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OPINION, PAGE 4A
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www.michigandaily.com
Thursday, January11, 20T7
Despite Prop 2,
race will stay
on applications
'U'to trust The University has not
yet finalized next year's
admissions undergraduate application,
but administrators decided
officers to ignore against removing race and
gender from this year's appli-
race, gender cations that haven't been
submitted.
By BRIAN TENGEL "The application is exactly
DailyStaffReporter the same as it was yester-
day and last week and last
The race and gender of month," Peterson said.
applicants will remain on The University of Cali-
application forms when fornia system, which was
admissions officers review barred from considering
them, the University said race and gender in admis-
yesterday. sions by a similar ballot ini-
Yesterday marked the first tiative in 1996, chose to not
day the University was not allow admissions counselors
allowed to use affirmative to view a student's race and
action in admissions, which gender on the application.
was banned by Proposal 2 in Although a student can
November. report this information, it
Instead of blacking out isn't included in his files
the information, admissions given to the officers.
officers have been instruct- Peterson said the Univer-
ed to disregard the race and sity would rely on trust to
gender of potential students ensure that race and gender
when evaluating their appli- aren't taken into consider-
cations, University spokes- ation.
woman Julie Peterson said. "Our counselors are ethi-
"There's nothing in Pro- cal people with integrity,
posal 2 that says race has to but we can't crawl inside the
be a secret," Peterson said. mind of an admissions coun-
"It's simply not going to be selor," Peterson said.
factor in our decision." She said officers would
just ignore the race and gen-
der sections of the applica-
tions while considering other
information about the appli-
cant.
"If you think this is subjec-
tive, you need to understand
the whole process is subjec-
tive," she said. "We're look-
ing at things like leadership
and motivation. All those
things are personal and sub-
jective. So we will do what
we always have done: train
our counselors."
In an e-mail to the campus
community addressing the
University's response to Pro-
posal 2, University President
Mary Sue Coleman and Pro-
vost Teresa Sullivan noted
that Proposal 2 doesn't apply
to federally funded programs
that use affirmative action.
One such program is the
Louis Stokes Alliance for
Minority Participation. The
program's goal is to increase
minority participation and
success in math, technol-
ogy, science and engineering.
Race and gender can still be
considered in the program's
admissions decisions, because
it is funded by the National
See APPLICATIONS, page 7A
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ROB MIGRIN/Daily
High textbook prices are a near-constant source of complaints from students at the University. Students sometimes spend more than $600
each semester on books.
Pne tackles high cost o books
Suggestions:
Put reading lists
online, create
MSA liaison
By EMILY ANGELL
Daily StaffReporter
At least it was unseason-
ably warm as LSA freshman
& Robin Goldberg stood in line
outside campus bookstore
Shaman Drum lastweek.
Nothing else seemed to be
going her way.
"Because so many profes-
sors only order from Shaman
Drum, I'm forced to come
here and pay their prices,"
she said. "I have a friend who
is triple-majoring and had to
take on a second job just to
pay for her textbooks."
In an attempt to address
the high cost of textbooks,
the Michigan Student Assem-
bly and LSA Student Govern-
ment held a forum last night
in the Pendelton room of the
Michigan Union to discuss
textbook prices with Uni-
versity administrators, book-
store owners and students.
The panel, which included
Senior Vice Provost for Aca-
demic Affairs Lester Monts
and Shaman Drum owner
Karl Pohrt, among others,
tried to answer students'
questions about the textbook
market.
Most of the questions
asked during the hour-and-
a-half long forum concerned
the rising cost of textbooks
and why the University isn't
doing more to foster competi-
tion in the textbook market.
Suggestions included posting
reading lists in advance and
uploading readings online.
Monts defended the
University's decentralized
approach to textbooks.
"The provost's office rec-
ognizes the problem and con-
tinues to work on it," Monts
said. "We know the cost of
education continues to rise,
and if we can lessen other
costs, then we will."
Individual professors or
departments, not the Univer-
sity administration, decided
where to order textbooks
from.
But many students argued
that the University could eas-
ily lessen the burden of high
textbook prices by simply
requiring instructors to place
their book lists online before
classes start.
But Colette Alexander, a
book purchaser at Shaman
Drum, advised against that.
"The problem is that some-
times professors request
books that are out of print or
unavailable," Alexander said.
"If book lists are released
early, students will spend
money on books that ulti-
mately won't be used."
