1995-11-13; Central Michigan Life

              Central
Michigan
MONDAY,
NOVEMBER 13,
1995
VOLUME 78. NUMBER 33
MOUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48859
CAMPUS
Privatization protest
planned for today
Linda Philo, president of
AFSCME Local 1568,
says a rally in opposition
of privatization is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. today
in front of the UC.
Information will be handed out during the rally.
PAGE 3
SPORTS
WotlWil^S hOOpH m**Mm*au
The CMU women's basketball team kicks off its
season Tuesday night
with an exhibition game
against Waikato-New
Zealand
PAGE 8
LIFESTYLES
©1995 CM LIFE
(517) 774-3493
14 PAGES
i
I
"Great American
Smokeout" Thursday
CMU's faculty, students
and staff are encouraged
to join others around the
country in Thursday's
Great American
Smokeout, sponsored by
the American Cancer
Society.
PAGE 12
Carbon monoxide sickens two more Forum residents
By JENNIFER PAWLOWSKI
LIFE Assistant News Editor	
Another carbon monoxide
incident at Forum Apartments
caused two CMU students to
seek medical treatment.
Paul Christensen and Jon
Dekiere, Plymouth juniors,
spent most of Thursday at
Butterworth Hospital in Grand
Rapids being treated for carbon
monoxide poisoning.
Dekiere said for about 10 days
prior to the incident he and his
roommate, residents of C308,
would wake up with headaches
and would not feel good during
the day.
"(Thursday) we both woke up
with killer headaches and didn't
feel well,w Dekiere said. "I really
thought something was wrong
because why did we both have
the same symptoms?**
Dekiere and Christensen
called Forum maintenance
because they feared a gas leak,
1970 plan
would have
closed
Washington
By ANNA LAMPI
LIFE Staff Writer
Dekiere said.
They did not have a carbon
monoxide detector in their room,
he said.
Carbon monoxide is an
odorless, colorless gas that's
formed by the incomplete oxidation of carbon. It's highly
poisonous when inhaled.
Jana Schafer, Forum Apartments manager, said a representative from Mich-Con Gas, the
supplier for the apartments,
came to check the apartment.
Dekiere said when the gas
level in the apartment was
measured, the "meter went
berserk."
The cause of the problem was
a broken heat exchanger in
apartment C208, located directly
below Dekiere and Christensen,
which was leaking gas up to
their apartment.
Schafer said this was the third
such incident in the last few
weeks at Forum Apartments,
950 Appian Way.
The   City
and   CMU
of Mount Pleasant
»■—_«
from 1970 to vacate Washington
Street south of Bellows Street to
Broomfield Road after an alternate route was prepared.
But that plan "just never
worked out the way it was
proposed," said Duane Ellis,
Public Works director.
To follow the plan the city
would have had to buy the
houses along the alternative
route. It started doing this, but it
never followed through, he said.
If Washington Street were
closed now, the traffic would go
({It's like any other
city   street.   (The
city) should take care
of it
39
JERRY TUBBS
Former vice president of
Business and Finance
f g We both woke up with
killer headaches and
didn't feel well. I really
thought something was
wrong because why did
we both have the same
symptoms? »
JON DEKIERE
Plymouth junior
Sara Van Wormer and Andy
Ooten, Grand Blanc seniors,
tenants of D202 also had a
carbon monoxide leak in their
apartment at the Forum.
Van Wormer and Ooten were
made aware of the leak by a
carbon monoxide detector.
Dekiere and Christensen went
to Central Michigan Community
Hospital to be checked out, and
Dekiere said they were transported by ambulance to Butter-
worth Hospital in Grand Rapids.
Dekiere said they spent an
hour and a half in a hyperbaric
chamber at Butterworth.
According to a registered
nurse from the Ask-a-Nurse
program at Butterworth, a
hyperbaric chamber is a method
of increasing the amount of
oxygen in tissue by exposing a
person to oxygen at a level
higher than normal atmospheric
pressure.
The nurse explained that in
the case of carbon monoxide
poisoning, tissues are starved of
oxygen because hemoglobin,
which carries oxygen to red blood
cells, is prevented from taking
up oxygen.
A person is placed in the
hyperbaric chamber where
oxygen is pumped up to three
times the normal atmospheric
pressure, she said. Oxygen is
inhaled and dissolved in the
blood.
Dekiere said he and Christensen felt fine after their treat
ment and were able to return to
their apartment Thursday night.
"All residents are able to stay
home," Schafer said. "We just
need a temporary heat source for
208 because theirs is shut off."
Forum Apartments consists of
six buildings, 144 apartments in
all, Schafer said. Approximately
125 apartments will be checked
for high carbon monoxide levels
within the next few days.
