LOCAL/STATE

The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 11, 2000 - 3A

Ci"AMPUS
School of Ed.
alumni to discuss
online degree
niversty alumni of the School of
Education will return to campus this
Friday to discuss earning a higher
education degree online and funding
for higher education institutions.
The speakers include Dolores
Cross, who serves as president of
Morris Brown College in Atlanta;
Paul Lingenfelter the executive direc-
toirbf the State Higher Education
Executive Officers; and Theodore
irchese, the executive editor of
. iange, a professional magazine
about higher education.
The Center for the Study of
Higher and Postsecondary Educa-
tion at thesUniversity's School of
Education is sponsoring the discus-
sion which will also be broadcast
on tine Internet.
The event will be moderated by the
directorof the CSP, Sylvia Hurta-
It is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Friday
in the Schorling Auditorium at the
School of Education.
City to test alarm
sirens tomorrow
The city of Ann Arbor emergency
management division will be testing
the outdoor warning sirens tomorrow
p.m. Any questions or concerns
be directed to 761-2425.
Engineering school
to host conference
at Michigan League
The College of Engineering is host-
ing a conference promoting interna-
tional research of parallel kinematic
l hines Wednesday through Friday
a e Michigan League.
The conference is expected to attract
researchers and engineers from Asia,
Europe and North America to campus.
Three honorary chairs will be rec-
ognized at the conference, including
professor Francesco Jovane from the
Italian National Research Council;
Professor Yoram Koren, director of
the Engineering Research Center for
R 'nfigurable Machining Systems at
tI Jniversity; and Paul Sheldon,
founder of Sheldon Works and inven-
tor of one of the first parallel kinemat-
ic machine tools.
The chairs of the conference are
University Prof. Nicola Orlandea and
Prof: Gloria Weins of the University
of Forida.
Registration is S I 75 per person
and S125 for s udents. Call 647-
7 for more inormation.
UAC sponsors free
goldfish giveaway
The University Activities Center is
giving out goldfish on the Diag today.
UAC President Jordan Litwin said the
give-away is part of a new advertising
campaign for the group. Litwin added
that he group is giving away fish
because the Residence Hall Associa-
ti ecided to allow fish in residence
ha s in April.
UAC has spent about SI5.000 on

th :rnpaign, using most of the
money for fish bowls and events dur-
ing Welcome Week to introduce the
campaign.
Tlhrugh tuition, each student gives
S2 to UAC for its activities, which
include groups such as Comedy Com-
pat and Speaker Initiative.
ups hold concert
tobring out voters
The Michigan Student Assembly's
Voice Your Vote Commission and
University Activities Center are spon-
soring a concert featuring Guster.
The concert titled "Voice Your
Choi&e" will be 4:10 p.m. Sept. 20 at
Palmer Field. It is a free event open to
all 1iversity students who have regis-
ter o vote or who register at the con-
( omipiled by StaffReporter Joie
Kaufman.

Students petition for suit to move to A2

By Jen Fish
Daily StatVlReporter
If some graduate students have their way, all
eyes will turn to Ann Arbor rather than Detroit to
watch the lawsuit challenging the use of race as a
factor in.admissions in the College of Literature,
Science and the Arts.
Academics for Affirmative Action and Social
Justice, a coalition formed in response to the law-
suits in 1997, is circulating a petition asking the
lawsuit be heard at the federal district courthouse
in downtown Ann Arbor.
AAASJ steering committee member Tom
Guglielmo said there are no compelling reasons
why the trial should not be held in Ann Arbor.
"This is a trial that is deeply going to affect
Ann Arbor because it's going to affect the kind of
student that's going to come to this University,"
he said.
Procedurally, the AAASJ members could

either submit the petition to Judge Patrick Dug-
gan themselves or give the petition to one of the
legal parties in the case. Guglielmo said his
group has had discussions with the ACLU, but
has not talked to University lawyers yet.
A change of location in the trial is at the discre-
tion of Duggan, who resides in Detroit and normal-
ly hears cases there. The case, which was originally
filed on October 14, 1997 by the Center for Indi-
vidual Rights, a Washington, D.C.-based firm, is
scheduled to begin after Nov.21.
CIR filed the lawsuit on behalf of white appli-
cants who charge they were unfairly evaluated by
the admissions policies of the Law School and
College of Literature Science and the Arts
because race was used as a factor.
Lawyers from both sides of the case say they
are ready to proceed in Detroit.
Terry Pell, chief executive officer of CIR, said
"we'll respond to (the petition) when we see it."
University Deputy General Counsel Liz Barry

