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One hinied ight years of editorriidfreedom
Thursday
December 3, 1998
a 3
Cantor family searches for answers
Family to hire lawyer; 'U' investigates death
Sober Saturdays
plan pushed back
ike Spahn
D' y Staff Reporter
The death of his daughter after a fall
from her Mary Markley Residence Hall
window devastated George Cantor and
his family.
In an attempt to answer the many
questions still lingering in his mind,
Cantor has decided to hire a lawyer to
continue and expand the inquiry into
1. first-year student Courtney
ttor's death.
"We just want to make sure the ques-
tions we have are answered," Cantor
said, adding that this should not be con-
strued as an intent to sue the University
or anyone else.
"It seems so foolish and stupid for
her life to have ended that way," Cantor
said.
The University is conducting an
investigation of its own into the Oct. 16
death, the conclusions of which are
expected within the next few days,
Department of Public Safety
spokesperson Beth Hall said.
But the Cantor family met with offi-
cials from the University last week to
discuss the preliminary findings of the
report. Foul play and suicide have been
ruled out at this point, Cantor said, but
further information has been hard to
obtain.
"They had no answers," Cantor said.
"They have no explanation as to how
this could have happened.
"A part of me wants to believe there
will be an answer to our questions, but
the reality is we may never know'
Cantor said.
The University does plan to hire
mechanical engineers to investigate
Cantor's room and attempt to recon-
struct the events of the early morning
hours that led to the fall. lm estigators
told Cantor that they have talked to
more than 75 witnesses during the six-
week inquiry.
When the report is completed, it
will be submitted to the Washtenaw
County Prosecutor's Office for
review. After the offtice determines
whether there was any criminal
See CANTOR, Page 2A
By Erin Holmes
Daily StaffRcportcr
If all goes as planned, University
students may be presented with anoth-
er alternative to weekend drinking as
early as January
The implementation of a proposal
by the Residence Hall Association to
provide an alcohol-free environment
through a program called "Sober
Saturdays" has been pushed back until
next semester.
The program had been tentatively
suggested to begin this month, but
lack ofparticipation and involvement
delayed its commencement, RIIA
Vice President for State
Communications and Relations
James Christie said.
"We're thinking about it and build-
ing up steam:, (istic said.
Christie, coordinator for the pro-
gram, said he had considered the idea
of an alternative to weekend drinking
since early last summer. The recent
See RHA, Page 2A
LSA first-year student Courtney Cantor
died Oct.16 after falling from her
sixth-floor Mary Markley Residence
Hall window.
ommittee looks
at secret fund-
raising memos
j ' _
i
RJustice Dept. officials
to hand over Clinton's
fund-raising information
WASHINGTON (AP) - House
impeachment investigators armed with
a court order reviewed secret memos on
alleged fund-raising abuses in President
Clinton's 1996 campaign yesterday,
ile the president's lawyers demanded
sensitive materials to wage a "vig-
orous defense."
The investigators reviewed memos
by prosecutor Charles LaBella and FBI
Director Louis Freeh at the Justice
Department, after U.S. District Judge
Norma Holloway Johnson - acting on
the department's motion _- authorized
the inspection.
Republicans, who won a victory by
ing the inspection, said the docu-
<nts potentially could upset the
House Judiciary Committee's tight
impeachment schedule. But the senior
Democrat on the committee, Rep. John
Conyers (D-Mich.), said that his coun-
sel "thoroughly examined the memo-
randa" and "advised me that nothing in
these documents is in any way relevant
to ... consideration of possible
impeachable offenses..."
Committee Republicans had no com-
ment on the review.
The White House legal team accept-
ed an invitation from the committee to
make a defense before the inquiry next
Tuesday and possibly even call witness-
es, but demanded access to the fund-
raising memos and additional investiga-
tive material related to Monica
Lewinsky and Kathleen Willey.
Willey, a former White House aide,
contends that Clinton made an unwant-
ed sexual advance, and the committee
is trying to determine whether anyone
tried to intimidate her from testifying
about the alleged incident. Clinton
denies making the advance.
"We will of course accept your
invitation to appear before the com-
mittee and to present a defense on
behalf of the president," White House
lawyers Gregory Craig and Charles
Ruff wrote committee Chair Henry
Hyde, (R-Ill.).
"Once we have reviewed the materi-
al, we will be prepared to present a vig-
orous defense of the president," the let-
ter said, asking to receive the docu-
ments at least 48 hours before the
defense presentation.
Paul McNulty, spokesperson for
See INQUIRY, Page 10A
Unseasonably
warm weather
has prompted
many
University
students to
spend their
days outside.
