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October 29, 2007 - Image 5

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The Michigan Daily, 2007-10-29

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The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, October 29, 2007 - 5A

Argentina
poised to
elect first
female leader

President's wife
Kirchner's victory
marred by voting
irregularities
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
The New York Times
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
- Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner,
the wife of Argentina's president,
Nestor Kirchner, appeared poised
late yesterday to become the first
woman to be elected president
of the country and part of a new
political dynasty in the South
American country.
Mrs. Kirchner, 54, the center-
left Peronist party candidate and
a senator, was leading in early offi-
cial results over Roberto Lavagna,
a former finance minister, and
Elisa Carrio, a center-left nOn-
gresswoman. If Kirchner wins 45
percent of the vote, she will avoid
a runoff.
The election was marred when
rival candidates accused her party
of "systemic theft" of ballots and
other voting irregularities.
If she is elected as expected,
Kirchner would become the sec-
ond woman to be elected leader
of a South American nation in two
years, after Michelle Bachelet,
who became Chile's president last
year.
In a victory speech late Sun-
day, Kirchner said she felt a
"double responsibility, not just for
all Argentines, but an immense
responsibility for my gender." In
her speech she also paid homage to
her husband's accomplishments.
Mr. Kirchner, who sat behind her,
stood up as supporters chanted
"Nestor, Nestor," and raised his
wife's arm.
More than anything, Kirchner's
victory would serve as a referen-
dum on the four years under her
husband, who steered Argentina
out of its worst economic crisis in
2001, when the country defaulted
on some $80 billion in loans from
multilateral lending groups like
the International Monetary Fund.
Argentina's economy is poised
this year to recorda sixth straight
year of growth averaging about
8 percent. It is riding a wave of
higher prices for some of its prin-
cipal exports - soybeans, corn
and meat - and has increased its
reserves and lowered unemploy-
ment and inflation.
While voters appeared to favor
a continuation of Nestor Kirch-
ner's policies, the next president
faces the challenge of taming dou-
ble-digit inflation and a looming
energy crisis.
Despite his approval ratings of
more than 60 percent, Kirchner
decided in July not to run for re-
election, in what many analysts
believe is a strategy to rotate the

couple through the Pink House,
the presidential palace here, for
the next 12 years. Argentine elec-
tion law allows a former president
to run again after waiting four
years on the sidelines.
Cristina Kirchner grew up in La
Plata, a city once known as "Eva
Peron City," the birthplace of the
beloved wife and powerful first
lady of Gen. Juan Domingo Peron.
She was born seven months after
Eva Peron, who was known by mil-
lions as Evita, died of cancer.
Kirchner is the daughter of
Eduardo Fernandez, a second-
generation Argentine from a
Spanish family, who ran a fleet of
municipal buses in La Plata, and
of Ofelia Wilhelm, a strong-willed
woman who supported the Per-
onists, according to Olga Wornut,
the author of "Reina Cristina," a
study of the first lady.
The Kirchners met in law school
in La Plata, where they were stu-
dent activists involved in the Per-
onist movement. They later moved
to Mr. Kirchner's home province
of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia, where
she was elected a senator before
her husband began his own politi-
cal career.
Early in her political career,
Kirchner was nicknamed "Queen
Cristina" by other politicians, a
reference to her controlled person-
ality. Facing a fractured opposition
in the current election, she cam-
paigned lightly, spending much of
the past two months traveling in
Europe and the United States try-
ing to woo foreign investors and
making clear that, if elected, she
would seek to improve Argetina's
standing abroad.
Argentina under Nestor Kirch-
ner has embraced the notion of
regional integration and has ben-
efited from a stronger relationship
with Venezuela's president, Hugo
Chavez, who agreed to refinance
$5 billion of Argentina's debt.
Despite her apparent victory,
several rival candidates Sunday
reported voter irregularities in
some Peronist strongholds. "Each
time a citizen went to vote, the
voting authority at the table said
there aren't ballots for your party,"
Patricia Blrich, the campaign
chief for Carrio,hsaid incan inter-
view. "They said, 'OK, you still
have to vote. Vote for a blank slate,
but you have to vote."'
Bullrich singled out La Matan-
za, an industrial town on the out-
skirts of Buenos Aires, but also
said that ballot theft had occurred
throughout the province of Bue-
nos Aires.
Argentine political analysts
called the charges exaggerated.
Many of the irregularities likely
resulted from the disorganiza-
tion of political parties, said Julio
Burdman, an analyst here. "In this
election, the organization of the
opposition parties was as weak as
never before."

Buffalo News Publisher Stan Lipsey, a former Michigan Daily and Michiganensian.photographer, gave $3 million to overhaul the Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
on Maynard Street. The building hadn't undergone major renovations since it was completed in 1932.
5 Pulitzer winners got start on Maynard t.

