The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 3 1997 -

3

niversity of
Mexico wins
test anxiety case
A federal judge this summer ruled
in favor of the University of New
Mexico's school of medicine, after a
finical psychologist filed a lawsuit
gainst the school for discrimination
because he suffers from test anxiety,
The Chronicle of Higher Education
reported.
Kevin McGuinness claimed on the
basis of the Americans With Disability
Act that the university had discriminat-
ed against him by refusing to give him
a passing grade in a biochemistry
course.
McGuinness said he should not have
t en compared to the other students in
the school because he suffered from
test anxiety.
The failure, combined with "mar-
ginal" grades, caused him to fail his
first year of medical school.
MGuinness plans to appeal the rul-
ing.
Colorado flooding
ffects university
Colorado State University was
forced to close for two days earlier this
mionth when deadly Coral Springs
flooding crashed onto the university's
campus, The Chronicle of Higher
Education reported.
The university was in the midst of
its summer term when the flooding
ecurred. Early estimates set the dam-
ge in the tens of millions of dollars,
and at least five people were killed in
neighboring communities, school offi-
cials said.
Damage was greatest at the cam-
pus book stores, where many of the
books ordered for fall classes were
destroyed. The flood also damaged at
least 13 campus buildings.
No campus deaths were reported.
ildcats strike
name from arena
Villanova University will scrap the
name of John E. du Pont from its
sports arena, The Chronicle of Higher
Education reported.
The decision came after the mil-
lionaire was convicted of murder
this year. The arena, which was
nown as The John Eleuthere du
Pont Pavilion, will now be called
The Pavilion.
The venue was named for du Pont in
1986 when he donated an undisclosed
sum of money to Villanova.
Harvard chapel to
allow same-sex
ceremon ies
The Board of Ministry of Harvard
University has decided to allow
wcommitment ceremonies for gay and
lesbian students, alumni and
employees in the university's memo-
rial chapel, The Chronicle of Higher
"tducation reported. The decision
came after the board studied the
issue for a year.
Gay and lesbian groups started lob-
iing the university for the service
when its pastor, the Rev. Peter

Gomes, acknowledged he is homo-
sexual.
Harvard is not the first university to
'illow such ceremonies. Stanford
,1iversity began permitting them in
r of California
settles lawsuit
The University of California Board
of Regents has reached a settlement
agreement with 75 infertility patients.
The patients filed a lawsuit claiming
-'doctors at the university's fertility clin-
ic, stole embryos and women's eggs,
The Chronicle of Higher Education
reported.
" The $14 million settlement must still
approved by a state judge, and 24
related lawsuits are still pending
'apinst the university's clinics.
-Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Chris Metinko.

Drnking
death
shakes up
students

Legislation would
penalize strikers

3A


By Susan T. Port
Daily Staff Reporter
It is a tradition at Louisiana State
University to drink on pledge night. For
20-year-old Sigma Alpha Epsilon
pledge Benjamin Dayries Wynee, it
was a tradition that led to death.
On the night of his death, Dayries
had just received his pledge pin, indi-
cating he'd accepted a bid to pledge the
SAE fraternity.
Celebrating his good fortune, he and
fellow fraternity members drank all
night at nearby Murphy's Bar. On their
way to the fraternity house, Dayries was
spotted by an unidentified person who
called the campus police. Police officers
arrived to find Dayries unconscious
with a blood alcohol level of 0.588.
Ken Tanner, the University's
Interfraternity Council president, said
that at the University of Michigan, the
responsibility of handling alcohol rests
in the hands of the fraternities. At LSU, a
dry campus, alcohol is strictly forbidden.
Tanner said that off-campus drinking,
like at LSU, allows the fraternities less
opportunity for control and supervision.
"The University is very happy with
the way we are handling our alcohol
policy," said Tanner, an Engineering
senior. "What happened at LSU was
much larger in scale than anything that
has ever happened at (the University of
Michigan)."
The tragedy at LSU forced the uni-
versity to take action to prevent similar
events from occurring on campus.
Pete Stevenson, director of communi-
cations for the national office of SAE,
said universities need to educate students
on the dangers of alcohol abuse.
"This does not only affect those who
are in fraternities, it affects the whole
community," Stevenson said.
Stevenson said LSU's ban of alcohol
makes it more exciting for students to
break the rules by drinking.
"LSU has a dry campus. All alcohol
is banned from fraternity parties which
causes students to want to drink more,"

Employees speak out
against proposed
striking measures
By Jeffrey Kosseff
Daily Staff Reporter
The ongoing labor dispute at
Ferris State University has sparked a
Michigan lawmaker to propose leg-
islation that would penalize striking
employees at all state universities.
Ferris State University faculty
members returned to the classroom
without a contract yesterday, but
were still negotiating with university
officials, Ferris State University
spokesperson Margaret Avritt said.
State Rep. Ken Sikkema (R-
Grandville), state House minority
leader, plans to propose a bill that

"It takes away the biggest bargain-
in right we have," said Nages
Shanmugalingan, a member of the
steering committee for the
University of Michigan's Graduate
Employees Organization. The union
of graduate student instructors held
a three-day walkout in April 1996.
The proposal would damage the
working environment for University
employees, she said.
"They are devaluing our contribu-
tions and it would deteriorate the
working conditions,"
Shanmugalingan said.
However, Shanmugalingan said the
suggestion to punish universities that
participate in lockouts is "a gold
idea.
Sociology Prof. Don Deskins said
the proposal is "unreasonable and con-
trolling."
"It takes away
the individual's
they are rights,"he said!
W) does said he is "not
taking sides"
in a in strike situa-
. etions by
'ative proposing the
bill, because
yI the legislation
Ken Sikkema would punish
(R-Grandville) both e mplo -
- ecs alid
employers wllo
violate anti-
strike laws.

