NEWS The Michigan Daily - Monday, January 24, 2005 - 3A . ON CAMPUS Students can run for chairs of MSA commissions The Michigan Student Assembly is seeking students to run for chairs of its 14 commissions, which include Academ- ic Affairs, Voice your Vote, Minority Affairs and Women's Issues. An infor- mational meeting will be held today at 8 p.m. in the MSA chambers on the third floor of the Michigan Union, and elec- tions will be tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. Symposium to discuss possibility of flu pandemic A symposium on the flu will address the recent emergence of the bird flu, domestic and international monitoring efforts, immunization and America's readiness to combat the next pandemic of the deadly virus, which killed 40 mil- lion people worldwide in 1918. The symposium is being held in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre in the Michigan League from 8:30 a.m. to * 4:30 p.m. Michigan Theater to show all-black movie musical In cooperation with the University Program in Film and Video Studies, the Michigan Theater will show "Cabin in the Sky" tonight at 7 p.m. The movie, directed by Vincente Minnelli and released in 1943, features an all-black, all-star cast that includes Louis Armstrong, Lena Horner and Ethel Waters. "Cabin in the Sky" is part of the American Musicals Series, which presents classic film musicals every Monday evening. CRITME NOTES Three reports of *attempted suicide made to DPS over weekend Three separate incidents of either suicide or intent of self-injury took place on Saturday, according to the Department of Public Safety. At 1 p.m., a subject called DPS and said he wanted to injure himself. The call :was traced to Inkster, Mich. The subject was taken to the University Hospital. A subject called DPS from the Mary Markeley Residence Hall at about 4 p.m. The call was listed in the police log as a suicide attempt. She was also taken to the University Hospital. At about 7:30 p.m., a subject at the Arbor Heights Center at 1447 Wash- ington Heights - a juvenile facility - reported she had injured herself. She -was taken to the University Hospital for treatment. The incident was also listed . as a suicide attempt. THIS DAY In Daily History Canine tryst in Angell upsets students, faculty Jan. 24, 1941 - "Meet me under the clock at two," said the Irish setter to the Boston bull. So the Boston bull brought a wire- haired terrier and the three had an old-fashioned rendezvous. The atmo- sphere of Angell Hall pleased them so much that they decided to make it a steady tryst. But the dogs have become a nui- sance. Students object to their presence 0 because they break up romantic meet- ings. And professors protest because the canines wander all over the building - even into offices. Alice Arnet, secretary of the geogra- phy department, is the one most irritated by the meandering of the Irish setter, the Boston bull and the wire-haired ter- rier. She complains because they are too friendly and follow her around the base- ment floor of Angell Hall. * CORRECTIONS New group aims to ease LGBT transitions By Sarah Sprague Daily Staff Reporter Most freshmen and even upperclassmen have apprehension when going into a blind living situ- ation in which they may or may not see eye to eye with their roommate. But for gay and transgender students, a set of new fears is in place as well because they worry about tolerance from their roommates. "The single largest problem (for members of the LGBT community) in the residence halls is being out to your roommate," said Engineering freshman Jill Berberich. "Changing in a differ- ent room, dirty looks, cruel jokes ... it makes you feel like less of a person." To take on the problem, Berberich along with LSA freshman Jaya Kalra have founded Queers in Residence as a forum for queer, question- ing and allied students in the residence halls to socialize and discuss issues that pertain to their community. "Its purpose is to provide a nonactivist group for (gay, transgender and allied) students, increas- ing the feeling of community without diminishing the energy of the LGBTA activist organizations on campus," Kalra said. While LGBT groups on campus place a focus on activism, QIR hopes to help students through interaction within the community. "Questioning students often find that it is harder to participate in activism because they think people will group them and discriminate against them," Berberich said. "It is hard being new to the community and feel- ing the pressure to do as much as possible. Mostly, we thought it would be a good place for those who are new and old to the community to come and talk in a relaxed atmosphere." Christensen added that for underclassmen, the process of dealing with new roommates who may or may not be accepting of homosexu- ality makes the situation even more difficult and awkward. But not all students give the community a rea- son to worry about a new roommate situation. RC freshman Nate Cunningham roomed blind and said he had no qualms when he found out that his roommate was gay. He added his roommate has not affected his behavior more than any other roommate would. "I really haven't changed any of my habits from living in my own room except for com- mon-courtesy things," Cunningham said. "I'm very glad that I've had this experi- ence because its exposed me to homosexuality, which I always knew was there, but was never face-to-face with," he said. Others do not find it quite so easy to make this adjustment and switch rooms to avoid confronting homosexuality. For situations like this, QIR hopes it can be a support for its members. "People can be really judgmental, and a lot of people find that even (LGBT) groups are clique-ey, but the people in (QIR) make sure that there isn't that, and I had the impression that everyone was comfortable at QIR," Chris- tensen said. The group held its first