Radiohead ups the ante once again
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Ann Arbor, MichiganThursday, October 11,2007
THE CREDIT CARD INDUSTRY
Groups target campus sales tactics
michigandaily.com
Since 9/11,
twice as many
take Arabic
U.S. PIRG alleges
deceptive marketing
practices
By DANIEL STRAUSS
Daily StaffReporter
Credit card companies -might
have less of an incentive to hawk
their cards at the University if a
consumer advocacy group has its
way.
The U.S. Public Interest
Research Group's Education Fund
and several other higher educa-
tion groups announced yesterday a
new national campaign to combat
what they call deceptive market-
ing practices used by credit card
companies on college campuses.
The groups involved in the
campaign argue that credit card
companies sponsor promotions
and giveaways that trick students
into signingup for credit cards and
then charge them unreasonably
high fees.
At 40 major colleges, - not
including the University of Michi-
gan - campaigners will work to
educate students about the dan-
gers of credit cards with seminars
and informational pamphlets.
Campaign staffers will also try to
convince the universities to adopt
strict policies against credit card
companies advertising on campus.
The campaign also plansto pub-
lish original research on the credit
card traps.
"Basically over the last 10 or 15
years, advocates such as myself
have noticed that credit cards are
making bad money on top of the
good money that's very easy to
make in credit card marketing,"
said Ed Mierzwinski, the consum-
er program director for U.S. PIRG
in a conference call yesterday.
See CREDIT, Page 7A
w-{-F-,
Largest spike came
after invasion
of Iraq in 2003
By JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
Daily StaffReporter
Since the Sept: 11 terrorist
attacks, enrollment in Arabic lan-
guage and culture courses at the
University has doubled.
Following the attack, enroll-
ment in Arabic, Armenian, Persian,
Turkish and Islamic Studies 331:.
Introduction to Arabic Culture and
Language - a class on modern Ara-
bic culture and society only offered
in winter - increased from winter
2001's,63 students to 85 students
in winter 2002. Enrollment in the
first-year modern Arabic language
course - only offered in fall -
jumped from 46 students in the fall
of 2001 to 72 students in fall 2002.
By the winter 2007 semester, 149
students were enrolled in the cul-
ARABIC ENROLLMENT
Sstudents enrolled in either "AAPTIS 331:
Introduction to Arabic Culture and Language,"
in the winter of 2001, or "AAPTiS101: Intro-
duction to Modern Arabic," in thefall of 2001.
ture class. There are 100 students
enrolled in this semester's intro-
ductory Arabic language course.
Interest in Arabic courses has
been growing at a higher rate than
other language courses offered at
the University. Mary Fallert, senior
business administrator of the
Romance -Language Department,
said enrollment numbers for lan-
guages such as Spanish and French
have held steady since 2001.
Arabic courses saw the largest
spike in enrollment in 2004, the
year after the beginning of the war
in Iraq. The modern Arabic culture
class ballooned to 161 students in
the winter semester that year, and
the beginning language class had
110 students in the fall 2004 semes-
ter. There was a small dip in both
2005 semesters, but the enrollment
in both- Arabic classes has held
steady since then.
Mohammad Khalil, a former
graduate student instructor sin
the University's Department of
See ARABIC, Page 7A
Numbernof students whowere enrolled in
either"AAPTIS 331: Introductionfto Arabic Cul-
ture and Language,"inthe winter of 2007, or
"AAPTIS 101, Introduction to Modern Arabic,"
in the fall of 2007.
About 10 percent more people have joined chapters in the University's Interfraternity Council duringthis fall's rush, according t(
spokesman Evan Waters.
More join fraternities, sororities
IFC, Pan-Hel see
increase; Multicultural
council, NPHC
numbers unavailable
By JAKE HOLMES
Daily StaffReporter
Interest in campus Greek life has
increased for the sixth consecutive
semester, statistics released Monday
by the Office of Greek Life show.
Campus Pan-Hellenic sororities
and Interfraternity Council fraterni-
ties reported larger pledge classes
than last fall.
Pan-Hellenic sororities saw a 16
percent increase in new members,
with 683 women joining Pan-Hellenic
chapters this fall, said Pan-Hellenic
spokeswoman Carlie Kleinman.
