T The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 6, 1995 -5 *Postal rate increase causes long lines, stamp shortages BY SPENCER DICKINSON Daily Staff Reporter Tuesday marked the date of the controversial increase in the price of a postage stamp from 29 to 32 cents. This price increase created chaos at post offices around the country as millions attempted to purchase new 32-cent stamps as well as 3-cent stamps to use with their old ones. Ann Arbor experienced a second wave yesterday as University students, faculty and staff returned from break to find two weeks of unopened, unan- swered mail. 'Students, to unveil 'U' solar car at Auto Show By MICHELLE LEE THOMPSON Daily Staff Reporter After years of preparation, months of work and a week of setup, the University's Solar Car Team will unveil its new vehicle today at the 1995 North American International Auto Show. "Solar Vision" will be displayed at the Cobo Center in Detroit at 11:30 a.m., near the Mazda and Lotus dis- plays. The car will not be revealed in a flashy display like those of Ford Motor Co., but several University students will be on hand to answer questions about Solar Vision. More than 150 students designed and constructed the car, which has been in the works for about a year and a half. "We have dedicated students from all over the place," said David Goodman, project manager and En- gineering junior. LSA, Engineering, Business and Art students have worked on the car. The vehicle weighs in at 276 pounds without a battery or driver. It *is powered by 3,238 monocrystalline silicon solar cells, which are designed in an array that covers the car. The cells can produce up to 1,200 watts of power in full sunlight. Solar Vision is the third Univer- sity solar car, and it will race against 40 other student-designed, solar-pow- ered cars in Sunrayce 95 - a 1,200- mile race from Indianapolis, Ind., to Golden, Colo. The race begins June 20. The vehicle's two predecessors, Maize & Blue and Sunrunner, took first place in previous Sunrayce compe- titions. Students have worked with cor- porate sponsors including IBM, Ford Motor Co. and Christy Indus- tries to raise more than $1.2 million in funds, materials and technical support. Goodman praised the organiza- tions that contributed to the project. "Support from our corporate spon- sors and private donors has been out- standing," he said. "I absolutely need stamps to mail checks for some bills I got over break," one frustrated student commented as she waited in the line at the Nickels Arcade Post Office. "I spent about 15 or 20 minutes in that line," said SNRE first-year stu- dent Rebecca Mattison. "That's just too long." Things were worse elsewhere. Bette Ellis, an alum and Ann Arbor resident, came to the Arcade after learning the Liberty Station Post Of- fice - where she estimated lines were taking up to half an hour - had run out of three-cent stamps. An official at Ann Arbor's main post office called the mob scene "worse than Christmas," and claimed that although they had 30,000 of an original shipment of 200,000 three- cent stamps left, she "could foresee running out of three-cent stamps be- fore the end of the day." She also said Detroit was com- pletely out of the stamps so when Ann Arbor sells its last, there "just won't be any more." At Liberty Station, where a clerk estimated her branch had done "three times the normal amount of business" the three-cent stamps were gone. To make matters worse, the office was rapidly depleting its stock of two-cent stamps. "We have enough one-cent stamps to last a while," she said, but didn't know what the office would do when it ran out of those, as there seems to be a shortage of stamps across the coun- try. One postal employee questioned the wisdom of a price increase so close to the high-volume holiday sea- son. "We always get a whole lot of business around this time of year, and we always get a lot of business when they change the prices." She con- cluded, "They should have done this some other time." The post office has taken consid- erable criticism on not only the recent increase, but also on general ineffi- ciency. "I hate to say it," said Ellis as she waited, "but this is what you expect from the post office." The Postal Service claims the price increase is an attempt to keep pace with inflation, but a growing number v'd Students waited in long lines to buy G-rate stamps like this one, after the postal-rate increase. of Americans are seeking alterna- tives to using the Post Office. One annoyed student in the line at the Arcade said, "I would be so psyched if you could send packages on e-maid and I would never have to use the Post Office again." Aw moomma A Chechen fighter smiles back to his comrades as he walks past the bodies of Russian soldiers lying by thei destroyed infantry building yesterday afternoon in central Grozny. CMU students accused of rpe will- not return to scho Ignoring pledge, a Russian planes N bomb Grozny GROZNY, Russia (AP) - Rus- Chechen defenders, who drove the sian fighter jets swooped over Grozny Russian troops from the city center. yesterday and bombed the presiden- Russian warplanes dropped clus- tial palace, ignoring Boris Yeltsin's ter bombs packed with shrapnel on promise to halt air attacks on the several villages. ruined capital of rebellious Chechnya. In Shall, 16 miles from Grozny, Warplanes also reportedly made they bombed a roadside market Tues- bombing runs outside Grozny and day, then struck again as people were heavy shelling pounded outlying vil- helping the wounded. An hour later, lages as Moscow continued its fight they hit the maternity ward of the to reassert control over the mostly local hospital. Estimates of the death ' °, Muslim, oil-rich southern republic. toll in Shali ranged as high as 100 The palace in the center of Grozny dead with scores more wounded. was hit by at least one rocket, touch- Russia's human rights commis- ing off a fire in the upper stories of the sioner, Sergei Kovalyov, arrived in tall concrete building, said Western Moscow from Grozny yesterday ac- journalists who witnessed the attack. cusing his government of "ruthless'1 Arhha bOnly the basement and first floor and "massive" human rights viola- of the palace were occupied - by tions. AP PHOTO Chechen defenders and wounded Kovalyov, a member of parlia- from both sides. Witnesses said there ment, is scheduled to meet with appeared to be no casualties. Chechen Yeltsin today. "I want to look the President Dzhokhar Dudayev was president in the eye and ask him ... i reportedly in a