The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Tuesday, September 4, 2007 - 7A BUDGET: 'U' funding from state still not set Police say someone attending a party at Theta Chi yelled racial slurs at two black police officers making a traffic: When the officers entered the house, they found three kegs of beer - a violation of the national chapter of Theta alcohol in the fraternity's houses around the country. FRATERNITY From page 1A drinking with the people in the car, the report said. "They're drunk," the person yelled, according to the report. "Get them." The car's driver was white and its two passengers were black. After hearing the slurs, the offi- cersletthe drivergo and approached the house, the report said. Inside the house, officers found three kegs of beer and cited a minor, who said he lived in the house, for minor in possession of alcohol and having three fake IDs. A member of Theta Chi - who was granted anonymity because the fraternity's national chapter has prohibited members from speaking to the press - said the person who yelled was not affiliated with the fraternity but that the fraternity accepts responsibility for anyone on its property. The member said about half of the 30 people on the porch weren't in the fraternity and thathe doesn't DRESSER From page 1A Thursday morning when several people began shouting anti-gay slurs from a second-floor balcony. The man told police a piece of wooden furniture had smashed onto the pavement a few feet behind him. Police found broken pieces of a drawer on the sidewalk, said Sgt. Brad Hill of the Ann Arbor Police Department. Inside the apart- ment, officers arrested Brown and Williamson. Bondforeachwassetat$25,000. They have both been released from custody. TEXTBOOKS From page 1A the point of the task force was to consult with faculty, talk to local textbook stores, local publishers and national retailers. Them doing that allows us to ask more pointed question about the industry as a whole." The University has made some effort to encourage professors to send textbook lists to students before the start of the fall 2007 semester. Gretchen Weir, assistant vice provost for academic affairs, said University Provost Teresa Sulli- APP. STATE From page 1A I-A. So why schedule the Moun- taineers at all? Schedule Buffalo or Temple, Utah State or Baylor - known opponents that lose 10 to 12 games every season and that past oppo- nents have provided numerous blueprints for beating. If the goal is to get some respect from the voters for scheduling a tougher opponent, then plan a couple years in advance, work hard and diligently, and get an Oklahoma or a Miami. But this game with Appalachian State was halfway in between - and was therefore a lose-lose situation from the beginning. Even a win probably would have hurt a Wolverine bid to get to the National Championship game. The Wolverines would have beaten a Football Championship Subdivi- sion team. I don't know that any voters would have much respect for a win like that, certainly not more respect than for a win over an inferior Division I-A team. Yes, hindsight is 20-20. know who yelled at the officers. IFC President Jared Averbuch filed a complaint Saturday with the Greek Activities Review Panel against Theta Chi for violating the IFC's Statement for Human Digni- ty. The statement - part of the IFC constitution - calls for "an atmo- sphere where respect for human dignity of all individuals is a value of the highest priority." Averbuch said the racial slurs violated those guidelines. The panel will rule on the com- plaint after a hearing within the next month. If it finds Theta Chi guilty of violatingthe statement, the panel will also decide on a punish- ment. Averbuch said he's confident that the panel will rule against the fraternity, but he said it probably won't kick Theta Chi off campus. The panel could make members undergo sensitivity training. Theta Chi faces stronger sanc- tions from its national office, the fraternity member said. He said the chapter could be put on proba- tion, removed from campus or sus- pended. If suspended, alumni and A preliminary hearing is sched- uled for Sept.12 at tp.m. On Friday afternoon, Jackie1 Simpson, director of the Universi- ty's Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexuali and Transgender Affairs, sent anj e-mail to students on LGBT mail- ing lists about the incident. "Such events have a chilling and1 frightening impact on the LGBTj and Ally Communities," Simpson wrote in the e-mail, which was co- signed by University Dean of Stu-I dents Sue Eklund and her seniorI assistant, Sharon Vaughters. "WeI want to reassure the communityI that this situation has our full attention." Simpson said in an interview' that it is not common for people in van sent e-mails to professors int June asking them to compile lists for the fall term and send them tot students. But Weir said she doesn't expect the lists to be available to all stu-I dents without the online platform. That means students will have1 to wait until at least fall of 2008 - Weir's target date for the launch of the system that will be linked to Wolverine Access. Even when the system is int place, professors won't be required: to use it.I "I don't really know if we can, enforce (the suggestion), but we can try to encourage it," Monts said. "We really have to spin this Before this game, everyone was complaining about the opponent and that it wasn't even a Division1 I-A team, especially because people1 thought the quality of Michigan's competition is part of what kept itt from a championship rematch with Ohio State last season. 