One hundred eleven years ofeditorialfreedom ti NEWS: 76-DAILY CLASSIFIED: 764-0557 wwwmichigandally.com Wednesday November 28, 2001 - , , ,I IM Get in Studentsforced o ine stand i me to enroll in winter courses By Jeremy Berkowitz For the Daily Continuing problems with the Wolverine Access online registration system caused hun- dreds of seniors to line up outside the Registrar's Office yesterday to register for winter semester classes in person for the fist time since 1994. "It's stupid that we are forced to skip classes to register for classes," said LSA senior Lisa Powell. Students complained last year that Wolverine Access was slower than the old telephone regis- tration system, which was disconnected last year, but in the first days of winter class registration this week, the online system has prevented thou- sands of students from registering. The system has been slower than usual and has shut down on them often. "I tried for four hours; I only got three classes registered," said Art and Design senior Lori Hoff- mann. "I guess I was lucky" When the problems with the system that sur- faced Monday persisted yesterday, the Registrar's Office began allowing students to register in per- son at the LSA Building and the Media Union on North Campus. There, students were signed in and given a number, and many waited hours for their numbers to be called. Out of 6,248 students who were allowed to register by last night, only 2,945 had their sched- ules processed, said Associate University Regis- trar Kortney Briske. Even with in-person line: ccess denied Students included in FBI inquiry By Elizabeth Kassab Daily Staff Reporter Many of the 70 to 80 men with tem- porary visas in Ann Arbor that are being asked to interview with the FBI as part of the investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may be Uni- versity students. The University received a letter yes- terday from the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit alerting the Department of Public Safety that some of the people with whom interviews are being requested live on campus. University spokeswoman Julie .Peterson said last night that although specific numbers are not known, it's also possible that a number of people who are affiliated with the University but live off campus are included in the FBI's list. "It wouldn't be a surprise," Peter- son said. "It's fair to say that a lot of members of the international commu- nity in Ann Arbor are drawn here by the University." Letters from the FBI were mailed yesterday to more than 70 men between the ages of18 and 33 in the Ann Arbor area who have entered the country in the last two years on temporary visas from countries with suspected links to terrorism. The letters request an inter- view with an FBI agent to discuss ter- rorism, although the FBI emphasizes that those who receive a letter are not suspects in terrorist activity. The letter to the University, dated Nov. 21 and signed by Eastern Michi- gan U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cares, requests the University's cooperation in conducting interviews. The letter asks that a University officer and a federal agent hold the interviews. The University plans to comply with the FBI but will not agree to have DPS officers participate in any interviews, Peterson said. "We have not yet received a list of the names of those to be interviewed, but we will provide whatever informa- tion is requested by law enforcement officials, consistent with state and fed- eral laws," the University said in a writ- ten statement. "However, since none of those iden- tified for questioning are suspected of or associated with criminal activity, we See FBI, Page 7 LAURIE BRESCOLL/Daily With the Wolverine Access online registration system continuing to prevent thousands of students from registering for classes, hundreds of seniors line up outside the Registrar's Office in the LSA Building yesterday afternoon. The University has not conducted registration in person since 1994. registration, fewer students were able to register yesterday than Monday, when 1,832 students out of 3,000 scheduled appointments were able to access the system through Wolverine Access. The error was finally detected and fixed, and Wolverine Access reopened just for scheduling last night. If all goes well today, the backpack is expected to become available again tomorrow. In order to catch up and to maintain fairness, the Registrar's Office has postponed all student registration dates by two weekdays, meaning that appointments originally scheduled for tomorrow will be rescheduled for Monday. Briske said the technical difficulties that arose this week came as a surprise. "We spent thousands of dollars testing the sys- tem, but sometimes it is difficult to replicate the loads of registration that occur," he said. However, many students who were forced to wait a long time at the Registrar's Office said the website and the University were disorganized and unprepared for registration. "Being a world-renowned university, they should know the type of technology it takes to register thousands of students for classes," said Business senior Sara Kwiecien. Prior to last fall, students used a touch-tone system called CRISP to register for classes. LSA senior Monifa Gray said Wolverine Access, which was recently revamped to include a "back- pack" pre-registration option, is disorganized and repeatedly freezes. She said that with CRISP if See REGISTRATION, Page 7 I Possible weapons labs, bin Laden hide-outs identified 4'A Los Angeles Times TAMPA, Fla. - More than 40 sites in Afghanistan have been identified as possible laboratories for weapons of mass