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The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 3
Dinner will be
held with CNN
correspondent
CNN Health Correspondent Sanjay
Gupta will speak about his career and
experiences 7 p.m. Thursday in the
West Lounge of Alice Lloyd Hall.
Sponsored by the Lloyd Hall Scholars
Program, the presentation will include
a dinner with students.
Gupta is the senior correspondent
for the medical and health unit at
CNN. He formerly worked as a neuro-
surgeon at the University Hospital.
Gupta joined the network team cover-
ing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and
reported on the anthrax outbreak last
month.
Lecture will address
research on
depression, women
Psychology and psychiatry Prof.
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema will discuss
her research, on gender differences in
depression today at noon in the Michi-
gan Room of the Michigan League. In
her recent book "Women Who Think
Too Much," Nolan-Hoeksema exam-
ines the strategy of rumination, or the
concept that a passive focus on nega-
tive emotions can lead to greater rates
of depression among women.
Nolan-Hoeksema is also the director
of the University's Institute for
Research on Women and Gender. She
has researched cognition and emotion-
regulation strategies for depression.
This event is sponsored by the Univer-
sity's Center for the Education of
Women.
Museum to focus
on discrimination
Boxes and Walls, an interactive
museum focusing on different types of
existing oppression and discrimination,
will be available for tours today at 5
p.m. at Hillel at 1429 Hill Street. The
museum has nine rooms related to
blacks, Asian Pacific Americans, clas-
sism, disabilities, Jews, Latinos, the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
* community, Native Americans and
Muslims. The rooms are decorated
with different facts about each group.
Author will
address Jewish
women's memoirs
The Women's Studies and the
Frankel Center for Judaic Studies
will sponsor a discussion with author
Helen Epstein tomorrow at noon in
room 2239 of Lane Hall. The title of
the program is "What and Why Do
Jewish Women Write When They
Write Memoir?"
Epstein is the author of the memoir
"Children of the Holocaust," which
examines post-traumatic stress syn-
drome in children of Holocaust con-
centration camp survivors. She has
also written "Where She Came From,"
a family memoir and social history of
200 years of Czech Jewish life.
Author and alum
to speak on racism
in his books
Children's author Christopher Paul
Curtis will talk tomorrow at 3:15 p.m.
in the RC Auditorium of East Quad.
Curtis will speak about his award-win-
ning book "The Watsons Go to Birm-
ingham" and issues related to racism in
his subsequent books. The book is about
an eccentric black family from Flint and
mixes autobiographical elements with
historical fact in its retelling of the 1963
bombing of the 16th Street Baptist
Church in Birmingham, Ala.
Curtis was born in Flint and he won
both the Avery Hopwood award for his
essays and the Jules Hopwood Prize
for an early draft of his book while
attending the University's campus
there. "The Watsons Go to Birming-
ham" was awarded a 1996 Newberry
Medal, a Coretta Scott King Honor and
was listed as Best Book of 1995 by The
New York Times Book Review.
The Brown v. Board of Education
Commemoration Committee will spon-
sor this event.
Sociology prof to
explain theory of
terrorism
The Sociology department will
sponsor the Social Movement Schol-
ars Network's inaugural lecture at 4
p.m. Thursday in room 283 of the
Sociology building at 1225 South
University St. New York University
sociology Prof. Jeff Goodwin will
Businesses
propose
rezoning
South U
By Adrdan Chwn
Daily Staff Reporter
A new rezoning proposal could have a
significant impact on the look and focus
of the South University Avenue area.
Introduced last month by the South
University Area Association, a consor-
tium of businesses, the proposal aims to
increase the amount of usable space for
property owners in the area. If passed by
the Planning Commission and the City
Council, it could lead to more housing
options and a greater variety of business-
es located on the avenue, city planner
Alexis Marcarello said.
The proposal was prompted by area
business's desires to develop beyond
current regulations, Marcarello said.
"Right now, a lot of sites are already
built out or are close to being as devel-
oped as possible under current ordi-
nances;' she said. "They think they can
handle more development"
Currently, businesses are allowed a
200- to 300-percent ratio of floor space
to land space. This means that a business
with a
1,000-
"CD ristmas s qu a r e -
foot plot
time, when of land
e on 'scan have
evryones 2,000 to
happyand 3,000
square feet
making money, of floor
we're dead area in its
,,r."building.
here. T h e
- Yercho S U A A
Owner, YCI Clothing proposal
sets a new
floor-area-
ratio limit of 400 to 600 percent, effec-
tively doubling the amount of usable
space for each building.
This increase would most likely lead
to larger buildings with more stories,
Marcarello said. "If (businesses) are
allowed to have bigger buildings, they
will have bigger buildings," she said.
But, Marcarello added, it is too early to
know the exact aesthetic affect of the
proposal on the South University area.
