LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 24, 1999 - 3
.si R
olIIGHER
EDUCATION
Arizona Greek
system regulates
alcohol use
The University of Arizona's
Interfraternity Council decided to phase
out parties sponsored by Greeks
Advocating the Mature Management of
Alcohol during the next two years, virtu-
ally eliminating the ability to have alco-
hol at parties in Greek chapter houses.
Starting in the year 2000, the 22
Arizona fraternities will be allowed
dn'l five GAMMA events. The num-
ber will be reduced to three in spring of
2001 and beginning the following
*6tnster, Arizona chapter. houses will
only be allowed to have alcohol at
Homecoming gatherings.
GAMMA regulates alcohol use and
safety at fraternity parties and requires
chapters to hire security guards and
police officers for their events.
Students apathetic
to, anti-gay protest
* The Westboro Baptist Church is
spending the next few days picketing
various institutions in Providence, RL..
that are accepting of homosexuals.
Sunday WBC held an anti-gay
protest on the corner of Prospect and
Wasserman streets at Brown
University. About 50 students, includ-
ig members of Brown's Lesbian Gay
Bisexual and Transsexual Association
showed up at the intersection to watch
he protest. Members of the Rhode
an Alliance for Lesbian and Gay
Civil Rights also observed the protest,
but neither group decided to conduct a
counter protest, saying such action
would be counter-productive.
While members of WBC held
posters advocating the church's anti-
gay mission, many students filled the
other side of the street singing hymns,
playing a stereo and carrying posters
*eading, "God loves me."
WBC, a Topeka, Kan., group, is
known for picketing beating victim
Matthew Shepard's funeral.
Sfudent has a fatal
fall from window
University of Maine junior Andrea
Amdall, of Menomonie, Wis., fell from
her ,fourth-floor residence hall room
0indow Wednesday. Amdall, 20, was
ansported to the Eastern Medical
Center after falling at around 12:40
p.m. from her room at Somerset Hall.
She died later that afternoon.
Amdall, a student at the University
of Wisconsin at Eau Clair, was
spending the fall semester as a part
of a national student exchange pro-
gram.
Students decide
college rankings
The College Student Report is a new
college ranking system, which rates
uniyrsities based on student surveys
primarily completed on the Internet at
wwwindiana.edu/~nsse/bro2 www hntm
The survey asks students questions
such as how they spend their time, how
meaningful their experiences have been
with faculty and students, and what
*ley have gained from their classes.
The National Survey of Student
Engagement is scheduled to release the
survey in the spring of 2000.
The University of Massachusetts at
Amherst and Boston University are
taking part in the survey.
Colorado decides
against riot fee'
0 Instead of charging the students of
the University of Colorado at Boulder a
mandatory "riot fee," as University of
Colorado Regent Jim Martin suggested
at a regents meeting earlier this month,
the university is considering fining stu-
-dents directly involved in a riot.
At a meeting with the University of
Colorado's Student Union on Monday,
Martin admitted that he was not serious
about charging a "riot fee," but that it
sjust a suggestion.
Student leaders agreed to address
anti-riot measures that would
impose some sort of fine or eco-
nomic sanction against a rioting stu-
dent or student who disobey police
orders to disperse during a riot.
--Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Jewel Gopwani.
Security increases at museum meteorite exhibit
By Nicole Tuttle
Daily Staff Reporter
Stealing a 250-pound meteorite couldn't be con-
sidered easy, but the University's Exhibit Museum
of Natural History has made it next to impossible.
After the theft of a smaller meteorite in August
1998, museum officials have increased security at
the exhibit.
"We've redesigned the meteorite exhibit to
make it more secure ... it would take a blowtorch
to get (the 250-pound meteorite) off its base now,"
said Matt Linke, planetarium director at the muse-
urn.
Ypsilanti resident -Stephen Collins admitted to
selling a meteorite stole in August 1998 to Michael
Amtrak to
add high
Ispeed rals s
for travel
By Nick Bunkley
Daily Staff Reporter
As students rush out of Ann Arbor and
other college campuses across the nation
for the Thanksgiving holiday, Amtrak
trains will be packed to capacity for its
busiest travel period of the year.
And with the coming of high-speed
rail service between Detroit and Chicago,
Amtrak and Michigan transportation
officials are hoping that within the next
few years students will have to spend less
time riding the rails. Passeng
"The trip will be more time-competi- speed ti
tive with air travel and cars' said Gary
Naeyaert, spokesperson for the Michigan holiday,,
Department of Transportation. on rails
"Currently, the trains top out at no more East Coa
than 79 miles per hour. We'd like to make Midwes
it closer to 100 miles per hour." tor of i
Amtrak plans to run high-speed trains national
on about 100 of the 280 miles between will be i
Chicago and Detroit, said Kevin Johnson, 46,000,'
manager of media relations for Amtrak's "It's th
regional headquarters in Chicago. he said.
