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Friday
April 14, 1995
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Rabbits, candy
Inark Easter time
By Usa Poris
Daily Staff Reporter
It is hard to walk into a card shop this time of year
without seeing a display full of silk tulips, plastic green
grass, multi-colored eggs and fuzzy stuffed bunnies.
At the grocery store, the selection of Easter candy can
be overwhelming. There are chocolate eggs, bunnies and
ickens. The marshmallows are either pastel-colored or
ted in bright pink and yellow sugar and shaped like
baby chicks.
With the arrival of spring in March, many people begin
to look forward to Easter, which falls on the first Sunday
after the first full moon following the spring equinox.
For many University students, the candy associated
with Easter is their favorite part of the holiday. "Easter is
better than Halloween because you don't get those orange
and brown wrapped peanut-butter things. I think we
should have more Easters," said Andrew Blass, an LSA
rst-year student.
How did Easter, a holiday that celebrates the resurrec-
tion of Jesus, come to be associated with the Easter bunny
and egg hunts?
Kilwin's Chocolates, on Liberty St., says that both
rabbits and eggs are ancient symbols of the hope of spring
in many different cultures.
Easter is derived from the name of the ancient Anglo-
Saxon goddess of dawn - Eostre or Ostara - who
changed a bird into a rabbit on the first day of spring.
Eggs have symbolized the mystery of life and birth in
*any cultures of the world, including those of the Hindus,
Phoenicians, Persians and Finns.
Passover, the Jewish holiday associated with the spring,
also utilizes the egg. It is traditionally eaten during the
seder, a ceremonial meal, as a symbol of the joy and hope
that things will grow again.
For many students, Easter is a family holiday, and the
campus will be quieter than normal this weekend as many
students return home for the holiday. The remaining
students will likely be inside of the libraries studying for
-nals, which begin next week.
"I think that the whole not getting Easter off is kind of
bad," said Tony Lupa, an LSA first-year student. He said
he was disappointed he would not be with his family this
weekend.
"I'm here studying, studying, etc., etc.," he said.
'U' reaffirms
its affirmative
action position
By Michelle Lee Thompson
Daily Staff Reporter
In light of national scrutiny of
affirmative action programs, the Uni-
versity is calling on the Michigan
Mandate and the Michigan Agenda
for Women to restate its commitment
to bettering the climate for women
and minorities on
campus.
A report issued
this week by the
Office of President
James J. Duder-
stadt noted that the
number of minor-'
ity faculty, staff
and students at the
University has in- Duderstadt
creased since the
creation of the Mandate and the
Agenda - and Duderstadt has vowed
that this trend will continue.
"The University is not monolithic
and neither is discrimination; both
are shifting constantly," the report
states. "We move ahead, knowing we
can never simply rest."
Duderstadt echoed these senti-
ments in a town meeting with women
staff and faculty last Monday.
"The University's commitment to
these efforts is stronger than ever,"
Duderstadt said, adding that he plans
to keep and add programs despite the
challenges to doing so.
"I'm less concerned about politi-
cal challenges than I am about legal
challenges," he said, referring to re-
examination of affirmative action
policies by President Clinton and
members of Congress.
The report outlines a history of
minorities at the University, pointing
out that Michigan was the first large
university to admit women and retell-
ing the origins of the Black Action
Movement of 1970.
Admitting that "our record regard-
ing Native Americans is disappoint-
ing," and that "Latinos face excep-
tional challenges on this campus," the
report focuses on current attempts at
increasing diversity.
Theodore Spencer, director of
undergraduate admissions, said his
office takes the Michigan Mandate's
goals very seriously.
"One of our major roles in the
Michigan Mandate and our commit-
ment to diversity is to recruit -and
enroll a large number of qualified
minority students to the U-M," Spen-
cer said yesterday. "We're very
pleased with our attracting minority
students to campus. We're not ready
to give high fives and say our job is
over, though," Spencer added.
In addition to the recruitment of
students in the four federally recog-
nized minority categories - Latino/
as, Blacks, Native Americans and
Asian Americans - search commit-
tees and interviewers use various
methods to hire minority and women
staff.
"What we tell hiring supervisors
is if they have a goal ... is tell them to
use broad-based searching," said Su-
san Rasmussen, associate director of
affirmative action.
"You basically hire the most quali-
fied person, and if you have two people
who are equally qualified for a posi-
tion, you would hire the person who
meets the goal," Rasmussen said. "A
lot of people seem to think it is about
quotas or reverse discrimination ...
and that's not how we do things."
Duderstadt addressed national at-
tention stirred by some Republicans
in Congress. "With all of the concern,
I thought it was appropriate to go on
record and say where we stand," he
said yesterday.
Earlier this month, Duderstadt dis-
tributed a separate report to staff and
faculty, detailing actions taken under
the Agenda for Women. The progress
report documented the centralization
of sexual harassment reporting and
some of the focus groups and discus-
sions Duderstadt has used to gather
input from students, staff and faculty.
The report lists actions taken and
forthcoming, as well as those under
consideration, by University commit-
tees that have created "an institutional
commitment (to) national leadership
See ACTION, Page 2
4,'~
A7
KRISTEN A. SCHAEFER/Oaily
Three-year-old Ashley Oberdick sits with Peter Rabbit in an Easter display at Briarwood Mall
yesterday.
