The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 28. 1994 - 3 .Resurgent dragon will lead world economy, China reporter tells group By NIDHI AGRAWAL For the Daily Amid cruelty, evil and corruption, Nicholas Kristof, former Beijing bu- reau chief for The New York Times, is cautiously optimistic. "You canneverbe sure with China. China may massacre students again, *but by and large, the trend is towards a more open system," he said. Kristof spoke before a packed au- dience of nearly 300 students and faculty at Rackham Amphitheatre about his recently published book "China Wakes." Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn together won the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Kristof hopes his talks spark increased inter- est in the social and political environ- ment in China. "I think the most important changes in the world are occurring in China. If China's industrial revolu- tion can be sustained, it will be of the same long-term consequence of the industrial revolutions in England and the United States.... China's economy is on a trajectory to overtake the United States and Japan in the next three to five decades." Kristof said. He added, "Economic, communi- cation and sexual revolutions have made China a much more open place now." Besides the positive changes oc- curring in China, Kristof also ac- knowledged the country's readily ac- cepted tradition of cruelty. Kristof remembered watching the People's Liberation Army fire on pro- democracy demonstrators, and on himself during the Tiananmen Square massacre, an event he said only Chi- nese citizens in Beijing remember well. "People were killed right in front of my eyes. Friends of mine were killed and imprisoned. Seeing people killed and talking to peasants who are ready to do it again is really quite sobering." Concerning the United States' role in the future of China, Kristof said, "I really feel very strongly that we need to have more contact with China. More trade and more ex- changes." Despite, the human rights abuses occurring in China, Kristof supports Clinton's decision to grant the country "most favored nation" trade status. "I think there are going to be human rights abuses for a long time to come, but as China opens up, human rights violations that occur now will be a little less likely," Kristof said. In an afternoon presentation be- fore members of the Chinese Stud- ies Department, Kristof referred to Napoleon Bonaparte's remark: "When China wakes, it will shake the world." Kristof believes that time is soon to come. Kristof is now spending the year "learning Japanese," preparing with WuDunn before he takes over as bureau chief for the Times in To- kyo. MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily Nicholas Kristof speaks at Rackham. -Committee probes textbook pricing nOP launches new platform By AGNES MAZUR For the Daily Textbook buying and selling is Iefinitely a big business at the Uni- versity - the crowds and long lines at the book stores are plenty of proof. But some concern has been raised whether students are really getting the best deal for their money. Mike Christie Jr., chair of the Aca- demic Affairs Commission of the Michigan Student Assembly, said a new committee, formed to look into the text- 'If we had th book situation, time for the plans to identify theproblem and I would pay take action. the original -"Our current status is to fo- Students.' cus on the lower - level courses where textbO4 the same book is used year to year and on making the book lists available earlier." For the lists to be available sooner, Christie said, professors would need to turn their book request slips earlier to the Textbook Recording Service (TRS), which handles 90 percent of the requests. The other 10 percent, mostly from Ohe humanities department, are sent directly to Shaman Drum. Those sent to TRS are given to Ulrich's, Michi- gan Book and Supply and The Michi- gan Union Bookstore. During its Sept. 23 meeting, the committee identified why professors turn in their slips late. Christie listed the reasons as "procrastination, late appointment to a course of a profes- &or who then has not enough time to h1 rn 0 p - choose the books he or she wants to use, and revisions of the course done during the summer to update it." Christie said the committee also identified a couple of ways that stu- dents could improve the book buying and selling situation. "One proposal was to improve cir- culation of Advice magazine and re- vise its evaluation forms addingques- tions on how much and how helpful certain textbooks are," he said. "An- other proposal was for TRS and the e info in on University admin- ieXt term, istration to work withthe Student ne half of BookExchangeto rice to the expand the range of the exchange causing the book- Irv Scheel storetobelessof a middleman." k manager Paul Rosser, general manager of Ulrich's, said the main problem with textbooks was that the stores didn't get the book lists early enough. "I don't understand why the Uni- versity