One hundred ten years ofeditorialfredom lrnt NEWS: 76-DAILY CLASSIFIED: 7640557 wwwmichigandaily.com Friday February 9, 2001 , , r , <>r , ,, I &tudy, reveals political apathy By John Polley For the Daily In an annual report on incoming college freshman, the Higher Educa- tion Research Institute revealed this week that political interest among dents has hit an all-time low. [he report was based on HERI's survey of incoming students at 434 American colleges and universities and indicated that only 28.1 percent of students polled were inclined to keep up with political affairs. This number is down from 28.6 percent in 1999 and represents a continued trend of declining political interest. "Although the 2000 results reflect a Pumped "-l Proposal underfunds 'U By Louie Meizlish Daily Staff Reportet OWe have nothing to unite us." - Kara Guminski LSA junior 1 o n g - t e r m decline in stu- dents' political interest, this year is signifi- cant since freshman inter- est in politics traditionally increases dur- LANSING - The U \4{treceive an increase of state funding next ye John Engler's propose than $17 million less th The increase translates into a 1.5 percent increase over this year's funding, bringing per-stu- dent appropria- tions up to $9,939 MUk from $9,646. The A proposal, which was pr day by State Budget I ' Lannoye, would give $363.7 million in total f The University could; al $5.4 million on top o the Legislature goes alor proposal to repeal the st ABBY ROSENBAUM/Daily credit. The tax credit rev LSA junior Sunil Sajnanl lifts weights at the Central Campus Recreation Building yesterday. At this time of year most students attending unive students find themselves in the gym for physical activity until the weather gets warmer. tuition increases under t tion, although it has not request because of low inflation rates. A repeal of the tax credit, Lannoye said, would allow the state to increase niversity would funding to state universities another $5.4 million in 1.5 percent, bringing the total across- ar under Gov. the-b'oard increase to 3 percent. d budget, more "We'd always like more, but we've an it requested. got to recognize that there's less revenue this year because of an economic slow- down," said Rep. Michael Switalski (D- Roseville), a member of the House Appropriations Committee. "Hopefully there will be a pick up in revenue that ' .. will allow us to increase the funding." Glenn Stevens, executive director of Presidents Council of the State Univer- ue sities of Michigan, said the proposal is a esented yester- good starting point, considering that Director Mary economic forecasts remain unclear. the University "It's quite clear that education fared unding. very well. It's a very good beginning in get an addition- the budget," Stevens said. f that amount if Engler's proposal calls for a total ng with Engler's increase of 2 percent in higher educa- ate's tuition tax tion spending if the tax credit is not wards parents of repealed. The University of Michigan rsities that keep would not see the remaining 0.5 per- he level of infla- cent, which is distributed based on the been successful See BUDGET, Page 7 ing an election year," said Linda Sax, - director of the study. lIiregory Markus, a senior research scientist at the University of Michi- gan's Center for Political Studies, noted that the survey results were largely dependent upon what students considered "political:' "The expressed interest is at a record low but at the same time com- munity service and volunteerism is at or near a record high," Markus said. "It's not that students don't care, it's 't they've made a choice to act on at interest in the particular realm of community service." Shari Katz, who chairs the Michi- gan Student Assembly's Voice Your Vote Commission, also stressed the negative connotation of "political" activity. "When you bring in the word poli- tics,' (students) often get turned off hause of the stigma. I think often sy're not interested in politics because they're not making the prac- tical connection between politics and their everyday lives," Katz said. Many students also point to the rel- ative stability of American govern- ment in recent years as a reason for declining interest. "We have nothing to unite us," said LSA junior Kara Guminski. "I don't think people feel that there's anything out there that's really pressing that Oy can put their time and energy into." LSA junior Sarah Telfer expressed a similar opinion, saying that she doesn't consider herself politically interested. "If there was something I really felt strongly on, I'd go after it," Telfer added. Markus acknowledged the contri- *ion of perceived political stability to declining political interest but noted that many pressing issues have not drawn public attention. "I think the perception of a lack of big issues has been part of it. The economy has been great, but for the typical working class family, it was only last year that they saw any bene- fit from this 10-year economic boom at all," Markus said. The HERI study also recorded all- e lows in the percentage of incoming students who "discuss pol- itics frequently" as well as those vot- ing in student government elections. Witness: UC becoming resegregated By Anna Clark Daily Staff Reporter DETROIT - Offering a perspective of what a public university looks like without affirma- tive action policies, DMISSIONS Eugene Garcia, dean ON TRIAL of education at the University of Califor- nia's Berkeley campus, testified in court yes- terday about the resegregation of the UC system. Garcia, who also spoke about the covert biases affecting Latinos in education, is an expert wit- ness for the intervening defendants in the lawsuit challenging the University of Michigan's Law School's use of race in admissions. Garcia told U.S. District Judge Bernard Fried- man that Proposition 209, which ended affirma- tive action programs in California, has resulted in a significant drop in underrepresented minorities on the UC campuses, despite outreach programs. "We