The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 30, 1991 - Page 3
Housing
initiates
new meal
options
By Merav Barr
Coalition effort
in Zaire fails as
opposition splits
In order to accommodate new
meal-plan options without subse-
quent rate increases, University
Housing Services has consolidated
weekend dining service into fewer
halls.
South Quad, East Quad, Stock-
well, Markley, and Bursley are
the only residence halls open for
weekend meals.
Consolidation conserves en-
ergy and money, Head of Food
Services Jean Casey said. "If we
can make cuts like not heating big
grills ... and things that are just
energy hogs, then we can save
some money for students."
"Our intent was to be able to
offer a better meal plan with
greater flexibility without any
rate increase," Housing Business
Manager Larry Durst said.
The consolidation was one of
several changes made in the meal
plan program this fall.
A Housing Division survey
conducted in April 1990 indicated
that 90 percent of student resi-
dents favored expanded meal plan
options. The average student was
eating only 9.75 of the 13 meals
served, and 66 percent of students
said they were willing to eat in
Students wait in line for dinner at the Mary Markley cafeteria Saturday night. Only five residence hall
cafeterias are open for weekend meals.
other residence halls on the week-
end to cut costs.
Casey said, "This grew out of
three years' discussion with rate
committees and student surveys
and it was clear that the students
wanted to see some changes."
The Housing Division re-
sponded by adding the "Weekday
9" plan including nine of 15
meals offered Monday thru
Friday plus a $150 credit to
Entree Plus each term. The "Zero
Meals" plan was also added, of-
fering $550 Entree Plus credit per
term, but no meals.
According to Housing
Business Manager Larry Durst,
almost $2,000 of every $4,000 res-
ident lease, the second highest
room and board cost in the Big 10,
goes to food services.
Durst said "Any 13" is the
most economical plan, offering 13
of 18 meals including lunch and
dinner on Saturday, and Sunday
dinner.
Durst said initial overcrowd-
ing has been substantially allevi-
ated. Lines are being rerouted in
Stockwell to ease some heavy
traffic, while South Quad is run-
ning smoothly. "Lines are not a
problem in South Quad on the
weekends," said first-year student
Dawn Ross.
Final meal plan adjustments
must be made by Friday. "A lot
of people have switched" from
the 13-meal plan to nine, said
South Quad resident Kristi Byam.
"I saw I had meals left over with
the 13 meal plan."
But Byam still expressed dis-
satisfaction. "I would like a meal
plan with less meals that includes
weekends."
Food Service officials invite
concerned students to share ideas
through the Resident Hall
Association or by joining Rate
Committees by contacting their
office in the Student Activities
Building.
-David Leitner contributed
to this story.
KINSHASA, Zaire - Zaire ed-
ged toward political chaos yes-
terday as 20 irate opponents of
President Mobutu Sese Seko forced
their way into his marble palace to
disrupt talks aimed at forming a
new government.
The group told reporters it
would kill opposition leaders who
agreed to form a coalition govern-
ment that would allow Mobutu to
remain even as a figurehead.
The scene demonstrated Mob-
utu's loss of control since unpaid
soldiers mutinied a week ago,
pillaging Kinshasa and other cities
in this sprawling Central African
country of 30 million people.
France and Belgium sent 1,750
troops to evacuate foreigners, and
the soldiers' presence' helped to
quell the rioting in the former
Belgian colony. But both Paris and
Brussels have demanded Mobutu
end 26 years of dictatorial rule and
allow democracy.
The unrest in Zaire comes amid a
wave of strikes, riots and protests
that have swept Africa in the past
18 months. So far, 16 one-party
states have been forced to legalize
political opposition and three
Marxist governments have been un-
seated at the ballot box.
Mobutu's presidential guard re-
acted with confusion as the band of
minor opposition figures pushed
their way onto Mobutu's palace
grounds yesterday. A week ago, they
would have been shot.
They threatened to kill opposi-
tion leaders, including Etienne
Tshisekedi, the 58-year-old leader of
the Union for Democracy and Social
Progress. He was widely expected
to be named prime minister in the
so-called government of national
crisis that Mobutu has agreed to
form.
Twelve opposition representa
tives were allowed inside the palace,
but not immediately permitted to
attend the talks between Mobutu
and the Sacred Union for Dem-
ocracy, a coalition of 10 pro-
democracy parties and groups. The
talks continued late yesterday.
Leopold Kazadi, a spokesperson
for Tshisekedi, rejected claims that
his party's leader would betray the
opposition. Tshisekedi will submit
his candidacy to participants of the
talks for approval, Kazadi said, and
stand aside if rejected.
State-run radio said that accord-
ing to preliminary figures 117 peo-
ple died and 156 were injured in last
week's unrest, which ended when
French and Belgian paratroops
intervened.
