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CAOW
Unor
One hundred seven years ofeditorialfreedom
Wednesday
March 11,1998
WE
MSA
Mac 1" "a 1Pti
tudents
kick off
MSA
amp aign
By Kristin Wright
Daily Staff Reporter
Flashy posters, flyers and catchy
slogans are beginning to litter lec-
ture halls and the Diag as aspiring
politicians kicked off their cam-
paigns yesterday for seats on the
Michigan Student Assembly.
But this winter's candidates say
ir campaign strategies will be
more focused on personal contact
than postings this election season.
Defend Affirmative Action Party
candidate Nora Coleman said she is
relying on networking to win an
LSA representative seat on the
assembly.
"I think it's more effective to get
in better touch with representatives
ther than just walking by and vot-
on a face or a poster," said
Coleman, an LSA first-year stu-
dent. "While posters are good in
that they get your name out, it does-
n't really do much or say much."
MSA presidential candidate
Ryan Friedrichs, who is running as
an independent, said his campaign
strategy is to form direct and per-
sonal contact with voters.
"Mainly, it's person-to-person
tact," said Friedrichs, an LSA
junior who chairs the MSA
Communications Committee.
Friedrichs said he will personally
visit residence halls, students' hous-
es and college student government
meetings to reach out to students.
Michigan Party candidate Joseph
See MSA, Page 2
KING THEMSELVES KNOWN
MSA
Rate change
could hurt
student loans
® Interest rate changes
could cause lenders to
stop offering loans
By Peter Romer-Friedman
Daily Staff Reporter
A possible decrease in the interest rate
of federally funded student loans could
actually hurt students in the long run.
The change may cause lenders who fund
federally guaranteed student loans to
pull out of the industry, creating a short-
age of student loans across the nation.
Unless Congress changes the
Higher Education Act, which in part
determines the interest rate on all fed-
eral student loans, the interest rate
will drop from 7.8 percent to 7 per-
cent, potentially influencing lenders
to not offer loans.
"Some lenders will pull out of the
student loan program. You will see a
diminishing of loan funds for students,"
said Denise Rossitto, manager of cor-
porate communications for Sallie Mae,
a corporation that helps fund the
Federal Family Education Loan pro-
gram, known as the guaranteed loan
program.
Rossitto said 6,000 lenders have left
the loan industry, in recent years
because the profit return isn't high
enough. Congress has the ability to
end this trend by providing a 7.65
interest rate when it discusses the
reauthorization of the act next
Wednesday, Rossitto said.
The federally guaranteed loans
funded by lenders are not offered at
the University. But if enough lenders
pull out of the guaranteed loan indus-
try, it would increase demand for the
direct loans used by University stu-
dents.
Congress "has recognized that this is
a problem," Rossitto said. "We're confi-
dent that this will be solved so that stu-
dents and lenders will be content, and
the program can stay as healthy as it is
now.
But it may take more than optimism
to salvage the loan program since legis-
lators and lenders hold such different
outlooks on the loan rate. Rossitto said
many legislators are advocating a 7-
percent rate, which could save each
public college or university student who
takes out a loan $650 per year.
U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Flint)
spoke with committee members yes-
terday to develop a solution to satis-
fy students and lenders, said
Christopher Mansour, Kildee's chief
of staff.
"He's trying to find the best rate for
the students while keeping the lenders
in the program," Mansour said.
"We're close to getting something
solid here, but it's always subject to
blow up at any second," he said.
David Longanecker, assistant sec-
retary for post-secondary education
in the Department of Education,
informed Congress this past
Thursday that for lenders to make a
profit, they must provide short-term
return for lenders.
"Under this alternative approach, stu-
dent interest rates will be tied to the 91-
day Treasury Bill rate -the same bench-
mark used currently - rather than to the
10- to 20-year note used in the scheduled
change," Longanecker said.
His "proposal would reduce lender
costs, because the use of this bench-
mark would more closely match their
own financing practices," Longanecker
said.
Thomas Butts, the University's asso-
ciate vice president for government
relations, said the interest rate has a
more direct on Wayne State University,
Hope College, Kalamazoo College and
Michigan State University, where stu-
dents have guaranteed loans.
