V
One hundred ten years ofeditorialfreedom
A ar
NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED: 7640557
www michigandaily. com
Tuesday
January 16, 2001
Charges dropped against 'U' bus driver
I
® Judge finds Engineering
senior not liable for medical
secretary's death
David Enders
ly Staff Reporter
Washtenaw County District Judge Eliza-
beth Hines decided Friday to drop a negli-
gent homicide charge against the
University bus driver whose bus struck and
killed a woman last year.
Daryl Cain, an Engineering senior, was
driving the bus that struck University Med-
1 Center employee Janis Marchyok, 48,
Ecstacy
use rises
among
teenagrers
By Usa Hoffman
Daily Staff Reporter
as she was attempting to cross Glen Av
during a rainstorm at around 5:45
Sept. 11. Cain was turning right from
bound Catherine Street onto northb
Glen.
Cain spoke frankly before leavin
courthouse with his lawyer.
"I'm pleased with the result and myl
goes out to the Marchyok family,"
said.
Cain's grandfather, Benjamin Tood
Detroit, attended the hearing.
"I'm glad that it turned out the w
did," Toodle said. "It had a very bad e
on his life. He's supposed to graduate
spring."
'CrMaon
University Facilities and Operations
spokeswoman Diane Brown said it is
unclear whether Cain will return to driving
a bus following his acquittal.
Hines said there was insufficient proof to
try Cain and that defense attorney Thomas
O'Brien, who was hired by the University
on behalf of Cain, effectively made a case
that Marchyok ran into the side of bus
before the driver could react.
"Her entire vision was blocked," O'Brien
said, repeating testimony from one eyewit-
ness who said Marchyok crossed the street
huddled under an umbrella.
Washtenaw County Assistant Prosecuting
Attorney Donald Ray asserted that Cain
should have taken extra safety precautions
because of the reduced visibility in the
rainstorm.
"Probably she walked into the side of the
bus," Ray said. "The view is better with the
doors open - he should have opened the
doors and he didn't."
University Transportation Services Fore-
man Cecile Lamb testified that it is a
"judgment call" for drivers to open their
door and that Cain was not in error by leav-
ing the door closed.
Witnesses testified that the passenger
windows of the bus were foggy because of
the heavy rain but that the windshield and
mirrors were properly cleaned and clear.
,the f'
Hines also settled a matter from earlier
in the week by allowing testimony from
Ann Arbor Police Officer Sean Lee on
statements taken from Cain following the
incident.
O'Brien argued using the statements was
illegal because Cain had been asked by
police to stay on the bus without being read
his Miranda rights or being officially
placed under arrest.
Hines allowed Lee's testimony Friday but
said the statements might not have been
admissible in a jury trial.
"There are several unanswered questions
that would be made more clear with an evi-
dentiary hearing," Hines said.
ight'
tlnul
g
Potentially fatal side-effects, includ-
ing hypothermia, dehydration, over-
emotional behavior, increased blood
ressure and depression have not
ned students away from using the
designer drug ecstasy - the use of
which has increased during the last
year, according to a University study.
"It doesn't feel real," said an anony-
mous University junior, about the
effects of ecstasy, which can last from
four to six hours. "It's kind of like liv-
ing in a fantasy world"
Ecstasy is the street name for the
drug methylenedioxymethampheta-
ne, or MDMA, which has stimulant
hallucinogenic characteristics.
During the past year, the United
States witnessed a large increase in the
use of ecstasy among adolescents,
including a 2.6 percent increase in
ecstasy use among high school seniors
from 5.6 percent to 8.2 percent,
according to the Monitoring the Future
study performed at the Institute for
Social Research.
*ast year's survey also showed that
one in 12 University students had used
ecstasy, at least once during the last
year.
"My guess is that use has risen in
students this year," said University
research scientist Lloyd Johnston, who
added that he feels the ongoing rise of
ecstasy use can be attributed to an
increase in supply of the drug from the
Netherlands and the growing club
scene. "I think it is a drug where the
sequences are not so obvious, so as
ong as they don't see the conse-
quences, they will continue to use it."
During the course of the past few
years, substance abuse therapist Randy
Pomeroy at the Chelsea Arbor Treat-
ment Center said he has also seen a
huge increase in the number of stu-
dents using ecstasy. He estimated that
four out of his 14 young adult cases
ecstasy.
'This is a big one and it is getting
worse," Pomeroy said. "It's actually
rising because of casual use at a party
or a friend's house on the weekends,
which escalates into something more
than casual."
Users and experts agree that the
biggest fear with ecstasy is the proba-
bility that the ecstasy is laced with
more dangerous drugs, which can pro-
duce fatal effects.
"You take 'E' and you could have
caine powder in there," an anony-
mous University student said. "Rarely
are you going to get pure 'E' and that's
scary."
Pomeroy said students worried
about purity are in the minority. Most
people are not as scared about the drug
because it's becoming more common
on college and university campuses,
through gateway drugs including alco-
* and marijuana, he explained.
