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NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED: 7640557
www michlgandall y. com
Wednesday
March 27, 2002
Vo.CI, o 0 An t r ihgi.,:020 hrMcia TI
Students First
unofficially
edge out Blue
By Tomislav LadIka
Daily Staff Reporter
DAVID KATZ/Daily
Supporters of RabIh Haddad hold a protest infront of the U.S. District Court In Detroit yesterday.
Public hearings sought
for Rabih ad case
Sarah Boot and Dana Glassel, the
Students First candidates for Michigan
Student Assembly president and vice
president, will be declared winners of
the Winter election on Friday, accord-
ing to an announcement made by Elec-
tion Director Collin McGlashen at last
night's MSA meeting.
The Election Board still needs to
recount some ballots, but McGlashen
said he had previously calculated every
possible outcome.
"The results of the election, basical-
ly looking at the exception votes, will
not change," he said.
Preliminary results released by the
Election Board last weekend said Boot
and Glassel had won by 31 votes, but
following an appeal by Blue Party can-
didates John Carter and John Simpson,
the MSA's Central Student Judiciary
ordered the Election Board to recount
all exception ballots - votes that were
rejected by the election website. Many
of the ballots were erroneously turned
back, including the ballots of 65 med-
ical students.
The board will recount the votes this
week and announce the official results,
but at last night's meeting both Carter
and Simpson congratulated Boot and
"It's a little nerve-
racking to have the
results in limbo..
but I've been
assured that even
with the recount I'l1
still end up winning "
- Sarah Boot
Students First presidential candidate
Glassel for winning the election.
"It was an incredibly close race.
Both parties and everyone involved ran
a great race," he said.
Boot thanked both Carter and Simp-
son, stating that they were great oppo-
nents, and commented on securing the
election."I think it was a very competi-
tive election and all the candidates put
up a good fight," she said. "It's a little
nerve-racking to have the results in
limbo ... but I've been assured that
even with the recount I'll still end up
winning."
Simpson added that the Election
See MSA, Page 7
By Jeremy Berkowitz
Daily Staff Reporter
Supporters of jailed Ann Arbor Muslim leader
Rabih Haddad, carrying his portrait'and signs
demanding due process for his case, gathered in front
of the U.S. District Court in Detroit yesterday. Nearly
30 people from the Ann Arbor Muslim Community
Association and the University chapter of the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union, among others came to
watch a motion to open Haddad's immigration hear-
ings to the public.
"We represent members of the press and public
who in no way seek to interfere with Haddad's depor-
tation," Michigan ACLU Executive Director Kary
Moss said in a written statement. "At issue is the
power of the attorney general - without judicial
review - to order immigration judges to close all
immigration hearings to the public and the press."
A decision on the motion will be decided before
the Haddad family's April 10 deportation hearing.
The motion was filed at the end of January against
the government by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-
Detroit), the ACLU of Michigan, the Detroit Free
Press and the Ann Arbor News. The defendants
named in the lawsuit were U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft, Chief Immigration Judge Michael
Creppy and Immigration Judge Elizabeth Hacker.
The hearing was presided over by Judge Nancy
Edmunds, a 10-year veteran of the U.S. District Court
appointed by former President Bush in 1992.
MCA member Kristine Abouzhar said she was
not especially concerned about Edmunds' politi-
cal affiliation.
"A lot of people across the board are concerned
See HADDAD, Page 7
Lessons
emerge
through
tragedies-,
Speaker says society
should cherish, and not
forget, traumatic events
By Ted Borden
Daily Staff Reporter
Society today must seek to eradi-
cate the denial of past tragedies that
often comprises the foundation of
culture, Prof. Ross Chambers said
at the University's 24th Distin-
guished Senior Faculty Lecture yes-
terday. In an analogy he made
throughout his speech, titled "Ter-
rorism and Testimonial: Conse-
quences of Aftermath," Chambers
said society is flushing away the
memory of traumatic events, yet
these events keep floating back to
the surface.
"Trauma is the hurt that doesn't
heal," Chambers said. "Societies
live with the realities of violence ...
but the truth can't be denied or rep-
resented, because it returns in vio-
lence," he added, referring to the
Sept. II terrorist attacks, the AIDS
epidemic and the Holocaust, among
other things.
Chambers stressed the impor-
tance of testimonials and their abili-
ty to serve as reminders of past
atrocities, but noted they are often
forgotten by society and "received
as unwelcomed."
"Today, residual objects (such as
Ground Zero) are insignificant to
people and just thought of as histo-
ry," he said.
He also broke down the definition of
terrorism, terming it a "misappropria-
tion of cultural elements."
Chambers described a former
class he taught on cultural oblivion
to AIDS to illustrate how many peo-
ple wish to avoid and deny testimo-
nials.
He ultimately realized that "stu-
dents wanted to know about AIDS
without acknowledging its existence.
