LOCAL/S TATE
The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 7, 1998-- 3A
Library acquires
writings of Beat
Generation poet
The University's Special
collections Library has acquired the
writings of Anne Waldman, a post-
modern poet and performance artist
influenced by the Beat Generation
writers.
One of few women let into Beat
poet Allen Ginsburg's friendship
circle, Waldman has saved every-
thing associated with her perfor-
aince and writing life for the past
40 years.
Her archive includes more than
*,000 manuscripts, letters, busi-
ness and personal documents, pho-
tographs and audio tapes, including
a lot of Beat literature.
University , Library Director
William Gosling called the collec-
tion a cornerstone for young
researchers interested in the Beat
poets.
-Waldman co-founded the Jack
Serouac School of Disembodied
etics at the Napora Institute in
Boulder, Colo. She served as direc-
tor of the Poetry Project at St.
Mark's Church in New York City
and the editor of poetry anthologies
and small magazines.
U researchers
to act on council
The National Asian Women's
4ealth Organization has recently
pointed two Nursing researchers,
Mei-yu Yu and Amy Seetoo, to its
National Policy Council.
The two women have worked
together extensively in Chinese-
American community health
research projects in Ann Arbor.
Yu founded the Healthy Asian
Americans Project, an organization
concerned with Asian American
*east cancer prevention, in 1996.
Seetoo found the Chinese
American Society of Ann Arbor.
Both women are active in both
organizations. Yu serves as presi-
dent of the Chinese-American
Society.
Yu and Seetoo will assist
NAWHO in conducting research
with the National Cancer Institute
and the Centers for Disease
ntrol.
est, Hewlett to
speak at lecture
°Cornell West and Sylvia Ann
Hewlett are scheduled to speak
about the devaluing of parents' role
in the country by U.S. cultural,
business and political systems on
Dec. 10 at 4 p.m. at the Power
enter.
West and Hewlett are advocates
fox a Parents' Bill of Rights, legisla-
tion that would emphasize the worth
of parents in our nation.
They say the bill would also ben-
efit children, reviving our nation's
ilnterest in their well-being.
',West gave the keynote address at
last year's Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day celebration.
PS sponsors
canned food drive
The community-oriented policing
officers of the Department of Public
:.Safety are sponsoring a canned food
drive this holiday season to aid
needy Ann Arbor families.
"'',The drive is an annual DPS tradi-
. miion. Food donations can continue to
be made until Dec. 15. Community
:embers can donate canned and
boxed food at 525 Church St.,
Mason Hall Room G419 and
Pierpont Commons from 8 a.m. to 8
p.m. Monday through Friday.
DPS will also be collecting dona-
'i'ons at its main office, located at
1239 Kipke Dr., from 7:30 a.m. to 6
p m.
Community members can call the
Mason Hall COP office at 764-5738
r more information.
DPS encourages people to donate
canned soup, spaghetti, beef stew,
hreakfast cereal, canned meats,
chili, tuna, rice, beans, pasta and
powdered milk and cheese.
- Compiled by Daily Staff
Reporter Nick Falzone.
Vietnamese American students visit 'U'
By Asma Rafeq
Daily StaffReporter
The idea of going to college always frightened
Grand Rapids City High School student Hanh
Nguyen.
"Everyone always made it seem like college was
this big monster," said Nguyen, a high school junior.
When Nguyen and about 30 other high school
students visited the University on Saturday for the
Vietnamese Student Association's third annual
Achievement Day, they worried about the unique
situation they faced as Asian Americans.
Nguyen, like many others who visited, called
herself a "boat person," escaping to the United
States from her home in Vietnam after
Communists took over the government there.
Nguyen arrived in this country in 1989 not know-
ing a word of English.
"It was awful," she said of her time at school
while still grasping English.
Some of the other visiting high-schoolers had
been sponsored to come to the United States by
family members or friends, while some were the
children of Asian immigrants.
VSA aimed to break down some of the cultural
barriers facing the students with this weekend's event.
"The idea is to find their strengths, talents and
needs," said Social Work graduate student James
Bui, co-coordinator of the event.
University students, along with students from
Michigan State University and the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, paired up with the
high schoolers, showing them the campus and
answering questions about college concerns.
Many of the students' worries typified those of
any student aspiring to go to college - receiving
financial aid, surviving the admissions process and
deciding whether to go to college at all.
But Khoa Nguyen, program coordinator at the
Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, said
that while test scores and college attendance rates
of Asian Americans in general may be relatively
high, those of the Southeast Asian community in
particular need to be improved.
