OPINION 4 ARTS ...... .... ,.. . ., 5 SPORTS 9 U Baseball team plays two vs. Minnesota Fresh hopes for MSA Today's weather . k . ..,.....<:."" ....:;'...... .:......:>..".;::: >.....:Y::Y:>*.;>:..,.'...<.::..<:,:...........:..::::.:.:...::.n:<.::,.: Ninety-nine years of editorial freedom Vol. C, No. 132 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Tuesday, April 17, 1990 TheMhigan Subtle by Noelle Vance Daily Administration Reporter harassment: how often is it reported? When LSA junior Nicole Carson received her graded American politics midterm, she was surprised and an- gered to find the "she" crossed off every time she used the words "he or she." The grader wrote that the words "confused" his "reading habits." Carson considered the incident to be a form of classroom discrimina- tion. "I felt very angry and incredibly excluded," she said. "I didn't under- stand why he chose to cross off all the shes." Carson did not know she could file a complaint with the Univer- sity's Office of Affirmative Action. Though she eventually confronted the grader, by the time she learned there were formal means of recourse, she felt it was too late. "It was near the end of the term, and I just didn't know... ," she said. So, like hundreds of other class- room harassment and discrimination cases, the incident went unreported. Now Carson, vice chair of the Michigan Student Assembly Women's Issues Commission and student representative for the Presi- dent's Advisory Commission on Women's Issues, is soliciting simi- lar stories for a booklet the two commissions will publish next fall. Out of 500 questionnaires circulated throughout the University, approxi- mately 100 have been returned. "We're finding that there defi- nitely is a problem," Carson said. Women,are reporting feeling ex- cluded when faculty members make off-the-cuff sexist remarks or use gender-exclusive language. There are incidents of TAs making sexual in- nuendos to students. And some men report they are afraid to say anything in the class- room because if they address certain issues, they will be called sexist, Carson said. Classroom harassment and sexual harassment are two of the most un- derreported types of harassment, ac- cording to university studies and na- tional surveys. Often, the harassment is so sub- tle that the student is not sure it's actually happening and will not re- port it, said Brian Durrance of the Lesbian and Gay Men's Rights Or- ganizing Committee. Or the harassment is directed to- ward a group and not an individual, said Bill Aseltyne, member of the Lesbian and Gay Law Student Al- liance. For instance, the topic of AIDS once came up in Aseltyne's insur- ance law class, and several of his classmates made remarks he consid- ered to be homophobic. "I was afraid to speak up... They weren't doing anything to me, but it was the environment," he said. Remarks made against a group, as opposed to an individual, cannot be punished under the University's interim discriminatory harassment policy and for that reason may be unreported. ait the'U PART TWO: The unreported story TOMORROW: Handling complaints "Ninety-nine percent of the time harassment occurs between people who know one another," said Julie Steiner, director of the Sexual As- sault Prevention and Awareness Cen- ter (SAPAC). Students frequently are afraid to take formal action because they think they will ruin the relationship or risk receiving further retaliation, Steiner said. One woman, who wishes to re- main anonymous, never reported her professor for sexual harassment after he kissed her because "I thought we could still be friends," she said. Students also fail to report ha- rassment because they don't know about the University's harassment policies, said Darlene Ray-Johnson, administrator for the student anti-dis- criminatory harassment policy. Third parties report more infor- mation about harassment to the Of- fice of Student Services than do vic- tims, Johnson explained. "Few victims actually come in, but someone else will call... We make contact with the victim and ask if they are interested in filing a complaint," Johnson said. A study by the Women's Caucus of the Political Science Department found that while almost all women who experienced sexual harassment in the department spoke of their ex- periences with a friend or graduate student, only a few reported the inci- dents to the University. "Only people close to the victim may hear about the incident," said Tali Mendlebahn, a Rackham student who conducted the study. "It's clear there is a problem of underreport- ing," she said. University policy requires all ha- rassment incidents to be reported to the Affirmative Action Office for statistical purposes. But "the University hasn't done a very good job of keeping track of the numbers or telling us how many re- ports (there are)," SAPAC Director Steiner said. Steiner said in the past, the Affirmative Action Office relayed harassment statistics between the of- fices which deal with such cases, but in recent years those statistics have stopped coming. Affirmative Action normally re- leases an annual summary of the ha- See HARASSMENT, Page 2 Local homeless take over 2d house by Sarah Schweitzer * . f Students to help Poland MBA students travel to Poland to help with its transition to a free market economy' As part of their continuing at- tempt to stop the Ann Arbor City Council from building parking struc- tures until they construct more af- fordable housing, the Homeless Ac- tion Committee (HAC) has taken over another house behind the pro- posed parking structure on W. William St. and Main St. Last November, HAC took over a house on Ashley St., where they are currently housing adults on a temporary basis. The W. William St. house, which the city plans to tear down for an $8 million parking structure, has been occupied by two homeless fam- ilies. The two families moved into the vacant house on April 6, with HAC providing for heating, water, and other utilities. Tracy Cipolletti, a mother of three