LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 16, 2000 - 3A
RC alum wins
award for work
withdisabled
Residential College alum Rachel
Arfa received the Neubacher Award
for outstanding services to students
-with disabilities on Friday for her work
with deaf and hard of hearing students.
A luncheon sponsored by the Hear-
ing Impaired Students Organization
t'Ook place at the Michigan Union in
honor of Arfa and the Lee Bernstein
family, who are generous supporters
-of the group.
Along with the award, Arfa received
S500 for her services as an undergrad-
,uate student at the University, where
,she was also a member of the Michi-
gan Student Assembly and a half a
dozen other student organizations.
Career Link 2000
, to provide advice
In an effort to provide students who
-tre not in pre-professional programs
with information about possible career
fields, Career Link 2000 will take
place Thursday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
at the Michigan Union Ballroom.
The event, hosted by LSA Student
Government, LSA Academic Advising
and Career Planning and Placement,
will feature discussions led by former
LSA students on LSA recommenda-
Ions for course selections, and what
employers look for in their employees.
Guests may talk to various business
representatives who will attend the
event for possible recruiting.
Last term, 250 people attended
Career Link and organizers hope to
top that this year.
Washington Post
columnist to give
talk on campus
Washington Post syndicated colum-
nist and University alum Donna Britt
will present a talk titled, "In the Flow:
Blending Career, Family and Spirit,"
qn Tuesday from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00
pm. in Alumni Center's Founders
Room.
Britt has focused on subjects many
,ther writers don't discuss, including
her insights on family, culture, race
and spirituality.
Britt's has reported for the Detroit
,jree Press, and covered Hollywood
while directing the Los Angeles bureau
of USA Today.
. Britt has also received the Amer-
ican Society of Newspaper Editors'
Distinguished Writing Award for
commentary, and a Pulitzer nomi-
nation for a first-person essay.
The lecture is free to the public
and a reception will follow spon-
sored by the University Alumni
Association.
Women's studies
to host street fair
. The University Women s Studies
,,Program will celebrate the opening of
,Ahe newly renovated Lane Hall, the
new home to the Institute for Research
on Women and Gender, on Friday with
a street fair from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The fair will feature panel discus-
sions, a film festival and a variety of
wKrformances and activities.
- South State Street between East
'Washington and East Liberty streets
: vill be closed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
for the celebration,
The formal ribbon cutting ceremo-
ny and dedication of Lane Hall will
take a place at noon.
University President Lee Bollinger,
Provost Nancy Cantor and members
of the Board of Regents are scheduled
r)attend the ceremony with presenta-
bons by LSA Dean Shirley Newman
and Vice President for Research
Fawwaz Ulaby.
The presentation will conclude at 8
p.m. in Rackham Auditorium with the
&world premiere performance of Mail
fi-om Daphne and Apollo Remade
composed by University music pro-
lessor 1nid Sutherland.
-C'ompfied bhi Dai/, Sta//Peporher
Lisa Hflfitin.
Abraham, Stabenow agree to 2 debates
By Jeremy W. Peters
Daily StaffRepoter
After months of bickering, finger pointing and
circuitous accusations, senatorial candidates
Spence Abraham and Debbie Stabenow have
finally agreed to debate each other.
The agreement, reached Friday just before a
looming deadline, calls for two debates between
Republican incumbent Abraham and Stabenow, a
Democratic congresswoman from Lansing. One
is scheduled at Grand Valley State University in
Grand Rapids next Sunday and the other will fol-
low at the Economic Club of Detroit the next day.
Both debates will be broadcast on public televi-
Sion.
Stabenow campaign officials say they are far
from content with the outcome of the negotia-
tions.
"Debbie has challenged Abraham to debate
her ... on network TV," Stabenow spokesman
Mark Kornblau said. "He's been hiding from
Michigan families. The debates he's accepted are
in front of limited audiences."
Abraham campaign officials said they are
merely maintaining precedent by agreeing to the
same debates Democratic Sen. Carl Levin did in
his 1996 campaign.
"We're doing the same debates that Carl Levin
did in '96," Abraham spokesman Joe Davis said.
"Michigan voters will still be able to see the
debates on public television. Statewide (public)
television is good. Everyone gets it."
Public television stations throughout the state
will air the debates.
A week before the debates, both candidates
appeared separately on CNN's "Evans, Novak,
Hunt and Shields" program yesterday.
