The Lumberjack, November 17, 1988.

              Volume 83, Issue 12 Northern Arizona University • Flagstaff, Arizona Thursday, November 17,1988
I
Students protest
tuition increase
By Robert Crook
The Lumberjack
TEMPE — More than 400 students,
nearly 40 of them from NAU, filled
an auditorium at Arizona State Uni­versity
last Thursday during a hearing
on tuition increases for the 1989-90
academic year.
Members of the NAU delegation,
which included Associated Students
of NAU President Larry L’Heureux,
asked the six Arizona Board of Re­gents
members present at the hearing
not to raise tuition or to reduce the
tuition increases they have proposed.
The regents have proposed raising
tuition for in-state students at the three
state universities by $156. Non-resi­dent
tuition at NAU would be raised
$546 and non-resident tuition at ASU
and the University.of Arizona would
be raised $508.
N AU and ASU students would also
have to pay a $50 fee for the construc­tion
of recreational facilities to open
next fall.
Members of Arizona Students
Association, a lobbying group com­prised
of the three universities’ stu­dent
government presidents and two
delegates from each university, spoke
to the regents first.
They took turns presenting portions
of a 36-page report on tuition they
released to the regents earlier this
month.”
The ASA members addressed such
issues as the availability of financial
aid, rising enrollment at the universi­ties,
the rising cost of living and rising
extraneous student costs such as text-bcch:,
• slziznts' Uiiti jr. dol­lars
are being spent.
They also emphasized thatstudents
from Tiiddle-income families are
among those tuition increases would
hit the hardest.
After ASA’s presentation, several
students addressed the regents. The
hearing, which began at 2:45 p.m.,
ran past its scheduled 5 p.m. closing.
NAU student Tio Shorty, who de­scribed
himself as a member of the
northeastern Arizona Navajo tribe,
told the regents that in 1987 the tribe
financially helped 470 NAU Navajo
students.
About 70 fewer Navajo students
will receive that aid next fall if the
proposed tuition increases are adopted,
he told the regents.
“I realize education can not be free,”
he said, “but with a tuition increase
we are taking a step backward.”
NAU student Margaret Thomas told
the regents that to fund her education
she has applied for work-study and
scholarships and owes $6,000 in stu­dent
loans.
“As a woman, as a minority, as a
human being, in this country, you
cannot make it without a higher edu­cation,”
she said.
Several Hispanic students, some of
them from NAU, brought protest signs
with them to the tuition hearing.
Some pointed out that minorities
have been given conflicting signals
because the universities were granted
$2.5 million for their recruitment and
retention, yet another tuition increase
will prevent many minority students
from attending college.
Students from ASU and UA said
class sizes arc increasing while sev­eral
class sections have been cancelled
this semester. They told the regents
they are paying more for less.
Several students said they have had
to work more hours to afford to attend
college, which has made their studies
suffer. Some said increasing college
costs have forced them to go without
meals.
A few students who spoke took jabs
at the regents’ financial well-being.
“I live a simple, modest life, be­lieve
me,” said a former ASU student
who said high college costs forced
him to drop out o f col lege. “No condo,
just a studio apartment that probably
is no bigger than your kitchen. No
BMW, just a bike.”
Another student invited the regents
over for dinner — with a menu, he
said, of peanut butter and jelly sand­wiches.
Many of the speakers’ remarkselic-ited
deafening applause.
None of the regents responded to
the speakers’ comments, but listened
quietly.
The regents will set 1989-90tuition
rates at their Dec. 2 meeting at NAU.
Photo courtesy of John Ziebell, University News and Publications!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...
Gary Hendrix (left) and Chuck Premro, both of the NAU electrical Department, siring a tree with Christmas lights I
on north campus. The lights will be turned on Thanksgiving night.
Suicide attempts spark prevention programs
By Debbie Boling
The Lumberjack
Suicide attempts by college students have
risen, and in an effort to increase student aware­ness
of the issues involved and warning signs
often apparent, a suicide prevention program
will be on campus next week.
At least 12 suicide attempts have occurred
this semester and is up over last spring, when
one student’s death was confirmed, said Jeff
Brzostek, a counselor at NAU.
“It(suicide) is the third leading cause of death
for people age 15- to 19- and has risen 300
percent in the past two decades for college
students in the 18- to 24-age group,” he said.