"It's about a court case that affects a community,
so it should be held in that community."
- Tom Guglielmo
Academics for Affirmative Action and Social Justice spokesman

also declined to comment on the petition itself,
saying "the venue of the case is up to the judge
and we will work with his decision. Right now,
it's scheduled to be in Detroit and that's what
we're planning on."
Godfried Dillard, lead counsel for the interven-
ing defendants - a coalition of students and
community members who favor the University's
admission policy - agreed with Barry, saying,
"Venue is not an issue with me. We're most con-
cerned with preparing our case for trial."
Because the AAASJ is not directly involved in
the case litigation, both sides expressed doubt

about the petition's impact.
Robert Sedler, a constitutional law professor
at Wayne State University in Detroit, said he
would be "absolutely startled if the judge paid
attention to this." Sedler also pointed out that
as of now, the AAASJ has no legal standing in
the case.
But Guglielmo says his group's petition has a
good chance at success.
"It's immaterial where you stand on affir-
mative action - it's about a court case that
affects a community, so it should be }eld in
that community."


EMU administrators, profs
fail to resolve 6-day strike

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By Robert Gold
Daily StafTReporter
Weekend talks between Eastern
Michigan University administrators
and the professors' union failed to end
the educators' six-day strike.
EMU faculty began the strike last
Tuesday after its union, the American
Association of University Professors,
and the administration could not agree
on several key issues including salary
and benefit increases and control over
Internet classes.
As of I a.m. this morning the two
sides had not come to a resolution.
EMU spokesman Ward Mullens said
the faculty - whose salaries rank
among the lowest in the Mid-American
Conference - deserve more money.
The University responded last week-
end with a contract proposal that
would offer a 6 percent salary increase
the first year and 5 percent increases
throughout the next three years.
Life insurance maximums would
also be raised from S 1 00,000 to
S275,000.
Philip Arrington, spokesman for the
EMU chapter of the AAUP, said the
union rejected the offer because

salaries would still be below the MAC
average and tied partially to the accep-
tance of a health care plan not associ-
ated with the university.
Before the talks began, the university
and the AAUP filed unfair labor charges
against each other with Michigan
Employment Relations Commission.
Talks between the two parties were
stalled until Friday, when a state medi-
ator could begin negotiations in
Detroit.
The negotiations lasted until yester-
day morning and reconvened later in
the day on campus, Arrington said.
Since Tuesday, many classes at the
23,700-student university have been
canceled. Mullens said administrators
have filled in for some of the absent
professors.
But several students said they
showed up for class last week to find
no professor or fill-in.
"It's kind of a waste of my money
right now," EMU freshman Amy Sieg-
wald said.
EM U's 105 full-time lecturers,
who belong to a separate union,
have continued to teach during the
strike.
Chuck Bonney, president of the lec-

turer's union, said many members have
joined the AAUP on the picket line:
after work hours.
"We fully support them," Bonney
said, whose union is currently in con-
tract negotiations with the university.
The lecturer union first formed in
March.
EMU's student government held a
rally Friday to let students voice their
concerns over the strike.
Student government president
Kylie Crawford said the organiza-
tion has not taken sides during the
conflict but wanted to gauge stu-
dent opinion.
"The students were mostly voicing
their support for the faculty," Crawford
said, adding that about 400 students
attended the event.
Mullens said the university is form-
ing a contingency plan in case an
agreement is not reached shortly.
"We have parents who want to know
about tuition refunds," Mullens said,
adding the university has not decided
on the issue.
The deadline for withdrawing for
classes and receiving a 100 percent
refund has been pushed to the fifth day
after faculty resume teaching.

