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One hundred nine years of editonz dfreedom
Wednesday
December 8, 1999
11 !1 U !I IN gg I IN: I IN: III!:
I
staff
member
obbed,
,bbed
Michael ras
aly Staff Reporter
A 35-year-old University staff mem-
er was stabbed multiple times in her
g and had her purse stolen yesterday
orning while walking behind the
ichigan League.
The victim was walking north on a
walk between the Lydia
delssohn Theater and the Alumni
enter toward Fletcher Street sometime
etween 7 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. when the
uspect approached her from behind
nd attacked her.
Department of Public Safety Lt.
'esley Skowron said the woman was
eleased yesterday afternoon from the
niversity Hospitals after treatment for
er injuries. DPS is investigating the
obbery but has no suspects in the inci-
iane Brown, University Facilities
nd Operations spokesperson, said the
uspect took the woman's purse. Brown
vas unsure of the amount of money, the
umber of credit cards and forms of
ersonal identification stolen.
Brown said a passer-by alerted a
acilities security guard of the
njured woman, who apparently had
> n on the ground for several min-
The guard then called DPS
fficers, who were dispatched at
7:24 a.m.
Huron Valley Ambulance transported
he woman to the University Hospitals'
smergency room.
DPS currently is looking for the sus-
>ect, who is described as a 6-foot-tall
iale wearing a brown coat with a black
iood and dark trousers.
Brown said she could not confirm
division of the University the vic-
im works but said she is not a faculty
Tember.
This incident follows a similar attack
hat occurred Thursday in the park-
ng area off Palmer Drive, which is
See STABBING, Page 2
pi
pledges
speak
out
4 blow whistle on
fraternity hazing
SAM HOLLENSHEAD/ Daily
Ann Arbor Fire Department firefighter Lea Strickfaden and Mark Lulck of the AAFD talk last night after Strickfaden
helped to put out a fire in South Quad Residence Hall. A menorah left unattended in a student's room caused the fire.
Menorah ignites fr
i n S outh Qu a d r o om dIA0
By David Enders
Daily Staff Reporter
The Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity's
national chapter officially suspended the
campus chapter yesterday after a fraterni-
ty pledge was injured in an alleged haz-
ing incident.
A fraternity member allegedly shot the
pledge, who is an LSA first-year student,
in the penis at close range with a BB gun
early Monday morning. The injured
pledge was clad only in boxer shorts at
the time of the incident.
The 19-year-old victim, whose name
has not been released, was scheduled for
surgery yesterday at University
Hospitals. The family has requested that
the hospital not release further informa-
tion on the victim's condition.
The incident prompted other Pi
pledges to speak out on initiation rites
they endured while pledging the frater-
nity this semester. Many of the pledges
stated the fraternity practices some of
the most brutal initiation rites on cam-
pus.
Speaking on the condition of
anonymity, the pledges discussed activi-
ties that took place in the house this
SAM HOLLENSHEAD/Daly
A fraternity member leaves the Alpha
Epsilon PI house, located on Cambridge
Road, yesterday morning.
semester. Among the activities, pledges
said they were duct taped to chairs and
each other, and placed into a bathroom
for seven hours while members of the
housethrew eggs into an open window of
the room.
Active Pi members declined yesterday
to comment yesterday either via the tele-
phone or in person on any of the pledges'
See PLEDGES, Page 9
By Yael Kohen
and Hanna LoPatin
Daily Staff Reporters
Hundreds of students evacuated South Quad Residence
Hall after a fire broke out on the fifth floor of Bush
House last night.
A Hanukkah menorah left unattended on a paper towel
in front of the television caused the fire, Ann Arbor Fire
Department Battalion Chief Dave Wilson said. The fire
department received the call at 5:49 p.m.
LSA first-year student Will Lamphear was on the fifth
floor at the time the fire ignited. "A girl ran to ask me if
an (residential adviser) was around," he said. "I saw
smoke coming out of her room. We got the RA on the
floor above us and I was leaving when the alarm went
off."
LSA first-year student Sarah McGuire, who lives
across the hall from the room where the fire began, said
the room's smoke alarm rang for five to seven minutes
before black smoke began to seep underneath the door
into the hall.
The fire damage was confined to the room where it
began, but heavy smoke damaged the hallway, Wilson
said. Damage from the fire is estimated to be nearly
$2,000.
Even though the fire was contained on the fifth floor,
carbon monoxide levels were high throughout the entire
building, Wilson said. Firefighters in the building used
fans and opened windows in an attempt to reduce carbon
monoxide levels and allow students to re-enter to the
building.
Students were allowed back into the residence hall at
6:38 p.m., but fifth floor Bush house remained closed for
a few minutes longer.
University Facilities and Operations spokesperson
See FIRE, Page 9
bookseller files to dismiss suit
NACS charges false advertising
y Jewel Gopwanl
ily Staff Reporter
Varsitybooks.com recently filed a motion to dis-
iss a suit brought against the online textbook store
by the National Association of College Stores, which
represents about 3,000 college textbook stores.
ynthia D'Angelo, NACS senior associate execu-
ti irector, claims Varsitybooks.com damages tradi-
tional college bookstores by implying that they over-
charge students for textbooks.
