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Ann Arbor, Michigar
www.michigandaily.com
Monday, October 23, 2006
"She was so good at convincing us with her happiness and
energy that she was totally fine, that even at the very end, none of
us thought it was serious."
LSA junior Danny Leslie
Men stabbed
at the heart
of campus
Teenagers survive
late-night brawl
outside of Union
By BRIAN TENGEL
Daily StaffReporter
Flickering blue and red lights
provided a striking contrast to
the jet-black sky early Satur-
day morning as the local police
rushed to intervene in a fight
that had erupted in front of the
Michigan Union.
Four men driving down State
Street had leapt out of their
car and attacked three people
on the sidewalk, one of whom
was a University student, police
said.
The men punched the stu-
dent, 19, in the face, stabbed
her boyfriend three times and
slashed their friend in the arm.
None of the injuries were fatal,
and the victims were released
from the hospital later in the
day with only minor injuries.
Police apprehended all four
men and arrested three. Police
say one 17-year-old man was
responsible for the stabbing. He
is being held in the Washtenaw
Country Jail on three charges
of assault. The other two men
are awaiting arraignment.
Police said the fight started
at about i:30 a.m. after someone
in the vehicle, a green Lincoln
Town Car, shouted at two men
and one woman walking down
the street.
"Can I take your girl home
tonight?" they later told police
they heard someone shout from
inside the car, which had slowed
almost to a halt.
Whenthewoman'sboyfriend
shouted back, all four people
inside the car jumped out and
assaulted the student and her
friends, police said.
In the course of the fight,
the boyfriend, 18, was stabbed
three times in the back, while
his 19-year-old friend was cut
on the arm.
Neither injury was life-
threatening, but the cuts were
deep, police said.
One of the men in the car
joined the man with the knife
in fighting, but was unarmed.
The other two, who had also
exited the car, avoided physical
conflict.
City police who were driving
by saw a crowd gathered on the
sidewalk and stopped to break
up the fight. The three friends
quickly returned to their car
and fled, leaving the man with
the knife behind.
See STABBING, Page 7A
COURTEESY OF P00JA AGR
LSA junior Kavya Vaidyanathan on vacation with her family in southern India last December during Winter Break. Vaidyanathan di
heart failure at the University Hospital early Tuesday morning.
A F RIEN.-D
REM.,\-EM.,--BERED
After living with diagnosis
for years, LSA junior succumbs
to heart disease
By ALEX DZIADOSZ
DailyStaffReporter
It is said that the brightest
candles burn out the fastest.
Early last Tuesday morning,
the tragic implications of that
saying became clear when LSA
junior KavyaVaidyanathan died
of heart failure at the University
Hospital.
She had just turned 20.
Days later, her friends spoke
as though some vital brick in
the foundation of their lives had
been snatched away without
warning, leaving them suddenly
to cope as best they could.
Last Saturday, eight of those
friends gathered in Vaidya-
nathan's old home on Washt-
enaw Court. Most, like LSA
juniors Connie Chang and Pooja
Agrawal, had known her since
she was as one of the few fresh-
men on their floor in the South
Quad Residence Hall.
Crammed together in a
sparsely furnished living room,
the group's solemnity was
accentuated by the dull roar of
the football tailgates, just reach-
ing a crescendo outside. For
Vaidyanathan's friends, it was
a time for a different commu-
nal experience, less festive, but
many times more powerful.
Many of them knew that
Vaidyanathan suffered from
pulmonary hypertension, but
until her death, few realized
how serious the chronic heart
condition was.
"I only found out after a very
long time," said Agrawal, who
had roomed with Vaidyanathan
for two years in South Quad and
again on Washtenaw Court.
"She never made it that big of
a deal."
Another of Vaidyanathan's
longtime friends, LSA junior
Danny Leslie, agreed.
"She was so good at convinc-
ing us with her happiness and
energy that she was totally fine,
that even at the very end, none
of us thought it was serious," he
said.
LSA junior Chloe Rose-
lander-Ginn, who had met
Vaidyanathan during freshman
orientation, remembered visit-
ing her in the hospital shortly
before her death.
"She was consoling me," she
recalled.
