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NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED. 764-0557
wwwmichigandaily.com
Thursday
January 25, 2001
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By Whitney Elliott
Daily Staff Reporter
In the next several months, some
Michigan energy companies are
expected to significantly raise natural
gas rates.
The increase comes at the end of a
*hree-year pilot program to freeze gas
prices, a program adopted in 1998 by
all Michigan natural gas companies.
Consumers Energy spokesman
Charles Maclnnis said the price freez-
ing programs were implemented to
retain competition among natural gas
companies and keep gas prices low in
Michigan as rates nationwide were
increasing.
Consumers Energy will charge new
prices beginning April 1. Currently,
-onsumers charges $2.84 per 1,000
cubic feet for gas, plus $1.20 for distrib-
ution costs. The new rate will be no
more than $5.69 per 1,000 cubic feet for
gas, plus $1.20 for distribution costs.
Michigan Consolidated Gas Co.,
which services Washtenaw County,
currently charges $2.95 per 1,000
cubic feet for gas, plus $1.45 for distri-
bution. The new rate will be no more
Jhan $5.17 per 1,000 cubic feet for
gas, plus $1.45 for distribution.
MichCon is scheduled to end its
frozen prices program in December.
But because "$2.95 is not realistic,"
MichCon spokesman Rich Steketee
said and because MichCon does not
want to wait until December to raise
rates, the company has filed a request
to the Michigan Public Service Com-
mission to raise rates beginning in
i Steketee said MichCon customers
will not see a tremendous increase in
natural gas bills, in contrast to reports
in several newspapers yesterday.
"We don't believe our customers
will pay any additional charge for gas
in 2001," Steketee said. "With this
change, our customers will continue to
pay some of the best prices in the Mid-
west and in the country."'
* Steketee said that an apparent 50
percent increase in MichCon prices
does not include a credit that will be
given back to each customer.
"MichCon will sell gas contracts.
We'll take that money and credit our
customers," Steketee said. "The bot-
tom line is (consumers) aren't going te
pay anything more. "
"If (the plan to credit customers) is
See GAS, Page 2A
Mock n' roll
istorian.
Pro ess
By Jen Fish
Daily Staff Reporter
DETROIT - Forty-five years after
working for integration in education in
the landmark Brown v. Board ofIEduca-
tion decision, John Hope Franklin yes-
terday testified that ending affirmative
action would nullify the "miraculous"
progress American society has made
toward racial
equality since 1
that ruling.
Called to tes- 'N IRIAL
tify on the histo-
ry of educationaln
segregation,
Franklin held most of the courtroom
spellbound as he talked extensively
about his own personal experiences with
racism. Recalling an incident from his
college years in which he was told he
could not study in the same room as the
white scholars in the National Archives,
Franklin made the observation that
racism is an "improvisational" process
full of "ingenuity."
Franklin, a professor emeritus at
Duke University, testified in defense of
the University's Law School admissions
policies on behalf of the intervening
defendants. A noted historian and recip-
ient of 128 honorary degrees, Franklin
told U.S. District Judge Bernard Fried-
man about the many obstacles he faced
in his academic career.
"His life exemplifies both how far
we've come and how far we have to go
to achieve racial equality," said Miranda
Massie, lead counsel for the intervenors.
This, she said, is crucial to understand-
ing the need for affirmative action.
Through his work as chair of the
Advisory Board of the President's Initia-
tive on Race, Franklin said he found a
definite difference among blacks and
whites in perceptions of race problem
Many white people but no black people
thought the race problem "was solving
itself,"he said.
While Franklin said he did not
believe questions of race have been
answered, he was careful to stress that
tremendous progress has been made.
"They're almost miraculous to me
See TRIAL, Page 7A
BRANDON SEDLOFF/Daily
Football players Emmanuel Casseus (left) and Deltan Dubuc (center) entertain the audience with volleyball players
Katrina Lehman and Nicole Kacor at Mock Rock last night in the Michigan Theater. Inside: The event raises $100,000 to
endow the Jeff Reese Scholarship Fund. Page 9A.
OmmitteeS orme to
CUSS U re, o,
By Anna Clark
Daily Staff Reporter
SNRE interim Dean Barry Rabe and LSA
Dean Shirley Neuman launched two commit-
tees yesterday to examine the possibility of
developing a joint environmental studies/sci-
ences program for undergraduates.
The program, if approved by curriculum
committees and faculty of both schools and the
University Board of Regents, would replace the
existing School of Natural Resources and the
Environment undergraduate programs.
Rabe said stagnant enrollment in SNRE
prompted the school to investigate a joint
degree. The program would be the first col-
laboration between the College of Literature,
Science an4 the Arts and a professional
school on campus. "I'm not sure if this is
going to work or not," Rabe said yesterday.
