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TOMORROW:
One-hundredfourteen years of editorifreedom
www.michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan m Vol. CXV, No. 44 ©2004 The Michigan Daily
- Big House renovati
in
works
Stadium may
be refitted with
luxury boxes
By Sharad Mattu
and Donn M. Fresard
Daily Staff Reporters
Plans for a major renovation to
Michigan Stadium, including the addi-
tion of luxury boxes, improvements
to seating and safety and added rest-
rooms and concessions, are being pre-
pared by athletic department officials
and discussed with members of the
University's Board of Regents.
If constructed, luxury boxes - small,
enclosed seating areas that often include
hotel-like amenities - would pay for
themselves as well as bring in signifi-
cant revenues for the athletic department
in future years. Last year, department
officials and several regents visited Ohio
State and Penn State's stadiums, both'
of which recently added luxury boxes.
Regent Martin Taylor (D-Grosse Pointe
Farms) said a proposal is expected to be
brought before the regents for approval
in the near future.
"Hopefully in short order we'll get
a full-blown actual recommendation,"
Taylor said. "It's in the study phase
now. What they're doing, which I
fully support, is looking at everything.
We're going to look at everything from
additional seating to improved seating,
improving the restrooms, to improving
the ability to evacuate the building."
The stadium, which was constructed
in 1927 at a cost of $950,000, has not
seen any significant renovations other
than seating expansions. Officials said
it has problems ranging from inade-
quate restrooms and concession stands
to cramped seating and aisles.
"It is built, of course, for the tini-
est people in the world," Taylor said.
"And some folks have looked and said
maybe we need to renovate the whole
stadium from stem to stern."
Athletic Director Bill Martin said
talk of such renovations to Michigan
Stadium has been going on within the
athletic department since the 1970s.
"A lot of it has to do with the mar-
ket, the timing, the perceived need,"
Martin said. "Ever since I've been
here - I'm now in my fifth year here
- we've been obviously looking at it,
studying the market, evaluating what
kind of improvements we need to
make to Michigan Stadium."
In October 2003, several regents and
athletic department officials, including
Martin, visited Ohio State and Penn]
State's campuses to view their ath-
letic facilities and examine the recet
renovations made to Ohio Stadium and
Beaver Stadium, said Regent David
Brandon (R-Ann Arbor).
"This was an opportunity to see
what the current state of some of our
facilities were vis-a-vis some of our
peers," Martin said.
Ohio Stadium underwent a three-
year face lift beginning in 1999 that
was finished in time for the 2001 sea-
son. The $194 million project added
1,062 seats in 81 "hospitality suites,"
each of which brings in $20,000 to
$75,000 per season. The suites include
amenities such as sofas, TV monitors,
private restrooms, wet bars, VIP park-
ing and full-time concierge service.
The renovation also widened aisles
and increased the number of restrooms
and concession stands.
See BIG HOUSE, Page 2A
FILE PHOTO
The plans to renovate Michigan Stadium could lead to the construction of luxury boxes, additional seating and improved bathrooms. If the renovations
occur, they will be the first major effort to restructure the complex since its creation in 1927.
'U' Engineering
Council aims for
more parking
LSA may fully fund poor students
By Laura Frank
and Magaly Grimaldo
For the Daily
By Rachel Kruer
Daily Staff Writer
Engineering junior Luther Mitch-
ell is excited to implement his vision
of a North Campus that best accom-
modates students.
As the newly elected president of
the University Engineering Council,
the student government body repre-
senting engineering students, Mitch-
ell said his vision is to build off the
achievements of his predecessors
while resolving the campus issues of
his constituency.
The most consistent complaints
UMEC has heard through the years,
Mitchell said can be reduced to four
issues: food, lack of community,
parking shortages and unreliable
modes of transportation.
Mitchell said plans have already
been put into motion to solve some
problems by building more parking
structures and by building a larger
performance center that would
entice more students to come to
North Campus. Yet, Mitchell said
these plans will only be realized in
the far future.
"All of the recurring problems,
they've already planned to fix.
However, it will take 10 to 15
years," he said.
Mitchell, in the meantime, said
The new UMEC
VoIce of gh rs
Some of UMEC's goals
include building more parking
structures and improving the
transportation between North
Campus and Central Campus.
Meetings of the UMEC
are held monthly on North
Campus. The next meeting
will be held on Dec. 15 in the
EECS building in East Room.
he plans to focus on more plausible
goals such as strengthening the
role of UMEC. With the help of
his administration, he also wants
to create a freshman engineer-
ing council that would come into
effect next year for the incoming
freshmen. "We want to get fresh-
men to get more involved right
away so that they can take on the
lead roles they had in high school,"
he said.