meeting on Saturday, which Christensen said started off as a group of somewhat hesitant individuals, most of them freshmen. "It was a first meeting, and not everyone knew each other, so it was a little more reserved, but a lot of LGBT groups tend to have that reserved qual- ity. People are at different stages of coming out, so that adds to the atmosphere as well," she said, adding that toward the end, any feelings of isola- tion disappeared as students exchanged coming- out stories. "The most interesting things to me are always the coming-out stories or first realizations of being different. I think it is amazing how young some people can know that they do not have any attrac- tion to the opposite sex," Berberich said. At the meeting, QIR members also discussed activi- ties that would help create a welcoming atmosphere for LGBT students. "We discussed the possibility of having movie nights, dinners and a snuggling party, among other things. Then the meet- ing turned more relaxed, and we told stories about realizing our queerness," Kalra said. QIR hopes to provide fun activities for stu- dents in the LGBT community to get to know each other, but the main focus of the organiza- tion is to deal with issues that arise for those members of the community living in residence halls, the organizers said. Study suggests men prefer subordinate women By Adrian Chen Daily Staff Reporter You've seen this movie before: The power- ful business executive falls for his beautiful but down-on-her-luck secretary. After an hour and a half of suspense, the two overcome their sta- tus differences; he finds his sensitive side, while she is saved from years of transcribing memos and fetching coffee. Again and again, films exploit this conceit for romantic effect, sometimes replacing the executive with a high-powered lawyer or the secretary with a prostitute, but always keeping constant the imbal- ance of power between man and woman. In the movies, men fall for subordinate women and now, a University researcher has shown that when it comes to attraction, life may imitate art. "(The attraction of men to subordinate women) is often taken for granted, but now we have a study that offers empirical proof," said Stephanie Brown, a researcher with the University's Insti- tute for Social Research. Brown conducted an investigation into wheth- er social subordination and dominance play important roles in sexual attraction. The study "(The attraction of men to subordinate women) is often taken for granted, but now we have a study that offers empirical proof." - Stephanie Brown Researcher at the Institute for Social Research was recently published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. Before conducting the study, Brown hypoth- esized that men would be more attracted to subor- dinate women, a phenomenon that previous studies did not suggest, but one that was consistent with principals of evolutionary theory. Brown and her colleagues administered sur- veys to 328 undergraduates to test their hypothesis. Depending on their gender, subjects were shown a photograph of either a man or woman and told that the person depicted was their supervisor, coworker or assistant. They were then asked to rate how much they would like to be involved in a long- and short- term relationship with the person. After collecting and analyzing the data, Brown found that the numbers supported her hypoth- esis: Men who took the survey were more likely to be attracted to women in subordinate positions than to women of superior or equal rank, while women showed no preference. Furthermore, men particularly preferred subordinate women to dominant ones when considering a long-term relationship such as marriage. Given this data, Brown used evolutionary theo- ry and evidence from other species to arrive at a hypothesis as to why males show this preference. One of the biggest risks a male of any species faces when forming long-term relationships is what evolutionary biologists call "paternal uncer- tainty," the fact that a male may devote time and energy to the care and protection of an offspring that is not actually his because of infidelity on the part of the female. But mating with a female who is in a subordi- nate position gives the male more control and could reduce the chances of infidelity, Brown said. The male could then be more certain that his mate's off- sp ring is adually his. Brown believes this could explain why men's preference for subordinate women is more pro- nounced when it comes to long-term xelationships that may result in children. The explanation of a phenomenon that many take for granted is perhaps the most important part of the study, she said. "In many ways, the results aren't surprising to people," she added. "What is appreciated ... is that it provides an explanation for why we might see this stereotype." Despite the evidence, Brown does not rule out nonevolutionary explanations, and speculates that all of those silver-screen romances between execu- tives and their secretaries may actually be the cause rather than an effect of men's attraction to subordi- nate women. "It could be that we're exposed to media that por- trays men in more dominant relationships," she said. EVER YONE WIN$ Prizes include cash, iPods, UM football tickets, field passes to UM football games and travel vouchers Watch your email this week for your survey invitation! A random group of UM undergraduate students will be asked to complete a confidential Web-based survey about student life. For participating in this study, you will receive a cash prize and be entered into a sweepstakes featuring 3 iPods, 2 travel vouchers each worth $500, 2 field passes to UM football games, 2 UM football tickets and 10 cash prizes each worth between $100 and $1,000. .but can't get out 1 <,:tr . : """".'":"'" 1st 1 M CALL THE DELIVERY BUTLER! We deliver right to your door from w ... .