NEWS

The Michigan Daily - Monday, March 28, 2005 - 3A

" ON CAMPUS
Group to appeal
for clemency for
battered women
The Michigan Battered Women's
Clemency Project is holding a forum
titled "Not Just a Number" to appeal
for clemency for women who are doing
time for committing crimes to protect
themselves from abusive partners.
The forum - which includes the
family and friends of 20 female inmates
and state Sen. Liz Brater - will be held
tonight at 7 p.m. in Anderson Room D of
the Michigan Union. The event - being
held in conjunction with the Prison Cre-
ative Arts Project - is sponsored by the
Michigan Student Assembly.
Panel discussion to
address sex in U.S.
Consider magazine is presenting a
panel discussion titled "Sex, American
Values and American Culture" from 7
to 9 p.m. tonight in the Pendelton Room
of the Michigan Union. The panel-
ists will address how sex is depicted in
the media and how American attitudes
toward sex are manifested in the politi-
cal arena, among-other issues.
Prof to give talk
on responses to
globalization
Maylei Blackwell, professor of Chicana
and Chicano Studies at the University of
California at Los Angeles, will give a lec-
ture titled "Tongues of Fire" at 4 p.m. this
afternoon at the Museum of Art.
The lecture will explore how racial
and gender differences affect the orga-
nization of women of color in the United
States and indigenous women in Mexico
to resist the effects of globalization.
Event to address
social identity
The Program on Intergroup Relations is
sponsoring a free discussion where Resi-
dence Hall staff will discuss how they deal
with issues of ethnicity, gender, sexual ori-
entation and religion in University housing.
The lunch is being held from noon to 1:30
p:m: in the Michigan Student Assembly
chambers of the Michigan Union.
- CRIME
NOTES
Computer stolen
from sidewalk
A caller reported to the Department
of Public Safety Thursday evening that
a computer was stolen from the sidewalk
outside of the North Ingalls Building
.while left unattended. Currently, there
are no suspects.
Caller reports fire
0 on North Campus

A caller reported to DPS Saturday
that he was driving home and saw a bush
and some grass on fire near the Francois-
Xavier Bagnoud Building on the corner
of Beal Street and Hayward Street.
The caller further stated that the
flames were roughly five feet tall and
that he did not see anyone near the fire.
DPS units reported to the scene and
were unable to locate a fire in the area
or any damages.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Students look into
research contracts
March 28, 1982 - University stu-
dents, along with activists in Ann
Arbor and at other schools, took a
step forward in investigating research
contracts awarded by the Department
of Defense.
The movement, which includes stu-
dents from the University of Wisconsin
and Columbia University, managed to
get the University's attention regarding
classified DOD contracts. University
executive officers and the Faculty Sen-
ate will be discussing the expansion of
a policy stating that the University will
not accept classified contracts that could
O result in the loss of human life.

Four U.S.

soldiers

die in Kabul blast

Soldiers probably ran
over an old mine, U.S.
spokeswoman says
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A
land mine exploded under a U.S.
vehicle south of Kabul on Saturday,
killing four soldiers in the deadli-
est incident for American troops in
Afghanistan in almost 10 months, the
military said.
The blast highlighted the dangers
still facing foreign and Afghan troops
more than three years after the fall
of the Taliban, although there were
conflicting accounts about whether
the mine was freshly laid or left over
from Afghanistan's long wars.
A Taliban spokesman claimed
responsibility for the blast. But U.S.
spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore said
investigators suspected the mine was
an old charge dislodged by recent rain
and snow or that the vehicle had wan-
dered into an unmapped minefield.
"We believe it was an old mine
which could have shifted," she said.
The victims were among a group
of American and Afghan officials
scouting a potential site for a shoot-
ing range in Logar Province, 25 miles
south of the Afghan capital, when one
of their three vehicles hit the mine,
Moore said.
The bodies of the four dead, none
of whom was identified, were airlift-

ed to the main U.S. base at Bagram,
Moore said.
About 17,000 U.S. troops are in
Afghanistan battling a stubborn Tal-
iban-led insurgency focused on the
south and east and training the new
Afghan army. The U.S. military says
its air and ground operations have
killed eight suspected militants and
four civilians in the past week alone.
According to U.S. Department of
Defense statistics, 122 American sol-
diers have died since American forc-
es invaded to oust the former Taliban
government for harboring al-Qaida
militants after the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks on the United States.
Many have been killed in acci-
dents, including strikes on old mines
left behind by Soviet troops who
occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s
or the Afghan factions including the
Taliban who fought each other after
the Soviets withdrew.
Moore said U.S. troops had first
toured the scene of Saturday's inci-
dent about a week earlier in search
of a site for a training range for the
Afghan army.
Gov. Mohammed Aman Hamini
said the incident occurred in a desert
area crisscrossed by rough tracks.
"It's an old mine. There's no traffic
on the route they took, but the Rus-
sians used to use it because they were
afraid of the main road," Hamini told
The Associated Press.

