NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - 3
ON CAMPUS
Dance group
auditions to be
held tonight
Impact Dance will hold auditions
from 8 to 11 p.m. in the Michigan
League Ballroom. The student-run
group performs a variety of dance
styles throughout the school year.
Group will teach
Latin culture at
mass meeting
La Voz Latina, a Latino student
group, will be holding a mass meet-
ing in the Angela Davis Lounge
of Mary Markley Residence Hall
beginning at 8 p.m. Students will
have the opportunity to learn about
various Latino groups on campus.
0
Amateur 'ham'
radio holds mass
meeting today
The University of Michigan Ama-
teur Radio Club will hold a mass
meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. in room
3437 of the Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science Building on
North Campus. New students and
those interested in amateur "ham"
radio are encouraged to attend.
CRIME
NOTES
From bench to
hospital: a drunken
man's saga
An ambulance was requested for
a drunk man passed out on a bench
of the Undergraduate Library facing
Ulrich's bookstore, accodring to the
Department of Public Safety.
The 33-year-old man was uncon-
scious and unresponsive due to
excessive alcohol intake. He was
taken to the University Hospital
emergency room by the Huron Val-
ley Ambulance.
Unarmed robber
flees before police
can catch up
A robbery occurred near South
Forest and Hill streets Monday
night. The perpetrator had no weap-
on, but instead used force. The Ann
Arbor Police Department described
the suspect as a 5'10" male with a
small goatee, wearing a sleeveless
undershirt. The suspect fled the
scene on foot heading towards Oak-
land Street.
Wheelchair bandit
still on the loose
A caller reported Monday that a
wheelchair was stolen during the
Notre Dame vs. Michigan game in
the Big House.
A DPS supervisor said the owner
was most likely not in the wheel-
chair when it was stolen, and it was
f probably left unattended. There are
no suspects, at this time.
THIs DAY
In Daily History
Many employees
strike after labor
dispute with 'U'
Sept. 14, 1967 - Dorm picketing by
University staff intensified as a labor dis-
pute continued over Public Act 379, which
grants bargaining rights to public employ-
ees.
The University administration brought
a suit to court arguing that PA 379 is inap-
plicable to the school and infringes on its
traditional constitutional autonomy.
In protest, 200 employees working all
Granholm's chief of staff steps down
LANSING (AP) - Gov. Jennifer Granholm is
going into her last year in office and her reelection
campaign without chief of staff Rick Wiener.
Wiener, 58, said yesterday he will leave his post
on Nov. 1. John Burchett, head of the Democratic
governor's office in Washington will take over for
Wiener. Burchett will begin some of his new job
responsibilities next month.
Wiener said he isn't worried that his departure
will hurt the governor's campaign. She's expected
to face Republican businessman Dick DeVos in the
November 2006 election.
"I would never, ever desert her if I were worried
about that," Wiener told reporters Tuesday.
Granholm has not yet officially said she's run-
ning, but a "Granholm for Governor" Website
urges supporters to donate their time and money
to her campaign.
Burchett, a native of Grosse Pointe Woods, has
been friends with Granholm and her husband, Dan
Mulhern, since the three met while attending Har-
vard Law School, said Granholm communications
director Genna Gent.
Yesterday, Granholm called Burchett a "tremen-
dous closer, a tremendous organizer and an incred-
ibly smart person."
Burchett, 43, has served in a number of positions
in Washington since moving there in 1997. Before
heading east, he was an assistant corporation coun-
sel in Wayne County, specializing in real estate and
economic development projects for three years.
Granholm was Wayne County's corporation
counsel before she won the attorney general's seat
in 1998. She won the governor's race in 2002 and
asked Wiener to head her transition team and then
to be her chief of staff.
Daniel Beattie will replace Burchett as the direc-
tor of Michigan's office in Washington, Granholm
announced later yesterday. Beattie, 39, currently
is the office's deputy director and handles a num-
ber of issues, including transportation, energy and
natural resources.
Granholm emphasized that it was Wiener's deci-
sion to leave.
"While I knew about it a couple of months ago,
and I've done everything I can to try to convince
him to change his mind, this is Rick's decision,"
Granholm said. "He will not be leaving the team,
he will just be in a different role."
Wiener said he would not discuss his future
plans until after he leaves the administration. He
was the state Democratic Party chairman from
1983-89 and then ran a lobbying business in Lan-
sing with his wife, Raj. He divested himself of his
share in the lobbying business before becoming
chief of staff.
