Thursday, October 6, 2005
Opinion 4A Krishnamurthy: Make
progress, not noise
Arts 8A Broken Social brings
in the Canadians

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One-hundredfifteen years ofedtorialfreedom
www.michkgandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 6 02005 The Michigan Daily

Rush to si
leases trou les
many students
Heiftje wanted student Housing ordinance
input before following
through with legislation Heiftje's proposal

By Jeremy Davidson
Daily Staff Reporter

Michigan Stadium, before renovations.

Rmenovations a workinprog$ress'

I

Coleman and athletic director
still unsure about funding and,
structural changes
By Megan Kolodgy
Daily Sports Editor
Faced with an abundance of rumors and specu-
lation about almost every aspect of the University's
plans to renovate Michigan Stadium, those at the
head of the endeavor are sticking to one simple
phrase:
"The best way to describe the project right now
is, 'A work in progress'," Michigan Athletic Director
Bill Martin said.
Both Martin and University President Mary Sue
Coleman recently said in an interview with The
Michigan Daily that the renovations will be cost
effective and will improve the Big House's infra-
structure while also jiving with the priorities of the
athletes, students, alumni and season-ticket holders
who pack the stadium every fall.

But both Martin and Coleman say they are unsure
how the balance will be struck, or what aspects will
be compromised in order to facilitate the undertak-
ing. Furthermore, specifics about funding and struc-
tural changes have yet to be worked out.
"We don't yet have a plan that we can propose to
the regents," Martin said.
To gain a better understanding of how various
constituents, including student-ticket holders and
current players, feel about what should be taken into
consideration in the construction plans, the Athletic
Department hired an external firm to administer a
survey.
The surveys revealed that the top three priorities
were to keep the stadium the biggest in the country,
increase noise during games and continue to have

no advertising or commerce in the stadium, Martin
said.
But making these elements a reality is a compli-
cated matter, particularly in terms of funding.
The current estimates for improving the infra-
structure, which, Martin says, is "functionally
obsolete," hovers around $60 million. This estimate
covers repairs and bathroom enlargements, improve-
ment of circulation on the concourse and other
minor upgrades. The full scope of the major chang-
es - which could include wider seats and isles,
luxury seating and improved handicapped seating
- remains undetermined. A figure for both major
and minor renovations combined has been estimated
at $170 million.
Coleman and Martin said many people vouch for
building luxury seating options - skyboxes - as an
added source of funding for the Big House renova-
tions. These skyboxes could cost enough to pay for
the bulk of the project without the University having
to turn to advertising to raise money.
"Enclosed seating demands a premium price tag,"
Martin said. "The revenue from those seats would be
See STADIUM, Page 7A

Have you found your roommates for next
year yet?
Several major off-campus realtors think
you should have.
A number of realtors, including Oppen-
heimer Properties and Dan's Houses, have
already contacted their residents about
renewing their leases for the next school
year or notifying them if they will be finding
housing elsewhere.
Oppenheimer Properties sent out a letter
to all of its tenants last week asking them to
make a decision by Oct. 21 as to whether they
wanted to resign with the company for the
2006-07 school year. If a response was not
delivered by that deadline, the house would
be considered up for grabs.
LSA sophomore Noah Kingery, who
recently moved into an Oppenheimer prop-
erty, said the pressure limited his options for
housing, because neither University Hous-
ing nor pursuing another realtor seemed like
appealing alternatives.
"It's weird having to look all over again for
a house, when I just moved in to my current
one last month," Kingery said.
Similarly, LSA sophomore John Tshia-
mala, who lives in property owned by Dan's
Houses said he received an e-mail from
his landlord notifying him that if he didn't
respond by Sept. 18, the house would be
available for other people to rent.
A representative from Oppenheimer Prop-
erties said that the company sends out letters
like this every year, due to a high student
demand early on in the fall semester.
"We just get bombarded with phone calls
with people asking about places and it seems
earlier and earlier every year. We're basically
just satisfying the public," the source said.
Every year students are reluctantly thrown
into this same ritual with off-campus housing

Prevents landlords from show-
ing housing to tenants until one
fourth of the iease period has
passed.
Students would have until
Drecmber to make housing
decisions for the following year.
The ordinance could go into
effect ncxt fall.
companies, resulting in a scramble to sign a
lease at the start of October out of the fear of
being left without any off-campus options.
A proposed ordinance that Mayor John
Hieftje said would be established by the start
of the fall 2005 academic term could have
worked to prevent such a rush. However,
students don't have a chance of seeing any
protection from this ordinance until at least
next fall, the mayor said.
Last year, Hieftje proposed to create an
ordinance similar to one established in Mad-
ison, Wisc., that prevents landlords from
showing housing to prospective tenants until
a fourth of the lease period had passed. In
Ann Arbor, this would mean that most ten-
ants would have until December to decide
whether or not they want to remain in the
same house, or to move elsewhere.
Hieftje conceded that representatives
from Madison have said the ordinance they
have in place takes care of the annual hous-
ing rush.
In March, Hieftje told The Michigan Daily
that his plan was to start working on develop-
ing this ordinance internally with legal aides
and City Council members and to have it in
place by the end of this past summer.
But in a recent interview, Hieftje said an
ordinance was not yet in place because he
did not want to do it in the summer when stu-
dents would be gone.
"(In the summer, students) wouldn't have
See ORDINANCE, Page 7A

