The Michigan Daily - Thursday, December 8, 1988 - Page 3 'Ten-term rule' pits GEO against LSA 11 BY MIGUEL CRUZ SPECIAL TO THE DAILY DETROIT - The administration of the school of Literature, Science, and the Arts yesterday met representatives of the Graduate Em- ployee Organization for the second half of an Unfair Labor Practice hearing filed in December 1987 by the GEO. Two Michigan Employee Re- lations Commission claims were filed in respect to the "ten-term rule," the LSA policy which cuts off tuition reimbursements for graduate teaching assistants after ten academic terms. The first claim is in objection to LSA's adoption and formalization of the ten-term rule. The second, filed for "refusal to furnish information," was submitted after GEO failed to receive what they felt was a satis- factory response to their request for documentation relating to the first case. The claims are being heard si- multaneously. The GEO contends that the rule was first instituted by a June 1987 memorandum from LSA Dean Peter Steiner, whereas LSA holds that it has been an unwritten rule for years. GEO President and Rackham graduate student Don Demetriades explained the organization's position that "the policy represents a new condition of employment; that you have to have taught less than ten terms in order to be hired," which would violate their contract as cur- rently negotiated, he said. LSA has countered the GEO's arguments from two angles. They maintain that the policy has existed in unwritten form long before Steiner's memorandum. At the hear- ing, Associate Dean for Budget Car- olyn Copeland testified to internal correspondence as early as 1985 concerning the rule. At the first part of the hearing, in September, LSA motioned for dis- missal of the case on the grounds that the question is academic rather than one of employment. The state commission would be disqualified from hearing the case if it were determined to be an academic issue. Demetriades' testimony at that time was that he was a student of the Rackham Graduate School, rather than of LSA, since his academic evaluation, credit, and degree were all to come from the former. His only connection to LSA, he said, was that of an employee to an employer. The LSA dismissal motion was taken into consideration but denied. Yesterday, University officials continued to cite past examples and justifications for the rule. University Labor Attorney Wil- liam Lemmer spoke of negotiations in 1974 when the issue came up in the form of a GEO proposal "de- signed to guarantee a certain amount of longevity to the teaching assistancy." He it was not accepted at the time, in part, "on the basis that the University is decentralized and there are departments with different approaches... people have different views about how long people should be a teaching as- sistant." Colleen Dolan-Green, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, said the rule was "put in place to encourage students to make normal academic progress towards their deg- ree." The final decision on the case will not be available for at least six weeks. JOSE JUAREZ/Daky' Big burger LSA sophomore Tom Robinson (left) and LSA junior Mark Whitschiller eat a 21-patty burger at Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger yesterday. They smashed the old record of 13, Blimpy employees said. Fall finals period pressure plagues BY TARANEH SHAFII As fall term winds down, student stress is mounting. Libraries are packed. Com- puter centers are filled 24 hours a day. And for the first time this year, the bars aren't even crowded. These scenes evoke the traditional finals image - all too familiar to the veteran student. But there is another side to this year-end frenzy that isn't as noticeable because it's on the other side of the classroom - the professors. Students probably feel more antipathy than sympathy toward their professors dur- ing the last two weeks of the term. But professors can get stressed out too. "The end of the term is always the most pressure-full time," said Economics Prof. Thomas Weisskopf. "There are papers to read, exams to prepare, and exams to grade." It can take up to one hour to grade each exam, said Weisskopf. Since he does not have any teaching assistants this term, Weisskopf may hire grading assistants through the economics department to help him grade his 66 undergraduate exams. It is not unusual for professors to hire graduate students to help grade exams, said History Prof. Raymond Grew. Although grading policy varies between colleges, it "usually goes by course size" in LSA, he said. If a class has between 50-70 students, for example, a grader is often hired. Although Weisskopf has a lot of work