LOCAL/STATE

The Michigan Daily - Monday, January 14, 2002 - 3A


Differences in affirmative action examined

* Author speaks on
fast-food industry
Award-winning journalist and
author Eric Schlosser will be speaking
at Borders Bookstore on Liberty
Street today at 7 p.m. Schlosser will
read from his most recent work, "Fast
Food Nation: The Dark Side of the
American Meal," which gives a
shocking and disturbing description of
the fast food industry.
"Fast Food Nation" has been com-
pared to Upton Sinclair's "The Jun-
gle" for its brutal descriptions and
ground-breaking investigative writing.
Schlosser's book portrays the huge
amount of power the fast food indus-
try has amassed, such as how McDon-
ald's has become the nation's largest
buyer of beef and potatoes and one of
the largest toy distributors.
* Brown-bag lunch to
discuss Russia
Bring a lunch and get ready to delve
into the issues surrounding the Russian
people and Russian foreign policy as
political science Prof. William Zinmer-
man gives a talk Wednesday on "The
Russian People and Foreign Policy:
Elite and Mass Perspectives in the Post-
Soviet Period."
Zimmerman's main areas of study
include the relationship between the
attitudes of Russians with regards to
markets, democracy an foreign poli-
cy. He has also explored the mass-
elite gap in Russia and the potential
for a true democratic system to evolve
in the nation.
Zimmerman's lecture is part of a
weekly series of brown-bag lunch lec-
tures on Eastern and Central Europe
sponsored by the Center for Russia
and Eastern European Studies.
The free lecture will be held
Wednesday at noon in room 1636 of
the School of Social Work Building.
'U' sponsors week
of astronomy events
This week students will have a vari-
ety of opportunities to explore the
world of astronomy at the Angell Hall
Observatory open house and the Uni-
versity Exhibit Museum's "Stars of
Winter" and "Women in Astronomy"
exhibits.
On Friday from 9 to 11 p.m., visi-
tors will have the opportunity to look
through the telescope on the roof of
Angell Hallat Saturn or Jupiter.
On Saturday and Sunday, Law Prof.
Bev Pooley will narrate an audiovisu-
al exploration of the stars and plants
visible in the sky during the "Stars of
Winter" lecture series at the museum.
There will be three presentations
each day beginning at 11:30 a.m.,
1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in the Univer-
sity Exhibit Museum.
While at the Exhibit Museum, visi-
tors may also attend the "Women in
Astronomy" audio-visual show that
travels through history discussing the
contribution of women astronomers
from the fifth century to modern
times.
This exhibit will run on Saturday
and Sunday with showings at 12:30
p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Admission is $3 for all museum
events.
Faculty, students
work on Detroit
renovation plans
Tomorrow will wrap up the five-day
workshop on urban design where top
urban designers and faculty and stu-

dents from the University's Taubman
College of Architecture and Urban
Planning will present a preview of the
renovations being made to the down-
town Detroit sports and entertainment
district for Super Bowl XL in 2006.
The workshop is meant to provide an
atmosphere where a variety of experts
and students in the field of urban plan-
ning can come together to form solu-
tions to current urban problems.
More than 50 University graduate
students and students from the Uni-
versity of Detroit-Mercy were
involved in the design workshop,
which was sponsored by the college
of Architecture and Urban Planning.
The design plans for the downtown
Detroit district will be presented on
Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the Gem Theatre
on Madison Avenue in Detroit.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Shannon Pettypiece.

By Tomisla Ladika
Daily Staff Reporter
Although affirmative action is
constantly debated as a solution to
the integration of minorities in the
United States, similar arguments
can be heard in India, where affir-
mative action is being used to fight
the caste system, which segregates
Indians into the social classes into
which they are born.
At a lecture Friday comparing
affirmative action in the United
States and India, economics Prof.
Thomas Weisskopf said minorities
in the United States enjoy a much
better standard of living than those
in India. #
He said India's economic prob-
lems have limited the effectiveness
of its affirmative action policy -
called reservation seating because
it guarantees minorities a certain
number of positions in government
and in universities and technical
schools.
"When you have relatively a lot
of resources, you can provide
something for everybody, whereas

when you're contesting for a limit-
ed number of opportunities which
will guarantee you a good life, peo-
ple who are up will be very reluc-
tant to give up a little bit,"
Weisskopf said.
Although improvement has been
limited, Indian minorities' social
standing is better because of reser-
vation seating, Weisskopf said. But
he said a troubling trend limiting
the effectiveness of the policy has
developed.
"The issue of reservations has
become highly politicized, and is
being struggled over in the context
of political focus of power," said
Weisskopf. "The whole idea of
preferences for disadvantaged
groups is being discredited gradual-
ly."
First-year Rackham student
Hemanth Kadambi said that while
affirmative action enjoys wide sup-
port from India's universities,
"most students would rather debate
the politics of what happens than
what would really be the effect."
Additionally, social tension and
resentment are side products creat-

ed by the rigid quotas of reserva-
tion policies, Weisskopf said.
"When you have quotas, there'sIk
pressure to lower the bar to fill the
quota," he said.
"If yu have preferences, you
give people some points which may
help them jump over the bar - but
you're not fundamentally warping
the criteria."
While the challenges facing affir-
mative action in India are different
than in the United States, first-year t
Rackham student Megan Reif said
examining affirmative action in
India can help University students
understand the policy in the United
States.
"Most American students know
nothing or are completely unaware
that these policies exist," Reif said.
"It's a great opportunity for stu-
dents to bolster their arguments."
Kadambi said knowledge of
India's reservation policy is "bene-
ficial to understand American affir-
mative action policies, to see the :;.. . .
disadvantaged groups in America JOHN PRATT/Daily
and what kind of benefits they need At a lecture Friday afternoon, economics Prof. Thomas Weisskopf compared the
in the future." differences between affirmative action in the United States and India.
G'reekambassador returns to 'U'
to discuss life 1n foreign service

