NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 7, 2005 - 3
ON CAMPUS
'Heroin Town' to
be shown
Director Josh Goldbloom docu-
ments the true story of Willimantic,
Conn. after it was portrayed in a neg-
ative light by a "60 Minutes" report.
The award-winning film will be
shown in Angell Hall Auditorium B
at 7 p.m. tonight, with a chance to
meet the director after the showing.
RC players
present sketch
comedy act
Tonight the RC players will hold
their annual fall performance "An
* Evening of Scenes." The show will be
held in the RC auditorium at 8 p.m.
tonight and will consist of nine short
sketches directed and preformed by
University students. Admission to
the event is free.
Physicist to
hold lecture on
Einstein and God
The Campus Chapel Center for
Faith and Scholarship will hold a
lecture entitled "God after Einstein"
tonight at 8 p.m. Dr. Robert Mann,
head of the Waterloo University
physics department, will examine
theoretical conceptions of God as
affected by the famed physicist's the-
ories. The discussion will take place
in room 1028 of the Dana Natural
Resources building.
- CRIME
NOTES
Possible pot
plants found at
Fresh Air Camp
A caller reported that marijuana plants
were found Tuesday in the Fresh Air
Camp, an abandoned area where sick
children at the University Hospital used
to camp, the Department of Public Safety
reported. The caretaker of the area report-
ed the problem to DPS and said there
was a fence around the suspicious plants.
Plants were seized as evidence and taken
to the crime lab for further investigation.
Man steals 2-liter
Pepsi bottle in
front of cop
An off-duty DPS officer witnessed a
subject stealing a two-liter Pepsi from
the Speedway gas station on Stadium
Boulevard, DPS reported. The Ann
Arbor Police Department was notified.
Blogger of racial
issues reports
e-mail harassment
A caller said he has been receiving
hate e-mails in response to his website,
umichstopthehate.blogspot.com, where
he discusses the recent alleged incidents
of ethnic intimidation and assault. The
subject has been receiving harassing e-
mails with vulgar language disparaging
his opinions, DPS reported. None of the
e-mails threatened his life.
* THIS DAY
In Daily History
College finance
bill faces debate
Oct. 7, 1971 - With the nation's
higher education institutions in finan-
cial trouble, the House Education and
Labor Committee adopted a measure to
give colleges almost $1 billion in finan-
cial aid. The measure, the first of its
kind, would allow institutions to obtain
federal money with no restrictions as to
where the funds will be used.
The bill, soon to be debated by the
House, would appropriate money based
on number of students and students
receiving financial aid. Only universi-
ties that discriminate on the basis of
sex would be excluded. Smaller private
colleges would receive more money
Greeks make plans
to stymie. campus
hazing problems
By Amber Colvin
Daily Staff Reporter
Several student groups will join forces this week
to combat hazing in the Greek system. Members of
these groups will paint the rock at Washtenaw Avenue
and Hill Street, pass out candy on the Diag and hold
an anti-hazing banner contest, among other things, to
raise awareness about the seriousness of hazing.
Because fraternities and sororities on campus have
been found guilty of hazing in the past, members of
the Greek community are now trying to combat the
problem with Hazing Prevention Week.
Last February, the University released a report
that investigated hazing allegations from Fall 2004
and found three fraternities and one sorority guilty.
"Smoking marijuana, induced consumption of food,
blindfolding, dressing in arguably humiliating cos-
tumes and theft of property and trespassing" were all
cases of hazing established by the report, which also
confirmed cases of severe alcohol intake, humilia-
tion and psychological harassment.
"Hazing - while it has been curbed in recent years
- is still an issue across the country, and this campus
is no exception," said Interfraternity Council spokes-
man Jon Krasnov. "We need to increase awareness'
about hazing until we have reached the point where it
does not exist."
Events throughout the week, which started Wednes-
day and will continue until next Wednesday, include
the launch of a new anti-hazing website, www.umich.
edu/~nohazing, and presentations about hazing at the
various Greek chapter meetings.
Hazing Prevention Week comes at a time when many
freshmen are pledging fraternities and sororities.
Residence Halls Association President Darla Wil-
liams said the events can educate freshmen who may
not know what their rights and responsibilities are as
fraternity and sorority pledges.
"We want to make sure that we're contributing to
the healthy lifestyles of those first-year students who
don't know any better," Williams said. "They may
not know they're being hazed."
