NEWS: 76-DAILY CLASSIFIED: 764-0557 www.michigandally.com One hundred ten yearsf di~trfreedom UnY Thursday November 16, 2000 .- < .: . « .n8 « ,:K S ; > wa¢ka s a :> .' e .>,> , a. , a t ^ "_-; s n .,e< . : t ... v: .a. e: i". 2r I Absentee ecount requests t The Associated Press State Katherine recounts "pending In dueling televised appearances, Al Gore the process was p ade a surprise proposal for a statewide hand Bush's camp recount of Florida's 6 million ballots yesterday seeking to consol and George W Bush swiftly rejected it, calling tions under one st the effort under way in several Democratic- The high court leaning counties "arbitrary and chaotic." final word, gave With their futures tied up in a knot of legal ballot-by-ballot battles, the presidential rivals called for a quick lead in the state. C end to the contested election but disagreed on Beach counties h how to do it. ating hand count "Our goal," the vice president said at his offi- Even as they di al mansion, "must be what is right for Ameri- state set the stag announcing she Their evening addresses capped a whirlwind counted ballots, c day of legal activity that gave both weary "insufficient." Ha camps a taste of victory and defeat - but no da election resul clear road to completion. recount totals. The Florida Supreme Court opened the Gore's lawyers action by rejecting a request from Secretary of decision in state c Basketball Butting in *cket sales plunge 40 percent By Mark Francescutti Daily Sports Editor The Michigan Athletic Depart- ment has sold just 598 men's bas- ketball season-ticket packages this season, a decrease of more than 40 percent from last season when the Wolverines sold 1,023. This season is anticipating the worst ticket sales more than a decade. Michigan also raised the student package price $4 for three less games. But price wasn't an issue for hockey tickets. Men's basketball was outsold more than 2-to-1 by hockey, which sold 1,385 despite a hockey package that carried a price tag more than double that of bas- etball - $195 for hockey, $104 r hoops. One reason for choosing hockey over basketball is the crowd at Yost Ice Arena, exciting compared to the docile Crisler Arena student section. "Crisler is the most tame arena to watch a sports event," said Business LSA senior Julie Blaszl student Mike Miller, who chose not stop smoking during T to purchase season tickets. "I think that one of the things was that the students really rallied See BASKETBALL, Page 5A votes to decide e ection denied, final ballots due tomorrow Harris to block any manual g final resolution" of whether roper under Florida law. had intervened in the case, lidate the tangle of legal peti- ate court. 's ruling, though far from the Democrats new vigor in their bid to trim Bush's 300-vote Officials in Broward and Palm unkered down for an excruci- of 1 million ballots. id, the Republican secretary of ge for another legal clash by would not accept the hand- calling the counties' reasoning rris vowed to certify the Flori- ts Saturday without the hand said they will challenged her circuit court today. The fight careening out of Florida, a federal appeals court in Atlanta agreed to consider Bush's bid to shut down the recounts. The Texas governor lost a round on that question in federal court earlier this week in Miami. In a 182-page brief, Bush's attorneys argued that granting the injunction to stop the hand counting in Florida would "not substantially injure the rights of the defendants. ... and will clearly advance the public interest." The appeal seeks to stop the hand counting in- Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Broward and Volusia counties in Florida. There was no word from the court when it would hear the appeal. There were many legal issues left unre- solved. Gore's lawyers had asked the high court justices to uphold the validity of the manual recounts and extend the deadline for complet- ing them. There was no immediate answer on those questions from the Florida Supreme Court, whose members were all chosen by Democratic governors. Republicans accused Gore of using the courts in an attempt to overtake Bush by manu- al recounts after the state had already reviewed 6 million ballots by machine. "Five days ago ... I cautioned that there would be no reasonable end to the election process in Florida if it should dissolve into multiple recounts and court cases," said James A. Baker III, a former secretary of state work- ing for Bush. "I'm afraid to say that's exactly what's happened." Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state overseeing the case for Gore, pledged to do what he must to "protect the rights of the vice president" - holding open the prospect of a protracted legal fight that could go to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the latest public relations salvo, Gore See FLORIDA, Page 8A Another busy day ® 10:00 a.m. The Florida Supreme Court allows hand recounts to continue. ® 2:00 p.m. Three counties submit requests to the Secretary of State to continue hand counting. 6:30 p.m. Vice President Al Gore proposes a final solution: Allow hand recounts in every Florida county, certify those results, avoid all legal challenges. ® 9:00 p.m. Fla. Secretary of State Katherine Harris says the ongoing hand recounts will not be certified, the absentee ballots will be the final votes tallied. 10:15 Bushrejects Gore's proposal for a statewide hand count, says the final results should be certified this weekend. Arguments to start in lawsuit By Jon Fish Daily Staff Reporter After three years of legal wrangling and almost endless speculation, there is a very slim chance that the lawsuits challenging the use of race as a factor in University admissions could actual- ly end today. Oral arguments for summary judgment in the lawsuit challenging the College of Litera- ture, Sciences and the ON Arts will be heard in_ federal district court for ~I in Detroit today. Judge Patrick Duggan will preside over the case, which has seen an array of delays since its initial filing more than three years ago by the Wash- ington, D.C.