NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - 3
. ON CAMPUS
Researcher to give
talk on Medicaid
Julia Seng, a research investigator in
the Department of Obstetrics and Gyne-
cology and an assistant research scientist
in the School of Nursing, will present her
recent research on female Medicaid recipi-
ents today from noon to 1:30 p.m. in room
1840 at the School of Social Work. Seng
studies the effects of post-traumatic stress
disorder on childbearing and on women's
general health.
'Motorcycle
Diaries' to be
screened tonight
The University Unions Arts and Pro-
grams is holding a free screening of
"The Motorcycle Diaries" tonight at 7
0 p.m. at Pierpont Commons. This criti-
cally acclaimed film, adapted from the
journal of Cuban revolutionary leader
Che Guevara, tells the story of two
friends who cross South America on
motorcycle in the 1950s.
MSA commission
chairs up for grabs
Commission chairs for the Michi-
gan Student Assembly will be elected
tonight at 7:30 p.m. in room 3909 of the
Michigan Union.
Commissions that are available
include LGBT, North Campus Affairs,
Women's Issues, Academic Affairs,
Peace and Justice, Students' Rights,
Environmental Issues, Health Issues,
Campus Safety, Voice Your Vote, Cam-
pus Improvement and Housing. All Uni-
versity students are eligible to run.
CRI1E
NOTES
Subject beats man
with tiki torch
Ann Arbor Police Department offi-
cers said they were in the 1600 block of
Washtenaw Avenue at about 1:25 a.m.
on Saturday when they saw two men
arguing. Police said one man pushed
the other to the ground and struck him
several times with a tiki torch. When he
saw police, he began to run and jumped
a fence. Moments later, police said they
heard him talking on the phone, telling
someone that he had just ran from the
police and lost his shoe.
The attacker tried to run again, but to
no avail. Police said he was tackled and
arrested on a resisting charge.
* Student and
girlfriend arrested
After breaking up a block party in the
600 block of Mary Court at about 1:30
a.m. Sunday, the AAPD reported that
two arrests were made for disorderly
conduct. Officers said they were called
to the area because of a number of house
parties, but upon arrival found 300 to
400 people in the street.
Police said many of the people left
immediately, but one man yelled at the
officers and insisted that he did not have
to leave. The man, who was later identi-
fied as a 21-year old University student,
fought with police for several minutes
and was arrested.
The man's girlfriend was also arrest-
ed for disorderly conduct after trying
several times to climb into the patrol car
with her boyfriend.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Law School starts
recruiting blacks
April 12, 1966 - The University
Law School admitted eight black stu-
dents after its first year of actively
recruiting blacks. Before this, blacks
did attend the school, but "(this) has
always been by chance, however, and
there has never before been an active
attempt to recruit Negroes into our
student body," said Prof. Roy Stein-
heimer.
The Law School felt the need to
start recruiting blacks after realizing
that the cost to attend the school is
very high for many students. Stein-
heimer said other factors that cause
low black application rates include
heavy recruitment of blacks by busi-
nesses - which offer high pay and
prestige right out of college - and
that many blacks hold the law profes-
sion in low regard.
" The University provided black stu-
dents un to $2.500 a year in scholar-
Alleged liberal bias in academia debated
New study shows that 75
percent of university faculty are
liberal; some say political views
are irrelevant in most fields
By Talia Selitsky
Daily Staff Reporter
Debate over the causes and consequences of
the liberal majority in American academia has
been re-ignited by a recent study that shows
a leftward shift in academia over the last 20
years.
The study shows that in 1999, about three-
fourths of people teaching at American uni-
versities and colleges were self-described
liberals. This is in striking contrast to surveys
from 1984, which showed a figure closer to 40
percent.
Released on March 29, the study was con-
ducted by several professors at George Mason
University, Smith College and University of
Toronto, and was sponsored by the Randolph
Foundation - a conservative philanthropic
organization.
Engineering junior John Kelly said the
Trotter House rG
political makeup of the University's faculty is
consistentwith the study. He added that the
University's support of diversity is inconsis-
tent with the lack of political diversity among
the faculty.
"Based on my experience, the University
makes few efforts to hire faculty members
with different political ideologies," Kelly said.
"The diversity of the University would benefit
from individuals with differing political ide-
ologies."
University Provost Paul Courant said the
University does not discriminate, nor does it
make an effort to hire faculty based on their
ideology.
"Political ideology is not an element of
scholarship or teaching or service," Courant
said. "It would be a terrible mistake for the
University to use political ideology as a factor
for (selecting) faculty."
Political science Prof. John Campbell said
that, in most academic fields, political affili-
ation does not play an important role in the
research of faculty members. He said it is
usually impossible to determine whether the
author of an academic work is a Democrat or
a Republican.
Sociology Prof. Howard Kimeldorf said he
enovations to be
g
disagrees with the notion that a lack of politi-
cal variation detracts from students' educa-
tion.
