LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 12, 2003 - 3
THIS WEEK
T S YA I W nY0 o
Five years ago.
Posing as party hoppers, Ann Arbor
Police Department volunteers issued
75 minor-in-possession-of-alcohol
tickets at three fraternities and one
house party in two nights.
"I am not surprised police found
75 minors drunk," Vice President
for Student Affairs Maureen Hart-
ford said. "It was probably far more
than that."
Ten years ago ...
The University's solar car team -
the Maize and Blue - finished in 11th
place after completing a grueling six-
day, 1,900 mile journey across the con-
tinent of Australia.
The team said they had conquered
several challenges, including an out-
break of what they dubbed the "out-
back flu' marked by a viral infection
in the digestive system.
SNov. 14, 1984
TheMichigan Student Assembly
vetoed a proposal by a 12-8 margin
that would request the University
Health Service to stockpile "suicide
pills" for student use in the event of
a nuclear war.
Those against the plan objected to
the encouragement of suicide as well
as the legitimacy of the group behind
the plan, Students Against Nuclear
Suicide.
"We defeated it but it's not like it's
coming up next week," MSA Vice
President Steve Kaplan said. "The
wording was defeated, not the idea,
intent or spirit."
Nov. 11, 1958
More than 200 students living in
South Quad Residence Hall became
sick after eating in dining hall. Uni-
versity doctors confirmed the cause
of the "mystery illness" was food
poisoning.
Items served included egg salad
sandwich, ham salad sandwich,
clam chowder soup, peach short-
cake, bluefish and relish plate.
Samples of all the food served
were taken to a lab for examination,
except for the coconut cream pie,
which was completely devoured,
said Mark Noffsinger, director of
South Quad.
Nov. 9, 1963
A study released by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Health, Education, and Wel-
fare revealed that University students
pay high room and board charges com-
pared to students at other public uni-
versities.
Theaverage University student
payed $820 for room and board
while the national median was
$690. The study also found that the
University charged the third-highest
out of state tuition of public univer-
sities.
Nov. 18, 1969
Time running out to pin killings on inmate
Man allegedly killed
women in Ann Arbor,
across country
KALAMAZOO (AP) - A
woman whose close friend was
slain 29 years ago has started a
petition drive to keep the victim's
suspected killer behind bars.
Hazel Brophy's petition will urge
Texas Gov. Rick Perry to do what
he can to prevent Coral Eugene
Watts from being released from
prison in 2006 - although Perry's
hands are tied by Texas' mandatory-
release laws.
Watts confessed to 13 slayings in
Michigan and elsewhere, and police
suspect he killed dozens of other
women, including several in Ann
Arbor. That would make him one of
the most prolific serial killers in
U.S. history.
Watts was born in Texas and
moved to the Detroit suburb of
Inkster after his parents divorced.
Following his arrest in Texas in
1982, he agreed to plead guilty to a
charge of burglary with intent to
commit murder in exchange for
receiving immunity from prosecu-
tion for the confessed killings.
Watts admitted to killing.11 Tex-
ans and one Michigan woman -
Detroit News reporter Jeanne
Clyne, 35, who was stabbed to
death with a woodworking tool in
1979 as she walked home from a
doctor's appointment. He also con-
fessed to strangling a 14-year-old
Texas girl.
Although he did not receive
immunity in the teen's death, prose-
cutors lacked the evidence to go
after him.
At the time of the plea deal,
authorities thought the 60-year
prison sentence Watts received
would keep him behind bars until
he was in his 80s. So did the vic-
tims' relatives who gave their
approval.
But mandatory-release laws aimed
at relieving prison crowding in Texas
require Watts to be discharged on
May 8, 2006, at age 52, unless he
loses good-behavior credits.
Brophy and other survivors of
Watts' alleged victims are collecting
signatures to send to Perry.
But the only apparent way to keep
Watts in prison would be to convict
him of a crime unrelated to the plea
deal.
Lt. Bill Hanger of the Michigan
State Police Southeast Criminal
Investigation Division in Livonia
MSA bu!
leads a task force looking into
about 150 unsolved cases from the
Detroit area and another 75 from
the rest of the state.
Watts is "a strong suspect in
about 20 or so" of those cases,
Hanger recently told the Kalamazoo
Gazette.
