Friday, February 3, 2006
News 3 State treasurer quits
Opinion 4 Former Detroiter
Imran Syed on
the Super Bowl
Arts 5 Russell Peters
brings laughs to the
Michigan Theater
AST ! S'cn\r'i NOT l EN IO 131 FO W(" DA 1S
One-hundredfifteen years ofeditorialfredom
www.michaganday.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 68 @2006 The Michigan Daily
"IN OU MEMORIES, IHE WLL AL.AYS BE SINGING,
LAUGHING, DEBATING, ANALYZING, LISTENING ...®"
SOLE launches
new campaign to
combat sweatshops
Group claims apparel
with University's logo
is produced using
unfair labor practices
By Molly Bowen
For the Daily
According to Students Organizing for
Labor and Economic Equality, wearing
certain maize-and-blue apparel is not just
a fashion choice. It's a moral dilemma.
SOLE claims many of the millions
of hats, t-shirts and other clothing bear-
ing the University's logo are produced in
sweatshops in countries with little or no
enforcement of labor regulations.
About 10 students gathered in the
Union on Wednesday night to launch a
new anti-sweatshop initiative to change
the standard to which the University holds
big brands that produce Michigan attire.
"Universities have a monopoly over
their logo;' said LSA sophomore Art
Reyes, a member of SOLE. "No one can
produce a University shirt without the
University's permission."
The campaign submitted to the Uni-
versity last fall a proposal to require
brands to only use factories that meet
the requirements of the Designated Sup-
pliers Program - a program under the
watchdog group United Students Against
Sweatshops, which maintains a list of
factories with good labor practices.
The proposal is still under consider-
ation, said RC sophomore Adri Miller, a
SOLE member.
Members of the Committee on Labor
Standards and Human Rights could not
be reached for comment.
According to the USAS website, the
factories that meet the requirements of the
Designated Suppliers Program have been
"determined by universities to have affir-
matively demonstrated full and consistent
respect for the rights of their employees."
Two other main stipulations regard rights
of association and livable wages.
This is not the first time SOLE has
campaigned on Michigan apparel.
In March.2001, the University imple-
mented a supplier code of conduct that
required all factories producing licensed
University attire to enforce a set of labor
standards, including a limit on work
hours and fair pay.
Members of SOLE agreed that the
code was a step in the right direction,
but said the measure did little to improve
working conditions because it doesn't
hold brands responsible for conditions in
factories to which they outsource labor.
"Brands say that they can't force (their
suppliers) to enact fair labor practices,"
Miller said.
She said brands can break with facto-
ries if they do not approve of a factory's
labor methods.
University products constitute a con-
siderable percentage of sales for big-
name brands, so universities carry a lot
of leverage, Miller said.
If standards are raised, people on the
street probably won't notice a significant
price increase, she said
"We can't be exact about these num-
bers, because brands aren't forced to
disclose wages, but we do know for sure
that they're low" she said.
SOLE plans to employ similar tactics
as the campaign that forced the University
and other colleges to cut their contracts
with Coca-Cola, such as pressuring the
administration and working as a coali-
tion with other student groups.
Jeff Druchniak (left) performs in a dress rehearsal for the 2004 production of A Winter's Tale as photographed in a dress
rehearsal at the Lydia Mendellsohn Theater.
Friends and family
remember Druchniak
Longtime tennis coach
moves to administration
Bit Ritt women's
tennis coach, becomes
associate athletic director
By Nate Sandals
Daily Sports Writer
Fellow Public Policy
students mourn actor,
writer, thinker
By Ashlea Surles
Daily Staff Reporter
Among students at the School of Pub-
lic Policy, Jeff Druchniak was known for
breaking from the narrow focus of aca-
demic life and prodding others to do the
same.
In the days since learning of his death,
Druchniak's friends and family continue
to mourn the dual public policy and Law
student.
"In our memories, he will always be
singing, laughing, debating, analyzing,
listening ... and above all loving the peo-
ple and the world around him," Druchni-
ak's family said in a written statement to
the Daily.
Druchniak, who earned his bachelor's
degree at the University in 2000, died
after a fall from a campus parking struc-
ture earlier this week in what police have
called an apparent suicide.
As those close to him reflect on his
Read full statements from friends and
family members, and leave your own
memories of Druchniak, on The Wire
news blog at michlgandally.com.
life, they say he was one of a kind.
"His final decision deprives us all of
one of the most talented, creative, intel-
ligent and loving men I have ever met,"
said girlfriend Kathy Gelhausen.
Public Policy student Josh Rosenfeld, a
close friend of Druchniak's, remembered
his infamous classroom behavior.
