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The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 3

CAMPUS
Muslim leader to
speak on Islam's
image in America
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, the
spiritual leader of the Muslim Ameri-
can Society, will be speaking on
Islam's image in the United States on
Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Michigan
Union Ballroom. The title of his talk is
"Correcting Islam's Image: The Bal-
ance Between Living a Life of Faith
and Addressing Material Needs."
Mohammed is the son of the late
Elijah Muhammad, leader of the
Nation of Islam from the 1950s to
1975. Mohammed succeeded his father
as leader and is credited for working to
reform the group and bringing follow-
ers to mainstream Islam. Mohammed
was also the first Muslim to deliver an
invocation to the U.S. Senate in 1992.
The Muslim Graduate Student Asso-
ciation, the Muslim Student Associa-
tion and the Islamic Education Society
will sponsor the event.
Panel to remember
WWII internment
camp experiences
A panel of Japanese Americans will
discuss their internment camp experi-
ences during World War II on Thursday
at 5 p.m. in the Wolverine Room of the
Michigan Union. The event commem-
orates the 62nd anniversary of Presi-
dent Franklin Roosevelt's issuance of
Executive Order 9066, which author-
ized the confinement of over 110,000
Japanese Americans into government-
sponsored concentration camps. Feb.
19 has been termed a "day of remem-
brance" by Japanese Americans.
The panelists will also speak about
how they rebuilt their lives in the
Detroit area during the post-war years.
The guest speakers are Mary Kamidoi,
Nob Shimokochi and Toshi Shimoura,
survivors of the internment camps who
now live in Detroit. The Asian/Pacific
Islander American Studies Program
and the United Asian American Orga-
nizations will sponsor the event.
Music prof to
speak on music-
body relation
Evan Chambers, chair of the Com-
position Department in the School of
Music, will speak about music as a
form of massage today at noon in the
Osterman Common Room of the
Rackham building. His lecture will
compare music and patterns of muscle
tension. He will relate this topic to "Oh
Say Grim Death," a song that he wrote
last year.
Chambers is a traditional Irish fid-
dler as well as a composer, and his
work has roots in folk music. This talk
is part of the Artists-at-Work Series
and is sponsored by the Institute for the
Humanities.
Film screening to
focus on animal,
human relations
The Michigan Animal Rights Soci-
ety will sponsor a film screening of the
documentary "Peaceable Kingdom"
today at 7 p.m. in the Michigan
League. The film explores the inter-
connected lives of humans and ani-
mals. It also addresses the way animals

are viewed by society and offers a,
vision that a more peaceful world is
within the reach of society. A discus-
sion will follow the conclusion of the film.
LGBT office to
show film on
racism, homophobia
The Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisex-
ual, and Transgender Affairs will host
a discussion on the film "Tongues
Untied" Thursday at 4 p.m. in room
3200 of the Michigan Union. The film
is a controversial, political film about
racism and homophobia in the United
States. Originally aired by the Public
Broadcasting Service, the film uses
many artistic forms, including poetry,
music and oral history, to reveal preju-
dices faced by black gays. A discus-
sion will follow the film and
refreshments will be provided.
Author to read
memoir on father-
son relationship
The English Department will present
a poetry and memoir reading by Sebas-
tian Matthews Thursday at 5 p.m. in
room D1270 of Davidson Hall.
Matthews is the son of poet William
Matthews, who wrote autobiographical
 vrse and dAe in 19'7.

Cellphone firms bid for AT&T Wireless

By Adhiraj Dutt
Daily Staff Reporter
AT&T Wireless board members convened yes-
terday to evaluate the bidding war that intensified
over the weekend after Vodafone and Cingular
Wireless proposed new offers to buy the company.
Analysts estimate that if Cingular acquired
AT&T wireless, the combined company could save
nearly $2 billion a year. Such an acquisition would
combine AT&T Wireless' 22 million customers
with Cingular's 24 million to form the nation's
largest cell phone company. Currently, Verizon
Wireless is the nation's largest provider with 37
million customers.
AT&T Wireless' board members have set a
deadline of Feb. 29 to make a decision regarding
the acquisition, though yesterday's call for a
board meeting led many to expect a decision to
be made ahead of the deadline.
AT&T Wireless put itself up for sale Jan. 22,
after the company reported a fourth-quarter earn-
ings loss and saw income decrease more than 20
percent compared to a year ago. The company,
which carries a debt of nearly $6 billion, lost