MICHAEL HYNE~S/Da{!y
Michigan Student Assembly President Hidecki Tsutsumi addresses students
in the Diag on Friday in the first ever "State of the Campus" address. In his
speech, Tsutsumi encouraged students to embrace change in their lives.
Hidekiaddreo",sses
stateofcampqus

State voters concerned about
safety nets for poor, poi shows

By Lisa Koivu
Dally Stafl'Repmeri

H ideki Tsutsumi, the first inde-
pendent candidate and internation-
al student to preside over the
M ichi uan Student Assembly,
added to his list of firsts by deliv-
ering a "State of the Campus"
address Friday on the Diag.
While students stopped to enjoy
the free pizza and music accompa-
nying the speech, most paused only
briefly to listen to the message.
Tsutsumi, who won the MSA
presidential spot by a landslide last
winter, ran for a spot on the assem-
bly in the winter semester of 1999.
After losing that election, he
decided to carry a sandwich board
around for a year in an effort to
meet as many students as possible.
In the speech, Tsutsumi encour-
aged students to get involved in as
many extracurricular activities as
possible and to join both those
they want to be a part of as well as
those they'd never thought of join-
ino.1
tie also dared students to devel-
op friendships with people differ-
ent from themselves. "This is one
of the few universities that offers
this opportunity," Tsutsumi said.
Giving students specific exam-
ples of changes they can make,
Tsutsumi invited students to sam-
ple sushi.
"I dare you to challenge your
taste buds by eating sushi. There is
a whole art behind it. Besides, eat-
ing fish is supposed to make you
intelligent," Tsutsumi said.
The final topic Tsutsumi cov-

ered was his own bid for the MSA
presidential position.
"It is rare for an independent
candidate to be elected, and never
has an internat ional student been
president," Tsutsumi said. "Any-
one can achieve almost any goal. I
believe in the American dream and
now I'm living it."
Matt Nolan, communications
chairman for the assembly, said
MSA plans on having the state of
the campus speeches at least once
a month.
The assembly is also working on
having once a week updates on
student-run WOLV-TV, where rep-
resentatives will speak about MSA
initiatives.
There also may be times when
students can call in to the show
and have the representatives
answer their questions on the air.
Nolan said students should not
complain about not gett ing
through to MSA this year.
"Now we're making sure that
people see what MSA does and
that we're very accessible," Nolan
said.
Some of the ways students will be
able to get through to the assembly
is by calling 615-5MSA where peo-
ple can either leave complaints or
suggestions for the assembly. There
will also be an e-mail address -
MSA.colalu!1) inWimich.Ecu -
where students will be able to send
their ..omplaints to the assembly.
MSA will also host an open
house Sept. 19, before its regular
meeting, so students can meet the
chairs of the assembly's commit-
tees and commissions.

LANSING (AP) -- Michigan voters are optimistic about
the country's future, but they're also worried about social safe-
ty nets for the poor and for seniors, according to a recent poll.
The poll also showed that voters are concerned about the
nation's moral state. But while concerns over morality and
family values play to GOP presidential candidate George W.
Bush's favor, Michigan voters who are most worried about
health care line up behind Democratic candidate Al Gore by
a 45-29 margin, the poll showed.
The Detroit News telephone survey of 600 Michigan vot-
ers was conducted by Mitchell Research and Communica-
tions Inc., from Aug. 23-25. It has a margin of error of plus
or minus 4 percentage points.
William Schneider, pollster and political analyst for CNN,
believes Gore is winning the battle over safety net issues,
which are critical in battleground states such as Michigan.
"Not only does Gore benefit fiom good times, since he's in
an incumbent situation, but he's tailoring his program to safe-
ty net concerns," said Schneider, who said the battle for
Michigan will continue right up to the election.
The poll also found that three-quarters of Michiganians are
optimistic about the county's future and three in five are
happy with their own financial situation. But more than one-

third of voters fear there won't be money in the Social Securi-
ty pot by the time they retire and nearly half think the 65-
year-old system needs overhauling, the poll says.
Voters are nearly equally split over which candidate they
believe can handle Social Security the best: 33 percent say
Bush; 37 percent say Gore.
About half of Michigan voters also believe Medicare, a
federal health insurance program for seniors, needs major
repairs. And 60 percent rate the nation's overall social safety
net as fair or poor.
Marjorie Whitacre of Ann Arbor, is among those worried
about the safety net for seniors. She and her husband live on
Social Security, supplemented by modest investments.
She says she pays S 150 a month out-of-pocket for pre-
scription drugs not covered by insurance.
"We're at the age where we appreciate Social Security. We
live on it, and we hope it's still there for future generations"
Whitacre said.
The state Medicaid health insurance program covers pre-
scriptions for families below the poverty line, but the state
Department of Community Health estimates 134,000 seniors
at the poverty line or who earn up to twice that much have no
drug prescription coverage.

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