tl20031002-000 "son 1 7 p. iff. p.m. ?r: to le rson the trong; ie just end ithony con-on all 4' his )ri the Are as score. offen- . The would early it the e the istead Celvin on ave a rpose n the fea-nning ggled 'ronts d. wson ;wing more tack-ut in way, [I be he's elzi's )ri ill-vind. with U5e ses. will gs to the back ;iven eally and ?. up. oing new was ome with i's a 'hen me , Baltimore's #1 College Paper - Published Twice-Weekly - www.thetowerlight.com TOMIDP hb Thursday, 10/2/03 'Prowl' to chase funds for charity 5 Bahama Breeze mixes island feel 9 Fans eat up local band's sound 13 Black is back in 'School of Rock' 14 Departments Opinion 2 News 5 Police blotter 8 Cuisine 9 Arts 13 He Says She Says 15 Sports 20 In this corner 20 Punt, Pass & Pick 18 Classifieds 17 Alcohol tactics hard to gauge Sarah Breitenbach Cailin McGough The Towerlight On walls around campus, stu-dents are met with facts. ""Belief: The average TU student uses alco-hol at least once a week or more. Truth: 51 percent of TU students reported drinking at least once a week in the past year."" This message is part of a poster campaign intended to set students straight on the facts about drug and alcohol use among their peers. But as the campus prepares to join colleges nationwide in promot-ing awareness, the difficulty of making a serious impact among a constantly changing student popu-lation is also clear. The Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Prevention Center, which sponsors the poster campaign, has received over $800,000 in federal grants since its start in 1997, direc-tor Neil Gallagher explained. Before 1997, funding for alcohol awareness education came from the Department of Transportation and focused on drunk driving, Gallagher said. Because grants now come from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the push is on health. ""We're really more interested in people not injuring their health and making sure their academic prob-lems aren't alcohol related."" The Center keeps up with stu-dent attitudes by conducting a sur-vey every two years to look for trends and perceptions related to alcohol or drug use. In order to publicize this infor-mation, the Center offers programs, hands out freebies, runs the ""Pizza Sr Duct Tape"" comic in The Towerlight, and pushes social norms through its poster campaign. ""The whole idea of social norm-ing is to make people aware of the actual facts rather than the percep-tion of the facts,"" Gallagher said. ""And the key there is if you perceive something is going on and you're not doing it you may feel you should be doing it."" A Harvard School of Public Health study released this summer found that although 48 percent of the country's four-year colleges use the social norms method, there was See CAMPAIGN, page 6 Photo Illustration by Saul Stooganke The Towerlight Last year 290 alcohol violations were reported, up by almost 10 percent from the 2001-2002 academic year. Hurd stirs up recognition for 'Mud' Tess Boys The Towerlight Towson University will celebrate author Barbara Hurd's work ""Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination"" during the fifth annual Book of the Year Celebration, which includes two presentations on campus today. ""Stirring the Mud"" is based on Hurd's research as well as on her personal exploration of Finzel Swamp in western Maryland. ""The book is an exploration of the literal swamp and bog and of the metaphors those ambiguous landscapes evoke,"" Hurd said. ""There's a lot of physical detail about those squishy places, but I was driven most by my interest in that realm of the in-between as the habitat of creativity and imagina-tion."" Hurd's essays have appeared in journals such as ""The Yale Review,"" and in 2002, the author received the Towson Prize for Literature. This recognition brought ""Stirring the Mud"" to the attention of the selection committee, explained assistant vice president of student involvement and transitions Teri Hall. ""In Hurd's case, she had won a prize through the English depart-ment for her writing,"" Hall said. ""[With our selection], we wanted to recognize the work of the English department"" as well as Hurd's out-standing achievements in the liter-ary field. Every year, the award recognizes a Maryland author with a published work. Selection of the honored book entails a long process, Hall said. ""A group of faculty, students and staff meet in the fall and discuss nominations, including those from the general campus community,"" Hall said. ""We pick five or six books [to read and review] and make deci-sions as a group."" See BOOK, page 13 Today High 63 Low 38 Friday High 62 Low 48 Saturday High 67 Low 56 Sunday High 64 Low 46 Monday High 55 Low 39 "