The proposal in its initial form calls for
SNRE to stop admitting new undergraduate
students independent of LSA, but Rabe
stressed that the school is not shutting down.
About 560 students, including 360 undergrad-
uates, are enrolled in SNRE.
Rabe said students admitted prior to the
implementation of any changes would not be
affected. "SNRE is open for busine'ss, will
stay open for business and will continue to
offer the full range of programs," Rabe said.
While Rabe said the new program can open
new opportunities for students, such as a bache-
lor of arts option, he also noted possible disad-
vantages. "One of the strongest aspects of the
SNRE is the small college feel," he said. "That
the biggest, most likely loss, that sense of com-
munity." But Rabe said he hopes to maintain
some of that small college feel through acade-
mic advising, centering the program in the
Dana Building and establishing strong connec-
tions between students and faculty.
Rabe and Neuman formed the Curriculum
Implementation Committee and the Gover-
nance and Structure Committee. They include
faculty members from both schools as well as
a student representative.
"What we're doing is looking at what sort
of issues need to be addressed to move from a
proposal to implementation," said English
See SNRE, Page 2A
'Rabbi exp alansHum is C aalsm
By Courtney Crimmins
I )aily Staff Reporter
"Add the name of Sherwin Wine to the
list of great names for our decade," said
Greg Epstein, co-leader of the University
d1umanistic Havurah, when he introduced
Rabbi Wine at Hillel last night.
Wine spoke to a group of about 100 stu-
dents and community members on the for-
mation of Humanistic Judaism.
Humanistic Judaism involves the cultural
and social history of the Jewish people
without relying on many of the formal tradi-
tions of religious Judaism.
"It is a philosophy of life with a strong
Jewish base shared by millions of Jews all
over the world. It is about what do you as an
ndividual believe without settling for a for-
mal answer," Wine said.
Wine was raised as a conservative Jew
but said he did not connect with all parts of
his religion.
"Once services started, I had trouble say-
ing the words. They
were Jewish words but
they were not what I
b believed," he said.
Wine pursued his
interests in theology,
graduating from the
University with a mas-
ters in philosophy. After
earning his degree
Wine joined the
Wine Reformed Congregate
and later left to form the first congregation
of Humanistic Judaism in 1963.
He began with a community of eight
families and steadily grew from there.
"It is about what do you as an individual
believe without settling for a formal answer."
- Rabbi Sherwin Wine
Founding member of Humanistic Judaism
"We developed what it was that we
shared, we chose the name Humanistic
Judaism," Wine said.
"Humanistic Judaism is a response to the
seven important events in Judaism: The
emancipation of the Jews 2,000 years ago,
enlightenment, democracy, secularization,
inter-cultural marriages, Zionism and the
Holocaust," he said.
The community that grew from these
eight families has aroused curiosity as the
beliefs stressed by Wine are divergent from
most organized religions.
"The three most respected words in
Humanistic Judaism are 'I don't know,"'
Wine said.
Epstein said Humanistic Jews are still
"waiting for a response" from others.
"Most don't yet know what it is, they
know it is out there but they think it is
something with no God in it," Epstein said.
Wine's teachings stress that power is not
with God but within people and those
See WINE, Page 7A
SM MLLLINSH EtAU/ Daily
Doctoral candidate Uluc Saranli controls the RHex robot,
By Karen Schwartz
Daily Staff Reporter
Some researchers believe finding songs on the Internet could
one day require nothing more than singing into a computer
microphone and waiting for the machine to make the match.
Electrical engineering and computer science Prof. Grego-
ry Wakefield is working through his department's Artificial
Intelligence Lab on a project to do just that. The multimedia
project, dubbed "MusEn," is an effort that incorporates
engineering and music to examine problems related to thd
analysis and synthesis of music.
MusEn is funded by a recent grant in information tech-
nology provided by the National Science Foundation. The
grant consists of $1.7 million over three years.
"When computer games alone are beginning to produce
as much monetary value as movies, it means that engineer-
ing is front-and-center in the technology of music and art,"
Wakefield said. "Part of where the industry is going is this
interaction between music, art and engineering:'
Wakefield also said because the next generation of wire-
less devices will be built with audio, video and art demands
in mind, it is important for engineers to understand what
needs to be transmitted in art and music, and vice versa.
Ed Durfee. director of the Artifieial Intelligence Lab. said
Campus buil ings nc
with Aarror stor
By Andrew D. Kim
For the Daily
Hundreds of students attend class in the Frieze
Building every day, but it is likely that few of them
know its history. Originally built in 1905 to serve
as a high school for Ann Arbor students it is one
Culver added that all of central campus located
between North University and South University
avenues has been designated as historic.
The oldest University building still pd by stu-
dents is Tappan Hall, located on South University.
This building was completed in 1894 with Angell
Hall following in 1911
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