The Michigan Daily - Saturday, August 6, 1983 - Page 3
Grand jury called in Chin case
By HALLE CZECHOWSKI Currently, the group is waiting to
D
The U.S. Justice Department an-
nounced Thursday a special grand jury
will investiage the death of a Chinese-
American man to determine if his civil
rights were violated.
The announcement followed a month-
long FBI investigation into the death of
Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Royal Oak
man.
CHIN WAS beaten to death with a
baseball bat in June 1982, following an
argument with two men, Ronald Ebens
and his stepson Michael Nitz, both of
East Detroit.
Witnesses have said the argument,
which took place in a Highland Park
bar, was racially motivated.
Ebens and Nitz were originally
charged with second degree murder,
but the charges were reduced to man-
slaughter after plea bargaining.
U' ninority
coordinator
position
delayed
By JACKIE YOUNG
Two weeks ago the University an-
nounced it would strengthen its efforts
to recruit and maintain minority
students by appointing a new ad-
ministration in the fall to take charge of
the problem.
A job description for the new post was
supposed to have come out earlier in
the week, but the "new priority" has
already run into the summer doldrums.
"EVERYBODY'S on vacation this
summer and it is practically impossible
to get anything done," said Vice
President for Academic Affairs and
Provost Billy Frye.
Frye said the University's executive
officers were scheduled to decide on the
exact responsibilities of the new ad-
ministrator, but the meeting plans fell
through.
Frye said he now expects to have a
job description to put before the Regen-
ts in September.
THE SPECIFIC duties of the new
position have not been outlined, but one
task will include heading up a council
on minority affairs made up of students
and faculty, Frye said earlier.
Vice President for Student Services
Henry Johnson, said the administrator
will try to make the University "more
accountable and more effective" in
recruiting and maintaining minority
students on campus.
One of the biggest problems with the
University's minority efforts is its
dismal record for enrolling black
students and keeping them at the
University once they've enrolled.
In 1977, black students made up 6.9
percent of the student body, a number
that declined to 5.2 percent last year.
Black undergraduates also have a 50
percent attrition rate, according to
statistics compiled by the Affirmative
Action Office, compared to a 30 percent
rate for white undergraduates.
Frye said the University has not
begun looking for a person to fill the
r new post yet. He did not know if there
would be a nationwide search to fill the
position or if someone from within the
University would take the job.
'It's only step one - the war isn't over yet.'
-Liza Chan
Attorney
EBENS PLEADED guilty and Nitz
pleaded no contest to the charges. In
March 1983, Wayne County Circuit
Court Judge Charles Kaufman senten-
ced each man to three years' probation
and fined them each $3,780.
The decision enraged Asian-
Americans across the nation, who say
they feel Kaufman based his decision
on misleading or insufficient evidence,
since there was no trial and no
prosecuting attorney present at the sen-
tencing.
If the grand jury finds enough
evidence to indict Ebens and Nitz for
civil rights violations, they could be
tried under federal statutes and face
possible life imprisonment if convicted.
MEANWHILE, members of the
American Citizens for Justice, a
primarily Asian-American group, have
mounted a legal battle to change the
sentences of the two men.
The group fought this spring to con-
vince Kaufman to withdraw his senten-
ce, but was unsuccessful.
hear if the State Supreme Court will
handle an appeal of the case.
ATTORNEY Marc Susselman, who is
handling the case on the state level,
said that Thursday's decision would
hve no legal effect on the case in the
state's courts.
Former State Supreme Court Justice
Thomas Brennan will handle the case if
it goes to the state's high court.
Liza Chan, the attorney for the
American Citizens for Justice on the
federal level, said she was excited by
the decision, but added that Chin's sup-
porters still have a long way to go.
"IT'S ONLY step one - the war isn't
over yet," she said.
Members of the American Citizens for
Justice have spent the summer touring
the country, accompanied by Chin's
mother, to raise support for their cause.
Daily Photo by DOUG McMAHON
Anti-Reagan demonstrators brought buttons and banners to the Federal Building Thursday as they protested U.S. in-
tervention in Central America and deportment of Salvadoran refugees seeking political asylum in the U.S.
Psae
Protestors sla- Reagan s policies
By JACKIE YOUNG
A dozen members of several local organizations toted
signs and banners in front of the Federal Building Thur-
sday, calling for an end to U.S. military maneuvers and
the buildup of troops in the Pacific, Caribbean, and Cen-
tral America.
"These maneuvers are totally without precedent. The U.S.
naval task force is the largest assembled since the height
of the Vietnam war," said rally participant Mark Esper, a
member of the Latin American Solidarity Committee.
"WE HAVE NO illusions about what this means. It
means another war in Central America," he added.
Esper joined members of the Black Student Union,
Michigan Student Assembly, and All People Congress in
the rally. There were no speakers at the protest, but Esp-
er said a rally held next Thursday at the Federal Building,
in conjunction with demonstrations nationwide, will
probably be larger.
Protesters a this week's rally said they will continue
demonstrating until all troop and ship deployments to
Central America are halted.
DEMONSTATOR and University biology Prof. John
Vandermeer, who has just completed a book on the war in
Nicaragua, said he felt President Reagan's policies are
hurting the country more than they are helping it.
"From what I have heard and can attest to, U.S. policy in
Nicaragua is having the opposite effect of what Reagan
intended it to have," said Vandermeer, who has visited
Nicaragua several times and plans another visit soon.
The Sandinistas are being forced to make repressive
laws, such as increased censorship of the press, to fight
the internal strife caused by U.S. military aid to rebel
troops, Vandermeer said.
VANDERMEER and other rally participants are
calling for a halt to U.S. military aid to El Salvador, Hon-
duras, and Guatemala; an end to U.S. "war threats"
against Nicaragua; and peace talks with all countries in-
volved in the conflict in El Salvador.
Some rally participants said they also want the U.S. to
grant Salvadoran refugees temporary asylum until it is
politically safe for them to return home. Demonstrators
carried petitions condemning Mexicana Airlines, the
Mexican firm the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Services uses to fly deported refugees back to El
Salvador.
Esper said several hundred signatures have been
collected since people began circulating this petition and
another against U.S. aid to El Salvador last June.
JANNY HUISMAN, MSA's administrative coordinator,
said she thinks the set of rallies will be a good method for
letting Reagan know where the American public stands on
See REAGAN'S, Page 7