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- rsĀ°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