LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 11, 2000 - 3 HIGHER ED Classes canceled due to historic *football victory University of Oklahoma students had the day off Monday in celebration of a.historic football win. The football team beat Texas with the largest victo- ry margin since 1908. Oklahoma's president announced the cancellation of classes at the end of the game on a loud speaker at the Texas stadium. The administration planned to operate on a reduced staff basis for the Way. Grading may change for MIT freshmen Massachusetts Institute of Technolo- gy recently recommended a shift from Pass/No Record to A/B/C/No Record grading for second-term freshmen. The point of this, according to the Committee of the Undergraduate Pro- W ram is to encourage students to take classes they may not feel vey comfort- able with and have the option of abstaining from credit once they receive their grade and receiving listener status. This may encourage students to choose majors at an earlier date, said the CUP committee. MIT freshman have a significantly lower grade point average than the rest of the students, and CUP hopes the new grading system will offer a etter transition from high school. Dress code hassle for BYU students Brigham Young University students find it difficult to comply with their universities strict dress code policy. The most common dress code vio- lations are unshaven men and girls vho are clad in tight shirts or above the knee skirts. The student Honor Code Associa- tion works to keep students properly dressed using standards come from the Mormon Church. Texas A & M groups sponsor coming out week This week marks the 1 Ith Texas A&M Coming Out Week. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Aggies, Aggie ALLIES and Gender Issues Education Services are spon- soring the event. The week's goals are to encourage gay and heterosexual students to become more comfortable and more informed about the growing homosex- 1al community. The Princeton Review listed Texas A&M as the third "least gay friendly" university to attend, making coming out more difficult. The GLBTA tried to become an official student organization in 1979, but it took six years and a Supreme Court ruling before it received a wel- come place at the university. U. Illinois focuses %n computer safety The Sixth Annual Student Comput- ing Fair was held at the University of Illinois last week. The event included speakers from Microsoft and the Wind River systems software company, Speakers stressed that within the next 10 years computers will be used 'r everything, from running refriger- ators to direct communication from pacemakers to doctors. Participants discussed attempt- ing to avoid hackers because they will be detrimental to life at the student run conference sponsored by 40 companies and was orga- nized by the University chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. - Compiled f onU- WIRE reports by Daily Sta/f Reporter Jodie Kaufnan. MSA battles over AATU f ding cut * Assembly proposes giving tenants' union $24,477 less than previous years' funding By Jane Krull Daily Staff Reporter A series of unresolved and heated debates filled last night's Michigan Student Assembly meeting. The main topic of the meeting was MSA's funding of the Ann Arbor Tenants Union. MSA traditionally has set aside a portion of its budget for the union, but this year, MSA Vice President Jim Secreto said the union did not follow the appropriate guide- lines to obtain funding. The assembly allocated $26,000 to the union last year. But this year, MSA proposed to give AATU $1,523. "Fifteen hundred dollars is a death sentence for the AATU," said AATU Board of Directors member Jeff Irwin, saying that the union will have to fold unless it obtains additional fund- ing. LSA Reps. Erin Gilbert and Rodolfo Palma-Lulion and School of Social Work Rep. Diego Bernal proposed an amendment that would aid the funding of AATU by allo- cating the union a total of S9,325 from vari- ous student groups on campus. This funding will allow AATU to operate for the semester. In order to operate during the Winter semester, Bernal proposed that students from the School of Social Work volunteer to work at AATU. These students would receive academic credit for their work, saving AATU $5,120 per volunteer. The assembly tabled the amendment until next week's meeting to inquire about the School of Social Work's role in the amendment. Also contributing to lively and emotional "Fifteen hundred dollars is a death sentence for the AATU." - Jeff Irwin Ann Arbor Tenants Union Board of Directors member "Resolution on the Mass Shootings of Pales- dying. At night I t tinians." could do." The resolution calls for full disclosure of According to it University-owned "investments using scheduled to vot tuition/fees that support the Israeli military," week. in addition to educational forums on the con- But when it wa flict occurring in the Middle East. meeting, MSA P During constituents' time, eight speakers called for the res spoke in favor of the resolution. the agenda saying Rackham student Amer Zahr urged MSA to thing to do with th see the issue as a one that affects Arab, Muslim When asked afte as well as any "conscientious," student. overturning of his r LSA freshmen Rehan Siddiqui said, "I feel ed to protect the M like they are my brothers and sisters out there resolution, people w son elderly leaves think about the things that I ts agenda, the assembly is te on the resolution next as discussed at last night's resident Hideki Tsutsumi olution to be removed from g that it did not have any-. he students in general. rwards how he felt about the ruling, Tsutsumi said, "I want- SA. I'm sure if we pass this ill refer to MSA as ajoke." many debate, MSA discussed a proposal titled Focu young voters oti STUDY Continued from Page 1 care issue is the cost of prescription drugs, while the highest rate of the population without health care remains 18- to 24- year-olds. He noted that the debates barely touched upon issues that pertained to young people. Cindy McConnell, communications director for the Close Up Foundation, said part of the problem is that in the past 20 years there has been more of a focus on math and science education and less on civic education. "There's a need for more civic education," McConnell said: "There is a lot of it that goes on, I just don't think there's enough of it that goes on." But just because students historically don't vote