(\hursNay, J nUryE-E2 E EA E Thursday, January 24, 2008 mihgnal~o Ann Arbor, Michigan michigandaily.com CLOSE-KNIT FRIENDS UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY e-mail system not meant for emergencies Alert took 10 hours from the DPS website. University residents who lived near the loca- to reach some, never tion of the homicide - Baits Hous- es, Bursley Hall and Northwood reached others Housing- received an e-mail alert later around 10 a.m. that day. ELAINE LAFAY Brown then sent a mass e-mail Daily StaffReporter message Thursday at noon to the -----entire campus of 72,000 Universi- Last Thursday, a day after an ty affiliates - a message that took Ypsilanti man was fatally shot less as many as 10 hours to reach some than a mile from North Campus recipients. Those who received with the prime suspect a Univer- message later than others were sity student, many on campus had left wondering why their e-mails no clue that anything out of the came so late or left unaware of the ordinary had taken place. shooting until then. Police have called off the search With a large database like Uni- for the student, Engineering versity's, mass e-mails routinely undergraduate Andrew Myrick, take up to 10 hours to reach all the ruling the shooting justifiable recipients. One thing reason the because Myrick acted in self- process takes so long is that Uni- defense. But the late e-mails could versity administrators must sign have spelled danger had the inci- off on the crime alerts before they dent posed an immediate threat to can be sent to the entire campus. campus security. That process can take hours. Department of Public Safety Slow technology was the other spokeswoman Diane Brown sent reason for the delayed alert. out the first crime alert Thursday Alan Levy, communications at 1:27 a.m., about four hours after manager for Information Technol- the homicide occurred. Recipients ogy Central Services, said the Uni- included members of the media, versity uses a mass e-mail system department heads and individuals designed for non-emergency mes- who had signed up to receive alerts See E-MAIL, Page 3A EAT YOUR HEART OUT ZACHARY MEISNER/Daily Emily Glover (left) and Marisa Rodriguez, both School of Public Health graduate students, knitted together yesterday on the second floor of the Michigan Union. THE STUDENT VOTE dI ock vote, students select w m? In event, audience members forced to vote on issues, not name recognition By JILLIAN BERMAN Daily StaffReporter In a mock presidential election last night, a group of about 20 students elected a Democrat, but the winner wasn't Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John Edwards Instead. Candidate B won in a landslide. The mock election, sponsored by the University's chapter of the NAACP, forced voters to choose a candidate based their politics rather than their name recogni- tion by not including real candi- dates from the 2008 presidential race, organizers said. The candidates were simply called Candidate A and Candi- date B. When the event mod- erator introduced hot-button issues like same-sex marriage or immigration, each candidate was given an opportunity to explain her stance on the issue based on the race's real contenders and their views. After the debate, students picked their preferred candidate, still unaware of the candidate's name or political party. When audience members finally found out which candidate was which, some were surprised to learn, for instance, that the Democrat was the one calling for a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border to block illegal immigrants. Like- wise, the Republican had gone against the conventional policy of her party, describing herself as pro-choice in the abortion debate. Ultimately, the candidate pos- ing as a Democrat won by a large majority, which came as a sur- prise to the planners of the event. LSA freshman Nina Nwachuk- wu, who posed as the Democratic candidate and also helped orga- nize the event, said she didn't expect to win by such a large margin. "Actually I thought it would be a closer race because we really didn't differ on a lot of issues," she said. LSA freshman Beatrice Hin- See VOTE, Page 3A FILE-SHARING ON CAMPUS - MPAA admits to mistake in report Group overshot college student piracy estimate by almost 300 percent By JACOB SMILOVITZ Daily StaffReporter The filmindustry's largestinter- est group admitted yesterday that it overestimated by almost 300 percent the amount of money the industry lost to piracy by college kids - a figure the group had used to lobby for legislation that would force colleges to crack down on file-sharing by their students. In the 2005 study, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that because of their high illegal download rate, college students were responsible for 44 percent of the MPAA's total lost revenue to piracy. Now, the