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Tuesday
November 27, 2001
w.@ 199
Thousands
frozen from registration
O If website problems aren't
fixed soon, students may have
to sign up for classes in person
By Jordan Schrader
Daily Staff Reporter
Fewer than half of the 3,000 students who
were scheduled to register for winter classes
on the first day of registration yesterday were
able to do so because of problems with
Wolverine Access, the University's recently
revamped registration website.
If the University is unable to resolve the
slowdowns soon, officials are considering
having students register for classes in person,
said Associate University Registrar Kortney
Briske.
When attempting to log on to the Wolverine
Access website yesterday, students received
one of several error messages, saying that the
system was busy and asking them to try again
later. The problems, for which the cause had
not been determined, began early in the day.
Only 1,254 students of the scheduled 3,000
were able to register for classes by 6 p.m. yes-
terday. Many of the students who did register
for at least one class were not able to com-
plete their schedules.
Briske said early in the day that he was
optimistic about the site being operational
soon, assuming that a problem with the code
in the registration program caused the slow-
down, as has happened in the past. However,
this was not the case and problems continued
as the day went on.
"We're checking our code for problems. We
haven't found anything in the registration
(program)," Briske said.
Between 4 and 5 p.m., two students were
able to register for classes per minute, Briske
said. "We were expecting six to seven a
minute for seniors."
"I've been trying for five hours straight and
never got past the front page," said LSA
senior Jason Haaksma. "You would think after
multiple semesters of this they would correct
the problem, but obviously not."
Haaksma said he had been on the phone
with the registrar's office several times and
that they were unhelpful.
"He pretty much told me to stop trying for
today because no one's going to get in,"
Haaksma said.
Those students who were able to log on to
Wolverine Access found that the problems did
not stop there.
LSA senior Amanda Hagedorn, an athlete
allowed to register early, had several problems
with the system when she attempted to sched-
ule classes early in the morning.
"Every time I brodght up a class there was
no button to add it," Hagedorn said.
See REGISTRATION, Page 7
t's Citrus
Bowl all
over again
~for Blue
By Jeff Phillips
Daily Sports Editor
As expected, for the third time in
four years, the Michigan football
team will be spending New Year's
Day in central Florida. Yesterday, the
Wolverines accepted a bid to play in
the 2002 Florida Citrus Bowl at 1
p.m. on Jan. 1 against a Southeastern
Conference team to be named later.
"I look forward to getting back into
football and I
look forward to
playing an out-
standing team
from the SEC
conference,"
Michigan coach
y . Lloyd Carr
said.
T s sAfter Michi-
ae w r $60 gan lost its
C 7 4 r A * Bowl Champi-
rd * e a onship Series
, berth and a
share of the Big
Ten conference title with a loss to
Ohio State last Saturday, the Citrus
Bowl extended an offer to the
Wolverines after a vote by the Citrus
Bowl committee yesterday.
"The vote was a very strong Michi-
gan vote," Citrus Bowl president Bill
Dymond said in a teleconference yes-
terday.
Ohio State and Purdue were also in
the running to be the Big Ten repre-
sentative. Traditionally, the Citrus
Bowl has taken the highest-ranked
team possible and it is no different
this season. The Buckeyes will attend
the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1.
Michigan has played in the Citrus
Bowl two of the past three seasons.
Last season, Michigan defeated
Auburn, 31-28 and in 1999, the
Wolverines knocked off Arkansas 45-
31.
The tie-ins that the Big Ten has
with its bowl games produces
matchups that would rarely occur dur-
ing the regular season, namely Big
Ten teams facing SEC teams.
"The tie-ins with the bowls have
been very positive in terms of the Big
Ten teams against the SEC teams,"
Carr said. "Certainly (SEC teams) not
going come up here in the cold
weather and they're not going come
up here unless we go down there:'
The Citrus Bowl will not make a
decision on the Wolverines' opponent
until after this Saturday, the last game
of the regular season for the SEC. In
that final weekend, Florida faces Ten-
nessee and Auburn faces Louisiana
State to decide the SEC champi-
onship game matchup for Dec. 8.
Possible opponents for the Wolver-
ines include Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana State, South Carolina and
Tennessee.
Michigan is an attractive team for
the Citrus Bowl as it has a strong
national following as well as strong
regional support in the state of Flori-
da. Last season, Michigan sold out its
allotted 11,000 tickets.
Michigan "has terrific appeal in
terms of the national television
media. ABC is certainly happy with
our selection of Michigan for the
game," Dymond said. "They have
great fans who love to come down to
Florida and have traveled well in the
. .t "
U.S. officially
in recession
By Maria Sprow
Daily Staff Reporter
What many economists and con-
sumers alike have feared for months
officially became a reality yesterday
with the announcement by one of the
nation's leading economic research
firms that the United States has indeed
entered a recession.
The National Bureau of Economic
Research, comprised of economics pro-
fessors and experts, declared yesterday
that a recession has in fact been under
way since exactly 10 years of record
economic growth peaked in March.
Although the activity started to
decrease before the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, a six-member panel of the
bureau, which officially determines
when recessions begin and end, also
said the recession could have been
avoided had the attacks not occurred.
"Before the attacks, it is possible that
the decline in the economy would have
been too mild to qualify as a recession,"
the panel said in its report. "The attacks
clearly deepened the contraction and
may have been an important factor in
turning the episode into a recession."
