©1995 Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication
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* By Dawn J. Wagner * Like two schoolgirls, Patricia Wieczorek and Rose "Bubba"Finklestein lifted out each glittering piece of jewelry from the shoebox, giggling as they tried on earrings and necklaces. Wieczorek paraded around the small bedroom, swaying her hips and pretending she was walking the runway. Finklestein laughed loudly. "We get together and talk and laugh," said Finklestein, a 96-year-old spitfire. "Sometimes we watch those nasty TV shows about sex change operations,"added Wieczorek, a 45- year-old housewife. "That's what I'm going to do,"Finklestein said, giggling. "Get a sex change?"Wieczorek asked as the two broke up into another fit of girlish laughter. The two carry on like they have known each other for a lifetime. Each week they exchange memories and stories of their children. And they laugh a lot. It was only January 1994 when the two met. That was when Finklestein was told she had less than six months to live, and when she was assigned to Wieczorek as a hospice patient. Finklestein is dying from colon cancer. She is a patient at Community Hospice, one of the 12 centers in the Valley designed to provide pain relief care for people with terminal illnesses. To be admitted to any of the Valley hospice programs, a patient must have an incurable disease that has reached its advanced stages. The diagnosis must be confirmed by two independent doctors before a patient is considered for the program. Most stays in hospice are covered through Medicare. "When a patient goes on hospice, they are no longer looking for a cure,"said Nancy Foster, volunteer coordinator for Community Hospice. "They are looking for pain relief and comfort care, and we do everything we can to make them comfortable." One "comfort"service offered by hospice is a one-on-one volunteer who serves as support for family and patient. Wieczorek has volunteered for more than two years. It is not a volunteer program for everyone. Foster said the people who serve as volunteers willingly deal with death on a day-to-day basis. "These are not the Girl Scout cookie bakers or the hospital candy stripers,"she said. "They are people who are willing to do something that most people think is very strange." Witnesses to death The volunteers take care of everything from afternoon visits to making funeral arrangements to family bereavement. In many cases they have witnessed the death of a terminally ill family member. James McCready, a full-time funeral director and part-time volunteer at Hospice of the Valley, became involved after his mother died. "My mother had cancer and she was with hospice,"McCready said. "I got involved with Hospice of the Valley because I felt like I wanted to give something back." LeeAnn Hudson, a volunteer in training, said, "I was living with (my aunt) and the whole time she was dying we never talked about it. I think being a volunteer will make it easier for me to talk about it." Approximately 85 percent of all volunteers have had previous experience with hospice, Foster said. "Payback is a big part of it,"she said. "I think that's what the program really is; people want to become a part of it afterwards. They take the experiences from their family to make it easier on another family." The rest of the volunteers feel the need to help others in times of heartache. "I was watching a television program and I saw people talking about it and I thought it was interesting,"Wieczorek said. "It's a point that everyone, including the family, has to go through and if I could help make the transition from life to death easier, I thought it would be a big help." All potential hospice volunteers must complete a rigorous training program designed to familiarize them with the hospice system, goals and procedures. Spirituality, stress management, organ donation, bereavement and the physical aspects of dying are covered in the 10-week training course. At weekly sessions, the "group"listens to qualified speakers explain death and the grieving process in every way imaginable. A trip to the mortuary to learn about embalming and funeral arrangements is one of the most talked about sessions. "This place spooks me,"Hudson whispered, as she and the other four group members walked through Camelback Sunset Chapel and peered at caskets and cremation containers. "I've never been to a funeral. I've never been to a viewing and I've never seen anybody in a casket, so it's all a little hard for me to understand." After giving the tour, the funeral director, McCready, said, "I've been able to work with hospice volunteers on a different level. When I trained to be a hospice volunteer, I went through a mortuary tour and I was kind of disappointed. I thought if I could ever do this class for volunteers, I would like to try to make it better and more thorough." Even though all five trainees were impressed by the tour, each said she was nervous about her first patient. The first family is tough Even though volunteer Sharon Haas has recently dealt extensively with the grieving process, she remains worried about comforting her first family. "I recently buried all the members of my family so I have a lot of experience with this,"she said. "It's always traumatic no matter how much you expect it. You just have to be as supportive as you can to help them through it. But I'm sure I will be crying right along with the family, so it will be hard." Catherine Addiego, another volunteer, said her motivation comes from previous hospice experience coupled with the training. "You start off loving people and then you think when is the hardest time emotionally for those people, and it's always at the time