HAS DOWNTOWN ANN
ARBOR JUMPED THE SHARK?
OPINION, PAGE 4A
TURKEY AIDWOMENS HOOPS CHIPS AWAY
AT CENTRAL FOR WIN
THANKSGMVNG FOR THE NEEDY AT COTTAGE INN THE STATEMENT SPORTS, PAGE 9A
I e Jidigan Bai3aIj
Coleman
e ripped on
0 defiance
of Prop 2
'U' president subverts
voters' will, critics say
By ANDREW GROSSMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
After Democratic Party opera-
tive Dick Tuck lost his bid for the
California state Senate in 1964, he
had a few choice words for his dis-
trict's voters.
"The people have spoken - the
baatarda," he said.
According to one of many con-
servative commentators from
across the country, that's exactly
how University President Mary Sue
Coleman is reacting to the passage
of Proposal 2, which banned the
use of affirmative action by public
institutions in Michigan.
The day after the Nov. 7 elec-
tion, Coleman addressed a crowd
of thousands gathered on the Diag.
She reiterated the University's
commitment to diversity. She said
the 1996 passage of a similar law
- Proposition 209 - in California
was a disaster that stripped public
colleges of their diversity.
"It has been a horribly failed
experiment that has dramatically
weakened the diversity of that
state's most selective universities,"
she said. "It is an experiment that
we cannot, and will not, allow to
take seed here at Michigan."
Coleman also said the University
would explore a legal challenge to
the amendment.
It was that sort of rhetoric that
led Chicago Tribune columnist
Steve Chapman to write that Cole-
man "exudes contempt" for Michi-
gan voters.
A editorial in Sunday's New York
Post accused Coleman of teaching
students to "never let the law pre-
vail over your own vanity."
Right-leaning blogs have also
added to the criticism.
Apart from promising to fight
the implementation of Proposal 2 in
the courts, Coleman's speech on the
Diag centered on getting around
the affirmative action ban.
"We will find ways to overcome
the handcuffs that Proposal 2
attempts to place on our reach for
greater diversity," she said.
Robert Berdahl, who was chan-
cellor of the University of Califor-
nia at Berkeley in the wake of the
affirmative action ban there, said
admissions officers did all they
could without breaking the law.
"I think that we walked very
close to the line," he said. "We did
not cross the line in violation of
the law. We pushed very, very hard
? against the line."
Their efforts were mostly futile.
See COLEMAN, page 7A
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
WHY IS THIS
PRI ME SPACE
LEFT EMPTY?
Five years after Michigamua moved out,
no one has moved into the Union tower
By Kelly Fraser I Daily Staff Reporter
ore than
60 steps
lead from
a side door on the fourth
floor of the Michigan
Union to the roof of the
Union's tower. Along
the way, three small
rooms sit empty save
for a few paint chips
and bottles of aban-
doned cleaning sup-
plies.
The spectacu-
lar view of campus
from the tower and
its central location
should make the
space prized prop-
erty. But this piece
, of prime real estate
has two key afflictions.
One is its lack of an eleva-
tor.
The other is its stigma.
It's been nearly six years
since the senior society Mich-
igamua - which has since
dropped its name - and its two
affiliate organizations vacated
their spaces in the tower.
In 2000, the Students of
Color Coalition raided Mich-
igamua's space on the seventh
floor and claimed to have
found Native American relics
that the group was allegedly
appropriating in its rituals.
The group occupied the
tower for 37 days.
Soon afterward, the societ-
ies Michigamua, Phoenix and
the engineering honor society
Vulcan agreed to leave the
tower.
Andrew Yahkind, a member
ofthesocietywhooftenspeaks
to the media on the group's
behalf, refused to comment on
matters related to the tower.
Today, paint peels from the
blank white walls of Micha-
gamua's former seventh-floor
suite, which was decorated
with wood beams to resemble
a wigwam.
Near the room's entryway,
a wooden ladder leads to a
shallow crawl space where the
coalition said it found Native
American relics. Today, the
crawl space holds only dust
See TOWER, page 7A
PHOTOS BY ANGELA
CESERE/Daily
LEFT: Michigan Union
employee Jeff towe 00
the seventh floor of the
Michigan Union tower, the
former headquarters of
Michigamua. The ladder
leads up toa crawlspace
where Native American
relics were allegedly found
in 2000.
RIGHT: Rowe on the
Union's sixth floor, which
housed the Phoenix honor
society.
' ,
Colleges partner
to help economy
MAKING BLUE GO
'U' adopts a new
way to stop suicide
No new staff
or capital invested
in Research
Corridor project
By WALTER NOWINSKI
Daily StaffReporter
Michigan's three leading
research universities are start-
ing a partnership that they say
will help revive the state's ailing
economy.
Backers of the University
Research Corridor say it will help
coordinate research and develop-
ment efforts between the Univer-
sity of Michigan, Michigan State
University and Wayne State Uni-
versity and help create new indus-
tries in Michigan.
The three schools conduct 95
percent of the state's academic
research.
University President Mary Sue
Coleman is painting the partner-
ship as a vital component of Mich-
igan's economic revival.
"We have an absolute respon-
sibility to the state to help trans-
form an economy that is flagging,"
Coleman said in a written state-
ment.
The partnership echoes the
schools' successful lobbying
effort in the late 1990s, when they
convinced the state Legislature
to earmark a portion of tobacco
See CORRIDOR, page 7A
Program enlists
faculty, staff
By EMILY ANGELL
Daily StaffReporter
Counseling and Psychological
Services has adopted a new pro-
gram that aims to prevent suicide
by training people to recognize
signs in those who are close to
them.
"We know that folks want to
help in these situations," CAPS
Director Todd Sevig said. "What
this program does is give the
tools."
The Universityhasjoined about
60 colleges that use the popu-
lar Question Persuade and Refer
program. The initiative teaches
students and faculty members to
recognize earlyverbal and behav-
ioral signs of depression and to
use a system of questioning the
person, persuading him to get
help and referring him to trained
professionals.
In the past few years, the meth-
od has gained popularity on col-
lege campuses because it spreads
a wider net of intervention.
More faculty members will be
trained under the new program
with the hope that their closer
contact with students will lead to
earlier interventions.
Since the program began on
Nov. 13, CAPS has received more
than 50 requests for training
from various Universityunits and
departments, said Christine Asid-
See NEW METHOD, page 7A
EMMA NOLAN-ABRAHAMIAN/Daily
University employee Vic Hamilton empties the trash in the Fishbowl. Hamilton,
who has worked for the University for two years, is one of the unsung staff mem-
bers who keep campus going. FOR MORE, SEE THE STATEMENT.
TODAY'S HI: 65
WEATHER LO 47
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