1996-10-04; Central Michigan Life

              Central Michigan LIFE
Volume 79, Number 18
Mt. Pleasant,   MI 48859
©1996 CM LIFE
77 years of serving the community
FRIDAY
October 4, 1996
10 pages
Amnesty member discusses human rights violations
By Jason Karas
LIFt   Staff Writer
People are tortured, imprisoned and
killed in some foreign countries for
unjustified reasons.
While acts of terror are unrecognized
by most of the world, a speaker from
Amnesty International attempted to
further expose these atrocities
Wednesday evening in Warriner
Auditorium.
Bill   Schultz.   executive   director   of
Amnesty   International,   told   approxi
mately 200 people about  human  rights
violations occurring around the world.
Schultz gave graphic examples of the
kinds of human rights violations that
Amnesty International opposes and outlined the challenges facing human
rights advocates after the Cold War.
One example Schultz gave was of a 9-
year-old boy who was arrested in
Indonesia for little more than suspicion
of stealing a wallet. While he -was m
custody, police burnt the soles of his feet
with cigarettes and beat him over the
head. Schultz said police then called his
mother down to the police station, hung
her from a meat hook and forced her son
to beat her.
Schultz   also   described   how   in   Iraq
young people's ears are cut off and X's
are branded into their foreheads if they
refuse to serve in the army.
"Amnesty International exists to deal
with the worst kind of troubles that the
world can throw at us," Schultz said.
Schultz said the basis for Amnesty
International's surveillance of countries
around the world is the4 194K Universal
Declaration of Human Rights which
countries must agree to before they can
join the United Nations.
According to Schultz, Amnesty
International stays in contact with students and political activists around the
world who report human rights violations to the organization.
If the reported violations are true,
Amnesty International tries to publicize
it as widely as possible.
"Tyrants fear the truth," he said.
Schultz described what he called
"challenges" to human rights advocates
today Contrary to popular belief, he
said human rights violations have
increased, not decreased since the dismantling of the communist states of
Eastern Europe in 1989.
Schultz said since 1989, more than
half   of   the    160   countries   Amnesty
International monitors practice torture.
The number of countries practicing
political killings has also increased from
40 to 61 in that time period.
Schultz refuted the economic empowerment philosophy, that states, if capitalism is exported to countries, those
countries will develop a middle class
who will demand rights.
"If this philosophy was true, then
Nazi Germany - a successful capitalist
country, would have had the best
human rights," Schultz said.
Schultz   gave   several   examples   of
See AMNESTY Page 2
4   *   *"   *
v?
SGA
makes
voting
easier
By Jeremy Russ
LIFE:  Staff Wnter	
Student Government
Association  will  now be able to
send out registration forms that
students  sign  at   SGA  rogistra
tion    booths,    saving    students
time and money.
SGA has
been registering students
to vote for
most of this
week. The
voter registration will conclude today. SGA will have registration tables set up from 10
a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Towers and
Robinson, Woldt and Merrill residence halls.
Alaina Miller, Hewitt junior
and vice-president of SGA, said
SGA had originally been telling
everyone who registered
through SGA they must send in
their own mail-in voter registration forms.
Miller said SGA now has the
approval to send in the rt^gistrati on forms for the students, saving them time and 32 cents for a
stamp.
"We called the* city clerk and
they said we could drop (the registration forms) off, as long as
they are sealed in an envelope,"
Miller said.
To have SGA send in the
forms, Miller said, students
must have the registration
forms in by 4:30 p.m. today in
the SGA Office, located in the
lower level of the Bovee
University Center.
Miller said students can send
in the forms themselves, but the
forms must be postmarked by
Monday to vote in the November
election.
She said this years registration drive has been going grt^at
and SGA has registered about
2.500 students. Miller said
SGA's target amount of registration is 3,000 students.
"We had to drive down to
Lansing to get more registration
cards. They didn't give us
enough the first time." Miller
said.
Miller added, students who
are registered by SGA, must
vote in Isabella County, and they
can participate in any city, county, state or national election.
The deadline to register to
vote in the November election is
Monday.
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LIFE Photos/Bryan Bosch
Stephanie Ogren (left). Grand Rapids junior, and Mandi Sutton (center), Ohio senior, check the dissolve density of
Park Library Pond's water Thursday for Dr. Donna King's (right) freshwater biology class. King's students practiced
techniques that will prepare them for a trip to Coldwater Lake.
WATER WORLD
(left) Beau
Vallier,
Engadine
senior, takes
the measurement from a
seechi disk to
test the
water's clarity.
The measurement is taken
at the depth
the disk disappears, (right)
Students tested the temperature, light
penetration,
alkalinity, PH
levels, nitrate
and phosphate
levels of the
water.
