LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - 3
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Int'l students face registration difficulties
Nov. 28, 1990
Approximately 120 students attended
the first meeting of the Anti-Gulf War
Coalition because of worries that a war
was brewing in the Middle East and not
enough activism had occurred on cam-
pus. The platform called for bringing
troops home, decreasing U.S. depend-
ence on foreign oil, ending a blockade of
food and medicine to Iraq, and an end to
anti-Arab and anti-Semitic racism.
Nov. 29, 1949
The LSA assistant dean announced
that a new policy limiting course drops
to the first three weeks of a term had
been approved. The limit was instituted
"because of a widespread tendency of
students to drop courses at the first sign
of difficulty."
Nov. 29, 1973
The Student Government Council
passed a resolution condemning the Uni-
versity's pledge to enroll 10 percent
minority students by opposing "the usage
of quotas in any University policy."
Nov. 29, 1977
Michigan Gov. William Milliken
organized a North Campus conference
to "arouse interest in the potentials of
wood energy." Officials came from sev-
eral states and countries as far as Swe-
den to discuss the potential of increasing
the use of wood as a fuel for energy pro-
duction and heating. Milliken estimated
that wood would save $8.4 billion and
600 million barrels of oil.
I
By Tomislav Ladika
Daily Staff Reporter
International students face enough difficulty
leaving their family and home countries behind to
attend the University - and not being able to regis-
ter for classes they want should not be an additional
challenge, LSA sophomore Pragav Jain said.
The international student orientation is held in
mid-August, during the five days directly preceding
freshman Welcome Week. By that point, most of
the classes international students want to take are
already filled, Jain said.
"When (international students) come in, they
face a lot of problems with their school because a
lot of classes are taken up," he said. "Everyone I
know who is an international student has always
faced problems. They never take the classes their
counselors recommend."
Jain, who is originally from India, said when
he first registered for classes at the University,
three of the four classes he originally wanted to
take were full.
"I was pretty much disappointed. I wanted to
take other classes which I couldn't get at the time,"
Jain said.
Jain added that like him, many international stu-
dents are disappointed with their first semester
because they are not happy with their classes.
Engineering junior Nishit Salot, a transfer stu-
dent who attended his first two years of college in
India, said he and 10 other transfer students from
India that he knows experienced problems register-
ing for classes.
"By the time we get here, all the classes are
almost full," Salot said. "Everyone had the
same problem. They were actually registered
for 12 credits."
Although he received an override for two
Engineering classes, Salot said he had trouble
finding two other open classes, and registering
for a class in the College of Literature, Science
and Arts to fulfill his humanities requirement
was especially difficult.
Despite such complaints, Ann Hower, director of
the Office of New Student Programs, said the inter-
national student orientation is held after-the regular
orientations to cater to the needs of students who
cannot visit the University earlier in the summer
just to attend orientation.
"It's strictly financial," Hower said. "Most of
them wouldn't want to travel to the U.S. twice."
Hower said the regular orientations are
open to international students, but the inter-
national orientation is specially designed to
address any concerns students have upon
arriving to the United States. She said stu-
dents are informed about health insurance
coverage options and visa regulations, and
they are provided with details about the
requirements of various schools at the Uni-
versity that would otherwise require a lot of
effort to obtain.
"It's supposed to be a convenience. If they go to
a regular orientation, they're going to have to go to
a lot of offices," Hower said.
Many international students are also required to
take an Academic English Evaluation, which is
held during the international student orientation,
Hower said. Although the test can be made up if
international students attend a regular orientation,
the process is more difficult, she said.
Orientation leaders also organize cross-cultural
activities and take the students shopping, she
added.
"What we hear is extremely positive," Hower
said. "We do more for an international student ori-
entation than any other school in the Big Ten."
Jain said as chair of the International Students
Affairs Commission of the Michigan Student
Assembly, he is working toward improving the
registration process for international students. He
said he realizes that most international students
cannot arrive in the United States earlier in the
summer, but he proposed that the University
reserve 4 to 5 percent of spots in classes for inter-
national students.
Hower said seats are not reserved for any-
one because all students attend some form of
orientation.
Jain added that he was not informed of the
option of attending an orientation earlier in the
summer, and that he first heard about the other ori-
entations from his roommates.
"When I got here, I didn't know about summer
orientation."
But Hower said the University website explains
that international students can attend earlier orien-
tations if they desire.
In addition to having difficulty registering for
classes, Jain said he could not purchase football
tickets before arriving to the United States because
international students do not receive season ticket
applications.