Also, 200 more women registered
for rush this semester than they did
last fall, Pan-Hellenic President Emily
Gomes said.
"We haven't seen numbers like this
in quite some time," Gomes said.
IFC chapters accepted about 10 per-
cent more new members during this
fall's rush than last fall's rush, said IFC
spokesman Evan Waters. They added
about 420 new members.
IFC President Jared Averbuch said
the increased recruitment might be
because of better marketing about
Greek life. He said the IFC sent more
mailings and v-mails to freshmen than
in previous years.
The IFC also added an extra day
of open houses and pushed its Diag
recruitment day back to give prospec-
tive students more time to adjust to
campus and learn about Greek life,
Waters said.
See GREEKS, Page 7A
ENROLLMENT IN FIRST SEMESTER ARABIC
120
100
80
60
0
20
0 Faii Pall Faii Faii Faii Faii Faii Faii
2000 2O0t 2002 2003 2004 2000 2006 2007
SOURCE: DIVISION OF ARABIC, ARMENIAN, PERSIAN. TURKISH AND ISLAMIC STUDIES
NATURE OR NURTURE?
* 'U' to help track thousands
of Mich. kids for 21years
Ethicist: Why steroid
use is bad for sports
Some participants
will be found before
they're even born
By ARIKIA MILLIKAN
Daily StaffReporter
University researchers have
joined a study that aims to explore
the intricacies of a topic that has
stumped psychologists for decades:
Is it nature or nurture that most
affects a developing human being?
To answer this question,
researchers from institutions
across the country will track the
development of 105,000 children
in 105 counties. It's all part of
the National Children's Study, a
multi-decade effort to determine
the effects of the environment on
growing children. Congress man-
dated the study in 2000 but did
not approve funding until 2007.
While the first set of results should
be ready by 2009, the study is not
slated to be completely finished
until 2034.
UniversityofMichiganresearch-
ers are working with research-
ers from Wayne State University,
Michigan State University and hos-
pitals and clinics around the state
to monitor 5,000 children in five
counties from before birth until
they are 21 years old.
State researchers, including
those from the University of Mich-
igan's Institute for Social Research,
will take on the Michigan portion
of the study.
Daniel Keating, the director of
the University's Center for Human
Growth and Development, said this
study is "unprecedented in scope."
Because anything could affect a
child's development, the research-
ers plan to routinely collect sam-
ples of air from inside the study
subjects' homes and soil from their
yards and neighborhoods to see if
See STUDY, Page 7A
Murray seeks to
refute five arguments
against steroid bans
By SARA LYNNE THELEN
Daily StaffReporter
A discussion 'about steroids in
sports last night began with pes-
simism.
"It appears that no one is a good
sport anymore," said Emeritus Psy-
chiatry Prof. Philip Margolis in his
introduction to ethicist Thomas
Murray's lecture.
Murray presented several argu-
ments for doping - like an ath-
lete's freedom of choice, arbitrary
enforcement policies and the argu-
ment that athletes should use sub-
stances to enhance their natural
ability - and then refuted each
argument.
He gave his speech to an audi-
ence of mostly medical profession-
als at the University Hospital's Ford
Auditorium last night. He charac-
terized steroids and other perfor-
mance-enhancing drugs asa moral
complication of biomedicine.
The lecture came less than a
week after track and field gold
medalist Marion Jones admitted to
using performance-enhancing ste-
roids and agreed to return her five
Olympic medals.
Murray served on the U.S. Olym-
pic Committee's Anti-Doping Com-
mittee for 16 years. He's currently
president of The Hastings Center, a
research institute focused on bio-
ethics.
According to Murray, support-
ers of doping say that discerning
between nutritional supplements
like Creatine and performance-
enhancing drugs draws lines that
are too arbitrary.
"They see no conceptual, ethical
or practical distinction among dif-
ferent kinds of enhancement," he
said.
He said it is irrelevant wheth-
See STEROIDS, Page 7A
Ethicist Thomas Murray presented five arguments against steroid bans in his
lecture last night. Then he sought to prove each one wrong.
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