Candidate:
Government
must face
various issues
By
Lift
E Assistant News Editor
The weather may have dampened the ground,
forcing the rally for Ronna Romney indoors, however, it did not dampen the spirits of those in
attendance.
Approximately 50 people attended the rally,
which was moved from the Warriner Mall to the
Bovee University Center Auditorium, for the
Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Romney told the audience most Republicans
are afraid to go to college campuses because they
think students do not support Republicans.
"I think they are wrong. I think the smartest
group in America are the kids," Romney said.
Romney asked the audience what their concerns for the future were. Audience members listed such things as raising children, the environment, job security and quality of life.
During her 25-minute speech, Romney, who
was introduced by State Rep. Jim McBryde, R-
Mount Pleasant, said there are four things the
government must accomplish.
The first, she said, is "get the bills paid."
Romney said all the money Americans make
from Jan. 1 until May 7 in any given year will pay
their taxes; however, if the government does not
balance the budget soon, all the income they earn
until September will pay their taxes.
"We have to do it," she said. "We can cut taxes
and balance the budget."
In 1950, Americans paid $1 out of every $50 to
the federal government. Today, Ronmey said
Americans pay $1 out of every $4.
"I want you to have a future without debt," she
told the audience.
Romney said education is also something the
government must support.
Romney said there are three forms of power in
the world today: the most primitive - brute force;
money; and the most powerful - an education,
"because it can't be taken away."
Romney said when she is in the Senate, she will
fight for and support student loans, Pell grants
and work study programs.
"I do not and will not support cuts in higher
education," she said. "I want to make sure everyone who wants a college education finds the
resources to attend college.
"I want to give you a debt-free America, an
America with clean air and water and beautiful
land. I want to give you a crime-free America. An
America where you can get the best education possible. I can't get it all done, but I can start the
process," she said.
The other two priorities for the government,
Romney stated, were cutting taxes and protecting
the environment.
Chip card's use varies among local merchants,vendors
By,
3?rjtt   Wflt»-|
Students short on pocket cash can use
their now CMU cbip cards at several off-
campus locations.
Besides functioning as an ID card, area
merchants began accepting cash chip
and/or bank stripe on the chip card as a
form of payment in July, said Lynn
Granger, floor supervisor at Spencer
Drugs at  IOIO S   Mission St
Granger described one use of the card
as minimal at first.
"I've had some students and some faculty use it . . . but it was never really used
until the students came back to school,"
Granger said.
Other businesses are having more success with the card.
"We're really excited about it. It seems
to be pretty popular," said Chuck
Trapani, co-owner of the Mission and
Pickard Street Little Caesar s.
The    card    is    only    accepted    at    the
Mission Street location near campus, and
students can use the cash chip or bank
stripe to pick up a pizza and the cash chip
to pay for delivery orders.
Trapani said drivers carry an "oversized calculator" that debits money from
the card.
"The* fact that the machine is transportable gives us a lot of options,"
Trapani said.
"It's more convenient, and we aim to
please," he said.
Spencer Drugs only accepts the bank
stripe that is a debit card linked to a First
of America bank account.
Granger said there has been some confusion in distinguishing between the cash
chip and bank stripe accounts.
"The value of the debit card is dictated
by the amount of money in the account,"
said Barrie Wilkes, Accounting Services
controller.
See ACCEPTING Page 2	
Health Services diagnoses suspected case of tuberculosis
By Liz Wishaw
1 ifl  Assistant Mews I rjitot
A campus individual has l>cen
diagnosed with an active case of
tuberculosis and those who have
been in close contact with the
individual are being notified.
According to a press release
Thursday, University Health
Services, working in conjunction
with Central Michigan Health
Department,   is   notifying   those
in close contact with the individ-
ual. Others on campus should
not be overly concerned about
contracting the* disease.
The identity of the individual
is not being released because of
patient confidentiality requirements.
Sarah Campbell, director of
University Health Services, stated in a press release, "Because
tuberculosis is a serious commu
nicable disease and a public
health concern, persons who
have had close contact with the
infected individual are being
notified to go to University
Health Services for testing and,
if infect ed, started on treatment ."
Tuberculosis, or TB, is caused
by bacteria and can attack any
part of the body but usually
attacks   the   lungs.    It    W   often
spread from one person to another when an infected person
sneezes or coughs.
Campbell stated in a press
release, "People who are infected
with TB do not feel sick, do not
have any symptoms and cannot
spread TB. But they may develop the active disease at some
time in the future.
"People with the active disease
are  more  likely  to spread  it to
people they spend time with
every day, including family
members, friends and co-workers," Campbell continued.
Diagnosis of TB infection is
only possible through a TB skin
test. TB skin testing and other
information about the disease is
available at Health Services in
Foust Hall 200 at 774-6591 or
Central Michigan District
Health Department at 773-5921.