LOCAL/STATE
The Minhigan Daily- Wednesday, September 3, 2003 - 3
THISEEK
Computer virus influx prompts user advisory
I
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Five years ago...
The Daily reported that the Univer-
sity deferred the admission of fresh-
man Daniel Granger from Grosse
Pointe until winter 1999. Granger had
k recently been charged with statutory
rape after an investigation showed he
had sex with six underage girls. Pros-
ecutors started the investigation after
°ranger's genitals were exposed in his
high school yearbook.
Ten years ago...
The University held its first ever
"Welcome to Michigan Week" in an
effort to help freshman with the transi-
tion to the University. Activities includ-
ed campus tours, student rallies,
academic open houses and the New
Student Convocation.
"The event made a good impression
on people, motivating them to do more
in college than just study or socialize,"
Michigan Student Assembly President
Craig Greenberg said.
Sept 9, 1983
University Provost Billy Frye
announced that he would ask the
Board of Regents later in the fall to
-eliminate the College of Engineering
Humanities Department.
University administrators said
"$90,000 could be saved in the effort
and be put into other college depart-
ments. In addition, they felt it was
redundant for the school to be teaching
literature when several LSA depart-
ments could do the same job. But some
professors worried about students
becoming too closed-minded.
"It's very important to drag engi-
neering students away from their gadg-
-ets and I think it's done with the
literature seminar their junior year,"
,electrical engineering Prof. Andrejis
Olte said.
Sept 9, 1976
The Graduate Employees Organiza-
tion and the University submitted their
labor dispute to a state mediator.
Issues included pay raises, tuition cuts
and the diversity of graduate students
on campus. GEO ended up extending
a strike deadline for two months
before it rejected a strike and went
back to the bargaining table with the
University.
Sept. 9, 1971
The University Office of Student
Services dropped-its rule barring pre-
marital sex and co-habitation in resi-
dence halls:The rule had been in effect
since 1968, but students and officials
alike acknowledged it was never
enforced.
"I didn't even know they had such a
rule," said one junior. "My friend lived
with her boyfriend last year in South
Quad (Residence Hall) and nobody
raisedafuss"
Sept. 9, 1971
The Daily reported that many stu-
dents at the University and other
Michigan schools could vote in their
college towns for the first time, after
the state Supreme Court declared spe-
cial voter residency requirements
unconstitutional. Previously, most stu-
dents in Ann Arbor who did not live
there year-round or were less than 50
percent self-supporting had not been
considered qualified residents.
By Michael Gurovitsch
Daily Staff Reporter
When she moved in to East Quad Resi-
dence Hall in mid-August, RC sophomore
Sharon Brett did something typical while she
unpacked - she used her computer. But
shortly after, the machine was infected with a
virus, causing her to be kicked off the Univer-
sity server.
"Supposedly I opened some e-mail that
contained it," Brett said.
Virus Busters, a group of Information Tech-
nology Central Services employees who
detect and prevent the spreading of viruses,
noticed the problem and removed Brett from
the server until the problem was fixed -
which took nearly two weeks.
Brett was not alone in her computer
trouble.
"It's progressively getting worse. We
have never had it hit at the start of the
school year like this," said Elizabeth
Loesch, director of the housing informa-
tion technology office.
Many of the current virus strains are
being transmitted into computers through
vulnerabilities in e-mail or operating sys-
tems.
"There are two things students need to
do for protection: Keep their operating
systems up on the latest patches ... (and)
have good virus software that is kept
updated," Loesch said.
To prevent virus infections, McAfee
Security recommends not opening any e-
mail attachments that are suspicious, unex-
pected or from an unknown sender.
Additionally, McAfee advises to down-
load files only from "legitimate and rep-
utable" sources. When in doubt, they
suggest that computer users always err on
the side of caution.
About 100 of the 10,000 computer
accounts on the University's network are now
blocked due to infections discovered by Virus
Busters, Loesch said.
Liz Sweet, director of the ITCS user advo-
cate office, said although new computers are
still being infected every day, the virus out-
break is on the decline.
"For this particular outbreak, it's on the
downward side of the curve. We are seeing
fewer and fewer cases every day, and we are
cleaning up computers that are compromised
with the worm," Sweet said.
"We are winning the battle and we are get-
ting ahead of this thing," she added.
In response to the threat of viruses, ITCS
developed and released a disk that, once
installed, prevents and fixes the most dan-
gerous strains.
The disk was given to all students living
in University Housing and is available for
free to all other students at Angell Hall, the
Michigan Union and several libraries.
Update anti-virus software regularly. Students can visit
Angell Hall or the Angell Hall computing sites for new
software.
Don't open e-mail attachments from unknown senders.
Download files only from "legitimate and reputable"
sources.
No time to stop and go
Ax
'U' medica/faciities respond to
growing demand for translators
TRANSLATORS
Continued from Page 1
preter Services Program. "By law we
need to provide (interpreters),"
because UMHS receives federal
health care funding.
UMHS and University Health Ser-
vice provide students and Ann Arbor
residents with access to interpreters
of several foreign languages, Miller
said. She mainly interprets Chinese
- one of the most sought-after lan-
guages for translation, along with
Russian and Spanish.
"Lots of senior patients and U of
M students in Ph.D. programs (call
and say) that their wife is having a
baby, and I help them,".she said.
Miller said many of her calls also
come from international students
seeking services provided by UHS,
but she can only deal with requests
sent through UMHS. "As I know, a
lot of U of M students go to the
health service, and that's not our
system," she said.
