The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Friday, October 5, 2007 --7A

Anthropology
guides Army
in war zones

Iraq, college
tuition debated
at Dems forum

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Officers say to boycott the teams, particularly
in Iraq.
entists help them "While often presented by its
proponents as work that builds
e situations from a more secure world," the .peti-
tion says, "at base, it contributes
instead to a brutal war of occupa-
tion which has entailed massive
By DAVID ROHDE casualties."
TheNew York Times In Afghanista, the anthropol-
ogists arrived along with 6,000
ABAK VALLEY, Afghani- troops, which doubled the U.S.
- In this isolated Taliban military's strength in the area it
hold in eastern Afghani- patrols, the country's east.
American paratroopers A smaller version of the Bush
lding what they consider a administration's troop increase in
1 new weapon in counterin- Iraq, the buildup in Afghanistan
sty operations here: a soft- has allowed American units to
n civilian anthropologist carry out the counterinsurgency
I Tracy. strategy here, where U.S. forces
cy, who asked that her sur- generally face less resistance and
not be used for security are better able to take risks.
is, is a member of the first Since Gen. David H. Petraeus,
n Terrain Team, an experi- the overall U.S. commander in
i. Pentagon program that Iraq, oversaw the drafting of the
s anthropologists and other Army's new counterinsurgency
scientists to U.S. combat manual last year, the strategy
nAfghanistan and Iraq. Her has become the new mantra of
abilitytounderstand subtle the military. A recent U.S. mili-
of tribal relations - in one tary operation here offered a
potting a land dispute that window into how efforts to apply
d the Taliban to bully parts the new approach are playing
najor tribe - has won the out on the ground in counterin-
of officers who say they are tuitive ways.
concrete results. In interviews, U.S. officers lav-
Martin Schweitzer, com- ishly praised the anthropology
r of the 82nd Airborne program, saying that the social
on unit working with the scientists' advice has proved to be
pologists here, said that the "brilliant," helping them see the
combat operations had been situation from an Afghan perspec-
rd by 60 percent since the tive and allowingthemto cutback
scientists arrived in Feb- on combat operations.
and that the soldiers were The eventual aim, they say, is
ble to focus more on improv- to improve the performance of
curity, health care and edu- local government officials, per-
for the population. suade local tribesman to join the
're looking at this from a police, ease poverty and protect
perspective, from a social villagers from the Taliban and
st's perspective," he said. criminals.
not focused on the enemy. Afghans and Western civilian
focused on bringing gover- officials, too, praised the anthro-
down to the people." pologists and the new U.S. mili-
September, Defense Secre- tary approach but were cautious
obert M. Gates authorized a about predicting long-term suc-
illion expansion of the pro- cess. Many of the economic and
which will assign teams of political problems fueling insta-
pologists and social scien- bility can be solved only by large
each of the 26 U.S. combat numbers of Afghan and American
es in Iraq and Afghanistan. civilian experts.
esult, military officials are "My feeling is that the military
bling to find more scholars are going through an enormous
gto deployto the front lines. change right now where they
early September, five new recognize they won't succeed
have been deployed in the militarily," said Tom Gregg, the
ad area, bringing the total chief U.N. official in southeastern
Afghanistan. "But they don't yet
criticism is emerging in have the skill sets to implement" a
nia. Citing the past misuse coherent nonmilitary strategy, he
ial sciences in counterin- added.
icy campaigns, including Deploying small groups of U.S.
tnam and Latin America, soldiers into remote areas, Sch-
denounce the program as weitzer's paratroopers organized
enary anthropology" that jirgas, or local councils, to resolve
is social science for politi- tribaldisputesthathavesimmered
in. Opponents fear that, for decades. Officers shrugged off
ver their intention, the questions about whether the mili-
rs who work with the mili- tary was comfortable with what
ould inadvertently cause David Kilcullen, an Australian
hropologists to be viewed anthropologist and an architect
lligence gatherers for the of the new strategy, calls "armed
ilitary. sogial work."
h Gusterson, an anthropol- "Who else is going to do it?"
ofessor at George Mason asked Lt. Col. David Woods, com-
sity, and 10 other anthro- mander of the 4th Squadron, 73rd
ts are circulating an online Cavalry. "You have to evolve. Oth-
calling for anthropologists erwise you're useless."

