The MichiganDaily - Thursday, March 17, 1994 -3
'Big Three' student representatives unite to increase funding
.
By ROBIN BARRY
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
Student government officials of
Michigan's collegiate "Big Three"-
Michigan State University, Wayne
State University and the University
of Michigan -joined forces yester-
day in an attempt to convince legis-
lators to increase funding for higher
education.
Brad Thaler, student assembly
chair for the Associated Students of
Michigan State University said the
three universities decided to work
together because they have much in
common. Representing more than
100,000 students, the schools are na-
tionally recognized by the Carnegie
institute as "research intensive."
"We felt, as larger research uni-
versities, that some of our interests
were different than other universi-
ties," Thaler said.
Speaking before the House Higher
Education subcommittee in Lansing,
student leaders lobbied for at least a
3-percent increase in funding for their
schools.
Thaler said the representatives
added a student perspective to issues
being addressed.
Craig Greenberg, president of the
Michigan Student Assembly, also
testified for the 35,000 students at
the University.
"We wanted to show the people
in Lansing that our three student bod-
ies are serious about being heard. We
feel students should have a major say
in the running of state higher educa-
tion system," he said.
Although the University is repre-
sented by the Michigan Collegiate
Coalition, a statewide lobbying or-
ganization, Greenberg said there was
no reason the University should not
be contributing to those efforts.
Each of the three representatives
mentioned examples where students
faced difficulty finding sufficient
funds to cover university costs.
Nedda Shayota, vice-chair of the
Intergovernmental Relations Com-
mittee and member of the Student
Council of Wayne State University,
said in his testimony, "The national
economic situation has taken its toll
on everyone -especially students."
Thaler and Greenberg agreed that
the testimony was a success.
"I think this is the beginning of a
great joint effort between our univer-
sities," Greenberg said.
Greenberg said there was much
more the University could do to in-
crease and improve the quality and
funding level of higher education for
all Michigan's research universities.
"The next step is to increase our
efforts with more participation of the
students of our three schools. We
need to do more than just testify; we
need to increase communication be-
tween our schools and between our
students and the state government,"
he said.
Seminar focuses on .
"women and AIDS r.
'U' science center
receives grant for
research on lasers
By REBECCA GORDON
-FOR THE DAILY
The 50 seats in the small East
Lecture Room of the Rackham Build-
ing overflowed yesterday afternoon
when the Michigan Initiative for
Women's Health (MIWH) led a
"Woman and HIV" seminar.
Eve Mokotoff, chief HIV/AIDS
epidemiologist for the Michigan De-
partment of Public Health, led a talk
that emphasized the growing need to
educate women in light of the high
number of HIV-positive women in
the state.
Throughout the seminar Mokotoff
presented many statistics concerning
women and HIV in the state. Michigan
ranks as the 14th highest state in the
country for cases of women with HIV.
The number of women that have been
tested HIV-positive in Michigan alone
ranges between 650 and 2,100.
"HIV data is so difficult to draw
conclusions about because there are
millions of biases," Mokotoff said.
The risk category data in the De-
troit Metropolitan region show 59
*percent of HIV-positive women at-
tained the virus through the use of
injected drugs, while 13 percent of
HIV-positive women became infected
after having sex with a partner who
had used injected drugs. Because of
the high correlation between drug use
and HIV-related diseases, Mokotoff
said, "The key to preventing the dis-
ease is to concentrate on drug usage."
Mokotoff mentioned an undeter-
mined category to describe those
women whose HIV-positive status did
not fall under categories such as blood
transfusion, drug use or sex.
Motokoff said a common mistake
people make is to assume the unde-
termined category encompasses
women who have contracted the dis-
ease from mosquitoes or toilet seats.
But she said women who fall under
this category are "sexually active
people who didn't know enough about
partners to tell us, or didn't want to
admit the truth about their partner."
"Women are the newest, fastest
growing group of AIDS cases," said
LSA senior Juliet Rogers, a work-
study assistant inresearch for MIWH.
"I think MIWH provides a forum that
allows students, staff and the whole
university community to interact and
talk about issues of women health. It
really gives students an opportunity
to get more involved in important but
neglected issues."
Donna Schaldenbrand, a Nursing
senior, said this was the first MIWH
seminar she had attended. "I think
this type of seminar can help me in my
studies because it is an important is-
sue for women," she said.
By SCOT WOODS
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
A sizable grant from the National
Science Foundation will assure fund-
ing for the University's Ultrafast
Optical Science Center (UOSC)
through 1999.
The Center received the first in-
stallment of the $13.9 million, five-
year grant last week.
Prof. Gerard Mourou, UOSC di-
rector, said, "It's the most prestigious
money you can get in this country."
