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The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 16, 2004 - 3
MSA forum discusses
budget, tenants union
.Rally protests
against rape,
sexual violence
The Ann Arbor Coalition Against
Rape and University Women Against
Rape will hold the 25th annual "Take
Back the Night" tomorrow at 7 p.m. on
the Diag. The rally will feature a vari-
ety of speakers.
This year's keynote address will
be given by survivor and activist
Sara Ylen, whose story of survival
and the aftermath of her sexual
assault led to a series of articles in
the The Times Herald, a newspaper
in Port Huron.
A march will directly follow the
rally to protest sexual victimization in
all forms. During the march, Men
Against Violence Against Women
will host a dialogue as an alternative
event for men who do not want to
participate in the march.
"Take Back the Night" strives to
provide an environment of healing, to
create a community free of sexualized
violence and to raise awareness of the
ways sexualized violence is a force
used to perpetrate oppression. Child
care will be available.
Prof: Life may have
0 begun on Mars,
moved to Earth
The Michigan Center for Theoretical
Physics will host Paul Davies, a profes-
sor of natural philosophy at Macquarie
University in Sydney, Australia, tonight
at 7 p.m. in the Business School's Hale
Auditorium. Davies's lecture, titled
"Did Life Come From Mars?", will
discuss the origin of life.
Davies, an internationally acclaimed
physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist
and writer, has championed the theory
that life may have started on Mars and
then moved to Earth by hitching a ride
in rocks blasted from Mars by comet
impacts. In his lecture, Davies will
explain why Mars was a more favor-
able environment for life to get started,
and why it may still harbor life today.
A reception will precede the lecture
at 6:30 p.m.
Glee Club holds
spring concert
The Men's Glee Club with the Friars
will present their 144th annual spring
concert tomorrow at 8 p.m. in Hill
Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased
by calling 764-1448. Reserved seating
spans the main floor and mezzanine of
Hill, and student-price seats are in the
balcony.
Reserved seats close to the center
are $15; others are $13 and are gener-
ally toward the wings. Student tickets
are $5 with a valid student ID.
Conference seeks
to examine ways
r to reduce poverty
The William Davidson Institute,
the Law School's Center for Interna-
tional and Comparative Law and the
John M. Olin Center for Law & Eco-
nomics will host the "Globalization,
Law and Development Conference"
this weekend.
The conference will be today from
2:15 to 5:30 p.m., tomorrow from 9
a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sunday from 9
a.m. to noon in Room 250 in the Law
School's Hutchens Hall.
Keynote speakers will be U.S. Sen.
Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Daniel
Kaufmann, director for global gover-
nance at the World Bank.
Discussion at the conference will
center on three critical components of
the "Millennium Development Goals"
set out by the United Nations to reduce
global poverty by 2020.
Minority groups
work to deter
stereotypes
The United Asian American Organi-
zations will hold their first Advocacy
Night tomorrow from 4 to 6 p.m. in
Room 2105A of the Michigan Union.
The event, titled "Minority Stereo-
types and Media Portrayals," will
include a panel of student leaders rep-
resenting the Asian Pacific American,
Hispanic, black, Native American and
gay communities.
They will be presenting issues
involving stereotypes and media repre-
sentations of their respective communi-
ties. An open forum will follow, and
drinks and snacks will be provided.
By Cianna Freeman
Daily Staff Reporter
In an attempt to receive input from stu-
dents, the Michigan Student Assembly held a
public meeting last night. Although turnout at
the meeting was low, MSA representatives
discussed some of their current and future
plans, including addressing University budget
cuts and the possibility of creating a new ten-
ants union.
MSA is currently in talks with Vice President
for Student Affairs E. Royster Harper about
forming a student advisory board to assist in the
University's budget process.
University President Mary Sue Coleman
approved the idea of creating a student board two
weeks ago.
Mironov said he wants students to be involved
in the allocation of funds in the Division of Stu-
dent Affairs.
"On the subject of budget cuts, MSA would
like to include interested students from all areas
of campus at every step of the process, from pro-
posal to senior leadership confirmation,"
Mironov said.
But Student Voices in Action member Liz Hig-
gins said she was skeptical that the assembly will
be able to fulfill this promise.
The faculty has been unsuccessfully pushing
the University to open the budget to them com-
pletely, said Higgins, an LSA senior.
