NEWS
Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 3
ON CAMPUS
Translator to
discuss role of
English in India
Rita Kothari, an English teacher
and translator at St. Xavier College
in Ahmedabad, India, will address
the role of the English language
in India. The lecture will be from
noon to 1:30 p.m. today in room
2022 of the Thayer Building at 202
S. Thayer St.
Engineering
group hosts
* mass meeting
BlueLab, a student engineer-
ing organization that works to find
practical solutions to developmen-
tal problems around the world, will
have its first general meeting from
5:30 to 6:30 p.m. today in room 1010
of the Herbert H. Dow Building.
Workshop
coaches novice
backpackers
Members of the Michigan
Outdoor Leadership Semester
program will hold a clinic on
the basic fundamentals of fitting
a backpack and preparing for a
hike today from 6 to 9 p.m. in
the Elbel Building. The cost of
the clinic is $10.
CRIME
NOTES
Stockwell
Residence Hall
evacuated
Stockwell Residence Hall was
evacuated at about 8:45 yesterday
morning after smoke funneled
through a tunnel adjoining Stock-
well and Mosher-Jordan, the Ann
Arbor Fire Department reported.
Welding for the Mosher-Jordan
renovations is suspected to have
caused the smoke. Residents were
allowed to return to their rooms at
about 9:20 a.m. after police and
fire officials determined the smoke
would not cause a fire.
Student found
in restroom
given MIP
A student was cited for minor
in possession after being discov-
ered in a Mary Markley Resi-
dence Hall restroom yesterday
morning, the Department of Pub-
lic Safety reported. An ambu-
lance transported the student to
the University Hospital, where he
received treatment.
THIS DAY
In 'U' History
a Minority student
enrollment falls
Sat 'U'
Sept. 19, 1989 - Total minor-
ity enrollment among first-year and
transfer students at the University
is down 6 percent, said Provost and
Vice President of Academic Affairs
Charles Vest.
Eight hundred and ninety-nine
students of color attending the
University in 1988. This fall only
880 minority students are part of
the entering class.
Yesterday afternoon, Vest
restated the University's pledge to
improve racial and ethnic diver-
sity and asserted that minority
enrollment has increased over the
past 10 years.
Vest announced that 45 new
faculty members from three
minority groups, including 21
blacks, 15 Asian Americans and
nine Hispanics, were hiredthis
year, up from 32 during the last
academic year.
Although Vest reaffirmed
"a commitment to community,
civility and respect for others,"
some students disagreed that the
University implements policies
aimed at retaining minority stu-
dents. Kim Smith, a second-year
medical student and member of
the United Coalition Against
Racism steering committee,
called the figures "a manipula-
tion of statistics."
HOT ROD
Bipartisan group calls for
more stem-cell research
State is losing out on cures,
economic benefits by restricting
stem cell research, group says
LANSING (AP) - Cathy Coury looks forward
to the day when researchers may find a cure for the
juvenile diabetes that makes her young sons' lives a
constant round of insulin shots and blood-sugar moni-
toring.
Yesterday, she joined with researchers from the
University of Michigan and Michigan State Univer-
sity, elected officials and policy makers to formally
kick off a bipartisan group that plans to make the case
that Michigan's tough restriction on embryonic stem
cell research is blocking important medical gains and
hurting the state's economy.
"I want to know researchers are out there exploring
every option," said Coury, who lives in Grand Rapids
and is the legislative chairwoman of the West Michi-
gan Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
The stem cell advocacy group doesn't plan to
endorse any lawmakers or any specific legislation.
But it does hope to make its case with the public that
the state is losing out on potential cures and economic
benefits by restricting embryonic stem cell research.
It already has a website and plans an electronic
newsletter, a speaker's bureau and future public
forums.
"If we don't use embryos that are going to be dis-
carded anyway ... it pushes the cures farther and
farther away," U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said
during a Lansing news conference unveiling the non-
profit group Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research
and Cures.
Added U.S. Rep. Joe Schwarz, a Republican from
Battle Creek: "A state like Michigan ought to be right
out there among the leaders in embryonic stem cell
research and not have laws that create barriers ...
There is nothing more pro-life than helping the liv-
ing."