The proposal also includes floor area
bonuses for businesses that offer hous-
ing amenities such as courtyards, which
would most likely lead to more housing
options near campus, Marcarello said,
adding that this move would lead to an
influx of new businesses. "With more
housing or even more office space, this
creates a consumer pool so a larger vari-
ety of stores can be supported." The
added housing on South University
could bring down housing prices, Mar-
carello said. In addition, the close prox-
imity of South University to Central
Campus makes it an attractive location
for students.
"It would be cool to have more apart-
ments on South University" LSA sopho-
more John Pargament said. "It's right
near restaurants and bars and really close
to campus. I think it would give a more
urban feel to a suburban campus"
South University businesses said they
hope that the additional housing will
bring more pedestrians to the area even
when students are on break or home for
the summer.
Yercho, the owner of YCI clothing
store and SUAA member who declined
to give her last name, said that business
suffers when students are away. "Christ-
mas time, when everyone's happy and
making money, we're dead here. Some
days we come in half a day and some
days we don't even show up"
Yercho said an increase in housing
around the South University area would
probably lead to an increase in business
during these typically slow times.
Despite prospects for growth, Mar-
carello and her colleagues have some
reservations about the proposal. Primari-
ly, more businesses and housing could
put more pressure on the road system.
This could lead to traffic congestion and
parking shortages, Marcarello said.
Another concern is with preserving
the unique "look and feel" of the area.
Taller buildings would change the feel of
the avenue, and Marcarello said some
might be uncomfortable with the shift.
The proposal has a long way to go
before it becomes instituted, Marcarello
said. After her office reviews the pro-
posal, it will go to the planning commis-
sion. The commission will take into
consideration any recommendations
made by Marcarello and the city plan-
ners when deciding whether to approve
the proposal. If approved, the proposal
will go to the City Council, which will
either vote the proposal down or chose
Prof focuses on
Kuwaiti gender
mnequalitie s
By Farayha Arrine
Daily Staff Reporter
When a Kuwaiti female journalist
clad in blue jeans and a head scarf
asked Peter Berkowitz if he had come
to her country to tamper with the elec-
tion system, he could do, nothing but
laugh.
For the American journalist and pro-
fessor who had only barely arrived in
the country to understand women's
suffrage, she represented an unexpect-
ed duality in Kuwait's female popula-
tion: Most women enjoy lifestyles and
freedoms that women of no other Arab
states experience, but they still lacked
the right to vote.
Berkowitz presented observations
and analysis of his two visits to Kuwait
in the Law School yesterday. He visit-
ed the country once in July 2003 and
then again in January 2004.
For most of his speech, Berkowitz
laid out the dichotomy that exists in the
rights of Kuwaiti woman. Women in
Kuwait have no dress restrictions, said
Berkowitz, who saw a variety of dress
codes on his trip, ranging from women
in headscarves to those dressed in
"jeans, blouses and high heels."
He added that Kuwait's ambassador
to the United Nations is a woman and
that 70 percent of university students
are women, as are 50 percent of the
medical and engineering faculty.
Berkowitz credited Kuwait's geogra-
phy as a leading factor in the inde-
pendence of its women. "Because it is
a (port), it is unusually open to outside
influence as trading ports tend to be,"
he said.
Berkowitz's goal in the country was
to understand how women had not yet
fought for the right to vote and have
representation in Kuwait's National
Assembly. He said one reason for this
paradox is Islam.
With a population that is 85 percent
Muslim, Islamists in the country -
those who want a strict application of
Islamic law there - have power to
block suffrage.
In addition, some liberal men, not
necessarily Islamists, feel that the
boring and dirty nature of politics
and suffrage is not a place for
women because they know better
than to get involved.
What was surprising to Berkowitz
was the number of modern women
who did not strongly oppose the gov-
ernment's inability to provide them
with the right to vote.
But due to the number of educated
women he encountered during his visit,
Berkowitz said he does not think it will
be long before women's suffrage
comes to Kuwait.
"In a place where people already
enjoy a level of freedom, the vote and
demands for fuller forms of equality
couldn't be far behind," he said.
Prof. Ellen Katz attended the lec-
ture and commented on Berkowitz's
optimism in speaking of Kuwaiti suf-
frage. "I'm a lot more pessimistic;" she
said. "It'll take a while for women to
affect policies."
She cited movements of early 20th
century in the United States as an
example of how long it can take for
women to achieve political goals.
Other audience members, includ-
ing political science Prof. Jennifer
Widner, said Berkowitz could have
talked in person with more women in
the country.
CHfRnITINESIAFFRUL/Uildy
Journalist and professor Peter Berkowitz speaks on the political situation of
Kuwalti women in the Law School yesterday. Berkowitz traveled to the country
twice in that last two years. His discussion focused largely on female suffrage.
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