The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 12, 1994 - 3
42teachers
go back to
classrooms
By DWIGHT DAVIS
Daily Staff Reporter
* Ann Arbor's 14,800 public school
students were expected to return to
class today along with their 1,180
teachers, bringing to an end Ann
Arbor's first teacher strike in 11 years.
Teachers voted yesterday by an
overwhelming majority to report to
work today after agreeing to a two-
year pact worked out late Saturday
night by negotiators for the Ann Ar-
r Education Association and Board
Education.
"Our members are much happier
now," said Linda Carter, president of
the teachers' union. "The issue is that
we now have stability for the next two
years and won't find ourselves in a
real cliffhanger the way we have the
last three years in a row."
. Carter said the contract, which is
xpected to be ratified by members
tithin the next two weeks, allows for
a2.7 percent wage increase in the first
year and 2.4 percent in the second.
The breakthrough on Saturday in
the contract negotiations followed a
long day in court Friday. Washtenaw
Alumni Association
selects new director
By COREY HILL
Daily Staff Reporter
The new head of the University's
Alumni Association wants to put its
90,000-plus members to work.
The association's members tapped
Steve Grafton in July to serve as the
new executive director. Grafton's goal
is to forge bonds between alums and
students.
"We need to find new ways to
connect with alumni and develop pro-
grams to do that," Grafton said.
Grafton hails from Mississippi
State University, where he served as
executive director and chief execu-
tive officer of its alumni association.
In that position, he helped increase its
active membership and established
mentoring programs for current stu-
dents.
He was selected after a nation-
wide search and replaces Robert
Forman, who retired in June.
"Steve Grafton emerged as the
best candidate from our national can-
didate search," said Thomas Roach, a
former University regent and mem-
ber of the search committee. "Bob
Forman was considered the best
alumni director in the country and he
is irreplaceable. I think Steve can
'Bob Forman was
considered the best
alumni director in the
country and he is
irreplaceable. I think
Steve can continue to
lead the association.'
- Thomas Roach,
former regent
continue to lead the association."
Grafton's professional credentials
include stints as a legislative assistant
and assistant press secretary for U.S.
Sen. John Stennis. Grafton helped
develop the senator's education, eco-
nomic development, housing, trans-
portation and agricultural legislative
programs.
His main responsibilities will in-
clude recruiting new members and
fundraising.
Recognized as a leader in working
with alums, Grafton is active in sev-
eral national and regional professional
organizations. He serves as a trustee
for the Council for Advancement and
Support of Education.
MOLLY STEVENS/Daily
These seats in the classroom of Director of Bands Robert Albritton will be filled with fresh young faces again today
following an accord between the teachers' union and school board that ended the two-week-old strike.
Circuit Judge Patrick J. Conlin com-
bined two separate suits brought against
the teachers' union by the school board
and a parent's group into a 12-hour
hearing and negotiating session.
The cost of special day-care, the
lack of services for special education
students that are mandated by law, the
delay seniors might face in taking
college assessment tests and the lay-
offs faced by support staff were among
the items cited by lawyers for the
board and parents as examples of ir-
reparable harm.
Conlin agreed and ordered teach-
ers back to work. He further ordered
negotiations to continue throughout
the weekend. The start of classes to-
day is good news for the more than 40
University students who are sched-.
uled to do their student teaching in the
Ann Arbor school district this fall.
- The Associated Press contributed
to this report.
Sororities
igin '94
rush with
1,000
By APRIL WOOD
Daily Staff Reporter
More than 1,000 women gathered
to kick off Sorority Rush 1994 at the
Michigan Union ballroom yesterday
afternoon.
Several elements of rush were dis-
cussed in introducing new rushees to
the upcoming weeks' events. Meet-
ings were led by the 10-member
Panhellenic executive board and rush
viser Mary Beth Seiler.
Sorority Rush consists of four sets
of parties spanning two weeks allow-
ing participants to learn about each of
the 17 sororities on campus and inter-
act with members on an individual
basis. These parties begin as casual
mixers and become more formal as
the rush process continues.