destruction, the'U.S. commander of the Afghan campaign said yesterday, as Pentagon leaders disclosed that they are focusing the search for Osama bin Laden and Taliban leaders on two areas of the country. , During a briefing at his Tampa headquarters, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central Command, described progress in the search for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Samples of seized substances were being sent to laboratories in the United States for testing, he said. Late yesterday, the Pentagon reported that U.S. aircraft had bombed a "non-trivial" com- pound th has housed leaders of Bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network southeast of Kanda- har, the southern city that is the Taliban's sole remaining stronghold. Officials said they did not know of any injuries or deaths, o who was inside the facility at the time. Pitched fighting continued near Kandahar yesterday, as more U.S. Marines streamed into an airfield southwest of the city to establish a forward base. In the north, opposition forces consolidated their control with the surrender of thousands more Taliban fighters who had fled the fallen stronghold of Kunduz. The largest group of fighters - an estimated 6,000 - gave themselves up in several waves See AFGHANISTAN, Page 7 'U' given $2.7M to study e-commerce Play ball LAURIE BRESCOLL/D~aily The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a leader of the 1960s civil rights movement, speaks yesterday at the Michigan Union. He also answered questions from students later in the day. Ciilrghts leader recalls *Kin March By Rachel Green Daily Staff Reporter Marching beside Martin Luther King Jr. on the streets of downtown Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, the Rev. Fred Shut- tlesworth was a leader of the civil rights movement to end segregation in schools and voting. More than three decades later, Shuttlesworth still vividly recalls the threats made against his life as he participated in sit-ins and marches, and the bombing of his home in Birm- ingham which he miraculously survived. Many years later, he is still fighting the same battle to ensure equality between blacks and whites in the United States. The leader of the Greater New Light Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Shuttlesworth spoke yesterday at the University about the need to maintain the current affirmative action admissions policies, which will be heard in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in his hometown next Thursday. "I don't think the world could exist without affirmative action," Shuttlesworth said. "If someone falls behind and you help to pick them up, that's affirmative action." T a rrir vatrq at- the- ri aa n- Uninn- Chn_- By Tomislav Ladika Daily Staff Reporter A new graduate program encourag- ing interdisciplinary research on the technical aspects of e-commerce and its constantly expanding social role is being creating at the University through a five-year, $2.7 million grant recently awarded by the National Sci- ence Foundation. The program, called the Socio- Technical Infrastructure for Electron- ic Transactions, or STIET, will finance two-year doctoral fellowships for about 65 graduate students using the NSF grant, said Frank DeSanto, the media production coordinator for the University's School of Informa- tion. STIET's purpose will be very broad research on e-commerce and its social implications, said Business Prof. Michael Gordon, co-investigator for the project. The program will begin awarding fellowships to students with creative research ideas next fall, he said. Gordon said e-commerce has become an important issue to study because people are more familiar with the Internet and expect to be able to complete an increasing amount of their daily tasks online. Computer science Prof. Michael Wellman, another co-investigator, said the graduate students working See GRANT, Page 7 DFAVID KATZI/ailIy Todd Davis (right) and Justin Zipser, both 8th graders at Tappan Middle School, call their next play in a pickup game of football in Burns Park yesterday against Nate Robertson and Elijah Sandweiss, 5th graders at Burns Park Elementary School. Administrators try to combat binge drinking By Lizzie Ehrle Daily Staff Reporter While educators across the country con- tinue to examine student lifestyles in a search for ways to decrease binge drinking rates among college students, some believe the root of the problem may stem from broad, cultural ideologies and not just the influences of a college campus. "One theory is that as a society we don't t-eac onrurnmcr nenlet n drinr renonsi- helps students form certain attitudes and values about the issue of alcohol. "We see it so much we don't think about it any more," she said. Dr. Daniel Pak, University director of special projects, said the University's attempts to decrease binge drinking, from the formation of special commissions to investigative reports, have not been success- ful. "Unfortunately, we have not seen the effects of those efforts. There is no evidence said. Pak said that following alcohol-related deaths of two Korean students since 1997, one area of specific concern is the drinking habits of ethnic-minority students. "The research is so lacking that we have no idea what's going on," Pak said. "The lack~of a multicultural approach to research may have contributed to the fact that we haven't had an effect on students." Pak called for future ethnic-specific research to provide effective policies and "No one taught responsible drinking in high school," said Engineering senior Matthew Liston. . Patrice Flax.a nalcohol2initiativescoordi-1 i