The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 28, 1994 - 3
Sewage flows
*from water
fountains at
South Quad
By ROBIN BARRY
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
i Students living'on the fourth floor
of South Quad's Taylor House reported
what they belived to be raw sewage
flowing from their drinking fountain
shortly before Spring Break began.
On Feb.17, the drinking fountain on
fourth Taylor was overflowing with
brown water. The water had filled a
bucket placed underneath the fountain
and created a puddle on the carpet.
. First-year LSA student Wally Jones
said the problem had appeared a few
days earlier.
"Three days ago, it was comming
out of the drains under the urinals in the
bathroom. Two days ago it started
comming out of the fountain," he said.
Brian Castillo, another South Quad
resident, said "It's been spewing more
vigorusly as of late. Maggots are our
ewest visitors. Earlier today it was
estering with worms."
The students said they had contacted
the janitor when the problem first
appeared. Later they called Facilities.
"Some people were here working
on it today, but all they did was put a
bucket underneath it," Jones said.
The fountain was apparently fixed
over break.
Facilities wouldn't discuss the cause
f the leakage and residence hall
administrators were not available for
comment. But the students had their
own theories about what had caused the
problem.
"Someone said that the 8th floor
sewage pipes were connected to ours,
everytime the eighth floor flushes it
comes out of the drains," Castillo said.
"Facilities said the overflow was
tchen water that had backed up," said
ill Haynes a first-year Engineering
student. "But the kitchen is on the first
floor and we couldn't see how the pipes
could back up four floors."
LSA first-year student Geoff
Ponstein said the overflowing fountains
and drainsweren'ttheonly maintenance
problems students had experienced.
"In the begining of the year only two
showers of the five that we have were
*vorking. It took two months to fix," he
said.
"Ever since we've been here there
havebeen problems, constant overflows
in the toilets, showers out of order. It's
been very annoying."
Regents' Roundup
WUOM to broadcast
'M' football next fall
By JAMES R. CHO
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
Listeners of WUOM 91.7 FM will
hear more than just classical music
when they turn on the radio this fall.
Wolverine fans will be able to
hear helmets clashing and players
grunting over the crystal clear
airwaves of FM radio when WUOM,
the University-sponsored radio
station, begins broadcasting Michigan
football games in the fall.
Recurring budget deficits and
declining listener contributions
prompted radio station managers to
explore new ways to attract listeners.
Last year WUOM lost more than
$36,000.
U ..
Endowments to the University
reached an all time high at the end of
last year.
The endowments reached more
than $911 million as of Dec. 31, said
Farris Womack, University executive
vice president and chief financial
officer.
"We have reached a milestone,"
he said.
The money from the endowments
will go to individual schools to provide
support for professors, he added.
U..
Jon Cosovich, vice president for
development, expressed optimism
with the progress of the Campaign for
Michigan in a presentation to the
regents.
The Campaign is a five-year
initiative by the University to raise $1
billion, now nearly half finished.
"The Campaign for Michigan is
going very well. We are at 56 percent
of our goal with only 51 percent of the
time elapsed," Cosovich told the
regents.
U..
The newly renovated Athletic
Administration Building will soon:
have a new name. The University
Board of Regents voted unanimously:
to rename the building the John P.
Weidenbach Hall in honor of retiring
athletic director.
Weidenbach became athletic
director in 1991. College athletic
directors recently voted the
University's Athletic Department as
the most outstanding athletic:
department in the country.
U..
Recent additions to the
construction on campus include
Angell Hall and the C.C. Little
building. Renovations for the two
buildings will cost $32.5 million. The
overhaul is expected to be completed
in the summer of 1996.
Two divers pose next to the M-ROVER during a public demonstration last Friday.
'U' to uts new MnOE
to eG 1
to UXDIO.*4 n reat LRKeS
By ROBIN BARRY
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
The University is stepping into
the future and taking an innovative
approach to underwater research.
The Department of Naval
Architecture and Marine Engineering
introduced the M-ROVER the Friday
before spring break, to invited
government officials, University
faculty and students.
"When I was a kid something like
this was just material for science
fiction," said Keith Molin, associate
vice president for government
relations.
