N EW S The Michigan Daily - Monday, March 15, 2004 -5A Students, administrators at odds over SAPAC SAPAC Continued from Page 1A against survivors. A recently released report by the Mental Health Work Group - created in 2001 by Vice President for Student Affairs E. Royster Harper - and a similar report on SAPAC both offer information that may contra- dict the University's decision. In moving counseling to CAPS, the adminis- tration is eliminating a safe, centralized envi- ronment for students, opponents say. At CAPS, survivors have a greater risk of encountering their perpetrator, whom the office is obligated to serve - CAPS must provide help to stu- dents regardless of the reason, while SAPAC does not counsel perpetrators of sexual assault. The Campus Safety and Security Advisory Committee report on SAPAC offers evidence to support this claim. Three years ago, when the report was released, Student Affairs considered moving SAPAC to the Union from its current office on North University Avenue. But the report states that "(SAPAC's) current location adjacent to the campus provides more privacy for those who come for service..." At its current location, SAPAC can provide both counseling and advocacy between survivors and professors or University housing, for exam- ple. But under the new plan, these services will be split between CAPS and SAPAC. OVC believes this is detrimental to survivors who may come into SAPAC for advocacy but realize they need counseling as well. The division of services also forces survivors to disclose their traumatic experience as many as four times, once to SAFE- House on the phone, once to a SAFEHouse vol- unteer, once at SAPAC and once at CAPS. "It limits the amount of guesswork that some- one would have to do, and it limits the amount of disclosure that someone would also have to do in order to get these resources,"White said. Opponents have also criticized what they say is a limit on the number of available sessions a patient can attend at CAPS. Currently, those who seek help at CAPS typically attend eight to 10 sessions with a counselor. CAPS says the amount is flexible. The limit is especially prob- lematic for students without insurance if CAPS must refer them to an off-campus provider. A report issued by the mental health group evaluating mental health services on campus stated that in 1999 about 5 to 10 percent of undergraduates and 3 percent of graduate stu- dents do not have health insurance, and a sub- stantial portion of those with insurance do not receive coverage for the Ann Arbor area. "It's a very significant number of students," CAPS director Sevig said. The report also states that CAPS is commit- ted to shorter term therapy session, and suggests that intermediate term therapy of 10 to 20 ses- sions may be more effective. CAPS is intended for short-term counseling, Sevig has said in previous interviews. But "if a student needs more, we will do our best to accommodate," he added. The number of stu- dents CAPS refers out is relatively small, how- ever, and most counseling centers nationwide are short-term, he stressed. The University says its decision is justified Administrators, OVC members and both reports all acknowledge that SAPAC counseling services are understaffed and that the center has continually faced challenges in providing care. For many years, a lack of space and resources has compromised education and advocacy. Students from OVC have advised the admin- istration to increase counseling at SAPAC, keep the Crisis-line and allow SAPAC counselors to train those at CAPS. Their plan would preserve SAPAC's central location. But the University will pursue an alternate decision, one reached by consulting with experts and studying other models nationwide. The stu- dents' informal proposal was overly complex and not feasible, Cichy said. Logistically, SAPAC counselors could not stay in the North University office and still remain under CAPS's jurisdiction, as students recommended, she said. The advisory committee report also describes the office as pressed for space. CAPS also currently may not have the capac- ity to accommodate increases in its services without increases in staffing. The MHWG report states that "... under present conditions, CAPS is constrained by lack of additional space.Waits for urgent evaluations are consis- tently less than one day. Waits for routine eval- uations vary according to demand, but are between three and seven working days." "We are filled up at CAPS, and so we wrote that in the report and that remains true today," Sevig said. CAPS is now identifying space options for SAPAC staff. "We're going to be concentrating our staff resources on education and advocacy work, which we have not been able to do at the capac- ity we will be able to in the future," Cichy said. While opponents see a fragmented program with survivors pulled painfully in various direc- tions, Cichy sees a more fluid system that is more than "just boxes and arrows." Those opposed to the changes often say administrators did not consult survivors of sex- ual assault in developing their plan. But this is untrue, said Cichy, who herself is a survivor. "I have a very, very deep respect for their concerns," she said. But the administration did not commission focus groups or surveys of survivors to arrive at their decisions. SAPAC's director said these methods fail to address the complex and diver- gent feelings expressed by survivors. Concerned about the long-term repercussions, Cichy does not keep a list of survivors. And while the changes will affect all survivors, those who have demurred already have a support system in place, she added. "My bigger concern is for those who have not disclosed," she said. ABORTION Continued from Page 1A with the subpoena. It remains unclear why UMHS reversed its position on the subpoena but its initial compli- ance was contingent upon the con- cealment of information that would identify patients. The Justice Depart- ment struck back with a March 3 motion claiming that the subpoena is justified because Johnson is likely to argue that the procedure is at times a medical necessity. The 2003 law allows exceptions to the general ban when a mother's life is endangered, but not when a preg- nancy poses a serious, albeit non- life-threatening, health risk to the mother. Opponents of the law hope to defeat it on the grounds that it lacks sufficient exceptions for a mother's health and fertility. In response to the suit, the Justice Department has issued similar subpoe- nas to hospitals at other universities, including Northwestern, Cornell and Columbia Universities, both in New York. A federal district judge in Illinois struck down the government's subpoe- na of abortion records from Northwest- ern Memorial Hospital last month. Obstetricians from these hospitals are suing to obtain a ruling that would discard the 2003 law as unconstitutional. The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban will not take effect until a decision is ren- dered on legal challenges, scheduled to be heard by Judge Casey on March 29. LGBT Continued from Page 1A -ent audience members. Kosofsky talked about his experiences as a lobbyist for the LGBT cause. He said that LGBT groups were efficient because they began arguing for votes long before the Michigan Republicans. "The Republicans did not want to make this a big issue and they were confident that it would pass but through your work, we made sure that it failed," he said. They were able to convince three Republi- cans and eight Democrats from swing dis- tricts to vote against the proposed ban, Kosofsky said. RC senior Christine Sauvre attended the forum with fellow members of the gay com- munity. She said she most liked hearing about the lobbying work described by Kolb and Kosofsky. She said that even though she was impressed by the large turnout at the forum, she believes it would have been a good event to educate the wider campus community. "I felt that it was particularly focused to the LGBT community on campus and unfortu- nately, most of the audience was queer," said Sauvre. Nadolski said other timely events have pro- pelled the debate over gay rights into mainstream society, including Bush's endorsement of a feder- al constitutional ban on gay marriages. Kosofsky said that the proposed federal amendment to the constitution would not be successful. "The federal amendment is a dead issue. It will never get two-thirds of the vote in each chamber." But he said that Bush's endorsement is' important for LGBT people and the public at large who are against the president. "He has absolutely alienated at least one million people - LGBT people, their friends, family and allies," Kosofsky said. "I do believe this could be the issue that unelects Bush," he added. Not all of the panel members spoke about the proposed constitutional amendments on gay marriage. Alum Mudhillun MuQaribu from the Amer- ican Friends Service Committee asked the audience to first raise their hands if they were raised in a faith community. About half of the audience raised their hands. He then asked if those who had raised their hands were still part of a faith community, and lastly, whether it was the same faith they had grown up with. Each time, the number of raised hands decreased, illustrating MuQaribu's point. "As queer people, we can understand that faith can be used as a claw rather than as an olive branch," he said. But he said that of the 4,500 people who signed up to lobby against the Michigan amendment, five bishops and 100 spiritual leaders were included. Other speakers on the panel included Mary Dettloff, spokeswoman for Gov. Granholm's office, Johnny Jenkins, founder of Detroit Black Gay Pride, and Kara Jennings of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michi- gan's LGBT Legal Project. The panel discussion was followed by a question-and-answer session with the audi- ence and a dessert reception. The Stonewall Democrats, the LGBT caucus under the Col- lege Democrats umbrella, sponsored last night's forum.. LSA-SG Continued from Page 1A Also because the president and the president's exec- utive appointees have voting power, some representa- tives are worried that too much power would be given to people who are not directly elected by the student community. "Twenty five percent of the votes in LSA-SG would be controlled by the two indirectly elected people - the president and the vice president and the five appointed positions of the executive board - with only 50 percent needed to pass most resolutions," Wagner said. "It's moving toward autocracy." While the student body would no longer directly vote for the president and vice president, supporters of the reform do not see this as an erosion of the democratic process. "For any constitutional change we have to receive the majority of students' support," said LSA-SG Appoint- ments Vice Chair Ryan Ford, a junior who is also run- ning for LSA-SG vice president as a member of Students First. Students would also be permitted to attend the elec- tion in order to learn about the candidates' platforms and to voice any concerns. "When the election takes place we (would) invite the entire LSA student body to come and express their pros and cons of the candidates," Ford said. "If a student has a particular problem with a candidate, representatives will take that into account." The majority of LSA-SG representatives, including current president and junior David Matz and presiden- tial candidate Lauren May, a sophomore, support the proposed amendment. The LSA dean's office also sup- ports the changes. The question can be previewed online and students can vote in both the Michigan Student Assembly and LSA-SG elections this Wednesday and Thursday at vote. www.umich. edu. MIIL- P. A- - -M-M w