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Moshty sunny;
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TOMORROW
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1£. 4
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MSA staggers on
alcohol
awareness.
See OPINION
Page 4.
One hundred and one years of editorial freedom
Vol. CII, No. 18 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, October 23, 1991
Soviets make
* emergency
appeal to U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush yesterday
.received a 300-page Soviet request for emergency food
aid, a document likely to be high on the agenda when he
and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Spain
next week.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Madigan delivered the
Soviet request to the White House. Madigan led a U.S.
delegation that spent nine days in the Soviet Union
studying emergency food needs.
Soviet officials have appealed repeatedly for such
assistance and called it essential to the success of polit-
ical and economic reforms.
"We need help and assistance from the United
States as a country in order to survive the winter and to
solve all the problems concerning the transition,"
Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin said when he was
in New York late last month for the opening of the
U.N. General Assembly.
But U.S. officials and other experts are concerned
about whether massive shipments of food would ever
reach the Soviet people. There also are major differ-
ences on what sort of aid would be most effective.
Bush and Gorbachev will meet next week in Madrid
before the opening of the Middle East peace conference.
All indications are that humanitarian assistance will
be a major topic on their agenda.
"It will not do to send food in the general direction
of the Soviet Union because the inefficiency and cor-
ruption that are involved in the process will frustrate
fulfillment," said Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the
ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture
Committee.
"The various republics are frequently hoarding food
that is indigenous to those areas," Lugar said. "Beyond
See FOOD, Page 2
Survivors of
yy sexual ssaul
speak
by Julie Schupper
Daily Women's Issues Reporter
Survivors of rape and sexual as-
sault retold their experiences to
more than 300 students and Ann
Arbor residents who attended the
University's Sexual Assault and
Prevention and Awareness Center's
(SAPAC) fifth annual "Speak Out"
last night.
The event gave many survivors an
opportunity to come forward and
tell their stories, either.publicly or
anonymously through a backstage
microphone.
"When you are raped, you feel
trapped in darkness in a life that has
lost its happiness and all its mean-
ing," LSA junior Jenny Cass said.
Her experience is not uncommon..
The primary purpose of the "Speak
Out" was to provide survivors of
rape and sexual assault attention
and support in a positive public
light, organizers said.
Speaking openly about one's ex-
periences can be empowering to a
survivor. "Silence and invisibility
go hand and hand with powerless-
ness," said Audre Lord in one of the
event's publicity fliers.
"The main thing tonight is to
give support to survivors. Also, we
)ut
want to educate people in order to
sensitize them toward sexual as-
sault," said SAPAC volunteer
Margaret Yellin.
"The Speak Out allows people to
show support for survivors as sur-
vivors," said SAPAC coordinator
Julie Steiner. "Rape is not just a
woman's problem, it is something
we all have to deal with."
The first speaker of the night,
Eileen McComb, a two-time rape
survivor, spoke in reference to the
psychological problems encoun-
tered when coping with being raped.
She candidly shared her story of
sexual harassment with the
audience.
"Less than six hours of horror
have severely affected my entire life
... Only after moving to Ann Arbor
and going to SAPAC have I received
the help I needed," McComb said.
The recent testimony of
University of Oklahoma Law
Professor Anita Hill about her al-
leged sexual harassment by Supreme
Court Justice Clarence Thomas en-
couraged several women to voice
their own experiences.
History prof. Carol Carlson
came forward for the first time last
See SPEAK OUT, Page 2
One survivor, who discussed her experiences at the "Speak Out" last night, told about the
agony she experienced coming to terms with her abuse.
Students complain about treatment at UHS
by Lynne Cohn
Daily Staff Reporter
As colds, flus and cases of pneu-
monia sweep through the Univer-
sity, students are complaining that
they are not getting the "right"
kind of treatment from the Univer-
sity Health Services (UHS).
Despite student complaints,
UHS Director Caesar Briefer de-
fended UHS as one of the most
comprehensive health services in
the country. He added that given
the variety of services available
through UHS, students only pay a
flat $82.25 fee for access to these
services, which shows up on tuition
bills.
"The health service is like resi-
dence hall food - it's an easy tar-
get, easy to dump on," Briefer said.
"The truth of the matter is that we
elicit student input. We are ex-
tremely anxious to please our stu-
dents. It's not like we don't care
what they think. We care a lot."
UHS provides everything from
walk-in general medicine to obstet-
rics and gynecology to physical
therapy and sports medicine for all
students and many faculty and
staff members.
Twelve full-time doctors, six
nurse practitioners and three physi-
cians' assistants staff UHS, which
provided services to 70 percent of
the undergraduate student popula-
tion last year.
