Ninety-eight years of editorial freedom
Vol. XCVIII, No. 58 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, December 2, 1987 Copyright 1987, The Michigan Daily
Grant to-
a.sians take
support
0 0
"t inriysuicideIill
engineers beoe{rb
By STEVEN TUCH
A state grant worth more than
$100,000 will allow the College of M nde 'K ra iln
Engineering to expand the scope of Man dies; airline
its work in minority recruitment and
retention, engineering officials said ..mystery remains unsolved
The State of Michigan's Select A
Student Support Services of the MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - A said. The type of poison was not
Department of Education wil supply mysterious Asian couple took sui- known.
fundsnivesiy with $136,000 in f 8cide pills yesterday before being Other Japanese sources quoted an
The money will help increase the r .questioned about a South Korean embassy official who was present as
University's efforts to raise the as{ ,jetliner that disappeared over Burma saying the two were less than fluent
percentage of minority students in and may have been bombed. m Japanese.
higher education mOfficials said the couple boarded Japanese and Bahraini officials
. Korean Air flight 858 at Bagdad, said the couple flew from Bagdad to
"It is more focused at the reten- Iraq, where it originated Sunday, and Abu Dhabi on Flight 858 and caught
ion component," said Derrick Scott, .got.off at Abu Dhabi before the a Gulf Air plane to Bahrain, a Per-
Director of the Minority Engineering . .Boeing 707 headed across Asia to- sian Gulf island state, while the
Programming Office. ward Seoul with 115 people aboard. South Korean place left for Seoul.
The college will break the funds It vanished near the Burma-Thai- South Korea's government
down into three parts: orientation, land border before a scheduled refuel- boadcast n g serlea ink
counelin, an tutring
conelnan uorn.Doily Photo by SCOTT Seoul sai Bagkk Offsicials in between the mystery woman and
Scott said the University will Claus cions a bomb destroyed the aircraft. Chosen Soren, an organization of
expand the orientation program The man, who appeared to be Koreans living in Japan that sup-
which helps acquaint incoming LSA junior Shawn Jacque asks students for contributions to the United Negro College Fund yesterday on the middle aged, died four hours after ports communist North Korea.
minority first-year students with the Diag. The event is sponsored by the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. biting into a suicide pill concealed in An official of the airline said:
University. The college currently has a cigarette; said Takao Natsume, "There is a high possibility that the
an eight-week orientation program - Japan's acting ambassador in Bah- missing plane crashed because of a
for 30 students, and also anticipates R e a n u r es s rain. He said the woman, who was bomb explosion" because no distress
adding a three-week program for up es S ov i ts tee younger, was unconscious in critical call was received from the aircraft.
to 50 incoming first-year students. condition at a.military hospital, but He spoke on condition of anon-
The funds, Scott said, will help f ter su m m tt ea y"she will survive." ymity.
retain students by increasing minor- p rom ises o They had been waiting to be Burmese officials said there was
ity counseling and tutoring. questioned by immigration officials
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - "More than a decade ago, there In a speech to high school seniors whostopped them from boarding a routine radio contact with the crew.
"Obviously, we are absolutely President Reagan pledged yesterday was a warming in U.S.-Soviet af- and their parents in Jacksonville Rome-bound flight. The two were Thai.police searching for wreck-
delighted (with the grant) because we to "keep right on marching" toward fairs that we called 'detente.' But Veterans' Memorial Coliseum, Rea- believed to be either Japanese or age reported a large swath of leveled
have a 20 year history of minority further arms agreements after next while talking friendship, the Soviets gan said he and Gorbachev will Korean and were traveling on forged trees in mountains along the border.
involvement," said Charles Vest, week's expected treaty signing, but worked even faster on the largest "have words about Soviet Japanese passports, apparently as fa- Airline chair Chu Choong-hoon, ace
Dean of the College of Engineering, he said the United States must not military buildup in world history. expansionism" during their three ther and daughter. companying seven Korean in-
"This grant will enable us to do be lulled into a new period of detente They stepped up their aggression days of meetings in Washington. vestigators, reported seeing a grey
what we already believe we are doing allowing a secret Soviet military around the world. They became more And he told one of the students "Just after swallowing the pills soot" in the same area but would not
well, but now reaching more buildup. repressive at home. We do not want during a question-and-answer session they both 'ell on the floor and their speculate on what it was.
students." Less than a week before his mere words. This time we're after later that in his talks with Gor- bodies went very stiff," Ambassador Security sources, in Bahrain said
The program will take its first summit meeting with Soviet leader true peace," Reagan said. bachev he might find himself Natsume said. investigators also were checking on
steps this month, by hiring of new Mikhail Gorbachev, Reagan had "In the excitement of the summit, "bending his ear" on what Reagan Both collapsed "in seconds," but possible ties between the couple and
counselors and staff members, Scott harsh words for that period of broad- the treaty signing and all the rest, we said was a need for religious freedom the woman apparently survived be- the Japanese Red Army terrorist
said ly improved relations with the must not forget that peace means and other reforms in the Soviet cause she swallowed less of the poi- group, but Natsume said he had no
Soviet Union. more than arms reduction," he said. Union. son hidden in the cigarette filters, he evidence of such a connection.

