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November 02, 2004 - Image 1

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The Michigan Daily, 2004-11-02

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Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Weather

News 3 Entrances to dorms
change with voting
Arts 9 Les Claypool brings
the funk with his
latest offering.
Sports 12 Mann is steady in
football, politics

t1vlk

LOW: 31
TOMORROW:

One-hundred-fourteen years of editorialfreedom

www.mkhigandaly.com Ann Arbor, Michigan a Vol. CXV, No. 23 62004 The Michigan Daily
Greeks propose reforms for parties

By Justin Miller
Daily StaffReporter
Students may have a harder time getting into
fraternity parties if a proposed set of regulations
are initiated next year. Executive board members
of the Interfraternity Council and officers of the
Pan-Hellenic Association proposed changes to the
Greek system's social policy yesterday that aim to
make Greek parties safer.

Nothing has been finalized, but if the proposed
changes are implemented, the parties would be
open almost exclusively to Greek system mem-
bers, who would have to bring their own alcohol.
At the meeting yesterday, members of Panhel
and IFC discussed three proposals. One proposal
would put a cap on parties, limiting them to Greek
system members, plus an extra 200 invited guests.
The extra people would be let in using a supple-
mental list that would be verified with Mcards.

But party sizes may be limited by the number
of party monitors present from the Social Respon-
sibility Committee of the Greek system. Another
proposal would only allow 20 people for every one
committee monitor. Committee monitors would
be stationed at the entrance to fraternity parties
to keep a count of how many people are coming
and going. Fraternities could be put on probation if
they try to get more than the limit of people inside
their houses. When a party reaches capacity, peo-

pie outside would have to wait for some partygoers
to leave before they could enter.
In a second, alternative plan, Panhel and IFC
members proposed making all parties strictly
exclusive to members of the Greek system, in
order to limit their size.
"We need to find other ways to rush freshmen.
We rush with cans of beer and not the personali-
ties' they have," said Jared Stasik, executive vice
president of IFC.

Some attendees of the meeting, who were mem-
bers of fraternities and sororities, raised concerns
that the exclusivity proposal would reduce the
number of potential freshman that want to rush.
But, this year's total number of freshman rushing
all fraternities was about 400 - only a fraction of
a single party's attendance, the council said.
The council heads continued their
defense of Greek exclusivity by saying that
See PROPOSAL, Page 7

ELECTIONS '04
Floridians
brace for
election
debacle
By Donn M. Fresard
Daily Staff Reporter

Police: No
support yet
for hazing
allegations
Police say criminal

charges
By Leslie Rott
Daily Staff Reporter

unlikely

LAKE WORTH, Fla. - In Palm Beach
County, where voters worry about another con-k
tested election and party officials swap accusa-
tions of fraud and intimidation, nearly everyoneF
has different thoughts on the likely outcome oft
today's election. If there is one thing residents
of this county can agree on, it is that something
almost certainly will go wrong.
George Sabas, a Bulgarian immigrant who
lives in the county and has already voted, said=
he expects an outcome like that of the 2000 , e
election - recounts, legal battles and weeks ofP
uncertainty.
"I'm not very comfortable with it, he said.
But Carol Ann Loehndorf, chair of the Palm
Beach County Democratic Party, said a repeat
of 2000 - in which the two major candidates
were separated by only a few hundred votes -
is unlikely, owing to the huge numbers of new
voters registered in the state by both parties.
She said she is confident that Palm Beach
County will turn out strongly for Kerry, and_
that he will win the state by a significant mar- H~
gin, largely due to the ground work she and
other officials have done.
The most pressing issue facing the Florida
election, Loehndorf said, is voter intimidation g
and fraud. She blamed local Republicans for
what she said have been a series of attempts
to disenfranchise Democratic voters in recent
days. Such incidents have included fraudu- AP PHOTOS (top), SHUBRA OHRI (bottom left) and Al OLSEN (bottom right) /Daily
lently collecting absentee ballots and spreading Presidential candidates and University students alike venture out and make their last push to draw voters to their
See FLORIDA, Page 7 campaigns.
Campus groups push students to vote

