Wednesday
October 8,2003
©2003 The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXIII, No. 27
. Atk iguuit airg
DAY:
Sunny all day
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tures reach a~
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with clear g 53
skies through Tomorrow
the night.
www.michigandaily.com
One-hundred-thirteen years ofeditorialfreedom
Voters bid 'hasta la vista' to Davis9W M
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Californians banished Gov. Gray
Davis just 11 months into his second term and elected action
hero Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace him last night - a
Hollywood ending to one of the most extraordinary political
melodramas in the nation's history.
Voters traded a career Democratic politician who became
one of the state's most despised chief executives for a moder-
ate Republican megastar who had never before run for office.
Davis became the first California governor pried from office
and only the second nationwide to be recalled.
Early tallies showed the recall favored by 1,019,874 voters,
or 57.5 percent, and opposed by 755,375, or 42.6 percent.
Other early returns had Schwarzenegger ahead with
862,217 votes; Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante with
482,376; Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock with
200,970; and Green Party candidate Peter Camejo with
25,916.
Schwarzenegger prevailed despite a flurry of negative pub-
licity in the campaign's final days, surviving allegations that
he had groped women and accusations that as a young man
he expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.
The 56-year-old Austrian immigrant - husband of televi-
sion journalist Maria Shriver - finds himself in charge of the
nation's most populated state with an economy surpassed only
by those of several countries.
Schwarzenegger promised to return the shine to a Golden
State beset by massive budget problems and riven by deep
political divisions.
Voters faced two questions - whether to recall Davis, and
who among the other candidates should replace him if he was
removed. They chose to get rid of the incumbent and put
Schwarzenegger in his place.
About seven in 10 voters interviewed in exit polls said they
had made up their minds how they would vote on the recall
question more than a month before the election.
Long lines were reported at polling places through the day.
By late afternoon, Terri Carbaugh, a spokeswoman for the
secretary of state, said a turnout of 60 percent appeared likely,
higher than the 50.7 percent who voted in last November's
gubernatorial election. It would be the highest percentage to
vote in a gubernatorial election since 1982.
See CALIFORNIA, Page 7
Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor-elect of California, cele-
brates his victory yesterday in the election that successfully
recalled Gray Davis.
Budget short
up to $800M,
officials say
"At first,
people did
not want to
listen to a
doctor
telling them
it was a
virus. They
thought it
was the
establish-
ment trying
to take
away their
freedom -
their
freedom to
love."
- Larry Kramer
AIDS activist
Newest estimates of
state shortfall could be bad
news for higher education
By Michael Gurovitsch
Daily Staff Reporter
After more calculations and lower-than-
expected September revenues, state offi-
cials now concede the budget shortfall
may be as high as $800 million, double the
estimates of about $400 million from as
late as last week.
"Clearly now, it's in excess of $600 mil-
lion. My Senate counterpart thinks (the
shortfall) is $800 million," said Mitch
Bean, director of the Michigan House Fis-
cal Agency. "This is a very substantial
problem we are looking at. This is going to
be a very difficult round of cuts."
State budget cuts have traditionally
meant less money for Michigan's universi-
ties. Bean said although the decision to cut
the higher education budget rests with leg-
isl1tors, it is likely to be reduced.
"With a problem of this magnitude, I
believe everything is probably on the
table," he said.
The exact amount of the shortfall will
not be known until Oct. 14, when the state
House and Senate fiscal agencies meet for
a revenue estimating conference.
The extent to which the increase in the
budget shortfall
will affect the Uni-
versity is not yet
known. "We don't
know yet where the
spending reductions
will be and how
large they will be.
It is premature to
say the University will be cut by a certain
amount," said Greg Bird, spokesman for
the Office of the State Budget.
Bean said previous state revenue esti-
mates were too low because the national
and state economies have not been produc-
ing jobs, which in turn decreased income
tax revenue by 8 percent.
See BUDGE, Page 7
Larry Kramer,
AIDS activist
and writer, Is
Interviewed
yesterday by
Medical School
Prof. Howard
Markel in
Rackham
Auditorium.
(DAVID
TUMAN/fDaily)
Activat recounts gays'fight against AIDS
By Margaret Engoren
and Faryal Osman
Daily Staff Reporters
Introduced by University Provost Paul
Courant as "the leading AIDS activist since
the beginning of the crisis," Larry Kramer dis-
cussed the struggle for answers to the
HIV/AIDS crisis last night at Rackham Audi-
torium.
