Weath1er Tuesday November 25, 2003 @2003 The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No. 59 One-hundred-thirteen years ofeditorialfreedom TODAY: Partly cloudy dur- ing the day and night with winds up to 13 miles per hour. L,: 40 LOW: 30 Tomorrow 45132 www.mihigandaily.com Rill Holiday sales likely to hit a downturn Year-round discounts may hurt post- Thanksgiving gift sales By Tomislav Ladiika Daily Staff Reporter The holiday shopping season unoffi- cially kicks off this Friday, but accord- ing to a University analyst, an increasing number of consumers are buying presents at any time of year - as long as they can get them at dis- count. This trend might hurt businesses that expect the traditional sales boost during the holiday season. About 40 percent of consumers have traditionally shopped on the day after Thanksgiving, accord- ing to the American Express Retail Index. Business School Prof. Aradhna Krishna said many consumers have become accustomed to buying their gifts on sale. An increasing number of opportunistic consumers are searching for and purchasing gifts that are on sale throughout the year and then saving them for the holidays. But this trend has been hurting the profits of businesses because con- sumers are buying items at discounts instead of at the regular prices, Krishna said. "Typically, the amount sold at regular prices has been decreasing over time," she said. LSA senior Julie Spnk said she is planning on shopping for holiday pres- ents during the Thanksgiving break but added that she also buys gifts before the holiday season if she can find them at reduced prices. "I have a big drawer that if I find something that's on sale, I just put it in there," she said. Tree Omar, manager of the State Street Bivouac, said people have been buying holiday presents since the beginning of the school year, and espe- cially since Ialloween. He said people occasionally buy items for their boyfriends or girlfriends and save them for Christmas. Krishna added that another recent trend has been the increase in holiday purchases made online. While businesses may be hoping that the recovering economy and higher consumer confidence will lead to a boost in sales this season, data indicate that holiday shopping will not increase by a significant amount, according to Business School Prof. Claes Fornell. Customer satisfaction with the goods that they buy has not changed recently, indicating that consumer spending also will not increase, said Fornell, who compiles the American Customer Satis- faction Index. The satisfaction index differs from the University's Index of Consumer Sentiment in that it measures how happy people are with the quality of items they buy, Fornell said. Consumer confidence measures how confident people are that the economy will per- form well in the future, he said. See ECONOMY, Page 2 ACtivists recount run-in with the law By Emily Kraack Daily Staff Reporter People were literally hanging over the handrails at Oneline Studio on Fourth Street and Huron Street last night to hear first-hand accounts of police violence toward protesters in Miami Thurs- day. The crowd was in a festive yet serious mood as they mixed raising money to cover legal fees for arrested activists, including University students Jenny Lee and Mike Medow, with celebrating the second edition of Moment magazine. Students from many student groups on campus were at hand to listen to the testimonies. Attend- ing the event were students from Rad.art consor- tium, Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality, Anti-War Action! and Moment magazine, a progressive magazine estab- lished this year by University graduate students. Donations toward legal aid for the arrested pro- testers were accepted at the door. The event was expected to only draw 40 people, but more than 50 filled Oneline Studio. Lee and Medow were released Sunday and face misdemeanor charges. They were expected to return last night. Both were in Miami as reporters and held official press passes from an independ- ent news media outlet called Michigan Indepen- dent Media Center, which falls under the umbrella of Indymedia, according to people at the event. Lee and Medow are also involved in Moment, though they were not representing Moment when they were arrested. Moment editor Yoni Goldstein said that bail and court fees were set at $550 each for LSA sen- iors Lee and Medow, who were arrested Thursday while in Miami protesting negotiations to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement. The negotiations were aimed at finalizing a policy called the Free Trade Area of the Americas and involved all countries in the Western Hemisphere but Cuba. The FTAA's stated goal is to lower trade barri- ers between member nations. protesters argued the FTAA will mean loss of American jobs and exploitation of cheap labor and natural resources. Recent Michigan alumni Sigh Sobin was one of the protesters arrested Thursday. He said he decided to go to Miami after finding out that funding for FTAA conference preparations was hidden in allocations in the Iraq war budget. "pro- testers are more and more being equated with ter- rorists," Sobin said. He said police prevented protesters from joining the officially-sanctioned march Thursday afternoon and opened fire with tear gas and fire hoses as soon as the time of the march passed, despite what he described as peaceful dispersion of marchers. Sobin said police action toward the peaceful marchers led him to engage in more direct action, such as erecting barricades and videotaping arrests to make sure police weren't using violent means in dealing with protesters. "With the cops using those kinds of tactics, it forces people to engage in direct action," he said. He was arrested while videotaping other people being arrested; police dropped all charges against him after he was booked. Goldstein and Sobin both talked about discrim- inatory police actions toward transgendered peo- See ARRESTS, Page 3 TOP: The band Run Little Bunny performs last night at Oneline Studio for a benefit supporting the University students who were arrested during last week's protests. Projected behind the band is footage from the protest (ELSE BERGMAN/Daily). BOTTOM: Police line up in Miami during the protests (Becky Tarlau/For the Daily). 