BUILDING From page lA
tions Jim Reische and Daily Editor
in Chief Karl Stampfl also spoke at
the ceremony.
Power, Daily editorial director in
1960 and a University regent from
1987 to 1998, said the Daily was one
of the most formative times in his
life, one that would also inspire him
to pursue a career in journalism.
"Our work (at the Daily) honed
our skills as much or more than
any course we ever took," Power
said. "It was through the Daily that
we entered the life of the engaged
mind."
As a Daily editorial writer, Power
wrote a column calling for the cre-

ation of a national youth volunteer
organization. The piece made it
into the hands of President Kenne-
dy and inspired the creation of the
Peace Corps a year later.
In a keynote speech at a ban-
quet after the building dedication,
Ann Marie Lipinski, Daily co-edi-
tor in chief from 1977 to 1978 and
now editor of the Chicago Tribune,
said her first memory of the Daily
was then-editor and future Pulit-
zer Prize-winner Daniel Biddle
instructing reporters while stand-
ing atop the long composing coun-
ters that were a centerpiece of the
Daily's old newsroom.
Lipinski, who won a Pulitzer
Prize in 1988, said working at the
Daily taught her the value of learn-

ing by doing.
Lipinski, Biddle and Lipsey are
among the five Pulitzer Prize win-
ners who got their start in journal-
ism at 420 Maynard St.
Although the building at 420
Maynard St. has seen extensive
renovations, many alumni still
found things to remind them of
their years there.
Roma Connable said the stained
glass windows and tiled walls
brought her back to her time work-
ing as the Daily's editorial director
in 1951.
"It's just amazing how they've
preserved all the original features,"
Connable said.
For many, the dedication cer-
emony and ensuing reunion was

an opportunity for alumni to swap
memories from their time working
in the building.
George Quick, Gargoyle editor
in chief from 1937 to 1938 - and
the oldest alum at the dedication
- said Life magazine described
the Gargoyle as the university arts
magazine "with the most beautiful
girls."
Al Connable, Daily city editor in
1953, recounted the time when the
FBI conducted an official search
of the Daily's archives after it pub-
lished an editorial that criticized
the McCarthy-eraSmithAct,which
banned discussion of overthrowing
the U.S. government and was used
to persecute many alleged commu-
nists during the 1940s and 1950s.

Worried by stress, schools add
relaxation to curriculum

SFootbaths not
likely on cam-pus

ROOM From page 1A
prayer and reflection.
No officials from the Univer-
sity were willing to respond to
whether the University would
sponsor a room - without calling
it a prayer room - that met those
specifications.
Several schools - including
Boston University, the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin at Madison
and Eastern Michigan Univer-
sity -- have installed footbaths.
Additionally, the University of
Michigan at Dearborn is final-
izing plans to install footbaths
at its student center. Footbaths
are oversized, low-to-the-ground
sinks most frequently used by
Muslims before prayer. Tradi-
tionally, Muslims are required to
wash before religious ceremonies
like the daily prayers that occur
five times each day.
The University's Dearborn
campus plans to spend about
$25,000 to install two footbaths
in two bathrooms. The announce-

At high-powered high schools,
attempts to reduce pressure
on high-powered students
By SARA RIMER
The New York Times
NEEDHAM, Mass. - It was 6:30 p.m. The
lights were still on at Needham High School,
here in the affluent Boston suburbs.
Paul Richards, the principal, was meeting
with the students, teachers and parents who
serve on the "stress reduction committee." On
the agenda: finding the right time to bring in
experts to train students in relaxation tech-
niques.
Do not try to have them teach relaxation in
study hall, said Olivia Boyd, a senior. Students,
she said, will not want to interrupt their work. It
had already been established that students were
too busy before or after school for the training.
Josh Goldman, captain of varsity tennis, pres-
ident of the Spanish club and a member of the
student council, was not able to squeeze in the
meeting at all. Richards noted Josh's absence
wryly. "Josh is a perfect example," he said. "He's
got a hundred things going on."
It is all part of the high-powered culture
that Richards is trying to change, even a little.
But cultural change does not come smoothly.
,When he stopped publishing the honor roll in
the local newspaper last winter, a move aimed
at some parents who had turned the lists into a
public accounting, Rush Limbaugh accused him
of politically correct coddling of students, and
Jay Leno mocked the school-on national televi-
sion. Richards received hate mail from all over
the country.
But he is undeterred.
"It's not that I'm trying to turn the culture
upside down," Richards said. "It's very impor-
tant to protect the part of the culture that leads
to all the achievement. It's more about bringing
the culture to a healthier place."
The new stress reduction committee is start-
ing to formulate recommendations, like the
relaxation consultants. It is surveying students
about the causes of the unhealthy stress. This
term, Richards is talkingup the yoga classes that
are required of all seniors. He has asked teach-
ers to schedule some homework-free weekends
and holidays.
The homework breaks have not worked out
exactly as Richards had planned. "The irony," he
said, "is that students tell us they appreciate the
time because it allows them to catch up on other

