NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 26, 2005 - 3A
ON CAMPUS
Trotter House to
host BBQ tonight
The Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs pro-
gram will host a BBQ at the newly reno-
vated William Monroe Trotter House
today at 6 p.m. Students are invited to
bring a side dish and come eat with other
students and faculty members.
Poet to lecture on
medicine and art
The Institute for the Humanities has
invited award-winning poet and physi-
cian Roy Jacobstein to campus to talk
about his diverse life path, poetry and
medicine and how they converge. The
lecture will be held today at noon in the
Osterman Common Room of the Rack-
ham building..
Classroom
" speaking skills
topic of workshop
University faculty are invited to hone
their public speaking skills at a two-part
workshop from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
today. The presentation will focus on
ways to enhance teaching skills in ways
that benefit students. The workshop will
take place in the CRLT Seminar room of
Palmer Commons, and a light summer
will be served.
CRIME
NOTES
Wallet, credit
cards stolen on
East Ann Street
On Sept. 24 at 10:45 p.m., a female
student was the victim of robbery on East
Ann Street, according to the Department
of Public Safety. The victim was robbed
of her wallet and credit cards. The two
suspects forced the victim to reveal her
PIN number as well. The suspects were
described as a male with a three quar-
ter-length black coat and a female with
shoulder-length blonde hair, carrying a
purse. The victim was not injured. Upon
police arrival, the suspects were gone.
Patient acquiring
drugs illegally
A patient at the University Hospital
was found to be acquiring prescription
drugs by fraudulent means. The case is
currently under investigation, accord-
ing to DPS.
Laptop stolen
from Grad Library
A laptop computer was stolen on the
afternoon of Sep. 24th at the Harlan
Hatcher Graduate Library. The larceny
occurred within a 10-minute time frame.
The suspect was described as wearing an
unknown color fleece jacket. The suspect
was gone upon police arrival.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
'U' includes co-eds
*in defense effort
Sept. 26, 1942 - University students
will be offered a first-hand opportunity
to "do their bit" for the war effort. The
University announced that it will be offer-
0 ing courses in first aid, home nursing,
typewriting, Braille and child care in the
upcoming semester.
All of these classes are being started in
order to prepare women for the war-time
independence that they will inevitably face
upon graduation, as well as train them to
join in on the defense effort.
First aid classes will be set to meet
10 times per semester with the prin-
ciple aim of "provid(ing) instruction for
immediate intelligent care" in emergen-
cy situations. Nursing classes will focus
on hygiene and nutrition in the home
and in the community.
A couple of the most unusual classes that
will be offered in this defense-structured pro-
gram will be one on motor mechanics and
another in Braille. Class work included in
MSA budget in compliance with court ruling
Revamped plan will allow
funds to be allocated in a
'viewpoint-neutral' way
By Anne VanderMey
Daily Staff Reporter
In order to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court deci-
sion, the Michigan Student Assembly has approved
a resolution that will simplify the assembly's budget
and give it a larger role in planning and operating
events that it sponsors.
Moreover, student groups can expect to see an
overall increase in funding from past years, while
the assembly itself will be responsible for less money,
leaving a significant portion of MSA's formidable
bank account in the hands of its committees and
commissions.
The change comes after last year's Chief of Staff
Elliot Wells-Reid brought a suit against MSA to the
Central Student Judiciary. The judiciary found MSA
in potential violation of the U.S. Supreme Court rul-
ing in University of Wisconsin v. Southworth, which
said that student governments must take adequate
steps to assure that all student groups were consid-
ered equally for funding.
According to the ruling, MSA was in violation of
Southworth because it was not necessarily "viewpoint
neutral" in all of its allocations. According to Justice
Anthony Kennedy, who delivered the opinion of the
U.S. Supreme Court in Southworth, "the whole the-
ory of viewpoint neutrality is that minority views are
treated with the same respect as are majority views."
In other words, CSJ required that the assembly be
more neutral in whom it allocated funds to from its
budget. To guard against further litigation, the ruling
stripped the assembly of the ability to directly access
the committee discretionary account, a fund contain-
ing approximately $100,000, until it could become
Southworth compliant.
The new resolution aims to address these problems
cited in last year's ruling against MSA by revamp-
ing the assembly's $700,000 budget and reconstruct-
ing the way money is allocated to student groups.
The resolution also ensures that MSA will be able to
legally access funds that the central student judiciary
enjoined last fall.
"This is the biggest change to our code in years,"
MSA President Jesse Levine said.
