1996-01-31; Central Michigan Life

              Central I IC C
Michigan Lilt
WEDNESDAY,
JANUARY 31,
1996
VOLUME 78, NUMBER 54
MOUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48859
©1996 CM LIFE
(517)774-3493
18 PAGES
Students outraged after weekend run in with police
Police claim partiers
attacked city officer
By Liz Wishaw
LIFE Staff Writer
By Chris Davis
UFE Staff Writer
A weekend gathering at
Washington Apartments landed
two CMU students and one of
her guests in jail, an official for
CMU's Department of Public
safety said.
Ron Williams, associate director of DPS, said his department
received a complaint of a loud
party around midnight
Saturday, coming from a residence in the Washington
Apartment complex.
Officers arrived at the scene
to hear music loud enough to be
heard from the opposite end of
the complex, Williams said.
The officers advised party-
goers that a complaint had been
received, and that the noise
would need to be stopped.
Approximately 40 people were
in the apartment, Williams said.
The resident told officers the
party would be brought under
control, Williams said.
Ten minutes later, the officers
ran a check on the apartment to
verify the situation had settled,
See PARTY Page 7
One former and five
CMU students say police
used excessive force when
attempting to break up a
social gathering Sunday
morning at Washington
Apartments.
Six people who attended the
Sunday morning gathering discussed their side of the story
Tuesday with CM LIFE, describing the events they say led to
two students and one guest
being arrested.
The six people said police
unnecessarily sprayed pepper
gas and used unwarranted force
to disperse what they called a
peaceful gathering.
Students accuse officers
of using excessive force
Ja-Relle Thomas, Muskegon
freshman and tenant of
Washington Apartment J-11,
said only 20 students gathered
in the apartment, not 40 as
police reported.
"The first time DPS came to
the door, they said that the noise
was too loud and there were too
many people there," she said.
"We complied with them and
asked people to leave, which
they did."
Eric Shumate, Detroit sopho
more, attended the gathering
and said the first time DPS
came to the apartment set the
tone for the second time they
arrived.
"DPS officers made a lot of
smart aleck comments toward
people as they left," he said.
Thomas said after DPS left
the first time, the music was
turned off and the television
was on. The six students who
remained played cards and
talked, she said.
Thomas said a DPS
officer returned a few
minutes later and asked
everyone who did not
live there to leave.
"I asked him to step
outside the apartment
and we could talk out
there,n she said. "He responded
that he would not leave the
apartment until everyone left
who did not live there."
Shumate said he then put on
his shoes and decided to leave
with another student, Lashawn
Bell, Detroit sophomore.
"I told officer (Leo)
Mioduszewski that what they
were doing was wrong and he
told   me   to   get...   out  of the
See STUDENT Page 8	
Winter weather blows through Mt. Pleasant
By Renee Lutz
LIFE Staff Writer
Recent bouts of prying your
car door open or attempting to
walk across campus without suffering frostbite tell you winter
has hit the Midwest - hard.
Sub-freezing temperatures,
along with blowing and drifting
snow throughout the state, hit
this weekend, causing people to
stay indoors or face extremely
dangerous weather conditions.
And, of course, it caused CMU to
call off classes after 4 p.m.
Monday      and      before      noon
Tuesday.
According to Keith Dicks,
weather service specialist for
the National Weather Service in
Houghton Lake, the conditions
were more dangerous than
usual.
"This storm was the worst Fve
ever seen here," Dicks said.
Although precipitation levels
are expected to be lower, temperatures will remain in the teens
during the day and will lower to
below zero levels during the
night, according to the National
Weather Service's five-day fore
cast.
According to WEYI TV 25
meteorologist Fred Rixe, a system coming from the west could
bring more precipitation to the
area.
Today's forecast for Isabella
County is partly cloudy with a
high of 15 degrees, with lows of
zero to 5 degrees, Dicks said.
Thursday's forecast calls for a
high of only 10 degrees with an
80 percent chance of snow.
Rixe's forecast also calls for
cold temperatures over the next
five-day period, with a possible
increase in precipitation,
depending on the storm system
approaching from the west.
The average temperature for
January is 18 degrees in the
daytime, much higher than
recent temperatures for the
Isabella County area, Dicks
said.
The average temperature for
Jan. 30, is approximately 28
degrees - Tuesday's temperature
was only 15 degrees, Rixe said.
