NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 11, 2005 - 3
. ON CAMPUS
Professors to
discuss elements
of Muslim culture
University professors Camron Amin
and Douglas Northrop will hold a work-
shop titled "Intimate Visions: Muslim
Families, State Powers and the Veil"
today from noon to 2 p.m. in room 1014
of Tisch Hall. The event is sponsored by
both the Office of the Vice President for
Research and the Rackham Graduate
School.
Prof to lecture on
unwed mothers
University of Pennsylvania Prof.
Kathryn Edin and St. Joseph's Univer-
sity Prof. Maria Kefalas will lecture
today on why many young, poor women
choose to have children without being
married.
They will also be discussing personal
stories of women and address changing
societal roles since the 1950s such as the
redefinition of marriage, the sexual rev-
olution and the increasing acceptance of
cohibilitation all "in a world of increas-
ing inequalities in income and wealth."
The lecture will be today at 3 p.m. in
the Rackham Building's Amphitheater.
The event is sponsored by the National
Poverty Center.
One-man space
musical to be
performed
The "Far Side of the Moon" musical
performance, written and directed by
Robert Lepage and produced by Laurie
Anderson, will take place tonight and
Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
in the Power Center for the Performing
Arts. The University Musical Society is
sponsoring the one-man performance,
presented as a voyage to outer space.
Ticket prices range from $26 to $42.
CRIME
NOTES
Jewel thief hits
University Hospital
A silver diamond ring valued at $400
was stolen from the University Hospital
sometime between March 6 and March
9, according to the Department of Public
Safety. There are currently no suspects.
Skateboarders
escape police
Skateboarders were reported to be
in a parking structure on Huron Street
on Wednesday afternoon. They were
gone when officers arrived, according
to DPS.
Phantom caller
0 menaces dorm
A subject in East Quadrangle Residence
Hall reported on Wednesday morning that
they had been receiving continuous phone
calls with no one on the line, DPS said.
There are currently no suspects.
Insult, car theft
added to injury
A patient was dropped off by a friend
at the emergency room of the University
Hospital on Wednesday afternoon. The
friend then failed to return the patient's
vehicle, DPS reported.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
* Creationism
removed from
public schools
March, 11, 1982- The State Board of
Education unanimously passed a reso-
lution against teaching creationism in
public schools.
The resolution, requires "any school
district currently teaching creationism
or any course in religion in an attempt
to indoctrinate (students) toward any
particular belief or disbelief cease and
Massie: MCRI likely to pass if on ballot
By C.C. Song
Daily Staff Reporter
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative will
probably pass if it reaches the 2006 state
ballot and most likely can only be defeated
by efforts to have it disqualified before the
election, said Miranda Massie, lead attor-
ney for the BAMN-led student intervenors
in the Grutter v. Bollinger case.
MCRI, a state ballot initiative that
would ban the use of race and gender in
University admissions and state employ-
ment, submitted more than 500,000 sig-
natures - well over the required 317,757
- to, the state Board of Elections in
January.
Massie's comments came during a
forum at Hutchins Hall last night, spon-
sored by BAMN and the Black Law Stu-
dents' Alliance, on strategies to defeat
MCRI.
Massie said it is important for stu-
dents to defeat the initiative and reverse
the drop in minority student enrollment
- which decreased 15
percent at the Univer- "h
sity this year. The maj
Massie cited the 1
effects of the 1996 people v
passage of Califor- for(Calif
nia's Proposition 209,
which is nearly iden- Propositij
tical to MCRI, as
an example of what 209 did n
Michigan can expect
if MCRI passes. know the
"At Berkeley, for
example, there is not voting ag
a single black student affirmati
in the entire engineer-
ing program this year," action."
Massie said.
Massie said defeat-
ing MCRI is impor- -
tant not only because CivilI
of the effect it would
have on Michigan but
because of the symbolic importance of
the University's race-conscious admis-
sions policies.
"I think it's important that students
understand how important Michigan is in
playing a role in the fight to defend affir-
mative action and rebuild the civil rights
movement," she said.
"For students that have gotten here
too late, they can expand the civil rights
movement and its quality and further it to
more important audiences."
Although polls show that MCRI has
well over 60 percent approval among
the Michigan public, Massie attributed
its support to confusing language, say-
It
ing California's similar Proposition 209
passed for that reason.