The M-ROVER - a Remote
Operated Vehicle for Exploration -
recently was purchased by the
University for research and
educational projects throughout the
Great Lakes through a grant from the
National Science Foundation.
It is aproximately 4 feet long, 3
feet wide and 2 feet high. The M-
ROVER is equipped with an arm that
has elbow, wrist and jaw movements.
It also has high resolution, low light
color video imaging, sonar imaging
and high-quality 35 mm still
photography. The M-ROVER can
travel to depths of 450 meters or 1,485
feet.
Guy Meadows, associate professor
in Naval Architecture and Marine
Engineering, said the Rover will
mostly be used as an educational tool.
During the summer months it will
be aboard the Research Vessel
Laurentian, operated by the
University's Center for Great Lakes.
During the winter it will be available
to students studying the dynamics of
submerged vehicles.
Meadows said the M-ROVER will
benefit many students from a variety
of fields as well as engineers.
"It will give biology and chemistry
students access to the Great Lakes as
well as bring submerged vehicals into
the curriculum," Meadows said.
The M-ROVER will also be
available for other uses, such as
assisting the state police in
reconaissance missions.
Richard Sack, commanding officer
of the Underwater Recovery Unit with
the Michigan State Police said the M-
Rover may replace divers in missions.
"Divers have a limited amount of
time that they can safely stay at certain
depths. The M-ROVER doesn't face
these limitations, it will make a great
addition to the team," he said.
Costing $236,000, the M-ROVER
was purchased with an $88,000 grant
from the National Science Foundation
and University funding. Benthos, the
manufacturer, also offered a discount
to the University because of the
services of William S. Vorus, a
University professor of Naval
Architecture and Marine Engineering.
Vorus designed the thruster system
used on the Benthos vehicle.
Meadows described the process
used to get the M-ROVER as a team
effort. "We wrote up a proposal,
explaining how it would be used and
how it would figure into the
educational process. Everyone pitched
in and worked together," he said.
The overall response of those
attending the presentation was
positive.
Engineering senior Jeff Schaedig
said he was surprised by its
capabilities.
"It was very impressive. Originally
I thought it was only equipped with a
camera, I didn't realize its capabilities
with sonar and the arm," he said.
Linda Goad, marine super-
intendant research scientist for the
Center for Great Lakes and Aquatic
Sciences, was pleased with the
presentation and said the M-ROVER
will be a good addition as a research
tool.
"No other university in the Great
Lakes area has anything like it,"
Meadows said.
Congress softens stand
on cutting Russian aid
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON - Leading
members of Congress yesterday
scaled back their demands for a freeze
on aid to Russia but said they still
wanted to reassess the $2.5 billion
program in the wake of the espionage
scandal that erupted last week.
Senate Intelligence Committee
Chair Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.),
who called for an aid freeze after a
veteran CIA officer was arrested on
charges of spying for the Kremlin,
said he now merely wants a new look
at the issue.
"There's no question nations are
going to spy on each other," DeConcini
said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"We're going to continue to do it,
and Israel may still be doing it with
the United States ... and we are a big
News Analysis
defying Clinton, many lawmakers
embrace halfhearted health reforms
College attendance by Blac
donor to Israel.
"I'm not saying stop aid," he
added. "Reassess our aid and look...
(at) what aid is really in our best
interest."
Members of Congress reacted with,.
outrage after federal authorities
arrested CIA official Aldrich H. Ames
and charged him with spying for the
former Soviet Union and then Russia
for as long as 10 years.
Many legislators demanded thatJ:
Russia be punished for spying on the
U.S. government at a time when the
United States is sending aid to help
reform Russia's economy.
Some, like DeConcini, suggested
that the U.S. aid program, which
President Clinton has cited as one of his
major policy accomplishments, be -
suspended.
Jks plummets
'r
"In a way, I am not surprised and
shocked," said William H. Gray III,A.
president of the United Negro College:-
Fund. "Because in the last couple of
years we have gone through an
economic downturn.... We all know
that when America catches an
economic cold, African Americans
catch economic pneumonia."
Gray said that because African
Americans are disportionately low
income, rising unemployment and
increasing college tuition hits them
especially hard. "African American
males are particularly affected
because they have to be the bread
winners."