"Even if there is an overrepresentation of
registered Democrats among faculty in some
fields, as recent survey data indicates, it does
not follow that teachers are therefore func-
tioning as liberal propagandists or that they
are somehow incapable of providing critical
thinking skills to their students," Kimeldorf
said.
Few studies have been conducted on the ori-
gins of the political imbalance in academia.
Some have speculated that the conservative
void is a result of the tenure process and unfair
hiring.
Sara Dogan, national campus director for
the David Horowitz-backed conservative
group Students for Academic Freedom, said
conservatives are often discriminated against
in academia.
"Some studies show that in the humanities,
there is a seven-to-one ratio of liberals to con-
servatives, and in some schools it's as high as
30-to-one. These are the kind of ratios you get
when totalitarian regimes hold elections, in
the sense that the disparity is so huge," Dogan
said.
rin
next
month
TROTTER
Continued from page 1
and Trotter staff - has been assessing the
needs of the facility and giving feedback on
proposed changes, while also deciding the
mission and vision of Trotter in future years,
said council member Brittany Marino.
Marino, an LSA sophomore and Native
American Student Association member, said
the advisory council played a key role in the
renovation process because it was essential
to give students a voice throughout the pro-
cess.
"The building was made for students, it
was put in place because of students and
it's being renovated because of students. If
they don't have a say in what goes on, it's not
going to be their building," Marino said.
LSA junior and La Voz Latina member
Sashai Alvarez, an MSA representative, said
the need for renovations was a reflection of
the University's deficient multicultural facil-
ities.
"Schools like Princeton, Yale and Har-
vard have diversity centers and multicul-
tural houses that are beautiful and kept up,"
Alvarez said. "Why can't Michigan be like
that?"
"(Trotter House) should be a safe place
structurally and it should be a comfortable
place," she added.
Marino shared this sentiment, saying that
bringing speakers from around the country to
Trotter House can be embarrassing because
of the building's condition and that students
of color need a place where they can feel at
home, whether they are relaxing or holding a
group meeting.
"The Trotter House offers community that
other places can't, and with all the work that
we do here, I think we deserve a space that's
adequate," Marino said.
"I mean, basic safety regulations and aes-
thetic (appeal) aren't too much to ask for
from a university that has so much money
and spends it in so many other places."
"The goals of academia haven't changed,
but the faculty makeup is much more left-
winged then it was a couple of decades ago,
which points to discrimination," she added.
However, Campbell said he disagrees with
the discrimination claims.
"Tenure reviews are the most intense,
thought-through processes in the University,"
he said. "Faculty members take their roles
very seriously. It would go against their values
to be anything but fair in the tenure review."
Others argue that a number of factors have
led to a selection process that has caused more
liberals to choose to go into academia. What
these factors are has been widely speculated.
Exit polls from the 2004 election have indi-
cated that people with post-graduate degrees
were more likely to vote for Sen. John Kerry
(D-Mass.)
"It is a very interesting question," Courant
said. "My speculation for the phenomena is
that in order to be a successful academic, one
has to be an inquiring thinker and not accept
any answers as a given, which is usually asso-
ciated with liberals - though I've met a lot of
unquestioning liberals."
He added that he believes it is a question
that should be studied by social scientists.
Detroit
plans bright
Super Bowl
DETROIT (AP) - The host committee for Super
Bowl 2006 at Ford Field is planning to shine a light
on some of the downtown's architectural treasures
in an effort to make it as attractive as possible for
the 100,000-plus visitors.
Special lighting for the historic Detroit Athletic
Club, as well as the Renaissance Center and other
downtown skyscrapers will illuminate the area the
week of the NFL championship game. Organizers
also are considering using giant screens to show the
game to those on the outside.
Planners also are designing permanent kiosks to
help visitors find their way around the downtown,
the Detroit Free Press said yesterday.
Organizers say they know it would be counter-
productive to cover up the downtown's dead zones
and areas of vacant and abandoned structures.
"It's got to be not only authentically Detroit, but
we also want to be authentic," said Bob Buckler,
president of DTE Energy Distribution and head of
a subcommittee of the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host
Committee that is planning the lighting effects.
"We're pushing for things that are real, that will
last, that are not insubstantial.
"We want to use this as a catalyst for change."
Details of the plan are being released today at a
meeting of the civic group Detroit Downtown Inc.
Detroit Super Bowl organizers are planning an
$11-million preparation program leading up to the
Feb. 5, 2006 game.
The Detroit Super Bowl host committee sent
about 120 people to Jacksonville, Fla., to observe
the 2005 Super Bowl.
The Detroit-area's Tourism Economic Develop-
ment Council in January unveiled an ad campaign,
which features the slogan, "The world is coming
- get in the game."
EUGENE ROBERTSON/Daily
Robert Arevalo, a Kinesiology junior, works as a student manager at the Trotter House
yesterday.
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