t idImulat
Ninety-seven years of editorial freedom
VOLUME XCVII - NO. 84 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1987 COPYRIGHT 1987 THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Presi ent
regrets
Green thumbs
Ann Arbor residents Betty Nix (left) and Hilda Manna glue and strap
plants from all over the world onto sheets of paper at the University Her-
barium. "We're quite a team," Nix said of the duo, which has worked
Daily photo by SCOTT LITUCHY
together for 12 years. The herbarium is one of the top ten largest in the
nation, housing nearly 1.5 million preserved specimens.
failed
WASHINGTON (AP) -
President Reagan said yesterday
night that his failed effort to reach
out to Iran and win the release of
American hostages in Lebanon was
his "one major regret" but he called
on the nation not to be "obsessed
with failure."
With American military ships
on the move in the Mediterranean
Sea, Reagan, in his sixth annual
State of the Union address, also
vowed not to sit idly by "if our
interests or friends in the Middle
East are threatened ... by terrorist
blackmail."
He said it was not wrong to try
to establish contact with a nation of
strategic importance and "certainly
it was not wrong to try tohsecure
freedom for our citizens held in
barbaric captivity. But we did not
achieve what we wished, and
serious mistakes were made in
trying to do so."
REAGAN SAID his adminis-
tration had made progress on many
fronts but "I have one major regret.
"I took a risk with regard to our
action in Iran. It did not work and
for that I assume full re-
sponsibility," Reagan said in his
prepared text.
While defending his initiative,
Reagan did not offer any new
revelations about the arms sale and
later diversion of profits to Contra
rebels in Nicaragua.
WHILE PLEDGING to find
out the facts and take any necessary
action, Reagan said that "in
debating the past, we must not deny
ourselves successes of the future.
Let it never be said of this
generation of Americans that we
became so obsessed. with failure
that we refused to take risks that
deal
Reagan
. speaks to nation
Pro-Marcos revolt crushed
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Government
troops and supporters of Ferdinand Marcos
clashed outside a walled television station where
mutinous soldiers held out yesterday after
President Corazon Aquino announced she
crushed their revolt.
The coup attempt was the most serious
effort by disgruntled soldiers to grab power
since Mrs. Aquino became president in
February.
More than 160 rebel soldiers, about 50 pro-
Marcos civilians and a few police held the
complex housing Channel 7 and radio station
DZBB. It was taken over in a pre-dawn coup
attempt that included attacks on five military
garrisons in which one rebel was killed and 16
were wounded.
DEFENSE Minister Rafael Ileto said 271
conspirators had been arrested and at least 70
remained at large.
Military chief Gen. Fidel Ramos said the
mutineers were supporters of ex-president
Marcos who wanted to destabilize the country
before Monday's nationwide plebiscite on Mrs.
Aquino's proposed constitution, which guar-
antees her a six-year term.
About 300 Marcos supporters gathered on
EDSA boulevard late yesterday near the
broadcast center, where they built bonfires,
hurled stones at police and shouted, "We want
Marcos, we want Marcos."
TROOPS FIRED tear gas and smoke
bombs at the crowd several times. The crowd
fell back, only to regroup and continue taunting
police and troops. Reporters saw at least six
Marcos loyalists taken into custody.
Marcos, who has lived in exile in Hawaii
since he was deposed 11 months ago, said from
his Honolulu home he wants to return to the
Philippines "to try to stifle this bloodletting."
He would not comment on allegations he was
behind the coup attempt.
His 94-year-old mother disappeared from her
Manila hospital yesterday. Ramos said she had
been taken to the Marcos family's home
province, Ilocos Norte, indicating "a bigger
scenario than just these attempted takeovers."
He did not spell out the scenario but hinted
broadly it involved the return of Marcos.
BUT AIR FORCE Col. Oscar Canlas,
the leader of rebels in the broadcast center,
denied his group had links to Marcos. "We are
fighting communism," he said in an interview
with The Associated Press.
could further the cause of peace and
freedom in the world.
"Much is at stake here and the
nation and the world are watching
to see if we go forward together in
the national interest, or if we let
partisanship weaken ,us," Reagan
said.
He added: "Let there be no
mistake about American policy: we
will not sit idly by if our interests
or our friends in the Middle East are
threatened, nor will we yield to
terrorist blackmail."
CONCLUDING HIS remarks
on the subject, Reagan said, "Now,
ladies and gentlemen of the
Congress, why don't we get to
work?"
