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THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER _

Capital punishment
A U. of Texas, Austin, grad student
made a documentary interviewing death
row inmates' families.
- Page 2

Credit Crisis: Student card abuse
leads to future financial problems

Soviet Americanization
The Soviet Union is beginning to look
more like a 'new America' under the
Gorbachev regime.
- Page 8

Life in the 'safe' lane
College students aren't willing to take
chances and be themselves, argues
Notre Dame's Alison Cocks.
- Page 9
Journalistic malnutrition
Northern Illinois U.'s Joelle McGinnis
takes a critical look at USA Today: The
Television Show.
- Page 13
Playing the market
Students at Lehigh U. in Pa., and
- Kansas State U. are turning the stock
market into a game.
- Page 16
Food business
A professor asks students to bring in
cans of food for the needy, reports
Marquette U.'s Kim Doyle.
- Page 18

By Susan Ayala
The University Star
Southwest Texas State U.
On college campuses across the na-
tion, the old football yell "CHARGE!"
has acquired a new meaning.
Students seem to have adopted the
same spirit of rooting for the home team
when using their easily acquired credit
cards at restaurants, department stores
and shopping malls.
Opportunities to get a credit card on
college campuses - including South-
west Texas State U. (SWT) - abound.
Solicitations are made at registration
and at sign-up booths outside student
centers. Applications are available on

campus bulletin boards, newspaper
racks and bookstores, and pre-approved
credit applications often arrive in the
mail.
It's easy for a student without a nega-
tive credit history to get credit - often
easier than it is for other adults. But
along with the easy credit comes the
potential for abuse, a trap many stu-
dents are falling into.
Although most college students use
credit wisely, the 4 percent of student
cardholders who default on their debts
can sidetrack their college education,
ruin their credit rating and even limit
future career choices by spending more
than they can afford.


x

That's what happened to Jennif
(not her real name), a 22-year-c
advertising major at SWT. She got h
first credit card, an American ExpreE
during the summer of 1987. She appli
for and received a Visa and a Marsh
Field's card within a few months.
I wanted more purchasing freedo
and I felt like I could handle the respc
sibility," she said. "I wanted to sta
building a credit history - I didn't gel
to abuse it."
After a few months of buying m<
clothes, make-up and meals at ri
See CREDIT, Page
Being rejected
can be useful,
experts claim
By Caryn Bruce
The Daily Orange
Syracuse U., NY
A college student is much like
any consumer product on the
market, but the rejection of being
passed over by potential "buyers"
can have a lasting effect.
Students market themselves on
various selling points. They sell
ideas to professors through pap-
ers and exams, while future em-
ployers determine whether to in-
vest in the student through inter-
views and resumes.
Grades are great symbols of the
rejection process. Just as good
grades mean approval to many
students, bad grades are often
viewed as a form of rejection.
Joseph Cicala, director of
academic advising and counseling
at the College of Arts and Scien-
ces, explains that it is important
for students to look at grades in
perspective.
"My basic instincts say that
grades don't mean much. They
are just a measurement of how
well you performed by standards
set by instructors," Cicala said.
"They don't necessarily reflect
your knowledge of the subject.
"However, they can mean a lot
if collectively they are below a 2.0
(grade point average)."
When job hunting, students
with high employment expecta-
See REJECT, Page 31

Ticket troubles
Students at some major universities
are wondering why they have to hunt
for tickets to see their teams.
- Page 25
Wake up!
U. of North Carolina's Hart Miles tells
how students turn to caffeine pills when
the exam crunch hits.
- Page 25

Students living three to a room at Northern Arizona U. fight for mirror space. A
national jump in enrollment has students crammed into on-campus housing. SEE
STORY PAGE 9.

Drug offenders lose out on federal financial aid

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By Rafe Taylor
The Daily Texan
U. of Texas, Austin
Enforcing a recent, controversial
anti-drug bill that could affect all U. of
Texas, Austin (UT) students receiving
federally sponsored financial aid is
"totally impractical in the real world," a
financial aid official said.
The bill, recently passed by the U.S.
House of Representatives, is designed
to curtail drug use by cutting federally
sponsored aid to anyone convicted twice
of drug possession.
"It would be a nightmare to enforce
and try to administer," said Don Davis,
associate director of the UT Office of

Student Financial Aid.
About 12,000 to 13,000 receive feder-
ally financed student loans, which is 25
percent of UT students, Davis said.
Keisha McFerrin, a liberal arts soph-
omore who receives federal financial
aid, said the bill will not effectively de-
ter drug abuse among students.
Chris Hyatt, a business senior, said
the bill is an invasion of privacy - a
move toward "a Big Brother type of gov-
ernment."
Larry Sauer, president of the Amer-
ican Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU)
central Texas chapter, said he opposes
portions of the bill that deny public
housing and other federal benefits to

convicted drug users and sections that
mandate the death penalty for people
convicted of murder in drug-related
crimes.
"The ACLU has always taken a
stance against the death penalty,"
Sauer said. "What they are doing is en-
couraging more crime and violence. If
they (drug users) don't have aid in quit-
ting, they will make their own help."
The bill's strength has been credited
to election-year politics. The House's
375-30 vote is not the final word on the
anti-drug legislation. The U.S. Senate
must consider its own anti-drug bill be-
fore both houses seek a compromise of
the two versions.


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