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FRIDAY September i, 2006 Vol. 114, No. 13 | Athens, Georgia Mostly cloudy. High 80 | Low 65 | Saturday 85 ONLINE: www.redandblack.com An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia community ESTABLISHED 1893, INDEPENDENT 1980 IT’S COMING! >- Read about the plays and players for Saturday. FIRST & GOAL, IB DANIELLE HUTLAS | The Red & Black ▲ Sgt. Lance Tipton demonstrates the University Police Department’s new ATV in preparation for gameday weekends. Officials plan for safe games By KELLY PROCTOR kproctor@randb.com and JUANITA COUSINS jcousins@randb.com The alcohol-soaked, rau cous atmosphere around Georgia football may quiet down if officials’ plans go smoothly this weekend. University officials are debuting tailgating rules approved in April that should make gamedays more “fami ly-friendly.” So how does the adminis tration plan to make direct ing thousands of fans even a little more efficient than herding cats? For starters, Jimmy Williamson, University chief of police, said the squad of 75 policemen he sends out every football game will be on duty this weekend. Two will be on motorcy cles. Most will work 14 to 16 hour shifts, he said. It’s “just to get the mes sage across to folks,” Williamson said. “We’ll be very visible” to “convey the changes” in the tailgating policy, he said. Starting this weekend, fans won’t be able to set up tailgating spots until 7 a.m. Saturday, according to the new rules. In most places, they can’t park on sidewalks or grass. Two alcohol-free, family- friendly areas were created, one on the North Campus quad and the other on South Campus. The University also nixed tailgaters taking over parking spaces with grills and lawn chairs — >- See GAMEDAY, Page 3A DANIELLE HUTLAS | The Red 4 Black A The new fleet of six AT Vs were purchased with the intention of letting University police enforce gameday rules by covering more area with fewer officers. Blogs add new dimension to local politics By AUBREY SMITH basmith@randb.com University students looking to venture beyond the evening news and the local papers can enter the world of online blogs for information about Athens- Clarke County’s upcoming elections. Three blogs regularly deal with ACC politics — AthensPolitics, Safeashouses and Antidisingenuousness. Johnathan McGinty runs Safeashouses, a general-inter est blog devoting roughly half of its space to local politics. McGinty, now a public rela tions specialist for the University’s Georgia Museum of Art, said he started blogging after he switched from sports writing at the Athens Banner- Herald to editing. “I moved from reporting to (Associate News Editor) and missed writing,” McGinty said. McGinty, a 2000 University graduate, said he named his blog after an old-English proverb that means, “Everything is fine.” He said the optimistic men tality extends into his political views. McGinty said he has no way of knowing the size of his read ership but estimates a group of 15 to 30 people comment regularly. Hillary Brown, moderator of Antidisingenuousness, said she gets about 120 hits a day, including local politicians who “love to hear themselves mocked by a left-wing nutjob who doesn’t want people to take away her beer.” When Brown isn’t posting her thoughts on the blogos- phere, she’s working on her doctorate in English at the University. Though Athenspolitics is the only blog dealing exclu sively with local politics, its administrator, Publius, wished to remain anonymous. Mayor Heidi Davison, who is seeking re-election this November, said she pays attention to local blogs. “I do read blogs. Usually I’ll go in and read them, but I don’t go on and blog with them. I’ll just e-mail the per son.” Davison said she once e- mailed a blogger to clarify some misinformation during an online debate about the county’s initiative against poverty. Keeping track of local blogs can be time consuming, and most candidates delegate the duty to their campaign managers. Ryan Hicks, campaign manager for E.H. Culpepper, said he >- See BLOGS, Page 3A Female roller derby team is hell on wheels CAROLINE KILGORE | The Red & Black A The Athens Roller Derby is made up of students and non-students who practice at Skate-Around USA. By MICHELLE FLOYD mfloyd@randb.com Sometimes people call Pam Enlow “Dirty Hippie.” But those people aren’t being mean — it’s her roller derby name. The sophomore from Canton and a group of other women get together every week to skate around as the Athens Roller Derby. “It’s a great social environ ment,” Enlow said. “You get exercise, but it’s really just a lot of fun.” The group is new, having started only about three