The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
State government
braces for shutdown
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has
asked state directors to tell her by
next week what programs might be
affected and what steps should be
taken if the state runs out of money
in May and has to shut down.
"The money issue is real. This is
not a fabricated crisis," Granholm
spokeswoman Liz Boyd said yes-
terday. "The governor has made
it clear for months the emergency
we're facing."
The Democratic governor has
suggested a plan to help resolve
some of the $940 million short-
fall in this year's budget through
$?44 million in cuts and account-
ing changes. But she also wants to
put a new 2 percent tax on services
in place by June 1 to raise more
money.
Senate Republicans last week
voted down the tax on services,
adopted the governor's $344 mil-
lion executive order and then
passed another $600 million in cuts
and accounting changes.
BAGHDAD
Policemen go on
ethnic killing spree
off-duty Shiite policemen
enraged by massive bombings in
the northern town of Tal Afar went
on a revenge spree against Sunni
residents there yesterday, killing at
least 45 men execution-style, police
and hospital officials said.
The policemen began roaming
the town's Sunni neighborhoods on
foot early in the morning, shooting
at Sunni residents and homes.
A senior hospital official in Tal
Afar said at least 45 men between
the ages of 15 and 60 were killed
with a shot to the back of the head
and four others were wounded. He
spoke on condition of anonymity
due to security concerns.
Police saiddozens ofSunniswere
killed or wounded, but they had no
precise figures.
MANILA, Philippines
Daycare owner
takes kids hostage
MliO~ tory of l1ine
grgbling stunts took a busload of
students and teachers hostage from
' s day-care center and drove them
o City Hall yesterday, keepingthem
bnboard for hours and demanding
better lives for the children.
Jun Ducat reportedly chartered
the tourist bus for a field trip mark-
ing the end of the school year.
Instead, he and at least one oth-
er hostage-taker had the driver
take them to City Hall, where they
taped a handwritten sheet of pa-
per to the windshield, saying they
were holding 32 children and two
,teachers and were armed with two
grenades, an assault rifle and a .45-
caliber pistol.
"I love these kids; that's why I
am here," Ducat, identified by po-
lice and parents as the owner of the
145-student day-care center, told
DZMM radio by mobile phone. "I
invited the children for a field trip.
WASHINGTON
Congress faces war
funding standoff
with White House
Congressional Democrats are
showing no signs of backing down
on their rebuke of the Iraq war,
insisting President Bush will have
to accept some sort of legislative
timetable in exchange for the bil-
lions of dollars needed to fund the
war.
"We would hope that the presi-
dent understands how serious we
are," said Majority Leader Harry
Reid, (D-Nev.), after the Senate
voted to uphold a proposal in a war
spending bill calling for the troop
withdrawal.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
3,233
Number of American service
members who have died inthe War in
I ;raq, according to the Department of
Defense. The following service mem-
'hers were identified late Wednesday:
Sgt. Curtis J. Forshey, 22, of
:Hollidaysburg, Pa.
Spc. Sean K. McDonald, 21, of
'Rosemount, Minn.
LEASE LAW
From page IA
"We got the short end of the stick
of this ordinance," he said.
This loophole was the key issue
that students addressed at a pub-
lic hearing last night hosted by the
Michigan Student Assembly and
the Ann Arbor City Council.
The ordinance - billed as a stu-
dent-friendly law that gives stu-
dents more time to navigate tre
difficult Ann . Arbor off-campus
housing market - is up for review a
year after it was passed by the City
Council.
"I feel there needs to be at least
discussion on the waiver provision
in the ordinance," said Matt Stoker,
a member of MSA's external rela-
tions committee, in an interview
after the meeting.
Engineering junior Kyle Goszyk
said there needs to be a concrete
way of avoiding loopholes in the
revised ordinance.
MSA Vice President Mohammad
Dar said the committee will focus
on reviewing the loophole.
Several landlords also attended
the forum.
