LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 30, 1999 - 3 RIME urder suspect -scapes from oup home A subject with an outstanding war- at for second degree murder signed utaof a group home in Beverly Hills, ich., on Thursday with his mother, scaped.her supervision and ended up t Oniversity Hospitals, Department of ublic Safety reports state. .The Beverly Hills Police Department ontacted DPS officials with a report f a 19-year-old subject who had left 1 ome and was reported as missing. subject's mother returned to the soap home without her son, but said he had found him and taken him to her ister's home in Dearborn. The mother said her son had fallen nd sufered unspecified injuries earli- r in ut on lookout for the subject. remonial pipe tolen from Crisler 4 ceremonial smoking pipe was tolen from Wapashaw Trading Company on Sunday in Crisler Arena, ccording to DPS reports. A yxepdor at the 27th Annual "Dance or Mther Earth" Ann Arbor Pow ow. n Crisler arena stated that a sub- evalked off with the pipe, valued at 1T, but did not pay for the item. The subject stole the item after he as delined the use of his credit card ue to. a hold on it by the credit card ompny, DPS reports state. The suspect was described as a male n his early 20s. DPS officials plan to find the man based on the name listed rithe credit card. A bulletin board was set on fire yes- 'e in West Quad Residence Hall, acd ing to DPS reports. Bulletin boards et on fire in Residence Hall DPt, officers were dispatched and xtinguished the fire. Ann Arbor Fire epartment officials were contacted, bQt heeded. 71e officers found two more bulletin board fires on the first floor Michigan House stairwell and second floor Cambridge House stairwell. There are no suspects in the inci- dents. A report was filed. Pager stolen from Kellogg Eye Center A pager was stolen from a man's lost b at the Kellogg Eye Center on T sday, DPS reports state. The man stated that he last saw his briefcase Wednesday. When he returned forJ i efcase it was missing. tisetriefcase was given to the front des gaff of the center Thursday by a sub.Ct whom staff members described as ahZneless person. The stolen Motorola pager is valued at $65." abbit found stuck in well A rabbit was found trapped in an open well at the northwest corner of the Law Library on Sunday, DPS reports state. University pest management was contacted by DPS officials and responded to the situation. There was no cover on the hole and it needed to be replaced, according to Dreports. Thesabbit managed to escape before pest management arrived to free it. University maintenance was advised about the open hole and workers cov- ered the gap with loose cement as a temporary fix. - Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Avram S. Turkel. California admissions plan stirs debate By Nika Schulte Daily Staff Reporter Although a recent plan approved by the University of California Board of Regents makes application to a school in the University of California system less worrisome for top students, some students and regents say they do not find the plan to be as promising as they had expected. The plan, which was pushed by California Gov. Gray Davis in an attempt to make more students eli- gible for admission to the university system, guaran- tees the top 4 percent of California high school stu- dents admission to one of UC's eight campuses. ' The modification marks the first change in the admissions process since the 1995 resolution ban- ning the use of race and gender in hiring and admissions within the UC system. The change is expected to affect the incoming class of 2001. While the plan promises to reward student excellence - regardless of their schools' resources - many are not receiving it favorably. "I am happy they are making strides to address the inequality in education, but I question their motives," said Josh Diosomito, a senator for the Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley. Diosomito said his reluctance to accept the plan stems from the first version presented to the student government, which stated the plan would increase diversity in the California sys- tem. But Diosomito said the version passed by the regents doesn't account for diversity in the same manner. "Now it seems the plan will increase geograph- ic diversity," Diosomito said. Some California regents have also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the plan. "I don't think it will do so much good," Regent Stephen Nakashima said. "The people that are the top 4 percent are the ones that would qualify anyway." But Chuck Mc Fadden, spokesperson for the system-wide administration in the office of the UC president, said it will put California high school students on a "level playing field." "We believe it will give additional opportunity to the rural and inner high schools," McFadden said, adding that often these schools do not have resources such as Advanced Placement courses. Nakashima said he is concerned the plan is sim- ply accommodating the root of the problem instead of directly addressing it. "I would rather see the regents work on other projects such as encouraging high schools to improve their Advanced Placement programs," Nakashima said. Critics of the plan are also concerned with the increase in financial need the plan could create. But McFadden believes such worries are not necessary. "It is true that the students who will receive an added opportunity by virtue of the 4 percent plan are probably students that don't come from the economically advantaged of the state," McFadden said. "But there are plenty of opportu- nities through work study and scholarship" that would alleviate any problems. McFadden said he is more worried about the public's understanding of the proposal. "The most common misconception is that stu- dents who take basket weaving and get A's and rank thereby in the top 4 percent will be entitled to a slot at the University" he said. "If you take the prescribed college preparation course and