months ago, but it has already caught the interest of women in the area with a small amount of promotion through MySpace and flyers around town. “There are about 20 (women) who show up on a regular basis,” said Amanda Hart, a University graduate from Suwanee. “And we are still open to new people com ing in.” The group is open to all women — students or non students — of any age. “It’s about half and half, students and nonstudents,” Hart said. “The oldest is in her 40s, but it’s mostly younger girls.” And women who are inter ested don’t have to know how to skate yet. “Pretty much 95 percent of the people skated when they were younger,” Hart said. “But there are people there who skated their whole lives, and you can tell who they are.” Angela Matheney of Athens isn’t really in either of those groups. “I can count the amount of times I’ve been skating on my hands,” she said. “But I’ve always wanted to skate.” Even so, she’s been in the > See DERBY, Page 7A Students give input for new amnesty policy Univ. questions idea’s validity By SARA PAUFF spauff@randb.com University officials and students could get some help from a newly-formed student organization in drafting a medical amnesty policy for alcohol-related ill nesses. Michael Stramiello, a graduate student from Macon, is forming a local chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy in response to the Student Government Association’s call for a medical amnesty policy for students seeking help after drinking too much. The chapter will be part of an international grass roots organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates measures and policies to help those who develop drug and alcohol problems. “The amnesty issue was a huge catalyst for the for mation of the group,” Stramiello said. “There is a need for an amnesty policy right now to save lives.” Though Stramiello said he has not contacted SGA yet, he said his organization wants to gather student support for SGA’s efforts. It will be hosting its first meeting later in the month. SGA President Jamie Peper said she had been contacted by a national representative of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and was waiting on an e- mailed request for more information. “It’s just really cool that they are willing to allocate resources to us,” she said. Whatever the final policy looks like, underage stu dents given amnesty would not be subject to University punishment for drinking. If enacted, a medical amnesty policy does not prevent action by state and local authorities. Though the committee looking at amnesty policies has been meeting all sum mer, Assistant to the Vice President of Student Affairs Eric Atkinson said they are still in the formative stage of creating a policy He said they are discussing if the University even needs an amnesty policy. “We’re still at 30,000 feet on this,” said Atkinson, who looked at policies at Cornell University, Vanderbilt University, Emory >• See AMNESTY, Page 5A DANIELLE HUTLAS | The Red 4 Black A University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson poses next to a University police vehicle. Williamson’s job takes him all over campus, interacting with students and staff. Williamson lives dream as officer Job as police chief allows interaction with campus, city By JUANITA COUSINS jcousins@randb.com University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said since his childhood, one moment from the television game show “Family Feud” has stuck with him. The question was, ‘“If aliens landed on earth and said ‘take us to your leader,’ who would you take them to?” The No. 1 answer was the police. As a handful of pink message slips passed Thursday from the hands of his secretary, Melissa Bryd, to Williamson’s, he said people turn to police in almost any situation — including once when an owl was stuck under the hood of a car. But Thursday was a “lighter day.” His calls included a student seeking advice about a speeding ticket and dozens of other people with questions about Saturday’s football game. But the police chief job is not confined to the pea green and mustard-colored walls of the Public Safety building on Oconee Street, but branches out all over campus. His work day begins at 7:15 a.m. with the morning papers — the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Athens Banner-Herald and The Red & Black. Less than an hour later, Williamson is speaking to 13 field training officers whose job it is to mold new batch es of campus police officers. He stresses the importance of instilling customer >- See POLICE, Page 3A INSIDE TODAY | News: 2A | Opinions: 4A | Variety: 6A | Sports: IB | Crossword: 5A | Sudoku: 7A