MSA's members often work behind the scenes By BETH ALLEN Every student at the University paid $4.25 per term last year to support the Michigan Student Assembly, the cam- pus-wide student government. But most students probably did not even notice the charge, and those who did probably never bothered to wonder where their money went. THE STUDENT ASSEMBLY faces a problem. Because of the notorious apathy among students, and the fact that most of MSA's representatives work behind the scenes, many students do not even know what MSA is, much less care what it does. MSA serves two functions for studen- ts on campus. First, it selects which student groups should receive funds from the $4.25 fee. And second, the assembly is the of- ficial student voice in University ac- tions and policy decisions that affect students. IN THE PAST assembly members have protested the University holding stocks in multi-national corporations that own subsidiaries in apartheid South Africa. MSA has also lobbied to change the University's research guidelines, which some members say allow projects designed to kill humans. This year the emphasis will be on stopping the University's budget cut- ting process, said Mary Rowland,'this year's MSA president. Many assembly members feel the University is beefing up marketable fields such as engineering and business administration at the expense of humanistic programs like art and theater. MSA WILL MAKE a stronger effort to link students in the fight against this redirection process, Rowland said. In the past, student reaction and protest against the process "received only sporadic turnout," she said. Rowland said she will work to organize monthly meetings between student leaders in colleges and organizations across campus to share information and strategies. Also as part of its political role on campus, the assembly appoints studen- ts to serve on MSA and University committees. VOLUNTEERS ON MSA'S internal committees work in areas such as financial aid, campus security, minority affairs, and state and federal lobbying efforts. Students also serve on University committees ranging from varsity athletics, housing, and food service, all the way up to the University's top budget committee. All students are eligible to sit on University commit- tees. MSA committees are usually chaired by an elected member of the assembly, but members stress that work cannot be done without volunteers. "SOME OF THE most important people are the ones behind the scenes, not the elected officials," said Amy Moore, last year's MSA president. Finding those volunteers, however, has been a pressing problem. Many students don't know that the commit- tees exist, or feel MSA does not represent their interests. MSA representatives are elected every spring from the schools and colleges they represent. The number of representatives in each school is based Daily Photo Michigan Student Assembly members meet in their chambers in the Union. The representatives, elected in each school and college, are the official student voice on campus. Mary Rowland, lower right, is this year's president. PIRGIM's role changing in t By JACKIE YOUNG Born in the era of Ralph Nader's con- sumer activism, Ann Arbor's chapter of the Public Interest Research Group In. Michigan is facing some new and pressing problems in the eighties. Group members say that tighter budgets and the national wave of con- servatism since the late seventies have begun to change the group's role on campus. -The Public Interest Research Group In Michigan, commonly called PIRGIM, is a statewide consumer lob- bying and research group. The group is controlled and funded by students throughout Michigan. PIRGIM has researched and taken stands on such issues as the state's returnable bottle bill, toxic wastes, state support for .public schools, and financial aid. The group has also published price surveys or grocery stores, banks, and tex- Abooks. LAST YEAR THE organization felt the pressure of a student body much ,offerent than the one that formed PIRGIM in 1972. ; Sixteen thousand students signed a petition in 1972 supporting PIRGIM. The University Regents allowed the group to solicit funds in class registration lines and attach a billing form to University registration slips. PIRGIM is the only student group given these privileges. SINCE IT WAS founded, however, PIRGIM's support among students has gradually slipped. The Regents originally required that 30 percent of the students support the group by donating. When support dropped below 30 percent, the Regents lowered the requirement, and eventually waved it completely. Last year a group of students calling themselves SCRAP attacked PIRGIM's right to raise funds through the Univer- sity registration system. SCRAP said that PIRGIM solicitors were harassing students, and that the Regents were unfairly denying other groups access to registration forms. The group gathered 7000 petition signatures in its drive to ban PIRGIM from the lines. AT THE SAME time, PIRGIM mem- bers were pressing the Regents to adopt a new refusable/refundable collection system for the group. Under the refusable/refundable system, students would 'have a $2 fee automatically assessed to their University bill. Those students who did not want to pay would have had the fee refunded later in the term upon request. PIRGIM members argued that the new system would raise funds which are seriously needed to keep the group viable. The Regents were unconvinced by both SCRAP and PIRGIM's arguments. - They retained the old fee collection system, but warned PIRGIM that their privileges would be denied if student support for the group continued to drop. ALTHOUGH REGENT Nellie Varner voted to keep PIRGIM in the registration lines, the Detroit Democrat called it a "failing organization" at the meeting. The petition drive against PIRGIM upset members, said Wendy Rampson, coordinator for the Ann Arbor chapter. SCRAP's complaints were hard to deal with because they were unwilling to work them out. Their tactics of pitting one student group against another had mass appeal, she said. "Negative cam- paigns are easier to run now than positive campaigns." What has come out of the battle bet- ween the two groups is a new