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One hundred eigfht year of editorzlifredom

Friday
February 26, 1999

ITD

buys

computers

Students will see more than $2
million in new and upgraded
computer equipment after break
By Kelly O'Connor
Daily Staff Reporter
When students return from spring break, they
will find all new computers in the Angell Hall
Computing Site. The efforts are a part of the
University's plan to upgrade its campus comput-
ing resources - a project totaling more than $2
million.
Provost Nancy Cantor has allocated money
from the University's general fund for the upgrade
Daily due to students' dissatisfaction with current
resources, said associate Provost Paul Courant.
"There has been a lot of student demand for

upgrading the sites," he said. "We hear it all the
time."
After all of the expenses were totaled, Chief
Information Officer Jose-Marie Griffiths said she
was pleased with the amount of money the
University saved.
"We realized we've gotten a pretty good dis-
count, even over the educational discount we
would have gotten automatically," said Griffiths,
who is coordinating the program.
After first considering computer labs on cam-
pus, Griffiths said she was eager to extend the
bargain prices to faculty and other University
staff members. A similar initiative under discus-
sion would allow students and other members of
the University community to purchase laptops at
a discounted rate, Griffiths said.

Dino Anastasia, manager of Information
Technology Division Campus Computing Sites,
said $1.4 million will go directly to campus com-
puting sites. Students will see benefits from the
project, he said.
"The $1.4 million allowed us to purchase over
600 new computers to be employed in sites
around campus," Anastasia said.
The remaining 1,400 computers will go to var-
ious faculty departments and schools. The
University purchased all the computers under
deals made with four vendors - IBM, Dell,
Apple and Compaq.
The University has an existing agreement with
IBM called a strategic alliance program. Teaming
up benefits both the University and IBM,
See COMPUTERS, Page 2

Jeremy Menchik /D
LSA senior Caroline Walker uses the computing site at Shapiro Undergraduate
13ry yesterday. iTD plans to upgrade more than $2 million in computers during
the Spring Break this week.

GEO

Marching to the beat of a different drummer

presents
pew
package
Uy Mck Faizone
Daily Staff Reporter
Less than 24 hours after deciding to
hold a walkout to begin March 10 and
11, the Graduate Employees
nization presented the University
7i ha new package of negotiation pro-
posals yesterday.
GEO Chief Negotiator Eric Odier-
Fink said the package, which consists of
only three issues, will be the only topics
the organization discusses with the
University from now on.
"Wages, fraction recalculation and
compensated training for international
graduate student instructors - these are
Issues that our membership says they
strike over," Odier-Fink said. "We're
removing all other issues from the table"
GEO spokesperson Chip Smith said
the GEO leadership formulated the new
package based on suggestions from the
organization's membership.
University Chief Negotiator Dan
Gamble said while he was happy to see
GEO reduce the number of its propos-
als, he still feels many of its current
iests are unacceptable. "I have
nn er considered (GEO's current wage
increase request of) 9 percent realistic,'
Gamble said. "Since the rate of infla-
tion is less than 3 percent, I believe this
number will have to move"
Gamble also criticized GEO's fraction
recalculation proposal - designed to
reassess the amount of hours GSIs work
and pay them accordingly - claiming
that the University finds it unacceptable.
Gamble said the University's frac-
' recalculation proposal is better
e it focuses on a group of GSIs
instead of reassessing the hours of all
GSIs.
Currently, the University is proposing
to give all GSIs with a.4 appointment-
those who work approximately 40 per-
cent of the hours of a full-time faculty
member-the wages equivalent to aGSI
working a .5 appointment, Gamble said.
But Annette Wilson, Architecture and
Planning fifth-year student and a
in and video GSI, said the University's
See GEO, Page 7

Senators aim
to toughen
marijuana laws

By Nick Buikdey
Daily Staff Reporter
Getting caught smoking marijuana in
Ann Arbor used to cost a paltry $5. In
1990, the city raised that amount to a
still-lenient $25 fine with no jail time.
Now some Michigan senators want to
do away with Ann Arbor's liberal mari-
juana laws - making possession a mis-
demeanor instead of a civil infraction.
A bill proposed Wednesday by Sen.
Beverly Hammerstrom (R-
Temperance) would prohil-
a local government from
enforcing lesser penalties
than those mandated by
state laws. The bill would t
make Ann Arbor conform
its marijuana possession
laws with the rest of they
state.
"There's a lot of inconsistency
going on,' Hammerstrom spokesperson
Adrian Cazal said. "What kind of
mixed message are we sending to our
kids? If we want to be serious in fight-
ing the war on drugs, then we have to be
consistent."
The state of Michigan classifies mari-
juana possession as a misdemeanor
offense carrying a $100 fine and up to 90
days in jail. Ann Arbor is the only city in
Michigan that deviates from this penalty.
The proposal comes at the end of
Marijuana Awareness Month and about
five weeks before April's 28th annual
Hash Bash on the Diag.
Cazal said it's too early to tell
whether the bill could be in effect by

