Ell'Elan 1&ily [moday: Cloudy. igh 50. Low 32. romorrow: Partly cloudy. igh 46. One hundred eight years of editoralfreedom Wednesday March 17, 1999 BAAP plans Pd S roitical atform y Jewel Gopwan ~aily Staff Reporter Members of the Defend ffirmative Action Party have pre- ented a primarily politically-based latform to encourage students to ffer the party their support in next eek's Michigan Student Assembly 'l ons. Alished in the winter of 1998, the.DAAP obtained its first seat on MSA during that term's elections. The party expanded its involvement M sr on the assem- bly to six seats in Fall 1998 elec- tions. * ~ "To a large extent, the PARTTWO OF A DAAP has FOUR- PART MSA determined ELECTIONS SERIES: the direction of MSA, even with six seats," said D A A P Presidential candidate and c u r r e n t Rackham Rep. Jessica Curtin. L S A sophomore student Julie Fry, a DAAP candidate for MSA said she joined the party because it is "actual- ly concerned about political issues." Defending affirmative action and ighting "for equality and integration lo K- 12 through college" tops the pa 's agenda. 'What we've done here has been an essential part of tuning the tide against the attack on affirmative action," Curtin said. The DAAP's platform also includes expanding financial aid and snding future tuition increases. Curtin said the party's plans to end increases involve contacting other :a uses and initiating a statewide no ement. Abolishing the Code of Student Conduct is also a priority for the party's :andidates, which Curtin said doesn't :rotect the rights of student on campus. "We see MSA as a union to fight For students' rights," said DAAP Vice President candidate and current LSA Rep. Erika Dowdell. The party also defends supporting :he Graduate Employees prw ization and ending what party meubers say is police harassment of tudent social parties. "Since the death of (LSA first-year tudent) Courtney Cantor there has been a lot of harassment of students at parties," Fry said. "No. one has been eady to challenge the police and ecurity on campus." Since December, the party has used ts six seats on MSA to present resolu- i on the "police persecution" of tudents at parties, freezing tuition, supporting GEO in negotiations, the walkout and strike and condemning See DAAP, Page 5 UN chi By Jamle Winkler Daily Staff Reporter University President Lee Bollinger has recom- mended four honorary degree recipients to be approved by the University Board of Regents at its March meeting, scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The recipients for this spring's honorary degree awards include Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations; Aharon Barak, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Israel; Shirley Malcolm, director for education and human resources at the American Association for the Advancement of ef to deliver address Science; and Pramoedya Anata Toer, an Indonesian author. Annan is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the 1999 spring commencement cere- mony, pending regents' approval, according to members of the University administration. The commencement speaker will be officially announced at the board meeting. "The commencement speaker is traditional- ly someone who receives an honorary degree," said University spokesperson Julie Peterson, adding that the speaker is likely to be official- ly announced at the regents' meeting tomor- Previous spring commencement speakers include Bollinger, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Johnetta Cole, the first "female president of Spelman College and Mamphela Ramphele, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. "I think it's nice to have someone who has an influence on the world, not just our country," LSA senior Ian Shainbrown said, adding that he is pleased with the choice for speaker because "it shows we're a world-class school." Other students expressed amazement at the University's ability to attract such a prominent world leader. Business senior Brian Kristofic said the University's extending an invitation to leaders like Annan to come to the campus is an illus- tration of the University's growing concerns abroad. "It shows how important international issues are to the campus," Kristofic said. Annan, a national of Ghana, has had three decades of experience with the UN and suc- cessfully negotiated several diplomatic agree- See ANNAN, Page 7 ne appoints w dean le n to By Michael Grass and Jaimie Winkler Daily Staff Reporters Shirley Neuman, a dean and profes- sor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, has been named the top choice for dean of the University's College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts. "I'm looking forward to work at a university that has a strong commit- ment to undergraduate education," Neuman said. LSA, the University's largest school, has been without a permanent dean since former Dean Edie Goldberg resigned after being offered a position at the University of Texas in September. Psychology Prof. Patricia Gurin has served as interim dean since Goldberg's departure. Neuman has "a mix a qualities we were looking for," University Provost Nancy Cantor said. LSA Dean Search Committee member Phil Hanlon said the committee did an international search for a new dean and utilized a search consultant firm as well as word-of-mouth