Weatbher -------------- ---- Tuesday September 16, 2003 ©2003 The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No. 11 - - - -!K-I! am "M t- t One-hundred-twelve years of edtorialdfreedom TODAY: Mostly sunny dur- ing the day and clear into night with winds around 10 mph. Pi; 75 LOS n53 Tomorrow,. 80154 wwwmichigandailycom CONNECTING THE GAP Ceremony o ens bridge eZeen 'U' campuses By Jeremy Berkowitz Daily Staff Reporter Figuratively and literally, a new bridge symbolized a connection between students and the Life Sci- ences at Michigan Program yesterday. At an official ceremony, Life Sci- ences Institute Managing Director Liz Barry, LSA Dean Terry McDonald and Chemistry Department Chairman William Roush were three of several participants to open a new pedestrian bridge connecting the Medical and Central Campuses. The bridge is located at the corner of Washtenaw Avenue and Zina Pitcher Place. "It was a fun ceremony," Barry said. "Bringing the campus together is what the campus planners intend- ed." The LSI also opened yesterday, which is one of three new buildings connected with the initiative. Administrative staff received keys yesterday and will not be fully unpacked until the end of the semes- ter. Faculty members begin to move in at the beginning of next month and all their lab equipment should be installed by the end of December. Undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students eventually will do lab work in the building. Yesterday represented the first completed phase of construction for the sciences, which is expected to continue for the better part of the decade. The 99,000 square-feet Com- mons Building, slated for completion See BRIDGE, Page 3 Radio station mourns death of employee By Victoria Edwards and Emily Kraack Daily Staff Reporters Michigan Radio had reason for silence this morning. Steven Graham, a respected employee at the radio sta- tion for more than 20 years, was pub- licly identified yesterday as the 49-year old Ann Arbor man found dead in the LSA Building Saturday. Graham, who was an engineer at WUOM-FM, died as a result of an apparent strangulation suicide, Department of Public Safety spokes- woman Diane Brown said. The radio station staff gathered ear- lier yesterday to remember Graham, said Donovan Reynolds, director of WUOM-FM Michigan Public Media. "He was a popular member of the staff and hard working," Reynolds said. Reynolds said Graham was devoted to his work and lived with his mother. He described Graham as introverted and shy but well liked by everyone. "In the eight years I worked with him, I don't remember him once saying an unkind thing about anybody," Reynolds added. He said Graham showed no indica- tions of distress or depression in the days before his death. Reynolds also recalled a time in 1996 when another I employee of the radio station attempted suicide. "It's inexplicable to me why these things happen, but they sometimes happen," he said. ,WUOM-FM offers psychologi- cal services to employees through a faculty-staff assistance program, Reynolds said. Graham was discovered on the fifth See DEATH, Page 3 ABOVE: Life Sciences Institute Managing Director Uz Barry joins Pharmacy Dean George Kenyon and Dentistry Dean Peter Polverini for the dedication of the new pedestrian bridge near the Hill area yesterday. Instead of having a ribbon-cutting ceremony, two ribbons were brought from each end and joined together in the middle to symbolize the new connection between the medical and central campuses. LEFT: Although the new pedestrian bridge was dedicated and opened to the public yesterday, fencing still surrounds the area, which still has a number of final developments that need to be made before Its completion. (Photos by ELISE BERGMAN/Daily) Informal rules do not deter recruits from drinking By Evan McGarvey For the Daily 4U) activists - both conservatives, liberals By Carmen Johnson Daily Staff Reporter - stay in national spotlight On a campus where students once spent 37 days camping out on the seventh floor of the Michigan Union to protest a secret society's use of Native American culture, active students know how to make a scene. It's a scene that gets noticed and puts the University on countless "top politically active campuses" lists. But many charge that the liberals get all the attention. This month, a self-described "social justice" political magazine ranked the University of Michi- gan on the list of top activist campuses for 2003 along with other colleges such as New York Univer- sity and James Madison University in Virginia. The magazine mentioned the busloads of stu- dents who traveled to Washington in April to rally for the University's admission policies hearing as an example of student activism. But not everyone who went to Washington sup- r Photo Illustration by MICHAEL PIFER/Daily ported the University's side. In previous years, when the University has been selected as a top activist campus, illustrations of student activism tend to focus on liberal causes such as last year's anti-war rallies and the campaign to end the University's labor contract with Nike due to the company's labor conditions. "Everyone thinks that you have to be a liberal or progressive to be an activist, but I disagree," said