news@michigandaily.com NEWS The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 3A Moped lost in Ann * Arbor, discovered in Jackson County On Tuesday night, a caller reported to the Department of Public Safety that his moped was stolen. The vehi- cle had been parked in the Catherine Street parking lot since December, and the caller discovered it missing on Tuesday. The moped was later recovered in Jackson County. Sibling rivalry turns to assault at University hospital A fight broke out between two sis- ters at the University Hospital's emergency room Tuesday night. While the two were visiting their mother at the hospital, one sister assaulted the other. DPS later arrest- ed the woman for assault. Referee's pants taken; no suspects According to the DPS crime log, on Tuesday, an intramural referee reported the theft of a pair of pants along with two wallets and a pair of keys at Yost Ice Arena. There are cur- rently no suspects and DPS estimates the value of the stolen property is less than $100. Person receives telephone call harassment DPS reports show that on Monday night, a subject reported receiving tele- phone calls of a harassing nature at Mosher-Jordan Residence Hall. DPS has no further information because the investigation is pending. Cleaning solution ends up in eyes; victims taken to ER Callers reported to DPS on Sun- day afternoon that a kitchen staff member at the Law Quad splashed cleaning solution in several people's eyes. The victims were later trans- ported to the University Hospital's emergency room. Police called after security unit smells marijuana A housing security unit at Mosher Jordan Residence Hall requested a police officer after smelling marijuana smoke coming from a room in the resi- dence hall early Tuesday morning. DPS has no further information. Person reports paint ball incident, area later cleaned A DPS unit met with an individ- ual who was reporting a paint ball gun incident at Couzens Residence Hall late Sunday night. The area was later cleaned and no police reports were filed. CD player stolen from women's lockerroom DPS reports show that a CD player was stolen from the women's locker- room in the North Campus Recreation Building on Sunday morning. DPS estimates the value of the CD player is $75. There are currently no suspects. Board falls on vehicle near Hatcher Library A caller reported to DPS on Tues- day morning that a wooden board lying next to a dumpster caused dam- age to a University vehicle. The dam- age occurred after the board fell on the vehicle in the dock area next to Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. DPS has no estimate of the value of the damaged property. Man with revoked license arrested for running stop sign DPS arrested a man early yesterday morning after he failed to stop at a stop sign on South University Avenue. The man was arrested for operating a vehi- cle while intoxicated and for driving with a suspended license. f Trespasser Lorenzo Ramsey, left, and Erik Glenn, members of the Office of LGBT Affairs Speakers Bureau, speak during a panel discussion yesterday in East Hall regarding what it means to be both black and gay. Panel1sts discuss poblems "ifaced bygay minoitie GRADING Continued from Page 1A the fact that there's this pathology of grades out there that people are moti- vated by that more than they ought to be," he said. "But given that that's the reality andthat the rest of LSA tends to kind of encourage that mentality, it's a reality we have to live with here." Robinson expressed the potential danger of letter grades, citing a course he taught on Mexican labor in North America. "As soon as you get into grades you start going, well, 'Can we have all A's?' Well, no you're not sup- posed to have all A's, that's called grade inflation, but in fact everyone was really motivated to do projects." The course encouraged students to engage in the issues and included a trip to Mexico. "I felt the course was a smash- "h r' ing success on both ere's fronts so the grades groundsm were kind of an irrel- evance in a way, and sUppOrt i even potentially neg- going ba ative," Robinson said. pass/fail But RC senior evaluatio Carol Gray said she feels letter grades -{ conflict with the RC Student Se mission of the RC. "I think the RC is about this continu- ous process of learning and dialogue, and (by giving grades) it's standard- izing something that in essence is not meant to be standardized," she said. She also expressed concern about the shift in classroom dynamics. "Even if you get a grade with an evaluation, it changes the way you act in class, it changes everything." RC junior Aaron Malinoff attrib- utes the controversy over the change to miscommunication between RC students and administrators. "People who graduated from the RC ... would tell me that it was sort of a snap decision that was made. Stu- dents really didn't have a chance to get upset about or voice their con- cerns," he said. Still, some students enjoy having both grades and evaluations. RC junior Jeremy Cook feels that both systems are biased, but together can better depict a student. "I think they give dif- ferent pictures. An evaluation can tell about you every day of class, but the D w+ 14 C ii Cl letter gives a more general picture, and I think you need both to give a really accurate picture of a student in a class;' he said. Distributing letter grades may pro- vide benefits to students, said