Whereas UMHS - which
includes the various University hos-
pitals - maintains a staff of inter-
preters, UHS - the
University-provided outpatient clinic
for students - accesses a 24-hour
national hotline called "Language
Since 2000, fall
enrollment of
international students
at the University has
increased 22 percent.
Line" for translation services. But
both services come at a price.
"We have over a half-million-dol-
lar budget right now," ISP Program
Coordinator Michelle Harris said,
adding that the University foots the
bill for the UMHS program.
Since 2000, fall enrollment of
international students at the Univer-
sity has increased 22 percent,
according to written statements pro-
vided by the University. At the same
time, Miller and Harris said demand
for interpreters is growing.
"We have over 1,000 requests a
month for interpreters," Harris said,
referring to the need for translation
services at UMHS. "We keep grow-
ing - we have 12 staff interpreters,
and about 100 other contractors" to
interpret less common languages.
By contrast, some hospitals in
other U.S. cities have only a few
interpreters. Primary Children's
Hospital in Salt Lake City has five
interpreters, according to the Ameri-
can Medical Association.
Nationwide, 15 percent of health
care practitioners seek external
interpreting services to talk to Span-
ish-speaking patients, according to
reports by Hablamos Juntos, an
organization working to improve
communication between Hispanic
patients and their doctors.
Professional interpreters do not
need a license to practice. Nor do
they undergo nationally standardized
training.
But interpreters cited a need for
professional workers, adding that
amateurs often cannot provide com-
parable service.
"Using family and friends is not
always appropriate, because it's a
violation of patient confidentiality,"
Harris said. "Sometimes a (fluent
bystander) might disclose informa-
tion, but in some cultures they don't
want patients to know bad news."
Miller said although many of the
doctors she works with are multilin-
gual, doctors cannot be expected to
meet the behest of all non-English-
speaking patients.
"A doctor cannot fill the medical
interpreter position," she said.
"They're very busy."
SETH LOWER/Daiy
A runner passes a discarded toilet yesterday afternoon on the
corner of South Forest and Oakland avenues.
MKchigan ofticias
ready to answer
blackout questions
THE BIGGEST BACK TO SCHOOL
P TIR SI16l
1000
Choice$
i
1Sept 4, 1975
Gov. William Milliken announced a
,new 1-percent cut in state funding
toward the University. With a $3 mil-
lion budget deficit looming, Universi-
ty President Robben Fleming
announced that he anticipated a hir-
ing freeze for the fall semester,
although he did not think a subse-
quent tuition increase would take
place. Fleming added that he did not
want to get the University involved in
deficit spending.
Sept. 4, 1968
A violent confrontation occurred
at the County Building between wel-
fare recipients and members of the
Washtenaw County Sheriff's Depart-
' ment. The recipients were protesting
inadequate allocations at a meeting
of the Washtenaw County Board of
Supervisors.
Sept 8, 1984
At the 8th annual all-class reunion of
Black Graduates, University and com-
munity officials attacked faculty mem-
bers and University administrators for a
recent decline in minority students.
"The University is being run much
1. mnn like n h}Catc n Accn_-
Granholm will base
congressional testimony
on Ann Arbor company's
version of events
LANSING (AP) - A congressional
committee looking into how and why
last month's blackout happened will
hear from Michigan Gov. Jennifer
Granholm and Detroit Mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick.
The U.S. House Energy and Com-
merce Committee, chaired by Rep.
Billy Tauzin (R-La.) planned to take
testimony today and tomorrow on the
blackout, which swept across eight
states and parts of Canada on Aug. 14.
About 50 million
customers, 2.3
million in Michi-
gan, lost power.
In her prepared,
testimony,
Granholm said
International
Transmission Co.,
based in Ann
Arbor, has traced
the timeline on Granholm
actions that con-
tributed to the blackout back to one hour
and five minutes before it occurred. But
she said ITC and DTE Energy said they
were unaware of any problem or any
unusual activity on the grid until just a
few minutes before the blackout.
"If they had been informed during
the previous hour that the system was
having problems, they may have been
able to craft a contingency plan for the
energy demand and delivery, and avoid
the cascading failure," Granholm said.
She also said that restructuring of
the utility market, while it has had
many positive results, has made it
harder to determine who is responsible
fnr mate hras nower cmnanies
chief executive of a major Michigan
utility says he is convinced that a
power plant shutdown and transmis-
sion line failures in Ohio "were the
triggering event for the blackout" and
that an "apparent failure in communi-
cation" was a major reason the prob-
lem spread.
"For some reason, the required level
of communications and coordination
failed on Aug. 14," Anthony Earley Jr.,
chairman and chief executive officer of
DTE Energy, wrote the House Energy
and Commerce Committee. He said
this "apparent breakdown in communi-
cations between the Ohio utilities and
other utility systems" must be dealt
with.
Earley, whose Detroit Edison serves
5 million people in southeastern
Michigan, complained that "Michigan
utilities did not have timely or ade-
quate warnings about deteriorating
systems condition in Ohio" during the
hour before the blackout.
He said Detroit Edison did not begin
to detect anything unusual until 4:06
p.m., five minutes before the blackout
hit full force in all or parts of eight
states. Investigators said the first of
five transmission line failures in Ohio
began occurring an hour earlier.
Granholm, Kilpatrick and Michigan
Public Service Commission Chairman
Peter Lark were scheduled to testify
today. Joseph Welch, chief executive of
ITC, is to testify tomorrow.
Lark and Granholm said they've
been asked to answer questions on the
factors and events leading up to the
blackout, which systems operated as
designed and which systems failed, the
lessons learned from the blackout, and
ways to prevent future outages.
Kilpatrick planned to talk about the
financial impact of the blackout.
"We see this as a good opportunity
to enwaea and educate the federal gov-