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One hundred eight years of editorla1freedom

Thursday
October 1, 1998

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Racial


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mcident
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B O'Connor
Daily Staff Reporter
In an incident similar to the racial hate
crimes of the 1950s and '60s, the resi-
dence hail room of a black first-year stu-
dent at Kalamazoo College was
destroyed by fire Monday morning.
School officials suspect arson was the
cause of the fire, and that the motivation
*ns back to an incident that occurred
during summer orientation.
In a letter sent to the parents of
Kalamazoo College students, President
James Jones Jr. said the black student
read an original poem during a poetry
reading last month that stressed the
importance of judging an individual on
the content of their character - not their
skin color.
A letter advocating the elimination of
all non-white students from campus was
&ed on the door of his residence hall
room Sunday.
Eighteen hours later, a fire was dis-
covered in the room of the two students.
Neither the student nor his white room-
mate were present at the time of the fire.
The Kalamazoo fire marshal has classi-
fied the fire's origin as "undetermined."
A school known for a high degree of
diversity and tolerance, Kalamazoo
liege is doing its best to cope with the
Wident, said John Greenhoe, the
school's director of public and media
relations.
"We as a community are definitely
hurting," Greenhoe said. "But the students
have said they will not tolerate this type of
hatred. There is no place for it on our cam-
pus, and they will not stand for it."
Many Kalamazoo College students
said they are feeling the effects of the
episode.
I am deeply disturbed by this,"
amazoo College first-year student
Jacob Metcalf said. "One of the main rea-
sons I came here was I thought everyone
would be comfortable with themselves
and (each other's) ideas. It is startling."
Metcalf said he is also concerned that
the incident will tarnish the school's rep-
utation.
"I want to make sure everyone under-
ds that Kalamazoo College is not a
that harbors racial hatred," he said.
Students have exhibited a strong sense
of support for each other this week,
Greenhoe said.
"Students are really coming together"
See KALAMAZOO, Page 9A

aims to get

out the

vote

Voice Your Vote registers
students on campus

By Mike Spahn
Daily Staff Reporter
Amid the growing pressures of
homework, papers and midterms, it
would be easy for students to forget to
register to vote in November's election,
especially because it does not feature a
highly publicized presidential race.
But one campus group is determined
to get students registered and out to the
polls.
Voice Your Vote, a campus organiza-,
tion sponsored by the national Rock the
Vote campaign, is poised to put on an
all-out push to register students before
Monday's 5 p.m. deadline. Co-founder
Ryan Friedrichs, an LSA senior, said
recent agreements with the Secretary of
State's office and the state Election
Board make registration easier than
ever.
"All day tomorrow in the Diag we
will be registering people," Friedrichs
said. "Just cut out the letter-sized form
in Friday's Michigan Daily, and drop it
by our stand. Or you can just fill it out
there."
In recent months, Voice Your Vote
has paved the way for easier voter reg-
istration. Last spring, students received
a voter registration card with their resi-
dence hall leases, allowing them to reg-
ister in Ann Arbor by filling out the
card and returning it with their lease.
LSA junior Andy Coulouris, the
Michigan Student Assembly external
relations chair and MSA liaison to
Voice Your Vote, said he realizes most
students will not seek out information
on the election. It will have to be
thrown in their face, he said.
"The coolest thing about being a stu-
dent is they make it so ridiculously easy

to register and vote," Coulouris said.
"The process is begging for student
involvement.
"But it's not enough to register stu-
dents. We have to spur them on to vote"
Coulouris said.
Friedrichs added that students should
not need much motivation to vote, con-
sidering some of the races that will be
decided Nov. 3.
"The regents race should be a prima-
ry concern for anyone paying thou-
sands of dollars to go to the University,"
he said. "Student issues are negligible
on the political map with the current
turnout."
Voice Your Vote is not the only group
working to increase turnout for the
election. Turnout '98 is a statewide
organization that will pay college stu-
dents all over the state to recruit voters
on Nov. 2 and 3.
LSA sophomore Matt Fogarty, a
campus representative for the group,
said the organization is funded and was
started by the Michigan Republican
Party, but it will not target only
Republican voters.
"We're not trying to change people's
minds. We're just trying to inform vot-
ers and get them to vote," Fogarty said.
Friedrichs said Voice Your Vote will
also be shifting its focus after this week
from registration to education and
mobilization. The group plans to coor-
dinate debates on campus, gather litera-
ture and use Diag boards to promote
voting.
Friedrichs would not set a goal for
voter turnout this year, though.
"I don't want to do that. I just hope
it's higher than the 20 percent we had in
1994," Friedrichs said.

