1998-04-08; Central Michigan Life

              Central Michigan LIFE
Volume 79, Number 75
Mt. Pleasant,   MI 48859
©1998 CM LIFE
78 years of serving the community
Wednesday
April 8, 1998
16 pages
CMU fires Herron, eliminates his position
By Jennifer Ackerman
LIFE Editor
After 39 years of service to CMU,
vice president for University
Relations Russ Herron was fired.
President Leonard Plachta
stunned the university community
TViesday afternoon when he
announced that he has asked
Herron to "step down" from his
position
Of course, the most astounded
by the decision was Herron himself.
"I was disappointed and shocked
at being fired " Herron said. *Tve
Herron
support
of
had a long and
rewarding
career at CMU,
and 1 would
have liked to
end it bloodless-
ly after all these
years."
Herron, 62,
said he believes
he was let go as
the result of his
CMU        Public
Broadcasting and because he often
offered views that were not reflected by other university leaders.
Drugs possible
factor in sexual
assault Thursday
By Clayton Mastaw
LIFE Staff Writer
While visiting The Bird Bar &
Grill Thursday evening, an
unidentified woman was drugged
with an unknown substance and
sexually assaulted.
The woman, who is a regular
customer at The Bird, 223 S. Main
St., reported to a local women's crisis center that she had been
drugged at around 8 p.m. during
happy hour.
She had no memory for a 12-
hour period in which she said she
was sexually assaulted by an
unknown individual.
Because of confidentiality, the
institution the incident was reported to requested not to be identified.
Local police officers received no
information on the incident.
Irene Kepler, an Advocate for
Sexual Assault Services and
Mount Pleasant sophomore, said
there have been a total of three
cases of sexual assault reported
involving date rape drugs since
Spring Break.
Dan Breidenstein, owner of the
Bird, said he is very upset about
the incident.
He said he has four daughters
and would hate to think something
like this could happen to one of
them.
The Bird has been handing out
pamphlets with information about
the dangers of the date rape drugs
and how people can protect themselves.
Breidenstein said his daughters
have been making table tents with
information on them to let people
know there are people in Mount
Pleasant using the drugs to take
advantage of unsuspecting victims.
That s not a man, but a coward
that does that kind of stuff," he
said.
See DRUGGED Page 2
Isabella County
Commission votes to
expand courthouse
By Angela S. Vandenberg
LIFE Assistant News Editor
Despite the protests of several community members, the Isabella
County Commission voted unanimously to support the concept of
additions to the courthouse and jail.
During the general public comment portion of the meeting, Heather
Fuller and Rebecca Bundy, both Mount Pleasant residents, said while
they agree the expansion could be justified by overcrowding, the courtroom shooting in 1997 and issues about transferring jail inmates, they
say there are alternative solutions and no jail should be expanded in
the downtown area.
Bundy said she contacted four counties, including Ingham, Eaton,
Clinton and Oakland counties, which have historically either moved
or expanded their court and jail facilities in downtown areas until
there was no more room.
"All counties have found that those monies spent and structures
built were only a band aid for their growth and potential growth," she
SeeEXPANP Page 16
^There's a lot of evidence that
CMLPs Public Broadcasting operation is more efficient than those of
our sister schools, but the 'studies'
go on," he said. "If people cant wmm
the value of this operation to CMU,
it's hard to know how to convince1
them otherwise — and attempts to
do so may cost you your bead.
"I was fired by the president, but
there's no question in my mind
that the trigger was pulled by the
Trustee Dave Brandon, who has
been angry at me over some statements I made supporting Public
Broadcasting,"  said   Herron,  who
was notified of the firing March 30.
Plachta denied this was the case,
but refused to directly rebut
Herron s statement.
"He has a right to say whatever
he wants to say and Tm not going
to argue publicly," Plachta said.
While Brandon was aware of the
firing, Trustee Mitch Kehetian
said he was shocked by the news
and offended that he was not notified by the university.
"I feel offended. As a board of
trustee on that board for 13  years.
See HERRON Page 2	
Friends, colleagues remember
what Herron did for CMU
By Jennifer Ackerman
LfFE Editor
The phone didn't stop ringing at Russ Herron's house Tuesday
evening. He was fired from the university and the news traveled
fast.
Thirty-nine years worth of business contacts, employees and
friends started to call.
