NATION/WORLD
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 10, 2000 - 5A
Learning disabled attend
college in greater numbers
WASHINGTON (AP) - Students with
rning disabilities are attending college in
recedented numbers, a trend that both dis-
pels the notion that they could not advance
beyond high school special education classes
and calls into question the number of children
being labeled with a handicap.
"I don't think anybody expected me to go
to college. They probably thought I would be
flipping burgers," said Jed Israel Pittleman, a
New York University junior who has attention
deficit disorder.
Among the 1.6 million first-time, full-time
shmen enrolled at 3,100 institutions of
gher education in the United States in 1998
the most recent figures available - some
154,520, or 9.4 percent, had some kind of dis-
ability, says a new study by the American
Council on Education. In 1978, by contrast,
less than 3 percent of freshmen reported hav-
ing a disability.
Of those reporting a disability two years
ago, 41 percent identified their impediment as
a learning disability. Ten years earlier, the
blind or partially sighted represented the
largest category and the percentage of learn-
ing disabled was just 15 percent.
Colleges are "recognizing that these students
have unrealized potential, and many students
who years ago would never have contemplated
college are," said Beth Robinson of the Col-
lege Board, which administers the SAT.
Last year, 24,016 students with all sorts of
disabilities asked for special accommodations
when they took that test - such as extra time
to complete it - compared with 14,994 five
years earlier.
Although it may seem counterintuitive for
people with learning disabilities such as
attention deficit disorder or dyslexia to be
expected - or to even want - to attend col-
lege, experts say the growth is not surprising.
In the 1970s, Congress passed laws pro-
hibiting discrimination against the disabled
and mandating extra educational help for
those who need it.
Natalie Phelps, a senior psychology major
at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, had a
stroke at age 6, but with speech therapy and
books on tape, she expects to attend graduate
school.
"I'm not shy at all about saying what I
need, whether it's note-takers, or readers for
exams, or untimed tests," she said.
Advocates for the learning disabled say
such accommodations should be accepted just
like wheelchair ramps, braille and sign lan-
guage translators.
But critics argue the "learning disabled"
label may be overused and some students
could be getting unfair advantages.
"Certainly there are very severe cases with-
in dhe LD category, but when we look at the
broad range, there are concerns that special
ed and LD has become a catchall for anybody
who has a learning problem," said Thomas
Parrish, director of the Center for Special
Education Finance at the American Institutes
for Research in Palo Alto, Calif.
rtolumnist
says he
used germ
w arfare
SEATTLE (AP) - Dan Savage, gay
writer of an outrageous and comically
explicit sex-advice column, is waging
either germ warfare or a disinforma-
tion campaign against the religious
right.
He claimed recently that while pos-
ing as a volunteer for Gary Bauer's
campaign in Iowa, he licked office
doorknobs and coffee cups and handed
the conservative Republican a slob-
bered-on pen to try to infect him with
the flu.
midterms with her tutor, Steve Gilpatrick. Phelps, a
psychology major, was disabled by a stroke at age six.
-~
Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ and S&P 500
Composite for Week Feb.3 - Feb. 9
DJIA NASDAQ S&P 500
Close Change Close Change Close Change
2/4 11,013.44 +10.24 4,210.98 +137.02 1,424.97 +15.85
2/3 10,963.80 -49.64 4,244.14 +33.16 1,424.37 -0.60
2/7 10,905.79 -58.01 4,321.77 +77.63 1,424.24 -0.13
/8 10,957.60 +51.81 4,427.50 +105.73 1,44-1.75 +17.51
2/9 10,699.16 -258.44 4,362.80 -64.70 1,411.89 -29.86
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEK: It seems as though interest rate wornes are continuing to affect the
major market indicators. Investors are wary of the Federal Reserve raising rates again in March, potentially
cutting into corporate profits. Credit sensitive stocks, such as the blue chips in the Dow, will be affected
more than the less credit sensitive NASDAQ market. The Dow's loss yesterday was the biggest setback
since its 289 point drop Jan. 28. Cisco Corporation, the world's biggest maker of equipment that directs
traffic on the Internet, reported its second quarter earnings yesterday and beat analyst's estimates. It ended
up 3 1/16 for the session but the NASDAQ still struggled. On Tuesday, however, the NASDAQ Composite
t another record when it closed above 4,400 for the first time.
