Monday, March 28, 2005 '17ARVATF:'R 'R 7 fNATISA, d I. Weather Al, Kl2 Opinion 4A Suhael Momin considers GEO's demands Arts 8A "Congeniality 2" misses by a longshot iir 15 ~56 L 34 TOMORROW: One-hundredfourteen years of editorialfreedom i 11 wwmichikandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXV, No. 106 62005 The Michigan Daily Missed National title slips .away once again Chances team. Al No. 3 tea the regic fying W ingly ho Frozen IAN HERBERT Marty S Caught up in the Game ihat, so was "sup G RAND RAPIDS - Fourteen But th NHL draft picks, three first round- truth is ers, two 50-point scorers, a Hobey a game Baker finalist, a superstar goalie and the three-go, winningest coach in Michigan history. Oh ond per yeah, and 10 seniors. That's what made up winning this year's Michigan hockey team. That's they cou what this team was - a team that had the ter team tools to win it all but once again fell short in it counte the NCAA Tournament. team - After the team's 4-3 loss to Colorado have bea College on Saturday, Senior captain Eric With Nystrom put it best: "With the talent we room thi had in that locker room this year, any- al champ thing short of a national championship If yo was disappointing." now. Th And there it is - plain and simple. coaches Nystrom knew it, and the rest of the team don't ha probably did, too. For students in my senior The 1 class, there has been one national champi- Arena - onship in our time at Michigan: The field fans - hockey team in the fall of our freshman for some year. We go to probably the best university column. in the country for sports, and we can't win backseat any championships. about ass And I have news for all of the juniors at must hav this school: this year's hockey team was what I'v your best shot to see a natty. The Wolver- explanati ines were preseason No. 1 and, when the This n playoffs came around, were playing their to win th best hockey of the year. They brought a have bee 14-game unbeaten streak into the NCAA gan - tJ Tournament and dismantled Wisconsin on defines n Friday night in the first round. They had the year, we talent to do it. But they couldn't. can't qui With the talent we had in that locker have a fl room this year, anything short of a nation- costs us a al championship was disappointing, friends a There's a tendency after a game like this our hous to say that Michigan just got beat by a better GSIs still debating *with 'U' afer strike Resolved issues include language of anti-discrimination 9 clause, child care benefits By Ekjyot Saini Daily Staff Reporter fter all, Colorado College was the am in the nation and the top seed in on. The Tigers came from the terri- CHA - the conference that amaz- 'uses all four of the teams in the Four. The nation's leading scorer, ertich, is on that team. And guess is the second most prolific scorer zuntry, Brett Sterling. So Michigan )posed" to lose that game, right? hat's taking the easy way out. The that there is no excuse for losing like that. The Wolverines had a al lead just minutes into the sec- iod, and they blew it. They were when the third period started, and ldn't hang on. They were the bet- for a lot of the game, but not when d. They didn't get beat by a better they lost to a team that they should ten. the talent they had in that locker s year, anything short of a nation- pionship was disappointing. u're looking for answers, stop he players don't have them, the don't have them and I certainly ve them. oss left everyone in Van Andel - except the 100 or so Colorado speechless and left me searching sort of explanation to put in this I rode home to Ann Arbor in the of our University-rented minivan speechless as the Michigan players ve been on their ride home. Here's e come up with: There is no good ion. Michigan hockey team's inability he big game defines what athletics en like in my four years at Michi- te way the team lost this weekend Michigan athletics, as well. Every have teams with potential that te make it happen. Every year we uke loss, a bad call or a mistake that an important game. Every year, my nd I sit around on the couches in e and talk about how this year is See HERBERT, Page 7A Levine elected MSA president, Elections proceed as expected, with frontrunners winning a majority By Karl Stampfl Daily Staff Reporter The Students 4 Michigan party nearly swept the Michigan Student Assembly elections, win- ning all but one of the open positions, including MSA president, which went to LSA junior Jesse Levine, and MSA vice president, which went to LSA sophomore Alicia Benavides. "I am very proud of our candidates," said LSA sophomore Stuart Wagner, Students 4 Michigan's campaign manager. "When it really comes down to the end of the day, our candidates were strong, they were active in the community, they were involved in student government and they were committed to their campaigns." Students 4 Michigan was founded before last semester's election. One of the key differences, some candidates say, between the party and its predecessor, Students First, is that it will not ask candidates to run as representatives of the racial, cultural or religious groups to which they belong - what Wagner termed "tokenism." But Levine has said his party still aims to be representative of the whole campus. The team of Levine and Benavides garnered 2,008 votes, beating Rackham student Kate Sten- vig and LSA junior Monica Smith - who ran on the Defend Affirmative Action Party ticket - by 1,356 votes in a landslide. Levine said his main goal as president is to pro- tect student's rights, most notably by supporting a $2.50 increase in student fees that would pay the salaries of two new lawyers at Student Legal Services. One lawyer will deal with immigration law, and another will deal with students' housing rights. SLS Director Doug