Thursday
November 6,2003
02003 The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXIII, No. 46

One-hundred-thirteen years ofeditorialfreedom

TODAY:

Partly
cloudy dur-
ing the day,
with mostly
clear skies
at night.

49
LOW: 30
Tomorrow:
,f~20

wwwmichigandailycom

I

lB

and 'U'

collaborate

on digital media system

New technology will allow
students to work and search
through digital files with ease
By Tomislav Ladika
Daily Staff Reporter
Imagine clicking on the face of a speaker
in a video to search through the University's
collection for other videos in which that per-
son appears.
Thanks to a joint effort between the Univer-
sity and IBM announced yesterday, University
students will soon be able to conduct keyword
searches through thousands of video or audio
files for images and sound bytes.
IBM will work with the University to
implement a Digital Asset Management Sys-
tem in the Media Union's Living Laboratory.
Eight schools, including the College of Litera-

ture, Science and the Arts and the School of
Dentistry, are also collaborating to bring
DAMS technology to their classrooms.
DAMS allows students to easily work with
and search through rich media files such as
videos, audio clips and digital images, said John
Williams, assistant director of the Media Union.
For example, DAMS can convert speech to text
so that students can search through video to
find when certain words are mentioned, he said.
"It makes working with video and audio
more like working with text," Williams said.
"If we want to be able to teach our students
new ways to analyze and interpret, we're
going to have to use tools like this."
Using DAMS, students will also be able to
use cumbersome digital files such as high-res-
olution DVD images with greater ease.
When working on a project like a Microsoft
PowerPoint slideshow, student will be able to
use digital images at lower resolutions, thus

avoiding long loading times and saving storage
space, Williams said. Once the PowerPoint is
completed, students can add the higher resolu-
tion file back into their presentation, he said.
The University will also be able to index
and catalogue its digital media collection
using DAMS, Williams said. With the new
technology, students will be able to click on
the face of a person speaking in a video to
search through the University's archive for
other videos containing that person, he said.
The Business School has been using rich digi-
tal media for about a year and a half, and DAMS
technology will allow the school to create a vir-
tual library where students can conduct keyword
searches of the files, said Edward Adams, direc-
tor of computing at the Business School.
"We have a lot of digital assets created, and
we needed a system like DAMS to search,
store and index the assets," Adams said. "Oth
See IBM, Page 3A

MORE RESTRICTIONS

KE.LLY LIN/uDiy
Students attempting to enter Borders this Saturday will be discouraged by Borders employees striking
outside the store. The workers are planning to protest their low wages and benefits.
Borders employees
set date to strike for
better pay, be efits

By Kristin Ostby
Daily Staff Reporter
Picketers will once again discourage Borders
Books & Music shoppers from entering the Lib-
erty Street store. Borders employees are planning
to go on strike this Saturday in protest of low
wages and benefits.
Anne Roman, a Borders Group Inc. spokes-
woman, said the store will remain open in spite of
the strike. She also said Borders is willing to fair-
ly negotiate to prevent the strike from materializ-
ing, but that it is reluctant to make the changes
for which the union is asking. Eighteen Universi-
ty 'students are currently employed at the Liberty
Street Borders.
Heidi Sherman, a full-time Borders employee
for two years, is backing the strike.
'They really haven't even been negotiating ...
This is something that they have done in previous
negotiations and it makes everyone feel really
ineffective and like they are getting nowhere, and
then unions give up and they go away," Sherman
said. "We're sick of this happening here and we
f1- that the only way we can win and the only
1Forum focus
on beneficial

way we can get a contract is to go on strike
because it's never been done before at a Borders."
Voting for union representation in contract
negotiations last December, the Liberty Street
Borders is one of only two unionized Borders
locations in the country.
Irfan Nooruddin, a former Graduate Employees
Organization member at the University, said he
supports the efforts of the Borders Workers Union
and is helping to coordinate the strike. Employees
do not get paid enough, said Nooruddin, now an
assistant professor at Ohio State University.
"A store like Borders which has such a history
with Ann Arbor has to do better for its workers,"
he added.
Nooruddin said that receiving better bene-
fits - specifically health care - is of high
importance to the Borders Workers Union.
"The main problem is that for the full-time
workers, the health care benefits and wages
are so low that most workers cannot buy the
Borders benefits."
Roman said Borders is committed to two prin-
ciples in its negotiations with employees.
See STRIKE, Page 7A

[isa travelers
soon to pass
addfion al
checkpoits
By Andrew Kaplan
Daily Staff Reporter,
In an effort to bolster national security,
the government will soon require every
visa-holding passenger to undergo elec-
tronic identification upon entering and exit-
ing the country.
Beginning early next year, the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security will
photograph and fingerprint foreign visitors
traveling to U.S. airports or seaports at
additional security checkpoints set up
throughout the airport. Formally dubbed
US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator
Technology, the process will "enhance the
security of our citizens and visitors,"
according to a statement released by the
department last Tuesday.
The printing process, which the DHS
describes as "inkless," occurs simultane-
ously with the snapshot and takes 60 to 90
seconds. Travelers exiting the country
must also enter their fingerprints at airport
"kiosks."
Recent federal transportation policies -
such as the National Security Entry Exit
Registration System - have monitored
travelers from only a couple dozen coun-
tries. But US-VISIT will monitor every
passenger with a travel visa - about 24
million persons annually, according to U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Certain border checks will remain

PHOTO Illustration by TREVOR CAMPBELL/Daily
Under a new government Identification process beginning next year, visa passengers will be
fingerprinted at additional security checkpoints. The process will take 60 to 90 seconds.