of death,"Addiego said. "I think it's going to be hard but it will be worth it. "It's important to have these classes so that you learn what kind of things to say and what not to say. I'm just hoping I'm as good as some of the people were with my mother, who was in hospice." By the end of 10 weeks, most volunteers have undergone a "human growth experience,"Foster said. Before most volunteers have dealt with their first patient, they have learned to analyze their own feelings about death and dying. "I'm not sure it's physically visible,"Foster said. "Some people come a long way. There are some who are really uncomfortable in the beginning and then have resolved a lot of personal issues for themselves by the end of the training." Wieczorek said her outlook on life was re- evaluated after completing the training. "It makes you realize that no matter how rich or how poor you are, everybody goes through the same things,"she said. "You know the (emotional) steps people go through and the physical steps they go through, so you know when the end is coming near. It takes the scariness out of it." But it still doesn't stop the hurt. Helen Ziffer, who has been volunteering for more than five years at the Community Hospice at St. Luke's Medical Center in Phoenix, said it still breaks her heart every time she loses a patient. She remembered one man who was dying from pneumocystis pneumonia, an AIDS-related illness. "His name was Mike,"she said, sadly. "He was dying and I went to go visit him in the hospital. He asked me, 'Why are you in here? I have a contagious disease. Nobody will come in here besides my doctor.' I told him I was going to stay with him." Ziffer said she talked with the young man often and quickly built a friendship. "One day he asked me to call his family in California,"the 79-year-old nurse said. "I called them and they told me they wouldn't come out to see him. I was so upset. I couldn't tell him that, so I went back and told him I couldn't reach them. "I went back a little while later, and he asked me if I would pray with him because he hadn't prayed in years. I held his hand. He was a big man."Her blue eyes filled with tears. "I just held him and I prayed. . . and he died." Ziffer, who is the team leader at the Community Hospice, heads up a group of volunteers who choose to visit all the patients in the center, rather than visiting on a one-on-one basis. Wieczorek, who now devotes her time to individual care, began hospice work at the center. "I really enjoyed going to visit the people in the hospice center because I never had one person and I could go from room to room,"she said. "A lot of people died between visits so you never really got close to anyone. "It was nice to be able to comfort them and to hold their hand and just talk with them about their life. A lot of people wanted to talk about it and you were kind of a catalyst because you got to do that." She described a cheerful man in his 80s who was dying from prostate cancer. "I walked in there and we started talking and we had all this stuff in common,"Wieczorek said. "He grew up in Buffalo and so did I. We both knew the same streets. I sat there for over an hour with him talking and laughing." During the visit, the man told Wieczorek his life history and each exchanged stories and memories. "The next week I came in and he was kind of in and out of it,"Wieczorek said. "I talked to him and held his hand and then I went in the next week and he was in a coma. "So I sat next to him and I held his hand and rubbed his face and I repeated to him everything he had told me. I told him that I remembered him telling me about his wife and I went on about his honeymoon and I said, 'I don't know if you can hear me, but I enjoyed talking to with you. Your wife is going to see you soon.' "Then he squeezed my hand. I don't know if heard me or not, but it was nice to be able to do that for him. He died that night." Death brings freedom from pain For patients who suffer from afflictions such as cancer, the pain can be extremely strong, even with carefully monitored medication. The hospice system provides strong pain relief, tailoring each dose to the specific needs of the patient. Morphine and other pain relievers are prescribed extensively by registered nurses. "I look at it as such a blessing for a person who has cancer and is dying and suffering,"Ziffer said, a smile spreading across her face. "You see them suffering so much and it's so important to realize that the person will soon be out of their suffering and it's going to be OK. "Otherwise I couldn't go on doing this. I believe they are going to God and they are meeting their families and that they are going to be happy without any suffering." Solid spiritual beliefs and a strong sense of self-like are common traits found within the group of hospice volunteers. Most talk vividly about heaven, God and the end of physical suffering. Their spirituality allows them to become attached to their patient and family, Ziffer said. Although only loose bonds generally develop in the care center, a one-on-one experience moves to an entirely different level, Wieczorek said. "I would go see Bubba every week and we just grew closer and closer,"she said. "After a couple of months, her daughter got sick and died within one week. I remember she called me and told me that (her daughter) had died. When I came to see her, she told me that I was the only one she had, and she didn't know what she would do without me. "I realized that I was the only one there for her." A sometimes unavoidable loss of family support is something the volunteers must deal with often. Ziffer said she often becomes the patient's primary companion when she volunteers on an individual basis. One