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The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 3
i
Selli7gfetwehy for a cause
Economist addresses effects of
insurance on heath care access
* Collaborators will
describe book
project on opera
Artist Kim Anno and poet Anne Car-
son will discuss their collaboration on a
book project at noon today in the Oster-
man Common Room of the Rackham
building. The book, which incorporates
Anno's art with Carson's interpretation
of a hypothetical opera, is called "The
Mirror of Simple Souls."
Anno, who originally taught at the
California College of the Arts, is in
residence as the Paula and Edwin Sid-
man Fellow in the Arts.
Carson is a professor of classics,
comparative literature and English.
The Institute for the Humanities will
sponsor this event.
Campus, city to
discuss Detroit
public schools
The Brown v Board of Education
Initiative will present the student film
"Past, Present and Future" at 7 p.m.
today in the Anderson Room of the
Michigan Union. The film is part of a
conversation with parents, students,
teachers and alumni on the topic of the
Detroit Public Schools. Refreshments
will be provided.
CEO to address
digital technology
The College of Engineering will
sponsor Intel Corp. Chief Executive
Officer Craig Barrett to speak tomor-
row at 4 p.m. in the Dorothy L. and
Harry E. Chesebrough Auditorium in
the Chrysler Center. He will discuss
the influence of digital technology on
organizations and individuals and also
review opportunities for technological
advancements. The event is part of the
annual Goff Smith Lecture program.
Barrett will also receive the Goff
Smith Prize, the University's highest
external award for achievements in
science and engineering.
Former Detroit
mayor to discuss
public service
American Bar Association President
Dennis Archer will speak as part of
the 2004 Citigroup Lecture tomorrow
at 4 p.m. in the Pendleton Room of the
Michigan Union. The title of Archer's
speech is "Why Public Service Mat-
ters." Archer, who served as mayor of
Detroit from 1994 to 2001, worked on
initiatives to develop businesses and
reform government. He also practices
law in Detroit.
A reception in the Wolverine Room
of the Union will follow the lecture.
Symposium to
conclude Brown
theme semester
Undergraduate and graduate stu-
dents in the Brown v. Board of Educa-
tion themed semester classes will
present their research in a multimedia
symposium Thursday at 3 p.m. in the
first floor Ballroom of Haven Hall.
Featured projects will include maps
of urban school busing, audio docu-
mentaries on the history of blacks in
radio broadcasting and an oral history
of Jones School, a predominantly
black elementary school that was
closed in a 1965 district integration
plan in Ann Arbor.
Journalists to
discuss Middle
East coverage
Middle Eastern and American jour-
nalists will compare coverage of sui-
cide bombings and the capture of
Saddam Hussein on Thursday at 7:30
p.m. in the Rackham Amphitheatre.
The panel includes Yavuz Baydar, of
the Milliyet Daily Ombudsman from
Istanbul, Turkey and Washington corre-
spondent Nathan Guttman from Haa-
reetz, an Israeli newspaper.
Lawrence Pintak, the Howard R.
Marsh Visiting Professor of Journal-
ism, and Knight-Wallace Journalism
Fellows Fatih Turkmenoglu and Salwa
Kanaana will also speak.
The Center for Middle Eastern
Studies and the Jean & Samuel
Frankel Center for Judaic Studies
will sponsor this event.
s Speakers discuss
By Koustubh Patwardhan
Daily Staff Reporter
About 750,000 people in Michigan - or about 7.5 per-
cent of the state's residents - are without health insurance,
according to the 2000 Census. To raise awareness on these
issues, a group of medical students is organizing a weeklong
campaign with various lecturers on campus.
Yesterday Helen Levy, an economist at the University of
Chicago, spoke about the effects of insurance on access to
health care. Levy pointed out how health clinics provide
access to health care to those with private or public insur-
ance such as Medicare and Medicaid and those without
insurance.
To gauge the availability of health care for people with
and without insurance, Levy referred to an audit survey she
recently helped conduct. Trained interviewers posed as if
they had been discharged from a hospital emergency room
and were asked to obtain a follow-up appointment at a
health clinic. Levy and her colleagues made more than 860
calls to more than 430 clinics, and the results were surpris-
ing, she said.
The study found that having insurance did not greatly
alter the chance of getting an appointment at a health clinic
as long patients could pay the bills.
"You may not need insurance, but you need cash," Levy
said.
People with private insurance were more likely to get an
appointment than people with public health insurance
because sometimes public health insurance companies do
not compensate health clinics to the extent that private
health insurance companies do, added Levy.
"The results were surprising (because Levy thought)
clinics would be reluctant to like the uninsured," said
Levy.
"You may not need insurance, but
you need cash."
