University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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Michigan Life 55

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THE DEEP FREEZE ey there, Jack! Is that you? Whoops.. ...sorry. I couldn ' t tell with all those clothes you ' re wearing. Almost every- one on campus could sympathize with such confusion during the third week of 1994. With temperatures drop- ping to -20 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest day ever recorded in Detroit history, many people metamorphosized into Nanuks of the North. Even an occasional dog sled team could be seen around campus, replacing the multi- tudes of automobiles which refused to start. I didn ' t start my car at all because I didn ' t think it would start, said LSA senior Tomek Obertynski. But, the cold didn ' t stop him. It ' s kind of refreshing, like a reset button to the New Year. At least we all know why the Russians wear those hats now, he laughed. Dean Bachmann, also an LSA senior, shared a similar ethnic sentiment about the skin-biting temps: I felt like I was in Stalingrad since everyone was running around with babushkas on their heads. However, a little bone-chilling cold weather isn ' t enough to stop a determined person. Those who did brave it even stuck to their daily routines. I ride my bike everyday approximately three miles, said pharmaceutics graduate student Dave Miller. I think I calculated the average wind chill to be about -60 degrees Fahrenheit when I was riding. Now that ' s cold. Not everyone was as jovial as Miller about going out into the arctic tundra of southeast Michigan. After eight years of living on the west coast, I ' m convinced my blood has thinned and I naturally rejected the cold weather, said Matthew Aberbach, director of Camping Services of the Ann Arbor YMCA. The worst part was the stages of the cold weather when every single day got colder and colder. I kept saying, ' It doesn ' t get any colder than this, or does it? ' Aberbach, like most U-M students, had no choice but to walk everywhere, since he did not own a car. Although walking was great, walking in the bitter cold was not. The only time I went into the cold was to go skiing. That was a conscious choice. When you live here, whether you work or you ' re a student, you have no choice, he added. Unfortunately, this was also true of Ann Arbor ' s home- less and those below the poverty level. Aberbach said the YMCA received several calls regarding provisions for food and temporary emergency shelter. Because the YMCA was not a crisis center, the calls had to be for- warded to local area shelters. Andre Randall of Catholic Social Services testified to a definite increase of people seeking help, especially families often with five or more members. They ' re not your typical families. They ' re just having a hard time; usually, they ' re in a transitional period in their lives. Randall offered advice and helped advocate fo r people with problems. I feel we ' ve been pretty successful thus far, he said. Diane Cromwell of the Ann Arbor Shelter held to the open door policy, although families were a rarity because of a lack of facilities. We do see about 100 people a day. This is an increase of about thirty. We see many of the same people every day, she said. Maybe a stalled car or frozen pipes or walking a few minutes a day to class or to work wasn ' t worth complain- ing about in the great scheme of life. After all, students knew to expect a real Michigan winter every year when they decided to enroll as official U-M students; whether they looked forward to it or not was a matter of personal preference. By Etyse M. 54 Michigan Life

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WHEN THE CATS AWAY, THE MICE WILL PLAY ollege: it could be compared to a mousehole where the inhabitants indulged their taste for mindless fun involving excessive cheese consumption, frenzied late-night mouse parties, and most important of all, NO CATS. Could a mere absence of authority actually cause this untamed savagery? Think back to the mice at the University of Michigan. Especially first-year students, abruptly cut off from the restrictive chains of Mom and Dad, suddenly found themselves en- counteringfreedom from curfews, freedom from nagging, and freedom from the shack- les of having to be good. In some cases, these mischievous mice didn ' t know what to do with this new- found freedom. Some approached the cheese cautiously, sampling it sparingly. LSA freshman Kim Palgut followed such ground rules: You can still have fun, but you have to keep your priorities straight. However others, knowing full well that the feline was far away, dove head-first into the forbidden delicacy, indulging until they vomited. Eric Paholski, an- other LSA freshman, firmly a dvocated this empowerment of freedom: College is a good place for exploration. And if this exploration includes wild partying, so be it. Yet there was a mousetrap in all of this fun and frolic: GRADES. These were what officially constituted one ' s exist- ence at the University, not the number of returnables in one ' s dorm closet, as some so believed. A Resident Advisor at South Quad who made an effort to keep her mice at bay stated, I ' ve seen too many first-year students come in here and just go all-out crazy. But when they get their first test scores back, it ' s a smack in the face. Their grades are the reality check that tell them, ' Whoa, I better get serious. ' Despite these warning signs, some stu- dents still managed to get themselves a one-way ticket out of here. They abused their recently discovered privileges to excess. Whether they drank a case of beer seven nights a week, got high under the guise of incense every hour of the day, or neglected studies to participate in the previous two, it was obvious that they were students majoring in Partying 101. As a result, the R A in- formed, Most of them never make it to their sophomore year. So how did they survive this initial mania of liberty? The young mice grew up. You become more responsible, because there ' s no one here to tell you what to do, said LSA sophomore Daniel Zarazua. They also began to realize the reason why they were at the University in the first place. If you don ' t go to class and you miss something important, you ' re screwed. You make your bed, you sleep in it, first-year student Pam Barr stated. So while in college, even though the par- ents may have been in another city or state, the students eventually learned that they must play in moderation. Because that is what university life was all about: managing time, studying hard, and taking a nibble out of the big cheese every now and then. By liken fytombh 56 Michigan Life All dressed up for his Halloween party, B. Eric Ogden dares tof be different and sport woman ' s clothing. Many U-M studenM found themselves doing very unusual things while experiencing the freedom of being away from homeB -- Jimmy Bosse :