Thursday, November 11, 200
News 3A Merck CEO discusses
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4 BASKETBALL TEAM LOOKS TO BECOME PART OF HISTORY ... TIPOFF, PAGE 4B

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Arts 9A 'U' alum's film, "Polar
Express," premieres

One-hundredfourteen years of editorial freedom
www.michigandadiy.com Ann Arbor, Michigan m Vol. CXV, No. 31 02004 The Michigan Daily

'U,

athletic

graduations
amongIbest
Men's basketball team has
third worst grad rate gap
By Karl Stampfl The study shows that just 27 percent of
Daily Staff Reporter male basketball players entering college
in 1997-98 graduated within six years,
Varsity gymnast Chelsea Kroll, who lagging far behind the University-wide
was named to the Academic All-Big rate of 82 percent.
Ten team in 2003, starts her day while Among schools nation wide, the Uni-
most of Ann Arbor is still sleeping. At versity had the third-worst disparity
7:30 a.m., the LSA senior wakes up. She between graduation rates of men's bas-
chugs a cup of coffee and is off to her ketball players and overall rates.
first slate of classes. Basketball players and coach
Between class and practice, Kroll Tommy Amaker refused to comment
tries to get as much homework done as on the issue.
possible. After a full day of practice, "There were revolving doors: Kids
homework and class, she slips into bed would come in and stay a year and then
at 11 p.m. so she can be up early the next leave," Athletic Director Bill Martin
morning again. said. "They had a chance to turn profes-
Kroll is part of a women's gymnastic sional and ring the bell financially. Put
team that has won the Leaders and Best yourself in their shoes."
trophy - which goes to the University Martin said the program's struc-
varsity sport with the best grades - two ture and personnel led to the high
out of the last five years. In 2003, when turnover rate.
she won her academic Big Ten award, "There was instability in the program,"
she was also on the NCAA All-America he added.
second team. But since then, things have changed,
Despite their harried schedules, ath- Martin said.
letes traditionally have a higher gradua- "Those numbers are one reason we
tion rate than student bodies as a whole, have a new coach," Martin said, refer-
according to a recent study by the ring to the 2001 firing of Brian Ellerbe
NCAA as reported by The Chronicle and subsequent hiring of current head
of Higher Education. The average six- coach Tommy Amaker.
year rate for athletes entering college in "You might want to think about
the 1997-98 school year at universities the low rate as pre-Tommy (Amaker)
across the country is 62 percent, leading and post-Tommy and see the dra-
overall graduation rates by two points. matic change," Martin said. "Under
The overall athlete graduation rate at Tommy, nine out of the 10 players
the University is 82 percent, 20 points have graduated."
above the national average. The only player in Amaker's era
But in the survey, men's basketball not to graduate was Bernard Robin-
did not follow that trend. Overall, bas- son Jr., who left early for the NBA.
ketball had the lowest rate of any sport, Martin said he believes Robinson
graduating 44 percent of players. plans to come back eventually and
At Michigan, that rate was even lower. See ATHLETES, Page 7A

Art School Dean Bryan Rogers addresses Art and Design sophomores Glenn Getty and Cara Levine yesterday.

Art School re form rhetoric tones down

By Donn M. Fresard
Daily Staff Reporter
If a student government's agenda is any indication
of general student attitudes, the School of Art and
Design's transition to a completely revamped curricu-
lum appears to have finally hit its stride.
The Society of Art Students, this year's art school
student government, provides a clear contrast with last
year's government. Whereas last year's organization
often lobbied the administration to scale back major ele-
ments of the new curriculum, SAS has come to accept
the program, focusing its work on incremental changes.
The new curriculum, designed and implemented in
2002 in large part by School of Art and Design Dean
Bryan Rogers, requires art students to take courses in
a wide range of techniques and media before choosing
an area of concentration in their final two years.
In the early stages of the transition, many students
- especially those who, planning careers in areas
such as graphic design, had little interest in taking

conceptual courses or carving spoons out of pine wood
- rejected the school's new philosophy outright.
Thirty percent of the first class under the new cur-
riculum transferred out of the school. And at the end of
the last school year, the student government, then called
Art Students League, drafted and submitted to the Rog-
ers and Associate Dean Mary Schmidt a "proposed
curriculum" that would have significantly weakened the
new program's requirements.
One of ASL's leaders last year and among the most
vocal opponents of the new curriculum was Shlomo
Goltz, then an Art and Design freshman. Goltz, who
has since transferred to Washington University, wrote
in an e-mail last August that he decided to leave the
school because he felt the deans were inflexible in
their commitment to "a-vision of art education that
diametrically opposes what students need."
SAS representatives have adopted a more concil-
iatory attitude with the deans. Unlike ASL's sweep-
ing proposals, SAS's suggestions have all been minor
changes and additions. And most of them - such as

preserving chemical photography, which the art school
had planned to eliminate, and adding more informa-
tion to online course guides - have been adopted.
"We've developed what I consider a very positive
relationship. ... I never feel on the defensive," said
Rogers. "This is not a gripe group. They're coming
here wanting to make a better school, and we share
that desire."
Unlike most student governments, SAS's style is
strictly informal. During meetings every other week
with art students, representatives and students discuss
concerns about the art school's curriculum and facili-
ties; no resolutions are passed, and generally nothing
is brought to a vote. Rather, SAS representatives gath-
er concerns from students and discuss their past and
upcoming meetings with the art school's deans, which
take place on the weeks between the open meetings.
During yesterday's hour-long meeting between SAS
representatives, Rogers and Schmidt, the deans were
mostly open to ideas presented by SAS representatives.
See ART SCHOOL, Page 7A