Students,'
Jason Wine
or the Daily
There are certain rites synonymous
with the coming of spring. One such
rite is the Jewish festival of Passover,
a holiday commemorating the Jews'
escape from bondage in Egypt.
The festival of Passover lasts for
eight days. This year, it begins at
sundown today, and lasts until sun-
down of Saturday, April 22.
0 Those observing Passover's di-
etary laws are restricted from eating
various grains and legumes. Students
eat traditional foods such as gefilte
fish and matzah, an unleavened bread.
Jews eat matzah because in the rush to
leave Egypt, there was not enough
time for the bread to rise.
Some University students find
J' prepare for weeklong Passover
adhering to the strict dining require-
ments of the Passover holiday quite
difficult.
"If you don't like gefilte fish, it's
not easy to keep Passover unless you
just want to eat matzah and drink
water," said SNRE junior Ryan
Bloom.
In Jewish homes, seders are tradi-
tionally held on the first two nights of
Passover. In a program called "Home
Hospitality," Hillel matches Univer-
sity students with local families hold-
ing seders.
Diane Redman, office manager at
Hillel, said the number of students in
the program is down this year.
Redman said this may be because
"Passover falls on the weekend this
year, and students are going home
and taking their friends with them."
During the Passover week, Hillel
also will offer daily kosher for Pass-
over lunches and dinners at a cost of
$6 and $12, respectively. Students
with residence hall meal plans are
eligible to receive a $3 credit toward
lunch and $4 toward dinner at Hillel,
refundable to their accounts.
Mary Perrydore, a senior Univer-
sity housing adviser, cited another
option for students who choose not to
eat at Hillel or in the residence halls.
"People can opt out of regular resi-
dence hall meals during the Passover
period, and get 70 percent (of the
meal allotment) forwarded to Entr6e
Plus or their student account."
However, students who choose not
to attend Hillel's kosher meals should
be able to find a viable alternative in
the residence halls. "It is a challeng-
ing menu sometimes, but we've done
some research on it, and we're always
open for suggestions," said Steve
Myers, executive chef for Dining Ser-
vices for the residence halls.
Myers notes that chefs at the resi-
dence dining halls "don't serve ko-
sher foods per se, but we stay away
from leavening products during Pass-
over." Myers said residence halls
would offer at least one "Passover
friendly" entree and dessert at each
meal. Matzah also will be available.
Chrysler stock fails
after takeover talk
Kerkorian, Iacocca press for purchase
Boyfriend suspected in
death of local woman
~Aj.
r
By Josh White
Daily Staff Reporter
After discovering the bound and
gagged body of a 30-year-old woman
in her Hemlock Court residence
Wednesday night, police are now
searching for the deceased woman's
boyfriend for questioning.
Sandra Marie Anderson, a di-
vorced mother of two, was found dead
in her bedroom shortly after 6 p.m.
Wednesday. Anderson's brother
called the police to request an ambu-
lance after discovering her body.
While the Ann Arbor Police De-
partment is not releasing any details
of the crime and have not indicated a
cause of death, police say they sus-
pect foul play in the case.
"The department is treating this
woman's death ... as a possible homi-
r i A A " n . APT) t 1T-rAvW nc.ni
DETROIT (AP) - Stock inves-
tors backed away yesterday from their
initial enthusiasm for a bold buyout
of Chrysler Corp. by billionaire Kirk
Kerkorian and the automaker's flam-
boyant former chairman, Lee Iacocca.
Chrysler shares were down $1.12
1/2 in late trading on the New York
Stock Exchange. The pace of transac-
tions, although higher than normal,
was far from the frenzy of a day
earlier, when 34.9 million shares
traded hands and the price rose $9.50
to close at $48.75.
There was no word from the Las
Vegas offices of Kerkorian's Tracinda
Corp., which offered $55 a share
Wednesday for the 90 percent of
Chrysler that Kerkorian doesn't al-
ready own. Chrysler Chairman Rob-
ert J. Eaton amplified the company's
statement that it is not for sale.
"We have never been out shop-
ping this company, and I don't want
anyone to believe that there is a for-
sale sign on the front," he said at a
news conference after the company
reported first-quarter earnings of $592
million.
Eaton said profits were down 37
nercent from a year ago because
right business for an LBO (leveraged
buyout)," said Steven Kaplan, a pro-
fessor of finance at the University of
Chicago who specializes in corporate
governance and leveraged buyouts
- takeovers that are financed with
borrowed money.
"Where an
LBO works best is
in a company
where for years,
you've had a lot of
fat,"Kaplan said,
Half a decade
of trimming fat has
helped make
lacocca Chrysler the U.S.
industry's most efficient and most:
profitable car company. The deal pro-
posed by Kerkorian would leave it
with more than $12 billion in debt and
cut its $7.3 billion cash reserve by
more than 70 per-
cent.
"They would
have to be racing
to pay off a good
chunk of the debt
before you hit a
downturn,
' Kaplan said. He
Klepinger
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