I
4C - The Michigan Daily - New Student Edition - Tuesday, September 3, 2002
Security of the future: M-Cards may be used to
open residence hall bedrooms and restrooms
By Jeremy Berkowitz
Daily Staff Reporter
In addition to present construction
on Hill Auditorium, Mason Hall and
the Life Sciences Institute, students
will see a fair amount of work being
done in residence halls over the next
two years in efforts to improve secu-
rity. Department of Public Safety
officials presented plans at the Uni-
versity Board of Regents' June meet-
ing to place video cameras at all
entrances of residence halls, as well
as install automatic door locks on all
rooms and bathrooms.
"Personal safety of our residents is
undoubtedly our paramount concern,"
Director of Housing Security and
Associate DPS Director Ian Steinman
said. "We are making a strong effort
to work on crime prevention."
The cameras will face towards the
outside and will only be looked at as
archival footage after an incident has
occurred. The automatic door locks
will require students to use their M-
Cards to open their room doors and
bathrooms. DPS officials and the
regents said they want to make sure
the new measures are efficient in pro-
moting safety but at the same time
don't violate student's rights.
"There is always that one balance
between one's privacy and one's safe-
ty," Regent Olivia Maynard (D-
Goodrich) said. "We want to protect
the students."
The new initiatives are a result of a
crime wave that raged across campus
last term. Between January and May,
DPS issued 18 crime alerts for vari-
ous offenses where a clear suspect
description could be given; one of
them was later canceled due to sus-
pect apprehension.
Of those incidents, 15 occurred in
University Housing facilities and
were a mixture of home invasions
where a perpetrator unlawfully
entered a person's room, sometimes
taking personal items, or "peeping
tom" incidents, where residents
reported suspects looking at them in
the shower.
DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown
said in March that despite the
increased crime, most of it had for-
tunately not involved any personal
danger.
"It is alarming that we have ha
number of incidents, but most
these incidents have been agai
property," Brown said.
In February, DPS took action
locking the residence halls 24 hou
day and increasing the number
officer patrols inside. But Univer
Housing and DPS officials h
repeatedly claimed that campus se
rity is a collaborative effort betw
officers, students and faculty. T
have constantly reminded student
be more careful of their possessi
and to take extra precautions such
locking their room doors.
"(DPS) can only go so far parti
larly in a place that values comma
ty responsibility," Brown sa
"(Students are) creating more o
problem for the entire community
order for the community to be sa
we need people to secure th
belongings."
Some students agree that DPS
doing everything they can and s
dents need to be more responsible.
"Girls should make sure that
door is shut and lock their room wl
they are sleeping," LSA junior Er
d a Irland said.
of But others note that more security
inst and better communication is needed
between University Housing and stu-
by dents. One problem that arose last
rs a winter was the negligence of resident
of advisors in posting crime alerts in
sity their halls. Brown said that crime
ave alerts usually arrive at residence halls
cu- within a day after the respective
een crime.
hey "My (resident advisor) doesn't
s to really ever post anything," LSA sen-
ons ior Nidhy Sighal said. "We didn't
i as find out about the new bathroom keys
until it happened."
cu- University Housing officials said
uni- they are looking at ways to improve
id. security procedures on campus.
f a While they have looked at practices
. In used on other campuses such as door
fer, monitors or sign-in sheets for guests,
eir measures implemented here need to
match the needs of students, the Uni-
is versity and Ann Arbor.
tu- "You want to use your resources as
effectively as possible on your cam-
the pus," said Alan Levy, director of pub- SHOSHANA HURAND/Da
hen lic affairs and information for The security of residence halls has been a constant hot topic since the
rica University Housing. increased crime rate, particularly in West Quad Residence Hall (above).
Plethora of majors often perplex
undergraduate students at 'U'
aily
MSA is most
prominent
voice for the
student body
By Tomislav Ladika
Daily Staff Reporter
Students interested in gaining a voice on campus
affairs or those eager to try out something new, have the
chance to take on a greater role through the Michigan
Student Assembly.
MSA is the main student governing body on campus.
Every college and school, including the Rackham Grad-
uate School and Law School, is represented proportion-
ally in MSA with at least one representative. The
assembly is led this year by LSA senior President Sarah
Boot and Vice President Dana Glassel, an LSA junior.
MSA meetings are open to the public and convene
every Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. on the third floor of the
Michigan Union. The central issues of most meetings are
resolutions usually calling for either MSA funding to
certain student projects or demanding that the Assembly
take an ideological stance on an issue. Committees also
report their weekly progress, and budget issues or pro-
posed changes to various MSA procedural rules are
often discussed at every meeting.
MSA serves two main purposes. It creates tangible
results through its large bureaucratic system of commit-
tees and commissions, which consist of both representa-
tives and regular students who work on various campus
projects during the week. These committees sponsor
forums and programs on issues, including campus safety,
sexual assault awareness and diversity. One committee
and one commission also have power to appropriate
ALYSSA WOOD/Daily
LSA senior Sarah Boot was sworn in as the new MSA
president April 2, 2002.
