NATIONAL CAMPUS NEWS mommoimommommENNENNE l
MARCH 24 2000, THE BEHREND BEACON, PAGE 5:
Students focus Web cameras
on everyday dorm life
by Elizabeth Simnacher
Knight-Ridder Tribune
March 16. 2000
Cani Brodnax recently was talking
long-distance from her Florida home
to her boyfriend Ryan Scott, a South
ern Methodist University senior, when
the connection suddenly went dead.
Luckily, Brodnax's brother had al
ready been online, so she quickly
clicked on Scott's home page because
she knew that her boyfriend's dorm
room would be visible, thanks to a
Web camera that was up and running.
There, Brodnax could see a sec
onds-old photo of Scott. "She saw me
leaning back in my chair against the
wall," Scott says.
Scott, who was diagnosed as an epi
leptic when he was in high school, had
experienced a grand mal seizure.
Brodnax called Scott's mother, who
managed to get medical attention for
him in Dallas by calling 911 in Or
lando, Fla. He received help fast,
thanks partly to the Web camera con
nected to the PC in his dorm room.
College students such as Scott are
using some of the millions of inexpen
sive Web cameras to transmit pictures
of dorm rooms and apartments on their
Web pages, mostly just because they
Three popular sites featuring stu
dent home pages equipped with Web
cams are Real College Life
(www.realcollegelife.com), College
Cams (www.college-cams.com) and
Web Dorm ( www. webdorm.com).
Many feature shots of the staples of
college life: messy rooms and dirty
dishes in the sink.
A 1999 Logitech-Greenfield Online
study of teens and college students
found that 63 percent keep in touch
with their families and friends more
now than three years ago, thanks in
part to Web cams. The same study
found that 39 percent either used or
were familiar with Web camera tech
nology.
A study commissioned by Intel es
timated that 2.5 million Web cameras
Numbers
abstaining up on college campuses
by Dane Schiller
Knight-Ridder Tribune
March 15, 2000
rious college drinkers are getting cohol his freshman year. He asked
DALLAS College campuses are drunk more often. The study was not to be identified. "There's a lot
becoming more divided into camps conducted at 119 four-year schools in of people who party a lot and go to
of serious drinkers and nondrinkers, 39 states. the bars. It is pretty normal at a col
a new national survey suggests. Binge drinkers account for two- lege," he said.
The number of frequent binge thirds of alcohol consumed on cam- The University of North Texas
drinkers and the number of students pus and were defined by the study as chapter of Theta Chi fraternity was
abstaining from alcohol both are in- men who chug at least five drinks suspended by the school and by its
creasing, according to a national sur- back-to-back or women who have at national headquarters earlier this
vey by the Harvard School of Public least four drinks back-to back at least month after several arrests for viola-
Health released Tuesday, March 14. every other week. tions of alcohol and hazing policies.
The survey of 14,000 students Wechsler concluded that frequent According to police, some underage
showed that almost one-fourth are binge drinkers increased from 20 to pledges were given alcohol during
frequent binge drinkers and almost 23 percent from 1993 to 1999, while hazing.
one-fifth abstain from alcohol, said the number of abstainers increased Jay Perrin, who is pursuing his doc-
Henry Wechsler, director of college from 15 to 19 percent during that torate in speech and hearing science
alcohol studies at Harvard. same period. at the University of Texas at Dallas,
"Revulsion against the more ex- Schools have had some success said there's little time to drink among
treme forms of drinking may be driv- with on-campus programs to reduce his friends.
ing some students away from the drinking, but more could be done to "I am around more serious people,"
binge-drinking scene entirely," he counter establishments that offer low- Perrin said at the Coffee Haus on
said. priced, high-quantity drinks, said Hillcrest Avenue. "But I get a
On South Padre Island, Nadia Wechsler, the study's chief investiga- glimpse of the younger people, and
Trevino, 23, said she agreed with that tor. it seems they are doing just as much
conclusion, even as other students In North Texas, some students said partying."
around her celebrated spring break as drinking has played a lesser role in Gage Paine, SMU's dean of student
a traditional drunken rite of passage. their lives in recent years, but for life, didn't have ready statistics on
"I have cut down. People are say- some of their classmates, getting drinking by SMU students but said
ing no," said Trevino, a junior at the drunk seems as much a college pas- binge drinking "is still a concern, no
University of Texas at Austin. "I am time as ever. doubt about it."
U.S. to track foreign students and
.
by William Lee
Campus Correspondent
Western Illinois University
March 14, 2000
CHICAGO (TMS) The threat of
terrorism has prompted the Immi
gration and Naturalization Service
to implement a surveillance plan
aimed at tracking foreign students
in the United States.
