Maroon

              The Maroon ESTABLISHED 1923 VOL. 76 NO. 6 Loyola University New Orleans FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1997 Stressing Out The feeling is all too familiar. It's 11 p.m. The shift at work is over, but there's still a paper to write, a lab report to finish and 200 pages to read before tomorrow. To make things worse, you're already exhausted because you only got three hours of sleep last night. A kind of despair hits you on nights like these, a despair of having more to do than can be accomplished. By ALLISON There is also the TEMPLET pressure of Managing Editor knowing that one semester or even one class gone wrong can lead to total failure or a complete change in the direction of your life. This feeling is called stress, and college students have a lot of it. "It's the fact that it never ends," said Carolina Cotmonero, communications senior. "With a job, you get off work, but with college you've got to think about deadlines all the time, and it never stops." Andre Tucker, English writing freshman, said the most stressful thing about college is learning time-management skills. "I think every student has a problem with that," he said. "College is an entire entity. It's not just the classroom itself." Tucker said students often find it hard to strike a balance between academics, social lives and money concerns. Experts have ranked stress levels by assigning points to various events. For example, the death of a spouse would equal 100 points and minor violations of the law would equal 15 points. College students who experience events worth 150 points or more in one year have a 50-50 chance of adverse health effects. The first semester of college gets 28 points, but combined with a change in eating habits (19), a change in sleeping habits (21) and lower grades than expected (25), college stress levels can soar. Carol Miles, a staff counselor with the Counseling, Career Development & Placement Center, agreed that college is a stressful time. "It's a major developmental period in the life of a young adult." she said. This means that like other developmental events, such as getting married, losing a parent or starting a career, college carries the potential for stress. Because freshman year is a period of major adjustment, it carries sources of stress that may disappear in later years. It is often the first time a student has lived away from home. More than half of college students are now going more than 500 miles away, said Daniel Sheridan, associate vice president for UNDER PRESSURE Stress experts assign different values to life's events. Events totaling 150 points or more can cause adverse effects on health. Unwed Pregnancy 92 Death of a close friend 65 Jail term 61 Flunking out 58 Loss of financial aid 48 Sexual difficulties 45 First semester 28 Conflict with teacher 24 Change in social life 22 Source: The New York Times By SARAH BARNETT Colleen Seaman, marketing senior, studies Monday night for a production and operations management test. In the coming weeks, students will face similar stressful situations. Tree crushes student's car, cuts cable TV on Broadway campus By SARAH SPARKS News Editor Lance Rydberg looked from the treeshaped air freshener in John Fuller's Honda Accord to the 50-foot pecan branch jutting out of its roof and started to laugh. "I'm afraid he's got a little more tree scent now than he wanted," Rydberg said. The branch from Rydberg's pecan tree fell on Fuller's car Monday, blocking traffic on Broadway for four hours and cutting cable television service in Cabra Hall until 8 p.m. That morning. Fuller, second-year law student, parked his car across the street from Cabra Hall in front of Rydberg's house. Just before 1 p.m., wind shook the tree in Rydberg's front yard enough to break one of its main branches. The branch partially broke another branch on a neighboring tree before smashing Fuller's A fallen branch from a rotten pecan tree crushed Fuller's car Monday. The branch also knocked out cable television service to Cabra Hail when it fell from its perch above the street. By SARAH BARNETT Congress debates allocations By ELIZABETH STUART Staff writer The Student Government Association approved nearly $73,000 for student organization use during the fall 1997 semester at Tuesday's meeting. SGA doled out almost $ 16,000 more to organizations this fall than the $56,000 ii did for fall 1996, said Huy Vu, SGA vice president and international business senior. During the debate, SGA cut $700 from the Economics Club's spring journal and gave the money to the Saint Thomas More Society and the Loyola Public Interest Law Group. Debate also surrounded the money the Black Student Union requested for two new computers and a new printer. Jakob Bauman, international business senior and congressman at large, opposed giving the money to BSU. Vandalism hits dorm once again By DANIEL TROSCLAIR Staff writer Vandalism, including two fires, has caused $2,100 in fines for Biever Hall residents, said Michelle Andrews, assistant director of Residential Life. She said the vandalism in Biever Hall began Sept. 7. Most of the damage occurred in common areas such as elevator lobbies, especially on the third and fourth floors. Andrews stressed this does not mean the people on those floors are to blame. She said anyone could have gone to those floors and done the damage. "My assumption is it's five to 10 people [doing these things]," she said. Jarrett BranifT, resident assistant on four north, agreed. "I personally believe it's just a few people," he said. No Maroon The Maroon will not appear next week because of midterm exams. We will resume publication Oct. 24. See SGA, Pg. 5 See STRESS, Pg. 5 See FIRES, Pg. 4 See TREE, Pg4 ■ Awareness Week Students learn the risks of abusing alcohol from hghg hghg