She also claims the suggested prices
arsitybooks.com lists on its Website do not accurate-
ly represent the prices of its textbooks. She alleges that
arsitybooks.com advertisements that boast up to 40
percent off on textbook prices are false.
NACS demands that Varsitybooks.com stops advertis-
ing the percentage it claims to discount from its distribu-
tor's suggested price and asks that the company retract
what NACS calls "false and misleading advertising."
Jon Kaplan, Varsitybooks.com vice president, said
he could not discuss the number of books
Varsitybooks.com discounts at 40 percent.
Claiming that the case is "completely without
merit," Kaplan said, "Varsitybooks.com has advertised
that we sell textbooks at up to 40 percent off and we
will continue to advertise that we sell textbooks at up
to 40 percent."
Varsitybooks.com works directly under the book
distributor Baker & Taylor, which Kaplan said deter-
mines the suggested price listed on its Website.
John Bataglino, manager of Michigan Union Book
Store, said although he welcomes the competition, he
expects the store to lose about 2 percent of its profits.
Bataglino also said online textbook stores have
affected the industry as a whole by the same extent.
"All indications are that it will be 4 percent next year
and 8 percent after that."
Varsitybooks.com, which recently has filed to go an
initial public offering with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, went online in August 1998.
Since its first selling season, Varsitybooks.com has
sold textbooks to more than 2,400 students at schools
across the nation.
"Historically, there has been very little competition
See BOOKSELLER, Page 7
SAM HOLLENSHEAD/Daily
Richard Joel (left) and Edgar Bronfman (center) talk with William Berman after
Bronfman, chair of the Hillel international Board of Governors, addressed an
audience at the campus Hillel Foundation yesterday.
Bronfman calls for
JewI Sh *retnaiM*,osesance
I1
Students, staff caw
about bird problem
By Jeannie Baumann
Daily Staff Reporter
Before the first snow fell in Ann
Arbor this semester, campus sidewalks
- especially near Angell Hall and
Betsey Barbour Residence Hall - were
already covered in white from excessive
crow droppings that have hit campus.
According to University Pest
Management Specialist Dale Hodgson,
about 8,000 crows occupy Ann Arbor's
trees.
"Around mid-afternoon, they'll start
to flock around the golf course and
they'll fly over to the cemetery. Then
just about dusk, they'll start to move
toward Central Campus," he said.
Bird curator and zoology Prof. Bob
Payne explained that the crows prefer
the State Street area because "the trees
are high and there are lights around."
Payne also said the crows prefer the
area for safety reasons.
"They sleep up in the trees at night,"
he said. "From that altitude, they can
See CROWS, Page 7
By Nick Bunkley
Daily Staff Reporter
Edgar Bronfman, chair of the Hillel
International Board of Governors, envi-
sions a Jewish renaissance, "symboliz-
ing a rebirth of our Jewishness that
somehow we had lost in the last three or
four generations," he told an audience
at the campus Hillel Foundation last,
night.
"Now we're asking that 100 percent
of Jews know something about their
Judaism," he said.
Bronfman, who also serves as chair
of the World Jewish Congress and
chair of media and beverage conglom-
erate Seagram Co., is "the most
famous Jew in the world," said Richard
Joel, president and international direc-
tor of Hillel.
Through the World Jewish Congress,
Bronfman has worked to return as
much as $7 billion in Swiss bank
account assets taken from Holocaust
victims. President Clinton awarded
Bronfman the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in August.
Though he didn't lose any family
members during the Holocaust,
Bronfman said he regards Swiss repara-
tions as a personal cause.
"Six million Jews died and I consid-
er them part of my family," he said.
Bronfman and Joel have visited more
than 50 Hillel centers on campuses
across the country. Their hope is to
instill in college students the need to
perpetuate belief in and knowledge of
the Jewish faith, Joel said.
"If you can't articulate why this
Jewish story should go on, you have to
See BRONFMAN, Page 9
Labor activists set Feb. 2 ultimatum
By Michael Grass
Daily Staff Reporter
Seven members of Students Organizing for
Economic Equality met with University President
Lee Bollinger yesterday, giving him a ultimatum
to sign onto a student-organized code of labor
ctndAarrc fnr the rnlleaiate annarel industrv by
In October, Brown University was the first school
to become part of the WRC. A number of smaller
schools, including Middlebury College, Haverford
College and Bard College, are considering becoming
WRC members. But SOLE member Peter Romer-
Friedman, an LSA junior, said the WRC needs a larg-
er school such as the University of Michigan to sign
office in the Fleming Administration Building. "We
hope the University will make the right decision
before we have to resort to some sort of civil disobe-
dience."
Although Bollinger did not commit to the WRC
yesterday, SOLE members said they were hopeful that
the administration would join the WRC alliance by the
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