NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 13, 2004-- 3
ON CAMPUS
Information forum
brings 100 grad
schools to campus
Students can meet with more than
100 graduate schools from across
the country to explore options, get
application information and ask
about financial aid today from 2 to
6 p.m. in the Michigan Union. Visit
the Career Center's homepage, www.
cpp.umich.edu, for a list of schools
and programs scheduled to
attend.
Meeting offers
students tips on
MIP citations
The Michigan Student Assembly
will hold a "townhall meeting" to
provide students with information
on how to avoid getting minors-
in-possession-of-alcohol citations
today at 6 p.m. in room 3909 of the
Michigan Union.
Doug Lewis, director of Student
Legal Services, will be on hand to
answer questions students may have
about MIPs. Free pizza and soda
will be available.
Student debate
previews tonight's
presidential clash
The American Movement for Isra-
el, along with the College Democrats
and College Republicans, will be
hosting a bi-partisan foreign policy
debate and presidential debate view-
ing party tonight in anticipation of
tonight's third and final presidential
debate on domestic issues. The event
will be held from 7:30 to 11 p.m. at
University Hillel.
'Saved by the Bell'
creator to discuss
hit TV show
Peter Engel, the creator of hit TV
show "Saved by the Bell," will hold a
lecture and discussion today in room
1270 of Davidson Hall from 7:30 to 9
pm.Engel has recently been working
on NBC's show "Last Comic Stand-
ing," which attempts to find the fun-
niest person in America.
CRIME
NOTES
Wallet stolen from
residence hall
A wallet was taken from a room in
Coman House of Vera Baits II Residence
Hall Monday night, according to reports
from the Department of Public Safety.
DPS has no suspects in the case.
Caller concerned
with fire from July
A caller reported to DPS on Monday
an ethanol fire which occurred in July.
The caller extinguished the fire with an
office fire extinguisher and Occupa-
tional Safety and Environmental Health
was notified at the time.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
400 protest the
suspension of
chemistry prof
Great Lakes bill awaits passage amid criticism
By Farayha Arrine
Daily Staff Reporter
When Ice Mountain Spring Water Co.
announced that its western Michigan plant would
begin bottling water withdrawn from the Great
Lakes, a bevy of environmentalists as well as local
Native American tribes objected to what they felt
was exploitation of a natural treasure.
Two years later, after judges threw the case
out, companies like the bottled-water giant and its
employees may face problems because of a series
of proposals that tighten scrutiny on water extrac-
tions from the Great Lakes, as well as regulations
on groundwater withdrawal from the area.
The most recent of these proposals is a bill the
Michigan House of Representatives passed two
weeks ago, which would add an amendment to the
state Constitution banning new water withdrawals
from the Great Lakes around Michigan. But the
proposal is drawing sharp criticism from oppo-
nents as well as experts; even supporters call for a
few modifications.
And even as the proposal makes its way through
the state Legislature, two other pieces of policy
wait in the wings.
The Water Legacy Act, a package of bills being
moved through the Legislature by two Ann Arbor
lawmakers, would go beyond the proposed amend-
ment by implementing more detailed standards for
water withdrawal from just Michigan's lake water
or groundwater.
In addition, a highly
criticized 1986 charter
- signed by eight U.S.
governors and two Cana-
dian premiers - will
most likely receive an
overhaul next week. The
changes to the charter
would apply a uniform
set of standards for water
withdrawals over all
eight Great Lakes states
and the two Canadian
provinces that signed
the original agreement
almost 20 years ago.
With these revisions
pending and research
surrounding the effec-
tiveness of the Legacy
Act moving along, the
proposed amendment
to the state constitu-
tion seems unnecessary,
according to many state
officials.
Waterworld
An amendment in the state Senate
seeks to buffer a 1986 charter that
allows Great Lakes states to form
their own water management policy.
The amendment has passed the
House but received much criticism.
The Water Legacy Act, currently being
researched, would provide a more
detailed management plan than the
amendment, which would only ban new
withdrawals from Michigan waters.
