NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 3A
ON CAMPUS JetBlue plane lands safely despite wheel problem
Chinese cities
depicted in photo
exhibition today
The Institute for the Humanities
has sponsored an exhibit that depicts
the many layers of rapidly modern-
izing Chinese cities. The exhibit can
be viewed today and tomorrow from
12 to 8 p.m. at the Osterman Common
Room, 0520 Rackham. Call (734)936-
3518 to make an appointment.
Arts on the Hill
presents figure
drawing workshop
Beginners are welcome at this open fig-
ure drawing workshop with live models
from 7:30 to 9 p.m. tonight at Alice Lloyd
Residence Hall's art studio. Instruction
and limited supplies available.
Watch and learn
salsa dancing at
Pierpont Commons
Watch the MSalsa group perform,
and learn some salsa dancing of your
own at this dance session in the Leon-
ardo Room of Pierpont Commons.
The dancing will go from 9 to 11 p.m.
tonight. The charge is $3 per student
and $4 for the general public.
CRIME
NOTES
Female student
victim of assault
at football game
A female University student report-
ed to the Department of Public Safety
on 'Ibesday that she was the victim of
a non-aggravated assault during the
Michigan football game at the Big
House on Sept. 10.
Another female subject punched her
in the face and stated, "My threat still
stands." The victim, who said she did
know the suspect before the assault,
did not require any medical attention.
The suspect was escorted out by the
event staff.
Armed robbery
victim hit with
wrench
The victim of an armed robbery had
to be transported to the University Hos-
pital Emergency Room after being hit
on the head early yesterday morning
with a wrench.
The incident occurred between Ash-
ley Street and Miller Street, where the
victim and his friend were forced to
empty their wallets. The Ann Arbor
Police Department is handling the case.
Large fight in Diag
breaks up before
officers arive
A caller reported Monday that a
large group was about to fight on 900
North University St. at about 4 p.m.
By the time the Department of Pub-
lic Safety arrived at the scene, none of
the suspects were able to be located.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Two professors
stopped by 'leftist'
mob in Tokyo
Sept. 22, 1956 - Professors Charles
Gordy and Edward Page, both exchange
professors from the University's 9
industrial engineering department,
were stopped on their way to Waseda
University in Tokyo. With concerns
for their personal safety, the profes-
sors were forced to wait until the mob's
danger was gauged.
Student "Leftists" and local unions
yards as the plane came to a stop.
Within minutes of landing, the plane's door
opened and the 140 passengers walked down
a stairway with their luggage and onto the tar-
mac, where buses waited.
"We all cheered. I was bawling. I cried so
much," said Christine Lund, 25.
Passengers said they had watched their own
drama unfolding on the news on in-flight tele-
visions until just before the landing.
One described it as surreal to watch.
Another said she would have been calmer
without it.
"At the end it was the worst because you didn't
know if it was going to work, if we would catch fire. It
was very scary. Grown men were crying," said Diane
Hamilton, 32, a television graphics specialist.
As the plane was about to touch the ground, Ham-
ilton said, crew members ordered people to assume
a crash position, putting their heads between their
knees.
"They would yell, "Brace! Brace! Brace!"'
she said. "I thought this would be it."
The plane landed on an auxiliary runway
where fire trucks and emergency crews had
massed as a precaution. No injuries were
immediately reported among the passengers
and six crew members, fire officials said.
"It was a very, very smooth landing. The
pilot did an outstanding job," said fire Battal-
ion Chief Lou Roupoli.
"There was a big hallelujah and a lot of
clapping on that aircraft."
The National Transportation Safety Board
is investigating the incident, NTSB spokes-
man Paul Schlamm said.
JetBlue flight 292 had left Bob Hope Air-
port in Burbank at 3:17 p.m. for New York's
John F. Kennedy International Airport, said
JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin.
The Airbus A320 first circled the Long
Beach Airport, about 30 miles south of Bur-
bank, then was cleared to land at Los Angeles
International Airport.
It stayed aloft to burn off fuel and lighten its
weight, said Federal Aviation Administration
spokesman Donn Walker.
Passenger Zachary Mascoon said he had tried at
one point to call his family, but his cell phone call
wouldn't go through.
"I wanted to call my dad to tell him I'm alive so
far," the 27-year-old musician said.
Mascoon praised the flight crew's professional-
ism and how calmly they handled the emergency.
The plane landed at 6:19 p.m. Some passen-
gers shook hands with emergency workers as they
walked off the plane.
Others talked on their cell phones and
waved to cameras. One firefighter carrying a
boy across the tarmac put his helmet on the
child's head.