achieve grades that put you in the top 4 percent, you will have a slot at UC;' McFadden said. Slaunches po gauging student rugcohol use , By Avram S. Turkel Daily Staff Reporter The University began conducting a survey yesterday to study student use of and opinions on alcohol, tobacco and various drugs. School of Nursing Prof. Carol Boyd and assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs Sean McCabe are heading the "Student Life Survey," which is intended to be a confidential look at the habits of the University stu- dent body. "Our goal is to have a better under- standing of the social behavior of stu- dents and their beliefs about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs," Boyd said. Three-thousand graduate and under- graduate students will be randomly selected to participate in the study. Selected students are notified through an e-mail campaign, asking participants to respond as promptly as possible. The new survey is an extension of a smaller survey taken in 1993 which found that University students were responsible drinkers, and that many students did not consume any alcohol. "We felt that we needed to replicate the (past) survey to find out if any- thing has changed," Boyd said. The final data from the survey, McCabe said, will be used by various student and University organizations who track student lifestyle trends. He added that the study seeks .to "understand and anticipate changes in the freauencv, duration and aality of tobacco, alcohol and other drug use on campus. "The survey will identify students' current norms and attitudes about alco- hol, tobacco and other drugs on campus and disseminate accurate information about the drug, tobacco and alcohol use on campus," McCabe said. University spokesperson Julie Peterson said another goal of the sur- vey is to evaluate programs imple- mented following the first survey. The survey is being conducted "to get a general sense of whether our efforts have made any improvements," Peterson said. KELLY MCKINNELL/Daify School of Nursing Prof. Carol Boyd asks LSA sophomore Zach Papper to participate in a University-sponsored survey on alcohol and drug use among students. Boyd and others involved said they hope to get 3,000 students to respond. Carolyn Holmes, who works for the independent research firm Market Strategies, will serve as the director of the survey. Market Strategies will oversee the survey to secure its integrity, and to ensure the confidentiality of those stu- dents who choose to participate, Holmes said. Organizers said any records con- taining the names of participating stu- dents will be destroyed after the study has been completed. The survey takes about 30 minutes to complete. In an attempt to increase participation in the survey, partici- pants will be eligible for a $100 draw- ing, tickets to University athletic events and coupons for local eateries and other local businesses, survey officials said. Bollinger debates type ofwage for sweatshop labor By Nick Faizone Daily Staff Reporter University President Lee Bollinger brought the issue of whether to use the term human rights wage or living wage in the debate on sweatshop labor practices to yesterday's Senate Advisory Committee for University Affairs meeting, explaining why he and other University officials prefer the term human rights wage. To placate members of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality and others who oppose sweatshop labor practices, the University recently approved a set of anti-sweatshop policy provisions. But in this policy, applicable to collegiate apparel manufacturers, University President Lee Bollinger said the University has decided not to use the term living wage, requesting instead that companies such as Nike provide their employees with a human rights wage. "I'm uncomfortable with the term living wage," Bollinger told the members of the faculty governance board. "It can be interpreted in so many different ways - from a minimum wage to double the minimum wage or more." Bollinger added that he believed a human rights wage should not cover more than minimum wage since the University is not in the business of redistributing money from one economic class to another. He said that while he would be out- raged if University-sponsored collegiate apparel manufacturers did not pay their workers at all, he does not believe it is the University's job to institute a universal minimum wage. Biology Prof. Lewis Kleinsmith, who is scheduled to become the vice chair of SACUA on May 1, asked Bollinger if a human rights wage would be more diffi- cult to define than a living wage. Kleinsmith also questioned the definition of the former term, wondering if a worker could actually survive on a human rights wage. Bollinger said the University has not yet determined the criteria for the human rights wage, although it has formed a committee with this as its objective. He added that he hoped the new term would be far less ambiguous than living wage, a phrase with multiple definitions. But Social Work Prof. Sherrie Kossoudji said human rights wage could be just as dangerous a term as living wage, suggesting the University employ a human rights package instead. Kossoudji said this package could include the assurance of safe working conditions as well as fair compensation to foreign laborers. Bollinger said this was a valid concern, but explained that the University already refuses to do business with companies that do not offer their workers adequate working conditions. "There exist some forms of behavior that violate all forms of human treatment," Bollinger said. To those companies that employ these techniques, "the University says we don't want to have anything to do with your organization here." CHECK OUT THE DAILY ONLINE AT www.michigandaily. com 1LkC~LLND L z G Yu~ What's happening in Ann Arbor today Palestine Catastrophe Weekdays 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. Committee. Angell Hall, Q Safewalk, 936-1000, Shapiro Library is rI ;