Ninety- Three Years
Of
Editorial Freedom
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Vol. XCIII, No. 147 Copyright 1983, The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, April 6, 1983 Ten Cents Eight Pages
Rocket I
threaten
errors
satellite
HOUSTON (AP) - It may take
weeks and it may never work perfectly,
but NASA expects a misguided $100
million satellite to limp into position
where it can revolutionize com-
munications in orbit and provide a link
vital to the nation's future in space.
The Tracking and Data Relay
Satellite, the largest and most expen-
sive communications satellite ever, is
wandering now along an orbital path
thousands of miles away from its plan-
ned position 22,300 miles above the
equator off the coast of Brazil.
THE SATELLITE was carried into a
low orbit Monday by the space shuttle
Challenger and snapped free by
springs. A rocket package attached to
the satellite worked perfectly to raise
one side of its orbit to 22,300 miles. But
when the rocket fired again yesterday
to circularize the orbit, the satellite
strayed off course and into a wild spin.
For a time, it appeared the satellite
would become "useless" as one official
put it, just a piece of expensive space
junk. Instead, engineers quicky sent
signals that caused the craft to stabilize
itself. The spin was stopped, but the
craft was in an egg-shaped orbit 7,000
miles lower and farther north than
planned.
In the coming weeks, though,
engineers expect to raise and adjust
that orbit until it is close to the planned
position. They will instruct the satellite
to fire some of its small 24 thrusters to
carry it slowly higher and further
south.
"IT COULD take weeks, but it ap-
pears that it can be done," said an
exhausted engineer who asked not to
have his name used. "It was a close .
thing."
The new shuttle, meanwhile, was
coasting like arseasoned traveler
around the Earth. Its astronauts,
quietly busy with metals processing
and other scientific experiments, won-
See TROUBLE, Page 3
We've got you
The Bijan men's store on Fifth,
construction.
covered Daily Photo by BRIANMASCK
Avenue in New York City is decorated by a larger-than-life billboard while it is under
Humanities prof attacks
review committee's plan
By NEIL CHASE
Challenger
... launched wayward satellite
It would be professionally demeaning
to ask faculty in the Engineering
College's humanities department to
teach freshman composition classes, a
literature professor said yesterday.
Speaking at the college's faculty
meeting, Prof. Gorman Beauchamp at-
tacked a review committee's recom-
mendation to phase out the college's
literature classes over a seven-year
period and send engineering students to
LSA to get the humanities credits they
need to fulfill graduation requirements.
"WE CANNOT believe that a single
facuJy.-ember -of that committee -
indeed, of this University - would per-
sonally accept the role that they en-
vision for us with any dignity or
'We cannot believe that a single faculty member of
that committee-indeed, of this University-would
personally accept the role that they envision for us
with any dignity or professional viability.'
-humanities Prof. Gorman Beauchamp
professional viability," Beauchamp
said.
The committee based its recommen-
dation on seven humanities professors
who will reach the age of 65 before 1991.
As each of these professors retire, he
should be replaced with an assistant
professor who would be assigned to
LSA, the report said.
The remaining professors in the
department would teach the newly
established composition classes, the
report suggested.
BEAUCHAMP, who said he was
speaking for most of the department's
literature professors, asked the
college's administrators to establish a
See PROF. Page 7
Law Quad
arson case
returns to
citypoice
By HALLE CZECHOWSKI
Ann Arbor police last week concluded
their investigation of a March 7 Law
Quad fire and sent their report to
Washtenaw County Prosecutor William
Delhey, but he returned the case to
police for further investigation.
"There was insufficient evidence in
the police report with which to charge
any one individual," Delhey said. He
said there is no longer any question that
the fire is arson and that investigators
are concentrating on finding out who
set the fire.
JAMES PICOZZI, a second-year law
student, was forced to jump from his
third floor Law Quad room to escape
the early morning blaze in his bedroom.
Picozzi suffered second degree burns
on his face, arms and hands, and
broken vertebrae in the fall. He was
recently airlifted to Pittsburgh for
surgery.
Fire Marshall Wesley Prater said
'the fire was started with gasoline.
Law School Dean Terrance Sandalow
sent out letters to law students at the
University in an attempt to allay some
of their fears about the fire.
