The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 1, 1998-- 3
LOCAL/STATE
EDUCATION©
Courts rule Rice
University's
donation valid
Despite strong protests by the rela-
tives of Max Roy, a state appellate
court ruled the late millionaire's $4
'million donati6n to Rice University is
valid, The Chronicle of Higher
Education reported.
Four hours before he died in
1992, Roy transferred $4 million in
,municipal bonds to Rice's bank
account.
Roy's sister, Marie Brandes, alleged
aIe wording of Roy's will is unclear and
Rice administrators convinced him to
transfer the bonds while on his
deathbed.
-An a unanimous decision, the court
ruled that the evidence it has seen
tclearly establish(es) that Dr. Roy
called Rice first and asked them to
come to see him about the gift of
bonds."
Rice's general counsel, Shirley
ledwine, told the Chronicle that Rice
administrators are "very cautious"
when they work with people who are
planning to donate parts of their estates
to the university at the time of their
death.
The court ruled that Roy's competen-
cy had been determined by a New
Mexico district court, which ruled in
favor of Rice before the case moved to
e appellate court.
Penn rules frat
door fees illegal
The University of Pennsylvania's
Interfraternity Council ruled to impose
a $10-per-member fine to any fraterni-
ty caught charging people fees to enter
their parties, the Daily Pennsylvanian
reported Monday.
' The new fine, in conjunction with
a law passed by the Pennsylvania
$Jite Legislature this year, makes
charging for party attendance ille-
gal.
.In addition to the penalty, the IFC will
impose a four-week social probation on
any house that charges money for entry.
The Delta Phi fraternity was fined
fast month for making party-goers pay
a fee.
A member of Delta Phi told the
aily Pennsylvanian his fraternity
members are not upset by IFC's new
rules because the amount the frater-
tiity makes from the door fees great-
ly exceeds the fine imposed by the
IFC.
"But if a fraternity is caught charging
on two separate occasions, it will be
fined $20 per member and the house
will be on social probation for two
nonths.
New York students
lobby for money
, As part of the ongoing financial aid
debate in the federal government, stu-
dents from New York's two ivy league
schools traveled to Washington, D.C.
last week to lobby members of
Congress, Columbia University's Daily
Spectator reported.
N Students from Columbia University
and Cornell University went to the
nation's capital this past Wednesday to
convince legislators to pass the Higher
Education Reauthorization Bill and
;other reforms in the area of financial
"aid.
The students are also lobbying for
congress to pass President Clinton's
oposed $400-per-student increase
,n Pell Grant Funding. Currently,
bout 48 percent of students who
receive financial aid are Pell Grant
recipients.
The students lobbied the representa-
tives and senators from their home
states.
The Higher Education
'Reauthorization Bill would increase
work-study opportunities and lower
interest rates on direct student
loans.
The Senate is expected to discuss
the Higher Education
Reauthorization Bill today, and they
are expected to vote on it by May.
The House passed the bill earlier
this month.
- Compiled from The Chronicle of
/,igher Education and Universitv Wire
reports..
MSA discusses racism, affirmative action
By Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud
Daily Staff Reporter
Questions about racism and affirmative action
dominated last night's Michigan Student Assembly
meeting.
The assembly vigorously debated whether to
pass a resolution condemning racism and discour-
aging students who expresses racist viewpoints
from running for seats on MSA.
LSA Rep. Joe Bernstein proposed the Anti-
Racist Campaign Resolution, saying the racist
viewpoints that surfaced during the recent cam-
paign by a student running for an MSA represen-
tative seat had compelled him to do something in
response.
"I was offended personallyby one of the
campaigns in the recent elections," said
Bernstein, an LSA sophomore. "I saw the
posters and read the e-mails. I didn't think that
kind of thing should happen at the University
or in an election. This resolution does not
infringe upon freedom of speech."
A majority of the representatives objected to the
language of the resolution, which proposed to dis-
courage students with racist attitudes from seeking
MSA posts.
LSA Rep. Barry Rosenberg delivered a stern
oration on the need to protect the freedom of
speech of all U.S. citizens.