Speaker calls Spike Lee the 'wrong thing'
by Chastity Wilson
Celebrated African-American
journalist and University journal-
ism fellow Itabari Njeri gave a
speech at Rackham on Friday about
her article "Doing the Wrong
Thing," in which she addresses the
theme of Spike Lee's Jungle Fever.
Njeri has won much acclaim, in-
cluding the American Book Award
in 1990, for her book, Every Good-
Bye Ain't Gone. Her visit was spon-
sored by the Michigan Fellowship
Program in celebration of its 10th
reunion of Michigan fellows.
Njeri's fame and controversial re-
view of Lee's film packed the room
with a diverse group of students and
other observers.
"In perpetuating the myth that
Blacks and whites who marry are
misfits, Spike Lee shows in Jungle
Fever that he remains enslaved by a
racist mind-set," she said.
Njeri does not deny that she is a
product of the dilution that the
African-Americans have suffered.
However, this does not imply that
she agrees with how Lee depicted in-
ter-racial relationships.
After seeing the movie numerous
times, she described Lee as a self-
proclaimed "black nationalist with
a camera."
In adopting "the most backward
elements of nationalism," she said,
Lee fails to comprehend a national-
ist imperative: "self-determination,
the capacity to speak for ourselves
instead of being spoken for by oth-
ers."
She said that Lee uses "cynical
manipulation of sensational topics
that impress gullible white critics
as 'visionary' ... 'revolutionary."'
She went on to say that the film
was largely about "inter-ethnic
lust," trumpeting the "forbidden
fruit" cliche and the "bigoted
tenets of Black nationalism - rape
as the sole reason for the mixed
identity of Blacks and ethnic sexual
exclusivity in the name of Black
'racial' purity."
Also, she said to think that every
sexual encounter between Blacks
and whites today and in the New
World was coerced "displays a fun-
damental misunderstanding of hu-
man nature." The sex drive knows
no racial boundaries, she added.
Jungle Fever, she said, with its
"fascistic bent," describes
"miscegenated blood as a cesspool,"
though most African Americans are
obviously descendants of mixtures.
She also denied the existence of
"race" and gave colorful examples
of people she knew as proof that no
ethnic group is "pure."
Referring to the no-holds-barred
conversation between a group of
Black women in the film, Njeri said
that there are going to be a lot of
lonely Black women if they agree
with Flipper Purify's wife (Lonette
McKee), who profanely stressed
that she was not an "equal opportu-
nity lover" and that "rainbow sex"
was not for her.
Many potentially rewarding re-
lationships are not realized because
of such "self-imposed" and
"artificial" barriers, she said.
She said that the film expresses a
"reactionary chauvinism" that has
resulted from an "internalized op-
pression," adding "more heat than
light" to inter-racial relations.
"The worst thing a Black person
could become is a racist," Njeri said.
"To become one meant that the en-
emy had won, taken hold of your
mind and crushed your capacity to
love and live rationally."
British Labor Party offers renewed challenge
BRIGHTON, England (AP) -
The Labor Party opened its annual
conference yesterday in a position
for the first time in a decade to
threaten the Conservatives' hold on
power.
"We can demonstrate this week
that we are fit to serve and ready to
govern," declared Labor leader Neil
Kinnock, 49, who has discarded
many of the party's leftist tenets
that turned voters to the Tories the
last three elections.
The weeklong gathering in this
southern England resort is the last
before the next general election,
which must be held by July. If
Labor loses, Kinnock is unlikely to
survive as party leader, many ana-
lysts believe.
But Kinnock, who has dragged
the party toward the center since
taking over seven years ago, is a vet-
eran at coping with political adver-
sity: a party 12 years out of office
and poor personal ratings; attacks
from Britain's mostly right-wing
tabloid national newspapers; denun-
ciations from Labor's angry leftists.
The last Labor government was
defeated in 1979 and the Tories eas-
ily won the next two elections. But
now opinion polls show the two big
parties running neck and neck, and
the campaign for the parliamentary
elections has begun in all but name.
Between 1983 and 1987, Kinnock
reversed the party's position on sev-
eral big vote-losers: pledges to
withdraw Britain from the
European Community, nationalize
banks, ban private schools and levy
"soak the rich" taxes.
Now Kinnock has also dropped
the party's demand for unilateral
nuclear disarmament, long a cher-
ished personal belief.
With the ideological differences
narrowed, the focus is on the per-
sonalities: Kinnock vs. the
Conservatives' 48-year-old John
Major, who became Britain's
youngest prime minister this cen-
tury when he succeeded Margaret
Thatcher in November.
Big impression
Detroit Piston Joe Dumars takes time to sign an autograph for an
admiring fan while he and teammate Isiah Thomas watch the football
game from the sidelines Saturday.
