241 ti %IAeather Tonight: Cloudy, possible hunderstorm, low 630. omorrow: Cloudy, rain ikely, high 630. One hundred four years of editorial freedom Tuesday April 11, 1995 I - - -------------- I .Wrestlei 3y Michelle Lee Thompson *aily Staff Reporter Two University second-year Law stn are the complainants in a closed hearing uled for 3 p.m. today under the Statem Student Rights and Responsibilities - Jniversity's code of non-academic coi Eric Wise and Don Wiest claim they t e victims of an assault at the hands Jniversity students, including five me: -f the Michigan wrestling team - LS Kors Kendrick Kakazu, Zachary Feldma Dlanrewaju (Lanre) Olabisi, LSA senior Kalev Freeman and Kinesiology senior Hamdan. Engineering senior Paul Uzg 'he sixth student named in the complai Kakazu, who wrestled in the 134- Iveight class, was prosecuted in Wash Students suggest changes 4to R&E By Jodi Cohen N~ilyStaff Reporter Student ihput on the recently pro- posed changes to the race and ethnicity .equirement was limited last night as fewer than 10 students attended a forum in the Michigan Union's Wol- verine Room sponsored by the LSA *tudent Government.. "I had hoped for more people, but ihis isn't the last opportunity to have an impact on R&E," said James Kovacs, the event's moderator. "Programs like this one will continue and hopefully more students will come in the future." Panelists, including Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education David Schoem, outlined the recommendations dnnounced last week by a committee .ommissioned by LSA faculty. One suggestion is mandatory teaching assistant training for courses that fulfill the requirement. "I think that quite a few TAs aren't used to dealing with race and racism situations, so we talked about setting up a training for teaching these courses," said panelist Leilani ishime, an English graduate student. The group also discussed the requirement's intentions. "I was wondering what the intent of the courses is. Is the intent to educate students' about different backgrounds or is it designed to teach students to deal with possible situations in the work force?" LSA-SG Representative An- drew Hamilton asked. Panelist and philosophy Associ- &e Prof. Elizabeth Anderson said the -equirement is intended to facilitate communication about various races and ethnicities. "The idea was to learn how dis- tinctions have sharply divided people," she said. "The hope was to educate students and it was also to facilitate communication. Hopefully, students will also be able to under- tand problems that may arise in the Workplace after they graduate." There was also some discussion about whether current classes fulfill the requirement's goals. Steve Madhavan, LSA-SG vice president, said he "has enjoyed the classes" and has "gotten a lot out of them," but asked that students have a larger impact on deciding which classes fulfill the requirement. Schoem said, "In this report, there a way for students to petition for individual approval. Students can go to (Office of) Academic Actions and submit a request." The group also discussed the requirement's name change from "Race or Ethnicity" to "Race and Ethnicity." "We recommended a name change be- cause we felt that the name was confus- ing and it misstated the purpose of the -quirement," Schoem said. 0 One student said that she attended the forum to learn more about the proposed changes and to hear what some of the committee members said about their recommendations. "I know that there is a lot of con- rs to defend charges in code hearing today County Circuit Court last month and pleaded opened. In any code case, the accused has the tion. Aggravated assault is a misdemeanor. glass door slammed back in my face," Wiest no contest to a charge of aggravated assault option to open the hearing. Only one hearing "It's been blown out of proportion. I think said. following an incident at Wise's residence lest October. The other five accused students said they did not approach Wise. "No one (else) touched him," Hamdan said. "If I would have done something, I would have been punished a long time ago. I would have been tried with Kendrick." Mary Lou Antieau, judicial adviser for the code, would not confirm or deny that the case is pending. "The privacy of all the parties is involved here," Antieau said. "I cannot reveal any- thing." Antieau added that the public would be notified if a hearing under the code were has been opened in the more than two years since the implementation of the code, which is still an interim policy. The University Board of Regents is set to vote on whether or not to make it permanent next week at the board's monthly meeting. Today's hearing could still be opened if the accused requests an open hearing and the complainants agree. Wise said he filed the case under the code in order to make the event known to Univer- sity administrators and to have the students punished. Kakazu was the only student prosecuted in circuit court. His penalty was 108 hours of community service and two years of proba- they're protecting themselves because they have to if they want to to stay in the Law School," Kakazu said. "I don't think it's en- tirely anyone's fault." Wise said he and Wiest filed under the code because, "This was an egregious group criminal activity and there are sanctions for this type of activity under the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities. I think it's not only appropriate but necessary that they be punished." Wise and Wiest, who are housemates, recall last October's incident with anger. At 3 a.m. on Oct. 1, Wise answered their door after the doorbell rang. "Eric was dragged outside and I got the "(Wise) was beaten in an attack that could have killed him ... he was just kicked in the head repeatedly," Wiest said. Wise said that the alleged attackers visited their house earlier in the evening and started confrontations, which were split up by Wise's other housemates. They returned later in the evening and started the confrontation, Wise is alleging. "Their behavior is unacceptable, outra- geous, criminal and shouldn't b .condoned by the University," Wise added. However, Hamdan contends that when Kakazu visited a party at the house earlier that evening, several men beat up on Kakazu. See HEARING, Page 2 Dole kicks off 1996 - campalgn From Daily Wire Services TOPEKA, Kan. - Embracing the conservative agenda of lower taxes, smaller government and a balanced bud- get, Bob Dole launched his third White House bid yester- day by casting