Monday
November 17, 2003
@2003 The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXIII, No. 48

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Undergrad
unerh
"d"
documents
Bya NbMorelra
DailyStaffReporter
A University undergraduate has
unearthed a collection of unpublished
ancient Egyptian manuscripts forgotten
among the musty library shelves of the
Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library.
LSA junior Rob Stephan discov-
ered more than a dozen unpub-
lished texts during an independent
study with classical studies Prof.
Arthur Verhoogt. His find almost
doubles the size of a previously
known and extensively studied
archive of papyrus. An archive is
all the papyrus - hand-printed
ancient documents on paper made
from reeds native to Egypt -
found in a single house during an
archaeological excavation.
"Michigan has the biggest collection
of papyrus in the Western Hemisphere,
so it's very possible that they just got
overlooked somehow," Stephan said.
The University collection contains
more than 12,000 individual fragments
of papyrus.
The new texts belong to an archive
consisting mainly of personal letters
from a Roman soldier to a retired sol-

MSA rushes
to appoint
judicial board

By Kristin Ostby
Daily Staff Reporter

The Michigan Student Assembly dis-
covered Friday that the judicial board
for University student governments and
student groups had one justice on a
board that typically consists of ten.
With the MSA elections less than
three days away, this information came
at a bad time for MSA, as the board, the
Central Student Judiciary, is responsible
for certifying election results and medi-
ating election disputes.
MSA appointed nine students to fill
the vacancies at its steering committee
meeting last night. The assembly acted
under its emergency statute, which
allows for especially pressing resolu-
tions to be passed at steering committee
meetings instead of at official meetings.
MSA Student General Counsel
Jason Mironov said the nine vacant
seats resulted from students who have
graduated or are studying abroad.
Mironov said he noticed the empty
positions when he tried to contact the
board about certifying election results.
"We never needed them so we only
found out when we started looking for
them," he said.
"Technically, I think they were still
functional at the end of last year and
we need them now because we need

Inside: Read more about the
MSA elections. Page 3A
them to certify our results ... at the
very least, and also to mediate poten-
tial student group problems."
The CSJ was utilized during last
November's elections when Students
First and the now-defunct Blue
Party accused one another of unfair
campaign practices. Typically, MSA
appoints new CSJ justices in the fall
and spring to fill vacancies.
LSA junior Collin McGlashen, one
of the newly appointed justices, agreed
to take a seat on CSJ Friday evening.
McGlashen said he is familiar with the
position he is taking because he has
been MSA election director twice.
McGlashen said the CSJ's vacancies
might have gone unnoticed because
there have been no disputes between
student groups that required its pres-
ence. "My assumption is that there just
wasn't a need for the issue to be
addressed."
McGlashen also said that he expects
the CSJ to be used more often in the
future. The CSJ was once a contingent
part of the functioning of MSA,
Mironov said. "It appears as if that has
changed because CSJ has become
seemingly less important."
See MSA, Page 3A

JEFF LEHNERT/Daily
Papyrologst Arthur Verhoogt and LSA junior Rob Stephan look at a collection of papyrus at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate
Library.

dier, probably his father, both of whom
were stationed in Egypt during the
Roman occupation which dates back to
30 B.C.
Former University Prof. Francis
Kelsey originally uncovered the papyri
during an excavation of the Egyptian
town of Karanis in the 1920s and '30s.
He returned them to Michigan along
with artifacts now housed at Kelsey's

namesake, the University's Kelsey
Museum ofArchaeology
Verhoogt and Stephan decided to
re-examine the papyri in context of
the archaeological artifacts. "I
wanted to look at the papyrus and
the artifacts that were brought back
to try to find out what life was like
for the average Joe in Egyptian
society," Stephan said.

While poring over records of the
excavation at the Kelsey Museum,
Stephan realized that many of the
manuscripts that had been brought
back did not have associated publi-
cation numbers.
"So we went to the vaults in the
Papyrology Library and there they
were," he said. "It's really a thrill
See PAPYRUS, Page 7A

Gephardt's daughter tries to link
candidate with gay community


By Andrew Kaplan
Daily Staff Reporter

"i-defin
rtn r

Chrissy Gephardt takes a slightly different MIn y U
approach to politicking than her father, U.S. father)
Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.). Boasting a
master's degree in social work and a close
relationship with the gay community, Chrissy
Gephardt says she has established a rapport Dau
with interest groups that her father - a con-
tender for the presidency in 2004 - has "One of th
cozied up to from afar. social justice,
While Gephardt campaigns for issues such with The Mi
as more sustainable energy sources and uni- students in th
versal pensions, his daughter tours the nation supporters of
to draw students to his voter base. Now a full- transgender c
time employee of Gephardt for President Inc., paigning for
she makes frequent visits to university com- things to esca
munities - most recently to several Michigan Although h
universities last week - to address the after finishing
Gephardt stance on issues such as civil unions ago, her publi
between gay couples and improving mental minated durin
health care nationwide. At every turn, she says first told her ,
she and her father have devoted themselves to Much to h
the social betterment of all Americans. - who grew
.Parents care for
ds until age 34,
recent study says
By Farayha Arrine
For the Daily

