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LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, December 9, 1999 - 3A
-ESEARCH
Smart machine
ecognized with
ational award
Rhe "BOA line-boring machine," a
nachine developed to bore long holes
'n manufactured parts, was recognized
ast week as one of the "Top 25
fechnologies of 1999" by Industry
eek magazine.
The machine was a collaboration
etween the College of Engineering
nd Warren, Mich.-based Lamb
echnicon. Engineers from Ford
otor Company, General Motors
p. and DaimlerChrysler Corp.
participated in the project.
The BOA process, which stands
or Boring with Optimal Accuracy,
nakes the tools more flexible and
gile.,
Until now, long drill bits tended to
obble or stray off course.
Professor Yoram Koren, director of
he Engineering Research Center for
econfigurable Machinery, said the
ge wants to have more industrial
rtnerships with companies like Lamb
echnicon.
'U4 prof. creates
heory to predict
olcanic activity
Geological sciences Prof Youxue
hang said he believes he has a theory
when and why a volcano turns
ethal.
Sientists said they know that frag-
mentation is the process that defines
he lethal stage of a volcano. Zhang
"aid he understands the process well
nough to know when that moment will
rrive.
Zhang said he and his students can
alculate the likelihood of fragmen-
on by studying the magma's com-
tion, temperature and initial
ater content.
He said he hopes that his research
ill help prevent tragedies like the one
hat occurred in 1991 at Mt. Unzen in
lapan.
ebraska governor
ants to halt
tal cell research
ebraska Gov. Mike Johanns said he
pposes fetal cell research at the
niversity of Nebraska and wants it to
iscontinue its use of tissue from abort-
'd fetuses.
The governor said he will not with-
old funds from the university despite
is ultimate desire to have no tissue
rom aborted fetuses used in research.
The university's medical center is
Oently conducting the research to
ind treatment for Alzheimer's dis-
ase.
University President Dennis Smith
naintains that the issue is not a moral
ssue but a research issue.
Nebraska's Speaker of the
egislature Doug Kistensen said he
peculates that the state senators will
ventually cut the funding of the med-
cal center's research.
xas A&M profs.
ope Chinese tree
ay cure cancer
Researchers at Texas A&M
'niversity are trying to find a cure
or cancer by using a certain type of
tee.
iology Prof. Craig Nessler and
ciate x biology Prof. Thomas
cKnight have been studying the
hinese Happy Tree plant, native to
outhern China, for 10 years. The
wo professors have been studying
he tree in hopes of understanding
he ' anti-cancer compound
amptothecin.
Nessler said that there are several
rugs that are available through this
lant.
said he wants to know how
his process works so he can pro-
uce more of the chemicals found in
he plant.
McKnight said that the tree is not
ound in the United States. He also
oted that the tree is not endan-
gred, but as demand increases, the
ossibility of endangerment may
rise.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
0 Risa Berrin.
W hite Ribbon group aims to stop violence
Men organize to combat
violence against women
By Jody Simone Kay
Daily Staff Reporter
The White Ribbon Campaign, a group of all
male students on campus organizing to put a
halt to violence against women, brought a
speaker to the Diag yesterday in an attempt to
draw attention to its cause.
"Male violence against women is possible
because men are silent and men have a choice
whether to be silent," said Peter Houmand,
who spoke in recognition of the White Ribbon
Campaign.
Houmand is a volunteer at the domestic vio-
lence shelter Safeplace on Michigan State
University's campus.
WRC is an international organization that
recently opened a campus chapter.
"I think most of us have experienced some-
one who is victimized, and you don't really
know what to do about it since we don't really
talk about it," said Engineering senior Branton
Cole, as he listened to Houmand's speech with
about 12 other students.
WRC got its start in Canada at Montreal
Polytechnic University after a gunman, who.
proclaimed anti-feminist views, shot and
killed 14 women.
Reacting to the deaths, male students
formed WRC in a grassroots effort to stop
violent acts, said LSA junior Sandhya
Krishnan.
"The White Ribbon Campaign isn't a new
concept and there are strong movements by
men. Unfortunately it has been absent from
this University," said Alicia Rinaldi, Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness Center
Education and Training coordinator. SAPAC
supports WRC's efforts on campus.
WRC also sponsored a late-night vigil
Tuesday to remember victims of domestic vio-
lence.
Of the 60 people who gathered for the vigil,
most of them were men, said WRC coordina-
tor Nick Delgado, an LSA senior.
"It was touching to hear men say something
about it for the first time as a group. That was
unique," said LSA senior Amber Sadiq, who
attended both the vigil and Houmand's
speech.
