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News: 76-DAILY
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One hundred six years of edforulfreedom
Monday
February 10, 1997
3olice use chemical spray to end fight at dance
By Jenni Yachnin
Daily Staff Reporter
Department of Public Safety officers report
that they used chemical spray to stop a fight
that started in the Michigan Union early
Sturday morning after a fraternity dance.
At approximately 12:45 (a.m.) Saturday a
fight occurred at an (Omega Psi Phi) fraternity
dance in the Union," said DPS spokesperson
Elizabeth Hall. "The fight escalated and U of
M Department of Public Safety officers inter-
vened, taking necessary action to insure the
safety of the 600 people attending the event."
Gerald Olivari, who is president of Omega
Psi Phi, said the fight occurred while members
of the fraternity were preparing for a "step
show."
"On the side, football players were ... mak-
ing fun of what we were doing and making
noise," Olivari said. "They were causing a dis-
traction and one of our fraternity brothers
asked them to stop. They started getting hostile
to us and calling us names."
"It turned into a brawl. DPS came and they
sprayed mace."
A first-year student who attended the dance
and did not want to be identified saw the fight
begin.
"Some of the members of the fraternity were
talking to some of the members of the football
team. They exchanged words and then the
fighting started," the student alleged. "I don't
know who took the first blow. Everybody was
trying to pull everybody else off of each other."
DPS requested assistance from Ann Arbor
Police Department officers in dispersing the
crowd that had gathered on the steps of the
Union after the dance ended, Hall said.
"No injuries were reported and no arrests were
made," Hall said, adding that the fight had start-
ed in the Union and not outside the building.
"Department of Public Safety officers called
for assistance from Ann Arbor Police
Department when the crowd spilled into the
streets from the Union," she said.
A DPS officer then used a chemical spray on
students involved in the fight to separate them.
Olivari said Saturday morning's fight was
not the first altercation between the fraternity
and individual football players. The fraternity
is a member of the Black Greek Association.
BGA President Peter Tate said he does not
know if there will be any official reprimand of
those students who were involved in the fight.
University Assistant Athletic Director Bruce
Madej had no knowledge of the incident.
"I do not know anything about it and that's
the first I've heard of it:' Madej said last night.
DPS is still investigating the incident. Hall
said.
$tudents
celebrate
Caribfest
i'AAll"Robinson
Several students paid their own tribute Saturday to
"Carnival Week," an annual street party which begins in
Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow.
Dressed in red, green and turquoise, 10 students brought
the spirit of Carnival Week to the University with their per-
formance, "Flag Party" set to uplifting reggae music.
The women danced energetically among an audience gath-
ered in the Michigan Union's Kuenzel room for Caribfest
1997--two hours of poetry, speakers and art, highlighting the
Qitributions of Caribbeans to black history.
The first-annual Caribfest, featuring visiting
University faculty member and world-renowned
Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison, was organized by the
the University's Caribbean Peoples Association and
drew about 70 students, faculty and alumni. The Cuban
American Students Association also helped coordinate
the presentation.
Caribfest offered an opportunity for Caribbean students to
network and celebrate their culture, said LSA senior
Tamarah Moss, a co-president of the CPA.
'We want to promote a spirit of cooperation between West
di'ans from different areas, and this will serve as an outlet
to serve the West Indies when university days are over," said
Moss, who is from the Bahamas.
During the presentation, LSA first-year student Dwayne
Knight told stories about Caribbeans who have excelled in
their fields, such as Stokely Charmical and Nobel Prize win-
ner Derek Walcott.
Knight said it is important for those of Caribbean descent
to come together to celebrate their heritage "because we tend
to get lost, especially on campus here, at such a big univer-
LSA senior Denise James, a CPA co-president, said the
event was aimed at displaying the uniqueness of Caribbean
culture.
"Basically a lot of times at the University, people of
color get grouped together in one clump, and we want to
show that there is a distinctwCaribbeaneculture," James
said.
(Goodison amused the crowd with her candid poetry,
which reflected her experiences and observations growing
up in Jamaica.
In "Trident," a tribute to the natural beauty of Jamaica,
@odison said the resort there reminded her of paradise.
"I turn and turn in wonder. Who could have put all this
together?" she read.
Goodison explained in her Jamaican accent that she titled
her last poem "To us, all flowers are roses" because of "a
wonderful and eccentric habit Jamaicans have of calling
every single flower on earth 'roses."'
"It's my tribute to Jamaica and, by extension, to the
Caribbean," Goodison said.
"To us, all flowers are roses," is also the name of
odison's most recent collection of poetry, published in
95.
Engineering first-year student David Reid spoke
about how Caribbean culture can be seen everywhere in
the United States, noting that "one-quarter of the base-
ball players in American sports are from the Caribbean,"
and that Colin Powell and Louis Farrakhan are of
Caribbean descent.
Caribfest 1997 effectively reached out to others, said LSA
first-year student Melita Alston.
"It was very interesting because that was the first time that
I actually got educated about the Caribbean people." Alston
*d. "I didn't know that it was so collaborative, and I liked
the dance."
