Wednesday, September 22, 2004
HAWKEYE MEMORIES HAUNT BLUE ... SPORTS, PAGE 9
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One-hundred-thirteen years of edtori zalfreedom
www.michikandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No. 166 62004 The Michigan Daily
MCRI
back to
gathering
sgnatures
By Aymar Jean
Daily Staff Reporter
When the campaign to ban race-
conscious programs in Michigan faced
lawsuits and internal disagreements this
spring, most assumed it would implode
and fade away.
But the Michigan Civil Rights Initia-
tive is still active, and its leaders expect
to finish its goal in the next month. The
group is currently gathering signatures
to eliminate the use of race in public
education, employment and contract-
ing. It must collect 317,757 signatures by
January 2005 to get its issue on the ballot
for 2006.
MCRI began this January and sought
to complete its drive in July to place the
proposal on the November ballot. But
a lawsuit questioning the language on
its petition stalled the campaign. Only
when the state Court of Appeals ruled
in MCRI's favor in June did it have the
chance to make a definitive decision
on whether to continue or throw in the
towel.
But the court ruling came too late for
this year's election. In late June, MCRI
officials decided to postpone the cam-
paign and aim for the 2006 ballot. They
restarted the petition drive on July 6 and
now have 180 days to collect thousands
of signatures.
Those involved with the campaign
say they are succeeding. MCRI officials
estimate they will be finished by mid-
October, more than two months before
the new deadline. The campaign, how-
ever, is not committing to a specific date.
MCRI will not release the number of sig-
natures collected so far.
"We had a monkey wrench in the
works because of that (initial court) rul-
ing," said Tim O'Brien, who coordinates
volunteer petition gatherers. But now, he
said, "things are looking just fine."
Paid petitioners are collecting most of
the signatures. MCRI Director of Out-
reach Chetly Zarko would not release
information on how many paid gatherers
the group has. But one circulator esti-
mated that number to be between 150
and 200, and the campaign, according
to its website, is still hiring more. About
1,500 people are volunteering to collect
signatures.
Since legal challenges have only
delayed the campaign, the opposition
group Citizens for a United Michigan is
working to stop the campaign. But it has
not done its best in trying to stop MCRI,
spokesman David Waymire said.
"This is not about anything except
ending affirmative action," Waymire
said. "They're getting the vast major-
ity of the signatures by deception and
deceit," he added. MCRI's opponents
say it uses the rhetoric of civil rights and
equal protection even though it seeks
to ban affirmative action programs for
women and minorities.
In a major state circuit court ruling in
March, Judge Paula Manderfield echoed
that statement, saying that the campaign
seeks to overturn rights already guaran-
teed in the state constitution.
United Michigan is still working to
slow the initiative's momentum. Failing
that, the group will dip deeper into its
campaign coffers, as it perseveres until a
possible showdown in November 2006.
"We have a lot work to do to inform
people about this," Waymire said.
On campus, some members of the
Young Americans for Freedom - a
nationwide conservative group - are
See MCRI, Page 3
THE RANKINGS ARE IN
B-School No.
1
in nation
By Michael Gurovitsch
Daily Staff Reporter
Less than two weeks after receiv-
ing the largest donation in Univer-
sity history, the business school had
another reason to celebrate yester-
day: a No. 1 ranking.
The University's recently renamed
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
beat out the traditional Ivy League
powerhouse programs to earn the top
spot in the latest
Wall Street Jour-
nal ranking of
full-time Mas-
ters of Business
Administration
programs, pub-
lished today.
"It's a Septem-
ber I'll remem-
ber," Ross School
of Business Dean
Robert Dolan
said, "and the
work that's gone
into it."
The rankings
were compiled
based on a Har-
ris Interactive
Survey of about
2,800 recruit-
ers. The criteria
How the
fared
The Wall Str
Journal's bu
school ranki
#1. The Stepht
School of Busi
University of N
#2. Carnegie M
per School of B
#3. Dartmouth'
School of Busin
the Journal ranked the University
third, behind Wharton and Tuck.
"In the business school business,
the two (rankings) that are most
looked at are Business Week and The
Wall Street Journal," Dolan said.
Michigan placed eighth in Busi-
ness Week's 2002 rankings, which
are released every other year. The
2004 rankings are expected to be
presented in early October.
Dolan - in addition to recruiters,
the Journal and
....~ CNBC - cred-
it the "Action
y1 Based Learn-
ing" system as a
key factor in the
school's prestige.
set The system is
Slness based upon stu-
ngs: dents working in
real-world sce-
en M. Ross narios with real
iness at the stakes.