unchanged. For example, foreign passen-
gers will still have to answer a series of
questions posed by transportation officials
concerning the nature of their travel. As
before, passengers from only 27 nations,
including the United Kingdom and Japan,
are exempt from traveling under visa
restrictions within the first 90 days of arriv-
ing in the United States.
By early 2004, the department hopes to
have the system at 115 airports and 14 sea-
ports nationwide. But test runs have started
running in the last few weeks.
"I saw a demonstration of (US-VISIT)
and it actually worked better than I expect-
ed it to," DHS spokeswoman Danielle
Sheahan said. She added that a pilot pro-
gram will take place later this month at
Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport.
Although the new processes require for-
eign travelers to wait in an extra line, Shea-

han said she believes travelers will not feel
hampered.
"The process adds a few seconds onto
every inspection," she said.
Unlike safety measures of the past, US-
VISIT gives transportation inspectors
access to all traveler databases. Using this
feature, officials can more easily detect
persons trying to gain unauthorized entry
into the country, Sheahan said.
"It certainly is going to put the inspector
on the line," she said. "The biggest benefit
in my opinion is that the inspector will have
access to databases."
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the government has
strived to step up security measures at air-
ports and increase restrictions on foreign
travelers to the United States. President
Bush created the Transportation Security
Administration in November, 2001, to
See TRAVEL, Page 7A

Study shows Muslim; student
enrollment falls across nation

WTO policies
By Dan Trudeau
Daily Staff Reporter
International trade experts supporting the World Trade
Organization participated in a panel discussion last night to
address criticism directed toward the organization. Such
international criticism erupted in violence at a previous
WTO conference in Seattle, Wash., in 1999 and remains
prevalent after the most recent conference in Cancun, Mex-
ico, ended early when negotiations fell apart.
The forum, titled "What Can the World Trade Organiza-
tion Do to Help Poor Countries?" drew a large crowd to
Hale Auditorium, but opposition to the often-divisive WTO
went largely unvoiced.
Instead, the forum, sponsored by the William Davidson
Institute, focused on the positive aspects of the WTO for
developing countries, including the international reduction
of tariffs and the impartial facilitation of trade disputes
between countries. The panel also argued that the multilat-
eral regulations set up by the WTO help avoid the discrimi-
natory conditions established by some regional and
bilteral agreements.
-'- ome people think that it would be more effective if we
ltaveythe multilateral agreements because it brings all the
atifs down by the same percentages internationally," panel
moderator and Public Policy Prof. Katherine Terrell said.

By Sara Eber
Daily Staff Reporter

LAURA SHLECTER/Daily
Alejandro Jara, Chilean ambassador to the World Trade
Organization, speaks yesterday in a panel discussion about how
to reform the process of sending aid to developing countries.
trade among all countries.
"We have to think of new ways with much more flexible
rules that will allow (every country) to participate," Jara
said, in reference to the dominance of U.S. and European
countries in determining the course of the organization.
"The way we do it now reflects the way the world was 20
years ago and it doesn't work now."
The only unequivocal challenges to WTO policies came
during the question and answer session following the panel
discussion.

While the number of international
students from Muslim countries may
be declining at universities across the
nation, enrollment numbers at the Uni-
versity of Michigan have remained rel-
atively constant.
A study released by the Institute of
International Education this week
titled "Open Doors 2003," reported a
10-percent decrease in foreign students
from Muslim countries since Sept. 11,
2001, mainly as a result of increased
difficulty in obtaining visas.
While the actual statistics of interna-
tional enrollment from specific coun-
tries is not yet available for this year,
International Center Associate Director
Kay Clifford said representation has
remained roughly the same, though
application numbers are down.
She acknowledged that students
from some countries face a stricter pol-
icy for receiving visas, but added that
the University is working very hard
with authorities in Washington to
expedite the process, so that all stu-
A antac wh xk o h tr itnat the T Tnivtar-

visas in time for fall term, Clifford
said, and ultimately they had to delay
their admission.
Bearing in mind that students from
Middle Eastern countries seem to be
experiencing visa delays, the Univer-
sity is working with international stu-
dents, informing them of potential
delays and notifying prospective stu-
dents of their acceptance earlier in
"Wyi would a student
risk himself into the
situation when he can
always get a relatively
similar education in
other countries?"
- Bahir Abdul Razak
President, Malaysian Students
Association
order to allow them to apply for visas
in time. In some nations, it takes as
long as three to four months to
receive a visa.
Rnmeirternnti nn1 Qtii rlntc

"Overall, our strategy is trying to
prevent (visa delays) from happening,
and to be aware of the situation," Clif-
ford said. "I think it was very helpful."
Malaysian Students Association
President Bahir Abdul Razak said
enrollment for Malaysian students has
remained the same as in prior years,
though greater scrutiny in the visa
application procedure has been trou-
blesome.
He said that last fall, 20 to 30
Malaysian students were deferred until
winter term because they could not get
a visa in time. Frustration such as this,
he said, could lead to a decline in enroll-
ment of Malaysian students in the
future.
"There is the feeling that something
else would happen in the future, despite
the fact that we've already been issued a
visa;' he said. "This includes the hassle
to reenter the U.S. especially in summer
when we go back home. Why would a
student risk himself into the situation
when he can always get a relatively sim-
ilar education in other countries?"
Razak said the University is accom-
plishing all it should do to ease the sit-
,uatin ~ for foreig'n students~ - issuing