WHAT IS THE DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE? The DJIA represents 30 stocks traded on the
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ stock market. These companies are all major fac-
tors in their respective industries. These stocks are widely held by individuals and institutional investors.
Many financial advisers think of it as a good indicator of the performance of the overall market.
WHAT IS THE NASDAQ COMPOSITE? The NASDAQ is the fastest growing stock market in the
U.S. due to it being a screen-based stock market, compared to a trading floor market like the NYSE. It
also has almost all of the technological stocks available for trading, which has proved to be a very
volatile industry in the last couple of years.
HAT IS THE S&P 500? The S&P 500 is a market value weighted index composed of 400 indus-
trial stocks, 20 transportation, 40 financial, and 40 utility. It is a far broader measure than the DJIA
because it takes into account 500 different stocks traded on the two main exchanges (NYSE and
NASDAQ-AMEX) compared to the DJIA's 30 all traded on the NYSE and NASDAQ.
-Ciomnpiled by Dail StaffReporter Kevin Magnusonr /,vtiren reports.
Hackers continue
attack s against,
NEW YORK (AP) - Hackers
stepped up a three-day electronic
assault yesterday against some of the
most popular sites on the Web,
inconveniencing millions of Internet
users and unnerving Wall Street.
The apparently coordinated
attacks spread to ETrade, ZDNet and
other major sites yesterday. All of
them were crippled by a barrage of
messages generated by hackers.
The growing anxiety about the
Internet's vulnerability contributed
to a 258.44 point-slide in the Dow
Jones average and halted three
straight record-high closings for the
Nasdaq Composite Index, which is
heavy with high-tech stocks. The
attacks also prompted top federal
officials to reassure Americans that
authorities are doing everything they
can to fight the online vandalism.
"We are committed to in every
way possible to tracking those who
are responsible," Attorney General
Janet Reno said in Washington. She
said the motives of the vandals are
not known, "but they appear to be
intended to interfere with and disrupt
Websites
legitimate electronic commerce."
The hacker technique, called a
"denial of service attack," involves
directing a flood of messages to
computers that run Websites. The
effect is comparable to erecting
human barricades to block shoppers
from entering a mall or unleashing a
wave of calls to tie up a city's phone
lines.
In the latest attacks, the ETrade
online brokerage's Website was hit,
but "customer accounts were never
compromised," spokesman Patrick
Di Chiro said. Less than one-fifth of
its customers were affected by the
clogged traffic for about 90 minutes
before the company blunted the
attack, he said.
ZDNet.Com, a popular news site
that covers technology, said its
Website was shut down for two hours
and "appeared to have been the tar-
get of a denial-of-service attack"'
Microsoft's MSN.com, another
highly visited site, said it was indi-
rectly affected because of disrup-
tions to several Internet service
providers carrying its traffic.
Bauer's people were furious, but
Savage now says the part about the
germs never happened and was just a
joke - a metaphoric reply to Bauer's
rhetoric against homosexuals and gay
marriage.
Either way, the episode was charac-
teristic of a man who regularly pushes
boundaries in his Seattle-based col-
umn "Savage Love," which appears in
28 alternative newspaper sound the
country, including the Village Voice in
New. York, and is read by an estimated
4 million people a week.
"In the context of my column, peo-
ple understand sometimes I'm pulling
your leg, sometimes I'm not," Savage
says. "In this case, people lacked that
context."
Savage, who with his partner recent-
ly adopted a little boy, is the very
incarnation of all that the Christian
conservative movement despises.
There is no sex act too perverse, no
sex subject too outlandish for him to
delve blithely into - often in blush-
inducing detail.
In one recent column, Savage dis-
cussed the pros and cons of genital cos-
metic surgery for a transsexual. In
another, he strongly lectured a 15-year-
old bisexual boy about the dangers of
doing heroin and failing to tell a sex
partner about.it. He has been known to
refer to heterosexuals as "breedets."
Savage can also talk about family
values -- like the domestic bliss he
has found raising a child. Much of
what he says about parenting could
just as well come from the mouths of
straight parents, such as lack of sleep
and the struggle to retain a sense of
romance with his partner.
"if the religious right really wanted
to stop gay sex," he quipped in a
recent interview, "they should get
behind gay people adopting, because
nothing puts a stop to gay sex faster."
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