The plan, called the Coordinated
Interagency Partnership Regulating
International Students program,
ended its trial status with INS on
Feb. 22 and has since been ex
tended nationwide. The program,
tested at institutions such as Auburn
and Duke universities, requires for
eign students and scholars in the
were sold in 1999, up from 350,000
in 1997. By 2001, the projected sales
will be 10 million cameras, according
to the same study.
Typically, Web cameras capture ev
eryday events in a student's life.
Amanda, 19, is a sophomore at the
University of Minnesota and a devoted
Web cam user. She asked that her last
name not be used. She says she gets
messages from viewers such as, "I saw
you folding your clothes."
Inevitably, there are long, boring
stretches: "I let people watch me
sleep," Amanda says.
"It's just fun," she says when asked
why she photographs her life and puts
it on the Internet. Her friends gener
ally don't mind, she says. "We're a
crazy bunch."
But why broadcast your life?
Lillian Beeson studies communica
tion at the University of Pittsburgh,
Greensburg campus, where she is an
associate professor and the director of
the Humanities Academic Village.
"I don't understand this usage my
self," says Beeson. "I guess this is the
age of exhibitionism for some. Look
at the talk shows."
Or perhaps students are experienc
ing the same sense of community that
mass media generated when a good
portion of us watched the same tele
vision shows at the same time, Beeson
says. Or, simply put, maybe "they get
a kick out of watching each other."
For several reasons, college stu
dents are a natural market for Web
cameras
"College students are consummate
communicators," says Bruce
Friedricks, senior vice president of
worldwide marketing at Logitech, a
company that makes PC peripherals,
Including a Web camera called Quick
Cam. "You're looking at a generation
that grew up on the Internet," he says.
"College students probably are the
most Internet-heavy group, and they
have good Internet connections in
their dorm rooms," says Allison
Mahoney, a spokeswoman for the col
lege-oriented Web site Web Dorm.
for students binge
having more fun sober and watching
everyone else get plastered."
Wechsler's study did show that se
U.S. on temporary visas to pay col
leges and universities a $95 fee.
Institutions forward that money to
INS to pay for a database tracking
the foreign scholars as they move
within the country. The database
is expected to be fully functional
in 2002.
INS officials say CIPRIS will
help modernize and streamline the
current process of bringing foreign
students and scholars into the U.S.
It also will enable colleges and uni
versities to share important infor
mation about students such as
their fields of study and the means
by which they're paying for their
education with governmental
agencies.
But several professional associa-
The Web cameras are "embraced by
popular culture," says Friedricks. In
the last six months, Web cameras have
appeared on television shows includ
ing 3rd Rock from the Sun, Ally
Mcßeal, and Beverly Hills 90210 and
in the movie American Pie.
These days, a basic Web camera and
software cost about $5O around the
price of a college textbook. Besides
Logitech, makers include Intel,
Kodak, and Creative Labs. All also
offer models in the $BO to $l5O range.
These offer higher resolution and
more features.
Finally, college students are psycho
logically ripe for the Web camera phe
nomenon.
"They're in a very social part of
their lives," says Friedricks. They
may be separated from family and
friends for the first time.
Scott bought his Web camera as a
way to keep in touch with his girl
friend and mother in Florida.
With the increase in geographically
separated families, Web cams have
become a new tool.
"In that sense, I think it could help
families get closer together," says Dr.
Beeson
Katie Maris, 24, a graduate student
in business and journalism at the Uni
versity of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, uses her Web cam exclu
sively as a videophone. She commu
nicates with her parents, who live
about an hour's drive away.
Not only can she see her parents
while they talk, "it's free that way"
because calls are just another Internet
activity, she notes. Video calls must
be prearranged, but the process is
pretty self-explanatory, she says.
Maris also has used her Web cam
era to have videoconferences with
other students from Japan, Spain, and
Latin America, she says. She has used
video phone calls to brush up on her
Spanish.
On many sites with Web cams, it's
possible to summon the cam owner for
an impromptu plain-text chat.
Darren Rose, 21, a senior from
"I can have fun without alcohol,"
said one Southern Methodist Univer
sity pre-med student who gave up al-
tions, such as NAFSA (Association
of International Educators), which
is based in New York, say the pro
gram unfairly targets foreign stu
dents as potential threats to national
safety and security.
"I am concerned about the mes
sage that we'll be sending out to
other nations," Daphne Osayade-
Dumas, associate dean of
multicultural affairs at Sarah
Lawrence College, told the
Westchester County Weekly. "I
think it sends the wrong message."