about 4 percent of its about 22 million customers
last month.
But LSA sophomore Allison Yang, who has
had an AT&T Wireless cell phone for five years,
said she has no major problems with the compa-
ny. Yang said she gets coverage across almost the
entire campus and throughout the Midwest.
"They have sweet deals and good customer serv-
ice," she added.
Cingular, the country's second-largest wireless
company, began the bidding with an initial offer
of $30 billion, or $11 dollars per share, for AT&T
Wireless stock. According to The Wall Street
Journal, Cingular's bid reached $38 billion, or
$14 per share, on Sunday and was matched by
Vodafone, the world's largest cell phone compa-
ny. In the previous rounds of bidding, Vodafone
has matched Cingular's offers.
The new bids are a premium over AT&T Wire-
less shares, which closed at $11.82 on Friday at
the New York Stock Exchange.
"AT&T wireless was not doing particularly
well," Business School Prof. Jay Anand said.
"They were underperforming and not reaching
their financial goals."

Such an acquisition would combine AT&T Wireless' 22
million customers with Cingular's 24 million to form the
nation's largest cell phone company.

Wall Street analysts point to Cingular as the
likely suitor for AT&T Wireless, partly because it
is owned by SBC Communications and Bell-
South, giving it the financial backing to make
aggressive bids.
"The (purchasing) party will manage the com-
pany in a different way," Anand said. "They have
more economies of scale and can make the busi-
ness more streamlined."
According to Anand, in acquisitions such as
this one, there are always risks for the consumers.
"In this case, you wouldn't expect a disrup-
tion in wireless service," he said. "There are two
perspectives to the deal. One is that customers
benefit because the bigger company can provide
better service, better access and better deals. The
second is that the number of competitors is
smaller, so the remaining companies might fight
less (over prices)."

Companies tend to emphasize that customers
benefit, while the U.S. Department of Justice
tends to stress that acquisitions harm competi-
tion. Currently in the cell phone industry, compe-
tition will not suffer because there are still a lot of
different cell phone service providers, Anand
said.
"In this case, (the acquisition) wouldn't be very
beneficial for customers and wouldn't be that bad
because there is significant excess in the indus-
try," he said.
While Cingular and Vodafone try to outbid
each other, certain barriers to a deal exist. For
one, in order to buy AT&T Wireless, Vodafone
would have to free itself from a 45 percent stake
in Verizon, which is valued at up to $26 billion.
AT&T Wireless was created by the AT&T Cor-
poration in 1994 and split into a separate compa-
ny in 2001.

Watch and learn

' heart center
ranked among
best i*n nation

BRETT MOUNTAIN/Daily
RC ceramics Professor Susan Crowell demonstrates how to throw clay on a wheel to her Ceramics
289 class in East Quad Residence Hall yesterday.
Disney board turns down
takeover bid by ComCatR

University Hospital plans
to open new clLicefocusAg
on women ' heart pro bems
By Nura Sediqe
For the Daily
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer
of women and men in America. But
the University's Cardiovascular
Center is working to help the prob-
lem.
The center was ranked one of the
44 "best of the best" centers for
women's heart care, according to a
new study in the February issue of
Good Housekeeping Magazine.
"We're the only hospital in
Michigan that was on the list, and
one of the only in the Midwest, so
we really pride our center for this
achievement," said Kara Gavin,
spokeswoman for the University of
Michigan Health System.
David Pinsky, chief of cardiovas-
cular medicine at the University
Hospital, said the hospital consis-
tently receives high rankings.
"The ranking can really be con-
tributed to our long tradition of
excellence in the many different
areas of healthcare. One of the pri-
mary areas is quality cardiovascular
care, so it certainly contributes to
the ranking," Pinsky said.
This recognition comes just as
the center prepares to open a new
clinic for women with heart disease
to complement their existing center.
Claire Duvernoy, an associate pro-
fessor of internal medicine and car-
diology, is heading the new
women's clinic.
"We've spent several years on
this program, so there's been a lot
of hard work put forth to establish
this program," Duvernoy said. The
clinic will officially open March 1.
"This new clinic will be an addi-