Police said yesterday that they have not found any evi-
dence supporting the recent hazing allegations within
the Greek system, although their investigation has not
yet come to a close.
"We have nothing to pursue charges on at this time," added
Lt. Chris Heatley, the coordinating detective investigating the
case at the Ann Arbor Police Department.
AAPD plans to meet with the fraternities and sorori-
ties allegedly involved in hazing incidents by the end of
this week. The University announced two weeks ago that
seven Greek houses were being investigated for hazing-
related incidents.
Heatley said after the AAPD's investigation, police
determined that many of the accusations stemmed from
rumors and not fact.
"Rumors (involving the Greek system) get blown out
of proportion," Heatley said.
The Hazing Taskforce, a group created by students in
the Greek community, is currently investigating all of
the allegations. The task force is an investigative unit,
and not a judicial body.
Some of the allegations reported to the University more
than two weeks ago include heavy drinking, paddling,
clothes being torn off sorority members and obscenities
being written in permanent marker on pledges.
Lauren Frank, president of the Panhellenic Associa-
tion, said the fraternities and sororities under scrutiny
will go through a judicial process before punishments, if
any, will be handed out.
She also said 14 new student members have been added
to the task force to help investigate.
"We are hoping to have the cases investigated and
completed by the end of this week," said Alan Lovi,
spokesman for the Interfraternity Council.
Lovi said that depending on the results of the investi-
gations, the case will be brought before the Greek Activ-
ities Review Panel, the judicial board that presides over
the Greek system. "GARP will come up with sentencing,
and (the sentence will) be brought before the president of
IFC," Lovi said.
"If the findings are serious enough, the houses could
be suspended or kicked off campus," Lovi said.
The findings will be based on the results of the
taskforce's investigation and the findings of individual
national chapters.
"All national organizations (of fraternities and sorori-
ties) have been notified of the allegations," Frank said.
"This is something we.are taking very seriously, not
something being taken lightly."
The University is also investigating the allegations through
the Office of Student Conflict Resolution, the unit that admin-
isters the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities,
the student's conduct policy known as "the code." No one
from the office was available to comment.

By Aymar Jean
Daily Staff Reporter
A vigorous and lengthy campaign to
mobilize students on campus for the presi-
dential election will climax today, as stu-
dent groups strive to bring students to the
polls.
Both the nonpartisan Voice Your Vote
Commission, part of the Michigan Student
Assembly, and partisan groups, including
Students for Bush, the College Republi-
cans and the College Democrats, will be
on the Diag, at polling sites and in various
' voting districts.
For some, the final push started last
night. A few volunteers with Voice Your
Vote distributed door hangers to student
precincts last night. The hangers included

information reminding students how and
where to vote.
The group will also call students liv-
ing off-campus with the same informa-
tion. Over the past week and a half, the
commission has called more than 15,000
people to provide voting information, said
commission co-chair Pete Woiwode, an
LSA senior.
"It took a lot of volunteers to get that
work done," he said.
Last night, the College Democrats
also canvassed student neighborhoods
with pro-Kerry literature from 4 to 7
p.m. They also made phone calls to an
estimated 1,000 students registered by
the group.
Late in the night, they held a "psych
up" party in the Michigan Union, where

people called friends and family, decorat-
ed their cars flyered and chalked all over
campus.
But today, the voter mobilization drive
will reach its apex. Some students in the
College Democrats will start as early as
5:30 a.m. by painting the Rock on Hill
Street and Washtenaw Avenue.
Students for Bush also started chalk-
ing and flyering this morning throughout
campus. They will be on the Diag during
the day, passing out stickers, posters and
other pro-Bush materials. This evening,
the group will hold a "victory party" in
the Union, although they concede that
a definitive outcome is not guaranteed.
"Nobody can be sure (of the winner)
at this point. When the last vote is cast,
then we'll know," Students for Bush co-

chair and said Anthony Sandoval, an LSA
sophomore.
But throughout its campaign, Stu-
dents for Bush has run into some stra-
tegic difficulties, largely because Ann
Arbor is predominantly liberal, Sando-
val said.
The less-visible Bush supporters
have been "battling with group-think"
and some signs of liberal antagonism.
"I think people are scared to be the
minority," he said. "More than any-
thing, our goal is just to show that we
are out there."
The voter mobilization drive will last
well into the evening. The College Demo-
crats will work the polls, lobby on the Diag
and drive voters to the polls by van, said
See 'U' VOTE, Page 7

Voter monitors at
polling sites aim for
smooth election

Know your voting rights
Be prepared, and be aware.
. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters can only cast their
ballots at their assigned polling places, which they can find by log-
ging onto www.sospublius.org
If you are voting for the first time in Michigan and did not reg-
ister to vote in person at a government agency, you will have to
show some kind of per3onaI identircation at the polls, such as a
drivers' license.
If your name is not on the voter registry at the polling place
where you are voting, you may file a proVisfons baLot . You must
swear in writing that you are registered in the precinct in which

By Farayha Arrine
Daily Staff Reporter

lino, spokesman for the Michigan
Republican Party.
Poll monitors, largely trained and sent
to polling sites by nonpartisan groups,
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Due to rising tensions over voter fraud

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