The daily collegian. (University Park, Pa.) 1940-current, September 12, 1985, Image 1

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    S. Africa sanctions blocked
By DAVID ESPO
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C The Republican-controlled Sen
ate yesterday refused for the second time to end a
filibuster blocking legislation that would slap tougher
economic sanctions against white-ruled South Africa than
President Reagan has imposed.
The Democratic-led assault on the filibuster failed on a
dramatic roll call of 57-41 three votes shy of the 60
needed with GOP leaders lobbying to get their way in
the well of the Senate while several black House members
looked on from the rear of the chamber.
Republicans said they would seek to postpone a final
vote on the measure for several months, until the impact
of Reagan’s sanctions can be gauged in racially segre
gated South Africa. Democrats vowed to continue their
fight for the bill, and another vote was likely today.
Reagan says he will veto the bill if it passes.
“This is no longer an issue of what’s good for South
Africa. It’s a raw political issue,” said Senate Majority
Leader Robert Dole of Kansas in an appeal for GOP
senators to close ranks.
He pledged to seek a final vote on the measure “if
there’s any slippage, if there’s any turning back” by
Reagan, who abandoned his longtime opposition to sanc
tions on Monday.
White House assistant press secretary Dale Petroskey
said the president welcomed the Senate vote.
“The president is pleased that the Senate has again
voted in a way which allows the executive branch to
conduct a responsible and flexible application of U.S.
foreign policy objectives towards South Africa and south
ern Africa,” he said.
But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said after the
vote that Democrats would succeed in winning a.vote on
the measure by the end of the year, and aides said an
attempt might be made to attach it to another piece of
legislation if today’s vote falls short.
“The plight of the black South Africans hasn’t changed
Alcohol task
By ALAN J. CRAVER
Collegian Staff Writer
The University President’s Task
Force on Alcohol will meet today to
refine recommendations on how the
administration can solve problems
created by alcohol abuse among stu
dents, a co-chairman of the task force
said.
M. Lee Upcraft, division director of
counseling and health services, said
the task force was formed last Feb
ruary and began working on the rec
ommendations in March. It has since
met to revise University rules and
policies and review alcohol use
among individuals and student orga
nizations.
The task force, made up of Univer
sity student leaders, staff and com
munity members, reviewed alcohol
awareness and treatment programs
and also studied alcohol-related prob
lems in State College, Upcraft said.
During the next two months, the
task force will meet with students and
community members to gather feed
back on the recommendations. By
Oct. 15, the task force plans to have a
finalized report for University Presi
dent Bryce Jordan.
Upcraft said Jordan will study the
proposals and decide which will be
enacted as University policy. Jordan
will consult with various student and
community organizations but will
have the final word on the approval of
the recommendations.
Undergraduate Student Govern
ment President David Rosenblatt,
who co-chairs the task force with
Upcraft, said the University and the
State College community need to
respond to the growing concern of
alcohol use and abuse.
Rosenblatt said it is important for
students to be aware of the effects of
alcohol.
Rosenblatt said he is co-chairman
of the task force so students are fully
represented. He said the task force
accepts the fact that alcohol is a part
of life at the University and policies
concerning alcohol cannot be
changed without the students’ input.
“Students should know nothing is
written in stone,” Rosenblatt said.
“Everything is open so students can
respond.”
Upcraft said the task force is not
intent on eliminating drinking but
getting students to view drinking in a
responsible way.
“We’re trying to make sure all
points of view are present,” he said.
Upcraft said the proposed recom
mendations may change once the full
task force holds meetings with stu-
index
business,
opinions,
sports
weather
Today, a sunny start with intervals of clouds and sunshine. The high will
reach a cool 65. Tonight, mostly clear and quite chilly. Low near 45.
the
daily
one iota” as a result of the action of the last week, said
Sen. Lowell Weicker, R-Conn.
Forty-six Democrats and 11 Republicans voted to choke
off the filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd of
West Virginia was the only Democrat voting on the other
side, and an aide said he did so to permit him to demand a
reconsideration of the roll call. That reconsideration was
tabled, and thus killed, on a 50-48 vote.
It was the second time in three days that Democrats
tried to force a final vote on the sanctions bill in what has
become as much a nasty partisan political struggle as a
debate over foreign policy. The first attempt failed on a
53-34 vote, seven shy of the total needed.
