Eating disorders rampant among college students
Studies show 16
percent of collegiate
women in America
show signs of an
eating disorder
By Brandy Berry
Kentucky Kernel
University of Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The
dreaded freshmen 15 lbs is not a
problem for some college students.
That's because some students will
never be found at the student union
eating pizza.
They will be found on the
treadmills. They will he found
purging
Each year 16 percent of collegiate
women in America and 7 million
women overall show some signs of
having an eating disorder, said Dr.
Laurie Humphries, Univeristy of
Kentucky Medical Center
psychiatrist specializing in eating
disorders. Two-thirds will battle the
disease for a lifetime, while one
third will be cured through
treatment and counseling.
"Eating disorders are extremely
common in collegiate women,"
Humphries said. "There are many
more who are afflicted in a college
Ohio freshman
dies outside
dorm room
ATHENS, Ohio (CPS)--Officials at
Ohio University are mystified by the
death of 18-year- old Ryan Bommer.
Bommer, a freshman from Bryan,
Ohio, collapsed outside his dorm-
room door.
Friends found Bommer Nov. 9 on
the floor. Although Bommer had been
taking prescription drugs for an
illness, medical personnel ruled out
drug- or alcohol-use or even a freak
fall as the cause of death. As of
presstime, an autopsy had been
scheduled but not performed,
according to Ohio University's press
office.
Bommer, a championship high
school golfer, graduated from Bryan
High School this past spring with a
3.8 grade-point average.
Heart attack
kills wrestler
BUIES CREEK, N.C. (CPS) --A
championship college wrestler at
Campbell University died while
trying to lose six pounds to make his
weight qualification for a meet.
Billy Jack Saylor, 19, of Wellborn,
Fla., wrestled at 190 pounds for the
university. The night before leaving
for a weekend tournament in New
York, he weighed in at 201, but had
to get down to 195 in order to compete
in the tournament, said Benny Pearce,
director of public affairs for
Campbell.
"We don't know what he was doing,
but he was going through some
activities," Pearce said.
Saylor collapsed about 4 a.m. Nov.
7 and was pronounced dead an hour
later. The state medical examiner said
an autopsy indicated the cause of
death was a heart attack. "There was
no indication that he had any
problem" before his death, Pearce
said.
Several years ago, a Campbell
baseball player collapsed and died
while running during a game, Pearce
said. The ballplayer's autopsy showed
that he died of natural causes.
Saylor was buried Nov. I 1 in
Florida, with the entire wrestling team
and the coach in attendance. In
addition, the school held a memorial
service on Nov. 13, which included
special music, a eulogy by the coach
and readings by Campbell's president.
population than in a high school
population."
The causes of anorexia nervosa
and bulimia are as different as the
diseases themselves. Humphries
attributes the college atmosphere to
"Those with low self
esteeth and those
under serious stress
are susceptible."
-Laurie Humphries
University of Kentucky Medico! Center
exacerbating the diseases in some
"If there is a sorority house with
one or two who have eating
disorders, they may influence
others," Humphries said. "Pretty
soon, you have a 'group phenomena'
where everyone is severely
restricting food intake."
However, the cause of eating
disorders is multifactoral.
"Those with low self-esteem and
those under serious stress are
susceptible," Humphries said.
"Others may have personal
problems such as with the family or
a boyfriend, which can eventually
progress into a disorder."
Anorexia victims typically
compulsively exercise and severely
National Cam
Deal lets
students record
for free
WASHINGTON (CPS) --A deal
between American University and
Waters Edge. a local recording studio,
will enable AU studems m engineer
and record music for free.
That is if their music fits the profile
of Waters edge, which specializes in
Christian and "positive" music, said
AU spokesman Todd Sedmak.
"It doesn't have to be Christian," he
said. "It can be a rap song about, say,
honesty or truth."
So far, most of the students
interested in the program have been
engineers in AU's Audio Technology
Program, which draws about 40
majors a year, Sedmak said. While
AU students aren't paid, they benefit
from the experience, and Waters Edge
owner Sandy Harless enjoys the free
help. Sedmak added that AU
graduates have gone on to behind-the
scenes jobs at PBS, Voice of America
and other national media outlets.
Waters Edge, established in 1996,
has recorded Christian artists such as
Dan Polk and Objects of Mercy. The
studio is now negotiating to buy a
national record label, and plans to
begin building a bigger studio in
Maryland in 1998.
DePauw sorority
accused of hazing
GREENCASTLE, Ind (UPI) -- A
DePauw University sorority is on
suspension in the wake of an
alleged hazing incident in which
pledges suffered cigarette burns on
their legs and hips.
The alleged incident took place at
the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority
and follows by several weeks an
incident that left Zeta Beta Tau
fraternity chapter at Indiana
University on suspension for
conducting a racially and sexually
tinged treasure hunt.
DePauw campus security officials
say the incident at the sorority took
place last week. Three pledges
suffered burns and one was treated
at a hospital and released.
The university said the sorority is
cooperating with the investigation
but has been suspended until
authorities can determine whether
any state laws were violated.
