Most students on this campus are aware of
alcohol. So why did the Michigan Student
Assembly spend $13,000 to reinforce the notion?
Good question.
Nitzer Ebb used to thrive on pissing people off,
but now they're grown up with their new album,
Ebbhead. Read about British Pop's violent youths
turned good.
The Michigan men's volleyball team took a
weekend tour of the Big Ten, and the trip had
mixed results. The Wolverines fell to Minnesota
and Purdue, but rebounded to spike Illinois.
AT
Today
Clouds and sunshine;
High: 34, Low: 1 5
Tomorrow
Cold, sunshine; High 25, Low 12
Jr
4ir
Itt..
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One hundred and one years of editorial freedom
Vol. CII, No. 74 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Tuesday, February 11, 1992 Cpngt©1r
'Roots'
author
Haley
Od7es at 7
by Mona Qureshi
Daily Staff Reporter
Members of the University
community expressed shock after
learning that Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Alex Haley died yesterday
morning at the age of 70.
Haley, best known for his novel
"Roots," a saga tracing his family
genealogy back six generations to
colonial Africa, died of a heart attack
at Swedish Hospital in Seattle,
Wash., hospital
spokesperson
Jane
Ann Wilder said.
Haley is also
known for his
:.:~/ ~ first book, "The
Autobiography
of Malcolm X."
I Haley visited the
Haley University only
two weeks ago
to participate in a panel addressing
African American success in the
1990s with Heisman Trophy winner
Desmond Howard, Henry Johnson of
the University Alumni Association,
and Vice Provost of the Office of
Minority Affairs Charles Moody.
Moody said he was stunned after
hearing of Haley's death. "I just
couldn't believe it because two
weeks ago we were sitting on a
panel together," Moody said.
After the panel discussion, Haley
See HALEY, Page 2
Dems., GOP look east;
Harkin sweeps Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - looked like Harkin's biggest Iowa's 49 delegates to the Demo-
Sen. Tom Harkin looked homeward threat. The other Democrats in the cratic convention, where 2,144
for victory yesterday in Iowa cau- race - Arkansas Gov. Bill Clin- votes are needed to secure the
cuses that inaugurated the wide- ton, Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, nomination.
nen 1992 Democratic presidential former Sen. Paul Tsongas and for- "We need to come out of Iowa
sweepstakes. His rivals skipped the
contest altogether, pointing in-
stead toward next week's primary
showdown in New Hampshire.
Harkin said he was aiming for
60 percent of the caucus vote and a
showing strong enough to provide
momentum to his struggling New
Hampshire effort.
Republicans were waiting a
week to test the conservative chal-
lenge to President Bush. The Iowa
GOP cancelled its traditional pres-
idential preference poll, leaving
New Hampshire to go first.
Uncommitted Democrats
mer California Gov. Jerry Brown
- made no effort even to compete
for second place.
The absence of candidates in
Iowa meant New Hampshire vot-
ers will render the first meaning-
ful verdict on the nominating races.
Last night's caucuses are the
first step toward selection of
smoking," Harkin said. "We need
to do it right."
His rivals spent caucus day in
New Hampshire, where the polls
indicate a tight race between Clin-
ton and Tsongas. Kerrey, Harkin
and Brown trail in the pre-primary
polls.
On the Republican side, neither
Patrick Buchanan nor David Duke
made a move against Bush in Iowa.
Even Harkin's overall effort
was minuscule compared with cau-
cus campaigns of the past. He ran
no broadcast advertising and his
See CAUCUS, Page 2
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Tom Harkin (D-lowa) waves to a
crowd at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, Sunday.
Freedom of choice? Not in campaign '92
by Andrew Levy
Daily Campaign Issues Reporter
"It's like political tumbleweed
blowing through the streets of Des
Moines."
The New York Times ran this
Philip J. Roeder quote at the top of
DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS
its 1992 campaign page to sum up
the aura surrounding yesterday's
Iowa caucus.
Whereas in years past the caucus
would have been the lead story in
print and on radio and television,
stories about it have been buried on
page five, or right after the first.
commercial break.
But, although Iowa's signifi-
cance has been sharply downplayed,
the first delegates to the respective
parties' conventions will have been
determined when Iowa goes to
sleep tonight.
Since the candidates took to
full-time campaigning earlier this
winter, voters have found the sig-
nificance of events and issues in the
race have already been determined.
Because George Bush is uncon-
tested in the state and favorite son
Sen. Tom Harkin seemed a shoo-in
for victory, the Iowa caucus has
been virtually ignored. Only two
of the then-six Democratic candi-
dates even set up offices in Iowa,
and the rest were content to con-
The candidates and
the media abandoned
Iowa long before any
voters got the chance
to evaluate the impact
of the caucuses for
themselves.
cede the state's delegates to the
seemingly unbeatable Harkin.
