The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 19, 1999 - 7 Clinton plans to veto $12.7 billion foreign aid bill The Vwashington IPOTs WAS INGTON - The White House took a new hard line on spending Sunday, saying President Clinton will veto a S12.7 billion for- eign aid bill yesterday and will refuse to sign ther key spending measures until Republicans ddress his priorities and assure the Social Security surplus is being protected. The foreign aid bill was passed by the Republican-controlled Congress over the strong objections of Democrats, who complained that it contained no money to implement the Wye River Middle East peace accords and under- funds or ignores other Clinton initiatives. Republicans insist they are doing the best they can under tough budget constraints, but that the president is demanding a "blank check" for for- eign aid. With a Thursday deadline looming for Congress and the president to reach agreement on more than a half dozen fiscal 2000 spending bills, White House Chief of Staff John Podesta and economics chief Gene Sperling voiced impatience with the Republicans' refusal to engage in year-end negotiations over education, law enforcement, the environment and other concerns. The officials also charged that Congress was engaging in an unprecedented use of budget accounting "gimmicks" - S46 billion worth by some counts -- to mask the fact the spending bills already are eating into the Social Security- generated surplus, despite assurances to the con- trarv. "So, I think from now on ... the president doesn't intend to sign any bills as we move for- ward in this period, until we know how all this adds up," Podesta said on ABC's "This Week." Still smarting from the Senate's stinging rebuke of the nuclear test ban treaty last week, the administration officials made it clear Sunday they were ready to play hardball over the budget. Sperhng said in an interview that "it's really long past the time (Republicans) got over their fear of being in the same room with us." He insisted that Clinton would not be pulled into a "bill by bill process where at the end of the day you have a budget that doesn't add up." But Sen. Larry Craig, (R-ldaho). a Senate leader, declared on "Fox News Sunday" that "there will not be a budget summit" to resole remaining differences. Instead, Republicans ill insist on completing work on the last four of the 13 spending bills this week and leave it to Clinton to either sign or veto them. A three-week "con- tinuing resolution" to keep the government oper- ating beyond the start of the new fiscal year expire Thursday, but it is certain to be extended because neither side is willing to accept another government shutdown. "It seems they want to get into a budget sum- mit so they can find ways to spend more money," said John Fechery, a spokesperson for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-lll). "The speAker w as hoping the president xouldI take a look at all of these bills and sign them on their menits without getting into -y games. It's unfor- tunate the White House now looks like they want to play games. The Republicans' reluctance to take part in a summit with the administration is understand- able. They were burned politically after White House meetings with Clinton in 1995 that led to two government shutdowns that the public large- lv blamed on them. During meetings between then-House Speaker Newt Gingrih (R-Gj,_ and Podesta last fall, the Republians agreed to spending S21 billion above the legal spending caps, a concession that hurt them with their own conservative base in last fiall's elections. I U.S. supports role for rebels U Secretary of State Madeleine Albright brings U.S. hope for peace to Sierra Leone during West Africa tour he Washington Post Consider a country where 2 million people have been driven from their homes -- twice as many as in Kosovo -and 20,000 are dead after eight years of violence. War criminals abound, They have hacked off limbs in a campaign called "Operation No Living Thing." One victim had his arm amputated, his tongue cut out and his severed hands placed in his pocket. But instead of convening a war crimes tribunal for the lead- crs of this brutal campaign, the United States is backing a peace accord that would put eight of them in the cabinet of the democratically elected government. Instead of sending in arplanes or allied troops, the United States dispatched Jesse ackson to urge the country's president to come to terms with the rebels. The country is Sierra Leone, the second stop on Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's African tour this week. Albright will lend U.S. support to a peace accord forged during the summer that includes an amnesty. Clinton administration officials argue that a deal with the rebels was the fastest and perhaps only practical way to end Language barrier causes concern %P PHOTO U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hugs three-year- old Sierra Leonean amputee Memuna Mansaray during her visit to a camp for the war-wounded yesterday. the fighting. They point to Mozambique and SouR h Africa as countries that achieved reconciliation vwith truth commissions still putting "the spotlight" on atrocities. And they also hold out the possibility of future war crimes investigations, notin the United Nations isn't bound by the accords amnesty agreement. GSI Continued from Page 1 ous subjects, including teaching style. The University mathematics depart- ment has 77 GSIs working this semes- ter and 31 are international students. Kirsten Caftleman. an assistant in the graduate mathematics department, said the department has had problems with students complaining of a language barrier, but since then the department has changed its standards to alleviate these problems. "Before an international student can become a iGSI they must take the Tlest of English as a Foreign Language. Also, if they don't have a degree from an American university thev must go through GSl and English training C'afikeman said. All University departments require non-native English speaking international graduate students to complete training at the English Language Institute prior to being hired as GSIs. After the course. prospective teaching assistants are tested on their language skills and class presentation. To be eligible to become a G~SI, the international stu- dent must score four out of five pos- sible points on the ELI test. Statistics lecturer Kirsten Namesnik, a native of the Netherlands, said the English test involves having an interview with staff from the department vw here they want to work, lecturing to a mock class and holding mock office hours. "The testing looks more at how well you can be understood, and vou are rated by many different