LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 - 3
CAMPUS
* 'U' orchestra to
perform at
Michigan Theatre
The University Symphony Orchestra
will be giving a free performance at the
Michigan Theatre today at 8 p.m. The
program will include Rachmaninoff's
Symphony No. 2 and Glazunov's alto
saxophone concerto with concerto
competition winner Robert White-
Davis, a Music School junior.
Effects of Chinese
labor reform to be
discussed
To explain how aggressive economic
restructuring of state-owned enterpris-
es since 1997 has affected different
types of Chinese urban workers, eco-
nomics Prof. Albert Park and Business
School Graduate Student Instructor
Fang Cai will be lecturing today in the
School of Social Work Building at
noon. Sponsored by the Center for Chi-
nese Studies, the lecture will address
the evidence of a recent survey to com-
pare restructuring effects on workers.
Prof will address
perceptions of
ancient Egypt
David O'Connor, an Ancient Egypt-
ian art and archaeology professor at
New York University, will be giving a
lecture titled, "Men Who Give Birth:
Ancient Egyptian Perceptions of
Libyan Identity," at Angell Hall Audi-
torium C today at 5:30 p.m. The event
is co-sponsored by the Kelsey Muse-
um, the Institute for the Humanities,
Department of Near Eastern Studies,
Interdepartmental Program in Classical
Art and Archaeology and the Center
for Middle Eastern and North African
Studies.
LSA concentration
fair held in Union
An LSA Concentration Fair will be
held in the Michigan Union Ballroom
tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Stu-
dents can talk with representatives and
student concentrators from LSA aca-
demic departments and programs. LSA
general advisors will also be available
to talk about a range of academic
issues and questions.
Prof to explore
Israeli-Palestinian
relations
Tel Aviv University Prof. Zeev
Moaz will give a lecture titled
"Missed Opportunities in Israeli-
Palestinian Relations: Can We Avoid
Repeating Past Mistakes in the
Future?" in Angell Hall Auditorium A
tomorrow at 4 p.m. Moaz is the
author of "Domestic Sources of Glob-
al Change" and the coeditor of "War
in a Changing World."
Historian shares
experiences with
culture wars
Jonathan Zimmerman, a guest lec-
turer from New York University, will
give a lecture titled "Second Thoughts:
One Historian's Encounter with the
Culture Wars" in the School of Educa-
tion Building tomorrow at 4 p.m.
'U'
student assaulted in library, man arrested
By Maria Sprow
Daily Staff Reporter
A University student was assaulted by three
non-University affiliates Monday night in the
Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, after an
encounter with one of the suspects earlier
that day.
The Department of Public Safety arrested Dex-
ter resident Richard Curry, 19, and two friends
last night. Curry, who was arraigned yesterday at
the Washtenaw County Jail, is being charged with
two counts of felony assault and conspiracy to
commit assault. His two friends were released.
DPS is anticipating the arrests and arraign-
ments of two other suspects, whose names were
not released, DPS Sgt. Melissa Overturn said.
Those suspects will be facing misdemeanor
charges for assault and battery and conspiracy to
commit an assault.
Meanwhile, the student, who was taken to
University Hospital after the attack and has
since been released, is suffering from multi-
ple injuries, including lacerations to the left
upper and lower eyelids leading to blurred
vision, abrasions to his forehead and back
injuries, Overturn said.
The assault occurred at 9:30 p.m. near the
lobby of the graduate library, as the victim was
preparing to leave the building. None of the
attackers knew the victim, though Curry and the
victim had been involved in a brief fight at 7:30
p.m. on the Diag.
Overturn said the victim first met Curry while
Curry was walking a dog with another man and a
woman on the Diag.
The victim had been nearby and approached
the suspects after believing they were trying to
ask him a question, Overturn said.
Curry then allegedly began cursing at the vic-
tim for an unknown reason, causing the dog to
start growling at the victim.
Curry also took an inch-thick chain out of his
pocket and started swinging it at the victim, who
tried to push Curry in an attempt to get away,
Overturn said.
But according to DPS reports, Curry swung
the chain at the victim, hitting him across his
back, and then fled the scene.
The victim then went to the library to study.
Overturn said Curry was gone for two hours
before returning to the Diag with two different
individuals, both men. The group went to the
library searching for the victim.
"He was walking down the stairs, he was get-
ting ready to leave," Overturn said.
Upon finding the victim, Overturn said one
of the attackers asked him to go outside. The
victim refused, and was assaulted by one of
the men, who punched him in the face with a
closed fist an estimated five or six times.