are highly frustrated," Garcia said. "V do not see the light at the end of the tunnel." Garcia added that the number of minorities has dropped at both the most selective UC schools and in the system overall. Because minorities are moving towards the less selective Riverside and Santa Cruz campuses, Garcia said, the UC sys- tem is becoming segregated. "In the future, we'll see three to four universities that are primarily white and Asian and four universities that are pri- marily brown and black," he said. Garcia noted that biases in standardized tests have had a detrimental affect on minorities, par- ticularly Latinos, who largely grew up-in Span- ish-speaking homes in California and haven't been exposed to "academic English" the way white test-takers may have been. "The better you are at academic English, the bet- ter you'll do," Garcia said, noting that Latinos in particular score low on the verbal section of the test. Cross-examination of Garcia was postponed to accommodate Columbia University Prof. Eric Foner, a witness for the intervenors who special- izes in American history. Foner went into a detailed history of how race became "a fundamental dividing line" in the Unit- ed States. He said today's society cannot separate itself from a history of dramatic racial separation. See TRIAL, Page 7 ETS tO remove flags from tests of disabled IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND E Handicapped man claimed he was denied admissions because of special accommodations By Hanna LoPatin Daily Staff Reporter The Educational Testing Service announced this week that it will discontinue the practice of flagging the results of disabled students who receive special accommodations, such as extra time, on many of their standardized tests. The change, which will apply to the Graduate Record Examinations, the Graduate Manage- ment Admission Test, the Test of English as a Foreign Language and Praxis, a test for teach- ers, is viewed as a victory by many in the dis- abled community. The new policy becomes effective Oct. I and came as part of a settlement in a lawsuit filed two years ago by Mark Breimhorst, a man with no hands who believed he was denied admission into business schools because his test results indicated that he had received special accom- modations on the management test. Breimhorst charged ETS with violating state and federal anti-discrimination laws. The Inter- national Dyslexia Association and Californians for Disability Rights joined his suit. "This is absolutely a step in the right direc- tion," said ETS spokesman Tom Ewing. "We are very pleased that we were able to respond to our disabled community." ETS maintains that the flagging policy did not break any laws. But Ewing said, "It was never our intention to be stigmatizing for our disabled students." Virginia Grubaugh, assistant coordinator of Services for Students with Learning Disabilities at the University of Michigan, said the removal of flagging will be beneficial to the students with whom she works. "Students who really need accommodations, it allows them to use those without feeling that someone is discriminating," she said. "The accommodations that we afford to students are ones that are only meant to level the playing field." Jeanne Wilt, assistant dean of admissions and career development at the University's Business School, said the new policy won't make a differ- ence in their admissions. "It has no effect," she said. "If you were to look at all the things we ask for on our applica- tion - GMAT's just one piece of all that." Having a disability "certainly doesn't mean See TESTING, Page 7 BRET I MIUUTIN/ a/iy LSA sophomore Aarti Aurora uses her PalmPilot in the Michigan Union yesterday. The hand-held computers have replaced paper planners for many students. Say groodbye to day planiners By Kelly Trahan For the Daily Dot-com industry continues slump By Tovin Lapan fly Staff Reporter Earlier this week e-business giant Ama- zon.com announced it would close two opera- tion centers and lay off 15 percent of its employees, a sign of the drastic turnaround within the last year for dot-com companies. Internet business at one time was charac- Internet business at one time was characterized by limitless potential. in their expectations for the performance of e- business. They had fantasy-like expectations rush. "The idea and software behind eToys was good, but they went bankrupt when shipping problems forced them to miss Christmas deadlines. E-businesses can have a solid plan, but still fail due to infrastruc- ture problems," Dominguez said. Students who once took comfort in the booming economy - especially the rapid growth of employment opportunities with e- They range in price from $150 to $500, but many students who have invested in handheld computers - most commonly referred to as "PalmPilots," - admit the. machines' organizational capabilities are worth much more than the cost. The two leading manufacturers of handheld computers, Pilot and Handspring, both run on the same operating system - a program called Palm. And both are eagerly targeting universi- ties across the country in hopes that students will have an interest in Palm's organizational capabilities. Julie Staska, Public Relations manager of Handspring Inc., said handheld computers fun and easy to use,' Staska said. "Handheld computers are primarily orga- nizers. The Palm operating system usually includes a date book, to-do list, address book and memo pad. Handspring computers, called Visors, can be expanded to include cameras, modems, a translation dictionary and mp3 players,' Staska added. In fact, both PalmPilots and Visors have expansion capabilities - but at a price. The electronics chain Best Buy sells the most pop- ular PalmPilot, the 3C, for about $329, and the most popular Visor for about $250. As more and more handheld computers are being used across campus, it appears students are willing to pay these prices for technologically advanced convenience. LSA sophomore John Schoolmeester said . [ I