The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 10, 1999 - 5
Looking for a spot
New Engineering team project
center opens on North Campus
By Sana Danish
Daily Staff'Reporter
Engineering students, their dean and the
University president cut through a long line of
duct tape, meant to symbolize the one handy
tool engineers can't be without, to christen The
Walter E. Wilson Student Team Project Center
on North Campus yesterday.
The center is part of the University's com-
mitment to aid student teamwork and collab-
oration in extracurricular Engineering pro-
jects.
Engineering Dean Stephen Director
opened the ceremony with a welcoming
speech, in which he explained how the cen-
ter is unique. "The Wilson Student Team
Project Center allows students to integrate
technology across multiple disciplines," he
said.
Primarily Engineering students will utilize
the center primarily, but other students can
also use the center if they are working on
projects they will enter in competitions.
Engineering spokesperson Karl Bates said
the construction of the center will help the
University as a whole.
"The Student Team Project Center improves
the College of Engineering, which adds to the
prestige and recognition of the University,
Bates said.
The idea for the center developed from a
constant need to house student projects, and
construction began in January 1998:
The student-run facility covers 10,000
"The Student Team Project Center improves
the College of Engineering, which adds
prestige and recognition to the University."
- Karl Bates
College of Engineering Spokesperson
square feet and is located behind the Francois-
Xavier Bagnoud Building, adjacent to the
Wave Field.
It is open 24 hours a day all week long to
students who are working on team projects.
The two-level center includes design
rooms with computers and electronic equip-
ment, a machine shop and welding lab, a
paint booth, a conference center and a stu-
dent lounge.
Engineering senior Jonathan Paul man-
ages the Society of Automotive Engineers
Baja Racing Team, which showcased its
project in the new center. He said the cen-
ter will enhance the team project experi-
ence.
"Before the center existed, we worked on
our project cramped in an autolab and had to
use old tools," Paul said, adding that all of the
equipment the team needs is now located in
once place.
Engineering sophomore Patrick Goleski
said he likes that the center accommodates stu-
dents.
"The hours here are better, since the center is
open all the time, and it's more student friend-
ly," he said.
Treva Fisher, an Engineering senior and a
new member on the Concrete Canoe team, said
she decided to participate in a team project
because it gave her the opportunity to work on
something "hands-on."
"I think my project will be a lot of fun, and
give me a chance to apply things I've learned
in my classes to something outside," she
said.
Jed Christiansen, who graduated from the.
College of Engineering in May and is a mem-
ber of the Solar Car Team, summed up the
team project experience.
"Joining a team project has truly made our
U of M experience a great one," Christiansen,
said.
Wilson, for whom the center is named, was
a 1933 Engineering graduate whose financial
gift funded the center.
DAVE ROCHKIND/Daily
Students wait in line outside the Parking Services building on Thompson Street yesterday to
obtain parking permits. Some slept on the sidewalk Wednesday night to be first in line.
Thleves swlpe SCulptures
fmdeceased artist's me
BIRMINGHAM (AP) - Thieves have stolen
four bronze sculptures from the home of noted
sculptor Marshall M. Fredericks, two months after
vandals defaced another of his works at a nearby
church.
The theft from the garden of the noted
artist's lakefront home was discovered by a
caretaker and reported Aug. 31. Police had not
publicized the theft at the request of
edericks' estate.
A report was filed in the theft and the mat-
ter remains under investigation," Police Cmdr.
Peter Kauffman told The Detroit News for a
story yesterday. He would not elaborate.
Pamela Panghorn, who manages the artist's
estate, declined to comment.
The four missing statues, each weighing
about 30 pounds, include a baboon and fish and
part of the artist's "Wild Kingdom" collection.
They were among more than a dozen larger
sculptures which, decorated the garden of
dericks' home.
The stolen statues are conservatively valued at
$32,000 but are considered irreplaceable.
Fredericks, whose work graces numerous
Detroit-area institutions, died April 4, 1998, at
the age of 90. His wife, Rosalind, lives in
Vermont and last visited the home in May,
neighbors said.
The sprawling English manor-style home
was listed for S2.7 million several months ago
and has been visited by several potential buy-
ers.
Fredericks taught sculpture during the 1930s
and 1940s at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in
Bloomfield Hills.
Some of his better-known sculptures in
Metro Detroit include the 26-foot tall "Spirit
of Detroit" outside Detroit's City-County
Building and the flying pterodactyls at the
Detroit Zoo.
In early July, someone defaced another one
of Fredericks sculpture, a nine-foot tall
obelisk topped with a stylized eagle, that was
commissioned by the First Presbyterian
Church.
Associate Pastor Louise Westfall found spray-
painted slogans such as "God is Dead" and "Pot
Heads Rule" as she arrived to prepare for ser-
vices.
Police do not believe that incident is related to
the recent theft.
Bonior, HUD secretary say rate
of minimum wage must increase
WASHINGTON (AP) - A higher mini-
mum wage would make housing affordable for
many Americans who desperately need it, U.S.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary
Andrew Cuomo said yesterday.
Cuomo, Rep. David Bonior (D-Mt.
Clemens) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.)
seized on a new report to urge at a press
conference that Congress increase the min-
imum wage. The report indicated that many
people receiving the minimum wage of
S5.15 an hour could not afford to rent a
two-bedroom apartment.
Minimum wage earners in Michigan would
have to work 87 hours a week to afford the rent
on a two-bedroom apartment, according to the
study by the National Low Income Housing
Coalition, a group dedicated to affordable
housing for Americans.
Nationally, minimum wage earners would
have to put in the equivalent of an 86-hour
work week to afford the two-bedroom apart-
ment. The coalition defines an affordable
rental unit as one costing 30 percent of income.
Michigan was roughly in the middle of the
50 states in terms of housing affordability.
New York required 123 hours of work a
week at minimum wage for the two-bedroom
apartment's rent. A handful of southern states
required 62 to 69 hours.
Cuomo said the report "makes a very blunt,
bold, accurate statement - which is that
affordable housing is out of reach for many.
Americans."
The problem could be attacked by raising
the minimum wage while also reducing the
cost of housing, Cuomo said. "We have to do
both," he said. "The minimum wage in this
country does not work."
Bonior has been leading the fight in the
House to increase the minimum wage of S5.15
an hour by S I over the course of two years.
Kennedy is leading the push in the Senate.
"You can't put a decent roof over your head
for 55.15 an hour," Bonior said.
"A Michigan mother, working full time at
the minimum wage, still lives 53,200 below the
poverty line," he said.
In 1996, Congress agreed to boost the fed-
eral minimum wage by 90 cents, rejecting
conservative Republicans' arguments that
raising the minimum wage would price many
entry-level jobs out of the market.
It was a rare Democratic legislative victory
during the first 20 months of Republican con-
trol of Congress that came only with the help
of GOP moderates.
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