It
One hundred four years of editorialfreedom
1Wl
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Tonight: Rain and snow
likely, low around 30%.
Tomorrow: Mostly cloudy,
high in the mid-30s.
Tuesday
March 7, 1995
I
Vl. C a,.NA.m i A n rbr, t-h0 n 1 he miigally
I
MSA
exec.
field widens
to 7 tickets
Jump for
Mark Detsky >I N
and Heather }
urger enjoy the
warmer weather
while playing on
the Moonwalk.
The Moonwalk
was on the Diag .
yesterday to
promote the
Senior Pledge
Drive.
See story,
Page 3
MOLLY STEVENS/Daily '
'U' debuts Mcard pilot program
105 competing for 26
representative seats in
upcoming election
By Amy Klein
Daily Staff Reporter
Angell Hall hasn't seen anything
yet.
The floors and walls are already
cluttered with campaign fliers, and three
more tickets have annouced their in-
tentions to run for Michigan Student
Assembly president, bringing the field
of hopefuls to seven.
The Truth and Equal Action (TEA)
Party will run David Valazzi for presi-
dent and Micah Frankel for vice presi-
dent.
On one independent ticket, Vince
Keenan and Angie Kelic are running
for president and vice president, re-
spectively, while
another indepen-
dent slate features
Jodi Masley aim-
ing for the top spot
with Dorma
Burnside as her
running mate. '
In addition, 105
candidates compet-
ing for 26 open rep- Keenan
resentative seats on
the assembly may
also be posting slo-
gans in the race. s
Last spring only 80
representative can-
didates ran.
This term, 56
candidates will
compete for nine
LSA seats, while
14 students will Kelic
run for two Engineering spots.
The elections will be held March
The Magnificent 7
MSA elections, March 22-23, wilt
feature seven tickets for the
executive officer postidns. Here
are the presidential candidates
and their running mates.
Independents: Vince Keenan
and Angie Kelic
e Independents: Jodi Masley and
Dorma Burnside
0 Maize and Blue Party: Mark
Biersack and Chris Hanba
0 Michigan Party: Flint Wainess
and Sam Goodstein
Students' Party: Brian Elliott
and Fiona Rose'
Truth and Equal Action Party:
David Valazzi and Micah Frankel
Wolverine Party: Mike Christie
and Brooke Holley
22-23.
MSA Election chair Christine
Young said she anticipates a higher
voter turnout, due to the large number
of representative candidates.
"'We always have a lot of people in
the spring, but this election people are
really coming out and running,"
Young said. "There are a lot of good
things about a high number of candi-
dates, one of which is that they will get
a lot of their friends out to vote for them,
increasing voter turnout overall."
Past election problems have haunted
Young, including slanderous postings
in the Diag and allegations of drinking
while tabulating votes. During this elec-
tion Young said she will be stressing
the penalties for violating the election
code.
"I'm not allowing these things to
happen anymore. I want to emphasize
to people that they've got to play the
game fair this time around," Young
See ELECTION, Page 2
N New card adds
* off-campus retailers,
banking options to old
services
By Michelle Lee Thompson
Daily Staff Reporter
About 100 students cashed in on a
new way to spend money yesterday
as the University began distributing
the new Mcard, which replaces the
ent University identification card
adds another magnetic strip and
several new features.
The first strip, BankStripe, provides
access to all University services, such as
libraries, campus ticket outlets, recre-
ational facilities, and residence hall caf-
eterias and computing centers. It also
adds two new services: debit transac-
tions at non-University merchants from
the user's First of America checking
*ount and automated teller transac-
tions atFirst of America machines. Both
features require a personal identifica-
tion number for security.
The second, narrower strip, called
CashStripe, allows users to make lim-
ited transactions at participating mer-
chants outside the University without
opening an account at First of America
or paying any fees.
Students can put credit directly on
the CashStripe by depositing funds at
CashStripe stations, similar to the copy
card system at University libraries.
Mcard holders may store up to $50 in
CashStripe funds by depositing cash
into these machines.
"There's no security on that,"
warned Bob Russell, assistant director
of financial operations and the
University's Mcard officer. "When you
lose the card you lose the $50."
First of America has CashStripe
stations in the Michigan Union and the
North Campus Commons and at three
First of America branch offices.
Al Francone, First of America's
liaison to the University, said, "I sus-
pect by fall we'll probably see 20 to
25 more machines around campus."
Mcard merchants can decide to carry
either BankStripe, CashStripe or both.
Though currently a pilot program,
the University plans to begin distribut-
ing the Mcard widely in spring term, so
that most students have the card by
September.
About 1,000 students were ran-
domly selected for the pilot program,
and Russell said he expects about half
to participate.
Russell launched the pilot program
yesterday. Distribution will continue
today and tomorrow at the Michigan
Union and North Campus Commons.
To comply with federal banking
regulations, the University selected
the First of America bank to facilitate
off-campus expenditures using both
BankStripe and CashStripe.
