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Monday,January 10, 2005
News 3A Bob Barker may fund
'U' law program
' 4[ - 1~S~ NT RI~~Y. I
Weather
Opinion 4A
Dan Adams struggles
with being pro-choice
One-hundredfourteen years ofeditorialfreedom
24
TOMORROW.
Vimanw
Arts 5A R&B artist John
Legend goes solo
with 'Get Lifted'
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*ww w. mihiandaiy. com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXV, No. 56
©2005 The Michigan Daily
o
MSA:
Tenants
need
'legal aid
By Jeremy Davidson
Daily Staff Reporter
To improve tenant-landlord relations,
the Michigan Student Assembly is aim-
*ing to expand Student Legal Services to
include a lawyer for housing issues, said
Michigan Student Assembly General
Counsel Jesse Levine.
Since the Ann Arbor Tenants
Union - which provided advice to
students renting off-campus prop-
erties - was dismantled in April
2003, MSA has been looking for a
replacement to protect the rights of
student tenants.
The AATU was founded in 1968
but lost MSA funding because its use
of funds was "inefficient at best, and
reckless at worst," MSA President
Jason Mironov said.
Prior to 2003, MSA provided the
AATU with $20,000 yearly. During
last year's MSA presidential cam-
paign, Mironov said in a debate that
"$20,000 or more of (MSA's) budget
should be allocated to an organiza-
tion like AATU, whether it is AATU
or something like it."
In the absence of the union, students
and other tenants in Ann Arbor have
had to depend on different resources
to resolve conflicts with their land-
lords, and Levine said he has taken
ctions to replace the AATU.
One project underway is to coordi-
nate with SLS and its director Doug
Lewis. In September, Levine met
with Lewis, to discuss options for
See TENANTS, Page 7A
Tenants' rights
Improving relations
MSA began a website in the
summer where tenants can rate
their landlords
MSA Student Legal Services
have hosted three sessions on
tenants' rights
MSA now wants a new
lawyer at SLS to deal with
housing conflicts
Abbas
x - -
-landslide
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Mahmoud Abbas was
elected Palestinian Authority president by a wide margin yester-
day, exit polls showed, giving him a decisive mandate to renew
peace talks with Israel, rein in militants and try to end more than
four years of Mideast bloodshed.
The victory of the staid and pragmatic Abbas, who has spo-
ken out against violence and has the backing of the interna-
tional community, was expected to usher in a new era, after
four decades of chaotic and corruption-riddled rule by Yasser
Arafat who died Nov. 11.
"We, the Palestinians, are drawing our future with our own
hands. We will be the symbol of democracy and freedom," said
Aya Abdel Kader, 45, a lawyer voting at a Gaza City school.
Abbas, popularly known as Abu Mazen, has promised to
reform the Palestinian Authority, overhaul the unwieldy Palestin-
ian security services and quickly resume negotiations with Israel,
stalled for four years.
Palr enanesto ate ic Wsank, GazuStinripdand eastJeruse,
~However, his political objectives are the same as Arafat's: a
and a solution for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
After results of three exit olf were announced -g,"ing
Ay Adl aer 5,alayr ing at GazaCit givingl
Abbas between 66 percent and 69.5 percent of the vote - his sup-
porters celebrated in the streets. In the West Bank city of Hebron,
motorists honked horns and waved Abbas posters. In Ramallah,
gunmen fired in the air.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expects to meet with
Abbas soon, his aides said. Israeli officials said that in a gesture to
Abbas, Israel plans to release some of the more than 7,000 Pales-
tinian prisoners, provided Abbas stop militants from firing rock-
ets at Israeli towns.
AP PHOTo "I think this vote shows a change in the Palestinian street" moving
Interim Palestinian leader and presidential candidate Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, gestures after voting at a polling away from support of violence, said Sharon aide Raanan Gissin.
station at the late Yasser Arafat's former headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday. See PALESTINIANS, Page 3A
'H,'professors to be trained in rtesearch ethics
By Rachel Kruer
Daily Staff Reporter
For $950, Engineering alum Tony Cabanero said he allowed
clinical researchers conducting a study at the University Hospi-
tal to insert a syringe in each of his cheeks, one of them inject-
ing a pain-inducing saline solvent. Meanwhile, the IVs in each
of his arms carried an experimental medicine, of which Caba-
nero does not now remember the name, into his bloodstream.
