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TUESDAY
May 2, 2006
Vol. 113, No. 152 | Athens, Georgia
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ONLINE: www.redandblack.com
An independent student newspaper' serving the University of Georgia community
ESTABLISHED 1893, INDEPENDENT 1980
SWING THE
NIGHT AWAY
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LISTINGS, PAGES 8-9
People
find love,
bliss on
Facebook
By DANIELA LEE
For The Red & Black
Facebook has taken dating
— and college, for that matter
— to an entirely different level
and has made “friending”
both a verb and a pastime.
In the case of Grace Jones,
it even has helped her find
the love of her life.
Last February, Jones, 20, a
former University student
from Baton Rouge, La., was
randomly “friended” by
Aaron Byrd, a 22-year-old
Harvard student.
New to Facebook and not
realizing she didn’t actually
have to know someone to be
his or her Facebook friend,
Jones sent Byrd a message
asking how she knew him.
Byrd replied he didn’t
know Jones and wasn’t sure
how he had come upon her
profile, but that didn’t put an
end to their conversation.
“We just started talking,
messaging back and forth for
the next week or so,” Jones
said in a phone interview
from New York, where the
pair now live.
Very early on, the attrac
tion between the two was
fairly obvious, and some of
Jones’ friends were con
cerned.
“Everyone was doubting,”
said Adam Waters, a senior
from Athens and a close
friend of Jones. “Everyone
was telling her he was proba
bly a thug.”
Jones however, said she
was intrigued, and two weeks
into their correspondence she
mentioned her upcoming
sorority formal to Byrd and
invited him.
Byrd said he blew her off
at first but then changed his
mind the night before the for
mal.
“I finally decided at three
in the morning ... that yeah, I
could go down to see her.”
Byrd said.
He flew down to Georgia
the next day, and he and
Jones danced at the Georgia
Theatre, where the formal
was held.
They spent as much time
together as possible, forgoing
sleep until Byrd had to leave
nearly three days later.
After Byrd’s visit, Waters
asked Jones what was going
► See FACEBOOK, Page 5A
Parking Problems
Top three parking lots
for parking violations
Ramsey Pay Lot (E03)
2,146 violations (8 percent)
Legion Pool (W06D)
1,229 violations (5 percent)
Baxter Lumpkin (W06C)
918 violations (3 percent)
GRAPHIC BY KEVIN PATTERSON | The Red & Black
Tickets are not the only problem students face
Parking Violations
August 2005 to April 2006
1) No Parking Permit: 11,752
2) Out of Zone/Region: 4,215
3) Patient Parking: 1,505
4) Sidewalk/Grass: 636
5) Unauthorized Area: 1,562
6) Yellow Zone: 650
7) Beyond Time Limit: 2,227
8) Obstructing Traffic: 60
9) Failure to Display: 2,557
10) Handicap Access Zone: 162
11) Handicap Space: 305
12) Improper Display: 129
13) Improper Parking: 127
14) No Parking Area: 542
15) Expired Permit: 56
16) Alter/Falsify Permit: 47
17) Fire Lane: 43
18) Closed Street/Areas: 5
19) Reserved Parking: 1
GRAPHIC BY JENNI MAYBERRY | The Red & Black
By TODD SOUTH
tsouth@randb.com
Think your car will be
towed only after you have a
bunch of tickets?
Think that if your visiting
friends are not students at
the University they don’t
have to worry about tickets
on campus?
Think again.
Parking Manager Diane
Hale said she can tow a stu
dent’s car on the first inci
dent. And if a car is not in her
permit system, she can call
the Department of Motor
Vehicles for the owner’s name
and address to mail the cita
tion.
“If a parking lot is full, we
will tow the car,” Hale said.
Towing is not her priority, she
added.
She said she only tows if
she needs the space, or if the
car is not in her system.
Many of the more than
33,000 University undergradu
ates studying everything
from art history to Zulu have
at least one thing in common
— finding a place to park.
Parking services sold more
than 21,000 permits for the
fall and spring semesters
combined. There are about
17,000 parking spaces on
campus.
Hale said her office per
forms regular lot counts
and adjusts the number of
permit sales based on the
amount of hourly turnover —
movement of vehicles in and
out of lots.
“Selling more permits
helps more than writing more
tickets,” Hale said. She added
that only 10 percent of her
funding is derived from park
ing tickets.
Parking Services is funded
by the University’s auxiliary
services, not by state or feder
al tax revenue.
Out of the more than
26,000 citations Hale’s office
wrote from August 2005 to
April 2006, the number one
violation was no parking per
mit, making up 44 percent of
all violations for the time
period.
If a student, faculty or visi
tor receives a ticket he or she
feels is unwarranted, he or
she can appeal the citation to
Parking Services.
Only 7 percent (1,812) of
the students in the 2005-2006
academic year appealed their
citations.
Of those who appealed, 69
percent were denied.
“Judicial affairs handles
disputes with students,” Hale
said. “Unless you can show it
was unavoidable, you should
n’t appeal.”
Will explosive diarrhea get
a student out of a ticket?
Maybe.
Scott Sexton, a junior from
>- See TICKETS, Page 7
University parking lots are not safe from crime
By KELLY PROCTOR
kproctor@randb.com
Helen Rhinehart could tell
something was wrong with
her silver Honda Civic.
She was walking up to
where she’d parked it, the
deck next to Russell Hall.
“I thought, ‘I didn’t leave
my window down,’” the fresh
man from Kennesaw said.
