The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 18, 1993- Page 5
Forum
.tackles
isues o
battery
by Michelle Fricke
0 Sixty percent of men will batter
women at some point in their lives.
Faced with this frightening statistic,
about 40 men and women gathered
last night to confront the nature and
consequences of violence through
battery.
The discussion was led by Mike
Jackson and David Garvin, social
workers who founded Alternatives to
omestic Aggression (ADA) in
1986. ADA, a program of Catholic
Social Services of Washtenaw
County in Ypsilanti, is designed to
help people end their displays of
violence or other forms of
aggression.
"Physical violence is only one-
tenth of the battering," Jackson said.
He added that physical violence in a
battering relationship only takes
lace about three times a year, but
psychological abuse occurs every
day.
Garvin said men who batter are
not frightened by the legal system.
"Among men who batter, demo-
graphics are no different than any
other issue, such as alcoholism. Men
from all walks of life have come to
our program," Garvin said. "Men
batter because they can get away
with it. The consequences are not
harsh enough."
Nelson Peralta, a second-year law
student, also stated the need for
reform in the legal system.
"In a course I'm taking I've
learned about cases in which police
response to battered women is not
always attractive," Peralta said.
"This is a problem that should be
addressed. If women had support
*ystems and if men had ways to deal
with why they batter, it wouldn't get
to the stage where people are getting
killed," said Evanne Dietz, a
third-year law student.
The program was sponsored
by the Women's Law Student
Association.
Res. halls start
program to
reduce crime
by Sarah Gordon
Following the measures taken in neighborhoods and
on other campuses, and in response to concerned resi-
dents, the University has launched a new program to
raise awareness of crime in the residence hall system.
This semester the residents of West Quad, Betsey
Barbour, and Helen Newberry residence halls are work-
ing in cooperation with the Department of Public Safety.
(DPS) to increase awareness through a program based
on neighborhood watch.
"Here we want to involve the students and make
them a part of their own security," said Christine
Monroe-Loomes, housing security officer and crime
prevention liaison for Housing.
In addition to DPS, the West Quad Safety and
Security Committee - a group of West Quad residents
including resident advisors - is helping to organize
and implement the program.
The program aims to inform students of what to do
if they see something suspicious in the dorm and to en-
courage them to feel comfortable reporting these
incidents.
Two or three volunteers in each hall will be desig-
nated as contacts, to whom students can report any sus-
picious people or events they notice. The contacts will
then notify DPS.
Sgt. Benny Chenevert, DPS coordinator for crime
prevention, said students are not expected to take action
or risks, but to report problem situations immediately to
DPS.
Chenevert stressed that this program is a proactive
measure.
"A lot of times people are complacent until they are
the victim of a crime or someone they know is the vic-
tim of a crime," he said, adding that he hopes residents
will report suspicions before crimes occur.
Originally the crime watch program was to begin at
West Quad, but it has now expanded to
Barbour-Newberry.
Monroe-Loomes said that both attendance and en-
thusiasm were high at meetings held with the residents
of Barbour-Newberry Monday night. After Spring
Break, meetings will be held with West Quad residents.
Students on the West Quad Safety and Security
Committee are also enthusiastic.
"We're really excited about working over at
Barbour-Newberry," said Dan Held, an LSA junior on
the committee.
West Quad and Barbour-Newberry are piloting the t
crime watch program this semester, but it is expected to
expand to all dorms and other campus buildings in
September.
DPS representatives said they expect the crime
watch program to result in more calls from residence
halls in the short run, but in less crime in the long run.
DPS officials added that they hope to evaluate the
program's efficacy in Barbour-Newberry in the next
two or three weeks.
Diag policy protest
LSA junior Dennis Guikema (center) speaks against the new Diag policy yesterday. John Payne (left), a member of the
Trotskyist League, and Dante Stella (right), LSA sophomore, stand beside him to support his cause. Students have been
holding protests every Wednesday since the University released a new policy restricting actions on the Diag. Stella said
students should band together to oppose the Diag policy. "Your rights are in danger and so are ours. We've got to fight for our
rights," he said.
