LOCAL/STATE

The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 28, 2003 - 3

CAMPUS

New group protests war, supports 'U' admissions

Groups to display
cultural heritage
A number of cultural shows and festi-
vals will take place this weekend. The
Latino cultural show will be in the Lydia
Mendelssohn Theater tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased at the Michigan
Union Ticket Office. The 12th Annual
Japan Cultural Festival, which includes
dances, human-size calligraphy and
karate demonstrations, will take place in
the East Hall North Atrium tomorrow
between 1 and 4 p.m. It is free and open
to the public. The Persian cultural show
will be in the Power Center tomorrow at
7 p.m. Tickets can be bought at the door
or at MUTO. The Huaren Chinese "Cul-
tural Legacy" will be in the Power Center
tonight. Tickets can be bought at MUTO
or at the door.
Lectures explore
diabetes issues
The School of Public Health will
sponsor a symposium on diabetes in
Dow Auditorium in the Towsley Center
Monday from 3 to 5 p.m. The sympo-
sium will feature neurology Prof. Eva
Feldman, internal medicine and epidemi-
ology Prof. William Herman and Life
Sciences Institute Director Alan Saltiel.
Speakers will explore what diabetes is,
treatment and new research, among other
topics.
Celebrate spring at
Indian festival
The Indian Students Association will
hold a Holi celebration at the University
Club of the Michigan Union tomorrow
from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Holi is the Indian
festival of colors meant to welcome the
spring, and festivities include Indian
music, henna, karaoke and ethnic food.
Food drive aims to
help needy
A canned food drive will kick off at
the Cube Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Various
student groups, including Net Aid @
Michigan, the University Party, the Euro-
pean Student Association and several fra-
ternities, will distribute collection bags
throughout Ann Arbor asking for food
donations for Food Gatherers of Ann
Arbor, which distributes supplies to the
Ann Arbor needy.
Spiritual music, art
featured in
.The.,Chamber Music. ensemble, will
perform "All Rivers at Once: Spiritual
Music by Contemporary Composers," in
St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church
Sunday at 7:30 p.m. The 22 member
ensemble will perform works by Vivier,
Messaien, Scelsi, Bela and Joshua Pen-
man. The performance will also feature
an art installation by Tobi Hollander.
Small-town life
focus of reading
Jonis Agee will read from "Acts of
Love on Indigo Road," her book of short
stories, at Shaman Drum Bookshop
tonight at 8 p.m. Agee writes about
small-town midwestern life with wry
humor.
Speaker to explore
roots of Judaism
Doctoral candidate James Waddell
will give a speech, titled "Will the Real
Judaism Please Stand Up? Ritual Self-
Definition as Ideological Discourse from
Qumran to Jerusalem," in 3050 Frieze
Building Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Author says

integrity, charisma
keys to survival
Matt Bernstein Sycamore will read
from his autobiographical novel
"Pulling Taffy," at Shaman Drum Book-
shop tomorrow at 8 p.m. His book
addresses the struggle to maintain
integrity and charisma while getting by
in a dangerous world.
Singer to tribute
Marian Anderson
Mezzo-soprano Ruby Hinds will per-
form a one-woman tribute to Marian
Anderson titled, "See There in the Dis-
tance," in Britton Recital Hall tomor-
row at 5 p.m.
'U' bands perform
in joint concert
The University Band and Campus
Band, conducted by Damon Talley, will
perform at the Michigan Theater Sun-
day at 3 p.m. Selections include works
by Grainger, Chance, Press and Per-
sichetti.
African, Western
. .. .

By Cannon Johnson
Daily Staff Reporter

Students feeling powerless to change the Bush
administration's position on affirmative action and
the war turned to professors of color for a different
perspective a few weeks ago. Faculty responded to
the students' request by forming a new organization
- University Faculty of Color for Peace and Racial
Justice --and held their first teach-in yesterday.
Professors and a graduate student encouraged
students at the teach-in to advocate affirmative
action and to organize against the war in Iraq.
Speakers addressed two major frustrations held by
minority students - the Bush administration's
opposition to the University's race-conscious
admissions, and the nation's policies regarding the
war in Iraq.
African American studies and women's studies
Prof. Nesha Haniff said affirmative action and the

