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One hundred eleven years ofeditorilfreedom
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NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED: 7640557
wwwmichigandaily.com
Tuesday
February 12, 2002
i
s s I. as - i,
LSA
0 Interdisciplinary cou
be approved throughout
coming year.
By Kara Wenzel
Daily Staff Reporter
LSA students who like studyir
violin or other classes outside the c
benefit from recent additions to th
demic requirements immediately.
The changes, approved by the I
last Monday, include an increase in
of credits a student may take outs
changes:
irses to lege from 12 to 20. Also, there will be an addi-
tion to the distribution requirements subject
categories - interdisciplinary courses, which
will be allowed to count for up to three of 30
distribution credits.
"In practical terms, the change involving the
increase from 12 to 20 non-LSA credits takes
place immediately, but the change involving the
ng classical interdisciplinary distribution courses will not
ollege could take place until next semester at the earliest,"
ie LSA aca- said Robert Owen, LSA associate dean.
Interdisciplinary courses need to be identified
LSA faculty and labeled before the changes can go into effect.
the number Owen said it takes several weeks for a course to
ide the col- go through the entire approval process.
immediately in
effect
"A good example of an interdisciplinary
course would be a course that discusses some-
thing like AIDS, but includes discussion on
both the sociology and biology of what is going
on, so it falls in more than one category or isn't
clearly in one category or another," said
Charles Judge, director of Academic Services
at LSA Academic Affairs.
Owen said the interdisciplinary courses will
not necessarily be new courses, but courses
currently taught that are not counted toward
distribution. "For example, the Women's Studies
program offers courses that are combinations of
humanities and social sciences, the global change
program offers courses that are combinations of
"In practical terms, the change involving the
increase from 12 to 20 non-LSA credits takes
place immediately"
- Robert Owens
LSA associate dean
social science and natural science, and the life
sciences program offers courses that are combi-
nations of humanities and natural science," he
added.
Students were less inclined to elect these
types of courses because they carried no distri-
bution credit, Owen said.
Ultimately, there will be some courses catego-
rized as interdisciplinary for distribution credit
See LSA, Page 7
Greek organization works
to prevent sexual assault
By Shoshana Hurand
For the Daily
In an effort to educate the Greek community
about the realities of sexual assault, the Interfra-
ternity Council instituted a new student organiza-
tion Sunday called Students Acting for Greek
Awareness.
The group plans to educate members of the Greek
system through peer-lead weekend workshops
beginning Feb. 16 and concluding March 24.
"We all know that sexual assault is wrong,"
said LSA senior Justin Bright, a creator and
coordinator of this initiative. "We want to teach
our members about all the issues that are inter-
twined with it."
Selected fraternity members received eight
hours of training last weekend. They will be
paired during the upcoming workshops with
female SAGA volunteers, who received extensive
educational training about sexual assault through
the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center although their roles within the two
organizations are unrelated. These teams will
speak during the workshops as peer educators to
the rest of the Greek community.
"We think that people will have a better
response seeing their own fellow brothers up
there," said IFC President Joel Winston. "I think
that there are various groups that have been doing
this for a number of years, but it's really Justin's
initiative," Winston added.
Sororities and fraternities will be paired with
their Greek Week partners for the workshops to be
held at the sorority houses.
Bright said that often it is only women who are
talking about these kinds of issues, leading men to
think that they do not pertain to them. "However,
with a man and a women presenting, it will
encourage both parties to become active in edu-
cating themselves," he added.
"In any situation, especially with touchy sub-
jects, it's so important to hear about it from other
students," said Christina Del Tatto, an LSA fresh-
See SAGA, Page 7
Campus securiy
faces scrutiny
By Jeremy Berkowitz
Daily Staff Reporter .
BRETT MOUNTAIN/Daily
RC sophomore Alexander Cotton of SOLE looks for students to play putt-
putt for athletic hats on the Diag. SOLE is trying to Improve the working
conditions of the people who make the hats in a New York factory.
SOLEputt-putts
for a new era of
worker's ights
By Maria Sprow
Daily Staff Reporter
Members of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equal-
ity set up a putt-putt course on the Diag yesterday as part of a
National Day of Action organized by United Students Against
Sweatshops to show support for labor equality and unionization.
SOLE members said the purpose of the putt-putting was to draw
attention to the strike taking place at a New Era Cap Company fac-
tory in Derby, N.Y., and gather support from students for their cam-
paign to terminate a contract between the University and New Era
until the company proves it is operating under the University's Code
of Conduct for Labor Standards.
New Era makes caps for the University and other colleges, as
well as for Major League Baseball and the Professional Golfers'
Association.
"We decided that students would be interested to know that New
Era doesn't just make stuff for the University, they make things for
other groups," said RC sophomore and SOLE member Sarah
Schwartz Sax.
"Instead of being political all the time, we wanted to provide a
more interactive atmosphere," she added.
