Thursday, March 24, 2005 Weather Opinion 4A Sports 7A Zac Peskowitz: sick of Harvard Josh Holman on why you should spend tomorrow watching baseball at the Fish 4 1 t.Y tt i l 43 TOMORROW: 4%/ 3' One-hundred-fourteen years ofeditorialfreedom www.michaiandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan m Vol. CXV, No. 104 ®2005 The Michigan Daily GEO votes to stage walkout strike By Ekjyot Saini Daily Staff Reporter By an overwhelming vote last night, members of the Graduate Employees' Organization voted to go on a one-day walkout today. Union members will forego teaching their classes and instead will * be picketing outside of various University build- ings where classes are taught - Angell Hall, the Chemistry Building, Natural Science and others - as well as staging a rally at 4:30 p.m. in front of the Michigan Union. University Provost Paul Courant has sent out an e-mail to the University community condemning GEO's plan for a walkout. In his e-mail, Courant said, "I do not believe this action is warranted in light of the University's serious and good-faith efforts to arrive at a fair contract." He continued to say that all University business, including classes, would be conducted as usual. Many professors and lecturers say they support the efforts of GEO and its members, but they do not wish to take away learning time from students. Karen Weinbaum, an environmental science grad- uate student instructor who is picketing today, said that the professor of the class she teaches offered to cover sections for his GSIs. "(SNRE Prof.) Dave Allan has been here for many years and understands that we need to picket to support ourselves," Weinbaum said. Other picketing GSIs have asked students to attend other sections during the course of the week. Some have decided to hold extra office hours, while some plan on holding classes outside of University building in coffee shops around campus. Negotiation sessions continued yesterday dur- ing the day and then well into the night, but a con- tract settlement was not reached. The parties did not make any substantial progress on the major issues of increasing GSI wages and expanding their health care benefits. Various proposals were modified but no new key agreements have been made outside of the inclusion of gender identity and gender expression in the anti-discrimination clause of the contract. University spokeswoman Julie Peterson said the current proposals offered by the University indicate a great improvement over the previous contract. These improvements offer health-care with no premiums and include dental coverage, life insurance up to $30,000 at no cost to mem- bers and buy-in options for greater life insur- ance. Also, GSIs working in the fall and 'vinter semester, would be covered for the summer under the new proposal. "In fact, in these negotiations GEO has made more substantial progress in its contract than we can recall in any of its past con- tract negotiations," Peterson said. In the last two days of negotiations, the Uni- versity and GEO have both adjusted their salary proposals. GEO had initially proposed that next year's salary be increased to $16,000. The union has reduced its demand to $15,300 and decreased the increases for each year of the contract adjusted according to increases in the consumer index, which would be approximately 5 percent said GEO president Dave Dobbie. The University did not agree to the demands of GEO in regards'to wages. Initially the Univer- See GEO, Page 7A LEO contract issues continue By Ekjyot Saini Daily Staff Reporter While negotiations with the Lectur- ers' Employee Organization have taken a backseat to a walkout by graduate student instructors, negotiations have continued and have brought to the forefront prob- lems dealing with a number of classes that lecturers must teach, as well as repeated issues with performance criteria. A recent LSA proposal to revoke bene- fits from lecturers who taught a .5 fraction of the school year was met with hostility from LEO. Ian Robinson, a sociology lec- turer and member of LEO's implementa- tion committee, said the average lecturers who teaches a .5 fraction teaches an aver- age of three classes over the course of two semesters, which can be divided into one class one semester, and two the next, or none one semester and all three the next. LSA wants to make changes that would revoke benefits from those who teach and require teaching a .5 fraction each year a .5 fraction a semester. This change would force lecturers to teach approximately 3 classes one semester in order to receive benefits. The University has verbally assured lecturers that LSA cannot implement such a policy because it violates the con- tract. The University has said that it will form a benefits policy for lecturers who abstain from teaching in one semester, and their benefits will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. "This is definitely a positive devel- opment because a potentially bad situ- ation was stopped from occurring," Robinson said. While some slow progress has been concerning the creation of per- formance evaluation criteria for the rehiring of lecturers and the reclassifi- cation of lecture titles. Under each title, lecturers would receive specific benefits. But because the University has yet to fully implement the reclassification scheme, LEO has urged the University to place pressure on the lagging academic departments to meet looming deadlines. The process has become even slower in light of the University and its nego- tiations with the Graduate Employees' Organization, overshadowing LEO's recent efforts. Last month, Provost Paul Courant intervened in the nego- tiation efforts and said he would work to accelerate the implementation pro- cess of the reclassification titles. "It is frustrating," said Robinson. "Human resources has only a limited number of people and scarce times to meet." See LEO, Page 3A Coleman protests funding re duction s U Governor's plan will reduce funding to state colleges and universities by $30 million By Jameel Naqvi Daily Staff Reporter University President Mary Sue Coleman protested reductions in funding