1 But a little foresightshould have set off some serious alarms. 1 Appalachian State matched up excellently with the Wolverines.' It has a mobile quarterback and runs the spread offense. The last time Michigan's defense faced the spread offense, it allowed 42 points to Ohio State.' Secondly, the Mountaineers knew that. According to the Win- ston-Salem Journal, the Moun- taineers "practically begged U-M athletic director Bill Martin for3 the matchup." When Martin commented on the matchup for the Journal, he compared ASU to Utah, a Michi- gan opponent next season. The] difference is that if the Wolver- ines lose to Utah, that's a loss to a respected Division I-A program that has recently won a BCS bowl (the 2005 Fiesta Bowl). The idea to present Appalachian an adviser from the national office would run the University chapter. Pressure from the national office centers largely on the alcohol in the house, where drinking is banned, the member said. He said the Uni- versity chapter internally punished the members in the house who ordered the kegs. Representatives from Theta Chi's national office in Indianapolis could not be reached for comment yesterday. This is not the first time the Uni- versity's chapter of Theta Chi has come under fire. In 2002 and 2003, the fraternity received sanctions from both the University and its national office for excessive alcohol consumption and hazing. Although the alcohol consump- tion is an issue, the racial epithets are the focus of the IFC's investiga- tion, Averbuch said. If the person who yelled at the officers is found, he could be charged with disorderly conduct or intimidation, said Sgt. Brad Hill of the Ann Arbor Police Depart- ment. Ann Arbor to be physically threat- ened because of their sexual orien- tation. "I don't think this particular incident is an indicator of the cli- mate of Ann Arbor or the Univer- sity," she said. Williamson refused to comment for this story. Brown could not be reached for comment. Ann Arbor police said William- son is also a University of Michi- gan student, but he is not listed in the University's directory. He is, however, listed in Eastern Michi- gan University's online student directory. According to court records, Williamson and Brown live in an apartment on East Ann Street. to faculty and convince them it's something that will benefit them too." History Prof. Maris Vinovskis said it's better for the University to suggest professors release lists sooner rather than force them to. Professors sometimes changetheir minds about textbooks, he said. "I think they have to voluntarily suggest a final list," Vinovskis said, "Because there have been situa- tions where I wanted to look for an alternative text or where I found a less expensive version after the list was sent out." - Daniel Strauss contributed to this report. State as the two-time national champions they are and to portray the game as a difficult test was laughable, no matter how true it was. Nobody would have bought that, and by the end of the year, a win over the Mountaineers would have barely registered with voters. But a Michigan loss to the two- time defending Division I-AA champions is unforgivable. If the Wolverines win every game for the rest of the season by a score of 50- 3, the most memorable part of their season will still be that first loss. The great Michigan Wolverines lost to the (not so) lowly Appala- chian State Mountaineers. And the University paid ASU about $400,000 - a fee bigger schools often pay smaller ones to play in games like this - for the right to lose to ASU. The fans lost a chance to watch their team either roll over an infe- rior opponent or compete with a legitimate BCS contender.' And the players may have lost the opportunity to play in the National Championship game. - Contact Daniel Bromwich at dabromwi@umich.edu. From page 1A State funding makes up about 25 percent of the University's budget. Rep. Pam Byrnes, a Democrat whose district includes the Uni- versity of Michigan's North Cam- pus, sponsored a pair of bills in the House to increase funding. She said she hopes an increase in appropriations will persuade universities to re-evaluate raising