Monday, December 5, 2005
News 3A Campus leaders
urged to look
beyond politics
MICHIGAN HEADED TO SAN ANTONIO F'OR ALAMO BOWL ... SPORTSMONDAY
£iitijuuit~
Opinion 4A
Elliott Mallen takes
on Paul Courant
Arts 8A Law students fight
to save 'Arrested
Development'
One-hundredffteen years of edtorialfreedom
www.michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 42 02005 The Michigan Daily
NAACP
consi ers
. Oycotting
the Daily
Group calls Nov 28 cartoon
inaccurate and racist because it
stereotypes black students
By Karl Stampfl
Daily Staff Reporter
The University chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People may be considering
boycotting The Michigan Daily because of an editorial
cartoon it published Nov. 28.
The cartoon displays a classroom of smiling dark-skinned
students with a single white student. The dark-skinned
teacher is shown saying that everyone in the class will
receive preference when applying to the University because
of affirmative action policies, except the white student.
NAACP 2nd Vice President Jamila Fair said the cartoon
reduced affirmative action to a black-white issue. Affir-
mative action policies do not only benefit blacks but also
groups such as women and other minorities, Fair said.
"It makes it seem like affirmative action is only a black
and white issue," Fair said. "To the NAACP it was a slap in
the face. It hurt what we are trying so hard to fight."
NAACP members said the Daily should not have print-
ed the cartoon because they
said it is racist. Members
Michigan Daily also said that the cartoon
Editor in Chief stereotypes blacks as a
Jason Pesick minority group that is both
normally edits abusing affirmative action
the stories on policies and underqualified
the front page. to attend the University.
Because he was The Michigan Daily edi-
in ts torial page supports race-
quoted based admissions in all its
story, he did not unsigned editorials, which
edit it. appear on the left side of
the page and represent the
viewpoint of the staff. The
paper's columns, editorial cartoons and viewpoints (or
guest columns) have also often supported affirmative
action, even though they do not reflect the opinion of the
Daily staff, only of the individual authors.
Fair would not comment on whether the group is con-
sidering a boycott or what other actions NAACP will take
against the Daily.
Daily Editor in Chief Jason Pesick - who made the
ultimate decision to run the cartoon - defended the
paper's handling of the cartoon.
"We give cartoonists and columnists on the edit page a
great deal of latitude," he said. "Their views don't neces-
sarily reflect the views of the editorial page or the paper
as a whole."
Pesick cited a line in the Daily's code of ethics that says
the Daily needs to "support the open exchange of views,
even views it finds repugnant."
The Daily stands by its decision to run the cartoon,
Pesick said. If given the chance again, he would have made
the same decision.
"I won't deny it's an edgy cartoon, but I would be really
dissatisfied if the editorial page only had cartoons support-
ing affirmative action," he said. "This is the central issue
this campus has faced over the last decade and I see it as
the Daily's responsibility to allow a robust debate to take
place on that issue."
The Daily has listened carefully to what the NAACP
has had to say, Pesick said. Last Tuesday, Daily editors
held a dialogue with NAACP members about the cartoon
and the newspaper's editorial policies.
See NAACP, page 3A
Fire scorches apartment
y *26 to 29 students forced to
T move into temporary housing
while landlords fix building
ailBy Jameel Navi
_ Daily News Editor
Two fires blazed through three units in a
three-story building at 815 S. State St. early
yesterday morning, forcing 30 students to spend
the next several days in temporary housing in
the middle of the December finals crunch.
An ambulance transported one student with a
burned hand to the University Hospital, accord-
ing to the Ann Arbor Fire Department. The
hospital released the student at around 4 p.m.
yesterday. All other students safely escaped.
The Fire Department also said a firefighter
was treated for smoke inhalation but will be
back on duty today.
The first fire occurred at around 3 a.m.,
students who were inside said. Tenants were
allowed back into their apartments an hour
after they were evacuated.
But another fire erupted at around 7:40 a.m.
and forced students to evacuate a second time.
AAFD Battalion Chief Greg Hollingsworth
said the building caught fire the first time when
candles on the second floor of the apartment
were placed too close to combustible objects.
