LOCAL/STATE
jHIGHER
]EDUCATION L"
Condoms given
with pizza order
at Rutgers U.
0Adding a new twist to restaurant
freebies, a pizzeria at the Rutgers
University New Brunswick campus is
including one free condom with each
pizza it delivers.
The bonus item serves as a way for
La Nova Italian Kitchen and a local
AIDS foundation to promote Condom
Awareness Month.
Accompanied by literature contain-
ing information about HIV/AIDS pre-
vention as well as hotline numbers, the
ondoms are given only to Rutgers stu-
dents, who comprise about 80 percent
of the restaurants customers.
Owners said following their distribu-
tion of more than 400 condoms, they
have received many positive responses
from students and pizza sales have
increased by 20 percent.
The pizzeria hopes to distribute
more than 2,000 condoms during the
month.
Proposal would
require computers
or Ohio U. students
Ohio University Interim Associate
Provost for Information Technology
Douglas Lawrence presented the Ohio
University board with details of a pro-
posal requiring students entering in the
year 2000 to own personal computers.
W Lawrence contends students need to
own a computer to stop the problemat-
ic long lines at computer labs and pre-
pare for jobs in which computer litera-
cy is a necessity.
An Information Resource Council
ctmprised of faculty and administra-
tors has been created to look into the
cost and benefits of the proposal.
Lawrence said possible ways to
#nplement the plan would be raising
tuition and supplying students with a
computer or maintaining current tuition
rates while letting the students take
responsibility for obtaining a computer.
The proposal will be voted on in April.
Villanova sends
fraternity rush
letters to parents
Administrators at Villanova
University have sent letters to parents
about potential problems associated
with fraternity rush on campus.
The letters were sent to inform par-
ents that three fraternities participating
in the current rush season are not rec-
ognized as chapters because of their
poor standing with Villanova.
University administrators say the let-
rs are intended to warn parents of the
.danger" students may encounter if they
choose to rush these fraternities. Two of
the three addressed fraternities are also
unrecognized by the national chapters.
Although administrators have sent
similar letters in the past, this mailing is
the first in several years.
Student runs for
Florida faculty
ainion president
A University of Florida doctoral stu-
dent is the first student to run for pres-
ident of the United Faculty of Florida.
The union represents the faculty at
10 state universities, eight community
colleges and several other institutions.
Marcus Harvey, the student candi-
date, contends he has more experience
than his opponent - an education pro-
-Ossor at the University of Central
Florida - because he has been chief
negotiator for the Graduate Assistants
United, president of the University of
*FArida's GAU chapter and one of four
UFF vice presidents for bargaining.
Harvey said the position would allow
him to lobby for health care and
stipends for graduate students - a
group that comprises only 5,000 people
of the 14,000 he would be representing
with the presidency title.
* - Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Nika Schulte
Maynard
strcture to
be repai.red
By Kelly O'Connor
Daily Staff Reporter
Customers and employees of Ann Arbor's downtown
shopping district may have one less option in the
scramble for convenient parking as renovations to the
Maynard Street parking structure are scheduled to
begin this spring.
In response to the concerns of Ann Arbor residents,
the Downtown Development Authority hosted an
informational meeting and question-answer session at
the Michigan Theater yesterday.
A handful of people attended, taking advantage of
free popcorn and a chance to learn about the details of
the project.
The 44-year-old structure, which contains 800 parking
spaces, will undergo repairs to salt-damaged concrete and
steel slabs during a five-phase project extending from
March to August. Approximately 135,000 square feet of
concrete will be removed from the structure.
DDA Executive Director Susan Pollay and Mark
Postma of Carl Walker, Inc., a company helping the
city with the project, answered a variety of questions
including where customer and employee parking will
be available when the structure is under construction
and how the DDA plans to inform regular parkers of
Maynard renovation schedule
3 Phase 1: March 8 - April 3
Up to 100 spaces out of service
8 Phase 2: April 4 - May 1
Up to 250 spaces out of service #
* Phase 3: May 2- Aug. 31
Entire structure closed
8 Phase 4: Sept. 1 - Nov. 12
Upto150 spaces out of service
Phase 5: July 24 Aug. 31, 2000
Entire structure may be closed
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 17, 1999 -
House considers
new ethics code
QLOUIb BROWN/Daily
Mark Postma speaks at the Michigan Theater yesterday
during an informational meeting about the Maynard Street
parking structure repairs.
the construction and temporary closing.
