OPINION 4
This week, the first three hearings under the
University's new Code of conduct will be heard.
Students will now realize why they opposed this
Code in last November's MSA election.
When the Black Crowes came to Hill Auditorium
this weekend, they turned the building into a
gigantic party. Read Scott Sterling's review of the
concert.
Michigan guard Jalen Rose was ticketed for
loitering outside a Detroit crack house last October,
according to reports in today's Detroit Free Press
and WXYZ-TV.
Today
Partly sunny;
High 36, Low 26
Tomorrow
Cloudy, flurries; High 38, Low 30
WE
One hundred two years of editorial freedom
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by David Carrel 4
Dail Feaure rite
Negotiations
continue on
TA c
The bargaining
teams agreed to
ontract
A University course is attempt-
ing to provide organizations,
groups and societies with a form
of learning unavailable in the
classroom - trust.
This course is not listed in the
University course guide, nor is
there an exam at its completion.
Instead, participants must go out-
side their normal environments
and inside themselves to complete
the Challenge Ropes Course.
The ropes course - which is
offered by the University's
Department of Outdoor Recrea-
tional Sports - is an experiential
education program involving
group initiatives in an outdoor
environment.
Utilizing elements both close
to the ground and 40 feet in the
air, the course integrates cables,
ropes and other props into a se-
quence of increasingly difficult
group-oriented activities.
Instructors say such unconven-
tional situations force the group to
work together through coopera-
tion, communication and creative
problem-solving - each of which
develops a foundation for trust and
growth.
Adrienne Garrison, the
Challenge Ropes Course adminis-
trative director, said the course of-
fers organizations a setting in
which to come together more ef-
DOUGLAS KANTEFVDaily
Two instructors cross the wires at the University's Challenge Ropes Course, sponsored by the Department of
Outdoor Recreational Sports. Both instructors risk their lives and limbs, suspended 35 feet above the ground.
fectively than simply a meeting
each week.
"The ropes course focuses on
people being together, learning to-
gether, with the opportunity to see
each other in a new light. It pulls
people together fairly quickly,"
Garrison said.
She added that the experience
increases an individual's ability to
understand and communicate with
the other group members.
Adrienne Bradley, an LSA se-
nior whose sorority went through
the ropes course, agreed with
Garrison's analysis.
"I just felt great. The group I
worked with was able to work to-
gether effectively. It was a bunch
of individuals coming together,"
Bradley said.
In addition to being fun, in-
structors said the course's extraor-
dinary feature is its ability to adapt
to and fulfill a group's particular
needs and goals.
For example - The Nitro - a
low-ropes element, demands that
the group cross a muddy, slimy
area. The only way to get from
one side to the other is by swing-
ing across by a rope. If one person
falls, everyone must go back to the
beginning.
Lawrence Kovacs, the
Challenge Ropes Course assistant
site supervisor, said he creates a
scenario - personalized to help
each group attain its goals - to
motivate the participants.
Kovacs explained that for a fi-
nance club, he dubbed the muddy
area Charles Keating's backyard.
If anyone were to fall in, every-
body would lose their assets. He
said such a setting uses a familiar
context to develop cooperation.
For members of the
University's Grounds Crew,
Kovacs told the participants that
everyone had won a trip on a
cruise. However, when they ar-
rived at the dock, the boat had al-
ready left and they needed to
swing from the dock to the boat.
While the ropes course facilita-
See COURSE, Page 2
extend the contract to
March 15 to allow
further negotiation
by Kenneth Dancyger
Daily Faculty Reporter
After more than three months of
negotiations - including a five-
week deadline extension - bargain-
ing teams from the University and
the Graduate Employee Organization
(GEO) continued bargaining for a
new teaching assistant (TA) contract
last night.
The negotiations were not com-
pleted by press time.
The teams verbally agreed to ex-
tend the contract's March 7 deadline
one day to allow for a final attempt
to settle the contract's financial
provisions.
Walter Harrison, executive direc-
tor of University relations, said the
University's main concern is to ne-
gotiate a successful contract with
GEO.
"The University's traditional
stance has been not to discuss any
issues ... except at the bargaining
table," he said.
Colleen Dolan-Greene, Univer-
sity bargaining committee chair,
could not be reached for comment.
Union members voted to dis-
tribute a strike authorization form to
its membership at its Thursday
meeting. A "yes" vote would give
GEO's Steering Committee the
power to call a strike.
"If there is a strike, I hope the
students support us," said Jon
Curtiss, GEO bargaining committee
chair. "What's good for us is good
for the undergrads."
First-year Engineering student
James Derderian said he wouldn't
support a strike because he said
many TAs do not deserve a salary
increase because they are unquali-
fied teachers.
