0 One hundred eleven years ofeditorilfreedom ti 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 I I