DEBATE From page 1A
one year of college tuition for any
student who graduates from high
school and commits to work at
least 10 hours a week during col-
lege.
Radina also pointed out how
Edwards wants to use scholar-
ships to fight terrorism.
Edwards has proposed schol-
arships for students studying
Arabic who commit to going to
work for U.S. intelligence after
graduation.
All the representatives talked
about their candidate's plans to
increase Pell Grants.
Last week, 'President Bush
signed legislation increasing the
maximum Pell Grant to $5,300
each year.
Significant differences in the
candidate's platforms emerged
whenthe debateturned to reforms
in health care policy.
Radina blasted Obama and
Clinton's healthcare plans.
"Senator Obama's plan doesn't
cover every citizen and Senator
Clinton clearly didn't learn from
her mistakes in 1993," he said.
In 1993, Clinton headed a task
force on health care reform. Her
plan to give healthcare to every

citizen in America encountered
strong opposition and was even-
tually abandoned due to a lack of
support.
LSA sophomore Tom Duvall
played up the fact that Obama is a
newcomer with regards to Wash-
ington politics.
"He's been in Washington long
enough to know that he doesn't
like it and that it needs to be
changed," Duvall said.
The representatives also debat-
ed their candidates' proposed
courses of action in Iraq.
LSA sophomore Kelly Bernero
defended Clinton's initial vote
to authorize the war and advo-
cated what she called a respon-
sible withdrawal of troops.
"The troops don't care about who
voted 'yes' or 'no' to authorize the
war," she said. "They care about
who is willing to end it."
LSA freshman Justin Schon
connected the war on terrorism
to Biden's 2005 crime bill, which
provided the funds to hire 50,000
new police officers.
"The person who prevents a
terrorist attack is not going to be
a Marine or special forces guy
- it is going to be a local cop in
the right place at the right time,"
he said.

The Hill Dining Center, slated to be completed in 2010, is part of a consolidation of
dining halls on the Hill.

DINING
From page 1A
a cafeteria in your residence hall
than to walk out in god-knows-
what conditions to a centralized
location," Engineering freshman

Sarvesh Ramprakash said. "When
you're rolling out of bed, it's a lot
more convenient to go downstairs
in your residence hall."
LSA freshman Joana Coffy said
it's inconvenient to walk from her
dorm room in Fletcher Hall, which
doesn't have a dining hall, to South
Quad, which does.

Online
evaluations will
be easier to tally

SURVEYS From page 1A
Gary Herrin, professor ofindus-
trial and operations engineering,
led a task force that studied the
switch to online questionnaires.
He said by converting to a web-
based format, the University will
save money and be able to store
questionnaire results electroni-
cally.
Professors will also be able to
customize questionnaires to a
greater degree for each course.
While scoring paper evalua-
tions takes one or two months, the
online format will allow teachers
to put students' comments into
practice quickly, Kulik said.
"The greatest benefit for teach-
ers is to get feedback immediate-
ly," he said.
But because students won't
be filling out the new surveys in
class, theymight forget to visitthe
website.
"I don't know if students will
be willing," said Sergio Huarcaya,
a graduate student instructor of
history and anthroplogy.
At first, Herrin said the task
force considered refusing to give
students, their grades until they
complete the evaluations. But the
panel decided to keep the evalua-
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tions voluntary.
Some students say they prob-
ably won't use the online evalua-
tions.
"I know I'm not going to take
the time to do it," said LSA junior
Joshua Cregger. "What's the
incentive for me?"
But Cregger said he's not
opposed to a new evaluation sys-
tem.
"I'm definitely open to new
things," he said.
Herrin said other schools
that have switched to an online
system have had a lower partic-
ipation rate, but said he isn't wor-
ried. He said some classes in the
College of Engineering already
use an optional online system
for mid-term evaluations and
haven't seen a significant drop in
responses.
Kulik said the online surveys
will offer students greater ano-
nymity. With in-class question-
naires, some students mightworry
about professors recognizing their
handwriting.
The effects of that anonymity
are already appearing. Kulik said
the ratings students give profes-
sors in the College of Engineering
are slightly lower when they fill
out evaluations online.

