WHITNEY DIBO FEELS SORRY
FOR JOS PADILLA
OPINION, PAGE 4A

CAMPUS CATASTROPHE BOBBY FALLS UNDER WEIGHT
0 EP ARES FOR DISA S TR 0STTE E OF STAR-STUDDED CAST
HOW THE U' PREPARES FOR DISASTER THE STATEMENT ARTS, PAGE 5A

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Ann ArborMichigan

www.michigandailycom

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

COST OF COLLEGE
State aid
*may go up
by $1,000
State considers
upping Michigan
Merit Awards
LANSING (AP) - A plan to
increase the state's college scholar-
ship award to up to $4,000 per stu-
dent likely will get a vote in the state
House by the end of the year.
The House Appropriations Com-
mittee advanced the proposal yes-
terday, despite some concern among
Republicans about how the state will
pay for the system when it becomes
more expensive in the 2009-10 fiscal
year.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Gra-
nholm is lobbying hard for the bill,
which supporters say is vital to
increasing the number of Michigan's
college graduates and improving the
state's economy. Granholm touted
the plan, which would take effect for
the high school class of 2007, at a Bir-
mingham high school yesterday.
In Granholm's election eve speech
at the Michigan Union, she used
increasing the merit awards as a cen-
terpiece.
The state's current Merit Award
gives high school students who do
well on state standardized tests up
to $3,000 toward their college bills.
The new plan - which already has
passed the Senate - increases the
total amount available to $4,000 per
student.
Students who do well on the state's
standardized tests would get $1,000
for their freshman year of college and
another $1,000 for their sophomore
year. If they complete two years of col-
lege, they would get another $2,000.
Students who don't do well on the
Michigan Merit Exam still would be
able to claim the entire $4,000 after
completing two years of post-high
school education.
................ ...... .....
A PROPOSED INCREASE
$3,000
The current maximum amount of the Michigan
Merit Award.
$4,000
The maximum amount the award will be worth if
proposed legislation passes.

PHOTOILLUSTRATION0BY PETERsCHOTTENFELS/Daily
Greenwood Avenue, a student-heavy South Campus neighborhood, pictured at night. A new student group, Make Ann Arbor Bright, is pressing the Ann Arbor
City Council to improve poor lighting in student neighborhoods.
A bright idea: M.4a ke
streets safer with ligh

PROP 2 AFTERMATH
'U' all
quiet
on legal
front
BAMN leading legal
charge against
affirmative action ban
By WALTER NOWINSKI
Daily StaffReporter
Sixteen days from now, the ban
against affirmative action in Michi-
gan will take effect and the Uni-
versity will be forced to change the
criteria it uses to evaluate applicants
halfway though this year's admis-
sions cycle.
That is unless a court delays the
implementation of Proposal 2, the
state constitutional amendment that
prohibits the consideration of race,
gender and national origin by public
institutions.
But despite University President
Mary Sue Coleman's public vow to
fight the amendment in court, the
University has yet to file a lawsuit
challenging the measure. This leaves
radical pro-affirmative action group
By Any Means Necessary as the only
organizationthathas filed alawsuitto
block the amendment's implementa-
tion.
BAMN's lawsuit - filed in federal
court in Detroit by attorney George
Washington the day after the Nov. 7
election-namestheUniversityBoard
of Regents, Gov. Jennifer Granholm
and the trustees of all other public
educational institutions in Michigan
as defendants.
The lawsuit seeks to prohibit
Michigan universities from changing
their admissions policies to comply
with Proposal 2 and asks the court to
find the amendment unconstitutional
under the equal protection clause of
the U.S. Constitution.
Washington said BAMN named
the University as a defendant because
the administration is responsible
for changing the admissions system
to comply with the constitutional
amendment.
Maya Kobersy, assistant general
counsel for the University, said the
University had only recently been
served with the lawsuit and is still
See PROP 2, page 7A

Group lobbies City
Council, but some
members skeptical
By SARAH PADGETT
For the Daily
A new student group is try-
ing to make sure your late-night
walks home from the library or
the bar will be a lot brighter.
Students founded Make Ann
Arbor Bright to improve student
safety by increasing off-campus
lighting after Paul Feigenbaum,
their English graduate student
instruCtor, gave their class an
assignment to fix a problem
affecting their community.
For some of the students, the
lighting issue is personal.
Two of the group members
said they had been followed
while walking home at night.