Participants were given the op-
.rtunity to register for rush during
e summer as well as upon arrival at
yesterday's meetings.
Final verification of all registrants
is Friday and mixers begin on Sun-
day.
Participants travel to each soror-
ity house in groups of 15 to 20 under
the leadership of rush counselors, or
"Rho Chis."These group leaders serve
o direct the rushees throughout the
sh period, answerquestions and help
women become involved with the
sorority system.
Rush has un-
dergone a series
of changes over 'I think a bi
the past year, rush is that
shortening the
process to two
weeks and elimi- Panhel
*ting the regis-
tration fee, as well
as other internal modifications.
Participants select sororities to
return to after each set of parties.
"The individual ranking is a little
different this year. It's designed to
make sure women have an opportu-
nity to be in a sorority that they like,"
said Shannon, a Rho Chi.
Rho Chis are instructed not to
*veal their last names or sorority
affiliation in an effort to keep the
process objective.
A prominent aspect of rush is the
importance of "objectivity," both on
the part of current sorority members
and rushees.
To promote objective interaction
between participants and sororities,
Christopher calls for national unity on Haiti invasion
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - Secretary of
State Warren Christopher called yes-
terday for national unity behind Presi-
dent Clinton's plan to use U.S. troops
if necessary to expel Haiti's current
regime - but leading Republicans in
Congress pledged to challenge the
plan.
"The one thing I would urge at the
present time is that people recognize
the importance of unity in this situa-
tion if we are to persuade Gen. Raoul
Cedras and Mr. Michel-Joseph
Francois to leave of their own ac-
cord," Christopher said. Army com-
manderCedras led the coup that drove
democratically elected President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide from power in Oc-
tober 1991, and Francois is the feared
police chief of Port-au-Prince.
Republican leaders rejected the
appeal for consensus and instead
pledged to confront the Clinton ad-
ministration in Congress. Senate Mi-
nority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said
lawmakers will seek a formal debate
on the invasion idea and will chal-
lenge the president's intention to use
military force.
"We'd like to have a debate.... If
they're not going to find out from
anybody else, at least Congress ought
to be out there trying to inform the
American people. Is there any real
national interest in Haiti?" Dole said
on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Christopher acknowledged that the
public is still "reluctant" to intervene
in Haiti, according to recent polls.
But he said Clinton may have to pro-
ceed with an invasion anyway.
Dole predicted the invasion plan
would lose if it came to a vote in the
Senate now, in part because the White
House has not properly consulted law-
makers on the justification for it.
"The president would lose because
he has not made the case," Dole said.
But Christopher said on NBC's
"Meet the Press" that the administra-
tion has consulted more than 75 tines
with small and large congressional
delegations this year. He and other
administration officials echoed the
traditional executive-branch position
that the president has the authority to
order military action without congres-
sional approval.
The tension underscored the wide
divide thatremains between the White
House and Congress on Haiti even as
officials indicated thatapossibleU.S.-
led attack against the military junta is
nearing.
Dole said yesterday that he thinks
the administration has made up its
mind and the invasion will begin in
the next two or three weeks. U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations
Madeleine Albright said that the time
for an invasion is close, while Chris-
topher said diplomatic efforts have
now been "exhausted."
"Time is running out" for Haiti's
top military leaders, Christopher said.
"I hope they leave very promptly, but
their days are numbered and they will
leave one way or another, either soft
or hard."
The White House has said Clinton
will begin a renewed effort to outline
his position and intentions this week.
So far there has been no sustained
White House public education effort
on the matter.
The Cuban refugee crisis and the
legislative struggles with the crime
bill and health reform plan in the last
month distracted national attention
from the approaching Haiti confron-
tation and may have precluded the
kind of support-building blitz that
then-President Bush waged before the
Panama and Persian Gulf military
actions.
