Monday, November 28, 2005
News 3A Granholm heads to
the Middle East
''ONDA-Y
4& 41v 4
r lwtir uiIT, C t
Opinion 4A
Suhael Momin:
staying in Iraq
Arts 8A Charlize Theron
talks "Aeon Flux"
One-hundredfifteen years ofeditorialfreedom
www.mifhigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 37 ®2005 The Michigan Daily
Experts:
state job
outlook
bleak
" Michigan lost 12,300
jobs in first six months of
2005, experts say
By Bo He
Daily Staff Reporter
As Michigan's economy contin-
ues to grind through its employ-
ment slump, many recent University
graduates probably won't have an
easy time finding jobs in the state,
experts say.
At the annual Economic Outlook
Conference in Ann Arbor the week
before Thanksgiving, the forecast for
the Michigan economy was bleak.
University economists predicted a
sixth consecutive year of job losses
in the fiscal year 2006, and while
the enormous job losses from 2000
to 2003 have slowed down signifi-
cantly, they have not stopped yet.
From January to June of this year,
the state lost 12,300 jobs, and Univer-
sity economists at the conference pre-
dicted a loss of about 9,600 jobs. The
economists expect some job growth
in 2007, with 10,600 jobs added, pri-
marily in the service sector.
This year has been the weakest in
terms of job growth when compared
with the last five years, with manu-
facturing suffering the most losses.
"I don't think the Michigan econ-
omy has fallen into the fire quite yet,
but it definitely won't be out of the
frying pan for a while," Economics
Prof. George Fulton said.
Crary explained that the ongoing
state budget crisis has dramatically
hindered state government from
bringing about much-needed relief
to compensate for the job losses.
The state unemployment rate for this
year is 6.8 percent, and expected
to rise for the next two years, top-
ping out at 7.6 percent by the end of
2007. Currently, the national unem-
ployment rate is 1.7 points less than
Michigan's rate.
With numbers so bleak, it comes
as no surprise that recent graduates
of the University are encountering
many more obstacles in their quests
to land good jobs in the state.
Associate Vice President for Stu-
dent Affairs Simone Taylor, who has
been tracking the job outlook for
college graduates, said overall hir-
ing of Michigan employers is down
by 42 percent. However, the hiring
of last year's graduates has been a
little better than expected.
"I am cautiously optimistic for
current graduates regarding their
employment search," she added.
Kerin Borland, associate director of
the University's Career Center, said the
See JOBS, Page 3A
Artwork
draws
fire
LSA Building
sculptures are currently
stored in the Bentley
By Karl Stampfl
Daily Staff Reporter
at
'U,
When construction on the salm-
on-colored Literature, Science and
the Arts Building on State Street is
finished next year, 37 of the 39 his-
toric bas reliefs by Michigan sculptor
Marshall Fredericks will return to its
fagade.
Two will not.
Those two works of art - "Dream
of the Young Man" and "Dream of
the Young Girl" - have spurred con-
troversy on campus for more than 30
years. Opponents have argued that
the works are sexist because they
portray finding a suitable husband as
a woman's central preoccupation.
"Dream of the Young Man"
depicts a boy dreaming about a ship
with wind-filled sails. "Dream of the
Young Girl" shows a muscular man
flanked by oxen taking the hand of
a woman.
"The visual representation doesn't
seem to hold the same respect for
women as it does men," said Fran
Blouin, director of the Bentley His-
torical Library on North Campus.
The reliefs were placed on the
LSA Building when it was built in
1948. For years, the University stood
by its position that the works are an
important part of history and should
not be removed just because they are
no longer politically correct.
But just before renovations began
on the LSA Building in 2003, the
Office of the Provost - headed by
then-Provost Paul Courant - decid-
ed to permanently move the works to
the Bentley, where fewer students are
likely to see them.
Some say the decision is an inap-
propriate attempt to forget the past.
"I don't think it's ever really a
positive thing to hide art because
of something like this," said LSA
sophomore Marah Hehemann, who
is majoring in art history. "Keeping
it at the University but putting it in a
different place seems strange."
Gary Krenz, special counsel to
University President Mary Sue Cole-
man, disagreed.
He said. he does not view the
move as an attempt to cover up his-
tory because the reliefs are not being
removed but only relocated.
University administrators argue
that the Bentley, which holds most
of the University's historical records,
is an appropriate place to house the
reliefs because it places them in a
historical context.
"My own general view about
anachronistic statements of value is
that you ought to use them as oppor-
tunities to teach," Courant said.
"When possible, you'd like to have a
display that gives people opportuni-
ties to reflect on what the world was
like when the art was created."
The President's Advisory Com-
mission on Women's Issues, formed
in 1989 to advise the University
president on how to increase gen-
der equality, strongly recommended
moving the works.
"The vision that the bas reliefs
convey is better suited to a histori-
cal context than as a representation
of the dreams we hold for Michigan's
men and women students in the 21st
century," commission chair Carol
Hollenshead wrote in a 2003 letter to
University President Mary Sue Cole-
man.
The controversy spurred Art His-
tory Prof. Margaret Root to teach a
course on the bas reliefs called Art
See SCULPTURES, Page 7A
STEVEN TAI/Daily
The controversial "Dream of the Young Girl" and "Dream of the Young Man" sculpture by Marshall Fredericks are located at
Bentley Historical Library on North Campus.
Students rate U'
professors with web site
But some say website is an
inaccurate indicator of a professors
performance in. class
By Mariem Qamruzzaman
Daily Staff Reporter
When LSA senior Jason LaBelle schedules his
winter semester classes, he won't be concerned about
one thing. After checking out ratemyprofessors.com,
he can decide which professors to take based on their
ratings.
The website is a database for looking up or rating
professors from universities across the country. The
University's Ann Arbor campus has 1,326 profes-
sors listed on the site, with student ratings for the vast
majority of them.
"I found it pretty accurate, actually," LaBelle said.
"Every semester, I'll check that site. If there are a lot of
accurate observations, not people who are mad about
grades, then I'll use that to shape my opinion."
Next to each professor's name on the website is a
happy, neutral or sad face to indicate whether a profes-
sor is of good, average or poor quality. The rating sys-
tem is on a one to five scale, with five being the highest.
Each rating is based on four categories: easiness, help-
fulness, clarity and attractiveness. A chili pepper next
to a professor's name signifies the instructor's hotness.
The ratings are monitored daily by a University stu-
dent who reviews the ratings and comments.
Such comments range from "Ralph Williams is my
guilty pleasure..." to "I swear he is in the Mafia."
A few professors at the University believe the site
has a practical and positive purpose for students.
"I think it's a lot of fun, actually," nuclear engineer-
ing Prof. Alex Bielajew said. "Students can rate their
professors anonymously. I think it's pretty useful."
He added that professors also can use the website to
see what students think about them.
But not all students and professors agree that the site
See RATINGS, Page 7A
Now its your
t urn to grade
www.ratemyprofessors.com
1,326 'U' professors rated on
easiness, helpfulness, clarity
www.msa.umich.edu/advice
Ratings based on mandatory
evaluation forms
Freshman who
. won scholarship
I'm not a genius
:
Prognosis
OK for
meningitis
student
Male freshman contracted
type c meningitis despite
receiving vaccination
By Michael Kan
Daily News Editor
More than two weeks after a male freshman
student fell ill with bacterial meningitis, the Uni-
versity Health Service reported that as of last
A New York Times
article reported on
student's writing
Jacqueline E. Howard
Daily Staff Reporter
To Heidi Kaloustian, every
story she writes is merely an
entry in a typical 17-year-old girl's
diary. But according to The New
because of this, in a Nov. 20 arti-
cle, The New York Times reported
on Kaloustian's new found fame as
a prodigy.
But the soft-spoken blonde says:
"I just don't like the idea of being
called a genius."
She feels just like any other girl,
she added.
"She wasn't writing her name
in sand at the age of two or any-
thing like that," said her mother
CC ~Cr 'C V C _____________________________________________________________________________