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One hundred eightyears of editoradfreedom
Friday
March 19, 1999
.OY cl tN .*1 , . m \ r~ 1)i t ^Y h
w I
Fleming,
jiollinger
exiled or
0 Michael Grass
Daily Staff Reporter
Discussions continued yesterday between University
administrators and student activists who have occupied
President Lee Bollinger's office in the Fleming
Administration Building since Wednesday morning.
Members of Students Organizing for Labor and
Economic Equality said they will not vacate the office
until administrators meet their demands to have a strong
set of labor standards for the collegiate apparel industry.
The students, encamped on the second floor, spent much
yesterday blocking doorways, keeping University
ministrators and other workers out of Bollinger's office.
SOLE's bargaining team met with Bollinger, University
General Counsel Marvin Krislov and Provost Nancy
Cantor yesterday but did not come to an agreement, LSA
senior Trevor Gardner said.
SOLE members said they are upset with parts of the
University code of conduct for licensed manufacturers that
Bollinger presented at yesterday's University Board of
Regents meeting. "The policy statement the University
released at the regents' meeting does not represent an agree-
Wnt between the students and President Bollinger," said
SOLE member Peter Romer-Friedman, an LSA sophomore.
"We're upset, however, we know that this code is the
strongest in the nation and its existence is due solely to the
efforts of U of M students, Gardner said.
Members participating in the sit-in said they will remain
in the president's office overnight.
SOLE has called on the University for full public dis-
closure of factory locations and ownership and the living
wage -- a salary factoring in local living conditions.
The University agreed to full public disclosure in dis-,
ssions with SOLE last week. The living wage remains
major point of contention in the University's discus-
sions with SOLE.
"I have already said I will not agree to a timetable or an
abstract living wage," Bollinger said, adding that the
administration will not take further action on the issue for
the time being.
Bollinger said it is not wise for the University to sign on
to the living wage when the concept hasn't been tested.
In the three-page code, the University made a commit-
ment to join in living wage research studies, and called on
A1 er organizations, such as the White House-sponsored
pparel Industry Partnership's Fair Labor Association, to
perform additional inquiries.
"Codes that don't have a living wage are going to protect
poverty wages," said Ginny Coughlin, who coordinated
See SOLE, Page 7
SPEED members
Lnder
siege
'U '
graduate
schools rank
in top
By Jaimie Winkler
Daily Staff Reporter
The U.S. News & World Report yes-
terday named several University gradu-
ate schools and programs among the
best in the nation.
The rankings are scheduled for pub-
lication in the magazine's March 22
issue. The School of Engineering -
tied for third with the Georgia Institute
of Technology - is the University's
highest-ranking graduate school.
The University's Law School and
School of Education are both ranked
eighth. The Law School shares its spot
with Duke University, and the School
of Education stands alone.
"Of course we're happy to be in the
top 10:' Education Dean Karen Wixson
said. "It's an honor and recognition for
all the hard work of the faculty and staff
in the past 10 years."
The School of Education ranked
sixth last year, but Wixson said the
school has moved up and down the top
10 during the past few years due to the
non-standardization of the U.S. News &
World Report's ranking system.
Wixson said the report is. good for
judging a school's peer status. She
10
added that students take the report seri-
ously, which forces educators to take it
more seriously.
Wixson said the report compares
schools that are very different because of
the programs they offer and how the pro-
grams are run. There also are inherent
differences in public and private schools,
Wixson said, noting that private schools
seem to dominate the top five slots.
Consistency is more a measure of a
school's performance than a one-time
appearance, Wixson said.
"Those schools are our peer institu-
See RANKINGS, Page 3
ABOVE: A security officer
escorts Gary Krenz,
special counsel to
University President Lee
Bollinger, out of the
president's office, which
is blocked by LSA junior
Mara Luna and other
members of Students
Organizing for Labor and
Economic Equality
yesterday.
LEFT: Rackham second-
year student Charles
Goodman, president of
Students Promoting
Export-oriented Economic
Development, leads a
march into the Fleming
Administration Building
yesterday.
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
No-ads policy
may cost $7.6M
pro test
By Nick Bunkley
Daily Staff Reporter
While nearly 200 students gathered outside the
Oeming Administration Building yesterday after-
noon in protest of sweatshop labor, a much smaller
crowd of students had gathered on the opposite end
of Regents' Plaza.
Nine members of the newly-organized student
group called Students Promoting Export-oriented
Economic Development voiced their disapproval of
the sweatshop protests.
Members of the group, which they described as a
right-wing Libertarian organization, said the seizure
4 University President Lee Bollinger's office by
Students Organizing for Labor and Economic
Equality is "socialist" behavior.
"We're trying to stiffen Bollinger's backbone," said
SPEED President Charles Goodman, a Rackham
second-year student. "If Bollinger backs down in the
face of intimidation, what kind of precedent is that?"
SPEED members marched into Fleming with a
letter stating their position addressed to Bollinger,
who was meeting with members of SOLE at the
time. A security officer said he would give the pres-
ident their statement, and the group resumed protest-
ing outside..