THE
LIST
AAUW opens floodgates, takes in $20,000
and lots of water at book sale fundraiser
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
102 UGLi or call 936-1000. Extended
hours are 1 a.m. -3 a.m. at the Angell
Enact, weekly mtg. SNR, 1040 Dana, 7 Hall Computing Center or call 763-
p.m. 4246.
Undergraduate Philosophy Club. Northwalk, North Campus safety
Topic: "Philosophy Games: The Heavi- walking service. Sun-Thur 8 p.m.-1:30
ness of Philosophy Made Lighter." 2220 a.m. and Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m.-11:30 p.m.
Angell, 7 p.m. Stop by 2333 Bursley or call 763-
Students Concerned About Animal WALK.
Rights. Union, Pond Rm, 8 p.m. Ultimate Frisbee Club, practice. Be-
Comedy Company, writers mtg. All ginners welcome. Mitchell Field, 7-9.
comedic writers welcome. UAC offices, Call 668-2886 for info.
second floor of the Union, 7:30. Guild House Writers Series,
Indian American Student Associa- Stephanie Ivanoff and Tiffany Higgins.
tion, weekly board mtg. All members Guild House, 802 Monroe, 8:30-10.
welcome. League, meeting rm D, 8 p.m. Stereotypes of Asian American
U-M Asian American Student Coali- Women, workshop. Trotter House, 7
tion, weekly mtg. East Quad, 52 Greene, p.m.
7:30. Blues Party and Open Mike Night,,
Hindu Students Council. Union, every Monday, $1.50 cover. Blind Pig,-
Wolverine Rm, 8 pm. 8:30.
Speakers U-M Ninjitsu Club, Monday practice.
Rosellen Brown, reading from her IM Bldg, wrestling rm, 7:30-9.
wor. Rckhm Aphiheaer,4 pm.U-M Womnen's Lacrosse Club, Mon-
"The Fight to Save the Bill of Rights, 9-10:30. Call996-3392 for info.
On Campus and Off," Dr. Howard Career Planning and Placement.
Simon, exec. director, Michigan ACLU. Cre lnigadPaeet
Law School, Hutchins Hall, n A250, Sharpening Your Interview Skills.
7:30. CP&P Program Rm, 4:10-5.
7T .., n , .
by Julie Schupper
Daily Women's Issues Reporter
The annual fundraising book sale
organized by the Ann Arbor branch
of the American Association of
University Women (AAUW)
raised nearly $20,000 last weekend,
despite a water main break at
Arborland Mall.
The break occurred at approxi-
mately 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, caus-
ing the AAUW to loose about seven
hours of sale time.
"Literally, most of the mall was
closed down because of the water. It
is amazing we managed to save all
the books," said Carol Smith, presi-
dent of the Ann Arbor chapter of
the AAUW.
Figures are not in yet, but mem-
bers of the AAUW believe they
raised nearly $20,000 during the
three-day sale.
Proceeds from the sale will
sponsor a Mary Markley scholar-
ship fund for undergraduate women
living in the dorm, a fellowship for
The Center For The Education Of
Women, and a sum of money will be
set aside for scholarships at Eastern
Michigan University. A portion
will also go toward the national
AAUW foundation.
"Essentially, the money spent on
books by students and the Ann
Arbor community will go to bene-
fit students," said Miriam Garber,
the publicity chair of the AAUW
and a graduate student.
There has been a steady stream of
book donations for the fundraising
event since last April.
"The contribution of the
University community has been
enormous. Without the contribu-
tions we certainly could not have
had the sale," Garber added.
The book sale is a major fundrais-
ing event for the AAUW. Last year
the Ann Arbor branch placed 10th
in the country in educational
fundraising. Michigan placed fifth
as a state.
Books that were not sold last
weekend will be given away. A por-
tion will be donated to the Monroe
Library and The Christian Love
Fellowship Church in Ypsilanti.
Also, for the first time, a number of
excess books will be recycled.
"The Ann Arbor branch of the
AAUW is dedicated to environmen-
tal awareness. Books will be deliv-
ered to recycling centers like
newspapers," Garber said.
Next year the organization is
hoping to reach out its services
worldwide by distributing extra
books to educational resource cen-
ters in India.
EPA report shows fuel efficiency down among 1992 cars
WASHINGTON (AP) - Fuel
efficiency in 1992 cars is down from
last year's models, the sixth consec-
utive vear with little or no redrn-
showing since the mid-1980s, when
a decade-long surge in mileage lev-
eled off.
"Tt'c a Olisht dereace_" camn
in city driving and 58 mpg on the
highway.
Bringing up the rear was the
lixurious two-seater T nmhorahini
larger and mid-size models.
But industry critics say au-
tomakers can reach the bill's target*
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