will not have a central clear- ing area where the requests will all come in." Irv Scheel, textbook manager of Michigan Book and Supply, also cited late arrivals of book lists as the reason students got less money back during buy-back. "If we had the info in on time for the next term, I would pay one half of the original price to the students," Scheel said. "But if we don't have the order form, I can only pay 15 percent back." Scheel added, "We asked for the information on April 15 and we only got 8 to 10 percent of the forms back." From Staff and Wire Reports WASHINGTON - Hoping to seize control of the House for the first time in 40 years, about 300 Republi- can incumbents and GOP candidates yesterday signed a manifesto outlin- ing changes they pledged to write into law if they win a majority in the November elections. The 10-point platform, which Democrats denounced as unworkable and a fraud on the public, promises action on a balanced-budget amend- ment, a presidential line-item veto, massive family tax cuts and other popular issues. It made no mention of health care legislation. The pact was endorsed at a bois- terous flag-waving rally outside the Capitol. A band blaring patriotic music and red, white and blue bunting provided a colorful backdrop for adoption of the GOP "Contract with America," designed to harness what Republi- cans see as a tidal wave that will sweep Democrats from office. Republicans gambled that this unprecedented attempt to unify be- hind a series of domestic issues would allow them to pick up 40 seats they need to elect a speaker and run the chamber for the first time since 1954. Most independent experts predict Republicans will gain about 25 seats, narrowing the Democrats' current78- seatmargin but falling shortofmajor- ity control. John Schall, the Republican can- didate from Michigan's 13th Con- gressional District, which includes Ann Arbor, was among those in Wash- ington to sign the contract. "Congress will not change until those who are controlling the Con- gress change," Schall said in a pre- pared press release. "For too long, we'veelected people who go to Wash- ington promising action but who do nothing." Lynn Rivers, Schall's Democratic opponent, called the balanced-budget amendment a "gimmick." "There are not enough dollars in any other part of the budget to make that work, unless you're going to go into social security Medicaid and Medicare." Leading Democrats were quick to denounce provisions of the pact, charging that it would add $800 bilt lion to the deficit and cut taxes prima- rily for the rich at the expense of Medicare and Social Security recipi- ents. White House officials have said the Republican contract does not specify where all the spending cute would be made to offset sweeping tax reductions of more than $100 billion; The House GOP platform includes an anti-crime package, a two-year limit for welfare payments and a shuti off of welfare for teen-age mothers who have children out of wedlock, a vote on a constitutional amendment to limit the number of terms lawmak°- ers can serve, and a $500 tax credit for each dependent child. Other provisions cover a reduc- tion of the capital gains tax, an in- crease in the earnings limit for Social Security recipients and more tax breaks for business. The legislation could be voted upon within the first 100 days if the Republicans have a majority in the House next January. This thin volume is sold for $100 at Michigan Book & Supply. Rosser and Scheel agreed that not much can be done to reduce the price of new textbooks since they are set by the publishers. On the other hand, Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum, said, "I would say that there is nothing that can be done about centralizing at U-M because it is such a large institution. "The losers in the deal would be the faculty because they would have to make decisions much earlier than they do. It serves the students best if the faculty has the time to decide." Pohrt said the University's faculty faces so many pressures in research and publishing that it would be unfair to give them a rigid deadline for turn- ing in their book requests. "I have a daughter who is in col- lege and I pay for her tuition and books, but I feel that it's worth it. I want those four years to be as high quality as possible," Pohrt said. Hispanic/Latino groups encourage unity at 'U' Survey: Companies moving toward 'downsizing' By DEVON PEREZ For the Daily Unity among the Hispanic/Latino community was the focus of a semi- nar for first-year students last night, ,highlighting ways for minority stu- dents to succeed at the University and beyond. Katalina Berdy, the Hispanic/ Latino representative at Minority Stu- dent Services, hosted the event at the Trotter House, which was part of the Tmonth-long Hispanic/Latino Heritage Celebration. About 40 students attended the event, including those representing various Hispanic/Latino organiza- tions. Various groups and staff mem- bers presented students with informa- tion about the