Military gov't in Haiti foils attempted coup By MICHAEL NORTON Associated Press Writer PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti The military government said yesterday it had foiled an attempted coup against President Lt.Gen.Prosper Avril by two military officers. Radio Soleil said "several soldiers were wounded, - and 30 soldiers were arrested in the coup attempt early Sunday. It gave no further details. Government spokesman Frantz Lu bin said the coup was led by Sgt. P atrick Frantz Bochard, who headed a government lottery, and former Col.- Samuel Jeremie, who escaped from prison following the Sept.l7 coup that brought Avril to power. 'Certain other officers have been State College lowest-stress By DAVID CARPENTER Collegian Staff Writer To the average Penn State student trying to survive mid-terms, the following information may be a little hard to swallow: A study published in the November issue of Psychology Today rates the stressfulness of 286 metropolitan areas based on the factors of crime, suicide, alcoholism and divorce. And guess where the lowest-stress area in the United States is. You got it, sports fans. State College. "I don't think so," said Matthew Lev (sophomore history). Cindy Bieser (senior-foreign service) commented, "I think you've got your statistics wrong." The mayor of the city that was rated the most stressful place in the country also had some reservations about the study. "I have some very serious questions about the validity of this study," Pete Sferrazza, mayor of Reno, Nev., said. State College Mayor Arnold Addison said the study's results were unexpected, but not at all shocking. "This is a community with less inner hostility," he said. "I don't think we in the community thought much about stress in the community. "It may sound silly," he continued, "but this is an area where people complain about a five-minute traffic hold up. In a big city you can sit in traffic for hours." State College Borough Councilman John A.Dombroski, a resident since 1957, agreed with Addison, but questioned the basic premise of the study. Pentagon demonstrators thwart traffic By NORMAN BLACK AP Military Writer WASHINGTON About 1,000 demonstrators created a commuter nightmare yesterday but failed to achieve their goal of blockading the Pentagon during a boisterous pro test of American policies toward El Salvador. Authorities said 214 men and women were arrested, most on charges of obstructing passage. There were scattered episodes of Students By MARC HARKNESS Collegian Staff Writer Seven University students hoping to voice their concern about the United States' Central Ameri can policy packed into a van and rode to Wash ington, D.C., to take part in a large protest yesterday outside the Pentagon. According to U.S.Defense Department esti mates, about 1,000 people took part in the protest, specifically aimed at the United States' support of the government of El Salvador, which is considered to be one of the staunchest U.S.allies in Central America. Some demonstrators succeeded in shutting down the Pentagon's southern parking lot, and others linked arms to prevent employees from entering the building. After returning to State College yesterday, five of the students described what they had seen, and told why they had taken part in the protest. Mike Gallagher (sophomore-division of under graduate studies) said the coalition of more than 15 peace groups that blocked access to the Pentagon was trying not to halt actual govern ment operations, but to make a symbolic statement about U.S.military involvement in El Salvador. discharged," Lubin said. "They had maneuvered to stage a coup against the military government of Lt. Gen . Avril." On Sept.l7, rank-and-file soldiers ousted Haitian ruler Lt.Gen.Henri Namphy and installed Avril as presi dent. Lubin said he had no further infor mation on the circumstances sur rounding the coup attempt. Yesterday, Avril presided over cer emonies celebrating Haiti's indepen dence from France in 1804 A half-mile away, about 6,000 peo ple took part in the fourth day of demonstrations protesting a Roman Catholic church order for an activist priest, the Rev. Jean Bertrand Aris tide, to leave Haiti. "I'm not sure that one area has higher stress than others," he said. "Each area is made up of communities, with higher stress in some." Dombroski added that of all the places he has lived, "I wouldn't say that this is the lowest stress area. But I would say that this is the nicest place when you consider everything." Sferrazza said the study was inaccurate, and attributed stress partly to non-residents, since Reno is a tourist oriented city with a static population of 127,000, as well as 30,000 visitors every day. This transient population boosts the stress rates in the Reno area, Sferraza said, especially divorce and suicide. "Twenty-five percent of the suicides we have here are non-residents," he said. He also said Reno's reputation as "the divorce capital of the U. 5.," originated because it is the easiest place in the country to get a divorce. "To get a divorce here, all you have to do is live in Reno for six weeks," he explained. Robert Levine, a psychology professor at the California State University at Fresno who conducted the study, countered Sferrazza's argument. "Even if you take out the divorce ratings, Reno and Las Vegas are still numbers one and two," he said. "The Reno area just has the highest concentration of stressed-out conditions." "The measurements I used are direct psychological measures of the well-being or lack of well-being in a metropolitan area," Levine said. According to govern ment data he used as the basis for his research, the State College area's combination of stress factors is the lowest. fisticuffs between police and dem onstrators, and three people were charged with assault. The demonstration, sponsored by a coalition of a half-dozen peace groups, began at 5 a.m.EDT and extended into early afternoon. The protesters succeeded in forcing De fense Department workers to aban don the huge parking lot south of the Pentagon which normally acco mixiates 3,700 cars and to run a human gauntlet through selected entrances to get to their offices. protest outside "The purpose was not to shut them down, but to increase awareness," he said. Andrew Mclnerney, former president of the Friends of Latin America, said the protest was focused on three areas: the southern parking lot, the