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One hundred six years of editori lfreedom

Tuesday
November 5, 1996

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I.

bender
biases may
exist in
*valuations
By David Rossman
Daily Staff Reporter
A short time from now, students will
be taking finals and filling out teacher
evaluations. And while students are
stressed over finals, members of the fac-
ulty are concerned about the evaluations.
Many schools in the University use
*student feedback as a vehicle for
ermining teachers' abilities, and in
turn, are often used as a basis for the
monetary value of a faculty member.
Because of this, according to associ-
ate physics Prof. Katherine Freese,
there is considerable room for gender
bias in faculty salaries at the
University.
"In the physics department, salaries
are determined 50 percent by research,
30 percent by teaching and 20 percent
ervice," Freese said.
"The 30 percent - for which the
student surveys are totally accountable
- is the thing I'm concerned about.
There is statistical evidence of gender
bias on (student) evaluations, especial-
ly against women teaching technical
crses in physics and math."
'Developed in 1975 by the
University's Center for Research on
L[ arning and Teaching as a way for stu-
rts to evaluate teachers and classes,
the evaluations have recently taken on a
different role - affecting teacher's
salaries and bonuses.
"The teacher evaluations were origi-
nally presented as an instrument for the
faculty to improve their professional
development," said Lou D'Alecy, a
physiology professor and member of
the Senate Advisory Committee on
University Affairs.
reese said that salaries are based
rre on student feedback than on
intangible factors, such as teachers'
efforts to reach out to students.
"Women who teach highly technical
classes tend to get lower evaluations,"
Freese said. "Based on this system that
we have at the University, (women)
will get lower raises, and this concerns
me of course."
The presence of gender bias in facul-
*alaries is an extension of what pro-
fessors see as a lack of student interest
in truthfully evaluating courses and
teachers.
"I think that if it had to do with how
(teachers) were paid, I'd definitely pay
more attention to the survey" said LSA
first-year student Sara Guren.
"I wouldn't take their gender into
account - the way they teach is the
way they teach. If they suck and they're
a woman, they suck. There are just as
i4 y bad male teachers as there are
women.'
William McKeachie, a former direc-
torofCRLT, agreed with Freese's claims
of gender bias. During his role as direc-
tor, he said there was no gender bias.
"In my research earlier, there wasn't
much gender bias," McKeachie said.
"In classes where students achieved
better, the teacher's ratings were higher.
women teachers who are not
ndly or outgoing tend to be knocked
down. For women, there's a greater
expectation than that of the male."
Freese said laying the blame for gen-
See BIAS, Page 7

...............

'U'

may name president today

By Jodi S. Cohen
Daily Staff Reporter
It's been more than 400 days since former
University President James Duderstadt announced
his resignation. Now, the Board of Regents is most
likely hours away from selecting his successor.
The board is scheduled to begin public deliber-
ations about the four finalists at 9 a.m. today in the
Fleming Administration Building. They have spent
the past two weeks publicly interviewing the can-
didates, watching their interactions with the
University community at town-hall-type meetings
and socializing with them over dinner.
The four finalists are: Lee Bollinger,
Dartmouth provost and former Law School dean;
Stanley Chodorow, provost at the University of
Pennsylvania; Carol Christ, vice chancellor and
provost at the University of California-Berkeley;
and Larry Faulkner, vice chancellor and provost at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Three of the candidates will remain at their
institutions, while one will likely lead the maize
and blue into the next century. The board can still
add finalists to the list, but no regent has indicated
a desire to do so.
The regents have spent the past week reviewing

transcripts from the sessions, as well as conduct-
ing reference checks and soliciting opinions from
members of the University community.
Since this is the first time a University president
will be chosen publicly, regents said they're not
sure about the structure of today's meeting.
"It will be difficult to predict what's going to
happen," said Regent Andrea Fischer Newman (R-
Ann Arbor). "Our plan is to start at 9 o'clock and
see what happens from there."
As finalists, the four candidates agreed to be
interviewed and discussed in a public setting, as
required by the state's Open Meetings Act.
Between state laws and a recent court decision, the
search for the 12th president has been the most
public search in University history.
Throughout the past year, the regents and
Presidential Search Advisory Committee mem-
bers have continuously expressed the difficulties
created by a public search - many strong poten-
tial candidates, including current university presi-
dents, are not willing to be considered publicly.
"I feel we were extremely, extremely lucky,"
PSAC Chair Jeffrey Lehman said after
announcing the committee's four recommenda-
See SEARCH, Page 7

LEE
BOLLINGER
Provost, Dartmouth
College
8 Former University of
Michigan Law School
dean
* Scholar in the First
Amendment
STANLEY
CHoDOROW
Provost, University of
Pennsylvania
Scholar in medieval
history
R Dean of Arts and
Humanities at
University of California
at San Diego