"The rest of the spoke is owned by the Amtr
freight companies and that track won't be high-spe
able to handle it," Johnson said. spring, V
Naeyaert said Amtrak hopes to make Nine
10 round trips between Detroit and signedc
Chicago each day instead of four, and Regiona
travel time between the cities would be tually pe
cut from six hours to four. Chicago
"If we can get it down to four hours, Milwauh
ridership should increase," he said. Michi
Twenty-two miles of track near Niles, mum al
Mich., currently are ready for high-speed state to
travel, Naevaert said. The remaining 78 existing
miles could be ready as early as 2005, he rather th
said, depending on the availability of other sta
funding. "Wer
In anticipation ofa 28 percent increase capital f
in passengers during the Thanksgiving reality,"
Casper, a mineral dealer from New York. He w as
sentenced to nine months in prison last week for
interstate transportation of stolen property.
Casper recognized the stolen meteorite's
description in an online notice posted by the muse-
um and informed museum officials of his pur-
chase. DPS officers apprehended Collins within a
few days of Casper's report and had an easier
search because Collins had given Casper his real
name and phone number.
A suspect has not been named in the actual theft
of the meteorite, although FBI Ann Arbor Bureau
Special Agent Greg Stejskal said officials believe
Collins was involved.
"His claim was that he bought it from a person
whom he knew from prison," said DPS Sgt. Kevin
McNultv, who questioned Collins at his initial arrest.
The theft occurred the afternoon of Aug. 1,
1998, at a time when the museum has fewer
visitors. The thief cut the wires securing the
meteorite and snuck it out of the building,
investigators said.
"Getting out of the building with a 60-pound
meteorite in a bookbag while acting natural would
be the tough part," Linke said, adding that he sus-
pects that museum patrons may have seen the theft
but not taken action to stop it.
Though the meteorite is essentially nothing
more than a large chunk of iron, Collins traded it
for S 1,000 plus two valuable minerals.
'Meteorites can havec considerable value," Linke
said. "They're from another world and they're not
that common."
A much larger meteor struck the earth approx+-
mately 50,000 years ago, creating Canyon DibIlo
Meteor Crater in Arizona. Ninety percent of the
meteor vaporized upon impact but smaller chunks,
or meteorites, remained.
The stolen meteorite was discovered in the
crater, along with a 250-pound meteorite also on
display at the museum.
McNulty said that museums are not generally
the target of crime at the University.
"It's very rare ... I can only think of a couple of
thefts in the past few years;" he said.
Admissions system
works out kinks
SAM HOLLENSHEAD/ Daily
gers board an Amtrak train station yesterday. Amtrak plans installing hIgh-
rains to increase travel time efficiency.
Amtrak is putting 61 extra trains
in the nation's Northwest and
ast areas and adding coach cars to
tern trains, said John Wolf, direc-
media relations for Amtrak's
headquarters. Overall, Amtrak
ncreasing its seating capacity by
Wolf said.
he busiest time of the year for us"
ak plans to debut its new Acela
eed train in the Northwest next
Wolf said.
states, including Michigan, have
on to be part of the Midwest
l Rail Initiative, which will even-
ermit high-speed train travel from
to Detroit, St. Louis and
kee.
agan plans to increase the maxi-
lowable speed of trains in the
100 mph, a speed at which the
trains are capable of traveling,
an the 110 mph limit proposed in
ates, Naeyaert said.
need just under 5400 million of
or improvements to make this a
he said.
To prepare for high-speed trains,
Naeyaert said, M-DOT has to evaluate
rail crossings along the line and upgrade
signal and warning equipment when nec-
essary.
"There are some crossings on this
entire corridor that might not be able to
be made safe enough and might have to
be closed down;" he said.
Another destination may soon be
available to passengers boarding at the
Depot Street station.
Lansing's Capital Area Transportation
Authority on Monday chose a potential
route for passenger rail service between
Detroit and the state capital, Naeyaert
said. The selected path would travel
through Dearborn, Ann Arbor and
Howell, he said.
CATA initiated a study examining four
possible routes after General Motors
Corp. announced plans to move its
Oldsmobile headquarters from Lansing
to Detroit.
"The route that was seen as most fea-
sible and having the most potential is the
route that includes Ann Arbor" Naeyaert
said.
By Michael Grass
Daily Staff Reporter
The University's admissions office
has finally worked the kinks out of its
information processing system, follow-
ing significant delays last fall.
Since the implementation of M-
Pathways - the University's admin-
istrative computing system - in
admissions processing, the transition
period including installing the system
and learning to use it caused many
applicants to be waitlisted until the
backlog was alleviated.
