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One hundred nine years' of editorial freedom

Thursday
December 2, 1999

E u mi u in m


Students will
no longer get
grades by mail Dr
By Robert Gold
Daily Staff Reporter
Describing the routine send-off of semester grades to stu-
dents' homes as "mailing just for the sake of mailing,
University Registrar Thomas McElvain said the need for paper a(
markers of students' academic records has become obsolete.
Beginning this term. students will not receive a mailed By Hanna LoPa
copy of their final semester grades. The Office of the Daily Staff Reporte
egistrar notified students of the change late Tuesday night At four feet s
a mass e-mail. years of age, Dr.
"It doesn't accomplish much," McElvain said. a typical sex syr
Under the old policy, students received fall semester report ing icon of sex i
cards at their University address and winter semester grades More than 1
to their permanent address. munity member
McElvain said that the University has mailed grade sheets Theater last nig
for "certainly more than 25 years," and the number of grade sex therapist g
access options has improved in the last five. Students instant- "Let's Talk Abo
ly can access their grades via Wolverine Access on the Hillel Gover
Internet or via the University's touch-tone phone system. Shari Katz welc
"These are real time transactions," McElvain said, explain- introduced U.
, that students can get the more up-to-date grade informa- Nursing Prof. E
Ton through these other means, whereas the mailings as the "Dr. Ruth
become inaccurate in some cases. "All these transactions are In.ide:.Fair'an
running" immediately "through the University database." Inside Far and
For LSA first-year student Rachel Kelly, Tuesday's e-mail
Was news to embrace. "I think that's good because my par-
ents would definitely open it up," she said. "I'd rather find out
on my own."
For the past three yeafs, the University has provided stu-
dents with free official transcripts, with the exception of
same-day requests, which costS 10.
*McElvain said discussions between the Registrar's office
and student groups set up by the Office of Student Affairs
helped the office make its decision. "Focus groups told us it's
a redundant and not really useful document," he said.
LSA junior Sherry Guirguis said the change means little to
her. "It's not such a big deal," she said. "I usually check on
the phone anyway."
McElvain said representatives from each of the
University's schools and colleges brought the issue before
their respective administrations for approval.
Esrold Nurse, assistant LSA dean for student academic
irs, said the Registrar's office "addressed the issues students
'8ought forth," such as the accuracy and validity of over-the-
phone or Internet-recorded grades and having physical proof of
grades. "Many of them are obsolete as soon as they are sent,"
See GRADES, Page 7A
Tech'nical knockout
1 4
DAVID KATZ/Daily
Michigan Freshman Jamal Crawford dunks over the Georgia Tech Yellow
Jackets last night in Atlanta during Michigan's 80-77 win as part of the

ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Inside: Full basketball coverage. Page 10A.
Livig off campus
not smoot sailing
By David Enders complaints and concerns, especially
Daily StaffReporter wh it omes to students and rental

U

I

'U,

marks

AIDS

Day

. Ruth talks
)ut safe sex

tin
!r
even inches tall and 71
Ruth Westheimer isn't
mbol, but she is the liv-
n America today.
,200 University com-
s packed the Michigan
;ht to hear the famous
give her presentation,
ut Sex."
ruing Board member
omed the audience and
University associate
meritus Sylvia Hacker
of the Midwest."

"She has anatural pleasant outlook -
a joyful feeling about sexuality," Hacker
said. "She's the Dr. Sylvia of the East."
"I don't think the field of human
sexuality should only be dealt with by
short people." Westheimer said as she
stepped onto a large platform and up
to the podium, referring to Hacker's
similarly small stature.
Mixing anecdotes with adamant sex-
ual advice, Westheimer's 45-minute
monologue alternated between laughs
and advice about prevention of diseases,
unplanned pregnancies and how to
achieve pleasure in sexual relationships
See DR. RUTH, Page 2A

Photos by JEREMY MENC-K/Dany
ABOVE: Renowned sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer speaks
to a packed house at the Michigan Theater last night.
BELOW: The University Museum of Art draped its paintings
in black cloth yesterday to observe Day Without Art. On the
screen is the film "Blue," made by director Derek Jarman
who lost his sight due to AIDS.

candlelight vigil commemorate World AIDS Day. Page 3A.

