Friday, October 29, 2004
Opinion 4
Vote no on Prop. 2,
yes on A, B, C
00OUS, PAGE 1.2
Weather
Arts 8 The TV staff previews
the upcoming
November sweeps
NJ: 7
Low: 58
TOMORROW:
Football
Saturday
QBs get first taste
of bitter rivalry
One-hundred fourteen years of editorialfreedom
www.michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXV, No. 21 ©2004 The Michigan Daily
New staffers
fill gaps at
MESA office
Renowned linguist Noam Chomsky addresses an overflowing crowd In the Law School's Honigman Auditorium yesterday with his speech,
"Illegal but Legitimate: A Dubious Doctrine for the Times."
Chaws fervent crowd
By Aymar Jean
Daily Staff Reporter
After students protested vigorously last
winter over the University's handling of
diversity, the Office of Multi-Ethnic Stu-
dent Affairs is now reconsidering how it
should be organized.
This term, after hiring three new interim
coordinators, MESA is forming student advi-
sory groups for feedback on how to improve
the organization, which promotes a sense of
community among minority students.
Earlier this year, students formed a broad
coalition called Student
Voices in Action criti- In respons
cizing the administra-
tion. One of the issues student pr
on its long list of claims last year, t
concerned MESA: At
the time the office had nOW seeks
not hired a coordinator
for Latino student affairs incorporal
for almost a year. ethnic cor
In response, the
office hired coordinator
Angela Munoz over the summer, along with
Steve Moon and Lydia Middleton to replace
the coordinators for African American and
Asian Pacific student affairs, both of whom
took a leave of absence this year to pursue
academic goals.
Because MESA needs to be "flexible,"
these three staffers are only being hired for
one year, MESA Director Patricia Aqui Paca-
nia said. In response to the student protests
last year, the office is seeking to incorporate
new ethnic communities and considering.
creating positions for Arab American or
Middle Eastern and biracial students.
"I have to keep.things at an interim
basis," said Aqui Pacania, adding that the
office might increase in size next year.
Accommodating Arab American students
is important to evolve with the changing
student composition, she said. "We need to
improve and become more contemporary to
meet those needs," Aqui Pacania said.
The office received about 300 applications
for the three positions. To whittle that figure
e to
otests
he office
Sto
te new
nmunities.
refocuses next year.
"It's about talking
with students, finding
out who they are, where
are they coming from,
what are their dreams,"
said Munoz, whose pre-
vious job was as director
of Central Michigan Uni-
versity's Office of Gay
down, the office conducted phone interviews
with five to seven candidates and narrowed
that number down to three. The three coor-
dinators were chosen based on a final inter-
view with faculty, staff and students.
As the office looks to get feedback from
students, each new coordinator will conduct
student caucuses - an offshoot of the advi-
sory council on the Trotter Multicultural
Center in the Division of Student Affairs.
Each caucus will be composed of students
from various ethnic communities and will
offer recommendations on MESA. These
suggestions should provide MESA with
some direction when it
By Mark Osmond
and Monica Woll
For the Daily
Students were crawling through windows and
pushing through doors to hear Noam Chomsky
in the Law School's Honigman Auditorium yes-
terday, as he spoke on the aggressive pattern of
U.S. foreign policy at the 14th annual Lecture on
Academic and Intellectual Freedom.
Chomsky, a renowned linguist and linguistics
and philosophy professor at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, criticized the United
States and its history from the era of President
John Quincy Adams to the Iraq war, for engag-
ing in military conflicts that violated interna-
tional law.
He said the United States has a tendency to
exempt itself from international law, supporting
his claim with various examples from world his-
tory. He spoke of the U.S. interventions in coun-
tries such as Nicaragua, Kosovo, Panama and
Cuba, condemning each action as "illegal" by
international standards but deemed "legitimate"
by U.S. ones.
International law states that war is justified only
when all alternative options have been exhausted.
The United States has continuously violated this
rule, engaging in war without imploring alterna-
tives, Chomsky said. For example, he said prior to
bombing Serbia-Montenegro - a Balkan country
which was practicing ethnic cleansing of Muslims
in the state of Kosovo - a compromise had been
drafted that would have made the war avoidable.
Chomsky stated that before the United States and
NATO went to war, this alternative to military
action was hidden from the public.
Chomsky also discussed instances when
he said the United States was excused for war
crimes. When Serbia-Montenegro brought charg-
es against the United States to the world court,
the United States asked to be and was excused
from crimes against peace so that a precedent
would not be established for inhibiting U.S. mili-
tary action, he said..
Chomsky stated that U.S. military actions run
contrary to the principle of universality, which
means that nations should apply the same stan-
dard to themselves that they apply to others.
For example, the United States embraces the
See CHOMSKY, Page 3
and Lesbian Programs.
LSA sophomore Suzi Lopez, spokes-
woman for La Voz Latina,-said Munoz has
been integral in uniting the Latino commu-
nity, which seemed less unified to her last
year. Her handling this summer of what
was known as the Latino Task Force, now
the Latino student caucus, has brought the
community together, Lopez said.
