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www.michikandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVII, No. 13 @2006 The Michigan Daily
A tale of two plans

The athletic department's proposal

FILE PHOTO
Eighty-three skyboxes would be added to
the current stadium, which is shown above.
Approved by the University Board of
Regents on May 17 by a 5-3 vote.
Seating capacity would by 108,251, an
increase of about 1,000.
The Big House Plan
E
COURTESY OF SAVE THE BIG HOUSE
Proposed yesterday by Save the Big House,
a group vehemently opposed to luxury boxes in
Michigan Stadium.
Seating capacity would be 117,001.
Like the athletic department's proposal, would
renovate concession stands and increase handi-
cap access, among other improvements.
Four architects who are University alums
developed the plans, working pro bono.
It almost didn't happen
The 5-3 vote in May to approve the Michigan Sta-
dium renovations, including the addition of luxury
boxes and club seating, was one of very few major
decisions in the history of the Board of Regents
where the board was so divided in public.
Regents opposing the renovations were Larry
Deitch (D-Bingham Farms), Rebecca McGowan
(D-Ann Arbor) and Katherine White (D-Ann Arbor).
Tradition vs. modernity
Critics of the project said the aesthetics and
values of the stadium would be compromised in
the name of keeping up with the Joneses.
The opponents say that the University is the
Joneses, and thus doesn't need to keep up with
anyone.
At the time of the vote, on May 19, Athletic
Director Bill Martin refuted this claim.
"We have frankly fallen behind in many of our
facilities and we've got to address them," he
said.
McGowan said the plan would spend "too much
money on too few people."

COURTESY OF SAVE THE BIG HOUSE
An artist's rendering of the Big House Plan, an alternative scheme for renovating Michigan Stadium that would add 10,000 seats but no luxury boxes.

Group presents alternate plan

Regent: Although plan may
not be usable yet, it shows there
are more options than AD says
l By Kevin Wright
Daily Sports Editor
A leading opponent of the University ath-
letic department's plan to add luxury boxes
to Michigan Stadium unveiled yesterday an
alternative design for renovations: the Big
House Plan.
The plan - which John Pollack laid out
at a press conference in the Michigan Union
yesterday - calls for an additional 10,000
bleacher seats atop the existing bowl as well
as an elevated second concourse to service the
upper rows and decrease congestion.
Pollack said the renovations would cost
$93.1 million after interest payments, using

the athletic department's cost estimates.
The athletic department's proposal, which
includes luxury suites and was approved by
the University Board of Regents by a 5-3 vote
in May, would cost $354.7 million, including
interest.
In order to determine his expenses, Pollack
took the University pricing for the construc-
tion of 3,000 seats and divided it to get the
cost per seat, which amounted to $867.
Athletic Director Bill Martin had not seen
Pollack's proposal and declined to comment
on it, athletic department spokesman Bruce
Madej said.
Martin maintains that luxury boxes are the
only way to pay for all the necessary improve-
ments like handicapped seating and adding
restrooms.
The athletic department's renovation goals
include a new press box, wider seats and
See NEW PLAN, page 7A

New proposal
has/ars in rir
O a football Saturday,
no stadium structure is
visible from within the
Big House. When you are in the
stands, whether in the chaos of
the student section or next to a
cranky 84-year-old alum, only
two things matter: the game and
the fans.
There is no stadium. The Big w
House is only a sea of spectators AUSTIN
and a field. DINGWALL
For Michigan football fans,
tradition lies in the purity of the Architecfture
game and the love for the Maize and Blue.
Luxury boxes, which the athletic department has
proposed, could ruin that.
Now a new renovation scheme is challenging the
See ANALYSIS, page 7A