Campus.
artwork
cloaked
in black
By Jessica Weiss
For the Daily
It is as plain as minimalist art: a
solid color in a textile medium. And
like art, it also conveys a bold mes-
sage. Yet the black cloth makes no
claim to be art.
Instead, it symbolizes a day of
mourning.
Day Without Art is a worldwide
day to recognize the significance of
art on society. The University
Museum of Art showed its dedication
See ART, Page 2A

Southworth case could limit groups

By Jewel Gopwani
Daily Staff Reporter
More than a sense of anticipation has filled the 24
campuses of the University's of Wisconsin System. A
silent fear has settled itself in the minds of some fac-
ulty, students and administrators who await the
Supreme Court's verdict on The Wisconsin v.
Board of Regents of the University Southworth'
of Wisconsin v. Scott Southworth.
The case could force public uni-
versities across the country to
restructure the way they fund stu-
dent organizations through student
fees, if the Court upholds lower
court rulings against Wisconsin.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that
Wisconsin and its student government, the Associated
Students of Madison, must stop funding groups tha
Campus
cnme rates
stable for
past 3 years,
By David Enders
Daily Staff Reporter
Statistics show that campus crime rates have
hovered around the same numbers during the
past three years, according to a report the
Department of Public Safety released yester-
day.
The statistics show that between 1996 and
1998, the number of reported violent crimes -
including forcible rape, sexual offenses and
robbery - have remained nearly identical
while aggravated assaults have increased from
11 in 1996 to 19 last year.
Property crimes such as larceny and car theft
have shown a downward trend, according to the
report.
The number of arrests for liquor law violations
jumped more than any other crime, steadily rising
from 271 in 1996 to 373 last year.

engage in ideological or political advocacy.
The potential decrease in diversity at schools if the
Supreme Court bans funding to politically oriented
student groups has members of many minority student
groups that rely on such funds worried about how they
will maintain an active voice on campus.
In Southworth's original suit, he named 18 organiza-
tions that he ideologically disagreed with, including
the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Center
and La Colectiva Cultural de Aztlan, a Latino/a group.
"The case is a direct attack on diversity groups,"
said Adam Klaus, chair of the ASM. "It's going to
have an absolute chilling effect on the campus climate
if this ruling is upheld."
David O'Brien, senior director of LGBTCC, said
because the center must seek funding from outside
sources, a Supreme Court ruling in favor of Southworth
would mean a significant decrease in group activities.

"We'll spend time raising funds that we could spnd
serving students." O'Brien said the three-judge panel
that made the 7th Circuit Court decision did not
understand the implications such a verdict could have
on the variety of voices heard on campus.
"They didn't get that the system doesn't limit
speech," O'Brien said. "It provides more opportunity
for speech, particularly for groups of students wh
might not normally have an opportunity to be heard."
Jennifer Calderos, co-chair of La Colectiva Cultural
de Aztlan, expressed additional fears about what the
implications ofa verdict in favor of Southworth would
mean for minority student groups.
"Sometimes it feels like our concerns really don't
matter" Calderos said, adding that ideas that have not
considered the perspective of many minority students
may have influenced the 7th Circuit Court. "That's why
See WISCONSIN, Page 8A

Some critiCal
of EgyptAir
990 Coverage
By Tiffany Maggard
Daily Staff Reporter
The crash of EgyptAir flight 990 off of the Eastern
seaboard last month produced massive destruction and
tragedy, and the aftermath of the crash is still burning vio-
lently across the University's campus.
"Two Arabs were forced off(a later flight) and held all day
for suspicious behavior. All they were doing was asking
about the dinner menu and using the bathroom. If the flight
attendants had looked at the State Department statistics, how
many terrorists are really Arabs?"
LSA senior Will Youmans, president of the Arab-American
Anti-Discrimination Committee, raised questions like this in a
Town Hall meeting last night to address racial tension sur-
rounding media coverage of the EgyptAir investigation.
Fifty other students, mostly Arab-American, gathered in
the Michigan Union Wolverine Room to defend and debate
racist implications in media coverage of developments in the
EgyptAir crash.
Youmans said he and other Arab-American students have
been angered by press releases that allege Arab-Americans
- 1-4~

r

Toilets exploding. Raw sewage back-
gup into basements. Sparks shooting
m outlets. Ceilings collapsing.
Landlords ignoring all of these problems.
Ask a University
student if they have -
a story about off Ji
campus housing, In-depth
and there's a good
chance you'll get

properties.
Shira Katz had such a problem last
year when she was living in a house
managed by Oppenheimer Properties.
"We moved in in May," the LSA
senior said. That month, "water
started coming into our room to the
point where we had 13-gallon
garbage cans that would fill every
two days.'

"That is probably a result of our zero toler-
ance policy with regard to alcohol in the
Stadium," Bess said.
The number of liquor law arrests increased
from 330 in 1997 to 373 in 1998.
The most noticeable drop came in larceny
rates, which have decreased from more than
1,800 in 1996 to less than 1,400 reported last
year.
Bess, who became head of DPS four months
ago, attributed the change to new DPS pro-