He said some had physical evi-
dence "that's in various stages of
being tested for DNA."
Brophy, a 48-year-old Portage
resident, began working to keep
Watts behind bars when she learned
police were investigating the possi-
bility that his first victim was her
close friend.
S service
Michigan State
works to feed,
world's hungry
EAST LANSING (AP) - Michigan State University
will lead a $25 million collaborative effort to get more
nutritious food to the world's poor, financed by a founda-
tion set up by Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates.
HarvestPlus, an alliance of research institutions and
agencies, will use the money for a four-year project on
biofortification, which crossbreeds crops with high nutri-
tional value and those that are high-yielding and disease
resistant, says organization Director Howarth Bouis.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced the
grant last month, saying the goal is to provide people in
poor and developing countries with food already fortified
with vitamins and mineral nutrients.
Worldwide, "half the instances of death among chil-
dren have malnutrition as important contributory causes,"
said David Fleming, director of the foundation's global
health program.
HarvestPlus offers a strategic approach that would
address the problem of malnutrition, he said.
Michigan State is the coordinating institution of a team
of three that make up the Nutritional Genomics team of
HarvestPlus.
"The project seeks to bring the full potential of agri-
cultural science, genetics, molecular biology and
genomics to bear on the persistent problem of micronutri-
ent malnutrition in the developing world," Michigan State
said in a news release.
"Micronutrient malnutrition affects more than half of
the world's population, especially women and children,"
said Dean DellaPenna, a Michigan State professor of bio-
chemistry and molecular biology.
"The costs of these deficiencies in terms of lives lost,
forgone economic growth and poor quality of life are
staggering."
Michigan State said that until now, plant science in agri-
culture has had to focus on increasing yield and resistance to
pests and pathogens to feed the growing world population.
While this has been successful, it has given rise to an
increasing reliance on a limited number of staple crops,
DellaPenna said. As a result, diets across the world have
less variety, such that even when caloric needs are met,
will take students
"
to their:
By Kristin Ostby
Daily Staff Reporter
Students who need rides to and
from the airport this Thanksgiving
won't need to fork over fistfuls of
cash to taxi drivers.
AirBus - a Michigan Student
Assembly-sponsored program - will
be available to transport students to
and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport
for only $13 round-trip. MSA passed a
resolution to fund the AirBus program
at last night's meeting.
AirBus's charter buses will pick up
students on Nov. 25 and 26 at the
Michigan Union and Mary Markley
and Bursley residence halls. Students
can buy tickets for their ride home at
Metro Airport on Nov. 30 and charge
them to their student account using
their MCards.
Students can buy tickets now at the
Union Ticket Office. A one-way ticket
is $8, but students can save $3 by buy-
ing a round-trip ticket for $13.
When students buy their tickets,
they will be provided with a schedule
for rides back to Ann Arbor. By sched-
uling their ride home at the airport
upon return, students will avoid the
possibility of missing their airBus ride,
flights
said MSA President Angela Galardi.
"Then, if people's flights are
delayed they're not restricted to a cer-
tain route, so people aren't worried
that they're going to miss their airBus
plan," Galardi said.
"I think that students will have an
opportunity to really benefit from what
MSA has to offer via airBus," said MSA
Communications Committee Chair
Courtney Skiles. "It saves students tons
of money and time and will get them
safely to the airport over break."
This is the program's second year
of operation. Due to last year's
overwhelming student use of the
program, airBus will use twice as
many buses this year to transport
students.
"It's been an incredible success the
last three times we've run it. It's very
reliable. It's cheap. It's really easy for
students. We encourage any student to
use airBus because it is very user-
friendly," Galardi said.
"We're so excited about this. We as
MSA see airBus as a way that student
government is really making a differ-
ence for students and really filling a
void where service is needed."
The airBus program also will be
available for winter and spring breaks.
AP PHOTO
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates addresses the company's annual
shareholders meeting yesterday in Bellevue, Wash. Gates will
finance a foundation coordinated by Michigan State University.
many essential micronutrients are lacking.
The developed world addressed this issue in the early
1930s and '40s by fortifying foods with the essential
vitamins and minerals, such as iodine in salt and vitamins
and minerals in cereal, milk and flour, for example.
