J E NT L7 4clII) Na Il n N .c( llj171 f V mt Mic www.michigandaily.com Wednesday, April 11, 2007 MICHIGAN STADIUM RENOVATIONS A LOUDER BIG HOUSE? NEW PATH: Sound escapes from box and reflects off opposite box onto field. The proposed design for renovations to Michigan Stadium would include angled glass on luxury boxes that architects say would reflect crowd noise back onto the field. The tilted windows would create two new paths for sound reflection. One architecture professor says this could cause the crowd to sound twice as loud from the field. GRAPHIC: ASHLEY DINGES SOURCE: UNIVERSITY ARCHITECT DOUG HANNA SOUND SCIENCE Would the proposed skyboxes make the Big House louder? By NICK STREICHER stood just o For the Daily readings oft He foun Despite having the largest seating between 77 capacity in the country, Michigan Sta- same noise dium has a reputation as having one of Using con the quietest crowds in the Big Ten. vation plan University architects hope that the volume in tE proposed renovations to the 80-year- range of 85 old structure will change that. the volume The controversial $226-million proj- City subwa ect includes skyboxes that will increase That mea the stadium's volume by reflecting the almost twic crowd's noise back onto the field like a Navvab satellite dish. increased v Crowd noise is a crucial part of a ception is pr team's home field advantage. A loud to predict h crowd can disrupt an opposing team's react. offense ability to hear their quarter- The com back's instructions on the field. geometry o The University is working with tions about Architecture Prof. Mojtaba Navvab - noise will who was also a consultant on the acous- dium. tics of Hill Auditorium - to evaluate In Nover the acoustics of the renovation plans. of Regents a During one game last fall, Navvab matic desig Taubman releases new memoir Namesake of architecture school spent 9.5 months in prison By WALTER NOWINSKI Daily NewsEditor When former University student and shopping mall magnate A. Alfred Taubman returned to Detroit in 2003 after serving a 9.5 month prison sentence in a federal facility in Rochester, Minn., he found Univer- sity President Mary Sue Coleman at a welcome-home party waiting to meet him. Coleman, who had been appointed president of the University by the Board of Regents only weeks before, joined former Gov. James Blanchard and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at the Detroit Athletic Club for the party, which was organized by friends and supporters of the philanthropist and major Univer- sity donor. "I was invited to a lunch to meet him," Coleman said. "It wasn't called a welcome-home-from-prison party." But in his new autobiography, "Threshold Resis- tance: The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retail- ing Pioneer," which went on sale yesterday, Taubman wrote that the party was an important part of his re- entry into society after prison. In 2001, Taubman, who then owned Sotheby's auction house, was convicted in New York state of colluding with rival Christie's to fix prices. He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $7 million. Taubman's conviction drew calls to strip his name from the University buildings and programs named for him. But the push was ultimately unsuccessful, and See TAUBMAN, page 3A ff the 50 yard line and took the noise level. d that the volume ranged and 87 decibels - about the level as a loud office. rmputer models of the reno- s, Navvab predicted that the he stadium will increase to a to 95 decibels - just under of the inside of a New York Y. ns the stadiumwould sound e as loud as it does now. said that even with the olume, much of sound per- sychological, so it is difficult ow the fans and players will puter models are based the f the stadium and assump- where different levels of come from within the sta- mber, the University Board approved preliminary sche- ns, including skyboxes that would run the length of the east and west sides of the field. The skyboxes will be 10 feet higher than the score- boards at either end of the stadium. The University Board of Regents mustvote once more to approve detailed schematic designs and grant construc- tion approval before the proposed reno- vations can begin. Doug Hanna, a University architect working cic the renovations, said iie skyboxes will make the stadium louder because the angle of the skyboxes will reflect crowd noise back onto to the field. John Pollack, who founded Save the Big House, a coalition against the proposed renovations, has developed a counter-proposal that would add 10,000 seats to the bowl, something he said would raise the noise level. "You put 10,000 screaming fans into the stadium that makes them louder - guaranteed," Pollack said. Hanna, though, said nothing in the current stadium prevents the noise from escaping the bowl, so cheering louder would have little effect. Hanna said the skyboxes will create two new paths for sound to travel - one from the fans in the bowl to the skyboxes back down to the field and one from the fans in the skyboxes to the skyboxes on the other side andback down to the field. Hanna said angling the skyboxes is done primarily to reduce the glare from the sun reflected onto the fieldbut could also amplify the crowd noise. The greater the angle, the more the sound will bounce back, Hanna said. In the most recent plans, the sky- boxes will be tilted 9 degrees inward toward the field. The angle is limited by structural stability of the skybox and the windows, which wouldn't open eas- ily at a larger angle, Hanna said. When Penn State University and Ohio State University renovated their stadiums earlier in the decade, the schools did not put any special consid- eration into the acoustics, officials