Right to Life of Michigan and the Michigan Catholic
Conference are opposed to legislation being sponsored
by state Rep. Andy Meisner (D-Ferndale) that would
allow more embryonic stem cell research in Michigan.
They say it would allow human embryos tobe destroyed
to harvest their stem cells.
Supporters of embryonic stem cell research say the
embryos are left over from fertility treatments and
would be disposed of anyway.
The opposition of Right to Life and the Catholic
Conference is one reason legislation has passed in
Michigan encouraging the creation of a network of
stem cell banks for umbilical cords and adult stem cells
donated by patients, but the restrictions on embryonic
stem cell research remain.
Some suspect link
between job cuts
and Mulally hiring
Ford will cut 10,000
jobs and offer buyouts
to 75,000 workers
SEATTLE (AP) - Ford said
it hired Alan Mulally because of
his skill at turning around Boe-
ing's commercial airplane busi-
ness. Not so loudly mentioned
was another skill: his ability to
cut jobs, tens of thousands at a
time, and a knack for showing
empathy even as he shows work-
ers the door.
Ford Motor Co. announced a
plan last week to cut $5 billion in
costs by the end of 2008 by slash-
ing 10,000 white-collar workers
and offering buyouts to all 75,000
unionized employees.
The moves, part of a massive
restructuring that also includes
revamping Ford's product line
and shuttering some plants, came
just over a week after Mulally
announced plans to leave his job
as head of Boeing Co.'s commer-
cial airplanes division to take the
chief executive job at Ford.
While Mulally is new to the
auto industry, the situation isn't
unfamiliar. Just one week after
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks dev-
astated the jetliner industry in
2001, Mulally told workers he
would need to cut tens of thou-
sands of jobs at the company's
commercial airplane plants. The
grueling series of layoffs would
extend for more than a year and
chopped Boeing's payroll by
30,000.
"He certainly does have a lot
of experience with it," said Dick
Conway, a regional economist in
Seattle, where Boeing's commer-
cial airplane operations are head-
quartered.
Although the cuts would leave
thousands of workers unem-
ployed and adrift, representatives
from two of Boeing's big unions
say Mulally managed to maintain
goodwill among employees even
during the worst of the cuts.
Connie Kelliher, a spokes-
woman for the Seattle-based
Machinists Lodge 751, which
represents Boeing production
workers, remembers Mulally as
being a tough talker in meetings
with union officials, refusing to
make concessions that the union
thought might save some jobs.
But at the same time, she also
remembers how well Mulally was
received at Boeing's assembly
plants, where the executive often
had a smile and pat on the back
for workers.
"He is very, very personable
when he goes out on the shop
floor. There's no doubt about it
- he's charismatic," she said.
Charles Bofferding, executive
director of the Society of Profes-
sional Engineering Employees in
Aerospace, said the post-Sept. 11
layoffs were particularly tough
on his union's white-collar work-
ers because they came as Boeing
was outsourcing more work to
cut costs. He said some workers
naturally blamed Mulally for the
cuts.
Still, Bofferding praised
Mulally - an engineer and for-
mer member of SPEEA - for
doing a good job of explaining
why the cuts were necessary, and
what the long-term plan was to
turn Boeing around.
To succeed at Ford, Bofferding
thinks Mulally will have to show
the same willingness to commu-
nicate with workers that he did
with Boeing engineers.
"It's incumbent upon Ford's
leadership to transmit a plan to
employees that they can believe
in," Bofferding said.
Attention Students!
Meet the Regents!
You are invited to meet informally with members
of the Board of Regents at a
RECEPTION
Thursday, September. 21, 2006
10:30 -11:30 a.m.
Wolverine Rooms
Michigan Union
Light refreshments will be served
p ~
More men and women on the front lines are surviving life-threatening injuries
than ever before for one reason: We have the most elite nurses in the world. As a
U.S. Air Force nurse, you receive the most advanced training and have access to the
best medical technology on the planet. And whether you're treating Airmen on foreign
soil or their families on bases here in the U.S., you can put all of that training to use.
If you're interested in learning more about a better place to practice medicine, call or
visit us online. 1-800-588- 5280 * AIRFORCE.COMIHEALTHCARE
-s k