The candidates and the media
abandoned Iowa long before any
voters got the chance to evaluate
the impact of the caucuses for
themselves.
Voters were also cheated of the
right to determine their own fron-
trunner in the Democratic race.
Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was
dubbed the consensus frontrunner
on the basis of a Florida straw poll
that gave him a decisive margin.
Clinton may very well have
been the frontrunner. Or he might
have developed into a frontrunner
as the election progressed. But the
validity and responsibility of pro-
claiming a consensus frontrunner
in a young presidential race based
on a small sample of the electorate
in a single state is questionable at
best.
Straw polls and sound bites
have been the key issues in this
campaign so far. Few candidates
have an identifiable platform.
Fewer have taken the initiative to
bring those issues into the
spotlight.
Therefore voters, University
students among them, are forced to
vote based on the limited informa-
tion fed to them by media outlets,
while the issues are pushed aside as
an afterthought.
See IOWA, Page 2
Students, officials question teacher competency tests
by Barry Cohen
Daily Government Reporter
Education students and state officials are
criticizing the validity of the new Michigan
teacher competency tests, which all educa-
tion students will be required to pass in or-
der to continue as student teachers.
A 1986 state law requires all education
students to pass a basic skills test and sub-
ject tests in their major and minor.
However, competency test development
was delayed until the passing of a bill spon-
sored by Sen. Dan DeGrow (R-Port Huron)
and State Rep. James O'Neil (D-Saginaw)
which provided funding.
*0 Education administrators and students
have not yet seen copies of the basic skills
test - a portion of the new student compe-
tency tests to be administered to students
February 15.
Students said they will have difficulty
preparing for the new test.
"I have no idea what I'm going to see,"
LSA junior Kristie Paull said. "There's not
a whole lot I can do about it because if I
want to teach I've got to take it," she added.
Carol Smith, chair of Education and
Professional Development at Western
Michigan University, agreed that the test
does not give students enough time to pre-
pare.
"That was absolutely unfair with the
timeline. This group of students is just
lambs to the slaughter; but I believe that
our students are well-prepared," Smith said.
Dr. Dan Austin, associate education su-
perintendent in the Michigan Department of
Education, blamed former Gov. James
Blanchard for the testing delays.
"We could not get support from
Blanchard to put money for (the testing) in
the executive budget," Austin said.
"The time schedule was unrealistic from
the very beginning. ... I would feel com-
fortable with a two to three year time
frame, and even that may be rushing it,"
Smith said.
Administrators also criticized the test's
uniformity due to the fact that all students
will take the same test, whether they plan
to teach high school or elementary students.
"You can predict for yourself what will
happen. It will be so easy as to insult the in-
telligence or so difficult that no one can
pass it," said Scott Whitener, dean of educa-
tion at Ferris State University .
Austin said faculty and lawmakers must
decide whether separate tests should be de-
veloped. Within the education system, stu-
dents who plan to teach elementary school
are channeled into lower-level courses. As a
result, not all students reach the same lev-
els of proficiency.
"We can continue to run the test this
way to force the upgrade of the educational
program, or we can have separate tests," he
said.
Education administrators also question
the methods National Evaluation Systems
(NES) used to design the competency test.
"NES decided in a vacuum what should
be on the test," Whitener said.
He said kindergarten through 12th grade
faculties and university administrators
were surveyed in August - when a number
of faculty and administrators are not in
school.
But University School of Education
Dean Cecil Miskel explained that NES used
data bases from other states, such as Georgia
and Illinois, to create Michigan's compe-
tency test.
School of education deans said they
worry that the tests will be invalid, because
See TEACHERS, Page 2
I
Radio signal invades
city phones, stereos,
prompts complaints
by Erin Einhorn
Daily City Reporter store he was told his equipment wa
as
Since radio station WAMX up-
graded the power of its transmitter in
October, distant sounds of soft music
have been aggravating Ann Arbor
residents as the uninvited signals
float into their telephones, compact
disc players, and other electronic
equipment.
The station's transmitter is
located on the roof of Tower Plaza
Condominiums on the corner of
Maynard and E. Williams streets,
but telephones as far as 10 blocks
away have picked up the WAMX
signal.
"I just want to stop hearing lite
FM on my phone all day," said Mark
Andrejevic, who lives on Thayer
Street.
Tower Plaza Condominium
not the problem.
Matthew Britt, a salesperson at
the Stereo Shoppe on E. Williams,
has told many customers the same
thing.
"We've been getting complaints
from people who live all over town,"
Britt said. "They think their stuff is
broken. But there's really nothing
that can be done to take care of it. I
tell them, 'Move."'
WAMX General Manager Jim
Baughn said any people with prob-
lems need to contact the station di-
rectly and he estimated about 25
calls have already come in.
"We've been working with a lot
of people and cured a lot of the
problem," Baughn said.
When the station receives a com-
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