LOCAL/S TATE The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 21, 2001- 3A HIGHER ED Board rules Brown U. grad students can elect a union NEW YORK - In a decision that likely will have significant repercus- sions for Columbia University, the National Labor Relations Board upheld precedent and ruled Friday that gradu- ate students at Brown University were employees entitled to a union election on the university's campus. What makes Friday's decision so piv- otal for Columbia is its affirmation of an NLRB precedent set at New York University last year. The Columbia Graduate Student Employees United has been in hearings with the NLRB for more than seven months, and this deci- sion makes it unlikely the NLRB regional director with jurisdiction over Columbia will rule against GSEU's right to a union election. With the NLRB ruling, Brown becomes the first Ivy League university and the second private university in the country to hold a union election. In the NYU case, the NLRB ruled that teaching and research assistants at private universities had the right to hold a union representation election, which would determine whether a union would represent graduate student instructors and residential advisers in contract negotiations with the university. Aggies remember those killed in '99 bonfire collapse COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Two years after the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse, Texas A&M University stu- dents joined together Sunday in a spon- taneous ceremony in memory of the 12 Aggies killed Nov. 18, 1999. More than 500 students, family members and friends of those killed and injured gathered near the 1999 Bonfire site in the Polo Fields around 2 a.m. to pay their respects. Candles and a wreath were laid on the site where the three-tiered, 55-foot structure fell at 2:42 a.m., sending those on the ground running and pinning the 27 Aggies injured and 12 killed beneath a pile of logs that was not cleared until July 2000. The last body was pulled from the Bonfire stack, which was near comple- tion when it fel, after the University held an emotional; candlelit memorial service later the same night. Students surrounded the center arrangement, holding candles, hugging and linking arms in silence. At 2:42 a.m., Bonfire victim Timothy Kerlee Jr.'s mother, Janice, called out the names of those who were killed. Families and friends responded with "Here," after each name in a ceremony similar to Aggie Muster. After the roll call, Janice Kerlee spoke and read from the Bible. Students who gathered Sunday morning said Bonfire was an important part of the Aggie spirit - one that could not be forgotten. Sperm donor ad causes controversy at Stanford U. STANFORD, Calif. - "Stanford student wanted for sperm donor. $15k offered. Intelligent, good looking, over 6ft. tall. No history of self or family addictions." This is not the sort of advertisement that readers usually expect to find in the Palo Alto Daily News classified sec- tion. Yet just such an ad has appeared there for the past two weeks, placed by a Burlingame woman who hopes to find a sperm donor in order to have a child. The 33-year-old woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained that she specifically wants a Stanford Uni- versity student because she assumes that the donor will have a high level of intelligence. As for her other require- ments, she said she will decide when she meets the donor. "Intellect is a given if they go to Stanford," she said. "And if I meet them, and I like them, I'll choose them." - Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Lizzie Ehrle. Comm department reserves seats in classes By Sarah Stewart For the Daily' The communications studies department has implemented a new policy that reserves 75 percent of the seats in its classes for con- centrators. This will give communication studies majors priority when scheduling classes this winter semester, as opposed to an open enroll- ment policy in use by other departments. The change will affect all upper-level class- es and Communications Studies 211, which is a prerequisite for concentrators. A year ago the department capped its class- es at 50 percent non-concentrators. After reviewing the results of that change,, the department decided to increase the number of concentrators in the classes. "If students declare their major they should be able to finish their credits in a timely manner," said department Chair Michael Traugott. "The source of difficulty was the high demand for the upper-level courses by non- communications majors," Traugott said. "There will still be waitlists, but concentra- tors will have priority on those lists." Other departments have not followed the communications studies department by chang- ing their registration procedures but have their own policies regarding priority of registering concentrators. The political science department has class- es that are highly sought after, yet the depart- ment adheres to a first-come, first-served basis, said Dante Hicks, a staff member in the political science department. The English department, when seeing a high demand for a section, will open more classes to accommodate the need. "What we do is ask professors to prioritize according to year in standing. Seniors first, et cetera.," said Katherine Teasbale, an English undergraduate administrator. The problem with the waitlists is that "the students don't really know how they are picked off a waitlist," said Justine Altman, a staff member in the psychology department's undergraduate office. The psychology depart- ment allows professors to decide how they want to order people on their waitlists. Not all students are thrilled about the com- munication studies department's new policy. Many want the opportunity to try and take classes out of their major at the upper levels. "From a personal perspective you should leave it open to everyone," said Michael James, an LSA senior double majoring in his- tory and political science. The history department doesn't have any explicit restric- tions for most classes, but students need the instructor's permission to enroll in most upper-level classes. "It restricts students from broadening their educational horizons," James said. But the department is recognizing that their classes are frequently requested and attempt- ing to compensate for their concentrators. Amy Wilmers, a senior communications stud- ies major remarked "At least they are making a step in the right direction." Dancin' the night away Group asks shoppers to hold