"They can kind of get lost in the statistics"
Khoa Nguyen said.
He said students like them, many of whom are
underprivileged, must overcome extra problems
because of stereotypes that all Asian Americans
are smart, successful and rich.
"They really have to fight to break out of the
model minority myth," Khoa Nguyen said.
But the high school students, visiting from
about five different schools in Michigan, learned
about the variety of opportunitics available to help
them achieve their goals.
The activities for the day included a talk by an
admissions representative and a mock trial pre-
sented by the Asian Pacific American Law
Students Association.
"I learned that college is not really that hard a
thing to accomplish," said Ming Xu, a first-year
student at East Kentwood High School near Grand
Rapids.
Hanh Nguyen said she hoped more people could
have the experience she had on Saturday. She said
she feels fortunate to live in the United States
where she can pursue her dreams.
"There are so many people who don't take
advantage of the freedom here - being lazy or not
trying," she said. "If they actually open their eyes,
their opportunities are unlimited."
Starting to feel a lot like Christmas
Students celebrate
Latino/a Greek Week
By Michael Grass
Daily Staff Reporter
With the conclusion of the first ever Latino/a
Greek Week today, the Latino/a community on cam-
pus marks a milestone for its growing organizations.
"This was an opportunity to demonstrate that
we are committed to the unity of our (Latino/a)
community," said Lambda Theta Phi member
Cesar Orozco, an LSA junior.
The Latino/a Greek community on campus con-
sists of the Delta Tau Lambda sorority and the
Lambda Theta Phi and Sigma Lambda Beta frater-
nities.
Last week, the groups collected canned food and
clothing in University residence halls. Those efforts
benefited SAFE House and the S.O.S. Crisis Center.
Proceeds from a walk-a-thon held at Palmer
Field on Thursday went to the Red Cross
Emergency Relief fund, which will be used to aid
Hurricane Mitch relief efforts. The storm hit
Honduras in early November, causing damage and
killing more than 10,000 people throughout
Central America.
About 10 people participated, each walking
about five miles around the Palmer Field track,
said Delta Tau Lambda sorority member Madeline
Calderon, an LSA senior.
Friday, members from the fraternities and soror-
ity collected food at Busch's Value Land on Green
Road for Food Gatherers.
"The coordinator told us that we had done bet-
ter than any other group," Orozco said.
That night, Latino/a Greek Week activities
moved to the Zap Zone at Briarwood Mall, where
participants played laser tag.
"We had a pretty good turnout ... many from
outside the three (Latino/a Greek) organizations,"
said Delta Tau Lambda member Digna Feliciano,
an LSA junior.
As part of the week, the three Greek organiza-
tions held an informational event Saturday called-
"Campus Day - the Colored Version."
"It was focused in on the Latino and minori-
ty student community," Feliciano said.
Organizers passed out information addressing
financial aid, applications and other topics to the
nearly 40 students who attended, Feliciano said.
Later that day, organizers hosted a Posada, a
Mexican religious tradition that celebrates Mary
and Jesus, Feliciano said.
A Saturday night celebration at the Rackham
Building brought the Latino/a community togeth-
er to promote unity.
"Even though we have different goals ... our
agenda is to help the Latino community on cam-
pus as much as possible," Felicano said. "It really
brought all of us together."
Though there are just three Latino/a Greek
groups on campus, "we are seeing a lot more peo-
ple interested in our organizations," Feliciano said.
AP PHOTO
Michelle Strayhom, of Wayne, Mich., and her 9-month-old daughter Sage, view the polntsetta plants at
the Conservatory on Belle Isle in Detroit on Saturday.
Human rights activist discusses health care ethics
By Sarah Lewis
Daily Staff Reporter
Human rights activist Wendy Orr spoke on the
medical aspects of human rights protection in a
keynote address Friday celebrating the 50th
anniversary of the signing of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
"The Declaration consists of 30 very specific
fundamental human rights,' said family medicine
and epidemiology Prof. Jeffrey Sonis, the celebra-
tion's organizer.
The United Nations adopted the declaration in
1948 as a way to protect every individual's human
rights regardless of factors such as race, gender or
religion.
"It was signed in 1948 as a response to the
atrocities of the Second World War and the
Holocaust in Nazi Germany,' Orr said in an inter-
view Thursday.
