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News: 76-DAILY
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One hundred six years of editoriilfreedom
Monday
March 24, 1997
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'Blue Milwaukee-bound
Students' Party sweeps race
Blast tenses
Mideas ttalks
Los Angeles Times
JEJUSALEM - Two days after a; deadly suicide bomb-
ing, Israel demanded yesterday that the Palestinian Authority
9ck down on Islamic extremists who, carry out such attacks,
but it did not formally suspend political contacts with the
Palestinians.
Israeli officials had indicated that the government might
decide to halt political negotiations with the Palestinians, a
move that could have put further strain on the tottering peace
process and makereconciliation more difficult.
In the end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
key government ministers opted for a relatively mild state-
ment that called on the Palestinian leadership to fight terror-
ism as a "necessary step in advancing the political process."
'I'm not suspending talks because our people are meeting
with their people, but the first item on the agenda is the ful-
fillment of the Palestinian obligation to fight terrorism,"
Netanyahu said in a CNN interview. "They have to start com-
plying with that, or else we can't move."
But a top Palestinian negotiator said the milder-than-
expected statement made little difference because talks
between Israel and the Palestinians are deadlocked. "It seems
(Netanyahu) closed all doors tonight," said Saeb Erekat, a
member of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's
Cabinet. "But what we should realize is that he has made a
etence for now between the peace and the process. He's
stroying the peace but wants to continue with the process."
Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have accused Arafat
of recently giving Islamic extremists an indirect "green light"
to resume terror and violence against Israelis. Friday's blast
at a Tel Aviv cafe killed three Israelis and the Palestinian
bomber, and security officials have warned of the possibility
of further attacks.
Palestinian anger has risen recently over the Israeli deci-
sion to build a new Jewish neighborhood in disputed East
Jerusalem. Throughout the West Bank, tensions remained
.$h yesterday, but the clashes of recent days subsided.
JEANNIE SERVAAS/Daily
LSA juniors Olga Savic and Mike Nagrant will take office next month as MSA vice president and president, respectively.
Winners plan
MSA changes
By Katie Plona
Daily Staff Reporter
Students' Party candidates Mike Nagrant and Olga Savic
emerged as victors in the race for the Michigan Student
Assembly's top two positions - offices that the Michigan
Party has held since it began in 1993.
Nagrant, an LSA junior and MSA's new president, said he
hopes that a year from now, MSA will play an important and
essential role in students' lives.
"I think our hope as executive officers is to bring
changes to the assembly - make the assembly integral to
students' lives," Nagrant said.
Savic, an LSA junior, said she sees their election as an
opportunity to create a better assembly that is more direct-
ly connected to students and doesn't exist solely to allocate
money to student groups.
"I think that a lot of the students we talked to did feel dis-
satisified with the assembly and did want something differ-
ent," Savic said. "I think that we have the opportunity to do
a lot of good and make a lot of changes in the coming year."
Nagrant said he was surprised about the large margin of
about 300 presidential votes that separated the Students'
Party and the Michigan Party.
"I thought it was going to be a lot closer," Nagrant said.
"It signifies students wanted a change, and they believe in
our goals.:
The Students' Party took the top executive LSA-Student
Governement spots in a narrow victory of less than 30 votes
over the Michigan Party. Lauren Shubow and Geeta Bhatia
will lead the LSA assembly as president and vice president,
respectively.
Savic said she thought the margin between the top two
parties in the MSA election would have been narrower. "I
didn't think (it would) be such a clear-cut victory," she said.
"Finding out Friday afternoon was definitely a big surprise."
Michigan Party presidential candidate Probir Mehta, the
current MSA vice president, said he also was surprised by
the final vote tallies.
"At one point, I didn't know what to expect, but at anoth-
er point, I thought it would be closer," Mehta said.
Mehta said he will continue to be involved in student
activities on campus, especially fostering leadership oppor-
tunities for first- and second-year students.
Serota, the Michigan Party vice presidential candidate,
said he will complete his term as an LSA representative on
the assembly, which runs until the fall.
"I was dissappointed in the results, but students obviously
spoke their minds and they made a decision," Serota said.
Current MSA President Fiona Rose said she offers three
items of advice to her successor: "Number one, always be
honest with the press. Number two, patience, and number
See MSA, Page 2A
MSA voter turnout rises
MSA Representatives
By Katie Piona
Daily Staff Reporter
Unofficial results show voter turnout
in last week's Michigan Student
Assembly elections rose drastically, to
nearly 15 percent of the student body,
totaling 4,890 votes compared with last
year's estimate of 3,700.
Three times as many students voted
using the new online voting system
instead of the traditional paper ballots.
Many students chose not to vote,
although they said they were aware of the
elections last week.
"I'm not really into the politics of the
University" said Selena Ortata, an LSA
sophomore. "I know a lot of people that
were into voting, so maybe it's just me."
However, some students said casting
their votes was an important way to
have a say in student representation.