himself as uniquely qualified to "lead America back to her place in the sun." "I am not afraid to lead, and I know the way," the Senate majority leader said as he formally declared his candidacy for the 1996 Republican presidential nomina- tion. "Let us rein in our government to set the spirit of the American people free. Let us renew our moral convictions and strengthen' our families by returning to funda- mental values. Together, let us reas- sert our rightful place as a great nation," he said. Dole, 71, entered the race with a scornful critique of President Clinton as a "clever apologist of the status quo," elected on a platform of change in 1992 but now fighting the change Dole voters demanded in the Republican sweep in 1994. "We need a President who shares our values, embraces our agenda and will lead the fight for the fundamental change America chose last November," said Dole, whose commitment to that agenda will be tested in the coming months as the Senate acts on legislation already passed by the more conservative House. There was nary a mention of his Republican rivals. Befitting his status as the clear early GOP front-runner, Dole chose to ignore them. His announcement was elabo- rately choreographed, complete with a balloon drop and a charter plane marked "Dole for President." Dole proved anew his willingness to adapt to the times - and the changes in his own party. He reached out to economic conservatives who have often questioned his commitment to lower taxes, and to cultural conservatives who are influential in GOP primaries but somewhat sus- picious of Dole because of his legislator's penchant for compromise. As a symbol of his conservative commitment, Dole signed the anti-tax pledge he rejected in his 1988 cam- paign. His decision to sign the tax pledge was the clearest sign that his issue agenda in the 1996 campaign will reflect the rightward shifts within a Republican Party that was swept into power last November. - Dole did not mention the document yesterday, but campaign manager Scott Reed said the candidate was willing to sign it this year because Republicans, not Democrats, control the Congress. "In 1988, the issue was based on Democrats controlling Congress" Reed said. Only Sen. Phil Gramm, (R-Texas), has signed the same pledge, said Grover Norquist, president of Ameri- cans for Tax Reform, which distributes the pledge to candidates. . MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily Birds of a feather Bob Greenstein and his bird "Crackers" (red) play with "Junior" at the Cage Bird Club's meeting in Ann Arbor yesterday. Crackers is 4 years old; Greenstein has owned him since Crackers' birth. Crackdown follows aza bombings GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - In a move that could push Palestinians closer to civil war, Yasser Arafat cracked down on Islamic militants yesterday after suicide bombings killed seven Israelis and an Amen- can college student. Arafat's security forces arrested 112 fol- lowers of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group after Sunday's deadly back-to-back bombings near two Jewish settlements in the PLO-ruled Gaza Strip. Washington applauded Arafat's tough stance. "We expect the Palestinian authority to take this type of concrete action against those within its jurisdiction who seek to destroy the peace process through acts of violence and terror," said State Department spokes- woman Christine Shelly. But angry Islamic militant leaders raised the specter of civil war, apparently trying to force Arafat to back down. "If he (Arafat) practices this behavior, we will defend ourselves by all means," warned Mahmoud Zahar, a leader of Hamas, the most powerful group opposing the faltering Gaza Sti More than 100 Islamic militants were arrested yesterday during an Israeli crackdownh following K1 Su~nday's attacks in two Gaza Stip- cities, Where the bombings, occured: junior at Brandeis University on vacation for Passover. She was wounded in the head while traveling to a beach resort at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. After doctors declared her brain dead, Alisa's father Steve authorized an operation to remove organs for donation. In a state- ment, he said his daughter loved Israel and "her lasting contribution to the people of Israel is that her organs were donated for the saving of lives in need." The mood in Israel was somber with funer- als held for the victims. "Stop killing the soldiers," wailed Pnina Regev as the body of her son, Staff Sgt. Yuval Regev, was carried on a jeep to a cemetery south of Tel Aviv for burial. Arafat's police chief, Maj. Gen. Nasr Yousef, told The Associated Press more mili- tants would be rounded up and some would be put on trial. A military court convened in a hastily arranged all-night session yesterday, and the three-judge panel imposed a 15-year sen- tence on an Islamic Jihad activist for recruit- ing suicide bombers. Israel-PLO accord. Despite the tensions and anger, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told nego- tiators to resume talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization on arranging Pal- estinian elections and an Israeli troop pull- back to allow Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank. The bombings wounded more than 40 people, and two of them died yesterday, including Alisa M. Flatow, a 20-year-old A Rebels challenge political monopoly in Chiapas >.; r; . :. _ Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series on Mexico's Chiapas re- gion, its people and the Zapatista movement. By Robyn Denson Special to the Daily SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico -Mexico's ruling party, the Partido Revolutionario Institucional, or PRI, has been widely accused of monopolizing government and big business since the late 1920s. Frustra- tion has been building for decades and within _ . bolically, in the poorest, most oppressed region of the country: the southeastern jungles of Chiapas. Although government sources maintain that Chiapas receives the second-largest amount of government aid among Mexican states, religious missionary groups, interna- tional service organizations and Chiapanecos themselves insist that conditions have not improved significantly over the last 50 years. "The money comes from (Mexico City), but never makes it out of the government Mexico's political parties and international observers supervised. Despite expectations of fair elections, many believe that the elabo- rnt nr~nrn tnnc ric prv, C 0c acn <. R C.r