Miami Hurricane, September 18, 1973

              news
Lowe faculty exhibit opens Thursday . . , see page (
Voi. 49 No. 2
September 18, 1973
284-4401
Hotline Liaison For Need, Aid
By DAVID TEPPS
01 Tl\« Hurrkan* Staff
Susan had passed out. She had taken seven barbiturates. Her roommate Linda had tried unsuccessfully to wake her.
Linda was scared.
She called 634-1511 — Switchboard of Miami — a 24-hour hotline and referral service.
Switchboard asked Linda the quantity and type of pills her friend had taken. They asked her to take Susan’s pulse, advising her that a rate of 60-90 beats per minute was in the safe zone.
When Linda found the pulse was near 55, Switchboard sent a rescue van to take the overdose victim to the hospital.
Linda's story is fictional. All of Switchboard’s cases are confidential.
Switchboard is an agency that tries to link people who have problems, with groups or individuals that are able to serve those people.
Their reference card file, numbering 2,000, contains listings ranging from abortion to yoga In between those is help concerning birth control, child care, consumer protection, drugs, mental health, cheap food, housing and more.
They also have emergency service for persons in distress. Program administrator Bonnie Griffin said many calls come from people contemplating suicide.
Grimm admits that he didn’t expect the overflow of students.
today's
ane
• Parking Rules
Security will enforce all parking regulations beginning Thursday. All vehicles must have parking
decals and must he parked in prop, er parking areas, ('.art parked in fire lanes and ears interfering with the flow of traffic will be towed. Other violators will receive fines ranging front $3 to $10.

&
138 Students Without Homes
By MARK TARGE
Of Th* Humean* Staff
Seven people have been using one bathroom in the campus apartments. Other people are sleeping on dormitory floors. Still others are sleeping in backs of cars. Some are even renting house trailers.
138 students in all are presently living and going to school at the University of Miami without housing this semester.
When asked why, James Grimm, Housing Director, said “the nation's economy had played apart in it.
"Money is tighter, expenses are higher. People discovered that off-campus living was more expensive, that it was more ecnomical to live on campus. And that’s why the flood.”
Lethal Yellowing Threatens Palms
By ELVIA H. THOMPSON
Hurrican* RaMrttr
There are 18 coconut palm trees at the University of Miami that are sick said Mark Bisnow, landscape supervisor.
They’re victims of lethal yellowing, an Incurable disease killing coconut palms at UM and throughout South ftarida.
The visible symptoms of the disease are the premature dropping of coconuts and the yellowing of leaves. The fronds eventually die leaving a barren trunk.
The Department of Agriculture removetj 25 trees
from the campus as of April.
Now, Bisnow said, the University is removing “the totally dead palms” at their own-expense.
There may be some hope for the palms however.
A series of tetramyacin injections will be implemented by the Department of Agriculture, possibly beginning next week.
The drug will not cure the disease, an Agriculture Department spokesman said, but it will retard it for up to three months.
The disease was first identified in Jamaica in 1891 and spread thruuqjj, the Caribbe-
an, reaching Key West in 1951.
Miami and Coral Gables were first affected in 1971, when 200 trees were killed within the first three months of its recognition.
It recently began spreading into Broward County.
Scientists do not know exactly what causes the disease
but they believe it's virus or a mycoplasma-like orginism, probably transmitted by a flying insect.
"Research is being conducted actively by the University of Florida in Gainesville and Fort Lauderdale to determine t|ie cause
go to the Housing Office, and
I'm still on the waiting list.”
One lady behind the counter told him, “Before they even touch the list, they’re going to house all medical and hold-over students.”
Junior Tom Minor came down the Sunday after registration. He too was placed on a waiting list and told, it would be indefinite “when he would get in."
Minor said he has had trouble looking for an apartment. "They’re all taken,” he said. “If I had gotten a room I wouldn’t have planned bringing down my car. Now I guess I'll have to. Just what I needed, another expense.”
Grimm said most people have been in the overflow situation for only seven-to-ten days but that he expected to solve the problem by Sept. 24.
Air Problems
general mood of the Door is relaxed.
In addition to it's referral
and information services, the Open Door also handles a Trucking Service.
“If someone needs a ride, or if they want another student to ride with them, they should just call the Door,”	Undergraduate
Asistant Oren Wunderman said. “There is no charge for this, or any of the Door service.”