So does Mary C. Martin, direc
tor of the University of Chicago's
office of international affairs. She
said the database overshadows the
positive contributions foreign stu
dents make to their campuses and
Houston at the University of Texas at
Austin, got a camera to communicate
with a girlfriend. He says he likes to
update the photo on his home page fre
quently so people know that he uses it
a lot. He has counted many more
"hits" visits to his page since he
installed the cam, up to a couple hun
dred a day, he says.
At first, Rose would forget that he
was on camera and do things he didn't
want to broadcast like change his
clothes, he says. Now when he wants
to shut the world out, "I just turn it off
or point it up at the ceiling.'
There's just one little problem.
"My roommate doesn't like it," says
Rose. His roommate runs past the
camera hoping that the Web cam will
miss him. But his girlfriend has re
ally gotten into it and friends are OK
with it, he says.
But not everybody gets a warning.
"Sometimes," he admits, "I like to sur-
prise them."
Other students with Web cameras
say friends and roommates don't mind
or like the Webcam.
Right now, it's a wild, wild world
out there, and some Web cameras
record nudity and even sex.
The nudity issue could be the rea
son there seem to he more male stu
dents with Web cams than females,
Amanda, the student at the University
of Minnesota, agreed. She has a FAQ,
or frequently asked questions, page
that explains she doesn't do nudity.
Scott says the same: "I'm conscious
of it [the cam] if I'm doing something
I wouldn't want my mother to see."
Web Dorm has an agreement bind
ing its Web Dormers to non-offensive
images only. This agreement is only
a preventive measure, according to
Web Dorm spokeswoman Mahoney.
"We have not had any problems
with obscenity or indecency," she
writes.
"In fact, the worst thing that happened
was some frat boys came home a little
drunk one night and mooned the cam-
drinking,
Paine said students are at least talk
ing more about choosing not to drink.
"I am hearing more conversations by
students choosing to abstain," she
said. "It is becoming more of an op
tion."
Among the steps SMU has taken
to encourage sobriety are a zero-tol
erance policy at residence halls and
programs to help students combat al
cohol abuse and understand the risks
of heavy drinking.
Mandalyn Clark, an SMU sopho
more, said she believes figures on
binge drinking are overstated. She
said she believes most binge drink
ing occurs at get-acquainted parties
and rush parties at the beginning of
the school year.
"But then it goes down," she said.
"As far as I have seen, people don't
sit around partying. . . . they drink,
but it's more social drinking."
Shawn Fouch, a senior at SMU,
said the amount students drink de
pelids on their social circle.
"You see more of it on fraternity
row," he said. "I'm part of the the
ater department, and there's more
problems with drugs than alcohol."
Dallas Morning News correspondent
David Flick contributed to this report.
professors
surrounding communities.
"International students add bil
lions to the economy," she said.
"They don't just pay tuition. They
pay for their apartments, they buy
groceries, they take public trans
portation, and you can really see the
impact in small [college] towns."
Aside from unfairly targeting for
eign students, university officials
also say the INS tracking program
also requires already beleaguered
foreign-student advisers to com
plete a mountain of paperwork
something Martin said they
shoildn't be required to do.
"The program is making univer
sities a bill collector for the federal
government, and it's not a comfort
able thing for us," she said.
Antioch College
student, friend found shot
to death in Costa Rica
by Elaine De Valle
Knight-Ridder Tribune
March 15, 2000
MIAMI -- Two 19-year-old Ameri
can women were found shot to death
near a popular beach town in Costa
Rica that has increasingly become
notorious for criminal activity, Costa
Rican police reported Tuesday,
March 14.
The Judicial Investigation Agency
identified the victims as Emily
Brook Howell of Lexington, Ky.,
and Emily Rachel Eagen of Detroit.
The bodies were found along a
highway near the Caribbean seaside
village of Cahuita in one of the
country's most crime-ridden areas
about 90 miles east of San Jose,
according to Jesus Urena, a spokes
man for the Public Security Minis
try.
Urena said one of the victims had
been shot twice in the head and the
other three times in the back. He
said one of the victims was found
nude.
Scott Warren, dean of students at
Antioch College in Yellow Springs,
Ohio, said Howell was a student at
the college who had been in Costa
Rica since January on a photogra
phy project. Eagen was a former stu
dent who was visiting her and had
been in the country 15 days.
He said authorities were uncertain
about the motivation for the attack.
"It appears to be a random, tragic
incident," he said. "It's a horrible
loss and cause for mourning for all
of us."
An American woman who lived
with Howell and Eagen was identi
fied as Shawna or Shawn Sellers.
She was also in Costa Rica but was
elsewhere when the killings oc
curred, Warren said. She has since
been reunited with her father, he
added.
