1997-04-04; Central Michigan Life

              Central Michigan LIFE
Volume 79, Number 76
Mt. Pleasant,  MI 48859
©1997 CM LIFE
77 years of serving the community
FRIDAY
April 4, 1997
12 pages
Camp explains adoption issues, annual report
LIFE Photo/
Brandon
Sullivan
U.S.
Representative,
Dave Camp,
visited Mount
Pleasant
City Hall
Wednesday
afternoon to
discuss
issues of
concern with
area residents.
By Tasha Gatlin
LIFE Staff Writer
U.S. Representative Dave Camp fielded questions from more than 30 residents on topics ranging from campaign finance reform to the rising
federal deficit at a town hall meeting Wednesday.
On a seven-city tour of Mid-Michigan cities over
the next month, Camp's opening remarks dealt
with the Adoption Promotion Act, a bi-partisan bill
he co-sponsored.
Camp said he hopes to change the current adoption process and move more children out of the foster care system and into permanent homes.
"There are more than a half a million children in
foster care nationwide. It's the federal standards
that has kept many of them there. I feel that I had
to do something about it," Camp said. "It's an
attempt to find permanent homes for kids."
Camp said federal law states a reasonable effort
must be made to reunite the family but questioned
what constitutes "reasonable."
Under his proposition, the definition of "reasonable" would be clearly established and a secondary
plan would be underway in case reuniting the family doesn't work.
He said children currently stay in foster care an
average of two years.
Camp talked with the group about the federal
budget and supplied  audience members with a
scaled-down version of the Annual Report on the
United States Government 1996.
The original copy of the report is as thick as two
Detroit phone books, he said.
The report states that interest alone on the
national debt is the second largest expense listed,
larger than military spending.
He said he hopes to have zero annual deficit by
the year 2002.
One audience member questioned Camp on the
need for donations from private citizens during
campaigns when most candidates receive much
larger donations from political action committees,
and if there was a heed for campaign contribution
laws to be changed.
"I think we must first find out what laws aren't
being followed and why before we start passing
new ones," he said.
Camp said while all donations received by an
individual candidate, also called hard money, have
to be disclosed; soft money, or money that goes to
any particular party, does not require disclosure.
While individual candidates are allowed a maximum of $5,000 from a PAC, the amount to a party
is limitless.
Camp said $400 million was given to the
Democratic Party by the labor unions.
"Disclosure is the hallmark of campaign reform,"
Camp said.
Group hopes to raise
awareness with march
through campus
By Carol L. Marshall
LIFE Staff Writer	
A group of students is
gathering today in
hopes of raising awareness of Native American student
issues.
The North American Indian
Student Organization is sponsoring a march and commemoration to strengthen the
Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver
and to honor former Mount
Pleasant Indian Boarding
School students.
The march will begin at 11
a.m. in front of Warriner Hall
and the group will walk through
campus and come back to
Warriner to listen to speakers
address Native American issues
and civil rights issues.
Robert Bressette, NAISO
president and Canada senior,
said he hopes the march will
raise awareness among students and the CMU community.
"We'd like them (CMU's
administration) to know that
while many people don't voice
their opinions, there are some
that do care," he said.
He said he hopes University
President Plachta will attend
and address the students.
"We want to keep this whole
thing positive," he said.
See MARCH Page 2	
Martin Reinhardt, director of
Native American Programs,
said Native American students
have been in danger of losing
funding for their education since
1995 when Governor Engler
stated he will no longer support
the tuition grant, which was
originally part of a series of
treaty agreements.
During the 1880's the federal
government had agreed to provide for the educational interests of all Native Americans in
exchange for rights to their
land. The government had
established boarding schools for
Native American students,
Reinhardt said.
In 1934, the boarding schools
were closed, partly due to economic issues, and partly
because the conditions were
"deplorable, physically, emotionally, and spiritually," Reinhardt
said.
Michigan's Governor
Comstock made an agreement
on behalf of the state in which
Michigan would take over the
federal government's obligation
to Native American students in
exchange for the land where the
boarding schools were built.
"After that," Reinhardt said,
"the State of Michigan had done
little  to nothing to provide for
Fund 'Raising'
LIFE Photo/Sabrina Burton
Alpha Phi Omega pledges Debbie Hall, St. Egnace somophore. Heather Mitchell,
Adrian junior,  participated 'Sit and Beg' fundraiser to help raise money for
United Way Fund-raiser Wednesday afternoon in front of Warriner Hall.
MOOT
finishes
what it
started
By Michelle Eickmeyer
LIFE Staff Writer	
Those who travel on M-20
between Midland and Mount
Pleasant will soon able to enjoy the
much anticipated five-lane expansion.
Kirk Steudle, resident project
engineer for the Michigan
Department of Transportation,
said the road construction crews
are ^just about ready to fire up for
the spring" in Oil City.
He said the project, which began
last August, is more than half finished. Drivers headed east are currently driving on what will be the
shoulder of the new road. Those
headed west are driving in one of
the future east bound lanes.
Steudle said the section of the
highway between Oil City and
Midland still needs to be completed.
Work on the sewer lines may
File Photo
M-20 project began last August and is more than half finished.
Work on the highway is scheduled to be completed by August 15.
have begun as early as Tuesday.
Milbocker and Sons, of Allegan,
stopped construction December
20.
"It was just getting too cold to do
much work," Steudle said.
Milbocker, a "very reputable"
and well known construction company, was awarded the contract for
the road. This company also did
work on High Street and the High
Street bridge last year, Steudle
said.
He  said the  freezing weather
and the frozen ground were the
reasons for the three and a half
month break.
Steudle said work on the highway is scheduled to be completed
by August 15.
With the project "moving right
along," he said, the construction
crews will "easily make that date."
Davis Construction, of Grand
Ledge, was awarded the contract
for work on the bridge over the
Congressmen hears from
students on financial aid
The Associated Press
When Crescent Mohammad was growing up, there was never a
doubt that she would go to college. Paying for it, however, was another matter.
Mohammad's mother was a single parent, and there wasn't a lot of
extra money floating around. Without a substantial mix of grants
and loans, there is no way she could afford Harvard University,
where she is now a senior.
"(Financial aid) is essential to
ensure continued access to higher
education for minorities," said
Mohammad, whose grants and loans
cover all but about $10,000 of her
$30,000 tuition at Harvard. Part-
time jobs pay for the rest.
"If you don't have the grades or the
extracurricular activities, I can see
how the prospects are daunting," she
said.
Mohammad was one of several
people who testified Thursday at a ' ■
field hearing on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of
1965. Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Tim Roemer, D-Ind., held the
meeting to get input on how well the current financial aid system
works, and how it could be improved.
Of the 12 speakers — two students, a parent, a lending corporation official and eight higher education officials — no one suggested
overhauling the current financial aid system, which consists of a
variety of loans, grants, scholarships and work-study programs.
But they agreed that changes are needed to make sure a college
"For many students,
aid is the only difference between receiving
a degree or training and
having to say, 'No
thanks/"
FRED UPTON
U.S. Representative
R-Michigan
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See CONSTRUCTION Page 2 See DISCUSSION Page 2
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