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One hundred seven years ofeditoralfreedom

Wednesday
March 25, 1998

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Four die in
Arkansas
'school
shooting
JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) - Two
boys in camouflage lay in wait in the
woods behind their school, then opened
fire with rifles on classmates and teach-
ers when they came out during a false
fire alarm yesterday. Four girls were
ilied and 11 other people were wound-
ed, including two teachers.
An 11-year-old and a 13-year-old
boy were caught trying to run away
shortly after the midday ambush at the
Westside Middle School, police said. A
third boy who allegedly pulled the fire
alarm was being sought.
Authorities said as many as 27 shots
were fired. Youngsters ran screaming
back inside the school as their class-
mates fell bleeding, then cried as they
Iaited for emergency workers.
"Someone pulled the fire- alarm
inside and they went outside, and two
people in camouflage clothing started
shooting," said Connie Tolbert, a secre-
tary.
"We thought it was just firecrack-
ers," said one student, Brandy George.
"i saw one of my teachers get shot. I
started running towards the gym."
Said paramedic Charles Jones: "We
Sad children lying everywhere. They
had all been shot."
Sheriff Dale Haas cried as he
recounted the shootings.
Two of the dead girls were 12 and one
was 11, state police spokesperson Bill
Sadler said. He said he did not know the
age of the fourth victim. Their identities
were not ommediately released.
Ten of the wounded were female,
including the two teachers, who
Squired surgery and were listed in crit-
ical condition. Five wounded girls were
admitted in stable condition. Three
girls and one boy were treated and
released. The wounded students were
between 11 to 13 years old.
The school has about 250 students in
sixth and seventh grades. Jonesboro is
a city of 46,000 about 130 miles north-
east of Little Rock.
The two boys, wearing camouflage
Sirts, pants and hats, were caught near
the school with handguns and rifles.
Officer Terry McNatt said they offered
no resistance and sai4 little. The boys,
both students at +;;e school, were being
held at the county jail.
-nvestigators said the boys were
running in the direction of a white
van found about a half-mile away
from the school with more guns and
ammunition in it. It wasn't immedi-
ately certain if the vehicle was relat-
Sd to the shootings.
Karen Pate, a parent volunteer, was
in the school gym when the fire alarm
went off just after sixth-graders had
finished lunch and returned to their
classrooms. She fled outside and "saw
girls falling to the ground."
"I helped one teacher who had been
shot in the abdomen get out of there
where she could lay down and we could
medical attention," Pate said.
;sian,
)Daily win

Crons
From staffreports
The Michigan Daily and the
Michiganensian yearbook both received
the highest award given for collegiate
publications in the Columbia Scholastic
Press Association's national competition
for 1997 publications. Both publications
were awarded with the Gold Crown at
the CSPA's annual media convention last
week in New York.
Seven college newspapers and six
0yearbooks nationwide were honored
with the award for their "outstanding
achievement in the writing, editing,
design and production of a superlative
student publication." The University of
Michigan was joined by Indiana
University and the University of

Allegations taint MSA

election

By Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud
Daily Staff Reporter
Newly elected Michigan Student
Assembly President Trent Thompson
may have violated the MSA Election
Code when he allegedly solicited votes
at a fraternity party last Tuesday night.
Thompson was motioning students
toward a laptop computer and telling
them to vote for him while they were
logged on to the MSA voting Website,
an anonymous source told The
Michigan Daily. According to para-
graph 61 of the MSA Election Code,
"nor shall any person influence any stu-
dent while he or she is voting."

"He was saying he wanted people to
vote for him and to do it right there,"
said the source, who claimed to have
witnessed the alleged incident. "The
Website was up the entire night. He was
like a businessman and telling them,
'Come vote for me, it's really easy.' He
watched the whole time and he encour-
aged people to vote for him."
The Election Code also states "no
one shall campaign within 50 feet of a
polling site." A personal computer is
considered a polling site only when the
online voting is booted up, said Rules
and Elections Chair Josh Trapani.
"It would be a violation if the elec-

tion site was loaded up and then the vot-
ers were influenced by a candidate,"
Trapani said. "It's the same as if some-
one were at a paper polling site telling
people to vote for them."
The penalty for violation of para-
graph 41.62 is expulsion from the elec-
tions.
Thompson, an LSA junior, denied
any wrongdoing and said he was not
asking people to specifically vote for
him.
"I went to my own fraternity party,"
Thompson said. "If people wanted to
vote, they could vote. I was not telling
them how to vote or who to vote for. I

never said to vote for me near the laptop."
Another witness said Thompson's
campaigning made her feel uncomfort-
able.
"Trent came out into the hall and he
asked if everyone had voted and then
asked if anyone would like to vote
because he had a computer set up," the
witness said. "It was implied that if you
were going to vote, you would vote for
Trent Thompson. I did not go because I
was going to vote for Ryan (Friedrichs)
and didn't want to do it in front of Trent."
LSA sophomore Rochelle
Macnowski, who was present at the'
party, said Thompson did nothing

wrong.
"ie set up his computer in a bed-
room in the house," Macnowski said. "I
got some of my friends and said that a
computer was available, I said my
friend Trent was running but that they
could vote for anyone."
Thompson and his running mate LSA
first-year student Sarah Chopp defeated
independent candidates Ryan Friedrichs,
an LSA junior, and Albert Garcia, an LSA
sophomore, by 85 votes in the MSA pres-
idential election last week.
Although rumors have been circu-
lating among MSA representatives and
See MSA, Page 2