The administration is facing con-
tinued skepticism about its position
on Haiti. Sen. John McCain of Ari-
zona, a Republican member of the
Armed Services Committee and a
former Vietnam prisoner of war, said
an invasion would be harmful to U.S.
foreign policy interests in the short
term and unsuccessful in Haiti in the
long-term.
He also charged that expectations
of a quick invasion and short occupa-
tion by a multinational force are ex-
cessively optimistic. Although the
circumstances are different, the pre-
vious intervention in Haiti was de-
signed for only two months but ended
up lasting 19 years.
"Most of us in Congress, with the
exception of the Congressional Black
Caucus, are strenuously opposed or at
least have strong reservations about
the possible intervention .... Basi-
cally, there is no exit strategy and
clearly is a United States operation
with a very small fig leaf of 266
(Caribbean) troops who we're in thc
process of training now,"
no rushee is permitted to converse
with members of any sorority outside
rush events until rush concludes.
Speakers at yesterday's meetings
included Ann Arbor Police officer
Alicia Green, who pointed out that
safety is a primary concern during the
rush process.
"Be aware of your surroundings at
all times," Green said, explaining that
walking alone between sorority
ig misconception about
it's very competitive.'
- Jessica Taylor
lenic external rush chair
houses can be dangerous. Rush ac-
tivities will run into the night and
Green stressed the importance of not
traveling alone.
Seiler and the executive board
asserted that rush is an exciting ex-
perience that emphasizes personal
contact.
"Ithink a big misconception about
rush is that it's very competitive,"
asserted Jessica Taylor, Panhellenic
external rush chair.
Shannon agreed. "The best way to
go through rush is withan open mind."
Those who wish to join rush but
are not yet registered may do so at the
Panhellenic office, 4010 Michigan
Union, until Thursday at 5 p.m.
U.N. human rights official in Rwanda resigns in protest
Los Angeles Times
KIGALI, Rwanda - At a time
when arrests by the government ap-
pear to be mounting, the head of the
U.N. team in charge of monitoring
human rights here has resigned, cast-
ing doubt on the United Nations' abil-
ity to investigate Rwanda's genocidal
massacres or keep tabs on the current
situation.
U.N. sources said over the weekend
that Karen Kenny, an Irish human rights
lawyer, let her contract lapse because of
frustration over lack of support from
U.N. headquarters in New York, the
organization's Human Rights Center in
Geneva and leaders of the U.N. Assis-
tance Mission in Rwanda.
Kenny's four-member team was
responsible for monitoring current
human rights practices and investi-
gating the countrywide killings last
spring in which half a million people
- some estimates say twice that -
are believed to have been annihilated.
Most of victims were members of
Rwanda's Tutsi minority.
But U.N. sources said Kenny spent
much of her time battling the U.N.
bureaucracy to get computers, staff
and cars to take her investigators into
the field in search of testimony, survi-
vors or any victims of new abuses.
In May, a month after the killings
began, U.N. Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali named a spe-
cial envoy for Rwanda to provide
detailed reports so that the United
Nations could establish individual
responsibility for the mass murders.
The U.N. Security Council also
appointed legal experts from three
West African countries to formally
determine whether genocide had taken
place and to identify those behind it
for possible prosecution before an
international tribunal.
But the delays and lack of re-
sources experienced by Kenny and
her staff led some to question the
United Nations' commitment to sin-
gling out the murderers and human
rights violators.
In the wake of Kenny's resignation,
a top official from the Office of the U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights
arrived here yesterday.
Also yesterday, the United Na-
tions issued emergency safety guide-
lines to all foreign aid workers in
eastern Zaire after violent clashes in
Rwandan refugee camps left up to 10
people dead and scores injured.
And the International Committee
of the Red Cross reported a drastic
increase in the number of people ar-
rested by authorities in Rwanda, with
2,000 people said to have been de-
tained in the past 10 days.
The new Rwandan Patriotic
Front-led government has forsworn
mass reprisals against members of
the majority Hutu tribe or returning
refugees.
-Amod
UAC's Soundstage Welcomes
UNDER THE PINK TOUR
I
z <: r z
.. _: ... .
a