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Monday
January 7, 2002;
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SALT LAKE 2002
Olympic
Torch in
IN
WITH
THE
NEW YEAR
White steps
n as search
presses on
By Elizabeth Kassab
Daily Staff Reporter
A2
today
Inside: Map of the route. Page 7A.
By Kylene Kiang
Daily Staff Reporter
The spirit of the Olympic Games
will come to Ann Arbor today as local
residents are set to participate in the
Olympic Torch Relay, helping carry
the flame to next month's Winter
Games in Salt Lake City.
Spectators are welcome to watch
runners carrying the torch at all points
of the route, including. designated
gathering areas outside Michigan Sta-
dium, at the corner of Stadium and
South Main, at 10:02 a.m. and Rampy
Chevrolet, at the corner of Jackson and
Wagner, at 10:50 a.m., where there
will be a brief celebration and lighting
of a small ceremonial cauldron. Ann
Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, Michigan
Athletic Director Bill Martin, the
Michigan Marching Band and other
guest speakers will be in attendance at
the ceremony.
Ten Ann Arbor residents, including
University Regent David Brandon,
will carry the flame through the city
today as it begins at 9:20 a.m. on
Washtenaw Avenue near Arborland
Mall and continues on Stadium, Main,
Huron and Jackson.
They are. just a fraction of the
11,500 total torchbearers chosen from
more than 210,000 nominations
nationwide. Torchbearers were nomi-
nated by family, friends and colleagues
who wrote short essays describing how
each nominee embodied the Olympic
spirit by inspiring others.
Parishioners of St. John's Episcopal
Church in Howell said exactly that of
See TORCH, Page 7A
*
Interim University President B. Joseph White spent his
first official day in office cheering for the Wolverines from
the stands at the Florida Citrus Bowl. He then returned to
Ann Arbor the next day only to stand in line at the Secre-
tary of State's office for 90 minutes to replace his lost dri-
ver's license. White's third day as the
University's chief executive started off
in the Fleming Administration Build-
ing - where he immediately got to
work.
"The very first thing we did was to
bring the entire presidential staff
together and we had a get-acquainted
breakfast in the conference room,"
White said, adding that he has been
meeting with University administra-
tors and preparing for upcoming White
events, such as the January regents meeting, the first one
White will preside over.
As for the painful humiliation the football team suffered
at the hands of Tennessee, "Even though the outcome was
disappointing, it was clear that we were playing a national
champion caliber team in Tennessee, so I was very proud
of our team," White said.
University President Lee Bollinger moved out of his
office in Fleming last month to make way for former Busi-
ness School Dean White to take the reins of the institution.
The University Board of Regents, now aided by the recent-
ly-formed presidential search advisory committee, is
beginning its search for Bollinger's permanent successor,
who it hopes to name by this spring.
The advisory committee is scheduled to convene for the
first time today and will sit down with the regents before
the next regents meeting. No candidates have been named,
said Rackham Dean Earl Lewis, who chairs the committee.
Lewis has pledged to make the search quick and efficient
See WHITE, Page 7A
DAVID KATZ/Daily
University President Lee Bollinger (upper right) shakes hands with a graduate following the winter commencement ceremony in Crisler Arena. It was
the last public appearance on campus for Bollinger, who stepped down last month and will become Columbia University's chief executive in July.
Inside:
The Board
of Regents
approves a
two-day
study break
every fall,
starting this
October.
Page 3.
Bollinger era officially over
By Rachel Green
Daily Staff Reporter
Noting that "December is a season of
farewells," University President Lee
Bollinger made his final public appear-
ance on campus at last month's winter
commencement ceremony. In his state-
ment to the approximately 2,000 gradu-
ates in Crisler Arena, he proved to
students that he knew as much about the
social scene as education and politics, as
he listed some of the places in Ann
Arbor that he felt students would miss
most.
Bollinger, who said a few days prior
to graduation that he had yet to write his
speech, made students laugh as he out-
lined what he believed to be a typical
week's schedule for seniors.
"I think it's Mitch's on Tuesday,
Rick's on Wednesday, Scorekeepers on
Thursday, Touchdown's on Friday and
every night is Good Time Charley's
before you go out," Bollinger said.
Many students found Bollinger's
remarks very insightful.
"It was great that he knew so much
about our nightlife here and what we do
See BOLLINGER, Page 7A
Cheering in the new year
Local Muslim man may be
deported for visa violations
Islamic charity co-founded
by Rabih Haddad is suspected
of funding terrorist groups
By Jacquelyn Nixon
Daily Staff Reporter
In response to the continued detainment of
an Ann Arbor Muslim leader after his arrest
last month by the Immigration and Natural-
ization Service, community members will
gather tonight at the Ann Arbor City Council'
meeting to encourage council members to
push for his release.
Rabih Haddad, co-founder of the Global
Relief Foundation, an Islamic charity, was
arrested Dec. 14 and is being held without
bond at the Monroe County jail. He could
face deportation for having an expired visa.
"There's a human side to this that gets bull-.
dozed," Islamic Center Board of Trustees
Tariq Colvin said. "He was arrested in front
of his kids ... just before one of the most
important festivals in the Muslim year, at the
end of Ramadan. He spent that time in jail....
Imagine taking someone's dad before Christ-
mas and New Year's."
Federal agents raided the group's headquar-
ters in Illinois the same day Haddad was
detained. The organization materialized on a
White House terrorism watch list two years
ago as one of two U.S.-based charities with
possible connections to terrorism.
"The suspicion is that money from GRF
had been funneled to terrorist organizations"
Colvin said. "But the U.N. gives aid that
sometimes is given to other countries. Some
of that aid can and will go to other (unautho-
rized) organizations. I don't think it's fair to
levy that standard against GRF or any smaller
organization."
At closed bond hearings on Dec. 19 and
Jan. 2, a federal immigration judge denied
Haddad bond indefinitely. An appeal has been
scheduled for Thursday.
Haddad's attorney, Ashraf Nubani, said his
client came to the United States in 1998 from
Lebanon on a tourist visa and had applied for
permanent resident status through labor certi-
See HADDAD, Page 7A
DAVID tKAZ/Daily
Michigan cheerleader Rob Bobeda parties on New Year's Eve with the rest of his squad at the Rosen
Centre hotel in Orlando, Fla., the night before the Wolverines took on Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl.
s
Confident Wolvennes
take early Big Ten lead
Pilot, 15, supported
bin Laden, attacks
By Joe Smith
Daily Sports Editor
When University students came back from
their holiday breaks, they had a surprise wait-
ing for them:
A first-place men's basketball team.
After an inauspicious 4-5 start to its non-
conference slate, the Wolverines have
cranked out two straight wins against Penn
State and Purdue to open the Big Ten season.
They now sit atop the conference standings
with a 2-0 record for the first time since
1997-98 - the year of Michigan's last
NCAA Tournament appearance.
While only two games into the conference
season, the wins were enough to pique the
interest of students on campus, even those
who had given up on the team a while ago.
"It's early, but it's a start," said Casey Gib-
son, a graduate student who stopped attend-
ing games four years ago. "It's interesting to
see if they could get back to where they were
seven or eight years ago. I think they were
bound to come back, but not this quick."
honors with is even more shocking.
The consensus preseason top three teams
- Iowa, Illinois and Michigan State - were
all upset yesterday by lower-tier teams.
This enabled three teams with few presea-
son accolades - Ohio State, Indiana and
Michigan - to find themselves undefeated
in Big Ten plays
"Yeah it's a great feeling," junior Gavin
Groninger said about the unusual thought of
being in first place. "We have the taste of
victory, we feel it now and we don't want to
stop winning."
A Michigan basketball team with a win-
ning attitude? It doesn't seem possible after
the past few seasons, in which the Wolverines
suffered four of their most embarrassing
losses in school history, culminating in the
firing of Brian Ellerbe after a 10th place fin-
ish last year in the Big Ten and a 10-18
record overall.
Two league wins against lower tier teams
are no reason to get overly excited. But for a
program that has seen its fair shares of black
eyes over the past few years and a team this
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The 15-year-
old who crashed a small plane into a
skyscraper wrote a note expressing
sympathy for Osama bin Laden and
support for the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, police said yesterday.
The short, handwritten suicide note
found in Charles Bishop's pocket said
he acted alone, Tampa Police Chief
Bennie Holder said. The high school
freshman had no apparent terrorist ties,
Holder said.
"Bishop can best be described as a
young man who had very few friends
and was very much a loner," Holder
said. "From his actions we can assume
he was a very troubled young man."
Bishop crashed the Cessna 172R into
the 42-story Bank of America building
after taking off without authorization
and ignoring signals to land from a
Coast Guard helicopter that pursued the
plane. Bishop was the only fatality.
Holder said there is no indication
Bishop specifically targeted the build-
ing or "had any intention of harming
The handwritten
suicide note found
in Charles Bishop's
pocket said he
acted alone.
Investigators yesterday interviewed
the boy's family and said they would
search his personal computer for evi-
dence.
Bishop, of Palm Harbor, was told to
check the plane's equipment before the
start of a flying lesson Saturday, police
said. He took off without waiting for an
instructor who was supposed to accom-
pany him.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew
motioned for the boy to land but
couldn't get a response, and a pair of
military jets scrambled to intercept the
small plane arrived after the crash.
. b
DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily
Michigan center Chris Young and guard Leon Jones have led
the Wolverines to a 2-0 start in Big Ten play. Coverage of the
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