Munoz attends many of the group's meet-
ings, in addition to the events and gather-
ings of other campus groups, such as the
Latino fraternity Lamda Theta Pi.
"There's different feeling in the Latino
community than from last year," Lopez
said. "She's been nothing but helpful in
advising us, bringing new ideas and con-
cepts to the table."
Achieving this sense of unity is what
Moon seeks to do in his one-year tenure.
Moon, who received a graduate degree
from the University of California in Los
Angeles this year, said there are a lot of
Asian Pacific American communities at the
See MESA, Page 7
'MSA elections to start without Students First party
Elections approaching
How the MSA campaign is shaping up
* Students First will no longer be a party
Applications for MSA candidacy are due
today at 5 p.m.
Elections take place Nov. 1? and 18
Campaigning starts Wednesday, and cam-
paigning on the Diag will be from Nov. 10 to 16
Prospective candidates ust attend a
meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in the.MSA office
Hot dogs just
an appetizer or
biggerplans
By Kyle Shah
For the Daily
Setting up at 10 a.m. to stand through the cold all day in
order to sell hot dogs to hungry students is a step some have
taken to start their careers in the food service business.
For Dan and Francisco Jofre, brothers and owners of
Dan's Dogs, a hot dog stand on the corner of South Univer-
sity Avenue and South State Street, it meant leaving their
home in Chile with about $100 in their pockets. When they
arrived in Ann Arbor, they took jobs as pizza makers to
save up to buy a hot dog stand. Their long-term goal is to
invest in real estate, and after careful research they chose
Ann Arbor as the ideal town for the business.
> Wth .e hgh a;.neityo znrl-tc n cnm and thfact
By Amy Kwolek
For the Daily
As the race for president culminates in Tuesday's election,
another campaign is about to begin.
Students' applications to run for seats on the Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly are due before 5 p.m. today. Elections will be
held Nov. 17 and 18, and campaigning starts Wednesday.
Elections for MSA president and vice president are
held during winter term,'and the president appoints offi-
cer positions.
Normally student government parties such as Students
First, which has dominated elections for several cycles, run
against each other. But this year Students First has decided to
retire its name.
"The leadership decided it was time to move on," said MSA
Vice President Jennifer Nathan, an LSA senior. Nathan is a
founding member of Students First, which began as a party in
winter of 2002 and won the presidency three straight years.
At this point in the election process, Nathan said, it
is not clear which parties might run in the election. She
also said it is common process to change the names of
parties, reorganize, and start anew after a party has been
in existence for some time. This does not mean that the
members of Students First will be disappearing from the
MSA scene.
Though parties give students a group name under
which to run, MSA Treasurer Anita Leung said students
don't need to belong to a party in order to run for a seat
in the assembly.
"I would encourage anyone to run," said Leung, an Engi-
neering sophomore.
Seats are open to all University students. A mandatory
meeting will be held Monday at 6 p.m. in the MSA chambers
on the third floor of the Michigan Union. Candidates may use
the Diag for campaigning purposes from Nov. 10 to 16.
Elections take place twice a year, in November and in
March with the presidential race. Roughly half of the assem-
bly seats are up during each election, so new terms never
bring in an entirely new body of representatives.
"This builds continuity within the assembly," Leung said.
There are set numbers of representatives for each school,
proportionate to the school's population. For example, 19
students represent the College of Literature, Science and the
Arts, while schools such as Pharmacy and Social Work have
one or two seats.
"It has been a concern that smaller schools won't be
able to fill their seats," Leung said. "This has been a tra-
ditional problem."
Students can vote for representatives within their school
See MSA, Page 7
ELECT1ONS '04
Debate on tax policy
centers on Bush's cuts
By Michael Gurovitsch
and Wendy Lee
Daily Staff Reporters
President Bush's record tax cuts over the past
four years have elicited both strong positive and
negative sentiments among Americans, under-
scoring national political divisions. Although not
as glamorous as the war on terrorism or military
records, tax policy has increasingly been featured
in both President Bush and Democratic nominee
John Kerry's recent campaign speeches.
"Taxes summarize priorities of a country," Prof.
Joel Slemrod, director of the University's Office
of Tax Policy and Research at the Ross School of
people to encourage consumption and investment, tc
stimulate the small business sector of our economy,
and our policies are paying off.:
Kerry takes a different stance, pledging tc
repeal Bush's tax cuts for Americans who earn
more than $200,000 a year. "Our economy is los-
ing high-paying, middle class jobs and creating
more temporary and part-time jobs without ben-
efits. The middle-class is carrying a larger share
of the tax burden, but family income is down.
and the cost of everything is through the roof,"
he said during a speech in Sioux City, Iowa on
Wednesday.
. Slemrod said he believes the motive behind the
large tax cuts is to eventually slash the size and
I -'~. F .!~