"A lot of people who come in, they don't know
what a wolverine is or 'Go Blue,' or what the Big
House is," he said. "Last year could have been
much better if I could have gone for the games. ... I
used to say, 'Did you guys win today?' instead of
'Did we win today?"'
Season ticket applications are mailed to all stu-
dents who register to attend the University by mid-
May, including international students, ticket
manager Marty Bodner said. He suggested that sea-
son ticket applications might occasionally be lost
by foreign mail services.
If you can't take the heat ...
Granhoim refuses
salary hike due to.
state budget woes
Nov. 30, 1932
The School of Education dean
declared that "rowdyism" among stu-
dents had almost completely disap-
peared since prohibition began, and
came out against proposals to repeal the
ban on alcohol.
Nov. 30, 1954
Local residents raised bond for a Uni-
versity law student from Iran, enabling
him to petition the federal government
* for political asylum. Buich Navidzadeh
faced execution in Iran after accusations-
that he was a communist sympathizer.
Nov. 30. 1972
The Student Government Council
narrowly defeated a proposal to establish
a student "dope co-op" that called for
the council to allocate $2,500 to buy
marijuana to be distributed free to stu-
dents. The vote was 6 to 5 until the SGC
president voted against it. Proponents of
the measure immediately called for a
recall of the president.
Dec. 1, 1949
The Interfraternity Council passed a
resolution to ask the Student Affairs
Committee to suspend any fraternity
which failed to petition its national chap-
ter to remove racial bias clauses from its
constitution.
Dec. 1, 1955
A strike by stereotypers shut
down Detroit's major newspapers,
though they continued to gather and
broadcast news reports through
radio. The next day, Michigan Daily
staff members went to Detroit to
sell the Daily on the streets. Over
* 3,000 were sold
Dec. 1, 1970
Jane Fonda, an outspoken critic of
U.S. policy in Indochina, told an audi-
ence of several hundred gathered in the
Michigan Union Ballroom that although
President Richard "Nixon doesn't want
to be the first American president to lose
a war, he may be the first to lose an
army ... The soldiers are no longer John
Wayne freaks."
Dec. 1, 1978
Former University student Bob
Higgins filed suit against the Uni-
versity regents for $885,000
because the German department did
not give him an "A" in a fourth term
language class.
Dec. 2, 1974
The University was forced to cancel
classes for the first time in 25 years
when 18 inches of snow fell on the Mid-
west, closing airports and preventing the
return of students from Thanksgiving
vacation.
Dec. 3, 1942
The University Hospital, already stag-
gering under a labor shortage because of
World War II, was paralyzed by the sud-
LANSING (AP) - Gov.-elect Jen-
nifer Granholm says neither she nor Lt.
Gov.-elect John Cherry will accept a
salary increase in light of the state's
tight finances.
In a letter sent Monday to the State
Officers Compensation Coimmission,
Granholm said that given the budget
crisis the state now faces, the pair won't
seek or accept a pay raise for 2005-06.
"She's very aware of the fiscal prob-
lems we're going to be facing and
does not want to add to them by
accepting a pay raise," Granholm tran-
sition team spokeswoman Mary Dett-
loff said yesterday. "She hopes other
elected officials
will follow suit."
Granholm wrote
her letter as the
commission began
consideration of
how much the gov-
ernor, lieutenant s
governor, secretary
of state, attorney
general, lawmakers
and Supreme Court Granhoim
justices should be paid in 2005-06.
"For the time being, I very respect-
fully urge the State Officers Compen-
sation Commission to forgo suggesting
any changes to the current compensa-
tion structure that will negatively
impact the state's budget," wrote
Granholm, now the state's Democratic
attorney general. "Thank you in
advance for your sensitivity to the
state's ominous fiscal outlook."
Incoming Senate Majority Leader
Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) sent his
own letter to the commission on Mon-
day, saying it was too soon to propose a
pay increase so far in the future.
"It is premature for SOCC to issue a
recommendation now about salary lev-
els that will not take effect until 2005,"
Sikkema wrote. "It is simply not possi-
ble to make a sound recommendation
regarding salary levels three or foul
years in the future."
The state faces a deficit of $400 mil-
lion to $600 million in the current fis-
cal year, which began Oct. 1. Dettlofi
said early indications are that the state
will have to deal with a $1.8 billion
shortfall in fiscal 2003, which begins
next Oct. 1.
"Given the looming budget deficit,
the governor-elect feels it's not wise to
give out pay increases at this time,'
Dettloff said. "To cut the budget and
accept pay raises is just not fair."
