The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

NEWS BRIEFS

BAGHDAD
Rockets, suicide
bomber attacks kill
at least 57
Rockets and mortars pounded
Baghdad's U.S.-protected Green
Zone yesterday and a suicide car
bomber struck an Iraqi army post
in the northern city of Mosul in a
surge of attacks that killed at least
57 people nationwide.
The latest violence underscored
the fragile security situation and
the resilience of both Sunni and
Shiite extremist groups as the war
enters its sixth year and the U.S.
death toll in the conflict approach-
es 4,000.
Attacks in Baghdad probably
stemmed from rising tensions
between rival Shiite groups - some
of whom may have been behind
the Green Zone blasts. It was the
most sustained assault in months
against the nerve center of the U.S.
mission.
CHENGDU, China
China accuses Dalai
Lama of sabotage,
Pelosi of ignorance
China accused the Dalai Lama
on yesterday of stoking Tibetan
unrest to sabotage the Beijing
Olympics and also berated House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying she is
ignoring the truth about Tibet.
This month's violence in Tibet
and neighboring provinces has
turned into apublic relations disas-
ter for China ahead of the August
Olympics, which it had been hop-
ing to use to bolster its internation-
al image.
The Chinese government said
through official media that former-
ly restive areas were under control
and accused the Dalai Lama, a
Nobel Peace Prize wvinner, of trying
to harm China's image ahead of the
summer games.
"The Dalai clique is scheming to
take the Beijing Olympics hostage
to force the Chinese government
to make concessions to Tibet inde-
pendence," said the People's Daily,
the main mouthpiece of the Com-
munist Party.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Fishingboat sinks
off coast of Alaska
Four crew members died yester-
day and another was missing after
a Seattle-based fishing boat began
sinking in high seas off Alaska's
Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard
said.
The dead were among 47 crew
members who abandoned ship af-
ter the 184-foot Alaska Ranger de-
veloped problems. Forty-two crew
members were recovered safely,
but a search was continuing for the
missing person, said Chief Petty Of-
ficer Barry Lane.
The vessel started taking on wa-
ter shortly before 3 a.m. after losing
control of its rudder 120 miles west
of Dutch Harbor, which is on Un-
alaska Island.
JERUSALEM

Cheney defends
Israeli security
In a bold defense of Israel, Vice
President Dick Cheney said Satur-
day that the United States wants a
new beginning for the Palestinian
people but will never pressure Is-
rael to take steps that would jeopar-
dize its security.
Cheney, on an Easter weekend
visit to Jerusalem and the Palestin-
ian territories, reaffirmed Wash-
ington's commitment to establishing
a Palestinian state - a feat he said
would require painful concessions
on both sides.
"America's commitment to Is-
rael's security is enduring and un-
shakable, as is our commitment to
Israel's right to defend itself - al-
ways - against terrorism, rocket at-
tacks and other threats from forces
dedicated to Israel's destruction,"
Cheney said, standing next to Is-
raeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"The United States will never pres-
sure Israel to take steps that threat-
en its security."
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
4,000
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. There were no deaths identi-
fied yesterday.

