Ninety-eight years of editorial freedom
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Ann Arbor. Michigan - Wednesday, February 3, 1988
Copyrigtgn198;o Theichiganrwad.
Vol. A%-Vlll, NO. tl0
English
dept. to
amend
major
By LISA POLLAK
The University's English
Language and Literature Department
Monday voted to require
undergraduate English concentrators
to take one upper level course about
literature by women and people of
color, said Associate English Dept.
Chair June Howard.
Pending approval by the LSA
Curriculum and Executive
Committees, the requirement will
apply to new concentrators
beginning this fall. Neither Howard
nor LSA Assistant Dean for
Curriculum and Long Range
Planning Jack Meiland anticipated
problems with the proposal's
implementation.
A majority of voting English
Dept. faculty approved a proposal to
change the concentration requirement
made by the department's curriculum
committee - a group of about 15
headed by Howard - fall term. The
proposal states:
"Students concentrating in
English will take at least one upper-
division course emphasizing
literature by men and women of one
or more North American minority
cultures or ethnic groups, such as
Afro-American, Latino, Asian-
American, Jewish-American, or
Native American; or the anglophone
literatures of Africa, Asia, or the
Caribbean; or the literature of
women, including women of color."
The English Dept. will develop
new courses to fulfill the
requirement, Howard said. She added
that some courses - such as those
in women's and Afro-American
literature - already satisfy the intent
of the proposal.
The requirement is a response to
racial tensions on campus as well as
trends towards diversity in teaching
English literatures nationwide,
Howard said.
"The department wanted to be
responsive to the racist incidents and
challenges made to the University
over the last year... we wanted to
See DEPT., Page 5
BSU
Steiner
decry fliers
BSU calls for federal
probe into incidents
Py
Daily Photo by KAREN HANDELMAN
Rev. Robert Wallace, left, of Ann Arbor's First Baptist Church, and Bill McAninch, co-chair of Neighbor to
Neighbor, speak out against aid to the contras in Nicaragua at a press conference at the First Methodist Chur-
h in Ann Arbor yesterday. Neighbor to Neighbor is a national group concerned with issues in Central
America.
Arias supports U.S. intervention
in Central America, Pursell says
By JIM PONIEWOZIK
Members of the Black Student
Union announced yesterday that they
would ask the U.S. Justice
Department and Federal Bureau of
Investigation to investigate the
possibility of white supremacist
groups operating on campus.
BSU's decision was spurred by
the discovery Monday of racist fliers
posted around campus. The fliers,
which stated they were distributed by
a group called "Students for White
Supremacy," said Blacks are
intellectually inferior to whites and
belong "hanging from trees."
The BSU statement also called
for "an acceleration of the
implementation of a racial
harassment clause" under which
members of the University com-
munity could be punished for racist
acts.
BSU President Jeff Williams, an
LSA junior who read the statement
on behalf of the group, stressed that
BSU did not favor a "code of general
behavior" such as the one proposed
by former University President
Harold Shapiro.
But Williams added, "No one has
the right to engage in assault and
battery with racist motives."
BSU, working with the Black
Law Students' Alliance, is in the
process of composing a list of
suggestions for the clause to present
to Interim University President
Robben Fleming, Williams said.
WILLIAMS said t h e
investigation should be conducted
with co-operation from the
University, but should not be
managed by the administration. The
statement said BSU members "have
reason to believe that there is a
presence of white supremacist
groups on campus," based on
information the group received from
the Michigan Civil Rights Com-
mission.
Williams said the commission
reported that such groups may have
been involved in similar flier
incidents on campus last spring, and
said copies of a racist flier circulated
at Couzens last year were also found
at three other Michigan colleges.
Black Law Student Alliance
member and second-year law student
Charles Wynder said Monday's
incident was part of a "pattern" of
incidents, including another racist
flier distribution at Mosher-Jordan
last month and last spring's inci-
dents.
LSA Dean Peter Steiner also
issued a statement yesterday.
condemning the fliers, which,
contained a photo of him with a halo
drawn over his head.
"I have just seen and am appalled
by theracist flier now circulating o
campus," the statement read. "It is,
as (Interim University President
Robben) Fleming said, evidence of a
sick and/or corrupt mind." Fleming
issued a statement decrying the flier
Monday.
The text of the flier was precede
by the headline "Dean Steiner was
right," referring to controversial
statements Steiner made last
September concerning the
University's affirmative action pol-
icy. Some students and faculty
charged that his statments implied an
increase in minority enrollmeni
would decrease the quality of the
University.
But Steiner, who has said hil
statements were taken out of contexi
and were not meant to imply Blacks
are inferior to whites, said, "An)
association of me with such ar
obnoxious set of views is offensiv
to me and is one I wholly repudiate.
By PETER MOONEY
Secretary of State George Shultz has said that Os-
car Arias, president of Costa Rica, recommended U.S.
military intervention if Nicaragua pursues expansionist
policies, Rep. Carl Pursell (R-Plymouth) reported
Monday.
"Send in the Marines," Arias said when asked how
the United States should respond if Nicaragua threatens
its Central American neighbors, Pursell said.
Pursell, who represents Ann Arbor in Congress,
met with Secretary of State George Shultz and Presi-
dent Reagan at the White House last Friday. Pursell
was answering a question about his position on Contra
aid during a Chamber of Commerce luncheon at We-
ber's Inn when he reported his conversation with
Shultz.
