TuiesdaV Sent t52006 - --. .,. ______y, _.,_ DEFENSE IMPRESSIVE IN FOOTBALL OPENER ... SPORTSMONDAY Opinion 4A Toby Mitchell: Irony and apathy News 6A Pluto defender takes on a more cosmic issue Arts 8A Pop culture: Our generation's wilderness One-hundred-slvteen years ofeditoril freedom www. michikandai~y corn Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVII, No. 1 @2006 The Michigan Daily OSCR director may have been arson target A NOTE TO OUR READERS Student suspected to have lit blaze in Jennifer Meyer Schrage EMU'S office By Ashlea Surles Daily Staff Reporter Jennifer Meyer Schrage's path to the University involved a fear-inspiring fire and an arsonist believed to be a disgrun- tled student still on the loose. The office of Eastern Michigan Uni- versity's Student Judicial Services, where Meyer Schrage was the director, was set What is OSCR? The Office of Student Conflict Res- olution mediates disagreements and deals with violations of the State- ment of Student Rights and Respon- sibilities, among other purposes. ablaze at 2 a.m. in late November. The fire had caused $85,000 in damages by the time Ypsilanti firefighters extinguished it, officials said. No one was injured. Meyer Schrage may have been the target of the fire. Officials say the fire was started in her office, the scene of a broken window and gasoline. Concerned with her safety, she tendered her resignation two months later. She said the fire department has no leads on who the arsonist may have been. "I had to look out for my personal well-being," Meyer Schrage said at an interview in her new office in South Quad Residence Hall on Friday. At the beginning of last month, Meyer Schrage took over as the director of the University of Michigan's Office of Stu- dent Conflict Resolution. See ARSON, page 7A You may have noticed that today's Daily feels smaller than usual. You're right: We have narrowed the Daily's pages by about an inch. This is part of an extensive redesign, the rest of which we will launch next Monday. Like most newspapers, the Daily has taken a keen interest lately in reducing costs. The savings associ- ated with printing on a smaller page were a factor in this decision. We also think you'll find the narrower page easier to handle - when, say, you're trying to open the Daily on a crowded bus, or in the back of a classroom without your GSI noticing. There has been a lot of talk these days about some newspapers reducing quality by cutting costs in response to economic pressures on the industry. We want to assure you that the smaller page isn't a sign that the Daily is about to start scrimp- ing. Unlike other newspapers, we won't be cutting costs by squeezing our newsroom staff. (Granted, they already get paid so little that anti- sweatshop activists might picket us if they found out.) In fact, this semester the Daily's operations are expanding - we have a new weekly section and new editorial positions, with more big plans on the horizon. Enjoy the new size, and be sure to grab a paper next Monday. Sincerely, Donn M. Fresard Editor in chief THE SPIN ZONE The University's up one spot this year in the ( annual U.S. News and World Report list, but that's not the whole story. The Daily takes you... INSIDE THE RANKINGS By Kelly Fraser Daily Staff Reporter Fifth-year computer science student Abe Thurtell spins the cube in Regents Plaza on Friday. It was covered in magnetic LED lights following a performance by the band Nomo as part of Artscapadae. REET ELE IO N" i Nine vie for two spots on regents board Brandon and Brown will run for I Republicans against White and Darlow on the Democratic side By Gabe Nelson Daily Staff Reporter The two incumbent members of the University Board of Regents now know who their competition will be in Novem- ber's election. Nine candidates - including relative unknowns running on third-party tickets - will compete for two seats on the eight- person University Board of Regents. At their convention in late August, Republicans nominat- ed incumbent David Brandon, the CEO of Domino's Pizza, as well as newcomer Susan Brown, a University alum and long-time volunteer. Democrats nominated incumbent Kathy White, a law professor at Wayne State University, along with newcomer Julia Darlow, a corporate lawyer who has moved on to nonprofit work. White and Brandon have served as regents since 1998. Until the convention at Cobo Center in Detroit, four Demo- cratic candidates jockeyed for the nod. Darlow won the support of sitting Regents Larry Deitch (D-Bingham Farms), Olivia Maynard (D-Goodrich), Rebecca McGowan (D-Ann Arbor) and S. Martin Taylor (D-Grosse Pointe Farms) while campaigning for the nomination. The other two Democratic candidates - Denise Ilitch, a govern- ment- relations attorney, and Casandra Ulbrich, director of develop- ment and alumni affairs at Wayne State University - dropped out of the race just before the nominations were confirmed, Michigan Democratic Party spokesman Jason Moon said. Ulbrich withdrew her bid when the party offered her a nom- ination for a seat on the State Board of Education. Ilitch, a member of the family that owns the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings and Little