LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Monday, March 10, 1997 - 3A Campaigns underway for top LSA-SG post Former School of Health professor dies 0. Former University Prof. Arthur Southwick died in Ann Arbor last Monday at age 73. "ubuthwick, a professor emeritus of health services management and policy in the School of Public Health and a 'professor emeritus of business law in the School of Business Administration, received both his business and law degrees from the University. Southwick became an assistant pro- 'ssor at the University in 1956 and was promoted to associate professor in 1961 and then professor in 1966. Southwick served on the board of editors for the American Journal of LAw and Medicine and on the editorial 'advisory board of issues in Health Care Technology and Hospital Risk Control. 'Fimeral services were held last 'Friday at the First Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor. Former 'U' profes- sor dies at 85 Retired University Prof. Chai Yeh died Feb.. 14, after 20 years as a University faculty member. Yeh, a professor emeritus of electrical and "cmnputer engineering, died at age 85: Yeh came to Ann Arbor in 1956 as a search engineer for the Willow Run aboratories in Ypsilanti. He joined the University faculty as an assistant pro- fssor in 1961 and was promoted to professor in 1964. "Before coming to the University, Yeh yas a visiting professor at the University of Kansas, a research engi- neer at the Radio Research Institute, a professor at the Southwestern Associated University in Kumming, hina and a professor at Tsinghua niversity in Peking, China. - Veh pioneered research in the fields ofphotonics, fiber optics and solid state electronics. He published papers in scholarly journals on radio electronics, microwave electronics, solid state elec- tronics and opto electronics. Yeh also published two books, "Handbook on Fiber Optics" and "Applied Photonics," after his retirement in 1981. diabitat for J~iumanity to hold -meeting today Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley will hold a meeting tonight at 7:30p.m. at the New Center, located at 1100 North Main Street. The meeting is expected to include oductions of new board members 1nd Habitat families. Members plan to recognize donors and volunteers. Habitat for Humanity builds homes in-6ooperation with low income fami- lies in areas across the country. The ocal chapter plans to build five new homes between June 21 and July 5. Local churches of varying denomina- tions and other philanthropies organi- zations provide the funding to build homes. scholarship deadline nears Saturday is the application deadline .;or the Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace T'eliowship. The fellowship provides funds for 'raduate students who are interested in arms control and security issues to ...ork with arms control organizations Washington, D.C. The fellowship lasts four to six months and provides a stipend, health insurance, and travel to and from Washington, D.C. More information on the fellowship is available at the University's Center for Russian and East European Studies or at http://www clw org/pub/clw/scoville/. - Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Jeff Enderton. By Katie Plona Daily Staff Reporter Although sometimes overshadowed by the race for Michigan Student Assembly president and vice president, the campaign for LSA student govern- ment's top two leaders is underway. Running on the Michigan Party slate are juniors Adam Schlifke and Yejide Peters for president and vice president, respectively. On the Students' Party slate are presidential candidate Lauren Shubow and vice presidential candidate Geeta Bhatia, who are both sophomores. Shubow, Bhatia and Schlifke are currently LSA- SG members. Bhatia and Peters are MSA veterans, and Peters is still an assembly member, "I think we have a good combination of experi- ence and fresh ideas," Shubow said of the Students' Party team. Peters said increasing the communication lines among students, LSA-SG members and the school's administration is a Michigan Party priori- ty. "We both have a good grasp on academic con- cerns," Schlifke said. Schlifke said he wants LSA-SG to hold more public forums on student concerns, besides spon- soring campuswide activities, like Groovawolva and Diversity Days. To forge a greater connection between LSA stu- dents, Peters suggested talking to student groups, inviting student leaders to interact with LSA-SG, a Meet the Deans Day and visits to students in resi- dence halls to explain what LSA-SG does. Bhatia said the biannual LSA bulletin sent to all LSA students is the most reliable way to let students know about LSA-SG and how it serves students. Peters said LSA-SG and the LSA administration' should hold monthly meetings to report on their activities and to open better communication