LOCAL/STATE
ema
-CRIME
Suspect attempts
to enter West
quad room
A student in West Quad Residence
Hall awoke to a suspect attempting to
break into his room early Friday morn-
ing, Department of Public Safety
reports state.
The student said he awoke when a
-suspect attempted to enter the room
from an outside window by removing
the window screen. The suspect
escaped and ran toward the State Street
area.
Man harasses
Martha Cook staff
A male suspect harassed Martha
Cook Residence Hall front desk staff
'Thursday evening, according to DPS
reports.
Staff members said the suspect was a
homeless man about 40-50 years old
nd'5 foot 8-inches tall. After the sus-
pect left the Martha Cook building, he
urinated on a bush in front of the
Clements Library. The man was last
seen walking in the direction of the
Shapiro Undergraduate Library.
DPS recovers
stolen speakers
DPS officers arrested two suspects
Friday morning for the theft of speak-
rs°from Don Canham Natatorium,
DPS reports state.
The public announcement speakers,
valued at $5,000 to $10,000, were
'missing Friday morning. DPS officers
interviewed a witness to the crime
before taking two suspects into cus-
tody. The officers recovered the stolen
property.
Vandals break
sculptures
Vandals damaged several sculptures
at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens dur-
ing Thanksgiving weekend, DPS
reports state.
Garden staff said several sculptures
on the foot path in the garden were
damaged during the break, but there are
no suspects in the incident. The damage
to the art pieces cannot be estimated
ntil the artists examine the works.
Diag kiosk goes
up in flames
A kiosk located in the Diag may
have been intentionally set on fire
early Saturday morning, DPS reports
state.
The kiosk, located on the north side
of Mason Hall, was engulfed in flames
*round 3:30 a.m., reports state. The
caller who reported the fire did not see
any suspects, but DPS reports list the
incident as arson. DPS officers extin-
guished the fire.
Youths fire BB
gun at vehicles
Three juvenile suspects allegedly
shooting a BB gun at vehicles in the
Church Street Carport were arrested
*riday evening, DPS reports state.
The three male suspects, all
between 15 and 17 years old, were
arrested by DPS officers after a caller
complained of BBs being shot at vehi-
Iles in the parking lot. The pellets
Oamaged several vehicles, and DPS
pfficers seized the gun as evidence.
Thy suspects were released pending
futnier investigation.
student allegedly
destroys book
A student was stopped Friday
evening leaving the Harlan Hatcher
(Graduate Library because he allegedly
destroyed a book, DPS reports state.
A security alarm sounded as the stu-
dent attempted to exit the library, and
library staff stopped him.
The student had a "few pages" in his
ssession that had been torn from a
ok also in his possession. The stu-
dent said a University instructor gave
,him the pages and that they were not
taken from the book.
Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Jennifer Yachnin.
California TAS have
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, December 8, 1998 - 3
'cooling-off penod'
By Sarah Lewis
Daily Staff Reporter
Upon recommendation of California
state legislators and a U.S.
Representative, the University of
California system administration and its
teaching assistant unions agreed
Sunday night to discuss the issue of col-
lective bargaining rights.
"Leaders of our state Legislature pro-
posed to the union and the university
that we have a 45-day cooling-off peri-
od with talks to resolve the recognition
issue within 10 days," said Connie
Razza, a fifth-year graduate student and
spokesperson for UCLA's Student
Association of Graduate Student
Employees-United Auto Workers
Union.
The TAs at eight California campus-
es went on strike Tuesday, Dec. 1, to
earn recognition of tlfeir unions by the
university. Razza said the striking TAs
returned to work yesterday and will
resume their responsibilities as teachers
but may strike again at the end of the
45-day period.
"We're very optimistic that we will
resolve the recognition issue" Razza said.
California administrators have
refused to grant the TAs collective bar-
gaining rights, sticking by a state law
that says the TAs are primarily students
rather than employees.
But U.S. Rep. Harold Berman (D-
Mission Hills), who authored the
Higher Education Employer-Employee
Relations Act when he was a member
of the state Legislature, wrote a letter
Dec. 3 to University of California
President Richard Atkinson claiming
otherwise.
"To suggest that further litigation or
legislative amendments are necessary
ignores our intent in drafting the student
employee provisions of HEERA,"
Berman said in the letter.
UAW spokesperson Frank Joyce said
Berman, along with California state leg-
islators John Burton and Antonio
Villaraigosa, strongly urged the universi-
tv to recognize the unions in their letters
to the president, and then proposed the-
cooling-off period and face-to-face talks
between the unions and administration.
"All have expressed quite strongly in
letters released publicly that in no way
does the California law prevent them
from granting the collective bargaining
right," Joyce said.