Florida ems
sue own party
Members of cannot hold their 2008 primary
contests before Feb. 5, except for
Congress want Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and
South Carolina.
convention The DNC issued a statement say-
delegates back ing the Supreme Court has previ-
ously ruled that political parties
- and not states - have the right
to decide how their candidates for
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) president are selected.
- Congressional Democrats from Nelson said they tried to com-
Florida sued their own party yester- promise with party leaders before
day, hoping to restore the national filing the lawsuit. "We didn't have
convention delegates stripped from any other choice," he said.
the state because it scheduled an The calendar ,was designed to
early presidential primary. preserve the traditional role that
The party violated the Constitu- Iowa and New Hampshire have
tion and federal voting laws by tak- played in selecting the nominee,
ing away Florida Democrats' ability while adding two states with more
to have a say in choosing the presi- racial and geographic diversity to
dential nominee, says the lawsuit influential early slots.
filed by Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Michigan Democratic Party
Alcee Hastings against the Demo- Chairman Mark Brewer said yes-
cratic National Committee and terday that state Democrats have
Chairman Howard Dean. neither considered, nor discussed,
"For the DNC to say to the fourth- the possibility of a lawsuit.
largest contingency of Democrats The DNC has said Michigan will
in the nation that their votes will also be stripped of delegates if the
not matter in next year's presiden- state party uses the Jan. 15 primary
tial primary is not only shocking signed into law last month to select
and ironic,but we believe is illegal," its delegates.
Hastings said at a news conference "We still hope we can work
in Washington. things out." Brewer said, adding
The national party's rules com- that Michigan Democrats will not
mittee voted to take away Florida's back down. "It is our intention to
210 delegates after the state party use the Januaryt15 primary."
chose to go along with a Jan. 29 pri- Meanwhile, South Carolina
mary. That date was set by Florida's Democrats will decide within two
Republican-led Legislature and weeks whether to ask national
signed into law by Republican Gov. party leaders to move the state's
Charlie Crist. primary to Jan. 19 and make it the
Democratic Party rules say states party's first contest in the South.


SHAMAN
From page 1A
man Drum's finances.
At a January panel discussion
on textbooks, Pohrt suggested
that the Michigan
Student Assembly select a liai-
sonbetweenthe bookstore and the
student population. This, he said,
would bring new ideas to Shaman
Drum and inform students of how
the bookstore works.
After MSA took Pohrt up on the
offer, former MSA representative
Eric Li said he and three others
interviewed prospective candi-
dates last week for the internships
before choosing Hou and Smith.
Li declined to say how many
students interviewed, but he said
a lot freshmen applied for the
positions.
The jobs, which Pohrt said will
require about eight hours of Hou's
and Smith's time each week, will
be unpaid and won't earn either of
the students any course credit.
Smith said his interest in busi-
ness and policy led him to inter-
view for the position.
"I think having this experience
as a freshman is a great opportu-
nity," Smith said. "I wanted to get

involved early, and now I'm get-
ting a chance to work on a policy
already."
Pohrt has structured the stu-
dents' internships much like a
class. During the meeting, he
handed Hou and Smith a curricu-
lum with a weekly schedule, com-
plete with required readings and
scheduled meetings at the store.
Hou said she was surprised by
how planned the internship is.
"I was really worried the job
would lack structure," she said.
"I'm happy that it's so organized."
Hou and Smith will complete
a weekly journal and report back
to MSA every two weeks to dis-
cuss their experiences. Li said by
checking in with the students each
week, MSA can have some over-
sight without being overbearing.
Li said MSA plans to conduct
interviews near the end of Novem-
ber to find two more interns for
next semester. The final hiring
decision will come in December,
he said.
"We'll see how the results turn
out, but we're looking forward to
making this a regular thing," Li
said.
- Lisa Paul contributed
to this report.

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