Schedule for Diversity Days
Making dough
S'
MedicalI
Center to
face audit
0 U.S. Department of
Health to investigate
billing practices
By Heather Kamins
Daily Staff Reporter
The University Medical Center faces
a federal investigation into the billing
practices of teaching physicians in the
upcoming months.
The U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services established a national
audit of teaching hospitals last June to
investigate physicians' bills submitted
to the government for medical services
provided to Medicare patients since
1990.
In conjunction with the national inves-
tigation, the University's Medical Center
and about 30 other schools will undergo
audits, said Lloyd Jacobs, senior associ-
ate dean for the Medical School.
"We are one of dozens of institutions
who are having their billing practices
examined," Jacobs said. "They are
going to look at the same sort of exam-
ination for all universities."
Officials from the department's
Office of the Inspector General will
examine University medical records to
assure that teaching physicians were
physically present for all services pro-
vided to Medicare patients.
But it is too early to speculate on the
results of the investigation, Jacobs said.
"The answer is I just don't know,"
Jacobs said. "It is my belief that there is
nothing wrong with the technicality of
(the University Medical Center's)
billing," Jacobs said.
In a similar audit in 1995, doctors
at the University of Pennsylvania
Medical Center agreed to pay a set-
tlement of $30 million because they
were found to have charged Medicare
full-physician fees, when residents
were doing most of the work.
The Association of American
Medical Colleges said OIG is unfairly
auditing past records because before
August 1995 the Medicare billing stan-
dards were unclear.
"(The investigation) amounts to an
OIG program to coerce medical
See AUDIT, Page OA
Domenico Telemaca, co-owner of New York Pizza Depot, which opened on WillianStreet last
Monday, ptepares pizza dough. Tossing dough Is this native-Italian's specialty.
Trotter House:
25 years as U
cu'tural center
By Ericka M. Smith
Daily Staff Reporter
An old house on Washtenaw Avenue was honored Friday
night in celebration of its 25th year as a cultural center in the
University community.
More than 100 students, faculty, staff and community
members filled an upstairs room in the William Monroe
Trotter House, named after an early 20th-century civil rights
advocate.
Vice-provost for minority affairs emeritus and emeritus
education Prof. Charles Moody said the original Trotter
House resulted from the Black Action Movement that swept
across campus in the early 1970s.
"Some people paid some heavy dues for us to be here,"
Moody said.
The first Trotter House stood on the corner of South
University and East University avenues in 1971 as a black
student cultural center. That house burned down because of a
boiler heater problem.
After the fire, Alex Hawkins, then the director of the
house, said he led the committee in search of the present
location.
"There was a band of hippies living here with a dozen
dogs" Hawkins said. "The place was a mess."
Since its purchase, Trotter House has come a long way,
Hawkins said. It now serves as the meeting ground for 37
organizations as well as a host to many campus events.
Among those giving appreciation to the house Friday was
the University Gospel Chorale, which sang two songs in
appreciation of the home.
The keynote speaker, state Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith
(D-Salem Twp.), reflected on the struggles of the BAM
that took place while her father was a professor at the
University.
"My father would come home from work and say 'some of
these kids are putting their college careers on the line and
because of the attitudes of some of the administration, when
this is all over (the students are) gone,"' Smith said.
ASSISTMEUMIC.EDU
JOHN KRAFT/Daily
Jennifer Walters, the University ombuds, coordinates the service ASSIST-ME. Students can send questions and concerns to
ASSIST-ME@umlch.edu and receive a response with suggestions.
Problem--solver available on e-ma
* Today: "Religious
Studies"
Begins at 6 p.m. in the
Power Center1
0 Tomorrow: "Gender
ssues" cy
Begins 6 p.m. in Angell
Hall
U Wed.: "SexualFt °
Orientation" IO-M
Begins 6 p.m. in Angell
Hall
1 Thurs.: "Our America" Sumakwai/DalI
i
+'
i
By Susan T. Port
Daily Staff Reporter
It may not be Dear Abby.
But students in need of advice and
guidance can turn to a different source:
ASSIST-ME@umich.edu, an e-mail
address linking the University to the
Dean of Students and the University
ombuds..
Jennifer Walters, University
ombuds, helped coordinate ASSIST-
ME, mainly for student use.
"The fact is the University is too com-
plicated," Walters said. "It seemed to me
there needed to be one place where you
can go to with any problem."
on help for a problem," Walters said.
Problems may include health issues,
financial aid, administrative and hous-
ing questions, Code of Student
Conduct violation, and many other
concerns, Walters said.
Walters said the goal of ASSIST-ME
is to make life easier for students, "rather
than send them on a wild-goose chase,"
"The goal is for me to be the one to
assist you," Walters said. "That way a
student can be assured of confidential
help."
Walters said that if a student was
unsure about taking a higher-level
class, she would have access to the stu-
be completely secure.
"Anonymity cannot be maintained
over e-mail," Walters said. "I hope first
contact is made over e-mail and confi-
dential matters will be handled by
phone or in person."
Though the program has been in
existence since November, many stu-
dents had not heard of ASSIST-ME.
LSA first-year student Jennifer
Schader said she didn't know she could
access the Dean of Students' Office
through e-mail.
"I have never heard of ASSIST-ME
before," Schader said. "It sounds like a
really efficient way of getting help."
I
I
.