44
LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 30, 1998 - 3
HIGHER
EDUCATION L
Princeton
students help
hurricane victims
A group of Princeton University
students spent the weekend lending a
hand to their families who suffered
from Hurricane Georges, The Daily
Princetonian reported.
The storm left Princeton students
from San Juan and Louisiana worried
about their families and friends' safe-
ty.
Students from Puerto Rico said
they tried to get in touch with their
families via cellular phone and were
unsuccessful.
Several groups on Princeton's cam-
pus have joined forces to collect food
and clothing for the storm victims.
Cheating an
issue at'U
Kentucky
University of Kentucky officials said
*ast week cheating is still a problem
that hurts the nation's academic com-
n'nity, according to The Kentucky
Kernel.
School officials are encouraging
instructors to stay in the classroom
during exams in order to prevent
cheating.
Kentucky is urging its professors to
talk to their students about the conse-
quences of cheating and plagerism. At
Kentucky the minimum penalty for
these academic offenses is failure in the
course.
A second offense results in suspen-
sion for one semester.
Wash. schools
encourage faculty
pay increase
School officials at Washington
state colleges said last week that
attracting and retaining quality fac-
ulty wilT become increasingly difti-
cult for the state's schools if they do
not offer competitive salaries,
reported The Washington Daily.
The presidents of the state's six pub-
lic universities urged for a 4.5-percent
faculty pay increase.
The proposals are an 18.2-percent
increase in salaries over the last two-
*ear period.
The six schools are seeking an
$8-million increase for recruitment
in order to mantaiin quality of fac-
ulty.
Texas state
leader wants to
reduce LSAT pull
The Higher Education Committee
of the U.S. House of
Representatives is considering poli-
cies to reduce the importance of the
Legal Scholastic Aptitude Test in
law school admissions, The Daily
'Texan reported Monday.
After the 1996 Hopwood ruling,
which ended affirmative action in
Texas colleges and universities, the
committee is concerned with main-
aining the diversity of the student
ody in state schools.
Rep. Henry Cuellar said he is
worried that the exam's structure is
racially biased and does not fairly
measure academic skills.
Cuellar said the LSAT should not
be a part of the admission's decision
as it currently is in most law
schools.
Wanderbilt forced
to pay $4.36M
Because Vanderbilt Medical Center
was unable to notify a woman that the
blood she had received may be tainted
with HIV in 1984, it was recently fined
more than $4 million by a Nashville
court jury, according to The Vanderbilt
Hustler.
Vanderbilt was ordered to by $4.36
million to the woman's widower and
*er estate.
The American Red Cross begins a
three-day blood drive on the Vanderbilt
campus today, and the non-profit orga-
nization will have an HIV detection
system in place.
- compiled from University Wire
reports by Daily Staff Reporter Susan
T Port.
MSA to vote on affirmative action petition
By Jennifer Yachnin
Daily StaffReporter
At their meeting last night, Michigan
Student Assembly members were asked to
vote next week to back a petition in support of
affirmative action and also to support two
consecutive days of action in defense of affir-
mative action next month.
"It's not MSA taking a position on staying
away from classes ... but that MSA supports
the concept of a day of action," said LSA
senior Jessica Curtin, a member Students
United for Affirmative Action. "In California
... professors there are organizing two days of
action. In California, it's extremely organized.
Every university is doing it."
MSA President Trent Thompson said the
assembly could approve either proposition
without taking action.
The days of action come after two lawsuits
were filed last fall challenging the
University's use of race as a factor in the
admissions process.
The suits, which were filed by three white
applicants to the College of Literature,
Science and the Arts and the Law School, are
awaiting hearing in the Detroit U.S. District
Court.
Next Tuesday the assembly also will vote
on the transfer of $2,000 in funding to the
Students for the Student Regent Student
Group.
Andrew Wright, co-chair of the MSA task
force for student regent, said the group was
created to avoid legal problems created by the
assembly's tax status.
"Basically (the group) supports the MSA
student regent task force," Wright said.
The $2,000 will be used to copy pamphlets
and leaflets, Wright said.
The group uses MSA facilities to do their
work.
"The money basically comes from MSA to
this student group and then goes back to
MSA," Wright said.
"In California ... professors ... are organizing
two days of action."
"It's a shell game."
The SSRSG also participates in the
Coalition for Student Representation with
members from 15 other state universities and
colleges.
"We also work in conjunction with other
student governments," Wright said.
The coalition is working for student repre-
sentation on the governing boards of
Michigan State University, Wayne State
University, Oakland University and Michigan
Technical University.
Thompson said the assembly is still active
- Jessica Curtin
Member, Students United for Affirmative Action
in the campaign to create a student regent and
that "what we did was create a student group
because of the legality of trying to create a
ballot question."
The University Board of Regents chose not
to vote on a student fee increase last summer.
The increase would have gone to the cre-
ation of a ballot question on the implementa-
tion of a student regent for state voters
because of legal questions created by the
Michigan constitution.
The SSRSG "may play a bigger role later
in the year," Thompson said.
'U
students gather for
Hindu prayer ceremony
By Marta Brill
For the Daily
Nearly 75 students joined last
night for the first annual Saraswati
Puja, or prayer to the Hindu goddess
of knowledge.
"It's a great chance to receive a
blessing from God and receive good
luck in my studies," said LSA senior
Samir Patel.
The event, hosted by the Hindu
Students Counsel, was held in the
Nikki G. Lounge of Mosher-Jordan
Residence Hall.
"We thought it would be nice to
have the students have the opportu-
nity to be blessed by the goddess of
education," said LSA junior Payel
Gupta, a counsel member.
The counsel hosts weekly discus-
sions on culture and religion.
Students at the event said it
marked the last three days in the
holy Navratre, a nine-day celebra-
tion.
The first three days are dedicated
to the goddess Durga, who removes
the negative energies.
To fill the void with positive
energy, the next three days are dedi-
cated to the goddess Laskhmi, who
is also the goddess of wealth.
The last three days, dedicated to
Saraswati, are important in deci-
phering the good from the bad.
Students who joined in the festiv-
ities enjoyed an ambiance of Indian
music, culture, tradition and food.
Students said they came together
to form a sense of community
through Puja, the prayer rituals, and
to form a complete self.
"It is important to create a bal-
ance between the spiritual and the
material and focus on God in order
to put one's mind at peace," LSA
sophomore Vasudev Mahavisno
said.
Prior to the ceremony, foreheads
were anointed with turmeric powder.
A prayer leader said she believes
this herb reacts with water to create
a warming cffect on the place where
the nerve endings come together in
the forehead.
This provides added powers of
concentration and focus, the prayer
leader said.
During the ceremony, an idol
representing Saraswati was placed
at the front of the room and treated
as an honored guest with offerings
of flowers and food.
Camphor was burned because it
leaves no residue.
Students said camphor is used
symbolically because they hope not
to leave remainders of their negative
qualities after the ceremony.
Participants offered several tradi-
tional chants to Saraswati, followed by
Namaskar, the action of prostrating or
bowing down. Namaskar is derived
from the root word "Na Mama" mean-
ing "not mine, only thine."
The ceremony ended with
Prasad, a meal with food that had
been blessed during the ceremony
I~
School to foster evolution debate
AP PHOTO
Participants in the National Kids Voting Day event crowd onto the front lawn of
the State Capitol Building in Lansing yesterday.
2,000 kids celerat
voting at Capitol
LANSING (AP) - Two thousand
Michigan schoolchildren crowded
the lawn of the Capitol yesterday for
a rally to celebrate voting, as adult
leaders stressed its importance for
their futures.
"You have the power to change the
government and make it work for you
the way you want to," Secretary of
State Candice Miller said after lead-
ing the crowd in a rousing chant.
Students, many of them wearing
construction paper hats, toured the
Capitol, waved flags, examined a
new state Web site and boogied to a
drum and fife corps. They picked up
campaign stickers and picnicked on
the lawn.
Astronaut Jerry Linenger spoke,
drawing crowds when he arrived in a
blue NASA jumpsuit.
Linenger, who spent five months
on the Mir space station in 1997,
described his flight into space, saying
he could see the Mackinac Bridge
from orbit.
"Training pays off, education pays
off," he told the students. "You hope
that the skills you learn, even as a
child, will help you."
The rally was sponsored by Kids
Voting Michigan, a nonprofit group
that will also run a mock election for
kids this November, Twenty-four
Michigan school districts and about
155,000 students are involved in the
program, Kids Voting Director Kathy
Jackson said.
Jackson said most of the students
at Tuesday's rally were from Detroit.
Districts in Lansing, Saginaw, Port
Huron and Flint also sent busloads of
children.
Kids Voting USA, a national group
that has been educating children.
about voting since 1987, says studies
show participating students grow up
to be more active politically. The
group also says parents are more like-
ly to vote when their children are
involved in such programs.
