NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 8 2004 - 5A
What the
hack!
Tyco juror denies any
improper behavior in trial
NEW YORK (AP) - Ruth Jordan, the for-
mer juror at the center of a media furor dur-
ing the Tyco mistrial, said she never signaled
her support for the defense but was likely
going to vote to acquit the firm's two former
executives.
"At best it was going to be a hung jury," Jor-
dan said in an interview published yesterday in
The New York Times. "I don't think I would
have voted guilty on any count."
Jordan also denied she ever flashed an "OK"
hand signal to reassure defense lawyers during
the trial, as had been reported by several news
outlets.
"I would never do that," she said. "It's
completely contrary to what I was supposed
to be doing there as a juror. It's so unbeliev-
ably stupid."
She said she suffered from a medical condi-
tion similar to shingles that made her skin sensi-
tive and that she sometimes scraped her hair
back from her face - a movement that could be
mistaken for a signal.
The interview, a collaboration with CBS
News, was to air last night on "60 Minutes II."
Jordan received an intimidating letter and a
telephone call after her name and accounts of
the alleged hand signal appeared in several
newspapers. News organizations usually do not
report the names of sitting jurors.
Jordan reported the contacts to state Supreme
Court Justice Michael Obus, who declared a
mistrial Friday in the cases of L. Dennis
Kozlowski, 57, Tyco's former chief executive
officer, and Mark H. Swartz, 43, the former
chief financial officer.
The former executives, accused of looting
Tyco of $600 million, had been charged with
grand larceny, falsifying business records, con-
spiracy and securities fraud. Each would have
faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Jordan said she considered all evidence pre-
sented in the trial fairly. But the prosecution's
case, including descriptions of lavish personal
expenditures made by Kozlowski and Swartz,
failed to convince her of the defendants' guilt,
she said.
"Even people who have bad habits deserve
justice," she said. "Intent - intent was the
center of the whole case, at least for me. I
don't think they thought they were commit-
ting a crime."
Several fellow jurors have said that the jury
was close to reaching a consensus to convict
Kozlowski and Swartz on several counts when
the mistrial was called.
TRVEOR CAMPBELL/Daily
Ann Arbor residents Thomas Boutourwick and Greg Nelson teach their hackey
sack - also known as footbag - skill to students on the Diag yesterday.
WAGES
Continued from Page IA
LEO
Continued from Page IA
versity said LEO's plan would cost $12
million for Fiscal Year 2005.
LEO's job security demands include
the elimination of lecturers' tempo-
rary-employee status, regular job per-
formance evaluation and hiring and
lay-off procedures based on qualifica-
tions and seniority. These demands
would give lecturers "a level of job
security beyond that afforded most
other instructional employees of the
University," Provost Paul Courant said
in an e-mail sent to deans, directors
and department heads April 1.
The third major demand of LEO ijs a
revision of their health-benefits pack-
age. LEO wants year-round coverage
as opposed to coverage only during the
term that a lecturer teaches.
The two sides did not sit down at
the bargaining table until around 10
p.m. Before that, the lead negotiators
for the two bargaining teams made
"conceptual presentations" of their
perspectives on the issues. Each pres-
entation was followed by questions
from the opposing group.
And while there has been little
movement in talks, both sides say
they have been able to remain civil
throughout the bargaining sessions.
"The negotiations have always been
very professional," Halloran said.
have taken similar measures - can-
celing both classes and office hours
or moving classes to off-campus
locations.
"I'm not going to the lecture I'm
grading for ... I also said if there's a
walkout I'm canceling my office
hours," Powner said.
Powner is a member of GEO, but
said she still supports LEO.
"As somebody who is a year away
from entering the job market myself
... I really do need to stand up for
these things and be aware of them,"
Powner said.
The two unions are closely related
- especially because many GSIs
become lecturers before getting on
the tenure track, Powner said.
College of Engineering Dean
Stephen Director sent an e-mail to
all engineering students yesterday
afternoon addressing the cancella-
tion and movement of classes.
According to the e-mail, "The
position of the College of Engineer-
ing is that we expect all faculty
(including lecturers), all GSIs and
all staff members to be at work on
Thursday.
"Classes for Thursday, April 8,
have not been cancelled. All faculty
should meet their classes at the regu-
larly scheduled times and in the reg-
ularly scheduled locations."
- Daily Staff Reporter Mona Rafeeq
contributed to this report.
talks with noncompliant companies on a case-by-case
basis. Moreover, the document also urges the Univer-
sity to work with groups such as the Worker Rights
Consortium and the Fair Labor Association, which
verify license compliance, to develop a systematic
method to obtain accurate wage data.