itely have inroads
ung people (my
doesn't"
- Chrissy Gephardt
ghter, U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt
he things I'm committed to is
"she said Friday in an interview
chigan Daily, after addressing
he School of Social Work and
f the gay, lesbian, bisexual and
ommunity. She added that cam-
her father "is just one of those
late on that path."
her career in social work began
g graduate school about six years
ic pursuit of gay rights has cul-
rng the last two years, since she
family that she was gay.
er surprise, she said, her father
w up in a small, conservative

town in Iowa - embraced her newfound
identity and has encouraged ,herto, speak-
openly about her sexual orientation on her
campaign stops.
Reflecting on her experiences on the
campaign trail, she says she has helped her
father connect to a diverse and complex
constituency. Since enlisting his daughter in
his campaign, Gephardt has joined Parents,
Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
- a civil rights organization - according
to PlanetOut, an Internet news and network-
ing service for gay people.
"I definitely have inroads into young people
(my father) doesn't ... from social workers to
the mental health community to the GLBT
community," Chrissy Gephardt said. "He has
the big message that appeals to everybody, but
I can appeal to them and speak their interest."
One interest she has advocated - and one
that her father has not warmed up to political-
ly - is the federal sanctification of gay mar-
riages.
Currently, no states other than Vermont
See GEPHARDT, Page 5A

Courtesy of the Media Union 3D Lab
Two doctors work on a virtual patient as part of the Medical Readiness Trainer and Human Patient
Simulator in the Media Union's Virtual Reality CAVE.
'U' receives federal grant
for virtual reali researc

Rainy day portrait

e Young adults are now benefiting from the financial
support of their parents until the age of 34, according
to findings in a research project sponsored by the Insti-
tute for Social Research.
The research, led by LSA economics Prof. Bob
Schoeni and Rackham student Karen Ross, examines
just how responsible parents are for the financial secu-
rity of young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 and
how significantly that responsibility has changed from
the past.
The findings prove that parental contribution has
gone up 13 percent since the 1970s. It also found that
the number of young adults in their twenties who live
with their parents has gone up 50 percent.
According to the study, on average, parents spend
about $170,000 on each child until the age of 17 and
$35,000 until they are 34.
Schoeni said these contributions have increased due
to a change in lifestyle.
"Students are staying in school longer and are less
likely to be married early. They are not making an earn-
ing that allows them to live on their own so they tend to
a stick with living with their parents" he said.

By Maria Sprow
Daily Staff Reporter
Hypothetical situation: A building explodes
downtown, killing some while injuring others.
Glass shards litter the floor and victims sprawl
across the room, displaying little to no signs of
life. How will first responders react?
Although nobody still quite knows the answer,
some at the University believe virtual reality sim-
ulations could make all the difference when train-
ing police officers, firefighters and medics to
handle deadly emergency situations.
A $421,589 federal grant by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention given to the Uni-
versity's Virtual Reality CAVE hopes to test that
theory. The money is being used to help finance a
new disaster simulation program. University
researchers are in the beginning phases of its
design.
"People who are very professional, well-trained
through lectures, low-level drills - like disaster
drills where people will have pinned on them,
'my leg is broken' - and other regular training
exercises may not perform optimally when they
are actually immersed in the chaos of a real-life
disaster," said James Woolliscroft, executive asso-
ciate dean of the Medical School.
Woolliscroft added that based on the potential
of virtual reality and a previous program created
by University researchers for training medical

When not being used, the University's virtual
reality center is an innocent-looking small
10x 1 Ox 10 area located in the Media Union on
North Campus. It has three screens - front, left,
right - each with their own projector hidden
behind it. To enlarge the images to fit the screen's
area completely, the projectors transmit images
onto mirrors, which face the screen.
The floor acts as a fourth screen, with images
coming from a projector and mirror attached to
the room's ceiling. Large black curtains hide the
rest of the room.
In order to make a virtual world, the projectors
show two images in rapid succession, one for a
person's right eye, and the other for a person's left
eye. A special pair of glasses quickly blocks the
person's left eye from seeing while the right-eye
image is shown, making one image appear.
While the room's size and features probably
won't change with the new grant money, what
will change are the simulations being offered,
said Lars Schumann, the Media Union's 3D
Lab manager.
Current simulations allow users to ride in an
elevator in order to conquer someone's fear of
heights, make the split-second decisions neces-
sary for starting quarterbacks or learn to control a
jet ski. A user can also step through the earth's
atmosphere - one second, the user sees a globe
as viewed from space, and the next second sees
the sky. Medical readiness programs simulating

iii