Peoples Power Senior Shonte Peoples solidifies the secondary and anchors the 'D' __- _ ' I 'Ballets Africains' shows real Africa through traditions ATM 5/ IO s ild' WE w i t 0 i t1 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