NEWS The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 26, 2005 - 7A FELONY Continued from page 1A other students might commit against them. The Michigan Daily was unable to contact the alleged victims, whose names have not been released by AAPD. University administrators and other campus leaders were unwilling to share the information. Stephanie Kao, a Business senior and presi- dent of the United Asian American Organiza- tions, said that whether the incident is true or not is beside the point - it highlights the negative campus climate toward Asians students. "A lot of us are angry about these racial slurs - we're so focused on this issue of urination and beer. It's beyond this issue at this point. This incident might have been the catalyst, but we are trying to address why these incidents are pos- sible and what in this University climate makes it possible and acceptable for racial harassment to happen," Kao said. She added that since the alleged crime was publicized, UAAO has received numerous mes- sages from Asian students who said they were victims of racial harassment on campus before. Suspects recount incident However, the accused said this incident was completely and illogically misinterpreted as a racially motivated act. The student accused of urinating on the two Asian students stressed that it is nearly impossible to urinate off their balcony, The fence around it is about five feet high, made of wood with only half an inch slit between the boards, where the suspect allegedly urinated through onto the couple. In order for someone to urinate off the balcony someone would have to be standing on a chair, the sus- pect said. He added that there is also a set of bike racks immediately under their apartment so it is difficult to walk directly under the balcony. The student suspected of urinating on the cou- ple said the night started off in typical fashion with only him and his roommate hanging out on the balcony playing beer pong. While an Asian couple walked by, his roommate tossed a beer absentmindedly over the side of the balcony. The roommate insisted that it was a coinci- dence that he threw the beer while the couple was walking by, but he said it was at least seven or eight feet away from them. "I'm almost positive nothing hit them," he said. Both of the accused said that in response the Asian male used profanities and flicked a Dun- hill cigarette at them, which hit one the suspects, a 21-year-old male, in the arm. Amused by the gesture, the 21-year old male said he picked up the cigarette and started smok- ing it. Both admitted to exchanging profanities, but none involving racial epithets. After a few minutes of arguing, the accused said the couple walked around the corner lead- ing them to believe the incident was over. However, the incident escalated when they said the Asian male showed up approximately 45 minutes later with four other male friends. The Asian female was not present. The accused said that the five men were yell- ing at them to come downstairs and fight. "If you show up with five people against two, how can you turn around and say your were ethnically intiifnidating them. It was five to 2two - he brought a gang to our apartment," the 21- year-old male said. The 20-year-old male said he went downstairs to try to resolve the issue, because the Asian stu- dent believed he threw the beer intentionally at the michigan daiy, them. However, the suspect said there was only more yelling, and he decided to go back inside. "I didn't think we could resolve anything with five pissed off people, and I wasn't going to wait outside all night," the 20-year-old male said. LSA junior Amanda Beliveau, who lives right next door to the accused, said she also went down stairs to defuse the situation. She said she started talking to the alleged vic- tim who told her, "They almost spilled beer on my girlfriend" and "They could have peed on us." Beliveau said she did not believe her neigh- bor urinated on the alleged victims because she thought he would have brought it up then if it did indeed happen. She added the male also wanted the number for Prime Student Housing, the owner of the building, to get them evicted. After five minutes of trying unsuccessfully to placate the five men, Beliveau gave up and went back upstairs to her apartment. Another neighbor, LSA senior George Saba and a Daily business staff member, said he stepped out of his apartment when he heard yell- ing at about 11:25 p.m. He said he saw five males below trying to incite a fight with his neighbors. The 20-year-old suspect said that even though there were five men, he was not afraid to leave his apartment because it was a Thursday night and the streets were illuminated. He left and went to use the ATM and get a pack of cigarettes around 11:45 p.m. When he returned the men were still waiting for him. Another exchange of profanities ensued - yet the accused said they never used a racial slur. When one of the five men below was yell- ing at them in Korean, the 20-year-old male said, "You are going to have to speak English. I don't understand you." To this one of men replied, "Why don't you learn to speak Korean, bitch." The 21-year-old male said at one point during the exchange, he was referred to as "white fat American piggy." AAPD arrives on the scene Minutes later, the 20-year-old said the AAPD arrived, and he ran upstairs. Neither of the accused knew who called the.AAPD, but the 21- year-old