Revisions to the eight-state, bi-national
charter are also underway, seeking a
common standard on water usage.
ter that has not passed
its own state-level leg-
islation to formally
enact it. The proposed
amendment, which is a
paragraph long, is seen
by some lawmakers as
largely ineffective in
the protection of state
water resources. For
this reason, it has met
with disapproval from
officials.
The amendment
must pass in the Sen-
ate and then gain the
approval of state vot-
ers in a 2006 election
in order to take effect.
State Rep. Alexan-
der Lipsey (D-Kal-
amazoo), who voted
against the proposed
amendment, said the
bill most likely will
not pass in the Senate
ues on the Legacy Act.
"The timing ofthis clearly will have a naxinum
impact before the November elections," Lipsey
said. "We can't help but think that it was designed
to make people think (the House) is doing some-
thing about (the Great Lakes problem)."
Just 10 representatives voted against the proposed
amendment. Chris Kolb (D-Ann Arbor) supported
the measure, but told the Associated Press after it
was passed that this move did not go far enough in
protecting the Great Lakes and that he would be pro-
posing changes.
Like Lipsey, SNRE Prof. Jon Bulkley ques-
tioned the benefit of passing legislation to
enforce an agreement that is nearly two decades
old. Bulkley pointed to the fact that reform on
Great Lakes water diversions is needed, but
a uniform set of standards must be adopted
between the eight states and Canada on water
management.
He added that the bill passed by the House
would not stop the other states from diverting
large amounts of water based on their own stan-
dards and would only pay lip service to the charter
agreed upon in 1986.
"The legislation passed in the House is strictly
for show," Bulkley said. "In my view it doesn't
exterd to anyone beyond the shoreline of Michi-
gan. I really don't understand why anyone would
seriously consider that as a useful piece of legisla-
tions. There's other ways of setting up reporting
procedures."
Already the target of much criticism in and and that it is not enforceable because it lacks any
outside the Legislature, the proposal risks not detail or attempt to standardize water manage-
making it out of the Senate at all. ment throughout the Great Lakes.
He added that the amendment was introduced
The proposed amendment for political reasons, in an attempt to reflect well
Michigan is the only signing party to the 1986 char- on members of the House while research contin-
'U'
study seeks to close gaps in prenatal care
By Tina Hildreth
Daily Staff Reporter
Black women are three times more likely
to die during pregnancy than white women,
and their babies are also twice as likely to die
during infancy, according to the University's
Medical School. Every year billions of dollars
are spent to define and explain social health
disparities such as these.
Many of the disparities, though heavily
researched, remain unresolved. This is especially
true in the outcome of pregnancies, where dif-
ferences in the amount of health care blacks and
whites receive is not uncommon: For example, 89
percent of white women seek prenatal care, com-
pared to 75 percent of black women, according to
the University Medical School.
Now 17 different University departments have
teamed up to begin a new three-year research ini-
tiative called "Health Disparities: Leaders, Provid-
ers, and Patients," prompted by a $1.7 million grant
from the National Institute of Health.
The departments will seek to understand
and fix disparities in outcomes of births for all
pregnant women, and disadvantaged women
in particular.
Scott Ransom, director of the University
Program for Healthcare Improvement and
Leadership Development, said the dispari-
ties between the outcomes of black and white
pregnancies is due in part to lack of correct
research techniques.
Traditional research programs have been
confined to one or two academic disciplines,
with medical researchers focusing on biologi-
cal problems faced by pregnant women and
social researchers seeking to understand the
effect of socioeconomic status on pregnant
women. Little or no collaboration has occurred
between the two groups. That, according to
Ransom, is precisely the problem.
"While there has been tremendous effort
and a lot of money spent to address the prob-
lem, in my opinion almost nothing has been
accomplished with all that investment. Indi-
vidual niche programs are Band-Aids that
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health care," she said.
She said many leadership models have
been successfully applied within the business
world, but these same models have never been
applied to health care systems.
Wooten and her team will look at what fac-
tors make a good health care leader, and how
their leadership abilities affect the organization
of their providers, the motivation of their doctors
and nurses and what kind of vision they have to
help alleviate health care disparities.
