November 1, 1999 - LION’S EYE - Page 5 Traditional Twenty-one Shots = Dead Students By Alyece Wolff Lion’s Eye Staff Writer Many have heard about the tradition of drinking twenty-one shots on one’s twenty-first birthday. This tradition of binge drinking has been publicized and linked to Penn State. According to Dr. Tomezsko, Executive Officer at Delco, “There are national news stories every few days about some college student who has died from literally over dosing on alcohol, which is a very available drug for students. The basic fact of life is that alcohol attaches to your liver and when your liver is over-loaded with alcohol, you DIE.” : At Delco the negative consequences of drinking too much have sadly been magnified through the death of Scott Latimer, a Penn State Delco sophomore, who was hit and killed by a drunk driver last December. Binge drinking is defined as consuming 5 or more drinks in a row one or more times in a 2-week period for men. And for women it’s the consumption of 4 or more drinks in a row one or more times in a 2-week period. Technology (Continued from page 3) Dr. Nancy Wyatt, Associate Professor of Speech Communications and chair of the technology Advisory committee, commented on the Student Computer Fee and the training committee. “It’s a good thing that students are represented and have the ability to have a say in the way computer money is being spent,” she said, “The Training Committee is important because it will look at specific training needs for faculty and students.” This would help students and faculty acquire knowledge of new software and technology. % Many college students drink to get drunk. 60% of the students at Penn State binge drink, according to statistics. That is 20% more than the average. Delco wants to present the facts t students. Walking through the hallway in the Main Building, students can find articles that focus on binge drinking plastered to the wall, and many pamphlets that deal with binge drinking are in stands, so students can take one. Last spring, a few students, mentored by Barbara Daniel and Gordon Crompton, members of the campus’s Partners in Prevention Team, produced a 20-minute video on binge drinking, funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. This video was introduced to the freshmen class during summer orientation, and the new students also got involved in the interactive “Alcohol 101 “ CD-rom. According to statistics the more students know abut alcohol and its effects the more likely they will make wise decisions when it comes to drinking. Dr. Tomezsko said, “Alcohol in itself is not bad, what is bad is the abuse of alcohol.” Remember VOTE on Tuesday November 2 Springhouse (Continued from page 4) someone will read about it and say, ‘T’'ll help.” “The expensive part would not be making it a picnic area or something else; it would be cleaning it out,” says Dr. Tomezsko. There are a lot of poison ivy and disease-carrying ticks in the brush surrounding it now, he says, and that would definitely need to be cleared before anything. It looks probable that if the funding and labor were cleared, the structure would be restored as a historical marker. To make it more historically valid, Dr. Tomezsko said it would be a good idea to find “plot-plans” of the area before it was taken over by the University in the ‘60s — as well as how it looked a hundred years ago — so that we could start a historical archive. Maybe there still exists another springhouse nearby. If one was found, that would help to accurately restore Delco’s. | Anyone interested by these broad possibilities, please contact the author at: Myst@psu.edu. A “Happy Birthday” balloon tied to the Scott Latimer Memorial tree is a poignant reminder of how alcohol causes the loss of innocent lives.” Katz Versus Street: Promises For Childcare By Regis Fields Lion’s Eye Staff Writer For many students living in the Philadelphia area getting out to this campus can be arduous. For students who live in the city, the trip involves roughly an hour drive or close to an hour and a half bus ride. If you add to that equation a working student and/or parenting, the task of education can become burdensome. Many start to look for help or a change in anything that will assist in daily life. Then the reality of a mayoral race at its height poses possibility. Philadelphians will have the chance on November 2 of electing either Republican candidate Sam Katz or Democratic candidate John Street to the position of mayor. With all the issues of better schools and the current city budget, college students in Philadelphia have to begin thinking which candidate is best suited to fit student needs. Subjects such as childcare and wage taxes, are among the leading concerns that face students in all schools in and around Philadelphia. Both candidates realize that this election will come down to the undecided voter who, more than likely, does not see this election as Republican versus Democrat, but in terms of which candidate can ensure easier living. Roughly a year ago, in the wake of PSU President Graham Spanier’s visit to Delco, an organization called Students Who Are Parents, or SWAP, lobbied this campus for facilities that could assist in their childcare needs. Not all, but many students who signed the petition and spoke out were from Philadelphia. At the time, adequate child care from the city that was close to students’ homes was not available. That is one issue that both candidates have spoken very candidly about. They propose.redesigning the childcare office and starting a new central location that would pull the current system together. The Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth organization would be the driving force behind that effort. Ellen Kaplan, a representative of the Katz campaign said, “Mr. Katz under- stands the need for efficient childcare in the city, not only for the student parent but for the career or single parent as well.” Both candidates share many of the same stances on that issue but that is basically where the line is drawn. With more diverse topics such as the stressful city wage tax, the two candidates start disagreeing. Katz would cut it from its current 4.61 percent for residents and 4.01 percent for commuters to 4 percent for both by 2004. Street would cut the residential wage tax to 4.46 percent and the tax for commuters to 3.88 percent in four years. Both are promising good results but those plans are four years down the road, about the same amount of time college takes. No immediate relief is proposed on the average wage tax, which is partly credited with driving many out of Philadelphia, job seekers and students alike. : This mayoral race will be close, many issues are posed and the candidates are struggling to find suitable answers to each problem. That may not seem very promising to many students, but for now waiting, listening, and voting remain the best strategies. Why Do College Students Binge Drink? Natia Jenkins (freshman, Division of Undergraduate Studies), “They just want to be in with the crowd, so mainly peer pressure.” Kristy Moyer (sophomore, Advertising), “It’s a way to have fun and escape from reality.” By Alyece Wolff Tim Thomas (sophomore, Architectural Engineering), “Students have nothing else to do. Also, they want to be with the ‘in crowd’!” : Heather Yerkes (junior, Management Science Info. Systems), “To fit in and as an excuse to act however they want.”
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers