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. I p ence '* The Pentelligent Choice' www.pentel.com 7 Month Lease " No summer sublet hassle! " 2 rooms available in large 6-bedroom house. - Great roommates, quiet, clean. - Handy location on Hill St. - Each room $375/month. -You pay utilities. - Call Rachel: 734-502-0018 You can move in tomorrow! Activism. It sets us apart. School of Information master's students are change agents. They help the public understand the principle of access to information while protecting privacy. SI students do not master technology for its own sake, either. They apply their skills for the benefit of all, but especially for those who have traditionally been under-served. Be part of it. Connect with SI. NSIVLT 01 NEMICHIATM.N_ UINIVEKSIT Y OF MICHIGAN Before: BA, History At St: Library and Information Services Aft'er SI: Science Reference Librarian, University of Oregon ...: v: :"s: n nv::; :...:::::::::::::::: . . :::: . . . ::. .v.:.::: 4 :.::.:.:.:.. .:..:v ..:..: :.:.:.,..,.:::: }..4 .v:::. . ::.v::: .:1.:::.w: vim..:?::.. p:?. :x::;}. ::. :::::.v::.::. ?: ?. . .v:::: f.: ::. v.....:::. .... 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