When the Open Door is at full staff, they hope to have 70 to 80 volunteers. There are several psychologists that are involved, but they “stay in the background. They train, supervise and give assistance in emergencies. It is the students who do the work and answer the
of the disease and how it spreads from tree to tree,” an Agricultural Department spokesman said.
The Department of Agriculture is now removing trees only in the area north of 183rd Street in North Miami Beach and south of Kendall Drive.
In the area between, residents are responsible for
removing their own trees.
The city of Coral Gables is removing trees on municipal property
If no cure is found by 1977, officials say 95 per
cent of South Florida’s coconut palms will die.
phones," Lott said. “This is pot a professional counseling service. We complement the services of the guidance center.
"Because we are not professional, we do not do on-going treatment. If it is needed, we refer the student to the appropriate place. If a crisis occurs that is too severe for the volunteers, the psychologists will give assistance. We are not primarily a crisis Center, however.”
Rosen said: “Last year we handled a little under 5,000 calls. Each year, the number of calls we receive practically doubles.
"It takes time for a thing like this to gain the trust of the students. I think as time goes on, students feel more comfortable with the Open Door.”
The Door is looking for volunteers.
"The only qualification required is that you have to really want to help people,” Rosen said. ‘‘Students can come and see if this type of thing has a place in their lives.
"Each volunteer goes through a training period before they begin work. After the initial interview and selection, there are two-hour orientation sessions. Then the trainee is put on a six-week probation period.
For the first two weeks, each volunteer will be put on shift in order to get acquainted with the referral files, and observe how the Open Door runs.
For the remaining four weeks, the trainee will be handling calls but under the supervision of a team leader. Throughout the entire period, they will get constant training from psychologists and experienced volunteers.
“After the training period, they will be evaluated and most likely assigned. Each volunteer works one 4-hour shift weekly. In addition to that, there is a two-hour training session for new and old volunteers each week. This is conducted because there is always new information being brought in. Last, there is a one-hour seminar with the psychologists weekly. In effect, the volunteer puts in a seven-hour week," Lott said.
"If any students are interested, all they have to do is call the Open Door or the Counseling Center. We know there are other crisis centers in the city. But we think we provide the best service for University of Miami students."
“In fact, I had concern last June about filling up. I told the vice president we might make it,” he said.
The people who made the difference are the ones who lived off campus last year, and came on campus this year.
Next fall? “We expect about the same problem,” he said.
If we can anticipate it, I can see about getting more off-campus housing.
This year we didn’t anticipate it. In fact, we weren't even aware of the situation until people started showing up on campus saying, “Here I am, where’s my room?”
One student (who preferred not to be named) said that he had made reservations last April, and called again in the beginning of August.
When he arrived at the University of Miami Sept. 4, the Housing Office said that they would “try to do something" about getting him a room and put him on a waiting list.
"I’ve been sleeping on floors, going from friend to friend,” he said. "Everyday I
Campus Apartments
Are Over-Crowded
... towers are filled up
He stressed that it was up to the students to find housing. He said, "It was the students’ responsibility.”
Anyone who made reservations on time got housing and those who came in last minute, didn’t,” he said.
Asked if the $25 fines (per night) would be imposed, in accordance with the illegal guest policy, on dorm residents who housed friends without rooms, Grimm mu yes, after a warning.
But one Resident Assistant (who preferred not to give her name or dormitory) said that her Area Coordinator had instructed all RA’s "... as long as the people illegally living on the floor don't cause any disturbance and the roommate doesn't complain, don’t hassle them. ’Cause they really haven’t got anywhere to stay.”
Yisual Aids Improve Frosh English Attitude
By NANCY LUCAS
Of The Hurricane Staff
Described by Dr. Ronald Newman as “a persuasive gambit to like and enjoy the written word” this year’s freshman English program will be a change from all previous freshman English programs at the University of Miami.
After many years of what Dr. Newman described as "an orthodox approach to teaching English,” an experiment began in the fall of 1970 introducing a laboratory class situation. Students were required to write three 500-word themes during the semester.
“For a number of reasons, the lab did not come out well for many students, professors and deans . . Dr. Newman said.
Appointed last spring as freshman English director. Dr. Newman said he spent the summer corresponding with other colleges in an effort to learn about their freshman programs.
