One hundred nine years ofeditorialfreedom
Uni
NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED: 764y0557
wwwmichigandally.com
Friday
February 18, 2000
I
r k
' '; uCi f R+ ^ C'r vry 1P \ "\ 1' \ , P L IY"rN\ . N+ lQ'9 1" h'l %
w , w a \
... ,+2 ° .! a s r "" a "v ? svej i@ z : r a > 'z1 t pr
Crxi 'Tl<'w ayx.w..U\ r z' f d i °a
Societies,
VP to meet;
Sharpton to
jisit Union
By Robert Gold
Daily Staff Reporter
Feel the pain I
Students
set
meeting tone
By Anna Clark
Daily Staff Reporter
Interim Vice President for Student
Affairs E. Royster Harper said she
hopes to meet with members of the
Tower societies and the Students of
Color Coalition today -- just one day
fore Reverend Al Sharpton is sched-
d to arrive on campus to show his
support for the SCC's occupation of the
seventh floor of the Michigan Union.
Members of Michigamua, Vulcans,
and Phoenix - the three societies that
use the Union tower for meeting space
confirmed their plans to meet Harper.
SCC spokeman Joe Reilly said the
group is considering the offer.
"Wednesday night, I forwarded to
all the groups a proposal of what the
logue would look like," Harper
Md. Harper declined to discuss the
content of her proposal.
After receiving feedback from the
groups, Harper said she invited them
to come to a meeting with their own
proposed strategies for solutions. "The
whole point is to get people moving."
Michigamua spokesman Nick Delga-
do, an LSA senior, said Harper's note
was a positive step towards a solution.
*'Michigamua is impressed with the
administration making proactive
moves," Delgado said.
Reilly said the coalition received a
copy of Harper's plan and is "taking it
under consideration."
Yesterday, Michigamua members
sent Harper a list of recommendations
for future utilization of the Union's
seventh floor. The group also distrib-
uted its suggestions at yesterday's Uni-
sity Board of Regent's meeting.
Michigarima's proposal requests that
members of SCC end its occupation of
the seventh floor. It also asks for a dia-
logue to occur between members of the
Native American community and mem-
bers of Michigamua, as well as a com-
plete restructuring of Michigamua's
meeting space "so it has no resem-
blance to any offensive structure."
Harper said she had no comment
*ut Michigamua's proposal.
Second-year engineering graduate
student Binh Tram, a member of Vul-
cans, confirmed that the group will
meet with Harper tomorrow.
Engineering senior Jon Malkovich,
a member of both Vulcans and
Phoenix, said representatives from
Phoenix will also attend.
"We did receive Royster's proposal
and are currently evaluating it and
p obably will have suggestions,"
kovich said.
While Harper attempts to initiate
dialogue, Rev. Al Sharpton is expected
to voice his support for the SCC in a
visit to campus this weekend.
Sharpton was "called to be a sup-
porting outside force," SCC press and
government liaison Farah Mongeau
said. "IHe is not a negotiator."
Sharpton, a civil rights activist from
*Na tional Action Network, is sched-
tspeak to the public at 7:30 p.m.
in the Anderson Room of the Union,
Mongeau said adding that Sharpton is
expected to speak to SCC members
before his public talk.
"A lot of people on campus are criti-
cizing us, but if the administration was
doing their job, we would not have to
be bringing in anybody," she said.
Delgado said his group does not
object to Sharpton's visit.
*The reverend is going to bring
some national coverage," Delgado
said. "If the reverend can bring some
closure to this, we look forward (to his
visit). We think the reverend can put
some fire into this," he said.
Harper said yesterday that no one has
contacted her about Sharpton's visit.
Harper said that the decision about
the SCC's occupation of the seventh
* r of the Union and the future of
higamua must be made by the
SCC, the three tower societies, admin-
istrators and the community - not an
outside influence. "I don't believe
external forces can fundamentally
change internal work," Harper said.
Reilly said SCC is not relying on
With an unusually strong student presence at the
University Board of Regents meeting yesterday, the
regents received input on many issues affecting
campus.
From Michigan Student Assembly members
interested in expressing their views about the Code
of Student Conduct to students representing the
two sit-in demonstrations on campus, more than 30
students crammed the Regents Room in the Flem-
ing Administration Building yesterday afternoon.
MSA President Bram Elias and MSA Student
Rights Commission Chairman Abe Rafi brought
their proposed amendments to the Code before the
regents for discussion.
Rafi said the general theory behind the pro-
posed amendments, which MSA recently
approved unanimously, was to make the Code
more "University inclusive."
"The students need to be more of a focus,"
Rafi said.
Elias pointed out that it is difficult for students
to use the Code if they have concerns about fac-
ulty behavior. "As it stands now, faculty and staff
can easily charge a student under the Code, but
it's complicated and difficult for'a student to
charge a faculty or staff member."
University President Lee Bollinger said he had
doubts over how crucial the issue was.
"I don't know of any requests for ways to
address the misconduct of faculty-staff," he said.
"We simply haven't encountered such claims."
Elias and Rafi also said they wanted to increase
student knowledge about the Code, make the Code
procedures more public and separate Code reper-
cussions from civil and criminal penalties.