LSA junior Bobby Raham, who describes himself as a conservative activist. "Being an activist is making a difference by standing up in what you believe in," he added. Sweetland Writing Center and RC Prof. Helen Fox spoke at last year's advocacy day addressing student activism. "The norm is not to question and accept how things are so students who protest tend to be pro- gressive because the norm is conservative," said Fox, who graduated from University of California at Berkeley - another campus recognized for its student protests against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. Raham, who helped organized last week's rally on the Diag in support of American forces in Iraq, See ACTIVISM, Page 3 Each fall weekend, groups of high school athletes come to the University to spend time with their potential team- mates and coaches in NCAA-sanc- tioned "official visits." The time is designed as a chance for the high school seniors to gain a feel for campus and the academic and social climate of the University. But for some recruits the visit weekends are an opportunity to experience another aspect of college life - parties and drinking. Conduct rules are rarely dictated explicitly to recruits and lack of com- munication between coaches, hosts and recruits creates an environment of few guidelines and unknown consequences. LSA freshmen Eric Tannenbaum, a wrestling team member, recalled his official visit to the University last fall. "(The coaches) said nothing about drinking. They told us nothing about behavior or conduct. The guys on the team took us out to parties," Tannen- baum said. The NCAA's "Guide For The Stu- dent-Bound Athlete" contains a section outlining the policies for official visits but makes no statements concerning alcohol. None of the six athletes interviewed were told explicitly by coaches or their hosts that drinking while on the visit "I don't remember being explicitly told not to drink. The coaches said 'anything in moderation: - Ellen Van Clere Diving team member was forbidden. The hosts are in charge for the vast majority of the visit. LSA freshman and diving team member Ellen Van Clere only remem- bered vague instructions from the coaches. "I don't remember being explicitly told not to drink. The coaches said 'anything in moderation.' Hosts could- n't drink, but we did go out "Van Clere said. Freshman swimmer Annie Stein had a similar experience. "There were no guidelines. The coaches don't promote drinking but they leave it as a personal decision," Stein said. The Athletic Department's media relations refused to comment and referred all questions to the individual coaches. Matthew Anderson, the head Women's Water Polo coach, described his official visit itinerary. "We want to have them come in on a See RECRUITS, Page 3 New labor agreement may help domestic automakers compete in foreign market Bush's energy proposal gets mixed reviews By Andrew Kaplan a Daily Staff Reporter By Tomislav Ladika Daily Staff Reporter The country's largest automakers may have a bet- ter chance of competing with their foreign counter- parts, thanks to a tentative labor agreement reached by the United Auto Workers and the country's third- largest automaker Sunday. Just hours after the midnight expiration of the previous four-year labor contract, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger announced the deal with Daimler- Chrysler AG's Chrysler Group at a press confer- ence early yesterday morning. Union negotiators could not strike a simultane- ous agreement with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., but the deal with Chrysler will serve as a framework for agreements with the other major auto manufacturers, Gettelfinger said in a will occur. The deal, which observers said was unusual for how quickly it was reached, could allow the strug- gling Big Three automakers to contain their labor costs, helping them compete with foreign carmak- ers from Japan, Korea and Europe. United States car sales have been down this year and in August the Big Three claimed their lowest monthly market share ever, at 57.9 percent. "Unlike in the past, the companies are on the same side. They have a common enemy, which is the Japanese transplants," said Gerald Myers, adjunct University professor of organizational behavior and human resource management. Details of the agreement were not released, but preliminary reports indicate that UAW workers will likely compromise on wage and pension increases. In 1999 UAW secured 3-percent wage increases, a Just over a month after an energy blackout left six million Michigan residents and 70 percent of the state's manufacturing facilities in the dark, President Bush traveled to the Monroe power plant to gather support for his energy policy yesterday. His ideas were met with mixed reactions on campus and in Congress. During his speech, Bush cited the need to upgrade power plants - such as the one in Monroe, one of the nation's largest coal-fired power plants - which would help in job creation. "When we talk about environmental policy in this Bush administration, we not only talk about clean air, we talk about jobs," Bush said during his 11th trip to Michigan since his election. According to the National Audubon Society, several of the I