'Random' registration dates frustrate some students By Trista Van Tine Daily Staff Reporter Frustrated with class registration, some students are questioning the University's system for determining appointment times. "I'm a junior and I was expect- ing an earlier registration date, and I don't get to register untilthe 26t. I have 75 credits and I know people that have less credits than me, but are registering first," LSA junior Molly Kalahar said. University Registrar Associate Kortney Briske said the registration process has proven to be unsettling for numerous students. "We get a number of calls every term from students thinking that their appointment should be earlier than the one they received. Occa- sionally they are right - late trans- fer credits, for example - but in general, they keep the same appointment they were assigned, with the understanding that there is some randomness within the groups. Sometimes you come at the end, sometimes at the beginning," he said. The breakdown of the registration appointment process is as follows: Students are first distinguished as graduate students or undergradu- ates. Then, both of these groups are separated into seven registration groups, determined by the student's overall credits and current term credits - the number of credits that were taken this fall. Students within each of these seven groups are then randomly assigned an appointment date and time. "It changes from term to term, but there are roughly 3,000 students in each group," Briske said. He added that on each of the appointment days, students fall under different time slots, the first begin- ning at 8 a.m. with the final slot at 6:45 p.m. Grad students began registration on Nov. 17 and their last assigned appointments were Thursday. Undergraduate appointments began Wednesday and will end on Dec. 9. No appointments are assigned on the weekends. Another complaint during the backpacking and registration process has come from students who are unable to enroll in classes they need because the slots are full by the time they are assigned to register. "I have found a lot of problems with classes that say reserved seat- ing - where they have 10 opena. seats, but they are already reserved for people," LSA junior Mary Heis- er said. "There are also classes that are only offered in the fall and not in the winter, which makes it really hard to get classes you need." For other students, the process is just another part of University life. "I think it is fine. You can't always get the classes you want, but that's what happens when you go to a big school like this," LSA fresh- man Abigail Smith said. Esrold Nurse, LSA assistant dean for academic affairs, said the most popular time slots for courses are between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Mon- day through Friday, and between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday. "These are the most popular times students want, but there are only so many courses that can be offered in these time slots," Nurse said. "We are also limited by the avail- See CLASSES, Page 3 BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily Congressman John Dingell discusses underage drinking yesterday at an event In the Michigan Health System Trauma Burn Center. Hospitallaunche-s Jieaci pre vention program By Jeremy Berkowitz making responsible choices. Daily Staff Reporter Both centers hope to spread the use o f One-man show Race plays a role in marital, relationship stability, 'U' study finds Your friend passed out at a party after too many shots of vodka. He's breathing lightly and his skin is clammy. Do you call 911 and take the risk of getting in trouble with police, or do you let your friend sleep it off and hope he recovers? This is one of many interactive scenarios in a new alcohol educa- tion program planned by the Uni- versity Hospital Trauma Burn Center in con- junction with the Century T Council, a a p non - pro fit Computer wo organization Court erai funded by six craludr of America's leading di s - The program, A tillers. funded In part byt The two cen- Council, a non-prof ters plan to offer America's top dist a new computer 0Coptrsm program called teachopuere-imu Alcohol 101, tec coseguebce th o AfQ*" " I" lE" the computer program throughout Michigan. "The program was designed for high school counselors," Century Council spokeswoman Maria Tildon said, adding that it is up to the dis- cretion of each school on how they use the program. "The hope is to really focus on high school seniors,"she said. Tildon noted the numerous ten- sions that arise for I AI 't 01 it iu Eu ,e ing out kshop seeks to lc ol 10 th Centu fi group of oti ers. utions will un e s es of underage college and high school stu- dents, espe- cially seniors getting ready for prom and graduation. "They will be faced with new chal- lenges and sit- uations that will bring about pressure to consume alcohol ," Tildon said. Dingell com- plimented the By Aynw Jean Daily Staff Reporter Even as divorce rates climb ever high- er, many still view stability as marriage's biggest boon. But, though some assume that getting married makes separation less likely, a new study suggests it is more complex. The study, conducted by the Institute for Social Research, investigated the separation rates - the amount of insta- bility - among cohabiting and married couples and the implications it held for children. Although the study found that cohabiting couples part ways more often and that married couples are more sta- ble, it did not see similar trends for black and Hisnanic families. For children whose parents were mar- ried, only 15 percent had parted ways. But on average, minority families faced the same rates of separation whether couples were married or simply living together. The study concluded that black and Hispanic families face the same levels of instability with or without marriage. The causes are, as of yet, unclear. But, although study co-author and sociology Prof. Pamela Smock could not control for socioeconomic status in her study, she hypothesizes that income may be a key indicator for blacks and Hispanics, who are disproportionately poor. "When you're worried about putting food on the table, it's difficult to worry about having a 'normal family life'" geared toward drinking. high school sen- iors ready to go to college. "Throughout the alcohol pro- gram, students are asked to make a decision and there are consequences for each decision," Century Council employee Pamela Beer said at a press conference yesterday in the University Hospital. U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Dear- born), Ann Arbor Police Chief Daniel Oates and doctors from the preventive nature of the program, noting that it taught teenagers lessons before they made poor choices. "One of the great worries about rais- ing kids is how you're going to get them in a wholesome health'state of adult- hood," Dingell said. Dingell can relate to problems of rais- ing teenagers. He noted that his experience raising four kids - two of them as Ak I In I