people. Therefore, any GSI who is in front of a class has sufficient English skills to be understood." Namesnik said. Chiang said she felt that the training was somewhat demeaning. "1 was required to go through the English training although I've always 4akistan army troops begin withdrawing from Indian border spoken it It was frustrating to sit through lessons that teach you how to Say 1db .' and 'flow are you doing?' when I've always said that. The University doesn't look into peo- ple's backgrounds before saving that they must attend the institute, Chiang) claimed. Sociology GS Gregg (ioldstein said he uniderstands wh students are tns- trated when th Can't understand their (Sts. "Although the ELI does test the nglish skills ofl the student, they can't account for accents. It is often the accent that makes it most difficult to understand what the person is saVmg. Goldstein said. When it comes to English training classes, the University has stricter reqci remnlit s than other iniuio!ns in the nation. George Van Scovoc, assistant exec- utive vice president for academic affairs at Purdue University, said teaching assistants must attend English training if they do not meet certain English standards regarding standardized English test scores and speaking abilit. Training is not required at Michigan State University either. "Students must pass the rigorous E nglish exam in order to become a GSI. Thev can go to English training if they feel it is needed. Regardless. they must pass the English test before they can become a teaching assistant," said Clark Radcliffe, pro- fessor and director of the graduate program of mechanical engineering "I was required to go through the English training although I've always spoken it." - Sylvia chiang International graduate student instructor and Singapore native at MSU. The lUniversity of Michigan also is a little different than other schools because it allows GSIs to lecture to stu- dents. Wing Kam Iin. assoc iate chair of mechan ical engineering at Northwcstern Un: ersitv, sid teach- ing assistants do not lecture at Northwestern, then only help stu- dents in labs, with homework and wxith computei instructions. Although the University of Michigan does allow iSls to lecture, En 'i'h standards require GSIs to be able to speak fluent English. One LSA sophomore student who wished to remain anonymous said she has found that some international GSls seemn to care more than other GSNs about students and they want students to do well, although sometimes the lan- guage barriers do interfere with their teaching ability. "I think thatimv favorite GSI I've had was one that really didn't speak English well at all. Yet he truly cared about his students: he was approach- able, and lie knew the material very well ," she said. Bonnie Campbell, academic ser- vices secretary for the English lan- guage and literature department, said she never has had a student complain to her about not being able to under- stand a GSI because of a language difference. "The only problems that I ever hear about are when students complain about the grade that they received on a paper," Campbell said. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani army troops began pulling back from the Indian border yesterday, almost a week after the military took P ntrol over Pakistan's government and ur months after a bitter border dispute threatened to erupt into full-fledged war. Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who over- threw the democratically elected gov- ernment ofNawaz Sharif, said the rede- ployment was a peaceful gesture toward India. But India responded coolly, sav- ing it had no military significance. In London, meanwhile, Commonwealth foreign ministers sus- pended Pakistan from councils of the association of Britain and its forner colonies. The decision yesterday by the eight ministers was the first formal step toward suspending Pakistan from Commonwealth membership; under the The lorceign nministers called on the military regime in Islamabad to set "without delay" a timeframe for restor- ing democracy. Pakistan army spokesperson Col. Saulat Raza said the withdrawal was only along the 460-mile-long interna- tional border, and did not apply to the cease-fire line in Kashmir, a territorv split between the rival nuclear nations. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir. group's rules, only can do that. the heads of state EXHIBIT *ntinued from Page 1 t self a "second wave modernist." Birkerts said his work relationship with Saarinen from 1951-1956 "influenced my work habits and approach to design which in the mean time I have adapted to my own." Birkerts - who has received more than 25 major design awards--focused his lecture on buildings in which he has made additions and extensions. Birkerts said, "The form has to express the personality of the building. The form is like a face - everyone is different." One of Birkerts designs - a New York fire station - had a personality that set it apart from other fire stptions. It was .fitp-engine red and has a strobe light on it - resembling a real fire truck. Following the lecture was the opening of Balthazar Korab's "Between Earth and Sky" which featured many pictures that Korab had taken of Saarinen's work. "I developed this technique of making realistic images out of crude models," Korab said Korab also worked for Saarinen and has become an inter- nationally known photographer. He has also photographed architecture by Minoru Yamasaki and Frank Lloyd Wright. The walls of the exhibit were lit with black and white pho- tographs of Saarinen's architecture. And alone, standing in the corner was the model of the one legged pedestal chair which he designed between 1955-57. Hanging in the back- ground were Korab's pictures of the original designs for the chair. Saarinen's design for the School of Music was finished in 1964, after his death. Eero's father Eliel was an architect and a professor of architectural design at the University. Eliel Saarinen also designed many buildings at the Cranbrook Institute in Bloomfield Hills. Eero and Eliel Saarinen won gold medals from the American Institute of Architects along with Eero's sister Pipsan Saarinen-Swan son. Swanson's work is currently on display at the Cranbrook Art Museum, Archives Director Mark Coir said. 03 AT TIAA-CREF, LOW EXPENSES ARE A HIGH PRIORITY. EUFLY..... EuDrive..... EuroAir.com Europe! Live iONcam Agent! PUT POSTERS UP ON CAMPUS or get a group and go free to Bahamas, Cancun, Jamaica or Florida for Spring Break! No selling involved. Lowest prices and reputable company make it easy. springbreaktravel.com 1-800-678-6386. SPRING BREAK 2000 The i~lknnium FREE TRIPS AND CASH!!! 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