The Michigan Daily - Monday, January 24, 1994 - 3I

Oxford residents express
selves in French, German

Co-operatives bring
foreign language and
* culture to University
student housing
By BARB McKELVEY
FOR THE DAILY
While traveling abroad can be a
rewarding experience, it can also be a
dauntingly expensive one. However,
the University offers a less costly
alternative that is as nearby as Oxford
Housing.
Two of Oxford's living coopera-
tives, Cheever and Max Caid, offer
"specialized housing for students of
foreign languages." Ideally, residents
eat meals, work and socialize in Ger-
man or French.
Traditionally, Oxford has fallen
far short of this description, its lin-
gual goals falling prey to non-lan-
guage students who fill the otherwise
vacant beds.
This year, however, the German
house has experienced some success.
About three-quarters of its current

residents either know German or are
studying it. They have German and
English labels on all of their cabinets,
and there is always a German table at
supper.
The house itself is furnished with
a German library as well as German
posters.
Residents hold regular German
coffee hours and show German mov-
ies. This fall's Oktoberfest featured a
euchre contest and German-looking
decorations.
"There wasn't anything particu-
larly German about it, except for the
German 'atmosphere' here with all
our posters. But we did make
apfelstrudel," said Resident Director
Hartmut Rastalsky.
Unlike Caid, the French co-opera-
tive is not faring as well; it now faces
an identity crisis similar to that of the
German house in recent years.
"Once people come out here, they
like it," said Melanie Mando,
Cheever's resident director.
"It's just hard to get them to come

out."
Indeed. Only about 5 of the house's
19 students are studying French.
The house tries hard, though, with
French tables, French dinners and
French movies.
It also held a potluck supper this
Fall semester to attract new students.
Sylvie Carduner, head of the Resi-
dential College French program, said
the houses' relatively far-off loca-
tion, as well as their co-operative as-
pect, may detract from their popular-
ity.
Alan Levy, Housing communica-
tions and information director, said
the University is trying to find ways
to attract students who would like the
language experience but not neces-
sarily the co-operative obligations.
"(The houses' success) is in all of
our best interests. Because of the
University's 'large aura,' this com-
ments on our ability to give an in-
tense, intimate learning environment,"
he said.
Mando also has not given up on

Four Oxford Housing residents relax after dinner last night.

the French House. She is planning a
Mardi Gras in February, just in time
for housing reapplications.
Residential College students, as
well as students who are currently
abroad, have been targeted as poten-
tial residents.
Carduner said she believes a full-

time bilingual staff needs to be hired
to run the houses, citing Oxford's
past successes since its founding in
1966. She also pointed to similar
programs at the University of Wis-
consin.
Levy said bilingual employees
would be a good idea, but they would

Medstart coalition plays child's advocate .

By MICHELLE LEE THOMPSON
FOR THE DAILY
0 "It takes an entire village to raise
one child."
In a letter to participants of the sec-
ond annual Medstart conference held
Saturday at the Towsley Center, chair
Althea Hunte related this African prov-
erb and noted that everyone must play a
role in aiding the growth of children.
The Medstart Coalition was
-founded in 1991 by a group of medi-
:al students who saw the need in their
curriculum for children's awareness.
Now members include students from
the University's graduate schools of
Public Health, Medicine, Education,
Social Work and Nursing.
"Someone, somewhere along the
line, entered your life and took a stake
in your development," Hunte said.
The morning session consisted of
many different guests. Six-year-old
Angela Blocker from Detroit recited
a poem entitled "Peace on Earth" by
Rachelle Ferrell.
Medical School Dean Giles Bole

scanned the crowd of 250 students
and activists and said children's is-
sues are, "the things that are most
important in a health care system that
is appropriately being challenged."
In the spirit of the conference's
theme, "A Whole New World: Our
Children, OurFuture, Ourselves," the
audience heard "A Whole New
World," from "Aladdin."
Sharon Ladin,chairoftheChildren's
Defense Fund Child Watch, spoke about
the history of Medstart and gave ex-
amples of activists and others who have
positively contributed tochildren's lives.
"All of us working together can make
sure that someday, no child will be left
behind," Ladin said.
Kevin Hibbert, now taking a year
off from medical school to pursue a
doctorate in public health, was one of
Medstart's founders. He told the De-
troit Free Press that while walking
through the neonatal ward in a Wash-
ington, D.C. hospital, "I started to
think about all the children who aren't
loved, aren't touched."