ELECTIONS
From Page 1A
representative seats on LSA-SG.
The downward trend in voter
participation in the MSA elections
continued this year.
With 2,246 votes cast, about 6.4
percent of eligible voters cast bal-
lots in MSA election.
Despite the convincing victory,
Sohoni addressed in an interview
this year's abysmal turnout, saying
it was a "big issue" for the assem-
bly.
He said the low turnout reflect-
ed the need for candidates to bet-
ter engage the student body and
encourage more participation.
"This old model ofjust knocking
on doors to see how many kids you
can get, I mean, in terms of get-
ting elected, it worked, but it's not
working at bringing kids into the
process," Sohoni said. "We need to
brainstorm ways - not as a party
but as MSA - to get more kids to
vote."
Sohoni said the low turnout
won't prevent the assembly's new
leaders reaching out to students
and advocating on their behalf on
important issues.
"People are always going to look
at (voter turnout) and point at that
and say, 'Well, no one really voted
so it doesn't really matter,' " he
said, "But we can't let that get to
us. We just have to go in there and
do our job by working harder at it
now."
As they transition into their
new roles, which become offi-
cial tomorrow, Sohoni said he
and Shingwani plan to meet with
current MSA President Moham-
mad Dar and other members of
the assembly's executive board to
swap ideas and pick up tips from
GEO
From Page 1A
Woods said. "And in the past week,
there hasn't been."
In a strike vote Tuesday, more
than 80 percent of the union's 900
members voted to support the pro-
posed two-day walkout ifa deal is
not reached by the end of bargain-
ing tonight.
"Essentially what the strike
vote indicated is that unless we
reach the strike platform by the
end of our contract, then GSIs will
be stopping work on Tuesday and
Wednesday," Woods said.
The University's bargaining
team, though, maintains that a
work stoppage is unnecessary.
"We don't see that there's a
need for it," said Jeff Frumkin,
the University's senior director
of Academic Human Resources.
"The parties are continuing to
make progress."
According to a GEO statement
released Saturday, the Univer-
sity's bargaining team failed to
present new proposals at three of
the four negotiating sessions held
last week.
In the case of a walkout, Woods
said, "we'll ask GSIs to not do any
of the work that they do for the
University, which includes teach-
ing section, grading, meeting with
students, holding office hours,
anything like that."
Instead, GSIs would be on pick-
et lines outside of the University's
major buildings on Central and
North Campuses.
Woods and Patrick O'Mahen, a
GEO spokesman, said more than

500 graduate students are cur-
rently signed up to picket. That
total doesn't include other mem-
bers of the community, such as

their colleagues.
Sohoni said he will continue ini-
tiatives aimed at lowering health
insurance costs for students and
plans to lay the groundwork for
voter participation initiatives for
the fall semester.
Although Defend Affirmative
Action Party presidential candi-
date Kate Stenvig and vice presi-
dential candidate Maricruz Lopez
fell short intheir bids for executive
office, both said they were pleased
to see five DAAP representatives
win seats on the assembly.
Stenvig and Lopez won 580
votes, or 24 percent in the elec-
tion.
Lopez said the five representa-
tives - one from the Law School,
one from the School of Educa-
tion and three from the Rackham
Graduate School - will promote
DAAP's goals of defending affir-
mative action on the assembly in
the upcoming year.
"They're definitely going to be
leading the assembly and enacting
DAAP's program, specifically on
the defense on affirmative action
and maintaining an integrated
campus," Lopez said.
DAAP captured an almost iden-
tical percentage of the total votes
in this year's election as they did
last year, winning 24 percent in
2008. The party won 25 percent of
the vote in 2007.
Although she and Stenvig will
not be members of the assembly,
Lopez said the pair will continue
to work on behalf of DAAP's sup-
porters on campus.
"Me and Kate not winning the
presidency is not going to prevent
us from being active with MSA,"
she said. "The 24 percent of peo-
ple who voted for us, we're really
thankful for them and we're going
faculty members or undergradu-
ates whom GEO officials hope will
join the picket line.
"We ask that people respect
the picket line," OMahen said.
"We ask faculty to not teach class
and undergraduates to not go to
class."
But O'Mahen made sure to point
out that members of the picket line
will not harass those faculty mem-
bers and undergraduates who
cross the picket line.
"We are not going to be intimi-
dating people who do cross the
picket line," O'Mahen said. "We
understand that people have com-
plex issues to deal with."
Woods said that any student
or professor who goes to class on
campus during the walkout will
be crossing a picket line.
Frumkin said "interrupting
teaching is unfair to the students,"
and that "the University will be
engaged in trying to resolve the
issues with GEO tomorrow."
Although they remain opposed
to it, University officials have
begun to make preparations for
the walkout.
Frumkin said that the Univer-
sity, through the Provost's office,
contacted the deans last week
about the walkout. He also said
that deans of some schools and col-
leges have released statements to
their employees, saying that "they
expect people to go to class." ,
Bonnie Halloran, president of
the Lecturers' Employee Organi-
zation, which represents non ten-
ure-track faculty at the University,
said officials in her union have not
encouraged LEO members to do
one thing or another.

