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Ninety-nine years of editorial freedom
Vol. C, No.11 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Thursday, September 21, 1989 TheMichignCOil
'U' officials
examining
racism charges
Housing Dept. investigating
allegations of discrimination
JOSH.MOORE/Daily
Enjoying the morning sun...
Ann Arbor resident John Kones, spends his morning looking out the window of the lounge at the The
Liberty inn.
by Marion Davis
Daily Minority Issues Reporter
A Mary Markley Residence Hall
resident told a Residential Director
two weeks ago that she wanted to
move out after discovering that her
roommate was Black, housing
officials confirmed yesterday..
The Black student charged that
she had been discriminated against,
and for two weeks, the students
living on the hall have endured a
tense living environment.
The Black student who reported
the alleged discriminatory act said
that no longer than five minutes
after their first meeting, her white
roommate made a decision that the
two could not live together.
The Black woman alleges that her
roommate told her she wanted to live
with someone who was more like
her, had the same background, and
grew up in the same environment.
The roommate then suggested that
the Black student move in with
some of her own friends, the Black
student said.
The Plack woman said she
thought the reasons were unjustified
because they had not had enough
time to get acquainted.
The Black student said the white
student denied that her decision was
racially motivated.
Both students involved in the
incident have asked that their names
not be printed because of an ongoing
investigation into the incident.
The white student who allegedly
committed the discriminatory action
has refused comment.
Both the students later talked to
their residence hall advisor and the
building's resident director to discuss
the incident. The conflict was not
resolved and the- white woman
eventually moved.
Several days before the incident
between the women, racist graffitti
was found in a Markley elevator.
PARIS (AP) - A Moslem fun-
damentalist group claimed responsi-
bility yesterday for the downing of a
French DC-10 jetliner in southern
Niger that killed all 171 people on
board.
U.S., French and UTA airline au-
thorities said they believe the plane,
bound Tuesday from Chad to Paris,
was blown out of the sky by a
bomb. A U.S. team of investigators
was to leave later yesterday for
Niger.
Two callers who claimed to rep-
resent Islamic Jihad but did not give
their own names made their claims
of responsibility in separate tele-
phone calls to the airline and to a
Western news agency.
Archie Andrews, associate director of
housing, said it stated "Die nigger,
die."
Though housing officials set up a
"get-to-know-your-roommate" hall
support meeting in response to the
incident, the hall's residents have
said the meetings have been vague.
bombed
over
Niger
171 passengers, including 7
Amrcnkilled on board
Islamic Jihad is among several
radical fundamentalist groups in
Lebanon believed to be part of
Hezbollah, or Party of God, the um-
brella groups thought to hold 16
Westerners hostage in Lebanon, in-
cluding eight Americans.
Among the passengers on the
French jetliner were seven
Americans, including Bonnie Pugh,
wife of the U.S. ambassador to
Chad, Robert L. Pugh.
UTA Flight 772 was on a flight
from Brazzaville, Congo, to Paris
when it crashed Tuesday shortly after
making a stop in N'Djamena, Chad.
Debris was scattered over a 16-mile
expanse of desert about 400 miles
northwest of N'Djamena.
The French army, whose troops
stationed in neighboring Chad were
the first to reach the scene, said the
15 crew and 156 passengers died, in-
cluding eight children.
Authorities said indications are
that the aircraft was felled by a
bomb.
"The obvious wide-spread nature
of the debris suggested it blew up in
the sky and not on the ground," pres-
idential, press.secretary-Marlin.z
Fitzwater said, adding That President
Bush had been briefed on the
mishap.
UTA said it had received an
anonymous phone call from a man
claiming responsibility on behalf of
Islamic Jihad.
In London, an anonymous caller
also telephoned a Western news
agency and said:
"In the name of Allah and Imam
Khomeini, the Islamic Jihad issued
this statement: We are proud of this
action which was very successful.
We would like to say the French are
warned not to exchange information
see CRASH, page 5
The Black woman alleges
that her roommate told
her she wanted to live
with someone who was
more like her, had the
same background, and
grew up in the same
environment.
In fact, the housing staff was told
not to comment on the incident and
to refer questions to Andrews.
But many of the residents said the
meeting really didn't explain what
happened. "They (housing officials)
should have opened up a little more.
It would have helped everybody to
understand more," said one resident.
"I don't think it's appropriate
(being vague)," said another student.
"It's a serious problem and it should
be dealt with."
Currently the incident is being
investigated by Andrews, the
building director supervisor and the
Markley building director.
