The Michigan Daily-Saturday, May 5, 1979-Page 3 'U' students bike cross-country Trip to help local charity By PATRICIA HAGEN The Staten Island Bridge in New York is 3,500 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Joseph Shields and Eric Nichols plan to travel the distance across the country by bicycle to raise money for autistic children. The two University engineering students hope to raise between seven and ten thousand dollars for the Michigan Society for Autistic Children. Since Monday they have received $500 in pledges from parents, friends, and Ann Arbor businesses. "A RIDE FOR the Autistic Child-'79" was the idea of the 22 year old Shields, a December graduate of the University with a degree in environ- mental engineering. Nichols and Shields are scheduled to start from New York on May 12 and arrive in California by July 4. "In 1974 I did a bike trip from New Hampshire to Florida and I made a commitment, I said I was going to do it again," explained Shields. He made that trip as a senior high school project for local charities. After graduation, Shields began thinking about doing another charity bike tour because he was bored and wanted to do something before getting a job. He convinced the Miller Brewing Co., through Lowenbrau division, to pay all expenses for the trip. LOWENBRAU IS "giving us a check for $1,300 to buy equipment," stated Shields, who was sporting a warm-up jacket and Tshirt with the Lowenbrau logo. Bikes, sleeping bags, mess kits, saddle bags and other necessary items have been purchased with the money. Planning the trip has caused more than a few headaches for Shields. When his roommate decided he couldn't make the trip, Shields advertised in the Daily for a partner for the all expenses paid cross-country trek. Nichols, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, said he answered the ad because he was "intrigued." The Muscular Dystrophy Association See 'U', Page5 Daily Photo by JIM KRUZ UNIVERSITY STUDENT Eric Nichols (left) and University graduate Joe Shields (far right) will leave later this month on a cross-country bicycle trip to raise money to help autistic children. Their companions are Ronny (left) and Jimmy (right). National unemployment rate increases; Michigan's rate is highest since 1977 From AP and UPI state officials said yesterday. said officials were surpr National unemployment rose only The 8.6 per cent jobless figure sharp increase, which he slightly in April, to 5.8 per cent of the marked Michigan's highest unem-' could not be entirely bl labor force, but the largest drop in em- ployment rate for any month since the trucking dispute. ployment in a decade had Carter ad- 9.2 per cent recorded in August 1977, MESC officials were un ministration officials worried that the said S. Martin Taylor, director of the the reasons for the bal figures could be misinterpreted. Michigan Employment Security Com- jobless gain. McGhee said The rise in unemployment from a 4 - mission (MESC). explanation might be the year low of 5.7 per cent in March was "Normally, Michigan enjoys a drop jobless survey compiled the first increase in four months, the in unemployment during Aprif," Taylor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor Department said yesterday. said. "However, this year secondary "One of the things that MICHIGAN'S unemployment rate layoffs mainly in the auto and related been a factor was the fact jumped more than half a percentage industries caused by the Teamsters vey was taken in the we point in April, partly due to layoffs dispute pushed the state's unem- Easter," he said. 'Some resulting from the Teamsters dispute, ployment rate upwards." layoffs because of the Ea t MESC SPOKESMAN Don McGhee See UNEMPLOYMEN South Africa's apartheid system. It seems Cardinal L staffers have been watching too many horror films f wised by the said probably amed on the certain as to ance of the one possible timing of the by the U.S. might have that the sur- ek preceding temporary ster holiday T, Page 9 Abusing the news The Daily Cardinal, the student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has its own version of the Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apartheid (WCCAA) disruption of the March Board of Regents meeting here. The April 27 Cardinal report reads likea bad movie script: ".. . some 250 protestors were beaten; two were arrested in an at- tempt by the regents to close the meeting to the Wayne County Coalition Against Aparthied (WC- CAA). Earlier, WCCAA members had collected 10,000 signatures against apartheid ..." While Cardinal readers may have envisioned a band of police and security guards wielding baseball bats among the crowd of protesters in the Regents Room at the March meeting, the truth is that no one was beaten; the pair was arrested, but not in the attem- pt to get the court injunction, which allowed the Regents to bar everyone but the press and others invited by the Board; the group is names for Washtenaw, not Wayne, County; and the petitions were in favor of divestment, not .simply against on late night TV. Happenings . . . ... begin with the Extension Services' "Workshop on Research in Dance and Music: Focus on Nonverbal process and/or Product" at 8:30 a.m. in the Recital Hall, School of Music, on North Cam- pus ... The International Association for the ad- vancement of Appropriate Technology for Developing Countries presents a "Technological Legacy in Pre-Colonial Africa," a speech by Richard Bradley, at 10 a.m., in the East Conference Room at the Rackham.. . for late sleepers, at noon the Ann Arbor city government is holding a canoe auction at the Argo Park Canoe Livery at Longshore Drive, just off Pontiac trail. Call the livery at 668-7411 for more information. . . at 1 p.m., the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living. and Washtenaw Community College are hosting a workshop, "Community Resources for the Han- dicapped" in Room 1908 of the Student Center Building at 4800 East Huron. River c c ,. t r e { ti I j X c c ti 3 k t k i x Drive ... Shgetoshi Yamda will join University faculty members Edward Parmenter and Enid Sutherland for a free concert at 8 p.m. in the Recital Hall at the Moore Building on North Campus ... on SUNDAY, from noon until 5 p.m., the Ecology Cen- ter of Ann Arbor will hold its annual Bike-a-thon. Call Gail Gredler at 761-3186 for more infor- mation ... at 7 p.m. at the Guild House, former editor of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee newspaper and author Terry Cannon will report on his recent tour through Viet Nam, Laos, and Kanpuchea ... on MONDAY, the University Macromolecular Research Center presents "Experimental and Theaoretical Aspects of Protein Folding," a colloquium by Prof. H. A. Scheraga of Cornell University at 4 p.m. in Room 3005 in the Chemistry Building. Refreshments will be served at 3:40. On the outside .. . After last night's frost, the high temperature today in the mid-50s will seem like summer. It will be sunny, winds 5-10 miles out of the northeast. The low tonight will sink again near freezing. _ ..- _ _. .-No