this year's Hash Bash.
With the Republican-controlled
Legislature, Cazal said, "It looks good
for us to have it go through the Senate
in a timely manner."
Although Ann Arbor is not specifi-
cally named in the bill, Sen. Mike
Rogers (R-Brighton), a co-sponsor of
the bill, said Ann Arbor is the intended
target.
"We're hoping to discourage kids
from participating in the Hash
Bash this year," Rogers said.
Rogers said grandfather
laws allow Ann Arbor to
maintain the more lenient
penalty.
"I want to make state
laws uniform," Rogers
said. "They're the only city
tat is allowed to have that
law. We're just fixing this anom-
aly once and for all."
Department of Public Safety
spokesperson Beth Hall said the change
would have little affect on the way DPS
officers patrol Hash Bash because the
event takes place mostly on University
grounds.
"Anyone caught smoking marijuana
is arrested and prosecuted under state
law," Hall said. "We get our power from
the state, and we are required to enforce
state law"
Hash Bash organizer James Millard,
who owns the Pure Productions hemp
paraphernalia store on South Fourth
Street, said it's a move by senators "to
See HASH BASH, Page 2

NATHAN RUFFER/Daily
A member of Kodo performs last night at the Power Center during the group's opening number titled "Zoku," a
Japanese word meaning tribe, clan or family. Inside: A review of the show. Page 5.
VP namedfinali stinsearch

By Jaimie Winkler
Daily Staff Reporter
A presidential search committee at a small all-female col-
lege in North Carolina will announce today whether to offer
Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford the
school's highest position.
Meredith College, which has a student body of fewer than
3,000 students, has narrowed its search to Hartford and two
other female candidates. One of them may replace the col-
lege's current president, John Weems, who has been in
office for 27 years, according to The Raleigh News and
Observer.
Weems is on sabbatical until the end of his term.
Along with Hartford, Nancy Huggins, an investment
banker from Dallas, Texas, and Hope Williams, president of
the North Carolina Association of Independent Colleges, are
finalists in Meredith's search.
Hartford could not be reached for comment yesterday.

"I respect the difficulty of her job and she's done a good
job with it," said LSA sophomore Brian Reich, who has
worked closely with Hartford to review the Code of Student
Conduct during the past six months.
Reich said Hartford possesses skills that would make her
a great president. She is "very open and personable," he said.
Going into the Code review process, Reich said, the stu-
dents involved did not know what to expect. But he said
Hartford was extremely approachable and open to hearing
their suggestions. Reich added that Hartford's leaving would
be a loss to the Code review process.
"The University of Michigan has benefited from
(Hartford) over the past few years;' Reich said.
Hartford is the only executive officer remaining from for-
mer University President James Duderstadt's administration.
She stepped into her current position at the University in
1992, before which time she was the vice provost for Student
Affairs at Washington State University.

Students to work
in zero gravity


Panel focuses on

LGBT issues

By Jody Simone Kay
Daily Staff Reporter
Sharing their own personal stories
and involvement in lesbian, gay, bisex-
ual and transgender issues and its rela-
tion to the black community, four pan-
elists answered questions about identity
yesterday, in front of an audience of
about 35 listeners.
"What I'd like to share is my story,"
said Derrick Anderson, a panelist and
Eastern Michigan University student.
"There was no place for me to go or
even ask questions about my sexuality."
Anderson, like many of the panelists,
is an HIV and AIDS activist in both the
black and gay communities in the state
of Michigan. After sharing his own

"My silence will only destroy me,"
Anderson read. "Although I know my
community would prefer I stay silent"
Panelist Kenneth Jones, an LSA
senior, also began speaking by men-
tioning silence in his life. "I am the
voice that has been made silent by my
own community,"he said.
Other members of the panel included
N'Tanya Lee, a historian and communi-
ty activist and Sharon Miles, a "hetero-
sexual ally" of the LGBT community.
"As humans, we should be here for
each other without the fear of being tar-
geted," Miles said. "Nobody should
walk the face of this earth alone."
Miles interacted with the audience
to engage them in how it feels to be an

By Corinne McAfee
For the Daily
Two University Engineering
undergraduate teams will travel to
the National Aeronautics & Space
Administration's Johnson Space
Center in Houston, Texas, on March
8 to present their experiments on
weightless environments.
The teams are a part of the
Reduced Gravity Student Flight
Opportunities Program, which is
sponsored by NASA in collabora-
tion with the Texas Space Grant
Consortium.
Ed VanCise, Engineering senior
and lead flyer for the Single Walled
Carbon Nanotube Production
Experiment team, said he is excited
about the projects and what he
believes is one of the "neatest"
things about the University's partic-
ipation in the program.
"The fact that two teams out of 48
nationwide are from the University
of Michigan is exciting. Not even

"Not even every
state ,gets a
representation."
- Ed VanCise
Engineering senior
every state gets a representation;'
VanCise said.
Engineering Prof. Luis Bernal,
who is working with the student
team, said, "the projects are almost
completely run and researched by
undergraduate students?'
He added that about 20 students
are involved, but only four for each
project will fly in zero gravity
aboard a KC-135A aircraft in
Houston.
Teams for RGSFO are selected
based upon a rigorous national
selection proposal competition.
See NASA, Page 7


The Michigan Daily will not be publishing
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