doesn't mean they don't volunteer. Young people "are totally engaged, they just don't see the relevance of politics in their lives," Isaacs said. Bahner, who was able to name both presidential candidates, said he voted in February's Michigan Republican Primary but wasn't sure whether he would head to the polls Nov. 7. "I don't think I'm qualified to vote because I don't know the facts," Bahner said. "I don't think you should vote unless you know your stuff." Both campaigns have claimed to be actively engaged in youth outreach efforts and have youth coordinators who have stressed the importance of youth participation. "At a certain point when its time to vote, young people need to take it upon themselves to learn the issues and get t ofcampaigns involved," said Bob Hopkins, a Bush campaign spokesman. "Ultimately it's up to the individual to learn about the issues and get more active." Internet technology has offered a plethora of information for students. Bush has established an e-campaign where stu- dents can share information posted on the Website, and Gore has launched GoreNet, a Website aimed at attracting young voters. But according to the Close Up study, only a small per- centage of young people access Websites to learn about campaign issues. Forty-eight of the respondents cited televi- sion as their primary source for information and 15 percent cited newspapers. "If I'm going to turn on the TV, I'm not going to turn on the presidential election. I'm going to watch something else,' Engineering freshman Georgianna Golematis said. "I actually find a lot of their issues pertinent, ... but you have to be in the mood to watch it." "I don't watch Seinfeld, much less the news," Bahner said. Isaacs said the campaigns deserve some credit for mak- ing outreach efforts but the resources put toward educating young people about the issues are not comparable to those geared toward seniors and parents. Although skeptical toward both candidates' dedication to young voters, Isaacs commended Gore for participating ip MTV's "Choose or Lose" program taped last month in Ann Arbor and for his "Youth at the Table" initiatives in which he met with students to find out what issues are important to them. NORMAN N/$y G, D LSA Dean Shirley Neuman leads a forum of the President's Information Revolution Commission yesterday in the Chemistry Building Fw students turn 0W nn m out to open forum on 'U'technologyx~ e ". By Carrie Thorson For the Daily University officials are trying to improve technological resources on campus for the students who know more about computers than they do. "What Should We Teach" and "How Should We Teach," two sub- committees of the President's Infor- mation Revolution Commission, held an open forum yesterday to find out how much incoming stu- dents actually know about technol- ogy with a goal to improve instruction. But few students actually attend- ed the forum. "One of our goals is to get stu- dents more active in what's going on in technology around them," said Art and Design sophomore Heather Campbell, a member of the student group "Entity," whose members try to promote student involvement in technology on campus. "Things like this forum should be more well-attended by students," she said. Administrators who planned the event said they want to gauge stu- dent knowledge and experience with technology. "We realize a huge change is happening and we want to go in the right direction," said Pamela Fitzgerald, executive secretary to University President Lee Bollinger. "We have no idea what kind of experience students have and we need to know what they expect when they come in." If the technological experience that incoming students have is unknown, Fitzgerald said, the Uni- versity could be wasting money teaching information technology that students already know. "Unfortunately a lot of technolo- gy here hasn't been updated for four years," said "Entity" member Josh Band, an LSA senior. "That's pretty sad." The 20 people that attended the forum - three undergraduates and the rest graduate students or faculty members -- offered a great deal of input about information technology. But the forum did not address the major issue that LSA Dean Shirley Neuman was trying to emphasize: How to adapt teaching to the infor- mation revolution. "A lot of people are still not aware of the next-generation Inter- net," Romance languages Prof. Niedja Fedrigo said. Other professors suggested putting more responsibility on the students. "What we need is wireless con- nection," said Micheal Bromley, a visiting professor from the United Kingdom. "We should shift the emphasis of buying the actual hardware to the students and redi- rect the money to the teaching and learning." But the lack of attendance by stu- dents at yesterday's forum did not go unnoticed by faculty. "There are so few people here," atmospheric and oceanic space sci- ence Prof. Periy Samson said. "A lot of people don't see the value in this." Another open forum for more stu- dent input is scheduled for next Mon- day from 4:30 to 6 p.m in Chrysler Auditorium on North Campus. t.q Event Agilent Day Date October 18 13 Location Media Union Correction: Student Organization Accounts Services Assistant Coordinator Brian Reed was charged with three counts of third degree criminal sexual misconduct. This was incorrectly reported in yesterday's Daily. THE CALENDAR What's happening in Ann Arbor today EVEN'TS "Yiddish Culture in the Soviet Street, 663-9376 Union: Personal Reminiscences," Ralph Berry Reading and Signing, * Michigan Student Assembly North Sponsored by the Judaic Studies 8:00 p.m., Shaman Drum Book- Camnus Affairs Commission Department, 4:00 p.m., Frieze shop, 315 S. State, 662-7407 Meeting, 7:00 p.m., 3909 Michi- Building, Sainger Resource Cen- gan Union. 615-5672 =- ter % Aenic1fny ;SERVICES Northern Trust is all about class, from our commitment to our clients, to the depth and breadth of our career development tracks for our newest employees. Find out how we can maximize your full career potential when you become a member of one of our Development Programs in: Corporate & Institutional Services Personal Financial Services Summer Interns What's cOmin8 up? Win $100, $50, or $25 Random cash drawing held at the Info Session. All attendees are eligible. INFO SESSION Monday, October 16th 6:00-8:00 Cottage Inn 512 E. Williams St. For more information about Northern Trust, these development programs and career events, visit our web site at: