LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 27, 1996 -3
0 CRIME
Martha Cook
resident tries
to overdose
A resident of Martha Cook
esidence Hall attempted to overdose
on.sleeping pills early yesterday morn-
ing,,according to Department of Public
Safety reports.
The female resident ingested about
eight Tylenol with codeine pills before
she began feeling ill, the woman's
roommate told DPS officials. The
caller said her roommate recently had
been depressed. The victim was taken
to University -Hospitals' emergency
Pm.
umpkin destroyed
at Northwood
residence
A Northwood resident found a
.destroyed pumpkin Sunday evening,
DPS reports state.
DPS officials do not know how
*any suspects attacked the pumpkin,
which residents found in pieces on their
porch. The resident did not file a
report, but DPS officers increased
patrol in the area for the remainder of
the evening.
Library window
-shatters for no
apparent reason
A window in the Smith Law Library
-shattered Friday afternoon, according
to:DPS reports.
,Library staff said the large win-
1dow "shattered for no apparent rea-
son."
Building maintepance was con-
tacted and DPS reports state the
window shattered due to stress. The
window is valued at approximately
1,100.
Iartha Cook
resident injured
by bicycle
A female student was struck by a
bicycle Friday afternoon in front of
Martha Cook Residence Hall, DPS
reports state.
The resident was knocked down by
bicycle but did not need emer-
ency medical attention, residence
hall staff told DPS officials.
:.The victim, cradling her hand and
crying, was taken to University
Hospitals emergency room.
Student tosses
water balloons
Srm Mo-Jo roof
Several people tossing water bal-
loons Thursday night from the roof of
-Mosher-Jordan Residence Hall were
asked to cease their activity, DPS
reports state.
DPS housing officials found the sus-
pects throwing water balloons from the
.building and striking cars traveling on
Qbservatory Drive.
A.Housing officer requested a DPS
Afficer report to the scene to deter fur-
r water balloon attacks. No vehi-
cles were damaged during the inci-
dent,
North Campus
vending machine
ya ndalized
Suspects broke into a vending
achine near the North Campus
mmons bookstore Thursday, DPS
reports state.
A custodian in the building
reported to DPS officers that the
vending machine had been tampered
with:
According to DPS reports, the
suspects used a tool to cut the metal
ring connecting the lock to the vend-
ing machine, allowing them access
to the coin box inside.
'o other machines in the area
re damaged. DPS officials
retrieved $5 in quarters but could not
locate witnesses to the incident.
- Complied by Daily Staff Reporter
Jennifer Yachnin.
Prof.
defends
fossil
dating
By Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud
Daily Staff Reporter
When railroad construction
crews cleared away rock in
Atapuerca, Spain, about 100
years ago, they unearthed a trea-
sure trove for archeologists,
anthropologists and geologists.
Under the layers of sediment
and rocks lay dozens of hominid
skeletons and man-made tools,
many of which dated back hun-
dreds of thousands of years.
Just how many hundreds of
thousands of years remained for
future scientists to determine.
Three years ago, geological
sciences Prof. Josep Pares report-
ed the age of the hominid fossils
in the journal Science. The
remains, he contended, were
780,000 years old.
At a meeting of the Geological
Society of America today, Pares
is scheduled to address the criti-
cism aimed at his work.
Up to that point, the oldest
recorded hominid fossil in
Western Europe established the
presence of human ancestors
500,000 years ago.
Ancient fossils like the ones in
Atapuerca do not leave many
options for scientists concerned
with fossil age.
Pares used paleomagnetic dat-
ing, a method that examines the
Earth's magnetic shifts, to esti-
mate dates. The orientation of
grains in the rocks determines
their age.
The last major magnetic shift
occurred 780,000 years ago.
"In these particular sediments,
this is the only way to measure
the date," Pares said.
Other methods of dating fossils
such Carbon 14 or uranium-thori-
um could not be used because the
samples were so old.
Paleomagnetic dating has an
SACUA to review
evaluation system
By Paul Berg
Daily StaffTReporter
University President Lee Bollinger
discussed concerns surrounding fac-
ulty evaluations of executive officers,
chairs and deans at yesterday's Senate
Advisory Committee on University
Affairs meeting.
Bollinger and the faculty's execu-
tive governing body talked extensive-
ly about ways to improve a process
that has not been used since October
1995.
"At that time I was a dean, and I did
not think this was a very effective
way of dealing with the issues of
trust, communication and directions,"
said Bollinger, who served as dean of
the Law School. "It created a sense of
antagonism."
But now,
Boll in g er
said, he "We're op
en courage s
faculty evalu- 0Valuation
ations of
University form it tak
officials.
"I would
not oppose an
ongoing sys-
tem of evaluations. I'm not going to
make any objections," he said. "We're
open to evaluation, whatever form it
takes."
Sociology Prof. Don Deskins, a
SACUA member, said the evaluation
process needs to exhibit "paral-
lelism."
"It should run both ways," Deskins
said. "Evaluations of faculty have
moved from a helpful device to a
basis for decisions."
Deskins also said the evaluations
need to be given to officers' superi-
ors, making the process comparable
to the evaluations of faculty and giv-
ing the reports a purpose.
"If faculty feel the administration
must be evaluated to even the field,
then let's do it," Bollinger said. "The
question is how."
SACUA and Bollinger agreed the
Academic Affairs Advisory
Committee would be a good coordi-
nating body for the process, citing the
three-year terms of the members and
their subsequent familiarity with
University officials.