Curry then picked up a chair and threatened to
use it on the victim, at which point library staff
members broke up the fight. Police arrived at the
scene soon afterwards, taking all three suspects
into custody.
As of yesterday, Curry was still in Washtenaw
County Jail on $5,000 bond, Overturn said. A
preliminary trial has been set for March 26 at 1
p.m. at the 22nd Circuit Court.
If convicted, Curry could face up to eight
years in jail and a $4,000 fine for the felo-
nious assault charges, as well as additional
time for the conspiracy charge.
Overturn said DPS will also seek charges for
the other two men, who could face a year in
prison and a $1,000 fine for conspiracy charges.
The man who assaulted the victim in the library
could also receive a 90-day imprisonment and a
$500 fine for assault and battery.
CIR research shows race factor
affects only median of applicants
By Jeremy Berkowitz
Daily Staff Reporter
Center for Individual Rights and the University, the
opposing parties in the Law School admissions lawsuit
Grutter v. Bollinger, agree on one important factor - race
plays a factor most prominently for people in the middle of
the admissions spectrum.
"It's when you're close to the decision line, that preference
makes the difference," CIR DI
spokesman Curt Levey said.
In CIR's brief, a grid creat-' briefs
ed by CIR depicts a break-
down of applicants to the 'y
Law School who desired to
enter in the fall of 1995.
The grid is divided into
three sections - Asian Amer-
icans, whites and underrepre- *
sented minorities, which port o"' 11a
consists of blacks, Native four-Pa if
Americans and Mexican Americans.
For each group, CIR shows the ratio of applicants to
accepted students by their grade point averages and LSAT
scores.
The grid shows discrepancies in the middle - a larger
number of minority students being admitted for a certain
cell than white or Asian students.
For example, 10 selected minorities, 65 whites and 20
Asian/Pacific Island Americans with grade point averages
between 3.50 and 3.74, and LSAT scores of 159-160 applied
to the Law School. Of those admitted, eight were underrepre-
sented minorities, two were white, and one was Asian.
"A review of the data for all the years at issue ... shows
that although there are variations from year to year, the
odds favoring students from African American, Mexican
American, Native American and Puerto Rican groups are
always 'enormously' large," the brief states.
But University Assistant General Counsel Jonathan
Alger, who made it clear that these grids are not used by
the Law School admissions office, said it is impossible to
get the gist of a class by dividing the class into very small
subsections.
He added that the differences between the subsections
are very small.
"It's probably some very tiny number of questions on
one test," Alger said, referring to the LSAT. "It really over-
states the impact that an additional counselor would give
to the test score."
Alger added that there are other areas of the grid where
the number of whites admitted is higher. He said the class
needs to be looked at as a whole to show a better picture of
its demographics.
"It's not meaningful when you subdivide the pool into
such pieces ... that's inherently misleading," Alger said.
But Levey pointed out that CIR's argument consists of
more than statistics.
"It's not about pure numbers," he said. "It's about two
individuals with equal credentials being treated equal,"
Levey said.
CIR also attacks the relevance of the Bakke v. University
of California Regents decision. In its arguments, the Uni-
versity repeatedly says diversity serves as a compelling
interest in higher education, using Justice Louis Powell's
opinion in Bakke, where he said race could be used as one
of many factors in college admissions systems.
But CIR argues that race is not a compelling interest.
They discount Powell's opinion, and say that the definition
of diversity is too vague to make it important.
"An interest in diversity is simply too indeterminate,
open-ended, and unbounded by ascertainable standards. Its
acceptance as a compelling interest would mark a sharp
and lamentable departure from this court's precedents by
authorizing an interest that would ... become the nation's
first permanent justification for government-sponsored
racial classifications."
An unidentified man cries next to a shrine in honor of Rachel Corrde during a protest
outside the Israeli consulate in downtown San Francisco yesterday.
Vigil rem--embers 11
deaths in West Ban~k
By Carmen Johnson
Daily Staff Reporter
In response to the 11 victims killed
in Gaza this week, students gathered
last night on the steps of the Michigan
Union for a candlelight vigil to
remember the losses.
One of the victims was 23-year-old
Rachel Corrie, an American student
killed in Gaza on Sunday when she
was run over by an Israeli bulldozer.
She had been protesting its use in the
destruction of Palestinian houses. The
Israeli military said her death was an
accident.
At the vigil organized by Student
Allied for Freedom and Equality, stu-
dents held candles and paused for a
moment of silence. SAFE member
Fadi Kiblawi addressed the crowd,
describing the deaths of the victims in
detail.