different services avail- able to Hispanic/Latino students. Berdy said the goal of the event was "to make (first-year students) feel ike they are part of the community and to show them that role models are available." In this regard, she called the event a success. Margarita Garcia-Roberts, a so- cial science research associate, urged students to "make an effort to seek out those faculty and staff who have en- countered similar situations." Speakers also urged Hispanic/ Latino students to use their cultural heritage to establish a network of re- sources on campus that can be used to overcome prejudice, discrimination and other barriers minority students face. They also advised students to establish social ties with other His- panic/Latino students. Throughout the night, the mes- sage of unity within the Hispanic/ Latino community was emphasized as a means of excelling at the Univer- sity, and in life after graduation. Berdy said, "The University ex- perience is not only classroom expe- rience. A total development in all areas of life is necessary to develop the skills that will help (Hispanic/ Latino students) to succeed in life." Los Angeles Times More big companies cut jobs over the past year, despite the improved economy, but the cutbacks themselves generally grew smaller, a new survey shows. In a hopeful sign for workers, the survey also found that many compa- nies cutting positions in one part of their businesses are offsetting the pain by adding jobs elsewhere. Still, amid new indications that "downsizing" is paying off in im- proved profits for many employers, even more firms plan to eliminate positions in the coming year. The American Management As- sociation survey, which polled 713 major U.S. companies with an esti- mated 2.6 million workers, showed that 47.3 percent of the companies eliminated positions from mid-1993 through mid-1994. That was up from 46.6 percent in the previous 12 months. The reasons most often cited for the cutbacks involved anticipated or ongoing business downturns. But for the first time in five years, fewer than half of the employers gave that as their rationale. Instead, employers increasingly are making sharply focused layoffs during good times or bad to fine-tune their operations, said Eric Greenberg, the AMA's research director. He said these job eliminations re- flect a trend in corporate America toward slashing payrolls down to "ab- solute, irreducible cores of perma- nent employees." Meanwhile, 25.8 percent of em- ployers said they expected to cut jobs in the coming year. Since companies normally underestimate layoffs, re- searchers figure that about twice as many companies actually will make cutbacks. By comparison, at the same time last year, 21.6 percent of the compa- nies anticipated layoffs. While continuing cutbacks have made American workers increasingly insecure about their jobs, there were signs that things are getting a little better for employees. For instance, the combination of smaller layoffs and increased hiring meant that the net reduction in em- ployment over the last year was 5.2 percent among the companies sur- veyed, versus 8.4 percent the previ- ous year. Employers, for their part, could take heart in a finding that 50.6 per- cent of the companies that have cut staff since 1989 have netted higher profits, a somewhat brighter finding than discovered in other surveys. For instance, a study released last October by the Wyatt Co. consulting firm found that only 46 percent of the companies it surveyed boosted their profits by cutting employment. Both the AMA study and the Wyatt survey found that cutbacks work best when they are part of continuing pro- grams, rather than one-time efforts, to reduce costs and boost productiv- ity. The Daily is so cool, don't you wish you wrote for us? Call 764-0552 Deadlnes move fast... Fortunately, we move fasterl Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowships in Biological Sciences 1995 Competition 80 fellowships will be awarded for full-time study toward the Ph.D or Sc.D. degree in cell biology and regulation, genetics. immunology, neuroscience, structural biology=,biostatiktics. epidemiology, or mathematical biology. Correction Ron Jackson is the president of the Black Greek Association. This was incorrectly reported in Friday's Daily. Fellowship Terms Three-year initial awards, with two-year extension possible Eligibility Less than one year of post- baccalaureate graduate study in biology: college seniors; first year graduate students; M.S., D.0.. D.D.S., D.VM., U $14,500 annual stipend $14,000 annual cost-of- education allowance Group Meetings 0 College Republicans Weekly Meeting, 668-4664, Michigan 2275, men and women, begin- ners welcome, 8:30-9:30 p.m. Q U-M Students of Objectivism, 913-5530, MLB, Room B122, Events a "Origins of Stalinist Mentality Brown Bag Lecture," with If an M.D./Ph.D. student: not in a funded program No citizenship requirements: I.S. citizens may study abroad: others must study in the I ;" On heP.I stit :nrt ind wina.