AORIANA VUGOVICH/Daly
LSA Rep. Ryan Friedrichs, an LSA junior who is running for Michigan Student Assembly president, sits atop a kiosk while
posting a flyer announcing his campaign.
ig Ten for
Katie Plona
ly Staff Reporter
he Big Ten Conference has followed the
iversity's lead by forming a wrestling task force to
rove the safety of collegiate wrestling and forward
lective recommendations to the NCAA.
he Big Ten Conference embraced our recom-
Wttions and made a task force," Associate Athletic
ector Peggy Bradley-Doppes said at yesterday's
ard in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics meeting.
hey not only embraced them, they strengthened the
ommendations."
e Big Ten task force is making the University's
ommendations more specific. For instance, task
ms wrestling task force
I
force members said wrestlers cannot exercise in a
room where the temperature exceeds 79 degrees.
The schools hope to make these changes permanent
by forwarding them to the NCAA and USA
Wrestling, a national wrestling organization. The
NCAA will review their own changes at its annual
Wrestling Committee meeting in April.
Michigan Athletic Director Tom Goss initially
formed a University wrestling task force soon after the
Dec. 9 death of Michigan wrestler Jefferey Reese, a
Kinesiology junior. Reese died after enduring a stren-
uous workout during which he wore a rubber suit to
help him shed pounds and qualify for a lower weight
class.
The Athletic Department instituted changes in the
Michigan wrestling program shortly after Reese's sud-
den death, including banning the use of rubber suits,
changing weigh-in times before meets and imple-
menting long-term educational components in the
program.
In mid-January, the NCAA supported the
University's changes by enforcing nearly all of the
same restrictions at schools across the country.
Bradley-Doppes is joined by Michigan wrestling
coach Dale Bahr and assistant wrestling coach Joe
McFarland to represent the University on the task
force. Wrestling coaches at each Big Ten school serve
See WRESTLING, Page 7
Racial graffiti
found in Markley
Pell
[* A
1- 4 Y" ?
Racial epithets raise
concerns of increased
racial tension on campus
By Nika Schulte
Daily Staff Reporter
Continuing a string of vandalism inci-
dents at Mary Markley Residence Hall
this year, the door to the room of two
female black residents was marked with
racial and sexual epithets last month.
A paper posted on the door was cov-
ered with two swastika symbols, the
word "nigger" and the phrase "two stu-
pid bitches."
"This is intolerable," said T. Rose
Roane, coordinator of resident educa-
tion at Markley. "It is not OK even if it
was only joking or playing around. It's
never OK to do that kind of thing."
Alan Levy, director of Housing pub-
lic affairs, said there is not enough
others,,
Although there are no suspects,
Roane said Housing security is still
investigating the incident, and she
hopes someone will come forward with
information about the perpetrators.
Markley staff members are planning
a program to discuss these types of
racially motivated incidents.
"We are scheduling a program build-
ingwide. It is not based on this incident
specifically, but it will provide an
opportunity to discuss hate crimes and
hate speech," she said. "Students are
ready to talk about it, address it - not
sweep it under the rug."
Engineering first-year student
Aneesha Raines said she doesn't feel
threatened by the incident and is very
disappointed that these types of occur-
rences are taking place.
"I don't feel in danger, but it upsets
me." she said. "I can't believe these
SARA STILLMAN/Daily
Rachel Onuf works at the Clements library yesterday to archive the library's
collections of manuscripts and letters by and relating to women.
Library to index role
o women in history
By Sarah Welsh
For the Daily
Yellowed letters and dusty fami-
ly albums can signify old memo-
ries to family, but such documents
are also essential to historians try-
ing to get a clearer picture of the
past.
"People don't know that their
stuff is valuable," said Rachel
Onuf, director of the new Women
in History project at the Clements
Library, which, by coincidence,
library's holdings on women.
"It's a luxury to be able to spend all
day reading manuscripts," Onuf said.
The collections include letters,
photographs, theater programs
and newspaper clippings of
women throughout history.
In current library indexes, such
documents are usually lumped
under the category "family corre-
spondence," with no description of
the content.
This oversight renders much of the
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