National Campus News Thursday, November 20, 1997 The Behrend College Collegian - Page 7
restrict daily caloric intake to the
point of fasting for days at a time in
some cases
Bulimics practice "binging and
purging," which involves eating
excessive eating in a short peroid of
time and then throwing up.
The problems associated with the
diseases are not minor.
Anorexia has the highest death
rate of any psychiatric illness,"
Humphries said. "The actual
percentage of deaths associated with
bulimia is not known, but the
number is thought to be quite high."
One percent of anorexics will die
in their initial battle with the disease,
but 18 to 30 percent of the victims
who beat the first onset will die from
recurring bouts by the age of 45,
Humphries said.
Anorexics suffer from loss of hair,
osteoporosis (decrease in bone
density), problems with poor
nutrition and loss of a menstruation
cycle for as long as they are
restricting food intake.
Bulimics often suffer from
electrolyte problems attributed to
excessive purging, intestinal and
throat tissue damage, and dental
erosion.
"Of all the fads which have
affected mankind, none seems more
difficult to explain than the desire
of American women for the
us News Briefs
Cornell cartoon sparks
controversy
ITHACA, N.Y. (CPS) --A cartoon
deemed controversial by black
students at Cornell University
resulted in the burning of copies of
a conservative student page"'"'
And while a Cornell spokesperson
described the burning as a quiet
demonstration, Michael Capel,
chairman of The Cornell Review,
is calling it an act of censorship.
Shaka Davis, a student at Cornell,
burned about 50 copies of The
Cornell Review in front of a
cafeteria, says Jacquie Powers, a
Cornell spokeswoman who
witnessed the event. The cartoon in
question showed three drawings--
the Ku Klux Klan, a mob of white
supremacists and an abortion
doctor--and carried the headline:
"Which one of these kills more
blacks?"
"It was very quiet; there were
never more than 10 people on the
scene" of the burning, said Powers.
Last year, the paper published in
Ebonics a parody of the school's
course offerings in African studies,
said Simeon Moss, deputy news
service director at Cornell.
Canadian university
unveils 'invisible condom'
Substitute for
traditional latex found
QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) -- A
prototype for an "invisible condom"
to help fight HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases was unveiled
on Thursday by a Canadian
university that hopes to make it
available in two years.
Developed over seven years by
Laval University's Infectious
Diseases Research Center, the new
"condom" is in fact a non-toxic
polymer-based liquid that solidifies
into a gel at body temperature.
A woman or male homosexual
partner would apply the liquid to
genital or anal parts before a sexual
encounter.
Laval said tests showed that the
gel formed a water-proof film that
barberpole figure," the late Dr.
Morris Fishbein, longtime editor of
the Journal of the American Medical
Association, once wrote.
"In many ways we have become
a 'celebrity culture' where the
emphasis is placed on thinness,"
Humphries said. "Many of the
models maintain an unhealthy body
weight and image."
When treating eating disorder
victims, the medical problems,
rather than the psychological ones
are treated first. The first step is to
ensure that the patient is not suicidal
and then if the victim is depressed,
anti-depressant medication and
nutritional counseling are
implemented. Bulimics often abuse
alcohol and drugs, so those
problems will usually be treated
before the actual eating disorder.
Humphries said studies are being
done to prove that genetics plays a
role in eating disorders.
"It is interesting because just as
there are different types of cancers
which can be passed down from
generation to generation, there are
different ideologies regarding eating
disorders as well," Humphries said.
"The studies are showing that the
genetic link to anorexia has
something to do with energy
metabolism in victims."
Capel said its true that students
often are offended by his
newspaper. But he said it's wrong
that the Cornell administration "has
created a climate on campus in
which newspaper burning is
tolerated."
Despite administration assertions
that only about 50 copies of the
paper were burned, Cape! said that
"the student [Davis], by his own
estimation, took about 400 copies
and burned about 150 newspapers."
That would amount to a full
distribution run for one area of the
campus, he added.
Powers described the incident as
one in which both sides' First
Amendment rights were carried out
successfully. "The paper has a right
to publish and (Davis) has the right
to protest," she said.
Cape! disagreed. "The
administration is trying to change
an act of censorship to a symbolic
issue of free speech," he said.
The paper's editors have taken the
case to the university's student
adjudicator, Powers added.
dramatically reduced transmission
of the HIV virus responsible for
AIDS, and could also block the
virus responsible for genital herpes.
Laval Infectious Diseases
Research Center director Michel
Bergeron told a news conference
"we developed our 'invisible
condom' to protect women who are
victim of men who refuse to wear
latex."
"We call it invisible because it can
be used without telling the partner
who doesn't want to use a latex
condom," Bergeron said.
Laval plans human clinical tests
in the next two years and hopes to
market the product through a
commercial drug company, pending
regulatory approval in Canada and
the United States.
Professor uses old
obituaries as window on
cultural values of the past
By Jean Buchanan
Knight-Ridder/Tribune News
Services
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-- Old Dr.
Barry took nothing but whiskey for
five days before he died. Still, the
story of his death was careful to note
that although "his habits of
intemperance had reduced him to
rags, he retained the manners of a
gentleman."
