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Wednesday
February 1., 1995
MSA recalls chair over misused funds, charges of fraud
By Amy Klein
Daily Staff Reporter
In a vote of 18-9, with six abstentions, the
Michigan Student Assembly last night re-
called LSA Rep. Andrew Wright as the exter-
nal relations chair and as the city liaison.
An MSA investigative committee circum-
stantially connected Wright to an anonymous
*nation of $796 made to MSA on Jan. 20.
The committee also found that Wright had
approached Vice President for Student Af-
fairs Maureen A. Hartford and Dean of Stu-
dents Royster Harper for funding without
assembly approval.
"Approaching Hartford and Harper is
speaking out of line as an MSA representative
without going first to the assembly, the Steer-
ing Committee or the executive officers - I
dnk this is highly out of order," said Kinesi-
o ogy Rep. Jeff Brown.
MSA will elect a new external relations
chair next Tuesday.
"Seven hundred ninety-six dollars is not
my money," Wright said. "I don't think there's
been an ethical breach. I think that in 98.5
percent of the time I've upheld MSA's name
in my representation."
Brown and fellow MSA Reps. Bob
Westrate and Devon Bodoh were selected last
week to investigate the source of the anony-
mous donation and said last night the money
came from an outside source.
"We looked through the Budget Priorities
Committee's receipts and found no impropri-
eties. This was not MSA's money," Bodoh said.
The task force determined that the letter
accompanying the money was not sent through
the U.S. mail, Brown said. Closer examination
found that both the city origin and the date were
scratched off the postmark, and the letter was
mailed with a 29-cent stamp after Jan.I.
The anonymous donation was earmarked
in the letter for a specific conference whose
delegation was rescinded at last Tuesday's
meeting.
"I'm speculating here, but the money was
ordered to be used specifically for (a confer-
ence), and we rescinded the (conference),"
Westrate said. "It is possible the next letter
would have said that if you're not going to use
it for one conference then how about using it
for another, like the next conference, which is
ABTS (Association of Big Ten Students)."
ABTS Director Andrew Schor requested
amounts adding up to $796 for the February
conference at Penn State University from
Hartford.
"This 796 figure seems very curious to
me," said Rackham Rep. Paul Check.
Schor denied any connection between the
donation and the amount of money requested
for the next ABTS conference.
"Seven hundred ninety-six is totally just a
coincidence. I've never heard of that number
before (the assembly) presented it to me to-
day," Schor said.
While looking through past records the task
force also discovered what they called unusu-
ally high receipts from an Association of Big
Ten Students Conference last November.
Schor, Wright and MSA Student General
Counsel Paul Scublinsky attended the Indi-
ana University conference.
"Looking back to this trip in November,
we found four receipts for dinners. We sent
three people and we have two dinner bills for
$80 and two dinner bills for $60," Bodoh said.
Attempts to remove Schor and Scublinsky
from their positions failed last night.
MSA initially appropriated $1,500 for eight
representatives to go to the conference, but
five members decided not to attend. After the
trip, the remaining delegation requested an
additional $250 for expenses.
"The receipts go down to popcorn and
soda at the Indiana University football game.
I guess they were pretty thorough in their
records," Brown said.
Bodoh agreed that these were not expenses
covered in the MSA budget. "These were
grotesque expenses. We preface all of this on
ethics and discretion. When you're on a con-
ference you should know that spending that
much on dinner is inappropriate," Bodoh said.
The conference exceeded the previous
budget because of the last-minute cancella-
tion of the five members, whose hotel bill still
had to be paid, Schor said. "I'm new.here, I
don't know about any silent ethics. I don't
know how you can enforce those," he said.
Scublinsky offered to reimburse the
assembly's money.
"It was never my intent to deceive or
defraud the assembly, and I will have to pay
them back," Scublinsky said.
Speaker calls 'B eli
Curve UISCIenII C C
%peech begins Black History Month
Clinton offers
new bailout
plan for peso
By Christy Glass
Daily Staff Reporter
Georgia State University Prof. Asa
G. Hilliard attacked the controversial
best-seller "The Bell Curve" last night
during his keynote address, kicking
off Black History Month.
Hilliard, a professor of urban
*ucation, spoke to a packed audi-
ence of about 200 at the Michigan
Union Ballroom last night. He re-
butted the premise of the book,
which he said is that Blacks are
genetically inferior.
