LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 3A RESEARCH N O TE S UMHS study on OCD to focus on therapy groups A new study sponsored by Uni- versity of Michigan Health System will try to help teens with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder cope by pro- viding forms of group therapies to help adolescents. The study opens this week and will enroll its first group of participants for three months of weekly group therapy. OCD is a mental illness that caus- es anxiety-producing obsessions in the mind, or compulsions to perform certain acts over and over again, interfering greatly with daily life. About one in every 50 teenagers suffers from OCD. Faculty from the University's Department of Psychiatry will con- duct the study - leading 12 weekly 90-minute sessions for groups of teens 13 to 17 years old. The study is free for participants, who will also receive monetary compensation for time spent in fol- low-up assessment. To learn more about this study, e-mail ocdstudy@umich.edu. 'U' to create new program devoted to holistic health The University 4edical School recently received a $1.5 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to integrate a complementary and alternative med- icine learning thread into the school's medical degree and faculty development program. Also, a grad- uate program in holistic health and healing will provide students in social and health sciences with opportunities to acquire academic expertise in CAM theories and prac- tices. "The CAM educational program we have proposed will bring togeth- er healers, teachers and practitioners from alternative and conventional medicine who would not ordinarily come into contact with each other," said Dr. Sara Warber, co-director of the University's CAM Research Center. Recent reports indicate that 42 percent of the U.S. population uses some form of CAM. The program will include a mul- tidisciplinary curriculum in con- junction with the Medical School, the Schools of Nursing, Public Health and Social Work, and the Colleges of Pharmacy, Dentistry and LSA. The University is the only med- ical school in the country to hold both a CAM research center grant and a CAM curriculum grant from the NIH. Dads with high PCB levels more likely to sire boys According to a Michigan State University study, men with higher levels of polychlorinated biphenyls - commonly known as PCBs - in their bodies are more likely to father boys than girls. PCBs are a class of man-made chemicals that can be found in items such as paints, pesti- cides and adhesives made before the ban of their manufacture 1976. The study used data from three separate studies in which PCB levels were measured in the bodies of men who ate fish from Lake Michigan, where PCBs are among a number of environmental contaminants that have plagued the waters for years. It was found that of the 208 children born to those men, more than 57 percent were boys. "We do not wish to say that hav- ing a baby boy is bad, it's just that there were more of them," said Wil- fried Karmaus, Michigan State asso- ciate professor of epidemiology, who directed the study. "A change in the proportion of boys to girls, how- ever, indicates that environmental contaminants may play a role in human reproduction." The PCB levels of mothers were found to not have a significant effect on influencing the sex of the child. - Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Kylene Kiang. Terrorist attacks, Israeli policies subjects of talks By Margaret Engoren Daily Staff Reporter DEBBIE MtZEL/Daily Aerobics Instructor Laurie Finch leads a class at the Central Campus Recreation Building today. Some schools at the University accept physical education, classes as elective credits. Gym classes provide ' students with exercise, credit toward, graduation By Daniel Kim Daily Staff Reporter Every Tuesday and Thursday at 5 p.m. this winter semester, engineering sophomore Lynne Gratz has been heading to the Central Campus Recreational Building for her Taekwondo class, offered through U- Move Fitness. In addition to a workout and the chance to cultivate her mind and body through practicing the ancient Korean martial art, she will receive one physi- cal education credit to count as an elective credit. "I have a certain number of unrestricted electives that I have to fulfill. So I just wanted to take some- thing completely different from any of my required classes," Gratz said. Tae kwon do is one of the 17 courses offered through U-Move Fitness, a subdivision of the Division of Kinesiology. Other classes offered include swim conditioning, lifeguard training, yoga, kickboxing, dance aerobics and weight training. "Overall, we usually have about 2,000 people involved in our program," said Jackie LaNew, assis- tant director of U-Move Fitness. Two of the 17 U-Move Fitness classes, Tae kwon do I and beginning swim, are cross-listed as physical education classes under kinesiology. Students in col- leges other than the College of Literature, Science and the Arts taking these classes have the option of taking them for physical education credits. "LSA has not given credit to physical education classes since the 1960s. The LSA Curriculum Com- mittee reviewed (physical education) courses and determined that they didnot have a liberal arts focus," said Esrold Nurse, assistant dean of LSA. B~ut Engineering students like Gratz can receive elective credits. "Attendance is a big part of our grade. So" I can't really miss a class," said Gratz, who added Tae kwon do is not an easy class. To receive credit, students must attend all classes and complete a three to five page writing assignment. RC freshman Lara Markovitz, who is taking Co-Ed 'Cardio Challenge, an aerobics class, said, "I think I would be more inspired to attend for credits." Nonetheless, Markovitz said that paying $45 for her class, which meets every Saturday, gives her enough incentive to attend every class. "It's a good deal and you get to come in and do something healthy. College life isn't so healthy nor- mally, so it's something I can go to and feel good about," she said. Although LSA does not offer elective credits for physical education courses - with the exception of PE 310, applied human anatomy and physiology - the college is still committed to the physical well being of the students, Nurse