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Sci-fi horrors like armies of clones are far from reality
Opinion, Page 4
FORGET THE HYPE
Preppy or not, Vampire Weekend makes pretty, catchy pop
Arts, Page 5
Iie ffiidipu Dai
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, January 29,m2008
michigandaily.com
STATE OF THE UNION
MAX COLL NS/vai
People gather at Circus Bar & Billiards on South First Street last night to watch President Bush deliver the State of the Union address. The event was organized by Michigan
Peaceworks, a local activist group. FOR COVERAGE OF THE SPEECH, SEE NEWS, PAGE 3. FOR A DAILY EDITORIAL ON THE SPEECH, SEE OPINION, PAGE 4.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
FACEBOOKING THE WOLVERINES
SPRING COMMENCEMENT
Graduation
won't be held
at Eastern
Michigan
After seeing survey thedecisiontomovethecommence-
ment venue. Thousands of students
results, 'U' officials joined Facebook groups while hun-
dreds of students and alumni more
decided to hold sent e-mail messages to University
administrators.
ceremony on campus Eventually, students began to
voice their preferences. Most said
ByANDYKROLL that if commencement couldn't be
and JULIE ROWE held at the Big House, they would
Daily StaffReporters be happier with venues like Crisler
Arena or the Diag than with an off-
After graduating students over- campus location.
whelmingly indicated in a survey The Commencement Advisory
that they would prefer to have Committee, which consists of Uni-
April's spring commencement on versity officials and three students,
campus, members of the Universi- was formed after the announce-
ty's newly-formed Commencement ment of the University's decision to
Advisory Committee decided not move the campus-wide ceremony to
to hold the ceremony at Eastern Eastern Michigan. LSA senior Jus-
Michigan University's Rynearson tin Benson, vice president of LSA
Stadium, as previously planned. Student Government and a member
The decision was made after of the advisory committee, said the
the survey, sent via e-mail to all decision to keep commencement
students scheduled to graduate in on campus was a result of "student
April, found that about 90 percent activism and involvement in the
of the nearly 4,000respondents said forums" between University offi-
holding commencement on campus cials and graduatingstudents.
was "very important" to them. "It's clear that students wanted
University spokeswoman Kelly to graduate in Ann Arbor and the
Cunningham said having that infor- committee had that feedback," Ben-
mation made taking Eastern Michi- son said. "Students can be confi-
gan off the list a logical choice. dent that commencement will be on
"When the priorities came back campus."
so overwhelmingly to have it on The committee will continue to
campus, it was natural that one of explore options for a campus venue,
those venues would go off, and that Benson said. Once the committee
venue was Eastern," said Cunning- has decided on three possibilities,
ham, who said the University hopes another survey will be sent to grad-
to decide on anewvenue inthe next uating students.
two weeks. Both Cunningham and Benson
The University announced said Michigan Stadium is still a pos-
on Jan. 9 that it was moving the sible location for commencement
Spring Commencement ceremony exercises. Architects and engineers
from Michigan Stadium to Eastern will evaluate the stadium's con-
Michigan's Rynearson Stadium struction project in the next few
because ongoing construction at weeksoto determine if the Big House
the Big House could make it unsafe would be safe and functional for the
to hold the ceremony there. event.
Immediately after the announce- In an effort to gauge student sen-
ment, students mobilized to protest See GRADUATION, Page 7
Athletic Department checks
student-athletes' profiles
once per semester
By NICOLE WATKINS
For the Daily
With the advent of social networking sites, schools
have been taking more active steps to monitor the con-
tent their student-athletes publish on the Internet.
Sites like Facebook and MySpace have given stu-
dents license to publicize information about them-
selves - something that raises the stakes for those
who have to be held responsible for the actions and
online profiles of student-athletes.
One case in particular led athletic departments
across the country to pay closer attention to their ath-
letes' online profiles.
The Northwestern University women's soccer pro-
gram was shamed two years ago when it came under
fire for a hazing incident. As a result, the entire team
was suspended, given mandatory hazing education
sessions and probation.
The hazing incident was uncovered when Bob
Reno, owner of badjocks.com, published the hazing
photos on the Internet.
The hazing pictures, Reno said, had been made
available because one of the Northwestern players
had posted them on Webshots.com, a site that allows
users to share pictures.
Since that episode, many athletic departments
are now taking measures to monitor the online con-
tent belonging to their athletes. Some programs have
given the task to assistant coaches, but some may soon
choose to use a new service called YouDiligence - a
software program that will scour athletes' web pro-
files for any keywords or phrases that may be inap-
propriate or indicate questionable behavior. Users,
who would pay $500 up front and $250 per month
for the service, would be responsible for choosing the
keywords and phrases.
Though many schools have some way of monitor-
ing their student-athletes and their profiles, none
have signed up to use the program yet.
Judy Van Horn, an associate athletic director who
works in the University's compliance office, said she
hadn't heard of YouDiligence.
She said University athletic department officials
have their own way of monitoring student-athletes'
See PRIVACY, Page 7
SOCIAL GAFFES
Some student-athletes have gotten in
trouble because of their online profiles.