"If they're expecting a raise, the
standards for TAs should go up as
well," Derderian said.
Curtiss argued that students
should "understand the TAs are pro-
fessionals and adults. We're not
over-grown undergrads, we're
(teaching) for a living."
LSA first-year student David
Stowell said TAs are not required to
have a teaching license - making
them students, not teachers.
"They're people who want to
make money, they're not people who
want to educate others," he said.
Some students expressed their
support for a settlement agreeable to
the TAs.
"I think (a strike) would be good
for them, so it wouldn't bother me,"
said LSA first-year student Kim
Gaines.
She added she is very happy that
TAs are making students aware of
their cause by handing out pamphlets
and speaking in class.
I
*Students, DPS officers meet to discuss campus safety, stereotypes
by Sarah Kiino
Daily Staff Reporter
Concerned students and Depart-
ment of Public Safety (DPS) officers
initiated a round of discussions
about student-officer tensions at a
workshop in the Michigan Union
last night.
More than 10 students and 15
officers agreed they need to work
out problems of a lack of mutual re-
spect, an unwillingness to listen and
compromise, and a lack of
communication.
The dialogue was held in an in-
formal format of small group
discussions and interactive activities.
Ede Fox, MSA president and or-
ganizer of the dialogue, said she
wanted to open communication be-
tween students and police officers to
"tell them how we feel and how we
want to be treated."
Associate Dean of Students
Richard Carter, who attended the
workshop, said, "We hope to create
opportunities for our public safety
officers and students to communi-
cate with each other and build
stronger relations.
"There are always tensions be-
tween public safety and students.
This is a way of abating these
tensions," he added.
Fox said the organizers aimed for
a diverse representation of students.
"We invited a variety of people
to come and talk about how (they)
feel so when we want to talk about
specific issues, there is a channel,"
Fox said.
The officers and the students
each broke into brainstorming
groups to address their perceptions
of each other and the causes of stu-
dent-officer conflicts. The officers
and the students then presented their
ideas to each other.
The students described the offi-
cers as overbearing, systematic,
rigid, a tool of the University's ad-
ministration and less capable than
the Ann Arbor Police Department.
Police officers said they see the
students as diverse and intelligent,
but also idealistic, naive, and "not
understanding the implications of
their actions as adults."
The students expressed concern
about the Union entrance policy.
Students said they found too many
officers spending their weekends
positioned in the Union instead of on
the streets. They also said officers
treat minorities unfairly.
Some students said they think it
is unnecessary for DPS officers to be
armed.
DPS officers feared that students
had negative views of them because
students usually only see officers if
something bad happens - if stu-
dents are a victim of a crime or if
they are arrested.
DPS officers also said students
do not realize DPS exists to help
them.
Officers also said students do not
see them as individuals.
"My biggest pet peeve on cam-
pus is not being seen as a human be-
ing," said David Betts, DPS Crime
Prevention Supervisor.
Although the tensions between
the officers and students are still far
from being resolved, both groups are
optimistic for the future.
"I have a clearer sense of the
history of where the two groups
come from," said Todd Sevic, senior
counselor at Counseling Services.
"Tonight reflects the complexity of
all this ... it's not just us against
them."
J.R. DeVaugn Williams, Black
Greek Association president and
Engineering senior, said, "This is the
beginning of a mutual respect.
"There has been a lack of respect
(between the two groups)."
Another dialogue is scheduled to
be held next month.
'U' chooses Monts
as new OMA head
Girl Scouts
continue to
sell cookies
on campus
by Saloni Janveja
Daily Feature Writer
by Jennifer Silverberg
Daily Administration Reporter
A new individual will assume a
new title and take on the new goals
of the Office of Minority Affairs
(OMA) beginning July 1 pending
approval by the University Board of
Regents.
Lester Monts, professor of
ethnomusicology and dean of under-
graduate affairs at
the University of
California-Santa
Barbara (UCSB),
will succeed Vice
Provost for
Minority Affairs
important part of the University. If
we achieve these goals, everything
will hopefully move into place."
The official title of the OMA di-
rector is being changed to indicate
growing responsibilities in a broader
base of University affairs, Monts
said.
"I think it's to have the person
who takes the position more in-
volved in the total scheme of
things," he said. "A lot of time peo-
ple take positions like this and al-
though they bear a high title, they
are left out of the loop."
Although he is not yet familiar
with the Office of Minority Affairs,
It's Girl Scout cookie time.
The three girls sporting snappy,
blue uniforms stood on the corner of
South University Avenue and East
University Avenue among hundreds
of boxes of their well-known,
mouth-watering cookies as they
called to pedestrians to buy their
products.
Passersby paused to produce an
almost constant flow of customers,
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