IN
08
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3, 2008
Y, DECEMBER 3, 2008
NEWS
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ALCOHOL (CONTINUED FROM 6A)
hands that do not shake from alcohol withdrawal and being able to cope with the everyday ups and downs of life without reaching for a drink. O'Malley plans to finish nursing school in December 2011.
O'Malley said that, since giving up alcohol, she has received more positive, respectful responses from peers than she expected, though not everyone in her life was comfortable with the decision. Some people responded defensively, saying her decision to never drink again was severe and self-righteous.
"I definitely learned who my real friends were when I got sober," O'Malley said. "I realized that a lot of the people I was around, I didn't like that much. I just hung out with them because we drank together. When you actually try to hang out with people without alcohol, you find out who you have a true connection with and who you just have a superficial connection with because you drink together."
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--are alcoholics are still high functioning, meaning they continue to do well in school or at work despite their addiction, making it difficult to identify.
Alive.
After four agonizing days shut away inside the hotel room with her father last March, Katharine emerged sober.
In the months that followed, she battled fear, insecurity and countless temptations, yet she ultimately found strength and joy in a new life without alcohol.
"The longer I'm sober, the harder it gets," said Katharine, who celebrated nine months of sobriety Tuesday and attends alcoholism support meetings four to six times a week. "It's hard because I don't have an excuse for my actions anymore. I can't say, 'Oh, that was the alcohol talking.' But now I value my actions a lot more. I value friendships and people a lot more. Staying at KU couldn't have been a better decision for me."
She partied with the masses on Massachusetts Street when the men's basketball team won the national championship in April. Yet unlike many Jayhawk fans downtown that night, Katharine
drank only cranberry soda from a Sonic cup she held in her hand. She has found that, as long as she's holding a drink, everyone always assumes it's alcohol and she's not pressured to have a drink.
Katharine said one of her biggest fears about owning up to her struggles with alcohol and living life sober was how friends would react, especially her friends within the Greek community. Although some members of her sorority seemed bothered by her problem at first and didn't want to acknowledge it, Katharine said the community has grown supportive of her new lifestyle.
Katharine, now 21 and a KU senior, still goes to parties and bars with friends. Though she said most recovering alcoholics avoid such alcohol-infused settings. Katharine finds it better to be engaged in a social scene rather than being alone, when the possibility of drinking is actually greater for her.
"When I'm with my friends, they
signs of alcoholism
James C. Garbutt, professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said about half of what determines whether a person can become an alcoholic is based on his or her genetic makeup, while the other half is the environment the person is in. If a person comes from an environment or a culture that doesn't value alcohol, Garbutt said the person — even if he or she has a genetic makeup compatible with being an alcoholic — is much less likely to succumb to the disease.
Ostrander said signs of early stages of alcoholism in young people include blacking out, which means not remembering events despite being fully conscious, and sweating and having tremors when waking up after a night of drinking. In later stages of alcoholism, Ostrander said a person could have seizures as well as visual, tactile or auditory hallucinations.
Garbutt, a research scientist
at the University of North Carolina's Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, said the terms "alcoholism" and "alcohol abuse" referred to different problems. Not everyone who abuses alcohol — not everyone who binge drinks, for example — is an alcoholic. Alcoholism, Garbutt said, is when a person is dependent on alcohol, experiences a loss of control when drinking alcohol and exhibits compulsive use of the substance.
Rick Ostrander, drug and alcohol counselor and director of Lawrence's Alpha Recovery Center, said many students who
know I'm not drinking?" Katharine said. "I'm the type of person who needs to be held accountable."
The day-to-day grind of being a student makes it difficult for Katharine to stay vigilant against her addiction. She remains grounded, however, by the memory of those four days in the dark hotel room — the memory of watching her father crying at her bedside — and the knowledge that going through another round of detoxification would be harder than the
one before and, next time, could take her life.
"There really is nothing to describe it," Katharine said of detoxification. "It's complete hell."
NATIONAL
Edited by Kelsey Hayes
Gay rights column scandal ends in controversial firing
Newspaper column costs University of Toledo administrator her job
BY JOHN SEEWER ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOLEDO, Ohio — The firing of a college administrator over her criticism of gay rights has sparked a debate about free speech and whether universities have the right to regulate what employees say outside of their
Two weeks later, Dixon was fired as the school's associate vice president for human resources. School officials said her views contradicted university policies, according to the lawsuit.
Crystal Dixon filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court seeking to be reinstated to her University of Toledo job, which she lost after writing in a newspaper column that
Though Dixon's attorneys say other school administrators were not punished for expressing their
"Where is the so-called free expression of ideas and tolerance that universities so adamantly defend?"
RICHARD THOMPSON University of Toledo
gay rights can't be compared to civil rights because homosexuality is a choice.
"I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims'," Dixon wrote in an online edition of the Toledo Free Press on April 18. "Here's why, I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman."
She also wrote: "There are consequences for each of our choices, including those who violate God's divine order."
opinions, the public university defends its actions.
"We have asserted from the beginning that Ms. Dixon was in a position of special sensitivity as associate vice president for human
resources and this issue is not about freedom of speech, but about her ability to perform that job given her statements," university spokesman Larry Burns said in a statement.
Dixon did not mention in the column that she worked at the university, but she did defend the school's benefits plans and how they apply to gay employees.
In response to the column, hundreds of people wrote letters calling her views disturbing while others were outraged Dixon was
punished for speaking her mind. Conservative talk show hosts and members of her church rallied around Dixon after she was fired.
"It comes down to whether you're speaking as an employee of the university or as a private citizen," said Brian Rooney, a spokesman for Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., which is representing Dixon. "If you're speaking as a private citizen, your speech is protected."
The university would have been within its rights to discipline her if she had stated she was a school administrator, Rooney said.
The nonprofit Christian law firm says its mission includes "defending the traditional family and challenging special rights for homosexuals."
"Where is the so-called free expression of ideas and tolerance that universities so adamantly defend?" said Richard Thompson, president of the law center.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are University of Toledo President Lloyd Jacobs and William Logie, vice president for human resources.
Jacobs responded to the column by writing his own piece in the weekly newspaper, saying that "her comments do not accord with the values of the University of Toledo."
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Giant puppets representing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and U.S. President-elect Barack Obama shake hands next to a ball representing the HIV virus, as their operators pose for photos at a parade to draw attention to the continued need for HIV and AIDS funding, in Dakar, Senegal, Tuesday. On the eve of an international AIDS conference in Dakar, hundreds of women and children, carrying signs saying "African children are watching you," gathered on call on France and the U.S. to make good on pledges for fighting to spread the AIDS in Africa.
FRIDAY Granada Theater DECEMBER 12
All ages • 8 PM • www.THEGRANADA.com Tickets available at www.TICKETMASTER.com or the Granada Box Office
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