The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, December 1, 1993 - 3
.Women with AIDS
virus share their stories
By AMY MENSCH
FOR THE DAILY
The AIDS epidemic is very real for Helen
Johnson and Evelyn Gonzalez, both of whom
have AIDS. But after the initial shock, both
women have reached a stage of acceptance.
They shared their stories in the Union
yesterday to help themselves and others cope
with AIDS.
Johnson and Gonzalez spoke about women
and AIDS as part of the commemoration of
World AIDS Day. They relayed personal sto-
ries of how HIV has impacted their lives to a
small audience.
"It was the most personal of all the events
honoring World AIDS Day because it is more
down to the individual level," said Anne
Young, who is chair of the School of Public
Health's Student Association which organized
the event.
Both women contracted HIV - the virus
that causes AIDS - through heterosexual
intercourse.
Gonzalez, who is 34, was infected in 1989
when she had sex with a man who failed to
inform her that he had AIDS. Although she
described her experience as an "eye opener
and very overwhelming," she said many good
things have resulted from her experience.
Gonzalez now works as an outreach counse-
lor for people with AIDS at Harper Hospital.
Johnson, also an AIDS counselor and patient
advocate, said she contracted HIV from unpro-
tected sex. But the initial depression she felt when
first diagnosed in 1984 has more than subsided-
it has become a tough learning experience.
"I would not trade (AIDS) in because of the
closeness I now feel with God," Johnson said.
"AIDS would be a real stumbling block but it
turned out to be a real stepping stone."
Johnson said she finds working with other
AIDS patients to be very rewarding.
Once believed to be a homosexual disease,
HIV and AIDS is making no exceptions. Het-
erosexual females are the fastest growing cat-
egory of people with AIDS in the United States,
and HIV is one of the top five cause of death
among women between the ages of 15 and 44.
Rosiland Carer, a doctoral candidate at the
School of Public Health, said she hoped it
would "go beyond the nameless and faceless
statistics about AIDS and describe experiences
unique to women with AIDS."
Johnson warned the audience to learn as
much as possible about the virus because it is a
very real threat. She reminded the audience to
be careful because, "People who have AIDS are
not always going to tell you."
REBECCA MAR:OLIS/Daily
Evelyn Gonzalez and Helen Johnson, two women who have AIDS, spoke to a Michigan Union
audience yesterday as part of the World AIDS Day commemoration. Both women contracted the
disease through heterosexual sex and volunteer as counselors for AIDS patients.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
Polack says state might penaiize
'U' for continung tuition hikes
New MSA
reps. take
the reigns
By KAREN TALASK
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
With equal amounts of cheers
and jeers, lame duck Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly representatives bid
the student government adieu, sur-
rendering their positions to a newly-
elected group of students.
The assembly held two separate
meetings last night, the first ending
the reign of the old assembly and the
second to welcome the new mem-
bers. The MSA chamber was filled
with friendly condolences as the
"new" MSA was called into session.
"Skiing is much more important
than a MSA meeting," said now-
former MSA Rep. Mike Christie Jr.,
who is looking forward to a vacation
on the slopes.
However, new LSA Rep. Mark
Rabinowitz had a different opinion.
"To be (a member) sure beats the shit
out of not to be."
Although the agendas of both
meetings were light, the archaic rep-
resentatives tackled a long-standing
issue for the assembly for the last
time - MSA's funding to the Ann
Arbor Tenants' Union (AATU).
In a resolution sponsored by En-
gineering Rep. Brent House, MSA
members voted 18 to 6 to place all
funds budgeted to AATU into an
escrow account not to be dispersed
until the tenants' union agrees to
accept assembly appointees to its
board of directors.
According to AATU and MSA
bylaws, at least one member of the
assembly must be appointed to
AATU's board. However, MSA's
three appointees said they have not
been notified when or where the ten-
ants' union's meetings are.
The pro-tenant organization has
been in conflict with the assembly
since MSA President Craig
Greenberg proposed to eliminate its
funding in September. With assem-
bly and student support, the motion
failed and AATU was allocated
$24,320 for its yearly operating ex-
penses.
LSA Rep. Jacob Stern, one of the
assembly's appointees, said the ten-
ants' union was discrediting MSA
by ignoring its decision.
"We demand representation on
the board," Stern told an already-
convinced assembly. "They have
treated us so rudely."
Rackham Rep. Mark Buchan
voiced his opposition on the resolu-
tion strongly. "I think the tenants'
union has legitimate and reasonable
complaints against these appoint-
ments," he said.
Buchan called on assembly mem-
bers to remember AATU's concerns
that the appointees did not meet its
Affirmative Action regulations andthat
one of its staffers feltpersonally threat-
ened by the homophobic statements
made by one of the appointees.
By DAVID SHEPARDSON
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
Some might call it the local ver-
sion of phoning in questions to politi-
cians on C-SPAN or "Larry King
Live."
At a meeting with University stu-
dents and members of the Michigan
Collegiate Coalition (MCC)-a state-
wide lobbying group - two state
senators discussed tuition increases
and warned that state action might be
required to prevent universities from
continuing to raise tuition.
FormerGov. JamesBlanchard last
used this technique five years ago to
pressure universities to hold increases
to a minimum.
Balancing the twin-tiered rhetoric
of support for public universities'
autonomy and outrage over continu-
ing tuition increases, State Sen. Lana
Pollack, now a U.S. Senate candidate,
tempered her traditionally liberal
stump speech.
"There isn'tmuch wecan do in the
state legislature. I feel very strongly
about the need to retain autonomy
and not micromanage universities,"
she said.
But Pollack went on the offensive
in opposing tuition increases, calling
on students to actively protest tuition
hikes and universities to cut unneces-
sary administrators, despite the fact
that a prominent University adminis-
trator was present.