Liberal
arts
degree
valuable,
prof. says
By MIKE AUS
Contrary to popular belief, a degree
in liberal arts is an excellent invest-
ment in the future, philosophy
professor Frithjof Bergmann said at, a
panel discussion on the future of liberal
arts education last night.
Bergmann told an audience of 40 at
the East Quad discussion that the tight
job market is like a sinking ship. "Yes,
engineering may be the only lifeboat
left, but there are many people up on
the big ship getting ready to jump into
this little lifeboat," he said. "I feel
sorry for the engineers."
TO PROVE THE marketable value of
a liberal arts degree, Bergmann says
he keeps a list on hand which records
all the philosophy majors he has known
who have gone on to become lawyers or
have been hired directly by major cor-
porations.
Engineering humanities professor
Henrik Skolimowski joined Bergmann
See LIBERAL, Page 7
Daily Photo by RENEE FREIER
Philosophy Prof. Frithjof Bergmann addresses a liberal arts conference last
night at East Quad.
Fraternity votes not to black-up'
By BARBARA MISLE
Members of Phi Gamma Delta
fraternity voted last week not to
"black-up" their faces before
delivering invitations to an annual par-
ty after learning that blacks on campus
found the practice offensive, the chap-
ter president said yesterday in a writ-
ten statement.
"Because there has never been any
malicious or racist intent behind
'blacking-up,' and because we have no
desire to offend anyone, Phi Gamma
Delta voted unanimously to never
'black-up' again less than an hour after
this was brought to our attention,"
Harry Walter said in the statement.
IN PAST YEARS on the Wednesday
before the fraternity's annual Fiji
Island Grass Skirt party, members
would dress up as islanders to deliver
invitations to their dates. Part of the
members' costumes included painting
their faces black. The party will be held
this Saturday.
Although fraternity members dress
in grass skirts and Hawaiian shirts for
the party, they do not "black-up,"
Walter-said.
Last month, the Daily reported that
black leaders on campus were offended
by a Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity jungle
party at which three members painted
their bodies black.
AFTER THE story appeared in the
Daily, Sigma Alpha Mu President Jeff
Libman and LSA junior Brian Sher
spoke with black leaders on campus to
find out if they were offended by the
fraternity's party.
When Sher learned the black leaders
were offended, he told Walter, who
brought it before Phi Gamma Delta
members for a vote.
Sher, who said the Daily's coverage
of the Sigma Alpha Mu party was
irresponsible, is currently heading a
petition drive against the Daily.
SIGMA Alpha Mu's Libman said he
didn't realize that blacks might be of-
See FIJIS, Page 2
Histvote counts Daily Photo by RENEE FREIER
LSA sophomore Robert La Due was one of about 2400 students who voted
yesterday during the first day of the Michigan Student Assembly election,
according to Election Director Bruce Goldman.
TODAY
Water fight
MAN WHOSE water was turned off because he failed
to pay his bill apparently decided to make a stink about
Beam me up
LLEN MICHAEL of Stockton, Calif. says he's running
for president of the United States because a meeting
with life from another galaxy provided him with foolproof
answers to inflation, unemployment, war, and other
problems. Michael, 66, is the founder of the new Age Syn-
thesis Party, a 30-member commune, and the 100-member
Universal Industrial Church of the New World Covenant.
Nn rnnfnnrn - lnf n 1RA - A ranw - -arn r (aif_ n
the mail, and maybe even deliver coffee. The $1,500 robot -
shaped like a small, upside-down trash can - will have one
pivoting arm and two black circles for eyes that are ac-
tually light and sound sensors, said Wayne Smith, computer
science instructor. "We're going to try to get some help
from the. English Department to program a Southern ac-
cent," Smith said. "It'll say things like, 'Ya'll come back,
ya hear? Smith is the instructor of the nine-member In-
troduction to Robotics class which is assembling and
programming the device. "Since it can lift a pound, I'm
hoping it can bring my coffee. And we would love for it to
to, students. The average grades were to be published
and sent to the professors' parents.
Also on this date in history:
" 1936 - The Interfraternity Council voted unanimously
to abolish Hell Week. The announcement came on the heels
of a three-week investigation during which two houses were
temporarily closed down and seven others were warned to
shape up.
* 1959 - The student affairs office criticized a rash of
"panty raids" on campus, saying that they showed im-
maturity and a lack of seriousness on the nart of the studen-
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