U.S. military are related because affirmative action
increased the number of minorities in the
Army."On one hand, Bush is against affirmative
action but people of color are dying on the front
line and we are supposed to trust him," Haniff said.
Addressing the need for students to organize,
women's studies and American culture Prof. Maria
Cotera said the apathy of Latino students on cam-
pus arises from the feelings of shame and disem-
powerment they feel toward the government, which
in turn blocks students from organizing. "Students
become pessimistic and if they speak out they are
told they are betraying their country, Cotera said.
"But remember that the power of the government is
invested in the people."
Rackham student Zereena Grewal did field
research in the Middle East until last month, when
she was evacuated because of the threat of war.
"My husband is Iraqi and in all my time in the
Middle East, I have never met someone who likes

"On one hand, Bush is against affirmative action but people
of color are dying on the front line and we're supposed to
trust him."
-Nesha Haniff
African American studies and women's studies professor

or approves of Saddam Hussein," Grewal said.
"When you see Iraqi soldiers fighting against the
U.S. on the TV they aren't fighting because they
want to keep Hussein in power. They are fighting
because they don't want to be bombed."
But women's studies and American culture Prof.
Andrea Smith said the anti-war movement should
not focus only on Iraq. "We are in the long haul,
because Bush declared war on terrorism," Smith
said. "This means there will be more fighting and
with time the movements will build momentum."
LSA freshman Lauren Whitehead recited a

poem she wrote out of frustration with inability to
voice opposition to the war, as well as her support
of race-conscious admissions. As a minority stu-
dent, Whitehead said she attended the teach-in to
learn more about the impact of the war in Iraq from
the minority perspective. "People look at me and
think that I don't deserve to be here, but I know that
I worked hard to get here. So when the pesident
says these policies aren't right, I start to feel inferior
to everyone here and it shouldn't be like that,"
Whitehead said. "Then when you express your
frustration, you get called un-American."


'U' Gay Shame Conference
commences with performance

By Victoria Edwards
Daily Staff Reporter

More than 200 people gazed in sus-
pense as the projector screen flicked
off, leaving the auditorium pitch
black. Just then, from the back of the
auditorium, drag queen Vaginal Davis
- clad in a sexy low cut red dress -
burst into song.
The performance was just a preview
of things to come for the "Gay Shame"
conference, which commenced last
night in Angell Hall.
University of California at Santa Cruz
senior and Gay Shame Eric Stanley said
the University's chapter differs from his
school's. "So far, it's interesting, it is
really good. ... We're more activist. This
is more academic. We do direct action
while this is more of an academic con-
ference," Stanley said.
Stanley said he thinks the University's
conference is especially beneficial
because queer theory and gay and les-
bian studies have been dying in the aca-
demic world. He added this is a

much-needed revival.
"I came here because I was inter-
ested in seeing Vaginal Davis's per-
formance this evening. I wanted to
see the stuff she's doing now in rela-
tion to the 'Gay Shame' program. I
wanted to see what performance
artists have to say about gay shame,"
LSA senior Carrie Matherly said.
University alum Ben Fife said he feels
that this event was especially pertinent
to the campus. "The event was lovely. It
seemed necessary. I like the idea of a
real queer presence on campus, not this
'aberzombie' thing we've got going,"
Fife said.
Part of this "real queer presence" is
directly related to the shame felt by
other oppressed groups, including the
disabled, George Washington University
English Prof. Robert McRuer said.
McRuer said he will speak for the
panel on Saturday. He said the panel is
an intersection of shame, queerness and
disability that is mostly presented
through autobiographical and perform-

ance mediums.
"We are looking at how shame struc-
turalized both the gay and disabled com-
munity movements. And how to work
through that shame in productive ways,"
McRuer added.
Matherly said in general, the confer-
ence expanded visibility about the gay
perspective. It allows people to further
familiarize themselves with the lifestyle,
he said.
The conference included an open-
ing talk by Women's studies and Eng-
lish Prof. Valerie Traub and went on
to a screening of Andy Warhol's film
"Screen Test #2", introduced by
essayist Douglas Crimp. The event
ended with Davis singing and reading
from her gossip column, "Intimacy
and Tomorrow."
The event was sponsored by other
campus groups, including the Institute
for Research on Women and Gender
and its Lesbian-Gay-Queer Research
Initiative and the Program for
Women's Studies. .


