NEWS

The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 21, 2005 - 3

ON CAMPUS
Guest lecturer
* to speak about
astronomy
Princeton University Prof. David
Spergel, will give the fourth lecture of
a five-part lecture series today from
7:30 to 8:30 p.m. The lecture, titled
"The Shape, Size, and Fate of the Uni-
verse," will take place in the Chemistry
building. Sponsored by the astronomy
department, a telescope viewing at the
Angell Hall Observatory and planetar-
ium shows at the Exhibit Museum of
Natural History will follow the lecture.
Free movie will
celebrate hellenic
cultural month
The Hellenic Student Association
of the University will be showing the
movie "Silicon Tears" for free as part
of the 5th annual hellenic cultural
month. The movie, about two Greek
families in conflict, will be shown in
Auditorium C of Angell Hall from
7:30 to 9:30 p.m. today.
ISR director will
speak about social
science issues
James Jackson, the director of
the University's Institute for Social
Research, will be giving the key-
note address at the symposium for
underrepresented groups. The sym-
posium, which will include several
internationally known social science
research experts, will be held at the
Michigan Union from 2:15 to 5:30
p.m today. The keynote address will
be followed by opening remarks from
Myron Gutmann, the director of the
Inter-University Consortium for
Political and Social Research within
ISR. Sessions on related topics will
also follow the lecture.
CRIME
NOTES
Car full of people
found smoking
marijuana
A Department of Pubic Safety
officer located a car full of people
smoking marijuana late Wednesday
night in the Church Street carport.
Only one male was arrested and
0 taken to the station. The offense
occurred on University property and
therefore count as a misdemeanor.
Resident hit
by vehicle on
Huron Street
An Ann Arbor resident was struck
by a vehicle late Wednesday morning
on Huron Street. The person driv-
ing the vehicle stayed on the scene.
The Ann Arbor Police Department
responded to the incident and the
victim was transported to the Uni-

versity Hospital Emergency Room.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Tuition increase to
help students with
substance abuse
October 21, 1993 - Due to the
number of students who develop
alcohol and substance abuse prob-
lems while in college, the Univer-
sity of proposed a tuition increase
to raise $540,000. Each student is
expected to pay $15 more in addi-
tion to his tuition. The money raised
will be added to the new "school-
based" insurance policy which will
help enhance informational out-
reach, enlarge counseling services
and make intensive outpatient care
available to students with substance
abuse problems.
Although each student currently
pays $94 per semester for UHS ser-
vices, those services do not include
helping students overcome addic-
tions. Furthermore. 12 percent of

Detroit mayoral
candidates face
off in last debate

SOUTHFIELD (AP) - Detroit
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and chal-
lenger Freman Hendrix described their
strategies for retaining residents and
attracting new ones yesterday night
in the last of three debates between
the mayoral candidates before next
month's election.
"Detroit is on the cusp of becom-
ing the biggest turnaround story in
American history," Kilpatrick said
during the hour-long debate, which
was televised live by Detroit-area
station WXYZ.
He said the next mayor must pur-
sue jobs with "reckless abandon"
and change the city's dependence
on manufacturing. Kilpatrick said
progress has been made with new
restaurants, businesses and homes
sprouting up downtown, but the city
must "challenge the status quo" when
it comes to the city's police depart-
ment and ensure that neighborhood
parks and the city's "jewels" such
as Belle Isle are maintained to pre-
serve a quality standard of living.
Hendrix said he would focus on
making it more affordable for peo-
ple to live in Detroit. He also said
improving public safety and schools
hold the key to Detroit's success.
"In order to guarantee our people will
stabilize in our city, it is extremely
important that we have lower taxes,
that we have insurance rates under
control," Hendrix said. By reducing
tax rates to the average for Wayne
County, "we can create an environ-
ment where those who live in Detroit
can stay, and those who would con-
sider coming into Detroit would do
so," he said.
The debate took place in the sub-
urban Detroit studios of WXYZ, one
of the debate's sponsors. It was the
second debate of the week for the
candidates, who met Monday on the
campus of Wayne State University.
Compared with their performance
in Monday's debate, the candidates
focused more on answering the ques-
tions at hand and less on attacking

