Ninety-five Years ofr Editorial Freedom E L it41 1 IaiiQ Stressful Sunny with temperatures in the low thirties. But it doesn't matter, you have to study. Vol. XCV, No. 80 Copyright 1984, The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, December 12, 1984 Fifteen Cents Twelve Pages 'Tis the season to pull 'all-nighters' By GEORGEA KOVANIS Pass the NoDoz, heat up the coffee pot, and don't - no matter what hap- pens - fall asleep. It's finals time. Today, the last official day of classes, signals the end of the term. Come Friday, the first day of finals, it'll be time for students to prove they've been paying attention in Math 101 and in English 103. Can they identify quotations from the works of Wordswor- th and Shelley? Do they know the dif- ference between a Laplace 'transform and Fourier series? Unless these exams are tremen- dously easy, students will probably end up spending some time in the library studying for the elusive "A" which will get them into Harvard Law School, or simply enable them to pass. The University's Undergraduate Library will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 a.m. in order to help students get as much studying time in as possible. And according to Sarah Dearing, a member of the UGLi's circulation staff, students take advantage of the extra hours. "They stay, they sleep, take a nap and wake up and study," she said. Kathleeen Nolta, an LSA fresh- woman, plans to pull an all-nighter in order to prepare for finals. "It's better to go all night than to only get an hour and a half (of sleep)," Nolta said. "If you get a little bit of sleep, then you're tired when you wake up," she explained. Nolta said she usually relies on Coca- Cola to help her stay awake while she studies. She said it's not unusual for her to down four 16.9 ounce bottles during a night. Other students have different strategies for keeping their eyes open. "I'll take a shower at about five in the morning and splash cold water on my face," said Jennifer Appleberry, an LSA junior. "I'LL STAY UP all night one night, and then I'll get maybe three hours of sleep the next night and then the next night I may stay up again.. . and then I collapse," she said. However, she ad- ded that pulling an all-nighter isn't dif- ficult for her. "I've stayed up late since I was in seventh grade," Appleberry said. "I'm a night person, I get going about two in the morning." Some students don't need to drink coffee or cola. For them, just the fear of knowing they have to pass a test or hand in that 20-page paper is enough to keep them up for a night - or two. LSA sophomore Brian Boston is one of these students. When asked what kept him up for two nights last week in order to complete a couple of papers, he replied: "Fear. I'm serious." "THE FIRST night I wasn't too scared ... the second night, I finished with about 15 minutes to go," he said. Boston's all-nighters came two days apart and by the time they were over and done with so was Boston. "I wasn't tired, I just felt really bad," he said. "My head felt like a brick." Boston isn't the first individual to suf- fer from the post-all-nighter malaise. "I don't feel awful the next day, I feel awful the day after," said Jim Caffrey, who added that he expects to pull one all-nighter in preparation for finals. "The next day you're still awake. You get your second wind." ENGINEERING school sophomore Brian Acebo says he rountinely stays up until about 2:30 a.m. to study. However, because he won't have to at- tend classes during finals, he said he probably won't stay up as late. He'll have time to study and sleep. "I can only go on a little sleep for so long," Acebo said. Acebo is right. According to doctors, most people's performance is affected by a lack of sleep. In some cases, pulling an all-nighter can be a waste of time. "There's a difference between not falling asleep and being alert," said Caesar Briefer, University Health Ser- vice director. "All too frequently, people who pull all-nighters are not all that productive or alert," he said. Staying up all night does have an ef- fect on the quality of an individual's work. "I think pulling all-nighters. af- See STUDENTS, Page 3 Daly rnoto by 5SU WEIDENBACH Jackie Shelton, an LSA senior studying International Trade, sits in her apartment immersed in books while cramming for finals. TAs By THOMAS MILLER Twelve graduate and staff assistants who were in danger of losing their jobs because they had failed to pay their mandatory union fees have turned in the money, University and union of- ficials said yesterday. Under the terms of the contract bet- ween the University and the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), the TAs union, all TAs had to submit the money to GEO by midnight Monday or be fired by the University. BY LAST Friday afternoon, 12 of the approximately 1,800 TAs at the Univer- sity-still had not paid their dues, with the deadline quickly approaching. The union then submitted the list to the University to notify them of the TAs pay u who would have to be fired. According to the University's assist- ant director of personnel Colleen Dolan- Greene, the University then contacted the departments employing the delinquent TAs to stimulate payment of the dues. GEO president Matt Schaefer said yesterday that the University's effort must have helped because "all those who were at risk have paid - nobody will be terminated." ALTHOUGH GEO said last week that one of the 12 was withholding the money as a matter of principle, he recently paid the fees. It would be foolish, Schaefer said, for the TAs not to pay the $15 to $30 fee and pion dues then lose their job and waiver. the tuition "Honor is fine and wonderful, but not when it's a question of $2,700 worth of honor," Schaefer said, referring to the money in salary and tuition that would be lost. A TUITION waiver is given to all graduate teaching and staff assistants. According to the terms of the contract between GEO and the University, TAs pay only 60 percent of in-state tuition. If the TAs had been fired, they would have lost the waiver and been billed for the remaining 40 percent. "Nobody who paid said, 'I feel sullied," Schaefer said. Controversy over the union fees arose last spring when a group of graduate students started a petition drive protesting the mandatory union dues. GEO's contract specifies an "agency shop" clause. With an agency shop, every member of the bargaining unit - in this case the 1,800 TAs - must pay the union fees regardless of whether they belong to the union. Last year's petition drive was an at- tempt to allow the bargaining unit to vote on the union shop status. The effort failed after the organizers realized that Michigan labor laws do not permit such a vote.. GEO will begin bargaining on a new contract with the University early in the year, Schaefer said. Computer By CHRISTY RIEDEL For most people, getting the mail is a daily ritual: approaching the mailbox in anticipation, quickly ex- tracting the contents from a non-descript metal box, and sorting through the occasional letters and all-too- abundant bills and junk mail. Michigan Terminal System users, however, have a little more to look forward to. It takes only a few key strokes to open a mailbox which contains messages ranging from a professor's assignment clarification to a lucrative social opportunity. THE "MAILBOX," in MTS language, is part of a message system which provides a way for a user to get in touch with anyone else using the MTS system. Each mailbox is identified by a user ID number or name. Only the account owners can retrieve their mail links MTS users messages unless they allow others access to their files. The message system has been a part of MTS for about three years, and was created because of "a need for simple communication within the system," said Forrest Hartman, coordinator of educatonal services for the computing center. It is especially helpful for professors and TAs to get messages to students, and for students to get questions to their instructors. "WHEN YOU panic, you can ask your professor something. That's the best thing about it," said LSA senior Barry Lotenberg. One command - the HELP command - provides immediate assistance or information. One student who asked not to be identified said she uses the message system mainly to get help on her program or to ask for "money" to run her program. Many students interviewed were reluctant to reveal their names because they were concerned that they could be punished for using the message system for purposes outside their classes. HARTMAN SAID, however, that no one else knows what messages pass between senders and recipients and that MTS does not discourage exchanging "fun" messages. Finishing a program before a class deadline can be a tense and frustrating task, which may require hours in front of the computer terminal and the message system provides a good release. "When you're totally sick of working, (sending messages) is a good way to kill time," Lotenberg See STUDENTS, Page 2 Associated Press Lifting spirits Operator Bill Durdin sits inside an elevator in the Conrad Building in Cincin- nati Tuesday afternoon that he has been decorating for Christmas for 14 years. 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