patient, Dennis, who was dying from cancer of the esophagus and could only communicate by blinking his eyes, "had nobody,"Ziffer said, her hands trembling. "His daughter-in-law wasn't able to help because she had her own children, so he was alone unless I was there. I couldn't believe how wonderful he was. He took so much pain and it was so sad, but I'll never forget how he took it all and still smiled. "Here he was dying and there was no one around but me, practically a stranger." Ziffer visited and comforted the lonely man for four weeks until the end, when just the two were together. She said: "I took his hand and I held it and I said to him, 'Would you like to pray with me?' and he blinked his eyes to tell me yes. So I held his hand and I prayed for him and he held my hand so tight. "I knew he could hear every word so I told him that he was going to be very happy and I said, 'God is going to be with you and he is with you right now.' He blinked his eyes again and five minutes later he passed away." Ziffer said not all patients die alone and afraid. Sometimes, a patient is lucky enough to recover. "It doesn't happen very often,"she said. "In all the years I have been doing this it has only happened once to me. We never expected it but it was so magnificent to see him rally and come back. I still keep in touch with him." Finklestein is another patient who is seemingly beating the odds. While most patients survive less than six months after being admitted to hospice, Finklestein is still going strong after nearly 18 months. "I was living in my apartment and I was sitting outdoors on a chair,"Finklestein said. "All of a sudden things were going black. I tried to reach for something and I fell on the ground. My doctor came to see me and told me I was (being admitted) to hospice. "That's where they (take) people when they think they're going to die. But I didn't die. I fooled them all." Since then, Wieczorek and Finklestein have been enjoying their time together, looking forward to each week and to memories. "Yes, I fooled them all,"Finklestein said again to Wieczorek with a smile. "Yep, you were ornery enough to stay alive,"Wieczorek said back, hugging her tightly. "Don't use that language." "Sorry,"Wieczorek said, with a sheepish grin. "I mean you were nice enough to stay around." As the two broke up into a fit of laughter once again, Finklestein turned to Wieczorek and smiled. "She's like a daughter to me,"she said. "I don't know what I would do without her."
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* By Laura Anderson * Maricopa County Assistant Jury Commissioner Helen Caufman couldn't believe it when she opened a letter from former savings and loan head Charles Keating Jr. Keating, who had been summoned to serve jury duty in Maricopa County Superior Court, had legal problems of his own. Caufman conceded that Keating provided one of the best excuses she had ever encountered in her job as the chief listener of why people cannot serve. He could not appear because he was enmeshed in a high-profile case defending himself in a California state court against charges that he had defrauded investors in his Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. "It was weird,"Caufman said. She excused him. As an assistant jury commissioner for Arizona's busiest court, Caufman listens to thousands of excuses a year. Of the 450,000 registered voters in the county who are summoned to serve their legal duty, nearly 100,000 have excuses for why they can't make it, she said. The O.J. Simpson case thrust the jury selection process into the national spotlight when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito ordered 1,000 prospects summoned and questioned in hopes of finding 12 jurors and eight alternates for that sensational murder trial. And Lubbock, Texas, made national news earlier this year when only 238 of 725 prospective jurors responded to summonses, causing the sheriff to consider issuing contempt of court warrants and possibly arresting residents who had disregarded calls for jury duty. Designed to Protect Rights David Bodney, media law attorney and a partner in the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson in Phoenix, said the American jury system is designed to protect the due process rights of the accused. "It originated when individuals in society were more directly involved in the affairs of the community,"Bodney said. "The jury system is based on the notion that fairness in criminal proceedings can be ensured when the fate of the accused is in the hands of his peers." However, Bodney added that most members of contemporary society are "disconnected"from their community and often are not interested in performing their civic responsibilities. Caufman has had many encounters with people trying to avoid their civic responsibility of serving. "Once I had a juror leave a note on the counter that said 'I do not have all day to wait around,'"she said. '"My time is valuable. I have a 3:15 appointment in north Phoenix; leaving at 1:30, send the sheriff if you need me.'" Prompted by the jury selection process for the Simpson trial, the Los Angeles Times conducted a public opinion poll in connection with a four-part series that examined the strengths and weaknesses of the nation's jury system. The newspaper questioned 1,703 Los Angeles County adults. The survey asked respondents if they had confidence in the jury system. Thirty-nine percent said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence; 55 percent said they had only some or very little confidence; and 6 percent said they didn't know. The survey asked people if they thought jury duty was a civic responsibility or a personal choice. Forty-one percent said it was a civic