Yet reaching the necessary populations in most devel-
oping countries with fortification is difficult or impossi-
ble, Michigan State said.
It said creating staple crops with more and balanced
micronutrients provides the opportunity for many people
in developing countries to have better daily nutrition and
better health.
The programs hopes to get improved varieties of crops
to the world's farmers within a decade, Bouis said.
Michigan State began concentrating on biotechnology
began in 1998, when it recruited top academics and grad-
uate students in the field. Since then, federal agency
grants alone have almost doubled, to $196 million a year.
"We must be aggressive. We want to be leaders," Ian
Gray, director of the school's Michigan Agricultural
Experiment Statiog; told The Detroit News.
Gran/oim talks budget
cuts, sacrifices i Detroit
Grant boosts research on efforts
to restructure damaged brains
I
The University's Senate Assembly
voted to end all financial and most
academic ties between the Universi-
ty and the ROTC.
The approved report called on the
University's Board of Regents to
renegotiate contracts with the
ROTC programs on campus.
Defense department officials indi-
cated that if the University with-
drew its subsidies - especially
granting free building space - it
might cause the ROTC to be can-
celled on campus.
Nov. 9, 1974
The University rejected Graduate
Employees Organization demands
for a salary hike of 25 percent as
well as free tuition, claiming it
would cost as much as $10 million.
The University countered by
offering a two-year contract with an
8-percent pay increase in the first
year and in-state resident status for
all teaching fellows, research and
staff assistants the second year.
David Gordon, chief negotiator for
GEO, said an 8-percent pay raise
was unacceptable because it does
not keep up with current inflation
rate of 11 percent.
a Nov. 8, 1979
Students and bar owners fretted over
the passage of Proposal D, which
raised the legal drinking age in Michi-
gan from 18 to 21.
Although it passed by a large
margin statewide, with better than
55 percent approving of the change,
it lost better than two to one in Ann
Arbor.
Nov- 14. 1994
DETROIT (AP) - A Henry Ford
Hospital researcher is getting support
from the National Institutes of Health
for his efforts to develop therapies to
"remodel brains" that have been
injured by stroke and other brain
traumas.
The $6.5 million, five-year NIH
grant for Michael Chopp, scientific
director of the hospital's Neuro-
science Institute, will support
research to further develop cellular
and drug therapies that restructure
the brain.
Chopp's study will primarily
focus on the treatment of stroke and
traumatic brain injury with cells
derived from the adult bone marrow.
The cells essentially restore neuro-
logical function after stroke and
brain injury.
"The laboratory studies strongly
suggest that we will someday success-
fully treat patients days or even weeks
after they have suffered a stroke,"
Chopp said in a statement.
Resources from the grant also will
be used to develop and implement
new forms of cell and drug therapies
to restore neurological function after
brain trauma.
Chopp develops and tests cell-
based therapies as well as compounds
that may .generate new brain cells in
animals and improve function after
neural injury.
Meanwhile, neurologists at Henry
Ford Hospital using data generated by
Chopp and his colleagues are expect-
ed to launch human studies soon
using pharmaceutical agents to help
stroke victims.
The therapies work to remodel the
brain or spinal cord to take on the
functions that have been lost by the
injured or dead tissue.
"Think of the brain as a house,"
Chopp said. "If a tree falls on your
house, what you want most is to fix
the damage to restore your daily
quality of life.
"Remodeling the brain, like remod-
eling a house, may require new
plumbing, such as new blood vessels;
new electrical connections or new
synapses; and new rooms or new
brain cells."
GRANHOLM
Continued from Page 1
we take in," she said, adding that she
wants to consider the sentiments of
residents before slashing programs. "I
could be behind my desk in Lansing
behind closed doors making these
decisions - but how much better and
rich has the discussion gotten having
the opinion of people who are stake-
holders," she said.
Before broadcasting the conference,
audience members completed a survey
asking them to recommend programs
that the government could cut.
Audience members voted on social
services such as health care along
with after-school programs and "rev-
enue sharing" operations with munici-
pal governments.
Granholm and audience members
wavered in their decisions to cut or
save state education programs.