Saying goodbye

By Daniel Kim
Daily Staff Reporter
For more than half of his career,
Thomas Miller had to live overseas
and move around as often as every
other year, from one country to
another, from one continent to anoth-
er. There were years when he and his
wife, Bonilie, had to live separately
from their children because his boss
wouldn't let him take them to his new
job location, and he can't even start
to count how many soccer games and
parent-teacher meetings he has
missed. Nonetheless, Miller, the U.S.
ambassador to Greece, is content and
very proud of his career as he told
more than 90 University students on
Friday.
Miller, who was appointed and
approved in August 2001 by the Sen-
ate to be the ambassador to Greece,
came to his alma mater to speak
about careers in foreign-service.
"It's been a fascinating career,"
said Miller, who attended the Univer-
sity during the time of turmoil for the
United States with the Vietnam War
and Watergate. He admitted that he
wasn't always a proponent of the U.S.
government as a college student. But

much of that has changed during the
past 26 years as foreign-service offi-
cer in the Middle East, North Africa,
South East Asia and East Europe.
"A policy is not just an abstract
idea. They can affect the lives of
many people and there are human
consequences," he said.
"Let's remember this: We in the
U.S. all come from elsewhere and we
are what I call hyphenated Ameri-
cans," he said. "We have the obliga-
tion to help those not as fortunate as
we are."
While emphasizing that one of the
key aspects to success in working for
the State Department is teamwork
and the ability to think, he encour-
aged more non-social science stu-
dents to consider working in the State
Department.
"There is a desperate need for
people from fields other than politi-
cal science because the world is
changing," he said. "People with sci-
ence backgrounds are highly wel-
comed."
As a genuine Wolverine who
received both his undergraduate and
three graduate degrees from the Uni-
versity, Miller saidhis education at
the University was "very relevant."

"All of my good upbringing of
Michigan prepared me for this.
Michigan was a great training
ground to learn how the world works
and to learn to solve problems," he
added.
Miller left the Student Activities
Building with these final words:
"Number one, be open to take advan-
tage of all Michigan has to offer.
Number two, be open to the things
you can do with your life, and num-
ber three, when you are considering
number two, know yourself and know
what is important to you."
"(The presentation) gave students a
chance to know what careers in for-
eign service are like," said Sally
Schueneman, the career events man-
ager at the University's Career Plan-
ning and Placement, which
co-sponsored the event with the
International Center.
Before going back to Greece,
Miller will be traveling to Illinois and
California to speak to the Greek-
American communities. As, the
ambassador to Greece, he said a part
of his job is to stay in touch with the
Greek-American communities and to
make sure "they have the opportuni-
ties to be heard."

DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily
The Wendy's on Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak pays tribute to founder Dave
Thomas, who died last week.
Girl touched during
shower; DPS warns
to keep -doors locked

MMWMWMI

I

SPECIAL ADVANCE SCREENINGI

By Jacquelyn Nixon
Daily Staff Reporter
Department of Public Safety offi-
cials are cautioning students to keep
bathroom doors locked while shower-
ing after a woman told police Friday
morning that a person reached in and
touched her whileshe was taking a
shower in South Quad Residence Hall.
"We don't know gender or race or
anything at this point," DPS spokes-
woman Diane Brown said. "We'll be
following up with an investigation."
Brown said DPS does not normally
issue a crime alert when so little infor-
mation has been provided, but there
could be a connection to peeping tom
incidents in residence hall showers in
November and December of last year at
East Quad, Stockwell and Mosher-Jor-
dan Residence Halls.
The perpetrator in the peeping tom
incidents may not be the same in this
case because the person in these cases
made no physical advances, Brown said.

"No one reported
that person making
any overtures. It
was strictly
observing from a
bit of a distance."
- Diane Brown
DPS spokeswoman
"No one reported that person making
any overtures. It was strictly observing
from a little bit of a distance;' she said.
Following the peeping tom inci-
dents, Residence Halls housing offi-
cials made sure all bathroom locks
were checked or fixed, Brown said.
"We need people to continue to be
vigilant and lock the shower room
doors," Brown said. "It will be better
protection for them."

THE CALENDAR
What's happening in Ann Arbor today

EVENTS
"The Dairyman's Daugh-
ters: Sholem Aleichem

The Barony of Cynnabar;
All invited to join the
Society for Creative
Anachronism to work on

5305 Elliott Drive
"Fast Food Nation: The
Dark Side of the Ameri-
can Meal": Award-win-

SERVICES
Campus information
Centers, 764-INFO,
info@umich.edu, or
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