8A- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 1, 2004 NEWS LETTER TOSTUDENTS FROM UN; ,1 - -!11 IVERSITY e nd nmber ofoeur students have SAYAC The dni~rs tgardng the tudeit t itoss id affiliations are } Qcernsabtad~ mins- StLudent LULSexual Assault Pre tt onn4 ira W. sted sutthe pr s snot t Ai I . siithat affect student Center were Wafe Ri iod t to spondt e l ea Idt t i b~t t y t:h ....... <1;. rpr sed with their Estblishmnt of a Standinig SidetAdv'real ~~ nuigcnen.bu u blt'.~ h IdteRgsrrwt pr~ettiat & M AichBoard of spry Committee - Vice President Harper will to serve alb off. studntFIXplt sta r u syo h u ~d wil cm e itd~ .11 ., , ? ut Iw isppo inted that establish an advisory committee to encourage is not .&tinn thecge ;v lealeta poptenttps ; ° "4" R ~ t h~ta m :rep ductive dia- additional student input on Uniiversity issues Universttao providea gretrli1o ie te a r~.at'ndS~ ta.rya tssi'on We e to ~gan.5ttident Assembly ment proesswithin the sh-o-an co dr!NIP, titte t eplrethe c'7ew .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .convened a'dialogue.lea, tttinclingtESA Studen # y ti° inp~e~sv ht cident ,a~nl. '> oi-,e.t1.ish po ucie.. between University replreettt. es .mont ro hefA pr t g mhhtus at e effort to ot n x digeJd AdUbudget administrators Ad ansAdvsoyConii We wcheve everalgait] let>she Y < and students, to discuss come additional studetinpnasw oniu C tug'pitr7 b ut and a miisraor. ..Alo, the budget-setting and to evaluate our new undergra~uav ad t$ >reat $, e e w ss of the issue a~n .es isus" C ,14 prioritization process sions process and enhance ut t~'ea~h. cad C more 'etaiL "w4e nust ' Ud etter Provost Courant would recruiting efforts. C n~sieta ti lo exp.rince hate~ / decisio 1-makig processes like to re-establish this ~dM. ...ttou,..... p~rat Ihave Ct radition and ask MSA iBU get afd PIog a .S$'d md sse.I $ ts nged toaddress h enN Utenitg IonIIIJQI r UVVI'erst to host this. discussion 'C t at by members of l~ ~ initiafives focused on i pi gthsya n udtisTenant~ e sd t is students - proces that resulting cuts is not easy on anyd .4of o i h apu taSCuty Coin dear e a C o g Trotter House community, The hard reapil is thatal'ffus titeisaired b ic rsdett'ad Sep~ estalish p o- Iu~Ly eiggge student .L lUUL project planning - will have to deal with cg o prms 1 ,.:. reta 1 'f 1Uiyst 'Lat~ sdo. The C, dne ialgue - Mary Sue Coleman In April, a team of port in an effort to muane tthe normty'of i, ~t ill siu ty>group ito asst. amnigstdnts Universit President student re resent- the short-term bud ~wthteogon e~Awfisus tted'to. and administrautors tives, facilties right when they ask us to al" 1-a1~O~ai~tssfey n ts~eb~shpcue - and in some experts and staff will support our University's work to rba C' 10. # t h t a cases, accelerate.deisions that have taken too be established to recommend possible diverse and inclusive coiintui CC'stuea t e r$~t t1V C The commitee oa "YIlong. Also . w m ust b id bet rdecision-m ak- o ti nsfor Trotter ouse. V ice PreCientC l~ i' C 'NC ing processes on major University initiatives Harper has asked Patricia Aqui Pacania~, We will work to identify some additionalNCN focused on students'- proceses that fully director of the Office of Multi-Ethnic Stet- resources, through reallocation, forareas.Tra gen. a.iexu.1, Le~bian engage student input, dent Affairs1, to lead this fast-track planning where the funding lvels ar~e such that pro- WAFc e effort, The group's work will be shared grams are at special risk. Also,;,we will work and a&y :: ki: .e It is 'not possible for the administration to .widely with the campus community in the with students to ensure that the.impact of 'C always be in 100 percent agreement with stu- fall. We are looking 'carefully at the Univer-. budget cuts is minimized. Specifically with The ThWOTask foce, charged b~y Provo~st dents oni every issue, We. will certainly have sity's fundraising capacity and the Office of respect to Ann.Arbor Dance for Mother Earth Courant, is tpcted to isua e port in April. some differences of opinion along the way. Development will provide counsel on realis- Pow Wow, the University will cover the pro- We wM1.ii a pon othereport's recommen- But when we do, I am prepared to share the tic fundraising goals. I have made a com- gram's deficit this year as it hasini th.e past., dations in the coiningrtmonths. .. .C,> prinipe ad acs ha hve ude urfnl imettob ersonallyvnagdin W ilwr odevelop 'a.Custainab.eCbudget decisions,. fundraising for Trotter House as well. model for the~ future IC Cmmay, w are payingcareful ttn-~ 'tion to thIe cocernstaudns hay . On March 29, Provost Paul Courant, Vice Greek System discussion~ - We believe Latino Coordinator .