1997-05-21; Central Michigan Life

              Central Michigan LIFE
Volume 79, Number 88
Mt. Pleasant,  MI 48859
©1997 CM LIFE
77 years of serving the community
WEDNESDAY
MAY 21, 1997
10 pages
Weidman man
dies in accident
By Rachel Sprovtsoff
LIFE Codv Editor
A 45-year-old Weidman man died Tuesday when the car he was
working on fell on him.
According to Michigan State Police, the man, whose name
would not be released by either the State Police or Central
Michigan Community Hospital, was pronounced dead at the scene
of the accident, which was on Gross Drive, near Coldwater Lake.
Police said the victim was working under a car in the driveway
when the hydraulic bottle car jack, which was holding up the car,
sank into the soft dirt on the driveway, causing the vehicle to slip
off and fall on the man.
"With all of the rain we've had lately, the dirt driveway was too
soft to hold up the jack," a State trooper said.
Police said at approximately 4 p.m., a family member was leaving the residence and before doing so, went to say goodbye to the
man. The victim was found pinned under the car when the relative investigated his lack of response.
Central Michigan Emergency Medical Systems responded to the
call and Nottawa-Sherman Fire Rescue assisted.
Journalism department receives accreditation
By Heather N. LaFave
LIFE News Editor	
CMU's journalism department
gained the distinction of becoming only the second journalism
program in Michigan to be
accredited by a national council.
The Accrediting Council on
Education in Journalism and
Mass Communications awarded
the department full accreditation during its May 2-3 meeting
in Portland, Ore.
John Palen, associate professor of journalism, said the
department was judged to be in
compliance with eleven of twelve
rigorous standards set forth by
ACEJMC and was granted full
accreditation.
He said approximately 100
other programs nationwide are
ACEJMC-accredited, and CMU
is the only accredited Michigan
school other than Michigan
State University.
"What accreditation says
about a journalism program is
that it is a professionally-oriented program," he said. "We are
educating students for careers."
Palen also said the accreditation might make the department
more attractive to potential students who might otherwise be
attracted to MSU's program.
"What it will do is, I think, put
us on more of a level playing
field as far as recruiting new students," he said.
The department began preparing for ACEJMC consideration
in 1989 when the council found
it didn't meet several requirements, citing the faculty was
overwhelmingly white and male,
its equipment was out-dated, its
Bachelor of Applied Arts degree
didn't require enough liberal
education course ■work, and
interdepartmental programs
such as teaching and  magazine
journalism were weak, Palen
said.
He said the department
worked very hard to make the
improvements necessary to comply with the council's requirements. Among the changes made
were the reorganization of curriculum, as well as the diversification of the faculty — which now
includes three females, two
African-Americans and one
Asian.
He said a more diverse faculty
reflects the progress made in the
profession as a whole, as well as
a commitment to make the staff
look like the rest of the country.
In addition, the department
secured $100,000 in grant
money from the Booth newspaper chain, which was matched
with $75,000 in grants from university sources. The money was
used to install a Power
Macintosh computer lab for use
3,000 attend
school expo
in Lansing
By Rachel Sprovtsoff
LIFE Copy Editor	
More than 3,000 people gathered to learn more about education at the second-annual
Charter Schools Expo in
Lansing.
The theme of the May 13
event was "Putting Children on
Top of the World." The expo was
dedicated to Robert C. Mills,
retiring director of CMU's
Charter Schools Office.
Mamie Thorns, associate
director of Charter Schools and
coordinator of the expo, said
people from Minnesota, Kansas,
Illinois and Wisconsin, among
other states, attended the expo.
Even President Bill Clinton,
,who was invited to the expo,
sent a letter of support, she said.
According to the letter,
Clinton applauded CMU's
Michigan Resource Center for
Charter Schools, the Michigan
Association of Public School
Academies, Michigan
Department of Education and
other supporters of charter
schools for their efforts in giving
parents and communities a
choice in children's education.
In the letter, Clinton recognized the need for a strong system of public education and the
challenges faced in providing
education to such a diverse student population.
"My number one priority for
the next four years is to ensure
that all Americans have the best
education in the world," Clinton
said in the letter.
Goals were made for the expo,
including maintaining the
momentum of the charter
schools movement in Michigan
for growth, competition and
prosperity.
Another goal called for
involvement of players from the
traditional public schools in the
charter schools movement.