Although the University gleans a
3-percent service fee from- Entree
Plus transactions at on-campus retail-
ers, First of America will collect a 4-
percent service fee, included in pur-
chase prices. The University will take
an undisclosed share of the service fee,
Russell said.
Russell said the higher fee was nec-
essary since the University was con-
tracting with a private bank. He added
that the Mcard system will allow for
faster settlement with retailers and pro-
vide them some publicity.
"I wish they had more stores the
students use on a regular basis, like
Borders. Kinko's and Tower
(Records)," said MSA Rep. Jonathan
Freeman, an LSA sophomore who is in
the pilot program.
Ten merchants honor CashStripe
and 12 honor BankStripe.
"The BankStripe ... is going to
offermore off-campus merchants," said
First of America representative Vicki
Schneider.
CashStripe merchants plugged in
their new card readers today, but
BankStripe merchants use standard
credit-card readers for transactions.
Robert Kane, assistant manager of
the North Campus Commons Barnes
& Noble Bookstore, said his staff found
few problems with the Mcard on its
first day in use. "A couple of people
See MCARD, Page 2
0
New MSA party pledges
'Truth and Equal Action'
Council starts searches
to fill vacant attorney,
administrator positions
* Moderate member
drops party affiliation,
becomes Independent
Maureen Sirhal
fly Staff Reporter
The Ann Arbor City Council last
night addressed the city's two open
positions by accepting the city
administrator's resignation and start-
ing the search process for a new city
attorney, a position vacant for about
four months.
And one of the council's most un-
vdictable members, Peter Nicolas
m the Fourth Ward, attended his
first meeting since declaring himself
an Independent. Nicholas was re-
elected in November as a Democrat.
The city attorney search will in-
clude several panels to meet with an
unnamed former Ann Arbor city attor-
ney, a specialist in law office adminis-
tration and a municipal attorney.
The resolution had been postponed
*he Feb. 21 meeting.
Mayor Ingrid B. Sheldon, who
sponsored the resolution, said she
wanted many members of council in-
volved in the discussion of the search.
and a good "public understanding."
accepted a similar position in Scarsdale,
N.Y.
"We are already moving ahead with
plans. I think this is just good house-
keeping," Daley said.
"Why did this get submitted?" Fink
asked.
Gatta offered an answer. "I think
this is symbolic, but please don't talk
about it for 45 minutes," he said.
In other council news,
Councilmember Nicolas announced
yesterday his wishes to no longer be
recognized as a Democrat, but rather
an independent
member of City
Council.
"My voting
r .rrecord over the last
three years reflects
my willingness to
work with both
.'Democrats and Re-
publicans," Nicolas
said.
Nicolas Nicolas said
others reasons for the switch included
the meeting length, the council's inef-
ficiency and micromanaging, and a
Democratic majority that "does not
like to hear dissenting points of view."
By Amy Klein a
Daily Staff Reporter
With four parties already in the
running for the Michigan Student As-
sembly, a new party has emerged pledg-
ing to represent the average student.
The Truth and Equal Action (TEA)
Party has slated first-year Art student
David Valazzi and first-year LSA stu-
dent Micah Frankel to run for president
and vice president, respectively.
"The .Truth' reflects on how we're
going to deal with each issue honestly
and fairly and the 'Equal Action' is the
way we are going to deal with minority
issues," Valazzi said.
Although neither candidate has any
previous experience serving on MSA,
both think the assembly should place a
greater emphasis on the average student.
"The parties that are in control now
are conservative established elitists that
are out of touch with the average stu-
dent," Frankel said. "Watching them
work their magic, it seems they're not
always considering the fact that they're
representing the students."
"That is a misconstrued statement,"
countered LSA Rep. Jonathan Free-
man, the political director of the Stu-
dents' Party. Freeman said he feels the
current parties have worked to involve
more students in the assembly.
"The Students' Party has worked
for-outreach and for getting MSA to be
a more responsible and representative
student government," Freeman said.
"We're not at perfection, but we're
headed in the right direction."
One TEA proposal suggests ex-
tending the honor code system from
Engineering to the other University
schools. Frankel
said the honor sys-
y y. tem would place
< more faith in the
average student.
- - "Students will
% begivenmoretrust,
-.and while some will
violate it, most will
benefit from it,"
Frankel said.
Valazzi LSA Rep.
Brooke Holley, the
a4 n}- vice presidential can-
didate of the Wol-
verine Party, sup-
ports the honor code
with reservations.
"I think the
. honorcodeisagood
idea, but it works in
F "- the Engineering
keSchool, which. is
Fran kel small and has small
classes. I'm not sure this policy would
work on tests that require a lot of
memorization," Holley said, adding
that the larger LSA classes make en-
forcing such a code more difficult.
In addition to the honor code, the
TEA Party wants to improve campus
safety and to push for a student repre-
sentative on the Board of Regents.
"We have no radical or drastic
changes, we just want to make the as-
sembly more accessible," Valazzi said.
MOLLY STEVENS/Daily
The paper chase
Cecelia Church, a Business School junior, worked on a paper at Angell
Hall yesterday. The tulips were a gift from a friend taking a Botany class.
I _ _ __