Then-GOP Chairwoman Betsy Devos had com-
plained last year to the state Ethics Board that a
conflict of interest existed with Wiener working as
Granholm's chief of staff while his wife owned a
lobbying firm. The bipartisan board unanimously
voted against starting an investigation, saying
DeVos did not mention any instances of wrongdo-
ing in her complaint.
Yesterday, Wiener listed the grueling schedule
that goes with a campaign as one of the reasons for
his departure. I
"I likened the situation to kind of like driving a
car. I'm not out of gas, and I wasn't out of gas, but
as I looked at my dashboard, the light was blink-
ing," he said. "I felt at the time, and continue to,
that at some point I would run out of gas."
Wiener said the timing of his announcement
was good. He pointed to a recent bipartisan spend-
ing agreement for the fiscal year that starts in a
few weeks and to the progress that's being made
on adjusting business taxes and boosting the state's
economy.
Bill Rustem, an environmental aide to former
Gov. William Milliken who now is vice president
of Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants, said
Tuesday's announcement is understandable.
"It's far enough in front of the election so that
they're able to develop new relationships," Rustem
said. "You can't do it in April next year because
you would be in the throes of the campaign."
Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, a Wyo-
ming Republican, said in a statement that Wiener
was a tremendous asset to Granholm.
"I've known Rick for 30 years and have always
appreciated his forthrightness," Sikkema said. "It's
been a pleasure working with him as the gover-
nor's chief of staff because his honesty and integ-
rity always shined through. Rick represents what is
good and decent about public service. He set a high
standard that we should all aspire to."
U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak) gave
Wiener credit for the experience he brought to the
job but said Burchett brings a wealth of experience
as well.
UVA appoints
diversity chief
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Uni-
versity of Virginia officials yes-
terday named a national expert on
college diversity to a newly created
position combatting racial tension
on campus.
William Harvey, 57, former vice
president of the Center for Advance-
ment of Racial and Ethnic Equity in
Washington will begin as the vice
president and chief officer for diver-
sity and equity at the Charlottesville
campus on Nov. 1.
"Bill Harvey has long been a
strong voice on matters of diversi-
ty," University of Virginia President
John Casteen III said in a statement.
"I look forward to the impact he will
have on our curricula, on teaching
and learning within the university
and on the larger community."
He faces molding the newly cre-
ated position from scratch, while
making changes at a school known
as a racial tinderbox.
The university has grappled with
a string of racially charged inci-
dents, including a 2002 incident in
which students painted their faces
black and attacks on minority stu-
dents in 2003.
}ast month, police rsponded
to three reports of racial epithets
yelled from passing cars, and two
incidents of similar slurs written in
front of a dorm room and an apart-
ment.
About 10 percent of the school's
roughly 13,000 undergraduates are
black.
"Of course it was disturbing,"
said Harvey, who has tasted campus
racism first hand.
He recalled how, as a freshman
during the '60s, he got his own
dorm room at his suburban Phila-
delphia college, because adminis-
trators wouldn't let a white student
room with him.
"Even though there are some
things that are happening on cam-
pus that are quite positive, obvious-
ly there are some things that need to
be addressed," Harvey said.
His appointment follows a nine-
month search. The President's Com-
mission on Diversity and Equity, a
year-long study launched in Septem-
ber 2003, urged creating the post.
Duties include implementing
commission recommendations and
taking the school's overall racial
temperature, school spokeswoman
Carol Wood said.
"This person will really be the
leader ... reporting directly to the
president to assess the culture of the
university," she said.
Harvey, the former dean of the
School of Education at the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, also
will have appointments in the Curry
School of Education and the Afri-
can-American Studies Program at
Virginia, Wood said.
Harvey said what encouraged him
about the University of Virginia
was the seeming commitment to
change.
He pointed to Access UVa., a
recently expanded university pro-
gram offering financial aid to many
economically underprivileged
minorities as well as the creation of
his own position.
Harvey planned extensive inter-
views with students and staff to pin-
point the racial climate, as well as
statistical studies and forums.
He called cleaning up the uni-
versity's reputation "a challenging
prospect."
"I don't have any illusion I'm
going to go in there today and
tomorrow thing will be different,"
he said.
DYUYOR
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