1998-03-27; Central Michigan Life

              Central Michigan LIFE
T3l
Volume 79, Number S»
Mt. Pleasant,  MI 48859
©1998 CM LIFE
78 years of serving the community
Friday
March 27, 1998
14 pages
a
Student falls from fourth floor in Park Library
By Jennifer Ackerman
LIFE Editor
and Jeremy Russ McBain
LIFE Staff Writer
A 19-year-old male freshman was
seriously injured following a four-story
fall in the stairwell of Park Library
Thursday morning.
At about 8:30 a.m., the student went
over the fourth floor railing and landed
feet-first on the ground floor, when he
broke both ankles and suffered various
other injuries, said Capt. Ron Williams
of the CMU Police Department.
The   student   was   transported   to
Central Michigan Community Hospital
by ambulance, but was later transferred to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing
due to the severity of his injuries.
The man was in the hospital's critical care unit and a spokesperson said
his condition was "somewhere between
serious and critical" Thursday
evening.
Williams said the incident is still
under investigation and he is uncertain whether the student jumped from
the fourth floor or if he fell.
Tom Moore, dean of Libraries, was in
his office when the incident occurred.
"I don't know what caused him to fall
onto the first floor," Moore said. "The
only thing I know is that he came from
above. Our staff heard a thud. It was a
troubling event."
One library employee witnessed the
incident, but could not be reached for
comment.
Rae Goldsmith, associate vice president for Public Relations and
Marketing, said the university does
not have any concerns regarding the
safety of the library stairwell.
Bruce Roscoe, dean of Students, said
the university is saddened by the trag
ic event.
"We feel very badly for the student
and the student's family," he said.
While many CMU officials were cautious about labeling the incident a suicide attempt, counselors were on site
to talk to students at Larzelere Hall
where the student is a resident.
"We're available to talk to any students or groups of students to talk
about the issue," said Don Bertsch,
director of CMU's Counseling Center.
"If there are students who have considered suicide to cope with their problems, we're available to talk about it.
"There's bound to be a number of
people out there who may be considering (suicide)," he said.
Bertsch said having suicidal
thoughts is human, and stressed that
those who are feeling depressed need
to get their feelings out in the open by
talking to a friend or counselor.
The Counseling Center can be contacted at 774-3381, and counselors are
on call 24 hours a day. Also, a counselor is working out of a satellite office
located in Larzelere Hall.
Jason Karas, LIFE managing editor,
contributed to this report.
Students
will see
change in
evaluation
forms
By Aiesha D. Little
LIFE Staff Writer
As early as the fall semester,
the university may put into
effect the revised version of the
student evaluation forms.
"Initially, there was a problem
with a question on the old form,"
said James Scott, professor of
Management Information
Systems, who served on the
committee developed to alleviate the confusion with the student surveys.
"The faculty and the university decided to stop using that
question and developed a task
force to revise the entire student
evaluation form."
E. Gary Shapiro, dean of the
College of Humanities and
Social and Behavioral Sciences
and chair of the task force, said
the question that faculty were
concerned with involved asking
students to compare their current instructor with previous
instructors they have had.
Shapiro said the Faculty
Association was concerned it
could be a biased question so it
was not being used by the faculty
The Student Opinion Survey,
given out at the end of each
semester, was subject to change
under a contract between the
CMU teaching faculty and
administration, Shapiro said.
"We believe that the form that
we have suggested is better
than the current form," Shapiro
said.
See FORMS Page 2	
Just hanging out
AUTUMN FLUTUR • CM LIFE
Alissa Recker, Danielle DuCharme, Kenzou Nozawa, and Grant Herbruck, all hang on the low bar as they wait for Mary Alsager,
their teacher, for instructions. Alsager rents the room from the community recreation center to teach the preschoolers gymnastics.
Funding
increase
approved
by Senate
■ Proposed bill goes
to Michigan House of
Representatives
By Angela Cook-Reid
LIFE Assistant News Editor
The Michigan state Senate
passed a bill Wednesday approving a 6.6 increase in state funding for CMU.
The bill is now in the hands of
the House of Representatives
and, if passed there, it will be
given to the governor for
approval.
University President Leonard
Plachta said this is very encouraging for CMU.
"I hope it does equally wall in
th^House," he said.
Despite this encouragement
Plachta said he remains cautious. He said the proposed
increase is $32 million above
what the governor had first pro-
Renaissance dismisses teacher assistant
■ Past CSC conviction may be
reason for suspension
By Joseph McCarthy
LIFE Staff Writer
A CMU student and teaching assistant at
Renaissance Public School Academy who was
suspended without pay on Tuesday has
admitted that a past conviction of criminal
sexual misconduct is true.
Charles Tyler, Virginia junior said
Thursday that he was convicted of fourth
degree criminal sexual misconduct four years
ago. Tyler said he plead no contest in court.
He declined to comment on the incident, but
said it involved an adult woman.
Tyler is not listed on the sexual offender
lists for Isabella County or VanBuren
County, where the incident took place.
Tyler said the conviction does not necessarily disqualify him from becoming a teacher.
"Tve requested a copy of the policy. Fm just
suspended," he said.
Renaissance Superintendent Sue Martin
declined comment on the issue.