“There is not a single freshman English class anywhere across the country that has met 100 per cent success with any one type of program,” Dr. Newman said, “but we are constantly seeking a program that freshman can both benefit and enjoy.”
Dr. Newman said one of the major changes in this year’s program is a change from the reading of expository prose to imaginative literature. Fine literature, he says, is more interesting than essays, more accessible, and more relevant.
"Literature is about life and any professor who is getting his students into sky-high realms and magnitudes
i
is doing a disservice to his students," Dr. Newman said.
“Professional standards and sophisticated techniques of expository prose overwhelm the majority of freshmen. Take sentence fragments, for example. Most students just don’t know how to handle them.”
Course readings will include poetry, the short story and the short novel. To mini-essays of 150-200 words each, will be required weekly.
A full-time tutorial staff will be available. The Residence Academic Program (RAP) will assist the tutorial
staff.
Full professors will be teaching the classes, whereas in the past, most instructors were graduate assistants. They’re still being used, but under supervision.
In the spring, Dr. Newman and the English Department Chairman Robert Hosmon will be teaching freshman classes.
Audio-visual aids will play an important role in the instruction, Dr. Newman said. Instructional tapes on the proper use of apostrophes, colons and semi-colons, as well as tapes on such subjects as plagiarism.	footnotes,
bibliographies and displaced modifiers will be available in both the library and in the freshman dorms (Pearson-Mahoneyand 1968).
“This is not to get away from the written word.” Dr. Newman said, “but in recent years visual acuity has been conditioned more than written instructional material.”
In the spring, English 106,
a continuance of 105, will offer special sections in writing for science, writing for business, and creative writing. These sections will allow the technical student to incorporate the fundamentals of composition with his own interests.
Director
Appointed
Dr. Robert S. Stempfel Jr. has been named director of Mailman Center for Child Development at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
Dr. Stempfel will hold the titles of professor of pediatrics and vice chariman of that department.
Dr. Stempfel comes to Miami from the University of California School of Medicine where he was professor and chairman of the department of pediatrics and director of the department of pediatrics at the Sacramento Medical Center.
Afro-Studies program. page 2
At the U .............page	2
Environment...........page	3
Peterman on Parking, .page 6 Restaurants and TV... page 7
Seiden on Ruel.......page 8
Berger on the ‘Canes.. page 9
i
“We naturally talk as long as we can to these people,” Ms. Griffin said. “We could refer them to a psychiatrist if they want one, or help them just by listening.”
Switchboard volunteers are also accustomed to questions about drugs, and are ready to handle them. Switchboard is the official drug hotline of Dade County, licensed by the state. They are associated with the Metropolitan comprehensive Drug Program.
Switchboard began five years ago as a housing referral service for Miami-Dade Community College students. Since then it has grown to a community referral service for all areas.
Though a six-line telephone handles incoming calls,
see page two
Op Gti Door Outlet To
By VALERIE STRAUSS
HurrlctM Rauorttr
The Open Door is a student referral, information and rap center.
In its fifth year, its main purpose Is to help UM students.
Psychologist Dan Lott said Open Door is "manned exclusively by University of Miami students. We would not. however, turn down anyone not attending the Un-versity.”
The Open Door is located in apartment 49-K. It’s open from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.
As a referral service, Lott said, files are kept and updated.
Open doors deal with such
"‘Our-policy concerning drugs is a neutral one. We neither condemn nor condone, we just talk. We never ask for identifying information.”
—Dan I-ott, Open Door Psychologist
problems as unwanted pregnancies, legal hassles resulting from an auto accident or cancellation of insurance. and tenant-landlord disagreements.
“There are still questions about where to register for the draft. If we don’t have the information, we tell them who does.”
"We give out drug information too. If someone has a drug they want identified, we check in our files and find
out what It is. We have information about the effects of some drugs.
“Our policy concerning drugs is a neutral one. We neither condemn nor condone, we just talk. We never ask for any identifying information,” Lott said.
However, Rosen said, the Open Door is open to more than just problems.
“You can call if you just want to rap,” he said. "The
Coconut palm trees are »lowly dying of Lethal Yellowing, which is afflicting many of South Florida's palms. The disease is characterised by the dropping of yellowed fronds, the premature dropping of coconuts, and finally a barren trunk.