As part of Kids Voting Michigan,
children will be able to cast votes in
their own voting booths on the same
issues adults are voting on.
Thirteen-year-old Haile Peters of
Lansing said his vote is already
decided.
"I'm voting for Fieger," he said,
referring to Democratic gubernatori-
al candidate Geoffrey Fieger. Asked
why, Peters grinned.
"Anybody but Engler," he said.
Ten-year-old Tracie Dunbar of
Detroit said she liked the drum and
fife corps best.
Asked why voting is important, she
cocked her head thoughtfully and
balanced her chin on the tip of her
American flag.
"It helps you more in life," she
finally announced.
DETROIT (AP)-- A suburban school district's move
to foster student debate of evolutionary theory is a trendy
way of sneaking legally banned talk of creationism into
public classrooms, a watchdog group says.
Headed by self-described creationist John Rowe, the
Melvindale-Northern Allen Park School Board on
Monday adopted a proposal aimed to teach students the
strengths and weaknesses of evolutionism.
Rowe said the idea isn't to dive into the creationism-
evolution debate, but to tell students that evolution is a
theory about the origin of human life, not scientific fact.
But to one observer, the district's move signaled a
"veiled form of creationism science" that could breach
the separation of church and state.
"Anti-evolutionists have come up with ways of get-
ting creationism science into the classrooms without
using the 'c' word," said Eugenie Scott, head of the
California-based National Center for Science Education,
a watchdog group.
"One of the manifestations of creationism is the idea
that, 'Well, OK, we can't teach evolution and creation
science, so we'll teach evolution and against evolution.
Evidence against evolution is just a euphemism for cre-
ation science."
Evolution is based on Charles Darwin's explanation
that humans evolved from lower life forms. Creationism
is the belief that humans were created by a supernatural
being - a theory that federal court rulings have banned
public schools from teaching.
To Scott, who has tracked the Melvindale case since
last November, the board's move Monday "is very simi-
lar to what we've run into in other parts of country - a
veiled form of creationism science."
"It's an approach the creationists have been using the
last two, three years - probably longer. The way you can
test this is to ask them exactly what they want to teiach,
and the so-called arguments they'll present are exactly
the same as what they used to call creation science."
The American Civil Liberties Union has taken notice.
having pledged to legally challenge any decision to teach
creationism. Kary Moss, head of the ACLU's Michigan
chapter, said yesterday she was unaware of the board's
move Monday but would request a copy of its proposal.
"We'll be right on it. It's on our radar screen," she
said. "We are very concerned any time a public school
begins to teach religious and secular education. The bot-
tom line is they can teach, and they can't preach."
The district refused to release a copy of the resolu-
tion, referring all requests for details to Superintendent
Donna Schmidt. She did not return several telephone
messages yesterday and Monday.
Rowe said the resolution specifically states that cre-
ationism should not be taught in the classroom. It
encourages science teachers to talk about all approaches
to evolutionary theory.
"We're just having them try to emphasize that scien-
tific theory is not necessarily a fact." he said. "There are
people that agree with theories and there are people that
don't agree with theories, and we should identify those
facts. That's true science -- showing both sides of an
issue."
The resolution also states that students should have
access to material that both disputes and supports evolu-
tion. Rowe said a four-member committee will examine
available materials and recommend to the board which
should be used within months.
Even so, Rowe has made it known he's an evolution
skeptic. During a board meeting last November, he said
the district should go back to teaching "good old basics
- respect for our creator as well as our country."
WANT POWER?
The Michigan Student Assembly's Campus Governance Committee has begun its fall
search for students to sit on various university, faculty, and student committees. If you
want to find a way to get involved in how University decisions are made or just want to
find out about how an area of the University operates, this is the way to do it. If you
are interested in applying, applications can be found in the MSA office, 3909 Michigan
Union or at the UMEC office in the Pierpont Commons. If you have any questions,
email either Mehul Madia at mmadia@umich.edu or Jenn VanRoeyen at
jvanroey@engin.umich.edu. This is a great way to have a voice in the way our
University operates and we hope to see applications from as many students as possible.
NEW THIS YEAR: MSA is appointing students to City of Ann Arbor Committees
and Task Forces so apply to get involved! Applications are due on October 9th.
I"1
LAIiLLN L IA1R
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
EvENTs
716 Catherine St., 6-8 p.m.
Mehul Madia
Jenn VanRoeyen
Your event could be here.
rN-S-eul Madia n.n a eye- n