Friday, September 30, 2005
News 3 Granholm signs bill
to start K12 schools
after Labor Day
Opinion 4 Whitney Dibo wants
you to go to a concert
Arts 8 Dan Savage opens up
about "The Commitment"

WOLVERINES PREPARE FOR DREWI TANTON AND THE SPARTANS ... PAGE 9
One-hundredfifteen years ofeditorialfreedom

www.michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 2 ©2005 The MichiganDaily

Future
courses
to nux
Sdisciplines
By Ian Herbert
Daily StaffWriter
A course on video games that explores
not just the programming involved but
also seriously discusses the role of video
games in society; an undergraduate degree
in public policy that mixes political science
courses with economics courses and even
courses taught at the Gerald R. Ford School
of Public Policy - these kinds of interdis-
ciplinary classes and degrees aren't avail-
able this year. But over the next five years,
the University will introduce more classes
like these that incorporate a variety of sub-
jects - moving away from increasingly
arcane, single-subject concentrations.
The long-term goal of the University's
taskforce on multidisciplinary learn-
ing and team teaching will be to create
many of these interdisciplinary courses
and degrees, said associate provost Phil
Hanlon, who will head up the taskforce.
But in the short term, University Presi-
dent Mary Sue Coleman has given it
the responsibility of creating three new
courses and three new degrees - and she
has provided the taskforce with $2.5 mil-
lion over the next five years to do so.
During her State of the University
address to the Senate Assembly on Mon-
day, Coleman told the faculty they would
be responsible for deciding what these
classes and degrees will look like.
"I know you will lead us in fascinat-
ing directions with your ideas," Coleman
said during her speech to the faculty. "We
could help students see the world from a
dozen different viewpoints, all the while
sitting in a single classroom."
The taskforce is made up of 13 mem-
bers and includes Hanlon, deans and
professors from LSA, the School of Infor-
mation and the School of Public Health
and one undergraduate student. It was
created a year ago to look into the pos-
sibility of team-taught classes, but only
now is Coleman backing the program
with money.
Hanlon said the money would be used
to pay for the faculty man-hours needed
to develop a curriculum and support the
extra faculty and staff needed to get a
new program off the ground. For exam-
ple, more graduate student instructors are
needed for new courses because the Uni-
versity wants to keep the class sizes low
- one of the many barriers that faculty
face when trying to develop new cours-
es. Resources, rewards and bureaucratic
issues are examples of other barriers the
taskforce addressed in its report at the
end of last year.
Hanlon added that some of the money
would be used to help spark ideas among
the faculty. The taskforce will provide
small planning grants to faculty inter-
ested in coming up with proposals and
will also try to facilitate what Hanlon
described as "lightning proposals," where
the taskforce will gather faculty from
many different disciplines and tell them
to work together until they come up with
a proposal.
The driving force behind creating inter-
disciplinary degrees and courses, Hanlon
said, is to take advantage of the variety
of strong programs the University has at
its disposal. Instead of forcing students to
See COURSES, Page 7

New
Roberts approved
easily; praises Senate for
looking beyond politics
WASHINGTON (AP) - John G. Rob-
erts Jr., a conservative protege of the
late William H. Rehnquist, succeeded
him yesterday and became the nation's
youngest chief justice in two centuries,
winning support from more than three-
fourths of the Senate after promising he
would be no ideologue.
Roberts, at 50, becomes the 17th
chief justice, presiding over a Supreme

chief justice sworn in

5
1

Court that seems as divided as the
nation over abortion and other tumul-
tuous social issues. The court opens a
new term on Monday.
"The Senate has confirmed a man
with an astute mind and kind heart,"
President Bush said just before Roberts
was sworn in by acting Chief Justice
John-Paul Stevens. "All Americans can
be confident that the 17th chief justice
of the United States will be prudent
in exercising judicial power, firm in
defending judicial independence and
above all a faithful guardian of the
Constitution."

Bush is expected to make his sec-
ond Supreme Court nomination within
days, one that conservatives hope will
move the court to the right. Replac-
ing Rehnquist with Roberts keeps the
court's current balance, but replac-
ing the moderate Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor with a conservative could tilt
it rightward.
Roberts called the Senate's 78-22
bipartisan yote for him "confirmation
of what is for me a bedrock principle,
that judging is different from politics."
All of the Senate's 55 Republicans,
independent James Jeffords of Vermont

and half of the 44 Democrats supported
him.
He said he would try to "pass on
to my children's generation a charter
of self-government as strong and as
vibrant as the one that Chief Justice
Rehnquist passed on to us."
"What Daniel Webster termed the
miracle of our Constitution is not some-
thing that happens in every generation,
but every generation in its turn must
accept the responsibility of support-
ing and defending the Constitution and
bearing true faith and allegiance to it,"
Roberts said.

