Brown and White Vol. 99 no. 28

              the brown and white vol 99 no 28 friday february 7 1992 lehigh university vigil lights way for aids victims increases campus awareness by debby schwartz news writer a candlelight vigil was held on monday to kick off adds awareness month the event included a march from mcclintic-marshall house to packer memorial chapel where a brief service was held marie cristy , nurse educator at the lehigh univer sity health center and dr lloyd steffen chaplain sponsored the march m order to increase awareness and facilitate education about the problem of adds and other sexually transmitted diseases danielle essig 92 a peer educator for aids and stds hoped that by seeing fellow students partici paring m the march others on campus would become aware of the problem that exists lots of people especially college students don't thinkthat aids can happen to them essig said but it is a real problem marleen szvetecz administrative assistant at the newman center participated m the vigil m memory and hope of all those who are afflicted with aids bernadette cunningham from the religious coalition on aids m auentown was the main speaker cunningham said that many attitudes to ward aids patients have changed m the recent past b&w photo by jon sigler freshmen allison faust joelle radan stephanie glasser suzanne radano stephanie sajda and colby palno at monday's candlelight vigil that began aids awareness month lu counselor treats myths of alcoholism by adam schildkraut news writer smoke wafts through van bittner hall on the north side of bethlehem as about 100 men and women of all ages fidget with their cigarettes and make repeated trips to the coffee dispenser a middle-aged man makes his way onto the stage and declares hi my name is jim and i'm an alcoholic when the audience re sponds hi jim another meeting of alcoholics anonymous aa has begun lehigh students are among the many people who constantly walk the fine line between mature week end alcohol intake and alcoholism most of lehigh s 28 fraternities are on tap 24 hours a day beer trucks still roam around the hill at the end of the week m preparation for the weekend as far as the eye can see alcohol is the prevalent social stimulus at parties at aa jim describes alcohol ism as a physical allergy coupled with a psychological compulsion lehigh s alcohol and drug educator james corcoran notes that m america one out of nine adults has a problem with alcohol ism given a lehigh undergradu ate community of 4,500 approxi mately 500 students have aproblem with alcohol according to corcoran alcoholism he explains is a disease notasocial problem signs of pending alcoholism can include but are not limited to increased alcohol tolerance a loss of control over the ability to stop drinking and the loss of the ability to control what the drinker does while drinking corcoran said corcoran dispelled the myth that alcoholics are people who have a few drinks every day rattier he feels that there are weekend alco holics corcoran said he also feels the lehigh community does not suffer from alcoholism as much as it suffers from the social depen dence on alcohol i am pretty confident m saying that lehigh is alcohol dependent corcoran said the social depen dency on alcohol here is huge corcoran added that the typical lehigh student does not realize that he or she might be next to a recov ering alcoholic while walking to class personal struggles with alco hol and the stories behind them are all over the lehigh campus tom looks no different than any other lehigh student as he re laxes while eating lunch m his off campus apartment upon further inspection of the kitchen one does not notice the stray beer can or bottle sometimes found m a le student senate looks to reduce smoking postering by ritu dhaliwal news writer smoking will be prohibited m all but one public area m the university center as a result of tuesday's student senate meeting m which campus improvements were dis cussed both the uc smoking policy and the poster policy were discussed m great detail the campus improvement committee's open meeting on jan 28 drew only five people both smokers and non-smokers the non-smokers said that they were bothered by the smoke as well as being concerned about their health christine cobb 92 cic chair said the smokers are mad because they have nowhere to smoke the committee sent out campus-wide surveys and received 239 responses 200 of which came from non-smokers using the survey responses the open-policy discus sions and known ill-effects of second-hand smoke the cic concluded that smoking shall be prohibited m all public areas of the uc except the booth section of the lehigh cafe the committee also recommended that smoking and non-smoking signs be posted m areas throughout the uc this policy was passed by the cic and senate a poster policy proposal was also dis cussed at the cic and senate meetings the following are restrictions that would apply to postering taping and stapling on campus • no unauthorized painting of any surface • no postering over other posters • no removing posters except your own • no postering on glass surfaces • no postering on trees • no postering on painted surfaces in other business posters will have to be taken down within 48 hours of the event offenses for violations will range from a written warning to a 15 fine for minor offenses to 50 1 50 fines for major offenses a major offense consists of causing perma nent damage to lehigh property the poster policy not yet passed by the cic will be discussed further in other business the academics com mittee is still working on changes for judiciary matters the committee said it is attempting to have three students placed on the appeals board see aids page 6 see recovering page 3 lehigh celebrates black history month p&9®j