1997-02-24; Central Michigan Life

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Central Michigan LIFE
Volume 79, Number 65
Mt. Pleasant,   MI 48859
©1997 CM LIFE
77 years of serving the community
MONDAY
February 24, 1997
14 pages
CMU's technology
is competitive with
other universities
By Jeremy H. Dickman
LIFE Staff Writer	
CMU's technology fee, among
other appropriations, is helping
to keep the university competitive with other Michigan universities.
"There's a lot of variation
among schools," said Keith
Nelson, interim assistant vice
provost of Information
Technology.
Some schools, such as the
University of Michigan, are
large research institutions and
can spend more money. Some
small, private wealthy schools
may have more funds. Nelson
said.
"It reflects the finances of the
institution," he continued.
More than 16,000 students are
enrolled at CMU, compared with
23,000 at Eastern Michigan
University, 26,000 at Western
Michigan University and 51,000
at the University of Michigan.
According to data from
Nelson, the amount of computer
network use on campus has
steadily increased.
In January 1995, there were
3,196 active users on the network for over 1.2 million seconds. Of the use, over 46 percent
was hy students.
The numbers increased to
more than 4,500 users and 48
percent by academic users in
December 1996. By January the
numbers were at 7,230 users for
nearly 4 million seconds.
The total number of institutionally-owned desktop computers an "average" public university   has is 5,174, Nelson said.
The size and enrollment of an
"average" university is
unknown.
CMU has about 2,500 institutionally-owned desktop
machines throughout campus,
Nelson said.
Eastern Michigan University
has over 3,800 workstations on
campus for students and administration. Of these machines,
3,500 are in the administrative
area, said Gary Carlson,
Eastern's manager of
Technology Assessment and
Integration.
The other 300 workstations at
Eastern are in the learning technology area for students, said
Morell Boone, Eastern's dean of
Learning Resources and
Technologies.
In addition, the various colleges and departments at
Eastern also have their own
machines, Boone said.
A typical public university has
a student/computer ratio of 5-to-
1, Nelson said.
The student to institutionally-
owned computer ratio at CMU is
7-to-l, Nelson said.
In the current fiscal year (July
1, 1996 to June 30, 1997), a total
of about $15 million was spent
on technology for the entire uni-
See VARIATION Page 2	
GARAGE
FIRE
LIFE Photo/Ryan Wood
The Mount Pleasant Fire Department responded to a call at approximately 2:28 p.m. on Sunday at 5165
Bud St. A garage was destroyed when a wood stove apparently started the fire, according the Mount
Pleasant Fire Department spokesperson. The trailer next to the garage was occupied by Lonnie Morrow
and Sandra Dunn. Morrow said he went in for a cup coffee and noticed there was a lot of smoke coming
from the garage.
Weekend for Women speaker shares personal struggles, triumphs
Nearly 300 women attend
Saturday's workshops
By Michelle Eickmeyer
LIFE Staff Writer
Mary Travers, the "Mary" in Peter, Paul,
and Mary, shared her views on society, life
and living through stories, jokes and songs
Friday night at the Comfort Inn for the ninth
annual Weekend for Women.
Travers spoke to a crowd of 250 people at
the Comfort Inn, 2424 S. Mission St. The
weekend was sponsored by the Wellness
Center and Auxiliary of the Central Michigan
Healthcare System.
Travers shared personal struggles and
triumphs, such as her
feelings about elderly
care.
Travers' mother is
currently living in a
elderly care facility.
The health care
industry is out of control and it is up to
healthy people to
change it, Travers
said.
"We have to be the
authors of the kind of health care we want in
the future," she said.
Travers said the care her mother receives
costs $87,000 year. In three years, her mother will have used her entire life savings to
pay for that care.
"She will leave nothing to her children,"
Travers said.
Travers' mother is in a facility that allows
residents to stay after they are unable to pay
for their care.
"It's just crazy. It's crazy and it's terrible.
By Leah Nixon
LIFE Staff Writer
T»
MaryTravers(left) hugs an audience member
her father. Her entire performance was filled
And my mother is one of the lucky ones," she
said.
The group feeling the financial strains the
most are the children, Travers said.
"They're trying to save for college and
mom's going down the dumper," she continued.
Travers said the best way to fight the growing problems of caring for and living with
elderly relatives is to get involved.
"We are all capable of being activists," she
said. "You just have to be interested."
Audience members clapped and sang along
LIFE Photos/Erik S. Scherb
(above) after performing a song dedicated to
with emotional reaction from the audience.
as Travers sang "The Times They Are A-
Changin'," "I am Your Child," "Where have
all the Flowers Gone" and "Blowin' in the
Wind."