"We haven't given specific
directions to anyone," Halloran
said.
Halloran also said her union is

to work with MSA with their inter-
ests in mind."
Lopez also said she would like to
see the assembly resume holding
presidential debates pitting indi-
viduals running for MSA executive
office. A debate, she said, would
give candidates a chance to lay out
their goals and get more students
engaged in the election process.
Although a member of MAP
will hold every seat in LSA-SG
beginning this week, Monaghan
said students who view MAP as a
single, homogeneous voting bloc
often overlook the diversity of
people and ideas contained within
the party.
He said this year's MAP can-
didates for LSA-SG constituted
a cross-section of the University,
with transfer students, interna-
tional students and students from
different races and ethnicities all
appearing on the LSA-SG ticket
representing MAP.
Those candidates, Monaghan
said, also represented a wide range
of differing ideas on how LSA-SG
should operate for the upcoming
year.
"There certainly is diversity
within the party, and if people
think that we'll all vote the same,
you'll definitely see that's not the
case," he said.
Although ultimately unsuccess-
ful in their bids for office, write-in
candidates made up 4 percent of
this year's MSA elections.
Candidates included "MO' MO
NEY, MO' BITCHEZ, MO' DAR"
referring to current MSA Presi-
dent Mohammad Dar, presidential
hopeful Barack Obama, former
Michigan football coach Lloyd
Carr, perennial favorite Mickey
Mouse and former MA President
Zack Yost.
committed to solidarity with GEO
because lecturers owe a lot to the
graduate students who help teach
their classes.
"We have a very strong relation-
ship with GEO," Halloran said.
"We've rented space off campus if
lecturers want to hold classes and
not cross the picket line."
"It is all up to each individual
lecturer," she added,
Woods said that although
GEO's bargaining team doesn't
have any official negotiating ses-
sions planned with the Univer-
sity tomorrow and Wednesday, it
is open to negotiating so long as
the talks take place in buildings
that don't force them to cross the
picket line.
Frumkin said that the Univer-
sity's negotiating team has also
"indicated" that it would negotiate
during the walkout.
O'Mahen said that a one- or
two-day walkout has been com-
monplace throughout the last
15 years for GEO, which twice
extended its current contract's
expiration date past its initial
date of March 1 to allow the bar-
gaining team more time to nego-
tiate.
GEO members held short walk-
outs in 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002 and
2005. The last time GEO members
went on a general strike was in
1975, when they were negotiating
their first unionized contract with
the University.
GEO negotiates a new contract
with the University every three
years.
"The University doesn't take us
seriously until we do (hold a walk-
out) for some reason," OMahen

said. "We have extended our dead-
line twice and we negotiated for
four months before planning the
walkout."

ALCOHOL
From Page 1A
Jon Marks, president of Pi Kappa
Alpha fraternity, is on an IFC
committee to plan the logistics of
the new policy. He said he expects
some of his fraternity brothers to
question the policy.
"People are going to be skepti-
cal because it's a change," he said.
"They haven't beenagainst it, they
haven't been for it."
Marks said the committee is
trying to figure out how to imple-
ment the policy without hindering
houses' abilities to hold parties.
"Our two big focuses are liabil-
ity and the safety aspects of the
party," Marks said. "The other
important issue that we're looking
for is fun. We're throwing parties
for a reason."
Spottssaidthe IFC hasbeentry-
ing to enforce the policy for some
time but that fraternity houses
have always found ways around it.
Many fraternities provide alcohol
at their parties, but when asked
claim that other people brought it,
he said.
He said the IFC will try out the
new policy at all parties hosted
during the last two weeks of this
semester.
If the policy works this time
around, party guests would have

