Texas Tech University - La Ventana Yearbook (Lubbock, TX)

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People dying for a drink Drunken drivers have forced people to be both MADDandSADD. Laura Lamb never will be able to jsc her hands or legs. When she was 5 nonths old, she became paralyzed Dermanently from the shoulders down - a quadraplegic for life. Her mother emembers when Laura could laugh ind play like other babies. ' But one Sunday afternoon, she and :-aura were driving to the grocery itore and their pickup truck was itruck head-on by a car driven by a nan whose traffic record had 56 ieparate entries, including three ar- ests on charges of drunken driving. Tragedies like this were the reason or the formation of Mothers Against unk Drivers (MADD). The South ' lains chapter, which meets on a mon- hly basis, is located in Lubbock and is me of 150 such chapters in 38 states. MADD ' s cause got a boost last year i hen an offshoot of the group was ormed — Students Against Drunk )rivers (SADD). Comprised primarily f high school-age persons, MADD ame into being in Lubbock because tudents became upset over the death f a classmate. However, college men and women Iso arc a part of both groups, MADD lapter President Jimmi Steed said. College students do show in- irest, Steed said. Most just don ' t iem to have the time to get volved. Steed said students are the ones ho need to be involved, though, ferring to figures released by the na- mal association of MADD that in- catc 55.5 percent of all arrests on a arge of driving while intoxicated WI) involve persons between the ages of 17 and 30. Twenty-seven percent of those are between 21and 25, she said. Department of Public Safety (DPS) Chief Col. Jim Adams told The Dallas Morning News an increase in the legal drinking age would reduce alcohol-related deaths. Because of raising the drinking age to 19 in Texas, we ' ve seen a drop in the deaths of 17 and 18 year olds — because of the fact it makes it a little more difficult to get drinks, he said. I think if we raise it to 21, you will see that improvement move on up to the 19 and 20 age groups as well. Adams said he knows passing this type of legislation will be difficult, but he thinks it will pass along with other anti-drunken driving laws. He also con- ceded passing the legislation would not solve the problem completely, citing statistics indicating only 17 per- cent of 43,000 persons arrested on drunken driving charges in 1981 suf- fered meaningful punishment in jail time or loss of their drivers licenses. Yes, we have strong laws, he said. The application of the laws is where we have the problem. Seventy-seven percent of all Texans favor stiffer laws against drunken driv- ing. Steed said, but added there are few serious penalties imposed on drunken drivers. She attributed this to the fact Texas has no law requiring chemical tests on all drivers involved in fatal accidents. Therefore, many injured or deceas- ed drivers who may have been driving while intoxicated were not reported as such, so the problem seems not as ma- jor, she said. On a national scale, the problem is more visible since MADD statistics in- dicate 250,000 people have died in alcohol-related crashes during the past decade. Also, one person dies every 21 minutes and 1,000,000 alcohol- related collisions occur each year, the statistics indicate. The National Highway Traffic Safe- ty Administration (NHTSA) and the National Safety Council claim drunken driving is the most frequently commit- ted violent crime in the nation. The founder of the national MADD organization. Candy Lightner, has said drunken driving is the No. 1 killer of men, women and children in their teens and ' 20s. We are talking about a crime that kills more than homicides, injures more than assaults with deadly weapons, does more property damage than the forgers, burglars and robbers all added together. she said. — Den- nis Ball Some of the nicest people drink and drive. One of them just killed my child Artwork courtesy of Mothers Against Drunk Dnvers MADD — 29

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A shameA Groups like MADD and SADD fight against drunken driving ac- cidents, which often leave automobiles in this kind of shape. No way out Alcohol-related crashes kill approximately 500 people each week, or nearly 70 per day. Photographs by Dartel Thomas 28 — MADD Body Weight Drinks 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 1 .03 .03 .02 .02 .01 .01 .01 2 .06 .05 .08 1 04 .06 1 .09 .11 .13 .15 .17 .04 .03 .03 .03 c ,06 .05 1 .04 .04 cP 3 4 5 6 7 S .10 .13 .16 .19 .22 .26 .10 .13 .16 .18 .21 .07 .06 .06 .05 1 .09 .08 07 .06 .0 .11 10 1 .09 .08 o .13 .11 .10 1.09 J .15 .13 .11 .10 9 .29 .24 .19 .17 .14 .13 .12 J .18 .16 .14 .13 .20 .18 .16 .14 10 11 .33 .36 .26 .29 .22 .24 12 .39 .31 .26 .22 .19 .17 .16 How many it takesA This chart supplied by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers shows how many drinks it takes for a person to be sober, impaired or illegal. • IK

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New computer game at Tech cost students $4 per hour to play. From the time seniors were freshmen and graduates were undergraduates, Tech students have dreaded fall and spring registration. The reason for their gloom was the thought of having to stand in long lines for a class, only to find out, hours later sometimes, that the particular section necessary to complete their schedules was closed. Candv Mathers High Tech ' registration Well, those days arc gone since computerized preregistration has come to the Tech campus, thanks to a $500,000 computer system brought up in a record 64 and one-half hours to accommodate the registration process. While registration was not the only reason a new computer was purchas- ed by the university, it provided the major impetus, the previous allocation of computer space having been used up quickly. We (Texas Tech) have had a 400 percent increase in student computer use over the last two years, Registrar Don Wickard said. We had to do something fast. And Tech did. After officials made the decision to buy the computer, the vendor delivered it to the campus and installed it completely in 62 days, a process normally taking six months, according to Dr. Lee Alley, assistant vice president for computer services. So much for the installation process. How did it help registration? The new system made registering for classes less of a hassle for everyone involved, Wickard said. It spread registration out over a period of time, thus avoiding the problems of students having to rework their schedules on the spot. Wickard said there was less pressure on students who found classes closed. He said students simply went back to their advisers to pick up another section to take, or the com- puter placed them in an alternate class already chosen by the student. Wickard said he knew of no one forced to take a class he or she didn ' t want. The students were able to register themselves, he said. They told the computer what they wanted, not vice versa. In interviews, several students agreed with Wickard about the superiority of the new system. It ' s terrific! senior Mark Baker said. I got through the whole process in about five minutes. Everything went smoothly when I registered, junior Andrea George said. The new system was not without fault, however. Neither was registration. | Twenty-seven percent of the students who were to register earlier came in Friday (the last day), Wickard said. I guess we ' ll always have the problem of students waiting until the last minute. Another problem Wickard expected was related to mailing fee statements to permanent addresses at mid-summer. Anytime you mail something to students, you get into trouble, he said. That ' s because the students have moved and failed to notify the Office of Admissions and Records most of the time. So students better be sure to give us the right addresses or their classes will be cancelled because of failure to pay on time, he added. One compalint students had about the system was not knowing their sum- mer school schedules in advance of preregistration. They worried about pre-requisites, among other things. A spokesperson in the Office of Ad- missions and Records said there just wasn ' t enough time to set up the system to register summer school students before pre-registering for fall. However, she said, students will register for summer and fall classes at the same time beginning in 1984. Whether computerized pre- registration solved all of the problems formerly associated with coliseum registration remains to be seen. However, based on the reaction so far, it apparently was a positive first step. — Dennis Ball Sign hereA Even with computer registration, students still had some paper work to do Just inside West Hall 100, a student signs her name signifying she has registered. 30 — Computerized Registration