it fi A/w athar oday: Mostly cloudy. High 38. Low 27. DOorrow: Partly cloudy. High 35. One hundred nine years of editoral lreedom Monday November 29 1999 Signs may aid bus riders Jeannie Baumann aily Staff Reporter Students, faculty and staff commuting orth Campus to Central Campus ma onger have to sit out in the cold, unaw en the next bus will take them to ed destinations. With a new system, h ation about wait times would be at thei ertips instead. The University Department of Parking ransportation Services, the Michigan Sti ssembly and the University of Micd ngineering Council have looked into i enting dot matrix indicator signs at th tops. The system connects every bus stop to a r station through radio modems. 1 oodshop rovides space for rojects y Robert old aily Stall Reporter Studying the dimensions of a board f wood, Rick Wagner explained how e decided to build a friend a bookshelf o Christmas. ' he's a big book reader. Like me, he doesn't have much furniture of er own," said Wagner, an ngineering sophomore, whose earch for a place to the bookshelf ead him to the University Student oodshop. The facility, nestled in the base- ent of the Student Activities uilding, has been a home to many oodworkers' personal creations for than 20 years. Two University offices - the ffice of Student Affairs and the rts and Programs Office of the ichigan Union - operate the oodshop, which is open to anyone ffiliated with the University. The oodshop prepares newcomers to he site with a mandatory four-hour afety class, explained shop4s facili- y anager's Kurt Vosburgh, so "we W all work shoulder to shoulder ogether under the same set of Iles." The facility houses a vast array of arge scale power tools such as table ws, band saws, lathes and a veneer ress. Instructional books like "Band aw Basics" and "Fine WoodWorking echniques 7," and a wide variety of and-held tools, line the woodshop's ffice. ie woodshop also offers a separate for wood finishing. "I live in a room. It's nice to have the pace," Wagner said, referring to the arge amount of woodshop work space ompared to his home. Vosburgh said woodshop creations ange from musical instruments to :anoes to cigar humidors. "If someone has the desire to make , they would be able to make it here," urgh said. osburgh is assisted by a staff of ight part-time workers, who share heir craftsmanship expertise. "Every ne of the people want to give back to he shop," he said. University alum Anna- Ramsburgh aid she appreciates the wide range :f knowledge the staff members ;ffer. "I borrow these guys for everything," See WOODSHOP, Page 2A modems detect when a bus arrives at a stop and relays that information to every other bus stop as well as the central station. With that infor- mation, electronic signs can indicate when the next bus will arrive. This information would also be available online and accounts for traffic delays and buses that have broken down. "It's a unique system that can provide many benefits," UMEC President Jon Malkovich said. "Students will have an easier time using the bus system and they will be able to tell exactly when the gaps are." Noting that some gaps in services can be up to 40 minutes, he said this system would allow students to plan their time more efficiently. "For example, when Bursley-Baits bus No. 2 arrives at the Power Center stop, a computer at the stop will detect its arrival. Using radio modems, that information will be relayed to all the other stops. The C.C. Little computer would then automatically change an LED screen to say 'Bursley-Baits bus arrives in 1 min. "Malkovich explained in a written state- ment. The Department Parking and Transportation Services Director Pat Cunningham said the system would cost between $100.000 to $200,000. Malkovich said it costs about $2,000 to put a dot matrix sign at a bus stop. MSA President Bram Elias said he hopes the University will provide funding for the system.' "This is the type of project that the University should be providing for students. See BUSES, Page 2A DANA LNNANE1 C A University bus drives to North Campus last night. A new dot matrix system at bus stops would help students who ride the bus estimate arrival times more accurately. Heads up apd Sc cl apps. decline. By Jeremy W. Peters Daily Staff Reporter In an attempt to eradicate the falling rate of minority applicants to the University's Medical School in recent years, school officials have instituted a number of recruitment programs aimed at increasing the school's appeal to under-represented minorities. Katie Home, assistant director of Medical School Admissions, said the number of minority applicants to the University's school has fallen steadily, as have the number of minority medical school applications nationwide. Home said 571 minority students applied in 1997. In 1998, this number decreased to 502. This year, her office received only 478 minority applications - a decrease of 16 percent during the past two years. "We have a problem in medicine to recognize that minority enrollment ... has not been increasing in the last few years. We don't understand why minori- ties are not applying ... and we are very interested in determining why;" Medical School Dean Alan Lichter said. In light of this downward trend, Lichter said he and other school offi- cials have become increasingly con- cerned in making the Medical School more attractive to under-represented minority applicants. "We have been interested in minority enrollment and diversity for many years now because we feel a diverse student body truly enhances the educational experience,"he said. "We recognize that as physicians we take care of a very diverse population, and having physicians that come from different backgrounds is an essential part of patient care," he added. Through a series of minority recruit- ment programs such as Project HOPE - the Health Occupations