A crowd including seven of the eight
sitting justices, Roberts' parents, Rose-
mary and John Sr., children John and
Josephine, Senate supporters and White
House well-wishers erupted stood and
applauded as Roberts's kissed his wife
and shook Stevens's hand. The audi-
ence also included Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales and White House
counsel Harriet Miers, both of whom
have been mentioned as candidates for
O'Connor's seat.
Roberts took a separate judicial oath
during a private White House ceremony
See ROBERTS, Page 7


I

SISTERHOOD

Current members of Alpha Phi cheer as they welcome In and take photos of the sorority's new pledge class on the steps of the Michigan Union yesterday. Similar cel-
ebrations took place all across campus as It was "Bid Day" for most sororities.
Lecturers expect'U'response to demands today

By Ekjyot Saini
Daily Staff Reporter

The Lecturers' Employee Organization has
spent more than a year working toward the full
implementation of its contract, signed in June of
last year, and hopes that today it will see some of
its work rewarded.
LEO awaits the University's response to about
20 cases of what they believe to be misclassified
lecturer titles. According to the contract, lecturers
can be classified in four different groups, depend-
ing on the amount of time they have spent in a
given department. The classification system would
also determine what job duties a lecturer would be
expected to perform. Lecturers classified as I and

II would only be allowed to teach classes, while if they want to participate in a group grievance
lecturer Ills and IVs would be expected to per- that would be filed with the individual school and
form administrative and advising duties. provost's office, Herold said.
LEO feels that about 20 cases have been mis- She also said that, if the process is not resolved
classified because the individuals have been pro- at the University level, the grievance could go into
viding the University with administrative and arbitration with an independent third party.
advising services even though it is not in their job Earlier this month, LEO members handed out
descriptions and that these lecturers should be leaflets at an LSA faculty reception to remind the
given the appropriate classification based on the University community of the problems they were
duties that they have performed. still facing. Besides the misclassifcation problems,
LEO co-chair Kirsten Herold said she expects LEO has complained about a delay in pay increas-
the University will approve some of the cases es that this semester there has been an 18-month
that are still in contention, but provisions have delay of wage increases for lecturers III and IVs
been made for those who continue to feel mis- who successfully completed performance reviews
classified. and qualified for them.
LEO will contact those individuals and see About 30 to 40 lecturers in LSA are not receiv-

ing the wage increases that they are entitled to
and in a meeting on Wednesday the University
claimed that the LSA review process has always
contained a delay in receiving pay increases but
has always been effective, Herold said.
University spokeswoman Julie Peterson said
this was the first paycheck for LEO members
that should contain the pay increase and that the
timing of the paychecks with the increase had
changed from what lecturers were used to.
LEO has suggested that lecturers who have
successfully completed reviews in winter 2004
receive their pay increases retroactively, for the
months of September and October, in November
rather than having to wait until fall 2006. The
LSA administration will look at the proposal
See LEO, Page 7


Transgender activists
set sights on regents

Prof speaks
on future of
New Orleans
By Lee Wachocid
For the Daily
When discussing what the future holds for New Orleans
last night, Tulane University History Prof. Lawrence Powell
considered ihe possibility that the city could develop into an
"X-rated theme park:'
"There'll be a whooshing sound as contractors move in and

By Anne VanderMey
Daily Staff Reporter
LSA sophomore Jaya Kalra was out with her girl-
friend one night when a young man snuck up on her
from behind and punched her in the head, sending
her glasses flying and nearly knocking her to the
ground. She said the young man had been offended.
by the fact that she was exchanging affectionate ges-
tures with a member of the same sex. Kalra, who
r2..-C C :., n mnznlnP wn zni tht ti n C imae

that would explicitly say the University would not
discriminate against transgender students, faculty or
staff.
The bylaws currently contain a clause prohibiting
discrimination against anyone based on both sex and
sexual orientation, but they leave out gender identity
and gender expression - a detail that, according
to Toy and Kalra, is essential for ensuring the fair
treatment of transgender people.
Last night's meeting was a continuation of an
fnloinff ortion the nart of varinu Universit and


., Mm