Thursday,January 6, 2005 Weather Opinion 4A Weekend Magazine Zac Peskowitz advocates smarter aid Students share their RoseBowl experiences MICHIGAN UPSETS IowA 65-63 ... SPORTS, 9A it gan:4 l 30 TOMORROW: 28," Onehundredfourteen years ofeditorialfreedom i s www.michigandaiy.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXV, No. 54 62005 The Michigan Daily MCRI will submit final signatures By Aymar Jean Daily Staff Reporter Free from the legal hurdles that hampered its efforts last year, the organizers of the petition drive to ban the use of race in the University's admissions policies expects to turn in its signatures today and complete a crucial leg in its campaign, according to a written statement by the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. Organizers for MCRI "will lead key supporters to the Bureau of Elections for final turn-in," according to the statement. MCRI will make the "major announcement" about signatures in the Capitol Rotunda in Lansing this morning. The group's website urged signature gatherers to hand in their signatures over the past few days. Last January, MCRI started to collect the 317,757 signatures needed to place its issue on the 2004 ballot, allowing voters the chance to amend the state constitution to ban race-conscious programs. The group had originally hoped to gather those signatures by early July, but legal challenges severely hampered the campaign, forcing MCRI to aim for the 2006 ballot. MCRI began in response to the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action in admissions policies. The group's chief Ballot initiative looks to keep race out o admissions proponent, University of California regent Ward Connerly, is a staunch opponent of using race in college admissions, public employment and contracting. Connerly, the chairman of the American Civil Rights Coalition, which is largely said to be MCRI's chief financial promoter, will speak tomorrow in Lansing with Jennifer Gratz, a plaintiff in the University's 2003 court case and MCRI's executive director. When MCRI submits its signatures, it will be one step closer to getting on the 2006 ballot. But first, Michigan's secretary of state will have to review the signatures to make sure they are valid. Signers must be registered to vote in Michigan at the address written on the petition; otherwise their signatures are invalid. "That's why you have to get more signatures than the legally required minimum," said Tim O'Brien, who coordinates the signature gathering effort. In a public meeting last spring, MCRI stated it would need 400,000 to 425,000 signatures in See MCRI, Page 7A TOMMASO GOMEZ/Daily LSA seniors Gaurav Brudhranl and Jennifer Kim add suggestions at the tsunami aid meeting in South Quad Residence Hall as to how the 0 University should handle the disaster. Students discussed how to raise awareness about the tsunami and gather donations for survivors. Students, U' organize relief e orts in wake o tsunami disaster IFC unable to host parties this weekend By Justin Miller Daily Staff Reporter be good for fraternities because non-Greeks attending the parties would no longer have fun By Kristin Ostby Daily Staff Reporter University administrators and student groups across campus are pulling together to coordi- nate support and relief efforts in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster that occurred last month in South Asia. Plans are also underway to orga- nize a formal community-wide remembrance in the Diag next week. About 800 University students are from the South Asia, said International Center Direc- tor Rodolfo Altamirano. Dean of Students Sue Eklund said, as of now, all the students who were in the region are safe. One University student was studying abroad in the region when the tsunami occurred, but he was unharmed from the damage, Eklund said. Many student groups and concerned individu- als met last night at the Michigan Union to coor- dinate fundraising efforts. LSA senior Hershey Jayasuriya - who started the group Tsunami Aid, or TSAID - said she hopes to coordinate fundraising efforts across student groups. Jayasuriya is from Sri Lanka, but was in Ann Arbor when the disaster occurred. "My father's side of the family all passed away," she said. To reassure the safety of University students and to provide support, the Dean of Students Office and the International Center sent an e- mail earlier this week to students from affected areas in Southeast Asia and Africa. "We are asking them to take a minute and respond directly to that e-mail to let us know how they are," Eklund said. See TSUNAMI, Page 7A Reaching Out Students can provide their input on how the University should respond to the tragedy tomorrow at 6 p.m. in MSA's chambers in the Michigan Union. ! There will be an outreach session tonight at 7 p.m. in the Vandenberg room of the Michigan Union. There will be another outreach session on Sunday at 7 p.m. in the Family Housing Center on North Campus. Fraternities will be prohibited from throwing parties this weekend as they seek to implement new party rules, Interfraternity Council officials said. The newly required monitors have not yet been trained in time for the weekend. The monitors are part of a new social policy the IFC adopted in December due to fears of possible lawsuits resulting from behavior at parties. Many students said they are disappointed that they will not be able to attend fraternity parties upon their return from break. "That kind of sucks because usually that first week of school everything is slow and people have time to see each other," LSA sophomore Michael Montera said. Parties without monitors would violate the new social policy, which regulates the conduct of the Greek community. Another significant change from the old policy is making parties exclusively Greek, said Dustin Schmuldt, the new IFC Vice President for Social Affairs. Montera said he thought the new change would purely at the expense of fraternity houses. Not all students share this opinion. "I think we're a gen- erally open campus and to restrain social events to some people will discriminate against (them)," LSA freshman Tess Manion said. "I think it's understand- able. Maybe a good compromise would be a guest list instead of an exclusive Greek setup only." Greek leaders have said the new social "I've always heard rules being in place, but not being enforced." - Aaron Swick Engineering sophomore policy will reduce the fraternities' liability if a lawsuit is brought against them in the event that someone is injured or drinks to the point of alco- See PARTIES, Page 7A N ew stu: Americans wary of Muslims By Christina Hildreth Daily Staff Reporter A study conducted by Cornell Uni- versity's communications department reports that opinion on civil rights for Muslims in the country is divided. Forty-four percent of the people sur- veyed say that some form of restric- tions should be placed on the civil liberties of Muslims living in the Unit- ed States. Conducted last year between Oct. 25 and Nov. 23, the nationwide study con- sisted of interviews with participants from 715 households in which they were questioned about various civil liberties restrictions. While the majority of those polled said civil restrictions should not be placed on Muslims, 37 percent responded that Muslims should have URBAN SPRAWL Greenbelt proposal has yet to preserve any land By AnneJoing Daily Staff Reporter More than one year after Ann Arbor voters approved the Parks and Green- belt Proposal to limit urban sprawl inside and outside the city, the project has yet to preserve its first piece of land within the designated Greenbelt. Ann Arbor voters approved the Parks and Greenbelt Proposal in 2003 with 67 percent of the vote. The proposal cre- ated a millage, which will be used to purchase development rights from land- owners with property in the area sur- rounding the city of Ann Arbor. It also approved the buying of parkland inside the city in the 'parks zone.' The land will be purchased in an effort to restrict urban sprawl and promote open spaces The city pla in the area. parks zone While Ann Arbor City Council nature area members approved the purchase of 18.2 acres of parkland last month for $1.2 million, the purchase was a continuation of the park- GRAPHIC BY LINDSEY UNGAR ins to purchase parks and nature areas in the and will limit urban sprawl by purchasing farmland, s and parks in the Greenbelt zone. ects in other cities, the timeline of Ann Arbor's proj- I ;:: INVIVIIII, 1:!!;