"After these deaths, there has been
silence from the American govern-
ment, giving us the message that any
life taken by Israeli forces is not
worth talking about," Kiblawi said.
"The loss of humanity is something
that needs attention."
Art and Design freshman Kaitlin
Freewind said after she read about
the deaths, she wanted to express her
frustration with the deaths in the
Boot reflects
Middle East.
"It's American tax dollars that are
supporting these tanks that are
killing people," Freewind said.
"This gathering will show that peo-
ple don't approve of the American
tax dollars funding the killing of
civilians."
The vigil was held an hour after
President Bush stated that Saddam
Hussein and his sons have 48 hours to
leave Iraq or face "military conflict."
Some vigil participants expressed their
disappointment in U.S. diplomacy in
the Middle East.
"Bush's statement shows that the
deaths of so many in Gaza doesn't
affect the agenda of the U.S. govern-
ment," LSA freshman Wajeeha Shut-
tari said. "But the candles show the
unity and that Rachel is not alone. She
was a girl just like me, someone who
wanted peace."
Within hours of being killed by
the bulldozer, Rachel Corrie was
honored by the peace activists of
her hometown in Olympia, Wash-
ington, where several hundred peo-
ple gathered for a candlelight vigil
Sunday evening.
"It's very important to stress that all
humanity is important," Kiblawi said.
"At this point I just feel helpless - all
we can do is stand in solidarity."
on creating
U U
tiananmen
June 3-4, 1989
a play about the Tiananmen Square Massacre
written by Brian Chan & directed by Zac Pavlov
The Theatre Company & RC Players production
Fiction writer to
give reading from
debut novel
Novelist and alum Kathryn
Larrabee, a previous winner of the dis-
tinguished Hopwood Award for cre-
ative writing, will be reading from her
debut novel, "An Everyday Savior: A
Novel," at Shaman Drum Bookstore on
Thursday at 8 p.m.
Conference to
address issues of
modern women
A day-long conference will feature
presentations and panel discussions
regarding a number of women's
issues, including the impact of wel-
fare reform, women and war, Title
IX and violence against women, will
be held in the Michigan League ball-
room Thursday from 8:30 to 4:30
p.m. The conference is co-sponsored
by the Center for the Education of
Women, the American Civil Liber-
ties Union of Michigan, Women's
Studies and the Institute for
Research on Women and Gender.
History, theory of
* images in art to
be discussed
unified student assembly
By Andrew Kaplan
Daily StaffReporter
Musing on her term as Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly president, LSA senior
Sarah Boot said she leaves behind a
more unified and approachable legisla-
ture than when she took office.
Elected by a 28-vote margin last
spring, Boot said
she wanted to
familiarize herself
with representa-
tives before collab-
orating on political
resolutions.
"I met with
every rep last year
at the beginning of
the year to ask
them what they Boot
wanted to work on," she said. "Our
biggest goal was to make MSA more of
a representative body, and I feel like we
did that with the people who got elected
with us."
In her year-end MSA officer report,
Boot said in addition to mobilizing rep-
resentatives to adopt projects and devel-
op "game plans" for their terms, she also
initiated several resolutions seeking to
better the rapport between MSA and its
make a big difference," Boot said, refer-
ring to a recent resolution funding air-
port transportation for students during
Spring Break. "When students can con-
tact us and see us in action, that also
makes a big difference."
Although representatives said Boot's
proposals were sometimes controversial,
they added that she maintained order in
an assembly polarized by party alle-
giances.
"I think it's hard to find a point that
Sarah didn't handle professionally, even
when the assembly got controversial,"
MSA Communications Committee Vice
Chair Courtney Skiles said. "I'd behard-
pressed to find anyone who didn't have
a lot of respect for Sarah."
But some representatives said
Boot's presidency also bears the mark
of ineffective legislation and low
attendance at assembly meetings. In
addition to gathering votes for many
campus improvements, Boot support-
ed dead-letter resolutions about cen-
tral issues such as race-conscious
admissions and war with Iraq, LSA
Rep. Darth Newman said.
"We passed a lot of resolutions that
did nothing, and certainly had no
effect on President Bush," he said, cit-
ing a letter MSA sent to the federal
March 21 - 23, 2003
- Fri & Sat: Bpm/ Sat & Sun: 3 pm
Residential College Auditorium, East Quad.
701 E. University St.
Tickets sold at door
$3 for students / $5 for adults
contact: znavloveumich.edu
i