to do himself he realizes the additional stress upon University students. "It's not as stressful for professors as it is for students because we're not worried with how well we do," he said. But, like students, he is pressured for time. Like many professors, Weisskopf has to turn in grades within three days after the final exam. Grew said both students and p feel the strain of the time crunch. "There are a lot of pressure deadlines in particular are very av he said. Grew has two days to gr the final exams and late papers students. LSA professors must t grades into the college by Dec. 24 "You don't know how hard w he said. Even though the grade pushes into Christmas Eve, Gre he would rather be grading than sh John Kucich, associate profess professors glish, avoids the final rush by assigning a rofessors 10-15 page writing project instead of a final exam. But even without finals to grade, the s - the end of the term is hectic for him. wkward," During the weeks between Thanksgiving ade all of and Christmas, Kucich spends much of his from his time working on committees within the turn their English department, advising graduate stu- dents about dissertations, writing letters of ve work," recommendation, and discussing writing deadline projects with undergraduates. w admits But preparing questions and topics for opping. writing assignments does not take up a lot sor of En- of his time. Palestinian leaders call for strikes The Palestinian Solidarity Committee and the Arab Student League say they do not believe that the board and shanty were defaced by extrem- ist Arab groups who do not agree with their desire for peaceful coexis- tence and want to "make them have a bad image." Members of PSC painted over the statements on the board at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. JERUSALEM (AP) - Pales- tinian leaders called for two days of strikes starting today in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to mark the first anniversary of their uprising against Israeli rule. The conservative Hebrew daily Maariv said the army was increasing forces in the territories in anticipa- tion of trouble. Army officials de- clined yesterday to comment on the report for security reasons. The "interfaden," Arabic for uprising, began December 8, 1987 with riots in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the occupied Gaza Strip af- ter an army truck collided with a van, killing four Palestinians. Ru- mors had spread it was no accident, and was instead revenge for the stab- bing death of an Israeli businessper- son three days earlier. A day after the riot, soldiers opened fire on protesting students in the camp after a firebomb was hurled at an army patrol. Two Palestinians were killed, the first of 319 to die in the yearlong uprising. Eleven Is- raelis also have died in the violence. Israel has controlled the territories since it took Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. Also yesterday an army official said that a commander followed proper procedures in the Monday shooting that killed a 15-year-did Palestinian girl. Asma Abu Obadah of the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, was hit in the back of the head with a single plastic bullet. Witnesses said she encountered soldiers trying to dis- perse a demonstration as she walked home from school and that she pan- icked andran. I THE LIST f What's happening in Ann Arbor today Speakers "Floods, Frosts, Hot Rocks, and Big Pueblos: Classic Pe- riod . Anasazi Settlement, Sub- sistence, and Social Dynamics in the Lower Rio Chama Val- ley, New Mexico" - Kurt An- schuetz, 2009 Ruthven Museums, 12 noon-1 pm. Brown Bag Series. "Social and Reproductive Characteristics of Depressed and Anxious Women" - Susan M. Essock, Ph.D., Connecticut Dept. of Mental Health, East Lecture Con- ference Rm., Rackhiam Third Floor, 4 pm. "A Role for U.S. Christians in the Middle East Conflict" - Rev. Charles Kimball, Curtis Rm., First Presbyterian Church, 7:30 pm. "Block Copolymer in Selective Solvents" - Prof. Bohumil Bednar, Prague Institute of Chem. Technol- ogy, Czechoslovakia, 1013 Dow, 4 pm. "Controversy and Current Is- sues in Israel After the Elec- tions" - Gidon Remez, Head of Foreign and Political News Desk Kol Yisrael, 1429 Hill St., Hillel, 7:30 pm. "Ujamma/Cooperative Eco- nomics" - Discussion, Alice Lloyd, Newcomb Lounge, 7:30 pm. "Fractal Kinetics and Particle Distributions of Diffusion- Limited Binary Reactions in Low Dimensional Systems" - Ms. Li Li, Chem. Dept., 1200 Chem. Bldg., 4 pm. "Nicotinic Receptor Gene Ex- pression in the Goldfish Retina" - K. Cauley, 2055 MHRI, 12 noon. "Waldo Sen Neden Burada Degilsen: Autobiography of Ismet Ozel, A