T4..,, i1A:.,4.:x..... Rn:l.. T.....,. t.-. . t1.,+..M.,.. "9 +"11'i/1A "fib LOCAL/STATE nThe ichigan Daly -Tuesday, October 3, 2000-7 SOLE members storm Kohl' department store= 7 ARRESTS Continued from Page 1 for the workers. Former Chentex workers Angelica Perez and Zenayda Torres have been traveling with the NLC to speak about the conditions at the factory. Perez and Torres said they worked from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week for 30 cents an hour. They also said that workers were also required to work on Sundays until about noon. "They expected -us to work like robots," Torres said. When the workers attempted to organize themselves and ask for bet- ter conditions, they were fired, Perez said. "When we asked for a wage increase, the company fired II union leaders. The workers protested for two and a half days - the company fired 700 and hired new workers. They put everyone on a blacklist and no one can get a job at another facto- ry," she said. Throughout the protest, students shouted for the Kohl's district man- ager to call CEO Larry Montgomery to tell him their demands. "Bad conscience got your tongue?" yelled RC senior Jason Keydel. The district manager, who declined to give his name, had no comment. Susan Henderson, Kohl's vice president for communications, reached at her office in Milwaukee yesterday, said she was aware of the problems at the Chentex facility and that Kohl's is working to improve working conditions there. "We have launched an investiga- tion into the Chentex factory," she said, adding that as part of the com- pany's terms of engagements for Kohl's manufacturing vendors, "we do inspect all of the facilities where Kohl's products are produced." Charles Kernaghan, executive director of NLC, said he was disap- pointed with Kohl's lack of commu- nication. "I thought Kohl's would be a bit more human," because they are a smaller retail chain, he said. "Kohl's has no soul - it's lost its moral compass. They are ruthlessly driven by the bottom dollar." Henderson said that Colby Inter- national, one of Kohl's business agents that conducts inspections, found three areas of non-compliance in the factory, including health and safety violations, environmental problems and employment record mismanagement. Henderson said Kohl's will follow up with additional inspections, but said the department store "will not get involved in labor disputes between third parties." Since Kohl's does not own or operate any manufacturing facilities of its own, the company relies on vendors. The arrested students were booked outside the store and given bond receipts for trespassing, which is a misdemeanor. They were released on personal recognizance and their cases will be referred to the Washte- naw County prosecutor. "I thought if I went and asked them to leave they would, but that didn't happen," said Pittsfield Twp. Police Lt. Stephen Heller. "I'm sorry we had to arrest them. They wanted to make point and I guess we facili- tated it..." "I want do more to show Kohl's that this is unjust," said Michele Rudy, an LSA senior who was arrested. Rudy said she did not regret being arrested - "I'm not doing enough," she said. The protest also attracted a num- ber of curious passers-by, including one local man and his four-year old adopted daughter, Lucy. The man, who asked to be identi- fied only as Don, said he was drawn to the protests not only because he was in favor of workers' rights, but because labor conditions in the the Third World have affected him per- sonally. Lucy, who proudly held a picture of Nicaraguan laborers, was adopted from Guatemala. "I think it's a good thing to raise Don and his daughter Lucy, who requested that their last names not be used, joined SOLE's anti-sweatshop protesters yesterday at the Ann Arbor Kohl's store. awareness of what's going on in the Third World," he said. He added that there are many children such as Lucy whose parents cannot afford to keep them because of low wages. Besides Rudy, those arrested were RC senior Scott Burkhardt, LSA sophomore Sheila McClear, RC freshman Sasha Wright, LSA senior Rachel Edelman, RC freshman Adri.- an Esquivel, LSA sophomore Chris Fici, LSA freshman Matt Hannah, LSA senior Scott Trudeau and RC sophomore David Lempert. 'U' pays for new offices for Tower Societies MICHIGAMUA Continued from Page 1 chose not to apply for space last year when members knew there was a possibility of being removed from the tower. "Michigamua was told they should apply like any other student group," said Routel, a Law student, "They refused and said if they lost their space, they'd go off-campus. They made that choice and they should've followed through with it." Adrian Prather, Engineering junior and Phoenix member, said his group foresaw that they'd have to vacate the Union. "We figured that it was definitely privileged space; we knew that," Prather said. "It was too much of a problem for us to stay there." University graduate Marisa Thomas, a former Phoenix member, said the administration took the lead on finding new accommodations. "Really, the administration found the space. But we did all the physical move," Thomas said. Both Thomas and Prather said their new office is smaller and less comfortable than their previ- ous office. University administrators proposed transition- al space for Michigamua during the first week of the tower occupation in February. SCC members rejected the proposal because they thought it was still special treatment, Rou- tel said. "We explained why we thought this was unfair and magically it came out of the woodwork this summer,' Routel said. "We expected nothing less from the administration and of course it's not at all what we want." The SCC's occupation of Michigamua's meet- ing space ignited a fiery debate over space allo- cation for student groups. A panel was assigned to analyze the process and make recommenda- "We explained why we thought this was unfair and (Michigamua's move) magically came out of the woodwork this summer." - Collette Routtl Students of Color Coalition member tions to Harper and Bollinger. Among the recommendations released in April, the panel suggested organizations should respect diverse perspectives and should not be given indefinite University-owned space. One recommendation suggests that groups wanting space in buildings such as the Michigan League and Union should be registered with Michigan Student Assembly. The MSA Website for group registration lists the privilege of Union office space as a benefit of registration with the assembly, but none of the Tower Societies are registered on the site. Harper pointed out that MSA isn't registered either, although it has it's own office in the