LOCAL/S TATE
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 5A
.WebDorm lets students
putI
By Michael B. Simon
For the Daily
Students complain
size of their residen
*w have the opport
boundaries of their li
distant expanses of cy
Mybytes.com, a N
pany launched its
WebDorm yesterday
"premiere online con
students."
The company ho
http://wwwwebdorm.
sands of students a
Cr municate using
eras and chat.
The new WebDorm
ture from the previou
which required stude
cations before 40 stud
broadcast their lives o
With the drop in
"web-cams" - now,
tle as $45 - and
WebDorm that enab
b-cam to broadca
e has "really taken
Mahoney, a sta
college
WebDorm's produ
ment. She added t
ing about the small of few services th
ce hall rooms will broadcast from t
unity to expand the rooms live on the'
living places to the Users browsingt
yberspace. ferent "WebDorme
ewYork-based com- pants are called, to
new version of view live images fr
, billing it as the at any time and cl
nmunity for college who they are watch
WebDorm's mi
pes the new site, stereotypes about
com, enables thou- provide a real liv
cross the globe to lives," the compar
lives online
ct marketing depart- how I've decorated my room while we
hat WebDorm is one see live pictures of each other and chat
hat allows anyone to at the same time," said "Synchilla," the
heir residence hall Eastern Michigan University student
Internet. who wished to remain anonymous.
the site can select dif- WebDormers have the option of
rs," as the site partici- broadcasting their live feeds either to all
watch. The user can users who have access to the Website or
om up to four cameras only to individuals that they choose.
hat with the students But it isn't only students who are using
ling. the new WebDorm.
ssion is "to dispel "I'm using WebDorm to expand the
college students and college community beyond Pennsylvania
e glimpse into their State University and discuss issues that
ny said in a written are relevant to college students every-
where," said Michelle Miller-Day, a pro-
t more than just study fessor in the Speech Communication
ey said, "and we want Department at Pennsylvania State
ough what we believe University. Mahoney also said that pro-
medium - showing fessors at Brown University are using
life." WebDorm in communications classes to
ing their lives on the demonstrate new ways in which students
nerving to many, oth- are communicating.
er "Synchilla," jump "It's a great way for students across the
country to talk about the college experi-
m hundreds of miles ence," she said.
t college, I can go to No University students are broadcast-
f WebDorm where I ing through the WebDorm Website,
ts my new haircut or Mahoney said.
live Web-enabled
n is a radical depar-
s version of the site,
nts to submit appli-
tents were chosen to
nline.
prices of digital
available for as lit-
a new version of
les anyone with a
st online, the ser-
n off," said Allison
ff member of
statement.
"Students do a lo
and party" Mahon
to show people thr
is the most realistic
them actual college
While broadcast
Internet may be un
ers, like WebDorm
at the chance.
"Even though I'
away from home a
my private area of
can show my paren
Ford honored
by state bar for
SbliCservice
GRAND RAPIDS (AP) --The state bar association hon-
ored former President Gerald Ford yesterday for his public
service.
At a luncheon in front of hundreds of members of the State
Bar of Michigan, Michigan Gov. John Engler praised Ford,
describing him as having integrity that transcends the politi-
cal spectrum.
"I don't think any president in living memory has been
.nsidered more trustworthy by both sides of the aisle,"
Engler told Ford in front of the association, which gave the
former president two standing ovations.
"We are proud of you and we are proud you are one of our
own."
. Ford, who practiced law in Grand Rapids after attending
law school at Yale University, said he appreciated the recog-
nition by his colleagues, particularly Engler who he called an
"outstanding, first-c.lass governor."
In a speech that largely centered on the themes of law and
freedom, he criticized legislative efforts to limit politicians'
Ams in office, saying that voters already have the right to
te.
"If you don't like ... public officials or what they're doing,
it's up to you, not the Constitution, to replace them with peo-
ple more to your own liking," he said.
"If you limit the terms of elected officials by law, you give
omnipotent power to unelected congressional staff, lobbyists
as well as bureaucrats."
The former president also said personal responsibility is
AP PHOTO
Gov. George W. Bush (R-Texas) campaigns for president in Detroit last night. Bush has visited Detroit multiple times in
recent weeks and is scheduled to campaign in other parts of Michigan this week.
Texas governor pays to
receptiVe Detroit crowd
DETROIT (AP) - The Republican governor of
Texas, George W. Bush, returned yesterday to an
island of support in this overwhelmingly Democratic
city - southwest Detroit, and its growing Latino/a
population.
"It's surprising. Not all the candidates would come
to this neighborhood," said Tony Martinez.
This was Bush's second visit to the Detroit area in
recent weeks.
In June, he appeared at a $1,000-a-plate fund-rais-
er in Livonia and visited a neighborhood festival in
Mexicantown on the southwest side.
Yesterday, he worked the crowd in the parking lot
outside Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, which was
holding a festival celebrating Mexican Independence
Day.
A mariachi band played while Bush shook hands
and posed for dozens of photos, the crowd eddying
around him.
Once on stage, Bush shook hands with beaming
youths in traditional Mexican costumes and gave a
five-minute speech alternately in Spanish and
English.
"A successful Mexico is good for America," Bush
said.
"We don't need walls. We need bridges when it
comes to Mexico and the United States."
Martinez, who owns an ornamental iron fabricating
business, acknowledged that Bush's speech was short
on specifics, and that he knew little about what Bush
might do to aid Latino/as if elected president.
But, Martinez said: "At least he's talking to the
Hispanic community. That's the first step."
Bush has gotten substantial financial backing in
Michigan.
The state ranked eighth in the amount of money
contributed to his campaign from April through June
- $940,457.52 from 1,080 donors including
DaimlerChrysler Chair Robert Eaton, Secretary of
State Candice Miller, Domino's CEO David Brandon
and Meijer Inc. Co-Chair Douglas Meijer.
Yet the common touch he showed yesterday -
dancing on stage with a delighted young girl in a tra-
ditional embroidered Mexican costume; huddling
with members of the Holy Redeemer cross country
team to remind them of the importance of education
- appealed to Maria Laforest of Detroit.
"He seems to be a very honest man," Laforest said,
moments after a photographer snapped a picture of
her and Bush.
About 264,000 Latino/as lived in Michigan in
1998, up 30.8 percent from 1990, according to U.S.
Census figures. An estimated 30,000 Hispanics live in
Detroit, although that number is believed to be grow-
ing.
Don Hanchon, pastor of Holy Redeemer, said he
didn't mind that Bush's appearance lent a political
flavor to an ethnic celebration.
"That's nothing new," he said.
"But it's a real pleasure that Governor Bush and
others find this audience worthy of their attention.
These are great people."
AP PHOTO
President Gerald Ford holds up an award he received from
the state bar association yesterday in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Ford is being honored for his public service work.
the key to making democracy work.
The luncheon also featured a discussion of legal doctrines
by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
Ford appointed Stevens to the bench in 1975. Stevens is
scheduled to speak about the Ford administration today as
part of a lecture series at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in
Grand Rapids.
Ford also is scheduled to meet with presidential hopeful
and Gov. George W Bush (R-Texas) today, according to a
Bush campaign spokesperson.
Labor talks continue under contract extension
U I
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) - Bargainers
for the major U.S. car companies and the United
Auto Workers continued intensive negotiations
yesterday after the union granted an open-ended
extension to contracts that cover 407,000 workers.
The focus of the talks was at DaimlerChrysler
AG's U.S. headquarters, where the two sides met
through the night. They took a short break at mid-
morning, returning to the table yesterday afternoon.
Neither side would comment on progress, but
e marathon session was taken as a sign a deal
could be imminent.
Talks between the union and General Motors
Corp. recessed Tuesday at midnight and resumed
at 8 a.m. yesterday on the subcommittee level, GM
spokesperson Edd Snyder said. Negotiations at
Ford Motor Co. were much less intense.
DaimlerChrysler spokesperson David Barnas
said early yesterday that the union had granted the
company an indefinite extension of its three-year
tract, which was to expire at midnight Tuesday.
Similar extensions were given to GM and Ford on
Tuesday.
While marathon talks are a traditional sign of
progress, there also were signs of strain between
the union and DaimlerChrysler. National negotia-
tors, including UAW President Stephen Yokich,
were meeting at DaimlerChrysler headquarters
when workers at five plants in Missouri and
Indiana staged a brief walkout Tuesday night.
Workers at two DaimlerChrysler plants in
Fenton, Mo., outside of St. Louis, walked off the
job at 9:45 p.m. EDT and started picketing. The
plants, which make the highly profitable Dodge
Ram trucks and DaimlerChrysler's minivans,
employ about 7,100.
About 15 minutes later, workers at two trans-
mission plants and a casting plant in Kokomo,
Ind., walked off the job, DaimlerChrysler officials
said. Those plants employ a total of 8,400 workers.
The picket signs in Fenton went down about an
hour after they went up and production at all five
plants resumed as normal yesterday.
DaimlerChrysler co-chair Bob Eaton said he
Marathon talks could
meanI UAWautomakers
nearing compromise.
expected workers at those plants would remain on
the job as negotiations continue.
"We're still hopeful we will be able to get a con-
tract without significant work stoppage," Eaton
said yesterday at the Frankfurt International Motor
Show in Frankfurt, Germany.
Barnas said the union has not told the German-
American automaker the reason for the walkouts.
Union officials did not immediately comment.
In the past, the union has extended contracts
past the deadline. It has not called a national strike
during contract negotiations since 1976, although
it has used plant-level strikes. Experts have said a
national strike, which would threaten a boom year
for the auto industry, seems unlikely.
The UAW usually chooses one automaker to
make a deal with first, then uses that deal as a tem-
plate for other contracts. This year, Yokich has kept
talks going with both GM and DaimlerChrysler
and refused to publicly name a target.
Wages, job security, health care costs, overtime
demands and the assignment of work to outside
suppliers were expected to be among the top issues
in this year's talks, as they were during the last
round in 1996.
Union leaders have said that workers were enti-
tled to a share of record automaker profits; the
three companies combined earned more than $5.5
billion in the second quarter of 1999.
There are few indications of what proposals the
UAW and DaimlerChrysler might be negotiating.
The union has discussed efforts to organize
DaimlerChrysler's nonunion plants in the United
States: a Mercedes-Benz sport utility factory in
Alabama with 1,600 workers and Freightliner
commercial truck plants in the Carolinas.
,b
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