bunker elsewhere in he really understands what is happen' the city. ing," Kovalyov said. It was the third air strke of the day Another prominent lawmaker, on Grozny. Comparatively, however, Communist Party leader Gennady yesterday's attacks were light, per- Zyuganov, called yesterday for early haps hampered by the fog that blan- presidential elections to dump Yeltsii, 01 keted the city. and the lower house of parliamen,; Rocket and gun fire rattled the the Duma, was gearing up for an emer- railway station, but clashes were far gency session on the Chechen crisis be filed less intense than in recent days. Yeltsin is also under intense criti~ r against Chechen fighters strolled freely cism from foreign governments. ' the case, through central Grozny on the sixth In an interview yesterday with _ounty's day of Russia's bungled offensive to Voice of America, Secretary of State ce. take the city and quash the republic's Warren Christopher said the Russiai igation, 3-year-old independence drive. president has been right to try to sup- g Attor- Yeltsin's promise on Wednesday press armed insurrection in Chechnya Nov. 10 to stop the bombing was his second but his military assault has escalated ufficient of the Chechen campaign - and the out of his control. up. second to be followed by air strikes German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, find the the next day. Last time, warplanes said he called Yeltsin on Wednesday pugnant, destroyed much of downtown and pressed for an end to the blood facts do Grozny, including an orphanage. shed. y crimi- Yeltsin ordered the bombing halt "I am deeply concerned at the level in the face of growing criticism at of violence," said Kohl, who has ety offi- home and abroad of his heavy-handed warm ties with the Russian leader. rted as- offensive. Fog hung over Chechnya most of led first- Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the day, limiting visibility and mak- t, which civilians and fighters have been killed ing accurate bombing impossible. The 19- or wounded in the 3-week-old inva- A lone Russian fighter jet made' d the as- sion. The Red Cross estimates one raid on Grozny shortly after mid- rning of 350,000 people are now refugees. night when the bombing halt was sup- her in a The war grew even uglier after posed to take effect and another yes- -campus Russia failed to take the capital in a terday morning, said Timur Tsuroyev, New Year's Eve tank assault and was a Chechen fighter at rebel headquar- humiliated by outgunned but spirited ters on Grozny's southern edge. 4 1 6 l 1 R a x ,g r t . 4 u By JOSH WHITE Daily Staff Reporter In an agreement with school offi- cials, three Central Michigan Uni- versity students, who were alleged to have participated in a rape on the Mount Pleasant campus, voluntarily withdrew prior to the beginning of the winter semester. Rae Goldsmith, the director of public relations for CMU, said the students have permanently with- drawn from the university but main- tain their innocence in connection to an alleged rape in a dormitory Sun- day, Oct. 2. "The students approached univer- sity officials saying that they were willing to withdraw from the school with no ability to ever return in the future," Goldsmith said. "What the students asked of the university was that officials not pursue disciplinary charges according to the Student Code of Conduct, which deals with internal behavioral regulations on campus." CMU's conduct code has func- tions similar to the Statement of Stu- dent Rights and Responsibilities here, the University's non-academic code of conduct. Goldsmith said that the school agreed not to follow internal charges regarding the alleged rape, but that the former students will never be eli- gible for enrollment at CMU. "What they did, in effect, by disenrolling, was inflict the harshest penalty that the university could have given on themselves," she said. "If the investigations had continued, there is no guarantee that they would have been found guilty and there is no guarantee that if found guilty, they would have been suspended or ex- pelled. "They took the worst punishment available, they accepted what is con- sidered as the death penalty in higher education." No criminal charges will against the three students or four other men implicated int according to the Isabella C Prosecuting Attorney's Offi Following his investi Isabella County Prosecuting ney Larry J. Burdick, said in a press release that there is not s evidence to prosecute the grou "In this matter, although I conduct involved morally rep it is my determination that the not support the issuing of an nal charges," he said. Department of Public Saf cials at CMU said the repo saults by the seven men inclu degree criminal sexual assaul involves forced penetration.' year-old student who reported saults just after 2 a.m. the mo Oct. 2 said the men raped h dorm room following an off party earlier that night. Farrakhan buys land in southwest Michig tn rONE MEDIUM PIZZA*1 UNION PIER, Mich. (AP) - Louis Farrakhan is no Oprah Winfrey. That's the verdict of one new neigh- bor of the Nation of Islam leader who purchased a large home and more than 75 acres of land in rural south- west Michigan. Farrakhan bought three adjoining parcels of land in New Buffalo Town- ship on Dec. 21 and Dec. 22, The (St. Joseph) Herald-Palladium reported in a copyrighted story yesterday. The newspaper examined public documents filed with the Berrien County Register of Deeds office showing Farrakhan purchased the land as trustee for the Number Two Poor Treasury Trust. The deeds do not list the sale prices. It was not clear how Farrakhan planned to use the house and prop- erty. Business managers for the Na- tion of Islam were not in the Chicago offices yesterday. "If he's just a new neighbor who wants to live out in the country, that's cool," said Linda Stone, who lives north of the property. "If he wants to turn it into a development, that's not cool. We didn't move into an area zoned 'agriculture' to have it turned into a subdivision." Stone said most of her co-workers in Michigan City, Ind., don't know who Farrakhan is. "If you tell people Louis Farrakhan moved down the road, you get a blank look. Seven out of ten people do not know who he is. If he was Oprah, they would at least know who he is," she said. Correction The skydiver at the Holiday Bowl holds the rank of petty officer, first class in the Navy. This was incorrectly reported in yesterday's Daily. IMSB, Room G-21, 6:30-8 p.m. nl !Cniv aaeii * ~flr h lu Friday Thompson, 3 p.m.