While investigating the state of the
economy, the panel focuses on monthly
data instead of quarterly data. The signif-
icant factors the panel looks at include
industrial production, employment,
income, and wholesale and retail trade.
This is the 10th official recession
since World War II. The last recession,
which began in July 1990 under George
Bush's presidency, lasted only eight
months but was ample reason for the
American public to not re-elect Bush in
the 1992 campaign.
See RECESSION, Page 7
AP POOL PHOTO
In this image taken from television, a U.S. Marines soldier onboard the USS Peleliu somewhere in the Arabian Sea
applies camouflage paint with the help of a mirror Sunday. These Marines are part of the 500-strong force ferried In
overnight by helicopter to set up a base in southern Afghanistan for attacks in Kandahar.
Five Amencans wounded
as Taliban nears lst stand
FBI questioning9
ignites tension
By Rachel Green the letter has frightened some students
Daily StaffReporter who fear it unintentionally targets stu
is
i-
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) - Northern
alliance troops aided by U.S. special forces fought a
pitched battle in a sprawling mud-walled fortress for a
second day yesterday with captured loyalists of Osama
bin Laden. Five Americans were wounded by a stray
U.S. bomb.
This morning, the rattle of machine-gun fire rang
out, and billowing clouds of dust and smoke rose from
inside the fortress after apparent mortar strikes. Earlier,
an enormous blast shook windows in Mazar-e-Sharif,
10 miles away. Planes circled overhead. Sounds of
fighting could be heard all night from the direction of
the fortress.
U.S. Marines went into action in southern
Afghanistan, sending helicopter gunships aloft as Navy
F-14 Tomcat jets attacked an armored convoy. It was
the Marines' first known action since establishing a
foothold yesterday near the Taliban stronghold of Kan-
dahar. Fifteen vehicles in the column were destroyed,
Capt. David Romley told reporters.
President Bush warned Americans to be prepared for
U.S. casualties. Speaking in Washington, he said the
U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was "just the beginning" of
the fight against terrorism, and he warned Iraq and
North Korea there would be consequences for produc-
ing weapons of mass destruction.
In the north, prisoners captured by the alliance last
weekend in the siege of Kunduz rained rocket-pro-
pelled grenades and mortars on alliance troops trying
to suppress the uprising.
Hundreds of Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other
non-Afghans fighting with the Taliban were brought to
the fortress here as part of the weekend surrender of
Kunduz, the Islamic militia's last stronghold in the
north.
Once inside the fortress Sunday, the prisoners stormed
the armory and were still resisting the next day despite U.S.
See AFGHANISTAN, Page 7
The FBI's announcement last week
that agents would be questioning more
than 70 Arab Americans in the Ann
Arbor area has left some Muslim stu-
dents at the University fearing they
might be singled out as terrorists based
on their ethnicity, gender and age.
Eastern Michigan U.S. Attorney Jef-
frey Collins and Assistant U.S. Attor-
ney Robert Cares wrote a letter last
week to more than 560 Arab Ameri-
cans in southeastern Michigan asking
them to schedule an interview as part
of the investigation into the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.
While no University students have
yet been identified as being on the list,
dents at the University living in Ann
Arbor on visas. The letter states: "Your
name was brought to our attention
because, among other things, you
came to Michigan on a visa from a
country where there are groups that
support, advocate, or finance interna-
tional terrorism."
University officials say they are
unaware of any students being includ-
ed on the list. But LSA senior Kenan
Mossa-Basha said several members of
the Muslim Student Association have
received the letter and are waiting to
schedule an interview while others
believe they will soon be contacted by
the FBI because they fit the same pro-
See FBI, Page 7
Book break
Dinking viewed as accepted
part of collegiate atmosphere
By Lizzie Ehrle
Daily StaffReporter
Any student passing through four
years of college inevitably will be faced
with social settings centered around
alcohol. For many, drinking beer and
downing shots can become as much a
part of their college experience as writ-
ing papers and taking exams.
Most students see alcohol as an inher-
ent part of college life, no matter how
much they chose to drink.
"I don't think it's a matter of choice,"
said Engineering senior Matt Biersack.r
"You'll be surrounded by it regardless of
whether you drink or not."
"There is talk almost every weekend
about what party everyone is going to,
and how wasted someone is going to
get," said LSA junior Amy Ament.
Out on lUniveritv undergraduate
University's Substance Abuse Research
Center in 1999. Binge drinking is
defined as four or more drinks for
females and five or more for males in
one sitting - a measure that is widely
used and nationally accepted.
"Be it to the bar, to someone's house,
or to your own house, I feel like alcohol
is part of the culture of college. It is so
ingrained in all of our social settings,"
Biersack said.
The Harvard School of Public Health
College Alcohol Study - an ongoing
survev of more than 14000 college stu-
Binge drinking becomes a concern
because it tends to signal that alcohol-
related problems are ahead. Such sec-
ondary effects range from health or
legal problems to missing class or doing
poorly on a test.
According to the Student Life Survey,
as binge drinking episodes increase for
students, their grades decrease. Three
out of four binge drinkers reported
missing a class within the past year after
drinking. Fifty percent of frequent binge
drinkers reported driving after drinking
within the past year. Also, 15 percent of
undergraduate females who drink
reported being sexually harassed after
drinking.
While negative consequences are
often an effect of alcohol, some wonder
why college students continue to drink.
Both students and administrators point
to the stresses and freedoms of college
DEBBIE MIZEL /Dlyh, I