r U I w-IlwcP t tit, News: 76-DAILY Display Ads: 764-0554 Classified Ads: 764.0557 One hundred eight years of editonalfreedom Tuesday November 3, 1998 Regent election could be crucial to lawsuits By Katie Plona Daily Staff Reporter With the University in the thick of a legal bat- tie that has the potential to determine once and for all how affirmative action is used in college admissions, today's vote deciding the partisan makeup of the University's governing board could be crucial. *The University Board of Regents currently swings five seats to three on the Democratic side, as the University defends its use of race in the admissions practices of the Law School and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. Most of the major candidates stopped short of saying whether a different political makeup on the board could alter the University's defense of the lawsuits. If the two Republican candidates, state Rep. Jessie Dalman (R-Holland) and Plymouth busi- nessperson David Brandon, win the seats, the board could face a 4-4 t deadlock on political issues. Brandon, who opposes the use of race-based preferences, said he needs to know more about the law- suits facing the University before he can decide how the University "" should be handling them. /xfMR "I don't think it will be fair for me /A to stand up and say this is what we should be doing," he said. "I'd be asking lots of questions like 'What's the cost of this thing in mom %NM Was PAW 1 z dollars and time?' We need to look at our chances of success." The Center for Individual Rights filed two lawsuits against the University last Q4 fall. The white plaintiffs in each lawsuit claim they were treated Part unfairly in the LSA and Law el. m School admissions practices of-an because race was used as a factor. part Regent Dan Homing (R-Grand " * Haven) said the regents' political Imclwog views about the University's use of fa race in admissions practices will not really affect the defense - at least not until the court decides if the University's policies are unconstitutional. "I would hope that when we can go into a room to deal with issues, it is not difficult," Homing said. Until then, Horning said, he wants to focus on other issues - namely, tuition. "I can do something right now about costs." Horning said. Although many of the candidates said it is too soon to predict how a change in the board's political party composition could affect its feel- ings toward affirmative action, they shared their views about how the University can become more diverse. Democratic regental candidate Kathy White said the University should rethink its philosophy on an admissions process that overemphasizes grade point averages and standardized test scores. "I think diversity's incredibly important," White said. "What my big concern is often we look at grades and standardized test scores as objective factors. I think that premise is a mis- take. "We know standardized test scores are not very good predictors of preference for minority students," White said. "They tend to outperform the (tests') predictions." Dalman said she opposes the University's use of race as an admissions factor, and she wel- comes the lawsuits because they will clarify the laws regarding affirmative action in higher edu- See REGENTS, Page 7 I Mudslides push Mitch's death toll to 7,000 Last chance for votes ! Hurricane triggers mud slides in Central America ihat devastate area CHINANDEGA, Nicaragua (AP) - Overwhelmed by death and chaos, Central American officials yesterday estimated more than 7,000 people died : floods and mud slides triggered by urricane Mitch. As Nicaraguan officials struggled to account for 1,500 people feared buried by a mud slide, Honduran President Carlos Flores Facusse made an emo- tional appeal for international aid and announced he was declaring the equiv- alent of a state of siege to combat loot- ing. "There are corpses everywhere, victims of landslides or of the *ters," the president said in a nationally broadcast speech. "The most conservative calculations of the dead are in the thousands, not in the hundreds." "I ask the international community for human solidarity," he said. The same was true across the bor- der: as many as 1,500 people were buried near this town in northwest 'caragua when the crater lake of the sitas Volcano collapsed, sending a wall of mud and debris onto villages below. "It looked like a line of helicopters flying really low and coming at us. You could see houses, trees, everything being covered," said Ricardo Antonio Garcia, a 23-year-old farmer whose leg was amputated after being crushed in the mudslide. Nicaraguan Vice President Enrique lanos said the slide apparently killed 00 to 1,500 people and that some 600 other people died elsewhere in the country. "We perhaps will never know how many people died," he said. In neighboring Honduras, "more than 5,000 people" probably died, Dimas Alonzo, operations chief for the National Emergency Committee, told a local radio station. He said the ctnumber would never be own. Many parts of Honduras remained cut off almost a week after Mitch bar- reled into the Bay Island of Guanaja with 180 mph winds. The storm pound- ed across the isthmus, dropping up to 25 inches of rain in a six-hour period, before dissipating yesterday in southern Mexico. Flores Facusse said "the floods and landslides erased from the map many villages and households as well as whole neighborhoods of cities." "We have before us a panorama of death, desolation and ruin throughout the national territory," the president said. He announced a "state of exception" suspending constitutional liberties that allows authorities the right to seize property, detain suspects and unlimited searches to help officials fight looting and vandalism.- Virtually all of Honduras suffered flooding, from the lowland marshes on the Atlantic Coast to the moun- tains, hills and plateaus of the interi- or. Floodwaters receded in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa yes- terday, but some residents carried machetes and gurs because of reports that looters with automatic rifles had attacked several houses. All four bridges across the Rio Choluteca, which splits the city of 800,000 people, were damaged and remained out of service yesterday. Many victims have waited days with- out aid. In Chinandega, about 50 miles northwest of the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, Garcia said relatives pulled him from the debris after the mud- slide Friday. He and 40 others were taken to a one- room, hilltop shack overlooking the vil- lage of Rolando Rodriguez. "We thought that help would come but it never did," Garcia said. He said a 3-year-old girl beside him was so badly injured she could not move. "When she asked me for water, I would drink some and give it to her from my mouth." By the time rescuers finally arrived Sunday, three of the injured had died. But the 3-year-old girl sur- vived. Miguel Rostran Laguna, who was in See MITCH, Page 2 Final day proves busy for candidates By Kelly O'Connor and Mike Spahn Daily Staff Reporter Searching for last-minute election securi- ty, candidates worked long and hard in the days leading up to today's election to ensure that their voters would turn out at the polls today. From handshaking to praying to buy- ing time on television, candidates are pulling out all the stops in their final push for office. The hotly contested governor's race has not let up even though EPIC/MRA polls show incumbent Gov. John Engler with a two-to- one lead on challenger Geoffrey Fieger. Engler and Fieger have continued non-stop campaigning, preaching "get out the vote" messages to anyone who will listen. Engler completed a statewide bus tour last week, hit- ting districts that included