- We are moviing- Som~e actions will takeplace immediately, P'resident for 'Student Affairs E. Royster this subject needs more ti'me for considera- ahead and the position will be posted within and in other cases wehave moe wrk to'do Harper and I wanted to, share several actions tion and discussion. There are many serious two week. s a cummunity. My~ goal, and Itrust it is a we have planned to address many of the con- issues that need our attention. We want to, shared #3 is to ma~ke the~ best decisions we' cerns that have been expressed,' Also, we establish a clearly prescribed process to I) Mkhigamu~a- The Uniersity took can kr hstudents who are here now and for watt'epted n o e o otn e i - o ti et eis e n ol,2) m t al to gato st oy asa ot sals n toet .m .* 1cussion on these and other issues that will agree on the student and faculty advisors, 3) environmnent of respec~t related to Native take more consideration and study. I hope our provide for open discussion, and 4) deter- American heritage. The Office of the' Since. students and other members of our campus mine an end date by which final ,decisions Provost has begun investigating the' tran-. commurnity w ilt join us in this work. will be made. script issue raised at th~e March Regen~ts President MarvySSue Co.leman...... meeting. We have discovered that over20 Coleman ,proposes new inp,-ut meckanisms LETTER Continued from Page 1A often free of budget difficulties. The letter also referred to a meeting at the William Monroe Trotter House on Monday held by Student Voices in Action where Coleman said she was "disappointed that we were not able to have a more productive dialogue." The meeting, however, catalyzed, the forma- tion of the letter sent to students. "There was a lot of work done to pull it together," Peterson said. "(The letter) had a two-fold purpose - to follow up with the meeting and to express the information she had prepared but didn't have the opportunity to share." Members of SVA agree that the letter complimented the information that was presented and discussed at the meeting. "We're happy to see in writing the ideas they have," said LSA sopho- more and SVA member Lisa Bakale-Wise. "We were looking for concrete responses to all of the demands we presented and that's not what the administration came pre- pared to give (on Monday)." SVA also looks forward to cooper- ation between students and adinins- trators. "We're conscious, of the complexity of the issues and will con- tinue to work on them'" Pacheco said In the letter, Coleman also proposed to form a group of student representa- tives to discuss options for changes to the Trotter House. She said she is committed to the Greek system discussion, and addressed changes to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, student recruitment, reporting bias incidents and a Transgender, Bisexual, Lesbian and Gay Task Force. Including topics pertaining to budget allocation and program issues, SVA originally elicited response on these issues from the administration. Coleman's letter was sent out yester- day to The Michigan Daily, as well as members of the Michigan Round Table, SVA and MSA. I 4 MINORITIES Continued from Page IA process of reviewing its programs to ensure that they comply with the Supreme Court's June 2003 ruling. The court upheld the Law School's policy of using race as one of many factors in admission but eliminated the point system that gave 20 points to underrepresented minorities in the LSA application process. While Univ~ersity scholarships would be affected by the initiative, private scholar- ships would be untouched, said Justin Lacroix, coordinator for the ballot initiative on campus. "Nothing private is affected by the MCRI," said Lacroix, an LSA sophomore. "I don't think (the initiative) would have anything to do with private scholarships." Depending on how broadly the initiative would be interpreted by organizations in