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From the Daily: Don't cross the
GEO picket lines Opinion,Page4
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Ann Arbor, Michigan_
Tuesday, March 25,2008
michigandailycom
Negotiations fail, GEO set for walkout
With no deal in place after almost five months of talks with administration, many GSIs and students will skip class for the day
By JACOB SMILOVITZ
Daily StaffReporter
After the Graduate Employees'
Organization and the University's
bargaining team failed yester-
day to agree on several terms of a
new contract for graduate student
instructors, GEO members plan to
begin a two-day walkout today by
picketing outside major University
buildings.
The University's bargaining
team walked away from negotia-
tions three hours before they were
scheduled to end last night, citing
GEO's refusal to renegotiate its pro-
posal for a 9-percent salary increase
for the first year of the contract.
GEO represents about 1,700 GSIs
who teach at the University.
Colleen Woods, the lead nego-
tiator for GEO and a History GSI,
said GEO representatives were
prepared to negotiate through at
least midnight, but heard from the
administration at 8:55 that they
were done for the night.
"I have to say that I am shocked
and disappointed that the Univer-
sity wasn't willing to continue to
bargain with us tonight," she said.
Woods also said the sides
"were making significant prog-
ress towards each other today and
it seemed like the University was
interested in preventing (the walk-
out) from happening and we were
ready to put the brakes on."
Jeff Frumkin, the University's
senior director ofAcademic Human
Resources, said that GEO's refusal
to budge on the initial 9-percent
salary increase is "the major stum-
bling block" in the negotiations.
"The difficulty the University
had in responding to their last set of
proposals is that it still included the
9-percent, and therefore we didn't
feel that we had any other place to
move at this point this evening,"
Frumkin said.
GEO representatives said that
despite the differences on the topic
of salary, they were willing to bar-
gain until midnight and avoid a
walkout.
"I have to say that I am disap-
pointed that the administration is
not more invested in preventing
this work stoppage," Woods said.
"We were gettingclose, and I think
we were almost there, and really,
they walked away from the table
from us."
GEO has now decided to go for-
ward with the much-discussed
two-day walkout that will last
through tomorrow night.
Participating GSIs won't com-
plete any of the labor that they
usually do for the University,
which includes leading discussion
sections, grading student work,
responding to students' e-mails
and holding office hours.
They will instead be on picket
lines outside of the major buildings
on Central Campus and at least one
building on North Campus, Woods
said.
Although all picket lines will be
fully assembled on campus by 9
a.m., picket lines at some campus
construction sites will be under-
way as early as 5 a.m.
Woods said 660 GSIs have
already signed up for picket shifts.
GEO officials are asking under-
graduates and faculty to support
the union by not crossing the picket
line to enter campus buildings or
attend class today or tomorrow.
"We are simply asking them to
See WALKOUT, Page 7
HARDLY WORKING
What picketing GSIs won't be
doing today and tomorrow:
As part of the GEO walk-out taking
place today, many GSls participating
in the strike will be cancelingany
classes, discussion and reviewses-
sions or anylab sections they teach.
Many GSIs arealsorefusingtoanswer
students's e-mails, holdoffice hours
or correspond with students onthe
course website CTools.
PRAISE ON INGALLS MALL
STATE GOVERNMENT
Kevorkian
announces run
for Congress
'U' Medical School Kevorkian became a household
. name in 1998 when he appeared
alum served 8 years on CBS's "60 Minutes" and
showed a video of himself assist-
for assisted suicide ing in Thomas Youk's suicide. A
Pontiac, Mich., native, Kevorkian
By GABE RIVIN was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in
Daily StaffReporter 1999 after a Michigan jury found
him guilty of
Jack Kevorkian, the Univer- second-degree
sity Medical School alum and murder for
physician best known for help- helping Youk
ing his patients commit suicide, commit . sui-
announced yesterday that he will cide.
run for Congress this fall. Kevorkian,
Kevorkian,.79, has steep com- who claims to
petition for Michigan's 9th Con- have assisted KEVORKIAN
gressional district in the House of more than 130
Representatives. patient sui-
He'll run as an independent cides, was released on parole in
against incumbent Republican June of last year for good behav-
Joe Knollenberg, who has served ior.
as a representative since 1993 and His candidacy put euthanasia
is seeking his ninth term. See KEVORKIAN, Page 3
Ann Arbor residents Dennis Quinn (LEFT) and Jir Scott worship God in mixture of song and prayer on Ingalls Mall yesterday. "We are not trying to preach to anyone,"
Scott said. "We're just out here today to show God's love."