Wichigan. When Dolan,
a former profes-
ellon's Tep- sor of market-
usiness. ing at Harvard
University, took
s Tuck over as dean in
less. the summer of
2001, he decided
to expand the out
of the classroom
opportunities that were piloted in
MIKE
HULSEBUS/Daily
The Stephen
M. Ross
School of
Business
at the
University
has received
the Wall
Street
Journal's
No. 1 rank-
ing among
the nation's
business
schools.
included leadership potential, ability
to work in teams and analytical and
problem solving skills. The rankings
also take into consideration faculty
quality, core curriculum and career
services.
The Journal's ranking system is
different from others because it relies
on the actual recruiters' opinions.
While other rankings focus on the
"inputs," like students' test scores,
the Journal focuses on the "outputs,"
Dolan said.
Trailing the University in this
year's rankings are Carnegie Mel-
lon's Tepper School of Business,
Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business
and the Wharton School at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania. Last year,
1992.
"(I) saw it as a comparative advan-
tage over other schools," Dolan said.
"It's a phenomenal investment in
time and money. (The ranking) is a
validation of the basic strategy."
The Ross School currently has
more than 260 field-based programs.
Projects range from managing a
portion of the endowment fund to
working with groups such as the
"Landmine Survivors Network" in
Vietnam and Bosnia.
The announcement was broadcast
live yesterday around 8:15 a.m. on
CNBC, with a camera crew provid-
ing live feeds of students celebrat-
See RANKING, Page 3
c
ELECTIONS '04
Muslim groups
to endorse soon
For some international
students, a long,
uncertain road to U.S.
By Karl Stampfl
For The Daily
Four years ago President Bush won one
of the closest elections in U.S. history with
the help of an endorsement from influential
American Muslim leaders. This year's election
is once again shaping up to be tight, making
the upcoming endorsement of major Muslim
groups all the more important.
The American Muslim Task force, an umbrel-
la organization of 10 major Muslim groups,
expects to make a decision on which candidate
to endorse by the middle of next month.
The endorsed candidate will likely receive
many of the 3.5 million Muslim votes expect-
ed to be cast this election, including many of
the 100,000 Muslim votes in Michigan, a key
swing state.
"We believe very large segments of the Mus-
lim community would act on our endorsement,"
said Agha Saeed, chairman of the task force.
The endorsed candidate
will likely receive many
of the 3.5 million Muslim
votes expected to be
cast this election.
Immediately after Bush received the endorse-
ment of major Muslim organizations in 2000,
Democratic candidate Al Gore's approval rat-
ing dropped a full 12 percent among Muslims,
according to the Council on American Islamic
Relations.
This electional season, Bush's campaign
considers the Muslim leaders' endorsement a
key to winning the White House again. "The
president recognizes, especially after the 2000
election, that every single vote counts," Bush-
See ELECTION, Page 3
By Alexa Jenner
For the Daily
After completing her undergraduate degree
at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Wenjie
Chen, an international student from Germany,
decided she wanted to come to Ann Arbor to get
her doctorate in economics.
Even though she had spent four years study-
ing in the United States, she still had to go
through the new procedures of applying for a
visa. "It's a long process, and definitely a frus-
trating one," Chen said.
Since the 1800s the University has accepted
international students from around the world,
but with tightening homeland security mea-
sures, the process of coming to America has left
many international students feeling like crimi-
nals, Chen said.
This month, the government passed another
law that will affect next years' applicants to the
University. Now, before international or foreign
exchange students can even apply for a visa they
must pay a $100 Student and Exchange Visitor
"How would you
feel if you had to go
through that? I felt
like I was in prison.
- Wenjie Chen
Rackham student
Vnformation System fee. The SEVIS fee goes
to the officials who work with the system's
electronic database that track all international
scholars in the United States.
The database has become a major part of
homeland security since the September elev-
enth attacks. In 1993, after the first World Trade
Center terrorist attack involved an international
student, the government created this electron-
ic database to track all international students
See STUDENTS, Page 2
Festival encourages students to
use alternative energy sources
By Shaun Nurrenbern
For the Daily
Students need not look far for infor-
mation - and even a little entertainment
"If you put one unit of fossil fuel into
a power plant ... you only get 0.3 units
of electricity," he said. "That means they
are only about 30 percent efficient."
Keoleian co-directs the University's
performed on the steps of the Hatcher
Graduate Library in the afternoon.
A group of students from the Ann
Arbor Open School, a local K-8 institu-
tion, were also in attendance as a teacher
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