responsibility; 57 percent said it was a personal choice; and 2 percent said they didn't know. The poll also asked if people were inclined to serve or not to serve on a jury. Fifty-four percent said they were inclined to serve; 44 percent said they were not inclined to serve; and 2 percent said they didn't know. Bodney said he thinks the jury system basically is effective, but high-profile cases can create problems. The attempts by the courts to find an "untainted"jury is unwise, he added. "In high-profile cases, finding an untainted jury often does so at the cost of juror intellect and awareness,"he said. "They should look for more well- informed persons who are willing to strip themselves of their prejudices. Sometimes cases are not determined by a jury of peers, just idiots. This is not in society's interest." Caufman said that she has received some very "unusual"mail during the past few years. She said some jury questionnaires are returned with labels written on the envelope such as "Forwarding expired" or "Earth P.O. Box #, moved and left no forwarding." Caufman also recalled a letter from another person who claimed, "I can't show up at court early in the morning because I go out at night with Satan." A Major Undertaking Caufman's office mails more than 7,000 summons each week to obtain jurors for the Maricopa County Superior Courthouses in downtown Phoenix and Mesa, for county and state grand juries, and for 21 justice courts and six municipal courts. The mailing list of 450,000 potential jurors is drawn every six months. It originates from a master list of county residents who are registered voters or who are licensed drivers over age 18 . Those who are summoned for jury duty technically serve only the day they are called or for the length of the trial should they be selected, Caufman said. The system has been in place for 10 years. "In 1985 we switched to one trial or one day to reduce the burden on the juror served,"Caufman said. Under the previous system, potential jurors were called between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to come in for the following day. Jurors were on call for a fixed period of time. "You would never see a doctor come in 1980, but you'll see them come in today,"Caufman said. "And they'll do their day. And attorneys will do it. You get a lot more professional people." Each summons is accompanied by a questionnaire to determine a potential juror's qualifications to serve. Each person who seeks to be excused must explain why he or she is not eligible for service. The Office of the Jury Commissioner routinely grants excuses to people who provide a doctor's statement that explains a continuing, debilitating physical or mental illness. It also excuses people who are undergoing extreme financial hardship, have no transportation, must care for children or relatives, have served as a juror within the past 18 months or currently are in the military service. Potential jurors who seek to be excused for other reasons are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Caufman said her office sometimes receives letters from potential jurors who are graphic in their language. "Once in a while someone writes a letter that is so vulgar and obnoxious,"Caufman added. "A few years ago, if you wrote a letter like that it was a violation of pornography laws. It isn't anymore; it's just an expression of free speech. "So when we get a letter that is really bad, we just send the person a letter that says 'you did not qualify for jury excuse, and you therefore are to appear.' It is not uncommon to send the letter to the judge so he has an opportunity to read the correspondence." A juror who fails to attend court when summoned can be cited for direct contempt of court and may be forced to attend. The juror also may receive a fine not to exceed $100. Each juror is paid $12 per day in court by the county. The county also pays 25.5 cents per mile traveled from the juror's residence to the court and back. An employer cannot, by law, penalize an employee for missing work because of jury duty. However, an employer is not required to compensate an employee who misses work. Some people feel it is their civic responsibility to serve on jury duty and will serve even if their employer will not compensate them, Caufman said. "Once I had a young lady who was selected for a high-profile case who worked for a large company,"Caufman said. "The trial was expected to last six to eight weeks and they were not going to pay her while she served. "Well, she found out they paid one of (their male employees) to go to a pro golf tournament as an amateur and they paid his expenses. So she battled the company to get paid to serve. You have to admire a 21-year-old going against big business." ASU's policy regarding faculty members and academic professionals who are called to jury duty is that the director or chair of the person's unit grants a leave of absence and the person is paid for the days' absent. However, the employee must sign over to the university his or her jury duty checkÐminus the travel stipend. Dedicated Citizens Because Arizona has a large retirement population, the maximum age to serve was removed in 1972, Caufman said. "Federal court excuses you at 70 with no questions asked,"she added. "In our court, our rule of thumb is if you're physically able and want to do this we will let you serve." She said if people are more than 70 and have physical problems they are excused from serving. "The oldest we've had was 92,"Caufman said. "She did ballroom dancing to keep herself active and she was just as spry and as pleasant as she could be. "I had a man come in and he got on a trial that was scheduled to go approximately four weeks and he didn't have four