In 2006, members of Northwestern
University's women's soccer team were
suspended and put on probation after
photos of a team hazing incident were
posted by one of the players on Web-
shotstom. It led athleticdepartments
across the country to start monitoring
athletes'profiles on the Internet.
At the University of Minnesota at
Duluth, school officials banned student-
athletes from using social networking
sites after photos of students involving
drugsand alcohol surfaced.
Michigan football player Marques Slo-
cum was benched forfive games of the
2007 season after athletic department
officialsfound inappropriate content
on the sophomore defensive lineman's
sacebookproRile.
SOURE: THNEOKTvs tIMES, oUS OAv
CZECH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
If elected,'U' prof. would
drop U.S. citizenship
UENT VOLUNTEERING
'U'ranks fifth in grads joining Peace Corps
WI
mo:
appE
In a
support
dency
School
jnar to
up his
States
ship if
the
10 da
now.
Svej
whose
the Ut
. focuse
nomic
in Eas
annour
preside
receivi
parlian
ith election next with the incumbent president's
economic and environmental
nth, move could policies.
Svejnar, who was 17 years old
ease Czech voters when he immigrated to the U.S. to
flee from the communist govern-
By JULIE ROWE ment of former Czechoslovakia,
Daily StaffReporter earned degrees from Cornell Uni-
versity and Princeton University
last-minute effort to gain in labor relations and economics.
t for his bid for the presi- Svejnar's policy suggestions,
of the Czech Republic, Ross which include adopting the Euro,
I of Business Prof. Jan Sve- have been well received by Czech
ld Czech voters he will give citizens, but he has faced criticism
United for holding American citizenship
citizen- and residing in the United States.
he wins In response, Svejnar said he would
election relinquish his U.S. citizenship if
ys from R elected.
"In the event that I am elected
nar, the Czech president, I will imme-
work at diately take steps to drop my U.S.
niversity citizenship," Svejnar said, accord-
soneco- SVEJNAR ing to the Mlada Fronta Dnes, a
growth Czech news publication.
tern European countries, According to Svejnar's wife,
nced his bid for the Czech Ross School of Business Prof.
ency six weeks ago after Katherine Terrell, Svejnar decid-
ing requests from Czech ed that giving up his U.S. citi-
nent members dissatisfied zenship would be the best way
to demonstrate his loyalty to the
Czech Republic.
"In recent weeks, he has met
and talked to people from differ-
ent walks of life as well as of dif-
ferent political orientations, and
he felt that this was a reasonable
expectation on their part," said
Michael Kraus, one of Svejnar's
advisers.
Terrell said the decision was
made because of "the notion that
the Czech people would not feel
that their president were loyal to
them if he had dual citizenship."
Kraus said the decision was dif-
ficult for Svejnar.
"It was not easy because he has
great attachment to the United
States, the country that offered
him a new home," Kraus said.
The announcement will ben-
efit Svejnar as he attempts to win
more support from citizens and
lawmakers alike.
The Prague Daily Monitor
reported on Jan. 17 that 52 per-
cent of Czech citizens would vote
for Svejnar. The other 48 percent
See SVEJNAR, Page 7
Some question
impact of int'l
volunteer program
By GABE RIVIN
For The Daily
Forty-eight years after former
president John F. Kennedy first
proposed the Peace Corps on the
steps of the Michigan Union, the
University remains one of the col-
leges most committed to the pro-
gram.
The program, which allows
college graduates to work for the
public good in developing nations,
drew 80 volunteers from the Uni-
versity of Michigan last year - the
fifth-highest total in the nation.
Only the University of Califor-
nia at Berkeley, the University of
Wisconsin at Madison, the Univer-
sity of Colorado and the Univer-
sity of North Carolina sent more
graduates into the Peace Corps
last year. Michigan State Univer-
sity produced the same amount
of volunteers as the University of
Michigan.
In exchange for 27 months of
service in a developing country,
Amanda Williams, a senior in the School of Health and Public Policy, works in the
Peace Corps office at the International center.
volunteers receive a $6,000 sti-
pend along with health cover-
age during their term of service,
money for living expenses and the
option to defer or even cancel some
student loans.
Since Kennedy proposed the
program in 1960, the University
has sent the fourth-most students
abroad through the program with
a total of 2,235 volunteers. Berke-
ley has led the nation by sending
See PEACE CORPS, Page 7
CORPS CURRICULUM
The colleges with the most Peace
Corps volunteers last year:
1. California at Berkeley (113)
2. Wisconsinat Madison (99)
3. University of Colorado(94)
4. Universityof North Carolina (91)
5. University ofMichigan (80)
sOURCE:U.S. PEACECORPS
TODAY'S HI: 41
WEATHER LO:19
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COMING TOMORROW
The politics and pressure of dating at the 'U'
THE STATEMENT
INDEX NEWS .................
Vol CXVill, No. 85 SU D O K U..............
02008TheMichiganDaily OPINION..............
michigandoily.com
..............2A ARTS .....................5
..............3A CLA SSIFIEtDS ................... 6
...........4A SPORTS....................8