MBA program regains top ranking

New director
shares vision for
diversity center

After falling to
second last year, Ross
School returns to first
in Wall Street Journal
By Alese Bagdol
For the Daily
MBA students reassumed their
bragging rights yesterday when The
Wall Street Journal placed the Ste-
phen M. Ross School of Business
back atop its list of best business mas-
ters programs in the country.
After holding the top spot in 2004,
the schooldropped to secondlastyear.
Dartmouth College's Tuck School of
Business took second place.
The Journal judges business
schools by how attractive they are to
corporate recruiters looking to hire
MBA graduates, basing its rankings
on the responses of 4,125 recruiters.
Respondents only ranked schools
they had recently visited, and a school
had to receive at least 20 recruiters'
comments before being considered in
the final count.
This past academic year, 287
firms visited Ross. Most recruiters
who responded to the survey said the
program provided the best practical
experience to students.
S Most of this practical experience
comes from the school's multidis-
ciplinary action projects, Business
School Dean Robert Dolan said.
The school requires all first-year
MBA students to complete field-
based projects. Students work in
four- or five-person teams to iden-

tify solutions to real-world corporate
dilemmas. Students also work side-
by-side with executives.
"Unlike the typical business
school case study, the problems (mul-
tidisciplinary action projects) address
aren't defined;' Dolan said. "A lot of
management responsibilities involve
figuring out what your options are in
the first place, rather than deciding
among already specified options."
Many MBA students said this
program played a vital role in their
decision to attend the Ross School of
Business.
"Programs like MAP provide
entrepreneurial experience that you
can't really get anywhere else," said
MBA student Ryan Baxter.
Rankings like the Journal's can
play a large part in students' deci-
sions to apply to a particular business
school. But not all publications put
Ross at the top.
Business Week ranks executive
business schools. Its most recent
report, released eight months ago,
ranked Ross fourth.
"We definitely saw a surge in the
number of applications we received
after Business Week published its
rankings," Dolan said. "I expect the
Journal's ranking will have a similar
effect."
The Journal asked recruiters to
determine the quality of each school
in 21 categories. These included cur-
riculum, faculty qualification and
various student skills such as work
ethic and teamwork orientation.
In addition to the recruiters' evalu-
ation of these qualities, the Journal
See ROSS, page 7A

Goals include
broadening focus
on diversity to go
beyond race
By Mariem Qamruzzaman
Daily Staff Reporter
He is a professor. He is an inter-
nationally renowned lecturer and
consultant on diversity issues in
research methodology, higher edu-
cation and public policy. And now
Phillip Bowman is the first perma-
nent director of the University's
National Center for Institutional
Diversity, which was established
last fall.
The center is a think-tank for
socialresearch where faculty fellows,
along with Undergraduate Research
Opportunity Program participants
and graduate students, can research
and analyze complex systems of
diversity and health disparities.
Bowman, who is also a professor
at the University's Center for Higher
and Postsecondary Education, last
worked at the University of Illinois
at Chicago. There, he served as
director of the Institute for Research
on Race and Public Policy, which
had similar goals to NCID.
Lester Monts - the senior vice
provost for academic affairs who

developed the idea for NCID - said
the center was created to further the
leadership role of the University for
surrounding communities and to
initiate social change on a national
scale.
"We thought that we could take
a lead role in producing something
that the rest of the country can ben-
efit from;" Monts said.
Bowman hopes to make the cen-
ter a leading institution in the study
of diversity.
"The primary goals of the center
are to broaden the focus on diversity
in such a way that the issue of racial
inequality is not ignored, but also
includes (others)," Bowman said.
He cited gender diversity, class
diversity, urbanicity and ethnicity.
The institute is launching 10 core
independent projects in addition to
several related small projects. For
example, one of the researchers is
trying to develop a comprehensive
decision-making guide to promote
the exchange of diverse viewpoints.
University officials have praised
Bowman for his experience and
expertise in the topic of diversity.
"I can't think of another person
whose body of research, leadership
skills and level of experience would
make a better candidate than Phil
Bowman;' said Prof. James Jack-
son, the director of the University's
Institute for Social Research.

A student walks past construction of the Ross School of Business
yesterday afternoon.

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