POINT-COUNTER-POINT: THEEI'S NOT BECAUSE THEY HATE JOHNS
SCOOTER LIBBY TRIAL y BEREN
OPINION, PAGE 4A WHY CRITICISM IS REALLY AN ACT OF LOVE THE B-SIDE SPOR
IieNidTan Dai9
()NE ...8b.°1 .1..")r.7 I N I.NT E L k E IS(I LI)IYAf) .I I.IR ~I ¢.E )ONI. .P

Ann Arbor, Michigan

www.michigandaily.com

Thursday, March 29, 2007

OPENING ACT

DESCRIPTOR PLUS
In the fall, the University began using
software that groups applicants into g a u g e s
clusters based on socioeconomic data.
Students come from well-educated, geographiC

fairly affluent families. The neighbor-
hood is primarily white.
Parents' average annual income:
$74,300
Percent minority students: 11
Percent of'U'studentsfromthis

diversity

cluster.28 Software creates
'clusters' based on
demographics

Applicants from this cluster are pre-
dominantly black. Parents tend to have
lower incomes and less education.
Parents' average annual income:
$42,600
Percent minority students: 71
Percent of'U'students from this
cluster: 3

PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daly
School of Music senior Janine Divita rehearses Monday in her role as Fania Fenelon in "Playing for Time," a play about
a female orchestra in a Nazi concentration camp. The play, which opens today, is the first performance in the new Arthur
Miller Theatre in the Walgreen Drama Center on North Campus. For more on the show and the theater, see The B-Side.
T OWN A ND OW
MSA, City Council
revisit leasingla

Students in this cluster come from a
variety of ethnic backgrounds - many
are Asian - and may need English as
a Second Language classes in order to
excel in college.
Parents' average annual income:
$78,300
Percent minority students: 38
Percent of'U'students from this
cluster:2
,z
This neighborhood is also primarily
white, but has lower income and paren-
tal educational levels.
Parents' average annual income:
$54,100
Percent minority students: 9
Percent of 'U' students from this
cluster: 7
SOURCE: T H E COLLEG E BOARD'S G UIDE TO
EDUCATIONAL NEIGHBOR HOOCUS5TERS
ANn a UDTHEAUNIESITY A SOFIC
Or UsNEGUATE ADnMISSIONS

By GABE NELSON
Daily News Editor
Students from underprivileged
neighborhoods and high schools
will get a boost in the admissions
process now that the University is
using a new demographics service
offered by the College Board.
The service, called Descriptor
Plus, sorts students into "neighbor-
hood clusters" and "high school
clusters." It provides the Univer-
sity with demographic information
about the socioeconomic, educa-
tional and racial breakdown of the
applicant's neighborhood or high
school - information that Uni-
versity officials say will help them
select diverse freshman classes
without considering race.
The University's undergraduate
admissions office began using the
service at the beginning of the cur-
rent admissions cycle in September.
University officials said they
hope the service will help the
University maintain ethnic diver-
sity after the passage of Proposal
2, which banned the use of affirma-
tive action.
But Proposal 2 wasn't the reason
for the implementation of the sys-
tem, said Chris Lucier, director of
recruitment and operations for the
University's undergraduate admis-
sions office.
"It's not a device that's oriented
solely at social or ethnic diversity,"
Lucier said. "It's anothertool for us
to identify populations that might
not have the same access to higher

education as other populations."
But Lucier said Descriptor Plus
is legal under Proposal 2 because
it's based on geographic and edu-
cational information - the consid-
eration of which Proposal 2 didn't
outlaw. Admissions officers and
the College Board don't use ethnic
information when grouping stu-
dents into clusters.
He said Descriptor Plus is one
of many factors taken into account
when consideringapplications.
Using demographic character-
istics like annual income, ethnic
breakdown and college attendance,
Descriptor Plus groups neighbor-
hoods into one of 30 "Educational
Neighborhood Clusters." It also
forms "High School Clusters" by
measuring factors that show a
school's academic quality and its
students' racial and socioeconomic
backgrounds.
Alan Foutz, an attorney for The
Pacific Legal Foundation, a Cali-
fornia-based law firm that opposes
affirmative action, said it would be
hard to challenge the University's
use of Descriptor Plus in court.
"They would have to establish
that the criteria they are using are
subterfuge for actual racial profil-
ing, which would be a difficultcase
to establish," he said. "If they are
in fact taking into consideration
the whole panoply of demograph-
ics that are attached to a particular
geographic area, that is most likely
-not a violation of Michigan's Pro-
posal 2."
The number of students at the
University from each cluster varies
dramatically. Five of the 30 neigh-
borhood clusters produced about
three quarters of the students that
make up the University's class of
2008 and class of 2009, according
See ADMISSIONS, page 3A

Students decry
loophole in law
By KATHERINE MITCHELL
Daily staffreporter
When LSA junior Michael
Moses and his friends picked a
house last semester to live in next
year, they spoke with the landlord

and made an appointment to sign
a lease 90 days after the house's
lease period began.
Because of the leasing ordi-
nance thatwent into affect for this
housing cycle, the group thought
that no one could sign a lease for
the property until 90 days after
the current lease period begins.
With reassurance from the land-
lord, Moses and his friends slept
soundly, content that their hous-

ing was secure.
A few days before the sched-
uled signing, though, Moses and
his friends called the landlord and
learned that their coveted prop-
erty had already been leased.
It turns out that another group
had gone to the house and con-
vinced the current tenants to sign
a waiver to ignore the 90-day
waiting period.
See LEASE LAW, page 3A

Should athletes
be role models?


