LOCAL/S TATE

The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 9, 2001-- 3




R CIM E
- i,

Visitor attacked,
robbed close to
Church street

I

A visitor to the University wa
attacked from behind and robbed Sat
urday evening in an alley next to the
Church street carport, Department o
Public Safety spokeswoman Diant
Brown said. Three men, described to
be in their 20s, over six feet tall and
wearing black leather jackets jumped
the victim, punching him several
times in the back of the head and ther
three times in the face. The suspects
took a necklace worth S200, a cellulai
phone clip and S20 and then fled on
foot. The victim declined medical
attention and an incident report was
filed.
Pipe containing
residue found
A pipe containing a small amount
of suspected marijuana residue was
found by a resident advisor at Mary
* Markley Residence h all on Thursday
night. There was no known owner of
the substance, which was taken as evi-
dence. A report was filed.
Credit card taken
from Bursley
A caller reported that her credit
card was stolen from her room at
Bursley Residence Hail on Thursday
night. DPS has identified a suspect
and an incident report was filed.
Man discovered
sleeping on bench
A subject was found sleeping on a
lobby bench at Hutchins Hall on
Thursday night, after a complaint was
made to DPS. The caller stated he
woke the subject up and asked him to
leave. The subject woke up, looked at
the caller and then went back to sleep.
A report was filed.
Tampons remain,
dispenser ruined
There was an attempted robbery of
a tampon dispenser at the School of
Dentistry on Thursday night. The rob-
bery was unsuccessful, but there was
significant damage to the machine. An
incident report was filed.
Fight breaks out
after Union dance
DPS responded to a possible fight
-at the Michigan Union early Satur-
day morning. Two different fights
broke out as a dance event was
breaking up for the night. Due to the
large crowd involved, no combatants
were located or arrested. The build-
'ing and adjacent grounds were
cleared by the officers.
Students issued
drinking citations
Housing Security reported sever-
al minors in possession of alcohol
at Couzens Hall on Saturday night.
Three students were issued cita-
tions for MIP and released on the
=eene.
Fire set in West
Quad courtyard
A box in the courtyard at West
Quad was set on fire Friday morning.
There are no suspects and there was
no damage. A report was filed.
Coat stolen from
.Kellogg Building

A hospital employee reported her
lab coat stolen from her room at the
Kellogg Building on Friday morning.
There are no suspects, but an incident
report was filed with DPS.
Intoxicated minor
found in Angell
* Angell Hall Staff reported Friday
morning that a suspicious person
was sleeping near the computing
site. The subject was a highly intoxi-
cated minor and was subsequently
arrested by DPS.
- Compiled 1i Daih, Staff Reporter
Kristin Beaumont.

d
f
ll
U

I

By Courtney Crimmins
FOr the Dally

The Association of American Colleges and
Universities recently named the University to its
Greater Expectations Initiative - a list of
AAC&U's choices for institutions that excel in
setting goals for higher education.
The association aims to achieve excellence in
higher education through honoring academic
programs.
Constance Cook, director of the University's
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching,
said, "The AAC&U was looking for excellence
in universities with opportunities that reach the
entire student body in all its diverse forms."
AAC&U 's Greater Expectations Initiative hon-
ored 16 schools including Duke University and
University of Southern California. In the multi-
year initiative, AAC&U conducts a national
search of colleges, universities and community
colleges to define 21st Century undergraduate

education and to find strategies for achieving
them.
AAC&U Vice President and Director of
Greater Expectations Andrea Leskes recognized
the University as a "leadership institution~
because it "ofTers innovative progmms and a sys-
temic approach to improve learning by all Stu-
dents," she said in a written statement.
"Everybody knows the U of M does a good
job educating graduate students, this is a national
vote of confidence in the quality of U of M
undergraduate education."Cook said.
The Greater Expectations Initiative looked at
colleges and universities and considered pro-
grams occurring inside and outside of the class-
room. Representatives conduct intervicwsi tolr
campuses and look at the opportunities available
to students in an attempt to narrow 73 applicant
institutions to 16 qualified schools.
AAC&U described these schools as those that
"most strongly emphasize critical thinking about
complex problems, effective communication and

"This is a national vote of confidence in the uality
of U of M undergraduate education."
-rConstance Cook
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching Director

'U honored for e ec in eucatio

the ability to contribute to a diverse society as
important outcomes of a powerfully lasting
undergraduatc education.''
As a large institution, the University has
numerous programs and opportunities, but what
makes it special in the eyes of the interviewer
was "the number of different ways we offer
undergraduates a small college experience in a
laree university particularly learning communi-
ties, undergraduate research programs and the
programi on Inter Group Relations. Conflict and
C(ommunication' Cook said.
Colgate, another one of the 16 schools rec-

ognized by the AAC&U, exemplifies the qual-
ities honored by "enCouraginri students to
think independently and intellctually" and
was recognized in ipart for its "innovative off-
campus study program that giVes students an
opportiuniity to stUdV with professors abroad
and in other U.S. cities in their field,"
AAC&U spokesperson Sarah Jarvis said.
Jarvis said this honor will further all 16
schools' standings wxxith prospective students.
"Any time a school gets an honor, it carries
weight with certain people, but there is no way to
tell how much influence it will have."

