Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Opinion 4A
Sports 11A
Daniel Adams
recalls his fifth
day at school
Chris Burke
reflects on five
years of sports
BLOCKBUSTERS AHEAD: SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW ... ARTS, PAGE 8A
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One-hundred f~ urteen years of editorialdfreedomn
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TOMORROWM
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0 www.michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXV, No. 122
02005 The Michigan Daily
Housing
upkeep
wornes
students
By Kim Tomlin
Daily Staff Reporter
LSA senior Ross Bookman is afraid to
stand on his front porch. One night, a large
pillar holding the roof over the porch col
lapsed, landing on his car parked in the
adjacent driveway. The car suffered large
dents and had to be taken to the shop for
bodywork.
After that, "even the mailman said he
would not come on the porch because he
feared for his safety," said Bookman, add-
ing that the
inside of the Y ,
houses in a PART
state of disre-
pair equiva-
lent to the
porch.
Kinesiol-
ogy senior
Robert Her- v
rera, who
also lives in
the house, said he was disappointed with
the upkeep of the house that includes fall-
ing ceiling panels, holes in the stairs and
broken bedroom door locks.
Similar to Bookman and Herrera, LSA
junior Paul Fraumann's house is in violation
of the city's housing code. Visitors have to
step over doors that have rotted off their hing-
es, and they have to avoid insects that enter
the house through holes in the ceiling where
broken ceiling panels have not been replaced.
Duct tape holds the doors closed and prevents
air from drafting through the poorly insulated
windows. The screens on the windows had
gotten so bad that a squirrel managed to enter
Fraumann's room, scratched him and woke
mm up from a nap.
"It was traumatizing," he said.
Fraumana's room, located at the very
top of the house, also subjects him to
outside weather conditions - another
violation of the city housing code, which
requires that all doors and windows be
properly insulated.
"Honestly, during the winter it was
probably 20 to 30 degrees in my room.
I had to type with gloves on," said Frau-
mann, expressing frustration with the high
heating bills he and his roommates paid
this winter.
While many students have expressed
similar frustrations, what most of them
don't often realize is that landlords are
required to keep houses in compliance with
the city's housing code - which makes
ceiling holes, poorly insulated windows
and leaky roofs illegal.
City. housing inspectors are required to
probe the off-campus houses every two and
a half years and check to make sure foun-
dations, floors, ceilings, walls and roofs are
be in good repair and kept insulated from
weather and rodents. In addition, stairs and
porches must be maintained and "facilities
must be capable of heating all habitable
rooms, including bathrooms to 68 degrees
when the temperature outside is as low as
10 degrees below zero," according to the
city's code.
Areas commonly neglected by landlords
include plumbing, electrical maintenance,
See HOUSING, Page 7A
MCRI sued
over
language
LANSING (AP) - Another challenge was
launched yesterday against an initiative that
would ban the use of race and gender preferences
in university admissions and government hiring
in Michigan. °
A pro-affirmative action group says some
voters were tricked into signing a petition they
thought would protect affirmative action when
the initiative would actually hurt those programs.
A complaint was faxed to state election officials
yesterday afternoon in an attempt to block a pro-
posed constitutional amendment targeting the
November 2006 election, opponents said.
"People were deceived," said Luke Massie,
chairman of Operation King's Dream, a cam-
paign affiliated with BAMN. "There is an over-
whelming pattern of fraud specifically with
black voters, but it extends beyond black voters
to white and suburban voters."
The group backing the proposal - the
Michigan Civil Rights Initiative - successful-
ly defended the wording of its petition in state
courts last year. The next fight could be certify-
ing enough of the 508,000 signatures of Michi-
gan voters collected in its petition drive.
The group must have at least 317,757 valid
signatures of Michigan voters to qualify for the
ballot. Michigan Civil Rights Initiative executive
director Jennifer Gratz said she was confident her
group has enough signatures to make the ballot,
and that the claims made by BAMN and Opera-
tion King's Dream were without merit.
