Friday, February 6, 2004
Sports 10 Women's hoops lose
76-64 to Purdue
Opinion 4 Sowmya Krishnamurthy
on Nobel Prizes
Friday 12 The Daily previews
Focus tomorrow's caucuses
Ben Aleck speaks about his films, J-Lo and the future ... Arts, Pg. 8
relic4jIUU
Weather
4 V
HI: 27
LOW; 21
TOMORROW:
31116
One-hundred-thirteen years of editorialfreedom
www.michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No. 91 @2004 The Michigan Daily
Restaurant stays
open despite
sewage backup
By Victoria Edwards
Daily Staff Reporter
Despite a sewage backup yesterday in the Earl of Sand-
wich store at Pierpont Commons, and the protests of the
store's employees, the University decided to keep the store
open.
A female store employee on the condition of anonymity
said that she came in at 11 a.m. to find a serious sewage
backup around the drain in the food preparation area of the
store. She said a manager told her that they would close for
the rest of the day because of the potential health hazard.
But then University Catering Manager Shelly Bell ordered
the store to stay open, she said.
"I asked (the first manager), 'Are you sure this is
safe?' And (the managers) said it was fine. ... I'm no
Flu
outbreak
spreads
Several hallways in
Markley closed off
By Ashley Dinges
Daily Staff Reporter
expert on sewage,
but my mom is a
janitor, and in gen-
eral it just didn't
look right," the
female said.
She said knowl-
edge of the sewage
backup was kept
from the customers
who entered the
store yesterday.
"We were not
supposed to tell any-
one. If anyone asked
why there weren't as
many sandwiches,
we weren't supposed
added.
"They stayed open
because they
wanted money, but
in the process they
endangered the
health of the
students:'
- Lacey Babcock
LSA senior and Pierpoint Commons
Espresso Royale employee
to tell them what happened," she
The University's Occupational Safe-
ty and Environmental Health depart-
ment confirmed yesterday that a total
of 43 students have now contracted the
contagious viral gastroenteritis, also
known as the stomach flu, in Mary
Markley Residence Hall during the
past four or five days, said Alan Levy,
Director of Housing Public Affairs.
The virus, which as of Tuesday was
confined to the fourth floor of Reeves
house in Markley, now appears to have
moved to other areas of the building.
"There are some students who are
sick who were not on the floor. There
does not appear to be a pattern yet,"
Levy said.
Other floors housing infected stu-
dents include third Reeves, a women's
hall, and first Reeves, a men's hall.
But Levy pointed out that not all 43
students were sick today - the esti-
mate also includes students who were
(Top left)
Engineering
freshman Tom Cho
washes his hands,
at temporary
hand-washing
stations In front of
the cafeteria at
Mary Markley
Residence Hall
yesterday.
JEFF LEHNERT/Daily
(Bottom left) A
mask lies on the
landing on the 5th
floor at Markley
Hall.
JEFF LEHNERT/Daily
sick earlier this week, but only recently
notified authorities of their illness.
The entire first and fourth floors of
Markley were quarantined as of early
this morning.
Signs were posted near fourth
Reeves warning non-hall residents tc
avoid the floor, because of the conta-
gious nature of the virus. Instruction
for proper hand washing have alsc
been posted in all Markley bathrooms.
The University set up waterless
hand-washing stations in the
Markley dining hall yesterday with
sanitary handwashes and towelettes.
The stations have also been setur
throughout the hall in locations such
as the front desk and lounges. So far.
Markley is the only residence hall
with such stations.
"We are working to get the sick stu-
dents individual containers of this liq-
uid so they wouldn't have to leave their
rooms to wash their hands," Levy said.
Students who contracted the virus
See OUTBREAK, Page 5
LSA senior Lacey Babcock, who works across from
the Earl of Sandwich at Espresso Royale, said she found
the way the University handled the sewage situation irre-
sponsible.
"They stayed open because they wanted the money, but in
the process they endangered the health of the students. ... I
don't see why the University would do that. They should
have respect for the students they're serving," Babcock said.
She added that her store experienced a sewage backup
and closed.
Babcock said that according to her knowledge it was the
manager's sole decision to keep the store open. The employ-
ees were firmly against it, she added.
But Bell said that the incident was not a health hazard,
and keeping the store open was completely justified. When
asked whether the incident was a sewage backup, Bell
would not answer directly, instead calling it a "building mal-
function."
"There was a building problem in Pierpont Commons. We
contacted the Safety and Health Office immediately. We
reacted immediately and there was no danger to public
health at all," Bell said.