Pentagon building and a helicopter landing field where demonstrators planted white crosses bearing the names of people killed in Er Salvador's internal conflicts to resemble a graveyard. Mclnerney said the groups that protested, including representatives from 75 universities and many communities, were diverse in their methods of protesting. Some protested in a legal rally, while others received criminal citations for blocking automotive and pedestrian traffic from the parking lot and building. "We didn't want to interfere with (through) traffic," Gallagher said, "just the Pentagon, specifically. "The object was to shut down the parking lot, which was achieved later on," he added. The blocking of Pentagon doors was unplanned, he said. Tim Fasnacht (junior-labor studies) said some demonstrators erected roadblocks and burned tires. "It was just spontaneous," he said. Although there were several instances in which The popular priest was to leave the country yesterday, but it could not be determined whether he had complied with the order. The Sept.l7 coup was triggered in part by a massacre at Aristide's church the previous week, in which thugs armed with guns, machetes, clubs and spikes killed at least 12 people, wounded 70 others and burned down the church. The motive for Sunday's attempted coup was unclear. There was no indi cation the attempt was linked to protests over Aristide's proposed ouster. Other than the demonstrations, Port-au-Prince, the capital, was calm yesterday afternoon. designated area in U.S. Police, including one officer who was attacked by protesters, ar rested several people early when they sat in a road to block a military bus from entering the parking lot. One demonstrator sprayed red paint across the front of a bus. Protesters then pushed one Defense Protective Service officer to the ground when he tried to arrest the demonstrator and beat the officer before other officers rescued him. Other protesters went to a grassy area used as a helicopter field out- Branching out Does art mimic life or does life mimic art? These questions came about yesterday morning in front of the Visual Arts Building where students in a beginning watercolor class painted the birch trees. side the Pentagon, where they plan ted crosses bearing the names of people who have died in El Salva dor. Jim Turner, a Pentagon spokes man, said police estimated the crowd at its height "at approxi mately 1,000 people." Defense Protective Service po licemen arrested 118 protesters during the day, Turner said. Metro Transit police reported 92 arrests, while Arlington County police said they had taken four into custody. Pentagon protesters scuffled with police, security guards and defense department employees, Mclnerney said, the crowd was mainly peaceful, even though some resisted arrest. "In every case I saw, the Pentagon employees started the fight," he said. The University students said the most common pattern they saw in the arrests was that defense department employees usually military offi cers would try to break through the human chains and often would strike protesters. Police would immediately arrest the demonstrators, in some cases beating them with nightsticks, Mcl nerney said. Rick Kohn (graduate-dairy science) said the inconvenience caused to Pentagon employees trying to get to work is miniscule in comparison to tragedies inflicted upon Salvadorans every day. "The reason we were there wasn't just to inconvenience people, but to bring up an issue that does more than just inconvenience the people of El Salvador," Kohn said. Kohn, who spent nine months working with dairy farmers in Nicaragua, said the difference between the anti-government insurgencies in Nicaragua and El Salvador is the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan contra rebels have no popular sup port. Student-athletes may get access to graduation rates By CYNDI BURK Collegian Staff Writer High school student-athletes could get extra assistance in choosing col leges if a bill proposed last month by U.S.Sen.William Bradley, D-N.J., makes it to the House floor. If the bill passes next year, institu tions participating in the National Collegiate Athletic Association would be required to compile and submit data about student-athlete gradua tion rates to the NCAA starting with students entering college in 1990, said Greg McCarthy, Bradley's assistant press secretary. The bill, currently being reviewed by the Committee on Labor and Hu man Relations, will be re-introduced early next year, McCarthy said. This graduation rate information would be assembled into a book and made available for review by high school coaches and guidance counsel ors, he said. The book would not be available until 1994. "Senator Bradley has long been working to make the student-athlete aware that only one in 10,000 college athletes actually go pro and for these few, careers end early," McCarthy said. "They need to be prepared for this, and the only way to do it is through education." WEATHER Today, cloudy with rain and a possible thunderstorm, turning windy and cooler, high 63. Tonight and tomorrow, partly cloudy, windy and cool, low 42, high tomorrow, 52 Ross Dickman By publishing graduation rates of different institutions, Bradley hopes to enable students to select schools that challenge them both as athletes and scholars, he added. Don Sheffield, director of the Aca demic Support Center for Student- Athletes at the University, agreed that high school athletes should have access to graduation statistics. "It's important for institutions that have excellent athletic programs to show they are equally as concerned about fulfilling their job to graduate (these) students," Sheffield said, adding that all students considering college should be able to see gradua tion rate information. "It's a shame student-athletes must be focused on, but maybe it will take the athletes to wake us up to the needs of the other students," Shef field said. University Registrar Warren Haffner said compiling information as dictated by the bill wanld not place much of a burden on the registrar's office. "We are already preparing a report in cooperation with the athletic de partment for the NCAA," Haffner said. "(The new bill) could be more cumbersome than present graduation reports, but it shouldn't be much of a problem at this point." TUESDAY Collegian PhotolTimothy Archibald
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