Back door
admissions: Lying
By GEORGEA KOVANIS
Ask Caroline how she managed to get herself
into the University and she'll candidly admit
that she lied her way in.
After being told by her high school counselor
that her grade point average didn't meet ad-
missions requirements for LSA, Caroline
decided upon another approach. She fibbed to
University admissions counselors, feigning in-
terest in a career in parks and recreation, and
enrolled in the phys-ed program. She tran-
sferred into LSA the next year.
CAROLINE, who would speak only on the
condition that her real name not be used,
declared herself the victor.
Even though her high school GPA didn't
change during freshman and sophomore year,
her status at the University did. Though
originally deemed academically unqualified
for LSA, Caroline was able to gain entry into the
University's largest college through a cross-
campus transfer.
The procedure is simple.
ALL STUDENTS have to do is enter a back
door - a program such as physical education
or natural resources that has lower entrance
standards or is in less demand than LSA. If
these students are able to keep their
cumulative GPA above 2.0 for a year, then they
can then move over to LSA.
** * t** **l
"I just really had to feed them a lot of BS
because I was lying to get in," said Caroline. "I
told them I wanted to be a forest ranger
because I didn't know what you could be" with
a physical education degree.
"I knew somebody who had done it before ...
I knew it was so easy to transfer out once you
get in," she said of her decision to enter LSA
through a back door.
"I KNEW six people in the program before I
got to school here. I knew they were all in there
for that same reason," Caroline said.
Most administrators say back dooring isn't a
problem. Some say it's not happening at all.
But talk to students, and they'll admit that it
occurs a great deal.
How frequently? No one knows. Admissions
department officials say they don't keep
statistics on the number of students par-
ticipating in cross-campus transfers. And in
any case, they reason, it would be impossible to
find out whether or not a student is using a
program as a back door.
"A STUDENT who might consider doing
such a thing is unlikely to announce it," said
Robert Holbrook, associate vice president for
academic affairs.
"You face a real problem when you're trying
to second-guess a student who says their life-
long dream has always been a career in natural
resources."
o get in
Entering the University through a back door
is only one option open to prospective students
designated as academically unqualified, for
LSA.
POPULAR PLANS include attending com-
munity college for a year before re-applying to
LSA as a transfer student, and enrolling at the
University during summer or winter term
when entry requirements are less stringent
than fall because the demand for admission is
not as great.
But many students don't select these alter-
natives. For them, the prestige of being able to
say they did all of their undergraduate work at
the University is more important than atten-
See UNQUALIFIED, Page 5
4 4 +Tumultuous
Ninety-five Years Tmluu
Mostly cloudy with possible
Of thunder showers and a high in the
Editorial Freedom mid 70s to low80s:
Vol. XCV, No. 163 Copyright 1985, The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, April 24, 1985 Fifteen Cents Ten Pages
'R
illiers return
Ann Arbor
to
Daily Photo by BRAD MILLS
$11111111
University Law students Tom Douvan
yesterday afternoon.
and Louis Johnson provide a free lunch-hour concert near West Engineering
*" Stdie eyes s cholarships
By JERRY MARKON,
CAROLINE MULLER, and
KERY MURAKAMI
Two University students and four Ann
Arbor residents who were arrested in
Washington, D.C. Monday for
blockading the White House gates
arrived home yesterday morning, after
choosing not to spend the night in jail
because of commitments here.
The protesters - who were among
307 arrested at the gates - chose to pay
$50 fines over spending the night in jail
on charges of "incommoding," or
disorderly conduct.
THE FINES will be refunded if the
protesters are found not guilty during
their trials next month in Washington.
The Park Police arrested 231
protesters for "violating their permit,
which allowed them to demonstrate but
not to blockade the gates," said police
spokesman Richard Cusick.
The Washington city police also
arrested 76 protesters, for blocking
traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue with a
sit-in.dTheywere charged with disor-
derly conduct.
THIRTY-EIGHT of the protesters
refused to give their names to police,
Cusick said, and spent the night in jail.
Demonstrators from Ann Arbor
decided against going to jail because of
academic and work commitments.
Adam Eigner, an LSA sophomore,
returned to campus because of two final
exams this week. He said he believes
the protesters "still made a very im-
portant statement."
"IT'S NOT SO much that we actually
caused a change," Eigner said. "The
most important thing to me is that I
made a personal statement that I can-
not support the murderous actions of
my country."
Nettie Tomasello, a nurse at University
Hospital and one of the six arrested,
said that if she "were to do civil
disobedience properly," she would
have spent the night in jail, or "many
nights in jail."
Both the distance from home and the
child she left waiting in Ann Arbor
prevented her from staying, said
Tomasello, a member of the Ann Arbor
Peace Community.
By ANNE DROWNS
When a student pays $19 to $49 to a
scholarship search agency, what are
the chances the agency's computer will
match the student with a grant for
which he or she actually qualifies?
Slim, say college financial aid of-
ficers from around the country. In fact,
aid officials in Michigan are so skep-
tical about the claims made by the ser-
vices that they will meet next month to
decide whether the State Department of
Education should investigate the mat-
ter.
"I'M TURNED off by the sales
approach," said Gil Oswald, scholarship
coordinator for the University's finan-
cial aid office. He points to agency
statements that up to $3 billion in
private funding are _available for
students and questionable success
stories used in agency advertisements.
As part of an ad hoc committee in
the education department, Oswald
would like to survey high schools to
determine how many students use the
scholarship services. Then he'd like to
check the success they have had.
In investigations of their own, the
California Student Aid Commission and
the University of Illinois found that stu-,
dents who use the agencies often were
ineligible for the scholarships with
which they were matched. Sometimes
they were even matched with scholar-
ships, though the deadlines had long
since passed. The California com-
mission hired 15 students to fill out
agency computer data sheets, send
them to varous agencies, and then ap-
ply to all of the recommended grants.
"THE committee expected to find
varying degrees of effectiveness among
the computer search organizatons; that
is, some good ones, and some bad ones,"
said the California report, which was
"MAYBE IF we had stayed longer (in
jail) it would have been a stronger test
of our will, but we still got our point
across," said Dave Buchen, an Ann Ar-
bor resident and former University
student.
"I went to Washington not planning to
be arrested," said LSA junior Mark
Weinstein, who described the 90 degree
heat and the treatment they received
from the park police as
"dehumanizing."
"They were treating us like
laboratory rats ... dehumanizing us...
See COURT, Page.3
Recent protests reveal
changes in activism
released in 1984. "Instead it found that
not one could provide effective mat-
ching."
The commission reviewed Academic
Guidance Services (AGS), a New Jer-
sey-based firm that provides a scholar-
ship data base for more than 100 af-
filiates, including the new University
Scholarship Services in Detroit. AGS
has criticized the commission's fin-
dings because of the small number of
applicants and the fact that the study
was conducted in spring, a time when
most of the scholarships are picked
over.
But in a similar procedure the Illinois
team had students apply over two years
to Computer AssistedScholarship for
Higher Education and National
Scholarship Research Services. The
students were matched with private
funding sources, but none actually
qualifed after applying.
By CHRISTY RIEDEL
"We're not doing this for money, you
know," shouted the T-shirt and jean-
clad singer from the makeshift stage.
"We're doing this 'cause we love the
people and you love the people."
The audience of about 100 clustered in
front of the stage on the Ellipse in
Washington, D.C. last weekend clapped
and cheered atthe declaration.
Thousands of others milled about the
Ellipse, reading and distributing
literature, and listening to speakers
rally about a myriad of causes.
ALTHOUGH this scene resembles
something that may have occurred 15
or 20 years ago, it could have been wit-.
nessed by anyone passing by the Ellipse
a mere five days ago.
Activism has made a comeback
during the past few weeks. Students
have staged mass non-violent protests
on campuses across the nation and last
weekend's nation-wide protest rally in
Washington drew tens of thousands.
But although activism has made a
return, it is not necessarily the same
type of activism that shook the nation in
the 1960s and early 1970s.
Rena Yount, a Michigan State
University graduate who was in
Washington Saturday to protest U.S.
involvement in Central America, was
involved in protests during the 1970s.
She said there is a noticeable difference
between the demonstrations of that era
and protests 1980s-style.
A DECADE ago, protesters were
angry at the tens of thousands of
American lives lost in Vietnam.
"It's very exciting to me that there's
this much activity about other coun-
tries when there are no American
people dying," Yount said.
According to University sociology
Prof. Alden Morris, the issues receiving
attention at today's protests are dif-
ferent from those which were
prominent 15 or 20 years ago.
THE EARLIEST protests of the 1960s
revolved around domestic issues such
as civil rights and segregation, Morris
said. It wasn't until several years later
that demonstrators shifted their atten-
tion to the Vietnam War, taking on in-
ternational themes, Morris said.
Now, Morris explained, activism is
targeted at foreign policy.
But although these issues differ,
Morris said he sees some parallels bet-
ween the development of the activist
movement in the 1960s and the 1970s.