WRC members hope to initiate a dialogue
about domestic violence and to encourage men
to take an active role to stop violence against
women.
"We know in our hearts that it is real and
painful. This is not unusual but a pattern in our
society that is difficult to stop without a delib-
erate effort," Houmand said.
Rinaldi said one in every four college-age
women is a rape victim. Eighty to 90 percent
of all rapes involve an acquaintances of the
victim.
Campus statistics are in step with this
national figure.
"I think it's important when the reality is
JEREMY MENCHIK/Daily
LSA senior Bryan Ackerman pins a white ribbon on iSA senior Nick Delgado yesterday while Engineering
senior Branton Cole looks on. The men wear white ribbons as personal pledges never to commit, con-
done or remain silent about violence against women.
that the majority of the perpetrators are male.
If men don't speak out, it will take a long
time" to stop the violence, LSA senior Sarah
Osmer said.
One of the organizations major goals is "to
get men to have an active conscious of the
issue, organize ourselves and make this an
active part of who we are," Delgado said.
LSA junior Kristen Dana said that while
women have generated much of the current
opposition to violence against women, having
men take an active role in the issue is an inter-
esting switch.
"Generally people say it's wrong, but it
doesn't go any further. They don't take any
further action," Cole said.
Regents to vote
on Education dean
By Jewel Gopwani
Daily Staff Reporter
After more than a year of watching
Karen Wixson, the interim dean for the
School of Education, University
President Lee Bollinger and Provost
Nancy Cantor are recommending to the
University Board of Regents at its
meeting next week that she fill the posi-
tion permanently.
Wixson served as interim after Cecil
Miskal, Education
dean for 10 years,
resigned from the
position and joined
the faculty in k
1997.
The Dean
Search Advisory
Committee, which
made the recom-
mendation to
Cantor, is con- Wixson
prised of
Education faculty and students and fac-
ulty members from other areas of the
University.
Debra Boll, who led the search, said
the committee recommended Wixson,
not only for her background in educa-
tion, but for her interest and involve-
ment in state education policies.
"She has enormous experience,
knows the school and ... uses the
resources of the school very well,"
Cantor said.
Wixson said her goals for the post
include facilitating the school's
research and instruction at all levels of
education and working with faculty in
local school districts.
"The nature of education research
has changed during the past decade,"
Wixson said. "Collaborating with local
schools provides a prototype for the
type of school reform we need"
Boll said Miskal left his mark by
raising research funds and hiring new
faculty members. "Wixson will be
working with those resources," Boll
said.
Wixson earned degrees in behav-
ioral disabilities and special education
at the University of Wisconsin, the
State University of New York at
Binghamton and Syracuse University.
She also earned a doctorate in reading
education at Syracuse. Wixson began
teaching at the University School of
Education in 1980.
Wixson also has been a consultant
for the National Assessment of
Educational Progress in the construc-
tion of its reading tests. She has helped
alter the reading portion of the
Michigan Education Assessment
Program so it is based on short stories
rather than 50 word paragraphs.
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$50B for state rides
on accurate census
LANSING (AP) - Every person
missed in next year's census chips away
at the $50 billion in federal money
Michigan stands to get, Gov. John Engler
warned yesterday
"This is a challenge," Engler said.
"The count begins next April. We expect
to be ready."
Engler said the $50 billion that
Michigan could receive in the decade fol-
lowing the census amounts to more than
$5,000 for every state resident.
Money for roads, schools, seniors,
children's services and welfare will be
affected. Although Engler thinks
Michigan has grown enough in the 1990s
to keep all 16 of its congressional seats,
that could be affected by an undercount
as well.
"Any slippage could place ... one of
those seats at risk," the governor said.
The state hopes to reach people who
may be missed by using welfare case-
workers, probation officers and other
state workers to spread the word and help
people fill out their census forms. It also
is teaming with the U.S. Census Bureau
to set up Questionnaire Assistance
Centers.
In 1990, 72 percent of Michigan resi-
dents mailed in their census question-
naires. Census workers expect to stop by
the residence of each person who doesn't
respond next year at least six times
before turning to neighbors to get the
information they need.
The Census Bureau hopes to recruit
74,000 job applicants to fill more than
18,000 census jobs in Michigan.
Employees will work out of 18 census
field offices this spring and summer, and
Engler said he is looking for students,
retirees, underemployed workers and
jobless workers to fill the need.
To make sure hard-to-reach popula-
tions are counted, the state is making
extra efforts to reach groups such as
Arab-Americans, Engler said. Detroit
already has begun efforts to train census
workers and target groups undercounted
in the 1990 census, such as children.
All census information is confidential,
Engler said, and can't be shared with
other government agencies.
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