LO CAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 20, 1997 - 3A
Former research
vice president
es Monday
Charles Overberger, professor emer-
itus of chemistry and Vice President for
Research emeritus, died Monday in
Ann Arbor. The 76-year-old professor
died of extended illness related to
Parkinson's. Disease.
,Overberger was an adviser, consul-
tant and author of hundreds of techni-
eai papers.
"Professor Overberger was an early
nt in organic polymers who helped
establish the field as a major subdisci-
plhne in chemistry," said Robert
Kuczkowski, professor and chair of the
University Department of Chemistry,
in a written statement.
Overberger received numerous
awards during his career as a
University professor. He won the
Charles Lathrop Parsons Award of the
Amferican Chemical Society in 1978,
* International Award of the Society
of Plastics Engineers in 1979, and the
Horace N. Potts medal from the
Franklin Institute in 1982.
Ultrafast laser to
squeeze atoms
Using rays of laser light, University
physicists have learned how to control
the random isolations of atoms in a
stal lattice.
he study's results, published in last
iveek's edition of Science magazine,
describe the first experimental modifi-
cations of one of the most fundamental
quantum states of matter.
- Approximately 10 years ago, scien-
tits discovered the creation of a
"squeezed" state for quantum particles
talled phonons that carry vibrational
energy through a solid.
*'Our goal was to learn how to con-
1ol matter - to tell the atoms what to
do, rather than just watch them do
something," said Roberto Merlin, a
University physics professor and one
of several authors of the Science arti-
cl
Drug may reduce
eart failure rate
Losartan, a drug used to treat high
iod pressure, may also significantly
reduce mortality in those with heart
failure, according to an international
multicenter headed by a University car-
diologist.
Tomorrow's International Medical
Journal will post the results of the
study, called "Evaluation of Losartan in
the Elderly."
The results also were presented
rch 18, at the American College of
rdiology annual meeting in
California.
Losartan belongs to the class of
drugs called angiotensin-I receptor
antagonists.
The use of Losartan resulted in a 46-
percent decrease in sudden-death risk,
ompared with current therapy using
the ACE inhibitor captopril.
bsite offers
1:vention tips
A website designed by graduate stu-
dents and the University's Information
Technology Division offers advice and
education in preventing people from
itgesting poison.
The site was originally conceived by
:Shool of Pharmacy students Jill.
lerkiewiecz and Shamita Gupta. The
e's organizers hope to prevent some
the two million poison-related
deaths each year.
Technical support and design exper-
tise for the website was provided by
Thomas Knox, an ITD instructional
software developer. The address for the
Poison Prevention website is.
1ittp://w1sw ipl. org/vouth/poisonsafR.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter-
Marc Lightdate.
Three men shot execution-style in Pittsfield)
By Ajit K. Thavarajah
Daily Stafl Reporter
Three men were shot late Tuesday night at
Pepper Moving and Storage parking lot just west
of Ann Arbor. Pittsfield Township police describe
the murders as execution-type killings.
Neal Green, 36, and Duane Holder, 41, who
worked at the moving and storage company, died in
the shooting Tuesday night. Both were forced by
gun point, along with three other co-workers, to the
parking lot and then one of the masked assailants
shot them, police said.
The two employees who escaped unharmed
described the shooting as a "cold-blooded, deliber-
ate act."
David Pepper, the third victim who was shot and
the owner of the company, remained in critical
condition at St. Joseph-Mercy Hospital last night,
hospital spokesperson Pam Otto said.
Ray LeCornu, Director of Public Safety for
Pittsfield Township, said they are currently inves-
tigating possible suspects.
"We believe that the shootings are related to
payroll issues. The two mask-wearing suspects
entered the building armed with a shotgun and
handgun. The owner was writing out the payroll
checks with the four other employees," LeCornu
said.
"It's a heinous type crime that was totally
uncalled for," LeCornu said. "Right now we are
working on leads and hopefully we can take care of
this difficult situation as quickly as possible."
Assistant Washtenaw County prosecutor Marilyn
Eisenbraun said Pepper had been scheduled to face
charges by a man who complained of not being paid
$851.
Attorney Basil Baker who was representing
Pepper on the wage-related charges, said he had
already discussed with prosecutors postponing the
Friday hearing until further investigation.