President Clinton
continues to face
opposition to his
plan In Congress
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON - With
President Clinton's health care
proposal under heavy fire in Congress
and no other comprehensive
alternative emerging so far to take its
place, there is an increasing likelihood
that lawmakers will turn toward the
less-than-comprehensive reforms that
#linton has vowed to veto.
As key committees prepare to
begin their work in earnest, there is
growing speculation that Congress
may pass only insurance market
reforms and a watered-down measure
to extend coverage to some of the 38
million uninsured Americans.
If that happens, Clinton will be left
with a difficult choice: make good on
his threat to veto any bill that does not
9rovide coverage to everyone, or take
what he can get and declare victory.
But don't count the president out,
warned senior White House adviser
George Stephanopoulos. For now, he
said, Clinton is content to let Congress
do its "legislative handiwork" while
he and the first ladycontinue
campaigning for universal coverage.
Confusing the situation is the fact
that several committees in both the
House and the Senate will prepare
competing versions of health care
reform legislation, which will
somehow have to be reconciled.
The House Ways and Means health
subcommittee, which is scheduled to
begin drafting its version of a health
care bill this week, appears certain to
reject the Clinton plan's provision
forcing most Americans to get their
coverage through mandatory
purchasing alliances. It is by means of
these alliances that Clinton plans to
achieve many of his goals.
But subcommittee Chair Pete Stark
(D-Calif.) has flatly declared the
alliances dead, and other lawmakers
say they view them as unworkable,
forcing too much government
intrusion into the health care system.
If the alliances are to exist at all, many
argue, their membership should be
voluntary with no regulatory powers.
Clinton's plan could face even
tougher problems when faced by the
Energy and Commerce health
subcommittee, which is headed by
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.).
Although Waxman is squarely behind
the Clinton plan, the moderate and
conservative Democrats who populate
the subcommittee are balking at two
of its other pillars: requiring
employers to provide health coverage
for their workers and imposing price
controls on health premiums.
There may be a clue in the effort of
two members of Waxman's panel, J.
Roy Rowland (D-Ga.) and Michael
Bilirakis (R-Fla.), who plan to
introduce what they describe as the
only health legislation on which there
is truly a consensus.
It cobbles together elements of the
Clinton plan and the major alternatives
written by various members of
Congress.
Its features include allowing
workers to take their health insurance
with them when they leave a job,
reining in malpractice lawsuits,
forcing insurance companies to
provide coverage to people with
known health problems, making it
easier for small businesses to pool
their resources to purchase insurance
for their workers and putting more
emphasis on preventive care.
If this approach should pass, there
would be a lot less government
involvement in the health care system:
no requirement that employers nor
individuals buy insurance, no
premium caps to bring care costs under
control and no major changes in the
tax code to encourage health
consumers to buy more economical
plans.
THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON - The
percentage of young African
American men attending college has
dropped substantially in the 1990s,
according to a report released today.
The American Council on
Education study said that as a result of
the 5 percentage point decline between
1990 and 1992, only 30 percent of
Black men who have graduated from
high school are attending college.
That troubles many who say higher
education more than ever is the ticket
to a good job and high income.
In the 1970s, the rate of Black
male high school graduates enrolling
in college rose, then stayed relatively
flat in the 1980s with a downturn
coming in the beginning of the 1990s.
For Hispanic men, the college
enrollment rate increased 6 percentage
points over the same period. About 34
percent of Hispanic men were
attending higher education institutions
in 1992.
For white men, the rate held steady
at 42 percent. Women - whether
African American, Hispanic or white
- all attend college at a higher rate
than their male counterparts, but the
gap between African American
women and men is the largest: 37
percent to 30 percent.
MICHIGAN STUDENT ASSEMBLY
WINTER '94 ELECTIONS
March 22 & 23
POSITIONS AVAILABLE:
MSA President & Vice President
(Elected together as a slate)
MSA Representatives in:
Architecture 1
Business 2
Law
Medicine
Pharmacy
SNRE
1
1
1
1
Art
Engineering
LSA
Nursing
Raclkham
1
2
9
1
4
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