"I feel that it is important for the
voices of all the students to be repre-
sented," said Adam Goodman, an LSA
first-year student.
Goodman, who voted online, said he.
was well-informed about the electronic
voting system because of candidates'
persistence. He said that every time he
went to the Harlan Hatcher Graduate
Library he was bombarded by candi-
dates passing out fliers that listed the
online voting address.
Ortata said she did not know about the
online voting option, which extended
voting hours until midnight and allowed
students to vote from any computer with
Internet access.
"I didn't know that,' Ortata said. "I
probably would have. It's a lot easier."
LSA junior Rebecca Schneider said
many students don't necessarily think
MSA is unimportant, but don't know
enough about the candidates to vote.
"I didn't feel like I knew anything
about the candidates," she said. "It
seemed like they all had the same plat-
form - kind of generic"
See tomorrow's Daily for coverage
ofschool government elections.
Art and Design
Genna Solomon (M)*
SBusiness
Ryan Kelly (S)
Engineering
Neel Cholshi (M)
Rackham
Anthony King (URF)
John Lopez (I)
Law
Scott Sifton (M)
LSA
Erin Carey (S)
Diana Economy (S)
Ryan Friedrichs (M)
Jason Korb (M)
Rich Kovacik (S)
Medicine
Karen Fauman (Mi)
Nursing
frfan Murtuza (M)
Jon Malkovich ()
Tamyra Rhodes (1)
Raymond Robb (S)
Mehul Media (M)
Rebecca Rosenthal (M)
Rachel Schlenker (S)
Trent Thompson (S)
Stephanie Windisch (V)
Pharmacy
Matt Curin (S;
SNRE
Kane Morgan (S)
*Michigan Party ,M), Students' Party (S),
Independent (I), United Rebels Front (URF)
A FLASH OF LIGHT
Comet
brightens
look into
past
By Daniel Nolan
Daily Staff Reporter
Hale-Bopp, the brightest comet of
the century, is lighting up the north-
westerly skies of our hemisphere. The
comet can be viewed with the naked eye
throughout April.
"Just look at it; it's a very complicat-
ed phenomenon," said Freeman Miller,
professor emeritus at the University's
astronomy department, and a specialist
in comets.
Last night, the comet made its closest
pass, moving by the Earth at a distance
of about 22 million miles. "This comet
is getting a lot of attention from profes-
sional astronomers," Miller said.
The comet is an especially interesting
astronomical object because it dates
back to the beginning of the solar sys-
tem, Miller said.
"These are the only samples we
have from a time when the planets
and the solar system were forming,
some four or five billion years ago,"
Miller said.
Unfortunately, the contents of a
comet are very difficult to determine.
"We can only infer from the gases that
get blown off of it," Miller said. "We'd
like to get a lander on a comet and have
DPS
probes'U'
urology
chief
By Katie Wang
Daily Staff Reporter
The University's Department of
Public Safety is conducting an investiga-
tion into possible wrongdoing by the
University's urology chief, Dr. Joseph
Oesterling, a DPS official said yesterday.
"There is an investigation being con-
ducted and there are certain things
being investigated," said DPS Lt. Wes
Skowron.
Skowron would not release details of
the investigation but said that Captain
James Smiley of the detective bureau is
spearheading the investigation.
Oesterling was abruptly suspended
last week, surprising colleagues and
leaving speculation about the reasons
behind his suspension.
A receptionist who answered the
phone in Oesterling's department
Thursday said Oesterling had been sus-
pended for "academic reasons"
Another colleague, who also wished
to remain anonymous, said he was very
surprised to learn of the suspension.
"I like working for him. He's a good
physician, hardworking and very
dynamic," the colleague said. "I like
him."
The source said he doesn't know any
details about the investigation and that
the urology department has not
released any details to its staff.
Oesterling, who was unavailable for
comme-,nt last night- told the Dletroit
MARGARET MYER/Daily
The honorable Mavivi Manzini, member of the South African Parliament, spoke to
University Law students and guests about creating South Africa's constitution.
&Afr'icanlegends
grace Ann Arbor
The comet Hale-bopp lights up the northwestern night sky.
By Alice Robinson
Daily Staff Reporter
Anyone seeking information on
the South African constitution this
*ekend would be hard pressed to
find an expert - in South Africa.
That's because three of South
Africa's leading constitutional schol-
ars and leading political figures -
many of whom are legends in South
African politics - were in Ann
tor of the Michigan Journal of Race
and Law, who was involved in plan-
ning the event.
The South African officials joined
Law students in Hutchins Hall from
Thursday through Saturday to discuss
how the newly signed South African
constitution will affect the tenacious
country, which is still trying to rebuild
itself after apartheid's painful legacy.
An interim constitution was created in
Inn AAA --- L_
"Comets are the sun's creation; they solar winds flowing from the sun pro-
look the way they do because of the duce this effect, he said.
I,