PAGE 2 — THE DECREE — DECEMBER 9,1994
VICTORY CELEBRATION — Brad Barnes (right), chairman of the NCWC College Republicans,
congratulates new Nash County Sheriff Jimmy Grimes and Scottie, his new lieutenant. Bames led
the pledge of allegiance to begin the “Celebrate the Winning Team” festivities at the Nashville
National Guard Armory on Monday. The celebration was held to honor Grimes and other local
Republican winners. Nash County is one of 32 counties in North Carolina that elected Republican
sheriffs in the November election. Rep. Gene Arnold (R-Nash), Rep. Leo Daughtry (R-Johnston),
and state Republican chairman Jack Hawke were also part of the celebration.
GRE to be computerized
Students who plan on taking
the new computerized version of
the Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
can leave their No. 2 pencil at
home next year, while test-takers
of the Graduate Management As
sociation Test (GMAT) will need
a sharp pencil to get through a
new writing portion of the stan
dardized test.
The GRE, administered by
Educational Testing Services in
New Jersey, is moving away from
its paper and pencil version to a
completely computerized format.
Students can now take the test
while sitting at a computer, and
answer questions by clicking the
computer mouse on the appropri
ate icon. Once the test is com
plete, students can learn their
scores before leaving the test lo
cation.
Charlotte Kuh, executive di
rector of the GRE, said that the
reason for changing the test’s for
mat was based more on method
ology than technology.
“We decided to make the test
less linear and more adaptive,”
Kuh said. “And the computeriza
tion allows us to put in some new
types of questions.”
Unlike the paper and pencil
version, the computerized version
of the GRE does not allow stu
dents to go back and fill in or
correct their answers. All students
begin with a question at a me
dium level. If the student answers
a question correctly, the next
question that appears is more dif
ficult. If the student picks the
wrong answer for the first ques
tion, an .easier. on«*p(^s>Hp nextt • • >
Jose Ferreira, director of GRE
programs for Kaplan Educational
Centers, said that while the com
puterized GRE does offer some
benefits for students, not every
feels comfortable sitting in front
of a computer screen.
“Some people will probably
find the format intimidating,” he
said. “Students won’t be able to
change their answers or write up
a problem in their test booklets.”
You will be able to use offi
cial Educational Testing Services
scratch paper, however.
After contemplating graduate
school for the two years after her
graduation from the University of
Dayton in Ohio, Chicago resident
Jean Andover took the new GRE
in October. She was hoping to
begin work on her master’s de
gree in the spring and needed test
results quickly before application
deadlines.
After learning about the new
option, she learned where the
nearest testing location was and
set up an appointment for the next
day.
“There were about three weeks
between when I signed up for the
test and when I found out where
I’d be going to school,” says
Landover. “The fact that you
know your store when you leaves
makes all the difference in the
world.”
But do students who are on
the borderline want to know their
scores right away? Andover
thinks so. “I did well, so obvi
ously, I was happy,” she said.
“But even if your grade is not as ;
■high ■ as- you need ir,' yoir •know*
Laughing gas
becomes new
‘hippie crack’
right then and there. You don’t
have to sit at home worried sick
waiting for the mail.”
Those who opt for the com
puterized version will end up pay
ing nearly twice as much as those
who take the test in its original
format, which is $93 instead of
the normal price of $48. But for
Andover, the extra money was
well worth it.
“The fact that I was able to
take the test on my own terms
instead of on a morning I had to
set months in advance was worth
the extra money to me,” she says.
“It was a lot less stressful than an
ordinary test.”
Due to the increased aware
ness of the importance of writing
in the business world, test offi
cials at the Graduate Management
Admission Test (GMAT) have
changed its format for the first
time since it was created in 1964.
A writing section has been added
to the new test that will measure
a student’s communication skills.
Beginning Oct. 15, the GMAT
essay became a mandatory sec
tion of the exam. Students now
have to write two essays, one ana
lyzing a business issue and the
other arguing a selected point of
view.