To address the delay, the admissions
office implemented a modified rolling
admissions system which is still in use
this year, along with some minor
changes.
The admissions staff feels "it's work-
ing pretty well," said University
spokesperson Julie Peterson.
In the modified rolling admission
system, small weekly batches of appli-
cation responses are sent out, unlike
last year, when only four batches of
responses were released.
Peterson said applications began to
arrive in the beginning of September
and the first letters of admission were
sent to prospective LSA and
Engineering students Oct. 25.
In past years, the University used a
basic rolling admissions system where
applications were processed as they
were received. The University often
responded with notification letters
within four to six weeks.
But the implementation of M-
Pathways last fall and the subsequent
delay distressed many prospective stu-
dents and their guidance counselors
when the University switched to modi-
fied admissions.r
"That's why there was a delay last
fall," Peterson said.
Part of the system slowdown was
rooted in the training of staff who use
the admissions processing system.
"It's kind of a gradual process .. peo,
ple get up to speed at different times
Peterson said, adding that the admissions
process currently is running as expected;
Laura Patterson, M-Pathways pro'
gram director, said the source of the
delay wasn't the admissions processine
software itself, but the switch from one
processing model to another.
"Because we went to a different
model (for processing applications), it
took us longer," Patterson said.
Patterson said M-Pathways now aids
in applications processing.
"It's able to identify students widi
certain characteristics," Patterson said,
adding that the system does not pick
who is accepted and who is not.
"It provides more information to the
admitting officers so they can make the
best decision," Patterson said.
In the past two years, the University
received more than 21,000 applications
for undergraduate admissions.
Although numbers for this year's
applicants are not available, admissions
office staff members said they estimate
that the same number of people will
send in applications.
Jane VanderLeest, a guidance coun-
selor at City High School in Grand
Rapids, Mich., said she hopes things
will run more smoothly than last year.
"There was a substantial number
who were good candidates who didn't
hear," she said.
VanderLeest said under a rolling
admissions system, the University would
send notification of status letters out in
four to six weeks. But many of her stu-
dents were on "pins and needles," last
year due to the University's slower than
expected responses.
VanderLeest said she is pleased with
the changes to the modified rolling
admissions system this year.
"I do like more frequent responses
than the large batches" from last year,
she said.
LSA-SG clarifies
waitlisting p Olicy
By Josie Gingrich
For the Daily
The LSA-Student Government
recently instituted a focus group to
clear up student confusion surround-
ing waitlist policies in the College of
Literature, Science and the Arts.
The group will look at ways to
homogenize waitlist procedures across
LSA departments and divisions factor-
ing in student preference.
"Since the waitlist procedures in
LSA are not uniform it has become
our charge to find out which classes
specifically students are having trou-
ble enrolling in or those in which stu-
dents find the process particularly
frustrating," LSA-SG Academic
Affairs Committee Chair Adam
Damerow said in a written statement.
Currently, each LSA department, and
even classes within each division, have
varying procedures concerning waitlist-
ing for courses during registration.
Students are scheduled to begin regis-
tration for winter semester classes today.
"Everyone says waitlists are a pain in
the neck especially in the foreign lan-
guage department," LSA sophomore
Lauren Rosinski said.
Often times, waitlist procedures
are the decision of individual pro-
fessors.
In an effort to determine for what
courses students have the most diffi-
culties waitlisting, LSA-SG officials
circulated questionnaires at a concen-
tration fair earlier this year. LSA-SG
representatives also plan to go into
residence halls to interview students
about their impressions of the waitlist
system.
"Hopefully through these processes
we will be able to identify specific
courses which the waitlist procedure is
frustrating or inefficient and approach
the individual faculty member with stu-
dent concerns;"said Damerow, an LSA
sophomore.
"Our goal in this focus group is two-
fold," said LSA-SG President Seema Pai,
an senior. "We want to make (waitlist
procedures) consistent across divisions
and departments, and if that's not possi-
ble, to educate students the procedure.?
But some students said they have not
experienced problems with course wait-
lists.
"They were a matter of course," LSA
senior Dave Johnson said. "If you want
the class, you have to be confident you
will get in."
He added, "I've never taken classes
that I thought would be hard to get into.?
LSA-SG has not set a date when the
project will be completed, but a report
will be posted on the LSA-SG Website,
according to AAC documents.
ay's Daily.
on campus statistics from the Office
YCorrections:
LSA seniors Raoul Sreenivasan and Wayne Dahl were misidentified in yesterd
* Graduate Student Instructors and faculty members are not included in stalking
of Student Conflict Resolution. This was incorrectly reported in yesterday's Daily
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