schoolwork."
Richards is just one principal in the vanguard
of a movement to push back against an ethos of
super achievement at affluent suburban high
schools amid the extreme competition over
college admissions. He has joined like-minded
administrators from 44 other high schools and
middle schools - most in the San Francisco Bay
area, but some scattered in Texas, Indiana, New
York and Massachusetts - known as SOS, for
Stressed Out Students.
The group -was formed four years ago by
Denise Pope, a lecturer at the Stanford School
of Education, who said she had become alarmed
by the unhealthy competitiveness she encoun-
tered at a Bay Area high school, where she was
researching her Ph.D. dissertation. That study
became her book, "Doing Schoolr How We Are
Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materi-
alistic and Miseducated Students" (Yale Univer-
sity Press, 2001).
High schools in other Boston suburbs -
Wellesley, Lexington, Wayland - have taken
steps similar to Needham's, organizing stress
reduction committees and yoga classes. Some
high schools are requiringstudents to meet with
teachers, and get parental permission, before
enrolling in Advanced Placement classes. Some
schools are experimenting with later start times
so students can get more sleep.
Pope advises schools to end the tradition
of student newspapers publishing the end-of-
the-year lists of seniors and their colleges. "We
found that there are kids who are lying," she
said, because they are embarrassed to say they
are going to a state school.
Back at Needham, there is some grumbling
that measures like homework-free holidays
could erode academic rigor.
"You run out of time," said Max Hekler, an
English teacher. "You can't teach 'The Odyssey.'
Somethinghas to go."
Needham began intense self-examination a
couple years ago, after four of its young people
- one in college, two in high school and one
in middle school - committed suicide. While
school officials emphasized that the suicides
were not related to stress, the deaths heightened
concerns about how Needham's students were
responding to school pressure.
Even before the suicides, Needham school
officials had responded to youth surveys indi-
cating troubling rates of alcohol and drug use
and depiession -- rates like those at other afflu-
ent high schools - by establishing an initiative,
starting in elementary school, to help students
develop better emotional and social skills.
"Today kids' lives are just so programmed and

so protected and so separated from anything
that is difficult for them that they don't learn
how to handle problems when they're young,"
said George Johnson, the director of student
development for Needham public schools.
Richards, 36, arrivedhere threeyears ago from
Nantucket,where, as principal ofthe island's high
school, he had to pushstudents to aim higher. For
all the academic advantages of Needham High
School, what struck him, he said, was the cost to
all this achieving and performing.
Many students were so stressed out about
grades and test scores - and so busy building
resumes to get into the small number of brand-
name colleges they equated with success - that,
he said, they could not fully engage with school.
"A lot of these kids," he said, "are being held
hostage to the culture."
Richards, who is pursuing his doctorate
at Boston College, made himself an expert
in research on stress. In his office one recent
morning, he grabbed a marker and drew the
Yerkes-Dodson curve on a flip chart to illustrate
scientific findings that while a certain amount of
stress is necessary for learning and growth, too
much interferes.
He said he was also concerned with wide-
spread cheating, mostly by students copying
homework and failing to fully cite sources.
Cheating, experts say, is a problem at high
schools nationwide.
Richards said he wanted to create a school
where students could cope better with the inevi-
table setbacks -- where, he said, "they don't fall
apart if they get a B-minus."
At assemblies he encourages students to think
about choosing classes that are challenging but
manageable, rather than trying to rack up the
highest number of advanced placement courses.
He talksto students and parents about aiming for
colleges that are the right fit - whether Harvard
or the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Richards earned his master's in education at
Harvard, and his undergraduate at UMass.
Richards acknowledges that his efforts are a
work in progress. Still, some are skeptical.
"The stress reduction - I'm still waiting,"
said Harris Feldman, a senior, as he watched his
classmates gathering in the wrestling room for
yoga class.
Harris had arrived from English class, where
his teacher, David Smokler, had begun a new unit
on writing the college essay by trying to reassure
his students that the name of the school did not
matter. "When you graduate from college, no one
is going to care where you went," Smokler said.
"If they do care, you don't want to work for that
boss."

ment of the plans caused an out-
cry from many, who said the
university was catering to a vocal
minority.
Officials said the footbaths
don't violate the Constitution
because anyone can use them.
Terry Gallagher, director of
public relations for the Universi-
ty's Dearborn campus, said that
according to the Cooperative
Institutional Research Program's
Freshmen Survey, 10 to11 percent
of the undergraduate student
population identify as Islamic.
At the University's Ann Arbor
campus, only 2.3 percent of
undergraduate students identi-
fied as Islamic, according to the
same survey.
The CIRP Freshmen Survey is
a self-reported, one-time survey.
Bhatti said installing footbaths
is not the top priority for the Mus-
lim Students' Association.
"Footbaths are something we
want, but we also would really
like a prayer room," Bhatti said.

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