I , / The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 2, 1995 - 7A ROTC women: It's no Citadel at the.U By Kiran Chaudhri Daily Staff Reporter Imagine being the only female in your class. Now imagine being the only female in an entire school - and hav- ing to face such greetings as T-shirts saying, "1,952 Bulldogs and 1 Bitch." This is what Shannon Faulkner faced tast month when she entered the Citadel as the first female cadet in the school's 152-year history. After atwo-year legal battle, Faulkner was admitted into the Citadel's army division only to quit less than a week later. Throughout the or- dbal, Faulkner said she was taunted, hiarassed, even threatened - far from being treated as an equal. But this is not the case for women in the University's Army division of the Reserve Officer Training Corp Program. "It's totally different from what you see onTV," said Lt. Colonel Grady Buchan, who is also the chair of the Army Of- ficer Education Program. "The foundation of this program is teamwork," Buchan said. "We don't think in terms of gender or race." Of the 82 students in the Army divi- sion of the ROTC, 23 are female, with seveiral female cadets in the top of their class. Calet Jennifer Dyer, .a Nursing se- nior, said she has never encountered any instances ofdiscrimination. "I think the reason why we haven't had any problems is that there were females who were here before us and who did very well," she said. Caidet battalion Comdr. Chris Kusainaul, an LSA senior, commented on the "open-minded" attitude at the University's ROTC program. "Here at ROTC, we all work together. The mili- tary hoes policies on equal rights and everybody knows them here - we are equals." In regard to Faulkner and women in Northern M party to gwea GAYLORD (AP) - It's not easy being 'a Democrat in northern Michi- gan, so they got together to cheer and encourtrge one another as they gear up for another election year. "Weimay be a minority here-we're a minority in every county - but when we're together our voice is stronger," said Charlevoix County party Chair- woman Kay Chase, who helped orga- nize Satlurday's get-together. It was the first time in more than 20 years tlaat Democrats of the northern Oakland Cou Schools swap students to keep per-pupil CASS CITY (AP) - Students have promise when studen a price on their heads since the passage fer. of Proposal A. A swap approved Some districts have taken to trading allow four students v their students as sports teams would Cass City district to c professional athletes in order to protect classes in the Owend their enrollments. trict. Students mean dollars and cents to "Owendale-Gaget districts more than they did before the us the first four stud school finance overhaul plan took ef- come to school in ou feet, said William Mayes, superinten- live in their district dent of the Huron Intermediate School Micklash, superinten District. City district. Proposal A, approved by Michigan The two districts h voters in 1994, transferred most fund- in recent years to in ing for public schools from local prop- tionship and want to1 erty taxes to a statewide income tax. working relationship Because of the per-pupil state fund- Micklash said. ing, districts are reluctant to allow stu- Cass City receives denttransfers.Buttwoneighboring dis- student and Owende tricts have found swapping students is a ceives $5,000. About possible solution. been traded between After years of legal battles in the past few years. 1970's and part of the 80's about the One student living boundaries of the districts, the Cass Gagetown district re City Public School District and the attend school in the t Owendale-Gagetown Area School Dis- Michigan Departn trict decided some years ago to com- spokesman Bob Har state funding nts want to trans- this month will who moved to the ontinue attending ale-Gagetown dis- own then will give ents who want to r district but who t," said Kenneth ndent of the Cass have worked hard iprove their rela- preserve the good they now have, $4,400 a year per ale-Gagetown re- it I1 students have the districts in the in the Owendale- cently decided to Cass City district. ment of Education ris said he was not aware of any other such trades and would not speculate about how often districts swap students. A bill intfoduced by state Sen. Bill Schuette (R-Midland) would eliminate the need for parents to get permission from their school districts for their chil- dren to attend school in another district. Despite the recent student swap, school administrators do not see the practice as a solution in every case. Micklash said the Cass City district has never kept a student from attending school in another district. But that atti- tude might change if a large number of students were involved, said Ronald Good, vice president of the Board of Education in the Owendale-Gagetown district. "Maybe we shouldn't put a price on a student, but to our district they're worth $5,000 a head in aid from the state," Good said. "If Cass City bends for us, we bend for them," he said. "Because of Pro posal A's passage, our funds are com- ing primarily from the state now. Our local property taxes are limited." MICHAEL FITZHUGH/Daily Of the 82 students in the University's Army division of ROTC, 23 are female. R t t the military, Kushmaul expressed the belief in a "popular opinion of 'OK, let's see if (the women) can do it. Let's let them see what it's like.' I think that's where we're headed--women in com- bat with the same standards as men. I don't think women have had this oppor- tunity yet." Cattleya Crossen, a Nursing senior and cadet in the Army-ROTC, also said that she has not encountered any in- stances ofgenderbias, yetstill acknowl- edges the challenges that women face. "I haven't really faced any discrimina- tion," Crossen said. "But you really do have to prove yourself and give that extra 'oomph."' Crossen disapproved of the way that the Citadel dealt with the Faulkner situ- ation: "I shun the Citadel for how they handled that." Kushmaul said, "I don't think they should (admit) only one (women) at a time." Both referred to the successful admittance of women at West Point in 1976, when 119 women entered the military academy. "I was disappointed that (Faulkner) wasn't