Monday, March 7, 2005

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Opinion 4A

Elliott Mallen wants
to rescue libraries

Arts 7A Listless 'Be Cool'
lacks the spirit of
its predecessor

£ it

H,43
16
TOMORROW:

One-hundredfourteen years ofeditoralfreedom
www.mkhzgandady.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXV, No. 91 2005 The Michigan Daily

Iran.
nuclear
secrecy
Tehran, Iran (AP) - Iran con-
firmed yesterday that it initially devel-
oped its nuclear program in secret,
going to the black market for material,
and blaming its discretion on the U.S.
sanctions and European restrictions
that denied Iran access to advanced
civilian nuclear technology.
Iran now openly admits that it has
already achieved proficiency in the full
range of activities involved in enriching
uranium - a technology that can be used
to produce fuel for nuclear reactors or an
atomic bomb.
Washington has accused Tehran of
using its civilian nuclear program as a
cover to build a nuclear bomb. Iran denies
this, saying its nuclear program is merely
geared toward generating electricity.
"True. There was secrecy," former pres-
ident Hashemi Rafsanjani said yesterday.
"But secrecy was necessary to buy equip-
ment for a peaceful nuclear program."
"If sanctions had not been imposed
on us, we would have declared every-
thing publicly, but we had problems
buying metal. Nobody sold us anything
in the market," he said.
Rafsanjani was speaking at the clos-
ing session of a two-day international
conference on nuclear technology in
Tehran, attended by more than 50 inter-
national nuclear scientists.
President from 1989-97, Rafsanjani
also chairs the Expediency Council, a
powerful body that arbitrates between the
parliament and another council that vets
legislation. He is believed to have a great
influence over Iran's nuclear program.
Since last year, Iran has publicly
acknowledged that it once bought nucle-
ar equipment from middlemen in south
Asia, lending credence to reports that
Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's
nuclear bomb, was one of the suppliers.
Rafsanjani said Iran resorted to the
black market because of political "injus-
tice" by the U.S. and Europe.
He said Washington and the Euro-
peans had approved the building of 20
nuclear power plants in Iran and provid-
ed advanced nuclear technology when
Tehran was under the pro-Western shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the 1970s.
But they reversed their positions follow-
ing the 1979 Islamic revolution which
See IRAN, Page 7A

'U

expands financial aid

M-PACT will benefit 2,900
students by funding grants of
$500, $1,000 and $1,500
By Farayha Arrine
and Anne Joling
Daily Staff Reporters
A new need-based grant program for in-state
undergraduates will become available this fall
to replace some loans with grant money in the
financial aid packages of almost 3,000 stu-
dents, University President Mary Sue Coleman
announced last week.
Known as M-PACT, the program will fund
grants of $500, $1,000 and $1,500 to eligible
students, allowing them to use the money to
replace loans in their financial aid packages.
Once the program is in effect, 80 percent of the

aid in a full financial aid package will consist
of grants and work-study assistance, which stu-
dents do not have to pay back upon graduation.
This year, students whose families could not
afford to make any contribution to their tuition
costs received 30 percent of their financial aid
in the form of loans. The new program would
reduce that number to 20 percent.
The University expects the program to help
2,900 undergraduates in its first year but pre-
dicts an expansion in years to come as more
low-income high school students become aware
of the new grants and make the decision to apply
to the University.
Melinda Kleczynski, an LSA sophomore,
said she will be taking out loans next year in
order to cover tuition costs and would be inter-
ested in the M-PACT program.
"Basically, I don't know where I'm going to
be after college or what my situation will be, so

grants would be really helpful."
Coleman's Michigan Difference campaign
- an effort to raise money through private
donations in the face of state appropriations cuts
- will provide seed money to get the program
on its feet. Coleman has committed $9 million
in donations to fund the initial three years of
the program and after that hopes to maintain
its funding with the help of private donors, ulti-
mately creating a $60 million endowment for
M-PACT.
University Provost Paul Courant said that,
despite recent cuts in state appropriations, the
University remains committed to making edu-
cation affordable to all students.
"We choose to invest our scarce resources
in accessibility and in the lives and futures of
Michigan's students," he said.
The $60-million endowment that will ensure
See M-PACT, Page 7A

IMPACT
The new program will offer grants to
replace loans in student financial aid
packages
Grants through M-PACT will be given
in sums of $500, $1,000 and $1,500
The program expects to help 2,900
undergraduates and work toward a pos-
sible expansion
Grant eligibility will be need based,
but the University expects that M-PACT
will even offer some assistance to stu-
dents who do not come from the lowest
income bracket

I

SKY

 HIGH

TRV ORIAMIBELL/Daily
Electrical and Computer Science Engineering sophomore Jacob McCrary gets strapped into his tandem harness by instructor Eric Hildebrand before a 13,500-foot sky-
dive at Skydive City in Zephyrhils, Fla. last Tuesday.