SVA formed this term in response to a pro-
posed 4 percent decrease of the Division of Stu-
dent Affairs. They have organized several protests
and meetings with the administration to discuss
how to avoid these cuts.
But, MSA Student General Counsel Jesse
Levine illustrated how students have a voice in
some budget decisions, such as on the Intercolle-
giate Athletics Advisory Committee.
The MSA president gets a seat on the board, as
well as one additional student Levine said.
"In the athletic department there is a precedent
for students having a say in budget discussions,"
Levine said. "The athletic department cannot pass
their budget without the consent of the two stu-
dent members that are on the board."
MSA intended to discuss the Naked Mile at the
public meetings, but no students spoke in regard
to the event.
Mironov said MSA does not have a specific
stance on the Naked Mile other then to protect
student rights and try to keep participants as safe
as possible.
MSA Vice President Jenny Nathan said in the
past there was a lot concern from the administra-
tion about the Naked Mile.
Participation in the Naked Mile has sharply
declined after it received criticism in the late
1990s for the threats it posed to students' secu-
rity, both due to the possibility of sexual
assault and the fact that many runs were filmed
by spectators.
The revival of a group similar to the Ann
Arbor Tenants Union is an additional concern
for MSA.
The AATU was formed in the late 1960s and
designed to inform students of their rights as ten-
ants and to serve as an outlet for student-landlord
dilemmas.
The closing of the AATU occurred because
MSA said it was receiving complaints about the
ineffectiveness of the service from students.
But Mironov and MSA representatives dis-
cussed the formation of a new service to resolve
student tenants' problems.
"It seems that a tenants union will be assem-
bled through MSA, and will hopefully be allo-
cated the proper funding in next year's budget,
pending assembly support in the fall,"
Mironov said.
ALI OLSEN/Daily
Michigan Student Assembly President Jason Mironov and Vice President Jenny Nathan speak at a public
forum in the MSA chambers yesterday. LSA freshman Makael Burrell sits in the background.
Nathan said the members of the assembly
decided to conduct a public meeting in addition
to their weekly Tuesday meetings to engage in a
more direct dialogue with students.
The assembly wanted to make students aware
that MSA meetings are always open and that
additional meetings are available to handle stu-
dent affairs, Mironov said.
MSA representatives were positive about con-
tinuing to conduct meetings to converse with
their constituency, Mironov added.
"I think that this is the first of many public
meetings," Mironov said. "While initial turnout
was low, this was a pilot program that we intend
to carry out through the summer and next year,"
he added.
In the past MSA has had dinners at residence
halls to reach out to the public and members plan
to continue this outreach next fall, added
Mironov.
Smog levels too high in 25 Michigan counties
WASHINGTON (AP) - Twenty-five Michi-
gan counties fail to meet the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's new limits for smog and will
have to take measures to reduce pollution, the
EPA announced yesterday
No Michigan counties were on the EPA's list of
areas with the most extreme smog. The EPA iden-
tified 474 counties nationwide that aren't meeting
the new standards.
But eight southeast Michigan counties -
Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston,
Lenawee, Monroe, St. Clair and Washtenaw -
will have mandatory vehicle emissions inspec-
tions under the new rules, Michigan Department
of Environmental Quality Director Steven
Chester said.
"I don't know what other avenues we have, but
I can guarantee you we're going to continue to
argue for more flexibility," Chester said yester-
day. Chester said the vehicle inspections wouldn't
start for several years.
Chester said the DEQ had asked to have
Lenawee given a separate designation, since it
isn't creating enough pollution to affect sur-
rounding counties. But the EPA refused.
The EPA requires Michigan to submit plans
for meeting the standards by 2007, and most
Michigan counties will have until 2009 to
meet the standards. The eight southeast
Michigan counties and two counties in west-
ern Michigan - Cass and Muskegon - have
until 2010 to meet the standards.
The standards allow less ozone in the air and
require more hours of sampling.
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids), said
west Michigan counties won't have to require
emissions tests for vehicles but may have to
impose stricter emissions requirements for facto-
ries and power plants. He said he was encouraged
by the EPA's action.
"The administration ... developed a plan that
will help us to clean the air in our area without
imposing unworkable burdens on our commu-
nity," Ehlers said.
