Supplement Inside GNinetyfour Years 4r4v4 o f iFinals EditrialFreeom i Cloudy with a chance of snow.A 'ol.°XCIV-No. 77 Copyright 1983, The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan - Friday, December 9, 1983 Fifteen Cents Fourteen Pages Students dodge finals blues with unusual antics By BARBARA MISLE When the pressure of final exams gets too intense for LSA junior Shelly McNamara, she punches out her stuf- fed animals. LSA sophomore David Pascal and his roommates drove his car through the East Engineering arch Wednesday night just to release some study ten- sion. RESIDENCE hall staffs attributed a monstrous snowball fight between nearly 150 students from Markley, Couzens, and Mosher Jordan dor- mitories Tuesday night to pre-finals anxiety.i And even the most restrained stud- ents might let loose a primal scream to make it through late nights of cram- ming a neglected semester's worth of reading into only a few hours. While today marked the last day of classes, it also signifies the start of the most intense days of the semester. Study days - the University's gift of time to students before the final exam anvil falls on their fact-filled heads - put students in their own world of study anxiety. IT IS A time when students live on ,caffeine and candy bars, when they disappear into campus libraries to master academic feats such as learning a semester of organic chemistry in 48 hours. "You push yourself to the limit (during study days)," said Jennifer Clark, an Alice Lloyd resident adviser. "You push yourself farther than you thought you could." The darker side of people's per- sonalities emerge during finals week. Tempers grow short. Vision narrows to immediate study goals as each student struggles with his or her own feelings of panic. STUDENTS walking the tightrope of pressure during study days find dif- ferent ways to release tension - some more unusual than others. LSA sophomore Melissa McDaniel plays with eight wind-up Smurf dolls and tries to get the toys all walking at the same time. Some of her friends pull out crayons and coloring books to cope with final exam pressures. By tackling such simple tasks, students can build their confidence, she said. Winding up dolls "is not too tough, and it's something I know I can do," said McDaniel. SOMETIMES it's worth doing these things just for a laugh, she added. "You don't get to laugh much during finals week. Unless you stay up late and get giddy," she said. McNamara, the South Quad RA who abuses stuffed animals, said she picked up odd strategies for coping with finals pressure from a former resident director who told her to throw plastic glasses against the wall. PASCAL, THE bold LSA sophomore who ran his car thorugh the Engineering arch said students become crazier during exams to combat the tense atmosphere on campus. "You do fun things you wouldn't do under normal situations to counteract the effects of sitting in the library," he said. Lisa Koppelberger, who was doing last-minute work on a paper at the Graduate Library last night, said the See EXAM, Page 2 Daily Photo by JEFF SCHRIER LSA Sophomore Brian Jendrusina sets up camp in the Undergraduate Library to begin the long haul of studying for final exams. Today marks both the last day of classes for students and the start of study days for final exams. be relocated BEIRUT, Lebanon - U.S. Marines wiped out a Shiite militia sniper nest and bunker in a fierce ex- hange of fire yesterday, and the Reagan ad- ministration said it was considering plans to move the Marines out of Beirut airport to safer positions. °The Marines retaliated when the northeastern perimeter of their base came under a sustained barrage of mortars,. rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifle fire. THE SHOOTING came from a fortified position in the Shiite Moslem stronghold of Hay el-Selum, and the bunker was destroyed with 60 mm mortars, M-60 tank guns and Dragon missiles, Marine spokesman aj. Dennis Brooks said. In addition to the bunker, the Marines shelled a building that had been used by Shiite snipers to fire at leatherneck positions some 150 yards away. As darkness fell, the 1,200 Marines at Beirut airport remained in bunkers on Condition I maximum alert, fearing a repeat of the morning's 90-minute battle on the red dirt hills that form the Marines' nor- theast perimeter. NO MARINE casualties were reported in the fight, which came four days after eight Marines were killed and two wounded in assaults following an American airstrike on Syrian troops. Hay el-Sellum is a stronghold of Arnal, the dominant Shiite militia in Lebanon. Shiite fanatics were suspected of masterminding the suicide truck bombing on Oct. 23 that killed 240 American troops at the Marine base. The Marines also face the Druse who control the hills above the airport, and Druse gunners were responsible for an attack that killed eight Marines Sunday. WITH THE deepening U.S. military involvement, Italy said it wanted to slash its peacekeeping force in Beirut by half, to the 1,100 originally committed.. At a NATO meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, the U.S. and three nations contributing troops to peacekeeping forces in Lebanon - Italy, France and Britain - vowed they would stay on to support Lebanese President Amin Gemayel. Because of the increasing attacks, the Reagan ad- ministration is considering plans to move the Marines away from the airport to more sheltered positions, presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said in Washington yesterday. "There have been discussions on this matter ... particularly since they came under attack and even more so since the car bombing" of Oct. 23, he said. SPEAKES declined to give details, but said no consideration is being given to withdrawing the Marines from Lebanon. The New York Times said the plans under con- sideration include redeploying the Marines to positions south of the airport or to amphibious ships offshore, and that they came in response to domestic and foreign pressure. In the Syrian capital of