The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 18, 1994 - 7
'U' students enjoy mental challenge of College Bowls
By BARBARA McKELVEY
Daily Staff Reporter
True trivia is not the stuff of Col-
lege Bowls.
David Frazee, a returning mem-
ber of the University's intervarsity
team, said most questions consist of
facts that are worth knowing.
"TheCollegeBowl helps you learn
things you didn't know - really im-
portant facts in history, for example,"
he said. "There was a question about
Tiananmen Square once which
brought out that even laughter is for-
bidden by law there. (These little facts)
can change the way you think, or at
least reinforce your views."
Despite its educational benefits,
however, fun has always been the
main emphasis of the college bowl,
Frazee said. Although it is difficult to
break into the intervarsity team -
which regularly confronts such teams
as MIT and the University of Chicago
- anyone can play in the campus-
wide tournaments, he said.
John Motherwell, captain of the
intervarsity team, said the tourna-
ments can have an ego-salving ef-
fect. "It's corny," the LSA senior
said, "but after a game you don't
feel so dumb. When you go to class,
things can go by you, but after (you
win a game) you don't feel like such
a dim bulb."
The quiz bowl has become more
low key since its televised heyday
in the 1960s, but has stuck by many
of its traditions. The game's format
of two seven minute sections, for
instance, was developed around ra-
dio commercials in the 1950s and
has remained unchanged, said
Frazee.
As many successful bowl alums
who have gone on to Jeopardy! know,
college bowls and the TV show are
similar.
There is one essential difference
between the two games, however:
College Bowl has team bonus ques-
tions, as well as more Jeopardy-like
toss-ups for individuals only. Each
team is made up of five players and
only one graduate student is allowed.
"There are both individual and
team work involved," Frazee said,
"but it's a strange rule that you can
never confer. There's a rugged indi-
vidualism that is inexplicable."
Although intervarsity members
practice weekly, campus players
need not practice at all; intramurals
are meant to be more fun than com-
petitive. Usually, the University Ac-
tivities Center recruits about 50
teams that consist of squads made
up of fraternity brothers, Michigan
Daily staffers and Michigan Review
members.
This year, the Bowl attempted to
draw about 100 teams through
Festifall and leaflets. It also offers
monetary rewards to groups that can
garner points merely by playing and
signing up quizzers. Winning, of
course, also counts.
The Bowl's increased advertising
this year also attempted to rectify one
recurring problem: a lack of females
and minorities. Last year, there were
no women on the Intervarsity team,
and they are also underrepresented in
campus tournaments.
Their efforts have been only par-
tially successful, although Motherwell
is encouraged that more women have
expressed an interested in intervarsity
games.
Frazee said that his team at
Stanford had a more equal balance
between men and women and ex-
pressed difficulty in identifying the
source of the problem.
"Is it the structure of the activity
or the structure of society that the
activity merely replicates?" he asked,
later adding that even certain ques-
tions in the past may have served to
exclude women. "Once, we had to
identify certain supermodels. It was
such a stupid question, when there are
so many other questions you could
ask. But they would have questions
like this and then wonder why women
don't play."
Frazee added, however, that ques-
tions have become increasingly equi-
table over the years, with "one
women's history question every
round."
For her part, LSA first-year stu-
dent Kathleen Szymansi said she has
felt warmly received. She said she
played trivia bowls throughout high
school and has always loved the game,
perhaps as a reflection of her "student
for life" mentality.
Like Frazee, she is uncertain as to
why College Bowls have remained so
male-dominated, but she did manage
to speculate.
"I think that guys go buzzer happy,
and girls tend to not buzz in unless
they're sure," she said. "Being in quiz
bowl has definitely helped me be more
aggressive in life. I already had it in
myself to be aggressive, but this just
brought it out in me.
"In high school, some girls would
come to practice but never get in
games because they did not want to
put it on the line. They weren't sure
enough.... But I got better with prac-
tice. You have to learn to go with your
first instincts, because they are usu-
ally right."
Space is still available for
students interested in participating
in the College Bowl. The prelimi-
naries are Oct. 22 and 23. Call the
University Activities Center at 763-
1107 for information about how to
get involved.
SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE
Violence marks Aristide's return
Los Angeles Times
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -
Proof that Haiti remains extremely
volatile was in evidence yesterday as
friendly but unruly crowds mobbed
the car carrying President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide and then hurled
stones and insults at Haiti's senior
military officer, whose family home
was also torched.
Aristide, making only his second
public appearance since being restored
to power Saturday, was forced to re-
treat when his motorcade ventured
out of the palace and into a gathering
of thousands of people desperate to
catch a glimpse of their leader.
Meanwhile, mob violence contin-
ued to take its toll, the hunting down
of suspected pro-military gunmen
seemed to be on the rise and new
political killings were reported.
The continuing tension and poten-
tial for violence and revenge pose a
formidable challenge to Aristide's
new government even as it prepares
to resume work after three years of
brutal military rule.
"There's a lot of electricity in the
air," said an international observer.
"And the temptation is great to take
things in your own hands especially
when there is a vacuum of law and
order."