Above: .SA
sophomore
Reema Soof
and University
alumnus
Sikander Shah
study on
Palmer FIeld
ye.-terday.
Right: A
jogger,
wearing a pair
of shorts in
yesterday's
unseasonably
warm
weather, runs
past the trees
lining Main St.
The trees
were
decorated
with white
lights for the
holiday
season.
Students catch
some rays,
holiday spirit
By Avram S. Turkel
Daily Staff Reportcr
Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells, Jingle all the...
wait a minute, it's 60 degrees outside. Where
are some shorts?
As Salvation Army volunteers rang their
bells and Christmas lights twinkled across
Ann Arboi, it seemed that something wasn't
quite right.
"A lot of people were studying around the
Diag in short sleeves today." said LSA Rob
Bertman, who was studying outside Cava
Java yesterday. "It's nice that it's warm out,
but if it would snow, I would get into the hol-
iday spirit."
Across the street from Bertman, Salvation
Army volunteers dressed in red smocks
solicited donations.
"It doesn't seem like it's Christmas time,"
said LSA first-year student Dan Buda, who
volunteers as a Salvation Army donation
collector through his fraternity.
"You usually see Salvation Army people
with stocking caps and big coats," said
Buda's partner, LSA sophomore Tim
Zielinski as a rollerblader skated past. "It's a
little weird."
Though warm out yesterday - not at all
like Michigan's normal holiday season -
many students' said their spirit wasn't damp-
ened. Other students also cited spending
time with friends as a key part of the holi-
days.
"The purpose of the holidays is to be with
See WEATHER, Page 5A
NASA t3ia unch 'U' students' experiment
President Clinton, accompanied by Democratic senators, speaks outside the White
House yesterday after a meeting to discuss the agenda of the 106th Congress.
tollegeS move awy
fom grant-based a
By Susan T.Port
Daily Staff Reporter
In a time when universities and col-
4 es nationwide are placmg empha-
on teaching, Georgetown
University has been forced to put on
hold its policy of using medical
school faculty members' ability to
earn grant money to directly deter-
mine professors' salaries.
Georgetown University spokesperson
Paul Donovan said the nolicv set certain
age of$103,000per year, while associate
professors made $73,500 per year. The
university guaranteed assistant profes-
sors $59,000 per year.
Based on amounts of grant money
they bring to the university, professors
were able to earn more than the set
floors.
"Their ability to earn more does have
something to do with grants," Donovan
said. "Even while it was in effect, no
one had any salary reductions in cause
By Nick Bunkley
Daily Staff Reporter
A group of Engineering students should be fly-
ing high today as they see nearly four years of
their research and hardwr rocket into space
aboard the shuttle Endeavour.
The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's latest launch of Endeavour,
scheduled for 3:54 a.rn. today, carries a physics
experiment designed and built by University stu-
dents in its cargo bay.
The project is called the Vortex Ring Transit
Experiment, or VORTEX, and began in 1994.
Its goal is to study the process of converting liq-
uid into the tiny droplets in a fine spray, said Sven
Bilen, now an electrical engineering and computer
science research fellow, who managed the project
while pursuing his doctorate.
"We're looking at a process called fluid atom-
ization," Bilen said, adding that the experiment
should provide information useful for applications
"We're excited to be part of this mission."
- Sven Bilen
Engineering and computer science research fellow
This mission will be the second attempt to per-
form the experiment, said Luis Bernal, an associ-
ate aerospace engineering professor who serves as
the project's faculty adviser. He said VORTEX
flew on a previous shuttle mission in January, but
NASA failed to operate it correctly.
"We flew the same experiment in January of this
year. There was a misunderstanding between the space
shuttle crew and our instructions,' Bernal said.
"NASA recognized that it was their problem,
and so they are flying us again at no cost," he said.
The cost for the first flight was $10,000, as part of
a NASA program that allows small devices to be
carried on shuttles for experiments.
Bilen said about 10 students made the trip to
and prepared it for launch, and it has remained
inside the shuttle for the past four months.
Endeavour's mission is scheduled to last I1
days, and data from the experiment should be
available to students about a month later, "follow-
ing a deintegration stage," Bilen said.
Bernal said the idea of putting a project into
space is what first sparked students' interest in
creating VORTEX.
"It started as some students who were interested
in developing a project that could be flown in the
space shuttle," Bernal said. "Aside from the scien-
tific interest, there is the students' motivation of
flying a.project in space."
Endeavour's primary mission involves making