After hearing some members' objections to
particular passages of the resolution, MSA Vice
President Olga Savic choked back tears as she
said the assembly should stand strong against
racism and should not hide behind the "mantra"
of free speech.
The assembly passed an amended version of the
proposed resolution in which references to MSA
campaigns was eliminated.
The assembly also discussed other resolutions
concerning race. MSA passed a resolution endors-
ing today's National Day of Action by a vote of 13
to 9.
Dissension on the resolution centered around
whether the assembly should support an event
defending affirmative action. Burden, speaking for
the minority, said MSA should not take a stance in
the affirmative action debate.
"I don't want to be on a campus that spearheads
the effort to defend affirmative action," Burden
said.
LSA senior Jessica Curtin, who failed to
gain a seat on the assembly in last month's
MSA elections, spoke about another resolution
regarding affirmative action. The resolution,
which called for a petition of support for the
students seeking to intervene in the lawsuit tar-
geting the Law School's use of race as a factor
in the school's admissions processes, was
tabled and is scheduled to be addressed at next
week's meeting.
"We feel that we have an independent and
deeper interest in the preservation of affirma-
tive action," Curtin said. "We think that
minorities and women students are the real tar-
gets of the attacks on affirmative action. We
want to be represented in court as our own
defendants with our own attorneys."
The assembly also passed a resolution to
create a Superfan/Spirit Taskforce, which
starts with the statement "whereas, we love
Superfan." The taskforce will "promote spirit
and celebration."
LSA sophomore Bram Elias declined to take on
the position of "Superfan" while other representa-
tives suggested creating a "Superfan" search com-
mittee to scour the campus for worthy candidates.
Child care task force sends
proposals to 'U'
officials
By Katie Plona
Daily Staff Reporter
A University task force focusing on
improving and expanding child care
options has made student parents and
lower-paid staff members a high priori-
ty when making its recommendations.
The Child Care Task Force - com-
prised of 13 people from various factions
of the campus - was assembled by
Provost Nancy Cantor and Vice President
for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford
upon a request by the University Board
of Regents. The task force was responsi-
ble for determining how child care
money is allocated, assessing demand for
the services and recommending a cohe-
sive University approach to child care.
"The main issues we were looking at
were quality, availability and affordabil-
ity of child care on campus and in the
community at large," said Leslie de
Pietro, coordinator of the Family Care
Resources Program.
De Pietro said the task force made
recommendations to build from the
strong parts of the University's child
care programs.
"One of the main thrusts is that we
want to recognize the five U of M child
care centers while providing them with
more institutional support to maintain
quality programs," de Pietro said.
Another task force member, Katie
Jewett, a graduate student instructor
and parent, said the quality of the
University care centers is not in ques-
tion. The issue is making the care acces-
"1 thinky the quality is excellent -
some of the best in the state
-Katie Jewtt
Graduate student instructor and parent
sible and affordable to members of the
University community.
"I think the quality is excellent -
some of the best in the state and in the
country'" Jewett said.
Jewett also said many student parents
have benefited greatly from the student
child care scholarship program initiated
by the Michigan Student Assembly and
approved by the regents for the 1997
winter semester. But the demand is
greater than the supply, Jewett said,
leading the task force to recommend
that the University continue to allocate
money to the program.
Task force member Fiona Rose, the
former MSA president who worked to
institute the student scholarship pro-
gram, said the University can do more
to provide feasible child care options to
lower-paid University employees.
"It's not a question of finding child
care," said Rose, an LSA senior. "It's a
question of affording child care."
Some of the task force's short-term
recommendations and projected costs
include:
Initiating and developing the
home-based sick child program, which
would provide care for University
employees' ill children.
Increase the fiscal stability of
University Child Care Centers. I
In addition to recommending short-
term child care changes, the task force
suggested the University begin working
on several long-term goals. They include:
Improving the availability of care
for infants and toddlers by increasing
the capacity of current centers, as well
as obtaining and training home-based
providers.
Providing students, faculty and
staff with evening child care
Cantor and Hartford, along with
other department representatives, will
evaluate the task force's report.
