1996-12-06; Central Michigan Life

              Central Michigan LIFE
Volume 79, Number 43
Mt. Pleasant,  MI 48859
©1996 CM LIFE
77 years of serving the community
FRIDAY
December 6, 1996
16 pages
CMU reduces
room & board
refund total
■    University        says
acceptence  of AFSME
bid will lower savings
By Angela Cook
LIFE StaffWriter	
The refund of $130 promised
last January to students living
in the residence halls next
semester will be considerably
less, according to a CMU official.
According to John Fisher,
director of Residences and
Auxiliary Services, the original
projected savings to be passed
on to students will be lower
because the original savings was
based on ARAMARK's bid of the
labor portion of Dining Services.
"It's not going to be the
amount it was last year," he
said.
Now because, the university
has decided to accept the
American Federation of State,
County and Municipal
Employees Local 1568's bid, on
the labor portion of Dining
Services, the savings will be
lower.
On Jan. 15, 1996 the university announced it would subcontract the labor portion of Dining
Services to ARAMARK.
Despite this, both ARAMARK
and AFSCME were asked to
resubmit bids after an arbitrator
ruled the university had not
given the union bid fair consideration.
Based on the second bids, the
labor portion of Dining Services
was awarded to AFSCME.
Despite the projection the savings will be lower, Fisher said
some savings will be passed onto
the students but the amount is
yet to be determined.
"The intent is to still pass
some savings along to students,"
he said.
According to Linda Philo,
president of AFSCME, and utility helper in Carey Dining
Commons, the university should
not have released that number
until they knew for sure whose
bid they would accept.
"CMU made a mistake in
financially committing themselves to any kind of rebate
before they fulfilled their legal
obligation to negotiate the three-
year contract they signed with
the union," she said.
Philo maintains the savings
being passed onto students
should not be depleted because
their bid was $400,000 less then
ARAMARK's bid.
There is no reason why it
should be any lower than
ARAMARK's," she said.
According to Fisher, the savings projection that was to be
passed onto the students was
based on the first bids submitted.
Furthermore, Fisher said
there was never any savings projections made on AFSCME's second bid, so it is yet to be determined what the actual savings
will be.
Due to disagreements of the
actual savings on employee benefits with the AFSCME bid
between the union and the university, the savings cannot be
projected, Fisher said.
"We were not in agreement
with what the savings were on
benefits," he said. "We are in
agreement with wage savings.
Fisher said students living in
the resident halls during spring
semester are eligible for the
rebate.
"One of our options is to issue
the rebate sometime before
spring break."
AUVANUfcU Uht
LIFE Photos/Ryan Wood
A female motorist was killed in
a two-car accident on Business
US-27 about one mile south off
Mount Pleasant at approximately
5:30 p.m.Thursday.
The accident involved a white
four-door Buick Electra (left) and
a black Subaru Turbo four-door
wagon.(above) The passenger
side of the Buick was smashed in,
and the car ended up lying east
to west on the road. The Subaru,
which was lying north to south
on the road, sustained damage to
its front end.
The victim, the lone occupant
of the Buick, received CPR at the
scene.
There were two people in tha
Subaru, nn adult and a small
child. The child was taken from
the scene without the help of tha
paramedics. However, the driver
of the Subaru was transported by
ambulance to Central Michigan
Community Hospital.
Board of Trustees plans 'clean up' for charter schools
By Liz Wishaw
LIFE Assistant News Editor
CMLTs Board of Trustees is expected
to do some "clean-up work" with 13 of its
charter schools at a meeting today.
Robert Mills, director of Charter
Schools, said CMU is not rescinding 13
charter schools, as reported in a Detroit
Free Press Dec. 5 article.
Mills said, "We do not rescind charters. Actually, it's clean-up work." The
Kwanzaa
festivities
clean-up work is with schools that had
signed contracts more than a year ago.
He said these schools were having difficulties with their start-up funds and
facility locations or had not received
approval from the State Fire Marshall.
However, Mills also said a rescission
resolution is being taken before the
board today. The resolution states, "That
the prior University Board approval and
authorization for issuing a contract to
the Academies is hereby rescinded as of
the date of this resolution."