LECTURERS' NEGOTIATIONS
Deal distant in
LEO talks

Panel split on
role-model status for
i student-athletes
By CHRIS HERRING
Daily StaffReporter
Michigan softball coach Carol
Hutchins said he never fully
understood how influential her
players were until the parent
of a middle school aged player
approached her one day.
"I had a mother come to my
summer camp asking, 'Can you
please have your players cover
up their tattoos?"' Hutchins said.
"She told me that after attending
our summer camp, her little girl
wanted a tattoo."
Four panelists and more than
80 viewers packed the Kuenzel
Room of the Michigan Union for
two hours last night to discuss
whether or not student-athletes
should be held to higher ethical
standards than other students.
The general consensus on the
panel was that student-athletes
should be more cognizant of their
influence than others need to be.
"Whether they like it or
not, they are role models," said
Hutchins, who was one of the
panelists. "It's important that
they recognize that and keep
themselves in a light so that a lit-

tle boy or girl will want to grow
up to be just like them."
While most on the panel
seemed to agree with Hutchins,
some said student-athletes
have enough pressure already
and should not have to be a role
model.
Former football player Jamie
Morris said it is wrong to con-
sider current University athletes
role models, as they have enough
on their plates already.
"If you want to choose aformer
student-athlete as a role model,
sure," said Morris, who also was
a panelist. "But if you want to
choose a current student-athlete,
I'm not for that. Current student-
athletes have enough pressures
around them.
University alum David Han
said student-athletes are recruit-
ed for their skills on the field, not
to set an example for children.
"When we send these people
out, we're saying these are the
best people to go run a race, swim
or catch afootball - not to uphold
moral standards," Han said.
While Morris and Han said
that it is unfair to place ethical
pressure on the athletes, Shakir
Edwards, a Michigan football
player, said that as a student-ath-
lete, he feels it is his duty to act as
a positive figure.
"I feel it's my responsibil-
ity to uphold a good reputation,"
See ATHLETES, page 3A

University Provost Theresa Sullivan with Lester Monts, senior vice provost for
academic affairs, at a forum on the Diversity Blueprints report yesterday.
Students pan
'Blueprins

Lecturers to hold
office hours on Diag
By KATHERINE MITCHELL
Daily StaffReporter
Some of your teachers may be
holding office hours outsid eon
April16 and 17.
To solicit support for their
upcoming contract negations,
members of the Lecturers'
Employee Organization plan to
hold their scheduled office hours
on the Diag those dates.
There, members of the union
for non-tenure track faculty atthe
University will distribute cam-
paign materials to students and
faculty members to solicit support
for their 10th round of contract
negotiations with the University.
The negotiations begin Friday.
This year, the 1,300 member
organization composed of lectur-
ers from all three of the Universi-
ty's campuses is pushing for pay
raises, uniform lecturer titles,
employment review transparen-
cy, health care improvements and
greater flexibility to work off-
campus while employed by the
University, among other things.
LEO's current contract expires
on June 30.
Ann Arbor's LEO chapter met
last night to update members on
the negotiations progress.
"We're not anywhere near to

being done," said LEO President
"onnie Halloran in an interview
before the meeting.
While LEO's 10-15 member
bargaining team can continue
negotiating through the sum-
mer, the LEO membership voted
to not consider any contract pro-
posed after April 17, the ratifica-
tion deadline, because many LEO
members will not be in town dur-
ing the spring and summer terms.
Ian Robinson, a co-chair of
LEO's chapter on the university's
Ann Arbor campus, said leaders at
the meetingencouraged members
to attend the negotiating sessions.
He also said it is unlikely that
an agreement will be reached by
the ratification deadline of April
17, the last day of classes.
University spokeswoman Kelly
Cunningham said contract nego-
tiations take time, and that every-
one is committed to the process.
Robinsonsaid negotiationsofthis
type are inherently a slow process.
He said both administrators
and union representatives have
taken time to make proposals.
A few tentative agreements
have already been reached
between negotiators. Robinson
said these agreements aren't on
any of LEO's central issues.
Robinson said negotiators have
yet to talk about raises. He said
the issue is usually discussed last
because administrators need to
figure- out contract costs prior
issues that are approved.

At
pos
By A
A sn
their
sity's
sity wi
action
mornii
The
sity Pr
Associ
Affairs
get stu

forum, some call sity Blueprints report, which was
issued March 15.
t-Prop 2 diversity University President Mary Sue
Coleman commissioned the Diver-
report vague sity Blueprints Task Force to study
how to maintain diversity on cam-
kMANDA MARKOWITZ pus after Michigan voters banned
Daily StaffReporter affirmative action last fall. The
- -- ~- - committee was composed of SS
sall group of students voiced members, including faculty, admin-
concerns about the Univer- istrators, students and alumni.
plan for maintaining diver- Several of the students said the
ithout the aid of affirmative recommendations in the report
at ,a forum held yesterday were vague and that the forum
ng. should have been held at a time
forum - hosted by Univer- when more students could have
ovost Theresa Sullivan and attended.
ate Provost for Academic Only seven of the 10 students
s Lester Monts - was held to at the forum spoke. About 20
dent feedback on the Diver- See BLUEPRINTS, page 3A


TODAY'S
WEATHER

HI: 53
LO: 32

HAVE A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail
news@michgandaily.com and let us know.

ON THEDAILY'S 81005
Why weather matters
MICHIGANDAILY.COM/THEPODIUM

INDEX ,NEW S.............
Vol. tOVIl,5N. 124
S U DO KU2007 The Mhigan Daily ........
michiandaiy.com OPINION.........

.2A CLA SSIFIE ........................6A
..3A SPORT... ..A.........8A
..4A THE B-SIDE.........................1B