Wednesday, November 17, 2004 Weather

Opinion 4
Science 5
Sports 10

Sravya Chirumamilla
writes about her culture
The two sides of
bipolar disorder
Slow start could
doom football team

c t.elk a tg

III 56
wo 49
TOMORROW:

One-hundredfourteen years ofeditoril freedom
www.michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXV, No. 35 X2004 The Michigan Daily

Original

justice
Scalia defends
his legal theory

'U' counters

harassment
charge court
By Mark Osmond
Daily Staff Reporter
GRAND RAPIDS - In a state Court of Appeals hear-
ing in Grand Rapids yesterday, the University defended its
record against former Music student Maureen Johnson's
sexual harassment charge.
The University is appealing a verdict that awarded
$250,000 to Johnson in April 2002 for alleged sexual
harassment by former visiting Music Prof. Pier Calabria.
Attorneys say a ruling may come in 60 to 90 days.
When Johnson played the oboe in Calabria's orchestra
in 1997, she said the professor repeatedly made advances
toward her and made lewd comments regarding her appear-
ance. The University acknowledges that Johnson was
harassed but says it took appropriate action to stop the
harassment.
The University's attorney, Megan Norris, argued yester-
day that the University is not liable for the damages result-
ing from the sexual harassment because Calabria stopped
harassing Johnson after the University intervened. She also
said the University isn't responsible for damages because
Johnson withheld admissible medical evidence in the trial.
Despite the University's claims, Johnson's attorney,
Miranda Massie, said the previous verdict was reasonable
and that the University fostered a hostile environment by
employing Calabria.
Massie said the University drove Johnson out of the
program by retaining Calabria for another semester after
Johnson filed a complaint against him, and by preventing
Johnson from switching into a new orchestra. As a result,
Massie said, the University became a hostile environment
for Johnson.
"I couldn't have gone back to the school and continued
my education in that environment," Johnson said after the
hearing.
However, Norris said Calabria's harassing behavior
stopped immediately after Music School Associate Dean
Willis Patterson gave him a serious lecture about his inap-
propriate behavior.
"After talking with Calabria, the associate dean issued a
written statement to (Johnson) that said, 'We believe we've
addressed the problem, but if more problems occur please
come forward.' (Johnson) never came forward," Norris said.
Norris said this constitutes evidence that Johnson was no
longer subjected to a hostile environment at the University, but
Massie said Johnson didn't have a chance to come forward.
"This is an offensive and preposterous claim," Massie
said after the hearing. "(Johnson) wasn't harassed by Cal-
abria after she complained solely because his harassment
- and the University's failure to respond to it - drove her
out of the school. In other words, he couldn't harass her
because she wasn't there. He did harass another student the
next semester, though."
Johnson, who currently lives in New York City, said she
was disappointed that the University appealed the lower
court ruling.
"For them to appeal our case is saying that they don't believe
See TRIAL, Page 7

By Abby Stassen
Daily Staff Reporter
Students and residents packed inside
Rackham Auditorium yesterday gave
thunderous applause while student
protestors clamored outside, as U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
delivered a lecture on constitutional
interpretation.
The famously conservative judge,
who has served on the court since
1986, came to give the Law School's
DeRoy lecture, which regularly attracts
noteworthy figures in law. Scalia's
lecture concentrated on his view that
the Constitution should be interpreted
according to its meaning when it was
originally written.
"The real fault line in constitutional
interpretation nowadays is not between
conservatives and liberals. It is the phi-
losophy of originalism, which gives the
Constitution the meaning it had when it
was adopted," Scalia said to a crowd of
more than a thousand people. "This is
not some weird new philosophy.... It is
indeed a minority view now, but it used
to be orthodox."
The justice expressed distaste for the
popular contemporary "living Consti-

tution" which views the Constitution
as a document that should be modified
over time to meet the changing needs
of American people. Scalia said despite
public opinion, the originalism system
is very flexible. "If you want to change
something, you should persuade your fel-
low citizens and pass a law in your state.
The state laws can be changed; Supreme
Court rulings can't be changed."
Scalia said items not mentioned
in the Constitution, such as abortion,
should not be ruled on by the court,
saying instead that the states should
decide on these issues individually.
"People shouldn't think that a living
Constitution always leads to greater
freedom. We can take away rights as
well as create them," Scalia said, warn-
ing the audience of the dangers of a liv-
ing Constitution.
During the lecture, Scalia was
interrupted by a group of protestors
who silently carried signs through the
auditorium. The audience responded
to the protestors with a combina-
tion of applause and jeers, and Scalia
joked, "Is this an accepted form of free
speech? Can I expect another parade
after this one?"
See JUSTICE, Page 7

MIKE HMULEBUS/U8ly
Above: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia defends his theory of Constitutional
originism at Rackham Auditorium yesterday. Right: Rackham student Stephen Rassi rises,
holding up a sign in protest, shortly after Scalla began speaking yesterday.

