U. News
America's most revealing video
In what might have looked like a version of America's Funniest Home Videos — for adults — members of the U. of Minnesota women's gymnastics team viewed a tape of their coaches executing some very private routines.
The tape contained more than just backflips and tumbling runs. Also featured were scenes of the Gophers' gymnastics coach Katalin Deli and her assistant coach/husband, Gabor Deli, having sex in a Florida hotel room.
The 20-minute segment was inadvertently included with footage of the team's Florida gymnastics meet. The tape was handed out so the gymnasts could study the Gopher performances.
And they did. All of them.
"It wasn't expected, that's for sure" says senior gymnast Lori Kindler. "It was hard to go into the gym after that one."
It is estimated that nine team members and 20 to 30 others viewed the tape before officials discovered its contents.
But the May 1992 incident resulted in more than some public tittering and red faces; it spawned litigation. After the incident, the Delis were fired for committing NCAA violations, and in May both filed suits against the university for wrongful termination.
Editorials in local papers questioned whether the Delis were really fired for the violations — like lending a bicycle to a gymnast or having the team practice off campus at their home gym — or for embarrassing the university with the videotape mix-up.
"They have been destroyed — psychologically and financially destroyed," says Gabor's attorney, Bob Oliphant. "There is nothing for them but torment."
Adding to their torment are women gymnasts, who have recently come forward to applaud Athletics Director Chris Voelz's firing of the Delis.
"It was very embarrassing to us," says senior Gopher gymnast Kelly McConnell. "We couldn't believe we were able to see that."
In fact, Kindler says, the frolicsome couple had slipped footage of their amorous exploits into team videos at least once before, but the most recent video was an appalling last straw.
As for the controversy, Kindler has had enough. "We're sick of hearing about it," she says. Matt Nelson, The Minnesota Daily, U. of Minnesota
Why so glum, chum? That thumpa, thumpa, thumpa headache got you down? Maybe you shouldn't have taken that tequila-inspired trip south of the border last night (Olé). But if you're looking for relief, read on.
Here's a pound of cure for your next Tequila Sunrise
"The trick to avoiding a hangover is not to drink," says Ohio State U. freshman Cindy Loyde.
Good point. But if you consider yourself willpower impaired, you may need more than hindsight on the morning after.
Author Nic Van Oudtshoorn is your friend in need. With his recently published The Hangover Handbook, he offers numerous hints to get your hung over butt off the couch before mid-week.
One of the Handbook's more reliable sources is Nobel Prize-winning physician Dr. Linus Pauling, who found that administering 30 milligrams of Vitamin C intravenously for 10 to 20 minutes produced dramatic results for couch paralysis.
But there are other, more accessible remedies, and the book lists scores of drinkable concoctions to help relieve the pain of your achey, breaky head. Most of these contain some alcohol of their own, along with raw eggs, bitters or any number of other strong-tasting ingredients to help shake up your insides.
And if nothing else works, there's always rationalization.
With a wealth of historical anecdotes about the role of alcohol in shaping culture (there's a whole chapter titled "The Great Drunks of History"), the handbook comforts your conscience like a Hemingway novel.
Among some of the more interesting tidbits:
- Popes have been some of history's hardest-partying clergymen. Pope John XII took the throne of the Holy Sees at age 18, turned the Vatican into a tavern and a brothel, and remained drunk throughout his entire reign.
- A British home for children in the 16th century issued a beer ration of two gallons per week. The book neglects to mention the toddlers' pretzel and beer-nut allowance.
The world's most intoxicated town Krasnensk, in Russia has a population of 6,000 and consumes 150,000 bottles of vodka per week. That's an average of 25 bottles per person, children included.
Who knew hangovers could be such fun? After a few tasty raw-egg cocktails and a trip through the Hangover Hall of Fame, you'll be back on your (wobbly) feet in no time. The Hangover Handbook don't wake up and say "Where the hell am I?" without it. Chris J. Davey, the Lantern, The Ohio State U.
Student protesters stop the presses
Forget about writing letters to the editor.
If you're pissed off at your school newspaper these days, the trendy form of protest has become theft.
Copies of campus publications are being taken and sometimes burned at schools across the country, evoking a heated controversy regarding freedom of the press and freedom of expression. For example:
Oron Straus, of the Dartmouth Review, savs his paper was accused of racism.
- At the U. of Pennsylvania, nearly all 14,000 copies of The
Daily Pennsylvanian were stolen in April from their distribution points on campus, and posters were left in their place expressing anger over the newspaper's "blatant and voluntary" racism.
These are just a handful of examples.
At Dartmouth U., Oron Strauss, editor of the conservative weekly The Dartmouth Review, says an AfricanAmerican group confiscated nearly all 3,000 copies of his paper for four consecutive weeks last spring because the group considers the paper racist.
In April, at Pennsylvania State U., 6,000 copies of a conservative student publication, The Lionhearted, were stolen and 200 copies were set on fire. Two journalism students, Alisa Giardinelli and Shannon Coulter, were later arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft. Numerous students and professors have been angered by articles they considered offensive to feminists.
Mark Goodman, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., says 18 college papers have called the law center since January to ask for legal advice regarding similar incidents.
"It is our job to persuade the police and the prosecutors to pursue this as a criminal theft and to persuade the publications to pursue it as a civil lawsuit for damages," Goodman says.
dents to frustration with their papers?
But what drives stu-
For Penn State's Coulter, it was a matter of freedom of expression — her own, not the paper's.
"As a journalism major and a future journalist and a law student, the First Amendment is engraved in my heart. What was put out was not journalism; it was hate mail," Coulter says.
But for Strauss, there is no justification for stealing papers. "It's outrageous that anyone would do such a thing," he says. "I think the answer to speech you disagree with is more speech."
According to Goodman, a First Amendment claim must involve government action, or action by an official at a public school.
But, he says, "Although legally it is not a First Amendment issue, it is still a freedom of the press issue." - Tracie Tso, Daily Trojan, U. of Southern California
Congress may kill Selective Service
What has long been considered a rite of passage for college-age men may soon be a thing of the past.
When the Senate reconvened in September, it was scheduled to consider abolishing the Selective Service, the system of registering 18-year-olds for a potential military draft.
Last spring, President Clinton requested $29 million to maintain funding for the agency that administers the system, but a U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted in June to phase it out.
Opponents say it is a relic from the Cold War. But Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.) tried to save the draft registration agency, calling it "inexpensive insurance" in an uncertain world. Solomon's amendment to restore funding to the Selective Service budget was defeated in June, 207-202.
U. of Minnesota senior Chris Vaars doesn't believe the Selective Service is necessary. "It doesn't seem like any war we will get in will be large enough to need to hold a draft," he says.
But Wally Lowery, a senior at Troy State U., says there is too much conflict in the world to do away with the draft. "If they abolish it, and we have a crisis, they would have to bring it back." he says.
American men currently register with the Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Those who register are dropped from the ralls when they turn 26. David Unre, The Minnesota Daily, U. of Minnesota
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U.Magazine
OCTOBER 1993