Lewis is proposing the fee increase to the University Board of Regents at its June meeting. Levine said he plans to propose an MSA reso- lution asking University Hospital to stop notify- ing police when a minor who is drunk receives medical attention because it violates patient con- fidentiality rights and discourages students from seeking necessary treatment. "Students are reluctant to go to the hospital when dangerously drunk," Levine said. The lone seat that went to another party was the MSA representative of the School of Educa- tion. Education senior Andrew Jacobs of DAAP edged out Engineering sophomore Johnny Park of Students 4 Michigan by 11 votes. LSA sophomore Andrew Yahkind will serve as LSA Student Government president, and LSA junior Paige Butler will serve as vice president after winning their uncontested election. They said they plan to focus on expanding the number of LSA minors offered and increasing See ELECTIONS, Page 3A Election Results MSA President: Jesse evne MSA Vice President: Alcia Benavides LSA-SG President: Andrew Ya ind LSA-SG Vice President: I I I JASON COOPER /DILY Eric Nystrom (21) during the Wolverines' 3-4 loss to Colorado College in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids on Saturday. Reclassification wories those organizing office workers' umon Lack of detail on new system causes anxiety among those who fear implications of the change By Carissa Miller Daily Staff Reporter Although the University's new job classification system takes effect in just over three months, many affected employees - those currently classified in the professional/administrative, technical, office and allied health job families - are still unsure of whether the change is needed and how their employment at the University will be altered. Over the last few months, various University units in conjunc- tion with the Health Resources and Affirmative Action office have worked to remap approximately 18,000 staff positions at the University's three campuses and in its health system. According to those heading the project, the new system - built around 20 career families through which employees are classified on numer- ous levels - will make it easier for the University to define pay and compare University positions to titles in the job market. Lolly Luegge, a financial clerk at Wolverine Towers, said she does not know how the change will affect clerical workers, and with office and clerical workers at the University attempting to form a union - the Union of Professional Office Workers - this is not an untimely concern. However, members of U-POWER's organizing committee vary on how and to what extent the system change will influence their organizing efforts. Because the exact nature of the new classifications will not be known until June, it is not yet clear how the change will affect the bargaining unit of U-POWER, which must have 50 percent of the workers it hopes to represent sign union cards in order to have bar- gaining power. "I expect the reclassification to have a negative impact on clerical workers, and I think it will change the bargaining unit, making it more difficult for U-POWER to reach its goal," said Mike Wilkins, who works in material services at University Hospital and is on U- POWER's organizing committee. He said after reclassification, more people would qualify as office workers and therefore U-Power would have to gain more signatures to become a union. But other committee members, including Teresa Smith, a clerk for the University's health system, and Deborah Smith, an outpatient clerk at the UMH Cardiovascular Center, disagreed with Wilkins. See U-POWER, Page 3A After a one-day walkout last Thursday, both the University and the Graduate Employees' Organiza- tion have returned to the bargaining table, reaching an agreement on a few key issues. The University and GEO came to an agreement on child care benefits and the language that will be added to the anti-discrimination clause of GEO's new contract. The clause will include gender iden- tity and gender expression. The inclusion of gender identity and gender expression in the contract was agreed upon in bar- gaining sessions in February. GEO's lead negotiator Andre Wilson said the final wording of the clause was not agreed upon until Friday. The amended clause prohibits discrimination based on "a gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior of an individual, actual or perceived, and regardless of the individual's assigned sex at birth." "We talked to some people at the national level - the national TBLG task force. They felt that it would be strongest if we went with that language," Wil- son said. He added that the language of the clause S closely mirrors the anti-discrimination clause in the New ResHall president wants to focus on RAs By Rachel Kruer Daily Staff Reporter LSA sophomore Darla Williams will be the face of the approximately 10,000 students living in Uni- versity housing, starting April 14. As president-elect of the Residence Halls Asso- ciation, Williams said one of her goals is to improve RHA's relations with residential staff. Williams said residential advisors are not cur- rently included within the general assembly of RHA u w M U 1 - the student government of University residence halls that consists of 16 dorms and oversees all of the hall and multicultural councils - because they receive free room and board from the University. Williams said RAs are an incredible resource because new residents look to older students for advice. She added that she hopes to incorporate their input into the general assembly while being mindful of their conflict of interest. "(RAs) need to have a voice. They are students like we are. They might have problems with their employers or need help with some of their pro- F~.