-based Center for Indi- vidual Rights on behalf of rejected white applicants Patrick Hamacher and Jennifer Gratz. Last spring, the University and the Center for Individual Rights submitted motions for summary judgment, ask- ing the judge to make a decision based on evidence presented without going to trial In effect, both sides are asking the judge to rule in their favor because their interpretation of the evidence is so compelling, a trial is unnecessary. If a summary judgment is not grant- ed, the case will go to trial, possibly as soon as December. "This is sort of like the last stop before the train goes express," Uni- versity Deputy General Counsel Liz Barry said. - I1 -1 IAls at the judge's discretion today is the decision to issue a summary judg- ment on a motion filed by the University's lawyers to have former University President James Duderstadt and current President Lee Bollinger dismissed as defendants in the case on the grounds of qualified immu- nity. This doctrine basically allows government officials to be immune from suits "when they act in good faith in reliance of the law," Barry said. More simply, because Duderstadt and Bollinger executed their duties according to the law, they should not be subject to suit. If summary judgment is granted on the case as a whole, it would essential- ly be over, but only at the district level. It has been made reasonably clear that See LAWSUITS, Page 7A ABBYUROSENBAUM/Uaily alc - dressed as "Mr. Butt" - and LSA junior Tamarah Gipprieh try to convince students to he Great American Smokeout on the Diag yesterday. Lidates for MSA battle voter apathy Basketball ticket sales The sales figures for men's basketball student season ticket packages, along with Michigan's Big' Ten and overall record. Year Sale Recordt 1992-93 4,542 (15-3, 31-5) 1993-94 4,267 (13-5, 24-8) 1994-95 3,905 (11-7, 17-14) 1995-96 3,830 (10-8, 20-12) @996-97 2,796 (9-9, 24-11) 1997-98 2,200 (11-5, 25-9) 1998-99 712 (5-11, 12-19) 1999-00 1023 (6-10, 15-14) I0O-01 598 Death sp drinking By David Enders Daily Staff Reporter The Washtenaw County Coroner's Office officially ruled this week that Engineering sophomore Byung Soo ,im died of acute ethanol intoxica- n, or alcohol poisoning, 6 a.m. Monday. According to the Ann Arbor Police Department, Kim ingested 20 shots of Scotch whisky in 90 minutes at his 21st birthday party Friday night, which caused him to stop breathing. He was \r~ C,1.1 By Jane Krull Daily Staff Reporter The Michigan Student Assembly fall elec- tions kicked off yesterday to a mediocre start. As of 6:30 yesterday evening, 2,728 votes were cast, which is comparable to fall elec- tions in previous years, Elections Director Steve Lund said. Music sophomores David Jones and Joe McEachern voted yesterday because a friend of a write-in candidate reminded them to. "I think it is interesting that I wouldn't have voted if this dude wouldn't have reminded me," McEachern said. "I don't pay attention to posters and didn't know that elections were today." With hectic schedules including classes, jobs and activities, many students simply for- got to vote. "I've been busy all day and didn't even think of it - I intend to vote, though," Kinesiology freshman Erica Watts said. Some students feel that the assembly doesn't effect their University lives and choose not to vote, Engineering freshman Paul Kammer said. "I'm tired of all these people coming to door asking me to vote for them," Kam- mer said. "I'm not going to vote cause I really don't care." As the election comes to an end tonight, candidates continue to campaign and urge students to vote. Independent candidate Dan Barrera is focusing his campaigning in the classroom setting. "In every class I write the Web address on where to vote and give a general overview of my campaign," said Barrera, who is running for an LSA seat. The Blue Party election day plans are to make themselves visible around campus during the election. "We're out to meet people so they vote for us and not our posters - we need to put sub- stance behind our name," said Alex McDonough. who is running for an LSA seat. Members of the Defend Affirmative Action Party were out in the Diag yesterday informing students about their party and the election, DAAP member Erika Dowdell said. "We are reminding people to tell their friends and we're telling people to vote," said Dowdell, who is hoping to be reelected to LSA seat on the assembly. See MSA, Page 5A arks new Author to address winter graduates 'r t i l i wores to his parents, he was not a heavy drinker. Seldom a weekend passes without a student being transported from a resi- dence hall to the emergency. room for dangerous levels of intoxication. "It would be fair to say that we're probably coming close to a couple a week, or more than that," Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Diane Brown said. Fourteen such incidents were recorded between Sept. 2 and Nov. 5. Those numbers are not necessarily By Rachel Green Daily Staff Reporter Elmore Leonard, acclaimed author of 36 novels, including "Out of Sight" and "Get Shorty," has been selected as winter commence- ment speaker. The ceremony, held in Crisler Arena, is sched- uled for Dec. 17. "I'm looking forward to the Leonard said he hopes to include memories from his commencement ceremony 50 years ago at the Univer- sity of Detroit. In addition to making him com- mencement speaker, the University will bestow an honorary doctor of arts degree on Leonard. This is his third honorary degree from a major university, his first two awarded by the University of Detroit and Florida Atlantic University. Born in New Orleans in 1925, Leonard and his family moved to BRAD QUINN/Daily Students across campus are lining up drinking trophies, but University officials, in the wake of a drinking death, are saying we're not doing enough. to bring down to DPS base, which would mean a blood alcohol content between .08 (percent) arnd .2 (per- Kim's BAC was .39 percent. "What it shows is that we haven't done enough; not me, you, the institu- I I