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