JetBlue, based in Forest Hills, N.Y., is
a five-year-old low-fare airline with 286
flights a day and destinations in 13 states
and the Caribbean. It operates a fleet of 81
A320s.
Passengers deplane on the tarmac at LAX after the Jet Blue flight landed safely.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A JetBlue airliner
with faulty landing gear touched down safely
yesterday at Los Angeles International Air-
port after circling the region for three hours
with its front wheels turned sideways, unable
to be retracted into the plane.
The pilot landed on the back wheels, then
eased onto the awry front tires, which shot
flames along the runway before they tore off.
The metal landing gear scraped for the final
Midnight Madness
brings together
rhythms, culture
By C.C. Song
Daily Staff Reporter
With blue and gold canes in their
hands, their feet stepping in unison
on the floor to create rhythms, the
sisters of the Sigma Gamma Rho
sorority sing out their sorority his-
tory and their pride for their orga-
nization.
They swiftly clap their hands,
tapping their shoulders, their hips,
their arms and their feet. They call
out each other's names.
Combining their own songs and
traditional stepping, a form of Afri-
can dance, the sisters from Sigma
Gamma Rho, along with seven other
ing the 40s and 50s as a way to
distinguish them from other Greek
organizations.
Key elements of the dance are
portions in which performers sing
the same part of the song at different
times, creating layers of melody.
Performers line up and create
rhythms by stepping on the floor
emphatically and clapping their
hands at the same time; there are no
instruments involved in the dance.
Their movements follow the
beats; they stretch out their arms,
point toward different directions
and step simultaneously.
They start the song with a single
high-pitched call by one of the per-
fraternities and
everyone to come
out to Midnight
Madness at the
Diag at midnight
tonight.
The National
Pan-Hellenic
Council, which
oversees the
University's his-
torically black
fraternities
and sororities,
started Mid-
night Madness
nine years ago
as a way to wel-
come returning
students and to
let new students
find out about
their groups,
said Danielle
Robinson, an
LSA senior and
president of the
Sigma Gamma
Rho sorority.
sororities, invite
formers, then
"Stepping is part of
our history. We feel
unique from the
rest of the Greeks.
The rhythm, the
stepping, the
coordination,
and the call-
and-response
are all parts of
African culture."
- Kreston Martin
National Pan-Hellenic
Council President
everyone joins in as
the song progress-
es.
As they sing, the
performers slow-
ly and uniformly
move to one direc-
tion then back to
where they began.
They step hard
on the floor, keep-
ing everyone on
beat.
Each perfor-
mance varies in size
and length, Rob-
inson said. Sigma
Gamma Rho has
an act composed
of nine people, but
other fraternities
and sororities have
up to 15 dancers.
Three of the nine
performers from
Sigma Gamma Rho
are from Eastern
Michigan Univer-
sity, partly because
a Gamma Rho chap-
PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daily
LSA Senior Natalie Vanderbilt practices with Sigma Gamma Rho in Angell Hall for tonight's Midnight Madness
performance. The dance is an annual one put on by different multicultural sororities and fraternities to attract
new members.
Midnight Madness has been a
good way to advertise the multi-
cultural fraternities and sororities,
said Kreston Martin, a Kinesiology
senior and president of the National
Pan-Hellenic Council at the Univer-
sity.
"We've had pretty good atten-
dance in the past - roughly 400
people attended each year," Martin
said.
The goal of using stepping is to
incorporate the uniqueness of the
multicultural fraternities and soror-
ities into songs, lyrics and rhythms.
"Stepping is part of our history.
We feel unique from the rest of the
Greeks.
The rhythm, the stepping, the
coordination and the call-and-
response are all parts of African
culture," said Natalie Vanderbilt,
an LSA senior and a Sigma Gamma
Rho sister.
Stepping was adopted by black
members of the Greek system dur-
the first Sigm
ter started on the EMU campus and
because as Martin, the Pan-Hellenic
Council intends to invite everyone.
"People start preparing in March
and April, before school even ends,"
Martin said. The long planning is a
good way to let them get to know
one another better and become
more united as an organization, he
added.
"It's something that I think I can
definitely do. I think it's an accom-
plishment. It's a chance to be with
people who you love, while you
practice every night," Vanderbilt
said.
Deena Marshal, an LSA junior
and a member of Sigma Gamma
Rho, said stepping gives her a sense
of pride.
"It's fun. I love it because you get
to show your attitude and present
your organization at the same time.
We're the best, and you can quote
that," Marshall said.
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