off on Friday By Shabina S. Khatri Daily Staff Reporter Even as political leaders have asked Ameri- cans to spend money to aid the struggling econo- my after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the organizers of the annual Buy Nothing Day are pushing forward with their request for shoppers to take a break on Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, but it will also mark the 10th anniversary of Buy Nothing Day, when people in more than 60 countries will choose to abstain from the frenzy by going on a 24-hour consumer fast. People in industrialized countries "make up a little less than 20 percent of the world's popula- tion, yet we consume 86 percent of the world's resources," said Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters Media Foundation, the Vancouver- based group that has been promoting Buy Noth- ing Day since 1992. "It will make people in rich countries ask themselves, how much of the pie do we want? Ninety percent? How much is enough?" While the Sept. I1 terrorist attacks and the suf- fering economy have led political leaders to encourage people to increase their spending, Lasn finds this advice unsatisfactory. "The global economy is in trouble, with more than half a million people being laid off. But hav- ing people max out on their credit cards is just a short term solution. In the long term, we're actu- ally living off the backs of our children," Lasn said. Associate University economics Prof. Susanto Basu disagrees. "In the short run, at a rate of high unemploy- ment, decreasing consumption would only make an economic recession worse," Basu said. Lasn finds the concept of increasing spending in order to help the ongoing war effort perplexing. "The idea that it's our patriotic duty to go out and consume is really strange. I remember the second World War, we were told to live frugally and to conserve, to help the war effort by saving and living with a lot of self discipline," he said. But Basu argues that simply consuming less does not necessarily mean that the United States would use fewer resources. "If we didn't buy more Christmas presents, we could still be building more factories," Basu said. Adbusters "does not make it clear that decreasing consumption would not necessarily cause less of the world's resources to be used." LSA junior Sarah Bedy said she plans to avoid shopping on Friday. "It's a good statement to make because the hol- idays aren't really about commercialism," Bedy said. "It should be about being with your family. I think Americans need to change their priori- ties." Though interest in Buy Nothing Day has increased significantly in recent years, most major television networks, including ABC, NBC, and CBS, have refused to sell Adbusters airtime, causing the organization to rely heavily on public radio and television to publicize the event. One network, CNN, recently agreed to air Adbusters' controversial 30-second "uncommercial." The ad, which features an animated pig nested snugly in the North American continent, oinks happily as text appears across the screen:"... The average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person, and 30 times more than a person from India ... give it a rest." Based on the dramatic increase in attention from newspapers as well as worldwide support from Korea to Algeria, Lasn feels optimistic about Buy Nothing Day's success this year. "We thought BND was going to be a fiasco, but now we see it as a window of opportunity," he said. LAURIEL BRES(,LL/Uaily LSA sophomore Aaron Halford dances away on a Dance Dance Revolution machine at Pinball Pete's Arcade on South University Avenue yesterday. Sotheby' s executive admits inVolvement in pnice-fixing plot NEW YORK (AP) The disgraced former chief executive of Sotheby's auc- tion house admitted yesterday that she willingly participated in a price-fixing scheme with rival Christie's. "I was nervous about it, but I agreed to do it anyway," Diana Brooks testified in the federal conspiracy trial of former Sotheby's chairman A. Alfred Taubman, who has donated millions to the Univer- sity of Michigan's College of Architec- ture and Urban Planning and the Medical School. Brooks returned to the stand yester- day for cross-examination by Taubman attorney Robert Fiske, who has sought to portray her as a publicity seeker and the sole orchestrator of the scheme for Sotheby's. As the first woman to head a major auction house, Brooks, 51, was the subject of several magazine and tele- vision profiles. "You enjoyed the publicity didn't you?" Fiske asked her at one point yes- terday, in the second week of the trial. "I didn't think of myself as a celebri- ty," Brooks responded. "Mr. Fiske, I had much negative publicity in my career and I had some positive publicity." Taubman, 76, of Bloomfield Hills has denied charges he and Christie's chair- man Anthony Tennant stole as much as $400 million in commissions from sell- ers from 1993 to 1999. Tennant, 71, of Andover, England, has refused to come to the United States to face charges and the alleged crime is not covered by extradition treaties. Brooks pleaded guilty in October 2000 to price-fixing charges and agreed to testify against Taubman, hoping to avoid a three-year prison sentence. On Monday, Brooks testified that Taubman and Tennant agreed behind closed doors that they "were killing each other on the bottom line, and that it was time to do something about it." Brooks said Taubman ordered her to meet with her counterpart at Christie's and end the costly rivalry by eliminating discounts and by fixing commissions a violation of antitrust laws. He also warned her to keep quiet about it, she testified. "I said, 'Fine, I wouldn't tell anyone,"' she said. Sotheby's pleaded guilty last year to price-fixing charges and was sentenced to pay $45 million. If convicted, Taub- man would face up to three years in prison. 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Rollinger said, "I thought he pre- sented an intellectual view of the situation and the issues at hand." THE CALENDAR What's happening in Ann Arbor this weekend FRIDAY St. Nicholas Light Dis- play; Annual indoor-out- door light spectacular featuring more than three million lights, M ichigan Theater SUNDAY 27th Annual Kiwanis Christmas Sing; Spon- sored by the Western Kiwanis Club of Ann North University Heywood Banks; Local comedian sponsored by the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase, 7:00 p.m., SERVICES Campus Information Centers, 764-INFO, info@umich. edu, or www. umich. edu info Northwalk, 763-WALK, I