NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 14, 2005 - 3A
ON CAMPUS
Michigan Theater
to screen landmark
movie musical
The Michigan Theater will be
showing "An American in Paris" at
7 p.m. tonight.
The 1951 film, part of the theater's
American Musical Series, is best
known for its 17-minute ballet set to
the George Gershwin composition
that shares its name with the film.
The movie stars Gene Kelly and Les-
lie Caron, with a supporting cast that
includes Oscar Levant and Nina Foch.
Symposium will
address post-Sept.
11 research
Scientists and government offi-
cials will discuss how to continue
making advances in biology while
minimizing the risk that terrorists
could use new discoveries to cause
public health disasters.
The Jerome Wiesner Symposium is
being held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
today in the Great Lakes Room of Palm-
er Commons on 100 Washtenaw Ave.
Law prof to speak
on women's rights
across cultures
University of Toronto Law School
Prof. Ayelet Shachar will discuss the
conflict between women's citizen-
ship rights and the limited rights
granted by the cultural and religious
groups to which they belong.
The talk, Religion and Gender:
The Global Clash, will be held from
4 to 5:30 p.m. today in Room 132 of
Hutchins Hall.
CRIME
NOTES
Baby formula
stolen from
children's hospital
A caller reported to the Depart-
ment of Public Safety Friday that a
case of infant formula had been sto-
len from a room at C.S. Mott Chil-
dren's Hospital.
:Taxi driver robbed
and assaulted
A cab driver was assaulted and
robbed Saturday, DPS reported. The
suspect - located and identified in
Mary Markley Residence Hall - is
now in custody at the county jail,
according to DPS.
Subject arrested
for marijuana
possession in Arb
DPS officers responded to a noise
complaint in the Nichols Arboretum
early Friday morning. A subject was
arrested for marijuana possession.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Prof seeks to
develop musical
tendencies in mice
Feb. 14, 1928 - Do mice sing?
This is not an examination question
from freshman zoology class nor even a
subject of investigation, for mice do sing
- and what is more, the University, in
the laboratory of Prof. Lee D. Dice, pos-
sesses some of the operatic little beasts.
Of course not every mouse sings,
and even in the most exclusive fami-
lies of singing mice, only a few
reach vocal heights. It was a very
plain little mouse in Detroit, nev-
ertheless, that originated the strain,
and because his descendants have
been reared in the laboratories here,
large numbers of them have exhib-
ited musical tendencies.
About three years ago, a man by
the name of Clark, in Detroit, sought
to exterminate a certain mouse which
Relationships 101 joins university curriculum
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Scott Hall wants to
spark a discussion, so he asks his students some-
thing bound to provoke a reaction: Do women
want more out of marriage than men?
It's just the sort of conversation starter
that's heard more often in college classrooms
these days. Affairs of the heart - love, rela-
tionships and marriage - have gone from
being an obsession outside class to the reason
for class.
The students in Hall's course on marriage at
Ball State University - many of them women
- laugh and nod at his question. Most of them
agree with research he cites stating that men
are most interested in a partner who's attrac-
tive and good in bed.
But not Mike Toscano, a 21-year-old senior:
"It's not 'Oh she looks cute and she cooked a pot
pie,' " he says. "I want to be held once in a while
too, y'all."
The comment draws more laughter, as Toscano
blushes and smiles.
"I'm glad he feels that way," Anitra Montgom-
ery, a 22-year-old junior, responds to the class.
"But he is rare!"
Over the last 30 years, academics have been
developing the study of "close relationships," as
they call it, forming the International Association
for Relationship Research to share resources and
data.
Such research is "not just about what makes
people happy but how relationships can affect
other things - for instance, someone's health,"
says Lisa Baker, an assistant professor of psy-
chology at Purchase College, part of the State
University of New York.
In recent years, though, some professors
have moved beyond theory, making the dis-
cussion more personal to students by teach-
ing relationship skills they can use outside the
classroom.
Some call it Relationships 101 - a concept that
has proven wildly popular on campuses across
the country.
Toscano, the Ball State senior, says he and his
girlfriend, Bethany Ringrose, decided to take the
class together this term to see if they want to take
their relationship to the next level.
"It helps me understand my actions and his,
too," says Ringrose, a 20-year-old junior at the
school in central Indiana.
With divorce as common as it is in this
"It's not 'Oh she looks cute and she cooked a pot pie.'
I want to be held once in a while too, y'all."