male thought it was the Asian female from earlier. Having had three or four beers, the 20-year- old male did not want to risk an MIP, so he bar- ricaded himself in his apartment. In other news sources, the suspect was identified as a 21-year- old, which didn't address this possibility of why he was hiding from the police. "I didn't want to get an MIP and I just thought I could deal with it tomorrow," he said. Since his roommate was of legal drinking age, he volunteered to talk to the police. The 21-year-old male said he talked with the police and tried to explain his account of the evening. He said the police in turn offered him an ultimatum: either his roommate comes out or he was to be arrested. His neighbor Saba said he heard one the offi- cers say to him at one point "I don't believe you." After communicating with the police, the 21- year old male entered the apartment and told his roommate he was facing charges of ethnic intimi- dation for allegedly urinating on the couple. When he would not come out, The AAPD officers took the 21-year-old male to the station to be questioned, fingerprinted and have his pic- ture taken. He said he was there for half an hour and he was not charged with anything. The 21-year-old said that the next day he saw the Asian man and an unrecognizable passenger drive by in a blue subaru and stare at his apart- ment on two separate occasions. He said they drove away before he could take a picture. The AAPD has not confirmed if the two accused are being charged as of yet. Sergeant Pat Hughes said all he can confirm is that the issue is still under investigation. The 20-year-old male said that the AAPD has not returned calls from his lawyer. The AAPD police report included a state- ment from the accused, the two victims and an eyewitness who worked at the parking structure adjacent to the apartment building. In the report, the parking attendant said she witnessed the event from the second floor of the parking structure. She said she saw one of the suspects leaning up against the balcony, but due to the distance was not sure if he was in fact urinating. Also, the attendant said she saw the accused throwing soapy water from their balcony. The 20-year-old male said he was throwing the water off his balcony to clean out the case of a keg. In no way was he aiming it at the men below he said. Despite the outrage from the community, he said he still defends his innocence. "I'm curious as to why these five men who came to my resi- dence and who have threatened my roommate and me have not been investigated. It appears that the administrators and student organiza- tions have taken their words as the truth without hearing our sides of the story. We are innocent of these accusations," he said. Groups rally to action Regardless of the outcome of the alleged fel- ony, many student organizations across campus are planning events to end racial prejudice on the campus. Today, a meeting will be held at the William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center at 5 p.m to discuss what actions the Asian com- munity can take to resolve racial harassment on campus. The Michigan Student Assembly has also prepared a resolution that would allocate MSA funds and plan events to educate students on hate crimes. Andrew Guzman, an LSA junior and the president of Filipino American Student Association, said that the Asian American community has become too complacent with racial discrimination in the past and it is time for the community to step up and speak for itself. "Something as big as (the urination incident) that happened struck me. It moti- vates us. We need to watch out for each other on campus," Guzman said. American Culture Prof. Amy Stillman was one of several faculty members of the Asian Pacific-Islander American Studies program that sent a letter to University administrators on Thursday urging them to take measures to stop racial harassment on campus. Stillman said clearly the Uni- versity needs to expend more effort edu- cating students on the harm racial bias can cause. "Although there have been efforts in past years to educate administrators on (Asian Amer- ican) community needs, it is widely perceived that these efforts have been met repeatedly by administrative indifference," Stillman said. She added, "The University of Michigan, which prides itself on valuing diversity, has failed its (Asian) students. Enough is enough." - Daily Staff Reporter C.C. Song contributed to this report. ACT Continued from page 1A Already, significant numbers of Michigan high school students take the ACT: According to Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, 68 percent of Michigan seniors took the ACT in 2004. Ann Arbor numbers were similar - roughly 63 percent at Huron, Com- munity and Pioneer high schools. Michigan is not the first state to use college entrance exams to encourage high school students to continue their education. Both Colorado and Illinois implemented similar policies several years ago, using the ACT as part of their state assessment. As a result, the number of in-state, ACT-tested freshman enrolled in Colorado and Illinois colleges rose more than 20 percent in 2003, with minorities in the same category expe- riencing similar increases, according a case study done by ACT. "Some of these high school kids may not have figured they would qualify to go to college until they see their scores on the test," said Martin