Congress appeared ready earlier in the week to approve
the sanctions measure. But Reagan, working to head off a
certain foreign policy defeat, announced he would impose
many of the same measures on his own and would veto the
legislation if it reached his desk.
Senate GOP leaders said they were satisfied with
Reagan’s decision and announced plans to delay a final
vote on the measure until next spring. But Democrats
complained that the president’s sanctions were too weak
and pressed ahead with plans to force a final vote on the
bill.
Since then, the partisan rhetoric has escalated on both
sides.
Sen. Robert Stafford, R-Vt., who voted against the
filibuster earlier in the week but switched sides the
second time, issued a statement saying Democrats were
engaged in a “calculated effort ... to embarrass the
president. I wanted no part.of that.”
Dole said Monday that some senators were trying to
“punish Ronald Reagan” rather than South Africa. A day
later, he added, “They see it as a political issue and we
see it as something the president has accomplished.”
Kennedy, a leading Democratic supporter of sanctions,
said Republicans must“decide whether to be the party of
Lincoln or the party of apartheid,” a reference to South
African racial policies that discriminate against the 23-
million member black majority.
force meets
dents, the administration and com
munity members.
David E. Stormer, co-chairman of
the task force’s policy and rules sub
committee, said the (Subcommittee
will propose changes to University
policies and regulations concerning
alcohol use at fraternities, residence
halls and student organizations.
Some of the proposed recommenda
tions for residence halls include limit
ing the number of guests at parties,
limiting the length of parties and
registering the parties, said Stormer,
director of University Police Serv
ices.
Some of the proposed recommenda
tions for fraternities, sororities and
other student organizations include
limiting the number of kegs tapped at
a time, prohibiting open parties and
eliminating drinking contests.
“Young people during the last three
or four years have been using alcohol
as. an end in itself and not as a
means,” Stormer said. “More people
are going out to get drunk and not to
socialize or have a good time.”
Stormer said there is a need to
change the direction in which stu
dents are headed concerning alcohol.
“The easiest thing for the task
force to do is to say no more beverage
alcohol,” Stormer said. “But that
wouldn’t solve many problems.”
Stormer said alcohol’s presence in
today’s society must be recognized
but students need to learn how to use
alcohol responsibly.
“Alcohol use is not something
that’s going to go away,” he said, “so
we need to get people aware of its
uses and abuses.”
State College Municipal Council
President Mary Ann Haas, co-chair
man of the community concerns sub
committee, said the subcommittee is
concerned with the number of high
school students who drink because of
the accessibility of alcohol.
Haas said the subcommittee does
not have specific recommendations,
but she hopes the task force will draw
proposals from the subcommittee’s
observations.
The subcommittee is also con
cerned with promotions and specials.
Haas said when bars offer specials,
such as “all you can drink for $2,”
people will consume more, although
bar owners said this does not happen.
The subcommittee also found a
growing concern about parties in
apartment complexes. Haas said
managers and owners, who could be
held liable for parties in their apart
ments, may begin establishing regu
lations.
Collegian
Alcohol:
Eight-year survey shows abuse by University students on the rise
By ALAN J. CRAVER
Collegian Staff Writer
More University students are abusing alcohol
than in the past, causing grades to decline and
socialand personal lives to suffer, the division
director of counseling and health services said.
M. Lee Upcraft, who has conducted a survey on
University students’ use of alcohol since 1977,
said he is not sure why students are drinking
more, but it could be because they feel the need
to escape increased social and academic pres
sures.
David E. Stormer, director of University Po
lice Services, said that during the first week of
Fall Semester, seven students were treated at
Ritenour Health Center or Centre Community
Hospital for alcohol overdose.
About 23,400, or 90 percent, of the University’s
26,000 undergraduates drink alcohol, according
to Upcraft’s survey. The number of students who
Lone task force member checked parties
By ALAN J. CRAVER
Collegian Staff Writer
A member of the President’s
Task Force on Alcohol visited at
least four fraternities’ parties last
weekend to. collect information
about the parties without the task
force’s knowledge, several fraterni
ty members and the task force co
chairman said.
Francis Stoffa, a member of the
alcohol awareness and treatment
subcommittee of the task force,
would not comment on which fra
ternities he went to, what he was
looking for or what he found.
