NEWS The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 28, 2005 - 3 ON CAMPUS Edwards to speak on Diag 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards will speak on the Diag tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The University is the last of 10 stops on his College Tour 2005: Opportunity Rocks. Seating is lim- ited. Tickets are free and available at projectopportunity.org by register- ing and printing out a confirmation e-mail with an e-ticket. The event is sponsored by The Detroit Project, College Democrats and the LSA Stu- dent Government. Information fair tomorrow at School of Social Work The School of Social Work is sponsoring a recruitment festival for students interested in career oppor- tunities in social work. It will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. tomorrow in the school's McGregor Commons. The fair will also have information about the University's graduate social work degree pro- grams, the master of social work and the doctorate in social work and social science. The event is free but requires registration. Trotter House to hold Philippine culture night Eating homecooked food, dancing, poetry reading and singing will take place at the Philippine Culture Night at Trotter House at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $12 if purchased before the event by e-mailing fasa-off@umich. edu and $15 at the door. Proceeds will go toward the the completion of the Las-Ud school in llocos Sur province of the Philippines. CRIME NOTES Eyes of dining employee burned A South Quadrangle Residence Hall dining employee suffered burning of her eyes after cleaning solution got in them, the Department of Public Safety reported Another dining employee reported the inci- dent on Wednesday at about noon. No ambulance was requested. Purse stolen from Mason Hall A female student reported her purse was stolen from Mason Hall Wednes- day at about 11 a.m. It contained a wal- let, $5 in cash and a miscellaneous ID, she said. The purse was left unattended. There are no suspects at this time. Magazine and shorts stolen from CCRB locker A male student reported that items from his assigned locker in the CCRB were stolen on Wednesday at about 5 p.m. He claimed he had four pairs of shorts and a magazine in the locker. There was no evidence force was used to break into the locker. THIs DAY In Daily History PIRGIM reveals A2 lease violations Oct. 28, 1977 - Widespread exam- ples of deception and abuse in hous- ing leases used by landlords have been found in Ann Arbor and 18 other Michi- gan cities, the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan announced yester- day. Findings of the student-based research and lobbying group show "objectionable clauses" in all of the 46 leases examined in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, with an average of 3.6 violations per lease. The 18-month study revealed that of 200 leases investigated state-wide, 99 per- Peace Corps returns to its roots on steps of Union Ceremony celebrates Kennedy's announcement of Corps idea 45 years ago By Joelle Dodge For the Daily Several generations of Peace Corps volunteers gathered yesterday at the place where the organization began 45 years ago - the steps of the Mich- igan Union. University and Peace Corps offi- cials held a ceremony to commemo- rate the anniversary of then-Sen. John F. Kennedy's proposal for the Peace Corps. A Peace Pole on the side lawn of the Union was commemorated dur- ing the ceremony. E. Royster Harper, University vice president for student affairs, gave a brief history of the University's role in the organization's history. "It is certain that U of M students played a key and viable part in its for- mation," Harper said. Kennedy delivered his historic speech on the Union steps at 2 a.m. without any prepared text, Harper said. Kennedy arrived on the morning of Oct. 14, 1960, from New York - where he had just completed his third debate with Richard Nixon - to find 10,000 University students who had stayed up waiting for him. Bolstered by the students' enthusi- asm, he challenged them to contribute to their country by serving overseas, using their professional skills - like medicine and engineering - to help people in countries like Ghana. He emphasized the need for personal contribution and the value of sacri- fice. The students responded with a roar of cheers. By early November, 1,000 students had signed a petition, organized by the University student group Americans Committed to World Responsibility, that demanded the implementation of the Peace Corps. Kennedy formally announced plans to form the Peace Corps Nov. 2 in San Francisco, but that day on the Union's steps was his first public mention of the idea. The connection with the University did not end there. Former Department of Psychology chair E. Lowell Kelly helped decide how to set up the Peace Corps's train- ing programs. Kelly then looked to two colleagues at the University, Prof. Elton McNiell and Prof. Donald Brown, to establish the training program. Brown traveled the country set- ting up training sites and traveled the world to visit trainees onsite. There are currently 85 University volunteers serving in the Peace Corps, making the University of Michigan sixth among large universities in Peace Corps volunteers. More than 2,000 people from the University have served in the Corps since its founding. At yesterday's ceremony, Peace Corps Deputy Director Judy Olsen spoke on the present and future of the program and unveiled a "peace pole" at the side of the Union. She recalled her own belief in the importance of the spot on the Union's steps where Kennedy delivered his speech. "This is the spot that changed my life forever," she said she had once told her son, a University alum. The Peace Corps today has more than 178,000 volunteers and serves 137 different countries. Olsen said she has seen a rejuve- nated interest in the Peace Corps since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. There is a new passion among young people to study abroad and to tell their stories, she said. Kennedy .challenged students to