Part of the reason Vaidyana-
than downplayed her condition,
See FRIEND, Page 7A
FROM THE EDITORS
Welcome to an improved format.
and rethought Michigan The arts and opinion
Daily. With updated fonts pages are more vibrant, with
and new styles, the paper is more appealing feature story
more engaging and easier packages. -
to read. But today's edition Finally, take a-look at the
offers not only a change in upgraded SportsMonday
appearance, but also several section. Inside you'll find a
other modifications. twist on the second page,
Turn the page 2A for Game Plan, which is stuffed
a different feature each with blurbs, briefs and other
day highlighting life at the short items.
University as well as old All of the changes were
favorites like crime and made with you in mind, so
campus notes in a new take the time to enjoy them.
JUST JELL-O
Anew way to
hawk credit cards
to college students
Take a ride in a
bicycle taxi, listen
to a marketing spiel
By JESSICAVOSGERCHIAN
For theDaily
The company that owns the
blue bubble-shaped bicycle
taxis that have been pedal-
ing students around campus
for the past two weeks says it
wapts nothing more than to
give students rides to class.
The rides are free - provid-
ed passengers listen to a spiel
about Chase Bank's +1 credit
program. If students don't
want to listen, fine. If the driv-
ers are able to deliver passen-
gers to the credit program, all
the better for them.
BicyTaxi is a New York
City-based company that uses
the bicycle buggy to compete
with traditional taxicabs in the
Manhattan area. Though the
company normally charges for
rides, BicyTaxi often contracts
out its vehicles to corporations
across the country as promo-
tional tools.
The free rides secure cap-
tive audiences for corporate
spiels. InAnnArbor, theyhawk
Chase credit cards.
Chase has partnered with
Facebook.com to publicize
a Facebook group named
"Chase +L"
Students can apply for the
credit card on the Facebook
group's webpage. If they pro-
vide their address, all group
members receive a plastic
Chase +1 wallet and are eligible
to earn "karma points" by par-
ticipating in activities and con-
tests. The points can be traded
in for merchandise such as T-
shirts, iPods, the second sea-
son of "Lost" on DVD and the
game Twister.
The taxis cart students
around campus from 9 a.m.
to 3 p.m. Monday through
Thursday and plan to continue
through Nov. 2.
BicyTaxi is staging simulta-
neous promotions on 25 other
campuses, includingNewYork
University and Boston Univer-
sity.
The advertising partner-
ship is the brainchild of Noise
Marketing, Chase's student-
focused marketing division.
The agency develops ads tar-
geted at young adults.
To Noise Marketing CEO
NoahKerner,bike taxis seemed
an appropriate method to pro-
See BIKE TAXI, page 7A
GOING GREEN
Shingles are so 20th century. than traditional roofs.
Roofs with a layer of plants built into them, In the photograph above, Joel Perkovich, a
which are already all the rage in Germany, are graduate student in the landscape architecture
becoming more popular in the United States. program, explains his research on green roof
They reduce energy costs spent on heating plants at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
and cooling and last two to three times longer For the complete story, see page10A.
One alum's unusual career path
Former Daily editor started dad.
Last Friday, Enders delivered'a lecture on
n rinIraq his book "Baghdad Bulletin," which is about
newspaper q his experiences living in the Iraqi capital and
ZACHARY MEISNER/Dai
LSA freshman Theodore Papes throws various fruits, vegetables,
desserts and other food products from campus cafeterias out of
his sixth-floor window of Couzens Residence Hall Saturday. Papes
said he and his roommates were "shocked and appalled that (Mary
Markley Residence Hall) would serve Jell-O that could survive a six-
story drop."
ByKATHERINEMITCHELL
For the Daily
When David Enders graduated from
the University in 2003, he didn't go to Law
School, he didn't get an internship, he didn't
even apply to work at Burger King.
Enders got on a plane and went to Bagh-
starting a weekly newspaper there.
This year, the LSA Honors Program is
requiring every incoming freshman in the
program to read it.
As an undergraduate, Enders spent sever-
al months in the Middle East, designing his
own study abroad program, because the Uni-
versity's options in the region were limited.
See ALUM, page 7A
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WEATHER LO: 31
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02006 The Michigan Daily S O D 0 K U...
michigandoily.com OPINION...
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