The school's administration has not
changed its position, but encourages
continued talks, the Daily Californian
reported.
"We believe that this is a good oppor-
tunity that has occurred on both sides,"
said University of California spokesper-
son Brad Hayward.
"It's particularly unfortunate when a
public university takes on a union-bust-
ing position," he said. But by agreeing
to the talks, he said, the university
already has taken a big step.
Razza also remains optimistic about
the talks, which the unions and univer-
sity administration agreed to try.
She said undergraduate support for
the TAs remains quite strong on cam-
pus, where many classes had to be can-
celed during the strike.
The student government supported
the strike, as did an editorial in the
school newspaper, she said.
The UniversityiWre contributed to
this report.
Jack frosty
Fund-raising at center of
Senate Assembly meeting
By Paul Berg
Daily Staff Reporter
At a Senate Assembly meeting yesterday, Vice President
for Development Susan Feagin stressed the faculty's impor-
tant fund-raising role, and members of the faculty's govern-
ing body discussed a renewal of efforts to advocate tobacco
divestment.
The impression the faculty makes on potential donors,
Feagin said, rather than direct solicitation efforts, is vital to
the fund-raising process.
"It's all about building relationships with the individuals,
corporations and groups that care about what we are doing,"
Feagin said. "These relationships lead to investments in the
University."
While Feagin said endowments are often easier to get for
new programs than for those already in existence, she also
said that establishing faculty contact with contributors can
reverse this phenomenon.
"People will give to make something permanent," she said.
Private contributions are an eminent concern for the
University, given the slim chance of an increase in state fund-
ing above the Consumer Price Index and the rising revenue
advantages enjoyed by rival private institutions.
The University's Campaign for Michigan, the most lucra-
tive public university fundraising drive in the nation's history,
offers some illustrative principles for current efforts, Feagin
said.
The Campaign raised nearly $1.4 billion over five years,
and ended Sept. 30, 1997. Of the $1.1 billion in inmediately
accessible gifts, 51 percent of these funds came from dona-
tions of$ I million or more.
Feagin emphasized these larger gifts and said they will be
vital to current demands for revenue.
Senate Assembly members also questioned the impact of
private fund-raising on state funding, but Feagin said no
precedent exists to cause them worry.
"As I understand it, we have never been put in a situation
where if we raise a lot of money privately, the state reduces
allocations proportionally," Feagin said. "The state gives us
the equivalent of a $6 billion endowment, so I like to look at
them as our biggest donor."
No official fund-raising campaign is planned for the near
future, but Feagin said she hopes money-gathering efforts
will not decline.
"No one has ratcheted down the level of intensity;" Feagin
said.
In examining the University's diverse revenue sources,
concerns surrounding its investment portfolio have long been
an issue for the Senate Assembly.
After a Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs
report on the subject, the assembly began its official push for
the divestment of tobacco stocks from the University's rev-
enue sources on Oct. 27, 1997.
Throughout the course of this semester's faculty gover-
nance meetings, the issue has been raised to multiple admin-
istrators. The responses have involved a demand for student
and alumni support of the initiative.
"You can imagine why the students might have a different
opinion than the faculty," Senate Assembly Chair and phar-
macology Prof. William Esminger said.
In order to move the process forward, Senate Assembly
plans to hold a meeting focusing on divestment in April,
which is expected to include medical experts administra-
tors and student leaders.
Bomb scare interrupts meeting
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
Artist Chris Beuhiman paints a store window downtown yesterday. He comes to
Ann Arbor every year to paint holiday scenes on business windows around the city.
Kevorkianeads to
courtwithne ta
By Kelly O'Connor
Daily Staff Reporter
Ann Arbor Mayor Ingrid Sheldon
interrupted last night's city council
meeting to announce that a bomb threat
was called in to the Ann Arbor Police
Department.
Using a cellular phone, the caller
stated that a bomb was present in a city
or county building. City council meet-
ings are held in City Hall, which was a
possible target for the threat.
Officers planned to perform a compre-
hensive search of the building last night,
said AAPD Lieutenant Ralph Maraquin.
He would not comment on the details
of the call, stating that the matter is
under investigation.
Maraquin said he could not recall the
last time a similar incident occurred,
but threats such as these are not
received often.
After being informed of the call
by an officer, Sheldon notified audi-
ence members that they should feel
free to leave the meeting if they felt
at all uncomfortable with the situa-
tion.
The announcement sent a murmur
through the audience, but no one left
the meeting.
Nothing was recovered in the build-
ingwide search.
DETROIT (AP) - Jack Kevorkian
goes back to court tomorrow with a
phalanx of lawyers behind him and
unmapped legal waters ahead.