By Lee Palmer
Daily Staff Reporter
Half a dozen University students, including several Law
students, are preparing a document to present to the
Michigan Student Assembly and the University Board of
Regents that questions the legality of the Yes! Yes! Yes! ballot
question that was in part passed by the student body in last
week's MSA elections,
Based on the Michigan Ca mpaign Finance Act,
passed in 1976, the students said they believe the $4
MSA student fee increase will be an illegal use of pub-
lic funds to qualify a state ballot question.
If approved by the regents, the money raised by the
fee increase will be used to hire a private firm that
would collect the necessary signatures to place a ques~
tion on the ballot next November. The vote would give
Michigan voters a chance to change the state constitu-
tion to add a student regent to the University Board of
Regents.
Mark Ianna, aLaw first-ear student who is behind the
effort, offered this analogy. "It's as if the MSA were to raise
$400,000 to give to Clinton's re-election campaign. t's just
as wrong."
The students said their concern does not lie with MSA's
attempt to attain a student regent. Instead, they disagree with
its use of what they consider public funds for a political cam-
paign.
The students said they are not yet prepared to offer
their specific arguments, but gave the following state-
ment: "We believe ethically and legally that public funds
should not be used for political campaigns. We also
believe that this use of funds would constitute a viola-
tion of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, and we are
pursuing statutory remedies,"
Brain Elias, an LSA sophomore and co-chair of MSA's
Student Regent's Task Force, said he has not spoken with any
of the "concerned" students. MSA representatives were
aware of the legal issues surrounding the use of public funds
for campaigning when they prepared the ballot question,
Elias said.
"It's hard to comment without seeing the details,"
Elias said.
"But my hunch is that the Law students are misin-
formed. It's my understanding that since it's a voluntary
fee increase and students can pick up a refund without
See FEE, Page 7

SIARA STLLM#\N'/aily
Political science Prof. Raymond Tanter signs caples of his new book following a heated discussion of foreign policy last night at Borders
Books & Music.
'U' rofesorsigns new bookmm

By Mike Spahn
Daily Staff Reporter
Through compliments and criticism,
political science Prof. Raymond Tanter did
not lose his unyielding teaching attitude at a
public signing of his new book last night.
Upon seeing a student at the signing at
Borders Books & Music, he immediately
asked about his paper assignment in Political
Science 498.
LSA junior Greg Milne was up to the
task though, responding promptly with "I'm
writing about the prospect of war between
the U.S. and Iraq."

Tanter eyed Milne, crossed his arms and
smiled.
A former adviser for former President
Ronald Reagan, Tanter recently completed a
book titled "Rogue Regimes: Terrorism and
Proliferation," which he said grew out of an
e-mail group between him and a few stu-
dents three years ago.
"The book came out of my teaching,"
Tanter said. "I believe teaching and research
go hand-in-hand."
The students in the group, and others
who were interested, aided Tanter in the
research for the book, by writing papers,

making phone calls and talking with Tanter
about their ideas.
"Often times research assistants do the
work but don't get the credit," Tanter said. In
this book, Tanter said, students received
printed acknowledgment for their work.
A couple of students worked with Tanter
on each of the six chapters. In addition to the
acknowledgment in the book, students
received academic credit and some even
received money for their work.
Student input in the book was very
important, Tanter said. He said student inclu-
See TANTER, Page 7


Candidate accused of racism

Amazing Thailand
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® Students angered by
MSA candidate's
campaign poster
By Rachel Edelman
Daily Staff Reporter
Several University offices currently
are investigating an allegedly racist
Michigan Student Assembly campaign
poster that has outraged some
University students.
During the recent campaign, a
sign was posted in Angell Hall
showing LSA sophomore Dale
Winling with his fist raised in imita-
tion of a Black Power gesture of
empowerment and pride. Winling, a
white LSA sophomore who was run-
ning for an MSA representative seat,
also has the image on his Website.
"The Man has always been
keepin' brothers like me down, and I
intend to make this campaign about
race. Some honkies and uncle toms
might point out the fact that I am not
a minority, and am in fact a white
male ... Black and loud, say it
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said. "I just did it to have a good time.
Some people took it the wrong way. I'm
sorry that they did, but no harm was
intended."
Many students said they found the
poster offensive, and thought it mocked
blacks and the struggles of black stu-
dents during the 1960s and '70s.
"He doesn't have the right to trivial-
ize students," said LSA senior Kenneth
Jones, chair of the MSA -Minority
Affairs Commission. "... I can under-
stand First Amendment rights, but it
goes beyond that."
Reports of the poster were filed
with the Office of Student Conflict
Resolution, the Department of
Public Safety and the Information
Technology Division. lTD decided
that Winling's Website does not vio-
late its policies. The Office of
Student Conflict Resolution and
DPS currently are investigating the
incident.
Jones said that if the University fails
to take action against the poster, the
Minority Affairs Commission will seek
legal actions.
"We i-r~ct cat cird-t 'fc.reednm

tative sent with the Defend Affirmative
Action Party, noticed Winling's flyer
last week. Andrich filed a complaint
with the MSA election board and con-
tacted the Minority Affairs
Commission.
Andrich personally e-mailed a com-
plaint to Winling, who e-mailed a
response that was then forwarded to
several student groups.
"His response on the e-mail was
totally inappropriate," said LSA senior
Khoa Nguyen, vice president of the
Vietnamese Student Association. "That
was way overboard."
A resolution condemning the inci-
dent was presented at last night's MSA
meeting. The assembly decided to table
the resolution until next week. MSA
President Mike Nagrant said he has
received several e-mails from students
concerning the poster.
"We definitely don't want to infringe
upon someone's First Amendment rights,
but at the same time, it's something we
definitely feel is wrong," Nagrant said.
"Something we have to show is that we
do not tolerate this tpe of behavior."
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