Alice Ehn, executive director of
the Washtenaw Area Apartment ADMISSIONS
Association, said that students From page IA
want to have no pressure to sign, p
but landlords want to fill their to data from the Office of Under-
properties. Ehn and two other graduate Admissions.
landlords met with Mayor John These five clusters range from
Hieftje and members of the Stu- middle-class to very affluent. About
dent Relations Committee yes- 90 percent of students in each of the
terday to discuss their side of the five groups are white.
issue. Ted Spencer, executive director
Ehn said forums like the public of the University's undergraduate
hearing last night don't produce admissions office, said the Uni-
any solutions. versity hopes Descriptor Plus will
City Council passed a resolution prevent the sharp drop in minority
on March 16 to entrust review of attendance that was seen at the Uni-
the ordinance to the Student Rela- versity of Texas and the University of
tions Committee, which arranged California system after their states
last night's forum. banned the use of affirmative action.
The committee will gather feed- "We make no bones about the
back from students and landlords fact that diversity's important to
that will be used to make recom- us," he said.
mendations to City Council for But Lucier said it's unclear
amending the law. whether the new system will work.
"We'd like to see action taken "We don't know if it willhelp us,"
within the next month or two,"
Stoker said. Re-im
The committee plans to host
another forum this spring before E-mail si
presenting any amendments to City
Council.
-Amina Farha contributed
to this report
he said.
The service costs $15,000 per
year, University spokeswoman
Deborah Green said.
Forty-one other colleges - pri-
marily private schools - currently
use Descriptor Plus, according to a
list provided by Steve Graff, direc-
tor of admission and enrollment
services for the College Board.
Michigan State University and
Northwestern University are the
only other Big Ten schools using it.
"Many institutions are using it to
findunderserved populations because
they can find populations that aren't
necessarily part of their mix of stu-
dents" he said. "They can pay more
attention to students that they aren't
sure are getting the message."
Although some colleges use
Descriptor Plus to analyze how stu-
dents from certain neighborhoods
perform academically or how like-
Thursday, March 29, 2007 - 3A
ly they are to attend the school if
accepted, most don't use the service
as a key factor when making admis-
sions decisions, Graff said.
When the University bought the
right to use Descriptor Plus three
years ago, it originally intended to
use the service to recruit students
from underrepresented groups,
Lucier said.
He said admissions officials
eventually decided it would be
more useful in admissions.
Lucier said Descriptor Plus is a
more accurate snapshot of a stu-
dent's background than the appli-
cation previously provided.
Admissions officers are currently
able to see an applicant'sgender and
race - but they can't use that infor-
mation when making an admis-
sions decision. Admissions officials
haven't decided whether that will
change next year, Lucier said.
ATHLETES
From page IA
Edwards said. "We shouldn't force
student-athletes to be role models,
but being on TV everyday, people
are going to look up to you. I have
younger nephews and I'd like to see
them do what I've done."
Michael Rosenberg, a Detroit
Free Press columnist and former
Michigan Daily editor in chief, said
athletes don't have to live a perfect
life to display good character.
"I understand there is more
pressure on these student-athletes
than there was maybe 30 years
ago," he said. "ButI also don't think
the standards we're talking about
are that difficult. I think these are
reasonable standards we're talking
about."
The forum came less than one
week after three football players
were removed from the team for
being charged with crimes includ-
ing assault and battery and marijua-
na possession. However, the forum
was planned before their dismissal
was announced.
University President Mary Sue
Coleman, who was on the panel,
said coaches have difficult deci-
sions to make when their players
break rules.
"It is a huge responsibility to
be able to discern whether that
error in judgment has something
to do with the brain, which is not
fully developed yet, or if it is a case
where the person is not going to get
over it and won't ever learn," Cole-
man said.
BLUEPRINTS
From page IA
hour, but he did not say why the
event was scheduled at that time.
Many of the speakers requested
more discussion forums so that
more students could attend. LSA
sophomore Bryon Maxey said that
he would like to see at least three
more forums before the end of the
semester.
Monts said that the committee
would continue to provide students
with time to further discuss these
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