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- ::..