said. "The University puts a substantial amount of money into the physical wellness of students. The (Intramur- al) Building, CCRB and (North Campus Recreation Building) are three major buildings devoted primarily to the students' physical well being. U-Move provides a wonderful opportunity for students, not unlike the many cultural activities available on campus," Nurse. added. Elliot Chodoff, a captain in the Israeli defense forces and an expert on terrorism and counter-terrorism, spoke with students at Hillel last night about terrorist attacks in the United States and Israel. "For the first time, the subject of terrorism has become a current and popular American discussion," said Chodoff. Suggesting democracies, such as the United States and Israel, are frequent targets for terrorism due to their openness and freedoms, Chod- off argued "the sensationalism of the western media - airing tragedies repeatedly - causes them to become unwitting accomplices to terror." Chodoff argued the real Ameri- can failure of Sept. 11 was that the military repeatedly ignored terrorist signals for the last decade. "What the United States is missing is what I like to call the 'paid professional chronic paranoid," said Chodoff. "These people, or this person, should be responsible for thinking everyone is out to get the country. He should investigate every lead and take each seriously." In comparison to Chodoff's view of Israel as a democracy, last week University alum Will Youmans tried to present Israel as an apartheid regime, not an openly free state. Youmans, a former president of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimina- tion Committee, discussed divest- ment organization strategies launched at the University of Cali- fornia at Berkeley last year. The goal was to pressure universities to divest financial holdings in the state of Israel, as was done in South Africa. "It is possible to make it a cam- pus issue, not only an international debate, by organizing people toward divestment," said Youmans. "It makes it a lot more present on the campus and in students' lives." "For the first time, the subject of, terrorism has become a current and popular American discussion," - Elliott Chodoff Captain of Israeli defense forces Hoping to make American sup- port for Israel a conditional com- modity, Youmans suggested the United States "demands that Israel stops apartheid or suffer serious repercussions." "Segregation is a part of Israeli policy," said Youmans. "Unofficial- ly, it is a part of the culture. In Israel, there are more than 20 laws that make a distinction between how they apply to. Jews and non- Jews. Israel has settlements and bypass roads set aside for Jews. Many Jews live in Jewish-only gated communities subsidized by the government. The people who live there are heavily armed." In addition to segregation, Youmans supported his claim of Israeli apartheid by arguing that Israel doesn't allow Palestinians to travel the country as it does Jewish citizens. Eric Bukstein, an LSA junior, disagreed with Youman's views of Israel. "The idea of divesting from Israel is absurd. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and is the best friend of the United States in the region," said Bukstein. "For us to pressure to divest from Israel would be ridiculous." "I'm not going to say there is no discrimination in Israel. There is discrimination. But apartheid and discrimination are very different things," Bukstein added. ---------- .......... Lawsuits aim to end secrecy in Haddad's case By Jeremy Berkowitz Daily Staff Reporter Two separate lawsuits related to the Rabih Haddad case were filed this week in federal court by the Detroit Free Press and The Ann Arbor News as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and Rep. John Conyers (D- Detroit). Both lawsuits ask for access to the immigration hearings in Detroit. There were several defendants named in the lawsuits, most notably U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. "We decided since we couldn't get in ... we needed to seek a remedy for that," said Free Press Managing Editor Carole Leigh Hutton. "The justice sys- tem in this country was created to be open." Haddad, a local Muslim leader charged with a visa violation, is cur- rently in solitary confinement at the Chicago Metropolitan Corrections Center. He is waiting for a possible grand jury appearance where he might be asked questions about the Global Relief Foundation, the Islamic chari- ty he co-founded, which is suspected of having ties to terrorism. Haddad has already had three closed deporta- tion hearings. The plaintiffs in the newly filed law- suits have made it clear that their con- cerns have nothing to do with whether Haddad is innocent or guilty, Hutton said. She said their problems have to do with freedom of the press and the rights of Americans to know what is going on. "To have fairness you must have openness.... The public otherwise has no confidence," said Herschel Fink, lawyer for the Free Press. What the plaintiffs are most afraid of is other measures the Jus- tice Department can take, Hutton said. If the Attorney General can order this process to be secret, other processes might be kept from the public also. "The Justice Department's policy of blanket secrecy is unconstitutional and incompatible with the values of a free society," said Steven Shapiro, legal director of the ACLU, in a written statement. The Justice Department has refused to comment on the pending suits as well as on any other issue dealing with the Haddad case. Pertaining to an agreement made between the two parties, the govern- ment has 30 days to respond to the suits, and there will be a hearing on March 26 in Detroit. In the meantime, the government has agreed not to conduct any more closed hearings on Haddad's case until a resolution to the suits has been reached. THE CALENDAR What's happening in Ann Arbor this weekend FRIDAY "Childlessness, Adop- tion, and Milagros de Dios in Costa Rica"; Sponsored by the Insti- Building "Success and Knowing How"; Sponsored by the Department of Philoso- phy, 4:00 p.m., 1449 Sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor, 9:00 a.m. - Noon., 200 South First Street SUNDAY SERVICES Campus Information Centers, 764-INFO, info@umich.edu, or www.umich.edu/ -info S.A.F.E. Walk, 763-WALK, I