THIS WEEK'S INSTALLMENT OF ARBOR ANECDOTES NEWS,PAGE 2 BIBLICAL BORE NATIVITY STORY' IS PROSAIC AS TITLE ARTS, PAGE 5 PUTTING IT IN PERSPECTIVE: TOP FOUR BCS DISASTERS SPORTS, PAGE 9 Iie I id ipn4BaiIlj Ann Arbor, Michigan www.michigandaily.com Tuesday December 5,2006 "Despite potential threats to Ms. Gabriel's freedom of speech, the event was very successful." - Nick Israel, Israel IDEA member O MIo IN/Daily Students board a bus to Washington D.C., where they planned to march in front of the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday. 'U' students head to steps of high court A campus police officer leaves Angell Hall with a bomb-sniffing dog after sweeping Angell Hall Auditorium C before last night's lecture by Brigitte Gabriel, a critic of Islamic fundamentalists. Clouds, bt no thunder Despite rumors, protesters don't interrupt lecture By KELLY FRASER Daily StaffReporter About five campus police offi- cers and a bomb-sniffing dog swept Auditorium B of Angell Hall last night before a speech by a strident critic of Islamic fundamentalists. Rumors that the event would be disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters circulated through cam- pus and on the Internet yesterday, prompting event organizers to request a heightened police pres- ence. Despite the precautions, pro- Israel activist Brigitte Gabriel delivered a lecture in which she warned Americans about "the dan- gers of Islamic radicals" without incident. Organizers feared pro-Palestin- ian protesters would disrupt the speech as they did at the Michi- gan League during a lecture on Iran last week. During that lec- ture, Department of Public Safety officers arrested three Ann Arbor residents after they resisted efforts from police to remove them from a lecture on Iran. One protester was taken to the hospital with minor cuts and a bloody nose, and his fellow protest- ers alleged police brutality. DPS is investigating the incident. Blaine Coleman, one of the pro- testers who was arrested on Thurs- day, did not respond to e-mails asking for comment last night. Police used a canine unit to search the auditorium before allowing students and commu- nity members to enter at 7:45 p.m., 15 minutes before the event was scheduled to begin. DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown said before the event that DPS had briefed organizers on security pre- cautions and the University's Free Speech policy. None of the protesters who dis- turbed Thursday's lecture showed up. The lecture, which was origi- nally scheduled in Auditorium C of Angell Hall, moved to Auditorium B to accommodate a larger than expected crowd. The larger audito- rium filled quickly after the doors opened. Before introducing Gabriel, organizers opened the event by reading fromthe University's state- ment on Free Speech and Artistic Expression. Rumors on the Internet yester- day indicated that the event could. be confrontational. An e-mail signed with Gabriel's name was posted on the theco- versativevoice.com. The e-mail requests support and protection from protesters, who it alleges have sent e-mails to "Arab stu- dents" askingthem to "give Gabriel a proper welcome." Shimaa Abdelfadeel, co-chair of the pro-Palestinian group Students Allied for Freedom and Equality and political chair of the Muslim Students' Association, said she had not heard of or seen such an e-mail. Except for frequent applause See LECTURE, page 7 K-12 integration cases draw busload of protesters By BRIAN TENGEL DailyStaffReporter University students are once again delving into the debate about race in public education. This time, though, it's not affir- mative action that's mobilizing them. It's voluntary integration of K-12 schools. Just fewer than 40 students and other activists loaded a bus on South University Ave- nue on Sunday night bound for Washington. There, they joined others from across the country to protest in front of the Supreme Court yesterday. It was the first of three days on which the high court will hear arguments on two law- suits challenging the legal- ity of voluntary integration programs for public schools in Louisville and Seattle. The programs allow school districts to consider race in assigning students to district schools as a way to ensure that each school's racial makeup reflects that of the entire system. It's an attempt to offset the segregation that often results from neighbor- hood housing patterns. The lawsuits are primarily concerned with K-12 educa- tion, but depending on how the decision is worded and how it's argued, it could affect the University. If the court decides to ban desegregation programs, it could open up the possibil- ity that the court would over- turn Grutter v. Bollinger, the landmark 2003 decision that upheld the Law School's use of affirmative action in its admis- sions policy. A ban on the desegrega- tion programs could affect the University's potential legal efforts to maintain its affirma- tive action programs, which were banned by last month's passage of Proposal 2. Karen Tabb, a graduate stu- dent in the School of Social Work, said a ban on desegre- gation programs could have See COURT, page 7 Activists . revisit war on Coke Students, staff revisit debate with forum By ALESE BAGDOL Daily StaffReporter Ever since the University reinstated its purchasing con- tract with Coca-Cola in April, the once-contentious debate over the soda giant's labor practices has been remark- ably quiet. At a student-organized forum last week, the issue bubbled up once more. It doesn't appear likely, though, that Coke products will disappear from campus again anytime soon. Who's that in the white mask? Dorm dwellers asked to take part in flu study By JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN Daily StaffReporter It's not the strange smells that pervade University resi- dence halls that will soon have students wearing masks around campus this winter. Students will don the masks for cash. The masks are part of a two- year study on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical tactics incurbingthe spread ofinfluen- za. The study, called M-FLU, is being conducted by the Univer- sity's School of Public Health. Researchers will track the health of about 2,250 students during the height of flu sea- son. Residents of Couzens, Alice Lloyd and Mary Markley residence halls - all notorious germ-breeding. Petri dishes - will be asked to wear face- masks for much of the day for several weeks. Students in Bursley Hall will follow a hand-washing regimen in addition to wearing masks. Researchers will study control groups in East Quadrangle and Stockwell residence halls. The students won't be mak- ing a fashion statement, but they'll earn about $30 to $100. Researchershopetheresults will help officials understand how to fight a pandemic like bird flu, which experts say is likely to strike the United States in the future. Epidemiology Prof Arnold Monto, the lead M-FLU researcher, said the practices need to be proven scientifical- ly before they're relied on in a pandemic. "You see pictures of people in Asia with facemasks on, but Asia doesn't have the data sup- porting the method's effec- tiveness," Monto said. See FLU, page 7 Business School Prof. Andrew Hoffman (left) and Rackham student Sayan Bhattacharyya (right) speak at a forum about the Universitys con- tracts with Coca-Cola, which were cut for four months earlier this year. Facing pressure from cam- pus activists last year, the University cut its contracts with Coke. The University was one of 19 school that stopped buying Coke prod- ucts in response to alleged human rights violations. Four months later, the University resumed business with Coke upon the recom- mendations of the Dispute Review Board, the advisory board responsible for hear- ing complaints against the Vendor Code of Conduct. The code of conduct outlines labor and environmental standards that vendors who do business with the Uni- versity must abide by. The University reinstated its con- tracts after Coca-Cola agreed to two ongoing independent investigations looking into alleged incidents in Colombia and India. Campus activists took the opportunity of the forum to question the University's decision to resume buying See COKE, page 7 TODAY'S WEATHER HI: 30 GOT A NEWS TIP? L:-25 Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michgandaily.com and let us know. COMING WEDNESDAY How the 'U' would deal w h tornados, fires. floods and bombs THE STATEMENT INDEX NW... VolCXVII, No.62 NEWS. 02006 The Michigan Daily S U D O K U.. michigandaoy.com DyNI ONN. .2 ARTS............ .3 CLASSI FIEDS .4 SPORTS....... ..5 ..6 ..9 t .4