NEWS

The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 8, 2005 - 3

ON CAMPUS
* Former members
of Congress to
speak at League
Two former members of Congress
will visit the Michigan League tomor-
row in an event sponsored by a number
of groups including the Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly and the Political Science
Department. The event will be held from
11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Vandenberg
Room of the League. Admission is free
and cider and donuts will be served.
Food Gatherers
cook food for the
* homeless
Students interested in helping cook
food and serve it to the homeless partici-
pate in volunteer shifts that go from 3 to
5 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. The event is being
organized by Food Gatherers, a group
that works to provide food for the home-
less through hunger relief projects. To do
a shift, students can come to the Man-
dell L. Berman Center at Hillel. Contact
Alexis Frankel afrankel@umich.edu
for more information.
Author will speak
about the history
of business
Author Richard Tedlow, who writes
about the history of business will give
a lecture titled "What the Titans can
teach us: Lessons from the giants of
enterprise" at 5 p.m. at Hale Auditorium
today. Cost for the event is free. Contact
the Stephen M. Ross School of Business
for more information.
CRIME
0 NOTES
Hospital security
catches Ronald
McDonald smoker
Hospital security reported finding a
subject smoking marijuana in the Ronald
McDonald House on Sunday around 9:15
p.m., according to the Department of
Public Safety. DPS officers interviewed
the subject at the front desk and released
the individual pending a warrant.
Construction items
thrown through
closed window
Two large pieces of construction hard-
ware were thrown through a glass door
and window in the northwest corner of
the Modern Languages Building on
Sunday around 6:30 a.m., DPS reported.
There are no suspects at this time.
Large bolt thought
responsible for

Frieze damage
Windows at the northwest corner
of the Frieze Building were dam-
aged Sunday around 6 p.m., DPS
reported. DPS believes that a large
bolt, found inside the building, is
responsible for the damage. There
are no suspects at this time.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Students protest
military research
on campus
Nov. 8, 1983 - A research
laboratory in the East Engineering
Building was seized yesterday by
twenty-seven students in an effort
to stop military research being
conducted there.
Members of the Progressive Stu-
dent Network blocked the entrance
to the radiation laboratory begin-
ning at 1 p.m. and planned to
remain there throughout the night.
Walt Stevens, director of Uni-
versity security, said while the

Week builds ties
between blacks,
Natie Amrencans

SHUBRA OHRI/ Daily
University President Mary Sue Coleman discusses higher education at a round table forum with former Detroit
Mayor Dennis Archer, chairman of the Bing Group Dave Bing, Lt Gov. John Cherry and moderator Nolan Finley.
teeduatosaypub/kopz.wbn
on hzkher ed needs to change

COLEMAN
Continued from page 1
accessible. Coleman said that though the
suggestions were ambitious, she believes
that Michigan schools have the capacity
to achieve the commission's goals. She
added that despite the University's record
enrollment numbers, there is still under-
utilized space at the Flint and Dearborn
campuses.
Lou Anna Simon, president of Michi-
gan State University, added that increased
cooperation between universities and
community colleges could be another
way to boost total state enrollment in
higher education.
"Doubling the number in 10 years is a
very aggressive goal, and I'm not against
setting aggressive goals," Coleman said.
But if the state wants universities to increase
productivity, she said it will have to dedi-
cate more resources to higher education.
"I do not believe that we can stay with
level and declining funding and meet our
goal," she said. "It's just not realistic."
Beth Chappell, president of the
Detroit Economic Club, said the general
public remains apathetic toward higher
education.
"We have people saying this is so
important to our very survival, our

children's survival, but the reality is the
public, whoever the public is, doesn't
see it that way," she said. As a result,
higher education funding has dwin-
dled, but Chappell added that many of
the attendees are in a position to make
meaningful changes.
"We've got the right people in the room
to be having this discussion.... We've got a
lot of education leaders, lots of elected offi-
cials - this is the group," she said in her
opening address.
Despite resounding verbal commit-
ments to higher education by state offi-
cials, Michigan lawmakers continue to
back away from funding universities. Dur-
ing the last five years, state appropriations
to higher education have witnessed a 25
percent cut; today, the state is responsible
for only 7 percent of the operating budget
of Michigan universities.
"Words are easy to speak," said Dave
Bing, chairman of the Bing Group, a man-
ufacturing company based in Detroit. "Too
many people give a lot of lip service and
talk about what should happen, but they're
not willing to get up and do anything."
"To turn (public opinion) around very
quickly, (education leaders) are going to
have to be very visceral in their approach,"
said pollster Ed Sarpolus. He added that
although elected officials often say they

