Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, May 16, 1986
Crisis center
moves ahead
By MELISSA BIRKS Before coming to the University,
The University's new Sexual Steiner spent 10 years lobbying for
Assault Prevention and womens' rights issues through
Awareness Center appears to be such groups as Planned Paren-
making substantial progress in thood and the American Civil
educating students about rape and Liberties Union.
improving campus safety. But the SHE WAS brought to campus af-
center will not be equipped to aid ter a year of activism that
rape survivors until fall term at protested the University's lack of
the earliest. concern about womens' issues.
"There isn't a schedule of what The primary instigation for
to do when, buta lot has been done creating a rape crisis center came
so far," said art school senior in January of 1985 when 30 studen-
David Lovinger, one of two ts sat in at the office of University
student staff members. The center Vice President for Student Ser-
opened last February. vices Henry Johnson. Johnson had
"Looking on the outside, I'd been quoted in Metropolitan
pleased, just from the fact that the Detroit magazine as saying that
center started out with nothing. rape should be kept quiet on cam-
We're talking about programs, pus.
educational stuff," Lovinger said. The students demanded a rape
DIRECTOR Julie Steiner said crisis center, as well as other
the center plans to concentrate on safety devices such as better
four areas: education, rape crisis, lighting, an escort service, and
campus safety, and the Univer- emergency phones.
sity's responsibilities when a Last May, the University
women gets raped. allocated $75,000 for the center,
The rape crisis operation, which and Steiner has been working with
will provide direct counseling for campus safety officials to im-
victims, is not yet operational, plement new programs.
Steiner said. She added that she is The installation of 54 emergency
currently creating a budget and phones is tentatively scheduled for
evaluating what the center needs. August, according to Steve Mayo,
The center, which Steiner hopes administrative manager at the
will be functioning in the fall, will University's Telecommunications
have a 24-hour rape hotline as well Systems.
as counselors specifically trained THE PHONES are being in-
to aid rape victims. The coun- stalled in conjunction with the
selors will go with victims to switchover to the new University
hospitals, assist them with phone system, but Mayo says they
classes, and help file police repor- would have been put in anyway.
ts. "They always had been planned.
DESPITE the center's current It would have been done with or
lack of equipment, Steiner said without a new phone system," said
she has helped five sexual assault Mayo.
survivors since her office opened Six to eight phones will be
in February. Four of the women placed in "strategic" locations on
were victims of acquaintance North Campus, such as bus stops
assault, while the fifth was raped and parking lots.
by a stranger, she said. The emergency phone system
According to the Ann Arbor will cost approximately $500,000,
Assault Crisis Center, more than Mayo said. They will be hooked up
60 percent of rape victims know to a computer at the Department
their assailant before the attack. of Public Safety, and will trigger
12 percent of rapes actually occur an alarm when the receiver is
on dates, the center wrote in a knocked off the base.
pamphlet distributed at last mon- TO PUBLICIZE these im-
th's Take Back the Night march. provements and raise awareness
STEINER said she has coun- of rape on campus, Steiner hopes
seled these victims, discussing to continue acquaintance rape
their legal options and helping workshops begun last year by
them with schoolwork. She would Lovinger and Kisch.
not say if any of them filed suit. The workshops, which were seen
"Each situation was handled dif- by 700 students, presented video-
ferently, but all of them got coun- taped scenarios of potential date-
seling through counseling ser- rape situations, with discussion af-
vices," she said. See RAPE, age 13
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DAILY
SALVADOR TWILIGHT ROOM WITH
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Daily Photo by ANDI SCHREIBER
Fried Fans
Sunday's late afternoon heat didn't keep devoted fans from attending the University's baseball game
against Ohio State University.
Spending plan expected to pass
WASHINGTON (AP) - Demo-
cratic leaders predicted the House
today will approve a $994 billion
fiscal spending plan that sharply
reduces President Reagan's
military budget request and joins
the Senate in embracing higher
taxes.
"I think we have enough votes to
pass it," Majority Leader Jim
Wright, D-Texas, said as the house
began its second day of debate on
the measure. The Senate on May 2
passed its version for the fiscal
year beginning Oct. 1.
Earlier this week, Reagan told
Republican congressional leaders
the pending House package was
"totally unacceptable."
The plan, approved last week by
the Democratic majority on the
House Budget Committee, would:
- Set Pentagon spending
authority at $285 billion, com-
pared with $301 billion in the
Senate-passed budget plan and
$320 billion requested by the
president.
- Add $7.3 billion in unspecified
higher taxes to the $5.9 billion in
minor tax increases Reagan has
recommended. The Senate
package assumes the same level
of revenues but applies the in-
crease to help finance Pentagon
spending. The House would set
aside $4.7 billion of the increase
for reducing the deficit.
- Leave a deficit of $137 billion,
$7 billion below the $144 billion
target required by a new deficit
reduction law. The Senate plan
carries a $144 billion deficit.
- Restrain spending on most
domestic programs including
freezes and cuts of up to 20 percent
in some cases. Through the end of
the decade, domestic savings in
the Senate plan would be about $12
billion greater.
- Like the Senate plan, assume
a full cost-of-living adjustment for
federal benefit programs based on
a projection of 2 percent inflation.
I
I
Committee seeks changes in Nile Owl
(Continued from Page 1)
and advertising, would cost between $30,000 to
$40,000.
The largest addition, according to the committee,
will be running two vans simultaneously on two
separate routes from the Intramural building to the
University Terrace.
"If you run one system for a year at $60,000, if you
have two, it will probably double," Weidenbach
said.
THE ADDITIONAL van, and the other proposed
changes comes along with efforts throughout cam-
pus to improve safety. Last year, lighted signs were
put on top of the buses and their schedule was shor-
tened from a bus every 30 minutes to every 20
minutes.
The additional bus and expanded route were
designed to accomodate more students during peak
hours. In 1984-85, 33,594 students rode Nite Owl, in-
cluding 24,000 women, according to Julie Steiner,
UM News in
The Daily
764-0552
director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and
Awareness Center.
"At certain times of the year," Steiner said,
"overcrowding is a problem." She said students are
sometimes left behind at bus stops.
ANOTHER problem addressed by the Committee
is the absence of services during the spring and
summer.
"I do support the Night Owl during the spring and
summer," said Johnson, "But whether we can af-
ford it is a different matter."
John Ellsworth, manager of transportation ser-
-vices, declined to comment.
"It's a fact that nationwide, there are more
sexual assaults in the summer," said Leo Heatley,
director of public safety. "I suppose there's a
relationship of more people doing outdoor things."
ACCORDING to Steiner, the committee will sub-
mit a scaled-down route for the summer because
there are fewer riders.
"If it started up in spring, I don't know what kind
of ridership (it would get)," Steiner said. "But we
would be encouraging it."
According to the committee members, however,
more changes are needed. "While many have
utilized the system for years, others have not fouond
the service useful, and have noted areas that could
use improvement," the committee said ina report.