Seventy percent to 90 percent of the people
who attend suicide prevention programs know
of at least one person who has made an attempt
on their life or considered it, Brzostek said.
“Itisaserious issue and shouldr<ever be taken
lig h tly h e said. “It isn ’ tour place as counselors
or friends to judge someone for what has or will
happen.’"
“If someone says, ‘I don’t feel like living, or
I wish I were dead,’ don’t come back at them
with, ‘let’s go have a beer and you’ll get over
it,” Brzostek said.
He said sometimes an individual contem­plating
suic idc does not stop to associate it with
the permanence of death.
“It may sound very simple, but once you’re
dead, your’re dead. It’s not like a soap opera on
television where you can get a new script for
next season,” Brzostek said.
There are four types of clues that may indi­cate
when a roommate or friend is in trouble,
Brzostek said. They include:
•Verbal statements, such as “I wish I were
dead, or life isn’t worth living.”
•Situational signs, which may involve fam­ily
or relationship problems.
•Behavior changes, such as giving away
possessions or making a will.
•Disorientation,depression and changes that
makes one think a person is going through “a
phase.”
He said if someone says they don ’ t want to go
on living, they should be taken seriously.
“Any studentatany university can be at risk,”
Brzostek said. “And you can’t know whai
someone else is thinking”
Loneliness, isolation, hopelessness, avoiding
punishment, pressure from home and depres­sion
are some of the feelings thaL sometimes
lead a person to make an attempt to take their
own life, Brzostek said.
Amy Dohm, a resident assistant at Campus
Heights, said she believes it is important to
inform students of what to watch for. She de­cided
to sponsor a program that could provide
the information to them.
“It makes you wonder if you couldn’t have
been a better friend or companion and sensed
their need,” she said, referring to a personal ex­perience.
B rzostek described high -risk stud ents as those
who arc high achievers, have few friends, tend
to be isolated and people who havedifficulty ac­cepting
failure and disappointment.
He said a multitude of circumstances are in­volved
when a person begins to reach a point of
despair, but almost always there are warning
signals.
He said the Counseling Center has someone
on call 24 hours, and offers both individual and
group counseling.
If the situation calls for it and the individual is
not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a
counselor will come to the dorm to assist, he
said.
Occasionally, students havcencountcred prob­lems
with the ope ratorsor dispatchersafter hours,
but attempts are being made to improve commu­nications,
he said.
The suicide prevention program will be Nov.
22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Campus Heights commu­nity
room. All students are welcome to attend.
Brzostek said he intends to continue suicide
prevention programs in other residence halls on
a regular basis.
The telephone number at the Counseling Center
is 523-2261.
University
fails to meet
goals for '88
By Robert Allen
The Lumberjack
A report submitted iast week to the
Arizona Board of Rcge nts’ re sourc cs
committee by the university’s Af­firmative
Action officer shows NAU
failed to meet the majority of its 1987­88
goals to increase the percentage of
its minority faculty members.
According to the report, goals for
Affirmative Action were met in only
two o f the 32 targeted job groups,
while progress was made in another
seven job groups.
The report states that missed op­portunities
were blamed for unful­filled
goals in 30 of the job groups,
while goals were unattainable in an
additional seven job groups.
Among the 1987-88 goals aimed at
recruiting minorities to the univer­sity’s
workforce were:
• Hiring minorities to account for
9.5 percentof the fine-artsteachers on
non-tenured track. However, no mi­nority
appointments were made to the
posts by June 30, when the 1987-88
academic year ended.
• Increasing the percentage of
minorities in professional counseling
and non-faculty instructors from L0
percent to 20 percent. The university
made progress in this area, raising its
numbers to 15.5 percent during 1987­88.
• Increasing the percentage of
minorities in records-processing,
excluding finance areas, from 8.3
percent to28.9 percent. However, the
percentage figures in this category
Tell to 7.5 percent during the last
academic year.
NAU Affirmative Action officer
Normando DeHalle said he and his
staff are planning to start a campaign
aimed atrecruiting more minorities to
faculty and staff positions to the uni­versity
through a series of sttatcgies,
including:
• The development of an employ­ment-
services program to help get
jobs for wives or husbands of minori­ties
or women who work for the uni­versity.