Calling again for peace and recon-
ciliation, Aristide attended a brief
ceremony yesterday morning at the
National Palace commemorating the
anniversary of the 1806 assassination
of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who led
Haiti's bloody battle for independence
from France. After Aristide's motor-
cade was forced into retreat, it later
left through a back entrance to allow
the president to lay a wreath at the
National Museum.
Also in attendance was Maj. Gen.
Jean-Claude Duperval, the interim
head of the Haitian army following
the forced retirement last week of
strongman Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras.
Where Aristide was cheered, Duperval
was buffeted with cries of "Thieves!"
and "Assassins!" as his car was pum-
meled with stones.
Haitians were still angry and un-
settled over rumors Sunday night that
Duperval was part of a plot to kill
Aristide. The rumors began after U.S.
troops disarmed Duperval when he
reached the palace Sunday for a meet-
ing, and later found grenade launch-
ers in his car.
Roaming through downtown Port-
au-Prince Sunday night, crowds bran-
dishing machetes set up roadblocks,
ostensibly to search for weapons, and
dispersed only after U.S. troops using
megaphones repeated messages that
Aristide was not harmed.
In Gonaives, 100 miles north of
Port-au-Prince, angry crowds burned
to the ground the home belonging to
Duperval's mother and several ad-
joining properties, U.S. officials said.
Radio reports said another home be-
longing to the grandmother of former
junta leader Lt. Col. Michel Francois
was burned and a grain depot owned
by one of Haiti's richest families was
looted.
MICHAEL FITZHUGH/Daily
Shelley Almburg, the sole University microscope technician, works to allign the optics of a broken microscope
yesterday afternoon. Her motto is, "If you can't see it, I can fix it."
Despite precautions, shoplifters
cost A2businesses $65k last ear
MICHIAN
RECORDS
_____pp: 6635SW
SHOPLIFTING
I ontinued from page 1 '
merchandise in 1992.
Despite efforts to prevent students from stealing, store
managers-particularly of convenience stores-encoun-
ter shoplifting on a daily basis.
Village Corner employees learn how to use security
monitors, a video system, spy booths and mirrors as part of
their training. In the last 25 years, Village Corner has never
been sued for false arrest and has lost only one case in court,
said Judy Wolf, a store manager.
Wolf said that shoplifting is still a problem, partly due
to the aisle arrangement of the store. Students are the most
common shoplifters, especially during the busier late after-
noon hours.
Wolf said that it has been so busy at times that people
can easily walk out with a case of beer, for example.
Although police cooperation has been "good," employees
have waited as long as two hours for the police to arrive.
Employees have caught as many as two shoplifters in
one day, and, according to Wolf, "There have been big
*fights and people have pulled weapons. People have tried
to stash weapons in the store."
In 1992, the city police initiated a new retail fraud
policy for handling cases without direct intervention in
which the suspect does not resist being apprehended, steals
less than $200 worth of property, has good identification
and admits responsibility for the crime.
After checking these criteria, store personnel must call
the Ann Arbor Police with the suspect's information. If the
suspect has not met all the criteria or has a criminal record,
then a police officer goes to the scene. If not, then the store
personnel must complete a retail fraud report, photograph
the suspect and the evidence and release the suspect before
sending the report to the police.
A 1988 Public Act divided retail fraud into two categories,
which the Michigan Retailers Association incorporated into
their shoplifting policy. A person will be convicted of first
degree retail fraud if they switch price tags so that the resulting
price difference exceeds $100, steal more than $100 worth of
merchandise or try to return or exchange stolen store property
whose value is more than $100.
The penalty is a two year felony or a fine of not more
than $1,000, or both.
Second degree retail fraud involves stolen property
valued at $100 or less and carries a punishment of a 93-day
misdemeanor or a fine not to exceed $100, or both.
Under the "Bootstrap Provision," someone who has
tmmittMa cPnnci dparee reails fraud at last nne is then
JONATHAN BERNDT/Daity
possible. It costs a lot to catch shoplifters, and it takes a lot
of time," the manager said.
A manager of Urban Outfitters, who also asked to
remain anonymous, agreed that shoplifting has been a
major problem.
During the five years Urban Outfitters has been in Ann
Arbor, the store has prosecuted every single person. The
process takes time away from the sales staff, who could be
helping "real customers" instead, the manager said.
"Prices go up, which is unfortunate for honest custom-
ers," she said.
Urban Outfitters has a reputation on the street of being
tough on shoplifters, the manager asserted. The store keeps
pictures of people who have been caught for reference.
Even with the security devices at the store entrance,
however, "You can't predict who is going to shoplift," the
manager said.
Amateur shoplifters who steal on a whim outnumber the
professionals, who are not as spontaneous. The manager
said that shoplifting is "a stupid thing to do, and it's not
worth it," adding that "It's very rare that somebody needs
what they're stealing." In one case, employees caught a
student stealing a pair of tights for his girlfriend's birthday.
Although many campus stores have problems with
retail fraud, some stores do not lose as much because of
chonliftino' TT rich' Manacir Paln Rnser said that em-
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