- Helen Levy
University of Chicago economist
Levy said 90 percent of people acquire health insurance
through fringe benefits they obtain as part of their salaries.
On average, 5 percent of the total compensation paid by
employers is in the form of health insurance.
Currently, about 15.5 percent of Americans are without
health insurance.
Of the people insured, two-thirds are insured through a
private insurance plan while others are insured through pub-
lic plans.
Levy said people without insurance are at a financial risk.
University Medical student Steve Warnick is organizing a
visit to Lansing in addition to the weeklong events held at
the Medical Science Building II. The students plan to stage
a rally to voice their concerns to lawmakers, on the lack of
insurance.
Medical School student Nick Boncher said health
insurance needs to be improved. "The facts presented are
really interesting but the problem needs to be worked
on," he said.
He added that the system needs to reformed so people do
not solely rely on the emergency room as a means to health
care.
All of the lectures are held from noon to 1 p.m. at the
West Lecture Hall in the Medical Science Building. On Fri-
day, there is a keynote address by University President Mary
Sue Coleman.
Members of United Asian Medical Student Association sell
jewelry for a fundraiser in the Michigan Union yesterday.
MEDIA
Continued from Page 1
said. Then stereotypes can create a nega-
tive image of how certain groups of peo-
ple are expected to act - expectation
that minorities will be pressured to abide
by in real life, Hirschfeld said.
Some University members said
they see these same negative effects
from day to day, adding that the
entertainment industry is largely to
blame.
Engineering sophomore Clinque
Brundidge said she hates what she
calls the one-sided image of blacks
projected by hip-hop music videos.
Because of those videos, people out-
side the black community already feel
those images are accurate for all
blacks, she said.
"Many people (nationwide) are unac-
customed to blacks, so seeing things like
that become their primary perception.
... And when they encounter a black
person they have a pre-conceived notion
of us," Brundidge said.
Office of Multi-Ethnic Student
Affairs Coordinator Sha Duncan said
the stereotyping jokes on different eth-
nicities often are brought to life when
groups outside of the black community
embrace what they see and think is
black culture. "They think they are being
friends when they say, 'Wut up dawg!'
But people don't do that. I speak proper
English."
But Tony Fox, Comedy Central's vice
president, said critics of comedic stereo-
typing should also be aware of the posi-
tive effects of using them in
entertainment.
Fox said the network always deals
with issues of overusing stereo-
types. But he added that the comic
characterizations featured on their
shows are more than just for a
laugh. Fox referred to his network's
popular comedy-skit series "Chap-
pelle's Show," starring comedian
Dave Chappelle, as an example of
how TV can reveal the deeper injus-
tices in American society by using
stereotypes.
"Chappele's deals with a lot of hot
topic social issues. One of those
issues is racism. (Dave Chappelle)
tries to ridicule that racism, pointing
out some of its absurdities," Fox said.
Chappelle does this by playing off
viewer's expectations of stereotypes, by
exaggerating them, to show how ridicu-
HONORS
Continued from Page 1.
sional struggles of a newspaper colum-
nist during World War II.
The program has had its share of hits
and misses when selecting summer
readings.
Wessel Walker mentioned that the
selection for 2001 - "The Huron River:
Voices from the Watershed," edited by
University English profs. John Knott
and Keith Taylor - received a luke-
warm response. "We got the most nega-
tive responses to this book," she said.
She added that the book's subject did not
engage many Honors freshmen. "Kids
coming to Ann Arbor don't have much
interaction with the river," she said.
Wessel Walker added that a book sent
for summer reading sends a strong state-
ment about the Honors Program to
incoming freshmen. "We wanted to say
we're about books you read for pleas-
ure and the life of the mind," she said
Have You
Graduated...
From Your
lous those ethnic and sexual stereotypes
truly are, Fox added.
"He has something to say and he's
saying it's all ridiculous. I think he is
trying to open minds by trying to
show some of the foolishness in all
the prejudice within society. ... He's
not letting people sweep racism under
the rug," Fox said.
Fox also said he isn't convinced
stereotypes have any sort of negative
impact on viewers since there has
been no scientific evidence to sug-
gest it.
Regarding other shows such as Com-
edy Central's "Banzai," which minority
groups allege negatively stereotypes
Asians, Fox said he doesn't think the
show has gone anywhere near to the
extent some viewers argue. Instead, he
said most people who watch shows like
"Banzai" realize that those characteriza-
tions are satirizing, and can respect that
it is a joke.
Still, some students are unsure that
everyone will understand that it's all for
comedy, and think the stereotypes are a
form of exploitation in using different
ethnic and sexual groups just to get a
laugh. Rather than thinking viewers will
understand the comedic stereotypes,
LSA senior Josie Najor said, "It gives
the illusion that people are learning
about minorities. ... It gives a distorted
image." She added that this distorted
image is a negative image. "(Entertain-
ment) is trying to portray groups, but the
way they see them, it is definitely inferi-
or," she added.
