The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 5, 1985 - Page A2 3
Student organizes SADD on 'camus
By NADINE LAVAGNINO
Kevin did not mean to kill his classmate. He was
idrunk when he left the party, but the 17-year-old
drove his car home anyway. He was three feet
over the double yellow line in the center of the
"-rad when he smashed into a car driven by a girl
fIrom his high school.
She did not survive the accident.
KEVIN DID, and was sentenced to spend the
next year touring the country, explaining the
hazards of driving drunk. He was also sentenced
to make a 22-minute film about the accident, en-
titled Kevin's Story.
The film is used nationwide by Students Against
Driving Drunk groups in an effort to educate-
,young adults of the dangers of driving under the
influence of alcohol.
The SADD programs were originally oriented
toward high schools, but the movement has recen-
tly spread to college campuses across the country
with limited success.
THE STORY OF KEVIN is just one account of
the many tragedies that occur each year because
of drunk drivers. Twenty-five thousand
Americans are killed and 1.5 million are injured
by drunk drivers each year.
The goal of SADD is to make young adults aware
of the dangers of drunk driving, and, as a result, to
help save lives, according to Amy Allman, a for-
mer president of SADD.
Gary Abrahams, a 22-year-old LSA senior, is
currently organizing a SADD group on the
University campus.
"SADD IS NOT TRYING to tell people to stop
drinking, what to do, or how to run their lives. It is
an attempt to educate the individual and leave the
responsibility of choice to drink and drive up to
them," he explained.
"Drunk driving is one of the most stupid things a
person can do," he added.
The first phase of Abrahams' program was.
scheduled to begin in August with alcohol
awareness sessions, film festivals, and speakers
on the topic of drinking and driving. These ac-
tivities were to be targeted at summer term
students and freshmen who began school in the
summer.
"THE DIFFICULTY I had when I began
working on organizing a college SADD group
during winter term (1985) was how to orient this
high school program toward a college campus,"
Abrahams said.
In the high schools, SADD can make its point
much more easily because students are often
required to sit and listen to SADD presentations.
In college, the program is strictly voluntary,
Abrahams said.
The national chapter of Students Against
Driving Drunk was formed two years ago in
Massachusetts by Robert Anastas, a high school.
teacher, after two of his students were killed in a
car crash which involved a drunk driver.
TO GET THE COLLEGE program launched,
Abrahams is working with Allman, who graduated
from Huron High School in May and is a national
spokeswoman for two alcohol-awareness groups.
She was planning to assist Abrahams in
organizing the summer activities, and supplied
him with information for his solo attempt to form
the University group.
'Drunk driving is one of
the most stupid things a
person can do.'
-Gary Abrahams
Organizer of SADD
on campus
Allman will attend Western Michigan Univer-
sity this fall, but has no plans to start a college
SADD group there this year.
"The college group for SADD is going to be a lot
harder to start," Allman said.
"IN HIGH SCHOOL, we could go into the
classrooms and the students had to sit there and
listen to what we had to say. In college, people who
decide to attend the program activities or become
members themselves will have to be strictly on a
volunteer basis," she added.
* * * * * *
Terry and her boyfriend were both drunk, but
she slid behind the steering wheel to drive home
anyway. Unable to slow her speeding car at a cur-
ve in the road, she smashed into a tree. Her
boyfriend was killed instantly.
Years later, she and her parents were still
paying the money his family sued for.
"YOU'RE NOT TAKING only your life into your
hands when you drink and drive, but everyone
else's as well," Abrahams said.
Members of SADD, like other anti-drunk driving
groups, originally were formed by people who
personally knew someone who was permanently
hurt or killed by a drunk driver.;
The movement has spread, and today includes
many members who have never known a drunk
driving accident victim.
ABRAHAMS, FOR EXAMPLE, has only met,
heard, and read of people who were seriously in-
jured or killed after being struck by drunk drivers,
which has led to his need to make others aware of
the tragedies of drunk driving, he said.
"Not only out of a social consciousness do I
really want to do something about the matter, but
I have this paranoic fear of being on the other side
and being injured for life," he said.
Like Abrahams, Allman does not personally
know anyone who was killed or injured in an
alcohol-related accident. But after seeing too
many people who drive while intoxicated, she
decided to do something about it, she said.
THE MAIN GOAL OF SADD, Allman said, is to
set up a positive image for those who are against
drinking and driving.
"SADD tries to give you enough self-esteem so
you can feel confident not to drink and have
enough confidence in yourself that you do not have
to fall into that peer pressure tract," Allman said.
She said SADD focuses on followers who want to
be in the "in group," rather than on peer leaders.
"SADD helps those in this group that do not know
what to do. We show them the alternative," she
said.
1985 HURON HIGH School SADD President
'Susan Reindel said that after a few rejections
from fellow classmates in the beginning, people
are beginning to listen to SADD members.
"We hear people say we have made an influence
on them. We hear them say, 'I didn't let my friend
drive,' or, 'I did let my friend drive because I was
too drunk,"' Reindel said.
According to SADD brochures, teenagers have
signed hundreds of thousands of high school "Con-
tracts for Life," and the death rate for people in
the 16-24 age bracket has dropped more than 2,000
in drinking and driving accidents in the past two
years.