weeks. He literally did not have four weeks to live. "He came back and told us this, but he did not tell the judge. He asked if the trial was going to be real lengthy and said he felt he could do things for a few days, but he didn't feel he could deal with that much. "He didn't really explain that to the judge, but he was excused anyway. He said he had some business to handle, and he did. He only lived another two or three weeks." She also recalled a man "who rode a bicycle and wanted to know if we had shower facilities because he had driven 42 miles to get to court." On another occasion, a woman from Sun City said she wasn't sure if she could get to the courthouse in Mesa but she was willing to give it a try. "She just wanted to know if there was a place that she could get her batteries recharged on her golf cart,"Caufman said. Once a man who had not asked to be excused reported for jury duty. "He took care of his father,"Caufman said. "He left his 84-year-old father alone in bed with an IV in his arm to come in." Caufman has other stories of dedication. "Sometimes people come in and all of a sudden they are reminded of what's going on,"she said. "They think they can do this and get here and I see tears streaming down their face, and I find out they have a daughter who is terminal and they thought they'd do their civic duty but when they get into the courtroom reality hits. "Sometimes you see parents who come in and do jury duty and their daughter was the victim of a very high-profile crime. But they come in and do their service and say 'we're just paying back.'" Clever Ploys Not all people who are called for jury duty are dedicated and civic-minded. Caufman said one person asked to be excused from jury duty because of pressing matters at his house. The reason: "My dog is diabetic and I can't leave it home alone." Some potential jurors have interesting motives. "We had one lady who wanted to know if we still sequester jurors, and if she gets sequestered could we please put her in a room with a nice- looking young man,"Caufman said. She recalled another incident that made her smile: "Once, when his wife was being led to the courtroom to be questioned, a man said, 'You don't really want my wife; she spent 17 years in a mental institution.'" Caufman's office deals with all kinds of people, some interesting, some aggravating. One thing is clear, however: a well-oiled machine is necessary to make the system work. The process of selecting a jury is called "voir dire."During this stage, the judge or lawyers ask potential jurors questions about themselves and their prejudices. A juror likely will be disqualified "for cause,"such as he is closely related to one of the parties in the case; he has a business relationship with one of the lawyers or parties; or he has some personal knowledge of the case. Lawyers can remove a certain number of jurors through peremptory challengesÐthe mechanism through which lawyers basically "try to get rid of people who are most likely to rule against their client,"attorney Bodney said. During the fourth quarter of 1994, 12,122 jurors reported to courts in Maricopa County. The courts sent 11,345 people to voir dire, 94 percent of those who reported for jury duty. Twenty-five percent of those who were called in for voir dire were challenged for cause; 25.2 percent were dismissed via peremptory challenges; 23.7 percent were sworn in for a trial panel; and 26.2 percent were not used. Eventually, 2,669 jurors were sworn in and were able to sit in judgment at a trial, according to figures supplied by Maricopa County Superior Court. The Office of the Jury Commissioner strives to send at least 85 percent of the potential jurors to voir dire, Caufman said. In some cities, courts will make jurors wait all day even when there aren't enough cases to be heard, she added. "We don't make the jurors sit around,"she said. The demographics of the jurors summoned for duty during the fourth quarter roughly mirrored Maricopa County's population. For example, of those summoned, 85.5 percent were white (compared to the county's 80.7 percent). Other breakdowns of those summoned (with actual county figures in parentheses): Hispanic, 9.3 percent (13.4 percent); Black, 2.5 percent (3 percent); Native American, .9 percent (1.2 percent); Asian, .8 percent (1.6 percent); and other, 1 percent (.1 percent). Also, 53.3 percent of those summoned were males compared to the county's 48.6 percent; 46.7 percent were females compared to the county's 51.4 percent. Approximately 100,300 summons were mailed for jury service in all Maricopa County courts for the fourth quarter of 1994, according to figures supplied by the Office of the Jury Commissioner. Of those responding, 6,989 were found to be unqualified for service, including people who were not citizens, were not residents, were not able to speak English, were convicted felons or were under 18. An additional 22,352 were excused for legitimate reasons. More than 23 percent of the total summons mailed were returned from the post office identified as undeliverable. A Numbers Game For Maricopa County's registered voters and licensed drivers over 18, receiving a summons for jury duty is a statistical likelihood. It's just a matter of time. "It's kind of an inconvenience,"said Kelly Metteer, a clerical worker who was called to Superior Court this spring. "However, I've managed to skim by (by not having to serve) it for a number of years." Maurice Schelstraete, a retired Phoenix resident who was on call every Tuesday and Thursday for four months on a county grand jury, said serving is an obligation that every citizen should fulfill. However, it inconvenienced him this spring. A devoted baseball fan, he wasn't able to go to