Michigan lawmakers, including Gov. Jen-
nifer Granholm, had been asking EPA
Administrator Mike Leavitt to give western
Michigan counties up to 10 years to meet the
standards. They said western Michigan is
being unfairly targeted for pollution coming
from Chicago and Milwaukee.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said yesterday that
"Continuing to place restrictions on areas that are
impacted by overwhelming transport of pollution from
other areas, in our case from outside of Michigan, is not
only unreasonable and unfair, but is not consistent with the
purpose of the Clean Air Act,"
- U.S. Sen. Carl Levin Senator (D-Mich.)
western Michigan counties fared better than
counties that will have to meet the standards by
2007. But he expressed disappointment that the
counties weren't given more time.
"Continuing to place restrictions on areas that
are impacted by overwhelming transport of pollu-
tion from other areas, in our case from outside of
Michigan, is not only unreasonable and unfair,
but is not consistent with the purpose of the
Clean Air Act," Levin said in a news release.
But Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Holland) said
the EPA acted with "the greatest amount of
flexibility ... under existing law." Hoekstra
noted that an energy bill that hasn't yet
passed Congress would delay requirements
for western Michigan until the completion of
a pollution study.
The.new.ozone standards were crafted by
the Bush EPA after being initiated under the
Clinton administration. They are intended to
reduce smog from ozone produced by paint
and gasoline vapors combining at ground lev-
els with nitrogen oxides from fossil fuels.
The standards were delayed from taking effect
for four years because of failed court challenges
by business groups and by several states, includ-
ing Michigan. The Supreme Court upheld the
standards in February 2001.
Abortion opponents move to bypass Granholm on ban
Ifpetition signatures are approved, abortion
ban would only require majority vote from state
Senate and House to pass into law
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Abortion opponents yesterday turned
in more than 460,000 petition signatures to state elections officials
in an effort to return to the Republican-controlled Legislature a bill
that would outlaw a certain abortion procedure.
The initiative is aimed at getting into law a bill that would
define the moment a person is legally born as being when any
part of a fetus is expelled from a woman's body. It's intended to
ban a procedure referred to by critics as partial-birth abortion
and by medical organizations as "intact dilatation and extrac-
tion" - or D&X.
If election officials approve the petition signatures, the bill only
would need a simple majority vote from the House and Senate to
take effect. It wouldn't have to be signed by Gov. Jennifer
Granholm, who vetoed the bill in October.
The Democratic governor said the bill didn't include an
exception for the health of the mother and added that the bill's
definition of life could make it apply to first-trimester abor-
tions.
"It has the ability to ban all abortions in Michigan," said Shelli
Weisberg, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties
Union of Michigan.
Weisberg said the ACLU would file a lawsuit to stop the law
from taking effect, which likely wouldn't be until next spring
because the House and Senate do not have the two-thirds vote
needed to allow it to take effect immediately.
A federal ban on so-called partial birth abortions is tied up in the
courts.
Michigan failed in 1996 and 1999 to have the courts declare con-
stitutional a ban on so-called partial-birth abortions mostly because
they didn't include exceptions for the health of the mother.
Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said the new
bill will withstand a court challenge. She said it's stronger than an
Ohio ban on the late-term abortion procedure upheld late last year
by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"This legislation does not specify a specific type of abortion,"
she said, standing next to a large pyramid of boxes of petition forms
outside the Elections Division of the Secretary of State's office in
Lansing.
A number of groups participated in the petition-gathering
effort, called "The People's Override," including the Michigan
Catholic Conference. They submitted 460,034 signatures, nearly
twice as many as the 254,206 needed to send the bill back to
lawmakers.
Listing said she expected it would take 45 to 60 days for the
Elections Division to review the petition signatures. When they are
approved, the Legislature has 40 days to sign off on the bill before
it would go to voters on the ballot.
The House and Senate likely will take up the bill before begin-
ning their summer recess.
"As soon as we're able to we're going to take it up," said Bill
Nowling, spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Ken
Sikkema of Wyoming.
House Speaker Rick Johnson (R-LeRoy) and Sikkema were
among the 87 lawmakers who signed a petition for the initiative,
said Ed Rivet of Right to Life of Michigan.
Similar initiatives have worked twice in the past.
A 1988 initiative stopped the state from using Medicaid funding
for abortions. Another in 1990 got a bill into law requiring parental
consent before a minor could have an abortion.
Corrections:
A headline on Page 1 of Wednesday's Daily should have said
SAPAC staff members support changes to the center.
Please report any errors in the Daily to corrections@michi-
gandaily.com
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