lines between the two bodies. Peters also suggested that students should be appointed to LSA department committees to encourage participation and com- munication. "We won't know unless we try," Peters said. If administrators see a student interest, they would be receptive to this idea." Shubow said the two prime concerns of the Students' Party are academic issues and public awareness. Like the Michigan Party, Shubow said the Students' Party wants to work to appoint student rep- resentatives to the LSA administrative committees. "We really want to have more student represen- tatives in all committees," Shubow said. "That's something that we're going to work for toward a long-term goal." Bhatia said the biggest downfall of the current LSA-SG body is a lack of motivation, a character- istic that Bhatia said she has been trying to change since she gave up her MSA seat in January to move to LSA-SG. "Our government lacks motivation," Bhatia said. Among the Students' Party's other goals is an attempt to re-evaluate course descriptions so stu- dents can better gauge the workload of classes, perhaps through survey techniques, Shubow said. "You would know how to balance (your classes) out," Shubow said. She said members of the curriculum committee seem receptive on working with LSA-SG on creat- ing better course descriptions. Shubow said she and Bhatia want to continue the work they have been doing to allow more class- es to fulfill the Race and Ethnicity requirement. "We have drafted a letter and we've got a list of about 25 to 30 courses that we believe fit (the Race and Ethnicity definition)," Bhatia said. Expanding the course selection for the Race and Ethnicity requirement and revising course descrip- tions is also a plank in the Michigan Party platform. Back to school Parties haggle over education curriculum I LANSING (AP) -Gov. John Engler is trying to use President Clinton's speech last week to the Legislature to paint Democrats as being on the wrong side of the charter school issue. But Democrats got ammunition from Clinton's address, too. And they plan to fire their first shot this week when they bring forth a vote state mandate in violation of the Michigan Constitution. He also says a uniform curriculum across the state would help ensure a qual- ity education for all schoolchildren and has widespread support among parents. When Lansing-based EPIC/MRA polled last month on who should deter- mine what is taught in schools, 40 per- cent said it should be set at the national level, 31 percent said the state should in the House ono back a statewide Michigan's public schools. The presi- dent's fervent promotion of national achievement tests make Engler - who announced Michigan would partici- pate in the exams a measure to bring core curriculum in "A mandatory core curriculum is a bad idea." -State Rep. Ken Sikkema House Minority Leader do it, and 19 per- cent it should be left to locals. Just one per- cent volunteered that there should be no such stan- dards. The telephone survey of 600 Michigan likely voters was -con- - look odd if he AP PHOTO Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) reads Dr. Seuss' 'Horton Hears A Who' to a group of students in Southfield, as part of a program to promote March as reading month. aw school rankings flawed U.S. News error responsible for miscaculations By Heather Kamins Daily Staff Reporter U.S. News and World Report pub- lished its highly anticipated graduate school rankings edition last week with one flaw - the law school rankings were miscalculated. The rankings that appeared in the March 10 issue of the weekly magazine and in its 1997 America's Best Graduate Schools guidebook, were incorrectly ranked because of a com- puter miscalculation that was not detected until after the magazine was printed. Though the University's School of Law remained in the seventh spot after the rankings were recalculated, 35 of the nation's top 50 law schools were originally misranked. Wayne State University's School of Law was one of the schools that moved up in the rankings after the recalcula- tion. Originally WSU placed in the third tier of law schools, but after the recalculation it moved into the second tier. WSU School of Law Dean James Robinson said there are serious prob- lems in the way U.S. News and World Report determines its rankings. "I do not feel that the rankings are helpful to (prospective) students," Robinson said. "I'm glad that we are in the second tier if there are rankings, but there are serious flaws in the methodol- ogy. Vice President for University Relations Walter Harrison said this mis- take exemplifies the unsubstantial weighting of the rankings. "These rankings are arbitrary," Harrison said. "They set up a bunch of very complex criteria that have no con- nection to the actual quality of the school. I hope people will pay attention