to state universities in her testimony to the Higher Education Subcommittee of the state House yesterday. Meanwhile, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and state legislators broke their impasse over higher education funding when Granholm's revised budget was approved by the House and Senate appropria- tions committees. Granholm's revised spending reduction plan - which aims to remedy a $380 million revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year - still cuts funding to state colleges and universities by $30 million but makes available $200 million in capital expenditure funds to state schools. These funds can be used to finance con- struction and other infrastructure projects. The governor's previ- ous plan, which was rejected by the legislature, only offered $100 million in capital outlay funds. The new budget stipulates that the $30 million will be restored if tax revenue in the remainder of FY 2005 exceeds estimates. Granholm's budget lacks the tuition restraints that her origi- nal proposal contained. The governor is expected to sign the revised budget into law today. In her testimony, Coleman listed the measures the University has had to take to cope with falling state appropriations, includ- ing eliminating vacant faculty positions and canceling University library subscriptions to many scholarly journals. But these measures, Coleman said, will not be enough to sustain the quality of education at the University "The new cost-effective programs are not enough to make up for the dramatic decrease in appropriations," she said. "It is not a See COLEMAN, Page 3A TOMMASO GOMEZ/Daily University President Mary Sue Coleman spoke yesterday in front of the Higher Education Subcommittee of the state House, protesting Gov. Jennifer Granholm's budget, which includes a $30 million in cuts to state colleges and universities. Hayden, other activists convene for teach-in By Farayha Arrine Managing News Editor When Tom Hayden arrived at the University in the late '50s and became a voice on campus through his reporting in The Michigan Daily, Al Haber, an older student and campus activ- ist, knew he had to recruit Hayden for his social justice group. Together, Hayden and Haber worked to further Students for a Democratic Society, becoming icons for '60s liberalism that in many ways began at the University. Haber would go on to participate in the first teach-in ever to be held, while Hayden made his name by protesting the Vietnam War through his leadership in rallies in the '60s, particularly those outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Hayden, Haber and other activists will reunite today to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the teach-ins, which came into existence at Angell Hall in 1965 and have since then been scattered throughout the University's history when activists have desired a forum to express their beliefs or encourage dialogue on government policies or social injustices. Today's teach-in will feature University professors, as well as a few participants of the original teach-in 40 years ago, who will talk about topics ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to mass media and corporatism. While the first teach-in was supported by the administration, in that they saw it as a trade-off to discourage a faculty strike, some students, activists and faculty members have expressed discontent in what they see as the administration and faculty's lack of support for today's teach-in and the overall shift from the atmosphere of progres- sivism that existed on campus. Hayden said part of the reason that the climate on campus has changed is because the momentum of the war protests in the '60s was driven by the draft and the fact that young men could be drafted without having voted for their representatives, since the voting age was 21 at the time. With no draft right now, the reaction is not as dramatic because it does not as directly affect this generation, many professors said. But most attributed the change to a lack of interest among faculty. The original teach-in took place when faculty members threatened to cancel class so that they could debate Vietnam policy with their students. Even with government pressure that the professors were in violation of their contracts, then-University President Harlan Hatcher agreed to allow University buildings to stay open after- hours to appease the faculty and allow campus-wide dialogue on the topic. The administration has always been against teach-ins and for the status quo, but this type of faculty support that existed for the first teach-in is not the same now, said Women's Studies Assistant Prof. Andrea Smith. "In the '60s, there were professors coming out with more accountability. People have become more career-oriented and less focused on social justice, expect for in a more abstract way," she said. Students echoed Smith, saying that faculty support would help their event achieve more success. LSA senior and teach-in orga- nizer Emily Hilliard said students organizing such events must overcome additional hurdles without the support of faculty. See TEACH-IN, Page 3A MCRI's passage may harm women-oriented faculty programs University staff is concerned that initiative would dissolve efforts to increase women in science fields project said they are concerned that if MCRI passes on the 2006 ballot, the program could be in jeopardy. Because the initiative seeks to, "Prohibit the Universi- ty of Michigan and other state universities, the state, and all other state entities from discriminating or granting to women can be affected, that's an exaggeration," Zarko said. Only programs that apply to public hiring, public educa- tion and public contracting and those that give preference, not merely assistance, are affected." According to the information presented by ADVANCE at science professor and a member of STRIDE - a subcommit- tee of the ADVANCE project - said she thinks the program has been very beneficial to women faculty at the University. "Personally, I think that STRIDE has made an enormous difference in the climate of the University of Michigan and ... L