One hundred ten years ofedtorialfreedom rn NEWS: 76-DAILY CLASSIFIED: 76440557 www michigandaily. coin Tuesday March 13, 2001 e .-z 't C 9 f - 0 KeportS Miartin to fire coach today, sources say S By Raphael Goodstein Daily Sports Editor The Associated Press and ESPN reported *t nightthat Michigan basketball coach Brian Ellerbe will be dismissed today, although Athletic Director Bill Martin told The Michigan Daily the decision "will be made as soon as possible" and that he "didn't have any idea where the reports are coming from." ESPN said lawyers for the Uni- versity and Ellerbe were negotiating a yout last night on. W coach's contract. Some players were more open to the idea of a new coach then others. Star forward LaVell Blanchard often said Inside: Students react to news that Ellerbe is out. Reasons to feel sorry for Ellerbe and why to be glad he's. gone. Page 11. that he expected more Robert Sellers, a black member of Michi- gan's Board in Control of Intercollegiate Ath- letics has asked for Ellerbe to receive one more year. "I think at this point for Brian Ellerbe (to be fired) would be unfair," Sellers said. I think it would be sending the wrong mes- sage." Robinson doesn't think the NAACP should get involved but would like to see his coach get one more year to win. "I don't think he got a fair shake," Robin- son said. "He was never able to develop a team and none of that was his fault. Add Jamal Crawford and Kevin Gaines to this team and we would have a really good team." Crawford starred for Michigan last year before the NCAA suspended Crawford for violating its amateurism rule, while Gaines was kicked off the team at the start of this season for "repeatedly violating team rules," as Ellerbe said. Freshman center Josh Moore said the team had not been contacted and that the players have not set up a meeting yet. "He's the guy that brought me here," Moore said. "I can't say for sure that I'm going to stay. I can't say for sure that I'm going to leave. "Saying that you're going to change the system on me after a year is like saying I'm going to have my freshman year all over again." Michigan is 62-60 under Ellerbe and 37-51 over the last three seasons. The Wolverines, who were 10-18 overall and 4-12, lost 82-80 to Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament Thursday. from his experience at Michigan. But last night freshmen Bernard Robinson expressed support for his coach. *"I'm disappointed," Robinson said. "I wish was still here. He's the reason I'm here." The University will have to pay Ellerbe close to $450,000 for the remaining three years of his contract; it will not have to pay him for income lost from camps, Nike, televi- sion.or other endorsement deals. Recently, the president of the Detroit chap- ter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as well as other minority leaders questioned whether or t he was treated fairly. MSAetecons winter2001 Part three of a six-part series about campaign platforms 2pay aimls to inCrease fun i9n elections I annon Pettypiece Daily Staff Reporter DAVID KATZ/Daily Reports last night Indicate that Athletic Director Bill Martin plans to announce today that he Is firing basketball coach Brian Ellerbe, who has amassed a 62-60 record in four years. After the loss, Ellerbe said "I fully expect to coach this basketball team next year. Ellerbe continued, "I think the University has been fair. ... We haven't excelled the way we'd have liked to the last four years. But we've also been under some difficult situa- tions." Ellerbe was originally hired as an assistant by his predecessor, Steve Fisher, for his abili- ty to recruit the East Coast. Before coming to Michigan, Ellerbe was an assistant coach at Virginia and the head coach at Loyola, Md., where he was 34-47. This season was Michigan's worst since the 1981-82 campaign and this three-year stretch has been the program's worst since the mid- '60s. Candidates to replace Ellerbe include Rick Pitino, Seton Hall's Tommy Amaker, Ken- tucky's Tubby Smith and Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson. It has been reported that officials from the Athletic Department have contacted Pitino and Amaker. lands up, baby hands up charges By Jacquelyn Nixon Daily Staff Reporter Michigan hockey team officials said yesterday they are conducting an internal investigation of a violent incident involving several players at the Sigma Chi fraternity house last weekend. A hockey player, whom witnesses identified as senior right wing Josh Langfeld, and several of his friends were asked to leave the fraternity house early Sunday morning after Langfeld was seen harassing female guests.s . The Friends Rebelling Against Tyranny Party is in its second year of promoting fun in the Michigan Student Assembly by, what mem- bers say, is putting the party back into MSA parties. "We took a look around campus d things weren't fun enough.... Working for the Gargoyle I can pro- mote fun, but in MSA I can enforce fun," said co-founder and FRAT Party presidential candidate, LSA senior Galaxor Nebulon, whose real name is Ryan Hughes. The main issues on the FRAT Party's campaigning platform involve making University life less stressful and more humorous. "The only thing that stops fun is mework and tests and papers. Instead of papers and tests, classes could distribute grades based on a game of rock-scissors-paper. That way people could have more fun," said Nebulon. Another campaign issue support- ed by FRAT party members is the abolition of grades. "Grades put pressure on people. stead, fruit could be given out and school might be fun," said Neb- ulon. Currently the FRAT Party has one member on the assembly, Mike Wilson, who said he has been dis- couraged by his MSA experience. "It ws really shockina how nettv JOYCE LEE/Daily A Venezuelan dance troupe does a demonstration of the Boleros at the School of Dance yesterday. I. After a brief struggle, the group was ejected from the house at 548 S. K olb to P P State St. and returned about five ld minutes later, witnesses said. The group reportedl3 broke windows in the house and then initiated a figh 0"""See FIGHT, Page I anti-gay hate cime leslatn Se I pe ech gveni 1 [y ht 7p a By Hanna LoPatin Daily Staff Reporter "We protect all sorts of people under the law, in n enory of and yet there's really no protection for the gay Rep. Chris Kolb hopes that the third time's the charm. Kolb, the first openly gay state leg- islator in Michigan, plans to be part of the third consecutive effort to integrate sexual orienta- tion into the definition of hate crimes when he and three other representatives introduce a series of bills today. The package, which enjoys bipartisan sup- port, aims to protect people from violence, job insecurity and discrimination based on their sexual orientation. The bills have been introduced in some form during both of the past two sessions. In one case it passed the state House but not the Senate. Kolb (D-Ann Arbor) said although he hopes his status as a gay man will help in some ways to get the legislation passed, he will rely heavi- lv on the sunnort of his neers on both sides of community." - State Rep. Gilda Jacobs Minority floor leader role." Minority Floor Leader Gilda Jacobs (D- Huntington Woods), another sponsor of the bill, said this legislation stems from a problem in human rights issues - not necessarily gay rights. "We protect all sorts of people under the law, and yet there's really no protection for the gay community," she said. "Just because some- body is gay doesn't mean they should live life less peacefully." Another of the bills' soonsors. Rep. Pat tation, the person convicted of the crime cur- rently is not subject to any additional penalties. "If in fact somebody did the same thing because of somebody's religion or because of their race it would be considered a hate crime; Godchaux said. Sean Kosofsky, director of policy and victim services at the Triangle Foundation, a statewide advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, said Michi- gan used to be a leader in protecting people based on their sexual orientation. Now, with 24 slain student By Ted Borden Daily Staff Reporter In a speech that visibly moved those who attended, Bar- bara J. Hart, a leading national spokesperson on dating and domestic violence, sought last night to "let people know that we can intervene to stop the violence," she said. Hart was the first speaker in what will become an annual series of domestic violence lectures in memory of Tamara Williams, an LSA senior who was stabbed to death by her boyfriend on