! NICOALE I ILL,. 3R Daily
Freshman Amanda Fernandez, a Latino Dance club member,
practices on the Diag yesterday for tomorrow's Latino Culture Show.
Panelists addressUcS
role in int'la-ffairs,
war on terroism

SAFETY
Continued from Page 1
war," he said. "More than half the
population of the planet lives on
less than a dollar a day. ... I think
that is really the significance of ter-
rorism."
Bergmann said the danger will not
end until poverty and unequal distri-
bution of wealth are addressed.
Bergman said the war is seen in
many places as more than a war of
the United States against Iraq - he
said it is seen as a war of rich

against poor, Islam against Chris-
tianity and the "colored races"
against the white world.
"There are now groups of volun-
teers trying to sign up to fight (for)
Iraq from many Arab countries," he
said..
Increased worldwide anti-American
sentiment has created fear in ithd
nation of future attacks like those of
Sept. 11.
LSA. senior Dani Steinberger said
he thought the war in Iraq made the
United States less secure. "I think it
makes America more vulnerable,"

he said.
"I think there's a lot of hatred
among other nations toward Ameri-
ca. It opens up opportunities for ter-
rorists."
Steinberger, a New York City
native with family there, said ten-
sion over domestic security issues
is harder to gauge in Ann Arbor.
"I think New York is more of a
(target) than Ann Arbor because it's
the financial capital of the world,"
he said.
"When you're in New York you
become more conscious of the security."


By Ryan Vicko
For the Daily

"We need peace colleges instead of
war colleges," said RC social science
Prof. Helen Fox, echoing the sentiment
of the evening at the annual Jack L.
Walker Memorial Conference on Politi-
cal Affairs. The five speakers at the con-
ference addressed issues including
genocide, international law, the signifi-
cance of an international criminal court
and what the new threat of terrorism
means for human rights.
Douglass Cassel, director of the Cen-
ter for International Human Rights,
addressed the war on terrorism in his
keynote speech. "The response to terror-
ism must not be in kind, lest the country
sink to the level of terrorists," he said.
The United States must stop turning
over terrorist suspects to countries
known for using torture, he added.
Cassel questioned whether the United
States is conforming to human rights
standards by using intelligence informa-
tion as the basis for detaining suspected
terrorists, and in some situations exact-
ing capital punishment without the prop-
er due process. He asserted that many of
the measures adopted mark a deviation
from established international norms.
"There's got to be more leadership
and less domination," said Law School
Prof. A.W Brian Simpson in his speech
on "U.S. Hegemony and the Protection
of Human Rights." The Bush adminis-

tration is not the right group of people
for the job, Simpson said.
Law School Prof. Dino Kritsiotis rein-
forced this idea saying, "if you're going
to be a hegemon, lead by principle ...
don't lead in a way that will create more
enemies." But the aim of the speakers
was not "America-bashing," as Simpson
said, but rather to inspire an open dia-
logue on human rights issues, and to
bring together not only scholars, but also
students and people who have actual
experience with these issues. "The
idiom of human rights presents us with a
unique understanding of what's going on
in the world ... but we must understand
human rights," Kritsiotis said.
The last speaker of the evening, J.
Paul Martin, executive director of the
Center for the Study of Human Rights,
spoke about the critical role students
hold in human rights. "You guys have
got some work to do - we all have
work to do,"he said.
Named after former University social
science Prof. Jack L. Walker, the event
was sponsored by The Undergraduate
Political Science Association. The con-
ference aims to educate the Ann Arbor
community about current topics that
would interest both professors and stu-
dents, said LSA senior Laura Zusman,
co-president of the Undergraduate Polit-
ical Science Association. This year's
topic was "Human Rights in the 21st
Century."

WEBSITE
Continued from Page 1
aspects of Wolverine Access was
that he could not always log on. Stu-
dents can access mischedule.com at
all hours, and can sift through large
courses with multiple lectures and

sections.
"If you're taking five classes or
are a second-year student, where
most classes have hundreds of sec-
tions, there is no way to figure out
the best way to fit it all in.
There are millions of combina-
tions," he said.



IRAQ
Continued from Page 1
can load them," said Capt. Thomas
Parker, aboard the USS Kitty Hawk
in the Persian Gulf.
Cargo planes flew military sup-
plies into northern Iraq after 1,000
American airborne troops parachut-
ed in to secure an airfield.
One source, speaking on condi-
tion of anonymity, said additional
personnel were being flown in, and
that an early objective would be
securing the northern oil fields near
Kirkuk.
Invading forces took control of
southern Iraqi oil fields in the early
hours of the ground war.

U.S. forces had pounded the
northern hills around Chamchamal
over the past several days, and it
appeared that the Iraqis abandoned
their checkpoint and bunkers and
retreated to the west.
In central Iraq, the first resupply plane
landed on a restored runway at Tallil
Airfield -hastily renamed "Bush Inter-
national Airport" by American forces
who had secured it.
Still, Iraqi resistance continued to
slow the drive on the capital and
kept American and British forces
out of key cities such as Basra and
An Nasiriyah.
Its mines kept ships with humani-
tarian assistance from unloading
their cargo at the southern port city

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