each other. Still, they found ways to
get the barbs in.
When asked to say two good
things about his opponent, Hen-
drix said, "That's a big challenge,"
before complimenting the mayor on
his ability to convince people and
promote the city.
When asked the same question
about Hendrix, who served as deputy
mayor under Kilpatrick's predeces-
sor, Dennis Archer, Kilpatrick said,
"I have no idea over the seven years
that he was there what he did."
Hendrix, 55, got 44 percent of the
vote in the Aug. 2 primary, while
Kilpatrick, 35, received 34 percent.
The general election is Nov. 8.
With less than three weeks before
the mayoral election, Hendrix has
been leading Kilpatrick among like-
ly voters; Hendrix had 48 percent
to Kilpatrick's 35 percent, with 17
percent undecided, according to the
latest poll published Sunday.
The winner will inherit a city fac-
ing a $300 million budget deficit,
and a continuing population decline
that started a half-century ago when
Detroit and the American auto
industry were at their peaks.
Detroit now is the country's Ilth-
largest city, with more than 900,000
residents. And earlier this year, the
U.S. Census Bureau's American
Community Survey listed it as the
nation's most impoverished big city.
In their final scheduled side-by-side
appearance before the election, the can-
didates closed the debate by trying to
show how they stood apart and explain
what they would do for Detroiters.
Kilpatrick tried to counter an image
touted by Hendrix that the mayor's
administration has been fun-loving and
irresponsible at a time that the city has
been foundering.
"I couldn't party," Kilpatrick said.
"We rolled up our sleeves, we went
to work. And every day since I've
been on this job, I've worked. Yes,
I've made a few mistakes. There's
no question about it."

Under new plan GM workers
will contribute to health care

School shooting
injures studenit

DETROIT (AP) - General
Motors Corp. retirees represented by
the United Auto Workers pay noth-
ing now for their health care cover-
age, but most would have to pay up to
$752 annually in deductibles, co-pay-
ments and monthly premiums under
a tentative agreement reached this
week between GM and the union,
UAW officials said yesterday.
Under the agreement, GM hourly
workers would contribute $1 per hour
in future pay increases to a new fund
to help pay for retirees' health cov-
erage. Single retirees would pay up
to $370 in deductibles and fees for
their coverage. And most retirees
and all active hourly workers would
pay higher co-payments for their pre-
scription drugs.
GM pays for health care for
750,000 U.S. hourly employees,
retirees and- their-dependents. The
agreement would exclude around
74,000 low-income retirees whose
GM pension is $8,000 a year. Most
of those are elderly or are the sur-
viving spouses of GM retirees, the
UAW said.
This was the first time the UAW
has revealed details of the agree-
ment, which was announced Mon-
day. UAW workers must ratify the
agreement for it to take effect. UAW
President Ron Gettelfinger declined
to say when the vote would take
place, saying the UAW and GM still
need to work out some details.
If it is ratified, GM says the agree-
ment would save it $3 billion annu-
ally before taxes and would cut $15
billion off its $60 billion in retiree
health care liabilities. Gettelfinger
said the union agreed to the chang-
es after reviewing GM's financial
situation and was convinced the
automaker needed the help it was