ELECTIONS
Continued from page 1A
the day-to-day quality of life of LSA
students after a year in which LSA-
SG's progress was hindered by the
resignation of four executive offi-
cers. Yahkind said they plan to pre-
vent future resignations by matching
the interests and qualifications of
LSA-SG members to suitable execu-
tive positions.
Students also voted to pay a $1
GEO
Continued from page 1A
GSIs access to the subsidies. Some
international visas restrict the number
of hours GSIs and their spouses can
work, and this has denied them access.
to the childcare subsidy in the past.
"We were happy that (the proposal)
addressed the two big things in child-
care we were trying to address," GEO
President Dave Dobbie said.
Another significant development
was the inclusion of a special confer-
ences clause.
"Under the provision, the Univer-
sity and the union agreed to meet each
semester to discuss issues of mutual
concern such as benefits, childcare
and testing and training of interna-
tional students," University spokes-
woman Julie Peterson said.

fee that would go toward funding
student groups through MSA's Bud-
get Priorities Committee. MSA will
bring the fee in front of the regents
for approval in June.
The results will not be official
until today's MSA steering meeting,
but unofficial tallies usually differ
from official tallies by just a few
votes that do not affect the outcome
of the races. Complete results of the
election are posted at www.michi-
gandaily.com.
"We are very encouraged by this
progress and hopeful we can resume
next week and continue working
toward a settlement," she said.
Many key issues, however, remain
unresolved. Negotiations will resume
today and tomorrow to discuss sala-
ries, benefits, a no-strike clause and
the testing and training of interna-
tional GSIs.
GEO said yesterday that its mem-
bership has authorized an open-ended
strike beginning April 4 if an agree-
ment is not reached on those issues.
A final vote on whether to strike will
take place at a membership meeting
on April 3.
"Friday was the most significant day
of bargaining since we started," Dob-
bie said. "All of us hope to avoid tak-
ing further action and going through
with a strike."

U-POWER
Continued from page 1A
"I don't think the (new system) will
affect U-POWER's efforts to organize,"
Deborah Smith said. "More people will
want a union after this change."
"If anything, people are more hyped
up to sign membership cards now,"
Smith said.
HRAA spokesman Dave Reid said
the new job classification system will
not impede any organizing effort and
that the University's role is to ensure
that employees are informed about the
process of forming a union.
"This is a major change for the Uni-
versity, and as we approach the imple-
mentation of a new system, the process
of change can naturally worry people,"
Reid said. "Staff have the right to decide
whether they want to be represented by
a union regardless of the organization's
job classification system."
In addition, because affected employ-
ees have not been involved directly in
the project, many are not well informed
about the new system.
Luegge said she feels employees
who are affected by the change have
not been given the answers or infor-
mation to which they are entitled, and

for this reason, she is suspicious of the
University's intentions.
"Everyone is kind of in the dark about
the project. The University just tells us
that we have nothing to worry about, but
they have not been able to answer our
questions in meetings," Luegge said.
"After all these years, why is it impor-
tant that our job titles match those in the
market place?
"It seems odd for the University to
spend so much money on that, and I
wonder if they have an ulterior motive."
Luegge said she is concerned that the
new system may be a means for the Uni-
versity to eliminate positions or increase
the workload of certain positions.
"Especially with the budget as it
is, people are afraid that the change
will affect their jobs," Luegge said,
adding that the reclassification does
not address discrepancies in salary
for employees who do similar jobs.
"Because the (new system) will not
affect salary, we don't believe the
change is needed."
Luegge is not alone. Many University
employees, such as Wilkins, said they
felt indifferent about the system change
because it will not affect employees'
benefits or salaries.
"I've been here for 10 years, and every'

"Because the (new
system) will not
affect salary, we
don't believe the
change is needed."
- Lolly Luegge
Wolverine Towers clerk
time the University has made a major
change to any type of system, it has had
little positive impact on those making
under $100,000 a year," Wilkins said.
Reid said that, although it is often
difficult to see the need for broad
change, the reclassification will help
to give the University and its indi-
vidual units better job market infor-
mation, as well as to encourage staff
career development.
"Some of that will take time to
build, and the payback won't fully be
realized for perhaps several years,"
Reid said, "But as soon as this sum-
mer we expect some improvements to
begin' be seen."


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including the fraudulent Winter
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7:00 p.m., Hale Auditorium
Stephen M. Ross
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University of Michigan A keynotb
Dr. Martha Bi
Chair of the National 4,C
A book signing by o Wome 's 0r ait
the author to follow
Dr. Burk has led the NCWO effort to open the Augusta National Golf Club to
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