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Ann Arbor, Michigar

www.michigandaily.com

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

"You do waste the best years of your life, basically, instead of
studying and working."
- Rackham student Limor Ben-Har, who served in the Israeli army

CA MPUS H OUSING
Around U. S.,
co-ed dorms
catch on

'U' has some
gender-neutral
housing, but co-ed
dorms are far off
By ALLISON GHAMAN
For theDaily
In response to pressure from
students, many universities
around the country have begun
assigning some housing on a
gender-neutral basis for LGBT
students. Some have even let any
student choose to live in a co-ed
room. The University maintains
some gender-neutral housing for
transgender students, but there
hasn't been an organized push for
radical changes to the policy.
The nationwide push for a
change in housing policies has
come mainly from lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender com-
munities.
Last month, Harvard Uni-
versity agreed to make gender-
neutral housing available to all
students who identify as trans-
gender, similar to the University
of Michigan's policy.
Katherine Smith, a freshman
at Harvard and a spokeswoman
for the school's Bisexual, Lesbian,
Gay, Transgender and Supporters
Alliance, said students are now
pushing for co-ed housing to be
open to all students.
At the University of California
at Riverside, an entire dorm isset
aside for housing that is co-ed by
room that includes a hall themed
with LGBT programs and educa-

tion.
Other schools where some
form of gender-neutral housing
has been instituted include Ore-
gon State University, Swarthmore
College, Sarah Lawrence College,
Oberlin College, Ithaca College
and the University of Colorado.
University of Pennsylvania
spokesman Ron Ozio said Penn
allows any student older than 18
and in at least his or her sopho-
more year to request gender-neu-
tral housing with no questions
asked about his or her motivation.
Out of Penn's student body of
10,400,127 students chose to spend
this schoolyear in such housing.
The University of Michigan
does not consider a transgender
student to be of another gender
until he or she has completed sur-
gery to transition to that gender.
The University addresses con-
cerns of transgender students on
a case-by-case basis, said Jacque-
line Simpson, director of the Uni-
versity's Lesbian Gay Bisexual
Transgender Affairs Office.
If students want to pursue gen-
der-neutral housing options, they
have to speak to a Housing or
LGBTA staff liaison.
These students are often placed
in the gender-neutral apartment-
style housing on North Campus,
said Simpson, who also serves as
one of the staff liaisons.
However, for students who
want to live on Central Campus,
options are more limited. Cam-
pus-wide gender-neutral hous-
ing is difficult to accommodate
because of the structural limita-
tions of the University's dorms,
See HOUSING, Page 3

LSA Reza Dadashazadeh, who has American and Iranian citizenship, poses with a form that, along with a $4,800 payment, will exempt him from military service in Iran.

College of Engineering junior Tasos
Charalambides learned to drive in an
armored personnel carrier. When he start-
ed driving the carriers at the age of 17, he
was too young to hold a driver's license in
his native Cyprus.
Charalambides was a soldier in an army
infantry unit. Cypriot law requires that all
able-bodied young men serve 25 months
in the military after graduating from high
school.
Charalambides called his military ser-
vice "a waste of time," but he acknowl-
edged the need for Cyprus to have such
requirements because of its small size and
the country's history of conflict. Turkey
controls the northern part of the island.
When the Turkish armyinvaded the small
island nation in 1974, his uncle was forced
out of his home in northern Cyprus.

"That's what you're fighting for," he
said. "You don't forget about that."
With the United States increasingly
pressed to recruit soldiers for the Iraq
War, some have floated the idea of rein-
stating the draft or instituting mandatory
national service. Such efforts have failed
to gain any political traction, though, and
have been disavowed by everyone from
President Bush to Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi.
The U.S. Selective Service is planning
to test the draft system in 2009. Selective
Service officials have been quick to defend
the test as a regular occurrence, not a sign
of an impending draft.
According to a Gallup poll released in
2005, 86 percent of teenagers think the
government should not reinstate the draft.
LSA senior In-Hoon Choi, though, said he

thinks that Americans.would learn to live
with compulsory service.
"People would adapt," said Choi, who
plans to join the South Korean military
after he graduates in May. "People are a lot
more adaptable than you think."
South Korea requires all able-bodied
men to serve for two years - more if they
join the navy or the air force or serve as an
officer.
He said that although the manda-
tory service requirement is a "necessary
evil," South Korea needs it to defend itself
against its hostile neighbor to the north.
Choi said he's not nervous, even though
he will have to forgo the freedom he has
grown accustomed to as a college student
in the° United States. Choi, a member of
Encore, a campus hip-hop dance group,
See MILITARY, Page 7

WA R ON TERROR
Law professor represents
Guantanamo detainee

COFFEE TALK

Tajik prisoner
released last week
By DANIEL TRUMP
Daily StaffReporter
Wahldof Abdul Mokit was
released last week from Guantana-
mo Bay Detention Center in Cuba
to his home country of Tajikistan.
University Law School Prof.
Bridget McCormack has repre-
sented Mokit since 2005.
The Center for Constitutional
Rights, a New York-based non-
profit human rights legal advocacy
group, assigned McCormack to
Mokit's case after she contacted
them offering her services to Guan-
tanamo detainees.
Mokit had sent a letter to the
center asking for representation,
saying that he didn't know why he
had been detained.
McCormack, the Law School's
associate dean for clinical programs,
said she can't speak about the details
of why Mokit was suddenly released
because they are classified.
Guantanamo is a military pris-
on that houses those suspected
of involvement in terrorism. As

GUANTANAMO BAY
The Guantanamo Bay Detention Center is a major
holdingfacility for those deemed 'enemy combatants'
by the Bush administration.
UNITED
STATES
BAHAMAS

fCUBA '

Puantnam
U.S. Nave! Station

Industrial Workers of the World member Cole Dorsey of Grand Rapids protests in front of the Starbucks on State Street on
Saturday. Participants from the Starbucks Workers Union, Industrial Workers of the World and the Michigan Socialist Party
called for Starbucks to allow more of its workers to unionize and to purchase more fair trade coffee.
U pilots prescription program

AN
80 Miles

of November 2006, roughly 775
detainees had been at Guantanamo
at one time, 340 had been released,
which left 435 in custody, accord-
ing to MSNBC. The Bush admin-
istration has labeled these people
as "enemy combatants" and has
argued that they're not protected
by the Geneva Conventions. The

HAITI
JAMAICA
BRIDGET O'DONNELL/Daily
writ of habeas corpus - the right to
challenge one's imprisonment - is
not guaranteed to them.
Because of security restrictions,
McCormack was not allowed to
meet with Mokit until she had
acquired a special security clear-
ance. This process took almost a
See GUANTANAMO, Page 7

'U' launches new Rx
initiative
By JOEY GOLDSHLACK
For the Daily
The University Health System
will test a new prescription drug
program called MHealthy: Focus

of Medicines in an effort to curb
costs for participants as well as
the University itself, the Univer-
sity announced yesterday.
The main component of the
pilot program, which will launch
next month, will be consultations
between participants and phar-
macists from the University's
School of Pharmacy. In the con-

sultations the pharmacists, will
review medication lists and health
records and then offer money-sav-
ing and safety tips.
University faculty, staff, retir-
ees and their dependents qualify
for the pilot program if they are
over 18 and take nine or more pre-
scription drugs.
See PRESCRIPTIONS, Page 3


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