tuition. The University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus raised under- graduate tuition by 7.4 percent this year, and public universities in general raised tuition by an aver- age of 50 percent. But even if the Senate pass- es the funding increase, the tuition increase is unlikely to be reversed. CynthiaWilbanks,theUniversi- ty's vice president for government relations, said differences in bud- gets from yearto year make it diffi- cult for appropriations and tuition to always correspond. She refused to speculate on the possibility of a tuition decrease for the winter term if state funding is increased, especially because the proposed funding increase is far from being signed into law and could be gut- ted by the Senate. Any change in tuition would have to be approvedby the Univer- sity Board of Regents at one of its monthly meetings. State Democrats blame tuition hikes on Republicans. A statewide student group called StopRaising Tuition was formed over the sum- mer to protest the tuition hikes. The group filmed a series of You- Tube videos on campuses around the state that show students criti- cizing Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) for refusing to agree to increased funding for universities. Group member Travis Radina, who is also a member of the Uni- versity's chapter of the College Democrats, said the group aims to increase support for higher educa- tion in the Michigan legislature. "I think that certain govern- mental leaders are doing their part," Radina said in a written statement. "Governor Granholm has proposed increases in higher education funding, but the Demo- cratic Party doesn't control all of Lansing. The state Senate, and Majority Leader Bishop are not acting with the urgency that is needed in these situations." Granholm has launched www. lowermituition.com, which includes posters intended for stu- dents to hang on their dorm doors blaming the legislature's failure to increase higher education appro- priations earlier in the year for the tuition hikes. One of the posters is a mock postcard to college students from vacationing legislators apologizing for the tuition increases. Another reads, in part: "Missing: Our state legislature. Last seen on vacation while tuition rates rose." Becauseofthe deficit,Bishophas opposed increasing funding levels for higher education this year. In a statement released last month, Bishop suggested that universities should decrease the salaries and benefits of their administrators. Republicans have called for cuts across state government to make up for the deficit. The Senate passed abilllast week that would allow 28 percent of state employees to retire early, but many Democrats oppose the measure. Democrats have suggested new revenue sources, including income taxhikes and allowinghorsetracks to open casinos, but the House hasn't voted on any. Many Repub- licans say they won't support tax increases to cover the deficit. If the two chambers can't agree on a budget by the start of the fis- cal year onOct.1, the state govern- ment could face a shutdown. That means state agencies wouldn't have money to spend and most non-essential services would stop. The University, which receives almost $30 million from the state every month except September, would be forced to. The funding increase, passed by the House last month, was sepa- rated into two bills. In a change from past budgets, the House approved separate appropriations bills last month - one for the state's three research universities, including the Uni- versity of Michigan, and one for the state's 12 other public univer- sities. Officials from the University of Michigan, Wayne State Univer- sity and Michigan State Univer- sity pushed for such a system since year. "We were pleased that the House supported that move," Wil- banks said. Supporters say the change will allow legislators to dole out funds for the extra research that the three universities perform. Opponents claim that the separation of the appropriations system will create a two-tier uni- versity system in Michigan that will result in the smaller schools gettingless money. Kathy Wilder, a spokeswoman for Central Michigan University, said the school opposes separate funding because it will be easier to encourage funding for higher edu- cation if all the universities stay together. "Separation distracts and takes us into another conversation," she said. Wilder said it also suggests that the students and alumni of the .12 smaller universities are not as important to the state. - The Associated Press contributed to this report Order Your Textbooks Online Today And Get... EjFirst Choice On All Used Books A 25% Savings When You Buy Used 6Convenient Delivery or Pickup Extra Free Time Why Wait? Log on Now to: : www.whywaitforbooks . com Barnes & Noble at the University of Michigan 530 S.State - Ground Floor @ Michigan Union 4.