LSA sophomore Ricky
Chis disagrees. He decided to
buy his books online this year
after becoming frustrated
with textbook prices at local
campus bookstores.
"I used to shop locally, but
the books are so overpriced,"
he said. "I used Half com this
time and saved about $300."
Some departments, like
math and economics, already
post book lists online before
classes start, but the prac-
tice is not uniform across the
campus.
Pohrt, who has owned
Shaman Drum for 27 years,
had another suggestion. He
advised MSA to elect a liaison
between the student popula-
tion and the local bookstores.
"If a few students can learn
how these businesses work
and then report back to the
student population, we have
a better chance at finding a
solution," he said.
. Another solution proposed
at the forum was for profes-
sorstouploadmoreofrequired
readings to sites like ctools.
See BOOKS, page 7A
Task force goes to
the drawing board
Bush admits mistakes in
Iraq, dispatches more troops
Democrats say
president is on
wrong course
WASHINGTON (AP)
- President Bush acknowl-
edged for the first time last
night that he erred by not
ordering a military buildup
in Iraq last year and said he
was increasing U.S. troops by
21,500 to quell the country's
near-anarchy. "Where mis-
takes have been made, the
responsibility rests with me,"
Bush said.
. The buildup puts Bush on a
collision course with the new
Democratic Congress and
pushes the American troop
presence in Iraq toward its
highest level. It also runs
counter to widespread anti-
war passions among Ameri-
cans and the advice of some
top generals.
In a prime-time address to
the nation, Bush pushed back
against the Democrats' calls
to end the unpopular war. He
said that "to step back now
would force a collapse of the
Iraqi government, tear that
country apart and result in
Legal action,
outreach
suggested at
forum
By JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
Daily Staff Reporter
On a day that marked the
beginning of an uncertain
new era for the University's
admissions policies, members
of the campus community dis-
cussed the road ahead.
The Diversity Blueprints
Task Force, formed to collect
ideas from community mem-
bers about how to go forward
in a post-affirmative action
world, held the first in a series
of forums yesterday to brain-
storm ways to maintain diver-
sity afternoon at the Medical
School.
University President Mary
Sue Coleman established the
Diversity Blueprints Task
Force shortly after Proposal 2
passed in November. The task
force, which is composed of
students, faculty and commu-
nity members, met for the first
time on Dec. 19.
The group will recommend
strategies for maintaining
diversity on campus in a pre-
liminary report to Coleman
on Feb.15. Afinal reportis due .
to Coleman by March 15.
An audience of task force
members, faculty and a small
number of students filled
much of Sheldon Auditorium
yesterday. After task force
co-chair Teresa Sullivan
introduced the event, speak-
ers who signed up before the
forum were each allotted five
minutes to present their ideas
about how to maintain a rela-
tively diverse campus.
Nine people stepped for-
Alejandra Cruz, a member of By Any Means Necessary, stands at a podi-
um in the Medical School last night and speaks about the effects of Prop-
osition 2 in California, where she earned her undergraduate education.
President Bush during his prime-time address from the White House last night.
mass killings on an unimagi- Bush said. But he braced 12,000 more troops to secure
nable scale." Americans to expect more Baghdad's neighborhoods -
"If we increase our sup- U.S. casualties for now and and taking the lead in mili-
port at this crucial moment did not specify how long the tary operations.
and help the Iraqis break additional troops would stay. Even before Bush's
the current cycle of violence, In addition to extra U.S. address, the new Democratic
we can hasten the day our forces, the plan envisions leaders of Congress empha-
troops begin coming home," Iraq's committing 10,000 to See BUSH , page 7A
ward. The ethnically diverse
speakers' included student
activists and faculty mem-
bers.
The first speaker was Ale-
jandra Cruz, a graduate from
the University of California at
Berkeley and an applicant to
the University's Law School.
Cruz, who is Latina, recount-
ed her experience as a college
student in California after
affirmative action was banned
there in 1996.
"I saw how black and Lati-
no students are treated with
hostility - treated with more
and more racism every year,
because their numbers are so
low," she said.
LSA senior, a member of
the student group Opera-
tion Diversity, said her group
wants to establish an annual
week for celebrating diversity.
She said the week could fea-
ture activities like an evening
of artistic expression includ-
ing poetry readings and per-
See TASK FORCE, page 7A
TODAY'S H :46
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