Although a record-breaking 54
See WEATHER Page 7
Blizzard-like conditions cause massive
highway traffic accident on US-27
By Chris Davis
LIFE Staff Writer
Michigan State Police authorities blamed Monday's blizzardlike conditions for a massive 25-
plus automobile accident that
involved two semi-trucks.
Sgt. Timothy Gill, of the
Mount Pleasant Post of the
Michigan State Police, said
investigators were still sorting
out the accident Tuesday morning. He said preliminary investigations indicated two semi-
trucks jackknifed in the southbound lane of US-27 near the
Shepherd Road exit shortly after
4 p.m. Apparently at least one of
the trucks hit a car involved in
an earlier accident, he said.
Gill said the trucks were not
to blame in the subsequent collisions. More than 25 vehicles
were believed to have piled up,
he said.
Surprisingly, only two or three
individuals required medical
treatment, Gill said.
"One deputy I spoke with said
that  it  looked   like  Beirut
there," Gill said.
Mike Minnis, a state trooper,
said weather conditions along
US-27 were the worst he'd seen
in his 17 years as an officer.
"I've had to shut down a lot of
roads in my career," Minnis said.
"(Monday's weather) was as bad
The road was reopened at 6:30
p.m. Monday. As of noon
Tuesday, Gill said US-27 traffic
was moving along smoothly, but
small snow gusts were still
being reported in particularly
flat areas of the road.
LIFE Photos/Bryan Bosch
(Right) Wind gusts from 50 to 70 mph create poor visibility and driving conditions for motorists
Monday.   (Above) A 25-car oils up on south US-27 caused a traffic dead-lock for almost throe hours
nmmr the Shepherd Road overpass. (Loft) One of the many vehicles involved in the multiple accident
Monday.
Bridal show provides
information for brides-to-
be and others
More than 770 people
attended Bridal Expo '96 to
learn about wedding
preparations.
Page 12
Self-study gives most Central sports high scores
By Brad Monastiere
LIFE Staff Writer	
In the athletic department's
self-study, most aspects of the
department were given good
marks for conformity to NCAA
standards, but there was one
area of concern in the report.
The men's basketball program.
The report stated the graduation rates and the number of special admissions were not in line
with other CMU teams or the
general university. The report
attributed the problem to the
two coaching changes the program has seen in the last five
years, lending an unavoidable
instability to the program.
The issue of the men's basketball program was centered in the
area of the report dealing with
academic integrity. This section
checks to see that there is not a
great number of special admissions in programs, the graduation rates are up to par with the
rest of the university, eligibility
policies, student-athlete support
systems, scheduling and institutional goals for student-athletes.
Open forum discussion may
help bring athletic department
closer to NCAA certification
LIFE Photo/Christina N. Bowies
Members of a CMU committee discuss results of a NCAA self
study on CMU athletics Monday.
The study focuses on special
admissions and graduation rates
between the 1992-93 and 1994-
95 school years. The study lists
six special admissions made for
the men's basketball program
during   that   time.   All    other
sports combined had three during the same period of time, for a
total of nine special admissions.
Athletic director Herb
Deromedi said he was aware of
See FQRUMPage 7
By Brad Monastiere
LIFE Staff Writer	
An open forum at the Bovee
University Center's Lake
Michigan Room Monday closed a
chapter in the process of the athletic department's self-study in
hopes of receiving NCAA certification.
The report was sent to the
NCAA to be looked at by a peer
review team which will bring
the department a step closer to
certification.
About 20 people attended the
forum, which discussed how the
process has gone so far, the findings of the four subcommittees
and where the study is headed.
The athletic department self-
study examines four different
areas for possible NCAA certification; fiscal responsibility,
rules compliance, gender equity
and academic integrity. Three
ratings from the NCAA are possible; certified, certified with
conditions and not certified.
If an institution is certified, it
means it is in good standing
with the NCAA. Certified with
conditions means the NCAA
found some areas in need of
adjustment, and the school will
be reevaluated at a later date.
Not certified means significant
errors or irregularities were
found by the NCAA, and non-
certification could mean the
school would be ineligible for
NCAA-sanctioned events.
Up to this point, the self-study
has gone through only a part of
the process. In December 1994,
President Leonard Plachta
appointed the four subcommit-
See NCAA Page 9