Military recruiters at college career fairs protested

* U.S. Supreme Court
will review appeal on
recruitment at universities
By Karl Stampft
Daily Staff Reporter
In the past week, students and faculty
at college campuses across the nation
have protested military recruitment
efforts at career fairs because of the
military's policy of prohibiting enlisted
homosexuals from revealing their sexu-
al orientation.
But at the University, campus organiza-
tions have no plans to protest the military's

table at today's job fair in the Michigan'
Union.
The military has come under fire
because of its "don't ask, don't tell" pol-
icy - which discourages military ser-
vice people from discussing their sexual
preferences - is in conflict with he non-
discrimination policies of most colleges
and universities. Many institutions across
the country, including the University of
Michigan have clauses in their bylaws that
restrict discrimination based on sexual
orientation. For this reason, many schools
at one point barred military recruiters
from coming to campus.
But a 1994 federal amendment, known
as Solomon's amendment, allows the gov-

"For us the biggest issue is providing students

with access to opportunity."

- Kerin Borland

Senior associate director of the University's career center

ernment to strip schools of federal funding
if they do not allow military recruiting.
For this reason, many schools were forced
to allow military recruiters to participate
in job fairs and seek potential employees.
Today's job fair, organized by the Uni-
versity's career center will feature about
90 organizations. Kerin Borland, senior
associate director of the career center, said

the military has attended the yearly fair on
multiple occasions in the past.
No one at the University has approached
the career center upset that the military
will be attending, Borland said.
"For us the biggest issue is providing
students with access to opportunity," she
said. "For the students who have interest
in the military, we want to provide that

access.
She said the decision whether or not to
attend the fair or visit the military's table
is personal and that students are free to
decide, based on their interests and values,
to pursue the types of organizations most
interesting to them.
The University Stonewall Democrats,
an arm of the College Democrats that pro-
tects the rights of the LGBT community,
will refrain from protests, co-chair Jaya
Kalra said.
Kalra said she was not aware of the
military's presence at the job fair, but
Stonewall Democrats would not have pro-
tested if they had known.
"I feel that this is the kind of change that

needs to be institutional and that just pro-
testing a few military guys doing their job
isn't going to help,"Kalra said, adding that
the group also does not have enough time
or people to organize a protest and that it
is currently focusing its attention on con-
vincing members of the University Board
of Regents to add the phrase "gender iden-
tity and expression" to the nondiscrimina-
tion clause of the University bylaws.
Kalra said she is against the military's
"Don't ask, don't tell" policy toward
homosexuals because their sexual orien-
tation is often revealed anyway and they
are given a dishonorable discharge.
"What happens is they put a pressure
See MILITARY, Page 5A


" Drug offenders
may receive aid

MAESTRO IN THE MOMENT

Students convicted of
drug possession currently
cannot get financial aid
By Anne VanderMey
Daily Staff Reporter

The results of a recent study may
prompt members of the U.S. House
of Representatives and Senate to
repeal a provision of the Higher Edu-
cation Act that has withheld federal
financial aid from students convicted
of a drug offense.
A study done by the U.S. Govern-
ment Accountability Office found
that the nrovision has withheld

approximately 40,000 students from
federal aid per year.
With the Higher Education Act cur-
rently up for renewal and review, U.S.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has intro-
duced an act called Removing Impedi-
ments to Students' Education, which
would repeal the entire provision. Frank
said he views the punishment as unfair
and potentially discriminatory.
"Students who have drug convictions
but come from families that don't need
financial aid aren't affected by this
law," Frank told the press in March.
"I don't condone illegal drug use, ...
but preventing students with minor
convictions from being able to pursue
an education is counterproductive and

State electoral
reform bills
lag in Senate
By Julia F. Heming
Daily Staff Reporter
Hopes of electoral reform may be stifled as the bills introduced
to the state Senate by Sen. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor) are receiv-
ing little support from the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Introduced in February, these bills propose to eliminate the
necessity for a valid excuse when casting an absentee ballot.
They would also end the requirement of matching addresses on
a voter's driver's license with election records - an issue which
Brater said affects students who live in Ann Arbor, but have
hometowns outside the city.
Currently, election law allows six valid excuses for an absen-
tee ballot application: disability, age, religious obligation, com-
mitments of an election official, confinement in jail or being out

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