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One-hundredfourteen years ofed'orzzlfreedom
www.mchiandaiy.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXV, No. 147 ®2005 The Michigan Daily
FROM THE EDITORS
Today, we at The Michigan Daily debut
our new magazine, The Statement.
For many years, this Thursday insert
was known as Weekend Magazine, but
we felt it needed a change. This new
magazine has an updated design, new
content and a more defined focus.
Instead of being strictly a local campus-life
magazine, The Statement features more
in-depth reporting on issues affecting
both the University and the city of Ann
Arbor. It is more intelligent, with the goal
of exposing new ideas and information to
readers in a magazine format. We have kept
some favorites from Weekend Magazine,
but have shfted our overall vision.
It is our goal to provide you, the readers,
with the highest quality journalism each
day. The Statement reflects this goal.
. -4
Jason Z. Pesick
Editor in Chief
Doug Wernert
Magazine Editor
'seen as
city and
regional
tech hub
By Michael Kan
Daily News Editor
YPSILANTI - Is Ann Arbor the next Sili-
con Valley?
Not likely. But local business leaders, along
with the University administration, hope to cul-
tivate their own hi-tech commercial hub in the
surrounding region to boost the city and the
state's economy.
Elected officials and local companies con-
vened yesterday to address Michigan's ailing
economy at the annual Ann Arbor Area Cham-
ber of Commerce conference known by its new
name, Impact 2005.
Once a mainstay of Michigan's economy, the
state's automotive industry is in decline and
business entrepreneurs and state leaders agreed
it's time to restructure the economy. Cities in
Southeast Michigan would be at the forefront of
this change, conference panelists said, as these
cities have a growing, but largely unknown
resource they can use to revitalize the economy
- high-tech business sectors.
"We have to be prepared for this changing
See IMPACT, Page 7A
Tul ne U to
reopen in Jan
Students, administrators
working to get facilities
working, athletic teams still
playing as a symbolic gesture
By Karl Stampfl
Daily Staff Reporter
HOUSTON - During Hurricane Katrina,
Tulane University President Scott Cowen
refused to abandon his university. He chose
instead to weather the category-4 storm bun-
kered in the Reily Student Recreation Center.
"He felt like he was captain of a sinking ship
and wanted to be there with it," said Tulane
Communications Director Mike Strecker.
Cowen made it through the storm. He and
most other Tulane administrators are now
headquartered in temporary office space in
Houston, miles away from the floods, chaos
and crimes of New Orleans. Their offices,
which they moved into Tuesday after spend-
ing time at Jackson State University in Missis-
sippi and a Houston-area hotel, serve as a base
for information technology, campus facilities
and services, legal counsel, payroll, the office
of the dean of student affairs and admissions,
among other tasks.
None of the university's students, faculty or
staff was killed in the disaster as far as the uni-
versity knows, Strecker said, but they still have
heard from only about 1,700 of their 13,000
students.
The Tulane campus avoided the massive
damage that much of the city suffered because
it rests on the higher ground of Orleans Parish.
Experts believe most of the renovations will be
infrastructure repair.
"Your definition of what a disaster is and
what a bad hit is changes," Strecker said. "I
talked to someone yesterday that had five feet
of water in their home and was thankful it
wasn't more."
It is not yet clear how much it will cost to
clean the campus or how much of that cost
insurance will cover. What is clear is the
commitment university officials have made
to reopening the campus in January for the
spring semester.
"Based on facts and circumstances we are
very confident we will reopen in January,"
Cowen wrote in a mass address to Tulane stu-
dents over the Internet.
Strecker did stress that the campus will not
reopen if the ravaged city is still unsafe for stu-
dents by that time, but he said all signs point
toward it being so.
Most students were on campus before the
hurricane hit August 29. All were evacuated.
Some went back to their homes while others
traveled on university buses to Jackson State
University, where they were sheltered until
they found a means to return to their families
or enroll in other universities.
Among those were the University of Michi-
gan and other academic powerhouses such as
Harvard University and Brown University,
where tens of thousands of students fight for
spots in their classes each year. The University
of Michigan has taken in about 47 undergradu-
ates and a dozen graduate students so far. The
school that accepted the most students was the
University of Texas-Austin, where about 300
Tulane students enrolled.
Faculty have also dispersed to work at insti-
tutions across the country, including the Uni-
versity of Michigan. Faculty generally will not
teach full-time classes, but will continue their
research at those schools, Strecker said.
Despite having no home fields or practice
facilities, Tulane varsity sports teams will play
this season. They will be based in several col-
leges in the South.
Some, especially those in the media, have
balked at the idea of sports continuing while
the rest of the campus and city is in mourn-
ing.
"Our president was very clear that it was
important that the teams continue to play sym-
See TULANE, Page 7A
AP PHOTO
Members of the 82nd Airborne Division make their way toward the Tulane University
medical center In New Orleans, Monday, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina swept
through the city.
Gay porn director returning to campus
By Karl Stampfl
Daily Staff Reporter
A pornographic website plans to continue
its campus-invasion tour this fall after a sum-
mer hiatus, one of the site's producers told
an undercover Michigan Daily reporter in an
instant messenger conversation. The producer
only identified himself as Gary.
