LOCAL/STATE

The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - 3A

CRIM4E
Stolen credit card
used to purchase
medical supplies
A credit card stolen from the
Eisenhower Corporate Park West on
Industrial Boulevard was used to
purchase medical equipment off
campus, according to a Department
of Public Safety report filed Tuesday
morning. The subject has been iden-
tified and has no University affilia-
tion. DPS is jointly investigating
with the police force where the
equipment was purchased. DPS
could not comment on where the
equipment was purchased.
Biker injured in
accident near
Markley Res. Hall
DPS reports indicate a bicycle-car
collision on East Medical Center
Drive near Observatory Street Tues-
day morning. The bicycle rider was
injured and taken to hospital. His
injuries were not serious.
'U' hospital staffer
palms patient's
medications
A caller from the University Hos-
pital reported Monday afternoon that
a housekeeping staff member was in
possession of a patient's medications,
DPS records indicate. A DPS officer
recovered some, but not all of the
drugs. The medications were over-
the-counter and therefore the value is
expected to be low. The case is under
investigation.
Sleeping man
found in front of
Betsey Barbour
A caller to DPS Monday night
reported seeing an unknown male
sleeping on the front steps of Bet-
sey Barbour Residence Hall. DPS
officers located the subject, a 45
year-old man. Officers gave the
man a trespass advisory and escort-
ed him from the area.
Magazine sellers'
behavior prompts
call to police
DPS records show that a caller in
Hayden House of East Quad Resi-
dence Hall reported Tuesday evening
that two subjects were aggressively
soliciting magazines in the dorm.
The caller reported that the subjects
entered the dorm room and refused to
leave until the resident bought some-
thing. The subjects were not affiliat-
ed with the University. They were
asked to leave.
Gym floorboards
damaged during
transport
Nine floorboards were damaged
while they were being moved from
the Cliff Keene Arena Women's
Gymnastic Facility Monday morn-
ing. The boards were being moved
to Yost Arena, according to DPS
logs. The value of the boards is
unknown, though facilities staff will

whether the boards can be repaired.
Pushy panhandler
reported in
Michigan Union
DPS reports show a report of a
subject aggressively panhandling in
the Michigan Union Underground
Tuesday evening. The subject, who is
not affiliated with the University,
was gone by the time DPS arrived on
the scene.
Thief pockets purse
contents at Family
Practice Clinic
DPS records indicate $120 stolen
from a purse left unattended in the
Chelsea Family Practice building on
Main Street. The money was stolen
sometime between Friday night and
Saturday morning.
Computer site
employees' slush
fund emptied
An unknown person or persons emp-
tied the employee pop fund at the com-
puting site at 611 Church St. Tuesday.
a The subject or subjects took $25.

I v

Different faiths discuss varied
afterlife beliefs at conference

By Mona Rafeeq
Daily Staff Reporter

At a public university, it may be difficult to
learn about different religions' perspectives
regarding life after death, but last night, the
Campus Religion Network's conference provid-
ed a forum for interfaith discussion on this topic
at the Michigan Union.
The Second Annual Conference on the
Diversity of Religious Thought brought togeth-
er representatives of five different faiths -
Roman Catholicism, Reformed Christianity,
Conservative Judaism, Islam and Tibetan Bud-
dhism - in a panel discussion to discuss their
religions' views of afterlife.
The panel also included philosophy Prof.
Edwin Culrey, who presented his view that
there is no afterlife.
Hartmut Sagolla, a staff member of Jewel
Heart, a Tibetan Buddhist student organization,
compared its members' view of death and after-
life to an airplane journey out of the country.
"Before you go, you say goodbye to all your
loved ones. You take very little with you and
when it's time to leave, you go. You're in the air
for a little time and then you land in a foreign
place, in a place with a different language, a dif-
ferent currency, a different culture, a different
way of life,"Sagolla said.
Unlike this view, which considers afterlife as
a continuation of earthly life, Islam views life as
a series of four stages: life before birth, life on
Earth, life in the grave after death, and life after
resurrection, said Muslim Community of Ann

Arbor member Soraya Orady.
"At the time of resurrection, the soul and
body are reunited and then comes the final
account of punishment and reward. The punish-
ment doesn't have to be eternal and there also
are different degrees of heaven" she said.
While Sagolla and Orady spoke of afterlife
with analogies and support from Quran verses,
University Assistant Hillel Director and Rabbi
Shosh Dworsky chose to explain the Jewish
view of afterlife through personal life stories.
She described how, after the death of her father,
she was amazed at the outpouring of sympathy
that came from her Jewish community, though
her family was not meticulous in its observanc-
es of Jewish traditions.
Dworsky explained that death is often a uni-
fying factor in the lives of secular Jews. "Being
Jewish, if you're lucky, is being part of an
extended family," she said.
While Gretchen Baumgardt, St. Mary's Stu-
dent Parish Campus minister for education,
discussed the Catholic belief that "those who
die in God's friendship have the opportunity
to be reunited with God", Rolf Bauma of the
Campus Chapel Ministry explained what he
called the general Christian concepts of heav-
en and hell.
If heaven is a state of experiencing God's
intense love, then hell is also figurative,
Bauma said.
"Many Christians believe that hell is not a
place where God gets God's revenge, but a state
where God is not present," he said.
Curley, who said he does not consider him-