• The development of an exchange
program among the three state uni­versities
to allow qualified minorities
and women to attend graduate pro­grams
under scholarships covering
tuition, books, room, board and sti­pends.
• To forgive loans for minority and
female graduates ofdoctoral programs
who remain atone of the state univc r-sities
or who find cm polymcnt in rural
communities where a need is present
forminority or female representation.
Minorities made up 14.8 percent,
or 348 employees, of the university’s
total workforce during the 1987-88
academic year.
The report shows women had bet­ter
luck in finding jobs at the univer­sity.
DeHalle said wo men accounted for
about half of the 88 positions that
were filled last year. Female employ­ees
currently make up 45 percent of
the NAU workforce.
According to the repoit, the per­centage
of women in the university
workforce reflects the percentage of
women in job markets in almost two-thirds
of the 59 job groups.
C o n t e n t s . , .
News briefs............ 2
Police blotter.......... 3
News c o lu m n .... 3
C o m m e n ta ry .......... 6
Feature..................... 9
Entertainm ent....... 11
Movie re vie w .......... 11
Sports....................... .13
Sports co lu m n....... 13
Th e Dispatch......... 16
Com ics, E tc............ .17
Classifieds.............. 19
Look inside:
Cross country teams
nets Division 7 title at
weekend meet.
See Page 13
Issues force changes in recruitment techniques
By Scott Tompkins
Special to The Lumberjack
Recent changes in the direcr on of
minority recruitment and an enroll­ment
cap have administrators in the
Office of New Student Programs
concerned.
Victor Wilson, director of new
student programs, is concerned with
changes that will have to be made in
the department and how it will handle
the burden of minority enrollment.
The Arizona Board of Regents has
created a five-year program, mandat­ing
a 40 percent increase in the m inor-ity
student population.
Wilson said he believes this goal is
too high and that new student pro­grams,
which handles recruitment for
the university, is being held respon­sible
for accomplishing this goal.
“I just think we should be more
realistic,” Wilson said. “Even if we
could meet that 40 percent goal, every
minority student in the state would
have to be going here”
Overall enrollment is expected to
increase by a maximum of 2 percent
next year, he said. The regents want
minority enrollment to increase by 10
percent for next year.
“However, some people are
going to be (angry) if we cap
enrollment, especially when
we have to start turning away
students.”
-V ic to r Wilson
“It’s like saying, ‘next year let’s
have a class that is 10 percent blonde
hair,’” Wilson said. "A lot of minority
students want to stay close to home.
Expecting them to uproot and move
to Flagstaff is ridiculous.”
He said he believes the burden of
reaching a 40 percent minority popu­lation
is falling on the NAU recruit­ment
program when some of the at­tention
should be focused on reten­tion
programs.
“The retention programs should get
more focus,” Wilson said. “Let’skeep
the minority student we have so that
we can at least try to reach that 40
percent goal.”
He described the current recruit­ment
system as a coffee cup with a
small hole in the bottom and for every
bit o f coffee put into the cup half of it
leaks ouL
“NAU is not committed to keeping
minority studenis,” Wilson said.‘T he
minority programs need to be beefed
up, especially in the lines of reten­tion.”
Changes in the recruitment process
of new student programs because of a
proposed enrollment cap is another
concern, he said.
Wilson said two weeks ago was the
final week for high school visitation
days on campus. With this recruit­ment
program, new student program s
gives each student an interest card
they can send back to NAU. A record
number of cards have been returned
already, about 25 percent more cards
than last year.
“We’re going to have to stop it
somewhere if NAU is to remain a
small school,” he said. “However,
some people are going to be (angry) if
we cap enrollment, especially when
we have to start turning away stu­dents.”
Unsure how an enrollment cap will
affect his office, Wilson said recruit­ment
procedures will have to change
somewhere.
It is possible that out-of-state re­cruitment
will have tobe eliminated,
he said. By eliminating out-of-state
recruitment, $15,000 in travel funds
could be freed up from the budget of
new student programs and used for
other areas, such as minority recruit­ment.
“ I’m not really big on travel, but
some people will miss it,” Wilson
said. “The administration may even­tually
just say no more traveling.
“We need the exposure now be­cause
m the future w e’re going to be
turning people away,” he said. “We
need to start talk i ng about these th i ngs
right now.”