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MSA safety walk report details hazardous campus areas
Report finds problems with safety phones, lighting
By AMY KLEIN
Daily Staff Reporter
The Michigan Student Assembly
has targeted the Medical Center and
Markley area, South Forest Avenue
40 North Campus as three of the most
unsafe areas on and off campus, in a
report released Tuesday.
On Oct. 27, MSA asked students,
University employees and city offi-
cials to look for prominent campus
safety hazards in its Campus Safety
Awareness Walk-Through.
The report contains a compilation
of the participants' observations and
vided recommendations for safety
provements.
"The Medical Campus is where I
heard the most complaints about," said
MSA President Julie Neenan. "My
group walked around up there and it's
just really scary."
Eight groups of participants as-
sessed student-populated districts,
describing the locations of lighting
problems, overgrown shrubbery and
crumbling sidewalks.
A key concern is the absence of
emergency telephones in potentially
dangerous areas. City Council member
Jane Lumm (R-2nd Ward) participated
in the walk of North Campus, an area
the group found to be dark and unsafe.
"We experimented and tested the
response time on one of the blue emer-
gency phones," Lumm said. "We ended
up waiting over 25 minutes and no one
showed up.
"The phones themselves should be
stationed in more places and should be
made more accessible," she said.
The Medical Center and Markley
area parking lots are characterized as
dark and secluded. "The sidewalk along
the Arb should be fenced so people
can't be dragged into the woods," the
report stated.
South Forest Avenue also was criti-
cized for poor street lighting and for the
dark side streets like Oakland and Cam-
bridge Court. In addition, there are no
public telephones on the street.
Poorly lit University buildings, in-
cluding the Power Center, the Michi-
gan League, Tappan Hall and West
Engineering were also highlighted as
potentially dangerous to students.
"We found that white lights are
much more effective than those orange
ones," Neenan said. "The orange ones
arejust a little too eerie and seem to cast
a lot of shadows."
The University is currently tack-
ling the issue of poor campus lighting,
and has appropriated more than $1
million to help improve the lighting
Danger Zones
The Campus Safety Awareness
Walk-Through directed MSA
representatives, University
administrators and city officials
through campus and the
surrounding streets in search of
safety hazards.
The report highlights three
major areas of danger:
Medical Center and Markley
South Forest Avenue
North Campus
over the next several years.
"We'll soon see immediate up-
grades around the Undergraduate Li-
brary. There will be enhanced perma-
nent lighting there and added lighting
in parking structures," said University
See SAFETY, Page 2
'U' opens parking structures for
free nighttime parking year round
By JENNIFER HARVEY
Daily Staff Reporter
In an effort to make campus safer,
free nighttime parking is now avail-
able to all members of the University
and area communities in a number of
structures on Central, North and Medi-
cal campuses.
Parking is free of charge beginning
in the early evening hours and will
remain so until 5 a.m.
The nighttime parking is available
year-round, as part of a number of
safety initiatives. The University has
recently installed additional security
lighting and blue light emergency
phones and increased patrols made by
the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
DPS officers routinely patrol the
structures to insure their safety. "They
monitor the areas quite regularly,"
said University spokeswoman Lisa
Baker.
"The system seems to be working
well. We want to keep it open to every-
one. We hope everyone will take ad-
vantage of this opportunity," Baker
said.
The free nighttime parking was
tested in a pilot program last December
and January. Students seem pleased by
the new permanence of the measure.
"I think it's a great idea. It's about
time," said LSA sophomore Brandon
Howe.
LSA sophomore Kate DeMeester
said, "I think it's great that it's free all
night, but I believe it's more important
that they make it safe. I hope they
See PARKING, Page 2
66 same-sex
. .c
couples sign up
for 'U' benefits
By ROBIN BARRY
Daily Staff Reporter
The University will extend its benefits program to in-
Ode same-sex domestic partners, beginning Jan. 1,1995, as
a result of adding sexual orientation as a protected category
to the University's anti-discrimination bylaw.
"This means that I can now place my partner and my
children on my health benefits," said Ronni Sanlo, direc-
tor of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Programs Office. "It
means that all University employees are on equal footing,
valued for work that they do and not discriminated against."
Sixty-six faculty, staff and students are signed up to
receive the benefits, at a cost the benefits office estimates
U.S. troops may
assist in Bosnia
Troops would aid U.N. withdrawal
Benefits
The University's will
extend benefits to a
person who:
1. Is the same sex as
the faculty, staff
member or student,
Vnd
. is not legally
married to another
individual, and
3. is not related to the
faculty, staff member
or student by blood in
a manner that would
bar marriage, and
4. is registered either
public or privately as a
ember of a Domestic
Partnership with a
municipality offering
formal registration,
and
5. has allowed at
least six months to
pass since a
statement of
termination of a
revious same-sex
omestic partnership.
will be about $132,000.
"It's not a new con-
cept," Sanlo said. "Many
employers extend cover-
age to same-sex couples
- Apple, Levi's, Nike,
Ben and Jerry's - but
many others still need to
honor all employees."
Regents Laurence
Deitch (D-Bloomfield
Hills) and Rebecca
McGowan (D-Ann Ar-
bor) sponsored the
change to Bylaw 14.06.
"The 'U' anti-dis-
crimination bylaw did
not offer protection to
people because of sexual
orientation," Deitch said.
"A lot of people thought
that was wrong."