Hollingsworth speculated that the second fire
started when smoldering debris - including a
highly flammable mattress - that firefighters
had thrown out the window after the first fire
reignited the blaze.
"It was possibly left a little too close to the
building," he said.
The fires caused extensive damage to the
building's utilities and three apartments - the
unit where the fire originated and the units
directly above and below.
Sue Eklund, dean of students, said ten-
ants who were living in the three apartments
may not be able to return soon. The 12 other
apartments also sustained superficial smoke
damage.
"A timely call to the Fire Department and
their prompt response was a blessing," said
University alum Tony Nam, one of the owners
of the building.
Nam said he hopes tenants in the relatively
unscathed units will be able to move back in this
week. Family-owned Nam Building Manage-
ment must repair utilities and obtain approval
from city inspectors before tenants can return.
So far, electricity has been repaired,'and pipes
are being drained and treated with antifreeze to
See FIRE, page 3A
EUGENEUOERTSON/Daily
TOP: Damage and debris from a fire at 815 S. State last
night. ABOVE: Tony Nam, the landlord, checks out the
damage and debris from the fire at 815 S. State, last
night. RIGHT: Outside view of the building.
Black students question DPS protocol
U NAACP pushes for University
policing agency to revise its crime alert
and event surveillance policies
By Carissa Miller
Daily Staff Reporter
Ever feel like you are being watched? It's what Kreston
Martin, a Kinesiology senior, feels at on-campus events,
whenever the Department of Public Safety is on the scene.
Is DPS trying to be sneaky because a bunch of black
folks are attending the event, he wonders.
Some minority students, especially those in the black
community say they are concerned with DPS's practices
that seem to come into play only when their communities
are involved. These security measures, some students say,
are only used when certain groups have dances or parties.
One event that has sparked consistent criticism of DPS
is the National Pan-Hellenic Council Icebreaker, an annual
event held in the Michigan Union to introduce students to
the University's black Greek community.
Concerns about video surveillance, as well as the pres-
ence of six officers and a "paddywagon"- a van used to
transport prisoners from jail to court - at this year's Ice-
breaker led to an October meeting between DPS, members
of various minority student groups and representatives
from the Office of Student Affairs.
Riana Anderson, president of the campus NAACP, said
the organization wanted to push DPS to change protocols
that her group feels unfairly target minorities and add to a
negative campus climate. These changes included scaling
back surveillance of events and making the crime alerts
more detailed to avoid singling out a particular racial
group.
DPS officials addressed student complaints regarding
seemingly discriminatory practices.
DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown said students must
understand that the protocols are necessary to ensure the
security of campus events. In addition, all groups, regardless
of race, are subjected to the same protocols, she added.
Brown said that DPS sent about six officers to cover the
Icebreaker because one officer is needed for every hundred
people at an event in the Michigan Union.
"It was helpful once (the students) understood the detail
of the dance party policy, which is the policy that any stu-
dent group holding an event in the Union has to follow,"
Brown said. "An exchange of information took place at this
meeting, and therefore I think it was beneficial."
Brown said a lack of communication between DPS and
See DPS, page 7A
Students re-enact
" Bhopal disaster
on the Diag
Mock wedding
supports same-
sex mamage
Residential College project aimed to
allow students to choose a social justice
issue and present it creatively
By C.C. song
Daily Staff Reporter
Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage didn't stop Holly Nice-
wander and Rebecka Blose from exchanging vows on the Diag
last Saturday.
The mock wedding was part of a semester-long project for a
Campus group seeks
reparations for victims of
the 1984 disaster
By Joelle Dodge
For the Daily
They've traveled to Midland, read
testimonies of victims and petitioned
Dow Chemical senior officials at their
performer Jeff Collins, a University
alum who works with Students for
Bhopal, a student group that supports
reparations for victims of the disas-
ter.
On Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide plant
owned by Union Carbide Corporation
in Bhopal, India, leaked chemicals
that killed thousands of people. More
than 150,000 additional people were
injured and 20,000 of those people