But many students say it is not
enough.
Lainie Lindner, an LSA junior,
visited UHS with a severe case of
bronchitis last March. She said the
clinician who examined her sug-
gested that it could be mononucle-
osis but would not give her the
necessary test for another week.
Lindner subsequently went to
the University Hospital, where
they gave her a mono test and a pre-
scription. She said UHS treated her
kindly but she was not satisfied
with the medical treatment.
"I am lucky enough to be
within driving distance from my
family and my doctor," she said,
"but it worries me that out-of-
state students don't have that op-
tion. What can they do if they are
not satisfied with the health ser-
vices? They really have no choice."
Ann Kucera, a University devel-
opment officer and recent alumna
said one of her friends went to
UHS a few years ago complaining
of flu symptoms. Kucera said the
clinician asked her friend if she was
pregnant.
Ed Goldman, a medical center
attorney, said there have been only
two malpractice cases involving
UHS in the past 14 years, both of
which were dismissed.
Goldman said one of the re-
quirements that must be fulfilled
to have a solid malpractice case is
the service's care or advice must re-
sult in an injury.
"They are not making mistakes
that are resulting in injury," he
said. "It doesn't mean that every-
body is happy with the care."
Goldman said it is possible that
UHS hasn't had malpractice suits
for a number of reasons, possibly
because some harder cases are re-
ferred to other medical facilities.
Of the 77,000 visits last year, how-
ever, UHS employees referred only
98 to the University hospital for
treatment.
See HEALTH, Page 2
University Health Service offers students a range of medical services.
However, some students complain it misdiagnoses their illnesses.
i
*MSA
removes
eigh t
*reps.
by Purvi Shah
Daily MSA Reporter
Eight representatives have been
removed from the Michigan Student
Assembly due to excessive absences.
Before being removed, represen-
tatives are allowed 12 absences
from roll calls taken at the begin-
ning and end of assembly meetings
0 and from roll call at committee
meetings.
Representatives who were taken
off the assembly include:
Engineering Reps. Bill Cosnowski
and Brian Johnson; LSA Reps. Joy
Goldberg and Elissa Silverman;
Architecture Rep. Ari Blumenthal;
Art Rep. Alen Yen; Medical Rep.
John Uy; and Music Rep. John
Naatjes.
MSA adjourned debate early last
Residents still fighting
N. Campus incinerator
by Gwen Shaffer
Daily Staff Reporter
The conflict between North
Campus residents and the
University over expansion plans for
a radioactive incinerator continues
to smolder after almost two years.
Residents claim the incinerator
is a health hazard, while University
officials say that the site poses no
serious risk.
The University has been burning
animal carcasses containing radioac-
tive "tracers" on the site for more
than 20 years and announced in 1989
they would expand the site to house
a radioactive and hazardous waste
storage facility.
North Campus residents said
since the site is listed as a laundry
facility on University maps, they
were not even aware the building
housed an incinerator until they read
about the expansion plans.
The University hired a consul-
tant to review the plan after area
residents expressed alarm over its
Owlsley of University News and
Information Sevices.
Citizens for Safe Waste Disposal
(CSWD), a group of residents con-
cerned about the site's proximity to
family and low-income housing,
brought in an outside consultant to
review the plan. Environmental
Consultant Marvin Resnikoff cri-
tiqued the University study and
found that even if all 80 of the
changes are implemented, the facil-
ity would pose a health risk
"The critique recommended that
the University not incinerate in the
area because iodine releases would
still increase the risk of thyroid
cancer for area residents," said Lisa
Olivier Soronson, a CSWD
spokesperson.
Owsley said the amount of radia-
tion given off by the incinerators is
"biologically insignifigant."
"The dosage people would re-
ceive if they are downwind from the
incinerator would amount to one
millirem per year, compared to the
ternative methods such as mi-
crowaving or freezing the waste do
exist.
The University was recently no-
tified by the MDNR that they vio-
lated the Hazardous Waste
Management Regulations Act,
Erickson said. University officials
deny the charges, saying they are in
compliance with all state regula-
tions. In addition to the MDNR
complaints, residents claim the in-
cinerators were causing a foul odor.
"I inspected the incinerator and
could not verify that," Erickson
said.
CSWD has collected 1,000 peti-
tion signitures and has gained the
support of the Ann Arbor City
Council and the County
Commissioners. Both have signed
resolutions urging the University
to to cease incineration until the
Michigan Air Pollution Control
Commission reviews the
University's revised permit applica-
tion and the University installs fil-
tar,.
: