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Monday, April 2, 2007

'makes
your name
your choice

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PHOTOS BY SH AY SPANIOLA/Daily
TOP: DP Day participants clean out an abandoned house in Detroit on Saturday Nearly 1,000 volunteers, including about 700 University students, took part in the day-
long event sponsored by the Detroit Project. BOTTOM: DP Day participants look over a charred house in Detroit.
Fro-m A2,
ahand up

Transgender activists
hail decision on
'preferred' names
By KATHERINE MITCHELL
Daily Staff Reporter
Sebastian Col6n, a graduate stu-
dent in the School of Social Work,
knows what's in a name.
Col6n, a self-identified transgen-
der student, goes by his male name
rather than the female title on his
Mcard, driver's license and CTools
account. Because he couldn't get
his name changed legally, Colon
has petitioned the University since
2005 to use his preferred name for
University business.
Col6n is finally getting what he
has been asking for.
The University announced
Thursday that it will adopt a pre-
ferred name policy for students
and faculty at all three of its cam-
puses, allowing individuals to use
their preferred name for class ros-
ters, CTools accounts, MCards and
almost anythingelse.
"The University is carrying
through something that the com-
munity asked fox," Col6n said.
The preferred name policy
comes in response to an April 2004
report from the provost's office
about the acceptance and inclusion
of transgender, bisexual, lesbian
and gay students, staff and faculty.
The report prompted the Provost's
office to appoint three subcommit-
tees in fall of 2004, including one
that examinedname changes.
The subcommittee - which
included students, staff and faculty
- presented its recommendations
in June 2005. It asked the Univer-
sity to recognize preferred names
instead of legal ones in most cir-
cumstances.
Transgender people on campus
were some of the most vocal sup-
porters of the recommendation.

WANTA NEW NAME?
The University is beginninga phased
implementation of its preferred tame
policy.
* April25, 2007: Studentstfrom the Ann
Arbor campus and faculty andstaff from all
three University campuseswill be able to
specify a preferred name throughWolverine
Access. This preference will appear on the
University's online directory within a week.
* Fall2007: Students will be able to request
a new Mcard with their preferred name. Pre-
ferred names will also be used in the printed
staff directory.
" Spring 2008: Incoming students will be
able to register a preferred name after enroll-
ingat the University.
SOURCE: AssTANT PROVOST JEFF FRUMKIN
Many said they felt the change
would help transgender students
transition into the University and
ease confusion among other stu-
dents.
"I definitely don't think it would
have happened without the work of
transgender activists," Colon said.
Although the University's
Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgender Affairs did not
formally support the recommen-
dation, LGBTA Director Jackie
Simpson said she is pleased with
the outcome.
"The University's committed to
diversity," Colon said. "And that's
one way to include all identities."
School of Social Work Prof.
Michael Woods said a person's
name is closely tied to his or her
identity and that the new policy
will allow people to define their
identities through their names.
"It's a welcome change and it's a
very progressive type of change,"
he said.
Woods said he didn't know
another institution with a similar
policy.
Rachel Crandall, the executive
director of Transgender Michigan,
said this policy is not common but
is needed by the transgender com-
munity.
See NAMES, Page 3A

Detroit Project
participants help
struggling city
By JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
Daily StaffReporter
Jamel Robinson, a sophomore
at Southfield High School, has
seen a house two blocks down the
street from his own in northwest
Detroit's Brightmoor neighbor-
hood transformed several times.
After the house's last resident
died, the property fell into disre-
pair. The lawn was littered with
garbage, and the house became a
haven for crack cocaine users.
The house was gutted last year
by a fire set by a man trying to
cover up a murder he had commit-
ted there, Robinson said.
Before all that, though, Robin-
son remembers going to the house

in middle school to pick up his
close friend so they could play bas-
ketball.
Robinson teamed up on Satur-
day with a group of Detroit Project
volunteers from the University to
transform the lot once more. The
group of volunteers cleared the
lawn of trash and removed a part
of the house that was collapsing.
The lot on which Robinson
worked was one of more than 50
work sites that the Detroit Project, a
University student group, organized
in Detroit's most dilapidated areas
for the group's annual DPDay.
Nearly 1,000 volunteers -
including about 700 University
students and 200 Detroit residents
- worked on beautification proj-
ects that included picking up trash,
painting murals and tearing down
unsalvageable abandoned homes.
The Brightmoor cityscape was
strikingly different from normal
on DP Day students from all over
the country wore colorful T-shirts