The expo also was hosted to
give all guests the opportunity
to learn about the various charter school programs, to allow
those involved with the charter
schools to meet and network
with each other and to educate
participants and the viewing
public on the charter schools ini-
See EXPO Page 10	
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Learning to fly
Skateboarding is OK in downtown
Mount Pleasant residents, Chris Dick (above) and Joshua
Gollish (right), spent Monday evening showing off their athletic skills on a board and four wheels. Sliding along curbs
behind the Ward Theater and hanging in the air downtown
are just a couple of the ways they kept themselves busy.
Last week, the Mount Pleasant City Commission decided
against a proposal to ban skateboarding in the city's business
district. The proposal was the result of concerns of local business owners who complained skateboarders were causing
damage to public and private property and committing various other infractions.
LIFE Photos/Gabriel Guerrero
Local Internet provider stops service
By Heather N. LaFave
LIFE News Editor
Local Internet users may be looking for
new servers since one local Internet Service
Provider has stopped providing service.
Customers of Nethawk Internet Services,
a local division of Blackhawk
Communications, found themselves without
service last week when their Internet access
was cut off.
A recording at the Nethawk office states
"due to unforeseen circumstances" the company would not longer be offering Internet
services.
CM LIFE could not confirm the reasons for
the company's failure.
Nethawk users
without service
Rob Stout, owner of Entre Computer
Center, said it is his understanding that
Nethawk closed. Like any other industry, it
is not uncommon for ISPs to go out of business, he said.
Internet customers need to beware
because many companies can't maintain
their service, due to poor quality equipment
and undercapitalization, said Stout.
They get a hiccup in their business and
they are gone," he said.
According to Stout, Entre has been in
Mount Pleasant for nine years. He said the
company's partnership with local phone
companies makes it reliable.
Entre also has spent $25,000 on equipment to ensure it can continue to provide
quality service to its customers.
"There are some quality players in the
business, but some aren't," he said.
Entre has seen an increase in business
since Nethawk closed, Stout said. The company is offering special service packages for
former Nethawk customers who were prepaid for service, he said, and foresees more
business as more customers seek to recover
service.
in journalism classes, such as
graphics and editing.
"With this we leap-frogged
from teaching graphics -with border tape and exacto knives to
teaching our students on
QuarkXpress," he said.
On invitation of University
President Leonard Plachta, a
three-member ACEJMC team
visited CMU in October to scrutinize the department, by looking at what the department does
and talking to journalism students and faculty.
When the team left, it issued a
report recommending full
accreditation, citing the department was only out of compliance
with faculty scholarship and professional activities.
The recommendation then
went to an ACEJMC committee
in March, which supported the
See ACCREDIT Page 7
Road work to
begin on
Washington
next week
By Chandra Wilson
LIFE Editor	
Among the summer repair
and beautification projects the
city and university are undertaking this summer is one that
will include roadwork and landscaping on Washington Street
on campus.
"It's been an issue of discussion for awhile about the conditions on Washington Street,"
said Duane Ellis, director of
Public Works for Mount
Pleasant.
With no gutter or drainage
system, water has been pooling
up on the street causing the road
to break up, Ellis explained.
"It's bad for drivers, and even
worse for pedestrians," he said.
Construction and new landscaping on Washington Street,
from Broomfield Road to
Preston Street, is scheduled to
begin next week, he said.
According to Ellis, the city
plans to install new curbs, gutters and storm sewers, as ■well as
repave the road. Porath
Contractors out of Houghton
Lake has been hired for the job.
Plans called for construction
to begin May 12. However, the
contractors are behind and hope
to begin the repairs next week at
the latest, Ellis said.
He said the construction will
be completed by Aug. 1 as scheduled, unless the weather delays
progress.
Ellis said Washington Street
will be restricted periodically
during the construction.
"The goal is to have local
access to buildings or -where people live," he said. "It doesn't
mean people will be able to drive
all the way through, though. We
will be doing some fairly deep
excavations so it will be completely closed some of the time."
In addition to the changes
planned by the city, the university also will be altering the look
of Washington Street.
Though landscaping is in the
preliminary stage, according to
Peter Gorton, campus/space
planner for facilities management, plans include new plants,
brickwork and crossing areas
along Washington Street.
He said shrubs will be added
so each corner has an area of
low-growing plants, as well as
trees.
The university also hopes to
add paver bricks along
Washington Street between
Ottawa court and the Anspach
Service Drive for more of an
"urbanscape" look, Gorton said.
"The 'urbanscape' will focus
on brick pavers and patterns of
brick pavers, which will be able
to be walked on in more areas,"
he said.
Gorton said the brickwork
also will eliminate problems
with grass along the street being
damaged by road salt.
See WASHINGTON Page 10
_