Stuart Wagner, chair of the Campus Improve-
ment Commission, who co-authored the resolution
with Levine, said it was important for MSA to make
changes to its allocation system so that it could access
the money that was taken away from it when the judi-
ciary ruled them to be in violation of Southworth.
"I wrote the proposal because MSA would not be
able to function without it ... we would have been
unable to fund a lot of the things we needed to fund,"
Wagner said.
In past years, most student groups applying for
funding went through the Budget Priorities Com-
mittee, however, those who knew the nuances of
the system could apply directly to MSA's Commit-
tee Discretionary Account, which tended to give out
more money than the BPC. The lawsuit that was orig-
inally filed against MSA involved the environmental
advocacy group PIRGIM asking MSA for $20,000,
This was construed as unfair treatment because
groups applying through the Budget Priorities Com-
mittee typically received a maximum of only $5,000.
Under the new code, almost all funding will come
from the Budget Priorities Committee, and MSA will
only pay for special events.
"(The new resolution) dispels any perception that
any 'in' to MSA will provide for better results in the
funding process," Levine said.
The resolution will shrink MSA's Committee Dis-
cretionary Account from $100,000 to $15,000, and
create a separate MSA Student Sponsored Activities
and Events Account containing $50,000. Addition-
ally, while MSA formerly had free reign over the
contents of the discretionary account, it now has
extensive guidelines about how and when it can be
accessed.
"We basically took a sentence and replaced it
with three or four pages," Wagner said. "The code
we passed complies with the University of Wisconsin
v. Southworth." Wagner added the new code would
protect MSA from potential lawsuits stemming from
the Supreme Court decision.
Under the new system, MSA commissions and
committees will be given more money at the begin-
ning of the year that they will budget for the entire
semester, said MSA treasurer Devesh Senapati.
Before, these groups had to apply for funding every
time they needed money.
"There are some fundamental events that MSA
works on every year. By giving these commissions
a set budget, (we) give them flexibility," Levine said.
"But they still have to turn in those receipts; there's
still that accountability there."
Planning a budget isn't the only new responsibil-
ity of MSA committee chairs. The new resolution
includes a clause that requires individuals with offi-
cial ties to MSA to participate in the planning and
operation of any event that the assembly sponsors.
"(We are) hoping that this will assure that the
assembly will be involved in the event rather than just
throwing money at it," Wagner said.
The previous process was "unstructured," accord-
ing to Senapati, who said he spent a large chunk of
his summer "wading through mounds of restrictions
of paperwork and code." He believes that a more
straightforward way of doing things will make MSA's
ledgers simpler and more transparent.
"It's a really complex issue, but I'm really proud
of it. I think it's something that will change the
assembly for the better now and when I'm gone,"
Levine said.
Wagner expressed measured confidence in the
new budgetary procedures.
"We don't know how it's going to go; this could
completely flop," he said. "But I don't think it will."
Boeing, machinists
reach agreement
SEATTLE (AP) - The Boeing Co. and
its Machinists union have reached a tenta-
tive contract agreement, which if approved
would end a three-week strike that shut
down the company's airplane production.
Connie Kelliher, a spokeswoman for
Machinists District Lodge 751 in Seat-
tle, confirmed the agreement yesterday
and said details would be released later
that evening.
About 18,400 Machinists who assemble
Boeing's commercial airplanes and some
key components walked off the job on Sept.
2, forcing the Chicago-based company to
immediately stop its airplane production.
Boeing Chief Financial Officer James
Bell had earlier said the strike could
result in more than two dozen airplanes
not reaching customers this month,
although analysts said a strike lasting a
month or less would likely not result in
serious problems for Boeing.
The two sides have been far apart
on issues including monthly pension
payouts and health care premiums.
Before striking, machinists in the
Puget Sound area, Gresham, Ore.,
and Wichita, Kan., overwhelm-
ingly rejected a three-year contract
proposal their leaders had called
"insulting."
The workers are paid an average
of $59,000 a year.
Boeing spokesman Chaz Bickers
could not immediately be reached
for comment yesterday, but earlier
in the day he confirmed that nego-
tiations had resumed.
The strike came as Boeing's com-
mercial airplane business, which
had sagged under the weight of the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a weak
U.S. economy, started to improve.
Boeing had racked up 529 orders
through the end of July, compared with
299 orders for rival Airbus SAS.
Airbus is ahead on deliveries so
far this year, with 216 planes as of
the end of July, compared with 179
for Boeing. Boeing expects to deliv-
er 320 airplanes this year, and Air-
bus expects to deliver 360.
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understand the principle of access to
information while protecting privacy. SI
students do not master technology for its
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who have traditionally been under-served.
Be part of it. Connect with SI.
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