"It's just not going to work," Gratz said. "They
are grasping at straws. The courts have said our
language was clear."
See MCRI, Page 3A
UCCESS
advantage of
d,,rugs to stay&
BY CARISSA MILLER E DAILY STAFF REPORTER
W hen coffee and Red Bull aren't enough
to stay awake during those long hours
of studying, many students say they are
tempted to turn to prescription drugs like Adderall, a
stimulant that enables its users to go without sleep for
extended periods of time.
However, for some students, the use of Adderall
is not limited to the two-week finals period. Instead,
these individuals use the drug year-round to manage
their workload and study for exams.
One such student, an LSA freshman who wished
to remain anonymous, said she began using Adder-
all in high school after a friend who was prescribed it
offered her the drug during a study session. But since
entering college, she said her usage has increased, and
she considers herself very dependent on the drug. She
said she normally takes 20 to 30 milligrams every 12
hours during periods of use.
Part of the dependency stems from the overwhelm-
ing amount of homework she needs to grapple with
during the semester.
"Although I didn't really have problems concen-
trating, I found it took me a lot longer to study than
other people," she said. "Without Adderall, I can't sit
down and study for as long as I can when I'm on it."
The student added that she now considers her
dependency on Adderall to be more psychological
than physical. Specifically, she said she feels that if
See STUDENTS, Page 5A
Use of prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes
Drug v s c baser on livng arrangement
15
te1
9
6
3
Resh
PHOTO ILLUSTR ATION BY AMY DRUMM/Daily
A number of students use "study drugs" to help them stay up late or be more alert while studyingfor finals.
StudydrsHow do they work?
Co-ed OtherlJ'
Ience Hall Housing
frtesnty f f Campus
By Kingson Man
Daily Staff Reporter
For the 3 to 7 percent of students diag-
nosed with Attention Deficit Hyperac-
tivity Disorder, stimulants like Ritalin
or Adderall may mean the difference
between success and failure in classes.
The exact mechanism by which these
drugs work, however, is still a puzzle for
scientists. And, for students who abuse
these prescription medications, the results
are often unpredictable.
The popular prescription drug dex-
troamphetamine, sold under the names
Adderall and Dexedrine, is a central ner-
vous system stimulant. Its effects on dif-
ferent kinds of people, however, can be
counterintuitive.
Despite being called stimulants, the
class of drugs known as amphetamines
actually has a calming effect on suffer-
ers of ADHD. Children afflicted with the
disorder "don't have the capacity to con-
centrate, and trail and shift from one task
to another," said Maher Karam-Hage, an
See DRUGS, Page 3A
'4.-
0r
p'
au
4'
U
1'
Drug use basedon competitiveness ofuniversity
5
4
3
I
Less
campet tive 4
Past year use
U Past month use 0
Competitive competitive
ags are Pitatin, Dexedrine, Adderati
I I
WATERED-DOWN MILE
MSA-approved student fee
increases now up to regents
By Jeremy Davidson
Daily Staff Reporter
While the Michigan Student Assembly approved
proposing three student fee increases for the fall
semester, and is currently making recommendations to
University Vice President for Student Affairs Royster
Harper, the decision will not be finalized until Harper
makes a recommendation to the University Board of
Regents.
MSA has asked the administration to charge stu-
dents an additional $3.50 on their tuition bills for MSA
fees. The increase would support expansion of Student
Legal Services and an more money for MSA's Budget
Priorities Committee.
"We had about $600,000 worth of requests from
well over 300 groups," Senapati said.
The amount of funding BPC provides student
groups is on average-about 33 percent of the amount
they request. The proposed change would increase this
number to 45 percent.
"That means more events and activities on campus,"
Levine said.
In a ballot question during the MSA elections in
March that asked students if they would be in favor of
a one dollar increase in tuition to fund the BPC, 1,326
students, 62 percent of those who voted, agreed with
the proposal.
Senapati said that in addition to wanting to make
campus life more enjoyable, MSA wants to make
Ii Illi!i! IS
.