"In the early 1980s, young men were dying
like flies, but we were lucky if we got our
story on the local news for three minutes,"
Kramer said. "Ronald Reagan didn't say the
word 'AIDS' for seven years - that was the
situation."
A Yale graduate and former assistant to
presidents of two major film companies,
Kramer said he was used to people answering
his phone calls, yet no one would listen to him
about AIDS.
Kramer said AIDS "went from nothing to
60,000 cases" because of high-level politi-
cians trying to cover up their own homosexu-
ality or that of family members. "They refused
to acknowledge the problem or to take action.
Much of history is shaped by the complica-
tions of individuals' private lives," he said.
Kramer said he realized he had to find
another tool to bring the world's attention to
HIV/AIDS and, in 1983, he co-founded the
Gay Men's Health Crisis, an organization to
raise awareness and search for a cure.
"There were no answers. People would
endure anything. A researcher at the Weiz-
mann Institute in Israel came up with a lipid
treatment, and an American doctor in the
South was charging $60,000 for blood-clean-
ing," Kramer said. "That's the kind of life it
was.
"At first, people did not want to listen to a
doctor telling them it was a virus. They
thought it was the establishment trying to take
their freedom - their freedom to love,"
Kramer said. "To this day I still don't know
why gay men didn't act. Lovers died, friends
died, whole houses of roommates on Fire
Island (N.Y.) died - and it still didn't make
people get off their asses."
In 1985, Kramer decided to write a play,
"The Normal Heart," about the gay communi-
ty's struggle for HIV/AIDS awareness, which
was selected as one of the 100 greatest plays
See KRAMER, Page 7
Programs help
students with
the 'write' stuff
By Evan McGarvey
Daily Staff Reporter
Everyone's OK
JOEL FRIEDMAN/Daily
An employee works her shift at Borders Books on East Liberty Street yesterday. Borders
employees recently turned down the contract offered to their union by management.
Boiders' proposal
declined by union
By Adam Rosen
Daily Staff Reporter
Noticing dissatisfied and ill-prepared students, universi-
ties across the country are restructuring their writing pro-
grams to remedy years of ineffective classes, according to a
recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Duke and Princeton universities have completely
revamped their writing programs and Columbia University
has replaced all graduate students with full professors in
freshman writing classes.
The University has not experienced similar changes as
the institutions named in the article. University faculty said
the sheer number of services and programs offered to stu-
dents ensure all graduates can write effectively.
"I don't see how someone could be an excellent anything
if they weren't a good writer," English lecturer George
Cooper said.
All University students must take a course that fulfills
the first-year writing requirement. These classes are target-
ed toward freshmen that arrive at the University with vary-
The employee union at Borders Books
in Ann Arbor voted overwhelmingly to
reject the contract offered them by Bor-
ders management, reflecting that the dis-
pute between the company and its
employees is far from being resolved.
"This contract gave us absolutely noth-
ing," a Borders store employee said. The
employee, who asked to remain anony-
mous, added that union demands such as
a living wage, job security and security of
benefits were not met by the proposed
contract.
The Borders employee union, organ-
ized last December as part of the United
Food and Commercial Workers labor
union, defeated the contract Sunday
night by a vote of 27 to 1, with two
abstentions.
To further their cause, union members
will continue to press its case and try to
said.
"Our (ultimate goal) is to get Borders
to recognize it's in Borders' best interest
to recognize the need of its employees to
make a living," the employee added.
Borders spokeswoman Anne Roman
said she feels Borders employees were
presented with a fair contract.
Roman added that Borders has con-
ducted internal surveys of Borders
employees across the country, and has
found that "the vast majority of all Bor-
ders employees are satisfied with their
pay and benefits."
But Mark Dilley, a member of the pro-
employee organization Borders Readers
United, said his group supports the
union's decisions.
"(This dispute) isn't just about money
and respect, it is about keeping this a
community store," Dilley said.
BRU has staged several demonstrations
outside of the Borders store on East Lib-
erty Street for the past few weeks, passing
^,,t~ 1on- ...c1 e. noiin n ,cenm.ra na
DANNY MULUbUK/Uily
A wrecked bike sits on East Medical Center Drive after its rider was hit
by at sport utility vehicle yesterday afternoon. A report was filed with
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