He also mentioned more philan-
thropy events such as a "Casino
Night" to draw more attention to
the Engineering Council. To chan-
nel the student voice, one repre-
sentative from each of the more
See UMEC, Page 7A
In addition to changing the lan-
guage requirement and adding sever-
al new minors, LSA administrators
are considering expanding under-
graduate research and providing full
tuition to students from lower socio-
economic backgrounds.
In yesterday's "State of the Col-
lege" address, LSA Dean Terrence
McDonald and Associate Dean Rob-
ert Megginson focused on ways ,to
keep the college among the best in
the nation, increasing diversity and
financial aid and expanding student
opportunities.
Megginson said this is impor-
tant because there are far more
students than faculty and research.
opportunities. Part of that strategy
would encourage faculty to increase
requests for
money used for
research in under-
graduate research
programs from
funding agen-
cies such as the
National Science
Foundation.
To help stu-
dents pursue McDonald
these new oppor-
tunities, the college is also working
to increase financial aid to students,
especially students of lower socio-
economic backgrounds. The col-
lege hopes to provide some of these
students with full tuition coverage,
McDonald said.
McDonald also addressed pro-
posed changes to the language
requirement and race and ethnicity
classes.
Currently, students must take four
semesters in one foreign language.
The proposal by the LSA Student
Government would allow students
who test out of two semesters of one
language to complete the require-
ment by taking three semesters of a
different language.
"The committee strongly backs
the four-semester requirement.
There may be some changing ways
of reaching that," McDonald said.
In response to student complaints
The proposal would
allow students to
take two separate
languages to meet
the requirement.
that classes fulfilling the race and
ethnicity requirement do not suffi-
ciently cover those issue, LSA-SG
suggested revamping the way the
classes are approved for the require-
ment.
The curriculum committee, which
has three LSA-SG members, will
take a harder look at the classes, said
See LSA, Page 7A
Graduate student wins Rhodes scholarship
By Rachel Kruer
Daily Staff Reporter
Joe Jewell was
of becoming a
Rhodes Scholar
was zero after a
difficult question
in one of the pre-
liminary inter-
views.
"I felt fairly
awkward, stum-
bling over my
words. I didn't go
to my classes the
rest of the day, the
sure his chance
student said. They called everyone back
at 3:30 p.m. I was not nervous at all,
because I was pretty sure I had not got-
ten it. When they read my name, I was
the most stunned in the room."
Jewell, who will represent the state of
Michigan, is one of 32 students nation-
wide who received the scholarship late
last month. The scholarship covers edu-
cational costs and living expenses to
study at Oxford University in England,
which roughly amounts to $35,000 a
year according to the award program..
With a 3.8 undergraduate grade point
average from the California Institute of
Technology and a diverse array of inter-
ests, Jewell had no need to be stunned.
The Stephenville native of Michigan
majored in aeronautics and medieval
history while also participating in stu-
dent government. He also played the
timpani, a percussion instrument, for the
Occidental-CalTech orchestra.
Despite his various talents, aerospace
and science have- always been Jewell's
main focus, his father said.
"When he was younger, he always
wanted to be an astronaut. It was around
the time of eighth or ninth grade I real-
ized that it could be more than a dream
for him," said Stephen Jewell, editor of
their hometown paper the St. Joseph
Herald-Palladium.
He also added that when he heard
the announcement decreeing Joe Jew-
ell the winner, he temporarily was at
a loss for words.
"I was so happy I could barely speak.
I was very choked up. I'm still very
proud," he said.
Rackham Associate Dean June How-
ard shared the same sense of pride. "I
am very pleased he will have the chance
to study in Oxford. To me, Mr. Jewell
seems a wonderful role model and very
much a Michigan person, because of his
diverse interests," she said.
With a future brimming with options,
Jewell still has difficulty deciding
between his childhood dream and an
See RHODES, Page 3A
Jewell
first-year Rackham
. Students mark World AIDS Day by
breaking stereotypes about virus
By Sarah Sprague
For the Daily
Students shouting "be aware of
AIDS!" could be heard clearly over the
biting winds yesterday on the Diag as
the student activists handed out green,
hlue and nink condoms alone with red
that arise a day. Flyers presenting facts
and statistics were taped to the box pile,
one saying that each of the 13 boxes repre-
sented the 1,000 new cases of AIDS that
are diagnosed every day.
Though the first case of AIDS was
documented 23 years ago, false stereo-
tvnes still remain.
"This is supposed
to be an in-your-
face thing to make
people realize
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