able to continue. ... I think fe- males belong (at the Citadel) if they want to be there and if they are able to do what they are asked to," Dyer said. Muskeg man produces rec d logs to catch fire in rainy weather MUSKEGON (AP) - Richard Cejmer didn't need a slick advertis- All the people started coming to my ing campaign to round up customers for his fire logs made of recycled camper saying, 'Hey, we heard you gt cardboard. The Muskegon man was camping somethingthat'l get our fire going "' with his family last month in Newaygo - Richard C m County when a sudden downpourturned- cejmet all the campfires into soggy ashes and Founder, SureFire soaked the firewood. Cejmer bailed the rainwater out of logs and sets of five starters sell for this up andrunning to full production his fire pit and lit a match to some of his $1.79 to $2.09 each at retail outlets to have handicapped and disablei company's SureFire firestarters. They from Muskegon to Traverse City. people come in here and work," he sai caught fire, as did the SureFire logs Cejmer, 29, starts by collecting dis- "There have been a lot of times whe he'd also brought along. carded cardboard from local stores - I went and tried to get a job and I knot That got the attention of other frus- about 1 1/2 tons a week. One machine people were looking at my hands an trated campers. slices the cardboard into thin pieces saying (to themselves), 'Well, mayb "I was the only one around who had that are fed into a second machine, he can't pick that part up quite as fast a a really decent fire going fast," he said. which grinds and binds the material, he should," he said. "So I took the starters to a couple of appliesalight coatingofglueandshapes Cejmersaidhehopestoprocessabot campers that were around us and said, it into logs. four tons of cardboard a week whe 'Hey let's light astarterblock and see if The logs are dried for 24 hours, then SureFire reaches full production. F it gets your wet wood going."' dipped in wax that gives them their now, his marketing efforts consi It did. And the fact that it was lighting power. mainly of visits to small retailers. dinnertime helped. The logs not only are environmen- "I load my truck up and hit the roa "The next thing I know, I made 56 tally safe but also keep tons of card- and I just go to places I think might se bucks ... because all the people started board out of landfills, Cejmer said, add- them and try to make my pitch and s coming to my camper saying, 'Hey, we ing that SureFire products are packaged if they want them," he said. heard you got something that'll get our in boxes made of recycled materials. "People ask me why don't I get then fire going.' That was just wonderful to Born with malformed feet and with- into Meijer's, but I don't have the cap me." out fingers, Cejmer said he wants to tal for that kind of production yet., The campground episode added build his business for reasons that aren't have to keep plugging at all these sma word-of-mouth momentum to SureFire, entirely capitalistic. ones until I build up enough produ which Cejmer founded in April. The "My goal is, eventually, when I get tion." r u e elcraetioyar Irunfo th eeetinyar r e ny 1, L. n d as rut en 'or st ad ll. ,ee ;se I all ic- T i } Lower Peninsula got together for such an event. Party regulars dream of the day when all the auto workers, teachers and postal employees who have retired to Traverse City suddenly wake up and remember that they're really Democrats at heart. But that day has not arrived. "People move up here where 'Demo- crat' is a dirty word, and they change," says Grand Traverse party chairman Brian Bensett. "Everybody wants to blend in, to belong. Up here it takes a lot of guts to openly declare that you're a Democrat." Many of the leading Democrats from around the state made a point of getting to Gaylord on Saturday, where their presence helped buoy the spirits of the local troops. State party chairman Mark Brewer said it's part of the party's at- tempt to broaden its geographic appeal to outstate residents. "Every Democrat in the state is im- portant to us, no matter where they live," he said. "We're doing a retreat in Cadillac, too, in a couple of weeks." U I nty to combat murder surge /0i I PONTIAC (AP) - Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson plans to create a special unit within his office to deal withuarecent surge in violent deaths. Eight people have died in recent weeks in violent attacks around the county. "These homicides do frighten a lot of people because of the senseless vio- lence happening in so random a na- ture," Thompson said. "In general, Oakland County re- flects whatt is going on in the rest of the nation and there is an increase in random crime. "Families are disintegrating, churches and schools are not doing their jobs and the criminal justice system doesn't hold peopleaccountable for their actions. I think all of this helps to create the sense of lawlessness that pervades our soci- ety." Farmington Hills Police Chief Will- iam Dwyer, who spent 25 years with the Detroit Police Department, said he be- lieves such senseless killings tend to run in cycles. "I don't think anyone is going to have an answer for why," he said. "I don't see a common denominator in the re- cent cases in Oakland County, but throughout the country we are seeing an increase in homicides." Experts who have studied the crimi- nal mind say homicides are a reflection of our changing society. "There's an increasing decentrali- zation in our culture," said Dr. John Pietrofesa, a professor of counseling at Wayne State University. "People are becoming more isolated, the fam- ily unit more diffused. Our support systems are less reliable. We build up anger and, as the song says, end up hurting the ones we love." 4f ) i Q a .oo _- fl __- Q ARE YOU LONELY? Desperately seeking someone? (If not, why are you reading the personals?) -- Anyways, why just read the ads when you can place one??? Good things may happen... Just call 764-0557 NOW! TIOS SELLS MICHIGAN'S finest Mexican style food and'the world's hottest sauces. Stop b 333 E. Huron, or call 761- 6650. We Deli~r! NEED GOOD HOME for well-trained 5 yr. old white Amer. Eskimo dog. 663-1194. 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