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Fire strikes vacan

By MICHELLE JOYCE
Daily Staff Reporter
Fire ravaged through the floors of
the former Delta Sigma Phi fraternity
house early Saturday morning, leav-
ing the fate of the house uncertain.
The Ann Arbor Fire Department
received acall at4:16 a.m. Saturday. By
the time firefighters arrived at 1315 Hill
St. a few minutes later, the blaze had
already spread to the third floor.
According to a fire department
news release, the fire started on the
first floor, spread to the atrium and
then went up to the roof. The most
damage occurred on the third floor,
but the first and second floors also
suffered damage.

The cause of the blaze is still unde-
termined. The fire department estimated
damage and loss from the blaze at
$600,000. No injuries were reported.
Allan Lutes, the owner of Alpha
Contracting, looked over the damage
as his construction crew worked
through the day Saturday to board up
the house. "From the rumors I've
heard, the fire department thinks that
someone broke in and built a fire in
the fireplace. The fire then got out of
control," he said.
Lutes added that this was not the
first time that people had entered the
house illegally. "The house has been
broken into on a regular basis by
vandals and vagrants," he said.

fraternity house
Claire Huschle, an LSA senior who cant since last May. The house was put
lives next door to the former frater- up for sale in September when mem-
nity house, said she did not notice hers of the fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi,
anything unusual Friday night or early decided not to move back in.
Saturday. "I've seen homeless people Falling membership and threats
hang around the house before but I've by the city to condemn the house
never actually seen anyone walk in or contributed to the decision by the
out," she said. national fraternity to let the local chap-
Lutes noted that the fire depart- ter give up its University charter.
ment left the scene shortly after 9 a.m. Lutes said the house is still owned
but returned between 5 and 6 p.m. and by the national organization of Delta
remained until after 9 p.m. Sigma Phi. It will be up to them to
"We began boarding up the house at determine its future.
9:30 a.m. but we called the fire depart- "It's probable the house is a total
ment back because of smoke and smol- loss," Lutes said. He added that the
dering and possible fire in the wall exterior structure may possibly be saved
cavities," Lutes said. but that the interior would have to be
The fraternity house has been va- completely gutted and reconstructed.
GOP predicts
Senate victory,
Dems fight on

TO NY I JI'J Y
Fire torched the former Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house Saturday morning.
*LSA raises English
proficiency for TAs

HO, O, HO

By VAHE TAZIAN
For the Daily
In response to the long-standing
concerns of undergraduate students
about the oral communication skills
of foreign teaching assistants, the
College of LSA recently revamped its
competency testing.
"The standards have been raised
again and I think there has been closer
monitoring," said David Schoem, an
LSA assistant dean Friday.
Since 1982, LSA has required all
international TAs to be evaluated on
*heir English competence.
The University is working to im-
prove the situation, said Sarah Briggs,
director of testing teaching assistants
at the English Language Institute.
In 1994, LSA re-evaluated the rat-
ing system used to determine the quali-
fications of foreign TAs. The college,
along with the institute, established a
new rating system.
The new system, implemented this
year, uses a five-point scheme to de-
termine a TA's acceptability.
A rating of five means superior
acceptability, and a TA is granted
teaching duties in most departments.
A rating of four is also accept-
able for TA teaching duties. Ratings

of four-minus and four provisional
require the approval of the depart-
ment chair and the associate dean for
undergraduate education.
Ratings of three are only ac-
ceptable for TAs teaching a foreign
language beyond the first-year level.
® TAs receiving less than a three
rating are unacceptable for teaching
duties in any LSA department.
The old rating system, which is still
used by the College Engineering, also
implemented a five-point rating sys-
tem, but was less strict. Briggs esti-
mates that "at least 25 percent of inter-
national TAs are denied teaching du-
ties due to their language difficulties."
The test administered to TAs con-
sists of four parts: a short background
interview, a presentation of a short
prepared lesson, an office hour role-
play and a question-handling task.
The evaluation is conducted by
representatives of the institute and
the department for which the TA is
being considered.
Briggs said the new rating system
may not solve all the problems asso-
ciated with international TAs' com-
munication abilities.
"It is a very fine line when consid-
See TA. Page 2

TONYA BROAD/Daily
Christmas has arrived early to Hudson's and man iother local department
stores, which may have overlooked the Thanksgving holiday.