self an atheist because he believes in some
philosophical interpretations of God, expressed
his view of there being no afterlife. He said that
he agrees with the philosopher Benedict Spin-
oza, who said that the soul dies with the body.
"I think that the soul and the body are tied
together too tightly for the soul to survive the
destruction of the body," Curley said. He also
said the idea of a just God serving eternal pun-
ishment does not sound reasonable to him.
After the panel discussion, audience mem-
bers were given a chance to pose questions to
the speakers. The speakers fielded questions on
their views with respect to salvation for non-
human life forms, reincarnation and salvation
for those who are not members of the speaker's
respective religion.
Rackham student Wendy Comisar, who
grew up as a Christian and converted to
Judaism, said that she felt the room's atmos-
phere was tense when Baumgardt tried to
express her beliefs on Catholicism's view of
salvation for non-Christians. "Particularly, the
two Christians were put into a very uncom-
fortable position. They couldn't express them-
selves without offending the other members
of the panel," Comisar said.
CRN, the only campus student-run inter-
faith group, tries to facilitate understanding
and interfaith dialogue within the University
community, CRN President Greg Malivuk
said. "We believe that an event informing stu-
dents about other belief systems can help
them understand their peers who identify with;
those belief systems."

JONATHON TRIEST/Daily
Ann Arbor resident Kent Priestley hits some
golf balls at Miles of Golf on Carpenter Road
in the moonlight.

Students express discontent with White House

By David Branson
Daily Staff Reporter
Students on campus - Republican,
Democrat, everyone in between and
everyone outside - all think the
Bush administration has room for
some sort of improvement. Whether
or not this administration has done a
better job than President Bill Clinton's
is still questionable.
Contention and praise for the current
administration ranged from how it has
handled the Iraq war to how much over-
all confidence and respect students have
for the government.
"I just think that he has his priorities
screwed up," said Engineering junior
Jason Zhang of President Bush. "I'm
supposed to be a Republican, but I just
don't think that they're doing a very
good job."

"There are moderate elements of the
White House that I agree with, mainly
(Secretary of State) Colin Powell," LSA
sophomore Jeffrey Murray said. "Most
of them really believe that they are
doing genuine good, and if that contin-
ues it will make for a dangerous envi-
ronment."
The Iraq war and how it reflects on
the Bush administration was an issue
that drew the most concern. One of the
current issues in the Iraq War centers on
chief weapons inspector David Kay's
Monday report that there is not any con-
clusive evidence of weapons of mass
destruction.
"I definitely supported the war in Iraq
initially, but when you're there for that
long and we hear about it daily ... I just
don't know," said Zhang. "When I heard
of the possibility of weapons of mass
destruction, that was a positive side ... I

just don't think that Saddam poses too
much of a threat."
Many students said they felt that the
initial campaign into Iraq was positive,
but many war opponents said they feel

remain involved in Iraq,
out there would be no in
it's critical that we do not.
Shapiro describes hers
ate conservative and ho
- xr

the reasons for the
war have not been
justified.
"It's just incon-
sistent motives, we
said we had human-
itarian reasons,"
LSA sophomore
Edward Meehan
said. "I don't think
the Iraqi people
would hold to that."
Some students

"I think that in terns of
opinions it's pretty
much the same for
Republicans and
Democrats and we're all
in the same boat here.
- Nicholas Benson
LSA sophomore

WE
id
ta
ti(
ot
an
Ou
go
ar
th

and if we step cent as of Oct. 2. Students also criticized
frastructure, so the previous administration and com-'
pared Bush and Clinton in how they
elf as a moder- handled similar situations.
lds "The Iraq "Clinton had his fair share of mis-
ar is a war of takes ... like the bombing in Sudan ...
eas fundamen- but on the whole, Clinton was somehow
Ily. The ques- more dishonest but managed to be a bet-
on is whether ter president,"Meehan said.
ar democracy "Bush's communication overall with
n transfer to the public has not been as good as Clin-
her countries ton's," Shapiro said.
d if it can it is Bush's foreign policy in particular has
ir job to find been highly subject to criticism. "The
vernments that administration's foreign policy has been
e supportive of atrocious ... guys like (Defense Secre-'
at." tary Donald) Rumsfeld just have such ;
Since the tunnel vision," said LSA sophomore;
pation of Iraq, Nicholas Benson. "I think that in terms
as dropped - of opinions it's pretty much the same for
ing has fallen Republicans and Democrats and we're
ril 4 to 51 per- all in the same boat here."

support the Iraq war since the United
States now has a vested interest.
LSA sophomore Victoria Shapiro,
said "It is incredibly important that we

beginning of U.S. occup
public opinion of Bush h
his overall approval rat
from 67 percent as of Ap


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