- Mike Toscano
Ball State University senior
country, experts say young couples are wise to
do their marriage homework.
"The thinking is, the earlier people learn those
skills, the better off they'll be," says Dennis Lowe,
psychology professor at Pepperdine University
in Malibu, Calif., who team teaches a freshman
seminar called "Developing Healthy Relation-
ships" with his wife, Emily Scott-Lowe.
Among other things, students in the Lowes'
classes practice listening - namely giving the
other person a chance to speak his or her mind
without interruption. And if students are con-
sidering long-term, committed relationships,
they're asked to consider questions such as
whose job it would be to buy a car, discipline a
child or cook dinner.
Leslie Parrot, a professor at Seattle Pacific
University, says surveys at her university and
others regularly show that relationships are a
priority for students.
"They're often more focussed on relationship
quality than their careers," says Parrott, a mar-
riage and family therapist who teaches relation-
ships courses with her husband, Les Parrott.
Lecture topics include "Falling in Love With-
out Losing Your Mind" and "How to Break
Up Without Falling Apart." The latter class
includes discussion on how to end a relation-
ship cleanly and taking time after a breakup to
avoid a rebound relationship. Parrott says that
session regularly draws students who aren't even
enrolled in the class.
Gov pushes for
tougher classes in
state high schools
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Future
hairdressers need to know math and
science to safely mix chemical hair dye
and high school students looking to be
auto mechanics have to be able to read
complicated manuals.
Those are some of the reasons cited
by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in her new
push to have all Michigan high schools
have more students take tougher cours-
es before graduating.
In her budget proposal last week,
she laid out a plan that would give
schools incentive payments starting
in the 2006-07 academic year if they
encourage more students to follow her
"Michigan Scholar Curriculum."
The curriculum mirrors what most
students on a college preparation path
already take: four. years of English,
three each of math and science, three
and a half of social sciences and two
years of foreign language.
Chuck Wilbur, Granholm's deputy
chief of staff for policy and planning,
said more students need to be on that
path because the line is blurring between
the skills required for college and those
needed to enter the work force.
"Those distinctions are not relevant
anymore," he said. "If you don't need a
difference in skill sets, you don't need
to separate the curriculum."
A few high school principals said
they like the idea, but are worried that
using a curriculum intended to prepare
students for college could be too much
for some students and may limit the
school districts' flexibility to offer stu-
dents a wide variety of courses.
Escanaba High School Principal
James Hansen said a safety net should
be provided for students who cannot
keep up with a rigorous college prep
curriculum. He also pointed out that
upper-level courses would require
highly qualified teachers. Both would
cost more money.
"Whether you like it or not, it gets
tied to dollars," he said. "If we move
into a (tougher) curriculum for every-
one, we better have a mechanism that
helps kids when they fall."
Granholm promised she'd give incen-
tive payments in 2006-07 to schools
that encourage more students to follow
the "Michigan Scholar Curriculum."
But she didn't offer any details on how
much money that might be.
"If we move into a
(tougher) curriculum
for everyone, we
better have a
mechanism that helps
kids when they fall."
-James Hansen
Escanaba High School principal
By 2011, under Granholm's plan, the
payments would be based solely on the
number of graduates who complete the
curriculum.
The "Michigan Scholar Curriculum"
was recommended in a report by the
Commission on Higher Education and
Economic Growth headed by Lt. Gov.
John Cherry. Granholm created the
panel last year to come up with ways
to double the number of Michigan resi-
dents with college degrees.
Jim Ballard, executive director of
the Michigan Association of Second-
ary School Principals, said the pro-
posed change appears to be aimed
at the wrong problem. Most schools
already offer advanced math and sci-
ence classes, but some students refuse
to take them.
"You have the horsepower to do it,
but you don't have the bodies," Ballard
said. "We've got to get everybody con-
vinced that it is important, not to just
get an A, but just to take the class."
The Democratic governor included
the change in her nearly $12.8 billion
school aid fund proposal for the budget
year that begins Oct. 1. If it's approved
by Republicans who control the House
and Senate, it would be first change in
the high school curriculum since 1995,
said Michigan Department of Educa-
tion spokesman Martin Ackley.
Local school districts set their own
curriculum, often closely in line with
guidelines from the state Education
Department. It's unclear how many
high schools already have a curriculum
similar to the one needed for incen-
tive payments because districts do not
report their course offerings to the
state, Ackley said.
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