In a tape of the luncheon speech, played at a press
conference held yesterday by opponents of aid to the
Contras, Pursell said Shultz asked Arias what to do if
"(Nicaraguan President Daniel) Ortega continues his
expansionism?"
"You know what Arias said to him? 'Send in the
Marines.' That's a direct quote from George Shultz,"
Pursell said.
Arias, in addition to the presidents of El Salvador
and Honduras, supports aid to the Contras, Pursell said.
Pursell Press Secretary Gary Cates said the infor-
mation was not intended to indicate Pursell's position
on Contra aid. He was just "relaying remarks that were
made," Cates said.
A State Department spokesperson said he could
not confirm that Shultz made the statement. Shultz
was unavailable for comment.
Arias received the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for a
plan he developed to resolve the conflicts in Central
America.
The plan calls for an end to aid for all insurgencies,
in the region, said Costa Rican Ambassador to the
United Nations Emilia Barish.
Barish questioned the assertion that Arias sup-
ported intervention by the Marines: "Those could not
be his views," said Barish.
"The peace plan doesn't talk about the Contras,
but is against all military insurgencies and military as-
sistance," said Barish. She said it also calls for the an
end to aid for rebels in El Salvador.
See LOCAL, Page 7
Recovering addict makes a comeback
By KRISTINE LALONDE
Halloween night, 1983, was a
particularly wild night for Arch
Wright. He drank heavily, smoked
pot all night and did a few hits of
acid. He was snorting about one
gram of cocaine every hour, which
can be enough for five people for
Profile
one night and could have been fatal.
"The last 6 months that I was
using, my life was pure hell. It was a
vicious circle on a daily basis for me
to find enough drugs to just make it
through the day. It was completely
out of control," said Wright. He
remembers the fall of 1983 as a time
when his professional ski racing
career was dwindling.
Even his friends, who also used
drugs, were startled by such
extremes of a friend who routinely
used two to three grams of cocaine a
day. The party lasted all night and
into the next day. At one point,
Helps others fight
Wright said he felt his heart palpitate
and his chest tighten.
"I had every reason in the world
to be able to look at my problem
objectively and say 'This is
ridiculous, you're sinking
yourself,"' said Wright, whose
addiction continued for four months
until another dramatic night of
cocaine use at a New Year's party.
TWELVE years earlier, at age
11, Wright began downhill ski-
racing in his hometown of Boyne,
Michigan, an area known for its ski
resorts. That same year, his battle
with drugs and alcohol began.
"I remember from the very
beginning, the first drink that I had,
the first pot that I smoked, I just
loved the feeling. It felt like it
released all of my inhibitions, that I
could do anything I wanted," he
said. "It was the beginning of a long-
lasting love affair with it. In the end,
of course, it was fu
just craved getting h
Wright's drug
talent for skii
simultaneously.
overachievers often
because the rush
similar to winning a
"I see alcoholism
all the time, especi
setting, so it's sadf
same time I know
help available," hes
DURING his so
high school, Wrig
skiing talent won
into Burke Mt.
Vermont, a private
racers which is des
national and Olymp
At the time it was
academy for high-s
the world.
At Burke, wher
11 useattend, Wright trained intensely for
up to six hours per day and attended
ll out addiction. I classes. The private, disciplined
high." atmosphere allowed little free time;
addiction, and Wright rarely drank or used drugs
ng developed during this time.
He said But when the school year ended
n become addicts in June, Wright went to his summer
from drugs is home in Lake Charlevoix, Michigan
frcomedrugsn and each day, he said, was a blur of
n competition. drinking and partying with friends.
n and drug abuse THE SUMMER he turned 16,
rally in a campus Wright was initiated into the world
for me but at the of cocaine. The drug, he said
there's a lot of brought him to a new level of
said. . sensation and addiction, and he
ophomore year in loved it more than any other drug.
;ht's exceptional But when he returned to Burke in
him acceptance the fall, he again had to control the
Academy in addiction.
school for Alpine During his senior year, a coach at
signed to develop Burke suspected Wright's drug use
pic caliber racers. and talked to him about addiction.
the foremost ski After the confrontation, Arch qui
school students in completely for two months in the
Sonly 40 students See ADDICT, Page 2
Daily Photo by DAVID LUBLINER
Arch Wright, a senior in the University's Business School, is a former
drug addict who once competed nationally in downhill ski races.
Volunteers earn money in
anti-flu medication study
Groups criticize
Rosenboom decision
1
By ALYSSA LUSTIGMAN
For once, getting sick may not be so bad.
Doctors at the School of Public Health are offering
students who have contracted Type A-influenza $130 to
participate in a study through University Health
Services. The infected participants are being used as a
testing group for a drug to fight symptoms of the flu.
side effects, but about five percent of the population
cannot take Amantadie.
Rimantadie is already licensed for use in several
countries, including France and the Soviet Union.
In the study, half of the students will receive
Rimantadie; the other half will receive a placebo. The
By VICKI BAUER
Many women active in fighting
rape and sexual assault in the
community are angered at a decision
this week to dismiss sexual, assault
charges against University Prof.
Thomas Rosenboom without a trial
injury.
Rosenboom is continuing with
counter suit for defamation ,
character against the student an
University, sexual assault counselo
Kata Issari.
The activists say the ruling i