Peoples Power
Senior Shonte Peoples
solidifies the secondary
and anchors the 'D'
__- _ ' I
'Ballets Africains'
shows real Africa
through traditions
ATM 5/
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One hundred three years of editorial freedom
~ .. s ~ .
Students
aid MSA
hrough
committees
By KAREN TALASKI
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
Not many people hear the call. Even
.ewer respond. But a select number of
tudents take on the responsibility, a
responsibility which promises little
thanks and even less pay.
Although it is not the Army, the
Michigan Student Assembly is always
looking for a few good men and women
to serve on one of itsacommittees.
Each year, MSA gives graduate
and undergraduate students the oppor-
tunity to fulfill their "patriotic duties"
*y joining one of a variety of Univer-
sity and MSA committees, ranging from
Recreational Sports to Multicultural
Affairs.
"It's my contribution to the campus
Community," said LSA sophomore
Hubie Yang, who serves on the Aca-
demic Affairs committee.
Yang said he ran for an assembly
position in the last election, but was
nsuccessful. He sees his participation
an MSA committee as a way to get
involved in the process without the
hassle of party politics.
"(The campaign) was a good expe-
See COMMITTEES, Page 2
Ships in place,
U.S. blockade
of Haiti begins
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -
The first U.S. warship was spotted yes-
terday off the coast of Haiti, and the
Pentagon said all six ships sent by
President Clinton to enforce an immi-
nent worldwide oil and arms embargo
were in place.
The ships should begin patrolling
international waters off Haiti by yes-
terday night, 24 hours before the em-
bargo is scheduled to begin, said Stanley
Schrager, spokesperson for the U.S.
Embassy in Haiti.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokes-
person, Maj. Steve Little, said all six
ships were in place yesterday morning,
although they might not be visible from
shore.
But residents in one Port-au-Prince
neighborhood reported seeing a gray
warship, with a helicopter on the rear
deck, off the coast. An Associated Press
reporter on an aerial survey spotted it
halfway between the island of Gonave
and the capital. Schrager said he did not
know which ship it was.
Meanwhile, fear was rising in Port-
au-Prince as those opposed to the re-
turn of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide announced they will shut down
the city today. Previous shutdown calls
have succeeded, with help from the
military and allied civilian gangs.
Nearly all U.N. personnel have been
evacuated from Haiti, and more than
1,000 Haitians jammed onto trucks
yesterday to leave the capital. ,
On a street in the capital, gun-
wielders killed a young woman who
had been carrying a suitcase, presum-
ably intending to leave. There were no
further details.
At a downtown plaza, at least 150
people, including many children,were
crammed onto the bed of one truck
headed for the southern town of Les
Cayes. And an empty pickup truck was
mobbed with Haitians even before it
came to a stop in the downtown plaza.
"I've got five babies here. I can't
leave, with them in Port-au-Prince,"
said Michel McKenzie Joseph, watch-
ing others depart under the hot Carib-
bean sun. Joseph, however, was hope-
ful that the sanctions and the U.S. war-
ships would lead to the return of the
elected Aristide.
See BLOCKADE, Page 2
LSA sophomores Adam Smurgon and Steven Pellerito kiss Friday on the Diag as part of the Queer Kiss-In.
,Working
EAST LANSING (AP) - The
school is much bigger than when he
was a student, but the chimes still sound
in Beaumont Tower and the Red Cedar
River gurgles its endless song through
die Michigan State University campus.
Old friends are stopping by to wel-
come him back with a peck of home-
grown apples, or a handshake.
Peter McPherson is settling into the
residency at Michigan State as easily
as a returning alum finds his old frater-
city house.
"It's fun to be back," said
McPherson, a 1963 graduate of Michi-
gan State.
McPherson, 52, arrived on campus
inmid-September, but moved into the
Dresident's residence and the $180,000-
i -year job Oct. 1, when interim Presi-
ent Gordon Guyer left.
long hours, MSU president promises
"I don't think that there's been any
major surprise," he said as he started
his second full week on the job.
"I need to be careful that Isort through
things anew because it'd be too easy to
remember issues in the context of 30 years
ago. I'm finding I'm stopping myself all
the time and saying, 'Well, that's the way
I remembered it, but let's go over that one
more time.'"
The Kent County farm boy majored
in political science at the East Lansing
school before joining the Peace Corps
and serving two Republican presidents.
He was director of the U.S. Agency for
International Development under Presi-
dent Reagan and held two posts in Presi-
dent Ford's administration.
