SIGNING THEIR LIVES AWAY
WHAT MARY SUE COLEMAN'S AUTOGRAPH SAYS ABOUT HER THE STATEMENT
JOHN STIGLICH: ALLOW WHITE REPS IN CLAP YOUR HANDS. SAY YEAH.
THE BLACK CAUCUS REALLY,
OPINION, PAGE 4A ARTS, PAGE 5A
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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Third in an occasional series about the
University's connection to the Iraq war
Profs go
from edge
to center
The three men billed as ex-terrorists - Walid Shoebat, Zachariah Annani and Kamal Saleem - speak in Rackham Auditorium last night.
A fur over
'ex-terrorists'
They were on the
fringe, but now
much of America
agrees with them
By CHRIS HERRING
Daily Staff Writer
Outspoken University
History Prof. Juan Cole
does not often find himself
at a loss for words. But Cole
was struck speechless for
more than 15 seconds when
asked what he thought of
President Bush's plan to send
more than 20,000 additional
troops into Iraq.
Even if it took a little lon-
ger than usual, Cole man-
aged to find his voice.
"Bush is on death row with
regards to his Iraq policy,"
Cole said. "It's doomed. It's
over with, and he's sending
21,500 troops there to post-
pone the inevitable."
Cole's thoughts on Bush's
plan are notsurprising. After
all, Cole, a renowned Middle
East commentator, has been
a vocal critic of the war since
preparations for it began
more than three years ago.
When Cole first spoke
out against the war, a solid
majority of Americans sup-
ported it. But today, after
more than three years of
eroding public opinion about
the war, Cole finds himself in
somewhat unfamiliar waters
- the mainstream. And
while Cole's opinions may be
rooted in different ideas than
those of the average Ameri-
can, his perspective puts him
in the majority.
"Bush is on
death row with
regards to his
Iraq policy"
- University history
Prof. Juan Cole
A Pew Research Center
poll released earlier this
month showed that less than
one-third of respondents
view Bush's plan to send
more troops to Iraq favor-
ably. Meanwhile, 61 percent
of those surveyed said they
opposed the proposal.
Three University profes-
sors who focus their work on
the issues surrounding the
war are no different from the
majority of Americans, each
arguing that the war is in
shambles.
THE 'SURGE'
of those opposed to send-
ing additional troops in the
Pew Center's poll, 43 percent
See PROFS, page 7A
Protesters say World's Greatest Threat."
Billed as a lecture by three
event promotes ex-terrorists, the event drew
opposition from several stu-
intolerance dent groups and the Michigan
office of the American-Arab
By LISA HAIDOSTIAN and Anti-Discrimination Com-
DANIEL TRUMP mittee.
Daily StaffReporters A large crowd gathered
outside of the Rackham Build-
More than 300 people - ing an hour before the event's
including both students and scheduled 7 p.m. start. Flash-
non-students - protested an es of yellow shirts worn by the
event last night organized by protesters showed through
the University's chapter of the the winter coats of many in
Young Americans for Free- the crowd.
dom called "Terrorism: The A half hour before the
event, YAF Chair Andrew
Boyd shouted "We're ready!"
and the doors to the audito-
rium opened. The aisles filled
immediately with people in
yellow shirts, who had gath-
ered early for the event.
I As the protesters rushed to
fill seats, already-seated YAF
members stuck their feet out
into the aisles.
After the initial surge, seats
continued to fill steadily.
Bythe timethe eventbegan,
protesters make up about a
quarter of the audience.
See YAF, page 3A
LSAjunior Hanan Dakhlallah protests the speakers.
WMGAMA ACLS
POST-PROPOSAL 2
A DIGITAL PLAN UAAO boots groups for society ties
FOR DIVERSITY
t
W
sity
for
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ence
Uni'
foun
In
affir
bres
Cou
bega
calle
bert
univ
grou
rely
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peop
terd
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cant
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tion
wou
simi
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Auburn prof: lower similarity ratings.
Students with high simi-
System would larity rankings are grouped
together. In this way, the pro-
be legal, help gram divides the applicant
pool into several groups of
admissions students who, as evaluated by
the program, resemble each
By JAKE HOLMES other.
