-1
j
Daily Texan
University ofTfexas
Austin, Texas (U-Wire) -
Despite nationwide efforts to com
bat binge drinking on college cam
puses, a new study shows there is an
increase in alcohol abuse among
students.
The report released Thursday by
the College of Alcohol Studies at
Harvard University states more stu
dents are choosing not to drink
alcohol, but at the same time those
who consume alcohol are drinking
more intensely.
Overall, 42.7 percent of thp
14,521 students surveyed reported
to be binge drinkers - down 2 per
cent from 1993.
But one-third more students in
1997 said they “drank to get drunk.”
“It’s the ‘drinking to get drunk’
pattern that has been a continuing
problem,” said Henry Wechsler, the
primary investigator for the study.
“I am disappointed to see it contin
uing. Many colleges are talking
about policies, but so far there has
been no change.”
But James Vide, vice president
of student affairs, said die universi
ty has several programs in place to
prevent binge drinking and educate
students about its effects.
“We have a very active program
in the health center,” Vick said.
“Our goal is to help students live
healthier lives, and binge drinking
is one of the bigger hazards for
health among college-age stu
dents.”
The health center offers a four
hour lifestyle management class
which deals with balancing stu
dents’ lives, defining moderation
and reducing the effects of alcohol
use.
The report also identified soror
ities and fraternities as being part of
the problem, with four out of five
members being classified as binge
drinkers.
“We try to provide programs for
their (fraternity and sorority) lead
ership and give them all die advice
to change behavior,” Vick said.
“But that is a very hard thing to
change.”
K—
(Binge drinking)
is a very hard thing
to change.”
James Vick
UT vice president of student affairs
The study also showed that
most non-drinkers experienced sec
ond-hand effects of binge drinking,
including being a victim of assault,
having property vandalized or hav
ing sleep or study interrupted.
Despite not drinking, Karen
Dunn, an aerospace engineering
freshman, said she has to cope with
pressures from drinkers.
“One guy went on for 30 min
utes trying to get me to drink. He
couldn’t get it through his head. He
couldn’t accept that I didn’t want to
drink,” Dunn said. “Sometimes I
feel like I’m making them look bad
for drinking, but I’m not. It’s just
the way I feel about it.”
Your roommate snores.
Your biochemistry syllabus is 8 pages long.
You get 5 free hours of online time
every month with Navix:
(Hey, at least there’s something to smile about.)
Happy news! If you’re a UNL student,
faculty or staff member, you get 5 free
hours of Internet access every month when
you sign up for one of these Navix plans:
Low Usage Plan: Get 15 hours of online
time for just $6.50 a month.
(With your 5 free hours, it’s like 20 hours for the price of 15.)
Medium Usage Plan: Get 40 hours of online
time for just $10.00 a month.
(With yoUr 5 free hours, it’s like 45 hours for the price of 40.)
High Usage Plan: Get 250 hours of online
time for just $19.50 a month.
(With your 5 free hours, it’s like 255 hours for the price of 250.)
Additional minutes for each plan-are just
$.02 and activation is free! And if you keep
your usage for that month under 5 hours,
your service for that month is also free!
Navix is fast, easy and reliable, letting you
go online at speeds up to 56kps. There’s
a local Help Desk and even an 888 access
number to use when you travel.
Call University Telecommunications at
472-5151 (students) or 472-3434
(faculty or staff).
Or, stop by 211 Umiiic.
Nebraska Hall. ivHjrlX'*
Visit our websites: www.navix.netwww.aliant.com
iVliant
Communications®
MAKING IT EASIER TO COMMUNICATE”
, Hciicap«M>»«ni»>wi*li»i WndoumndMiontolivwiions ,
01998 Aliant Communications Inc. Mont Communications is a regtstersd service mark of Aliant CommunicaHms Inc AM rights reserved
. . • • • ' ■ ' «
Berkeley group plans
walkout for diversity
Daily Californian
University of California
Berkeley, Calif. (U-Wire) - A
group of campus leaders committed
to maintaining affirmative action is
staging a universitywide walkout Oct
21 and 22.
The Coalition to Defend
Affirmation Action By Any Means
Necessary held a forum Thursday
night in defense of affirmative action
and in support of the walkout.
More than 75 professors and stu
dents participated in die forum, where
the featured speaker was UCLA pro
fessor and walkout organizer Rafael
Perez-Torres.