Academies losing their charters are
Academy of Casa Maria, Detroit; The
Academy for Business and International
Studies, Inkster; Community High
School Academy, Essexville; Educational
Options Academy, St. Joseph; Great
Lakes Academy, Saginaw; Liberty
Academy, Kalamazoo; North Star
Academy,    Southfield;    Traverse    Bay
Community School, Traverse City;
Applied Technology Academy, Taylor;
Crystal Academy, Frankfort; Sunshine
Academy of Life Skills, Grand Ledge;
The New Horizons Academy, Highland
Park; and Pleasanton Academy, Bear
Lake. The Detroit Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Detroit, will lose its charter,
but will be reestablished under a new
application.
Kenquest Academy, Grayling, submit
ted a request to terminate its contract
with the Board of Trustees on Sept. 7.
Bay-Arenac Community High School
in Essexville applied for a charter with
CMU and was approved, but the high
school also decided to apply for a charter
through the Bay-Arenac Intermediate
School District, Mills said. The high
school   chose   to   charter  through   the
See MEETING Page 2
begin
By Jeremy Russ
LIFE StaffWriter	
The Kwanzaa holiday officially
began on CMU's campus
Thursday night with a celebration
of the holiday in the Rotunda and
Terrace rooms of the Bovee
University Center.
Kwanzaa is "a progressive and
uplifting African American holiday
celebration," said Michele Craine,
Mount Pleasant graduate student
who was a speaker at the event.
"It creates a holiday for black
Americans."
James Mitchell, advisor for the
Graduation Retention
Improvement Program and
Minority Affairs who was Master
of Ceremonies for the event said,
"Kwanzaa is celebrated over a six-
day period."
Mitchell said this was the first
time CMU had a Kwanzaa celebration on this scale. He now
plans to expand and make the
event an annual one.
He said months of planning
went into the preparing for the
Drug testing policy
addressed at meeting
LIFE.Photo/Carrie Keams
The African Masquerade Dancers celebrate Kwanzaa. the African-American holiday, Thursday evening
in the Rotunda and Terrace rooms of the U.C.
event.
"We started preparing with
some of the smaller details back in
September, early October," said
Mitchell.
The evening was opened by the
singing of Mariah Carey's song
entitled "Hero," by 8-year-old
Sharasa Henley, daughter of Mary
Henley, administrative coordinator of the College of National
Programs and Extended
Learning.
Monique Chism, Indiana graduate student, and Nataki Spruill,
Pontiac graduate student, lit
seven candles, saying the seven
principles of Kwanzaa with each.
According to Chism and Spruill,
these seven principles are; unity,
self determination, collective work
and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and
faith
"Kwanzaa is something that
happens throughout the year,"
said Chism. "Live your life by the
principles of Kwanzaa."
The audience then was treated
to a blend of traditional drums and
dances by the African Masquerade
Dance TVoupe and Drummers.
After the heart-pounding beats
of the drummers, the Embry
Gospel Singers and the Spirit
Youth Gospel Singers sang.
By Heather N. LaFave
LIFE StaffWriter	
The potential implementation
of a drug testing policy for incoming CMU employees was discussed at length at the Faculty-
Trustees Liaison Committee
meeting Thursday night.
Members of the committee
expressed faculty concerns with
pre-employment drug testing
including privacy issues, the viability of such a policy and the
image it would give the university.
Susan Conner, committee
member and professor and chair
of the history, said instituting a
drug testing policy may suggest
to others that CMU already has
a drug problem rather than
showing them they care about
the employees.
Conner said faculty members
do endorse a drug-free work
place, but the policy the university is looking at currently doesn't
address problems that already
exist. She said it only aims at
keeping   people  who  are   using
See TESTING Page 2	
Committee
presents
opinions
By Heather N
The
Student-Trustees
ed Hie student in tax est in
utilizing apace in Powers
Hail for a Student
Organization Center at its
Thursday meeting with
CMU's Board of Trustees.
Christine
mittee
Creek senior, said the
created in Powers when the
new Music building
could be
center fti
Student
location could
See UTRJZ3NG Papa 2