MSA funds to various student groups. Groups can apply
to MSA for money and each year the assembly hands out
over $200,000 to various campus groups.
MSA also has the power to lobby the University's
administration to make major changes on campus. Last
year, many MSA representatives focused on several proj-
ects, and by the end of the year, the assembly had creat-
ed a fall study break, extended recreational building
hours and expanded the availability of Entree Plus to
Michigan Stadium.
MSA's second role is to act as the voice of the student
body. Through resolutions, the assembly takes ideologi-
cal or political stances on issues important to students,
ranging from race as a factor in admissions to President
Bush's war against terrorism to racial slurs written on
campus sidewalks. These resolutions ask the assembly to
either support or condemn these ideas and events.
By Mada Sprow
Daily Staff Reporter
Biological anthropology, cultural
anthropology, zoological anthropology.
Biology, chemistry, physics, psychology,
biological physics. English, literature,
film and video studies, communication
studies, language studies, women's stud-
ies. Computer science, social sciences,
natural sciences, political science.
To be or not to be a lawyer, a doctor,
an activist, a politician, an artist, an
astronomer, a French fry flipper or gas
station attendant - oh, the possibilities.
For many students, the choices that
await them once they arrive at the Uni-
versity are limitless - and let's not for-
get overwhelming.
However, the University does provide
help and special services for students,
especially for the two kinds most com-
monly found on campus: Those with a
path and those undecided.
The first piece of advice students
walking into the University's Academic
Advising offices will find doesn't have
much to do with paths, said Cathy Con-
way-Perrin, an associate director of
LSA Academic Advising. Instead, it's
about steering clear of paths, at least at
first.
"The thing that we would stress the
most is that they explore their interests,
try to branch out,' Conway-Perrin said.
Most students, even those who
already believe they know what they
want to do with their post-college lives,
will benefit from additional exploration.
"I came to school wanting to be a
doctor, but through exploration and
mishap, I discovered I liked my com-
munication studies classes much more
than biology, chemistry, physics and
calculus," LSA senior David Levy said.
"Unfortunately for my parents, I decid-
ed medicine wasn't the profession for
-me, but at least I figured it out before
suffering through medical school."
Most students eventually stop explor-
ing and declare majors and minors -
the most popular concentrations at the
University include psychology, biology
and English - and finish with either a
Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science
degree.
Although the requirements for each
major are different, the process of
choosing a major is fairly simple, and
many students find themselves going
through it several times during their col-
lege careers.
No matter what, those seeking to
obtain a BA or BS must fulfill distribu-
tion requirements in the humanities,
social sciences, natural sciences, math
and symbolic analysis and creative
expression. They must also become pro-
ficient in a foreign language, take a
Race and Ethnicity class, a quantitative
reasoning course, introductory compo-
sition and take an upper-level writing
class during their junior or senior year.
Despite all the requirements,
Conway-Perrin said most University
students are successful in graduat-
ing in four years, as long as they
declare a major by the end of their
sophomore year.
"It's usually pretty easy, (but) sta-
tistically it doesn't really look like
it," she said. "There are so many
different options that we don't have
a set schedule that we recommend.
We recommend that they take a lan-
guage right away so that they don't
have a gap between their high
school study and their studies here.
There really isn't a set map."
But some students do choose to
spend more than four years in under-
graduate studies, due to various factors,
including the economy and study
abroad options.
"They are pacing themselves a little
differently to get more out of it or to
pursue some different things that they
may not have gotten out of it other-
wise," she said.
For others, whose interests are either
too wide or varied to be contained, the
University offers a Bachelors of Gener-
al Studies degree.
Students seeking a BGS degree have
to follow different requirements to grad-
uate -they don't have foreign language
or distribution requirements and are
required to take more upper-level cours-
es. However, the degree gives students
time to explore and allows them to take
a wider variety of classes.
Some people choose not to receive a
BGS because of it's supposed bad repu-
tation, but Conway-Perrin said employ-
ers don't look down on students who
major in general studies, and some even
prefer them.
"Career Planning and Placement has
done follow-up studies with employers,
and they hire or admit BGS degrees at
the same rate as everybody else," she
said, adding that success is more
dependent on the student than the
employer and how the student describes
their situation.
"It's more like, my interests didn't fit
in with the defined majors, so I went
and took the initiative to create my own
major" than saying I couldn't choose a
major and slacked off, she said.
Whatever students choose to do,
there is always another option available
if they change their mind, and Conway-
Perrin said students should take their
time and realize college is not like high
school.
"I guess the other thing that we
would stress is the transition issues. Stu-
dents coming in their first year don't
always realize how different it is," she
said. "A lot of students come in, and
they are very bright, but they were used
to doing well in high school without
having to work very hard."
GOVERNING BODY OF MSA
President, Sarah Boot
siilboot~umich.edu
Vice-President, Dana Glassel
dglasse1@umich.edu
Treasurer, Liz Mullane
emultane@umich.edu
Student General Counsel, Joe Bernstein
jiecool@umichedu
. ;ji
Angell Hall houses the LSA Academic Advising Center.
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