LGBT AFFAIRS
After years of surveys, LGBT
group announces new name
Some SACUA members skeptical
of independent study courses
New title, 'The
Spectrum Center,'
unveiled yesterday
By JESSICA BAER
For the Daily
After collecting feedback from
students, staff and alumni in a pro-
cess that began almost three years
ago, the Office of Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender Affairs
has changed its name to The Spec-
trum Center.
The center, which officially
announced its new name yesterday
morning, launched the campaign
to find a title that would allow for a
broader range of gender identities.
"The community is more com-
plex than the letters L-G-B-T,"
said Jackie Simpson, the direc-
tor of the center. "We believe the
name change will allow more peo-
ple to see themselves connected to
the office."
The announcement marks the
end of an extensive exploratory
period during which the office
sought opinions from different
constituencies from all corners of
the University. After sponsoring
open forums, brown bag lunches,
surveys and blogs, it became clear
that people wanted the center's
name to have "variety, fluid-
ity, multiplicity, and complexity,"
Simpson said.
A recent online survey asked
open-ended questions like, "What
is the first thing that comes to
mind when you think about the
See NAME CHANGE, Page 3
ACADEMICS
Engineering prof. to become provost overseas
Vice Provost Hanlon
agreed to discuss
findings further at
group's next meeting
By LINDY STEVENS
Daily StaffReporter
In their first meeting since the
publication of a local newspaper
report that questioned the integ-
rity of Psychology Prof. John
Hagen's courses, members of
the Senate Advisory Committee
on University Affairs expressed
interest in investigating the class-
es more closely.
The series of articles in The
Ann Arbor News claimed that
University advisers have pushed
student-athletes toward Hagen's
independent study courses.
According to the articles, these
courses were graded loosely and
required small amounts of course-
work.
Many members of SACUA, the
executive arm of the University's
primary faculty body, supported
Hagen's teaching methods.
Not all SACUA members,
though, were convinced by Vice
Provost Philip Hanlon, who con-
tended that there was no basis for
the concern surrounding Hagen's
courses.
"There is no higher priority
than the academic success of our
Ulaby will serve at
new, billion-dollar
Saudi Arabian school
By ELIZABETH LAI
Daily StaffReporter
About two years fromnow, Engi-
neeringProf. Fawwaz Ulaby will be
living off the coast of the Red Sea in
Saudi Arabia, serving as the found-
ing provost of what's expected to
become a high-powered new sci-
ence and technology research uni-
versity.
King Abdullah University of Sci-
ence and Technology, named in
honor of the Saudi Arabia's reign-
ing monarch, will open its doors to
a small group of intellectual elites
in September 2009. KAUST will
host no more than 2,000 students
- every one of them exempt from
tuition fees thanks to fellowships
funded by the university's multi-
billion dollar endowment, much
of which comes from oil industry
profits.
In Saudi Arabia, Ulaby will be
responsible for hiring faculty and
overseeing student and academic
affairs. Ulaby said all classes at
KAUST will be taught in English
to accommodate international stu-
dents and professors.
A Lebanon native, Ulaby said he
would continue teaching electrical
engineering and computer science
courses at the University of Michi-
gan until he begins his appointed
post at KAUST, and will complete
research collaborations with col-
See ULABY, Page 3
Vice Provost Philip Hanlon spoke at yesterday's SACUA meeting in the Fleming
Building. He talked at length about Prof. John Hagen's classes.
students," Hanlon said. He added
that the University had investigat-
ed the professor twice before the
newspaper published the series.
After discussing the findings,
some SACUA members were still
looking for answers.
When SACUA members Phys-
ics Prof. Keith Riles and Law Prof.
Richard Friedman asked Hanlon
to address specific inaccuracies
from the articles, Hanlon didn't
raise any.
"I would prefer to present the
facts I know," Hanlon said.
He eventually agreed to discuss
the details of Hagen's case in a fol-
low-up meeting.
The series said Hagen taught
294 independent study courses
between Fall 2004 and Fall 2007
- 251 of them were with student-
athletes. At yesterday's meeting,
See SACUA, Page 3
WEAT HER H 1:45
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