Putting the pressure on Penn State
Football Saturday, inside
e idiigan 4Batly
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, September 21, 2007
michigandaily.com
PROTECTING GENDER IDENTiTY AND EXPRES ION
Regents
approve
addition
to clause
After four years comment.
The decision is a victory for
change comes with activists who have long argued
that the non-discrimination
split vote policy didn't adequately protect
transgender faculty and students.
By GABE NELSON The issue gained steam in 2003
Daily News Editor when then-provost Paul Courant
created a task force to investigate
The University Board of conditions for transgender stu
Regents voted yesterday to add dents on campus. The taskforce
gender identity and gender issued a report in 2004 encour-
expression as protected catego- aging the Regents to consider
ries in the non-discrimination revising the non-discrimination
-clause of the University bylaws, policy to include gender identity
ending a four-year dehace. and expression.
The vote was 5 to 2, with In 2005, the University began
Regents Andrew Richner (R- adding an asterisk next to the
Grosse Pointe Park) and Andrea word sex with a footnote that
Fischer Newman (R-Ann Arbor) said the protection of students
voting against the proposed and faculty based on sex encom-
change. Richner and Fischer passed gender identity and gen-
Newman could not be reached for See CLAUSE, Page 7A
THE UNIVERSITY'S NON-DISCRIMINATION CLAUSE
The language added yesterday is in bold.
The University of Michigan is committed toa policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportu-
nity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, nationalorigin or ancestry,
age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, or
Vietnam era veteran status. The University also is committed to compliance with all appli-
cable laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action.
BENJI DELL/Daily
After falling into disrepair last year, Jones House co-op has since been gutted and renovated.
A co-op gets a makeover
Most Jones House residents are now graduate students
By Andy Kroll For the Daily
The graffiti in the bathrooms of the
James R. Jones Cooperative House co-
op have been covered by fresh coats of
green and blue paint.
The shattered windows have been
replaced.
The carpet that once smelled of beer
and cigarettes has been ripped out.
After extensive renovations this
summer, Jones House bears little
resemblance to the decaying structure
that once occupied 917 and 923 S. For-
est Ave.
The Inter-Cooperative Council,
which oversees campus co-ops, shut it
down at the end of the last school year
to renovate the property.
Cindy Christiansen, director of
maintenance services for the ICC,
said the house received approximately
$193,000 worth of renovations, paid
for by the ICC. This involved remodel-
ing several of the house's bathrooms,
installing new flooring and adding two
new rooms.
Travis Jones, an LSA senior and
house manager, said the complete
renovation of the house was necessary
because all previous attempts at fixing
it up were unsuccessful.
"Everything that we had tried before,
was very piecemeal," said Jones, a for-
mer ICC president.
Christiansen said the large
amount of money previously spent on
See CO-OP, Page 7A
PAYING THE RESIDENT
Coleman gets salary hike
THEY WANT THEIR MONEY BACK
Regents give The voters of Michigan nixed
another. A plan to renovate the Big
president 3 percent House has been met with contro-
versy and even a lawsuit.
raise; she gives it back But as labor activists stood out-
side yesterday's University Board
By GABE NELSON of Regents meeting, criticizing
Daily News Editor Coleman's openness to student and
faculty concerns, Regent Martin
It was a tough first five years Taylor (D-Grosse Pointe Farms)
for University President Mary Sue read a letter signed by the regents
Coleman. praising Coleman's performance
State funding crumbled. Michi- and dedication to the University.
gan basketball lost a championship Then they voted to give her a 3-per-
banner to scandal. The Supreme cent raise.
Court tossed out one of the Univer- "Whether we are standing
sity's affirmative action programs. See SALARY, Page 7A
THE REGENTS' PRAISE FOR
COLEMAN
From a letter read at yesterday's meeting:
! Showing a commitment to diversity both
before and after Proposal 2
* Creating the Residential Life Initiative,
which spurred the construction of North Quad
and the renoation of Mosher-ordan and
Stockwell Residence Halls.
* Overseeing major construction projects
like Weill Hall, the Mott Children's and Wom-
en's Hospital and the businessschool.
. Hiring an excellent set of administrators
" Leading the Michigan Difference fundrais-
ing campaign
Woodruff to be spring grad speaker
KELLYN JACKSON/Daily
LEO Campus Council Co-Chair Ian Robinson speaks speaks yesterday at a press conference to ask University President
Mary Sue Coleman to pay the fines incurred by 12 protesters who were arrested in her office in April. See story, page 3
2,000 college students
amon Jena protesters
Genome project
director Collins
to speak at winter
ceremony
By AIMEE BOWEN
For the Daily
ABC News reporter Bob Wood-
ruff, a University Law School alum,
will speak to graduates at this year's
spring commencement.
At winter commencement
Human Genome Project Director
Francis Collins, a former Univer-
sity professor, will speak.
The University Board of Regents
approved honorary degrees for the
pair at its monthly meeting yester-
day.
"Both of these men have close
ties to the University and both have
had life changing experiences and
changed the world," University
President Mary Sue Coleman said
in a phone message yesterday.
Woodruff began his journal-
ism career as a Chinese transla-
tor during the protests in Beijing's
Tiananmen Square in 1989. He
later covered the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina. Last year, as a
foreign correspondent in Iraq, he
suffered serious injuries -when a
roadside bomb struck his vehicle.
He has since become an advocate
for veterans' health issues.
Collins, a University faculty
member for more than 20 years,
is now the director of the Human
Genome Project, which sequenced
the 3 billion base pairs of DNA in
the human genome.
Coleman, who is a biochemist,
See SPEAKERS, Page 7A
A Southern town
now emblematic of
racial injustice
From staffand wire reports
Drawn by a case tinged with
one of the most hated symbols of
Old South racism
- a hangman's noose tied in an
oak tree - thousands of protest-
ers rallied yesterday in Jena, La.
against what they see as a double
standard of prosecution for blacks
and whites.
The plight of the so-called Jena
Six became a flashpoint for one
the biggest civil-rights demon-
strations inyears. Five of the black
teens were initially charged with
attempted murder in the beating
of a white classmate.
old-guard lions like the Revs.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton
joined scores of college students
bused in from across the nation
who said they wanted to make a
stand for racial equality just as
their parents did in the 1950s and
'60s.
"It's not just about Jena, but
about inequalities and disparities
around the country," said Stepha-
nie Brown, 26, national youth
director for the NAACP, who esti-
mated about 2,000 college stu-
See JENA, Page 7A
TODAY'S $ H 1:86
WEATHER LO: 62
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