The group's members were signing a form verify-
ing their existence as a student organization as they
began their protest. Seventeen members signed the
letter to Bollinger, a small group in comparison to
SOLE's membership.
"We need to make up in noise what we lack in
numbers," Goodman shouted.
As members of SOLE arrived for their demon-
stration, SPEED quietly disbanded its protest while
the larger group took center stage.
Ian Wiesner, an LSA sophomore and organizer of
the SOLE protest, disputed Goodman's claims about
COLEaions
SOLE's fight for a sweatshop code.
"That's not a socialist idea; That's a humanitarian
idea;" Wiesner said.
Thomas Wheatley, a member of the Madison
Anti-sweatshop Coalition at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison, said his group has experi-
enced some opposition.
"It didn't amount to any widespread pressure,"
Wheatley said. "Those groups don't understand the
issue. It's usually just a couple of vocal individuals."
Wheatley said protesting in support of sweatshop
labor doesn't make sense to him.
"Making an argument that sweatshops are good is
hard to do," he said.
Goodman said SPEED opposes child and prisoner
labor, but in some countries, laboring in sweatshops
is all that is available to some workers.
"Those are the best options people in those coun-
tries have," Goodman said.
By Rick Freeman
Daily Sports Editor
What's the price of tradition at
Michigan? It might be $7.6 million.
The University recently turned down
an overture from a Tulsa, Okla. compa-
ny to provide a free Sony JumboTron
system for Michigan Stadium because
the deal would ended the Athletic
Department's prohibition of advertising
in Michigan Stadium.
Instead, the University spent nearly
$7.6 million to install the mammoth
screens in the stadium, as part of a pro-
ject that also included new liquid crys-
tal display screens in Crisler Arena and
a new production facility housed in
Crisler.
StadiaNet, the company that
approached the University about
installing the system has done similar
projects on 12 other campuses across
the nation and in the Liberty Bowl,
located in Memphis, Tenn. The compa-
ny works, StadiaNet President Joe
Tippens explained, by offering to foot
the bill for the installation of an entire
JumboTron system, and the partnership
then profits by splitting the advertising
revenue.
The specifics of the deal vary from
venue to venue. Tippens could not con-
firm that StadiaNet offered guaranteed
profits to the University but said he
wouldn't rule out the possibility, citing
the potential of Michigan's market.
What ultimately scuttled the deal,
Tippens said, was the Athletic
Department's refusal to abandon its tra-
ditional ban on advertising within
Michigan Stadium.
"We would suffer the indignation of
fans if we brought advertising into the
stadium," said Michigan associate
Athletic Director Tom Cecchini, who
has been involved in the purchase of the
JumboTron.
Tippens claims the Athletic
Department "believed in us, in what we
were doing,", and would likely have
entered into a deal with StadiaNet.
Instead, the University decided to
handle the purchase of the JumboTron
internally - a move that required
StadiaNet's permission, Tippens said.
StadiaNet has a deal with Sony to be
the exclusive supplier of JumboTrons
in the college market, but was willing to
permit the exception, Tippens said.
Officials from Oklahoma State, one
of the 12 schools that has a StadiaNet-
purchased JumboTron in its football
stadium, said yesterday they've enjoyed
success, if not profits with StadiaNet.
The Oklahoma State Athletic
Department has yet to see a profit from
its deal, but it has yet to incur any costs,
either.
"One thing we did learn, is you don't
want 30-second commercials with
sound," Oklahoma State Corporate
Sales Director Larry Reece said,
explaining that the commercial spots
seemed to interrupt the flow of the
game. "The commercials seemed to
See STADIUM, Page 7
Students' Party focus:
tuition, group outreach
By Angela Bardoni
and Jewel Gopwani
Daily Staff Reporters
For this year's election, Sarah Chopp and
Sumeet Karnik are seeking Michigan Student
Assembly re-election by emphasizing ways to put
w twists on their current leadership.
With many new planned changes and ideas, the
members of the Students' Party said they are excit-
ed about the elections and the possibility of win-
ning positions on MSA.
LSA first-year student Shari Katz, a Students'
Party member who is trying to gain a seat on
MSA, said she thinks the party has a lot to offer
bers said they would like to become active partici-
pants in constituting change.
M S A eParty members also said that if
MIV A elected, they hope to implement
new programs that will increase
student awareness of prominent
campus issues and possibly ease
some of the stresses of student life.
One of the proposed programs
PART FOUR OF A would allow students easier
FOUR-PART access to and increase communi-
MSA ELECTIONs cation with government leaders.
SERIES. Students would be able to con-
tact their local, state and federal
Med students
learn residency
placements
By Asuna Rafeeq
Daily Staff Reporter
A hush fell over the audience and all eyes were on
University Medical student Christa Williams as she opened
an envelope sealed with her future waiting inside.
After years as an undergraduate and a medical student, the
words contained in the long white envelope represented
Williams' next step on the long road to a medical career.
Williams was one of about 13,000 graduating medical
school students nationwide that shared in the exhausting yet
exhilarating experience of learning their residency place-
,I