Her speech addressed the issues of ethics and
human rights protection in health care, specifical-
ly her own experiences in South Africa, and the
role of educational institutions in exposing stu-
dents to human rights issues:
After graduating from the University of Capetown
Medical School, Orr became a daily witness to
human rights abuses at the prison in which she
worked. Political detainees who had been beatensby
the police did not receive proper medical care, and
Orr said she was the only person who confronted the
problem.
In addition, under the government's apartheid
system, blacksrconstantly were discriminated
against in the area of health care.
But Orr said the constant violations of human
rights-- the "collusion, complicity, and abuse"
_.. were not the worst part.
"Even harder to believe is that health care
workers were, with very few exceptions, silent on
these issues;' she said.
Orr said she brought the abuse cases to South
Africa's Supreme Court and succeeded in stop-
ping the violations at her prison. Although she
called herself the first and only doctor to confront
the human rights problems in South Africa in such
a way, Orr said she can understand the hesitation
of her colleagues.
"I know it was extremely difficult in those
times to take a stand," Orr said. "One felt it was
'me against the apartheid government."'
South African President Nelson Mandela
formed South Africa's TRC to look at past human
rights violations, which included abuses in the
area of health care, Orr said. Mandela appointed
Orr as one of 17 commissioners on the panel in
1995.
"Health professionals must be held accountable
for human rights violations,"eshe said. "There are
no quick-fix solutions. There are no right and
wrong answers," but issues of human rights and
ethics are essential in medical schools, she said.
She said schools do not expose students to their
issues and taking ethical oaths at medical school
graduation ceremonies is not enough.
" I fear the declarations and oaths are an easy
way out;' she said. "We mumble them at gradua-
tion and then forget them ... they should be
revised, reviewed and revisited."
"Health professionals tend to graduate with no
knowledge of how to cope with human rights
issues and ethical dilemmas,' Orr said.
It's easy for people to distract themselves by
being concerned with issues in countries such as
South Africa, she said, while ignoring their own{
problems.
"There's often a tendency to look to other coun-
tries;" she said. "One can start in one's own back-
yard"
Medical third-year students Nelangi Pinto and
Madhavi Dandu, who attended a conference last
year on physician activism with Sonis, agreed:
with many of the points Orr made in her speech,..
about the role of medical schools in human rights
issues and ethics.
"I think they definitely could do a better job,"
Pinto said. "There needs to be more discussion
about what that means in practice."
"It'seasy to just follow orders;' she said.
Dandu also said the curriculum should incorpo-
rate human rights issues more often.
"It's not something we discuss so oftensor learn
how it's relevant to practice every day;' she said.
Officer dies, 2 men questioned
DETROIT (AP) - A police officer
died last night, a day after he and
another officer were shot in an ambush
on their police cars. Two men surren-
dered and a third reportedly was taken
into custody.
Officer Shawn Bandy, died after he
was taken off life support at the
request of his family, a hospital
spokesperson said. The second wound-
ed officer, Lloyd Todd, remained in
critical condition. A third officer was
treated and released.
The attack began late Saturday
while the officers were investigating
the kidnapping of a woman and her
child, an abduction that appeared to be
connected to drugs, police Chief
Benny Napoleon said. I
Three men were in custody. One
man surrendered to police yesterday
afternoon after hearing from relatives
that he was wanted and a second man
surrendered Sunday night. A third man
was taken into custody last night,
WDIV-TV reported. The three were
being held for questioning.
Police did not expect to have war-
rants until today.
Napoleon said police received a call
late Saturday that a young woman and
her child had been kidnapped.
A little later, officers in an
unmarked car saw a van matching the
description of the vehicle used in the
abduction. A patrol car with uniformed
officers helped them try to stop the
van.
During a chase, both police vehicles
were struck by shots fired through the
van's rear window by what appeared to
be a "high-power, assault-type
weapon," Napoleon said.
"The officer in the marked car who
was not injured described the gunfire
as extremely heavy and as the rounds
were striking the car, they were shak-
ing the car," Napoleon said.
The officer also "indicated the fire
was heavy and it was constant,
Napoleon said. "They were basically
ambushed."
Police later found the van aban-
doned nearby, but the weapon had not
been found yesterday.
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What's happening in Ann Arbor today
GROUP MEETiNGS
1 "Arts Matters," Frieze Building,
Room 3540, 764-6304, 7 p.m.
Campus International Center,
Room B510, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
U "The 1999 Honda Odyssey -
Meeting Local Needs Through
Global Teamwork," Sponsored by
U 1998 Winter Commencement
Information, Find it at
www.umich.edu/-gradinfo on the
World Wide Web.
U Northwalk, 763-WALK, Bursley
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