1998-09-21; Central Michigan Life

              Central JYIichigan l^lr1 rL
Volume 81, Number 10
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
©1998 CM LIFE
79 years of serving the community
Monday
September 21, 1998
14 pages
Enrollment now counts off-campus
By Liz Wishaw
LIFE Ed.tor
CMU is changing the way it counts student
enrollment, and administrators say this new
way is just keeping up with other universities.
The 1998-99 enrollment of 25,595 includes
both on campus and off-campus location sites
across the country. On-campus enrollment is
at 17,155, while 8,440 students attend one of
the 50 other sites throughout Michigan and
other states.
University   President   Leonard   Plachta
City settles
for $890,000
in Sova suit
By Angela S. Vandenberg
LIFE Assistant News Editor
An out-of-court settlement nearing $1
million over the 1994 shooting death of
Thomas Sova will be paid out by the insurers representing the two Mount Pleasant
police officers.
Although the officers admitted no
wrongdoing under the terms of the settlement, the city settled for $890,000, which
was obtained Friday by CM LIFE through
the Freedom of Information Act.
Because the two officers involved did not
have to admit any wrongdoing under the
settlement terms, and the document said
"the payment is not to be construed as an
admission of liability on the part of the
released parties, it being understood that
the released parties expressly deny any liability or wrongdoing.**
While the police admit no wrongdoing,
the settlement document does not constitute their actions as right, either.
"Acceptance of the payment by plaintiffs
is not to be construed as an admission that
the shooting of plaintiffs' son was proper, it
being understood that the plaintiffs maintain that the shooting of their son, Thomas
Sova, was wrongful," the document said.
The agreement was signed Aug. 10 in
Wayne County by Vicki and Gary Sova,
Thomas' parents, and their attorneys.
City Manager Paul Preston; Martin
Trombley, director of Mount Pleasant
Public Safety, Sgt. Douglas LaLone; Officer
Jeffrey Shell and Officer Daniel Gaffka also
signed the agreement.
The City Commission approved a resolu-
See SOVA Page 2
Rawls chosen
for interim
dean position
By Angela S. Vandenberg
LIFE Assistant News Editor
An aspiring young administrator has been
chosen as the new interim associate dean for the
College of Education and Human Services.
D. Terry Rawls filled the vacancy created by
Michael Kent, who became the colleges interim
dean in August. Rawls has been at CMU for
eight years, spending two of them as chairman
of the counseling and special education department. He began his new position Sept. 1.
*T am very excited about it," Rawls said. Tfs
going great."
Rawls believes his past jobs at CMU have
enhanced his performance at his new position.
Those kinds of things have helped me to
understand how the university and administration works," he said. "Now instead of focusing on
one department, I have five."
A challenge Rawls said he is facing, along with
the rest of the campus, is budget restructuring.
"Its one that will take a lot of time and energy across campus," he said. The college has
undergone significant changes with departments leaving the college, so it gives us a chance
to kind of redefine ourselves.''
Provost Richard Davenport said the selection
of Rawls was made by Michael Kent, and he just
confirmed that selection.
"I handled the search for Michael Kent and
then Michael handled the search for the associate interim dean," Davenport said. Terry Rawls
is an aspiring young administrator."
One prestigious accomplishment of Rawls'
that Davenport noted is his selection to attend
Harvard's Institute for Administrators of Higher
Education in summer 1999.
Rawls earned his bachelors degree in sociology from the University of Iowa, a master's
degree in counseling from Georgia State
University and a doctorate in counselor education and supervision from Idaho State
University.
He is currently the president of the Michigan
Association of Counselors, a 2,000-member
organization.
addressed the Board of Trustees at Friday's
meeting about the university's decision to
change the way it reported enrollment numbers, both internally and externally. The university now includes all students enrolled in
degree programs in the United States.
"We've watched it develop with other universities in Michigan. The movement is
toward using federal data that is reported to
the U.S. Department of Education," he said,
referring to the Department of Education's
National Center for Education Statistics.
Plachta said the data that's been reported
in the past is not comparable to other universities and the public who may read about
CMITs enrollment may have been misled.
"It's now reporting apples to apples."
CMU reports only its enrollment for states
and excludes out of the country sites, he said.
Distance learning could take education
and CMU into a whole different area,
Plachta said.
"Who knows where that will take us. Site is
not as significant as it once was," Plachta
See ENROLLMENT Page 2	
Alumnae sticks up for
Hermit at board meeting
ByUxWtoviw
Uf^E Editor «nd
%wjy MiyifieiiMi
UF£ St** Vttftar
A CMU ahimnae spoke out at
the Board of TYvfecerf meeting
Friday, letting the trustees know
just how she felt about certain
Sharon Wieghart, a 1955 grad
uate and former journalism faculty member's wife, addressed the
board about the way it handled a
statement granting emeritus
rank to Rues Herron, former vie©
president of University Relation*
and secretary to the board, who
served the university for 39 years.