Last spring, the producers of the website,
midwestxbois.com, first admitted to filming
on campus in bathrooms and dorm rooms
- a violation of University policy and state
law - then later denied it. But when asked
by the undercover reporter recently whether
the site would agree to film or take pictures
on University property, a producer of the site,
which specializes in gay pornography, wrote,
"We might shoot in a bathroom on campus or
something."
The invasion tour has stretched across
Southwest Michigan from Eastern Michigan
University to Wayne State University. About
30 male models appear on the site. They range
from fully clothed to completely naked, with
some performing sex acts.
Later in the conversation, he also agreed
to film in a dorm room at the University, and
recalled filming in dorms at Michigan State
University. The University's residence hall
lease prohibits students from running a com-
mercial business out of their dorm rooms.
The producer also said he had filmed out-
doors in a state park near MSU. The charge
for engaging in sex or pornography in pub-
lic places would be indecent exposure, which
could qualify as a misdemeanor and include
up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
When asked if he knew that it was illegal to
film or take pictures of pornography on cam-
pus, the producer told the undercover reporter
not to worry, that they would only do it if they
were sure they would not be caught.
If the University discovered that the film-
ing was taking place, it would take immedi-
ate action, University spokeswoman Julie
Peterson said. Peterson said Department of
Public Safety officers and the Student Affairs
staff was alerted and will be watchful for evi-
dence of activity like recruitment posters or
murmurs within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgender community. No evidence
has been found.
The first invasion tour prompted last
spring's e-mail from University Dean of Stu-
dents Sue Eklund warning students against
participating in pornography on campus, not-
ing its psychological effects, as well as its
illegality. Peterson stressed the University's
concern that the site will exploit students,
who are just beginning to develop and under-
stand their sexual identity.
"For a young person, the invitation to
appear in a film may feel momentarily excit-
ing and empowering," Peterson said. "But
those decisions may ultimately prove damag-
ing to the person in ways he or she may not
immediately be able to foresee."
As an example, she pointed to the Universi-
ty's Sexual Assault Crisis Line, which some-
times fields calls from students disturbed that
videos or pictures of them engaging in sexual
acts have been shared via the Internet.
The producer said the site uses hotel
rooms for the majority of its filming of col-
lege students.
Baghdad sees bloodiest day of war
A1-Zarqawi, leader of
al-Qaida in Iraq, allegedly
declares 'all-out war' on
Shiites, Iraqi government
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - More than a
dozen highly coordinated bombings ripped
through Baghdad yesterday, killing at least
160 people and wounding 570 in the cap-
ital's bloodiest day since the end of major
combat. Many of the victims were day
laborers lured by a suicide attacker posing
as an employer. Al-Qaida claimed respon-
sibility for the attacks in the name of Sunni
insurgents, saying it was a retaliation for the
rout of militants at a base close to the Syr-
ian border.
The spasm of violence terrorized the capi-
tal for more than nine hours. The first attack,
at 6:30 a.m., was the deadliest: a suicide car
blast which tore through the predominantly
Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Kazimiyah.
In what was believed to be a new tactic,
the bomber set off the explosive after call-
ing the construction and other workers to his
small van and enticing them with promises
of employment, a witness said. At least 112
people were killed and more than 200 were
wounded, according to Health Ministry offi-
cials. Twisted hulks of vehicles blocked the
bloodstained main street in Kazimiyah's
Oruba Square.
Al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-
Zarqawi, purportedly declared "all-out war"
on Shiites, Iraqi troops and the government
in an audiotape posted Wednesday on an
Internet site known for carrying extremist
Islamic content.
The al-Zarqawi tape was a clear attempt,
coming on the heels of the attacks, to create
a climate of fear, sow deeper sectarian dis-
cord and scare Iraqis away from the Oct. 15
referendum on a new constitution.
Iraqi forces arrested two insurgents in
connection with the Kazimiyah bombing,
one of them a Palestinian and the other a
Libyan, Iraqi television quoted Prime Min-
ister Ibrahim al-Jaafari as saying. Al-Jaafari
also said the suicide bomber was a Syrian,
without offering any details how the identi-
fication was made so quickly.
The attacks came as U.S. and Iraqi forces
pressed their offensive against insurgents in
the northern city of Tal Afar and along the
Euphrates River valley, striking hard at what
officials have said were militants sneaking
across the border from Syria.
Al-Qaida in Iraq said in a Web posting
that it launched the attacks, some less than
10 minutes apart, in response to the Tal Afar
offensive, which began Saturday and evict-
ed most insurgents from the city about 50
miles from Syria and 260 miles northwest
of Baghdad.
"To the nation of Islam, we give you the
good news that the battles of revenge for the
See IRAQ, Page 5A
AP PHOTO
Iraqi soldiers lead away men they detained after three fellow soldiers were injured by a booby trap
in Tal Afar, Iraq, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, yesterday. A senior U.S. military official said he
believed a rash of bombings in Baghdad was retaliation for the joint Iraqi-U.S. sweep through Tal
Afar in recent days to evict insurgents from their stronghold near the Syrian border.
Con artists use Katrina tragedy to lure in e-mail scam victims