Tyler said the school began to "harass" him
after March 12, when he read a letter voicing
teacher complaints to the school board.
"I was acting as a moderator between the
teachers and the board," he said. "The board
president was hammering me."
Tyler said he has not been treated fairly by
the school.
"The way they want to make it look is that
Tve been a constant screw-up since January,"
Tyler said. The timeline will show why these
events were taking place. A lot of things have
See SUSPEND Page 7	
Departments trying to make best of recent merger
By Joseph McCarthy
UFE Staff Writer
Just one week after the Board of Trustees
unanimously passed a resolution to merge
the philosophy and religion departments,
students and faculty are trying to make the
transition and understand the reasons
behind the move.
Plans are still tentative for the merger,
which includes a physical move for the religion department, currently located in
Moore Hall. The merger means religion faculty will have office space in Anspach and
share a secretary and department chair.
Dillon Moorehead, Midland senior and
philosophy major said he didn't know who
the new chair would be, but assumed "some
sort of vote" would be taken.
He said seniority would probably not
become a large factor because both chairs
are relatively new.
Chair of religion Guy Newiand said faculty in the two departments feel "unappreciated" and "demoralized" because of the
decision.
"Disappointment is a common thing
(among faculty). More or less, the faculty
see this as something that was undesirable
but expected."
Newiand said despite the objections of
the departments, the merger may actually
have some positive aspects.
"I look forward to having the opportunity
to get to know people who have always been
my colleagues," he said.
Newiand said he doesn't know where the
offices for religion faculty will move to, but
said he liked the current location in Moore
Hall.
"Even though we actually like being here
... we'll be together with people who will
have more interesting cross-disciplinary
conversations."
Moorehead said the only benefit he sees
in the merger is the financial savings.
"You're saving money — the amount of
money it costs for a chair's stipend and a
three-quarter time secretary," he said. The
harm is greater than the good."
Moorehead said students will not see any
direct effect any time soon, but said the
long run might be a different story.
Moorehead said people have left over the
merger issue in the past, including Fred
Adams, former philosophy chair.
"Other departments have lost people
because of the environment (the issue has
caused)," Moorehead said.
Moorehead was also concerned about a
lack of concern on the part of the Board of
Trustees, who passed die merger proposal
unanimously without discussion in its
meeting.
"It's so two-faced to me," Moorehead said,
referring to the compliments the Board
gave to the presentations by the departments.
Joyce Henricks, associate professor of
philosophy, wouldn't comment on the merger except to give one aspect, "Religion
throws better parties than philosophy
does," she said.
"As I understand things, the
extra money to do extra things is
somewhat limited," he said. "In
that sense I have to be cautious,
but I am optimistic."
Joe Chisholm, assistant vice
president of governmental relations, said university officials are
encouraged by this recent development.
"All students of public universities deserve a reasonable level
of support from the state regardless of which state university
they -wish to attend," he said.
This at least gives our students
an extra push."
He said this proposed state
funding increase will allow CMU
to stay competitive with other
state universities.
That will help the university
maintain relevant and cutting-
edge programs," he said.
However, Chisholm also said it
is still too early to count on the
increase in proposed funding. He
said the Senate must still identify where the funds are coming
from.
"We think it has a long way to
go," he said.
The 6.6 increase in floor funding was proposed by the Senate
after the governor released his
proposal of a 1.5 increase across
the board.
The 6.6 increase of funding
consists of a 3.6 percent increase
in floor funding and a 3.0 percent
increase in funding across the
See FUNOfNG Rage 7
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Crossword
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Et cetera
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Sports
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Voices
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Phone:774-3493
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Lynn   Trefeger   performed   in
Warriner Wednesday. Page 10
Teacher ed classes will be offered this summer
By Jodi Haughton
LIFE Staff Writer
Progress is beginning to show in solving
some of the problems that have plagued
teacher education students for so long.
Dean of the College of Education, Kehrie
Comer, had news to share with students who
attended the Teacher Education Program
Improvement committee meeting Wednesday
night.
One concern for students has been lack of
class availability and students were happy to
hear education courses had been added to
both summer sessions. Comer said normally
there are no undergraduate education courses
offered during the Summer II session. While
this does not meet the demand currently, she
said it will be met by next fell and j
"We have to (add the classes)," she said, Tta
not a question.*
Comer said students who are having problems within the program should see Diane
Newby, teacher education instructor.
According to Comer, close to 1,000 students
who have been admitted and are waiting to
take classes should be able to get those classes next year.
"We're going to get everybody through this
year, and we're going to find the resources to
doit."
Comer also announced that she held her
first open office hours this past Monday, from
11 a.m. to noon and 4 to 5 p.m. She will continue to
ith. The hoars may vary, but she plans to
pot an adfeitisempnt in CM LIFE.
f think that was a real, real positive
(thing)," she said.
Its refreshing to see some advances," said
Corey Shelton, Michigan Center junior.
Coiner also announced plans to implement a
new cohort system. Beginning with spring
semester 1999, when students are admitted to
the program, they will be taking classes
togslher in small groups of 30 to 40. The plan
is still in development but Comer hopes to
have it as part of the program within the next
two to three weeks.
The cohort plan is still in very wet cement,"
See CLASS Psoe 2