LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - 3 THIS W IWaJlIpmILr. & 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 <: : x r f. r r:. >:n '% sz 4 Qh { i t ^2t .. .:. ): U.