She added that after referring their problem to the
Department of Occupational Safety and Environmental
Health, the department instructed the store to remain open.
. Bell said employees cleaned the back of the store for 45
See SEWAGE, Page 7
(Right) Hallways
are quarantined
because of an
outbreak of the flu
virus has occurred
at Markley Hall.
RYAN WEINER/Daily
Dean cancels League visit, turns focus to Wisconsin
Multiplepresidential candidates skif last
minzute campaign stops in Michigan to focus
on later prrnari es, caucuses
By Andrew Kaplan
Daily News Editor
Following a boisterous town-hall gathering in Royal Oak
yesterday morning, Democratic presidential candidate
Howard Dean laid out the bones of a speech he had pre-
pared for a rally at the Michigan League today.
"The things the students care the most about are environ-
ment, the deficit ... and college loans and how to afford col-
lege," Dean said in an interview with The Michigan Daily.
But within hours of leaving 200 of his supporters in
Royal Oak, officials from the Dean campaign announced
that Dean would, in fact, skip canvassing Michigan and ship
out to Wisconsin - a state where the former Vermont gov-
ernor has more campaign "resources," as Dean put it.
Dean is not the only candidate who is bypassing Michigan
to seek victories in other states. Retired
Gen. Wesley Clark and U.S. Sen. John
Edwards have also chosen to sidestep the
state this weekend. Although some of the
candidates had planned to attend a town-
hall meeting at the Detroit chapter of the
National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People last night, as of 6
p.m. all had withdrawn except for Rev.
Al Sharpton.
Dean campaign officials said their
Dean decision to skip over Ann Arbor
reflected the reality that Dean's prospects in Michigan
are not hopeful enough to keep him from trying his lot in
other states.
"However, this is a delegate-rich state," said Chrissy
Setzer, Dean's Michigan spokeswoman, referring to a
wealth of delegates to the Democratic National Convention
that Dean can claim without a first-place finish in the cau-
cuses.
"I think we can come out with a sig-
nificant amount (of delegates)," Dean
added.
A new elections schedule may also
have been an ingredient in candidates'
decisions to pull out of Michigan.
One campaign official, who spoke
under the condition of anonymity,
said the timing of the caucuses affect-
ed the duration of his candidate's stay
Edwards in Michigan this weekend.
This year's caucuses mark the first of the party's elections in
which Michigan voters can cast ballots on the Internet.
Although Democratic supporters can still vote by mail or at
more than 400 traditional voting stations throughout the state,
about 20,000 voters - perhaps one seventh of the total
turnout, Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said -
have already submitted ballots online.
State Democrats have not officially
tallied the current leader in state mail-in
or Internet ballots. But it is possible that
Michigan be well on its way to select-
ing a candidate before the polls have
even opened.
If Internet voting has sailed the state
into a premature decision, it would
dovetail with an early primary/caucuses
schedule the Democratic National
Committee has arrayed for this election
Clark year. In order to hasten the party toward
endorsing a candidate that can compete with President
Bush, most states, including Michigan, will hold their cau-
cuses or primaries more than a month earlier than during the
See CAUCUSES, Page 7
Study: A2 police do not
practice racial profiling
By Ashley Dinges to them takes into account a measure, o
and Adhiraj Dut that is similar to a margin of error, they
Daily Staff Reporters appear to practice racial profiling.
Speaker pushes for
abortion activism
f error
do not
By Rebecca Kraut
and Lucille Vaughan
For the Daily
Ann Arbor police probably do not practice
racial profiling against blacks, according to a
three-year study presented to the Ann Arbor City
Council this week.
The study was conducted by Lamberth Con-
sulting - a private consulting firm who was
hired by the council after the city received com-
Still, some in the Ann Arbor community are
not convinced that racial profiling is not happen-
ing here.
"I just have some concerns about what the
data is telling us about the stops that occurred,"
City Councilwoman Wendy Woods said.
"Presumably, if no racial profiling is happen-
ing, then the odds ratio which the Lamberth firm
Thirty-one years after Roe v. Wade
became part of American law, last
night's event in Hutchins Hall showed
that abortion is still a wildly controver-
sial issue.
Several abortion rights supporters
shared their own experien~fces. in a~ddi-
in November.
"If the president sits in the White
House for another four years, the
right to choose as we know it will
be lost."
A Michigan alum, Michelman
encouraged students to become more
involved in the political sphere, invit-
ing them to the upcoming March for
Women's Lives on April 25, in Wash-
ineton.
m EWWI