Monday, March 24, 2008 - 3A
to check their alcohol much like
a coat at a restaurant or club.
Partygoers would give their
alcohol to designated fraternity
brothers, called sober moni-
tors, who are asked not to drink
throughout the night. The moni-
tors would then give the guest
a tag with a number on it. Any
time the guest wants a drink, he
or she would bring the tag back
to the sober monitor, take some
of the alcohol, and then return
the bottle to the sober monitor,
Spotts said.
LSA freshman Luke Donahue,
a member of Psi Upsilon fraterni-
ty, said he agrees with the policy,
but is concerned it might go too
far.
"I'm really worried about them
continuing these regulations.
They were given this power to
control and they just keep con-
tinuing to take it," he said. "I
think everything they're doing
right now is within what they've
been given, but sometime within
the near future they might start
doing things that are border-
line."
LSA sophomore Kyle Egerer
said he has doubts about the pol-
icy's feasibility.
"That's never going to happen,"
he said. "People wouldn't goto frat
parties unless there's free beer,
and college students are poor."

'U' gets $10M to help
develop bat-like spy plane

BAT PLANE From Page 1A
The first phase of the devel-
opment project is slated to begin
Wednesday and last about five
years. Another $12.5 million has
been set aside for the second
phase of the project, which will
last another five years.
The University is one of four
research facilities that will col-
laborate on the development of
the spy plane.
Each group will work on a dif-
ferent aspect of the plane, the
University's Center for Objective
Microelectronics and Biomi-
metic Advanced Technology will
focus on plane's microelectron-
ics including developing smaller,
lighter and more efficient batter-
ies, cameras and microphones to
be used in the plane.
University researchers will
also develop the plane's "brain"
or the technology that will give
it the ability to scavenge like it's
namesake. But instead ofscaveng-
ing for insects, the mechanical
bat will seek out energy sources
to recharge its battery.
other groups will focus on the
plane's autonomous operations,
mechanics and assembling the
different technologies.
One facility is an industry
partner - BAE Systems - who
will compile all the research into
a prototype.
COM-BAT will involve 12 fac-
ulty members and 18 University
graduate students who will col-
laborate with former University
professors now at the University
of-California at Berkeley and the
University of New Mexico.
School of Dentistry sophomore
Kelly McVey, vice president of the
Student Veterans Association,
said the technology would help
soldiers in combat.
"In terms of being able to scope
out an area, it would be very use-
ful," she said. "Places where you

can't walk into a room until you
know it's safe."
Sarabandi said if someone
grabbed or shot at the plane,
it would be a warning to sol-
diers waiting for information. In
the moment before the plane's
destruction, it could take a pic-
ture and send an image back to
the soldiers.
"Someone could destroy it - if
they get their hands on it," Sara-
bandi said.
The Bat will be able to avoid
detection and avoid attack by
using radar similar to a live bat's
echolocation. It uses the radar to
avoid accidents and make deci-
sions.
"It has a small brain," Saraban-
di said. "A low-powered micro-
computer that can do analysis
and make decisions."
The plane would be able to
function autonomously by care-
fully mapping out and remem-
bering specific routes and
movements.
Researchers also plan to make
the plane self-sustaining. They
will develop a "skin" for the Bat
with energy-collecting tech-
niques.
The Bat will detect water,
submerge itself and then let the
water evaporate from its skin to
charge its battery. It will also col-
lect solar energy, and researchers
are considering adding a turbine
that could collect wind energy.
"Our goal was really to think
outside the box," Sarabandi said.
"How you can charge its battery,
making it self-sustained - you
know, if there's no sunlight, it can
find water."
The Universityreceived around'
$49 million in awards from the
Department of Defense in the
2007 fiscal year, which included
awards from the Army, Navy,
Air Force and National Security
Agency, according to University
research data.

A