Ack- ley, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education. Indeed, 12 percent of the ACT-tested students enrolled in Colorado colleges said they did not intend to go to college at the time they took the test. While the ACT is the more popular college entrance exam among Michigan high schoolers - only 10 percent of Michigan seniors took the SAT last year - the state decided to use the ACT, instead of another college entrance exam, as the new required test since it was more cost-effective. The competitive bid for the $22.5 million con- tract to develop additional parts of the Michigan Merit Exam was won by Pearson Educational Mea- surement, the parent company of the ACT. Once it is written, the test will include the ACT; WorkKeys, a work skills assessment and additional language arts, mathematics, science and social studies tests. Although the dust has settled and the ACT selected, government officials still have much work to do. The new test must be approved by the U.S. Department of Education in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act, said Ackley. "We are going to be piloting the test over the next couple years. We'll be piloting questions and pilot- ing the exam to get an idea of whether it needs to improved or not," he added. Last week's announcement'said the new test will reach student's desks by spring 2008, yet the actual timeline for implementation is still up in the air. "As far as when the U.S. Department of Ed gives its approval or denial - it's up to them. We hope the sooner the better," Ackley said. The New Test Name: Michigan Merit Exam components: ACT, WorkKeys (work skills test), additional language arts, mathematics, scienCe and social studies Cost: $70 paid by state funds Inauguration: Spring 2008 COPYING Continued from page 1A encountered," Rhetoric Prof. James Porter of Michigan State University said. The University Library System defines plagia- rism as using "another person's ideas and expres- sions in your writing without acknowledging the source is to plagiarize." The definition is changing all the time, said Car- oline Eisner, co-organizer and Sweetland associate director. Eisner attributed the definition's fluidity to the rise of the Internet and today's copy-paste men- tality. She added that part of the reason the writing center decided to organize the conference a year and a half ago was because of the rise in plagiarism due to the Internet. One such plagiarism issue that resulted from the growth in technology is whether it is acceptable to use someone else's website design or PowerPoint template without attribution. "If you want to take a strict literal definition of plagiarism, everyone with a PowerPoint pre- sentation at this conference has been doing it," Porter said. Students in one session answered that question by saying that whether it qualifies as plagiarism depends which class the website or PowerPoint has been created for - if the website is for a history course, it is acceptable to plagiarize because stu- dents are only graded on content, but a web-design course is a different situation. Speakers also debated how plagiarizers and reporters who violate journalistic ethics should be punished. Dan Okrent, Former New York Times public editor and Michigan Daily alum, illustrat- ed the discrepancy by telling the story of Mitch Albom, a Detroit Free Press sports columnist, who Okrent said fabricated part of a column last year. Unlike most journalists who commit similar crimes, Albom was not fired. Okrent suspected this was a result of Albom's status as a best-selling author and the paper's most recognizable figure. At the University, offenders of plagiarism are treated on a case-by-case basis., Possible punish- ments include an "F" on the plagiarized paper, failure in the class or expulsion. Separate academic units deal with plagiarism offenders in different ways. In LSA, for example, students charged with academic misconduct have all relevant material stored in a dean's file. At the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, it can lead to a formal hearing or even the rescinding of a degree. Most attendees and speakers agreed that aware- ness of plagiarism has progressed in recent years. Okrent, whose hiring at the Times was chiefly in response to reporter Jayson Blair's plagiarism scan- dals, said that in the past, plagiarism happened often, but it was not publicized. The Blair scandal put the crime on the forefront. Most speakers agreed on the seri- ousness of the crime. "Plagiarism brought down the most important newspaper in the English-speaking world," Okrent said, referring to the Blair scandal that occurred at the Times. Macarena Hernandez, a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, was directly affected by the Blair scandal. Her columns, written while she worked for the San Antonio Express News, were among the articles Blair copied. She was the first to point out Blair's crimes to his editors, the beginning of a long chain of events that led to his downfall. "I couldn't imagine that someone would just take my stuff," Hernindez said. Someone in the audience of her session yester- day morning asked whether she thought Blair was insane. "He blamed it on drugs and on being bipolar," Hernandez said. "I think he was just lazy." - Lee Wachocki contributed to this report GET PAID TO Drive a Brand New Car! SECRET SHOPPERS NEEDED Now paying drivers $800-$3200 a month. 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