j W TODAY Partly sunny; High: 49, Low: 35. TOMORROW Breezy and warmer; High: 66, Low: 42. 4*V t!R an lit Thomas decision is unfortunate. See OPINION Page 4. One hundred and one years of editorial freedom Vol. ClI, No. 13 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, October 16, 1991 opyrightV991 The Michigan Daily Thomas clinches Senate confirmation Nominee gets critical support fromDemocrats in 52-48 vote WASHINGTON (AP) - Judge home. Levin said he considered Thomas ,y Clarence Thomas narrowly won "You're a wonderful inspiration too much of a right-winger, and Senate confirmation for the and you had the overwhelming sup- Riegle argued that Thomas lacked Supreme Court last night, overcom- port of the American people," Bush the professional qualifications for ing explosive accusations of sexual said, according to press secretary the nation's highest court. harassment to become the second Marlin Fitzwater. "You have a It was the closest vote for a suce- Black justice in history lifetime of service to your country cessful Supreme Court nominee Thomas gained crucial help from ahead. Well done." Barbara Bush since 1888 when Lucius Lamar went Democrats in the 52 to 48 vote, the also got on the phone to congratu- onto the bench on a 32-28 vote. closest in this century for a success- late Thomas. Three Democrats who had sup- ful nominee to the high court. The Thomas won confirmation with ported Thomas before Hill's outcome ended one of the angriest, support from 41 of the Senate's 43 charges were made public switched most emotionally charged confir- Republicans and 11 Democrats: sides and voted against him: Harry mation battles ever. Sens. Sam Nunn, Wyche Fowler, Reid and Richard Bryan, both of Thomas' confirmation strength- Charles Robb, J. James Exon, Alan Nevada, and Joseph Lieberman of ens an already solid conservative Dixon, Richard Shelby, John Breaux, Connecticut. majority on the court, where liber- J. Bennett Johnston, David Boren With the outcome in doubt until als will be outnumbered seven to and Ernest Hollings. the final hours, Vice President Dan two. The court is likely to continue Sens. James Jeffords and Mark Quayle rushed back from a political moving to the right on issues such as Hatfield asst the only Republican y. abortion, separation of church and votes against him. trip to Ohio to sit as the presiding state, and the rights of criminal sus- Michigan Democratic Senators officer and cast a tie-breaking vote if pects. Carl Levin and Donald Riegle stood necessary. It wasn't needed. Immediately after the vote, by their opposition to Thomas even The visitors' galleries were AP PHOTO President Bush called Thomas with as letters, phone calls, telegrams packed but hushed as senators rose, Vice President Dan Quayle reads the Senate vote yesterday on Judge Clarence Thomas. Thomas won congratulations. Thomas had and faxed messages poured into one by one, to cast their votes. confirmation as the 106th justice to the Supreme Court. watched the vote on television at their offices yesterday. See THOMAS, Page 2 Hearings speed action on 'U' harassment policy by Henry Goldblatt and Bethany Robertson Daily Administration Reporters The debate over the Clarence Thomas nomination ended yesterday with his confirmation, but the at- tention it has drawn to the issue of sexual harassment will remain. The University has been putting the finishing touches on a sexual ha- rassment policy for several months, and University President James Duderstadt said yesterday that as a result of the hearings, he hopes to hasten that process. "Our attitude is that we'll move ahead as quickly as possible," Duderstadt said. "We have some hopes to do this at the next regents' meeting." The University Board of Regents will meet tomorrow in Flint and continue its meeting Friday in Ann Arbor. Kay Dawson, assistant to Provost Gilbert Whitaker and prin- cipal drafter of the revised policy, said she has worked with faculty members and University General Counsel Elsa Cole since the end of January to formulate a policy. In June, Dawson and Cole pre- sented the harassment policy to the regents. But some regents expressed concern that the proposed policy would treat alleged harassers un- fairly by placing the burden of proof on the accused. Since the June meeting, Dawson has revised the policy to include the regents' suggestions. Dawson clari- fied the portion of the policy which deals with mutual sexual relation- ships between students and faculty or students and staff - a clause which the regents found controversial. The revised policy states, "Consenting romantic and sexual University policy are generally con- sidered very unwise." Dawson said, "If a person enters into a (student/faculty) relation- ship and is charged with sexual ha- rassment later, but says 'Oh no, it was consensual,' it will be hard to 'I think it has certainly made everyone more aware of the issue and educated people on both sides of the issue. It has had a great educational impact' - Elsa Cole University General Counsel University faculty and staff said the hearings would probably not have a noticeable effect on the University. "I think it has certainly made ev- eryone more aware of the issue and educated people on both sides of the issue. It has had a great educational impact," Cole said. "It is too early to determine what other impacts it will have." Deborah Orlowski; an Affirmative Action Office repre- sentative and counselor for women and men who report sexual harass- ment, said in the past four months, University organizations have shown increased interest in preven- tative sexual harassment programs. "I'm not sure the hearings are going to affect that much because there's