Damascus, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Abdellah al Ahmar, assistant secretary general of Syria's ruling Baath Party, vowed more assaults on U.S. forces in Lebanon. "It was agreed to step up operations by the Lebanese resistance against the occupation and to confront the Israeli and American aggressors," Syria's state-run. radio said of a meeting between Jumblatt and Ahmar. Brooks, describing the new fighting, said the Marines came under "heavy and concentrated" small arms, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire" from an enemy bunker northeast of the airport. Two U.S. vessels were seen cruising close to shore during the fighting, but Marines spokesmen said their guns were not fired. Sign Language Over 250 protesters and supporters of Reagan gathered outside the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis to voice their opinion of Reagan's speach yesterday on education, which defended the government's low school budget and called for stricter classroom discipline. (See pg. 3 for story ) MSA errs in sexual orientation proposal By PETE WILLIAMS Jonathon Ellis, the director of The Michigan Student Assembly Canterbury Loft, who worked on the voteThesdhig toudntassbly campaign for the clause in 1977 voted Tuesday night to put a proposal caught MSA's error and informed Ion next April's election ballot caghtMAserradifre assembly members yesterday. Ellis establishing a sexual non- said the repeat effort was not the fault discrimination clause into the body's of MSA's gay and lesbian liaisons, constitution. who presented the proposed amen- But it wasn't until yesterday mor- dment to the Assembly Tuesday ning that the Assembly found out that night. "I'm sure they were under the the policy had already been passed - impression that MSA had once acted by a vote of students in 1977. on it in some way, but not as an actual APPARENTLY, nobody ever amendment," Ellis said. bothered to change the master copy of Ellis also said that the amendment MSA's constitution after the original wasn't totally forgotten by groups on Presolution passed six years ago. As campus. He said that Lesbian and gay rights has once again become a Gay Rights on Campus (LaGROC) campus issue, MSAthis year decided sighted the clause as a precedent in to show its support for eliminating their fight with the University ad-' discrimination on the basis of sexual ministration to add a similar clause to orientation. See MSA, Page 9 Israel denounces U.N. help in PLO evacuati0n From AP and UPI TEL AVIV, Israel - Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir denounced the United Nations yesterday for deciding to help with the evacuation of Yasser Arafat from Lebanon, and a controversy blew up over whether Israel should try to block the escape or try to kill the Palestinian guerrilla leader. Shamir, visiting Israelis wounded in the bombing of a Jerusalem bus Tuesday, said the United Nations' agreement to let its flags fly on the Greek ships which are to take Arafat and his PLO loyalists out of Tripoli, Lebanon, "is a subject for the most extreme condemnation." Instead of fulfilling its purpose of "safeguarding peace," the world body was giving protection to a "murderous organization," he charged. THE PLO claimed responsibility for the bus bombing, but the head of the Palestinian news agency WAFA was quoted Wednesday as saying the PLO did not, after all, carry out the attack. Asked to comment on the debate over whether Israel should try to kill Arafat, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Shamir replied that his gcvernment "is con- sidering all ways of action." He did not elaborate. The controversy was started by former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, now a minister without portfolio, who told a French radio interviewer that Arafat "should not be allowed to leave Tripoli alive." SHARON SAID Arafat's death would be a "very, very im- portant achievement and a step forward." Ronnie Milo, a member of Parliament and close associate of Sham ir, disagreed. "We don't have to bother to save him, but we don't have to kill him either," Milo said. "They (PLO rebels) against Arafat will do that themselves." See SHAMIR, Page 9 Sham ir attacks U.N. decision I r-TO DAY ON'T PANIC if the Daily isn't on your doorstep tomorrow morning - it isn't supposed to be there. This morning's paper is our last for the term, since even graduation ceremonies, you'll get to hear from one of our East Lansing rivals - Michigan State University President Cecil Mackey is this year's speaker. Mackey's speech, "Thoughts on 1984's Eve," will begin at 2 p.m. Graduates have been allotted ten tickets apiece to hand out to friends and relatives, but students who want to pick up tickets on their own will have to wait until Friday, Dec. 16. Any lef- tover tickets will be available that afternoon from the diploma office at 1518 LSA Graduates are being asked to line up in the tunnel at 1:30 p.m., and spectators are asked to be seated by 2 p.m.mO Enrichment Group Gift Catalog. "We intentionally tied it in with the Christmas season hoping that people would ex- tend their Christmas spirit to include some of our city facilities, said James Overbeek, assistant city manager for community enrichment. Several of the suggestions deal with animals, alive and otherwise. A $20 donation will put a portable X-ray machine at John Gall Zoo, and $1,000 will restore a prehistoric Mastodon skeleton. "The book is a success if we get one item paid for or all of them paid for," said Overbeek. O cover agents operating in Michigan, despite the gover- nment's warning that publication of the list would be a felony. * 1964 - The University officials said they were con- sidering instituting a three-day study period between the last day of classes and the beginnings of exams. Students then had only a one-day break before exams. * 1935 - A Daily survey found that 91 students would be displaced or lose their jobs when a block of homes and businesses was torn down to make way for the new Rackham building. n I I i