. U' drug to treat Reagan for Alzhemer's

From Daily Wire Services
With control of Congress and key
statehouses in the balance, President
Clinton hunted West Coast votes for
Democrats yesterday in a final, uphill
campaign push. Republicans ex-
pressed confidence they would cap-
ture control of the Senate, and per-
haps the House, as well.
"I'll be happy with a one-vote
victory," said Texas GOP gubernato-
rial challenger George W. Bush,
speaking for nervous candidates ev-
erywhere.
With voters expressing wide-
spread anger and disillusionment, the
polls all pointed to major, midterm
Republican congressional gains.
"Obviously we're going to lose
some seats in the House and in the
Senate," conceded White House Chief
of Staff Leon Panetta. Even so, he
said on CBS, "we have a very good
chance" of holding both houses for
the final two years of Clinton's turn.
Clinton and First lady Hilary
Rodham Clinton is scheduled to make
an appearance at a rally at the
University's Flint campus and in other
Michigan cities today in a last-ditch
effort to sway undecided Democrats.
Sen. Phil Gramm, (R-Tex.) on the
same CBS program, said come Janu-
ary, Republicans would control the
Senate, and move swiftly toward pas-
sage of a balanced budget amend-
ment to the Constitution. "We're go-
ing to do it. We're going to win some-
where between 7 and 12 seats," he
said of the Senate, where a pickup of
seven would end Democratic control.
In the House, where Democrats have
held a majority for 40 years, GOP Whip
Newt Gingrich predicted Republican
gains of 35 to 60 seats. A switch of 40
would make him speaker, the first Re-
publican to wield the gavel since 1952.
Of nine Senate seats with no in-
cumbent, six are currently held by the
Democrats. Republican candidates
seemed well-positioned to win four
of the six handsomely - Lt. Gov.
Michael DeWine in Ohio; Reps. John
Kyl in Arizona and Olympia Snowe
See ELECTIONS, Page 2

tfor .office
By KAREN TALASKI
Daily News Editor
Most students study political sci-
ence through books and theories.
Others find there's no better teacher
than experience.
For three University students,
their political science backgrounds
have taken them from the class-
room into the political arena. Daniel
Cherrin, Michael Christie and An-
drew Wright say they are ready to
make that jump.
Cherrin, an LSA senior running
for the state House in the 39th Dis-
trict, has been active in politics since
age 16. He was senior class president,
and also :ran for precinct delegate for
Oakland County - a position he still
holds.
At the University, he carries a
classload of 13 credits. This semes-
ter, however, the problems he stud-
ies in class -creating enough name
recognition to beat an incumbent -
have lifelong ramifications.
With his focus on a political ca-
reer, the young Democrat saw no
reason to put off the future. "People
don't know that I'm 21" -the mini-
mum age to run for this office, Cherrin
said. "It's not something I hide....
Age for me is not really a factor."
Christie, a Republican, faces a
different sort of race. The LSA senior
is running for an open spot on the 15-
memberboard ofWashtenaw County
commissioners. Christie said his mo-
tivation to run for office is to increase
student participation at all levels.
He has served two terms as a
Michigan Student Assembly repre-
See STUDENTS, Page 2
Crime is an issue in local
races, See Page 3

