Thursday, March 11, 2004 News 3A Opinion 4A Sports 5A Events examine eating disorders Steve Cotner fawns over gay penguins Backcourt vital to tourney chances The A2 Film Festival honors 42 years of indie films ... Weekend, Page 6B £ It 4uurU4F Weather H:40 ~r21 TOMORROW- One-hundred-thirteen years ofeditorialfreedom www.michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No. 110 @2004 The Michigan Daily STUDENT GOVERNMENT MSA pres. candidates lock horns on issues Protest, 9 fuhdih9 cuts Students are speak- ing out against the Division of Student Affairs' budget cuts to the Offices of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs and Multi-Ethnic Stu- dent Affairs, changes to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Aware- ness Center and the division's actions regarding the William Monroe Trotter House. Graphic by ANDREW KAPLAN/Daily ADMINIST Student Affairs budget slashes met by protests By Aymar Jean Daily Staff Reporter As an act of defiance against the administration, students from groups across campus gathered yesterday to discuss allegations of the administra- tion's budget cuts, acts of negligence and questionable practices. In meetings held in the South Quad, Alice Lloyd and Bursley residence halls, an ad hoc coalition of student groups met to discuss issues in student affairs. Those present criticized alleged cuts to the Offices of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs and Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs. Students also charged the administra- tion with neglecting the William Mon- roe Trotter House - a center created to support multicultural activities - cut- ting funding for this year's Dance for Mother Earth Pow Wow and fragment- ing services at the Sexual Assault Pre- vention and Awareness Center, among other accusations. "They're pissing off everybody, and the fact that they're doing that means that groups who might not normally work together are going to unite around something," Art and Design junior Emily Squires said. But President Mary Sue Coleman said the budget decisions were difficult for administrators to make. "Nobody can know what it's like to sit in this seat and have to make these tough (budget)- decisions. And I don't expect people to know. But ultimately I have to take in all the information and do the best job that I can to protect the University for the future," Coleman said. Staff members from the Office of Student Affairs could not be reached for comment. Students at the meeting enumerated a lengthy list of the administration's trans- gressions. The LGBT Office recently received cuts to its budget. Most significantly, office staffer Holly Ferrise will not be rehired next semester,- Law student and LGBT member Pierce Beckham said. He added that Ferrise had been kept part-time for seven years, although Uni- versity policy maintains that any part time position must be full time after one year. Ferrise is credited with the cre- ation of the Speakers Bureau, one tool for education and outreach in the LGBT community on campus - a tool that some say may not exist after Ferrise is let go. Advocates for MESA and the Trotter House were also present at the meeting, decrying the condition of the multicul- tural center and the staffing problems at MESA. The Trotter House currently does not have a formal program director. "Other universities have a director," said See PROTESTS, Page 7A JORDAN STECKLOFF/Daily From left, Michigan Student Assembly presidential candidates LSA senior Kate Stenvig of the Defend Affirmative Action Party, Business School junior Jason Mironov of Students First and LSA sophomore Andre Radojcich of the Other Political Party, field questions during a televised debate in the WOLV-TV studio last night. TV debate previews elections next week By Kristen Przybyisid Daily Staff Reporter Four distinctly different Michigan Student Assem- bly presidential candidates were revealed during a debate at the WOLV-TV studio last night. Kate Stenvig of the Defend Affirmative Action Party, Students First candidate Jason Mironov, inde- pendent candidate Tim Moore and Andre Radojcich, an Other Political Party spokesperson who stood in for candidate Charles Heidel, faced three rounds of questioning. Although the event was publicized as a debate, the evening featured less dialogue between the candidates than it did opportunities for them to tout their plat- forms and records. "I've been organizing in the defense of affirmative action on this campus for five years," Stenvig said. "If we win against the current attack on affirmative action, I think it will end the series of attacks on inte- gration programs." Diverging from the issue of affirmative action in the second round of questioning, Stenvig addressed (Moderators) got the candidates warmed up with general questions ... before moving on to individual questioning. DAAP's support of the Graduate Employees Organi- zation and the Lecturers' Employee Organization. "Whether or not GEO and LEO win in their negoti- ations is really crucial," Stenvig said. "It's really a question of not just fairness in employment, but really the quality of education." Moore expressed his desire for MSA to focus on issues that bring students together and mentioned his experience as a member of the Interfraternity Council and the Business School's Student Government Asso- ciation. He added that issues such