Stabenow defended her prescription drug plan
as "being on the side of Michigan seniors and
families" instead of insurance companies. Abra-
ham, who voted against the U.S. House Patient's
Bill of Rights that would cover all Americans
enrolled in health insurance plans and allow
HMOs to be sued, said there should be HMO
reform.
"I believe HMOs should be sued. ... Where I
disagree, is I don't believe we should create a lia-
bility system that causes the cost of health care to
skyrocket so that employers are literally kicking
people out of insurance plans" Abraham said.
But Stabenow said she will demonstrate she is
on the side of Michigan families.
"My opponent is heavily financed by the pre-
scription drug lobby, oil companies, tobacco
companies - all the folks whose vote he's cast
and I'm on the side of the Michigans families,"
she said.
The Stabenow campaign originally objected to
a debate at the Economic Club of Detroit, citing
the fact that those wanting to attend a debate at
that venue would have to pay an entrance fee,
thus limiting access.
They said a town hall-style format, in which
audience members would ask the candidates
questions, would be preferable.
In part, Stabenow officials can claim victory
on this point. The debate at Grand Valley State
University will be a town-hall format before a
group of undecided voters.
"Any voter who looks at this situation will
understand that Debbie wants to get out there and
debate in front of as many people as possible;'
Kornblau said. "We are still pressing for network
television, but it doesn't look like the senator is
willing."
Although both campaigns have agreed on
debates, the feuding isn't over.
"We'd like for them to have made their deci-
sion sooner. But they waited and waited,' Davis
said. "We agreed two months ago to accept the
Economic Club debate and the one at Grand Val-
ley, but they waited, wanting to turn this into a
political issue by saying we didn't want to
debate."
"That's outrageous," Kornblau said in response
to accusations Stabenow was using the disagree-
ment over the debates to attack Abraham. "If
you're running for U.S. Senate you shouldn't be
afraid of debating. What is he hiding from?"
- The Associated Press contributed to this
r epoit.
,i =:'
xxx
Annual seminar features
Pakistani poet's activism
RACHEL fEIERMAN/~daly
Protesters rally Friday against the Palestinian-Israeli conflict outside of the
Federal Building on Liberty and Fifth streets.
Protestors marc
Federl Buldin
By William Wetmore
For The Daily
Singing in Urdu, LSA seniors
Aroosha Rana and Amna Shah pre-
sented a poem of Pakistani poet laure-
ate and political activist Allama Iqbal
on Saturday.
To Rana, sharing the work of the
famous poet is a way to celebrate her
Pakistani heritage.
"It is important to pass on all of our
cultural traditions to our children and
Urdu is one of the most essential ele-
ments of our culture," Rana said.
"U of M promotes language learn-
ing to an impressive extent, and we
feel that this is an excellent opportuni-
ty to promote that aspect of our cul-
ture," she added.
Rana and Shah's performance was
part of the fourth annual seminar on
Iqbal this weekend at the International
Institute Gallery and Rackham
Amphitheatre.
This year's seminar, featuring
addresses by Javid Iqbal, a former
judge of the Pakistan Supreme Court
and son of the legendary poet, focused
on his father's controversial role in
Pakistani politics during the first half
of the 20th Century.
Javid's address, "Igbal's Concept of
State in Islam," given partly in Urdu
and partly in English, focused on his
father's commitment to the establish-
ment of an independent Islamic state
of Pakistan that would respect reli-
gious freedom and value the ideas of
modern humanism. The political goal
of an independent Islamic Pakistan,
wrote Allama Iqbal, would be the
establishment of a "spiritual, democra-
cy.
Spiritual democracy, a concept Javid
said was difficult to define, would be
rooted in opposition to coercive, fun-
damentalist government.
Intellectual freedom and accep-
tance of modern technology would
be among the state's core values, he
said. Allama wrote that Muslims
should not engage in a competition
with people of other faiths over who
is spiritually right. Instead, people
of all faiths should "compete over
who could do the most good
works."
Javid argued that 'notions of
human rights and democracy have
profound historical roots in Islamic
culture.
Allama firmly believed this, his
son said, and in his writings used
passages from the Koran as well as
other historical evidence to support
his views.
Allama believed that his support for
liberal ideas of human rights and
democracy was not an attempt to rec-
oncile western values with Islam.
Instead, he believed such ideas have
their origin in Islam.
