New Student
Edition
j:j; b le
Alit ita
Ninety-seven years of editorial/freedom
i4IiI
fol. XCVII - No. 1 Copyright 1986 The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan - Thursday, September 4, 1986wen ge
Officials study 'U' repo
By PHILIP LEVY
Students in the University's College of Literature,
"science, and the Arts may be trained to think more
critically next fall in an experimental course currently
nder consideration by LSA officials.
The proposed SKILL (Skill and Knowledge in
ifetime Learning) courses would cover a traditional
Detailed coverage of the Blue Ribbon Commission
report is on Page 14 of the UNIVERSITY section.
ubject like history or chemistry, but would emphasize
cholarly research and ways to compare models and
*heories-
THE SKILL proposal, a response to complaints that
Tniversity students emphasize rote memorization at the
xpense of critical thinking, is the central recommen-
dation of the LSA Blue Ribbon Commission. The com-
mission was originally set up in 1983 to help improve the
University's undergraduate education amid reports that
the numbers of students attending college will drop
dramatically in the next decade.
The commission's 22-page report, which has not been
publicly released, will be evaluated by the LSA
executive committee and faculty this fall. The report
criticizes LSA's undergraduate curriculum as lacking
focus and coherence.
Other recommendations include reducing the number
of courses that fulfill distribution requirements, better
academic counseling, increased student-faculty con-
tact, and more financial aid according to merit.
THE DISTRIBUTION change has already been im-
plemented, and starting this fall several popular cour-
ses such as "Communications 100" will no longer count
towards distribution. Though University officials seem
rt pushing L
to agree with most of the other proposals, however,
many of the recommendations will probably not be im-
plemented for several years.
Many of the proposals are vague, and commission
members often failed to find ways to implement them. A
particular problem is the projected cost for a full series
of SKILL courses.
The commission's projection of up to 80 cour-
ses-some of them required-would cost more than $1
million to fully implement,daccording to LSA officials.
They plan to meet with members of the University ad-
ministration throughout the fall to begin raising the
funds.
COMMISSION MEMBERS attribute the lack of
specifics to what they called an "overwhelming" bur-
den placed on them during their work. LSA officials did
not provide a support staff or relief from their teaching
and research responsibilities, causing a delay of more
SA changes
than a year in writing the report.
Some commission members said the effect of these
problems showed up in their final report. "We spent so,
much time talking about the ideas that we didn't really
get down to the job of writing a report," said Hugh Mon-
tgomery, a professor of mathematics.
"I think we would have done better for ourselves," he
added.
LSA DEAN for Long-Range Planning and Curriculum
Jack Meiland, the commission's chairman, defended
the report. He said the commission's extra year resulted
from the difficulty of the issues.
"We have come up with a fairly complex report, with
fairly complex proposals," Mei'and said. "I think the
Blue Ribbon Commission has done a superb job on what
it was asked to do: give the college a direction for the
future, particularly in undergraduate education."
New ticket
system may
foil scalpers
By DAVE ARETHA
A new ticket system for Michigan
football designed to keep non-students
out of student sections will drastically
reduce the amount of scalping on
campus, according to scalpers -and
ticket officials.
"The ticket business in Ann Arbor
is history," said one scalper who
requested anonymity. "As far as it
being a business anymore, it's over."
The new system will discourage
students from selling individual
tickets. Each student ticket is at-
tached to a "master seating card"
which must be presented at entrances
to Michigan Stadium. A ticket torn
from the seating card will be con-
sidcred invalid.
THEREFORE, students cannot sell
individual tickets; they can only sell
the entire package.
The new format only affects student
tickets, but those tickets provide the
bulk of the local scalping business,
according to scalpers.
According to Michigan ticket
manager Al Renfrew, the new system
was not designed to reduce scalping
per se. He said the change was made
to drive out "the people in the student
section who shouldn't be in the
student section."
In past years, students had conflic-
ted with non-students sitting in the
student section. Although students
ordinarily sit in any empty seat that
they want, many non-students had
demanded to sit in the seats printed
on their tickets.
THE ATHLETIC Department
decided to eliminate the conflicts by
eliminating the non-students.
"I think the students kind of control
their own area in there and they have
a good time," Renfrew said. "The
main purpose (of the new system) is
to protect the students."
Nevertheless, the new system has
upset many students. In the past,
students could buy season tickets and
then sell the tickets they didn't want.
Now their freedom to sell is greatly
restricted.
"I think it stinks," said LSA senior
Bill Sheahan. "Now, even between
friends, there's no possible way you
See NEW, Page t1
Moving in
Roberta Figgs, a sophomore in the nursing school,1
drag Jennifer's sister's things into South Quad4
Daily Photo by ANDI SCHREIBER
rooms due to a housing shor-
helps Jennifer Basas
on Tuesday. Eleven
freshmen were not able to move into dorm
tage. See story, Page 3.
Emergency telephones yield prank, legitimate calls
By MELISSA BIRKS
People have been using the University's 56
new emergency phones for a variety of reasons
- to report accidents, to ask the Department of
Public Safety for an escort at night, or to use
what they thought was an ordinary phone -
according to Leo Heatley, director of public
safety.
Of the almost 3,000 calls the Department of
Public Safety received last month, 50 were
false alarms set off from the emergency
phones which were installed in mid-August.
Five or six were legitimate requests for help
from-security officers, Heatley said.
THE PHONES are hooked up directly by
computer to public safety. Once the receiver is
taken off the hook, it triggers an alarm and
shows security officers exactly where the
caller is.
* Campus security has increased its staff to
handle the volume of legitimate and prank
calls the department expects to receive.
Heatley said the department is not surprised at
the number of false alarms. "It's not
something we can't handle," he said.
"I'm sure some are malicious harassment,"
Heatley said, but added that most of the false
alarms are the result of people misunderstan-
ding what the phones are and how they work.
"THERE IS an 'emergency' light on top, but
some people bypass that," said Gary Hill, a
security investigator at the department. "They
think it looks like a regular phone booth."
Hill said there have been several instances of
people picking up the receiver and dialing, only
to find themselves speaking to an officer at
public safety.
But there have been several legitimate calls
on the phones, some not relating to victims of
assault, for which the phones were originally
installed.
STUDENTS DEMANDED the phones be in-
stalled at a January 1985 sit-in at the office of
Vice President for Student Services Henry
Johnson. The sit-in came after Johnson was
quoted as saying that rape should be kept quiet
on campus.
Phones near the Diag have been used to re-
port a fight, and an accident involving a bike
rider and a pedestrian. A handicapped person
used a phone on Glen and Huron streets to ask
for help with his car, Heatley said. One women
called the department when she thought
someone was following her.
According to Heatley, the phones aren't
restricted to people involved in an accident or
assault. People are encouraged to use the
phones to report crimes, accidents, or to ask
safety officials for help.
"IF SOMEONE locks their keys in the car
and can't get them, we want them to call us,"
Healtey said. "That's not necessarily an
emergency, but in that person's perception, it
is an emergency."
The phones will allow campus security to
pinpoint areas that repeatedly suffer crimes,
Heatley said earlier this summer. The phones
were placed in locations where people might
congregate, and pathways heavily used by
students.
The $180,000 system includes an initial 56
phones, though more may be added later in the
year. Phones are "well-peppered" around the
campus, according to Steve Mayo, the
University's administrative manager of
telecommunications. "You can pretty much
leave one and see the next one."
Most of the phones are on Central Campus,
while others are in the Medical Campus and
North Campus.
Emergency phone
... helps victims
Tighter rules?
Regents to consider
"secret research lniits
New rule flunks top
basketball recruits
By MARTIN FRANK
Restrictions on classified research
at the University will be tightened if
the Board of Regents follows the
recommendations of a special
University committee.
The committee, which reviewed the
University's current classified
,research guidelines, recommended
. 1.. ~..1all C nlcfAA raa a.nh alwflant
ded to non-classified research.
Committee members said the
clause was two ambigious and dif-
ficult to enforce. Several campus op-
ponents of military research
disagreed, fearing the clause's
elimination will produce more non-
classified military research.
Ambiguous wording in the current
oiil inni wvntp. i i 1 V'. wc a
By DAVE ARETHA
Few universities have been able to
balance academics and athletics like
Michigan. But this summer, the
school found the balancing act to be
more than it could handle.
Two highly talented Michigan
basketball recruits were denied
freshman eligibility this July because
they did not meet the standards of the
new NCAA rule, Proposition 48.
Neither Terry Mills of Romulus nor
Rumeal Robinson of Cambridge,
Mass., scored high enough on their
Scholastic Aptitude Tests.
ted by the new rule, but none as
severely as Michigan. Mills and
Robinson are generally regarded as
t o of the nation's top five recruits.
Basketball is the only Michigan
sports program expected to be affec-
ted by Proposition 48.
Recruiting questioned
Although Proposition 48 was
created to toughen academic stan-
dards for athletes, the rule has arou-
sed some hostility among
academically-oriented students. Af-
ter seeing that Mills' and Robinson's
SAT scores didn't reach 660, many