8- The Michigan Dail - Friday, December 10, 1993
Successful Hubble mission
said to restore confidence
RALLY AGAINST RAPE
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP)
- After doing all it could to rehabili-
tate the Hubble Space Telescope and
its own reputation, NASA faces a
nervous few months until the instru-
ment proves it can view the universe
with a sharp eye.
The telescope was to be released
from the shuttle Endeavour at 2:08
a.m. EST tomorrow with new optics
and a new guidance system installed
during a record-setting five
spacewalks.
"It takes a team to score, and we
bad a good team," Richard Covey,
commander of the 'space shuttle
Endeavour, said yesterday after his
spacewalkers completed every task
set.
"We look forward to getting rid of
this bad boy tomorrow."
Engineers will realign the tele-
scope and check it out.
It will be six or seven weeks be-
fore they begin taking pictures that
will show whether the telescope is no
longer the national joke it became
when it was launched in 1990 with a
myopic main mirror.
The new parts installed on the
flight should have fixed that, as well
as correcting some of the mechanical
and electronic failures that have
plagued the telescope.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.),
chair of the Senate appropriations
subcommittee that oversees NASA
spending, predicted that the mission
will go a long way to restoring con-
gressional confidence in the agency.
What is it?
The time when certain graduate students and their
families can enroll in the University-sponsored
health care plan. It's also time to enroll your new
spouse, new baby or newly adopted child.
When is it?
January 3 through January 14, 1994
Who's Eligible?
Non-grandparented Graduate Student Research
Assistants with at least 25% appointments,
graduate students with specified fellowships
and, other declared graduate student groups.
How do you enroll?
Use the material that was mailed to you, or pick up
forms in the Benefits Office. We're located in the
Administrative Services Building at the corner
of Hoover and Green, Room 2030.
Where do you return the forms?
At the Benefits Office, no later than 4 p.m.
on Janurary 14, 1994.
Questions?
Check with your department or call
Student Benefits Office, 763-1212 or 763-0458.
SUSAN ISAAKD aiy
Members of the National Women's Rights Organizing Coalition speak to Vice President of Student Affairs Maureen
Hartford. The group held a rally on the Diag then marched to the Fleming Administration Building. The group was
protesting sexual harassment and rape on campus.
eo-Nazie ts lie in
BONN, Germany (AP)-- A neo-
Nazi got life in prison Wednesday
and his sidekick 10 years for a 1992
firebombing that killed three Turks.
The ruling was hailed as proof that
Germany is serious about locking up
violent admirers of Adolf Hitler.
The term handed down to Michael
Peters was the first life sentence for a
neo-Nazi assailant since a wave of
right-wing attacks began in 1990.
Germany has no death penalty.
Peters and Lars Christiansen were
convicted by a state supreme court in
Schleswig for the Nov. 23, 1992,
firebombing of a Turkish apartment
house in Moelin, a town near Ham-
burg.
Christiansen's10-year sentence is
the maximum penalty for someone 21
years old or younger.
Justice authorities have been ac-
cused of being too lenient with young
right-wing extremists or handling in-
vestigations so badly that acquittals
were inevitable.
In his verdict, Judge Hermann
Ehrich said the two may have felt
emboldened by anti-foreigner senti-
ment in German society.
He mentioned last year's drive by
politicians to close Germany's bor-
ders to asylum-seekers, and the resi-
dents who cheered as extremists
firebombed a Rostock asylum shelter
three months before the Moelln at-
tack.
A spokesperson for the Frankfurt
Jewish community, Michel Friedman,
said a harsh sentence was long over-
due. "I just hope it has a deterrent
effect."
Security authorities said neo-Nazi
groups were forming tighter bonds
and it was becoming harder to infil-
trate them.
A united front is being formed by
radical-right organizations such as
Viking Youths, Action For A Clean
Germany, the Free Workers Party and
the German People's Union.
'U' pilots
new MS
treatment
New treatment for #
Multiple Sclerosis
can prevent disease
in early stages
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A two-week treatment of high:
doses of steroids can help head off the:
onset of multiple sclerosis in its earli-
est stages, according to a study pub-:
lished Thursday.
"Thisdoes notpreventMS. Itdoes
not cure itor stop it," said Dr. Jonathan
Trobe, an opthalmologist and neu-
rologist at the University, which took'
part in the study.
"You get a stay," he said.
The study involved giving some
subjects steroids, both intravenously
and by mouth, after they were discov-
ered to have optic neuritis, which can
be an early warning sign of MS. The
people who received the two-week
steroid treatment had significantly less
chance of developing MS within two
years of it, the study said.
Patients receiving placebos had a
16.7 percent chance of developing
MS within two years of getting the
treatment. The percentage was 7.5
percent for patients who received the
steroid treatment.
The $5 million study sponsored
by the National Eye Institute was pub-
lished in yesterday's edition of the
New England Journal of Medicine.
The treatment involves using some
known steroids in new combinations,
doctors said. It appears to be effective
only in new cases.
While the treatment is not a cure,
doctors said delaying its onset is help-
ful. "Buying time is important, be-
cause someday we're going to have a
drug to deal with this," Trobe said.
Multiple sclerosis attacks the cen-
tral nervous system. It causes blurred
vision, loss of balance, numbness and
paralysis. It strikes women twice as
often as men. About 350,000 Ameri-'
cans have multiple sclerosis.
Doctors at the University and 14
other sites made the discovery in treat-
ing acute optic neuritis. Up to 80 per-
cent of patients with optic neuritis - a
painful condition that results in thetem-
porary, partial loss of sight - will
develop multiple sclerosis within 15
years.
Trobe said doctors were surprised
that theshort-term treatment produced
such a strong result. Doctors don't
know why the treatment's effect
seemed to wear off after two years.
"The big deal and the point is, it's
a step," said Patricia McDonald, ex-
ecutive directorof the Michigan chap-
ter of the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society. "We're getting closer."
The five-year study of 389 pa-
tients'was designed at the Unversity
in the mid-1980s by Dr. Roy Beck, an
ophthalmologist and epidemiologist
now at the University of South Florida,
and David Musch, an associate re-
search scientist in ophthalmology.
Michigan State University and a
number of other universities and in-
sttutes across the nation took part in
the study.
MBA program goes on the road to Hong Kong
HONG KONG
Continued from page 5
he could not disclose the specifics.
While the curriculum consists of
the same classes MBA students take
in Ann Arbor, there are some modifi-
cations. Approximately 10 percent of
the instruction is geared to the com-
pany or the airline industry since
Cathay Pacific is the flagship carrier
in Hong Kong. The first class will
graduate in 1996.
In addition to paying for salaries
and equipment, Cathay Pacific pays
$36,500 for each student's tuition for
the duration of the program.
"This frees up money that can be
used for research and University stu-
A V VNCE CAP6[L
dents," Holmes said. While he said he
believes the program is successful,
Holmes admits, "There are still some
bugs in the program but they will
continue to improve as technology
improves."
Steve Mayo, who represents the
Michigan Collegiate Telecommuni-
cations Association, said he feels that
the interactive video enhances educa-
tion. "It is easier to bring in resources
you need because no traveling is in-
volved."
He added, "This is more in line
with what kids have grown up with at
home and to not have video as part of
the learning process is strange."
GOODBYE STEVE
GOOD LUCK IN
THE FUTURE
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