recommendations. "We did consider a lot of people," Hanlon said, adding that the committee looked at more than 100 candidates from both outside and within the University. Neuman's appointment, pending approval by the University Board of Regents at its April meeting, is sched- uled to begin in August. An English professor at UBC and the dean of the faculty of arts, Neuman will have appointments in the University's English and women's studies depart- ments. The committee of about 12 people including faculty members, students and administration did "a very through and careful" search including several rounds of investigation, said Hanlon, a University mathematics professor. "I think some of the real pluses about Shirley is she's a dynamic person,' Hanlon said. "She has a great track record as dean of the faculty of arts" in British Columbia, he said, adding that Neuman looked like a good choice from the start. Cantor said Neuman has strong experience in interdisciplinary and col- laborative work, including her study of English and women's studies. Neuman wrote a book of interviews with Canadian novelist and poet Robert Kroetsch and compiled monographs for the autobiographies of feminist Gurtrude Stein and poet W.B. Yeats, and worked on the first major edited compi- lation of essays from the world of Canadian women's writing. Neuman is one of the founding members of NeWest Press, a suc- cessful regional publishing houses and a co-founder and publisher of Longspoon Press, which publishes the work of avant-garde Canadian poets. The Association of Canadian and Quebecois Literature honored Neuman See DEAN, Page 2 DANA LINNANE/Daily TOP: Marko Mitkowski and Brittaly Rejnlak peer at each other through a mirror and glass window during a field trip to the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum m a or expansion ABOVE: Chantar Yousif uses a microscope at the Reflection Protection exhibit In the museum AOPF 1. yesterday. By Undsy Alpert For the Daily We're off to see the wizard - Mr. Wizard, that is. The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum is in the middle of a $4.2 million ren- ovation intended to quadruple the size of the museum. The museum, located in Ann Arbor's old Central Fire Station, fea- tures more than 250 interactive exhibits incorporating concepts of physics, math, biology, physiology, botany, geology, technology, art and history. Part of the $4.2 million was raised by selling bricks on the museum's new entrance feature - a yellow brick road. Depending on the size of the pur- chased brick, the sponsor cost can range from $250 to $1,000. Supporters receive a commem- orative certificate, an engraved brick on the yellow brick road and a locator map to find the brick once the road is complete. Bricks are available for purchase until April 16. Renovations to the museum include a musical staircase that plays a differ- ent musical note on each step, a new See HANDS ON, Page 5 Brandon wants charter expn.si4"ons Phi Delt members to plead By Gerard Cohen-Vrgnaud Daily Staff Reporter Two of the 10 Phi Delta Theta fra- ternity members originally charged with furnishing alcohol to minors and allowing minors to drink in their fraternity house last fall will plead their cases at trials scheduled for June 25. In Washtenaw County Court yes- terday, lawyers for Engineering junior Daniel Davis and LSA sopho- more Josh Shapiro asked Judge Archie Brown to bind the two over for a jury trial.. The charges stem from a party held Oct. 15 at the Phi Delt fraternity Markley Residence Hall window. Cantor had a .059 blood-alcohol level and traces of the date-rape drug GHB in her system. Brown adjourned the pretrials of LSA sophomores Michael Novick, Michael Halper, Evan Frank, Jeremy Bier, Simeon Maleh and Jared Fishman until next month after their attorneys requested a conference with sentencing judge Elizabeth Hines. "If Danny was in attendance at that party, it was at the very tail end of it," Shea said. "He was at a Lions game that night. He didn't get back till very late. His connection to the party was extremely minimal or By Kelly O'Connor Daily Staff Reporter With Gov. John Engler's plan to hand over the Detroit public schools to Mayor Dennis Archer days away f r o m passage Daily In-depth and talk of priva- tization as a possi- ble solution for struggling public schools, the face of primary education in Michigan is changing. One new phe- nomenon - chartert schools - may b soon become an issue on campus as Regent David Brandon (D-Ann Arbor) said he hopes to see the University sponsor charter schools in the future. get it right?" As former chair of Central Michigan University's Board of Trustees, Brandon said during his term the school's chartering program grew from a small group of visionar- ies to a fully-operational university office. Brandon, along with all other members of CMU's board, was appointed by Engler. Brandon said CMU, which sup- ports 47 of the nearly 150 charter schools in Michigan, is the largest charterer of schools in the nation. Nine of the 15 public universities in Michigan charter schools at this time. While new in Michigan, charter schools exist in 33 states, Brandon said, adding that they are becoming an important and lasting aspect of the education system. "Charter schools are a phenomenon that is here to stay," he said. Regent Daniel Horning (R-Grand 0 1 I