The commission held a preliminary
meeting last week. A second meeting to
be held this week was canceled, but the
commission is expected to meet next
month to issue recommendations.
Under a constitutional amendment
adopted by Michigan voters in August,
pay levels for the governor, lieutenant
governor, Supreme Court, attorney
general, secretary of state and lawmak-
ers will be frozen until after the 2004
general election.
"Given our current fiscal situation
and the change to our constitution, a
recommendation to increase elected
officials' salaries would be out of step
with what voters approved in August,"
Sikkema said.
"Any determination the commission
makes now will have no validity in light
of the new constitutional amendment."
The governor now is paid $177,000 a
year; the lieutenant governor.
$123,900; Supreme Court justices.
$164,610; and legislators, $79,650. All
but the justices receive expense
allowances; legislative leaders also
make supplemental amounts.
Salaries for the secretary of state
and attorney general will be set by the
commission beginning in 2006, bul
they have been set by law for the
upcoming four-year term. Both offices
now earn $124,900 a year and will
remain the same.
BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily
Nick Dias, a chef at Palio on Main Street, prepares a white sauce while working yesterday at
the restaurant.
New Jersey divided between north and south
SAYREVILLE, N.J. (AP) - The map says New
Jersey is one state. But the people who live in it
know better.
New Jersey? One state? Forget it.
There is north Jersey and there is south Jersey,
and never do they meet, unless you count that
snarling, honking, are-we-there-yet-Dad line of
traffic crawling down the Garden State Parkway
every summer weekend.
"We have the same license plate. After that,
there's not much in common," said Frank Capece, a
lawyer from the northern town of Cranford. "We
root for different football teams, we root for differ-
ent baseball teams, the cost of living is significantly
less in south Jersey and in south Jersey, people talk
softer and slower."
In north Jersey, it's about "the city" - New
York - the wait at the Holland Tunnel today,
what the Knicks will do tonight, what Tony
Soprano will do this season. Traffic lights?
They're just suggestions, really.
In south Jersey, it's about the country - a
sprawling region of seaside resorts, cranberry bogs,
farms and Philadelphia suburbs wrapped around
the biggest wilderness area east of the Mississippi
River, the 1 million acre Pine Barrens.
In colonial times, New Jersey was two different
places - for a while.
In 1676, the colony was divided into East Jersey
and West Jersey, corresponding roughly to what is
now north and south. Unable to successfully govern
on their own, they merged in 1702.
The south, portions of which lie beneath the
Mason-Dixon line, was settled by Quakers and
evolved as a fanning region. Settled by New Eng-
landers, Scots and Dutch, the north developed as an
industrial corridor and a bedroom community to
New York.
According to legend, Ben Franklin once
described New Jersey as "a keg tapped at
both ends."
So where does north end and south begin?
Officially, south Jersey is often delineated as the
state's southernmost eight counties - Ocean,
Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, Cape
May, Cumberland and Salem.
But the popular view isn't as clear.
"If you talk to someone from Newark or
Morristown and say you live in Trenton, they
say, 'Way down in south Jersey, huh?' But if
you talk to someone from Vineland or
Atlantic City, Trenton's north Jersey," said
Phil Rogers of Trenton.
New Jersey is the country's most densely popu-
lated state, with 8.4 million people squeezed into
the fourth-smallest state, by area. That's 1,134 peo-
ple per square mile, compared with a national aver-
age of 79.6 people per square mile.
The population centers are all located in the
north: Newark, the state's largest city, has more
people (273,546) than five of the eight southern
counties.
"South Jerseyans think north Jerseyans
look down on them, in the same way that
north Jerseyans think New Yorkers look down
on them," said Rutgers University Prof.
Michael Aaron Rockland. "They feel a cer-
tain inferiority."
State's largest retailers cope with
Chapter 11 bankruptcy troubles
w a sp P,
Jumbo Buffalo Wings
DETROIT (AP) - Three of
Michigan's most recognizable retail-
ers are hoping to gain momentum
for 2003 during the holiday sales
season.
Two of the state's largest retailers
head into the holidays on different
pointing 2001 holiday sales.
Borders Group Inc. of Ann Arbor
turned a record fourth-quarter sales
performance in 2001 and hopes for a
repeat performance. Executives are
looking for this year's fourth-quarter
profits to be 7 percent to 10 percent
of the Rings,"' said Tami Heim,
president of Borders Stores and Bor-
ders.com.
Kmart plans to entice shoppers
with incentives. Chairman and chief
executive officer Jim Adamson has
said one of Kmart's biggest holiday
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