definition of PIRGIM, Rampson said. "THE PETITION drive helped us to define ourselves and pull together. In the long run we will be stronger for it," Rampson said. "This fall we will be seriously' re-evaluating our role on c, doctor says bulimic can understand why she turns to food. With counseling, it usually takes a bulimic about a year to learn to control the illness, Castagna said. The length of therapy depends on how long the person has been bulimic. Many patients have thrown up habitually for more than five years and are more difficult to treat than a bulimic who binges and vomits a few times a week, he said. IN MANY CASES, the bulimic makes a "cry for help" by leaving the door open while throwing up or leaving bags of vomit in the hall, Castagna said. Prolonged vomiting can destroy tooth enamel from stomach acid, rupture the esophagaus or cause the stomach to bleed, Castagna said adding that severe cases can cause chemical imbalances and lead to a cardiac arrest. "A bulimic is not a freak. There's a person behind the symptom who is desperate and scared. The kinds of problems they have are ones we all have," he said. BULIMICS CAN be treated -at Castagna's clinic for "sliding fees," which means the cost is adjusted if a student can't afford the price. campus. We will be taking a look at our funding alternatives." The group has been looking for ways to gain student support on an in- creasingly conservative campus. Perhaps the best example of the more conservative awareness in PIRGIM is a survey members are conducting of happy hour drink prices at local bars. "THE FOUNDERS (of PIRGIM) would probably roll over in their graves if they knew we were doing something like this," said Dave Meyer, a former PIRGIM director. The group has had to take a less radical role when working on service issues, he said. Students seem to need something to show future employers. They are more concerned with resumes and vocational skills than student lob- byists were fifteen years ago, he said. Rampson, however, said that the new trend has not necessarily made the group less effective. The less vocal members of today may be just as active in PIRGIM projects but just much less visible, she said. EMILY ROSENBERG, A work-study PIRGIM member, said that today's students favor a "quite activism" that can be just as effective as more vocal protests. In addition to the changes in student he eighties mood, PIRGIM has had to deal with survive bee ever-shrinking revenues, and find ways new source to supplement its student fees. In Ann) Financial problems have torn apart soliciting c many of the state's PIRGIM chapters, for the chap and damaged the groups effectiveness, the $30,000 Rampson said. students las AT ONE TIME, seven Michigan BUT TI schools were active in PIRGIM, but method con several of the smaller school's tached. programs have been shut down, she The grou said. swering to1 Only Michigan State University, as well ast Wayne State University, and The, may pull t University of Michigan have been able the origina to retain full fledged programs. student-fun These chapters have been able to said. Gi I e 1j4, c 668-1628 Word Processing for " term papers a dissertations . resumes " technical papers ,raphic Design " flyers " brochures a logos," menus " posters cause they have developed s of funds. Arbor a new door-to-door ampaign has raised $75,000.' pter, considerably more than 0 PIRGIM received from st year, Rampson said. 'HE SUCCESSFUL new rmes with some strings at- up will have to start an- the citizens who contribute the students, she said. That he group even further from al plan for a student-run, ded organization, Rampson Bulimia is car (Continued from Page 4) Recent media attention on the two eating disorders has oversimplified the problem by describing specific causes for the illness, Castagna said. Bulimics can't be stereotyped, because the disease is nearing "epidemic levels," said Catagna. THERE ARE too many different cases to arrive .at one formula for the. illness, he explained. For example, some bulimic women cannot eat a salad without forcing themselves to throw up, while others binge on up to 30,000 calories of junk food such as ice cream, cookies, or pizza and then vomit to prevent "poisonous" calories from muaking them fat. Bulimics are experts at keeping the disease hidden, Castagna said. Many lead double lives, acting competent and assertive during the day, but at night they are bulimic, said Castagna. ."This makes the bulimic more com- plex to understand. They are so good at looking better than they feel," he said. *BULIMICS DENY the problem because they fear the consequences of being caught. They are usually very secretive, hiding food and carefully cleaning up after they vomit. 'Unlike anorexia, which usually strikes adolescent girls from upper middle class backgrounds, the average bulimic is 27, according to Castagna. Bulimia is prevalent among women ' only 3 to 4 percent of bulimics are men - because they are so highly dissatisfied with their bodies which Castagna attributes, in part, to the in- creased emphasis on being thin. "WHETHER IT is societal pressure to be thin or negative attitudes toward Imw M npus epidemi women, it is shocking to hear the disgust these women feel about their femininity," Castagna said. Anorexics show similar ambivalence about femininity, but in response to stress they turn away from food whereas a bulimic relies on food to cope with anxiety, Castangna said. Over-eating and purging becomes a release and an escape, he said. Similar to alcoholics compulsion to drink, bulimics have an addiction to food they cannot control. "THE BULIMIC might say he or she can stop (the disease), but usually the food obsession is in control of their lives," Castagna said. Many cases of bulimia occur in group living situations such as dormitories and sororities, he said. Last February, for example, a woman with bulimia was expelled from her sorority. Although many people were critical of the sorority's decision, Castagna said that getting a bulimic into a new living situation is key for recovery. "Expelling a bulimic isn't a rejection or cruel, but usually a necessary step," he said. 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