He outlined eight "cracks" in the
book, saying that the authors did not
take into account the most up-to-date
scientific literature. "There is no sci-
*ce in the 'Bell Curve' at all," he
said.
"The first crack in the 'Bell' is that
this book does not represent the state-
of the art in mental measurement in
psychology," he said. "The book does
not match what we know about the
workings of the mind."
He also argued that the book ig-
nores scientifically accepted research
race designation.
"The book compares white people
and Black people but cannot tell you
what a white person is or what a Black
person is," he said. "The problem of
race designation has never been
solved."
Hilliard claimed that another sci-
entific "crack" is the book's failure to
deal with the psychological effects of
white supremacy in the science of
ental measurement.
"The only reliable distinction be-
tween groups is to pick the one group
that you want to be on top and call
them the cultural norm," he said.
Hilliard further criticized the book,
calling it "virtual reality," and said
that one of the book's greatest flaws is
its failure to evaluate the effect of
teachers and schools on academic
potential.
"(The book) does not deal with the
vast research on the power of schools
and teachers to turn kids upside down,
to take kids from the bottom of the
bell curve and put them on the top,"
he said.
"If you do not know this, your
book is wrong."
In Hilliard's final critique of the
book - his eighth "crack" in "The
Bell Curve" - he said it fails to
consider the effects of inequality in
this country.
"Science means you control for
all variations, including treatment, and
no IQ studies do this ... whoever is
doing this is wasting money and de-
stroying kids," he asserted.
In his conclusion, Hilliard said,
a "Here we have witchcraft passing for
science, advising on public policy
and being accepted in mainstream
society."
He warned the audience of the
potential inherent in the book. "There
is language I have only seen in the
mass public discourse from Nazi Ger-
many," he said.
He added, "The real deal has noth-
ing to do with intelligence or IQ be-
cause the eight cracks mean that there
is no science in the 'Bell' - except
political science.:"
Some students reacted positively
to Hilliard's speech, but expressed
doubt that the general public would
accept his views.
"From an academic standpoint I
think he was successful in critically
looking at 'The Bell Curve,' but the
general public does not look at aca-
demics as relevant to their personal
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - Facing insu-
perable opposition in Congress, Presi-
dent Clinton abandoned his $40 bil-
lion program of loan guarantees for
Mexico yesterday in favor of a bail-
out that will cut the U.S. contribution
in half while gaining assistance from
other nations and international lend-
ers and does not require congressional
approval.
The new plan, endorsed by con-
gressional leaders .of both parties but
greeted skeptically by some
backbenchers, will give Mexico a $20
billion package of U.S. loans and loan
guarantees-the federal government's
assurance to private lenders that they
will be repaid by the U.S. Treasury if
Mexico defaults.
In addition, the International Mon-
etary Fund will provide $17.8 billion;
the Bank for International Settlements,
a European-based lending institution,
another $10 billion and Canada and
several Latin American nations will
contribute a total of $2 billion, bring-
ing the value of the package to $49.8
billion.
The program was assembled hast-
ily over two days, as the Mexican
economic crisis worsened and con-
gressional leaders told Clinton they
needed at least two weeks to persuade
the House and Senate, where opposi-
tion appeared to be growing more fierce
each day, to approve the original $40
billion loan guarantee program.
At a meeting in the Oval Office at
11 p.m. Monday, Clinton decided in-
stead to take advantage of a provision
in U.S. law that allows him, without
congressional approval, to draw from
the Exchange Stabilization Fund. The
fund is a government account estab-
lished in 1934 during the Great Depres-
sion to provide stability in currency
exchange markets. The fund, which
includes dollars and foreign currency,
was recently valued at $37.5 billion.
Clinton said he decided to act with-
out awaiting congressional approval
of the original plan because "the risks
of inaction are greater than the risks
of decisive action."
"Do I know for sure that this ac-
tion will solve all the problems? I do
not. Do I believe it will? I do. Am I
virtually certain that if we do nothing
it will get much, much worse in a
hurry? I am," the President said in a
speech to the National Governors
Association, at which he announced
the new plan yesterday morning.
Without action, financial experts
feared Mexico would find itself in
default within a week, a situation that
could lead several other Latin Amen-
can nations into default and precipitate
a global economic crisis.