Public interest groups hopes for student chapter

U Students wanting MSA
funding for University chapter
of PIRGIM would use funds to
hire full-time coordinator
By Karl Stampfl
Daily Staff Reporter
If a controversy is resolved within the Michi-
gan Student Assembly over whether it can fund
a student chapter of the Public Interest Research
Group In Michigan, students composing that
chapter plan to start taking advantage of MSA
money immediately.
"While we've been running our campaign
to (gain MSA funding), we've also been plan-
ning other campaigns," said Carolyn Hwang,
Students For PIRGIM chair. "If we're funded,

we'll be able to set our sights a lot higher."
PIRGIM is a citizen-funded group that tack-
les issues like the environment, high prices for
college books and the protection of tenants.
Plans for the activist group designed to
provide a voice for students include setting
up a hotline of information on tenant's rights,
ensuring affordable textbooks and working
with Gov. Jennifer Granholm to reduce the
amount of harmful mercury in water. Most
of the $20,000 would go toward hiring a pro-
fessional campus organizer who would assist
with all of these goals.
An MSA vote to grant Student PIRGIM the
money was scheduled for Feb. 21, but MSA
Chief of Staff Elliott Wells-Reid filed an injunc-
tion to halt the vote, citing concerns that the
group would threaten MSA's tax-exempt status
because part of its parent group is involved in
lobbying efforts. Student PIRGIM, though, has

said they will not be involved in lobbying and
are instead an advocacy group - a difference
based on the fact that lobbyists address legis-
lators directly. A trial Wednesday in front of
MSA's Central Student Judiciary will decide
whether the vote can go through.
Wells-Reid did not return phone calls.
Unless Wells-Reid drops the injunction, the
earliest the vote could occur is March 15.
"It's a challenge because we have all these
delays," said Rese Fox, chair of MSA's External
Relations Committee. "All of our campaigns
were planned to start the week after break. Now
we'll only have about a month before school
ends because of the trial."
If MSA funding is approved, one of the first
actions the group would take would be to hire a
full-time campus organizer who could expand
the scope of the program by overseeing goals,
setting up press conferences and developing

connections within PIRG, the national group.
"The campus organizer really increases the
amount of work students can do," Hwang said.
"They aren't really running campaigns - stu-
dents are. The organizer just makes sure every-
thing is running smoothly."
Almost 90 student PIRG chapters around the
country have organizers, Hwang said.
Students For PIRGIM, the group that
would become Student PIRG, has already
begun work toward one of its goals - low-
ering the cost of textbooks. In response to a
California PIRG survey claiming textbook
companies exploit college students, it plans to
ask professors to pressure companies to make
books more affordable.
"We were hoping to have a press conference
announcing our plans but because of the trial it
won't be as possible as we hoped," Fox said.
See PIRGIM, Page 7A

Assembly
hopefuls
announce
candidlacy
By Jameel Naqvl
Daily Staff Reporter
Maize Rage, a new party, has entered the
race for seats on the Michigan Student Assem-
bly - joining a sparse field that also includes
Students 4 Michigan and Defend Affirmative
Action Party.
Candidates for the Maize Rage are Brian
Chrzanowski for MSA president and LSA
junior Nate Cesmebasi for vice president.
Chrzanowski's opponents in the MSA presi-
dential race are Students 4 Michigan mem-
ber and MSA Student General Counsel Jesse
Levine and Rackham student Kate Stenvig,
who is running on the DAAP ticket.
Levine's running mate is LSA sopho
more Alicia Benavides, and Monica Smith is
DAAP's vice-presidential candidate.
Besides the candidates for executive offic-
es, 37 students are running for seats on the
assembly.
By far, Students 4 Michigan is fielding the
most candidates, which suggests the party
will maintain its majority in MSA - at least
until the next round of elections in November.


*Children's hospital receives
record $4 million donation

New facility will ameliorate over-
crowding in Mott; plan has yet to
secure approval from regents
By Justin Miller
Daily Staff Reporter

vatory across from Mary Markley Residence Hall. The new
facility would help reduce overcrowding in the current hos-
pital, as well as house the Michigan Congenital Heart Cen-
ter, the Birth Center and a neo-natal intensive care unit.
"The project is going forward because our current chil-
dren's hospital was completed in 1969 and basically designed
ten years before that," Mott's hospital administrator Patri-
cia Warner said. "The facility we're in now is outdated to