The two unhurt workers were identified only as
two friends in their 20s, who began working at the
company about two months ago, Pittsfield Sgt.
Donald O'Farrell told the Ann Arbor News.
"There were two more people on the ground,"
O'Farrell said in the News. "But when the suspect
got to them, he stopped shooting for no apparent rea-
son, running to a getaway car driven by an accom-
plice and leaving them lying there terrified and in
shock, but still alive."
Before the shooting, the suspects demanded
money and all five employees emptied their pock-
ets. Then, they ordered the owner to hand oxtrJe
"real" money and open the safe, O'Farrell said.
The man with the handgun then demanded that
the workers march single file to the parking lot and
lie on the ground, he said.
"It was death march, pure and simple." O'Pairell
said in the News. "After they were on the grotnd,
the suspect began shooting people, one by orie'
The suspect with the shotgun apparently wanot
involved in the shooting, O'Farrell said. and mTy
have gone instead to wait in the car.
Pittsfield investigators said they were unable to
obtain a complete description of the vehicle ec\ept
that it had a noisy exhaust. Anyone with intbtna-
tion should contact the Pittsfield Township
Department of Public Safety at 994-491 1.
I
Website 'IvyEssays' offers
tips for college admissions
s
By Maria Hackett
Daily StaffReporter
An Internet service may lend a help-
ing hand to students who have writer's
block when it is time to write their col-
lege application essays. However, many
students and admissions officials fear
the service may increase instances of
plagiarism in the admissions process.
A three-month-old company on the
World Wide Web called IvyEssays sells
packets of used application essays for
students to use as a starting point for
writing application essays for under-
graduate, law and business schools.
"We want to give applicants lots of
good resources," said Helen Lee, man-
aging editor of IvyEssays.
The pressure for students to write a
successful essay can be overwhelming,
students and experts say.
"You hear that the essays you write
hold a lot of weight in the decision the
college will make, so you want to pre-
sent yourself in the best possible way,"
said LSA first-year student Dave
Amstel. "You think that if the essay
isn't good enough, you won't get in."
IvyEssays collects used successful
essays from students and obtains copy-
rights for them, thus making it illegal
for anyone to copy from the example
essays sold to students.
"We thought about this long and hard
because we didn't want to be perceived
as a site promoting plagiarism or any-
thing like that," Lee said.
Despite IvyEssays' intentions, some
students say the organization's service
could lead to academic dishonesty.
"it doesn't seem like a very good
idea," said LSA first-year student
Daphne Scott. "I think the students
would have a strong tendency to plagia-
rize the essays."
Amstel said the temptation for pla-
giarism may be too strong for students
under pressure to resist.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they
would take the words that were already
there and just do their best to change
them a little" Amstel said.
Lee said a large-scale advertising cam-
paign is one way to keep students from
cheating.
"We're doing everything we can to
keep that from happening," Lee said.
"If we widely advertise and a lot of
admissions offices know about us, it
would just be stupid to plagiarize."
Nevertheless, this temptation for stu-
dents has admissions offices at some
universities worried. Officials at
Harvard, for example, plan to become
familiar with the essays in hopes of
catching cheaters.
University Spokesperson Julie
Peterson said admissions officials
require students to vouch for the validi-
ty of their work.
"For the first time, we've added an
honor statement at the end of the
application that the student must sign
saying that the essay is their own orig-
inal work," Peterson said. "We have,
in the past, discovered samples of pla-
giarism. That immediately disquali-
fies the applicant for admission. The
risk is so great for the student that it
doesn't make sense for students to
plagiarize"
Jim Vanhecke, assistant directo rof
undergraduate admissions for the
University, said the admissions office is
prepared to deal with potential problems.
"If we suspected a problem, wN deal
with it, but I don't think we're expecting
that to happen," Vanhecke said.
The threat of not getting'accepted is
effective, Amstel said.
"Most people take the essa
seriously." Amstel said.
Scott said many publications a y
give out the information offer y
lvyEssays. She said example, s
sometimes limit students' creativity
"They have a lot of books ou re
with examples if you're that w % d
about it, but if you have one;,r o
essays in front of you, then that s g
to seem like the only way to vt
Scott said.
Vanhecke said the individual i-
ties of personal essays would beTi
resented if they seek guidanc
other sources.