... Students tried to deny the mean-
ing of what happened."
Chambers said his lecture was
Students discover religion,
college difficult to balance
I.
By Leslie Ward
Daily Staff Reporter
College is a time when many students are
free for the first time to decide how they will
practice their religion, and for some, the bal-
ance between school and worship becomes a
difficult combination.
According to a study at the University of
California at Los Angeles, 83 percent of
incoming freshmen claim they attended reli-
gious services in the year prior to entering
college, but many do not keep the same wor-
ship habits they practiced with their families.
"I went regularly when I was home, but
now church-goings are definitely less fre-
quent. I try, I really do, but I don't go as often.,
Work and practice take precedent over
church," Kinesiology sophomore Andrea
Parker said.
While students may not attend religious
events on a regular basis, as Easter and
Passover approach, many Christian and Jew-
ish students do plan on observing the impor-
tant holidays.
"For most Jews, attending a Passover seder
is a central part of the culture of Jewish life,"
Executive Director of Hillel Michael Brooks
said.
"While college is often a period in many
students' lives when they take a time out from
much of their formal religious observance,
both believers and doubters have always had a
place at the seder table," he added.
The tradition of attending an Easter or
Passover service is an important factor in why
students make a special effort to attend on the
holidays.
See RELIGION, Page 7
Many call drinking
study unnecessary
'
A police officer guards the entrance at the University Assisted
Living Facility at 11:00 p.m. yesterday as employees reporting
to duty were Informed of a coworker's suicide.
Man comm its
0 'Od
suicie a
iving facility
By Jeremy Berkowitz
Daily StaffReporter
A sixty-year old employee of the University Assisted Living
Facility, not affiliated with the University of Michigan, on
South Main Street killed himself at his workplace around 9
p.m. last night. His was the first suicide in Ann Arbor in more
than a year.
The disturbance began about 8:30 p.m. when the victim
argued with his wife over the breakup of their marriage. He
suddenly pulled out a gun and a facility employee called the
Ann Arbor Police. When police arrived, the man fled into an
office. The residents and employees of the building were evac-
uated, but a couple people could not be found.
Shortly after, a gunshot was heard.
Thinking that the victim might have hostages, police called
in their hostage investigation team. The team arrived and
attempted to talk with the man but received no response. The
police onened the door to find the man dead with a wound to
By Kara Wenzel
Daily Staff Reporter
Like many college women her age, LSA
freshman Erin Dronen has spent several
nights in her residence hall pulling friends'
hair back while they threw up after a night of
excessive drinking.
More students believe alcohol use on cam-
pus is a problem than those who don't,
according to the 2001 Student Life Survey,
conducted by the University Substance Abuse
Research Center and MSInteractive. About 86
percent of survey respondents said drinking is
a major problem at the University.
The alcohol problem is not getting better
over time, and for women, binge drinking has
increased by 9 percent since 1999.
"I think it's definitely a big social epidemic,
but not necessarily in a bad way," LSA fresh-
man Sarah Thompson said. "It's socially
acceptable."
The survey mirrors a national study con-
ducted simultaneously by researchers at the
Harvard University School of Public Health
on student alcohol abuse.
But some students do not need survey data
to understand that binge drinking is common
at the University.
"There have been quite a few girls
spending the night laying in a bathroom
stall," Dronen said.
Last fall, the University created a position
called the Alcohol and Other Drugs Cam-
paign Initiatives Coordinator, currently held
by Patrice Flax.
"The position came about because there was
a binge drinking committee a few years ago that
did a very comprehensive report on campus
participation in alcohol use, particularly on the
Photo Illustration by KELLY LIN/Daily
According to the 2001 Student Ufe Survey, 86
percent of students believe drinking is a
problem at the University.
part of younger students," Flax said.
- The University decided there was a need to
create a full time position for the prevention
and treatment of alcohol abuse, Flax said.
See BINGE DRINKING, Page 7
Morning after pill use uncommon
By James Ng
For the Daily
Neither condoms nor birth control pills were handed out, but
Students For Choice and Planned Parenthood discussed the com-
plexities of emergency contraception at the Michigan League
yesterday night.
"The aim of this talk is to educate women about emergency
contraception by addressing common misunderstandings about its
use," said Clair Morrissey, an LSA sophomore and Students For
Choice executive board member.
Speaker Rhonda Bantsimba-Williams, a health educator from
ception.
Calling the morning after pill "one of medicine's best-kept
secrets," she explained that the morning after pill helps to pre-
vent unwanted pregnancy resulting from unprotected sex or rape.
The pill works by either preventing ovulation or by preventing
the fertilized egg from implanting itself onto the uterus.
"The pill has to be taken within 72 hours of the incident of
unprotected sex. It would not work if a woman already has an
established pregnancy," Bantsimba-Williams said.
She cautioned that morning after pills do not protect against
sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV.
"It should not be taken as a substitute for contraceptives such as