Progressives announce candidates
by Soma Gupta
Last night the Progressive Party
announced its candidates who will vie to
lead next year's Michigan Student
Assembly.
Music school junior Jason Hackner and
LSA sophomore Erika Gottfried hope to
become MSA president and vice president
respectively.
Hackner is currently the president of the
University Activities Center (UAC).
Although he has never served on MSA,
campaign officials said they feel he has
garnered leadership skills from running the
largest campus student organization that
make him well-qualified.
"Jason's experienced at leadership. He
organized a huge number of students to
perform tasks at UAC. Besides, his vice
president has been on MSA before. We're
proud of his leadership skills," said Conan
Smith, campaign chair for the Progressive
Party.
Gottfried has served as chair of MSA's
Women's Issues Commission.
The Progressive Party is enthusiastic
about its presidential nominee's willingness
to fight for student rights.
"When Jason came to talk about the
positions, we were very impressed with his
charisma and organization. He really seems
concerned for the students and voices those
concerns effectively," said Devon Bodah,
communications director of the Progressive
Party.
However, everyone does not agree with
these high opinions.
"I have no idea what leadership things
their presidential candidate has done but I
really don't feel that Erika Gottfried shows
the leadership ability necessary for the
executive office of MSA," said Michael
Christie, a member of the opposing
Conservative Coalition (CC).
The Progressive Party presently holds
the MSA executive officer positions. CC
members said the leaders have accom-
plished nothing over the last year.
"I really think they've done nothing.
We've lost a lot of ground with the
administration because they spend more
time bickering and whining than rationally
discussing," Christie said.
The candidates said they plan to attack
new issues this year.
"We don't have the slate officially but
we do intend to revitalize MSA by making
it more accessible to the students," Hackner
said.
*U .N. officials discontinue aid to Bosnia
M I C HA E L DOUGLASl
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegov-
ina (AP) - Serb tanks bore down
on a key western suburb yesterday
as U.N. officials halted aid opera-
tions and accused Bosnia's warring
factions of using food as a political
weapon.
The Serb offensive on the last
Alefensive lines was an apparent at-
empt to capture more of the capital
before peace talks resume tomorrow
in New York between Serbs, Croats
and Muslims.
The Muslim-led government has
blocked U.N. food aid from reaching
Sarajevo, accusing the United Na-
tions of ignoring besieged Muslims
in eastern Bosnia.
"I really regret that I have to take
Whis decision because we have been
trying to help the victims, the ordi-
nary people, and we cannot do that,"
Sadako Ogata, the U.N. High Com-
missioner for Refugees, said in
Nairobi, Kenya, in announcing the
aid cutoff in Sarajevo and eastern
Bosnia.
The action could increase pres-
sure on officials in Sarajevo. If the
city begans handing out food again,
warehouses would be emptied in
eight to 10 days.
In eastern Bosnia, an estimated
100,000 Muslims are trapped by
Serb sieges. The aid cutoff also will
hit some Serb-dominated towns.
Bosnian radio reported battles
throughout the republic and claimed
20 people were killed and 60
wounded in an air raid on Muslim-
held Cerska, an eastern town.
Radovan Karadzic, the leader of
Bosnia's Serbs, said his fighters
would not allow relief convoys to
pass through Serb-held territory en
route to central Bosnia until the
search for further bodies in Ka-
menica is completed.
"We want to get the parties to
cooperate. We want the international
community to realize how serious
the situation is," said Peter Kessler,
a U.N. aid official in Croatia.
U.N. officials already had sus-
pended aid flights to Sarajevo be-
cause the government's boycott
caused U.N. warehouses to fill up
with supplies.
"We've gotten to a point now
where we have almost a 100,000
people who are starving to death in
besieged Muslim villages in eastern
Bosnia. And we can no longer in
good conscience feed the Serb-held
villages next door, and feed Serb
families, while Muslim families just
a couple of feet down the road are
dying of starvation," said Sylvana
Foa, a U.N. spokesperson in
Geneva.
The United Nations said it had
delivered an average of 20,000 tons
of food, medicine, blankets and
other supplies to Bosnia each month
since July.
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