Keynote speaker Barbara Blum,
chair of the Advisory Council for the
National Center for Children in Pov-
erty and president of the Foundation
for Child Development, said society
has to pay more attention to depressed,
malnourished, sick, abused, and un-
challenged children.
"I am convinced that one reason
our society can turn away from these
children is because we never see them
in the first place," Blum said.
Medstart has been sponsored by
many national public health agen-
cies, such as the American Academy
of Pediatrics, the Foundation for Child
Development, National Children's
Health Fund, and many other private
and public offices. The conference
named Abbott Laboratories as the
Corporate Sponsor of the Year.
Blum discussed the excellent neo-
natal care infants receive while in the
hospital, but asked participants to face
the facts about the remainder of the
babies' development. She said almost
20percentof them will grow up without

health insurance and many receive little
to no care in the home. Every child
deserves to be viewed publicly, Blum
said, yet such attention is the exception
rather than the rule in many cases.
Blumralliedforcommunity involve-
ment and revitalization. "Conscious-
ness-raising has three enemies: resig-
nation, cynicism, and hopelessness,"
she said.
She suggested students model them-
selves after the activists at the confer-
ence and take opportunities in their
careers to hold positions of leadership.
The three plenary sessions, held
after Blum's address, focused on "Our
Children, Our Future, and Ourselves."
Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Triaz ad-
dressed the most popular session,
"What the World Holds for America's
Children." Rodriguez-Triaz, former
president of the American Public
Health Association and former medi-
cal director of New York's State De-
partment of Health AIDS Institute
said, "We need an action agenda, and
we need it now."

Blum
Jean Willard, a public health stu-
dent said, "This is a great opportunity
for an interdisciplinary approach td
health and the well-being of our chil-
dren."
Ellen Lee, an Engineering senior
added, "I felt this would be a wonderful
place to learn of children's needs."
While reactions to this year's con-
ference were positive, Vivek Rajago-
pol and Julie Carrol, co-chairs for next
year's conference, have even higher
hopes for 1995.
"(The coalition) wants to make
things happen instead of just having
people come," Carrol said.

have to originate from within an
academic department.
"We're looking into different.
possibilities to fulfill the houses"
potential. When foreign language
houses work, some say it's the best
thing they did as a student," Levy
said.
Study finds
Sydy-car"e
centers canR
be harmfujl
WASHINGTON (AP) - Some
children in day-care centers and fos-
ter-care homes are exposed to raw,
sewage, scalding-hot water, house-
hold chemicals, insect infestations and
littered playgrounds, federal auditors
say.
Auditors with the Department of
Health and Human Services' inspec-
tor general's office say some pre-.
school children may also be spending
their days with child-care workers
who have criminal backgrounds.
The findings were based on in-
spections of 149 licensed day-care,
foster care and Head Start programs
in Nevada, Wisconsin, North Caro-
lina, South Carolina, Delaware and
Virginia.
Combined, those child-care pro-
viders were serving more than 6,600.
children.
The auditors also looked at 106.
Native American Head Startprograms
in Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
The purpose of the reviews, which
continue in Missouri, is to determine
whether child-care providers that re-
ceive federal money comply with fed-
eral, state and local health and safety
standards, and to assess state over-
sight of day-care facilities.
An official of the inspector
general's office says the agency is not
ready to draw any conclusions about
the quality of child-care nationwide,
but Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep.
Ron Wyden see a problem.
"The pattern of health and safety
violations across states is disturbing,"
says Dodd (D-Conn.) and the chair of
a Senate subcommittee on children
and families. "Pinched budgets have
forced many states to cut back on staff
for monitoring programs."
Dodd and Wyden (D-Ore.), and
the chair of the House Small Business
subcommittee on regulation, are in-
vestigating the quality of child care.