Jorge Rojas, director of the Judi
cial Investigation Agency, said the
women had been living in an apart
ment on Colon Boulevard in San
Jose, the capital, but traveled to the
Caribbean coast on weekends.
Eagen left Ann Arbor, Mich.,
about three weeks ago to join Howell
and the other woman in San Jose,
said her mother, Shirley Eagen. She
said the family had researched Costa
Rica and believed it was safe. "This
could have happened anywhere," she
said.
According to the surviving woman
who reported last seeing her
roommates Sunday evening, March
12 the three had gone to Limon
province on Friday, March 10. On
Saturday, March 11, they rented a
Hyundai Galloper. The sport utility
vehicle was found burned near
Guapiles, about 60 miles from the
crime scene, only hours before the
bodies were discovered.
A local woman found the bodies
in bushes about three yards from the
highway between the coastal town
of Puerto Limon and Cahuita. Lo
cal residents said they assume the
bodies were dropped off there early
Monday, March 13, because they
heard someone unloading heavy ob-
jects from a car.
On Tuesday, March 14, authorities
also found a casing from a .38-cali
ber handgun, the victims' bras, a pair
of short pants belonging to one vic
tim, and other personal items about
Penn State officials,
students mull smoke-
free campus
TMS Campus
March 16, 2000
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (TMS)
Smokers with a littering habit have
students and administrators at Penn
sylvania State University, University
Park, pushing for a smoke-free cam
pus.
When heads of the university's
clean-up efforts recently discovered
that the institution spends about
$150,000 a year for janitorial costs
associated with picking up cigarette
butts and wrappers, they decided to
draft a plan to eradicate smoking on
campus.
60 miles from where the bodies were
found.
The surviving friend said she was
supposed to have accompanied the
other two women on a nighttime
drive, but at the last moment wasn't
feeling well and therfore stayed at
their hotel in Puerto Viejo, a small
tourist site between Puerto Limon
and Cahuita.
Five slayings have been reported
this month in Limon province, which
includes an economically depressed
area where the banana industry once
thrived and a string of beaches popu
lar with tourists.
The region visited by thousands
oftourists from North America, Eu
rope, and South America each year
has been called a "no man's land"
by angry local residents and business
people who complain of poor police
protection and a high number of
criminals and drug traffickers, ac
cording to several sources.
About two weeks ago, area travel
agents asked the government of
President Miguel Angel Rodriguez
to provide more police officers and
warned that some hoteliers were
ready to take justice into their own
hands to stop the increased criminal
activity.
According to Costa . Rican media
reports, business people also com
plained of two murders earlier this
month in the same area. The vic
tims were Austrian hotelier Helmut
Waffinger and a high official with
the Costa Rican electrical company,
Emanuel Barrantes.
One of the leaders of the Cham
ber of Caribbean Tourism, Edwin
Patterson, told authorities that for
eign travel agents "have been horri
fied since before this wave of vio
lence" and could be warning tour
ists to stay away from the country.
Tourism is the nation's main
source of foreign currency. Costa
Rica one of the world's leaders
in eco-tourism welcomed more
than one million visitors last year,
who brought more than $1 billion to
the country.
Patterson, the Chamber of Carib-,
bean Tourism leader, added that lo
cal business people and their em
ployees had opted to buy firearmi
to protect themselves.
"Everybody is armed here," he
said. "In the hotels, the order is to
shoot to kill. The aggressiveness of
the criminals is such that we have
reached the conclusion that it is ei
ther their lives or ours."
A State Department travel advi
sory issued late last year warns about
increasing crime throughout Costa
Rica.
"At least seven American women
have been victims of sexual assaults
on beach resorts on both coasts. . . .
there have been several attempted
sexual assaults, including one rape,
by taxi drivers."
Travelers are urged to travel in
groups during daylight hours, to
keep valuables out of sight, and not
wear jewelry, in order to lessen their
risk.
"Local law enforcement agencies
have limited capabilities," the advi-
sory states. Herald translator,
Renato Perez, Herald writer Aracely
Acosta, wire services, the Detroit
Free Press, and reporters from La
Prensa Libre and La Nacion in Costa
Rica contributed to this report.
It's not as if the university hasn't
given smokers a chance to clean up
their act. In December, Penn State
clean-up crews placed several new
cigarette receptacles throughout
campus, but quickly found many stu
dent smokers weren't using them.
On an upcoming ballot, the uni
versity will gauge student opinioti
about a campus-wide ban. If student
support for the measure is clear, uni
versity administrators have agreed to
discuss the matter further.
The university already has phased
out smoking in all campus building
and has limited smoking to particu
lar floors in its dormitories.