Daily StaffReporter The system only gives rec-
ommendations and doesn't
rhile lawyers and Univer- make admission decisions.
administrators scramble Staff is still responsible for
ways to preserve diversity choosing applicants from
ampus after the passage within each group.
roposal 2, a computer sci- By picking applicants from
professor from Auburn different groups, admissions
versity thinks he may have officers can admit a diverse
ad the solution. group of students.
n 2003, Juan Gilbert saw This system is fairer than
'mative action debates human-based holistic evalu-
wing in the U.S. Supreme ations, Gilbert said, because
rt and in California. He people have inherent biases
an work on software now that his software does not.
edApplications Quest. Gil- "It is impossible to be a
said his program allows human being and fairly evalu-
'ersities to admit diverse ate something holistically," he
aps of students without said.
ing on racial quotas or The software has a specific
erences. set of rules for determining
ilbert presented this soft- similarities and differences,
e to a group of about 20 so it produces consistent,
ple on North Campus yes- reproducible results that are
ay. made independently of the
he software divides appli- admissions committee.
:s into groups based on This would allow the Uni-
'ed attributes. Applica- versity to consider diversity
sthatareentirelyidentical when admitting students.
id be given a "100 percent Because admissions staffers
lar" rating by the pro- wouldn't need to consider race
m; those that only shared or ethnicity in admissions
w traits would get much See DIGITAL, page 7A
Umbrella group
kicks out Indian,
South Asian orgs
By AMANDA MARKOWITZ
Daily StaffReporter
The Indian American Stu-
dents Association and the
South Asian Awareness Net-
work were quietly kicked
out of an organization they
both belonged to earlier this
month because their leaders
were members of the contro-
versial senior society former-
ly known as Michigamua.
United Asian American
Organizations, a network
of 35 Asian/Pacific Islander
student groups, passed an
amendment last semester
identifying the two groups as
members not in good stand-
ing.
SAAN co-chair Ashish
Shah and former IASA presi-
dentGopalPaiare members of
the elite honor society. UA AO
objected to their membership
in the society because of the
society's past of appropriat-
ing Native American customs
and rituals.
The only way the groups
could regain membership
was if the senior honor soci-
ety institute a list of reforms
or the leaders left the society.
UAAO demanded that the
society submit a formal name
change, hold open meetings,
publish a list of its members,
stop the "tapping" process for
new members and publicly
apologize for its past.
UAAO chairsnotified IASA
and SAAN of their removal
in an e-mail on Jan. 4, the
deadline stated in the amend-
ment.
IASA members declined
to comment and SAAN mem-
bers did not return repeated
phone calls from The Michi-
gan Daily..
The honor society was
not informed of SAAN and
IASA's removal from UAAO,
LSA senior Andrew Yahkind,
a member of the society who
often serves as its unofficial
spokesman, said in an e-mail
interview.
"We must express our
disappointment in learning
that UAAO has chosen a path
of divisive exclusion rather
than inclusion," he said. "We
believe that the UAAO's deci-
sion to issue 'demands' and
'deadlines,' while holding
See UAAO, page 3A
JUST FOR KICKS
STUDENT WRITING
New Hopwood
winners honored
By ABIGAIL B. COLODNER
Daily Arts writer
Some of the most famous
writers associated with the
University - playwright
Arthur Miller among them
- were aided in their rocky
young careers by the Hop-
wood writing awards.
In a ceremony yesterday
awards were presented to
a new class of writers, this
year's winners of the Hop-
wood Underclassmen Con-
test for fiction, nonfiction and
poetry.
Eligibility for the Under-
classmen Contest isn't
required to join the ranks of
professional writers, though.
Linda Pastan, who read at
yesterday's ceremony in
Rackham Amphitheatre, said
she hadn't taken any writing
classes in college.
Pastan read from several
volumes of her poetry, includ-
ing her newest, "Queen of a
Rainy Country." She was a
finalist for the National Book
Award in 1998 and served as
the poet laureate of Maryland
See HOPWOOD, page 3A
A group of advanced karate students spar at Keith Hafner's Karate Studio on Main Street yesterday.
Terry Brennan, a veteran instructor at the studio, encourages his students to "bring (their) partner's
energy down to zero."
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