Full of idealism and hope, Pollack takes case to students

Pollack endorses
abortion rights,
single-payer health
Insurance and
population control
By DWIGHT DAVIS
FOR THE DAILY
Speaking before a nearly full Pond
Room in the Union last night, local
state Sen. Lana Pollack made a return
visit to friendly ground in her bid for
the U.S. Senate.
Pollack, who has made several
appearances on campus since she an-
nounced her candidacy last fall, ex-
plained she was in the race for very
idealistic reasons. "I want to heal the
world," she said. "I know I can do it."
She spoke in matter-of-fact tones
that mitigated the seeming boastful-
ness of her opening words. "I hope
you leave feeling you know me bet-
ter," after which she told of how the
1960s protests had "marked me for
life" and that the "greatest blight" on
present day society is a "deeply

marked cynicism."
She apologized for the 1980s, as
many Democrats running for office
have done, but tried to distance her-
self from its perceived shortcomings
by listing her legislative accomplish-
ments on domestic violence and the
"polluters' pay law" among others.
What is lacking in Wash-
ington,D.C. Pollack said, is not intel-
ligence but courage. "But in me you
have a person of uncommon courage
and, I hope, one with a modicum of
intelligence."
Pollack spent most of the hour-
long affair answering general ques-
tions on the environment, gun con-
trol, abortion rights and the federal
budget. She said she firmly supports
abortion rights.
She emphasized the importance
of population control, stating that it
was "equal to, or preceding any other
environmental issue."
She stopped short of support for a

handgun ban, noting that gun control
legislation was not a "panacea" 'for
the problem of gun violence.
She also stressed health care re-
form, saying that a single payer plan
would save a "bare minimum" of $67
billion in the first year alone.
Pollack admitted she would most
like to work on tax issues after getting
to Washington. "Taxes are the linch-
pin for everything else."
"And if balancing the budget
makes you a conservative, then I'm a
conservative." But Pollack was quick
to add that 12 years in Lansing made
it clear to her why she is a Democrat.
"Engler has been a disaster for this
state ... Democrats believe in building
from the bottom, not dripping from
the top."
After the speech, LSA junior Ben
Reames of Students for Pollack said
she was someone who could make
idealistic statements like those in last
night's speech and be believed.

JUDITH PERKINS/Daily
State Sen. Lana Pollack addresses a crowd at the Union last night.


Correction
Ahmad Abdur Rahman spoke to the Black Student Union on "The Radical Dr. King" last Thursday. This was
incorrectly reported in Friday's Daily.

Financial Aid Falsity #1:
"Good things come in small packages."
First priority will be given to those who turn in
their Spring/Summer '94 Application Materials
by the priority deadline,
January 31, 1994

Group Meetings
O Comedy Company Writers'
Meeting, University Activities
Center, Michigan Union, 7p.m.
Q Indian American Student As-
sociation, Michigan Union,
Room 1209, 9 p.m.
U Ninjutsu Club, IM Building,
Room G21, 7:30-9 p.m.
U Rugby Practice, Coliseum,
8:30-10 p.m.
U Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do Club,

Planning andPlacement, Angell
Hall, Aud B, 7-9 p.m.
U Entertainment Publications,
sponsored by Career Planning
and Placement, Michigan
Union, Wolverine Room, 7-8
p.m.
Q Getting the Most From Fac-
ulty: Building Skills for
Women Students, sponsored
by Center for Education of
Women, Michigan Union,

5 p.m.
[ Prudential Financial Services,
sponsored by Career Planning
and Placement, Michigan
Union, 7-8:30 p.m.
0 School of Public Health: Pre-
Fair Workshop, sponsored by
CareerPlanning and Placement,
School of Public Health, 3:10-5
p.m.
[ Volunteer Fair, sponsored by
the Pre Med Club, Michigan

X-XX
J.'

After all,



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