When she got closer, she
saw shattered glass every
where.
And her radio was
nowhere to be seen.
When it comes to parking
lot crime, the lots around
Brumby and Russell Halls are
some of the worst places to
park on campus.
Eight cars have been bro
ken into in the area from the
start of the 2005-2006 school
year to mid-April. In the East
Campus Village area, 12 stu
dents’ cars were ransacked.
There were nearly 80 car
break-ins from August 10 to
mid-April. These are listed on
the University police force’s
incident reports.
In 2005, car break-ins cost
University vehicle owners an
estimated $31,000, according
to University crime statistics.
Just less than $1,400 of that
has been recovered.
Plus, in more than 40 per
cent of the break-ins, thieves
made away with more than
$200 worth of merchandise.
Rhinehart said her whole
experience, broken window
and missing radio, cost her
about $500.
Car Crime
If people are looking for
something to steal, they may
go for a target that is out in
the open: students’ cars.
“People...pull on door han
dles” until they find an open
one, said University police
captain Lisa Boone.
Besides car break-ins,
Brumby and Russell also are
targets for hit-and-runs.
Twenty-six occured in the
lots this school year.
A hit-and-run, by police
definition, happens when a
car or other object strikes a
car and leaves damage, but
no one phones the police or
leaves contact information.
Eleven cars were hit in the
East Campus Village area,
where parking services gives
out among the most passes of
any lot on campus — more
than 3,000. The Russell and
Brumby area rank behind at
nearly 2,000 passes.
Boone also said parking lot
crime isn’t confined to a cer
tain area on campus.
Parking services can con
tribute to safety with well-lit
parking lots, said manager
Diane Hale. But the depart
ment doesn’t remark on
which places are safe because
they can’t assure students
that criminals will not visit
certain areas.
Auto Accidents and Theft
East Campus parking is
prone to accidents and
accidental damage, which
means damage to a car from
>- See CRIME, Page 7
March draws large crowd
Politicians ignore youth vote
COLIN SMITH | The Red & Black
▲ "Estamos Aqui, Estamos Junto!": George Medina of
Greensboro joins a crowd of about 1,500 that marched
through downtown Athens Monday, National Day of Action.
By DESHAUN HARRIS
dharris@randb.com
Athens-area Hispanics
brought the national immi
gration reform issue to the
University’s doorstep as they
marched through downtown
to the Arch Monday evening.
An estimated 500 people,
mostly Hispanic, showed up
at First Christian Church on
Dougherty Street to gather
for the protest march.
Cries of “Si se puede!” —
“Yes we can!” — and “Bush,
escucha, estamos en la
lucha.” — “Bush, listen, we
are in the fight” — resounded
through North Campus, as
many people joined the
crowd.
“We are marching to show
people that Latinos have a
presence in Athens,” said
Jheison Romain, a sopho
more from Lawrenceville and
a member of Students for
Latino Empowerment. “We
are demonstrating peacefully,
and we do contribute to the
economy.”
The march coincided with
“National Day of Action,” a
nationwide boycott of U.S.
goods and services to encour
age particular immigration
reform.
Last month, Gov. Sonny
Perdue signed illegal immi
gration reform into state law,
making Georgia the first
state to do so.
Also, Congress is currently
debating national illegal
immigration reform.
On the other side of the
debate, five people silently
held anti-illegal immigration
signs at the Arch. Leslie
Buchanan, a freshman from
St. Simon’s Island, organized
the counter-protest when she
heard about the march.
“My roommate and I have
been following the whole
immigration debate in the
newspapers, and we wanted
to show that we are for immi
gration, just not illegally,”
Buchanan said.
Both protests received
attention from bystanders
downtown. Patrons at eater
ies snapped pictures of
marchers on their camera
phones, and prospective
University students took pic
tures of the counter-protest
ers at the Arch.
By BRIAN HUGHES
bhughes@randb.com
Politicians ignore young
people for one simple rea
son, said sophomore Adam
Haney.
“They don’t think of us
that much because we don’t
vote,” he said.
Haney, a registered voter
in Lawrenceville, said he
would like to see the trend
change.
However, he doesn’t plan
to vote this fall.
Haney’s voting plans rep
resent the majority of the
youngest voters in the
nation — if statistics remain
consistent with previous
years.
Less than half of regis
tered voters between 18 and
24 voted in the last
presidential election,
according to a 2004 survey
released by the U.S. Census
Bureau.
But this year will be a
midterm election, and that
figure likely will decrease.
University political
science professor Charles
Bullock said low voter
turnout is typical among
transient populations, such
as students, who don’t have
a sense of belonging to a
community.
“People vote where
they’re comfortable,” he
said.
Gail Schrader, supervisor
of elections and registration
for Athens-Clarke County,
said students remain regis
tered in their hometowns for
various reasons.
By not registering to vote
in Athens, students can
keep the same license plate
numbers and leave their
parents as codependents on
tax return forms.
Despite the low percent
age of students who vote,
young people make up a
>- See VOTING, Page 3
SPECIAL SPORTS SECTION
>• Get complete coverage of the results of the
NFL Draft.
SPORTS, PAGE IB
>- Tennis remains undefeated. Check
Wednesday to see if they are No. 1 seed
SPORTS, PAGE 6B
INSIDE TODAY | News: 2A | Opinions: 4A | Variety: 8A | Sports: IB | Crossword: 5A
Sudoku: 9A