U

Diving in head first

CSat proes
crisis line for
unwanted babies

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - State
officials are racing to let people know
about a new law that allowxs parents to
abandon their newborns in certain
places without fear of prosecution.
"Until individuals become aware of
the new act, it probably woli't have any
effect," Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus said
yesterday in a news conference at a
Lansing hospital.
This month, Michigan became the
29th state to enact a "safe delivery"
law. The law allows parents to aban-
don infants who are 72 hours old or
less at hospitals, police stations or fire
stations. Before the law passed, aban-
doning an infant was a 10-year felony.
The state is spending S600,000 on
tie program to print and distribute
200,000 brochures. The brochures
have been sent to police and health
xxorkers as well as schools.
The brochures, which say, "Please
don't abandon your baby!" in bright
yellow letters, explain the law and
include the number of a toll-free, 24-
hour cisis line.
The brochures tell parents that they
may be asked to give family medical
information but don't have to answer

any questions when they leave a ncN-
born. The infant will be placed for
adoption, although the parent can peti-
tion to regain custody within 28 dam
The state Famillindependeitne
Agetncy is printing and distributing the
brochtires. [IA Director Doug I loward
said parents who want to abandon thgir
newborns are motivated by "denial,
shame, fear, panic, and just a desire to
get through the experience."
"The numbers may not be large, but
even one is too many," Howard said.
Officials said Monday that they lim-
ited the law to infits 72 hours old or
less for several reasons, including the
health of the newborn and the ability
to determine the baby's age and
whether the baby had been harmed in
any way. Immunity doesn't apply if the
infant has been abused.
State Sen. Shirley Johnson, the bill's
sponsor, said there are 57 babies a day
abandoned in the United States.
"This is a good thing we've done,
and hopefully we've not just saved one
life, we've saved two," said Johnson
(R-Royal Oak.) "There's a young
woman invoked here. Remembiier
that."

I

t


Unlike many students, LSA
Markley Residence Hall.

Freshman David Boone takes an nontraditional approach to the recent snowfall near Mary

__ _ _

I
I

Wolverine Access still



needs 'fine tuning'

B
D

33

y Karen Schwartz
aily Staff Reporter

1
t

After switching to online registration,
the University plans to continue tweak-
ing the Wolverine Access site.
Continuing problems include: The
unavailability of unofficial transcripts;
confusing classes offered under two
departments, sometimes listing closed
classes as available; and the site often
moves slowly or is too busy.
"It said transcripts would be working
but it's been a whole semester," Engi-
neerirg senior Jay Scheiderer said.
For LSA senior Alan Kohler, the
site's main problem is speed and acces-
sibility. "The system gets bogged down
real easily and I don't think it's as user
friendly as they think it is," Kohler said.
"It takes a long time to get in to
Wolverine Access and do what you
need to do."
Communications Coordinator for
Michigan Administrative Informa-
tion Services Linda Green said the
University has plans to alleviate
these problems.
"We continue to fine tune the sys-
tem," Green said. "We've made quite a
few improvements between September
and December, and we're not done ...
It's a matter of small changes that add
up to a bettersystem."
The site states that unofficial tran-
scripts will be available this term. But
Green said the University cannot offer
them online yet because of problems
with the application that ITD uses.
Green said unofficial transcripts
should be available before the end of
the Winter term, although she could not
confirm a date.

In response to classes showing seats
available when they are actually full,
Gareen said it's the result of cross-refer-
enced classes, that is, classes that are
listed in two departments."Once30
kids have signed up, 10 seats might still
show up as open because they're taken
up by kids registering from the other
direction,"she said.
Green said the problem won't be
fixed immediately because it would
mean taking the system down during
registration. But Green said the prob-
lem will be addressed sometime after
the drop/add deadline. "That will be
fixed before registration starts for the
Fall term in April," she said.
As for general system slowdowns -
the day before classes, the first day of
classes and the day after classes begin
- are when Wolverine Access reaches
its semester peak, Green said.
"We have tens of thousands of stu-
dents who hit the system at the same
time. With CRISP you'd get a busy sig-
nal," she said. "And it's not just students
hitting the systems, it's the staff helping
the students ... they're hitting the same
system."
Green said she expected the system,
designed to handle 750 to 1,000 people
to slow down because of the onset of'
classes.
System activity is monitored, accord-
ing to Green, from 7 a.m. until 12 a.m.
Green said that the site easily handles
the normal traffic of 700 to 800 users at
a time.
"There isn't just one thing we
could do to make the system go
faster when 30 percent of the stu-
dents are using it at one time ... If
there was, we'd do it."

THE CALENDAR
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
EVENTS Meeting, 6:30 p.m., MSA Chain- pose room, 327-4525.
bers, 3909 Michigan Union,
U Volunteers in Action Mass Meet- rbreakst@umich.edu
ink and PB Jam. 7:30[- n m Hil- Yoshokai Aikido Introductory Class, SERVICES