as they rode in the back of pickup
trucks with loads of garbage or
took turns swinging an ax into a
tree that needed to be cut down.
Some Brightmoor residents
made a point to thank the volun-
teers. Several drivers honked as
they passed a site where a mural
was being painted. The passenger
of one of the cars yelled "thank
you," said LSA freshman Ginger
Cline, who worked on the mural.
other locals said they were
pleased with the work they saw
volunteers putting into the neigh-
borhood.
"It makes me want to do it,"

said Dabius Brown, a 19-year-old
Detroit resident. "Next time you
might see me helping."
LSA senior Cristina Johnson,
the executive director of The
Detroit Project, said the group
placed a greater emphasis on col-
laboration with Detroit commu-
nity members this year than it did
in previous years.
"Our presence in the Detroit
community is so important because
these communities are historically
divided," she said. "It's aboutgoing
to the community and meeting
with the people and learning about
See DP DAY, Page 3A

MICHIGAN'S ECONOMY
Speakers: There
is hope for state

ANN ARBOR POW WOW
A tradition marks
its 35th year

At forum, experts
say grads should
stay in Mich.
By LISA HAIDOSTIAN
Daily StaffReporter
Michigan's economic strug-
gles don't have to last forever,
economists said at a conference
on Friday.
In an event sponsored by the
Michigan Economics Society
and Michigan Interactive Invest-
ments, experts gathered in the
Biomedical Science Research
Building Auditorium to answer
the question "How Will Michigan
Regain Its Competitive Advan-
tage?"
The forum was hosted by John
McElroy, the host of the television
talk show "Autoline Detroit."
It's no secret that Michigan's
economy is lagging behind the
rest of the country.
According to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, the national

unemployment rate was 4.5 per-
cent in February of 2007. Michi-
gan's was 6.6 percent. According
to the Michigan Labor Market
Information, Michigan has lost
55,000 payroll jobs this year and
about 362,000 since the year 2000
- which is bad news for Univer-
sity graduates looking for jobs.
"Clearly, as indicated at the
forum, the Michigan economy is
not necessarily performing up to
par in comparisontoother states,"
said Arman Kayupov, president of
the Michigan Economics Society.
While discussion ranged from
international GDP growth rates
to the business structure of the
Kellogg Company, speakers at the
conference agreed on one mes-
sage for students: Stay in Michi-
gan.
Steven Szakaly, an economist
at the Center for Automotive
Research, said college graduates
with high earning potential can
stimulate the state's economy and
help Michigan rebound by stay-
ing in the state after graduation.
John Austin, the vice presi-
See FORUM, Page 3A

D
cu

Mal
emonif
bobber
battles
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ful reg
and st
dress.
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head.
The
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annive
day fe
song,d
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lusic, dancing a larger site.
The event has been held in
-enterpieces of Crisler Arena for the last several
years.
tural celebration Event organizers expected
10,000 people to attend the Pow
Wow this weekend.
By PAUL BLUMER American Culture lecturer Hap
Daily StaffReporter McCue, an elder in the Ojibwa
Native American tribe, was there
e dancers brandishing cer- to kick it off with an invocation of
al weapons stomped and the Great Spirit.
d, re-enacting stories of "We ask him to guide us, to be
, hunts and spirits at Crisler with us, to help us live right and
on Saturday. Their color- straight," he said.
;alia, covered with feathers There was no script - the impro-
reamers, represented battle vised prayer came from the heart,
One man wore a wolf skin McCue said.
ts jaw resting on top of his Pow Wow organizers invite
people from all over the country
men were there to celebrate to participate in what they call
nn Arbor Pow Wow's 35th an intertribal "Dance for Mother
-rsary. The Pow Wow, a two- Earth."
stival of Native American Most of the dancers participat-
dance and dress, has grown ing in the Pow Wow were members
since its inception in the of the Ojibwa, Odawa and Potawa-
970s. The first one was held tomi tribes - the three parts of the
ield outside Ann Arbor in Three Fires Confederacy - but the
ubsequent events were held Pow Wow included dancers from
all venues around the city dozens of tribes, said Priyanka
is growing size necessitated See POW WOW, Page 3A

Darrell Hill dances at the Dance For Mother Earth Pow Wow at Crisler Arena yes-
terday.


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