Sophia Stroud, described in her
obituary as "Earth's fairest flower,"
was "taken from us to be transplanted
in her heavenly home."
And when yellow fever killed John
S. Barrow at age 29, "the fell
destroyer came in a moment when
he was least expected, and robbed
society of one of its brightest
ornaments."
These are but a few examples of
the old language of death in the
United States. To Janice Hume, an
"An obituary is more
than a bareboned
recitation of
someone's life,"
-Janice Hume
Assistant journalism professor
Kentucky State University
assistant journalism professor at
Kansas State University, that
language offers clues to our cultural
values.
For more than a year, Hume pored
over death notices in several U.S.
newspapers. She read more than
8,000 obituaries as part of the
research for her doctoral dissertation
at the University of Missouri.
Here's some of what she found
Obituaries in the 19th century
spoke about the person's character;
in the 20th century they detailed the
person's work and wealth.
In the days when women were
valued mainly in their relationships
with men, their obituaries were about
the men in their lives.
News was news, even then. People
who might not ordinarily be featured
ended up in the papers because they
died in unusual ways or had
connections to well-known persons.
The obituaries Hume studied from
1910 and 1930 included lots of
people who claimed to have
witnessed Abraham Lincoln's
assassination.
The study focused on three periods:
A decade before and a decade after
the election of Andrew Jackson in
1828; five years before the Civil War
started and five years after it ended;
and before and after 1920, when the
19th Amendment was ratified, giving
women the right to vote.
Hume used newspapers from New
York City, New Orleans, Baltimore,
Chicago and San Francisco, along
with two early national papers, Niles'
Weekly Register and The National
Intelligencer.
"An obituary is more than a
bareboned recitation of someone's
life," Hume said. "It's a
commemoration."
In the earliest years, she said, the
newspapers wrote obituaries about
men who were Revolutionary War
heroes, patriots or public servants.
Sometimes a death was newsworthy
because of whom the dead person
knew.
In 1818, Benjamin Walker's
obituary referred to him as an aide
de-camp and friend of George
Washington. That was "epitaph
enough," said The National
Intelligencer. "Would you add
more?"
Patrick O'Flinn was remembered as
a man who kept a public house where
Washington often stayed. "It was
remarked on a certain occasion, by
one of the gentlemen in Washington's
suite," said Niles' Weekly Register,
"that in all his journeys with the
president, he had never seen him so
much at home. in a public house, as
in captain O'Flinn's, or ever met a
man with whom he discoursed more
familiarly than with him."
Even a man's similarity to a famous
person could merit a note. The
obituary for Mr. Lilly compared his
experience as a frontiersman with
Daniel Boone's.
"It is worthy of remark that this
very old man never owned or had a
bed in his house," the notice said. It
was not worthy of remark to mention
Mr. Lilly's first name.
Men who died in the early 19th
century were remembered as
patriotic, brave, gallant, vigilant,
bold, honest, skilled, industrious and
devoted to duty.
In the same period women were
described as patient, resigned,
obedient, affectionate, amiable,
pious, gentle, virtuous, intelligent,
educated, tender, innocent and useful.
The National Intelligencer in 1818
said Sarah English "chose to he
useful rather than gay. Her•domestic
concerns were managed with the
most admirable economy, exhibiting
at the same time a degree of comfort
and neatness not to be surpassed."
At least English was remembered
for her own virtues. Mrs. Albert E.
Plant, whose obituary was published
in The New York Times in 1910, was
listed as the woman "whose husband
is the first cousin of the late Henry
B. Plant, the railroad and steamship
owner."
As early as 1838, said Hume,
papers include death notices of
women who were nuns, writers or
actresses. But most were
remembered for their relationships
with men
By the 1930 s women started being
remembered for their own
contributions, she said.
The deaths of black people and
American Indians were not often
noted in the newspapers, Hume said,
unless they provided an opportunity
to moralize or the people died in
unusual ways.
One black woman was featured
because she died when her kerchief
caught fire. A black woman slave was
remembered because she was
obedient to her mistress and many
"respectable" women attended her
funeral.
While the obituaries of the 19th
century focused on the character of
the dead person, the 20th century
notices were tilled with details about
the deceased's work and wealth. The
abrupt change startled Hume.
In this century the newspapers
extolled men who worked right up
to the time they died. These items
focused on university affiliations,
careers and how much wealth these
men had amassed.
"It was such a stark contrast
between remembering someone for
their strong character and
remembering someone for the size of
his bank account," said Hume. "To
see it there reflected in these
obituaries, I was really amazed."
She cited an item in the April 7,
1910, New York Times about Joshua
Crosby, 82, who had worked at the
Custom House since the Civil War
and continued working until the
Saturday night before he died.
The Times on Jan. 7, 1910, also
wrote about Professor Samuel S.
Sanford, who was worth several
million dollars and worked "from
sheer enjoyment."
Ultimately, said Hume, the
obituaries showed how Americans
valued life, and they celebrated the
nation's ideals.
"I'm using obituaries," she said, "as
a little window a tiny little window
to look at cultural values."