ate o a Wednesday September 3,2003 ©2003 The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan One-hundred-twelve years ofeditorialfreedom TODAY: Isolated thun- derstorms throughout the day, part- ly cloudy at night Mar 78 LOW: 6 Tomorrow; 70152 Vol. CXIV, No. 2 wwwmihigandailycom Cracking the Code To read the code, visit http://www.umich.edu/-oscr Timelines for the appeals procedure have been clarified. 0 The non-discrimination clause now includes gender identity. ! New language guarantees that students may have a lawyer present during code violation procedures. Revised student code clarifies rights By Tomislav Ladika Daily Staff Reporter University students now have the explicit right to legal representation and trial rights for proceedings to resolve conflicts with other students, under changes to the Uni- versity's Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities announced yesterday. Gender identity was also added to the statement's non-discrimination clause, said Keith Elkin, director of the Office of Stu- dent Conflict Resolution. Student leaders said that will guarantee protection to stu- dents who are not necessarily covered by the statement's ban on sexual orientation- based discrimination. The changes to the statement include language added to clarify that the advisor who can accompany students to conflict arbitration hearings may be an attorney, and that evidence presented during hear- ings must be "clear and convincing" for a student to be convicted of violating the statement. "Clarifying language has been added to the Statement to ensure students under- stand that their advisor may be an attor- ney," Elkin said in an e-mail sent to the student body yesterday. "The standard of proof - clear and convincing evidence - used during student conduct proceed- ings has been explicitly added to the statement." In the e-mail Elkin also said language was clarified to ensure that students under- stand the timeline for submitting an appeal to decisions made under the statement. A provision was also added to prohibit students from sending e-mails using anoth- er person's identity without authorized per- mission, Elkin said. The revised statement can be found on OSCR's website, www.umich.edu/~oscr. Elkin was unavailable for comment yester- day evening. Formerly called the Code of Student Conduct, the statement was criticized by some students and members of the Michi- gan Student Assembly for infringing on students' legal rights and for regulating stu- dent behavior off University property. Earlier this year, the MSA's Students Rights Commission addressed these con- cerns by proposing seven amendments to See CODE, Page 5 Ragers to get free basketball, tickets By Dan Rosen Daily Sports Writer Entering his third season at Michigan, basketball coach Tommy Amaker continues to embrace the student body. After an anonymous gift to the basketball program, the coach announced yesterday that he would give student season ticket holders a chance to renew their tickets at no charge. Last season's Maize Ragers have until Sept. 30 to claim their free seats. The donor's name and the amount of the gift have not been released. "Our students are a critical part of our program," Amaker said. "We can- not reach our goals without their sup- port and spirit. We wanted to extend to our entire 'Maize Rage' section an opportunity to support us without any cost to them. Through this gener- See BASKETBALL, Page 5 Assemby. pans v gil on Sept. 11, voter drive By Carmen Johnson Diy StaffReporter Walk into the room on a Tuesday night and you'll see it packed with stu- dents. Sometimes, you won't see them leave until the early morning. It might sound mysterious, but the Michigan Student Assembly cham- bers on the third floor of the Michi- gan Union are where the student government repre- sentatives meet and get work done. After a summer apart, the repre- Galardi sentatives met last night to work for their constituencies and plan upcoming events such as a vigil on Sept. 11 and several "Rock your Vote" events, bringing speakers and bands to campus to draw students to the polls. "We have all worked hard this sum- mer to ensure that students will have a lot of opportunities to get involved with organizations and events on cam- pus," said MSA Rep. Courtney Skiles, who took office last spring. "Our first priority is to the students, and doing what we can to make the University of Michigan a place where its students actively participate in their communi- President Angela Galardi said she is proud of MSA's accomplishments, such as the new fall break and the cheap busing to the airport. This year, Galardi wants MSA to be even more effective. "We are encouraging the representa- tives to put in even more time this year," said Galardi, who spent the spring and summer terms on campus meeting with University administrators more Students say work, but will it work' new policy could cause headaches for applicants By Jeremy Berkowitz Daily Staff Reporter Whether the new undergraduate application addresses diversity questions in a practical way concerns many Uni- versity students. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions released new application policies last week to comply with the June U.S. Supreme Court rulings, which allow the University to consider race in admissions but not under a point system that offers 20 points out of a possible 150 for underrepre- sented minorities. The new application requires two 250-word essays and one 500-word essay. Students have several choices of essay topics, such as their past experiences and how they think diversity has played a role in their lives. "One of my primary concerns is that a high school student of color Second in will not be able to accurately assess how their race and ethnicity has _WO.art affected their experiences," said seneS Tania Brown, vice president of LSA Student Government. "This process is essentially asking a student to relay 17 years of the way in which they have experienced their identity in a 250-word essay." LSA senior Adrian Reynolds said he wonders whether students would feel nervous about writing on a subject they are unfamiliar with. "I think they could, but the question is whether they would actually want to," Reynolds said. LSA senior Eli Segall said he is concerned that the new application addresses only racial and ethnic diversity. "Why not diversity of opinion or political affiliation?" Segall asked. "It's hard to define what diversity they're talk- ing about." But most students agree more essays and questions will not deter applicants from applying. "Michigan was actually my shortest application," Business School junior Cassandra Pringle said, adding that she applied to both Northwestern University and the University of Chica- See ESSAYS, Page 5 Photo Illustration by JASON COOPER and BRETT MOUNTAIN/Daily Some University students believe the new essay-heavy admissions application may cause some high school students additional anxiety if they do not know how to express their experiences, while others believe the new policy will benefit a more diverse group of applicants. Res hall libraries end loans of movies, CDs, magazines [Changing lanes By Emily Kraack Daily Staff Reporter The cheapest movie rentals in town just closed up shop. As students returning to residence halls have probably noticed, most residence hall libraries no longer loan out CDs, DVDs, movies or magazines. The libraries in all dor- mitories except Bursley and East Quad are being trans- formed into Community Learning Centers, which will have more of an academic focus. The new CLCs are slat- ed to be operational by fall of 2004. LSA sophomore Matt LeDuc, who was studying last night in the South Quad library, said he noticed the library changes when he moved into the dorm. "I definitely was kind of disappointed about the fact that they got rid of the DVDs and the movies," he said. "I used it several times (last year). I liked checking things out." Darlene Ray-Johnson, assistant director of Residence Education, said the library spaces will remain open to stu- dents during the 2003-2004 school year and the East Quad and Bursley libraries will change over after the new CLCs open. She said the movie and CD rental capacity will not resume under the new setup, although games can be checked out through residence hall front desks and stu- dents can still browse the book collections and use dorm computers. "Resources that are there will remain there," Ray-John- son said. New services will include academic programming and See LIBRARIES, Page 5 Students return to Ann Arbor to find part of the downtown area - including State, Maynard, Liberty, and Thompson streets and North University Avenue - accepting two-way traffic. 'U' hospital expands foreign language interpretation staff By Andrew Kaplan Daily Staff Reporter When a patient who speaks little or no English meets' with a doctor, "potential clinical consequences" - such as taking the wrong dose of a medication - usually result, a study by doctors of the Medical College of Wis- consin has found. To counter this problem - and to comply with civil rights law ensuring equal medical treatment for all patients, regardless of their English proficiency - many hospitals, including those at the University, have expand- "A doctor cannot fill the medical interpreter position.... They're very busy." -Jane Miller Staff trainer for the University of Michigan Health System's Interpreter Services Program tion, medical mishaps followed 63 percent of the time. "A lot of this area is multicultural, and if the doctors don't I . : ' i .o ,,t .,. ,. fit" .' i!