THE CONTRACTS ARE signed by teenagers
who agree not to drink and drive, and by their
parents, who agree to bring the drunk youth home
at any hour and from any location, with no
questions asked.
Contracts were recently introduced to college
students, to be co-signed by a close friend instead
of a parent, with the same conditions.
To be considered drunk, a driver must register a
blood-alcohol content of .10 percent, according to
the state law that went into effect on March 30,
1983. The law reads:
"A person, whether licensed or not, whose blood
contains 0.10 percent or more by weight of alcohol,
shall not operate a vehicle upon a highway or
other place open to the general public, including
an area designed for the parking of vehicles,
within the state."
CONTRACT,
FOR
LIFE
THE COLLEGE CONTRACT FOR LIFE
BETWEEN FRIENDS
As students at ,_we recognize that man% of
our fellow students and friends choose to use alcoholic beverages and, that on
occasion, some students may find themselves in a potential DWI situation.
Therefore, we have entered into a contract in which we agree that if we are ever
in a situation where we have had too much to drink, or a friend or date who has
had too much to drink, we will seek safe and sober transportation home.
We, the undersigned, also agree tha, we will provide or arrange safe, sober
transportation home for each other should either of us face a situation where we
have had too much to drink.
If we cannot find safe transportation, we will contact a taxi service. walk or sta\
the night.
Signature of Ist Party Signature of 2nd Party
Date
Distributed by S. A. D. D., "Students Against Driving Drunk" "coif ipl/inetu '
cinc
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Entering
freshmen
have eye
on grad
Schools
By JANICE PLOTNIK
Over the past few years, the
majority of entering freshmen have
( et their goals on professional schools,
nd the class of 1989 is continuing that
trend, according to one LSA coun-
selor.
Sixty to 75 percent of incoming
freshmen want to go to law, business,
medical, or dental school after
receiving an undergraduate
education, said LSA counselor Pedro
Gomez, a graduate student at the
University.
"I GET ON the average, out of a
roup of 10, seven, sometimes even all
0 (who) want to go to one of the
(graduate) schools," Gomez said.
Because freshmen are setting their
sights on a professional school so
early, they believe all of their classes
should be geared toward that goal.
Gomez said many freshmen "think
they have to take poli. sci. as opposed
to history of art."
LSA counselor Percell Smith
-agreed, and said that a great number
freshmen schedule classes with a
re-professional emphasis.
"I call them the Big Five," he said.
"Pre-law, pre-dent, pre-med, pre-
business, and pre-engineering."
Freshman Rich Kanowitz aspires to
a career in entertainment law. Acting
on information from his uncle, who is
in that business, Kanowitz is taking
courses he thinks will gear -him for
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low-rncom
By ERIC MATTSON
Students returning to Ann Arbor this
fall will probably find that despite a
lot of talk abut making housing more
affordable, not much concrete action
has been taken on it.
The Democrats and Republicans on
the Ann Arbor City Council take fun-
damentally different approaches to;
the issue, so radical policy changes
are virtually impossible, sources say.
Any city action to make housing more
affordable will have to come
gradually, without coersion.
EVEN IF the Republicans agree
that the city should do more for people
who spend more than 30 percent of
their gross income on housing -
one Democrat's definition of the thresholdj
of unaffordable housing - just how to
e housing
provide that incentive is unclear.
As it stands now, Republicans view
Democratic initiatives to make
housing more accessible to low- and
moderate-income residents with
skepticism, and some aren't convin-
ced that the city really does need to do
more to promote affordable housing,
said Councilmember Dick Deem (R-
Second Ward).
Deem said numbers put out by the
Affordable Housing Task Force - a
committee consisting of councilmem-
bers, developers, and social service
personnel that issued a lengthy report
on affordable housing - are
misleading because they include
students living off-campus, who often
rely on financial aid and-their parents
for support.
See AFFORDABLE, Page 6
Daily rnoto
Students of yesteryear wait in line to schedule for classes by hand. Registration is now made simpler with
Computer Registration Involving Student Participation (CRISP).
law school - French, astronomy,
philosophy, and English 125, which is
required of all freshmen.
DESPITE the trend, many fresh-
men continue to take traditional
freshmen courses, like Political
Science III and Psychology 170 or 171.
Of these students, some choose their
classes from the advice of orientation
counselors, while others listen to
recommendations from friends or
family members, often older brothers
and sisters who have attended the
University.
LSA freshman David Yates listened
to his older sister, and is taking
Biology 101 after his sister informed
him that "Bio. 101 is a blow-off,"
Yates said.
PILOT Program freshman Jenn-
ifer Stone called her brother for
scheduling advice. To her potential
course list, he replied, "That is the
biggest joke in my life," she said.
They eventually settled on
astronomy, French, and Language of
the Media.
Another LSA freshman, Nita
Perlman, chose four basic
classes, and reasoned that "I have no
idea what I want to go into, so I wan-
ted to spread myself out."
Freshmen in specific schools have
an easier time at registration. On the
recommendation of engineering
counselors, LSA freshman Chris
Owens scheduled for courses in
engineering, physics, English 125
and math.
"These classes are basic
engineering classes," he said. "The
first year, you don't have much of a
choice."
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