The solution the President offered
would allow Mexico to exchange
short-term debts for loans with
maturities of as much as 10 years to
overcome immediate problems stem-
ming from the drop in the value of the
peso at a time when billions of dollars
in short-term debts were coming due.
DOUULA5 KANIE/Daily
Georgia State University Prof. Asa G. Hillard speaks to about 200
students last night in the Michigan Union Ballroom.
situation or ideologies," said LSA
junior Akomea Poku-Kankam.
LSA junior Eric Rice said people
may remain inclined toward the
book's conclusions.
"I think that the speech was very
convincing because I've been in-
volved in this academic field, but
the average person is going to be
much more convinced by the au-
thors of 'The Bell Curve' because
the book justifies their own racist
insecurities."
Inside
i -Iir xt, ir
Black 1 -'- 1-., -
History G t
Month M;o Th
began last
night with Georgia State
University Prof. Asa G. Hillard's
speech in the Michigan Union.
A preview of the month and
calendar-of events is on Page 3.
a
Worst floods Iw
In century r
Clinton tax plan wins local support
hit Europe
Los Angeles Times
VENLO, Netherlands - Emer-
gency crews in five nations yesterday
fought to control some of northern
Aurope's worst flooding in this cen-
ry as the Dutch government, wor-
ried that the country's system of dikes
might collapse, launched a mass
evacuation of population centers.
"The Netherlands tonight faces a
total emergency," began the main
Dutch national television news yes-
terday evening. The pictures that fol-
lowed showed worried and bewil-
dered residents throughout much of
*e eastern Netherlands leaving their
homes and boarding police, army or
military buses to be driven to safety.
"About 100,000 are in the process
of being evacuated today, and an-
other 150,000 have been told to pre-
By Zachary M. Raimi
Daily Staff Reporter
Rolling across America aboard his
campaign bus in 1992, Bill Clinton
promised to provide the middle class
with tax relief.
More than two years later, and
with a Republican Congress, the Presi-
dent delivered on his promise in De-
cember by proposing the "Middle
Class Bill of Rights," a $60-billion
package of tax cuts.
Under Clinton's proposal, any
post-high school education would be
deductible from a family's federal
income tax up to $10,000 per year for
families earning less than $120,000.
This includes undergraduate, gradu-
ate and vocational college as well as
job retraining programs. The proposed
tax cuts would be phased in over five
years beginning in January 1996.
The President outlined his plan
before a nationally televised audi-
ence Dec. 16. "Just as we make mort-
gage interest tax deductible because
Clinton's Tax Plan
A White. House
spokeswoman cited the
following examples of how
families would be affected
under President Clinton's "Middle
Class Bill of Rights":
For a'family earning $50,000 per
year in the 15-percent tax
bracket with two children:
If one or both children are in a
post-high school education
program, the family will receive
a $1,500 tax credit.
If both children are under 13
years old, the family will receive
a $500 tax credit per child, for a
total of $1,000.
affect families. She said a four-person
family earning $50,000 per year with
one or both children in college would
receive a $1,500 tax cut.
Another part of the President's
to examine how the proposal will be
financed. If it takes funding away
from other higher education assis-
tance programs or if it leads to cuts in
other important areas of the budget,
Rivers said she may not support it.
"Whenever a proposal has deduc-
tions or tax deductions ... you have to
look at the overall impact," Rivers said.
Maureen McLaughlin, senior
policy adviser to the assistant secre-
tary of Education, said the proposal is
intended to complement Pell grants,
the direct loan program and other
financial aid.
"It's a supplement to the existing
programs," she said. "It is an addition
to a continued committment to need-
based student aid." McLaughlin also
said the President's budget for fiscal
year 1996, which will be unveiled
Monday, is expected to reflect this.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Southfield)
gave general support to the plan.
"I like the idea of making college
tuition tax deductible, but we need to
A man tries to grab onto a railing to steady his boat in a flooded street of
Solssons, France yesterday after the Aisne River rose over its banks.
are bracing for today's expected peak
levels - which are expected to be
several inches above previous records.
"Today is the peak, but it could
stay there for two or three days and
the dikes are getting weaker every
of Klewe, sandwiched between the
Meuse and Rhine, was also said to be
threatened with new flooding if dikes to
the southwest of the city failed, while in
the northeastern French city of
Carlesville-Mezieres, conditions were
:I