tional resource for our female
patients and give them an environ-
ment that will give them full atten-
tion to all of the issues they go
through, including their heart,"
Gavin said.
Duvernoy said the clinic will be
held at the East Ann Arbor Health
Center. It will be open for patients
every Monday.
"The center will provide a full
range of services for women, from
dietary strategies to counseling
issues. We want to put an emphasis
on preventive healthcare, so we're
going to have fun programs, such as
tips for healthy cooking and differ-
ent exercises they can do to pro-
mote heart care," Duvernoy said.
"We're really trying to work with
other women's health experts in
gynecology, in psychiatry, so we
can deliver state of the art compre-
hensive care for women in the state
of Michigan," she added.
Duvernoy said a clinic focusing
solely on women's heart problems
at the hospital is long overdue.
Pinsky stressed the need for more
research on female cardiovascular
diseases. "The leading disease of
women is cardiovascular disease, so
there is a great interest in finding
out how this can be prevented and
treated," he said.
He added that research is critical
to help decrease-the number of
deaths attributed to heart disease,
because treatments such as hormon-
al replacement theory-have not been
successful.
"There are a lot of uncertainties
and we have to find more out about
them. The marriage between the
two disciplines (of women's disease
and heart care) is an opportunity for
us to explore new ways to under-
stand the causes of women's disease
and how best to treat it," Pinsky
said.

Dirney' board of directors claims that
Comcast's offer i $3.60 less than market
value for each share of Disney stock
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The board of directors for
The Walt Disney Company yesterday rejected a
takeover bid by cable television giant Comcast Corp.,
officials said.
The board noted that the current offer to acquire Disney
by swapping shares of both companies would undervalue
Disney's holdings.
"We are committed to creating shareholder value
now and in the future and will carefully consider any
legitimate proposal that would accomplish that objec-
tive," the Disney board said in a statement released yes-
terday.
"In any proposal by Comcast, or any other company, the
board will consider and assess the value to be received in
exchange for the shares of Disney, and also the appropriate
premium to reflect the full value of Disney."

Comcast made the surprise bid for Disney on Wednesday,
hours before the entertainment company was set to
announce strong first quarter earnings.
The bid was initially valued at $54 billion, but
investors jacked up the price of Disney stock beyond the
Comcast offer.
Comcast also said it would assume $11.9 billion in debt
from Disney, which owns ABC, ESPN, movie studios and
theme parks.
In its statement yesterday, Disney's board of directors said
Comcast's offer amounts to $3.60 less than market value for
each share of Disney stock.
"The deficit of value in Comcast's proposal has existed
from the very first day after Comcast announced it, when
the deficit was $3.24 per Disney share or a total of $6.6 bil-
lion," the statement read.
Disney and Comcast together had $45 billion in revenues
last year. If a deal had been reached to combine the compa-
nies, they would have created the world's biggest media
company, edging out Time Warner, which had $39.6 billion
in revenues last year.

Corrections:
Please report any errors inthe Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com

ALI
Continued from Page 1
of the College Republicans, said
critics like Ali have no basis for
their claims because the world is
safer without Saddam and his dicta-
torship. "We have disposed of one
of the greatest tyrants in the world.
We ended genocide - 250,000
Iraqis were killed under his regime.
Critics can't refute that," MacGuid-
win said.
He added that Bush did not fabri-
cate any of the evidence. Bush was
acting on the best intelligence avail-
able to him, which was the same
intelligence used by previous presi-
dents, MacGuidwin said.
But Ali said one thing he hopes
students learn from his lecture is
never to trust politicians. "A politi-
cian's intention for wars are always
told in lies," Ali said.
Ali elaborated on the administra-
tion's lies by adding that the Ameri-
can political system acts by a double
standard. He then questioned the
current Democratic candidates'
motivations for criticizing Bush's
war on Iraq. "Would the Democrats
have spoken out against the presi-
dent if there had been no resistance
aixainst the war? There's always that

can politics can be changed if the
American people think for them-
selves and look past the mainstream
media, Ali said. Americans have to
combat their own apathy and chal-
lenge their leaders, he added. "This
apathy is an extreme danger to
democracy," he said.
Ali said change can happen if Amer-
icans come together, but he added, "As
long as people carry on accepting
things, things will carry on."
University alum Ryan Winn said
Ali's lecture was effective because it
kept emotion out of the arguments
and instead offered real political
solutions.
"His points about the apathy of
American citizens, which I am guilty
of, it's something that we have to do
something about. We have to add
some enthusiasm and pressure to the
government. It is extremely neces-
sary," Winn said.
Rackham student Najeeb Jan said
he agreed with many of Ali's view-
points but said removing U.S. sol-
diers from Iraq and hoping that the
Iraqis peacefully resolve the solution
was something he did not agree with.
"Whether the resistance targets sol-
diers or civilians, we still need to be
critical of resistance also," he added.
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