"There is no question that SACUA
or Senate Assembly can help establish
a
,
a process, but it must come from
other faculty units," said pharmacolo-
gy Prof. William Ensminger, the
SACUA chair.
The frequency of evaluations also
came under consideration. Options
include issuing a report at the mid-
point of a dean or chair's term or-as
the term concludes.
The distinction between evaluating
deans and executive officers will
prove to be another obstacle.
Bollinger, although supportive,
voiced reservations.
"We have to worry about turning
the University into a constant polling
atmosphere," Bollinger said. "You
don't ask all of your closest friends
for a yearly evaluation. We must be
careful not to let this move towards
bureaucrati-
zation.
a to "My basic
principle is
whafeVer to make the
research and
1, .teaching
- Lee Bollinger environment
University President so good that
nobody
leaves for a
better one," he said. "There are cer-
tain University disciplines that need
improvement."
Director of Human Resources
Jackie McClain also talked with
SACUA, addressing the need for a
revitalization of the faculty ombuds
program.
The job of the Faculty Ombuds
Office essentially is to handle griev-
ances and to communicate between
the faculty and the administration.
"The current system allows each
school to decide the method of
ombuds selection," McClain said. "Is
there a desire to keep this flexibility,
or should we impose a uniform struc-
ture?"
McClain also stressed the need to
get the program running smoothly
and keep it that way, offering annual
training in conflict management as
one support initiative.
"We need to do more than get this
set up, but to maintain this program in
the future," McClain said.
McClain asked SACUA to find up
to four faculty members interested in
joining a committee regarding faculty
ombuds development.
Courtesy of Josep Pares
Geological sciences Prof. Josep Pares looks for hominid remains at an
archeological site In Atapuerco, Spain, this year.
accuracy of plus or minus 10,000
years.
Some scientists have argued
that many unknown magnetic
shifts have occurred since the last
major recorded one, said
Lawrence Straus, a professor of
anthropology at the University of
New Mexico.
That would mean the orienta-
tion of the grains could be a
result of a more recent magnetic
shift.
"They argue the paleomagnetic
reversal record is not complete,"
Straus said.
The fossil date matters to
anthropologists because it estab-
lishes the earliest time period at
which human ancestors might
have reached Europe.
Most scientists believe human
ancestry originated in Africa,
Straus said, but exactly when the
migration to Europe occurred is
debatable.
"It now makes human migra-
tion from Africa one million
years ago much more likely,"
Straus said. "The real question to
me is whether they got there by
the Straits of Gibraltar or all the
way around through Israel."
Pares and his group contend
the hominid remains found in
Atapuerca contain enough differ-
ences to be labeled a new species.
"We were defining a new
human species," Pares said.
But Straus cautions against
creating a new species based on
the few fossils from Atapuerca.
"It's always dangerous to name
a new species when you have
fragments that are pretty scrap-
py," Straus said.
Scholar discusses
politics of peace
process in Mideast
U U
By Kelly O'Connor
Daily Staff Reporter
Despite continuing violence between
Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle
East, people of both ethnic groups gath-
ered in an Angell Hall auditorium last
night for a lecture and discussion on a
topic that divided them.
Marc Ellis, a scholar and author of
nine books on the subject of the
Jewish/Palestinian conflict, spoke for a
short time and then opened the floor to
audience comments and questions.
Ellis said he supports the idea of a com-
bined Israeli and Palestinian "civil
state," which would be characterized by
citizenship rather than race or ethnicity.
"I believe more Jews will realize that
linking with Palestinians is not only just
and right, but a possibility for the future
of Jews," Ellis said in his speech.
When challenged with a question on
the reality of Jews and Palestinians
being able to live together peacefully,
Ellis followed quickly with a remark on
Jewish history.
"If Jews can live with Christians after
the Holocaust, can't Jews live with
Palestinians?" he asked listeners.
Much of the discussion focused on
whether a combined state for
Palestinians and Israelis or two separate
governments will be beneficial to both
ethnic groups.
Many participants said the formation
of a combined state is wishful thinking.
"It is not realistic within the next 20
to 50 years," LSA first-year student
Paul Saba said. "If it did occur, it would
be the ideal situation."
Most students said they support
peace-promoting action.
"It is important for Israel to do what-
ever it can to stop Jewish blood from
being spilled," LSA sophomore Joshua
Livingstone said. "Israel also has an
obligation to protect whatever citizens
are living in their country -- whether
they are Jewish or Arab.
"However, terrorists are not killing
Palestinians," Livingstone said. "There
are no bombs in Palestinian neighbor-
hoods because there are no Jewish peo-
ple there"
In light of the struggle for compro-
mise between the two ethnic groups, the
prospect of peaceful interaction
between both sides of the issue is a pos-
itive one for all, LSA senior Saladin
Ahmed said. He also said Ellis' speech
was able to get to the heart of issues.
"You hear about the supposed peace
process in the news, but it obviously
isn't working," Ahmed said. "He went
beyond that."
Overall, audience members said they
were pleased with discussion and the
questions which it addressed.
"I thought it went well;' SNRE
senior Deana Rabiah said. "He left
room for a lot of viewpoints - even if
he didn't agree with them. This is one
of the best discussions between Arabs
and Jews that we've had."
0)d
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What's happening in Ann Arbor today
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O Allanza Weekly Meeting, Michigan
Union, Parker Room, 332-6056,
7:3 p.m.
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Buildi ngem 2003. 7:34o m.
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Center for Chinese Studies,
International Institute, Room
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I n f o r m a t i o n,
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