Travers gave a little personal history with
each song. Travers first sang "I Am Your
Child" to her father, whom she describes as "a
1940s guy." Travers needed to find a way to
say everything she wanted to him while she
had the chance.
"Music is powerful," Travers said.
Travers   also   remembered   another   story
See MARY Page 2	
he ice and snow did not
_ put a damper on the
JL_ ninth annual Weekend
for Women Saturday sponsored
by the Wellness Center and
Auxiliary of the Central
Michigan Healthcare System.
The Weekend for Women was
for women to join with other
women and have fun, said Lisa
Foster, Central Michigan
Healthcare System community
relations assistant.
Nancy English, director of
wellness and corporate services
at Central Michigan Healthcare
System, said the weekend ran
smoothly despite the weather.
There were a few no-shows, but
with timing delays, the speaker
and workshops continued.
Paul Pearsall, Ph. D, gave two
presentations to a crowd of nearly 300 women Saturday.
Pearsall's first presentation
began at 8:30 a.m. and focused
on balance and freedom from
health terrorism in women's
lives.
Pearsall greeted the crowd in
Hawaiian and he kept the crowd
About 500 e-mail messages were erased during coding error
By Jeremy H. Dickman
LIFE Staff Writer	
Some CMU Internet users
sending or checking their e-mail
between 10:51 a.m. and 12:03
p.m. last Thursday may have
lost their messages because of a
coding error.
According to David Jelinek,
systems programmer/staff specialist of Computer Services, an
error in the levels of an updated
version of the C libraries language, which Post Office
Protocol mail servers use, caused
the mail to be lost.
For e-mail programs that use
POP, such as Netscape, Eudora,
or Microsoft Exchange, e-mail is
stored on the mail server. When
a user checks their account, the
server downloads the mail to the
user's computer, said Keith
Nelson, interim assistant vice
provost of Information
Technology.
When the new version was
tested an error was not revealed
and it was working properly
until actual installation
Thursday, Nelson said. With the
coding problem, CMU's server
would not properly send the e-
mail back for reading, Nelson
said.
After discovering the problem,
Computer Services reverted to
the older version until they could
correct the new version, Jelinek
said.
Jelinek said 76,586 messages
were sent through CMU's mainframe Thursday, but less than
500 were lost.
"In the overall scheme of
things it's not a lot," Jelinek said.
If e-mail was not checked during this time period then it
would not be lost, Nelson said.
Those using the mail or mail-
book servers for e-mail had no
problems.
An empty e-mail message indicates the e-mail was hit by the
bug, Jelinek said. Should the
bug have hit a user's e-mail,
there is no way to correct the
problem.
People who were expecting e-
mail Thursday during 10:51 a.m.
and 12:03 p.m. should check
with the sender if possible and
inform them of the problem,
Jelinek said.
The e-mail at CMU is about
10-years-old, and the use of POP
"In the overall
scheme of things it's
not a lot."
DAVID JELINEK,
Systems programmer/staff
specialist of Computer Services
servers is approximately four-
years-old, Jelinek said. He said
this is the first time something
like this has occurred.
A completely different server
problem occurring the same day
involved the Professional Office
System (PROFS) e-mail server,
which is used by faculty and
staff, Jelinek said.
PROFS is an older e-mail system and was designed for CMU
internal  use only,  Jelinek  said.
PROFS alone cannot send or
read off campus e-mail because
PROFS does not have the right
mail formula without an additional PROFS product.
However, Thursday the
PROFS product had a coding
error that prevented the e-mail
messages from showing up.
With PROFS, the message
came through with the subject
and header line so at least users
know who sent them the message, Jelinek said.
A few minor problems with
PROFS occurred in the past,
Jelinek said. Among the problems was trying to convert mail
to PROFS from other software,
which resulted in users being
unable to read their mail for
awhile.
alive with his energy and humor.
Pearsall said normalcy is dangerous to your health.
Normalcy is stress, Pearsall
said. He asked the audience not
to use denial and to begin being
abnormal.
Pearsall used the pleasure
principle or fun to focus on being
abnormal. Pleasure, Pearsall
said, is being patient, connected,
pleasant, selfish and kind.
Women need to enjoy and find re-
enchantment for their daily
lives, he said.
"Never wish for what you
never had," Pearsall said.
Women need to pay more
attention to their life balance of
working and playing, Pearsall
said. To stay well, women are
more at risk, so they need to
watch the balance in their lives.
According to Pearsall, women
become ill because they have lost
their harmonious behavior with
the planet, and they have
become disconnected from family, ancestry and God.
"If you're (going to) get well,
you   have   to   reestablish   those
See WOMEN Page 2	
I  N  S  I  D  E
Classified 11
Crossword 11
Et cetera 10-11
Sports 8-9
Voices 4-5
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