already a lot going on," relationships between supervisor and employee or between faculty and other staff and student while not expressly prohibited by defend oneself on that basis." Although sexual harassment in the workplace has been highlighted by the Thomas nomination, Police display hazards of drinking and driving by Lauren Dermer Daily Staff Reporter It was not a new shanty, a see-saw contest or a hot tub that attracted students' atten- tion on the Diag yesterday. It was a brutally bashed pick-up truck, destroyed in a drunk driving incident, with a sign above it that read, "Drunk Driving is not an accident." The truck was put on display from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. by the Department of Public Safety and the Michigan State Police to demonstrate the dangers of drinking and driving for the Michigan Student Assembly's Alcohol Awareness Week. "The important thing is that this can hap- pen to anyone as a result of drinking and driv- ing," said Lt. Vernon Baisden of the Department of Public Safety. "It is a major concern because more and more people are be- ing killed." In addition to the truck, various pho- tographs of demolished vehicles, provided by the University Transportation Research Institute, were displayed with facts about the individual accidents. "The exhibition has certainly turned a lot of heads," said Dan Kompoltowicz, a state police trooper stationed in Ypsilanti. "There are beer commercials on every day; maybe we should have something to say every day as well." The officers informed students of the startling statistics involving alcohol-re- lated accidents in Michigan. "There were 4,700 accidents in the state of Michigan last year where there was a drunk driver under the age of 21," said Kompoltowicz. "In those probably pre- ventable accidents, 81 people were killed." At the University, drunk driving acci- dents usually occur on football Saturdays, See ALCOHOL, Page 2 Orlowski said. While the hearings may not have, a measurable effect on the University, Orlowski said they could negatively affect the general population's perception of sexual harassment. People's fears about reporting harassment cases may be intensified or claims of harassment may be considered less important, shesaid. "There may be certain men who look at the allegations and assume that harassment won't be taken se- riously," Orlowski said. Keeping tabs on the number of cases of sexual harassment reported at the University is difficult since there are many ways to report inci- dents, Orlowski said. See HARASSMENT, Page 2 'U' makes state funding request by Henry Goldblatt Daily Administration Reporter Provost Gilbert Whitaker will submit the University's request for state funding appropriations to the University Board of Regents at its monthly meeting tomorrow. "We are going to try and be con- sistent with what we have said be- fore. We have a multiple year plan to take Michigan from the bottom third in state funding to the upper end of the middle third" University President James Duderstadt said. Duderstadt said the University will request an 8 to 8.5 percent in- crease in state funding, but realizes the University is not likely to "re- ceive this amount. "There is no correlation between what we asked for and what we get," Duderstadt said. He added that he expects around a 5 percent increase in state appro- priations provided the state's eco- nomic condition does not worsen. State Sen. John Schwarz (R- Battle Creek) said he expects a state appropriation increase of around 4 percent - similar to last year's fig- ure. "All depends on state revenues: In a nerfect world I'd like to see Michigan State Trooper Dan Kompoltow of Ypsilanti hands out pamphlets describing the harms of drinking and driving as part of MSA's Alcohol Awareness Week. The truck is a vehicle which was involved in a drinking and driving accident this year. Baker nears agreement on Mideast peace conference DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - agreement with the United States delegation with Jordan. but they declined to spell out the the West Bank and Gaza. Secretary of State James Baker was on terms for convening the peace The outlook had brightened to agreement. Baker said Monday night that a on the verge yesterday of sealing ar- conference. Another Israeli official, the point where various sites, in- Only the PLO's 80-member cen- PLO role in arranging the makeup of rangements for a Mideast peace con- requesting anonymity, said the cluding Lausanne, Switzerland, tral council, due to meet today in the delegation should not be re- ference to open Oct. 29 in Lausanne, terms included an assurance that the were under consideration for the Tur s, Tunisia, can announce the de- garded as a "surprising" develop- Switzerland, U.S. and other diplo- Palestinian delegation would be Mideast conference. Baker has set tails of the final agreement on the ment. At the same time, he was pub- matic sources said. represented by residents of the West Oct. 31 as the deadline for the cere- formation of a joint delegation, licly keeping his distance from I f z Even as Baker was holding ex- tended talks with Syria's president Hafez Assad, the sources said the Swiss city would be the site barring last-minute hitches in Baker's Bank and Gaza. Baker tried to lure the Syrian leader to agree to participate in all phases of the proposed conference, while three-way diplomacy across Baker said Monday night that a PLO role in arranging the makeup of the delegation ,&1 a _n a a _ arriatla , ,,',,,rnini , Yasser Arafat's organization in or- der not to antagonize Israel, the tar- get of PLO bombings and other as- saults. On his eighth trip to the Middle