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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 2004)
Let’s talk turkey in Pulse I 5 An independent newspaper wunv. dailyemerald. com Since 1900 \ Volume 106, Issue 64 | Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Students with alcohol dependencies have trouble with school health and emotional well-being BY AY1SHA YAHYA NEWS EDITOR Each year 1,400 students die from alcohol related causes. Thou sands more are injured, assaulted or drive under the influence of al cohol. Excessive drinking by some students has prompted colleges nationwide to institute programs that tackle alcohol issues at multi ple levels. Of particular concern are stu dents who binge-drink — drinking five or more drinks in one sitting for men, four or more for women. Alcohol and its related behaviors impact the individual’s physical and mental health, but it also has “second-hand effects” that touch on the rest of campus and the ment and coordination and im paired judgment and memory. “Alcohol is a poison of sorts,” Dochnahl said. “The liver has to detoxify (thebody).” Dochnahl said it takes at least an hour for the liver to process one drink — one drink translates to about 5 oz. of wine, 12 oz. of beer, or 1.5 oz. of hard liquor. This means certain drinks like a Long Island Ice Tea, which is made up of various shots of spirits, actually constitutes more than one drink, Dochnahl said. Many students may not be aware when a drinker has sue PART 2 OF 2 The Culture of Drinking Tuesday: Why do students drink? Today: What is the impact of drinking on the campus community? cumbed to alcohol poi soning, Dochnahl said. When a peer passes out, they just leave him or her in bed poisoning deaths were reported last year, but officers have been called to help people in serious community at large. “The academic community is affected overall if we have students not living up to their potential,” said Sheryl Eyster, assistant dean of students and associate di rector of the Office of Stu dent Life. Eyster also heads the University’s Substance Abuse Prevention Team. Alcohol dependency yields dangerous results Excessive or prolonged alcohol intake has acute effects, Universi ty Health Educator Annie Dochnahl said. With each drink, a person has less control over his or her move to sleep it ott not realizing tnat the person is in trou Got into a fight ble. Had unprotected sex Symptoms of alcohol poison Physical injury jng inClUde irreg Forgot where they ular breath were or what they did ing, Cold, bluish skin, unconsciousness Did something and excessive VOIT1 they regretted ^jng This fall alone, two students died from alcohol poisoning at universities in Col orado. University Depart The 87 percent of University students who had an alcoholic ment of Public Safety drink within the school year had the above experiences. Interim Director Tom Bret Furtwangler | Graphic editor * Hicks said no alcohol conditions. “Last year we responded to a substantial number of intoxica tions where the person wasn’t able to take care of themselves,” Hicks said, adding that many had to be taken to hospital. Students who become alcohol dependent may see their studies, as well as their emotional well being, suffer. Such students may miss class, fall behind, do poorly on exams and could eventually be forced to drop out. Counseling and Testing Center Associate Director Edel Daven port said several students visit the center with alcohol-related prob lems — in 2003, 137 people were ALCOHOL, page 4 Fractals reveal mysterious links between stress and art Richard Taylor researches the impact of fractals on stress and Jackson Pollack's use of the recurring patterns in his paintings BY ANTHONY LUCERO NEWS REPORTER There are those who believe that mathemat ics is a strict science, wrapped in a cloak of mys tery and complex equations and veiled in jargon that has little to do with the world we inhabit on a daily basis. Richard Taylor, a University associ ate professor of physics , has found that fractals, patterns constructed from endless smaller copies of the same recurring pattern much like the individual water crystals contribute to the overall form of a visible snowflake, can have an impact on everything from human stress levels to the appreciation of art. Taylor, who also works in the art and psy chology department, was the first to notice the use of fractals in Jackson Pollack’s “drip-and splash” paintings. The study, which has gar nered national media attention, is a marriage between university physics, psychology and an departments, Taylor said. In his initial work with stress-reduction, done in collaboration with NASA to minimize stress for astronauts, Taylor wired test subjects’ fin gertips in a method similarly used in lie detec tors. He then measured stress levels througl “stress-inducing cognitive tasks,” like solving math problems. Taylor found the fractals could lower stress by as much as 50 percent. “We deliberately stress someone out,” Taylor said. “When you do some thing stressful, skin conductance goes up.” After the stressful session, the subject is given a break to lower stress back to a normal level. Tay lor then places a fractal background before the next session begins and tries to stress subjects out once again. “With a fractal pattern in the background, stress goes down as much as 50 per cent,” said Taylor. “We’re looking at mundane environments like a ^ , basement, exam room or dentist’s f ... office where human stress can be j lowered naturally. ” \ '-v.,. In addition to creating patterns that \ can lower human stress levels, the re- \ suits of the study provide better solu- j tions for organizing information so the \ eye can spot a particular item in com- \ plex environments, citing possible im- I provements in efficiency and safety \ / with interfaces like airplane cockpits or \/ computer desktops, Taylor said, ' Taylor also conducted a study in which 250 FRACTALS, page 12 Courtesy Cooper Boydston (above) demonstrates how sensors attached to each joint are picked up by infrared cam I eras and plotted into a 3D f graph of movement (left); the ! left wrist is highlighted in red j on the diagram. Boydston’s work helps tie together the mathematical patterns, called / fractals, created by human move ment and the fractals that artist Jackson Pollack created in his work. , -J'' 4b Programs Finance Committee Groups' 2005-06 budgets analyzed Finance committee tables two proposak, completely de-funds Musical Arts group Monday BYGABE BRADLEY FREELANCE EDITOR Concerns about how student groups allo cate their budgets continued to block the ap proval of several student groups’ 2005-2006 budgets on Monday when the ASUO Pro grams Finance Committee held its second ses sion of budget hearings. The Non-traditional Student Union and Outlaws, a group of law students who focus on legal issues concerning the lesbian, gay, bi sexual and transgender community, were un able to receive budget approval because ASUO is currently revising the standardized stipend model, which dictates how stipends are paid to officers of student groups. “It’s really unfortunate for a lot of groups,” PFC chairwoman Persis Pohowalla said. “I feel for them.” The revision of the stipend model was in re sponse to a letter from University President Dave Frohnmayer, who suggested a revision after noticing that student stipends made up a disproportionate amount of the budgets for some student groups — up to 70 percent in some cases. Any student groups that pay their officers with stipends will have their budget propos als tabled until January, when the new stipend model should be in place. Representatives from the Committee for Musical Arts — the first group scheduled for hearings Monday night — failed to show up for their budget hearing. PFC then voted unanimously to completely de-fund CMA. The group has five business days to appeal the decision. Next, representatives from the Art History PFC, page 12 STUDENT SENATE The Student Senate responded to vetoes of the Ath letic Department Finance Committee and Programs Finance Committee funding benchmarks by the ASUO Executive, approving a 7 percent funding in crease for the ADFC and a 5.62 increase for toe PFC during its meeting on Tuesday night. After the Senate foiled to override toe ADFC bench mark veto, the executive made its original recom mendation of 7 percent to toe Senate. The Senate voted 8-7-1 last week to approve a 5.3 percent in crease for the ADFC. The executive recommended a 5.62 percent in crease for the PFC after its veto was not overruled, the same benchmark it originally proposed. Also at the meeting, the Senate tabled its efforts to review this year’s budget for the Spencer View Ten ants Council, which had not submitted a proposal to receive student funding for this year. The group pro vides services for residents in the University's Spencer View family housing. See Monday's Emerald for further coverage of toe meeting. — Parker Howell