Deitch said some is-
sues such as family hous-
ing and benefits to same-
sex couples needed more
study before they could
be understood.
After the Board of
Regents approved the
change 7-1 in September
1993, a committee
headed by School of Den-
tistry Dean Bernard
Machen was formed to
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The Clinton adminis-
tration formally notified NATO allies and con-
gressional leaders yesterday that it would pro-
vide American ground troops to help evacuate
United Nations peacekeeping forces from
Bosnia if a withdrawal is requested, U.S. offi-
cials said.
The commitment involves providing about
half the evacuation protection force, meaning
from 5,000 to 25,000 American troops. A with-
drawal would be a massive, highly complex and
potentially very dangerous operation for allied
forces given Bosnia's mountainous terrain, wide
dispersal of U.N. forces, and unremitting warfare
between separatist Serbs and the Muslim-led
government, officials said.
Senior administration officials said President
Clinton had decided on the move Tuesday, at the
recommendation of his senior advisors. The deci-
sion followed several days of discussions about
how U.S. policy toward Bosnia would change if
U.N. forces were withdrawn.
In such case, officials said, the administration
would return to the policy it pursued early last
year, pressing for a lifting of the arms embargo
against the Bosnian Muslims while threatening
aggressive airstrikes if the Bosnian Serbs at-
tacked the Muslims before the arms imbalance is
corrected.
In briefings to reporters and congressional
leaders, administration officials stressed that
the United States continues to believe with-
drawing the 24,000 United Nations peacekeep-
ers now in Bosnia is a mistake given the hu-
manitarian assistance they continue to provide.
But Clinton agreed to the U.S. troop commit-
ment for the sake of shoring up shaky U.S.-
European relations and reaffirming U.S. leader-
ship in NATO, officials said.
A defense official said NATO allies had
expressed "some concern" about whether the
United States would join in an evacuation op-
eration. Clinton's decision represents a depar-
ture from his longstanding position that he would
not send American ground troops to the war
torn region until after a peace settlement.
"This is a demonstration that the United States
will assist our NATO allies if their forces are in
danger," a senior administration official said.
"We hope that it is an operation that does not have
to be implemented because we continue to have
hopes for a diplomatic situation and believe with-
drawal, particularly in winter at a point of the
highest risk of starvation, would be unfortunate.
"We do not believe that withdrawal is immi-
nent," the official added. "Nor do we believe it is
See BOSNIA, Page 16
DOUGLAS KANTER/Daiy
'M' heads to Durham to play Duke
The Michigan men's basketball team has not beaten Duke since the 1989-90
season. The Wolverines play the Blue Devils tomorrow. See Sports, Page 13.
RHA votes to ban grapes in dorm cafeterias
investigate the logistics involved in extending benefits to
same-sex couples.
The commission later recommended to Duderstadt
that benefits be offered to same-sex couples.
Regent Deane Baker (R-Ann Arbor) voted against the
proposal, which he calls poor public policy. "It is ironic
because heterosexual couples who are not married but
p together are not offered such benefits," he said.
University spokeswoman Lisa Baker said the Univer-
sity supports the changes.
"It is the general desire of the University to encourage
no discrimination based on sexual orientation," she said.
0 Duderstadt talks to women's caucus about
the Michigan Agenda for Women. Page 5.
By KATIE HUTCHINS
Daily Staff Reporter
The University will no longer serve Califor-
nia table grapes in residence hall cafeterias,
citing working conditions for grape farmers
and pesticides believed to cause cancer.
The Housing Division will support the rec-
ommendation of the University Residence Halls
Association student group, which voted last
night to support a boycott of grapes in the
residence halls.
Representatives from most of the residence
halls on campus, the RHA executive board, and
more than 40 supporters of the California table
grape boycott debated the proposal at RHA's
weekly meeting in West Quad last night.
The tensions in the room were manifested in
heated arguments over procedure and represen-
tation as representatives from at least five Latino/
a groups brandished signs carrying the message
"No Grapes!" or the emblem of the boycott
organizer, the United Farm Workers (UFW).
The proposal was finally passed by a 14-2-
2 vote, and supporters filled the room with
cheers, applause and hugs.
"Personally, I'm amazed, but I'm really
happy," said Ernesto Mirles of Michigan State
University. "I'm glad to see the University of
Michigan is living up to its reputation ... as a
liberal school."
Mirles and others attended the meeting as
representatives of MSU's Chicano student
group, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanos de
Aztlan.
Before the meeting began, boycott support-
ers stood outside West Quad cafeteria handing
out fliers detailing the reasons for their support
of the boycott.
The fliers stated, "The goal of this boycott is
to ensure safe and just working and living
conditions for the (grape farming) work force."
The fliers also detailed high percentages of
cancer and birth defects among grape growing
populations in California, as well as the alleged
effects of grape pesticides on consumers.
The support of RHA means the group will
compose a letter recommending that the resi-
See GRAPES, Page 2
'U' finalists for Rhodes
scholar do not advance
to next competition level
INSIDE
FRIDAY FOCUS 3
The University's nuclear
reactor sits inconspicuously on
North Campus, but it is home
to much radiation research.3
JONATHAN LURIE/Daily
Student organizations ask the Residence Halls Association to endorse the
boycott of California table grapes because of their use of pesticides.
Telephone CRISPers
get a bad connection
By RONNIE GLASSBERG
Daily Staff Reporter
not related to the new touch-tone sys-
tem.
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