Partnership in Education - school officials hope to make studying medicine a more attrac- tive option for minorities. Lichter outlined his aims of the recruitment programs. "Our desire is to bring the very best See APPLICANTS, Page 7A DANA INNANE! Daily Business second-year graduate student German Scipioni takes advantage of sunny weather yesterday while practicing with the Michigan Business soccer team. The team plans to go to Texas in February to play in a national tournament. British seek spe1edy IRA respon.se on arms BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP)- On the eve of forming a long-elusive new government for Northern Ireland, Britain's senior official in the province said yesterday that he trusted Sinn Fein leaders to deliver speedy Irish Republican Army disarmament as part of the deal. Four parties, including the IRA- linked Sinn Fein, are expected to nomi- nate candidates today for a 12-member Protestant-Catholic Cabinet, the key objective outlined more than 1 1/2 years ago in the Good Friday peace accord. The breakthrough was made possible by the Ulster Unionists, the province's major British Protestant party, deciding Saturday to drop their demand for IRA disarmament before forming the new administration. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson praised Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, who would lead the Cabinet, for overcoming "hostility and mental aggression" from hard-line Protestant critics. Trimble won 58 per- cent support for the policy change in a vote Saturday by his party's governing council. Mandelson's government plans to transfer substantial powers Thursday to the new Cabinet, reversing 27 years of direct rule by Britain. And Mandelson said he hoped the IRA's promise to open negotiations Thursday with a Belfast-based disarma- ment commission would produce "quick progress" on an issue that has handicapped peacemaking work here for years. Speaking in a British Broadcasting Corp. television interview, Mandelson added that he expected Sinn Fein lead- ers Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness - both reputed former IRA commanders - "to lead the republican movement and ensure that they deliver on their side of the bar- gain." "Whatever you might think about their past, they're people now who are committed to politics, not to violence," said Mandelson. "I don't think they would have asked the IRA, you know, to take part in this if they didn't know what the answer was going to be." Mandelson, who said he thought the IRA would start disarming by January, described Adams and McGuinness as "two forward-looking politicians who ... should be given the benefit of the doubt." But McGuinness, one of Sinn Fein's two candidates expected to receive posts today, warned that Trimble's unexpected setting of a February dead- line for a start to IRA disarmament would make it more difficult to achieve. McGuinness said the Ulster Unionists' "ultimatum and demand "approach "makes our job all the more difficult. "But he did not rule out the possibility of an IRA weapons gesture in January. Trimble won over wavering support- ers and secured his slim majority Saturday by promising to reconvene the Ulster Unionist meeting in February for "a final decision." This meeting would decide whether to withdraw from the Cabinet if the IRA hadn't begun to dis- arm. EMILY LINN/Daily A Sociology 389 class, part of Project Community, set up this box In Angell Hall yesterday to collect art and school supplies for underpriviledged children. Holida drivesneed attention for succless. Jnions, administration clash on trade SEATTLE (AP) - he World Trade rganization, getting eady to stage the largest rade event ever in the ed States, was cked yesterday by the eamsters union presiden reed" ahead of human rig With much riding on th he Clinton administration nvite trade ministers from acific Northwest in hop Teamsters president: WTO PtA greed ahead of human rights t for putting "corporate "This economy is strong ... and it will remain Buchanan den ghts. strong because of the sort of outward view we've agreeing to suppo he outcome of the talks, had about trade, not an inward view," Daley told return for reduce defended its decision to Reform Party presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan in farmers and mane around the world to the a joint appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." that those barriers es of launching a new Critics such as Teamsters head James Hoffa and lars in lost sales e Sunday" the demonstra- tors simply want a "seat at the table" to ensure the WTO stops putting "corporate greed, cor- porate profits, above human rights." ounced the administration for rt China's entry into the WTO in ed Chinese trade barriers. U.S. ufacturers long have complained are costing them billions of dol- ach year. By Jewel Gopwani Daily Stafl Reporter Collection drives on campus are just about as common as preachers on the Diag. And now that the winter holiday season is officially underway, University students can expect to see their fair share of charity drives on the Diag and often empty collection boxes at Angell Hall. Michael Masters, chair of the Michigan Student Assembly's Community Service Commission, said one of the keys to a successful drive is conducting it within one or more estab- lished groups. she is counting on members of both organizations to make the drive a suc- cess. But the clothing drive that the Native American Law Student Association and the Women's Law Student Association held in October could offer a few lessons to groups interested in conduct- ing a successful drive. Colette Routel, a member ofNALSA said the groups collected clothes from Law students and faculty to donate to send to the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Routel said the collection received a large response from stu-