The assisted suicide advocate will
not present his own case against murder
and assisted suicide charges stemming
from the videotaped death of a disabled
man. Kevorkian had earlier indicated he
would act as his own attorney.
The case is the first to use Michigan's
law banning assisted suicide, which
went into effect Sept. 1, and that charge
could be one where Kevorkian's legal
team mounts the strongest challenge.
Kevorkian's advisers could try to force
the prosecutors to choose between the
murder charge and the assisted suicide
charge, arguing the death cannot be
both a murder and a suicide.
"Obviously, the defense has a plausi-
ble argument," said Law Prof. Yale
Kamisar, who has studied euthanasia
cases. "It will hinge on how broadly or
narrowly (the judge) interprets this
law"
Oakland County assistant prosecutor
John Skrzynski, who will handle the
case, said he felt certain Kevorkian
would be ordered to stand trial on all
charges.
"We charged both for two different
aspects of what he did," Skrzynski said.
"It started as an assisted suicide and
turned into a murder."
Kevorkian was arraigned two weeks
ago on charges of first-degree murder,
criminal assistance to a suicide and
delivery of a controlled substance in the
Sept. 17 injection death of Thomas
Youk. A tape of Youk's death was seen
by about 15.3 million households on
CBS' "60 Minutes" last month. Youk
suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease.
If convicted of murder, Kevorkian
could face a mandatory life sentence.
The assisted suicide charge carries up
to a five-year sentence; the controlled
substance charge carries up to seven
years in prison.
Kevorkian had said he would repre-
sent himself at trial, breaking his bond
with attorney Geoffrey Fieger. Fieger's
belligerent style helped convince three
juries to find Kevorkian innocent and
so befuddled the judge in a fourth trial
a mistrial was called.
But legal adviser David Gorosh said
Kevorkian would not present his
defense tomorrow. Gorosh said he will
cross-examine the prosecution's wit-
nesses during the preliminary hearing,
and ask the court to let another lawyer,
Lisa Dwyer, assist him. Both are former
public defenders.
Kevorkian also has asked Robert
Sedler, a Wayne State University pro-
fessor of law, and Brad Feldman, a
lawyer who passed the bar a month ago,
to help his case.
When first arraigned, Kevorkian said
he wanted to waive his preliminary
hearing. Gorosh said he and the other
legal advisers told Kevorkian it would
be better to hold the hearing, and
Kevorkian agreed.
Commission suggests pay hike
LANSING (AP) - An independent
commission called yesterday for sharp
pay hikes for Gov. John Engler and the
Michigan Supreme Court, leading
some officials to voice worries that the
Legislature will reject the increases.
"I felt more modest numbers were in
order, said Matthew McLogan of
Grand Rapids, chairperson of the
seven-member State Officers
Compensation Commission.
"I would have been happy to support
a lower number," he said of the com-
mission's decision to give Engler a 9
percent raise in each of the next two
years. McLogan was one of two mem-
bers who voted against the increase.
"I did not receive any justification for
such a large increase;" said
Commissioner Yvonne Blackmond of
Southfield. "I have fear it might be
rejected."
John Truscott, a spokesperson for
Engler, said the governor was surprised
by the recommendation.
"We want to wait and see what the
reasons behind the numbers are"
Truscott said.
The SOCC recommended an 8 per-
cent increase for Supreme Court justices
next year, to be followed by a 4.5 percent
increase in 2000. It recommended small-
er pay boosts for the lieutenant governor
and for state lawmakers.
The SOCC, which is appointed by
the governor, meets every two years. It
issues its pay recommendations after
the year's elections.
The Legislature has until Feb. 1 to
reject - it can't modify - the recom-
mendations, or they take effect automati-
cally. It must act by two-thirds vote in
each chamber, and any such action would
have to be made by the Legislature that
was elected in November and will take
office in January.
Only once - in 1988 - have rec-
ommendations been rejected by the
Legislature. In that case, they were
deemed too generous. When rejected
pay rates remain at their present level.
Two years ago, the commission set
officials' current salary levels. In 1998,
the governor makes $127,300; the lieu-
tenant governor, $93,978; Supreme
Court justices, '$124,770; and legisla-
tors, $53,192.
w
d
liL ' QALLN IAR
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
GRoup MEETINGS
U Cleptomaniacs and Shoplifters
Anonymous, First Baptist Church,
Q "Design Expo '98," Sponsored by
Department of Mechanical
Engineering and Applied
Mechanics, Electrical and
Clhemical Engineering RBuilding.
SERVICES
U Campus information Centers, 763-
INFO, info@umich.edu, and
.11 tai I{/ /1";/441 Mf I - n n h
I