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One hundred six years of editorialfreedom
Friday
April 18,1997
I -
vol evl NO 1IAd..r ,97Th ihga al
students
plan
Eartlweek
Commencement speaker named
Sources confirm Bollinger will deliver keynote address
eents
By Alice Robinson
Daily Staff Reporter
Students passing through the Diag
today may see more garbage than usual.
A display of trash, designed to draw
attention to wastefulness on campus,
wj be set up from noon to 6 p.m. as
of Earthweek, which starts today
and runs through Earth Day, April 22.
The Michigan Student Assembly's
Environmental Issues
Commission is
{ sponsoring the
week of Earth
awareness
t under the theme
"Love your
Y Cmother, there is no
other:'
*RCY MCCORMICK /Daily T h e
Environmental Issues Commission,
with help from various other student
organizations, hopes to emphasize the
importance of conserving the Earth's
resources, with various participatory
events planned throughout the week,
including today's Critical Mass Bike
Ride and tomorrow's day of environ-
mental service, "Hands on the Planet"
garthweek this year is very, very
inclusive. We have many (new) events
sponsored by lots of different kinds of
groups," SNRE junior Mona Hanna
said. Hanna, chair of the
Environmental Issues Commission, an
umbrella group for all environmental
organizations on campus.
"We have people ranging from the
College Republicans having events, to
Project Serve," Hanna said.
lthough this year's Earthweek
a vities were planned later in the year
than last year's events, organizers said
they hope students will take time out
from studying to learn about taking
See EARTHWEEK, Page 2
Studennts
experience
Weightless
flights
By Matt Weller
Daily Staff Reporter
'hreeUniversity students are read-
justing to civilian life after spending a
week as astronauts-in-training and two
daunting days in experimental flight.
Engineering seniors D.J. Kroeger,
Amber Thweatt and John Korsakas
traveled to NASA's Johnson Space
Centerfield at Ellington Field, Texas, to
test their VORTEX microgravity exper-
iment in a modified airplane. The
RTEX is an experiment in fluid
amics that produces drops of liquid
in a weightless environment.
The trip was not all thrills and chills,
however. There was at least one spill.
"It was an amazing experience,"
Kroeger said. "I did puke on parabola
number six, but up until then it was
unreal."
Kroeger said that a bad case of but-
terflies in the stomach was the culprit in
his sickness.
0 guess I was a little nervous, " he
said.
Kroeger said that although he may
have lost his lunch, he has not lost his
astronaut aspirations.
"It is still such an amazing and excit-
ing occupation," Kroeger said. "One
bad moment on a flight is nothing ...
without a doubt, I'd do it again."
Thweatt said she had reservations
a out the airborne roller coaster ride.
I thought to myself, 'Oh my gosh, do I
really want to do this?' I heard horror sto-
ries about people getting sick," she said.
But for Thweatt, the weightless inter-
vals ended up being nothing short of a
flying funhouse.
"Oh, we had a blast:' she said."We
By Katie Wang
Daily Staff Reporter
Sources close to the University Board of
Regents said yesterday that the regents plan to
invite President Lee Bollinger to deliver the
keynote address at next month's Spring
Commencement ceremony.
The source said Bollinger will accept the invitation.
"It is an opportunity for him to talk directly to
students who were, after all, his first (graduating)
class," the source said.
The regents also will be asked at their board
meeting today to approve a list of candidates who
have been nominated to receive an honorary
degree from the University.
The source said that it has been a tradition for a
new University presi-
dent to deliver the
keynote to commence-
ment speech during his
first year in office.
Bollinger was selected
for the presidential post
by the regents last
November and he took
office in February.
Former President
James Duderstadt
delivered the keynote
address for the 1989
shortly after he took office.
Even if the regents had extended an invitation to
deliver the keynote another speaker, Bollinger
would have been expected to speak at the ceremony
as University president.
This year's candidates for honorary degrees are:
Mary Frances Berry, chair of the U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights and this year's keynote speaker for
the University's Martin Luther King Jr. Day sympo-
sium; Robert Fiske, Jr., trial attorney and original
special counsel to the Whitewater investigation;
mathematician Sergei Godunov; and Eugene
Roberts, managing editor of the New York Times.
The official announcement of the commence-
ment speaker at today's regents' meeting will bring
an end to weeks of speculation and rumors that had
been circulating about the identity of the speaker.
"I heard it was Bush or Clinton, but I guess
those rumors come up every year," said LSA
senior Alyssa Dunn.
Dunn said she is disappointed that the keynote
speaker isn't a nationally recognized figure.
"I don't think it's fair" Dunn said. "I'm just real-
ly disappointed."
When LSA senior Christine Gray heard the
news, she said if she didn't have family coming in
from California, she would not attend the ceremo-
ny at Michigan Stadium.