Report: Aid outpacing rise in tuition

By Aymar Jean
Daily Staff Reporter

Consistent reports chronicling the rising cost
of higher education may be overstated, accord-
ing to a report issued yesterday by the Presidents
Council of the State Universities of Michigan.
To the students who work for hours just to
pay tuition, this may seem false and short-
sighted. But the council, after commissioning
a higher education finance expert, found that
over the past five years, college has become
cheaper for families.
Students have been paying less because
financial aid has increased. Federal, state and

campus-based aid - in the form of grants,
scholarships and tuition tax credits - have
been increasing faster than tuition and fees,
according to the report.
"We want the citizens of Michigan to
know that affordability for college should
not be a barrier to pursuing a higher educa-
tion," said Michael Boulus, who is executive
director of the Presidents Council, a nonprofit
higher education association representing all
15 state universities.
Students enrolled at a public university in
the state on average pay 45 percent of tuition
and mandatory fees, compared to 60 percent
in 1998, the council reported. The average

cost of a public higher education was $358
less in 2003 than in 1998.
Students at the University pay significantly
more in tuition and fees than students across
the country. Nationally, the majority of students
have less than $6,000 in tuition and fees.
But University students also receive much
more aid than students in the rest of the state,
the report states. Last academic year, under-
graduates who received aid got an average of
$12,495, including loans and work-study.
At the University, the amount of aid received
by in-state students has also increased by about
$1,200 per person since 1996.
Financial aid has been increasing for stu-

dents at the University for at least the last
seven years. The largest growth has been in
the forms of loans and grants, which include
all scholarships offered by the University.
"Our financial aid packages cover the full
financial need of Michigan resident under-
graduates, through a combination of grants,
loans and work-study. Over the past decade
we have increased the institutional funds
committed to financial aid grants and schol-
arships at a rate equal to or greater than the
rate of increase in tuition," University spokes-
woman Julie Peterson said in a statement.
The financial aid provided by any school
See TUITION, Page 7

AN IDENTITY DEVELOPED IN SILENCE
Hearing loss not
disability or deaf
By Michael Kan for her is not a tragic disability, but just
Daily Staff Reporter another way of life. She said she not only
views her life as equal to everyone else's,
LSA senior Tabitha Knofski says but also cherishes her identity deeply.

SruDENT Gov't.
Polls open for two-
day MSA elections

By Justin Miller
Daily Staff Reporter

in the eyes of her
classmates, her
life is a tragedy.
Born deaf, the
sounds trickle
into Knofski's
ears once she
fits on her hear-
ing aids. But the
devices can only
go so far.
Unable to jot
down all of her

"Overall, I'
be complet
than comp
hearing."

"I have found
I rather something that I
believe to be such
tely deaf a thing that hear-
ing people do not
letely have. It is a form of
serenity that I find
immeasurable in
its value," she said.
abitha Knofski But people born
deaf like Knofski
LSA senior say society's pity
forms the backdrop

After all of the sidewalk chalk, fly-
ers and knocking on doors, candidates
can now look forward to the election
returns as their fellow students take to
the polls today and tomorrow to cast
ballots for student government repre-
sentatives.
"It's viewed that less is at stake in the
fall semester because the president and
vice president are elected in the winter,"
Michigan Student Assembly Election
Director Brian Doughty said. "But the
overall direction of MSA could largely
depend on how this semester goes."
Students can log on to vote.www.
~w - !j1 no.- - - -L:.{ i }n na ir

Independent candidate for LSA-
SG Michael Forster said he's running
without a party because he was turned
off by Student 4 Michigan's "secretive"
selection of candidates and that he has
more freedom as an independent.
"The biggest positive is that I can
have my own platform. As an indepen-
dent I'm only responsible for myself. I
don't have to cater to anyone's demands.
I don't have the support group someone
running with a party has," Forster said.
Forster says his campaign is differ-
ent because he is without a party.
"It's been a different kind of cam-
paign. Students 4 Michigan ran its
campaign where candidates were
chalking and putting posters up and

-T

Avr___Rw_ V _-- _- v-__r_ _. ___._ _z_


.. r...
" s: , ;