and one of the new residents of the W. Williams house, said she will leave the house as soon as the city finds her "safe and affordable housing." If the city tries to make her move See HAC, page 2 by Ian Hoffman Daily Staff Writer One hundred and forty years ago Horace Greeley's advice to ambitious adults was, "Go West young man." Were he alive today, Mr. Greeley might have sug- gested a different direction. The Business School announced yesterday that five University MBA students will be traveling to Poland for three months this summer. The students will help the recently converted Communist country make a smooth transition to a market economy. The students selected were Carolyn Kley, MBA 1; Kenneth Knister, MBA 1; James McKeon, Evening MBA; Eric Mikesell, MBA 1; and Michael Shingler, MBA 2. Edwin Miller, associate dean of research at the School of Business Administration, first thought of the idea for the Michigan Business Assistance Corps (MBA Corps) last year. "I was asking a colleague, 'How does the B-school relate to the changes in Eastern Europe?"' said Miller. "We came up with a lot of options and I said, 'I want to follow up on that."' Miller said the students will perform a variety of jobs while they are in Poland. Two of the MBA Corps participants will share their expertise with the Ministry of Finance's Bureau of Privatization by valuing assets of publicly held companies to prepare them for sale to private interests. Two other students will go to Gdansk to work for private companies, and one student will as- sist a computer software company in Krackow. Marion Krzyzowski, director of the Great Lakes Trade Adjustment Assistance Center in the School of Business, helped the students find positions. Krzy- zowski has worked with leaders of Poland's Solidarity Movement - many of whom are leaders in Poland's present government and newly formed private industry - for the past 12 years. "My role has been to line up and coordinate the Pol- ish end of it," said Krzyzowski. He added that while deteriorated communication channels in Poland make creating the necessary ar- rangements for the program difficult, "There is a tremendous need for these MBA students. Everyone I talked to would have taken all the participants." To prepare for their trip, the five students are tenta- tively scheduled to enroll in a one-month crash course on Polish culture, history and politics at the Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) this May. "We will give them not so much language help as a common framework in which to operate, a common set of ideas," said Roman Szporluk, director of CREES. "This is not a consulting job; we don't do consult ing jobs," Szporluk added. "It is a service we are provid- ing because this is an exciting opportunity." Students selected for the program reacted enthusiasti- cally. "I was thrilled; it's an incredible opportunity," said Knister. "It's a chance to really make a difference. The resource they are most lacking is management exper- tise." "I was pretty excited," echoed Mikesell. "It means I have a summer job." The students will receive between $1500 and $2000 for each month they work in Poland. In addition, the business school will provide them with approximately $35 per day for living expenses and fly them to Poland at no cost. KENNETH SMOLLER/Daity A sign waves outside the Action Committee April 6. W. William house taken over by the Homeless LAGROC adds to existing demands Lithuanian Pres. asks Gorbachev for dialogue by Frank Krajenke Daily Staff Writer The Lesbian and Gay Men's Rights Organization Committee (LAGROC) is demanding that the University eradicate organizations and policies which restrict discrimination against gay males and lesbians. LaGROC presented three new demands and 9 previous ones to President James Duderstadt on April 1. The new demands call for the termination of the Task Force on Sexual Orientation, dissolution of the Office of Affirmative Action and annulment of the Policy Statement on Sexual Orientation. Though LAGROC's position Concerning direct actions by President James Duderstadt to effectualize LAGROC's requisitions, Mary Anne Swain, associate vice president for academic affairs ,said "He is not going to (fulfill the demands). None of these are useful xyays of resolving grievances. (The Task Force on Sexual Orientation, the Office of Af- firmative Action and the Policy Statement on Sexual Orientation) are the underpinnings of support for the Gay and Lesbian community; to dismantle them would cut off support (to the gay and lesbian student community)," Swain said. LAGROC's agenda should awaken students to the illusory power within instruments employed MOSCOW (AP) - Lithuania asked Mikhail Gorbachev yesterday to meet with the republic's president to provide details of Moscow's threatened economic sanctions so that Lithuanians can be prepared. It would be Gorbachev's first meeting with Lithuanian president Vytautas Landsbergis, who was elected after the republic declared it- self independent March 11. In a telegram to the Soviet presi- dent, Lithuanian Prime Minister Kazimieras Prunskiene said Lithua- nia wants to explain to its people just what the difficulties they might face if they ignore an ultimatum Gorbachev issued Friday. He gave Lithuania 48 hours to rescind some of its pro-independence laws or face a rumi-ff rof nrndnurtQ the K remlin cn the Soviet economy as well as Lithuania's. She suggested the best way to clarify the threat would be in a meeting in Moscow with a Lithuanian delegation, headed by Lansbergis. There was no immediate re- sponse from the Soviet president. Another Lithuanian leader was quoted as saying the republic would be willing to pay hard currency for Soviet goods but would expect Moscow to do the same for items. Lithuania exports. Vilnius Radio quoted Prunskiene as saying Lithuanian leaders decided that "until" we see definite physical measures against Lithuania's indus- try and economy,k all contractual oblig~ations to the U.S.S.R. must YI };:.