"I'm hopeful that the provost andNice
President Hartford will act on these and
find ways to make them a high priority
in n'ext year's budget," de Pietro said.
Members of the University commu-
nity are encouraged to comment on the
task force's report before University
officials make final decisions about the
recommendations. In addition to
responding via e-mail at childcare feed-
back@umich.edu, individuals have
until April 8 to send comments to the
Provost's office.
SARA STILLMAN/Uaily
Student academic affairs Webmaster Mark Garrett and LSA academic
adviser Jean Levenrich help students use the new online course guides.
COUrSe guides get
mixe dreaction
By Killy Scheer
Daily Staff Reporter
Now limited to getting course
information via the Internet, LSA
students have mixed reactions to
their college's exclusively online
courseguides.
More than 11,000 students
already have accessed the new ver-
sions, said Robert Wallin, director
of the Office of Academic
Information and Publications.
While online courseguides have
been available and in use for several
years, many students said the transi-
tion from hard copies to strictly online
versions was drastic and too rapid.
Virginia Reese, associate director
of LSA Academic Advising, said
student response to the new system
has been primarily positive.
But Mark Garrett, a student acade-
mic affairs Webmaster, said some stu-
dents are upset because they claim
the change was made too quickly.
"Most of the complaints I've heard
have been about the change," he said.
Out of about 15,000 e-mails LSA
sent to students informing them about
the courseguides, only about 60 nega-
tive e-mails came back, Reese said.
Some students said they were
unsure as to why the switch was
made in the first place. The new
system will save the University
$10,000 per semester in printing
costs, which will be used to fund
other academic programs, Wallin
said.
The amount of paper used by the
old system was not a motivation for
the change, he said.
In order to help students use the
online courseguide, the LSA
Student Government Academic
Affairs Committee has reserved
time in the three Macintosh class-
rooms at the Angell Hall
Computing Site where LSA advis-
ers will provide students with
advice about courses for two hours
on certain days of the week.
LSA Academic Adviser Jeanne
Leverach said students have not
been eager to use the classrooms.
"We think there will be more peo-
ple once registration begins,"
Leverach said.
Some departments have been
printing their own hard copy
courseguides for their students.
MariJane Scott, secretary of the
department of film and video studies
said, "We have a paper copy, but we
are referring students to the Web"
John Whittier-Ferguson, director
of undergraduate studies in the
English department, said he has
received negative feedback about the
new guides from some students.
"While it can be updated constant-
ly, students have expressed disap-
pointment in not being able to mark
pages. It made it easier to have a hard
copy," he said.
While students are encouraged to
print the pages they are interested
in, many students often overdraw
their computing accounts with the
amount of work they print for their
classes, Whittier-Ferguson said.
Students also expressed concerns
about long lines at the computing
sites and Wolverine Access being
inaccessible between 12 a.m. and 7
a.m., the only part of the day some
students have to spend time using
their computers.
LSA first-year student Becky
Kinney said, "Although I see the
possibilities of the online
courseguide, there are major
kinks in the system that need to
be worked out before this can be
a positive experience for stu-
dents."
Spdn Cmencement
StudentSeaker
Call For£Entdnes
The Office of University Relations is making a
Call for Entries for a Student Speaker
at Spring Commencement
Saturday, May 2, 1998
9:30 a.m.
Michigan Stadium
The student speaker must be receiving
a bachelor's degree during Winter Term
Summer Term 1998
1998 or
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:xXxXx".
L
QCAI.LLN L PL[
SUBMIT
-Curriculum Vitae (or resume) highlighting U-M
scholarship and campus leadership
-Typed draft of speech (no ore than 5
minutes in length)
-Audio cassette tape of yourself reading the
speech
What's happening. in Ann Arbor today
GROUP MEETINGS
League, Michigan Union,
Pendleton Room, 6-9 p.m.
El "I'&.- A-- Ant. &... .3L...6n16--
Q HIV/AIDS Testing, 572-9355, HARC
offices, 3075 Clark Rd., Suite
F
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