Research into ultra-short laser
pulses is the primary focus of the
Center's work. The technology has
applications in high-speed fiber optic
communications, computers and
three-dimensional medical imaging.
Mourou, a professor of electrical
engineering and computer science,
said, "Ultrashort optical pulse research
has had and will continue to have an
enormous impact on future advances
in medicine, high-speed electronics
and communications."
Past successes of the four-year-
old center include developing the fast-
est optical detector in the world, new
lasers for use in spectroscopy and an
optical "valve."
These products are now being
manufactured by various spin-off
companies.
The grant constitutes approxi-
mately 40 percent of the center's an-
nual $5 million budget. The rest comes
from the University, governmental
agencies and corporations.
Aside from supporting research,
the grant will fund the center's educa-
tional efforts. The center sponsors
several projects for younger children,
including summer camps that feature
laser technology.
Autumn Craft, the Center's ad-
ministrator, said educational programs
are a vital part of UOSC's mission.
"There's a point around fourth
grade where interest of females in
sciences decreases severely," she said.
Craft added that the Center works to
keep females and minorities inter-
ested in math and science during those
early years.
In the future, Mourou and his as-
sociates will work to develop an X-
ray laser, which could accelerate elec-
trons. This may allow scientists -to
build sub-atomic colliders up to 1000
times smaller than current technol-
ogy permits.
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
Eve Mokotoff, public health epidemiologist, discusses the problems facing
women with the AIDS virus yesterday afternoon in the Rackham Building
during the Michigan Initiative for Women's Health seminar.
*Israel refuses new
Palestinian demands
NEWSDAY
WASHINGTON - Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin voiced a hard
line against any immediate new con-
cessions to the Palestinians yester-
* day, while at the same time holding
out an olive branch to Syria.
Alluding to the killing of 29 Pales-
tinians by an Israeli settler in Hebron
three weeks ago, Rabin said Israelis
"are also victims of terror. ... Our
women and children have lived in the
shadow of terror for decades. Not a
week passes when we don't bury our
dead."
"We don't think it appropriate to
raise new demands after every terror
attack," Rabin said at a news confer-
ence at the White House with Presi-
dent Clinton. "Security is a two-way
street."
But senior administration officials
said later that in his meeting with
Clinton yesterday Rabin had indicated
Israel was prepared to take new steps
to ensure Palestinian security in the
*occupied territories if Palestine Lib-
eration Organization (PLO) Chair
Yasser Arafat agreed to resume the
peace talks he broke off after the
massacre.
They said, however, that the two
leaders had not concentrated on any
specific proposal. "A variety of ideas
came up," said one official at a White
House briefing.
In response to a question yester-
day, Rabin mentioned the possibility
of reconstituting a Palestinian police
force under Israeli command in areas
where there has not been any Israeli
withdrawal. Palestinian police, who
were accused of being collaborators
with Israel, resigned after the Pales-
tinian uprising began in December
1987.
Israel and the Palestinians have
already agreed on a force of 8,000 to
9,000 Palestinians under Palestinian
command in Jericho and the Gaza
Strip, from which Israel has agreed to
withdraw when negotiations are com-
pleted.
From its base in Tunis, Tunisia,
the PLO told Reuters that Rabin's
stand meant that peace talks, sus-
pended by Arafat after the Feb. 25
massacre, were deadlocked.
"We are disappointed by Rabin's
position," said PLO executive com-
mittee member Yasser Abed-Rabbo.
"The Israeli government did not re-
spond in any positive way to our de-
mands, and (this) leads us to a kind of
a deadlock." Rabin raised the possi-
bility of moving ahead on talks with
Syria, which also broke off peace
negotiations after the massacre. U.S.
officials see the move as a way of
pressuring Arafat to come back to the
table so as not to fall behind his rival,
Syrian President Hafez Assad.
"We will stand ready to do what is
required of us if the Syrians are ready
to do what is required of them," the
Israeli leader said, an allusion to con-
cept of returning the strategic Golan
Heights, captured from Syria in 1967,
in exchange for a peace treaty.
There are painful decisions to be
made, Rabin said. "The promise of
peace and its genuine benefits ... jus-
tifies making such decisions vis-a-vis
Syria."
Clinton said he had talked to Assad
by phone a few days ago and was
convinced "he wants to make peace
with Israel."
issue during Oxford-style debate
WASHINGTON (AP) -There's
no shortage of talk on the floor of the
House of Representatives. Prepared
speeches and strict time limits can
make real discussion rare.
Congress sought to change that
last night by staging a proper Oxford-
style debate, complete with a resolu-
tion, opening and closing statements
and questions from opponents. The
format called for 90 minutes of in-
depth argument on a single subject.
"I've thought for a long time that
the debate was really statements and
speechifying, and that we need real
debate," said House Majority Leader
Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) "We get a
lot of constituents saying, Why are
you always wrangling all the time?