Perez-Torres urged students and
professors to take a stand and voice
their support for affirmative action.
“Get the word out to as many pro
fessors as you can to sign up for the
walkout and teach-ins to add their
names to a call for action,” Perez
Torres said.
He said the University of
California Board of Regents, which
voted in 1995 to ban affirmative
action, needed to be aware of the
result of its decision.
“Let the regents know that their
actions do have consequences as far
as professors are concerned, and we
cannot accept what they are doing to
our educational Systran,” he said.
Perez-Torres said he hoped the
walkout would draw national atten
tion to what he said was die failure of
die UC system to maintain racial and
ethnic plurality among its campuses.
“(The walkout) is an attempt to
begin a dialogue on what to do next
and how to deal with an increasingly
growing multi-ethnic society,” he
said, “and how we as professors and
as students who are engaged in this
educational process are to serve a
multi-racial sool&ty.”
UC Davis student senator Edgar
Chen urged UC Berkeley students to
tear down their ethnic barriers and
work together on the issue.
“(Berkeley) is ethnically divided -
you’ve set up internal conflicts
between your own groups,” Chen
said. “These conflicts need to come
down because we need to work
together.”
Howard University exchange stu
dent Jason Bush said professors in the
ethnic and African American studies
departments must now also justify
their “existence” at UC Berkeley.
“A lot of staff from the African
Americans studies department do not
plan on staying simply because there
is not enough ethnic representation in
their classes,” Bush said.
UNMC plan promotes
small-town medicine
PROGRAM from page 1
town Nebraska,” Thayer said
But it’s too early to tell if the pro
gram has affected students’ choices
after graduation because it takes
about four years to graduate from
UNMC and another three to four
years in residency at a hospital
before going out into the profession
al field, Jokela said.
Though the program hasn’t been
around long enough to measure its
success, Jokela said she could tell it
has had an effect on students’ mind
sets.
For many of the students, it is
their first time working or living in a
rural setting, Thayer said.
“It does give diem a taste of rural
medicine,” she said. “It gets them out
there in this kind of setting that
you’re not going to get in Lincoln or
Omaha.”
JB Svoboda, a third-year medical
student training in Valentine, said
UNMC’s efforts to send students to
smmi towns oenexii mem.
“If you stay in Omaha and do all
your rotations, you just work through
the university hospital, and you don’t
get the opportunities to practice the
way you do in a smaller town,”
Svoboda said.
Students who participate in the
network represent the colleges of
medicine, pharmacy, nursing and
the School of Allied Health
Professions.
The students participate in a two
month rotation usually after their
third year at UNMC. All medical stu
dents between their first and second
years must complete a three-week
rural rotation as well.
Rotations can last longer, and
students camhave more than one
rotation in a row, each one concen
trating on a different area of medi
cine, Jokela said.
Students in a rural setting get the
opportunity to practice more of their
skills. When in a city setting, Jokela
said, there may be more students in
residency or training. However, in a
rural scene, there may only be (me or
two.
For example, Jokela said, a stu
dent in a city setting may never get to
help with the birth of a baby.
But if students are in a rural area,
and a Cesarean-section is needed,
they may get to help simply because
they are the only students there.
Rural clinics also offer many
benefits to the trainees, Thayer said.
The trainees get a rounded taste
of the different types of medicine.
They get to work on lacerations and
help with castings. They can com
plete patient histories and talk to the
patients with the doctors.
The clinic in Imperial has a satel
lite clinic in Juanita, which is small
er. The students also get to shadow
health professionals there, Thayer
said.
“It’s really hands-on here,” she
said.
Svoboda said he has had the
opportunity to assist in different
types of surgeries at the Cherry
County Physicians Clinic in
Valentine. He said Saturday night he
helped in an emergency appendecto
my.
What students do depends on
what kind of experience they have
had, Jokela said.
The communities also must meet
certain requirements to participate in
the program. One of the require
ments for a community is that it has a
sufficient patient load, Jokela said, so
the student will have a rich experi
ence.
In addition to the network,
UNMC has had an increase of stu
dents coming to the school from
rural communities.
Jokela said UNMC has been
focusing on the recruitment of poten
tial students from rural communities,
which the program has helped with.
. She said when students grow up
in a rural area, they are more likely to
return to such an area.
“The communities treat the stu
dents so well,” Jokela said.
“The students really like it We
can never say enough good things
about the communities.”
www.unl.edu/DailyNeb
. . .