t

C

docks university
day's salary for
strike. The bill
also fines state
universities
that practice
employee lock-
outs.
Under Mich-
igan law, it is
illegal for pub-
lic employees
to strike, and
public employ-
ers may not
lock out their
employees.
"There is a
fundamental issue

employees
every day

one
they

What t
doing (no
not work1
represent
democrac,
- Rep
at stake," Sikkema

MARGARET MYERS/Daily
Justin Reckard, president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, says the drinking-related death
at LSU has made fraternity members more cautious about their drinking.

he said.
Justin Reckard, president of the
University's SAE chapter Justin
Reckard said it is the fraternity mem-
bers' responsibility to watch out for
everybody else.
"It is unfortunate that something like
this had to open our eyes," Reckard
said. "A lot of guys are more cautious
about their own drinking."
At least one University fraternity,
Phi Delta Theta, plans to be alcohol-
free by the year 2000.
"One of the reasons we are going
alcohol free is so nothing like this will
happen here," said Dan Josephs, an
Engineering sophomore. "This is
something all frats should try and do."
Reckard said the idea of an alcohol-
free fraternity defeats the purpose of
being in a fraternity.

"You don't join a frat to be babied, to
be told what to do," Reckard said.
"Telling people when they are 21 that
they cannot have alcohol in their rooms
is absurd."
Reckard said his fraternity brothers
realize something went wrong at LSU.
"Deep in our hearts, the fact that this
kid died is really upsetting," Reckard
said.
Kathy Marcel, LSU Director of
Greek Affairs, said the school is shaken
over the death.
Marcel said SAE's national office
has suspended the LSU chapter until
further investigation.
"We are still waiting for further
information," Marcel said. "This is a
serious police investigation, but so far
there has been no evidence of any
drinking in the SAE house on campus."

said. "I don't think anybody is above
the law.
"It puts financial teeth behind the
prohibition against striking," he said. "I
find it unacceptable that (the strikers)
thumb their noses at the law."
Sikkema said strikes such as the
one at Ferris State University, which
began Aug. 25, violate the law, and
therefore striking faculty should be
punished.
He suggested that an alternative to
striking is lobbying local legislators.
"What they are doing (now) does not
work in a representative democracy,"
Sikkema said.
Some University staff members dis-
agree with the proposal.

The bill will be modeled after
Public Act 112 of 1994, which
imposes similar penalties agaiist
striking public school employees and
public schools that lock out their
employees.
Rep. Clyde LeTarte, minority vice
chair of the House Colleges and
Universities Committee, where the
bill will likely land, said the propos-
al is fair because it makes the penl-
ties equal for public university arid
public school striking parties.
"To penalize one and not the otheris
not logical," LeTarte (R-Jackson) sai4.
With the democratic majority in
the state House, LeTarte said he s
not confident the bill will pass.


Students complete
'U' Code training


By Heather Kamins
Daily Staff Reporter
Assault, battery, harassment, theft -
for 60 new student members of the
Conflict Resolution Board, a nine-hour
training session yesterday was a crash
course in dealing with these injustices
on campus.
The board, which hears cases about
students who allegedly have broken the
University's Code of Student Conduct,
decides about 10 to 15 cases each
school year.
"The panel learns that truth is
somewhere between where the two
sides of the issue stand," said Mary
Lou Antieu, coordinator of the con-
flict resolution board. "So many fac-
tors get in the way of our actual per-
ception. The truth is somewhere in
the middle. Many people who come
before us in our hearing are not pur-
posely lying.
"What the panelists' job is to filter
the information and construct a reali-
ty."
Each new member who joins the
board is required to attend a nine-hour
training session, as well as participate
in mock hearings. Yesterday's training
session examined the distinct skills
needed to decide cases that include
charges of assault and battery, harass-
ment and theft.
Vice President for Student Affairs
Maureen Hartford said that the
University acts as a community, and the
most effective communities use disci-
pline to handle problems in the fairest
ways.
"The elements of the code deal with
expectations of the student members of
a community," Hartford said. "I am a
great believer that the most powerful
piece of the code lays out our expecta-

tions for the members of the communi-
ty. It says that harassment and violence
against other people on campus is not
acceptable."
Hartford said the University's disciL
plinary process, which includes the
Code and the student panelists who
hear the cases, was designed to help
students learn appropriate ways to act
in the University setting.
"It is designed to help students, to
help them understand why their actions
were unacceptable," Hartford said.
During yesterday's training session,
student and faculty members partici-
pated in exercises, viewed films and
listened to professionals lecture on
the purpose of arbitration, diversity,
reaching consensus and delivering
sanctions. Next week, the panelists
will practice their new skills in mock
trials.
LSA senior Douglas Yatter said the
students'role in the sanctioning process
is critical to making the system work.
"Based on my interaction with the
coordinators, I think that the student
input (on the board) is a very integral
part," Yatter said. "Student representa-
tives are important, with such a poten-
tial and controversial decision mecha-
nism, to maintain a fair-minded process
that involves students."
Assistant Dentistry Prof. Carroll-
Ann Trotman said the training session
was a successful start in teaching par-
ticipants the skill they will need to
bring into the board.
"They are trying to teach people to
gather all the facts and relative infor-
mation in order to come to a consen-
sus," Trotman said. "We are to see if
things can be easily resolved, and it
seems like most of the time they
can."

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1, THURSDAY SUNDAY

O "Ultimate Frisbee Clinic and Info
Session," sponsored by The
Michigan Ultimate Frisbee Team,
Palmer Field, 5 p.m.

U "Welcome Back Picnic and
'Auting,'," sponsored by Lambda
Graduate Association, Wheeler
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