"In two, three or four years down
the road, it's not likely that they will
quit because it is more socially accept-
able," he said.
According to the survey, 51 percent
of the 13,286 high school seniors who
enndedcam thv cold Boe etaco
BSU DAAP
clash during
MLK rally
By Jacquelyn Nixon
Daily Staff Reporter
As students took to the streets yesterday to advocate affir-
mative action, there were clear divisions among the 200 par-
ticipants in how the message
supporting affirmative action should
be presented.
Shortly after students marched
from the corner of South University
and South Forest avenues to the Diag,
where the rally began, the crowd
parted as members of the Black Stu-
dent Union and the Black Greek The University's 14th
annual Martin Luther
Association entered. They held green King Jr. Symposium
signs stating affirmative action was See inside for
their issue and not an issue for the more coverage
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and
Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.
BSU members joined BAMN and the other organizations
See RALLY, Page 2A
LSA sophomore Agnes Aleobua speaks on the steps of of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library yesterday afternoon during a rally in memory of.
Martin Luther King Jr. Aleobua will be testifying on the benefits of diversity in the trial against the University's Law School, which begins today.
Olmos gives energetic keynote
By Elizabeth Kassab
Daily Staff Reporter
Pushing the podium out of his way, activist and
actor Edward James Olmos made full use of Hill
Auditorium's stage in a powerful performance
yesterday morning during which he imitated
everyone from sleepy students to Spanish explor-
er Hernando Cortez.
Olmos, the memorial lecturer in the Universi-
ty's 14th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Sympo-1
sium, drew an overflowing audience.
"He is the only person of color who has been
given the right to be called a hero in this nation
- ever," Olmos said of King. Olmos touched on +
the symposium's theme of commitment and
renewal, saying that the day served as a focus1
point to renew commitment to the civil rights +
movement.
"The struggle you begin tomorrow is the
epitome of what this day is about," Olmos
said, referring to the case brought against the'
Students hon4
a
King through
Daytv of ServTic
By Carrie Thorson
Daily Staff Reporter
"The struggle you begin tomorrow is the epitome of
what this day is about."
- Edward James Olmos
Keynote speaker, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Symposium
University's Law School for using race as a
factor in admissions, which goes to trial
today.
In the welcoming remarks of the event,
University President Lee Bollinger said
when the lawsuits were filed, the University
committed itself to the belief that affirmative
action was a "core, fundamental principle of
the University of Michigan and of higher
education" and still stands by that commit-
ment.
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Lester
Monts, who also introduced Olmos, said of King,
"If we no longer hear his voice, we are not listen-
ing."
Olmos noted troubling trends in American
society during his speech, which was peppered
with Spanish and occasionally interrupted by
applause.
"We still think that Jesus Christ has blonde
hair and blue eyes," Olmos exclaimed.
"This guy lived in the Mediterranean, not, you
know, Sweden."
To illustrate his point, Olmos led Bollinger and
Monts to center stage. After pinpointing the
Mediterranean's location as Northern Africa,
Olmos dismissed Bollinger because he "doesn't
See OLMOS, Page 2A
MARJORIE MARSHALL/Daily
Actor and director Edward James Olmos
pretended to sleep while delivering his keynote
speech in Hill Auditorium yesterday afternoon.
Auth or reveals
'true' life of MLK
By Elizabeth Kassab
Daily Staff Reporter
DETROIT -- LSA senior Dana Aronson spent her day
off yesterday demolishing and cleaning up an abandoned
crackhouse.
"There's so many people out studying, and that's not the
point of today," Aronson said. "The point is to go out and
do something."
Other students who traveled to the run-down neigh-
borhood in Detroit cheerfully worked all afternoon
shoveling the remains of the house away. They donned
surgical masks to protect themselves from the debris of
the demolished Aellinoy and readily lifted iao'red sec-
Neuroscience graduate student
Dorothy Jones recently found herself
debating with her friends about the
African American intellectuals' place
in society. Her argument struck a
chord with DePaul University Prof.
Michael Eric Dyson's assertion that
blacks who have "made it" cannot
neglect those who are still struggling.
"It's important to remember where
you came from," Jones said.
Pharmacology graduate student
Tigwa Davis agreed. He saw a mes-
allow others of less fortunate back-
grounds to come through, to flourish,"
Davis said.
Jones and Davis joined about 300
people in a crowded Rackham Audito-
rium yesterday afternoon to hear
Dyson, a Detroit native, give a speech
titled "I May Not Get There With You:
The True Martin Luther King, Jr."
Dyson is the author of a biography
of the same name that explores King
beyond the myths and exposes that he
was far from flawless.
"Despite his imperfections, King was
the greatest American we have ever pro-
duced" Dvson said. "He was willing to
LSA Junior Natalie Stegall, Nursing Junior Regina Cox and RC
sophomore Megan Douglass throw woodchips on the ground
in Detroit as a part of the MLK Day of Service.
"I've never done anything like this before," Rajan added.
"It' aso wesome to he a nart of it"
I