"We ask students to talk about -.
selves, which is hard to replicate f rn
anonymous essays on the ,
Vanhecke said.
And while students could gene644
and get some generic ideas, P nie n
said the best essays are those witi r-
sonal touch.
"Our admissions counselors so
many hundreds, thousands of es
that they develop pretty good radar as to
when a student is writing from them-.lf
and when they're trying to pull e-
thing slick," said Peterson.
AJA DEKLEVA COHEN/Daily
Former Nixon adviser Paul McCracken speaks to members of the campus
College Republicans at last night's meeting in the Michigan League.
Former iXon cha17r
advises college GOP
By Jeffrey Kosseff
Daily Staff Reporter
Paul McCracken, former chair of
President Nixon's council of economic
advisers, outlined his philosophy on
economics and politics to the campus
College Republicans last night.
"The modern liberalism would see
the route to economic progress in
which the rich would blueprint the pat-
tern to the economy," McCracken said.
McCracken said Democrats have
adopted the beliefs of modern liberal-
ism, while Republicans have taken on
the classical liberalism of 200 years
ago that was developed by economists
such as Adam Smith.
"That is the basic framework of the
Republican Party," McCracken said.
"The philosophy is limited govern-
ment with a framework that allows
individual freedom."
But McCracken said the United
States is lucky, unlike other countries,
to have two main political parties that
are not idealistic opposites.
"We are fortunate that if the
Democrats take over, we won't see a
wrenching 90-degree turn to the left"
McCracken said.
McCracken, who served as an eco-
nomic adviser to President Reagan,
said he is "sympathetic" to supply-side
economics and claimed that Reagan
was often unfairly portrayed in the
media.
"Reagan's critics are desperate to
paint him as a low-IQ guy who acts the
role of president," McCracken said.
"Nothing can be farther from the truth."
McCracken also reflected on his time
as Nixon's chief economic adviser
"Nixon was a very complicated per-
son, extraordinarily able," McCracken
said. "But he didn't really like eco-
nomic policy. Foreign policy was his
major interest."
But McCracken said Nixon did make
some important economic moves.
"Cutting loose from the gold stan-
dard was probably his best decision,"
McCracken said.
While McCracken said there were
many positive aspects of working
under Nixon, such as attending recep-
tions with foreign leaders, there were
some tedious tasks as well.
"One of the less exciting jobs was
testifying before Congressional com-
mittees," McCracken said.
Also at the meeting, the group held
its annual elections for next year's offi-
cers.
"The future, through honest effort,
will reap good benefits," said Mark
Potts, who was elected unopposed as
the group's new president.
Adam Silver, Steve Waterbrook,
Andy Nelson and Mike Haas will
serve as the new vice president, vice
president for alumni affairs, secretary
and treasurer, respectively.
ILILi
L fL.NL)~,K
What's happening In Ann Arbor today
GROUP MEETINGS
J Campus Crusade for Christ,
Fellowship meeting, Dental
School Kellogg Aud.,7 p.m.
J Lutheran Campus Ministry Issues of
Faith Group, 668-7622, Lord of
Light Lutheran Church, 801 South
Forest, 7 p.m.
J UJA Half Shekel, Campaign meeting
998-1964, Hillel, 1429 Hill St., 6
p.m.
f Undergraduate Mathematics
Society, 213-2018, East Hall,
Rnm.R6 7 n m.
J "Darkness into Light: The Re-emer-
gence of Jewish Culture in
ermany," sponsored by Hillel,
Michigan Union, Art Lounge
j "Grand Prince into Tsar: Building an
Image for Ivan the Terrible,"
sponsored by The Center for
Russian and East European
Studies, Rackham, East
Conference Room, noon
J "Health Fair," sponsored by North
Campus Family Health Services,
North Campus Commons, 10 a.m-
2 p.m.
JI "U.S. and Japanese Automotive
SERVICES
J Campus Information Centers,
Michigan Union and Pierpont
Commons, 763-INFO,
info@umich., UM*Events on
GOpherBLUE, and http://
www.umich.edu/-info on the
World Wide Web
-- English Composition Board Peer
Tutoring, need help with a paper?,
Angell Hall, Room 444C, 7-11
p.m.
0 Northwalk, 763-WALK, Bursley Hall,
8 p.m.-1:30 a.m.
m.
I