"You would find Jeff in the back of the
room doing a crossword puzzle, sleeping,
leaving to check his e-mail in his public
policy classes, only to return and offer a
deeply intellectual, thought-provoking
question that challenged professors and
academia;' Rosenfeld said
"He" was incredibly intelligent and
would pick things up very quickly,"
said friend Steven Ochoa, a Public Pol-
icy student. "Most people would say he
would get sidetracked by the mundane,
but I think it was a sign of a brilliant
mind."
Druchniak was well-known among
his classmates for initiating thought
provoking conversations on topics such
as the value of the British monarchy
whether Conan O'Brien will have to
tone down his show when he takes over
for Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show,
Rosenfeld said.
"Whenever something caught his
attention - politics, sports, books, mov-
ies, history - he shared it with a burning
passion and vitality," she said.
Ochoa remembered Druchniak's com-
petitive spirit.
While speaking about the first time
the two met at orientation for the Ford
School of Public Policy, he chuckled sen-
timentally.
Ochoa said they had to do a series of
icebreakers.
When Druchniak saw that one of the
tasks was to find the price of a book at
the Michigan Bookstore in the Union,
he called the store to ask the price. They
wouldn't tell him over the phone, so he
mobilized the three-person group to
exchange phone numbers and took off
running from South University to the
Union bookstore.
"He called me when he got there and
See DRUCHNIAK, page 7
Over the past 22 years, a lot has changed
in Michigan athletics.
There have been three football coaches,
eight national championships and a boost-
er scandal.
Through it all, Bitsy Ritt has been the
steady, guiding force for the Michigan
women's tennis program.
That will all change on June 1, when
Ritt steps into her new role as associate
athletic director, placing her in charge of
overseeing 22 non-revenue sports.
Ritt's move, which the Athletic Depart-
ment announced last month, came as a
shock to the members of the women's ten-
nis team. While the players were congrat-
ulatory and recognized the importance of
the new opportunity, but they were also
quiet and surprised, Ritt said.
The coach admittedly got emotional
See RITT, page 7
Bitsy Rltt, second from left, talks with her team during the Michigan
Invitational on at the Varsity Tennis Center last month.
IT'S ALL A BLUR
Kennedy s
Peace
Classic TV director
attributes success to 'U'
Corps vision
lives on at 'U'
Seventy-six students
entered the Peace
Corps last year
By Joolle Dodge
Daily StaffReporter
The legacy then-Sen. John F.
Kennedy set in place by proposing
the Peace Corps on the steps of the
Michigan Union 45 years ago con-
tinues at the University.
The University had more of its
graduate students join the 7,810-
member corps in 2005 than any
other school in the country.
Counting both graduate and
undergraduate students, the Uni-
versity sent the sixth most into the
corps. Seventy-six students entered
the corns - nine less than the 85
"At first, I didn't think it was
something I could do because I
wasn't an undergrad;' she said.
When she discovered the corps
needed students with higher
degrees as well, she said, she
jumped at the chance.
Since 1961, more than 2,145
University students have joined
the Peace Corps, fourth among
all schools.
Wisconsin sent 28 more alumni
than the University of Michigan
in 2005, taking the top spot for the
20th year in a row.
Scott Roskelley, spokesman for
the Chicago region Peace Corps,
said he believes the University could
win the number one spot if it pro-
moted the corps more.
"Any time the University of
Michigan would like to overtake the
Alum John Rich directed
"Dick Van Dyke Show,"
"The Twilight Zone"
By Christine Beamer
Daily StaffReporter
Turn on TV Land and there is a good chance
you'll be watching an episode of University alum
John Rich's work.
In the era of the 1960s classic sitcom, Rich was
right in the thick of things. "The
Twilight Zone," "The Dick Van L U
Dyke Show," "Gilligan's Island"
and "All in the Family" are just a
few shows he's directed. -
Yet when talking to Rich, it's
not his impressive resume or his .
brushes with celebrities - he
directed two movies that starred
Elvis Presley - that come up. It's r
his ties with the University.
"I hadn't known John for an
hour before he credited Michi- Thir
gan with everything good that semes
University of Michigan. Working as a soda jerk at
a drug store pouring fountain drinks, Rich earned
just enough money to take the train to Ann Arbor
in the fall of 1943 and enroll himself.
"I had $105 in my pocket and tuition was $100
a semester;' Rich said, chuckling. .
But Rich's experience at the University was
cut short by summons to join the Air Force. But
as soon as World War II ended in 1945, Rich
found his way back to campus.
"I took an enormous amount of credits
because I was eager to get back to civilian life. I
signed up instantly for every class I
i N I could take,"he said.
Rich still had to put himself
through college, so he took on three
jobs: waiting tables at the Michigan
Union for 40 cents per hour, wash-
ing dishes at Kappa Sigma for a
free lunch, then driving a cab in the
evenings.
Even with three jobs, Rich
was constantly on the lookout
for more ways to pay for college.
iIn a When a new radio station in town,
er-long WHRV, sent out an ad offering
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