Elias and Rafi said a meeting is scheduled
between MSA and the Senate Assembly Committee
on University Affair's Civil Liberties Board today to
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
Michigamua spokesman Nick Delgado addresses
the University Board of Regents at its meeting
yesterday in the Fleming Administration Building.
discuss formalizing the proposed amendments to
the Code to officially bring before the regents.
Elias said the CLB has examined possible
changes to the Code as well. "It seems that MSA
and SACUA's CLB, working separately, thought
along the same lines," Elias said.
The regents commended the students for their
work and input on the issue.
"You should feel very good about our questions
and discussion," Regent Andrea Fischer Newman
(R-Ann Arbor) told Elias and Rafi. "It shows we're
interested in working with you on this."
Numerous students utilized the public com-
ments section of the meeting to address major
issues currently affecting campus, including Stu-
dents Organizing for Labor and Economic Equal-
ity's occupation of LSA Dean Shirley Neuman's
office and the Students of Color Coalition's
seizure of the Michigamua meeting space on the
seventh floor of the Michigan Union.
Bollinger initiated public comments by reading
an official statement concerning Michigamua.
See REGENTS, Page 2
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
Ann Arbor resident Mike Bycroft gets his first tattoo from Suzanne Fauser at Creative Tattoo on
East Liberty Street. Fauser has been a tattoo artist in Ann Arbor for 21 years.
'
may raze Frieze Bu1ding
By Jeannie Baumann
Daily Staff Reporter
The Frieze Building, which houses Univer-
sity academic departments including Com-
munication Studies, Film/Video Studies and
the department of Theatre and Drama, may be
replaced.
"The question that we're trying to think
through is whether LSA would be better
served by replacing the Frieze Building with
an effective facility for faculty and students,"
University Chief Financial Officer Robert
Kasdin said.
Kasdin said although he and LSA Dean
Shirley Neuman have made no commitments
to replacing the building and any possible
renovations or replacements are still in the
speculatory stage, the idea is being consid-
ered.
During yesterday's meeting of the Universi-
ty Board of Regents, Kasdin said the building
currently has a 48 percent utilization rate.
"It's an inefficient building,"he said.,
The University purchased the building in
1956 for $1.4 million. It formerly served as
the Ann Arbor High School.
Kasdin said the University originally had
plans to renovate the Frieze Building in 1996
after the administration submitted its funding
requests to the state. He said the state agreed
to invest $28 million into the Frieze Building,
and four other buildings: the LSA Building,
the Perry Building, West Hall and the
Mason/Haven complex.
But Kasdin said the state decided to post-
pone renovation to Frieze "for reasons of cash
flow."
"The state agreed to the terms on all these
buildings, minus the Frieze Building. But
they still agreed to spend $28 million in
Frieze to this day," he said.
Communication Studies Department Chair-
man Mike Traugott said it was "good news to
hear that we're back on the list" for renova-
tions.
"The building is quite inadequate because
to host a department of communication stud-
ies and film and video studies that doesn't
have cable access is inadequate for teaching
and research purposes," he said.
Traugott said the Communications Studies
department set aside funds to install an anten-
na to the building, but the local cable compa-
ny said it could not provide the service.
"We need these kinds of resources for
classroom use, research and other educational
purposes," he said.
Film and Video Studies Prof. Frank
Beaver, who has taught in the building since
1969, said renovations are an issue of safety
as well as aesthetics.
See FRIEZE, Page 2
DANNY KALICK/Daily
The University is considering replacement of the Frieze
Building, which served as Ann Arbor High School until 1956.
Sweatshop protests draw attention
SOLE
InttSwith
meets wit
Bolinger
By Jen Fish
Daily Staff Reporter
As the occupation of LSA Dean Shirley
Neuman's office heads into its third day,
members of the Students Organizing for
Labor and Economic Equality remain disap-
U Wsconsin
protesters halted
campus cops
By David Den Herder
and acob Wheeler
Daily Staff Reporters
For sale:
* Protesters put
the LSA Dean's
office up for sale
on the internet
auction site eBay,
garnering a bid of
$5,200. For the
complete story,
see page 7.
pointed by what they
characterize as a
"perfect example of
the U of M ignoring
students," said pro-
tester Rachel Edel-
man, an LSA junior.
About 20 members
of the anti-sweatshop
organization seized
the dean's office
Wednesday morning
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
LSA freshman Zack Schulman and LSA junior Mariah Cherem read newspaper reports about
sweatshop sit-ins across the country during their occupation of the LSA Dean's office yesterday.
MADISON, Wisc. - While anti-sweatshop activists in
Ann Arbor stormed the office of LSA Dean Shirley Neu-
man on Wednesday without any police resistance, Wiscon-
sin campus police officers used pepper spray to deter
protesters from storming the Bascom Hall office of Uni-
versity of Wisconsin at Madison Chancellor David Ward.
Campus police, who were dispatched before the protest
began Wednesday afternoon, prevented the students from
occupying Ward's inner office, but sweatshop protesters
remain camped in the president's reception area and in the
Bascom foyer. The student occupiers said they do not plan
to leave the office until Ward meets their seven core terms.
Ward agreed Wednesday to disaffiliate the university
from the Fair Labor Association, a White House-spon-
sored coalition of human rights groups and corporations to
monitor labor conditions in that collegiate apparel industry.
Bollinger reiterated his unwillingness to sign
onto the WRC without more time to study
the policy.
doesn't matter if I read it or not."
After the meeting Bollinger said he shares
the students' concerns. He said accusations
I