ews: 76-DAILY dvertislng: 764-0554 It l t ll till One hundred six years of editorilfreedom Tuesday March 25, 1997 I I -.' "i':~ r i acuity says t wants trong ties oBollinger Janet Adamy ly Staff Reporter Members of the University faculty are extending an olive h to President Lee Bollinger, calling for a closer rela- i hip between the faculty and the new president. Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs embers said yesterday they plan to focus on the presi- ent's relationship with the faculty when Bollinger akes his scheduled appearance at next Monday's ACUA meeting. "The big message that I think we should try to get across o him is that we're there to help him," said physiology Prof. ou D'Alecy, the incoming SACUA chair. "I'd like to set the one that we'll be working together. Every indicator is that he'll be open to that." SACUA members said they hope Bollinger will support the stimulation of -. the University's executive faculty sub- committees, citing the success of the 3 academic affairs committee and the research policies committee. "We'd like to see a comparable level of interaction with other adviso- ry committees," D'Alecy said. "If you've got two that work really well, nn that's something you'd like to emu- late." Faculty members said they hope Bollinger will work more losely with the faculty than did former and president James uderstadt. "There were a lot of things that Duderstadt did that vere very good, but he never brought these ideas to the acuity Senate for discussion," said chemistry Prof. and utgoing SACUA chair Thomas Dunn, citing programs ike the Michigan Mandate. "It's the faculty that does hese things and if they don't do them, they don't get one." ilfred Kaplan, professor emeritus of mathematics, said e as seen a range of relationships between the faculty and he University's presidents since he began teaching at the niversity in 1940. "There should be a feeling of collegiality," Kaplan said. 'We all had the feeling with (former University President Robben) Fleming, but we had that feeling less with (former University President Harold) Shapiro and even less with Duderstadt' Kaplan said. SACUA members said they plan to ask Bollinger his pinion on the success of Senate Assembly evaluations of r*instrators -a process that began three years ago and valuates the performance of University deans and vice presidents. "If the president supports it, I think it encourages the coop- 'ration of the various administrators that are being evaluat- d," said William Ensminger, SACUA member and internal edicine and pharmacology professor. SACUA members aid they are also curious how Bollinger will go about filling positions on future executive search committees. Law Prof. Theodore St. Antoine said he hopes B inger will focus his attention on the needs of the "Wh-superstar" faculty and not gauge the climate of the University's faculty by the silence of "headline-making" faculty members. "Even though they are the ornaments of the University, I think it's very important that he pays close attention to the great mass of faculty," St. Antoine said. HEART OF T MATTER iT Interracial marriages up Students say study results reflect changing attitudes By Alice Robinson Daily Staff Reporter More and more Americans are choosing to marry outside of their race, according to the results of a new study headed by University sociology Prof. Reynolds Farley. Farley, also a research scientist with the Population Studies Center, exam- ined U.S. Census data from as far back as the 1980s to find who is marrying whom and how different factors such as geography, education and military experience relate to people's choice of marriage partners. "I think we're experiencing a lot of racial change in the United States," Farley said. "It's important to document what is happening and to some degree why it's happening." According to the study, American Indians, Latinos/as and Asian Americans are more likely than blacks and whites to marry outside of their race. But the statistics also are divided along gender lines in some cases. In the Asian American community, the study found that women are more likely to marry partners of a different race than men. In the black community, men married out of their race more fre- quently than women. "Just under 10 percent of the black men who married in the 1980s or 1990s married white women, compared to less than two percent of black men who married in the 1940s or 1950s," Farley said in a written statement. One student said the reason for increased interracial marriages may be a shift in general attitudes. "Maybe the- times are changing and people are being more relaxed," said Holly, a senior in the School of Education who requested anonymity. She said stereo- types that interracial marriage is "awful and that it shouldn't be done" no longer exist. Farley said the results of the study were not exactly as he had predicted. "I was surprised at the increase over time in the proportion of people who marry outside of their own race," he said. Residents of California and Hawaii were more likely to marry out of their race than people who reside in the South or Midwest, the study reported. Those who have served in the military were also more likely to choose part- ners of a different race. Engineering junior Tricia Allam, who is currently in an interracial rela- tionship, said young people seem to be more open to the idea of interracial couples than older generations. "Most of the negative reactions we've gotten have been from older people, like age 60 and over," she said. Allam said most young adults "don't even think