Mark Kirschenmann, an RC professor and a School of Music professor. "Personally I like having and prefer having a grad- ed system because in my experiences I think that, for better or for worse, grades oftentimes serve as a quasi- motivating factor," he said. He said he noticed that seniors under the old grad- ing policy participated in a course just enough to pass. "My general inclina- tion is to think that the pass-fail system had some downfalls in that some of the students I've had under that policy simply did enough to get by," he said. RC sophomore Dana Fife, a stu- dent of the ungrad- ed intensive 10 greaL language program ell of said she is satisfied with the arrange- ere for ment. er for"It helps to know that when I'm learning a lan- IS., guage, my main goal isn't to get an :harlie Murphy A, it's to know the vices Assistant language," she said. Since the program may command a large portion of a stu- dent's course load, and is focused on constant assessment, letter grades may defeat the purpose of an inten- sive program, she said. "It's too stressful to worry about your grade point average on top of that." RC freshman Laura Pisarello said she feels the RC still provides benefits that the larger School of Literature, Science and the Arts lacks, despite the newly enforced letter grades. "Just the fact (that) the class sizes are kept at 15, you're always gonna be able to connect with your professor on a closer level than in LSA," she said. Despite the initial debate, few stu- dents have complained about the grades, Murphy said. "There's no great groundswell of support here for going back to pass/fail evaluation," he said. RC students can count on a contin- ued effort to maintain the written evaluation system. "Nobody advocat- ed giving up written evaluations," said Weisskopf. By Kristen Przybylski For the Daily Being both a person of color and a member of the gay com- munity means going through life with two strikes against you. This was the message sent by two panelists at a discus- sion held in East Hall last night. The panel discussion, co- sponsored by the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender affairs and the Office of Multi Ethnic Student Affairs, was the first of a four-part series focusing on the experiences of racial minorities who are also members of the LGBT community. "The LGBT community is a microcosm of the communi- ty at large, so there is oppression within," said Kelly Garret, assistant director of the Office of LGBT Affairs. "We felt like there was a need to bring awareness to some of the issues, so we teamed up to put this together." The discussion began with each of the two panelists giving a brief synopsis of their experiences as a homo- sexual man of color. They both expressed the difficulty that they have faced in trying to find a community with which to identify. "My experience all through my life has been as the 'other,' " said panelist and RC senior Erik Glenn. Glenn later explained that this meant "not having space within communities to be different than what is commonly understood as the norm." Glenn is a volunteer for the LGBT Affairs Speaker's Bureau. "It's almost like being a minority within a minority," said Speaker's Bureau volunteer and Detroit resident Lorenzo Ramsey. "To be a black male, there is a machismo attached to that, and because you're doing what's perceived as a feminine act you're being ostracized." The audience, consisting of a handful of people, was responsive and inquisitive toward the panelists. Questions dealing with family, religion, school and community were openly asked and answered. Glenn said he has faced struggles in his attempts to relate with a community at the University. "Last year I had decided that not only was I trying to find people like me, but I was trying to find a community," Glenn said. As he searched for such kinship, he said he felt discouraged. "I felt like I wasn't part of the community because it was their community and I was the gay one,"he said. When asked how allies of the LGBT community could be more welcoming and supportive of people dealing with sim- ilar feelings of isolation, Glenn responded by addressing the University's recent funding cuts to the Office of LGBT Affairs. "If I were to find support, the offices that I would need, MESA and LGBTA are shrinking. These offices give great support but they are limited in the support that they get," Glenn said. Ramsey said, "It's important for the University to stress that diversity is important. Every student should feel wel- come and important. ... It's a contradiction to say, 'You're important and we want you here,' and then in the same breath to depreciate the funding that provides for the groups that are the sole support for these minorities." Three similar panel discussions co-sponsored by LGBT Affairs and MESA will be held next month, featuring Asian, Latino and multiracial LGBT panels. The Asian LGBT panel is scheduled for March 16. The dates of the others have yet to be announced. Corrections: In the Friday Focus last week, History Prof. Matthew Lassiter's comments should have said that student activism today is more prevalent than it was before the escalation of the Vietnam war in the mid-1960s. A campus note on page 3 of Tuesday's Daily should have said Imam Warith Deen Mohammed is the former leader of the American Muslim Society. 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