The second area will examine how health
care providers' personal biases and other ste-
reotypes may affect the care their patients
receive. This area will focus on communica-
tion between the doctor and the patient, seek-
ing to understand how providers can offer
better multicultural care to the various minor-
ities within their patient base.
The third area will examine the psychological
and social aspects of expectant mothers by exam-
ining such aspects as whether or not they are eat-
ing correctly, whether they are sleeping in warm
places, or living in stressful environments that
might negatively affect their baby's health.
This part of the research, spearheaded by
Social Work Prof. Brigett Ford will use focus
groups and interviews to find out how favor-
ably patients view available systems of pre-
natal and post-natal care.
This exploratory program will seek infor-
mation to create augmented prenatal care,
described by Ford as "medical care plus," tai-
lored more to patients' needs. Examples of this
are ways to get patients connected with avail-
able financial assistance, educational support
and job training, if needed.
"There are many resources out there," Ford said.
"We will try to figure out what resources a person
needs and how we can incorporate them."
At the end of their project, leaders of the
Health Disparities group hope their research
will help develop a new discipline that encom-
passes a range of social disparities, birth out-
comes in particular. Such a discipline could
include, under one title, aspects of business,
social work and engineering.
MIKE HULSEBUS/Daily
Faculty from various University departments collaborating In a project to examine the
discrepancies in the outcomes of black and white pregnancies: (from front) Scott Ransom,
Lynn Wooten, Briggett Ford, Elizabeth Yakel, and Kristine Siefert.
don't solve the problem," Ransom said in a
written statement.
Ransom said the project will examine preg-
nancies from a broader perspective, examin-
ing how prenatal care is coordinated between
health care providers and expectant mothers.
"This involves a lot more than the medical
aspects of prenatal care," he said.
Instead, Ransom and his team will examine
questions such as whether expecting moth-
ers have trouble finding transportation, what
communication issues exist between their
healthcare providers and family members, and
whether gun violence occurs in their homes.
"We are going to look at this from precon-
ception up through delivery and beyond,"
Ransom said.
The program is the first to coordinate
research from many disciplines on the issue of
birth outcome disparities. Program coordina-
tors said they have high hopes for the outcome
of their teamwork.
The new Health Disparities program will
explore three holistic areas of health care and
their influences on birth outcome disparities.
The first area will focus on how a health
care provider serves as a leader in prenatal
care, and how that leadership might influence
the outcomes of patients' pregnancies. Busi-
ness Prof. Lynn Wooten is leading this aspect
of the project. "Several (leadership) models
have developed that haven't been applied in
Saddam is
operation
on hernia
successful
BAGH DAD, Iraq (AP) - Saddam
Hussein underwent an operation to
repair a hernia about 10 days ago but
has made a full recovery, Iraqi sources
said yesterday.
The ousted dictator was taken to
Baghdad's Ibn Sina hospital near the
U.S.-controlled Green Zone for the pro-
cedure, which was performed by Iraqi
doctors, according to sources close to
the Human Rights Ministry.
The operation lasted about an hour
and Saddam was returned to his cell the
same day, the sources said on condition
of anonymity. Efforts to contact U.S.
officials were unsuccessful because
their offices were closed for the day.
Saddam has been in U.S. custody
since Dec. 13 when he was captured
by American troops in a hole near his
hometown of Tikrit.
He is believed to be held in an Amer-
ican-guarded facility near Baghdad
International Airport.
He appeared in court in July for a
preliminary hearing into charges for
which the government intends to pros-
THE[ TRUTH IS..
ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS
AND FILLFRS?
ThAT'S LIKE EATING A
TURK E'I' 2hIAST
WITH IMPLflINTS.
I
October 13, 1972 - Marching from
the Diag to the Chemistry Building,
400 protesters comprised of students
and faculty demanded the University
revoke its suspension of chemistry
Prof. Mark Green.
Green was barred from teaching
days earlier after playing a slide-show
condemning the Vietnam War during
his Organic Chemistry class.
In support of Green, professors
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