The seminar was sponsored by a
number of Pakistani cultural groups,
including the Pakistani Students Asso-
ciation.
The president of the group, Junaid
Iqbal, spoke about the importance of
Urdu for Pakistani international stu-
dents.
"The history of Urdu holds poetic
treasures like Dr. Allama lqbal that are
unveiled by events such as the one
we're holding today," Junaid lqbal
said. "As representatives of our coun-
try and its language at Michigan, we
feel events like Iqbal Day will be able
to show our friends the beauty of our
language," he said.
The Pakistan Association of Amei-
ca, Center for South Asian Studies, the
department of Near Eastern studies
and the department of Asian Lan-
guages and Culture also sponsored this
weekend's events.
By Caitlin Nish
Daily Staff Reporter
The sidewalks of Liberty and
Fifth streets were crowded with pro-
testers as more than 400 students
and community members protested
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on
the steps of the Federal Building on
Friday afternoon.
The protest's organizers, the Mus-
lim Community Association of Ann
Arbor, intended it as show of sup-
port for the Palestinians involved in
the escalated violence of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.
The protest is the third in less
than two weeks in support of Pales-
tinians involved in violence in the
Middle East.
LSA senior Kevin Berman, chair
of the Hillel Governing board, said
instead of rallying for a cause,
members of Hillel would rather
concentrate on holding forums to
discuss the situation.
"We want to work to facilitate
discussion on what is going on in
the middle east - two sided discus-
sions," Berman said.
The protesters cited violence
including the deaths more than 90
Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers
at the hands of a Palestinian mob.
"Muslim brothers and sisters are
suffering unfairly and we can not be
there for them, so instead we're here
for them to show that we really do
care," said Deniz Gundez, a Washt-
enaw Community College student.
LSA senior Hazem Mahmoud,
the media coordinator for the Mus-
lim Community Association of Ann
Arbor, acknowledged that the
tragedy benefits neither side. But he
said that the group wanted to partic-
ularly stop the Israeli use of force
on the Palestinians and the United
States' economic contributions to
Israel.
The U.S. economic support in
Israel "offends not just Palestinians
and Muslims, but the American
public." Mahmoud said.
Hussein Faz, owner of Faz Hello
Pizza, said that while protesting the
government may seem as though
the group is protesting the United
States, it is not true.
"Some people misunderstand,
they think we don't like the U.S. No,
we love the U.S.," Faz said. lie later
added that the problem isn't with the
United States, it is with its policies.
Mahmoud also said that the poli-
cy of economically supporting
Israel affects all U.S.-citizens.
"This is something which affects
all of us from an economic stand-
point and as well from a moral
standpoint and we should all be
concerned," Mahmoud said. "The
main message is that the whole situ-
ation is a tragedy regardless. No one
should die,"he said.
Some non-Muslim protesters said
they felt the same way.
"I visited Israel in March and I
learned about the Arab-Israeli con-
flicts and heard both sides of the
story and I wanted to do something
about all the injustices I saw and
heard about," SNRE senior Amy
Morrow said. "I'm not pro-Palestin-
ian or pro-Jewish, I just want to do
something about all the injustices,"
he said.
Other protesters stated that they
had a different purpose for march-
ing.
"A big portion of what we are try-
ing to achieve is that the media
doesn't do a good job of portraying
the issues in the Middle East," LSA
senior Omar Sharif said. "We want
more attention turned on the suffer-
ing the Palestinians are going
through," he said.
I i I
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Pharmaceutical Sales Information Session
THE CALENDAR
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
EVENTS tute, Room 1636, 1080 South "Summer in Ghana," Elaine Critten-
University don will speak, Sponsored by
* Composer's Forum Concert, Spon- U Robert Quinn Reading and Signing, Michigan Botanical Club, 7:45
sored by the School of Music, 7:00 p.m., Arborland Borders, p.m., Matthaei Botanical Gar-
8:00 p.m., Britton Recital Hall, 3527 Washtenaw, 677-6948 dens, 1800 Dixboro Road, 971-
763-4726,H Heather Neff Reading, 7:00 p.m., Lib- 6261
- Pn fl,..,,tona ,a 4..Iaffi i erty Borders, 612 E. Liberty, 668
Date: Wednesday, October 18, 2000
Soc at ion:Michigan Union,
Anderson AB
Time: 6:00 Pm