Union. Harper said she normally doesn't get involved in the space allocation process except in special cases of big events or transitions. "The (University) president said in a state- ment that the interim dean of students should coordinate the move," Harper said. Cianciola also identified the president's state- ment as the motivation for finding alternate office space for the societies. In the other University aided move, the Inter- Cooperative Council - which coordinates coop- erative housing - and the Student Buyers Association, which provides food for co-ops and Greek houses, lost their offices on the fourth floor following renovations, said Richard Swonger, ICC director of financial services. Cianciola said all groups forced out were offered temporary space in the Perry Building on Packard Avenue. "They offered to help us find space, as they dlo for all student groups," said Susan Caya, ICC director of education and training. Swonger said the administration "was no help whatever," adding that SBA occupied its Unian office for about 20 years. "They showed absolutely no interest in us," Swonger said. Caya maintained that there was a general offer of temporary space to the organizations that no longer had space at the Union, but the ICC chose to find a new location independently. She declined to comment on any problems she may have encountered with the administration. The Union meeting space of most student groups is pretty stable, said SNRE senior Jessica Mendelowitz, president of Environmental Action. "We'd be pretty shocked if we lost our office space," she said. Mendelowitz said EnAct applies every two years to renew the lease they've had "for years and years." "I feel that priority does go to those who do obvious projects on campus," she said. TRIBE Continued from Page 1 tion by two anthropology professors - Terence Turner of Cornell Universi- ty and Leslie Sponsel of University of Hawaii at Manoa - in which the two concur with Tierney's findings. "In its scale, ramifications, and sheer criminality and corruption it is unparalleled in the history of anthro- pology," Turner and Sponsel wrote. "Tierney presents convincing evidence that Neel and Chagnon, on their trip to the Yanomami in 1968, greatly exacer- bated, and probably started, the epi- demic of measles that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands." Peter Ward, chairman of the pathol- ogy department at the University's Medical School, said Tierney's claims are unfounded, as the measles epidem- ic reached the tribe a year or two before the research team was present. "A large amount of the population also died because of the measles," Ward said. But Ward said there is no way to know the true story. "I don't think anyone can really know what happened," Ward said. "As far as anybody knows, the individuals were healthy, and the question is did they die because of the virus or the vaccine?" University Provost Nancy Cantor in a written statement negated some of the items that Tierney addressed. "Allegations, particularly those involving academic work of highly distinguished scholars in their field, require a fair and proper peer review - not a sensationalized public discus- sion in the headlines and over the Internet," Cantor said. "The measles outbreak occurred in November 1967. Measles was intro- duced into the region by a party of Brazilian missionaries before the Janu- ary 1968 arrival of the Neel expedi- tion," she said. "There is substantial evidence of the outbreak existing long Before Dr. Neel left for Venezuela, so Dr. Neel could not have been the cause." Cantor also said that compared to normal outbreaks of the measles, the death rate in this tribe was comparably lower. "The predicted death rate from untreated measles is 30 percent to 36 percent; the most common complica- tion is bacterial pneumonia. In this outbreak, the death rate was a very low 8.8 percent, showing clearly that prop- er medical care was provided," she said. The American Anthropological Association issued a statement on the allegations, in which it said that if proven true, a serious violation of the Yanomami human rights and of the AAA Code of Ethics would have occurred. But, the association it will conduct a full investigation to decide if Neel violated its code. "This book presents the views, cox- clusions and opinions of its author. Bis extremely important, however, that other individuals featured in the book be afforded the opportunity to express their own views on its contents," the associa- tion's statement said. Turner issued another e-mail Thur- day in which he said he did not neces- sarily believe what Tierney had written, but instead had wanted to warn the AAA of what could possibly happen. "The sole purpose of the memo was to describe these allegations, in order to warn the leaders of the association of the nature of the allegations that were about to be published and the scandal they would probably cause for the whole profession," Turner said. The AAA wants to hold an open forum during its annual meeting next month so members of the association can discuss issues raised in the book, DEBATES Continued from Page 1 "Bush has to show his critics and the American public that he's up to speed on the issues," he added. LSA freshman Alden Givens said that although he has already decided to vote for Gore, he will be watching the debate. "You can't just go in blind," he said. "You gotta know something about it." But Givens said that "not one single thing" could happen tonight to change his vote. Although the debating abilities of the two candi- dates have been heavily discussed throughout the past few weeks, Ballenger said he believes that they will not overshadow the actual issues. "I don't think the issues will take a back seat," he said. "I think they'll be front and center." But, Ballenger added, "Strategy may be telling." Ballenger alluded to the image of Former President George Bush looking at his watch as then-candidate Bill Clinton spoke during the 1992 debate. The image, Ballenger said, dominated the post-debate commentary and fortified the belief that Bush did not care about the troubled econo- my. Two people not included in the debate are Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. Neither received the required 15 percent popu- lar support that allowed third party candidate Ross Perot into the 1992 debate. Nader supporters passed around a petition to get the candidate into the debate when he visited the Michigan Theater two weeks ago. "That's not fair," Givens said of Nader's exclu- sion. "He's obviously got some kind of following. At the end, if he wasn't what the majority wanted he'd be in the same boat as Gore or Bush or who- ever loses."