This procedure was repeated several times with varying
doses of the solvent and the drug to investigate the drug's abil-
ity to inhibit pain, he said.
Cabanero added that the doctor conducting the research told
him that he would experience discomfort 30 percent as intense
as the worst pain imaginable. He scanned the highlighted por-
tions of the paperwork and listened to the doctor's reassurances
that he had conducted this experiment multiple times and that
nothing disastrous had ever occurred to the human participants
in his previous trials.
"I really didn't care what they were doing; I just signed and
wanted the money," Cabanero said.
Susan Goold, director of the Bioethics Program and asso-
ciate medical professor, said many people that participate in
clinical testing like Cabanero do not understand what exactly
their commitment entails.
"One of the things that we know nationally, even internation-
ally, is people often don't know what they are volunteering to
do. They sign long consent forms that they may not read. Or if
they do read them, they do not understand them," said Goold.
To combat this problem, Goold applied for and received a
grant for $1.5 million from the National Institutes of Health
to create a program to teach researchers from any field how
to better inform research candidates of what is expected of
them before they consent to participate. The program seeks to
thereby improve communication between researchers and par-
ticipants.
Goold said the program will be implemented mid- to late
spring.
"... People often don't know
what they are volunteering to
do. They sign long consent forms
that they may not have read."
- Susan Goold
Director, Bioethics Program
She said the motivation for the program did not derive from
any specific incident at the University, but out of her desire to
improve the already functioning process of informed consent.
Instead of the traditional semester-long course, Goold's pro-
gram will offer a series of scheduled conferences for research-
ers. The curriculum will use multiple teaching methods,
See RESEARCH, Page 7A
Background, finances factor
in differing graduation rates
By Victoria Edwards
Daily Staff Reporter
Former Engineering student
Michael Powers describes the three
years he spent at the University as an
isolating, upward battle that he even-
tually lost because of financial and
health issues.
"Being here was making me
sick. I'm not the only minority who
feels this way. I felt ignored and
left behind. I was working hard and
struggling just to be ignored by the
university (that) I'm paying all this
money to. It takes its toll," said Pow-
ers, who is black.
Powers eventually dropped out of
the University.
His plight is not especially rare
- a higher percentage of whites
graduate every year than Hispanics
or blacks.
Although 66 percent of black stu-
dents and 75 percent of Hispanic stu-
dents that entered the University in
1997 graduated within six years - a
higher fraction than the national
average of 41 percent and 49 percent,
respectively - there is still a dis-
crepancy between these graduation
rates and that of whites, 88 percent
of whom graduated in six years or
ess after entering the University.
Like Powers, many minority
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hard to make ends meet. ... Another
(factor) has to do with family. A lot
of these students come from first-
generation college families and they
are not accustomed to their first child
being away from home," Monts said.
But Monts added that the Univer-
sity provides assistance to under-
represented minorities by offering
programs to help them deal with
added challenges that they may face.
"There are programs on campus
like the Summer Bridge Program that
helps acclimate students to the Uni-
versity environment and gives them
University is
multicultural
An attorney from Arizona is filing complaints against Michael Moore's speeches at various campuses across the country,
saying that Moore's endorsement of Kerry and the payment he received from universities violate campaign finance laws.
Legal complaints filed over
Moore 's campus speeches
these contribute to a student's suc-
cess if they engage those programs
in a meaningful way," Monts said.
LSA junior Tiffani Commander
said she found the Summer Bridge
program to be extremely helpful to
her, adding that she is still benefit-
ing from the resources the program
provided her.
"I still do (benefit) because I go in
to see the academic advisor," Com-
mander said.
But Powers, who used another
Lawyer claims Moore
was paid in violation of
campaign finance laws
By Julia Homing
the ban on corporate donations to a political campaign.
Hardy emphasized that it did not matter for whom Moore
campaigned.
"(If they're) paying a man who is giving a speech to influ-
ence the election, then they are breaking the law," he said.
Hardy said he selected the universities using an Internet
search engine.
"I tended to emphasize a university where there was a good
deal of reporting on the content of the speech," he said. Hardy
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