from both schools said. Coleman panning Feb. trip to Africa Trip abroad heralded as sign of increasingly global University By GABE NELSON Daily News Editor University President Mary Sue Coleman plans to spend two weeks in Africa in February 2008. While there, she will visit universities to encourage collaboration between University faculty and research- ers and their African counterparts, she said. Coleman also said she plans to use the trip to encourage students to study in Africa, she said. The trip will be Coleman's first major official inter- national visit since June 2005, when she spent a week in China. While visiting four colleges in Beijing and Shanghai, she announced the creation of academic and research partnerships between the University of Michigan and four Chinese colleges. The most prominent accomplishment of Coleman's trip to China was the creation of a joint degree-grant- ing program between the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Engineering students can now earn a joint degree from both universities in the time it takes to earn a single degree by spending some time living and studying on each campus. Shanghai Jiao Tong gave Coleman an honorary degree during her visit, which she displays promi- nently on a shelf in her office in the Fleming Admin- istration Building. In recent years, American higher education offi- cials have begun traveling abroad to court the lead- ers of prominent foreign universities and try to set up research partnerships. Special Counsel to the President Gary Krenz said Coleman's trips to China and Africa are attempts to make the University of Michigan a "global university." The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, a pres- tigious university in Mumbai, India, has welcomed doz- ens of visitors from American colleges in recent years, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported last month. See COLEMAN, page 3A WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Strugging squad.gets new coach Wisconsin-Green Bay coach Borseth hired by Blue By ANDY REID Daily Sports Writer The Michigan basketball coaching shuffle is over. It began with Michigan women's basketball coach Cheryl Burnett's March 6 retirement. It ended Monday when Kevin Borseth accepted the women's basketball head coaching position, a week after John Beilein took the men's job. Athletic Director Bill Martin issued an official statement to announce Borseth's hiring yester- day. "We are excited about the future of the Michigan women's basket- ball program with Kevin as head coach," Martin said in the state- ment. "He knows how to teach BORSETH and coach and he has the ability to motivate student-athletes as players and people." Borseth was the women's head coach at the Univer- sity of Wisconsin at Green Bay for the past nine sea- sons, compiling a 216-62 record, eight 20-win seasons and nine first-place finishes in the conference. The Bessemer, Mich. native is no stranger to post- season play, either. Wisconsin-Green Bay played in a postseason tournament every season under Borseth. The Phoenix made seven NCAA Tournament appear- See COACH, page 3A NnEREK-aLGMKE/Daily Lt. Gen. Russel Honord speaks in the Michigan League yesterday about leading the military response to Hurricane Katrina. Inside a city in crisis. General who led Katrina relief "one of the largest migrations to affect our country since the Civil War and was probably one of the most tells tales from changing things to happen to our country since the Revolutionary War." disaster aftermath He asked people to raise their hands if they have at least three days worth of food in their homes, a By ASHLEA SURLES quarter tank of gas in their cars or at least 30 days Daily StaffReporter of their prescription medicine stocked in their cabi- nets. When virtually all the hands in the room went Dressed in full Army fatigues, Lt. Gen. Rus- up, he remarked that it "looks like a pretty educated sel Honore told the inside story about the military crowd out there, or are y'all lyin'?" response to Hurricane Katrina in the Henderson He went on to point out that there is a direct cor- Room of the Michigan League yesterday. relationbetween people's economic means and their Honora, the former commander of Joint Task level of preparation for disasters like Katrina. Force Katrina, headed military relief efforts in New The majority of those in the Ninth Ward - one of Orleans for the six weeks following the hurricane. the hardest hit areas - were poor. "Katrina revealed He was brought to campus by the University chap- a level of poverty that most people didn't even know ter of the Roosevelt Institute, a national student- existed," Honor6 said. run think tank. Honore discussed the logistical problems that "Katrina was one of the most devastating disas- exacerbated the situation on the ground. There was ters to ever hit our country," Honore said in his no running water or even portable lavatories at the thick Louisiana baritone. Superdome because they had to be ordered from Honor6 said that the deadly storm resulted -in See GENERAL, page 3A TODAY'S HI: 38 WEATHER LO 37 HAVE A NEWS TIP? ON THE DAILY'S BLOGS Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail Butler and Richards trial delayed again newsomrichgandaily.comand let us know MICHIGANDAILY.COM/THEGAME INDEX NEWS...... dol. CG'dI, No.t133 OPINION. 0207 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com ARTS........ ..2A CLASSIFIEDS...........A....6A ...4A SPO RTS..........:... ......... ....9A ...5A THESTATEMENT...................1B ..u u' ' .. , .' . , . ,: t' , k?.".:.,. i' . ;F' .'S:S Sa! , W1 v-.t...+' .! 3 ti s y. iw.^.i r u x i.5 ,a, .a 1Tr' ., ' : y y ;fix $}r r .;v r N..1.'_ k i, rt ...,' c .':u'..