spring training games because of his jury duty schedule. "If you want to keep law and order, then you should do your service,"said John Venator, a self- employed salesman who also was called to Superior Court. Cecelia Richards, a housewife, said she was hoping to get on a jury, but wasn't sure if she could. "I'm a little anxious because of my health problems," Richards said. "I thought about calling in to get excused, but I'll just see what happens." Sandy Miller, an ASU senior finance major, said she was summoned for jury duty last June. "After I waited in the assembly room for about three hours, I got called in to be questioned about a case,"Miller said. "It was about a girl who allegedly had robbed a liquor store or something, killed the owner and was drinking even though she was not 21. "I totally wanted to be on the jury, but when they asked if I had any time conflicts with the trial, I told them I had summer school, so I was dismissed." Superior Court Judge Maurice Portley said the jury system works well for one main reason: "People will allow other citizens to listen to facts and make decisions about who's guilty and who should pay. "The jury is the bulwark between having a police state and vigilante justice. If there were no jury, people would take justice into their own hands. "Juries decide cases, judges don't."
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* By Todd Kelly * There's a couch on the neighbor's roof. The guy down the street has five undrivable cars on his property. The woman across the street has weeds 4 feet high along the curb. There's a man who's building a boat in his back yard. When there's a problem like this, it's time for the nuisance inspectors to step in. To most people, it seems, the inspectors are saviors of order, ensuring peace and safety. To others, the ones who want to do whatever they want with their property, regardless of what others think, the inspectors are the jerks who come around and tell people what to do. Tempe has a group of five inspectors who patrol the neighborhoods, responding to complaints of citizens. The inspectors are the city's method to maintain beauty and order in the neighborhoods. Tempe is not the only city with a nuisance patrol, although other city's might use other terms for it. In Scottsdale, it's Code Enforcement. In Phoenix, it's the Neighborhood Maintenance and Zoning Enforcement Division. In Mesa, it's the Zoning Enforcement and Nuisance Abatement, in the city's building inspection division. In Tempe, the inspectors' main duty is to enforce the nuisance ordinance and the neighborhood enhancement rules. They're not cops - they work in the city's building safety department. One of them is Mike Speranza, whose business card reads code enforcement manager. He's got four inspectors working with him: Walt Douglas, Dave Christ, Keith Archibald and Brian Augustine. Their most common problem is cars and car parts lying around yards and houses. People like to save parts - tires, wheels, engines, rims, anything that may be used again. There's a story of a couple who drove down from Colorado and the husband parked the car in the driveway when they got to their house. That's the last time he drove the car, and that was nine years ago. Speranza said when his inspectors showed up, they were welcomed. "His wife was so happy," he said. "She said, 'Give me that notice. I've been asking him to get rid of that car. We drove down, parked that car and it hasn't moved in nine years.' You could tell she was happy to get rid of it. Sometimes people have to be spurred on to get rid of their junk. "Some people get upset when you tell them to clean the property. Other people say 'You're right. I've been meaning to do it.'" He also said it's nice when people are around to acknowledge the work he and his inspectors do. But the inspectors keep plugging away at it, patrolling the city for any sign of danger or ugliness. "I don't dwell on it, but it is a negative job,"said Speranza, who's worked for the city for 15 years. "You've got somebody unhappy calling you, and they're unhappy because they don't like the way someone else's property looks, and then when you go to that other person's property, he doesn't like the idea of you coming along and telling him what to do on his property. So you got two negatives going on." Despite the difficulties, Speranza and his task force generally obtain compliance from residents. It's assumed that the city is better off because of it. Not everything out of the ordinary is illegal, dangerous or both, Speranza said. A lot of what he and his inspectors do pertains to maintaining a sense of order and aesthetics in a neighborhood. It's the city's business Whether or not people like it or understand it, it's the city's business what people do with a house. It also becomes everybody else's business, too. If there's a violation of a city code, the inspectors will enforce it. They'll come to a house and tell the occupants that they have 20 days to clean up whatever it is that needs to be cleaned up. Sometimes, however, 20 days simply isn't enough time, as inspector Douglas can attest. There's a house on Orange Street that remains dirty. "I initially got that complaint on 2-6 of '95,"he said, adding that this is an unusual length of time to clean up a property. The reason this one has taken so long is that the owner of the house, a woman in her 80s, was moved to a nursing home after a heart attack. Douglas said her son doubted she would be coming out of the rest home, and the son wasn't in financial position to take care of the property. The city then basically took charge and moved to clean up the mess. "He's got his life to lead, and that house down there just, after a while, turned into an afterthought, "Douglas said. "He tried to stay in the house for awhile." In most cases, though, the city can contact a property owner and can move much quicker in working out a solution to a messy residence. Every once in a while, if the inspectors can't enforce an ordinance, the fire department might be called in. That usually happens about 10 or 12 times a year, according to Russ Wollam, public information officer for the Tempe Fire Department. Section 21-3 of the Tempe Code for public nuisances lists the violations: They include anything that:
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* By Garin Groff * In China, most parents don't want their children to study politics or law when they go to college. They push science or technology. "That makes life easier,"said Weiguo Xie, a 38- year-old Chinese student pursuing a doctoral degree in electrical engineering at ASU. "Some may still have fears about going into politics due to the past experiences." Parents prefer that their children don't have a liberal arts education, fearing the young may be inspired to write or speak out against the government - actions that could get them thrown in jail, Xie said. With the recent, dramatic changes in China's booming economy and turbulent political landscape, Xie said the most important thing for Chinese students to learn is marketable technical skills. Such knowledge will ensure a stable job regardless of what changes take place in China, he said. Xie, a Chinese citizen who came to ASU 2 1/2 years ago after obtaining his master's degree in China, is not alone is his desire to obtain a marketable skill by studying in the United States. Of the 2,312 international students at ASU, 40.9 percent of them, or 946 students, are enrolled in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This is by far - in numbers and percentages - the most popular college at ASU for international students. Checking the student census International student statistics for this article were compiled by using the fall 1994 student census database and seperating students with 900-prefixes in their student identification numbers from the rest of the student population. International students are assigned 900-prefixes for their student numbers. India is the top nation of origin for foreign students, with 319 students studying here. Second is China, with 251 students, followed by Taiwan, with 205 students. Together, these three nations supply 33.6 percent of the university's international students. Of the engineering college's 6,592 graduate and undergraduate students, 15.1 percent are international students. By comparison, only 5.4 percent of ASU's 42,813 students are international students. The interim dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences attributes the high percentage of international students in his college to a greater appreciation of technology education in other countries. "Domestic students are more apt to get a job and get about their lives,"said interim dean Dan Jankowski. He said the college is trying to get more domestic students interested in engineering by increasing recruiting efforts. However, Jankowski said American students often have a negative view of technological fields like engineering because of recent layoffs in that field and because the skills are difficult to learn. The college with the second largest number of international students is the College of Liberal Arts and Science. It has 506 international students in it. Although the college is the largest at the university, with 12,053 students, the percentage of international students enrolled there - 3.6 percent - is below the university average. Students from many other countries tend to be drawn to scientific and technical skills training at American universities because of their cultures, said liberal arts dean Gary Krahenbul. "Liberal arts education isn't available at all in China or in other countries,"he said. "That's very much a part of the Western tradition." International students are drawn to science and technology educations because of the tie between training and jobs, he said. "I think they're very career-minded,"Krahenbul said. The College of Architecture and Environmental Design has 103 international students, giving it the second-highest percentage of international students within an ASU college - 7.2 percent. However, it is sixth-largest college in terms of international students enrolled. A competitive advantage John Meunier, dean of architecture and environmental design, said students from other countries want American education in the sciences because it gives them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. "There is a wide feeling in the developing world ... that America is the place to be if you want to be on the leading edge of technologies,"Meunier said. That was not always the case, Meunier said. Until the collapse of eastern European countries, the Soviet Union offered strong scientific education and social support systems. With the funding for such programs gone, America is the top choice for students studying abroad, Meunier said. However, he said the number of students studying here could drop as the gap between the strength of the dollar and some other world currency widens. Meunier said the overrepresentation of international students in some programs at ASU indicates how American culture values business over technology. He added that he is troubled so few American students are enrolled in advanced technological programs. "Society will prosper from its knowledge base, not its managerial skill base,"he said. The third-most popular college for international students, both in numbers enrolled and in percentage of the college's population, is the