WEo t One hundred four years of editorial freedom Ford donates $5.5M toward 'U' campaign .. .... .... ...... ...... .. I Clinton begins trip to Mideast By RONNIE GLASSBERG Daily Staff Reporter The Ford Motor Co. announced Monday vill donate $5.5 million to the University's Campaign for Michigan - the largest single gift in the five-year campaign to raise $1 billion. "It's a tremendous gift and it's one that we're very grateful for," said Roy Muir, associate vice president for development. "We've been talking about this with them for some time. We have had a long-standing, very active interaction with Ford." 4 The grant will be used to help support the Michigan Joint Manufacturing Initiative, the National Pollution Prevention Center and the Department of Physics. The Campaign for Michigan began in 1992 and runs through the middle of 1997. To date, the campaign has raised $700 mil- lion. Bob Culver, Ford's planning manager for scientific research laboratories, stressed Ford's long-standing relationship with the University. "Ford's had a long history of a very beneficial relationship with the University," said Culver, who also serves as the college relations contact for the University. "I think this special relationship is one that's been Ford world headquarters sits in Dearborn growing over the last decade." Allan Gilmour, Ford vice chairman and a University alum, serves on the Campaign for Michigan committee. See FORD, Page 2 STICK 'EM UP, PARDNER The Washington Post CAIRO, Egypt - With a call to "all parties to follow the brave and hopeful inspiration of Israel and Jordan," President Clinton began a four-day Middle East journey today surrounded by ex- traordinarily tight security, including the use of U.S. military personnel. Clinton said on his departure that the trip is designed to celebrate recent progress toward peace and nudge holdouts closer to the goal of a comprehensive Middle East settlement. Along- side the steps toward peace, however, have come terrorist strikes provoking increased concern for the president's safety and turning the regional tour into what sources in Washington called a security nightmare. Clinton, accompanied by a huge contingent of U.S. officials, security forces and Jewish and Arab-American activists, arrived in Cairo in the early morning hours. He was greeted by Presi- dent Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and immediately visited the tomb of Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president who made peace with Israel and was assassinated in 1981. Clinton is to meet with Mubarak later today, a session that will then be expanded to include Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat for discussions on implementation of the agreement between the PLO and Israel that was signed in Washington a year ago. Correspondents traveling with the president noticed an increased level of security precau- tions, such as bag searches and airport-style metal detectors, on the trip to Cairo. As he left the White House yesterday for the flight here, Clinton asserted his trip is more than a ceremonial celebration of its centerpiece - today's treaty signing between Israel and Jordan. "It is an opportunity to pursue new steps.... My goal is to make clear that the time has arrived for all parties to follow the brave and hopeful inspiration" of Israel and Jordan, he said. Clinton said continued participation by the United States "is crucial" to-building a compre- hensive peace. He portrayed his visit as part of a bipartisan U.S. effort that began with President Jimmy Carter's Camp David Accords, signed by Israel and Egypt at the White House 15 years ago, and continued with the Bush administration's convening of a Middle East peace conference in Madrid in 1991. Referring to the signing cer- emony between Israel and Jordan, Clinton said he is helping to fulfill "a mission pursued by the United States, and of presidents of both parties, since the end of World War 11 Peace in the Middle East is a fundamental interest of the United States." To celebrate the historic signing and the U.S. role in the peace process, the White House assembled a who's who list of figures in the American Jewish and Arab communities to ac- company the entourage. c.m ...r.g.m.".drss........s.. ........ br y f-r spe. . Ha wen sess..n.of:st.ry..im. y..t .rd.y. MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily close finger game" dressed as a cpQwboy for a special Halloween session of story time yesterday Nathaniel Robertson plays the "open at the Ann Arbor Public Library. Abduction of student linked to June case Police stress Sunday's assault is not related to Ann Arbor's serial rapist By FRANK C. LEE Daily Staff Reporter Ann Arbor police have found simi- ities between the alleged kidnap- ping and threatened rape of a Univer- sity student Sunday morning and an- other case that occurred last June. The abduction of an 18-year-old female around 3 a.m. from an Ann Arbor church where she was volun- teering is not the work of the city's serial rapist, police say, but resembles another assault that occurred at a North ,te Street home months before. According to police records, both incidents involved forced entry and threats made by an unidentified man. Both women were able to talk the suspect out of raping them. The de- scriptions the women gave police are also alike - except for the age. The woman in the first incident described the man as being in his teens or early 20s. The second woman ve a similar description, but said the kidnapper was older, between 30 and 40 years old, with gray facial hair. However, a police tracking dog fol- lowed scents in both incidents that led to the city's west side. In June, the alleged attacker forced U Customer Satisfaction The American Customer Satisfaction Index measures how customer feel about products and services offered by companies and government agencies. Here are some highlights of the index: Nondurables manufacturing sector got the highest score - that includes clothing, beer and cigarettes. The lowest score went to the public administration and government sector. The IRS had the lowest score within that sector. 'U' unveils new customer satisfaction index By RYAN C. FIELDS Daily Staff Reporter Customers are happier with the quality of their beer than cold meats, movies and athletic shoes, a new study of consumer attitudes reports. The above information is derived from a comprehensive new tool to measure the progress of the economy - the American Customer Satisfac- tion Index (ACSI). University business professors unveiled the new index at the 10th annual Quality Forum at Ford Motor Co. headquarters in Dearborn yester- day. Business School Prof. Claes Fornell, director of the University's National Quality Research Center, said one goal of the index is to show how the quality of products and ser- vices affects profits and the overall economy. "Unless we measure quality in a systematic way, we will not know what its contribution is to the economy," Fornell said. ACSI is not designed to replace the Consumer Price Index (CPI), but rather to complement the current in- dicator and provide a clearer view of the economy. ACSI scored numerous sectors of goods and services in the economy. The United States received a 74.5 out of a possible 100 - a score that, according to the report, "is not high enough to protect our domestic indus- tries from foreign competition." Manufacturing nondurables re- ceived top honors in the breakdown of the score, compiling an index of 81.6. Canned foods, chocolate and confectionery industries rated high- est in the sector with scores of 87. The entire sector includes clothing, beer, cigarettes, gasoline, baked goods, cold meats and cheese, and newspapers. The public administration and gov- ernment sector received the lowest of all scores with a 64.3. The Internal Revenue Service received the lowest score in this division with a 55. This sector includes garbage collection, police services, and central-city and suburban-area services. "Low scores indicate that the in- dustry may be vulnerable to new com- petitors," according to the report. See SATISFACTION, Page 2 Economy weakens as Fed signals interest rate hikes From Daily Wire Services New York - The economic news was mostly grim this week: Consumer confidence fell for the fourth straight month, the dollar hit an all-time low, worker wages are creeping up only slightly and interest rates are rising. Taken together, the news sug- gested that the economy, which had been thought to be growing at the healthiest clip since the 1990-91 re- cession, isn't necessarily as robust as forecasters reckoned. The freshest signals on the economy's direction came from the Conference Board, aNew York-based research group. It found that con- sumer confidence dropped in Octo- ber for the fourth straight month. That's important because consum- ers who lack confidence in the economy spend less and borrow less. That, in turn, means merchants sell less, factories cut back on output and employers eliminate jobs. Consum- ers account for two-thirds of the nation's economic activity. "I think the consumer confidence figures are among the first barom- eters that there's a sense of unease out there in the consumer heartland," said David Bostian, an economist at Herzog Heine Geduld, a New York investment firm. The conference Board attributed the drop largely to rising fear that there will be fewer jobs in the months ahead. Consumers also scaled back plans to buy cars, appliances and homes. INSIDE JONATHAN LURIE/Daily Joe Mikulec (right), a candidate for the state Senate, speaks to the College Republicans last night. " I - . . !-t /A IF- . RllrlAIC% C i I A rqro% I N~ FlIws 5 ~>.<1 1 IIART- IR