Student vote
may decide
close* race
By Laurie Mayk
Daily Staff Reporter
Student voters may bridge a narrow gap between the
Democratic incumbent and the Republican challenger in
today's U.S. House election.
"Students are going to represent more than 10 percent
of what it's going to take to win," said U.S. Rep. Lynn
Rivers (D-Ann Arbor). "That could have a significant
impact on the election."
Rivers said about 230,000 votes are expected in the 13th
district today, about 116,000 of which are needed to win the
election.
While the Ann Arbor campus is traditionally a Democratic
stronghold, both Rivers and GOP challenger Joe
Fitzsimmons have been campaigning hard for student votes
this year. Rivers' troops are launching a Get Out the Vote
campaign to remind her Democratic supporters to vote, and
Fitzsimmons has recruited members of the campus chapter
of the College Republicans in an effort to pull votes from
Rivers' base in Ann Arbor.
"We are doing so well in ... Wayne County that we are able
to go into what has traditionally been Lynn Rivers' base,"
said Jeff Timmer, Fitzsimmons' campaign manager. Timmer
said the Fitzsimmons campaign concentrated on Ann Arbor
in this past week before the election.
Republicans on campus have made a visible resurgence
this year, with active campaign volunteers and the largest
College Republicans mass meeting in several years.
"We found a lot of surprising support on the campus,
Timmer said. "The student body on the whole has a reputa-
tion of leaning more liberal than conservative."
The youth vote can be an attractive voting faction to target
because it is more "volatile" than other groups that usually
turn out at the polls, said University political science Prof.
John Kingdon.
"They can be swayed more than some other voter blocks"
Kingdon said.
The student body contains more than 30,000 potential vot-
ers, but a significant number of students are not registered in
Ann Arbor, and student turnout is historically low. Voice Your
Vote, a student-initiated nonpartisan voter registration cam-
paign on campus, added 6,500 local students to the voter
pool this fall.
The University's impact will be felt more than in previous
years because of "those 6,500 people who now have a say in
See RACE, Page 2

DAMIAN PETRESCU/Daily

Sealing the vote
Bill Vollano, a clerk at Ann Arbor City Hall, verifies absentee ballots with voter registration lists. Today, the votes of thousands of Americans
will determine close House and Senate races, including the local race between U.S. Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Ann Arbor) and Joe Fitzsimmons.
Voter turnout traditionayhigh at

By Jennifer Harvey
Daily Staff Reporter
University students are no strangers to long
lines.
But if they wait too long today, they may
find themselves at the end of an 800-person
line to vote.
Students have traditionally flooded campus
polling sites to cast their votes. On Election
Day '92, the Michigan Union polling site was
extremely crowded.
"Maybe there's just a hell of a lot of interest
this year" election official Marshall Franke

told The Michigan Daily in 1992. "All I know
is, this year is a nightmare compared to other
years."
At 5:45 p.m. on that year's election day,
nearly 900 people were still in line to vote at
the Union polling site. About 800 had already
voted there earlier in the day.
Those voters were part of Michigan's high-
est voter turnout rate ever - 66 percent.
Historically, University students have a high
voter turnout, compared to the rest of their age
cohort.
John Kingdon, a University political science

professor, said that generally, younger voters
exhibit the worst voter turnout.
"They're not as politically involved and
they're hard to mobilize," Kingdon said.
Historically, the majority of students on
campus have voted for Democratic candi-
dates.
The student turnout is often the highest for
presidential elections. In 1992, exit polling
conducted by the Daily found that students
overwhelmingly supported then-Democratic
presidential nominee Bill Clinton. Clinton,
See VOTE, Page 9

NWROC marches against
California Proposition 209

By Ann Stewart
Daily Staff Reporter
The National Women's Rights
Organizing Coalition had its first suc-
cessful campus march for affirmative
a tion of the school year yesterday.
ore than 30 participants, including
students and NWROC members from
Ann Arbor and Detroit, gathered on the
Diag at noon before going on an hour-
long march throughout campus.
NWROC member Jessica Curtin, an
LSA senior who partially led the rally

racism and sexism on campus.
"There's been an increase in racist
and sexist attacks on campus" Curtin
said. "There's a movement in a reac-
tionary direction."
Many students who are non-
NWROC members also held protest
signs and marched.
"I'm really concerned with the apa-
thy that permeates the campus," said
Education senior Lori Kasle. "I feel that
people who say affirmative action is not
necessary are saving that racism doesn't

Quad, where they stood outside the door
of the office of philosophy Prof. Carl
Cohen, but Cohen was not in his office.
NWROC members called Cohen a
"main proponent of anti-affirmative
action" legislation.
"I think it gives students a way to say
we don't accept what he's saying," said
RC first-year student Neftara Clark.
Cohen said last night that he was
unaware of the protest and did not want
to comment. He said he is not an oppo-
nent of affirmative action but opposes


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