While his wife, Pat, fielded the calls, Herron, vice president of
University Relations and secretary to the Board of Trustees took
See REMEMBER Page 2	
Take me out to the ballgame
TONY CEPAK • CM LIFE
Spencer Lippert, a six year-old first grader from Dewitt, shares a laugh with his grandfather
Bob Lippert, of Mt. Pleasant, at the CMU baseball game Tuesday afternoon.
Students,
senators
show
support
for e-board
By Ebonii Broadus
LIFE Staff Writer
About 90 people attended an
emergency Senate meeting
Monday facilitated by Stephen
Thomhill, Senate leader and
Westland sophomore.
The purpose of the meeting was
to hear the Student Government
Association Senate's concerns, not
for an impeachment hearing.
Tm here to tell you right now
that this is not an impeachment
hearing,'* Thomhill said. "We are
not going to be discussing charges
or allegations or anything brought
against anyone because, in my
opinion as the Senate leader, this is
not the appropriate time for us to
do that."
Shortly after, Thomhill directed
senators and spectators of the
meeting to a Jan. 17 memorandum
written to the SGA Senate by
Treasurer James Cone, Laurium
junior.
The subject of the memorandum
was a budget readjustment and
conference sub-account
transfer/allocation that was voted
on by the SGA general body to send
six SGA delegates to Texas for the
Conference on Student
Government Associations
(COSGA).
Thomhill repeatedly shed light
on the fact that Cone's memorandum was inaccurate.
"What was brought to light from
what I found out, and I'm not a
math major or anything, but there
is a discrepancy in terms of the
amount of money (transferred/allocated)," Thomhill said.
"Some of these numbers (on the
1997-98 budget proposal) come
close and some of them didn't
make sense," he said.
Many people, including several
fraternity and sorority members,
however, spoke out in favor of SGA
and the executive board in general,
See SUPPORT Page 2	
Tougher drinking, driving laws go to House
By Clayton Mastaw
LIFE Staff Writer
The Michigan House of Representatives is
considering an 11-bill package to initiate
stricter penalties for repeat drunk drivers in
an attempt to curb traffic deaths and lower
driving risks.
Sen. William Van Regenmorter, (R-
Hudsonville) who is also a member of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, is co-sponsoring the "Repeat Offender Package."
"The  issue   is  repeat  offenders  and   how
they are dealt with," he said.
"It passed out of our committee three
weeks ago; it passed full senate 10 days ago
and is in the House now," Van Regenmorter
said.
He said the House has expressed some
interest, but he said he doesn't know if it will
pass.
Normally, drunk drivers are either repeatedly arrested or have been arrested before
for the offense or had their license suspended  and  continue  to  drive  without  it,   Van
Regenmorter said.
He said drunk driving causes many
deaths, and many of them are caused by
repeat offenders. However, many times the
criminal is charged with second degree murder or negligent homicide. He said rarely
does drunk driving appear on the charges for
murder.
The package of bills outlines a "hierarchy
of sanctions and penalties," he said.
See DRINKING Page 10	
Drug use bigger problem than numbers say
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The   CMU   Softball   team   lost   both
games in a double-header Tuesday.
By Clayton Mastaw
LIFE Staff Writer
On the surface, disciplinary
statistics released by the Office
of Student Life indicate there is
a minor controlled substance
abuse problem at CMU.
However, university officials
say the problem is much bigger
since many offenses go unreported due to lack of evidence.
Statistics indicated in the
1997-98  school  year that as of
March 20, there have been more
than 530 alcohol policy violations and 24 marijuana violations reported.
The Mount Pleasant Police
Department reported similar
statistics with similar results.
In 1996, the department
arrested 28 people for violation
of controlled substances, 35 in
1997, and seven in 1998 as of
March 17.
University officials said com
paring the number of violations
makes marijuana use appear to
be much less of a problem on
campus than it really is.
Sharon George, director of
Student Life, said it is a very
complicated issue that needs to
be handled carefully.
"We are aware that the smoking (of marijuana) is going on,
proving it is a different thing,"
she said.
She said it is definitely a big
ger problem than the statistics
indicate.
"Marijuana use is definitely
up and has been for the last five
years," said Shaun Holtgreive,
associate director of Student
Life. Thats pretty much been a
country-wide phenomena."
"Whenever you're dealing
with a drug issue, you really
have   to   provide   a   lot   of  evi-
See USE Page 10
CM LIFE will not
be published
Friday, April 10