Why are you all making these parti-
san presentations? Why can't you
work it out?" he said.
The topic of Wednesday's debate
was the topic in Congress these days:
health care reform. And those debat-
ing included some of the subject's
key players, like Rep. Pete Stark (D-
Calif.), whose House Ways and Means
subcommittee is currently working
on a bill, and Rep. Bill Thomas (R-
Calif.), the ranking Republican on
Stark's panel.
The aim was not just to argue the
finer points of employer mandates,
universal coverage and choice of doc-
tors. It also makes a good impression.
The 100-minute debate was being
carried live on C-Span. The hope was
that when Amfericans tuned in, they
would see and hear substantive de-
bate on philosophical issues, not bills.
"Often we get so caught up in the
minutiae of the legislation, and the
public isn't interested in that," said
Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pa.) who has
been coaching the Republican team.
Last night's debate was the first of
three to be held in the House as part of
90-day experiment. If the experiment
works, it could do wonders for the
image of Congress.
U.S. House takes on health care
t
Somalia plagued by cholera outbreak
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -
An outbreak of cholera first noticed
in Somalia last month has become an
epidemic, with more than 100 people
already dead and the toll growing
daily.
Christian Clark, a spokesperson
for the U.N. Children's Fund, ex-
pressed concern yesterday that ef-
forts to control the epidemic could be
jeopardized by the withdrawal of
Western military forces.
The United States, Germany, Italy,
France and several other nations are
removing their troops from the U.N.
peacekeeping force in Somalia by the
end of March.
With them are going helicopters
and airplanes that for more than a year
have often been put at the disposal of
U.N. and private aid agencies, allow-
ing them access to parts of the country
unreachable overland.
"It's a real worry," Clark said.
"Our ability to get around could be
severely restricted."
Cholera was first detected in the
northern port of Bosaso a little more
than a month ago. Since then, it has
spread 1,000 miles south to Kismayu
and to a number of points in between.
In Bosaso, 664 people have con-
tracted the disease and at least 22
have died, Clark said. He said there
were unconfirmed reports of 256 cases
and 42 deaths in Belet Huen, near the
Ethiopian border in central Somalia
In Kismayu, 250 miles south of
Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean, 261
cases have been confirmed the past
four days, Clark said. Mogadishu it-
self has reported 431, with an uncon-
firmed number of deaths.
Cholera is a viral disease most
commonly contracted by drinking
impure water. Its symptoms include
high fever, vomiting and diarrhea that
leave its victims critically dehydrated.
Group Meetings
U Amnesty International, Michi-
gan Union, Anderson Room,
7:30 p.m.
U Campus Crusade for Christ,
Dental School, Kellogg Audi-
torium, 7 p.m.
U Haiti Solidarity, First United
Methodist Church, 120 S. State,
7:30 p.m.
U Jewish Feminist Discussion
Group, Hillel, 7 p.m.
U Korean Students Association,
2203 Michigan Union, 7 p.m.
U Saint Mary Student Parish,
Lenten scripture sharing, 11
a.m.; Parish Pastoral Council,
7:30 p.m.
U Society of Women Engineers,
1200 EECS Building, 6:15 p.m.
U VIA Hillel, Hillel, 7 p.m.
Events
Chemistry Building, 7:30 p.m.
Q "Contemporary East Euro-
pean Poetry," Emery George,
sponsored by the Department
of Slavic Languages, Lane Hall
Commons, 4 p.m.
Q "Cross Generational Trans-
mission of Wealth and Social
Standing in the Maros Vil-
lages of Southern Hungary:
2000 B.C.," John O'Shea, spon-
sored by the Museum of An-
thropology, 2009 Museum of
Natural History, noon.
Q "Excellence and Resilience:
The African Past, Present, and
Future," sponsored by the
Black Student Union, Business
School, Hale Business Audito-
rium, 7 p.m.
U Free Health Fair, sponsored by
Nursing Students, North Cam-
pus Commons,10 a.m.-2 p.m.
English, Rackham Amphithe-
ater, 5 p.m.
Student services
Q 76-GUIDE, peer counseling
phone line, call 76-GUIDE, 7
p.m.-8 a.m.
U Alternate Career Center, ca-
reers in the nonprofit sector,
2213 Michigan Union, 10 a.m.-
5 p.m.
Q Campus Information Center,
Michigan Union, 763-INFO;
events info., 76-EVENT; film
info., 763-FILM.
Q Federal Tax Workshop, Inter-
national Center, 9 a.m.
Q North Campus Information
Center, North Campus Com-
mons, 763-NCIC, 7:30 a.m.-
5:30 p.m.
Q Professional Development for
International Spouses, spon-
U a
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