Other recommendations include discussing the
issue with the University of Wisconsin - another
college also in the works of a wage disclosure policy
- and with certain apparel companies to open up
future dialogue on carrying out the policy.
McRay said she is hopeful President Coleman will
agree with the committee's recommendations. "She's
put a lot of emphasis on it, so hopefully she'll take
this recommendation seriously, McRay added.
Despite the achievement of agreeing to a proposal,
the committee potentially faces a flurry of other prob-
lems in attempting to formulate a wage disclosure
FAKE ID
Continued from Page 1A
administrator, said that he was aware of a "group of
fake ID cases that had come in front of one of the
judges" recently. However, Zeisloft said he did not
have access to any other information on a possible
meeting or sentencing change.
Music sophomore Levi Hyssong said he doesn't
think harsher policies will stop underage students
from acquiring fake IDs.
"I think students would just make (the IDs) bet-
ter," he said.
Like Hyssong, LSA junior Tim Kaegi said he
didn't think harsher punishments would produce
policy. During the meeting, members also listened to
third-party perspectives on the issue, explaining
potential difficulties to the policy.
"The closer you get to disclosing information, the
closer you get to an anti-trust issue," said Stan Bies,
University assistant general counsel. Bies highlighted
that a key problem with large apparel companies,
such as Nike, is the fear that other companies could
calculate the production costs of their products if
wages are disclosed publicly. Hence, the wage data
could give their competitors an edge, he added.
Obtaining accurate data will also be tricky, as
many smaller businesses have no direct management
over the sweatshops' factories, said Rut Tufts, FLA
executive director. Factories often will fabricate data,
and it is costly and time-consuming for companies to
conduct thorough wage inspections, he added. "The
problem is in trying to find companies who are will-
ing to crack down on these factories," Tufts said.
Regardless of the difficulties, Scott Nova, WRC
executive director, said a University wage disclosure
policy could still have widespread ramifications as it
may raise conversations among companies and spur
awareness on unjust wage practices.
By obtaining wage disclosures, it will compel
companies to have conversations with their factories
over wages and lead to active compliance rather than
companies making assumptions that their factories
are compliant, said Nova.
"If you want compliance across the board, you
need a culture of compliancy," he said.Committee
members agreed with Nova's assertions, but members
also said the potential obstacles faced should be
undemanding to companies.
They explained that because every company who
has a license with the University agrees in the con-
tract that all its workers are paid the minimum wage,
all companies should have data on their workers,
which they are permitted to disclose.
As for now, the committee meetings will continue,
with another scheduled for the early morning of April
16 in the School of Social Work.
CLASSES
Continued from Page 1A
class off campus.
"As a teacher; I think it is very
important that students have class;
as a union member, I think it is
essential that the terms of our con-
tract are met by the University.
Because I don't know for certain that
we will be striking, I have decided to
hold my class off campus tomor-
row," Rubright said.
Holding classes off campus means
students will not be forced to make a
decision whether or not to cross the
picket lines, Rudbright said.
"Some of my students have told
me that they felt uncomfortable
about crossing the picket lines and
some say they totally support the
lecturers.
I wouldn't want them to have to go
against their own conscience in
order to attend class on campus," she
added.
Many students have expressed
similar views, saying they are intimi-
dated to attend class on campus
today. "I'm glad actually that they
canceled class because it would have
been hard to go to class and cross
the picket lines," Dykema said.
Dykema's Spanish class was can-
celled for today, and her English
class was moved to Amer's Deli.
Many lecturers and instructors
the desired results. "Maybe right off the bat (it
would be effective)," he said. "But after it would
just linger off."
Kaegi added that he got a fake ID during his
freshman year to be able to buy alcohol and get into
bars. "We're in college. (Drinking) is too big of a
problem to stop,"he said.
A study done in 2001 by the Core Institute sur-
veyed 54,444 undergraduates from 131 different
colleges reflects the prevalance of drinking on col-
lege campuses.
The study found that males in their freshman
year have about nine drinks a week, compared to
males in their senior year who have about 10 drinks
each week - demonstrating no significant differ-
ence in alcohol consumption between students who
are legally allowed to buy it and those who aren't.
A number of students pointed out that fake
IDs were often pointless because older friends
purchase alcohol for those not yet old enough to
buy it.
Engineering junior Mike McDonald added that
getting into bars was easy for him because he had
older friends that were DJ's. He said he did not
think increasing the severity of punishments was
necessary.
"If I tried to buy a gun without an ID you can
slap, mewith whatever (penalty) you want,"
McDonald said. "But if I'm buying a couple of
Bailey's, what's the harm (I'm) doing here?"
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