See BOARD Page 14
RYAN WOOD • CM LIFE
Mandy Neurneyer, Saginaw freshman, puts away her U-Lock after unlocking her bike at the Cobb
Hall bike rack on Thursday. "I used to worry about it when I first moved here," Neurneyer said
about her bike being stolen. ~l just figure that there are so many other bikes, mine will be OK.4*
Biking found to
be easiest way
around campus
By Jason Sweeney
LIFE Staff Writer
Even with winter snowfalls approaching and cold air
looming ahead, many CMU students are finding bikes
to be the safest, most affordable and worthwhile form
of transportation on campus.
Officer Alan McArthur of the CMU Police said that
safety isn't a huge issue, if a biker takes it seriously.
"You have the same rights and responsibilities of a
driver when you're riding on campus. You should be
making signals, obeying stop signs and letting pedestrians have the right of way," McArthur said.
"It's not mandatory for students to
register their
bikes, but it's free,
and there are some
advantages to it."
McArthur, who is
also a mountain
bike patrol officer,
said registering
your bike is the
closest to a guarantee that students
can get that if, and
when their bike is
stolen, it        be
returned if it is
found.
The decals CMU
Police issue are
recognizable
statewide, so even
if a student had a
bike stolen or lost
at home, the local law enforcement could contact CMU
Police, and try to retrieve the bike.
On an even grander scale, the application for a bike
decal gives police the information necessary to enter
bikes into the national LEIN (Law Enforcement
Information Network) computers, and return the bike
if it is found anywhere in the country.
Common sense is what McArthur encourages students to use most.
"Most bikes that are stolen are the ones not chained
up."
Since Aug. 28, McArthur said there have been four
bikes reported stolen, one of which was recovered.
CMU Police could not give an accurate number of
bikes stolen last year, and did not want to hazard a
guess.
Terry Quast, owner and manager of Motorless
Motion, 121 S- Main St., said real bike enthusiasts
should have two bikes.
"If you really like biking, then you should lock your
good bike away out of the elements and out of anyone
else's reach," Quast said. "And then have a $40 to $50
'beater bike'just to get around."
Even for those who do not take biking that seriously, Quast still said a cheap 'beater bike' is the way to
See BIKING Page 2	
TONY CEPAK • CM LIFE
Several kinds of bike locks are
on the market, though locks
such as these can be easily cut.
Public to decide about assisted suicide
By Angie Fenton
LIFE Staff Writer
In November, Michigan voters will not
only have the opportunity to make their
choice for governor, but they will also
have the chance to overturn — or keep —
the current ban on assisted suicide.
Proposal B will be on the ballot in
November and, if passed, would legalize
assisted suicide, said Ed Pierce, physician and chairman of Merian's Friends,
an organization which is trying to legalize physician assisted suicide for terminally ill adults.
"Merian Frederick was a friend of mine
who died under Jack Kevorkian in
November 1993. She had Lou Gehrig's
disease. I thought she should have legal
options other than Kevorkian,'' Pierce
said.
So the Ann Arbor-based organization,
Merian's Friends, was created, to help
provide alternative opportunities for
those seeking to take their own lives due
to terminal illness.
In order to put a law on the ballot for
the general public to vote on, 247,000 signatures are needed, Pierce said.
"We collected 380,000 signatures," he
said.
But   according  to  Sen.   William   Van
See SUICIDE Page 14	
'Wealthy7 Tribe may lose federal funding
By David Bossick
LIFE Staff Writer and
the Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Saginaw
Chippewa Indian Tribe will be losing a
large amount of federal money if
Congress approves a provision which is
part of the Interior Appropriations Bill.
The bill remains on the Senate floor as
of 5 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday and is
yet to be voted on; the Senate is still voting on amendments to the bill.
The  Senate  passed   a  provision  last
week as part of the bill, where the richest tribes voluntarily give back federal
money so it could be distributed to the
poorest reservations. However, the
wealthier tribes are small and often
receive less than $1 million each.
Affected by the legislation is the
tribe's Tribal Priority Allocations. The
allocations are administered by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and are for
tribal government programs such as
housing, education and social services.
Nationwide, there is about $750 mil
lion in Tribal Priority Allocation funding
for 557 tribes that are recognized by the
federal government. This amount is
roughly half of the total federal funding
allocated to the 557 tribes.
Within Michigan, the federal government recognizes 11 tribes, including the
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
A list of the wealthiest tribes in the
country was drawn up with the
Mashantucket      Pequot      Tribe       in
See TRIBE Page 2	
The Rock & Reggae Fall Bash
occurred Sat.  See page 11.
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