Pollay said Maynard Street permit holders will be
able to park free of charge in the Fourth and East
William streets structure once the project begins.
In recent years, the DDA has changed the funding
process to ensure that taxes will not have to be raised
to pay for the renovations.
All money collected from parking fees now remains
specifically earmarked for parking projects. The goal
was to create a parking system that pays for itself,
Pollay said.
"The people using the system are paying for the sys-
tem," she said.
When asked about excessive noise and dust result-
ing from the construction, Postma said attempts will
be made to forewarn merchants and residents of
inconveniences.
"We want to make this happen in a way that makes
a structure that lasts, but also that we get through this
construction period," Postma said.
Although the current problems have existed for
some time, only short-term "band-aid" fixes have
been applied, Pollay said.
The Maynard Street structure project is part of a $30
million dollar plan to renovate all seven of the city's
structures during the next 10 years.
Proposed Government
Ethics Act would prohibit
accepting gifts for duties
LANSING (AP) - A law profes-
sor told a state House committee
yesterday that Michigan should
develop a clearly defined code of
ethics for government officials.
The meeting of the House
Constitutional Law and Ethics
Committee came only days after a
national watchdog group ranked
Michigan last in the strength of its
ethics laws. The Center for Public
Integrity wrote the report.
"I don't think the response to this
report should be that Michigan
should rush out and require a very
full, onerous disclosure on the part
of public officials," Detroit College
of Law Prof. Michael Lawrence told
the committee.
But Lawrence said Michigan laws
are inadequate. For example, state
lawmakers don't have to disclose
conflicts of interest when casting
votes. The state also doesn't have
any penalties for ethics violations.
Lawrence said he spent a year
studying disclosure laws in other
states and crafting a recommended
ethics code for Michigan. The
Michigan Law Revision
Commission, a nonpartisan state
group, worked with Lawrence.
Lawrence's proposed Government
Ethics Act would include specific
prohibitions against receiving gifts
in exchange for official duties. The
code also would require legislators
to excuse themselves from votes if
they have a conflict of interest.
The act would also establish an
ethics board appointed by the gover-
nor to review complaints and exam-
ine lawmakers' conflict disclosur
statements.
Lawrence said such a code wouk
put Michigan in the middle of state:
in terms of state ethics codes. State:
at the top of the list generally have
strict financial disclosures -- some-
thing Lawrence doesn't recommenc
because he said it requires excessiv
bureaucracy.
"We need to approach the idea of r
code of ethics from the standpoin
that public officials would have
nothing to fear from a code of
ethics," he said.
Local governments and officials it
towns of less than 25,000 would be
able to opt out of the code as long as
they developed ethics laws meeting
state standards, Lawrence said.
Richard McLellan, chair of the
Michigan Law Revision
Commission, said his group will
examine Lawrence's report and
decide whether to endorse it.
McLellan praised the vigilance of
former Attorney General Frank
Kelley for keeping ethics violations
to a minimum in Michigan.
"Michigan is an extra-clean state,"
he said.
House Constitutional Law and
Ethics Committee chair Mike Bishop
(R-Rochester) said the proposed act
would be a priority for his committee,
"It's too bad that we've come to
the point where we have to legislate
common sense. Someone who's run-
ning for office knows what's right
and wrong," he said. "If we had more
comprehensive laws on record that
we can follow, we'll be better off in
the future."
I
IU
officials discuss
Chillin' in the warm weather
sweatshop labor
By Jason Stoffer
Daily Staff Reporter
Students Organizing for Labor and
Economic Equity, a student group that
is part of a nationwide movement to
end the production of licensed colle-
giate apparel in overseas sweatshops,
met with University officials yesterday
in an attempt to gain University support
of a code of conduct for overseas appar-
el manufacturers.