Jackie Bray, an LSA sophomore, said the Day of Action was
especially important because of the unsafe and unfair practices in
place at New Era.
Bray said almost half of New Era factory workers suffer from
muscle-skeletal problems and that workers suffer from needle punc-
tures occuring 15 times more often than industry standards permit.
During the Day of Action, students were asked to sign a petition
demanding that "the University of Michigan interim president, (B.
Joseph White), come out in opposition to New Era Cap Company's
unjust labor practices both directly to the New Era management and
publicly through termination of the contract."
SOLE members' efforts generated more than 300 signatures for
their petitions.
The campaign against New Era is a national.
Many other colleges have investigated their contracts with the
company since the Worker Rights Consortium released a report
ndtirmecincr ronlaink aond kene mneerning Newm Un's e alth safe-
With an increasing crime rate in res-
idence halls this academic year, ques-
tions have been raised about the
quantity and quality of campus securi-
ty, which has been a visible presence in
the dorms for almost thirty years.
"Personal safety of our residents is
undoubtedly our paramount concern,"
said Director of Housing Security and
Associate Director of the Department
of Public Safety Ian Steinman.
Each residence hall is assigned
one DPS security officer who is
present in the building from 9 p.m.
until 7 a.m. Smaller halls, such as
Martha Cook have an officer that
patrols the dorm and the area
around it. These officers are profes-
sionally trained and make a mini-
mum of three rounds per night
around the building. They check for
safety violations including fire haz-
ards, propped open doors and suspi-
cious activities. If a resident calls
DPS with a complaint, the dispatch-
er will alert the security officer via
radio. They also have office space
in the lobby of the residence halls
to fill out paperwork and hear com-
plaints.
University Housing officials say that
the housing security officers are mem-
bers of the residence hall community.
They meet with residence hall staff
JuN rATTDeny
Officers Tennies and Shurtilff question a witness to a fire alarm glass breaking In
East Quad Residence Hall.
every night and try to get to know the
students in order to give them a sense
of comfort and security on their floor.
"Officers are integrated into the
community," said Alan Levy, director
of Public Affairs and Information for
University Housing.
However, several students have said
that, despite having a sense of security,
they don't see the officer's presence
that much in the halls. Engineering
Speaker says
terrorists are
normal people
By C. Price Jones
and Leslie Ward
Daily Staff Reporters
The terrorists and suicide bombers who have killed peo-
ple from New York to Jerusalem are average people, accord-
ing to Ariel Merari, director of the program for political
violence at Tel-Aviv University in Israel.
"There was no psychopathology to speak of. These were
normal guys, just a cross-section of society," he said. "I
came to think that suicide terrorism is not a personal phe-
nomenon; it is an organizational phenomenon, an organiza-
tional system."
Merari found that while the media has explained suicide
bombings and terrorism as consequences of religious fanati-
cism, this interpretation is unsupported by evidence.
"There must be something else in addition to religious
fanaticism to explain martyrdom," he said.
Organizations recruit martyrs through personal connec-
tions and train them. This organizational support is Merari's
answer to the psychology behind terrorists and suicide
bombers.
"Several hours per day are devoted to talking with enthu-
siastic members of the group. There is a focus on the 'glory
davs of Ilam ' and the ida nf martvrdAm asod's will-" he
freshman Rachel Karwick, a resident
of Mosher Jordan, said she has seen
officers in the 'corridors twice since
September.
"For the most part, they're in their
office.... I think they' should be out
and about more," she said.
LSA sophomore Joe Ament, a South
Quad resident, said that security
should be increased within reason so it
See SECURITY, Page 7
Murder in,
A2first inI'*
over a year
By Rob Goodspeed
Daily Staff Reporter
An Ann Arbor man was killed early
yesterday morning in a local hotel in the
first murder in Washtenaw County this
year. The 28-year-old man was shot after
answering his hotel door around 5 a.m.
yesterday.
The shooting occurred at the Quality
Inn and Suites Hotel at 3750 Washtenaw
Ave.
"Possibly it was related to drugs," said
Lt. Michael Zsenyuk, "That's one of the
things we're following up."
The victim was pronounced dead at
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
Police found evidence of drug trade at
the scene late Monday, and had identi-
fied at least two witnesses.
Ann Arbor police are offering $1,000
for information related to the shooting.
The shooting suspect has not been
apprehended.
The last murder in Ann Arbor
occurred in Jan. 2001 when a University
researcher killed himself and his wife in
JONATHON TRIEST/Daily
Tel Aviv University Prof. Arlel Merarl spoke last night, during
the Institute of Social Research yesterday.
Future martyrs become subject to a "group contract,"
which builds the martyr's allegiance to his other group
members. They also declare a "formal contract" before a
bombing as a final "personal commitment," Merari said.
But research fellow Mozhgan Savabieasfahani argued that
Merari's hypothesis is not accurate because of the current
livingr situation of manv Palestinins in Israel
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