Michigan, it could have the effect of elimi- nating race as a factor in admissions deci- sion making for University programs such as the Undergraduate Research Opportuni- ty Program and Women in Science and Engineering. "UROP is (a program) that is open to stu- dents of all races but it does have an emphasis on underrepresented minorities and women in science so it could be affect- ed," University Assistant General Counsel Jonathan Alger said. This eradication of race as a basis for admission into outreach and academic pro- grams would be detrimental to the quality of education at the University, Alger said. "All of these tools work together to pro- duce a diverse student body," Alger said. "Anything that would restrict our ability to ensure diversity in these programs would have an effect on the quality of education in these programs." If the MCRI obtains 317,575 valid signa- tures by July 6, :state residents will vote on the issue in the November election. The MCRI petition form was recently ruled invalid by Ingham County judge Paula Manderfield for not stating the article of the constitution that it is seeking to alter. Michigan attorney general Mike Cox has chosen to appeal the case at the state Court of Appeals. A ruling 'from that court is likely within the next few weeks. I WOMEN Continued from Page 1A -sity or government to give students something based on their gender or race," Lacroix said. "If there is a disadvantage to women and minorities other than education, the problem that needs to be solved is the recruitment and secondary educa- tion," he added. "Outreach programs would not be affected and pretty much everyone (in MCRI) is in favor of out- reach programs." On the pre-emptive front, the need for education about MCRI's effect on women's issues is a sentiment echoed by the leadership of CEW and WISE. "I think if there was more public understanding of the issue of gender, there would be much more opposition (to the initiative)," Kaufinann said. Kate Stenvig, an LSA senior and member of BAMN, said she agrees. that the question of women's equality has always been linked to affirmative action, but added that refocusing opposition to MCRI on women's issues instead of race could be detri- mental to their cause. "The attack on affirmative action has traditionally been on race-based issues. ... We need to take head-on the issue of racism," Stenvig said. "I don't think taking the emphasis off of race is effective." Supporters of MCRI disagree with Stenvig's assertion that the initiative is a sexist and racist attack. "There is nothing in the MCRI that is trying to hold women back, minori- ties back or anyone back," Lacroix said. "We just want to take away the discrimination of people outside of character and intellect." In the end, administrators worry about the impact MCRI will have on women and society in the long run. "A mother's education level is the strongest prediction of a child's edu- cational attainment. There is a vested interest in a women's education," Kaufmann said. "We really need to invest more in educating women." 4 VARIETY Continued from Page IA intermission of the three-hour event. They poked fun at the Greeks by singing their original composi- tion "North Face Girl" to the tune of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl." Clad in brightly colored clothes, sororities and fraternities paired to do renditions of their favorite pop songs and competed for the charity prize. Now and then the auditorium erupted into applause and chants as audience members cheered for friends performing on stage. Recent allegations of sexual assault at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fra- ternity house, which have since been dropped, failed to dampen the spirit of the event and the primarily Greek-system crowd was in high spirits. "It obviously hurts to see some- thing negative. But the focus is to bring everyone together and focus on the positive. (Rape) is obviously something horrible," Butler said. Co-Director Charles Cooke said the stigma of the community made it hard for him to raise money from local businesses in Ann Arbor for Greek Week. "But kids are not here to drink and party but help. When the (Greek) system is so large, we're trying to raise money for 'charity and take away the stigma,"' Cooke said. I e