"It's getting to the point where we
have to see the end of increases," said
Pollack. "Tuition at the University of
Michigan is doubling every seven
years."
Vice President for Government
Relations Richard Kennedy did not
dispute Pollack's numbers but said
dissatisfaction with tuition increases
is not limited to the University.
"I think there is concern that stu-
dents are having to meet greater and
greater burdens," he said, adding that
retributive action by the state is pos-
sible.
"There is an increasing danger of
that kind of action ... We've always
kept quality even if that meant raising
tuition," he said.
Also present at the meeting, State
Sen. David Hollister (R-West
Bloomfield), vice chair of the Higher
Education committee, said the state
was actively considering a plan to tie
state appropriations to the number of
enrolled students.
"It's something many support to
get rid of some of the inequity,"
Hollister said.
The proposal to tie funding to en-
rollment has been floating around for
years and would take money away
from large universities like the Uni-
versity and Michigan State Univer-
sity.
Pollack said students should start
taking a greater responsibility in pay-
ing for their education. She said stu-
dents should utilize programs like the
National and Community Service
Trust Act of 1993, signed by Presi-
dent Clinton in a Rose Garden cer-
emony earlier this fall.
"No matter who gets elected, there
isn't going to be a lot of money, and
there aren't going to be big increases
in any programs," she said.
But only about 20,000 students
will be able to participate in the first
year of the National Service program.
Students will receive agrant of $5,750
to apply to college debts in exchange
for one year of service.
"I do wish that the program hadn't
been cut back, reducing the number
of available spots for students," Pol-
lack said.
There is a kind of eerie deja vu in
seeing another batch of students ask
legislators questions about tuition in-
creases, said Kellye Roberts, MCC
president and fifth year MSU senior
in political economy.
"The same questions, the same
answers," Roberts said.
Read
the
Daily.
REBECCA MARGOLIS/Daily
TA Devaux Gauger enlightens a student in his Environmental Studies class
with an impromptu guitar solo.
Clinton signs
WASHINGTON (AP) - As
James Brady turned in his wheelchair
to watch, President Clinton signed
into law the most sweeping handgun
control bill in a quarter century yes-
terday. "Americans are finally fed up
with violence," the president declared.
Cheers and applause erupted in
the East Room as Clinton signed the
long-fought bill before an audience
of law enforcement officials, mayors,
governors, members of Congress, and
families who have lost relatives to
gun violence.
The new law will require a five-
day waiting period and background
check on handgun buyers when it
takes effect in 90 days. It was named
for Brady, the White House press
Brady bill, first of anti-crime efforts
secretary who was gravely wounded
and left disabled in the 1981 assassi-
nation attempt against then-President
Reagan.
Reading slowly from notes as his
wife, Sarah, held a microphone for
him, Brady called the ceremony "the
end of unchecked madness and the
commencement of a heartfelt cru-
sade for a safer and saner country."
It was the first major gun bill
since 1968 when Congress banned
mail-order purchases of rifles, shot-
guns, handguns and ammunition and
curbed out-of-state buying of those
firearms.
"America won this battle," the
president said. "Americans are fi-
nally fed up with violence that cuts
down another citizen with gunfire
every 20 minutes."
A major anti-crime bill is expected
to be high on the agenda for Clinton
and Congress next year. It's a politi-
cally popular issue, since polls show
that violence-weary Americans say
crime is their top fear.
Clinton said that opponents have
successfully portrayed gun restrictions
as an impingement on the American
culture of hunting and fishing.
He said that signing the Brady bill
was "step one in taking our streets
back, taking our children back, re-
claiming our families and our future."
Critics contend the Brady bill will
have a limited effect because crimi-
nals will simply buy their weapons in
illicit markets.
Clinton and Sarah Brady both took
note of a Washington Post story that
said background checks and waiting
periods in California, Florida, Vir-
ginia and Maryland have blocked
more than 47,000 attempted gun pur-
chases by people who at the time were
banned from buying firearms. At least
25 states have Brady-like restrictions
on handgun sales.
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Student groups
Q Archery Club, practice, Sports
Coliseum, 8-10 p.m.
Q East Quad group for lesbians,
gay men, & bisexual people,
call 764-3678 for more info.
Q Hindu Student's Council,
Michigan Union, Pond Room,
8-9 p.m.
Q Law Club, office hours, Michi-
gan Union, Room 4124, 12-2
p.m., 4-5 p.m.
Q Lutheran Campus Ministry,
Jesus Through the Centuries
study/discussion, 6 p.m.;
Evening Prayer, 7 p.m.; 801
ing, Room 1046, 7 p.m.
U Rowing Team, novice practice,
boat house, men 3, 4, 5 p.m.;
women 3:30, 4:30, 5:30 p.m.
Q Saint Mary Student Parish,
Catholic Student Fellowship, 7
p.m.; centering prayer, 7 p.m.,
331 Thompson St.
Q Self-Defense, classes, CCRB,
Room 1200, call 996-1454 for
details, 9-10 p.m.
Q Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do Club,
everyone welcome, CCRB,
Room 2275, 8:30-9:30 p.m.
Q Students of Objectivism,MLB,
Room B 120, 7 p.m.
Michigan Initiative for
Women's Health, Rackham,
East Lecture Room, 12-1 p.m.
Q Identity Construction in Cen-
tral Asia: A Report from
Uzbekistan, sponsored by the
Center for Russian and East Eu-
ropean Studies, Lane Hall, noon.
Q International Coffee Hour,
sponsored by the International
Center, 3-5 p.m.
Q World AIDS Day Candlelight
Vigil & Ceremony, steps of
Rackham, 6:30 p.m.
Student services
Salary Supplements
ARE NOW AVAILABLE.
THEY CAN BE PICKED UP AT