Rao taps campus minds

Jerry Hoffman

During the last open forum of the semester, University President Michael Rao addressed issues, including the RU 486 abortion pill, the Chippewa nickname and student character.
Approximately 20 people attended the event Friday in the Bovee University Center Rotunda.
Political science Professor Martha Logsdon said she disapproves of the university ban on the RU 486 abortion pill.
“My concern today is about University Health Services having decided not to provide access to this pill without much talk,” she said.
In the end, Logsdon said it may be the appropriate decision not to prescribe this pill, but she was bothered because there was not much discussion about it.
“CMU provides health services for the students and I feel that the students should have more say in the matter.”
Rao said he, personally, did not have an answer, but said the RU 486 pill would be a good topic to bring up at the University Committee Advisory Panel.
The panel will reconvene from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Dec. 5 in the BUC President’s Conference Room.
The panel includes University Advancement Vice President Mike Leto; Provost Richard Davenport; Chief Financial Officer Kim Ellertson, vice president for Finance and Administrative Services; Supervisory Technical Association President Duane Barclay; Faculty Association President Bill Dailey; National Association of Broadcast and Engineering Technology President Linda Dielman; Clerical President JoAnn Gust; American Federation of Teachers, State, County and Municipal Employees President Linda Knight; Academic Senate Chair Mary Senter, sociology, anthropology and social work professor; Police Officers Association of Michigan President Mark Smoker; and Human Resources Senior Officer Maxine Tubbs and various chairs in the CMU community. In addition, there is one student on the panel, Student Government Association President Erica Johnson, Jenison junior.
“They take an issue and send it off in the right direction,” Rao said.
Another topic brought up at the forum was students accusing local police of using extreme force, particularly during Central-Western Weekend.
“I am concerned about inappropriateness of the behavior of the police,” said John Gerhard, Weidman resident.
“I talked to a woman whose apartment had been raided over Central-Western Weekend by the police because someone reported that her radio was too loud,” he said.
Gerhard also said he has talked to several students living in the residence halls, who said police have come into their rooms for no reason.
“They told me that police come in with their drug-sniffing dogs and force themselves into a room,” he said.
Rao said the woman whose apartment was supposedly invaded wrote him a letter and that he was interested in obtaining the police’s side of the story.
“If what she said is what really happened, I think that the university has reason to be concerned,” he said.
Rao said he will get as many perspectives as possible about the actions of the police.
Dailey wanted an update about the Chippewa nickname.
“I hear things now and then about the nickname, but I am interested in hearing the latest,” he said.
Rao said he and Lisa Tiger, director for Native-American Programs, are working on Step One.
“Step One is where we look at the 10 conditions that the university agreed upon in 1989 and whether or not they (are being met),” he said.
Tiger said they are in the first stages of forming the committee.
“We are hoping to get together before Christmas break, but due to schedules being busy this time of year, we might not meet until January,” she said.
Rao also brought up the SmartZone topic.
“CMU and the City filed a proposal for a grant for $3 million to establish CMU’s research park,” he said.
The SmartZone would be a place to attract businesses that already exist or to develop businesses for CMU students to work or intern and to develop the community, Rao said.
“We are going to have a theme and the theme is in a broader sense, information and technology. In a specific (sense), our focus is on knowledge, data mining and business intelligence,” he said.
Rao said the IBM, Meijer and Dow Chemical corporations will be included in the SmartZone project. Three or four more companies may be included as well.
“The quality of our students’ work ethic and preparation makes our students stand out to these companies,” Rao said.
Some students wanted to know what Rao plans to do to improve students’ character.
“The university does a good job of teaching students how to make a living, but it sometimes overlooks teaching students how to live,” said Mount Pleasant resident Matt Schantz.
Rao said both social and economic roles are important to the university.
“I have colleagues who are interested and are aware of the need to incorporate character into education, and I believe at CMU we do a good job of that,” he said.
The proposed plan for a day care center was brought up at the forum as well.
“I am a parent and I also know many other students who are parents, and I would like to know if anything has been decided,” said Todd Williamson, assistant director of Native-American studies.
Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe said the child care issue has been around for at least a year.
“There was a task force looking into child care for the last year and we will have a report written by the end of this month,” he said.
For information covered at Rao’s forums and other topics of interest, the CMU Web site will post Update No. 4 in the near future under the President’s Pages option.