They both said that with better
lighting, the situation might have
been avoided.
The group also conducted
interviews with students who
had been mugged. LSA Student
Government Vice President Jus-
tin Benson, a member of Make
Ann Arbor Bright, said that mug-
ging victims overwhelmingly
agreed that more lighting could
have prevented the attacks.
LSA senior Kristen Woytowicz,
a member of the group, said attacks
inthe studentneighborhoods south
of Central Campus have made
lighting amajor concern.
"More lights would improve
visibility for the students walk-
ing, decreasing the likelihood for
attacks," she said.
Make Ann Arbor Bright took
its ideas to City Council Monday,
after gathering evidence that
students support its goals.
The group collected more than

300 signatures on a letter to City
Council asking for more off-cam-
pus lighting.
On Monday, group members
presented the signatures to City
Council. Benson and LSA junior
Jennifer Hines spoke about the
dangers facing students who
must walk through poorly lit
areas and asked council mem-
bers for support.
Benson acknowledged that
more streetlights would cost
money, but said that shouldn't be
the council's primary concern.
"You can't put a price on safe-
ty," he said.
After the meeting,group mem-
bers said they were pleased with
the presentation.
It's notyet clear how receptive
council members are to the idea.
Before the meeting, City Coun-
cil member Joan Lowenstein (D-
Ward 2), who represents the Hill
area and some student neighbor-

hoods west of Central Campus,
said she wasn't sure more lighting
would solve the crime problem.
She also said factors like light
pollution and energy costs made
more lighting less appealing.
LSA sophomore Kate Mitroka,
chair of the Michigan Student
Assembly's Campus Safety Com-
mission, said she supports the
initiative.
"Good lighting is an impor-
tant way to keep people safe,"
she said. "It is necessary for com-
munity members - students and
non-students - to take owner-
ship of this issue. Better lighting
is something we can and should
do something about."
In January, a flock of MSA
representatives fanned out on
South University Avenue and the
streets near the Oxford and Hill
areas. They found a lack of light-
ing near Elbel Field, Arbor Street
and South University Avenue.



.Students send help, and selves, to Peru Second bank near

* Health care
problems grab new
group's attention
ByALESE BAGDOL
Daily StaffReporter
The streets of Puno, Peru are
filled with exuberant dancers and
celebratory music every month
during the city's renowned cultur-
al festivals. And like many other
underdeveloped areas in South
America, this boisterous city is
also wrought with poverty and
deficient medical facilities.
Thousands of miles to the north,
University students Patricia Ortiz-
Tello and Yasmin El-Sayed have
launched astudentgroup to help.
Ortiz-Tello and El-Sayed, co-
founders of the project Suyana,
find the city's inadequate supply
of obstetricians and facilities for
childbirth particularly alarming.
They decided to try to correct
this problem by developing a long-
term health care program in Puno,
including a shelter for indigenous
women and a clinic on the out-
skirts of the city.
This summer, Ortiz-Tello and

campus robbed

Couple hits Chase
Bank at Packard and
Stadium
By ANNE VANDERMEY
Daily News Editor
Two robbers escaped from a
Chase Bank branch Monday, taking
an undisclosed amount of cash with
them.
The bank, located at the corner
of Packard Street and East Stadi-
um Boulevard, has many student
patrons.
The robbers, one man and one
woman, entered the building at
about 2:45 p.m. Monday, police said.
The man leapt over the counter and
stole cash from the registers while
the woman waited by the door. She
kept her hand inher pants, implying
that she had a gun, Detective Sgt.
Richard Kinsey of the Ann Arbor
Police Department said. Witnesses
reported they didn't see a weapon,
police said.
The robbers fled around the cor-

nec to Shadford Road and made
their getaway in a metallic green
Ford SUV parked there. Police are
currently investigating the case but
have not arrested anyone as of yes-
terday.
The AAPD, investigating the
case in conjunction with the Ann
Arbor FBI bureau, is offering a $500 .
reward for information leading to
the conviction of the robbers. Wit-
nesses described the man as about
5 feet 6 inches tall, wearing a dark,
hooded jacket, blue jeans and white
shoes. The woman was described as
about 5 feet 9 inches tall and about
180 pounds. She was also described
as wearing ahooded jacked and blue
jeans. Police released a composite
sketch of the female suspect, who is
considered armed and dangerous,
but a wanted poster said she was
"cuter" than the sketch suggests.
About a month ago, a bank was
robbed about three blocks south on
Packard Street. Kinsey said police
think Monday's incident is unrelat-
ed, but added that police are inves-
tigating the possibility.
Mary Kay Bean, a spokeswoman
See BANK ROBBERY, page 7A

EMMA NOLAN -ABRAHAeM IAN/O
LSA seniors Yasmin EI-Sayed and Patricia Ortiz-Tello hold a photo taken in Puno, Peru. They are both members of Project
Suyana, a student group that is planning a trip to Peru this summer to build a shelter.

El-Sayed plan to lead a group of
seven undergraduate and six grad-
uate students to the city to start
construction on the shelter and
work with local doctors.
El-Sayed said the lack of conve-
nient transportation in Puno makes
it hard for women who live on the

edge of townto deliver their children
in the hospital in the center of the
city. Group members are applyingfor
grants from the U.S. government to
fund the project. Their first priorityis
to work with the Ministry of Health
to construct a place for women and
their families to stay while they

receive medical treatment in town.
Key to the success of the shel-
ter is educating Peruvians on the
advantages of seeking professional
health care. One of the group's
worries is that people will not use
the new facilities, El-Sayed said.
See PERU, page 7A


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End-of-term strategy: How to make all your high
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Vol. 02611 PNo.63
'2006 The Michigan Daily S U D O K U...
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