More than 3,646 Georgians’ lives
have been claimed by the disease. In
the United States, AIDS has claimed
over 138,395 lives.
Representatives from AIDS
Athens said they are pleased with
the initiative the CEO has taken to
help publicize AIDS education.
‘AIDS is in its height of popular
ity," said Jim Farmer of AIDS
Athens, “so I'm glad Gwen O’Looney
has done this because it means she
is aware that things need to be done
in the community, and she thought
it'd be a good time."
AIDS Athens has scheduled sev
eral fund-raising activities this
month to inform people that every
one is susceptible to the disease.
“(AIDS) used to be a gay male dis
ease, but now it's becoming a threat
to everyone," Farmer said. “And we
want to try to raise money and
increase the awareness.”
To kick off AIDS Awareness
Month, an evening of entertainment
was held at the Botanical Gardens
this weekend with the proceeds ben
efiting AIDS Athens.
“It was great," said Beth
Richardson of the AIDS Athens
fund-raising committee. “It was an
evening of music, food, drink and
there was even a singles auction of
all the available bachelors.
Afterwards, there was a fashion
show.”
The overall effect of the evening
was to make eveiyone aware of the
resources that AIDS Athens offers
and by the turnout; I think it was
much more than I had anticipated,"
said coordinator Marilyn Lumpkin.
“Everybody left there with some
thing."
Among the tunes and laughter
floating through the night’s air was
an even more welcomed event. Gov.
Zell Miller sent a proclamation com
mending AIDS Athens for their
efforts in public awareness about the
Richardson said they hope to
accomplish more than just raising
money.
“We want to make people aware
of our services - that we’re here to
help anyone who needs referrals,
people with AIDS who need money
and even transportation to the hos
pital," she said.
The remainder of the month is
filled with a variety of activities so
that everyone will have a chance to
contribute in some way to the pre
vention of the virus.
“It’s just a way of realizing how
serious it is," Farmer said.
O’Looney said our society needs
to take the necessary precautions to
prevent the virus.
“We want to continue to make
people aware that the only way to
prevent it is to encourage the use of
contraception, that there is free HIV
testing available and that people
need to act responsibly,” she said.
Miller at symposium: Research
key to solving ecological plight
By DAVID TWIDDY
Staff Writer
Environmental research will not only be instrumen
tal in solving many of the ecological problems plaguing
the state, but could have economic boons as well, said
Gov. Zell Miller this weekend.
“We have experienced a tremendous change in atti
tudes," Miller said Saturday at the University's Georgia
Center for Continuing Education. “Once seen as ham
pering economic development, environmental protec
tion is now viewed as an essential to health, well-being
and the quality of life - factors viewed as assets to eco
nomic growth.
He said he believed the new products and analytical
services developed from research into environmental
controls could have economic rewards.
“Part of the reason why I want Georgia to be a cen
ter of expertise in environmental technology," he said,
“is because I want this state to er\joy all of the new jobs
and other economic benefits that will result."
Miller was speaking at the University System
Research Symposium, which focused on showcasing
environmental research being conducted at all the sys
tem’s universities and colleges and improving interac
tion between researchers.
Ron Pulliam, one ‘of the symposium’s organizers and
director of the University’s Institute of Ecology, said he
thought Miller’s speech was a highlight of tne confer
ence.
“I wish we were hearing this view from the national
level," Pulliam said.
In a Friday session detailing the system’s research
into the management and assessment of natural
resources, the handling and reduction of pollution and
waste, changes in the global and regional environment
and ways for the institutions to work together, all pre
senters said the volume of research was vast and that
researchers needed to cooperate.
“We have at least 800 individual researchers in envi
ronment," said John Nemeth, professor at the Georgia
Tech Research Institute. “We must know what we’re
doing together."
Lowell Greenbaum, vice president of research for the
Medical College of Georgia, said Georgia has increased
research and development spending between 150 and
200 percent over the last 15 years.
He also said the state was number one in the South
for total research. This includes both system and non
system schools, like Emory University and Morehouse
College.
“(Researchers) are attractive for funding," he said.
An example of cooperation between institutions, he
said, was the Georgia Research Alliance, which teams
the Medical College, Georgia Tech, the University,
Georgia Southern, Emory, Clark-Atlanta University,
Atlanta businesses and state government.
Miller said he was a big supporter of the alliance and
had passed a $14 million funoing package for the pro
ject earlier this year.
Commissioner Joe Tanner of the Department of
Natural Resources said at the conference Friday that
the DNR often uses technical expertise from the
University system to help solve state problems, such as
a standard for poisonous dioxin, timber management
and how to manage hogs on Ossabaw Island off the
Georgia coast.
He said, however, that he also sees problems in the
system.
“I often see the same people trying to answer the
same questions,” he said.
He suggested that DNR and research heads sit down
regularly to plan research and then let the technical
researchers meet to discuss their work.
“I think one of the miyor problems is info-sharing,"
he said.
Awesome blossoms
Diane Schnetze, a Doraville junior studying telecommunications, picks May's many flowers.
Book bag thieves plague students
By ROBIN UTTIERELD
Contributing Writer
Tracy Horn said she left her book
bag unattended in Milledge Hall for
just five minutes, but that was long
enough for someone to make off with
$120 worth of her belongings.
Hom isn't the only student to fall
victim to book bag theft University
police said 75 to 100 book bags are
reported stolen every year.
Hom, a sophomore from Roopville,
said she called campus police after
the theft, but her book bag was not
recovered. It cost about $120 to
replace her book bag, books, meal
card, ID and notebook, she said.