By MICHELLE LEE THOMPSON
Daily Staff Reporter
Ronald Reagan released a hand-
written letter to his "fellow Ameri-
cans" Saturday, in which the former
president disclosed he had been diag-
nosed with Alzheimer's Disease.
Reagan, 83, wrote in the letter that
e and his wife Nancy hoped that
publicizing his condition would in-
crease national awareness of the dis-
ease.
Alzheimer's is a disease that ini-
tially affects victims' memory but
progressively cripples their ability to
speak, perform simple calculations,
read, make decisions and perform
simple tasks.
"We don't know the underlying
cause," said Norman Foster, an assis-
tant professor of neurology in the
Medical School and the University's
expert on the disease.
Foster said that by age 65, up to 10
percent of Americans will show signs

of Alzheimer's, and that by 85 years
of age, up to 40 percent may develop
the disease. Chances of contracting
the disease increase with age. Little is
known about the transmission of the
disease, but 10 percent contract the
disease by heredity.
Reagan's letter was accompanied
by confirming reports from five phy-
sicians, who said they detected the
disease through routine annual test-
ing and confirmed the diagnosis from
extensive tests and observations over
the past year.
Reagan's treatment will include a
drug tested at the University called
Tacrine, which Alzheimer's patients
began using last October. Tacrine pro-
duces the enzyme acetylcholine,
which stimulates nerve activity to
compensate for parts of nerves that
die as a result of the disease.
"It's something like putting the
disease back six months," Foster said.
Tacrine is currently the only drug

approved by the Food and Drug Ad-
ministration for treatment of
Alzheimer's, said Foster.
Other treatments for the disease
include an increase in physical activ-
ity, antidepressant drugs and emo-
tional support.
"Alzheimer's is very much a fam-
ily disease," Foster said.
In his letter, Reagan wrote, "I only
wish there was some way I could
spare Nancy from this painful experi-
ence. When the time comes I am con-
fident that with your help she will
face it with faith and courage."
Reagan and his doctors say he is
feeling fine for now and has shown
few signs of the progressively degen-
erative disease.
Victims live for 10 years on aver-
age being diagnosed, but may have as
few as two or as many as 20 years to
live.
"The positive aspect of it is that he
See REAGAN, Page 2

Reagan

4th Ward hopefuls
stress independence V.

Caution on the rise as

By JAMES M. NASH
Daily Staff Reporter
In Ann Arbor's 4th Ward, where
party bonds are weak and voters tend to
vote split ticket, both City Council can-
didates are aggressively promoting their
independence from party ideology.
But unlike last year's heated cam-
*aign in the nominally Republican ward,
Republican Kathryn Renken and Demo-
crat Stephen Hartwell are airing view-
points, not personal smears.
Renken takes conservative stances
on social issues that distance her from
most Ann Arbor Republicans. She op-

cessfully for city
office. They are
vying for the coun-
cil seat of Republi-
can Julie Creal' aril
who left office two
months before her
term was to expire.
Renken has
downplayed social;
issues during this,
year's campaign,
choosing instead to
focus on the future
of Ann Arbor. In,

local rapes
By LARA TAYLOR
Daily Staff Reporter
With police releasing little new
information in the highly publicized
search for the local serial rapist, stu-
dents are taking more precautions and
campus groups are promoting aware-
ness while working to remind stu-
dents that acquaintance rape is much
more prevalent than stranger rape.
Calls to Safewalk have risen 200
percent recently and the group is con-
ducting midterm recruitment due to
the increased demand. Students are

continue
occur between people who know one
another, people like you."
Most rapists are between 16 and
25 years old, Wright said. Serial rap-
ists are usually middle-class and white,
Wright said, while acquaintance rape
cuts across all socioeconomic lines.
"People have an idea of what a
rapist is, based on miscommunication
of misinformation," Wright said. "Most
rapists are not the deviant psychotic that
we imagine. A rapist can be the man
walking behind you, a next-door neigh-
bor, the person sitting next to you."

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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herze-
govina (AP) - NATO warplanes
buzzed Sarajevo early yesterday in a
show of force after both sides fired
heavy weapons around Bosnia's capi-
tal to breech the ceasefire.
Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose, U.N.
commander in Bosnia, asked both the
Muslim-led government and Bosnian
Serb leaders to join in urgent talks on
the deteriorating situation.

SPECIALSECT1ON
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