Caesars Pizza, dropped out for reasons Moon declined to discuss. Ilitch could not be reached for comment. The Republicans' picks came as no surprise - only Bran- don and Brown sought the nomination. More than two years ago, Michigan Republican leaders See REGENTS, page 7A It's a tradition. Every August, college guides over- whelm newsstands, intensifying the debate over which schools are the best and how to arri e at that conclusion. In this year's U.S. News and World Report rankings, the University placed 24th among national universities and sec- ond among public universities, tying the University of Virginia and behind only the University of California at Berkeley. That's as deep as most readers go. This is the story behind the magazine's glossy pages. A PUBLIC GIANT IN A PRIVATE WORLD Although the magazine made no chang- es to its methodology this year, the Univer- sity climbed one slot. Despite the popularity of the rank- ings, academics frequently criticize the magazine for its formula, which relies primarily on statistical measures such as retention rates, faculty and financial resources and peer assessment survey results. On average, private schools tend to fare better than public schools, in part because of their higher selectivity and large endow- ments. For example, UC-Berkeley, the top-ranked public, has 20 private schools ahead of it in the national rankings. Statistical measures used to evalu- ate colleges generally fall into two cat- egories: input and output. Input data are measures of resources entering a school, such as the caliber of entering freshman and incoming financial funds in dona- tions and research. Output data includes graduation rates, student reten- tion and faculty achievement. U.S. News and World Report focuses too heavily on input data, said former University President James Duderstadt, a higher educa- tion expert. Student selectivity com- poses 15 percent of a school's total score. Duderstadt said large schools includ- ing the University and UC-Berkeley are penalized for their size because a school's resources are divided among each student. In per capita measures, having more stu- dents results in lower spending per stu- dent. DO THEY MATTER? "The U.S News and World Report rank- ings are largely viewed as rather meaning- less by major research universities like Michigan," Duderstadt said in an e-mail interview. Although rankings may not have a sub- stantial effect on the perception of large schools, Duderstadt said small colleges and universities are much more sensitive to fluctuations. "(Rankings) are much more important to less well-known universities, particu- larly small liberal arts colleges, who can see major swings in student applications if they drop too low," he wrote. Former University Provost Paul Courant agreed with Duderstadt that the rankings were not a main concern among admin- istrators during his tenure, though he recognizes their influence on prospective students. "They matter much more (to students), I think, than they should," Courant said. Courant prefers the National Survey of Student Engagement as a measure of a school's success. The study polls freshman and seniors at about 1,000 schools about their participation and personal develop- ment at their schools. However, the survey's academic format makes it less accessible to the public, Cou- rant said. "You have to read it," he said. "That's the problem." Duderstadt also recommends alterna- tive ranking systems to the U.S. News and World Report's model. Duderstadt was one of 19 higher education See RANKINGS, page 7A Where 'U' ranks The University's rank in U.S. News and World Report's list of the nation's top national universities Rank among public schools in U.S. News and World Report, tied with the University of Virginia Rank on the list of top global universities on a list by Newsweek Rank on the Washington Monthly maga- zine's list of top universities Rank in the Princeton Review's list of schools where "Teacher Assistants Teach Too Many Upper-Level Courses." Mob of football fans impedes ambulance SCRIBE IN THE ARB New ticket scanners create log-jam of fans in front of stadium By Anne VanderMey Daily Staff Reporter As the football team kicked off the first game of the season at noon Saturday, a group of thousands stood outside a north- west entrance to Michigan Stadium, wait- ing impatiently to get in. Because of delays resulting from new scanners at the turnstiles that are replac- ing the old method of ticket-takers tearing off stubs, the frustrated group stood with their passes in hand, listening the stadium roar as the game began. At about 12:10, an ambulance strug- gled to pass through the mob, which had overflowed onto the street. It took at least five minutes for the ambulance to pass. It was on its way to assist a bicycle rider who turned out to be OK, according to Ann Arbor police. But the ambulance's trouble getting through the crowd could have caused a delay that might have endangered someone's life. See STADIUM, page 7A RODRIGO GAYA/Daily LSA alum Etan Klein performs in "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Residential College's Shakespeare in the Arb program yesterday afternoon. p"I'