It was iust very irritating, espe
cially since I had to do it for no appar
ent reason other than someone’s
sheer dishonesty," Hom said.
The campus police officer took a
full report, Horn said, and a detective
followed up three days later. She also
received a letter of apology from the
Department of University Housing.
Even though her belongings have not
been recovered, Hom said she
believes University police are not to
blame.
“I think they did as much as they
could do," she said.
Shannon Garvev, a senior from
Atlanta whose book bag was stolen
from Caldwell Hall, had a similar
experience. She had no valuables in
the bag, other than books, but the bag
itself was worth $90.
“It was awful, very frustrating,"
she said.
Detective Sgt. James Williamson
of University police said they recover
40 to 50 percent of stolen books.
While book bag thefts don’t
increase each year, he said a sharp
increase of thefts occurs at the end of
a quarter at book sell-back time.
Thefts occur most frequently in
the dining hall lobbies and the
University Bookstore open shelves,
he said. Williamson saia he bebeves
many thefts would be prevented if
students would use the bookstore
lockers, which return students’
deposited quarter once they have
retrieved their belongings.
Charles Fuller, manager of the Off
Campus Bookstore, said thieves often
try to resell books at his store.
“We catch them all the time,"
Fuller said.
The bookstore tries to prevent
buying stolen books by checking IDs
when people come in to resell books,
Fuller said, but the most important
preventive measure must be aone by
the students who are robbed. They
must press charges when police
arrest the thief, he said.
Fuller said students should imme
diately report thefts to University
police because bookstores can’t take
action unless a police report has been
filed.
Human rights test a melting pot of activists
An art auction took place at the
Human Rights Festival Sunday.
By JOHNATHAN BURNS an) AMY LYN MAULDIN
Stall Writers
Amid the bubbly conversation of hundreds and
the booming voice of auctioneers at the Athens
Human Rights Festival stood one booth with pic
tures of dead Chinese students lying prostrate in
the midst of a bloody street
The photo collage of the Tienanmen Square
massacre served as a reminder, its creators said,
that human rights abuses ore still very much a
part of our 20th century world.
And it was with tins intent that moat of the
more than 20 information booths were set up in
College Square Saturday and Sunday.
Robin Moore, who was working at the Athens
Pro-Choice Action league booth, said the purpose
of the festival was to get information about various
groups out to the community.
"A lot of these groups tend to lay low during the
year,’ she said. “Or a lot of people don’t pay atten
tion to them. With an event lilts this, it givss an
opportunity for people to come down and check
things out.
Moore said APAL’s primary concern was edu
cating people about the upcoming Supreme Court
decision on Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 oourt ruling
that legalised abortion.
*1 know the Supreme Court ruling is coming up,
and that could lead to Roe vs. Wade being over
turned,’ she said. “A lot of people think that restric
tions on abortion don’t matter, but the more road
blocks that are put up, the harder it’ll be for most
people to get saw abortions *
Kevin Aplin, a member of the Louisiana
Cannabis Action League, said his group was par
ticipating in the Human Rights Festival to try to
teach people about the meal cm] benefits of mari
juana. The member* were collecting signatures for
a petition calling for legalisation of marijuana as a
meant of treating people with terminal diseases.
■We’re trying to collect one million signatures to
send to Congress,‘ Aplin said. ’We’re requesting a
rescheduling of marijuana from a schedule on*
drug, which says that a drug has no medical bene
fits, to a schedule two drug, which say* a drug can
bs lined for medical reasons.
’We’ve collected about 600 signatures today,’ ha
said.
Burl Cone, a board member of Southern
Students for Choice, said, -This festival it a seme*
project for us. W* cam* her* to dialogue with peo
ple about reproductive health cars issues. W* hope
to get more contacts with pro-choice groups her*
on campus*
Katherine Hall, a member of AIDS Athens,
handed out free condoms and red ribbons, which
symbolise support for AIDS, to passereby.
North Campus landscape pleasing
By CHRISTINA COLONS
ContntxXing Writer
The arrival of spring has led
members of the University com
munity to take a moment from
research projects and term paper*
to engage in something more aes
thetically pleasing.
Students and faculty, either
through walke or noon nape on
manicured lawne, are enjoying the
grounds of North Campus.
Sociology professor Barry
Schwartz, who nas taught at the
University for IS years, said the
campus' attractive landscape ie
on* not all college* can provide. He
said he recently visited a campus
in Connecticut which he described
ae extremely depressing.
’It was tne academic version of
the Bata’s Motel in ’Psycho,”
Schwarts said
But Mother Nature can’t be
credited for all the work.
Campus grounds are main
tained by the University’s Hiysicel
Plant. Dexter Adams is the man
ager of ground* at the Plant and
oversees moat of the campus main
tenance.
"A study by the Carnegie
Institute some year* ago cited the
appearance of the bull dings and
grounds as the number one factor
in the selection of a school,* Adame
said. ’Clearly, aesthetics do count
for something and this it why we
feel our job is an important one.’
Prospective freshmen seem to
be convinced.
*1 thought it was really pretty,’
a high acnool junior aaid after a
tour of North Campus.
High school senior Scott
McClure said he didn't need to see
the campus, having already dacid-
*d to matriculate in the mil. But
McClure and hit uncle, Carl
Woodruff, aaid they were (till quit*
impressed.
“It's a vary attractive campus,’
Woodruff aaid. It’s better than
Tech."