The remaining apartments
have furnaces that were replaced
within the last five years, she
said.
The cost of replacing a
furnace, including the price of a
new unit and installation, would
be around $1,500, Schafer said.
"When you think about it,
$1,500 is nothing compared to
someone's life," she said.
Schafer said the Forum was
already in the process of having
the furnaces checked out, and
now the process is being sped up.
into neighborhoods, Ellis said.
This is one of the reasons the
Planning Commission recommended keeping it open.
The alternative route would
have been West Side Highway,
he said. It was to go along the
route of West Campus Drive and
would have been a four lane
road.
West Side Highway would
have started at Mission Street
and gone across Broomfield Road
as a four lane road. When it got
to Bellows Street, the four lanes
would divide so one pair would
tie in to Main Street at M-20.
The other pair of lanes would tie
in with Washington Street at
M-20.
Once West Side Highway was
constructed, Ellis said there
would be some other road
closures besides Washington
Street.
Jerry Tubbs, former CMU vice
president of Business and
Finance, said he has been
thinking of the "Memorandum of
Agreement" between Mount
Pleasant and CMU for a long
time. He was waiting for
someone to bring it up, but no
one had. So he wrote two similar
letters about the memorandum,
one to CM LIFE and the other to
the Morning Sun.
When     Tubbs     retired     in
See STREET Page 2	
Trustees draft tentative vision statement
By JENNIFER ACKERMAN
UFE Assistant News Editor	
MIDLAND CMlTs  Board
of Trustee's met with top university administrators to generate
ideas for a vision statement
during a two-day workshop in
Midland.
During the Strategic Development Workshop, which took
place Saturday and Sunday at
the Ashman Court Hotel in
Midland, the group drafted a
tentative vision statement,
although it is still in the develop
ment    stages    and    no    final
decisions have been made.
The proposed vision states,
"CMU, the preferred university:
serving students with a valuable
learning experience to prepare
for their future."
The workshop was facilitated
by Dick Dolinski, vice president
of Human Resources at the Dow
Chemical Company, in Midland.
The board developed ideas for
prospective key objectives
Sunday. Because of time
constraints, the Board agreed to
let the administration limit the
number of proposed ideas. The
group plans to meet again in
January to make a finalized
decision on the proposed vision
statement and key objectives.
Roger Kesseler, chairman of
the Board, said the group began
working on the new mission
statement in July, but said the
original statement was "significantly modified" during the
weekend.
"We revisited our tentative
vision statement," Kesseler said.
"We now have a tentative agreement   that   allows   us   to   go
forward with the process to
review some of the strategic
objectives that we discussed at
our Jan. 11 meeting."
"Once we complete it we will
end up with a vision and
strategic objectives we, as a total
university, agree with."
Rae Goldsmith, director of
Public Relations, said the Board
and adminstration will seek
input from the university
community before any final
decisions are made.
GLASS unhappy with adminstration response
By DOROTHY NELSON
LIFE Staff Writer
Members of the Association for Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Their
Friends and Allies are dissatisfied with President Leonard Plachta's
response to recent vandalism in its campus office.
Members of GLASS have tried to meet with Plachta concerning the
issue but have been unsuccessful. Carl Scianimanico, Shelby
Township sophomore and co-president of GLASS, feels that they have
been pushed off on other people.
"We were told that (Plachta) was too busy and we could meet with
his assistant," Scianimanico said. "I really don't see that he's so busy
that an issue of this concern isn't being taken seriously."
The campus office of GLASS, located in the Student Organizational
Center, was vandalized between the evening of Nov. 1 and the
afternoon of Nov. 2.
The vandals tore down posters and hung signs saying "The only
good faggot is a dead faggot!" and "80% of all AIDS cases are due to
homosexuals!!!" with a drawing of a hand making an obscene gesture.
Plachta  placed  a   letter  to  the  editor  in  CM LIFE  on   Friday,
addressing the issue. Natali Davis, Mount Pleasant sophomore and
co-president of GLASS, said she feels that the letter was not enough.
"We don't want it to look like we're dragging it out," Davis said. *We
were grateful for the letter but it feels like he was just tossing us a
bone to make us shut up."
Davis said that the organization wants Plachta to take a stance, and
at the very least say that the university supports them.
For security and anonymity purposes, Davis said the organization is
also pushing for a private office and phone line. The GLASS office is
separated from about 22 other offices by partitions. There are no doors
or walls, and several offices share the same phone line, she said.
"We're trying to take small steps," Davis said. "If we can get
something accomplished on a lower level, then we won't have to take
another step upward."
Jan Wagester, executive assistant to the president, has met with
GLASS to discuss their concerns. Wsgester said the administration's
response is not in any way a brush-off for GLASS and that a meeting
See GLASS Page 2