SWING

oF

rIT"

ANDI MAIO/Daily
ABOVE: LSA student Elizabeth Riga and Engineering student
Brian Maci practice swing dancing yesterday at in the y
Michigan Union's U-Club.
RIGHT: Dance student Tim Smola dips his partner during the
workshop. The Michigan Union Program Board sponsored the
event.


i


Under-age college drinkers targeted

Washington Post
WASHINGTON -
islation that would alk
when students younge
or drug violation, a m
five alcohol-related d
last fall.
The bill, which pa,
and the House on Mc

Congress has approved leg-
ow colleges to notify parents
:r than 21 commit an alcohol
easure sparked by a string of
eaths on Virginia campuses
ssed the Senate on Tuesday
onday, needs only President

Clinton's signature to become law. Clinton said he
jdikely to sign the measure.
iurrent federal law prohibits universities from
disclosing their records on students 18 and older,
and most schools interpreted that to mean that
they could not notify parents about a student's
drug and alcohol use.
A Virginia task force on college drinking, led by
state Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican,
recommended in July that Congress exempt drug
and alcohol records from the privacy requirement.
Advocates of the change argued that many parents
have no idea their children are abusing drugs or

Bill would tell
parents o kids'
alcohol violations
alcohol and thus can't intervene to help them.
Some advocates also said that students might
think twice about such behavior if they knew that
their parents would be told.
Under the measure passed by Congress, col-
leges would be allowed to tell parents not only
about student violations of alcohol and drug laws,
but also about violations of the schools' own rules
against drinking and drug use.
Some privacy advocates criticized the legisla-
tion, saying that it strips young adults of their
rights.
"It's a ridiculous amendment," said David

Banisar, the policy director of the Electronic
Privacy Information Center. "Even drug and alco-
hol violations shouldn't override an adult's right
to privacy. An adult student for better or worse is
still an adult.... This amendment would basically
be turning the university into a babysitter for
them."
But Sen. John W Warner (R-Va.) who sponsored
the amendment at Earley's request, argued that
some restrictions on privacy rights are appropri-
ate.
"I just felt we had to make an exception, as
much as I believe in personal freedom," Warner
said.
"These situations not only jeopardize the health
of the person who consumes too much alcohol, but
that individual in turn can do harm to others. Why
shouldn't a parent be brought in?"
Warner and Earley both said they will encour-
age Virginia's state colleges and universities to
implement the new policy as soon as the bill
becomes law.

Members of the Lambda Phi Epsilon fratemity joke around yesterday in the
fraternity's dining room.
Not all U Greeks
ru~s ntefl

ITiouse panel prepares draft
resolution for Clinton probe

Los Angeles Times
*ASHINGTON -The Republican-
led House Judiciary Committee pre-
pared a draft resolution yesterday to
formally open an impeachment inquiry
of President Clinton that follows the so-
called Watergate model by giving the
White House a crucial role in present-
ing testimony and evidence at any

is the first step toward a full House vote
on whether enough evidence exists for
investigating whether Clinton should be
ousted for allegedly committing perjury
and obstructing justice in attempting to
hide his relationship with former White
House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The proposal includes five key sec-
tions that Democrats on the committee

ment hearings and closed-door sessions
get under way.
Under these provisions, the president
and his counsel would be able to attend
all executive sessions and hearings,
cross-examine witnesses, object to evi-
dence, suggest consideration of addi-
tional evidence, and be allowed to
respond to all evidence presented to the

By Nika Schulte
Daily Staff Reporter
While several fraternities and
sororities at the University have
spent this past week meeting new
faces and learning new names, not
all Greek organizations are using
this time to select members.
Although many of the culturally
based fraternities and sororities on
campus have held meetings to intro-
duce prospective members to the
goals of their group, they will not

sorority or fraternity dictates their
rush from the rules of their national
chapter"said Bryan Cook, an advis-
er for the Black Greek Association.
"Each have their own time for the
intake process. Usually it doesn't
take place until the second semes-
ter," he added.
One of the groups that will not be
accepting members until January, is
Delta Sigma Theta, a black sorority
with 20 members.
"There's not a set time, but we



AP PHOTO I


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