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Thursday, February 14, 2008
michigandaily.com
Student
lending woes
worry'U'
Officials
Financial aid chief website, more than 100 different
Michigan colleges and universi-
says market ties are eligible to participate.
Last year, about 8,500 MI-LOANs
conditions are were given to students, totaling
about $68 million, The Associ-
cause for concern aced Press reported.
The suspension of the program
By ANDY KROLL stems from the current sub-prime
Daily News Editor mortgage crisis, which has tight-
ened the national credit market
Although the suspension of and scared investors away from
the Michigan Alternative Student purchasing securities backed by
Loan program will only impact student loans.
a small percentage of University With so many borrowers
students who receive financial defaulting on sub-prime mort-
aid, it does have University finan- gage loans, investors are now,
cial aid officials biting their nails more than ever, questioning the
about the overall health of the ability of borrowers to repay their
student lending market. loans.
On Wednesday, the state's According to Pamela Fowler,
student loan agency, the Michi- executive director of the Univer-
gan Higher Education Student sity's Office of Financial Aid, the
Loan Authority, announced that suspension of MI-LOANs won't
because of the ongoing tightening have that much of an impact on
of credit markets, there wouldn't the amount of financial aid avail-
enough available capital to con- able to students.
tinue funding the program. She said only 9 percent of Uni-
Michigan Alternative Student versity students had MI-LOANs
Loans, or MI-LOANs, are com- in the 2006/2007 academic year,
monly used as bridge loans that and said even fewer students have
help students pay for college- received aid from the program for
related costs that aren't covered the current academic year.
by other federal or private loans. What worried her, she said,
The program stopped accept- was the poor health of the student
ing new applications yesterday. lending market as a whole. She
The state student loan agency said the suspension of MI-LOANs
said it will resume making loans is a symptom of the market's cur-
as soon as it can raise the capital rent struggles.
to fund them. "My concern is what this will
According to the program's See LOANS, Page 3A
The men's track and field team impressed at last night's Mock Rock performance at Hill Auditorium, finishing one point shy of a perfect score and taking sec-
ond place. The women's track and field team won the event, which serves as a fundraiser for the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.
CHARITY COMPETITORS
Women's track team letes perform stage acts to raise
money for the C.S. Mott Chil-
pays tribute to late dren's Hospital.
Besides Rodriguez, Mock
teammate Rock's judges included former
Michigan diver Bonnie Kulp,
former Wolverine football great
By JILLIAN ROTHMAN Jamie Morris and University
Daily Sports Writer Professor John Bacon. The event
was hosted by Jason and Randy
The Michigan hockey team Sklar, University alums and
may be No.1 in the national polls hosts of ESPN's Cheap Seats.
again, but according to head While Rodriguez gave the
football coach Rich Rodriguez hockey team a 10 for its perfor-
last night, the team deserved 10. mance - he admitted with a
Rodriguez was one of six laugh that he'd been bribed to
judges at last night's 9th annual do so - the other judges didn't
Mock Rock, a competition in enjoy the team's rendition of
which University student-ath- "Dirty Dancing."
The women's track and field
teamwon overthejudges and the
competition, paying tribute to
teammate Joi Renee Smith, who
died from cancer in November.
With an almost-perfect score
of 49, the second-place men's
track and field team received a
standing ovation at the end of its
perfectly choreographed "Space
Jam" routine.
Every member of the Toon
Squad from the movie was
present as Lola, Bugs, Taz and
Michael Jordan took on the
opposing Monstars. Wolverine
track star Adam Harris stood
out duringthe performance.
Embodying Mock Rock's
better performances, last night
was all about working together.
Varsity and club teams, the glee
club, the cheerleadingsquad and
the dance team all participated
to in the fundraising event.
In addition to the Mott Hospi-
tal, the proceeds from this year's
Mock Rock will also benefit
Smith's family.
While most of the evening
was light-hearted and filled with
laughter, the night opened with
a video tribute to Smith. Smith's
family made the trip from Ohio
and former teammates who no
longer attend the University
came back for the event. Among
See MOCK ROCK, Page 3A
CAPITOL HILL AND CAMPUS
Third in a four-part series on how
federal legislation would affect
college students
Billaims- to cut
down campus piracy
South Quad shirts offend campus groups
Official hall T-shirt
said by some to
demean women
By JILLIAN BERMAN
Daily StaffReporter
This year's South Quad T-shirts,
which reference the popular Soulja
Boy song "Crank That," are pro-
voking outrage from some campus
groups.