"I was wondering why it took so long, but it
See SPEAKER, Page 2
Spring Commencement,
Hartford addresses
housing difficulties
'
By Heather Kamins
Daily Staff Reporter
Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford deliv-
ered the first of a three-part presentation on University housing
at yesterday's meeting of the University Board of Regents, and
she admitted that the University must make some changes.
Hartford said yesterday the University increases housing
costs each year, but the money is just used to maintain the
halls, rather than to make changes and improvements.
"We know we are falling a little behind in these areas"
Hartford said. "We have some major challenges ahead of us?'
After the board approved a housing rate increase in
February, it requested to see data ensuring that the annual
increases are necessary. The board requested assurance that
the most efficient manner of improvement and maintenance
in the residence halls was being implemented.
Hartford also said the University may not be housing stu-
dents adequately. "It's probably not a wise idea to put three
persons in a room that was made for two," Hartford said.
Regent Laurence Deitch (D-
Bloomfield Hills) said the residence halls
currently do not provide students with an
enriching learning environment.
"I believe the residence halls are too
' crowded and too expensive, period," Deitch
said. "We put three people in a room built
for two people who brought a pillow and a
bag. Now it's computers and microwaves.
"If we're serious about improving
undergraduate education, it seems to me
Hartford the residence halls may or may not be
conducive to learning and growth experi-
ence;" Deitch said.
However, University President Lee Bollinger said the
University is not alone in its shortages of space.
See HOUSING, Page 2
Board hears public concerns
By Erika M. Smith
and Katie Wang
Daily Staff Reporters
The University Board of Regents confronted more issues at
its monthly meeting than outlined in its agenda, as protesters
outside the Fleming Administration Building demonstrated
against financial cuts in the University Hospitals budget.
"They are trying to herd us like sheep and treat us like
dogs," said Frank Williams, chief steward for the University
Skilled Trades Union. "The people who are going to suffer
from this reduction in care is us"
Following the rally, a number of the union members filed
into the Michigan Union's Kuenzel Room, where they
addressed the regents during a public comments session.
Citizens for Quality Health Care, a consortium of groups
concerned about national changes in health care policies,
sponsored the rally, drawing the support of more than 60 par-
ticipants. Coordinators of the event said it was planned in
anticipation of the second phase of a three-part budget cut-
back plan for the University Medical Center.
Speakers included members of supporting unions, hospital
employees and community members. Many of the protesters
were longtime members of the University community, and
some were current students.
LSA first-year student Dave Ginsberg said he was excited
about the rally and hoped it would increase activism on cam-
pus.
"I think it's great that we can have a labor movement,"
Ginsberg said. "I think we should do more of this."
The afternoon rally brought back to Ann Arbor former
University Medical Center employee Trudy Swanson, cur-
rently an Ypsilanti City Councilmember. When it was her
turn to speak, Swanson said the workers were "much-needed
See BOARD, Page 2
JOHN KRAFR/Daily
Malcolm Marts, president of local UAW #1976, protests yesterday outside the
Fleming Administration Building in support of the Labor Party of Washtenaw
County.
Groups use jeans
to rally for rghts
By Alice Robinson
Daily Staff Reporter
Members of the Queer Unity
Project hoped to force people to take
a stand - even one of indifference
- on lesbian, gay and bisexual
rights yesterday by proclaiming the
day as a a time for supporters to
wear jeans.
Organizers said they understand that
wearing jeans is not exactly the most
self-sacrificing form of activism.
"A lot of people make jokes about
Jeans Day, they say they're going to
start a straight day where everyone who
doesn't support (gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgendered) rights wears shoes,
etc.," QUP member Jen Trudell said in
a written statement. "The point is it's
not about the jeans, it's about inspiring
discussion."
"I think it's good that they have
something that people can do," said
LSA first-year student Julie Keller. "I
think a lot of people will be able to sup-
port it."
Those who organized the day of
subtle activism said they felt the goal
team.
Ghoshal and other volunteers
helped spread the word by handing
out denim patches to interested stu-
dents in the basement of the Michigan
Union from Il a.m. to 3 p.m. yester-
day.
"There were some people who just
looked at the table and walked away,
but there were others who came up,"
Ghoshal said.
Although fliers and e-mail messages
were intended to reach students, many
said they had not heard about the cam-
paign. Some students said they doubted
their denim would make much of a dif-
ference.
"I think it's difficult because so
many people wear jeans," LSA senior
Sara Miller said at the Angell Hall
computing site yesterday afternoon.
"I don't think a lot of people knew
about it. I didn't know about it and I
read the paper pretty much every
day."
LSA senior Brad Rosenberg, who
was not wearing jeans, said he was not
aware of Jeans Day, but had to dress up
Make art, not war
, ~ - t
* t,- ..i
~s
;. -4
JOSH BIGGS/Daily
Students in Mike Sell's 'The 60s, the Counterculture and American Literature' class splatter and brush on the Diag yester-
,dv hnnfino $ Ae +,udents+ tat ef tha ecletic cnuntercuiture art of the 1960s. The work incorporated representa-
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