support higher education to get elected, to
stay in office, they have to shy away from
politically unpopular tax hikes.
Cherry said many of the commission's
recommendations will not actually require
significant funding to enact. He added that
cutting taxes might actually be beneficial to
higher education, explaining that if lower
taxes were successful in attracting busi-
nesses and boosting the economy, higher
education would actually see a portion of
higher tax revenue in the long run.
But Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith
(D-Ypsilanti) said that the state will
need to increase taxes to sustain a
high quality higher education sys-
tem. She added that Republican-pro-
posed tax cuts yield relatively little
benefit to the individual at the cost
of billions in state revenue.
"You can't keep cutting taxes and
spending and achieve what you said
you needed to do," Sarpolus said.
"(Michigan's elected officials) don't
back up their commitments."
"(Legislators) have to be less con-
cerned about getting re-elected and
more concerned about doing their job,"
Sarpolus added. "Pretty much every-
thing that was said today was said for
naught because nothing is being done
in Washington or in (Lansing)."

By Laura Frank
Daily Staff Reporter
This month, Native American stu-
dents at the University will try to shatter
the perception of their people as primi-
tive and homogenous.
During November's Native American
Heritage Month, event organizers hope
to expose students to many aspects of
indigenous culture and identity.
This year's programs will include an
entire week devoted to exploring the
link between black and Native Ameri-
can communities. Black Indian Cele-
bration Week will take place from Nov.
10 to Nov. 17.
Put on by the Native American
Student Association, as well as
several black student groups and
the Center for Afro-American and
African Studies, other events will
include weekly movies, lectures
and workshops and art projects
designed to increase the visibil-
ity of Native American culture on
campus and dispel common mis-
conceptions.
Native Americans make up only
about 1 percent of students at the Univer-
sity, with 332 undergraduate and gradu-
ate students enrolled in 2005, according
to University data.
Because of the small number of stu-
dents, Native Americans on campus are
often overlooked, said LSA junior Brit-
tany Marino, a member of the NASA.
"(Native American Heritage Month)
is a chance for native people to cel-
ebrate their culture in an environment
that doesn't usually allow for that,"
Marino said.
Programs during this week will
include a workshop that shows stu-
dents how to trace genealogies and
family histories and a concert by
Martha Redbone, a performer who
is of black and Native American
heritage and whose music fuses the
styles of both cultures.
The histories of black and native
peoples are deeply connected, and
these connections are important in
modern life, said CAAS Prof. Tiya
Miles, who will give a lecture on
the topic during the week. About
30 percent of black Americans
identify with indigenous cultures,
either through ancestry or through
cultural practices that draw ele-

ments from native and black tradi-
tions, she added.
The two groups face many of the
same problems, and recognizing their
shared heritage may help them form
coalitions and gain greater political
power in many areas, including land
preservation, Miles said.
Early interactions between the two
communities have fueled ongoing
debates over identity, she added.
For example, there are currently
federal lawsuits that descendents of
black Native Americans have filed
against tribes such as the Seminole
and Cherokee over their status as
members of the tribe.
On a more personal level, acknowl-
edgement of the link between Native
Americans and blacks can empower
individuals to recognize all of their iden-
tities, said LSA senior Alyx Cadotte,
a NASA member and organizer of the
week's events.
"Sometimes, you're made to choose,
or sometimes, society perceives you as
one and doesn't allow you to identify
with both," said Cadotte, who doesn't
identify herself as black.
Other programs during the month
will focus on issues affecting Native
American communities - especially
poverty and misrepresentation in Amer-
ican history.
Partially due to the low visibil-
ity of Native Americans on campus,
many students have outdated and
mistaken views of native culture,
Marino said. Two of the most com-
mon misconceptions about Native
Americans are that all tribes follow
the cultural practices of the Plains
Indians and that their societies have
not changed since the days of west-
ern expansion, she added.
On Nov. 22, Tobias Vanderhoop,
a member of the Wampanoag Tribal
Council, will address the differences
between the popular American image of
the first Thanksgiving and the perspec-
tive of the Wampanoag, the tribe present
at the 1621 feast.
Organizers hope this month's pro-
grams will inform the University com-
munity about all of these issues and
increase appreciation for the role of
Native Americans in American society.
"It's a thrilling culture," Marino said.
"And although we do face struggles, we
haven't disappeared."


Former official critical of FDA on Plan B

By Ekjyot Saini
Daily StaffReporter
"The role of the journalist is not to be an
advocate," said New York Times science
and medical reporter Gina Kolata at a panel
discussion held at the University yesterday.
Kolata, joined by Susan Wood, former
director of the Food and Drug Administra-
tion's Office of Women's Health, and other
prominent individuals discussed the role
of the press and public policy with regard
to women's health issues at the Michi-
gan League at an event sponsored by the
Knight-Wallace Fellows, a fellowship pro-
gram for mid-career journalists.
"The idea is to explore how well the
important public policy issue of women's
health is being explained to the public,
which of course ultimately foots the bill,"
said Charles Eisendrath, the director of
the fellowship program.
The role of the journalist, according to
Kolata, is similar to that of an entertainer,
that journalists are telling stories.
"Its not our job to make you do some-
thing," she said.
Kolata said it is not the responsibil-
ity of the journalist to provide advice or
change people's minds. However, her con-
cern is that journalists are not asking the
right questions when it comes to covering
health and medical issues.
Kolata said that much medical advice is
not necessarily backed up by science.
Similarly, she said journalists have the
tendency to only write about the positive
aspects of medical and science news.
Another significant concern brought

up by the panelists was the way in which
political agendas often overshadow the role
of science when creating public policy.
Wood resigned from her post as direc-
tor of the FDA's Office of Women's Health
because of the controversy within the
FDA concerning the marketing of Plan B,
or the "emergency contraceptive pill."
Plan B would prevent ovulation, and
therefore pregnancy, 72 hours after
unprotected sex.
However, Wood said many individuals
are confusing Plan B with abortion, which
has created problems with its availability.
Wood said the FDA was struggling
with what it should do in regards to Plan
B, and how it should be regulated.
She said a plan was finalized in May
2004 that the drug would be marketed
over the counter for those above the age of
16, while for those under 16, a prescription
would be required.
According to Wood, FDA Commis-
sioner Lester Crawford placed a hold on the
process last August because he was unsure
how such a dual regulation would occur.
"We have had other dual status prod-
ucts, but they were never regulated," she
said. "To announce (the hold) was a way
to say no without saying no."
Wood feels that a political agenda
played a role in the halting of the process
because all the scientific data indicated
that Plan B was a safe contraceptive.
"(This is) a disregard of the science.
There was a complete consensus in the
FDA, almost unanimous agreement (on
Plan B), " she said.
Wood resigned due to the lack of

"I worry about what will happen to
the women's health department. I
worry it will not be able to continue
doing the work it is doing."
- Susan Wood
Former Director,
Food and Drug Administration Office of Women's Health

input she was allowed in the entire pro-
cess and felt that her work was being
compromised.
"My job is to be a champion for wom-
en's health," Wood said. "It was clear that
we were being cut out."
Other incidents where political agendas
were impacting health policies and the
availability of accurate medical informa-
tion were discussed among the panelists.
Fran Visco, president of the National
Breast Cancer Coalition, said that the
National Cancer Institute experienced a
similar brush with political influence.
Visco said the U.S government believes
there is a link between abortions and
breast cancer.
The NCI website, however, explicitly
states that such a link does not exist.
According to Visco, the government
had the information removed by the NCI,
piquing discussion that political agendas
are at play.

"(This) gives me no confidence. Who 5 E
can you trust?" she said.
Wood believes that these situations are
indicative of the agenda of the govern-
ment and that the role of health agencies 76r ....9
is being compromised.
"I worry about what will happen to
the women's health department. I worry
it will not be able to continue doing the .
work it is doing," Wood said.

for more information call 734/998-6251
The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science,
and the Arts presents a public lecture and reception

The lowbroW comedy
for thehighbrow crowd.
"If you like to laugh to the point of wetting
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