"I THINK of course that there are
many similarities between the two
movements," Morris said. As they
were in the 60s and 70s, "students are
now engaged in abnormal political ac-
tivity which is similar to that of the
early '60s."
Ron Kaz, a resident of Charleston,
South Carolina, and former Michigan
State University student, agrees.
"TO US, the lobbying is even more
important than the rally," he said. Kaz
said that the group with which he
traveled to Washington had appoin-
tments to meet with their senators and
See NEW, Page 8
Wacky grants abound
By ANNE DROWNS
If you are a left-handed, Lebanese-
Armenian student double majoring in
mortuary science and Middle Eastern
studies, then you are probably eligible
for scholarships that could put an end to
your student loan worries.
But if you're just the average un-
dergraduate studying the humanities,
keep worrying. There isn't much
money available through private fun-
ding sources for students who don't
have a quirky interest or an ususual
background. Those who do, however,
are likely to find a vast mass of little-
known endowments if they only take the
time to do the research.
"YOU'VE SEEN enough movies
about eccentric wealthy people," said
Janice Okoomain, a secretary in the
LSA Honors Office who has compiled
private scholarship sources into a thick
folder. "They have in mind a certain
kind of person they want to help."
Isabel Stone, a member of the fresh-
man class at Wellesley College in 1901,
was one of those people. Stone began
studying Greek at Wellesley at the age
of 16 and then went on to receive her
PhD from Cornell University in 1908.
But she was forced to neglect her
teaching career shortly afterward in
order to provide care for her ailing
parents.
In her will, Stone established the
fellowship, the "Mary Isabel Sibley
Fellowship," for one woman every year
between the ages of 25 and 35 who has
reached at least the doctoral stage of,
her academic career in either Greek
or French studies. To be elgible, the
woman also must be willing to remain
single during the tenure of the
fellowship.
CAROL PAPISH, the fellowship's
coordinator, said she receives 25 ap-
plications for each year. And she also
receives a few letters from students
complaining about the unusual
requirements of the grant. Men write in
ask-ing whey they can't be considered
for the fellowship, she said, and women
occasionally inquire why they aren't
.................... . -.-....-.....---.,... . .. . . .. . . ...........:....................... :.:t ... ...:...:
Minorities
seek fair
showing
in syllabi
By CAROLINE MULLER
Calling for "integration as opposed to to-
kenism," a dozen students rallied out-
side Haven Hall yesterday to protest
what they said is a lack of represen-
tation of women and.minority writers in
course syllabi at the University.
The protesters, wearing hand-drawn
signs which carried the names of
famous women writers such as Virginia
Woolf and Syvia Plath, distributed
leaflets to University professors
passing by.
THE LEAFLET, addressed to all
University staff members, urges
professors to evaluate syllabi contents,
paying careful attention to whether or
not it fairly represents women and
minorities.
Catherine Fischer, an LSA junior who
protested yesterday said the rally was
"the result of a lot of frustrated attem-
pts to make changes."
Fischer said the rally's main goal
was "to get the fact (across) that so
much of University syllabi is
predominately white male."
FISCHER SAID the support of the
faculty has been "heartening," and
See STUDENTS, Page 3
See SCHOLARSHIP, Page 3
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r
TODAY-
End of winter term
TODAY is not only the last day of classes, it is ther
last day of the 1985 winter Daily. Students can pick
up on what's happening over the summer by sub-
scribing to the Daily's five-day-a-week summer
editin which heins n blishine Mav R. Don't miss out on
may call forth some pretty unpleasant images. The Bentley
Historical Library's curator of manuscripts recently came
across sheet music from a show put on by one of the Union's
musical groups back in 1918. As William Wallach, assistant
director of the library noted, the sentiments expressed by
the student-authors of "Blue Book Blues" are probably all
too familiar to contemporary students. Here are a few
lines:
<J __ T T
love the days, But more than anything on earth I love
the A 's. Spend the night at study with a smoky old
lamp. When I read the questions, got the writers
cramp. When my time has come and I graduate, I
don't want no cap and gown, give me crepe. I'm lying
in my grave and my monument explains: "The Blue
Book got him; no brains, no brains."
a good way to ease some of the stress," said Marc Bakst,
and RA and member of the committee. "Everybody should
be hugging each other today in Markley!" he proclaimed.
Some residents really got in the spirit of the day. "It's
really Leo Buscaglia-ish," said Jat Weissberg, an LSA
sophomore referring to the guru of love. "Its cuuute," said
Karen Juroff, an LSA freshwoman, as she hugged her
giggling roommate Hallette Schnapp just inside the zone.
Not all residents were as enthused by the idea. "It's kinda
I
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