College of Business. About 5.3 percent of those in the college are international students. Dean Larry Penley attributed the popularity in part to a few programs in his college that have prestigious reputations, such as accounting, purchasing, logistics and marketing. He added that the general reputation of American business education and a general absence of business education elsewhere also draw foreign students here. Lloyd Brimhall, program coordinator of ASU's International Students Program, said students come to American universities because of good programs here and institutions in other countries often can't meet the demand for education. "They have quality institutions, but the institutions don't have the space for all the students who apply. There's more access to American education,"Brimhall said, adding that this is especially true in the case of engineering. ASU does not actively recruit students from other countries, Brimhall and several college deans said. Instead, it relies on word of mouth and sending information to students who express an interest in studying here. Xie said Chinese students want to study in America because people believe the United States has the most advances in science and technology. "Everybody who gets a degree here will get respect from the whole society,"he said. Undergraduate education in China is comparable to that in America, but China has few experimental facilities for the high-tech research necessary to teach students earning master's or Ph.D. degrees, Xie added. Fukwun Wang, a 30-year-old Taiwanese student pursuing a Ph.D. in industrial engineering, said these same reasons attract students from Taiwan to American universities. However, he said education in Taiwan is changing considerably as the nation becomes more developed. In the last five years or so, Taiwan has opened high-quality institutions where people can earn doctorates in science and engineering, said Wang, who has received his master's in statistics from ASU since he came here in 1989. Brimhall said he has noticed the makeup of international students change recently in one particular area - gender. Today, 65 percent of international students, or 1,503 people, are males. He said this number was about 75 percent a few years ago. "Still, males are expected - more so than in our own culture - to be the ones to be educated,"Brimhall said. Jankowski said the engineering college is trying to attract more females by going to middle and high schools to show women they can be as successful as males. International students typically come from the middle- and upper-classes because studying abroad is so expensive. To study at ASU, foreign students pay out-of-state tuition, which recently rose 7.5 percent, to $8,278 a year. However, international students can get waivers, Brimhall said. Families have to pay Most international students don't receive funding from their governments to study abroad, leaving families with the burden of paying for college, Brimhall said. Also, the U.S. government is not authorized to federally fund foreign students through loans or grants, he said. Another difficult financial factor facing international students is that they cannot work off campus because of immigration regulations. This is one reason why non-American students working on campus seem to be overrepresented, Brimhall said. Both Xie and Wang said they plan to return to their native lands when they graduate. However, Xie said he has noticed that female students from China are less likely than males to want to return. Females like the living conditions in America better, whereas males are more likely to aspire to establishing a business or working at a high-level government position, he said. Xie, who expects to graduate in one year, said that even though he likes America, he wants to return to China because he can work better there without the language and cultural differences. Wang said he also likes America but wants to go back when he earns his Ph.D. degree in 1996. Jankowski said international students with degrees in the sciences have employment skills that are in high demand in America or in their homelands, especially in light of the computer revolution and other recent advances in technology. He attributed these advances as part of the reason why electrical engineering is the most popular major for international students, with 278 students, or 12 percent of all international students at ASU. Of the majors with 50 or more international students in them, five are in engineering fields - electrical, chemical, mechanical, industrial and civil. Two other science fields, mathematics and computer science, have more than 50 students each, resulting in seven of the top 11 majors as being related to science or technology. Regardless of the field international students study in the engineering college, Jankowski said they will have many opportunities. "If they learn well here, they can take a lot back with them," he said. "It seems to me like they would be very valued in their countries,"
Four in-depth articles written by ASU journalism students are featured in today's edition of The Bulldog, which is published periodically by the Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication and ASU's Student Publications. The Bulldog is an outlet for journalism students who always are looking for places to publish. The articles will range from feature stories to hard-hitting investigative articles. After all, we are The Bulldog. Today's newspaper was produced electronically by journalism students. Special thanks go to designer Jodi Goldblatt, photographer Jim Poulin and Vicki Carroll, who created The Electronic Bulldog. We hope you enjoy The Bulldog. Look for us again in the fall.