But other students said everyone
can laugh at jokes that stereotype
and still understand that they're
likely not intended to be serious
portrayals of minorities.
Engineering freshman Mike Nolte
said his gymnastics team - which is
comprised of all different ethnic
groups - watched "Chappelle's
Show" during a bus ride, with the
entire group understanding that it was
a joke and not meant to reflect any
ethnic group. "We were all just laugh-
ing. It was all fun," he said.
But Nolte added, stereotypes are
not always played off as well as they
are on "Chappelle's Show" and they
can be offensive to a certain group.
"(Stereotypes) can be funny. But there
is a right place and a right time. The
right time is when you know the other
person who is being stereotyped is
going to be laughing with you."
Corrections:
Please report any errors in the Daily
to corrections@,rmichigandaily.comr
INVESTMENTS
Continued from Page 1
at a significant competitive disadvantage, Garcia said. The
University typically invests in private equity or venture capi-
tal firms that normally invest in small start-up companies
that develop new technologies.
"When you have a brand-new company that is dealing with
new technology, they want to protect their trade secrets and
any investment strategies," Garcia said. "Because they partner
with a public university, a competitor can come in and FOIA
these secrets, and that puts them at a disadvantage."
Peterson added, "The University's inability to protect such
sensitive, proprietary information from public disclosure has
hurt our ability to invest in these promising arenas."
Each year, the University invests close to $3.5 billion in
corporations to keep a diverse investment portfolio, Universi-
ty records show.
One of the newest outlets for University investment is
the Life Sciences Corridor, which attracts many new ven-
ture firms in the biological science field. The Life Sci-
ences Corridor is a statewide project backed by a 20-year
commitment of support from Michigan's tobacco settle-
ment fund.
The LSC is a collaboration between the University of
Michigan and Michigan State and Wayne State universities,
and is designed to provide research opportunities for scien-
tists in the state.
"The reason I agreed (to sponsor the bill) was I was famil-
iar with the Life Sciences Corridor," Garcia said. "I believe
we need to diversify the economy in Michigan so we're not
so dependent on the auto industry."
Votes in the Legislature showed the widespread support
for the bill - the House voted 105 to 1 in favor of the bill on
March 31, and the Senate voted 33 to 4 with one abstention
in favor of the bill on March 24.
But one of the only problems associated with the new
amendment was that the bill contained no provision for pub-
lic involvement in how University endowment funds are
invested.
Initially, the bill would have allowed the University to keep
the names of corporations confidential, and many student
groups work to maintain investment transparency at the Uni-
versity. The problem was addressed early in the bill's drafting
by the Michigan Press Association and resulted in a number
of adjustments.
According to Peterson, the writers of the bill consulted
with the Michigan Press Association and followed its recom-
mendations to keep certain investment data open.
For example, names of all companies in which the Uni-
versity invests and the aggregate amount of money invested
in them will stay public. Other information in each company
portfolio will remain secret.
Garcia also expressed his support for the MPA's amend-
ment. "When (the MPA) came with their concern, they
asked for a simple amendment," Garcia said. "We have no
problems with that. The intent was not to deny information
in terms of who the University was investing in, the impor-
tance was to protect these small companies who they're
investing in."
MCRI
Continued from Page 1
court ruling will provide "clearer guid-
ance" as to what MCRI should do.
"We remain confident that Judge
Manderfield was legally inaccurate
in ordering the Board of Canvassers
to do what they did," O'Brien said.
Apart from MCRI's petitions, the
board approved nine other petitions
under review yesterday, board Sec-
retary Christopher Thomas said.
Under consideration were ballot ini-
tiatives on a number of issues, including
legalizing marijuana, banning gay mar-
riage and reinstating the death penalty.
The board also reviewed a petition
crafted by Law School alum David
Boyle. His initiative seeks to amend
the state constitution to ban legacy
preferences.
"I think it's a more authentic civil
rights initiative because it focuses on
taking preference from bigwigs and fat
cats," Boyle said, who opposes the
MCRI ballot initiative. He added that
MCRI's campaign works against
minorities and women.
The delay in the decision to approve
his petition has been delayed - he GoT A
submitted it in January - may make it
harder for Boyle to reach the threshold < p CALL 763-
of 300,000 signatures.
Boyle said he wants the petition to 2459
be more than symbolic and would be
happy to get any number of signatures.
for more information call :i34/,8-C2fi
The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science,
and the Arts presents a public lecture and reception
RIchard Abel
Robert Altman Collegiate
Professor of Film Studies
Wednesday "