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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 13, 2002)
Campus News Traditional, fancy, jingle, grass, owl, Tiny Tots — dances were integral to the annual Pow Wow. Page 3 Internationa! News Israel’s ruling Likud party clashes with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over a Palestinian state. Pages Sports The spotlight shines on future Duck Jordan Kent at the Oregon Twilight. Page9 Monday, May 13,2002 Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Volume 103, Issue 149 As grass pollen season draws near, University students are v looking into different regimens to * v ease common allergy symptoms By Brad Schmidt Oregon Daily Emerald woods just yet. With a mild spring season featuring both sun and rain, doctors and nurses agree that a busy tree pollen season could soon be overtaken by an even busier grass pollen season. Allergies usually hit the hardest in the spring and summer months. But this year, students are showing allergy symptoms earlier than normal. “We’ve seen more than last year, but not as many as some years,” said Sharon Harbert, a registered nurse at the University Health Center. “It’s fairly ear ly. We’re just getting into the season.” The deciding factor in the allergy sea son isn’t just “the weather” in general — it’s particularly the rain, which halts airborne allergens so they cannot take flight and wreak havoc on students’ si nuses, she said. “It’s unpredictable,” said Dr. John Mi nor, a local physician at the Allergy & Asthma Center. “If I could predict the weather everyday, I could give you a pretty good estimate of what the pollen season will be like.” Typically, he said, the tree season lasts from spring break through mid-May. Af ter a short lull, Minor said, the grass sea r son emerges about Memorial Day and .! lasts until about the Fourth of July. Students could see a severe grass sea -■£ son if the weather continues its spo--^ radic behavior, Minor said. Turn to Allergies, page 8 he allergy season is under way, and physicians say students who haven’t yet been affected aren’t out of the polliniferous University Health Center nurse Sharon Harbert injects junior James VanderZanden with one of his weekly immunotherapy allergy shots. These shots can help patients build up a natural immunity to common allergens. MediaDetox fights ‘toxicity’ of Internet addiction ■ Kesearcn supports a campus program’s claim that Internet dependency leads to withdrawal from school and social activities By John Liebhardt Oregon Daily Emerald Ted Lewis is on a mission. That mission is to warn people that countless hours in front of computer leads to a detached and empty life. To counter these effects, Lewis started the Medi aDetox project in September as a solution to what he calls the media’s “toxicity of our mental and cultural environment.” The MediaDetox project is part week ly discussion group and part self-help group for students who think they are addicted to the Internet. MediaDetox is a part-time commitment for Lewis, who is also the manager of restorative justice programs at Community Mediation Ser vices, a group that brings together crime victims and offenders. Admittedly, the process has been slow-going. His discussions at noon Wednesdays in the EMU are sparsely at tended, and the self-help group has yet to get off the ground. “I feel like it’s a big issue, but no one wants to talk about it,” he said. “I sometimes feel that I am a voice alone in the wilderness.” Lewis is a minimal user of the Inter net with a master’s degree in religious studies, but he’s been fleshing out his ideas on the media for the past 10 years. Lewis’ message is a combination of me dia criticism and his own spiritual quest. He feels that the media now fill the niche of religion — the glue that ties together our rituals and beliefs. “Everything is geared like a magnet in the marketplace of attention,” he said. “This is bound to diminish our attention to real things: friends, nature, creativity, Turn to Internet, page 6 Jonathan House Emerald MediaDetox project founder Ted Lewis heads a weekly group that discusses how heavy Internet use affects mental well-being. Lewis sees his work as a combination of media criticism and personal spirituality. Campus combats sexual assault ■ Sexual Assault Awareness Week aims to end sexual violence and will feature the University’s annual Take Back the Night march and rally By Kara Cogswell Oregon Daily Emerald Sexual Assault Support Services re sponds to an average of 12 victims per day, but agency staff estimate they only hear about 25 to 30 percent of all the as saults that occur in the community. Assaults that are reported are often at tacks by strangers, like the recent at tacks by an unknown man on female students on campus. More common — and less publicized — are assaults by someone the victim knows. “In about 85 percent of the assaults, the perpetrator is known to the victim,” said Michelle Edwards of Sexual As sault Support Services. Student groups will work to end sex ual violence, both seen and unseen, this week as part of University Sexual As sault Awareness Week. “It’s not OK that rape and other forms of sexual violence continue to persist,” Edwards said. “And until (sexual Turn to Awareness, page 7 Frohnmayer waits to weigh in on team mascot resolution University President Dave Frohn mayer hasn’t yet decided whether to endorse a resolution protesting the nse of American Indian names or Images as team mascots, and a Uni versity spokesman said Friday that Frohnmayer will probably wait un til the NCAA takes action. Members of the University School of Law's Sports and Entertainment Law Forum delivered the resolution to Frohnmayer on Wednesday, Uni versity spokesman John Crosiar said. But with the possibility of a na tional policy, Frohnmayer will wait, Crosiar said. "He didn’t want to steal their thun der,” Crosiar said. “He didn’t want to preclude what they’re doing." Crosiar added that the NCAA has been discussing the issue, but he didn’t know when its governing body will propose a resolution. Frohnmayer was out of town Friday attending events promoting the Uni versity’s 125th anniversary. If Frohnmayer supports the reso lution, it still needs University Sen ate approval before the Athletic De partment can decide whether to implement it. —Jeremy Lang