to how silly this makes them look." Robinson said he is working with a group of law school deans from around the country to draft a letter about their concerns to send to the magazine. Robinson said he expects deans from almost all of the nation's law schools to sign the letter. Robinson said the category that ranks the school's reputation among acade- mics is a major problem in the ratings process. "It is hard for a dean in Massachusetts to know about a school in New Mexico," Robinson said. "Once you get beyond the elite law schools in the country, it is very difficult to evalu- ate. At the end of the day, the ratings do more harm than good." Michigan Student Assembly President Fiona Rose said this recent miscalcualtion in the law school rank- ings is a good reminder of "how transi- tory these numbers can be." "(The rankings) are prone to miscal- culations, clearly, and they are prone to misrepresention by the magazine," Rose said. "It reminds us how bad of an idea it is to base one's educational deci- sions on these numbers." University of Minnesota at Twin Cities is another school that benefited from the recalculation. Originally, the school was ranked at 23, but after the recalculation it moved to the 20th spot. Minnesota Law School Prof. John Cound said it is good for potential stu- dents to have information about law schools, but is critical of the magazine's ranking methods. "The difference between 23 and 20 is very slight," Cound said. "The only dif- ference is that last year we were rated 22. Twenty-three would have been a fall, whereas 20 is an improvement. I don't think that we have either fallen or improved since last year." U.S. News and World Report said the recalculated rankings will be printed in this week's edition of the magazine. doesn't also support uniform standards, Democrats say. "Where's the argument?" said Rep. Jim Agee, (D-Muskegon). "I - don't understand how you can support test- ing, if you don't support the standards you're going to test:' The Democratic bill, sponsored by Agee, would encourage schools to adopt a state-developed core curricu- lum in math, reading, writing, science and social studies by promising them $5 extra in state funding per pupil if they do so. The state has a model cur- riculum now, but it is not required. Agee says his approach answers con- cerns that requiring schools to teach the core curriculum, which was dropped by Republicans in 1995, was an unfunded ducted Feb. 17-20, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. But Republicans say they have no intention of returning to a statewide curriculum. Senate Majority Leader Dick Posthumus, (R-Alto), called Agee's measure "dead on arrival" in his GOP- run chamber. House Minority Leader Ken Sikkema, (R-Grandville), said local school districts are required to have a curriculum, so there is no need for the. state to impose its own - especially when Agee's proposal would cost the state an extra $8 million. "A mandatory core curriculum is..a bad idea,' he said. "It's a piece of 1eg lation that has no impact' 1 4" "4 Uffizk'c htauihsin nAnn Arbohta' v *e our nuest Think sunny days on the beaches of Lake St. Clair, rollerblading to. Metro Park, malling at Lakeside and picking up some transferable credits from Macomb Community College this summer! That's right! For just $51 per credit hour*, you can put some of your academic requirements behind you as a guest student at MCC. Take classes in core subjects like: accounting, biology, economics, English, French, history, humanities, math, psychology, Spanish and a whole lot more at one of the nation's leading community colleges. What better way to get a jump on fall than by doing your homework at home this summer! Call (810) 445-7999 today for a Summer Guest Student packet with all the information you'll need to apply, register and transfer courses. Or e-mail us at answer@macomb.cc.mi.us. ""E" GRoup MEETINGS --tBible Study, 741-1913, Angell Hall, G-144,7 p.m. Q Biomedical Engineering Student Association, H.H. Dow Building, Room 1013, 7 p.m. J Women's Book Group, 662-5189, Guild House, 802 Monroe, 12-1 p.m. ,,VENTS s ; aN sc4 # re n n w a ss... 1 U "Girl Scout Cookie Booth," spon- sored by The Girl Scouts, corner of East University and South University, 3-6 p.m. 0 "New Developments In Clubhouse Programming " sponsored by The Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Washtenaw County, St. Claire's Episcopal Church/Temple, 2309 Packard, 7:30-9:30 p.m. U "Rosh Hodesh Service," sponsored by Hillel, 1429 Hill Street, 7:30 SERVICES U Campus Information Centers, 763- INFO, info@umich.edu, and www.umichredu/-info on the World Wide Web Q English Composition Board Peer Tutoring, Angell Hall, Room 444C, 7-11 p.m. U Northwalk, 763-WALK, Bursley Lobby, 8p m.- 1:30 a.m. J Psychology Peer Academic Advising, 647-3711. East Hall, Room 1346, II