The writing section is divided
into 30-minute halves and brings
the test’s total time to about four
hours.
The essay portion then is
graded by GMAT officials, and
the GMAT grade and a copy of
the essay itself are then sent to
each school to which the appli-
■ '• I ■« 1 ■* '• 't •>. i.'■'
By WENDI WILLIAMS
You may have seen those little
metal pellets around campus. You
might have even watched friends
at concerts as they inhaled gas
from balloons or plastic bags and
then laughed their heads off.
They’re sniffing nitrous oxide —
known as “hippie crack” at some
schools — which is becoming an
increasingly popular way for stu
dents to get high.
It’s become so pervasive be
cause it’s cheap — $1 buys a
whippet pellet — and it’s easy to
get. Nitrous oxide is also called
laughing gas, the same kind den
tists use, and it’s most commonly
used as a propellant for whipped
cream cans.
Nitrous oxide is especially
popular on college campuses be
cause many students do it at raves
and at concerts, particularly the
Grateful Dead shows and other
outdoor festivals where it’s not
unusual to see a guy carting
around a tank of the gas and sell
ing it for $5 a balloon-full, says
Kayla Kirkpatrick, youth progran\_
coordinator for the International
Institute on Inhalant Abuse in
Englewood, Colo.
Whippets are sold by the case
at gourmet stores for use in cake
decorating and other food prepa
ration, but they also can be bought
at head and porno shops. A few
states, such as Ohio, have decreed
it’s legal in all 50 states. The Food
and Drug Administration says
N20 is neither a dangerous drug
or food product.
“Students think that because
they see whippets around all the
time and because the dentist uses
it, it must be okay,” Kirkpatrick
says. “But the difference is that
dentists are using nitrous oxide
in a controlled environment, and
they’ve been trained to use it
properly.”
The laughing gas dentists use,
Kirkpatrick says, is 80 percent
oxygen as opposed to the 100 per
cent nitrous oxide inhaled in
whippets or gas-filled balloons.
People who sniff nitrous ox
ide get an immediate rush that
often m^es Aem la^^^^ an^,|egl
' dizzy Md'euphdnc. Because i
gas has replaced oxygen in the
blood stream, it also makes the
sniffers’ hands and feet tingle and
can cause them to lose their bal
ance. The high, which produces a
psychological addiction, lasts
only a few minutes and compels
users to inhale more and more to
reach ne^^jf vels of euphoria.
Most people get hangover-like
headaches the next day, but pro
longed usps can damage their
bone marrow, reproductive sys
tems and brain. Sometimes it
makes people pass-out; some even
die.
The International Institute on
Inhalant Abuse (IIIA) reports 34
deaths nationwide have been
caused from nitrous oxide or other
fumes. But Kirkpatrick empha
sizes that there are no accurate
U.S. death statistics, because in
halants often contribute to death
but may not be the actual cause
of it. Take, for example, the case
of the 21-year-old suburban Chi
cago man who drowned in a pool
after doing whippets. Inhaling the
gas caused him to pass out and
, £{ill pff a raft he was floating on.
The coroner ruled his death was
by drowning.
Injhngfand, though, the IIIA
estimated that one-fifth of all first-
time sniffers died.
“It can be a mind-altering
thing,” says Eleanor Sargent, a
counselor at the National Insti
tute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “It’s
such a waste to see so much po
tential' in'Wonderful people who
take a sniff 53f something and who
don’t come back to their original
selves.”
NIDA estimates that 300,000
people between the ages of 18
and 25 used inhalants in 1991,
and that as the trend has become
more popular, it’s also become
more widely accepted. Inhalants
are considered the fourth most
popular drug in America, behind
alcohol, tobacco and marijuana,
according to recent NIDA stud
ies.
Nitrous oxide tends to be the
gas of choice on college campuses
while abuse of other inhalants,
such as gasoline, air fresheners
and nail polish, is being seen more
and more among younger kids,
som&,flnly in grade school,
xmS'V>
e NIDA’s Sargent says.