Although adult and higher education
services are still coping with cuts made
during the last fiscal year, Granholm
said they would likely be cut further.
Referring to higher education -
which consumes a quarter of the budg-
et and took a 10-percent reduction last
year - Granholm said, "I think you'll
see a cut, but I don't know if it will be
as big as 10 percent."
Twenty-one percent of the studio
audience voted to make some cuts to
higher education programs, all of which
would affect the University's budget. But
according to Granholm's figures, schol-
arships to students attending private col-
leges and universities could receive
reductions along with public institutes of
higher education. But Patrick Ballew, a
junior at Wayne State University, said
he opposed all funding reductions to
public universities, adding that such
rollbacks may increase tuition.
"It's a commuter school and most of
the students are hard-working kids try-
ing to pay their way through college,"
Ballew said. Granholm said she believed
the public wanted to preserve funding
for the state's "safety nets" - programs
such as Medicaid and state police agen-
cies. Voters proved more receptive to
cutting programs that do "not affect the
immediate well being of citizens of
Michigan," one resident stated.
For example, 72 percent of audience
members opted .to release certain
parole-eligible penitentiary prisoners
30 days before their sentences run out,
while no residents voted to decrease
prescription drug coverage for senior
citizens and few voted to eliminate
state inspections of day care centers.
"You can see people want to see the
safety nets protected," Granholm said.
Other cuts that some audience mem-
bers said they supported included trim-
ming scholarships granted to high
scorers on the Michigan Educational
Assessment Program exam. Jennifer
Billand, a teacher, said she felt she did
not need the test to guide her through
her lesson plans.
"I feel, as a highly qualified teacher,
that I'm able to prepare the kids for the
MEAP no mater if it stays or if it goes;"
she said. Cutting MEAP "would save
about $5 million," Granholm said. "On
the other hand, the (federal) No Child
Left Behind Act mandates that the state
have its own standardized test."
Even if Granholm and the state Legis-
lature agree to enact all cost-reduction
measures, the state will have "just barely
what we need to get to $920 million." To
more quickly resolve the deficit -
which, she added, will not happen this
year or the next - Granholm asked
audience members if they would support
a 1 percent pause or a freeze on current
income-tax cuts. Nearly all members
said they favored a pause or a freeze.
The tax-cut rollback may persuade con-
sumers to spend more of their income,
boosting state sales-tax revenues. Since
realizing the budget deficit, Granholm
has already made $14 million in admin-
istrativefuts around state offices. The
first set of program cutbacks will take
place within the next couple of weeks,
she said.
Grant mishap costs colleges milions
KALAMAZOO (AP) - Western Michigan University
and Southwestern Michigan College have lost out on mil-
lions of dollars in federal money because a grant writer
missed a deadline.
Bonnie Helm of Cheyenne, Wyo., was sentenced to
three months in prison last month for using illegally
obtained postal equipment to backdate the applications for
the Upward Bound program, a program that helps at-risk
high school students prepare for college.
Twenty other universities, colleges and nonprofit agen-
cies across the country had contracted with Helm to write
their U.S. Department of Education grants. All lost money
because she failed to submit the applications on time. The.
institutions now will have to wait and apply for the next
cycle of grants four years from now.
The missed deadline cost Western about $3.8 million for
its Upward Bound program and two related programs.
Officials say they will keep the programs afloat, at least
through the spring and hope to find other sources of fund-
ing. The program serves about 70 high school students
annually.
Southwestern Michigan College officials say they can't
afford to run the program without the grant. They lost at
least $936,000 for its program that served about 50 stu-
dents.
Martha Warfield, director of Western's Division of. Mul-
ticultural Affairs, told the Kalamazoo Gazette school offi-
cials reacted with "disbelief and concern" at the news of
losing the funds.
Helm had worked with Western several times in the past
and came with impressive credentials, said Warfield.
Officials at both schools said they are upset the Educa-
tion Department did not notify them that Helm was under
investigation or that something was amiss.
Several congressional officials have requested that the
department reconsider its decision to deny the schools
funding, but the department is holding firm.
Education officials say the schools should be more care-
ful not to place the fate of such programs in the hands of
contractors without adequate supervision.
As part of her sentence, Helm was ordered to stop
preparing grant applications.
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