LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 3 THIS WEEK Five years ago... Students reacted with shock at the release of President Bill Clinton's August 1998 grand-jury testimony regarding his relationship with for- mer White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Several classes took time to dis- cuss the issue, and The Michigan Daily published excerpts of Clin- ton's transcript as well as pictures of Lewinsky's infamous blue dress with the semen stain. "I think it's really sad," Law School student Chris Smith said. "It's devastat- ing to the presidency and Clinton's behavior is to blame." Ten years ago... The University Board of Regents approved an amendment to its bylaws, including sexual orientation as a basis of protection from Uni- versity discrimination. The bill passed on a 7-1 vote. The one dissenter, Regent Deane Baker (R-Ann Arbor), said he felt the amendment represented a viola- tion of freedoms as opposed to an enhancement. "I have long argued, unsuccessfully, that these policies restrict both freedom of speech and freedom to practice one's own religion by non-homosexual or lesbian students," Baker said. Sept. 23, 1985 The regents unanimously approved a resolution supporting faculty members who did research for President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. At their monthly meeting, President Harold Shapiro said professors had the right to do whatever work in their field they desired, as long as they followed University research regu- lations. Nevertheless, 20 students protested the resolution at the meeting. "That's not just supporting academic freedom," Michigan Student Assembly military researcher Ingrid Kock said. "That's putting the University behind Star Wars." Sept. 23, 1980 An assailant stabbed an LSA junior outside South Quad Residence Hall, leaving minor injuries in her stomach. The victim described the suspect as a six-foot-tall white male in his mid-to- late twenties. "He didn't look like a bum or any- thing," she said. The stabbing came after three brutal murders in the Ann Arbor area in the past five months. The most recent one occurred Sept. 14 and resulted in the death of a Business School student. Sept. 26, 1973 A student advisory committee to the Governor's Commission on Higher Education called for students to sit on their university boards. They attacked the argument by state colleges that students holding power over their professors would represent a conflict of interest. "Such an argument is a slap in the face of every student in the state of Michigan," the commission wrote in its report. The students also supported co- ed residence halls and the elimination of rules regarding drinking and visiting hours at universities. Sept. 25, 1985 Detroit union steward Shanta Driver discussed South African Apartheid with a group of students at the William Mon- roe Trotter House. Driver advised against divesting from South Africa and instead pushed revolution within the country. Sept. 24, 1970 University officials and the Ann Arbor Police Department ended a three-week tent-in on the Diag by threatening evacuation and arrest. The protest, during which students slept in tents, began earlier that month protest- ing unreasonable student housing rates in Ann Arbor. President Robben Fleming approved the tent-in as long as there would be no serious hazards. But a threat of a hepatitis epidemic, due to one protester's hospitalization, caused Fleming and other University admin- istrators to change their minds. Sept. 23, 1962 The Michigan Daily reported a recent attempt by the University chapter of Alpha Tau Omega frater- nity to eliminate all racially dis- Wall of 20,000 daffodils to decorate Nichols Arboretum come spring By Dan Trudeau Daily Staff Reporter Even for those on campus who don't consider themselves to be the "flowery type," the concept of an uninterrupted line of yellow daffodils running through a half mile of the Nichols Arboretum pro- vides an interesting mental image. That imagined visual will take on a tangible form this spring when Rackham student Susan Skarsgard exhibits her thesis project, titled Imagine-Align. Skarsgard, who also works as a product designer for General Motors Corp., and a team of volunteers will plant 20,000 daffodil bulbs during October to make her conceptual vision a reality when the bulbs bloom in the spring. "It is, in some way, a reference to the walls and borders and fences that pop up in our civilization and then eventually disappear," Skarsgard said of the flowers, which will die by the end of summer 2004. "I realize how different people react to this idea and take their own spin on things - that's what I want." While imagining such a concept may only take a few seconds, the planning, implementation and docu- mentation of the project will continue for months and require the help of numerous organizations and vol- unteers, Skarsgard said. But University spokes- woman Joanne Nesbit said volunteers are still needed. According to Skarsgard, it's the simplicity of the final concept that draws people to her project. "It's sort of a huge effort, but on the other hand, I don't want it to get overwhelmingly huge," she said, adding that attracting volunteers hasn't been hard. "As soon as I explain the project to someone, it just seems to happen. It's so easy to visualize, people just get it." One of those people who "just got it" was Arb Director Robert Grese who, according to Skarsgard, was excited and eager to cooperate once she posed the idea to him. Catriona Mortell, Grese's assistant, said officials at the Arb were receptive to Skarsgard because of the well-organized and unobtrusive nature of her exhibition, among other factors. She said that proj- ect will not interfere with the natural environment of the Arb as the annual flowers will not return next year. "She had a remarkably well-organized plan," Mortell said. "It's an interesting concept to have these boundaries - to consider what's real and what isn't." In order to pay for the project, Skarsgard is plan- ning several months of fundraising, but sponsorships are currently helping to cover the costs. Skarsgard and other project planners have staked out the line that the snaking flowers will follow. Workers from Superior Brick Paving, which is spon- "As soon as I explain the project to someone, it just seems to happen. It's so easy to visualize, people just get it." - Susan Skarsgard Rackham student soring the project, will dig a six-inch trench along the line on Oct. 3, loosening the soil and making way for planting, which is scheduled for Oct. 4, 5 and 12. Skarsgard said one of her favorite aspects of the projects so far has been the cooperation between various University institutions and the businesses and community members who will volunteer their time to help complete the exhibition. "It's both community and University, and it's wonderful when that kind of thing comes togeth- er," she said. Skarsgard is also involved in an exhibition open- ing on Friday at the Warren Robbins Gallery at the School of Art and Design. That exhibition, entitled "Memory Breeze," featumas work inspired by "funer- al fans," - hand-held fans used in African-Ameri- can churches in the South during the early 20th century and will run through Oct. 27. I Z* , . Knowledge is power. APOO000 Pasit on. 0000*1 r Join us, and you'll find yourself in an environment where knowledge and learning are shared. An environment where you can expect to learn from your i I