Turkish Funda- mentalist" - S. Mardin, 210 Tap- pan Hall, 3 pm. "Aldose Reductase Inhibitors" - L.Y. Hsu, 3554 C.C. Little, 4 pm. Shotokan Karate Club of Michigan - CCRB Martial Arts Rm., 7-8:30 pm. U of M Fencing Team - Prac- tice, Coliseum, 7-10 pm. Last week of practices for the term. Publicity Meeting-WCBN - Downstairs of SAB, 7:30 pm. U of M Archery Club - Coli- seum, 7-10 pm. Info call 764-4084. Miskatonic - Michigan Rm., Michigan Union, 8 pm. Society for dark fantasy. United Coalition Against Racism - Michigan Union, 6 pm.. Socially Active Latino Student Association - B111 MLB, 7:30 pm. Furthermore Mission Impossible's First Annual "Bonzai" Party -- Rick's American Cafe, SATURDAY, De- cember 10. All students welcome. University Lutheran Chapel - Topic Study: "Pre-marriage", 7 pm; Lutheran Doctrine Study, 8 pm. "I'm So Stressed..."- GUIDE Peer Facilitators discuss student prob- lems with academic stress, and ways of dealing with them. Couzens Resi- dence Hall, 7-9 pm. Visiting Writers Series - Po- etry Reading, Karen Fish, Rackham East Conference Rm., 5 pm. Perfornances BFA/MFA Dance Concert - Dance Building Studio Rm. A The- ater, 8 pm. Tickets: $4. Soundstage/UAC Presents - "Juice", U-Club, 10 pm. $3. Last show of the semester. Chamber Music from Residen- tial College - Pendelton Rm., Michigan Union, 12:15-12:45 pm. String and wind instruments. Impact Dance Theatre Weekly Workshops - Anderson Rm., Michigan Union, 7-8:30 pm. Earthquake MOSCOW (AP) - The The U. strongest earthquake to hit the So- Golden, C viet Union's Caucasus Mountains centered s region in 80 years killed and injured tal of Tbl: an undetermined number of people Richter sca yesterday, flattened buildings and left by a mod thousands homeless. region int The quake, centered near the So- wracked b viet-Turkish border, also killed at lence betw least four people and caused exten- baijanis. sive damage in eastern Turkey, au- Preside thorities said. who was v S. Geological Survey in olorado, said the quake outh of the Georgian capi- isi, registered 6.9 on the ale. The temblor, followed erate aftershock, struck a the Soviet Union already by months -of ethnic vio- een Armenians and Azer- nt Mikhail Gorbachev, isiting the United States, called the earthquake "a grave tragedy." State-run television, in an unusually prompt and detailed report from the scene, showed crumbling buildings in Kirovakan, Armenia's third largest city, and in Spitak, a regional center of Armenia. hits U.S.S.R. mountains Officials said communications had been cut off with Leninakan, near where the quake was centered. The government set up a com- mission to oversee rescue and sal- vage operations and sent soldiers and civilian volunteers to the disaster, area, Tass said. POLICE Fire in fuel tank A fire in an underground fuel tank behind the University's power plant on 1220 E. Huron occupied Ann Arbor fire fighters for over an hour yesterday while backing up noon- time traffic on Huron Avenue. No injuries were reported. The fire was caused by a spark ignited while workers removed a manhole cover to one of the several 50,000 gallon underground fuel tanks, said Fire Department Battal- ion Chief Ronald Hieber. More than a dozen fire fighters wearing gas masks hosed out the fire, which burned the'sludge at the bottom of the empty tank. Workers were in the process of removing all the manhole covers to sandblast and recondition them. Ann Arbor police and University NOTES safety officers sectioned off Huron Avenue from Washington to Fletcher. ' Officials kept the area sectioned off to vehicles and pedestrians until 12:30 p.m., forcing them to take al- ternative routes to and from the University Medical Center. by Patrick Staiger _I _4t, r I H- HOUSE OF WINGS AIDS Continued from Page 1 and they were transferred within the medical center. LaGROC is demanding that tle University: *provide ful disclosure of its re- search policies, services, treatments, and budgets concerning AIDS/HIV infection, -provide "massive funding for AIDS research, treatment, and sup- port services," -provide an AIDS treatment cen- ter, -take a leadership role in coordination of public health re- sources to combat AIDS in Africa, -not discriminate against workers and students with AIDS/HIV infection, -provide complete health care benefits fully payed by the University, and include expensive experimental drugs as University- payed benefits, -provide full disability leave for workers with AIDS/HIV infection a workers' request, and -insure adequate hospital staffing to provide safety for health care workers and patients. IFOOD BUYS fog /T.M. J " . 'V * Wishes everyone a happy *2 I dl I: N. I ~ . I ~UUUi~. .rJ~ Di~ . L 'I WLII.