as affirmative action are not the business of the assembly. Moore commented on IFC in the second round of questioning and said IFC President Casey Bourke should have apologized for an incident of alcohol abuse during a University-funded retreat at Tau Beta Camp in January, which led to a vote of no confi- dence in some executives. "I don't necessarily think (the executives) should resign. ... However I do think the president of IFC should have apologized," Moore said."The Greek sys- tem needs to bring up its image" Mironov stressed his familiarity with MSA proce- dures and University administrators as MSA student general counsel. He also said that he would like to continue MSA's current efforts regarding the Colle- giate Readership Program, AirBus, renovations to the William Monroe Trotter House and the addition of a bus route extending to Washtenaw Avenue. "(I want to) put energy and time into things that we started last year," Mironov said. In the second round of questioning, Mironov also said that MSA would like to provide funding for the Ann Arbor Tenants Union or a group with a similar function that would assist students living off campus in recognizing and resolving issues with landlords. See MSA, Page 2A Aibright lectures on globalization By Adhiraj Dutt and Elena Satut Daily Staff Reporters Homeless to Harvard: a child's struggle By Koustubh Patwrdhan Daily Staff Reporter Liz Murray has triumphed over adversity: she used to be homeless but currently studies film at Columbia Uni- versity. Her lecture last night in Hutchins Hall at the Law School, during which she spoke at length about her experi- ences with homelessness and a rough childhood, was part of Child Advocacy Week and sponsored by Medstart, an organization comprised of graduate stu- dents from many different departments seeking to raise awareness of children's issues. The week's focus this year is child poverty and includes many lectures, as well as panel discussions and benefit concerts. Murray vividly documented her life as a child in "neglect," surrounded by drug addicts, and then as a homeless girl on the streets of New York City. She talked about the unusual paths her life took that eventually led her to Harvard University, her first college experience. She described how her life had so many "strikes against her" but said she still made it. Using her personal experi- ences as examples, she said how Med- start's initiatives are an excellent way for people to help distressed children. Murray grew up in the Bronx in an area with a reputation for drugs and violence and said her family survived on welfare checks. She skipped school and only showed up to take exams. She educated herself through junior high school by studying on her own from the books that her father brought home from the library. She said social workers were apathet- ic toward her situation and many times were unresponsive to her needs. "One social worker told me that I was old enough to take care of the house when I was eight years old," Murray said. Eventually she became homeless. Amanda Floyd, a graduate student at the School of Social Work, said she enjoyed Murray's story. "As a social worker, her story made me feel sad and ashamed that people See MEDSTART, Page 7A Hundreds of students and commu- nity members turned up at the Busi- ness School's Hale Auditorium yesterday to hear former U.S. Secre- tary of State Madeleine Albright dis- cuss her views on globalization and international relations. In the speech, titled "U.N., WTO, IMF: Time for a Change?" Albright briefly mentioned the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund while focusing her attention on the Bush administration. This speech is her second at the Uni- versity this week, following a lecture on U.S. policy in the Middle East on Tuesday. "Most people in most places like globalization," she said, citing the results of a survey she chaired at the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in Washington. "Our goal should be to have global benefits of trade more widely shared." Albright emphasized that globaliza- tion is inevitably sweeping across the world and that it must be managed in order to assure that nations aren't left behind. "International institutions fail because of the inactions or actions of their members," she said. "(There is) no substitute for leader- ship." The Bush administration, accord- ing to Albright, "sees international institutions as obstacles." She agreed that Bush was right to go to the Unit- ed Nations 18 months ago and demand actions against Iraq but wrong to not allow the U.N. time to take such actions. "The president deserved great credit for putting us in position to insist that inspections (continue)," she said. "(But) we went to war because it suited the calendar of some people in the administration." Albright contrasted the Bush admin- istration's handling of Iraq with the Clinton administration's handling of Kosovo in Yugoslavia. She said the Clinton administration worked with See ALBRIGHT, Page 2A Hillel commemorates Holocaust victims with name-reading vigil LAURA SHLECTER/Daily RC junior Casey Cohen reads names of Holocaust victims during the University of Michigan Hillel's 24-hour vigil on the Diag By Farayha Arrine 'Dail Staiff Renorter to read about 70, 000 names in this think it just makes them feel good to lrnnw xrthat thevi're Acina mthing to 7 isrl