Friday, October 21, 2005
News 3 Second Detroit
debate takes place
IKICKERS SNAP LOSING STREAK IN DOUBLE OVERTIME ... PAGE 9
Opinion 4
Zack Denfeld
reviews Bush &
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Arts 5 The Ditty Bops bring
their sound to EMU
One-hundredfifteen years ofeditorialfreedom
www.mkchigandazdy.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 15 x2005 The Michigan Daily
INSIDE THE SUKKAH
Higher
Ed
0
committee
convenes
Members will release
report with suggestions on
improving universities
By Anne VanderMey
Daily Staff Reporter
The Commission on Higher Educa-
tion, organized by U.S. Education Secre-
tary Margaret Spellings, met for the first
time Monday. The commission, which is
designed to give the federal government
a clearer picture of the inner workings
of American universities, will release a
report on Aug. 1 with recommendations
for improving the system.
Spellings, who recently sent her old-
est daughter to a private college, said
she hopes the commission will be able
to address some of the problems she
witnessed firsthand in her daughter's
application and admissions process.
According to a framing document,
the commission will focus on making
higher education more accessible and
affordable to people from varied back-
grounds and equipping graduates with
the skills they need to be competitive in
a global marketplace.
"We are at a crossroads. The world
is catching up," Spellings said in her
opening address to the commission in
Washington.
"Our students need better critical
thinking skills and better training to
compete in a world where what you
know means much more than where you
live," she said.
The commission will meet four
or five times at different sites around
the country. Each meeting will be set
up as a hearing to solicit the opinions
of various constituencies, such as stu-
dents and parents, business and indus-
try, educators and officials in state and
local government.
Former University President James
Duderstadt, a member of the com-
mission, said it will probably break
up into groups to address the four
major issues Spellings has identified:
access, affordability, accountability
and quality.
Each group will consult a variety of
sources before making recommenda-
tions but will not conduct independent
research, Duderstadt said. He added that
the commission has already received
stacks of written material - both
requested and unsolicited.
The commission is made up of a
diverse group of individuals, ranging
from high-level executives like Rich-
ard Stephens, senior vice president for
human resources and administration at
Boeing, to higher education supporters
like Sara Martinez Tucker, president of
the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, to rep-
resentatives from universities and the
federal government.
Duderstadt said he was confident the
body would be able to form recommen-
dations by the Aug. 1 deadline.
"While there will be many different
perspectives, we believe this is very
important to get the key issues out on
the table," Duderstadt wrote in an e-
mail. He added that he welcomes inevi-
table differences of opinion that will
arise within the commission as "cre-
ative dialogue."
Some educators have expressed
doubts that more federal action will
benefit universities. Christie Daw-
son, director of federal relations at the
American Association of State Colleges
and Universities, said she would watch
the commission with interest, but said
she is uncertain it will be able to make
significant improvements.
"Just by virtue of having (the com-
mission), they're implying that we're not
doing these things well," Dawson said.
"AASCU institutions are already quite
accountable and quite affordable and
See COMMISSION, Page 7
AAROUN SWICKX/Daily
LSA junior Nathan Steinnon pauses on his way to class to shake the Lulav with Chaim Goldstein yesterday. This ritual is part of the Jewish
festival of Sukkot, which began Oct. 17 and runs until Monday.
Coun-mty replaces vote miachie
By Julia F. Homing
Daily Staff Reporter
In compliance with the Help America Vote Act,
Washtenaw County has upgraded its voting technol-
ogies to ensure accurate vote tabulations and limit
errors during elections.
Every community in Washtenaw county has
switched to optical scanners, replacing more out-
dated voting apparatuses. The system works like a
Scantron; voters complete a ballot and feed it into a
machine that tallies the votes. When the polls close,
election officials retain the paper ballots in case they
are needed for a recount.
Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the
federal government is funding a required update of
voting technologies within all states. HAVA phased
out punch-card and hand-counted ballots, two older
forms of voting technology. Michigan is in the midst
of transitioning to optical scanners, a technology
chosen by Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn
Land in 2003. The plan calls for the entire state
to transition to one uniform technology - optical
scanners - by 2006.
Derrick Jackson, the director of elections for
Washtenaw County, said the only problem with the
machines has been the occasional paper jam.
Jackson emphasized the importance of these tech-
nologies in ensuring the accuracy of the vote count.
"If you use the machine wrong, the machine spits
(the ballot) out and tells you exactly what you did
wrong," he said. "(Voters) know for sure now if (their)
See VOTING, Page 7
FBI forms advisory
board on universities
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
idea of academics collaborating
with the FBI might once have
aroused loud complaints on some
campuses where agents had spied
on student protesters and govern-
ment institutions were viewed
with mistrust.
But when FBI Director Rob-
ert Mueller announced he had
recruited 17 university presidents
to offer advice on the culture of
higher education, there were a few
laudatory e-mails and a couple of
mentions in campus newspapers,
but mostly silence, according to
several school presidents.
The National Security Higher
Education Advisory Board plans
to hold its first meeting today in
Washington. Set to attend are rep-
resentatives from schools across the
political spectrum, from the more
"The times have changed, and they've
changed in this case or the better."
- Amy Gutmann
President of the University of Pennsylvania
liberal University of Wisconsin and
its history of protest to the more
conservative Texas A&M Univer-
sity with its Corps of Cadets.
The board includes former CIA
Director Robert Gates, Texas A&M's
president, and former Democratic
Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, a
member of the Sept. 11 commission
and president of the New School
University in New York.
"The times have changed and
they've changed in this case for the
better," said board member Amy
Gutmann, president of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania.
"The idea that we can sit down
at a table and have a true dialogue
which is open and aimed at mutual
understanding across differences
is terrific," Gutmann said. "We're
under no illusion that we'll agree
on everything, but we do agree on
the importance of reaching some
common understanding."
See FBI, Page 7
AARON SWICK/Daily
David Kay, who led the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, said the U.S. Intelligence community's overconfi-
dence exposes it to national security risks, including the threat posed by Mexico, which he characterized as corrupt.
Kay warns of Mexico threat
Culture Bus give students
taste of Detroit's culture
0 Professors say trips to cultural
attractions in metro Detroit
complement material taught in class
By Deepa Pendse
grown to involve more than 500 students each
semester. The program is not limited to under-
graduate students but is open to all University
faculty, students and staff. Participants - who
pay a nominal fee to participate - receive dis-
counts at the various locations they visit.
Former U.S. weapons
inspector says country is
one of the most corrupt
in the world
By Karl Stampfl
Daily Staff Reporter
David Kay, the man who led the
fruitless search for weapons of mass
"Because we like margaritas and
tacos and grew up in Texas, we think
we understand Mexico," Kay said. "But
this is a state that is among the most
corrupt in the world."
In a recent survey by Transparency
International, Mexico ranked as the
21st most corrupt country.
Eight countries have declared nucle-
ar weapons programs - the United
States, Russia, the United Kingdom,
France, China, India, Pakistan and
matter of skill, it's a matter of cost."
Kay said firms will develop nuclear
weapons for countries that do not have
the technologyyfor about $10 million.
"Virtually anyone can become a
nuclear power overnight," he said.
Kay said the current political system
is ill-equipped to deal with the threat of
increased nuclear proliferation. Efforts
to stem nuclear proliferation failed in
the 1980s when several nations, includ-
ing India and South Africa, developed
i