contribute a part of their lives to help- ing others during his address at the Union. Yesterday, Olsen concluded with a similar challenge: "We can do more and we can be more." MIKE HULSEBUS/Daily E. Royster Harper, vice president for student affairs, speaks on the steps of the Michigan Union to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the announcement of the Peace Corps. MCRI Continued from page 1 In January, supporters of MCRI col- lected enough signatures from Michi- gan residents to place the issue on the November 2006 ballot. Public opinion polls in Michigan have indicated that MCRI has public support, meaning affirmative action could become illegal a year from now. Opponents of the initiative criticize MCRI for a number of reasons, includ- ing the effects it will have and the meth- ods used by the initiative's proponents to gather petition signatures. Among these criticisms is a claim that ending affirmative action will reverse the progress blacks have made since the Civil Rights movement, as well as research indicating that ending affirmative action would also hurt pro- grams that favor women. Those opposing MCRI also allege its petition signatures were gathered by providing false and misleading infor- mation to the public, including tell- ing people that it was an initiative that favored affirmative action. BAMN brought together college and high school supporters of affirmative action in a rally to voice all of these concerns. Sharpton called on students to come together to stand against racism and defeat MCRI. "Only those that fight will get what they deserve," he said. "So you stand up and stay strong, and we will win this fight by any means necessary." BAMN hopes the rally will send a message to government officials in Lansing that young people in Michigan support affirmative action and that the policy is an essential part of promot- ing racial equality in general, said Ben Royal, a BAMN organizer and gradu- ate student in the School of Education. To demonstrate this support, BAMN organized buses to bring more than 1000 middle and high school students from Detroit public schools to the event. "The fight to defeat the MCRI in Michigan right now is the front line," he said, adding that ending affirma- tive action would be a step back toward segregation, Jim Crow and inequality between men and women. BAMN organizers said they hope the rally will influence the decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals when it hears their case for keeping MCRI off the ballot. Standing at the back of the rally was a small group of University students opposed to affirmative action and the methods BAMN uses to promote its agenda. Affirmative action is outdated and ineffectual, said Matthew Gage, a LSA senior and events chair of College Republicans. "It's been around for 40 years, and you look at the numbers, it's just not working," Gage said. In addition, affirmative action has increased tensions between the races, Gage said. A more effective and fair system would be one based on socio- economic status instead of race, he added. The anti-affirmative action protestors also alleged that BAMN uses violence - including physical violence and prop- erty destruction - to achieve its goals. As an example of this violence, Gage cited an incident last July in which stu- dents at a BAMN rally in Lansing loot- ed a nearby cafeteria. Allegations of violence against BAMN are only rumors and are "total- ly unfounded," said Royal. Yesterday's rally was largely peace- ful, although some anti-affirmative action students said they were spit on or had water bottles and other things thrown at them. While the BAMN rally was loud and confrontational, a second pro-affirma- tive action rally held later in the eve- ning took the opposite approach. The "Breaking the Silence" gath- ering, organized by several campus groups including Students Support- ing Affirmative Action and NAACP, was a more subdued protest of MCRI. Instead of thousands of students march- ing, cheering and yelling, the event involved a small group of students who began the gathering with their mouths gagged. The students wore the gags all day to illustrate the silence that will be imposed on women and students of color if MCRI is passed, said Alex Moffet, vice president of NAACP. "If affirmative action is taken away from this campus, then students of color will cease to be on this campus," Moffet said. "(The gags) show what it would be like in the classroom without the voices of those students" Students participating in the dem- onstration said they were worried that programs such as Women in Science and Engineering and the Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs office at the University would suffer if MCRI is passed. Although some critics claim that students who benefit from affirmative action policies are less qualified than other university students, Shelton said- the programs are important because they help students who have historically, been denied access to higher education- "The door (to higher education) has been opened," he said. "The key now is to make sure that people know how to even find that door." Students still have to complete all the work at the college level, Sheltoi added. "College professors don't grade on an affirmative action curve." Rather than try to keep MCRI off the ballot, NAACP will focus on educating students and Michigan residents about affirmative action and the problems with MCRI so that it can be defeated at the polls in 2006, said Riana Anderson, the group's president. "At the University of Michigan there is a new cause every day," Anderson said. "This is one that will likely last ' lifetime." Ui Congratul "inUs. a }v .. N ve of the Woek Pizza is on as for a job wel done -?asa John's V We give prizes instead of grades Correct!'7 Identity theft or misrepresentation B 2 Security intrusions C t Unauthorized changes to computers D C Equipment theft E VAll of the above Hey, Freshmen, Sophomores, and s Juniors... YO S 4 ,smyourst c n zfi simply not cuit ~g Students, take the, Computer Security 101 Final Exam at safecomputing.umich.edu