Northern Star

Banish bad body images

By Shivangi Potdar | April 1, 2003

Nomy Lamm stood in a short black dress, red fishnet stockings and blood red lipstick before an audience of about 50 people and admitted to being fat, "gender queer," a lesbian and Jewish. Lamm was brought to the Holmes Student Center's Room 305 by PRISM...

Pedestrian hit on Annie Glidden

By Libby John | April 1, 2003

A pedestrian was struck by a car on the corner of Annie Glidden Road and Lucinda Avenue on Monday evening. Corporal Jon Costliow of the DeKalb Police Department said the victim was walking on Lucinda Avenue toward the Chick Evans Field House when a vehicle...

Becoming a teacher may pay off

By Samantha Henwood | April 1, 2003

Scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 will be distributed and collected by Minorities Inspiring Teaching Education (MITE). "These particular scholarships were distributed to us through Future Teachers of Chicago, Illinois," said Juletta Patrick,...

Looking ahead to Asian Heritage month

By Megan Rodriguez | April 1, 2003

Although April showers bring May flowers, Asian-American students at NIU are concentrating on more than just rain. Asian-American Heritage Month will be celebrated throughout April with various activities. Events planned for the month include a career...

Baseball heads to Iowa

By Adam Zolmierski | April 1, 2003

NIU coach Ed Mathey thinks his players have had success against Big Ten programs (2-0) this season because they approach those games as if they were conference games. The Huskies (13-9) will travel to Iowa today for a 4 p.m. ball game. Taking the mound...

Summer classes up in the air

By Courtney Cavanaugh | April 1, 2003

Bad news may be in the future for NIU students because of the looming possibility that summer courses will not be offered. Ivan Legg, NIU executive vice president and provost, said if budget cuts are excessive, between 6 to 8 percent, for example, then...

Get the skinny on society’s unobtainable body images

By Bonny Beaman | April 1, 2003

Professor Sharlene Hesse-Biber of Boston College is combating the "cult of thinness" she said is forced upon women by the advertisement industry and the media. She will present a lecture on body image in hopes of dispelling the messages of popular cultural...

Chairs playing musical chairs

By Stephanie Gandsey | April 1, 2003

Even when it looks like that computer you're working on is worthless, its parts still may be useful. After campus computers are taken out of a classroom or a lab, they are sent to Property Control at NIU, where they're deleted from the inventory and sent...

Learn how to make up your own mind

By Megan Rodriguez | April 1, 2003

Making educated decisions is a part of every college student's life, and Decisions 101 will help students make such educated choices. Jennifer Klostermann, a learning assistant at Grant South, said the event is worthwhile for students who are looking...

Meet the future student trustee

By Greg Feltes | April 1, 2003

As the incoming student representative for NIU's governing body, Kevin Miller might be the ultimate student to know. Come next semester, the junior political science and English double-major will serve as student trustee on the NIU Board of Trustees....

Coping with society

By Tia Speat | April 1, 2003

The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender organization will kick off its LGBT awareness month today with a presentation by activist and writer Nomy Lamm. Lamm, a Chicago native, will give her multi-media presentation "Body Anarchy: Prescriptions for Personal...

Parents should keep children informed

By Kristin Cavarretta | March 31, 2003

When television screens are filled with bombs flying over Iraq, children need to know why their favorite cartoon show isn't on for them to watch.

Linda Derscheid, associate professor in family, consumer and nutrition sciences, said parents need to take the initiative to talk to their children about war. The amount of information they give them should depend on the child's age, as younger children will have more difficulties understanding.

In some cases, preschool-age children may act up based on violence they see on television. At such a young age, they cannot process or make sense of what they see, so parents need to be cautious of what their child views, Derscheid said. As they reach ages 7 to 9, children realize that it is not so much pretend, but it is real and it becomes scary.

"Kids are going to personalize things," Derscheid said. "They will be worried about their own safety and the safety of their family."

Daryl Bettcher, a senior English major and mother of three, said her children are not necessarily worried about their own safety, but they have asked if their uncle, who is overseas with the American troops, is going to die. She said her 8-year-old son asks the most questions about the details of the war.

"I try to be honest with them without giving them too much information," Bettcher said.

Derscheid said parents need to be careful in responding to their child's questions about people being killed in the war.

"I think there is always a caution that we want to have about talking about killing anyone, evil or not," Derscheid said.

Her suggestion is to tell children we are working to put evil people away so they cannot harm other people.

Algonquin resident Connie Ramirez said her three children, ages 5, 7 and 10, have seen some of the war coverage on television, so she and her husband talk with them almost every day about what is going on. Like Bettcher, her 7-year-old son asks the most questions about why everything is happening.

Ramirez said her children had more of a surprising reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks, probably because she has reiterated to them that the war that is happening right now is far away and they knew that the Sept. 11 attacks were in New York.

All three of her children have participated in practice disaster drills at their schools, and while they have wondered why they did that, they all have expressed to their mother they feel safer because they "have a plan" in case something bad were to happen while they were in school.

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