Stoffa said he was collecting in
formation for himself and for the
task force. The task force is form
ing recommendations on how Uni
versity administrators, student
leaders and State College commu
nity members can educate students
about alcohol abuse and control the
problem.
M. Lee Upcraft, co-chairman of
the task force, said he did not know
Stoffa visited the fraternities. He
said the task force did not send
Stoffa.
“If he went, he went on his own,”
said Upcraft, division director of
the University’s Counseling and
Health Services.
Members of Delta Upsilon frater
nity, 229 Locust Lane; Kappa Delta
Rho fraternity, 420 E. Prospect
Ave.; Delta Sigma Phi fraternity,
508 Locust Lane and Alpha Epsilon
Pi fraternity, 321 E. Fairmount
Ave., confirmed that Stoffa visited
their houses Friday night while
parties were going on.
John Rooney, president of the
Interfraternity Council and a mem
ber of the task force, said Stoffa
went to see if IFC party rules were
being followed and to identify fra
ternity party problems that should
be addressed by the task force.
“Some (fraternity members)
were worried that he was policing,
but he was only fact-finding,” Roo
ney said. “It’s no big deal. The
fraternities didn't have to let him
Heidi Sonen | | in-”
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abuse alcohol has increased from 3,380 or 13
percent in 1977 to 5,200 or 20 percent in 1983.
Alcohol abuse begins when people cannot func
tion or perform routine activities such as walk
ing, Upcraft said. When students become violent
while intoxicated or miss class because they
have hangovers they have abused alcohol, he
said.
Students who abuse alcohol are more likely to
use other drugs, attempt suicide and become
alcoholics later in life, Upcraft said. Students
who abuse alcohol usually come from families
that abuse alcohol or do not use alcohol at all.
Stormer said arrests on campus for crimes
resulting from alcohol use, such as drunken
driving, public intoxication and possession of
alcohol by minors, have dropped from the 1983-84
academic year to the 1984-85 academic year. No
specific figures were available.
Stormer said the decrease is not due to less
alcohol use among students. He explained that
Rooney said fraternity members
were able to voice their complaints
and concerns at the IFC meeting
Monday night, but none did.
Stoffa, executive director of On
Drugs Inc., 236 S. Allen St., said
he did not want to say what fraterni
ties he visited because he did not
want to single them out.
Howard Weiss, president of Alpha
Epsilon Pi, said Stoffa entered the
party uninvited and without calling.
Weiss said he permitted Stoffa
into the house because the fratemi
Thursday, Sept. 12,1985
Vol. 86, No. 45 20 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students ol The Pennsylvania State University
©1985 Collegian Inc.
ty had nothing to hide. Weiss said
Stoffa asked if the fraternity served
an alternative beverage other than
water, which is IFC policy.
Weiss said Stoffa asked other
questions about how the fraternity
handles parties.
Mitch Auster, social chairman at
Kappa Delta Rho, said Stoffa
looked in his fraternity to see if the
IFC party rules were being followed
and to see how people entered the
parties.
Jim Hendricks, president of Delta
Sigma Phi, said a man fitting Stof-
enforcement has declined since six experienced
officers were replaced with new officers.
Arrests for alcohol-related crimes such as
vandalism, assault and disorderly conduct have
increased in the 1984-85 school year.
Upcraft said the majority of reported damages
in residence halls and University discipline cases
are alcohol-related.
The University can be held liable for students’
actions related to alcohol use that result in
accidents or injuries off and on campus.
The University is in court for two liability
cases one that occurred on campus and anoth
er off campus, Upcraft said.
Three other cases may also go to court: two
involving fraternities and one involving two
students who served alcohol to an area high
school student last year. The high school student
was later killed in an automobile accident.
The two University students were convicted for
serving a minor and the family of the high school
student may file suit against them.
fa’s description also asked about
alternative beverages and how the
fraternity handled intoxicated par
ty goers.
William Foronda, assistant rush
chairman at Delta Upsilon, said
Stoffa asked if the fraternity
checked identification cards. Fo
ronda said Stoffa also asked about
the fraternity’s tap system and if
they offered an alternative bever
age to alcohol.
Upcraft said the task force is
looking into most of the questions
Stoffa asked the fraternities.