Richard D.,, partners,

ease hospital tasks

By LISA POLLAK
His name is Richard D., but his friends call him
"number three"
The story of Rich rd's life is neither glamorous nor
exciting. He is certainly not the most educated,
skillful, intelligent, or handsome employee at
University Hospitals. He doesn't have a home, car,
summer cottage, or wife. He doesn't have an
interesting personality; in fact, he doesn't even know
how to talk.
But that's not the worst of it. Richard works
Prof1e
tirelessly - 16 hours a day, seven days a week -
carrying dirty linen, trash, supplies, and food up and
down the hospital halls. And for what? The end of
Richard D.'s day brings no thanks, respect, or pay.
Instead, his ears (if he had any), would ring with the
comments of hospital visitors:
"I thought he'd look like R2D2!"
"Is that all he does?"
"How boring!"
"Can't he move any faster?"
YES, the story of Richard D. - a University
Hospital "robocarrier" - is a story about hard work
and little recognition. It's a story about a piece of
stainless steel, seven feet by four by two, which can
only move at two miles per hour down an electronic

path on the hospital floor. It's a story about a robot
who is unemotional and unglamorous, but not
unimportant.
"It's true, our robots are not as inspiring as one may
think," said hospital spokesperson Toni Shears.
"They're just mechanical steel workers. They're meant
for loading and carrying, so they don't go on patient
floors. But they sure do a lot of work."
In fact, one University Hospital press release refers
to Richard and his 14 brother and sister robots as
"electronic mules." If Richard could talk, he might
question that choice of words. Mules need drivers. But
Richard is self-programmed to carry more than 500
pounds of bulk materials across several miles of
hospital floors by himself. Once loaded up, he can
maneuver himself easily, automatically stopping when
people, or other robots, get in his way.
THE STORY of Richard and his siblings really
began when the new University Hospital opened in
February, 1986. Fifteen robocarriers were adopted from
a Swiss manufacturer for $60,000 each. That might
sound expensive, said William Chapelle, assistant
director of materiel management at University
Hospitals, but the robocarriers are the first of their kind
to be used in an American hospital.
Of course, it took some time for Richard to adjust
to his new home. Chappelle reluctantly recalled a time
when "a maintenance worker had climbed up to the
ceiling on a ladder, and the robocarrier rolled by and
knocked off the ladder - the worker was just hanging
See HOSPITAL, Page 3

r Ambassador speaks on
U.S., China relations

Daily Photo by ROBIN LOZNAK
Richard the Robocarrier spends his days diligently transporting supplies and food through the halls of
University Hospital.
Guild House continues tradition of
promoting 'moral' campus issues

By STEVEN FELDMAN
Han Xu, the American ambas-
sador of the People's Republic of
China, detailed dramatic improve-
ments in Sino-American relations
since former President Nixon's visit

the United States.
Han especially praised the
University for its high number of
Chinese students. "You have opened
your arms to 400 Chinese students,
one of the largest amounts in the

By STEVE KNOPPER
Luther Buchele missed the Uni-
versity's first teach-in opposing the
Vietnam War in March, 1965, when
3,000 students spent the night at
Angell Hall. "I kicked myself that I
didn't go." he remembers.

The Guild House has hosted the
"raging dialogue" among community
members for the last 90 years, said
co-director Ann Marie Coleman, a
city councilmember (D-First Ward).
Coleman, the first clergywoman in
Ann Arbor, and her husband Don

nights to raise funds for Central
America.
The facility also houses the Ann
Arbor-Managua Initiative for Soil
Testing And Development, a student
group.
"The services of Guild House