The T-shirt, which South Quad
residents designed andvoted to dis-
tribute, has the Superman logo on
its front and the phrase "Superman
that ..." on its back, referencing the
song's chorus, which includes the
phrase "Superman that ho."
There are many definitions for
the questionable phrase. Urban-
dictionary.com, a website that
compiles user-created definitions
to slang words or phrases provid-
ed 15 different meanings. Most of
the meanings, however define the
phrase as a sexual act involving a
man ejaculating on a woman in a
demeaning fashion.
The South Quad Hall Coun-
cil began selling the T-shirts in
December for $2 each, but halted
sales a week later when members
of the University's Sexual Assault
Prevention Awareness Center told
Hall Council representatives they
thought the T-shirts were demean-
ing to women. The F-word, a cam- JENNIFER KRON/Daily
pus feminist group, also decried LSA freshman Jonathan Ben-Ze'ev, a South Quad resident, wears the dorm's contro-
See SHIRTS, Page 7A versial T-shirt, which references the chorus of the Soulja Boy song "Crank That."
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U' officials say vices required in the legislation.
Mark Luker, vice president of
-sharing policies Educause,anonprofitgroupfocused
on technology use in higher educa-
d programs are tion, said the provision will create
"severe problems" for colleges.
bready in place "We don't believe that the federal
government should be mandating all
By JULIE ROWE 4,000 institutions of higher educa-
Daily StaffReporter tion to spend money on technologies
that do not work very well and still
eges and universities are don't solve the problem," Luker said.
sing concern about a few He said most colleges support
aragraphs intended to crack requirements to educate students
on illegal file-sharing tucked about legal sharing, but oppose
800-page bill overhauling being required to develop plans to
5S Higher Education Act. deter illegal file-sharing.
U.S. House of Representa- The Senate's version of a renew-
assed the piece of legislation al bill included similar language,
overwhelming margin last but the provision was removed at
espite protests from higher the request of college and univer-
ion lobby groups about the sity lobbyists.
on, which calls for colleges Mike Waring, the executive
pating in federal student aid director of federal relations in the
ms to develop plans to deter University's Capitol Hill office,
file-sharing and provide said University officials hope that
lternatives. the provision will be removed dur-
versity officials said it's too ing joint conferences between the
o speculate about what policy House and Senate. He said the Uni-
ments the University would versity doesn't need pressure from
make if the bill passes with the government to crack down on
ovision, but the University illegal file-sharing.
y provides some of the ser- See FILE-SHARING, Page 3A
INIV i krl y '1g
Study: Young people view relationships more negatively
Researchers say
older people handle
emotions better
By ELAINE LAFAY
Daily StaffReporter
If you're at Valentine's Day din-
ner tonight, don't be surprised to
find a younger couple bickering and
an older pair getting romantic.
InarecentUniversitystudy,young-
er adults were shown to view both
romantic and platonic relationships
more negatively than older adults.
Psychology Prof. ToniAntonucci,
co-author of the study, said the high
level negativity in younger adults
might be because they're still strug-
gling to understand relationships
and how they feel about them.
"As people get older, they can
continue relationships they care
about and discontinue ones they
don't care about," she said.
She said older people are more
likely to protect themselves from
bothersome relationships by either
getting out of them or managing
them"intellectually," like learning to
ignore apartner's annoyinghabit.
University researcher Kira
Birditt, aco-authorofthe study, said
the higher negativity among study
participants in their 20s and 30s
was consistent with other findings.
"Usually we think of it as a
developmental thing, that people
get better able to regulate their
emotions with age," she said.
The study was conducted in
two phases. About 1,300 people
between the ages of 20 and 93
from the metro-Detroit area were
interviewed in 1992 and about 830
of those participants were contact-
ed a second time in 2005 to deter-
mine how the negativity in their
relationships changed over time.
The best friend a subject reported
in 1992 was often not the same
best friend the subject reported in
2005. The study found that nega-
tivity in platonic relationships
decreased only among those who
reported a new friend the second
time around.
See STUDY, Page 7A
TODAY'S HI 32
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