"The majority of people who voted
for Proposition 209 did not know they
were voting against affirmative action,"
Massie said. "They thought they were
voting for an expansion of the civil
rights movement."
But in an earlier interview, Chetly
Zarko, MCRI director of outreach said
that the language of the proposition is not
deceptive, unlike what BAMN claims.
"We're confident that the language of our
petition is legal," Zarko said.
Massie said she along with BAMN
would challenge the petition before the
Board of State Canvassers - the body
that verifies signatures before a pro-
posal can be put on the next ballot. The
Board of State Canvassers is going to
allow BAMN and its supporters 10 days
to invalidate the signatures collected by
MCRI after the signatures have been put
into the computer.
The computer is going to randomly
select 500 signatures
and if a significant
)rity Of number of the signa-
tures is proven invalid,
the proposition will not
ornia's) be put on the ballot.
Massie said MCRI's
on opponents will try to
convince the courts
ot that the language of the
proposition is vague
y were and deceiving.
Also, they will try to
ainst convince the courts that
ve MCRI has hired black
parolees to administer
the petition in order to
appeal to minorities.
MCRI, Massie said,
iranda Massie has also tried to col-
ights attorney lect signatures by using
fraudulent language to
describe the petition.
"Without affirmative action, what you
have is an unrestrained regime of white
privilege," Massie said. "It's harder on
black and other minority students. Affir-
mative action offsets that."
Ben Royal, a first-year graduate stu-
dent in the School of Education and an
organizer for BAMN, said affirmative
action is vital to a just society.
"I prefer to live in a society with jus-
tice, and we can't have it without affir-
mative action," Royal said.
Royal said the most effective action
that students can take right now to defend
affirmative action on campus is to involve
in the campaign to defeat MCRI.
JULIA TAPPERL/Daily
Attorney Melinda Mirassi speaks In Hutchins Hall at the Law School yesterday on strategies to defeat
the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot measure that would ban the use of affirmative action by the
University and other state institutions.
Appointee who
questioned Prop. 2
language rejected
LANSING (AP) - The Republican-
controlled Senate yesterday rejected the
reappointment of an eight-year member
of the state elections board, faulting the
Democrat for blocking two contentious
issues from the November ballot.
As expected, the Senate voted 22-15
along party lines to reject Dorothy Jones,
whom Gov. Jennifer Granholm sought to
reappoint to the Board of State Canvass-
ers. It was the first denial of a gubernato-
rial appointment in 15 years.
Sen. Martha Scott (D-Highland Park)
was absent and did not vote.
The Senate debated the appointment
for 45 minutes. Some Democrats said
Republicans ignored the importance of
having a racially diverse board and were
kicking her off for partisan reasons.
Republicans called those charges
absurd. They said Jones, who is black,
ignored her duty to certify petitions for
a gay marriage amendment and an effort
by Republicans to get presidential candi-
date Ralph Nader on the ballot.
The four-member board, which
reviews petitions filed by candidates and
groups with ballot proposals, has two
Republicans and two Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema
(R-Wyoming) said he took no pleasure
in rejecting Jones for another term but
argued the move was justified.
"I wish we had not come to the point
we are today," he said. He added that he
gave Granholm a chance to withdraw
Jones' appointment, as he'd done with
six of her nominees for other positions,
but she declined his offer.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd
said Granholm will make another
appointment in place of Jones, but she
didn't know how soon the governor would
name the nominee or who it would be.
Republicans said Jones violated her
oath of office last August by not approv-
ing language for the marriage measure.
At the time, Jones and the board's other
"If we don't reject this nominee for a
breach of duty, there is no role for advise
and consent," he said.
Democrats, however, said it is shame-
ful to toss a highly qualified candidate, the
board's longest-serving member, because
of two votes among many she made dur-
ing her eight years on the board.
Jones, of Ypsilanti, was first appoint-
ed to the board by Republican Gov.
John Engler in 1997 and reappointed
by him in 2001.
The Senate had confirmed her previ-
ous appointments to the elections board,
as well as her appointment by Republican
Gov. William Milliken to the Advisory
Committee on Substance Abuse Servic-
es and her appointment by Democratic
Gov. James Blanchard to the Michigan
Women's Commission.
Congratulations
Betsy Kuller
Account Executive of the Week
Dinner is on as for
a job well donel
-D'Amato's
"4 stars"
-Detroit Free Press
734-623-7400
www.damatos.com
PJ S
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