"I can't give a definite answer on
what actions we will take. We are in
the process of investigating the
facts," Andrews said. "There are
always two sides to a story and we
want to hear and investigate both
sides of the story... I'm still talking
to several people."
Anti
-discrimination rules:
others lookin
by Noah Finkel
Daily Administration Reporter
A student can now be punished
for engaging in discriminatory con-
duct directed at individuals with the
intent of harming that individual.
Civil libertarians are considering a
lawsuit.
Sound familiar?
For many University of
Michigan students, the controversy
about the week-old revised anti-dis-
crimination policy comes to mind.
But in Madison, Wisconsin, stu-
dents think of UWS-17 - the
University of Wisconsin's new pol-
icy imp mented this semester pro-
hibiting aiscrimination on- the basis
of race, sex, religion, sexual orienta-
tion, and national origin.
And students at Stanford, Tufts,
and Emory are reminded of their uni-
versity's policies on discrimination.
Just like the University of
Michigan, these schools and several
others are struggling with the ques-
tion of how to protect students from
racial or sexual harassment while in-
suring the right to free speech on
campus.
Schools are resolving the
dilemma in their own way, and ob-
servers are keeping a watchful eye on
developments regarding Michigan's
anti-discrimination policy, especially
the legal aspects.
Last month, the American Civil
Liberties Union successfully chal-
lenged the original University anti-
discrimination policy. A federal
court judge ruled that the policy was
too vague and violated the First
Amendment.
But last week, University
President James Duderstadt imple-
mented a narrower interim policy
that only punishes students if they
issue epithets to individuals with an
intent to injure.
The new anti-discrimination rules
at Wisconsin are very similar to the
interim ones here.
Gretchen Miller, an ACLU
lawyer who is preparing a challenge
of Wisconsin's anti-discrimination
policy, said her case raises the same
issues as the ACLU/University of
Michigan case.
"The victory at Michigan will
have an impact here," Miller said.
"We will certainly cite the judge's
ruling in our brief."
But Patricia Hodulik, general
counsel at Wisconsin, said the ruling
here will not make much of an im-
pact on Wisconsin. "The Michigan
policy was a bit broader," Hodulik
said. "Because ours is narrower, it
can withstand an attack from the
ACLU."
"We were aware of the Michigan
policy when we were. developing
ours at the same time, but we didn't
draw much from it" she said.
Stanford University may soon
g to'U'
enact similar, but slightly broader
rules. A faculty/student committee is
considering the possibility of pun-
ishing students for discriminatory
speech directed toward an individual
or group of individuals that is in-
tended to "insult or stigmatize".
Those rules are a scaled down
version of an original policy pro-
posal which was withdrawn after a
wide segment of the community
judged it too broad and vague, said
Stanford General Counsel Sally
Cole.
See POLICIES, page 5
Hurricane Hugo
heads for the U.S.
Looters plague
war-torn Beirut
MIAMI (AP) -- Hurricane Hugo
quickened its pace toward the Eastern
Seaboard yesterday as residents gath-
ered supplies and made evacuation
plans, while violence and looting
broke out on the shattered islands in
the storm's wake.
President Bush authorized the
sending of troops to the U.S. Virgin
Island of St. Croix after members of
the National Guard and police report-
edly joined prison escapees and
others in wild looting. Armed Coast
W Guard crewnersons also went ashore
tions. Hugo picked up speed over
open water and could come ashore
late today or early, tomorrow.
"I think they're looking at this
one with a bit of respect," city
spokesperson Pat Dowling said in
Myrtle Beach, S.C., as radio and TV
advisories warned: "Remember the
people of Puerto Rico."
Since Sunday, Hugo has killed at
least 25 people, left thousands
homeless and caused hundreds of
millions of dollars in damage as it
slashed thrniouh the northeastern
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -
Long-suffering residents of this be-
leaguered capital have braved six
months of shelling and shortages
only to face a new terror - bunker
bandits.
Bands of gunners prowl the
streets of Moslem west Beirut at
night, cleaning out apartments hit in
the artillery battles between the
Syrians and Christian forces.
They grab anything salvageable:
Persian carpets, television sets,
video recorders, silverware.
neath their apartment block in west
Beirut's Aishe Bakkar neighborhood.
"I don't know how they managed
to get in during the shelling," said
one of the victims, Mohammed
Abu-Samir, a middle-aged Sunni
Moslem taxi driver.
"They just ordered us to hand
over our jewelry, money and watches
and we had to do as they said," he
said. "I don't know which is the
worst: getting robbed in our own
shelter, or the shelling."
The number of renorted rohheries
. F