Democratic congressional
leaders, responding to the president
in their own televised remarks, said
they were willing to cooperate with
Reagan but that he must first
answer questions about the sale of
arms to Iran and whether he
intended to swap arms for hostages.
See REAGAN, Page 3
Anthro. professor
tells of adventures
Proposal threatens
language loafers
By WENDY SHARP
He's not Indiana Jones, but he
has travelled to a village unseen by
any outsider and slept in a hut with
rats and tarantulas. He is also one
of the most popular anthropology
professors at the University.
In his classes, Conrad Kottak
waves his hands and raises his voice
as he tells about his experiences
during trips, including a journey to
Madagascar, a large island off the
southeast coast of Africa. Kottak
was the first anthropologist since
1927 to do a systematic study on
the island. His 1965 field work on
the Betsileo tribe concentrated on
the evolution of various cultures on
the island.
During his 14-month visit,
Kottak observed a tomb ceremony
in which the natives worshipped
their ancestors by taking bodies
from their tombs, re-wrapping them
in cloth, and then dancing with the
bodies before putting them in a new
tomb.
When asked how the ceremony
affected him, Kottak shrugged his
shoulders and said it didn't faze
him.
While Kottak enjoys storytelling
in the classroom, he is reserved
during a private interview. He
won't readily recall experiences -
like the time he narrowly escaped
death when his car almost went off
a cliff in Madagascar because of
slippery road conditions.
Roy Rappaport, president of the
American Anthropological
Association and an anthropology
professor at the University, has
known Kottak since -he was a
Pro file
freshman at Columbia. "Despite the
fact that he's quite witty, the
feeling is that this is a very solid,
responsible guy that doesn't do
bizarre and outrageous sorts of
things," he said.
Kottak's interest in
anthropology began "when my
fourth grade teacher talked about
tribes in the Amazon." The
fascination never left him. During
his freshman year in college, he
pursued other interests, but
See PROFESSOR, Page 2
By MARTIN FRANK
The LSA Curriculum Com -
mittee yesterday discussed a
proposal to deny students credit if
they get below a C minus in either
a fourth semester language course
or English 125. No action was
taken.
Currently, students can get credit
for grades as low as a D minus. The
proposal's proponents hope it
would force students to take their
classes more seriously.
"If the University is dedicated
toward excellence, then why are
certain individuals allowed to slip
through?" said Ann Vanek, cur -
riculum committee member and
LSA senior.
Committee members decided
they needed more information on
issues, including the "cutoff' grade
and people's opinions, before they
could continue their discussion.
Curriculum committee co-
chairperson Jack Meiland said he
does not expect any changes to be
recommended for a few months, if
at all. Any recommendation would
then have to be sent to the LSA
Executive Committee.
The issue of the final semester's
language requirement was brought
up at the Jan. 12 LSA faculty
meeting when at least two faculty
members expressed concern that
students were not applying them -
selves in their last semester of
language.
T H E Y pointed out, as did
required course in introductory com -
position. At their January meeting,
some said students who get a D in
the course will not be prepared to
take upper-level University classes.
Vanek said more pressure should be
put on teachers and students so they
will not "blow-off' their final
semester of language or English
125.
At yesterday's meeting, com -
mittee members also discussed a
proposal by the LSA Committee
on Counseling, who submitted
three ideas to improve counseling.
The ideas were:
-to train counselors, so
counseling would be more
consistent;
-to make counseling equal in
status to teaching. The committee
feels the two are inseparable, and
-to coordinate the various types
of counseling, in order to make the
system more organized.
INSIDE
Daily Photo by DARRIAN SMITH
Anthropologist Conrad Kottak, a University professor, has done exten-
sive research on secluded tribes in Madagascar.
Study abroad offers insights into other cultures
Mike Fisch writes about the
Forsyth civil rights march and
what he learned about racism.
OPINION, PAGE 4
The refurbished Michigan
Theatre is. finally ready to be
grandly opened. What's all the
fuss about, anyhow?
ARTS, PAGE 5
"We shall not cease from
exploration, and the end of all our
f exploring will be to arrive where
J cta,,rte- an) knw ninre fnr
"It is a living fairytale," recalled
LSA senior Julie Jacobson.
In Spain, LSA junior Edith
Freilich and three Spanish friends
different their junior year - they
studied abroad.
Jacobson and LSA senior Lisa
Gursky studied for a year at the
country.
Although Gursky, Jacobson, and
Freilich left to immerse themselves
in different cultures, they came back
1.
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