McPherson was executive vice
president for the Bank of America in
San Francisco until the university board
Peter McPherson, who was a vice
president for the Bank of America, is
the new president of MSU. He was
born on a farm and has worked for
two Republican presidents.
of trustees, deadlocked over a choice to
succeed John DiBiaggio, plucked him
from the list of finalists.
McPherson wasted little time. The
day after his Aug. 17 selection, he
asked the faculty to begin the process
of selecting a new provost. Lou Anna
Simon, one of the finalists for the presi-
dency, has been filling the job on an
interim basis.
McPherson has selected a search
committee that will report back to him
by Nov. 1.
Other than provost, few major per-
sonnel changes are expected, but there
might be some minor shuffling of re-
sponsibilities.
"I have already decided I have no
intention of making very substantial
changes. I'm impressed with the com-
petence and dedication of people, by
and large," he said.
McPherson also plans to gather fac-
ulty, students and others to put together
a handful of guiding principles for his
administration in time for his February
State of the University speech.
"I'm convinced the way to manage the
university is to not come in and tell every-
body in a few weeks how you are going to
do this and what our priorities are going to
be,butrathertobroadlyengage the univer-
sity and throughthatprocesscomeupwith
a few key foci," he said.
One might be the need to keep the
university affordable for students,
McPherson suggested.
About half Michigan State's 39,743
students work for the university and
much of any tuition increase is returned
in financial aid to other students. But
McPherson said tuition increases have
to be held in check to maintain access.
Maintaining his own accessibility
is far easier.
His days typically begin in the of-
fice at 6:30a.m., a habit that dates to his
eadership
milking days in Lowell. He works until
dinner, eats, and then works some more.
Staff members joke that when he
sets a meeting for 6, they never know if
he means in the morning or in the
evening.
By 8:30a.m. one day, he'd already
been through three meetings.
McPherson plows through mounds
of reports sent to him to keep on top of
issues. He's done a radio call-in show
and got plenty of unsolicited advice at
I Spartan Stadium when Michigan State
hosted Michigan.
"Just a lot of parents were coming
up to me and saying, 'My son or daugh-
ter is here and we're pleased and we're
proud that they're here,' but explicitly
or implicitly, they're saying, 'I hope
you're giving them a good education.
This is not a game. This is reality.'
, .,
Debate leaves open eno- 6
issues of free speech i
Former L.A. mayoral
candidate emphasizes
need to build coalitions
By JANET BURKITT
OR THE DAILY
Concerned students, faculty, art-
ists, and Ann Arbor residents listened
o and questioned two clashing speak-
rs at a forum concerning the param-
eters of free expression Saturday.
The debate between Law school
Dean Lee Bollinger and American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) Arts Censor-
ship Project Director and attorney
arjorie Heins concentrated on the
1uestion of whether First Amendment
Sights were violated last October dur-
ing a symposium entitled 'Prostitution:
from Academia to Activism.
Members of the Michigan Journal
o.f Gender and Law, who organized the
quell controversy by openly address-
ing questions that have arisen through
the event, Jacobsen called the debate "a
total flop."
"The forum that was organized by
Dean Bollinger was an attempt by
Bollinger to keep a lid on the censor-
ship that occurred. He was not willing
to open up the dialogue to the issues
that were involved, which were where
and why censorship is occurring in
feminist art today -work by women
dealing with sex work, lesbian rights,
and race and sexuality."
Bollinger emphasized that, contrary
to ACLU charges, the Law school was
not involved in the decision to remove
Jacobsen's videotape from the exhibit.
By SARAH KIINO
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
Mlichael Woo once drove a cooked
duck from Los Angeles' Chinatown to
a University of California (UC) testing
laboratory -all in the name ofjustice.
Woo, the former Los Angeles
Democratic mayoral candidate, was
helping Chinese restaurant owners gain
the right to legally display the ducks in
their front windows, the same way the
ducks are traditionally displayed in
China.
Chinese resturantownerswerefined
for violating a law that prohibited food
from being left out at room tempera-
He emphasized the importance for
all Asian Americans to reach out and
build coalitions beyond the Asian
American community.
He said it is important for Asian
Americans to "think of yourself not as
a victim or in a position superior to
anyone else, but as part of a broader
community based on a vision of equal-
ity for everyone."
In his native Los Augeles, the need
to build inter-ethnic bridges is high-
lighted in the tensions between the
Asian American community and the
African American community. Woo,
who was an L.A. city councilmember