Williams said it was important for RHA to be
involved with Hazing Prevention Week so that infor-
mation on hazing could be advertised in residence
halls, where the majority of pledging freshmen live.
According to the national Hazing Prevention
Week website, there has been at least one hazing-
related death on a college campus every year. Eighty-
two percent of those involved alcohol.
When such events occur, there is a place for hazed
pledges to go with their concerns. The Hazing Task-
force is a group created to investigate instances of
hazing after receiving complaints.
Amber Lowden, administrative chair for the task-
force, said that once a complaint is received, the task-
force notifies the fraternity or sorority involved and
then interviews the president, new member educator
and new members of the organization. The taskforce
then convenes to discuss the findings and either dis-
misses the case or passes it on to the Greek Activities
Review Panel. So far, she said, the taskforce has not
received any complaints of hazing this year.
Lowden said the taskforce does not decide whether
an organization is guilty or what consequences will
result, but instead provides a place where hazing can
be reported and discussed without bias.
"We make no final determination as to guilt or rem-
edy in any case," Lowden said. "Hazing is an issue
that can be difficult to discuss and emotional for many
people. What we do is provide an impartial service."
'U' students promote clemency for battered women
By Tiffany Teasley
For the Daily
At noon today, University students
and faculty will stand on the steps of the
state Capitol Building demanding clem-
ency for the alleged injustice of hun-
dreds of battered women imprisoned
for acting in self-defense against their
abusers.
The Michigan Battered Women's
Clemency Project, a nonprofit organiza-
tion committed to supporting the civil
rights of battered women in the state of
Michigan since 1991, is organizing the
rally. The group acts as a representa-
tive for women who it says acted in self-
defense or in the defense of their children
against an abusive partner. The Clem-
ency Project coordinates the event annu-
ally, and this year the group is reacting to
what its members consider Gov. Jennifer
Granholm's slow response in redressing
the alleged wrongful convictions.
On behalf of the inmates, this year
the group is resubmitting 20 petitions
requesting clemency that have sat on
Granholm's desk for the past two years.
"We're getting very frustrated with
Gov. Granholm because she professes
to be compassionate about this issue
but does nothing," said Carol Jacobsen,
president of the Clemency Project and a
University professor of art and women's
studies. "Meanwhile, these women are
rotting in prison."
Jacobsen has created nearly a dozen
films narrated by former battered women
inmates. The films document their lives
while critiquing the justice system that
failed them, she said. As a self-pro-
claimed feminist, filmmaker and artist
who has been studying all-female prisons
for the past 20 years, Jacobsen said she is
determined to support these women until
their rights are acknowledged.
"We intend to keep the pressure on
(Granholm) until she acts," Jacobsen
said.
Jacobsen teaches a course, cross-listed
in the women's studies department and
the School of Art and Design, entitled
"Bodies in the World: Representing
Human Rights." A number of Jacobsen's
students are participating in the rally and
were recently asked to create a project
that would reflect the lack of compassion
in rectifying this issue. On Wednesday
at noon, University students performed
a dramatization depicting the struggle of
battered women in an effort to publicize
the rally and draw attention to the situ-
ation.
"Law enforcement isn't doing anything
to fix (the problem), the government isn't
doing anything to fix it, so we need to do
something," Art and Design junior Sara
Burke said. "It's something that we have
the power to take care of, and therefore,
we should take care of it."
In addition to participating in the rally,
the students will perform their dramati-
zation before the rally, supplemented by
monologues from each character.
"I think we all hope that Jennifer
Granholm will finally do something
with the petitions and grant clemency
for these women who have been serv-
ing time for something that they should
never have been convicted for in the
first place." Art and Design senior Anne
Nechal said.
. Giving a Voice, the two-year-old
campus branch of the clemency project,
assists in raising awareness for the proj-
ect and will also participate in the rally.
In addition to students and faculty
from the University, friends and family
of the inmates will speak on their behalf,
while other audience members will read
summaries of the experiences of various
women who have been incarcerated.
Alycia Welch, co-founder of Giving a
Voice, said Granholm was not acting on
their request for clemency for a number
of political reasons.
"The rally will put more pressure on
Gov. Granholm and the Legislature to
really bring the focus to these women
and not just a legal decision," she said.
Named the worst in the nation by
Amnesty International, the Michigan
women's prisons also face a struggle of
equality for all inmates, facing accusa-
tions of medical neglect, sexual assault
and retaliation by guards.
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