The Collegiate Licensing Company,
which oversees the licensing of college
logos to apparel manufacturers for
more than 150 schools including the
University, is in the process of drafting
such a code, but SOLE believes the
proposed draft does not go far enough.
"These companies have a history of
employing labor in countries where
workers have the least power, said
Andy Cornell, a SOLE member. "We
understand these people are dependent
on this work but we want to hold these
companies fully responsible for these
workers' lives"
The group said it wants the University
to advocate an inclusion in the code pro-
visions that would stipulate a living
wage for workers, and public disclosure
of the factory locations and addresses of
manufacturers and subcontractors.
University consultant Keith Molin
said the University has not taken a posi-
tion on whether the current draft code is
too weak, and would not comment on
SOLE's demands.
"We've been involved in the drafting
of that code and have been doing so
with other institutions, the Department
of Labor and apparel manufacturers,"
said Molin, a former senior associate
athletic director at the University. "Our
efforts are directed at creating oversight
and monitoring for manufacturing
facilities overseas."
For SOLE members, the University's
actions can be summed up in one word
- frustration.
"We've been talking to the University
since September, and while we appreci-
ate their willingness to meet with us, they
haven't even come up with an internal
process that determines who will decide
yes or no on our demands," Cornell said.
Cornell said he is not yet sure
whether SOLE members would con-
duct a sit-in to force the University to
capitulate to the group's demands.
Georgetown University, Duke
University and the University of
Wisconsin at Madison adopted propos-
als similar to SOLE's after high- profile
student sit-ins.
"We're not ruling it out as a possible
course of action," Cornell said.
While it is hard to dispute that sweat-
shops are undesirable, some econo-
mists think groups like SOLE are
approaching the issue from the wrong
perspective.
Business Prof. Gunter Dufey said
regulating sweatshop conditions is not
likely to be successful and may do more
harm than good.
"The people who pursue these objec-
tives have no idea what is going on in
these countries," said Dufey, an expert
on international business and finance.
"This is largely to satisfy someone's
political correctness and compensate
for their guilty feelings."
Dufey said higher wages in third world
nations may cause some workers to lose
their jobs and could raise apparel prices.
"With their well-intentioned objec-
tives, the protesters are making the sit-
uation worse," Dufey said. "The way to
get their demands is to show these
countries (where the sweatshops are
located) the benefits of a social and
economic system where equal rights
are protected."
LSA sophomore Julie Fry, a SOLE
member, said she doubts a living wage
provision will affect employment.
"These companies are making gross
profits and it wouldn't cost them much
more to pay their workers a living
wage" Fry said. "Workers have the
right to make enough money for rent,
food, dwelling and transportation."
SOLE members said they will bring
their concerns to the University Board
of Regents during the public comments
portion of the meeting tomorrow.
LSA first-year student Scott Burk, LSA sophomore Lindsay Spolan and LSA first-year students Tracy Bortnick and Dana
Kukes sit near the Diag yesterday on an unusually warm February day. Temperatures yesterday afternoon neared 50 in
Ann Arbor.
I hat'sQALeNL All
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
GROUP MEETINGS
U Peace Corp General Information
Meeting, International Center,
Room 9, 7-9 p.m.
Q University Christian Outreach Prayer
Meeting, Michigan League, Room
D, 8:30 p.m.
EVENTS
Lectureship in Manufacturing,
H.H. Dow, Room 1017, 4:30 p.m.
U "'Perspectives on Hatred' Panel
Discussion," sponsored by Social
Work Organizations Collaborative,
School of Education, Schorling
Auditorium, 9-11:30 a.m.
U"Regina Morantz-Sanchez on
'Historical Reflections on the
Figure of the Difficult Woman',"
Soonsored by Michigan Initiative
Auditorium C, 7 p.m.
'SERVICES
O Campus Information Centers, 763-
INFO, info@umich.edu, and
www.umich.edu/-info on the
World Wide Web
C Northwaik, 763-WALK, Bursley
Lobby, 8 p.m.- 1:30 a.m.
.1
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m~w. ~ £ - I