requesting.
"This is a major move on our
part, and it's very difficult and
very challenging," Gettelfinger told
reporters after meeting with local
union leaders from across the coun-
try. "These are the times in which
we find ourselves. We're not hiding
from our responsibilities."
Gettelfinger said free-trade
agreements that don't protect U.S.
workers and bankruptcy laws that
allow companies to shed their pen-
sion obligations are partly to blame
for the current climate. He repeated
his call for a national health care
system.
Three national UAW commit-
tees, including a group of retirees,
endorsed the agreement yesterday,
Gettelfinger said. Art Luna, presi-
dent of UAW Local 602 in Lansing,
said he was disappointed the union
couldn't do more for its retirees but
he supported the agreement.
"We don't just have an obligation
to the workers, we have an obliga-
tion to the communities we live in,"
Luna said. "The auto industry is
very competitive and sometimes we
have to do things to help the com-
pany along because we as a labor
union cannot be successful if the
company isn't successful."
But Luna said U.S. autoworkers
also need government help.
"All this is a Band-Aid," he said.
"If they really want to resolve the
health care issues, they can't negoti-
ate over the bargaining table, it has
to be done in Washington, D.C."
While the agreement would be a
big change for the UAW's retirees
and hourly workers, who have long
enjoyed some of the best benefits in
the world, the premiums still pale
in comparison to the U.S. average,

according to a recent study by the
Kaiser Family Foundation.
A single worker contributes $610,
and families contribute $2,713
annually in premiums for coverage
in the average U.S. employer-spon-
sored health care plan, the study
said. By comparison, single UAW
retirees would pay premiums of
$120 and families would pay $252
annually under the agreement. The
actual cost of the premiums is high-
er, but GM and UAW hourly work-
ers would pick up the rest of the tab
through the new fund called the
Voluntary Employee Benefit Asso-
ciation.
GM would donate $3 billion to
the VEBA over the next six years.
The VEBA also would be funded
through contributions in the future
wages of active hourly workers. In
exchange, hourly workers would
continue to pay no premiums or
deductibles for their own care.
Retirees also would pay up to
$500 annually per family in deduct-
ibles and co-insurance under the
plan, as well as $50 for emergency
room visits.
Hourly workers and most retir-
ees would have to pay $5 more than
they do now for a 90-day supply of
mail-order prescriptions. They also
would have to pay new, higher co-
payments of up to $18 for erectile
dysfunction medications such as
Viagra.
Ford Motor Co. and Daim-
lerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group
plan to ask the UAW for similar
benefits, but Gettelfinger wouldn't
comment on negotiations with other
automakers.
GM shares closed unchanged
at $28.38 on the New York Stock
Exchange.

O The victim was taken
to an area hospital where
he is in critical condition,
suspect was arrested
SAGINAW (AP) - A 15-year-old
student at Saginaw High School was
shot in the chest yesterday by anoth-
er student, police said.
The shooting occurred inside the
school building about noon Thurs-
day, said Mike Manley, a Saginaw
Public Schools spokesman. A secu-
rity guard chased after the 15-year-
old suspect, who ran from the school
and was arrested nearby, Manley
said.
The victim was taken to an area
hospital, where he was in critical
condition, Manley said. Both the
victim and the suspect are sopho-
mores at the school, he said.
The weapon used in the shooting
was recovered, Saginaw police Sgt.
Chet Allen said. Officials did not

immediately disclose the type of
gun involved.
Officials placed the school in lock-
down after the shooting while small
groups of parents were allowed to
enter and pick up their children. Stu-
dents who were not picked up were
released about 2:15 p.m. Thursday,
about 25 minutes earlier than nor-
mal, Manley said.
Thursday's junior varsity foot-
ball game against Arthur Hill High
School was canceled, but school is
in session today, Manley said.
Manley said that in the 35 years
he has worked for the school dis-
trict, there had not been a shooting
at Saginaw High School. The school
did not have metal detectors, but by
Thursday evening, one had been set
up at the school's front entrance.
In September, school officials
banned after-dark events at two city
high schools following a drive-by
shooting that marked the third such
shooting on district grounds in 13
months.


U U

Hey, Freshmen,
Sophomores, and
Juniors...
SvDt
. siymD~v not cutt I no t?

We're visiting
your campus!
Thursday, October 27
2-6 p.m.
University of Michigan

9
I

n

_

Why choose NYU?
We encourage host community
interaction through relationships
with universities, internships,
volunteer work, and excursions.
We support students with resident
assistants, full-time staff, and
extensive course offerings, including
course work in disciplines not often
found on study abroad programs,
like premed and business.
You'll earn NYU credit while studying

Michigan Union