Greek parchanges
proposed to fraternities
t400 extra people. A monitor would be
oitors, BB guest iit required for every 20 people at a part)
exceeding 200 guests.
icies deatedby l iRegistering parties, which is a part
policies debated by FC f: "r:g:
of current party regulation in the Gree
~system, attempts to force fraternities to

e
y
t
k

By Justin Miller
Daily Staff Reporter

Fraternity members got their first
chance yesterday to weigh in on pro-
posed changes to the Greek system's
social policy that will greatly alter
their parties.
The Interfraternity Council
meeting came a week after a joint
meeting between IFC and the Pan-
Hellenic Association that set forth pro-
posals seeking to allow only a limited
number of invited guests to the parties.
Also, those attending the parties would
have to bring their own alcohol.
These changes are aimed at reduc-
ing liability for fraternities in the event
that they are sued for someone getting
overly intoxicated or injured at one of
their parties.
In the next few weeks, members will

be proposing and voting on amend-
ments, with a final vote by IFC and
Panhel on the social policy on Dec 1.
"This is the first time many have seen
the policy," said IFC spokesman Alan
Lovi. "The new social policy changes
we've proposed are from scratch."
A proposed amendment would
establish three sizes of parties to help
make them safer and reduce liability
for fraternities.
The first tier would allow 100 people
to attend, plus members of the fraterni-
ties. Three monitors from the Social
Responsibility Committee, a board
which monitors adherence to party reg-
ulations, would be required.
Second-tier parties would allow twice
as many people and six SRC monitors.
The third-tier parties would be the
largest permitted by the Greek sys-
tem, allowing fraternity members and

adhere to the requisite number of mon-
itors at parties.
"The parties get registered so the
Interfraternity Council is aware who's
throwing the parties and then SRC goes
around to check the parties. Under the
new policies, there will be an SRC
member at each party," Lovi said.
All alcohol brought into parties
could be checked at a depot inside
the fraternity, where it would be held
for the partygoer. Since the fraternity
member is storing, not serving alcohol,
they are not liable for an overly intoxi-
cated person, said the members of the
executive boards of IFC and Panhel.
Currently, the insurance company
for all fraternities says that houses
must have partygoers bring their own
alcohol, but this provision has not been
followed. The proposed policy aims to
align party actions with the insurance
See PARTIES, Page 7A

AP PHOTO
A Palestinian boy lights a candle at a makeshift shrine in memory of the deceased Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat in Gaza City yesterday.

Woman receives medical
care after purse snatching

Palesinian leader dies at 75,
leaving an uncertain future
PARIS (AP) - Yasser Arafat, them of trying to usurp his powers. "Today I have come bearing an olive
who triumphantly forced his people's Ordinary Palestinians prayedfor his well branch and a freedom fighter's gun,'
plight into the world spotlight but being, but expressed deep frustration he said. "Do not let the olive branch
failed to achieve his lifelong quest over his failure to improve their lives. fall from my hand."
for Palestinian statehood, died today, Arafat's failure to groom a succes- Two decades later, he shook hand
Paris time, at age 75. sor complicated his passing, raising at the White House with Israeli Prime
He was, to the end, a man of many the danger of factional conflict among Minister Yitzhak Rabin on a peace
mysteries and paradoxes - terrorist, Palestinians. deal that formally recognized Israel's
statesman, autocrat and peacemaker. A visual constant in his checkered right to exist while granting the Pal-
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb keffiyeh headdress, Arafat kept the estinians limited self-rule in the West
Erekat confirmed to The Associated Palestinians' cause at the center of the Bank and Gaza Strip. The pact led to
Press that Arafat had died. The Pal- Arab-Israeli conflict. But he fell short the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for Ara-
estinian leader spent his final days in of creating a Palestinian state, and, fat, Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister
a coma at a French military hospital along with other secular Arab leaders Shimon Peres.
outside Paris. of his generation, he saw his influence But the accord quickly unravelec
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Arafat weakened by the rise of radical Islam amid mutual suspicions and accusations
aide, confirmed that Arafat died at in recent years. of treaty violations, and a new round o

e
h
d
e

By Melissa Benton
Daily Staff Reporter

A woman walking alone in a dimly
lit area Tuesday evening fell victim to
what the Ann Arbor Police Department
described as "a rare incident" when she
was overtaken by a man who snatched

was about 5'10", wearing a dark blue
spring jacket and a baseball hat.
"She heard footsteps behind her,
and the guy grabbed her purse that
was around her arm and kept running,"
Ouellette said.
The woman had a cell phone and a
wallet in her purse, Ouellette said.

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