LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 11, 1998 - 3
CRIME
Smelly boxes
found in
custodians' cart
Custodians in the Medical Science
i I building found boxes labeled
"vertebrates" in a custodian's cart
Wednesday evening, Department of
Public Safety reports state.
The Custodian Services supervisor
said he found the two "extremely
smelly" boxes in his custodian's clean-
ing cart. The supervisor said he did not
know if the boxes were a biohazard.
Occupational Safety and
Environmental Health officials
onded to the scene.
thletic equipment
stolen from stadium
An unspecified amount of athletic
equipment was stolen from Ray Fisher
Stadium on Monday afternoon, DPS
repdrts state.
mA icaller reported uniform equipment
misig from the lockerroom of the sta-
m, bit he did not know exactly what
a d been taken. No report was filed.
Entrance button
stolen from Angell
A handicapped entrance button to
the hite Street entrance of Angell Hall
was stolen during the weekend, DPS
reports state.
An Angell Hall custodial supervisor
said one of his employees noticed the
e silver disc, which is used to open
t 1e low-voltage handicap entrance,
missing Monday morning. There are no
su$peets in the case.
Students' painting
creates harsh smell
Students found painting Tuesday
evening in the G.G. Brown Building on
jorth Campus were asked to move to a
erent area, DPS reports state.
Building services staff found the stu-
dents painting in a room in the building.
The staff member said the students were
warned the previous night not to paint in
the room. The students allegedly were
being "very messy" with the paint, which
w4s creating a harsh smell in the area.
DPS officers met with the students
wh'o were advised to move to a differ-
ent Ulcation.
tuspect attempts
to steal hat
A male suspect attempted to shoplift
a hat from the University Hospitals' gift
shop Tuesday afternoon, according to
DPS reports.
Hospital security officers said gift-
shop cameras tape recorded the man
removing a hat from a display rack and
Sting the price tag off the hat before
platcinAg it on his head.
The suspect then proceeded to leave
the store without paying for the hat.
Officers arrested the suspect for retail
fraud "and trespassing. Officers also
found a stolen sweatshirt and sweat
parWS in the man's possession.
Student refuses
to pay for pizza
'"local pizza delivery driver told DPS
officers a subject in Couzens Residence
Hall did not pay for a pizza Tuesday
afternoon, DPS reports state.
The driver said the subject offered
him a S50 bill for the $11.50 pizza
wlerrhe arrived at the residence hall.
-he driver gave the subject the pizza
biredjdnot accept the money because
he sold he needed to return to his office
jget change for the bill.
#Vhen he returned to the residence hall
for payment, no one would answer the
telephone to pay for the order, he said.
Bus shelter
mdow breaks
A window in a North Campus bus
shelter broke accidentally Monday
morning, DPS reports state.
The- window, located on Hubbard
9et near Vera Baits II, apparently
oke from wind damage during a
storm Sunday night.
The winds spread the broken glass
into a nearby parking lot. There was no
sign. of any object that may have struck
the 18-foot six-inch sheet of Plexiglas,
valued at $150.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Jennifer Yachnin.
E-mail message upsets student group
By Jody Simone Kay
For the Daily
An e-mail consisting mostly of a repeated swear
word that was sent last week to the Chinese
Students and Scholars Association has prompted
emotional reactions from members of the group.
, The message, sent from a Hotmail account,
went out in response to an e-mail car advertise-
ment. It included five printed pages of the phrase
"fuck you" and warned the sender "you better stop
using this means as an advertising agency or you'll
be sorry."
The original car advertisement was sent to more
than 30 groups, but CSSA is the only group that
has reported receiving the angry response.
Because the reply was sent only to CSSA, some
members of the group said they feel it unfairly tar-
gets their ethnicity.
"I was very upset because from the message it is
very clear they are targeting our group, the
Chinese," said Jun Cao, an Engineering fourth-
year graduate student.
The e-mail, however, does not mention any eth-
nic groups.
"Just because he didn't use the word
'Chinese' doesn't mean he isn't targeting our
group," Cao said.
The obscene response prompted a flood of
concerned e-mails between CSSA members.
Qiping Zhang, an Information fourth-year stu-
dent, said "My impression is that this is an
intentional response not only just an angry mes-
sage."
But Virginia Rezmierski, a representative
from the information Technology Division,
points out that because the e-mail makes no spe-
cific mention of the group, it does not appear
that it was intended to target CSSA as an ethnic
group. Rather, it was a just an angry reaction to
a mass mailing of an advertisement.
Attempts to contact the sender of the response
via e-mail were unsuccessful.
According to ITD policy, e-mail sent to more
than one or two groups is an inappropriate use of
computing resources. Mei Lu, a communications
graduate student, said that many of the members
of CSSA "are new to this community. We don't
fully know the norms using e-mail."
Qi Ding, a Rackham student on the CSSA e-
mail list, said he didn't see the message as dis-
criminatory at first until he read e-mails from
members of the group who saw the message as tar-
geting the Chinese people.
If the message was just sent to deter e-mail
advertisers, he said, then he doesn't think it should
be classified as discriminatory.
First Amendment rights, Rezmierski said, make
it difficult to regulate e-mail that is sent from an
external source to an internal University e-mail
account.
Cao said many of his colleagues are "ivery angry
about the message because it is not sent from an
account in the University, (and) it cannot be
tracked down."
Rezmierski also said ITD is involved in working
on policy and educational programs to educate the
University on the proper uses of telnet.
Evan Caminker, a visiting law professor from
the University of California at Los Angeles, point-
ed out that freedom of speech laws apply to any
form of speech, including electronic mail.
"Messages of speech, even if it might be viewed
as hateful, (are) generally protected by the First
Amendment," Caminker said. "Most statutes
against it have been shot down."
Caminker added that speech cannot be punished
or censored by its content only.
If there is an immediate threat sent to a group or
to an individual, ITD contacts the Department of
Public Safety to investigate. Rezmierski said.
U
curators travel south to
aid in museum clean-up
By Gerard Cohen-vrignaud
Daily Staff Reporter
When Hurricane Georges hit the Carribean with
destructive force in late September, island inhabitants
were not the only ones left without shelter. Much of the
Dominican Republic's natural history and plant collections
were damaged.
As part of the clean-up effort, two University curators
traveled to Santo Domingo to assess the losses accumulated
by the National Botanical Gardens and the National Museum
of Natural History.
Iiigo de la Cerda, assistant curator of the University
Herbarium, witnessed the damage done to the botanical gar-
dens, which lost many exotic species of plants and trees to the
180 to 200 kilometers per hour winds.
While most of the trees in the gardens were uprooted,
many of the collections housed inside of greenhouses, includ-
ing a wide variety of orchids, were saved by being stored
safely before the structures were destroyed.
The Center for Marine Conservation, a private envi-
ronmental protection foundation based in Washington,
D.C., funded de la Cerda and Zoology Prof. Phillip
Myers, associate curator of the Museum of Zoology, as
part of a $50,000 grant to help repair the hurricane's dev-
astation.
"In general, it's important to us to protect biodiversity in
the Carribean," said Michael Smith, director of the Carribean
Biodiversity Program. "When the hurricane hit, it did a lot of
damage to institutions we support."
Most of the Dominican Republic was left without power,
and an estimated 2,000 inhabitants died from flooding. The
storm also transformed the island's appearance.
"Walking along the streets was really devastating," de la
Cerda said. "Santo Domingo is a city with a lot of very old
trees. In terms of economic and social damage, it was terri-
ble."
While de la Cerda visited the botanical gardens, Myers
observed the ravages the storm had wrought on the Museum
of National History, which houses a large research collection
of preserved species.
"Research collections are what is important to support
conservation efforts," Myers said.
In addition to structural damage, the museum suffered
from water cascading down the stairs from the roof and
flooding the basement, where many of the preserved insect
and fish specimens were housed.
With CMC funding, the museum already has rebuilt a
wall that threatened the stability of the building. In addition,
the CMC is shipping basic supplies such as cabinets, alcohol
and jars to preserve specimens.
Another problem the museum and botanical gardens
faced was that many members of their staffs were preoccu-
pied with having lost their homes to the hurricane.
The recent cooperation between the CMC and the
University was not the first time the two organizations
worked together. The CMC currently collaborates with the
University in a joint effort to promote conservation efforts
in Cuba.
DANA LINNANE/Daily
Shirley Stuve, an advocate of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, spoke out In
support of human rights activism In the Diag yesterday.
Human rights
advocates speak
on the Diag
SURF THE DAILY AT
http:I/wwwmichigandaily.cor
S I
BEFoxu3You Go PI
Go Haim.
* Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League led
the rally yesterday
By Adam Cohen
Daily Staff Reporter
Set against a clear blue sky, the
American flag waved in the cool
December breeze by the Harlan
Hatcher Graduate Library yesterday.
Beginning at about noon on the
steps of the Grad, several human
rights activists spoke to passersby
and a crowd of about 30.
"Did I ever think this would hap-
pen to little old me?" asked Shirley
Stuve, an advocate of the Alliance
for the Mentally I. "Well, it can
happen to you too."
On a megaphone, Stuve spoke of
the inhumane treatment some men-
tally ill people receive in prison,
including her son.
"I couldn't W*lieve this happened
- not in my United States!" Stuve
exclaimed.
The student group Revolutionary
Anti-Imperialist League organized
yesterday's Fight for Human Rights
Rally.
RAIL member and LSA senior
Corey Fielder encouraged listeners
to get involved with human rights
issues, speaking on such issues as
prisoner rights.
"We want to raise awareness of
continued U.S. human rights vio-
lations in this country and
throughout the world despite the
fact that the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
marked its 50th anniversary" yes-
terday, Fielder said.
University alumnus Jamie Ballew
stressed current problems related to
police involvement with substance
abusers.
"We need health education on a
massive scale," Ballew said. "Drug
use should be a health issue, not a
criminal issue"
Some listeners held up posters to
voice their message.
LSA first-year student Jami
Spamer's poster read, "Each month:
U.S. sanctions kill at least 7,000
Iraqi children under 5."
Another poster read, "Prisoner
rights are human rights"
American Friends Service
Committee member Charlie Grose
concluded his speech on prisoner
rights by quoting Nelson Mandela,
"Prison is designed to break one's
spirit."
Other topics of the rally includ-
ed U.S. militarization in the
Philippines and the School of
Americas in Georgia. Amnesty
International members addressed
their Human Rights for All cam-
paign and the problems with the
death penalty in the United
States.
RAIL will be holding informa-
tion sessions next week. They can
be contacted at railaa@mim.org.
I4{L CLLLIL>;
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
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