twice" about interracial dat- ing. Farley plans to share his findings with members of the Population Association of America at their annu- al meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Rash of fires plague county JENNIFER BRADLEY-SWIFT/Daly Dr. Steven Bolling, who has been featured on The Learning Channel's, "The Operation," performs a mitral valve replacement in an operating room at Taubman Medical Center. U surgeons go pnme-time By Erin Holmes For The Daily If you think Michigan sports is the only part of the University getting TV-time, try flipping on The Learning Channel. Decked out in their Michigan-Go-Blue scrub suits, top surgeons from the Michigan Medical Center have been featured four times in "The Operation," a regular Saturday night series broadcasting live surgeries in an operating room. Kirk Streb, the director of the channel's medical show, said it has consistently received No. I rat- ings, but he is "stunned" by the positive response to the episodes about the University. Streb said the University got involved with the show several years ago, and the producers were "so impressed with the doctors and facilities" that The Learning Channel has returned to the University's Medical Center for additional episodes. "If you go to a good place and work with good doctors, it becomes a learning experience for everyone," Streb said. Streb said one of the show's main goals is to get See SURGEONS, Page 7 By Ajit K. Thavarajah D~aily Staff Reporter Police and fire investigators suspect a possible link between a recent rash of fires in Ann Arbor. An investigation was launched Friday after two people narrowly escaped the flames of a deliberately set fire that spread from a car to a mobile home in Scio Township said. Five cars also were set ablaze Sunday at different locations near the University's campus. They were started by igniting scraps of paper that had been placed inside the vehicles. The damage totaled more than $1,500 per car. Detective Sgt. Roy Mays of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department said the fires that destroyed a car and a mobile home at Scio Farms Estates last Friday were similar to at least six other fires that have been reported in the same park. "The damage has been fairly exten- sive to various objects - cars, trash dumpsters," Mays said. "There have been enough of these fires to show that there's a serious problem that needs to be addressed.' Agencies involved in the investiga- tion include the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department, Ann Arbor police and fire departments and the Department of Public Safety. Ann Arbor Fire Marshall Scott Rayburn said it's too early to jump to any conclusions about the fires' caus- es. "We are trying to see if the recent fires are related or if they are just coin- cidental. There have been some similar- ities and we want to see if this could be one person or a group,' Rayburn said. "At this point, it is trying to put infor- mation together and figuring out what the next step should be in terms of fur- ther investigation." Rayburn said there recently have been similar fires in the same vicinity. "The fires have been in a general neighborhood, all of them involving cars, and others set in apartment storage areas, laundry rooms and hallways,' Rayburn said. "Right now we are taking a close look at some possible leads and hopefully we can resolve the issue,' DPS detective Paul Vaughan said, adding that he will be working with other agencies regarding fires that have been set on campus. "We're not prepared to give out details, but I can say that we have had some fires that are under investiga- tion, and we are pooling informa- tion," Vaughan said. "We are trying to see if the fires happening in the city and the rest of the county are all due to the same individual or group." f-camus ivig gives some students headaches Jenni Yachnin ly Staff Reporter Sewage leaks up from the laundry room, the first-floor ceiling caves in and the heat never comes back on. No, this isn't the set of a bad horror movie. This is student housing gone awry. "Students may feel excited about the libera- tion of living off campus, until they find out things can really go awry," said Alan Levy, pub- lic affairs director for University Housing. For LSA senior Shane Russell and his house- &tes, housing problems went beyond leaky faucets and drafty windows. "We lived in a condemned house for nine months," Russell said. "We didn't have heat, hot water or even electricity for the majority of last year." Rusell said he and his housemates never met 'U' urologist suspected of financial fraud From Staff and Wire Reports Report The chief urologist at the School of Medicine was sus- pended because of alleged financial improprieties, according to a published report yesterday. Dr. Joseph Oesterling is being investigated in connection with consulting fees he received from drug and medical com- panies, according to an anonymous source in the Detroit Free Press. The doctor said he was suspended Wednesday, but declined to say why. University officials have declined to comment on the suspension, saying it is policy to decline comment on personnel matters. The University also is investigating possible expense account abuses and whether Oesterling hid his income from outside business arrangements, the Free Press reported. "All of this is a misunderstanding," Oesterling told the newspaper. Oesterling has refused comment to The Michigan ISA senior Thara Nagarajan shows off the flooded basement of her Lawrence Street home. floor caved in from the ceiling down," Russell I - - -