asso- ciation has lowered that figure to 15 percent. The MPAA - the advocacy group for six major movie studios that leads the industry's anti-pira- cy campaign - originally claimed college students cost the industry more than $18 billion a year. MPAA representatives said the miscalculation was the result of "human error," the Associated Press reported. The MPAA rep- resentatives could not be reached for comment when contacted yes- terday. Although the MPAA contends that the impact of illegal piracy by college students is still signifi- cant, the misreported numbers might disrupt pending legislation in Congress. Because the bill was largely based on the original numbers from the MPAA, some lawmak- ers might remove their endorse- ment from legislation. The bill was strongly championed by the MPAA and RIAA after its intro- duction. "It's unfortunate that Congress has relied on these numbers," said Jack Bernard, the University's assistant general counsel, who handles legal issues involving file- sharing at the University. The bill, which is currently awaiting consideration on the floor of the House of Representa- tives, says that each participating institution must not only make public the policies and proce- dures regarding illegal piracy to their students and employees, but must develop alternatives to ille- gal peer-to-peer programs for its members. According to the bill, universi- ties who fail to offer "technology- based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity" could potentially lose federal aid for their students. Bernard said that Congress See MPAA, Page 3A JENNicERKOuN/uaily Davey De La Cruz competes in the Burrito Bowl at Rio Wraps yesterday. He ate three burritos faster than four other contestants and will compete again Feb. 1. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITYe Study: 'U' buildings now more efficient STUDENT GOVERNMENT LSA-SG looks to add new members 'U' carbon output has decreased over last four years TO READ THE REPORT... comyffe with mote detailed statistics, go to www michigandailycom Than tives, th carbon eral yea report earlier The vide m Univert the first time the University's By GABE RIVIN energy use, water use, emissions, For the Daily waste production, mass transit systems and other environmental tks to environmental initia- concerns have been compiled into he University has a smaller one document. It seems to signal footprint than it did sev- that the University will continue ars ago, according to a new examining the efficiency of its released by the University building and promoting conserva- this month. tion initiatives. report, which aims to pro- The Annual Environmen- ore transparency into the tal Report, charts the amount sity's resource usage, marks See REPORT, Page 3A UNIVERSITY EMISSIONS Numbet in thoasands of pounds of carbon per year 500 400 300 200 100 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Group aims to fill up to 50 positions, increase diversity in student government By DANIEL STRAUSS Daily StaffReporter In an effort to nearly double the number of students involved in LSA Student Government, the organization will begin holding interviews for dozens of vacant positions today. LSA-SG hopes to attract about 40 to 50 new members and increase the level of diversity with the organization, said LSA- SG Appointments Chair Aaron Miller. Currently, about 75 students participate in LSA-SG. Openings are available on most of LSA-SG's nine commit- tees and for unelected associate representative positions. Those representatives must attend three meetings to join the orga- nization, Miller said, The Budget Allocations Com- mittee and the Honor Council are the only committees reserved for elected LSA-SG representatives. The committees available include Academic Affairs, Com- munications, Public Activities, Student Life and Multicultural Affairs. Students interested inapplying will have to rank their commit- tee preference and then inter- view with Miller or Nick Tan, the assembly's vice chair. Miller and Tan will then match students with committees. Applicants will be notified by e-mail about their appointments- Wednesday, Jan. 30. Miller said LSA-SG wants a more diverse group of members. "Our Multicultural Affairs Committee is really being boost- ed, reachingout to studentgroups See GROUP, Page 3A TODAY'S WEATHER HlI 20 GOT A NEWS TIP? LO: 0 Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail : news@michigandaily.com and let us know. ON THE DAILY BLOGS Why morality and AIDS have no relation MICHIGANDAILY.COM/THEPODIUM INDEX NEWS ............. Vol. CXVIII, No.82 SUDOKU........ 442008 The Michigan Daily OPINION,...... michigandoily.com ...................2A CLA SSIFIEDS - -............A..........5A ...................3A SPO R T S ........................9A ....................4A SPRIN G B REA K ...................1B r