The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, April 3, 2008 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
BUCHAREST, Romania
NATO rejects
Bush's pleas for
Ukraine, Georgia
President Bush suffered a pain-
ful diplomatic setback Wednesday
when NATO allies rebuffed his
passionate pleas to put former So-
viet republics Ukraine and Georgia
on the path toward membership in
the Western military alliance.
The decision, to be made final on
Thursday, was sure to be cheered
by Moscow, which heatedly oppos-
es NATO's eastward expansion.
In another sign of discord,
Greece blocked Macedonia's re-
quest to join the 26-nation alliance
because of a dispute over its name.
Only Croatia and Albania will be
invited as new members.
It was a sour outcome for Bush
at his final NATO summit as he
sought to polish his foreign policy
legacy. Instead, he wound up side-
tracked by opposition and splits
among European allies.
TROY
Stabenow's husband
admits to sex with
prostitute
The husband of Michigan Sen.
Debbie Stabenow told authori-
ties that he used the Internet to
arrange a $150 sexual tryst with
a prostitute at a metropolitan
Detroit hotel, police said.
Thomas Athans, 46, co-founder
of the liberal TalkUSA Radio net-
work, was stopped by police who
were investigating Internet-based
prostitution at the hotel, according
to a police report obtained yester-
day by The Associated Press under
the state Freedom of Information
Act.
Athans, in a statement issued
by his attorney, apologized and
said he "fully cooperated with law
enforcement. My family and I are
dealing with this matter in a per-
sonal and private way."
DUBLIN, Ireland
Irish PM Ahern to
resign, denies
corruption rumors
Prime Minister Bertie Ahern,
the common-touch Dubliner who
tended Ireland's economic boom
and the blossoming of Belfast
peace, announced his resignation
yesterday under a darkening cloud
of financial scandal.
The announcement stunned
Ireland and much of his Cabinet,
whose members stood by Ahern
during an 18-month battle against
allegations he accepted secret
cash payments from businessmen
in the 1990s.
Ahern, who governed Ireland
through 11 years of growing pros-
perity at home and peace in North-
ern Ireland, maintained his inno-
cence.
"I have never received a corrupt
payment, and I've never done any-
thing to dishonor any office I have
held," Ahern told a hastily called
news conference.
WASHINGTON
Bernanke says
* recession possible
For the first time, Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
acknowledged the U.S. could reel
into recession from the power-
ful punches of housing, credit and
financial crises. Yet, he was coy
about the Fed's next move.
With home foreclosures swell-
ing to record highs and job losses
mounting, Bernanke onWednesday
offered Congress an unflinching -
and more pessimistic - assessment
of potential damage to the national
economy.
"A recession is possible," said
Bernanke, who is under immense
political and public pressure to turn
things around. "Our estimates are
that we're slightly growing at the
moment, but we think that there's
a chance that for the first half as a
whole there might be a slight con-
traction."
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
4011
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.
RESEARCH
From Page 1A
University's total research
funding.
Though the University's
research budget for the 2007
fiscal year increased about 3.3
percent to $823 million, Vice
President for Research Ste-
phen Forrest attributed the
University's funding gains
to investment from the pri-
vate sector. Federal funding
grew by just 1.8 percent dur-
ing the 2007 fiscal year after
a2.4 percent boost during the
2006 fiscal year. In the 2005
fiscal year, federal funding
grew by 6.5 percent.
As a result of the leveling
off of funding increases in
recent years, the University
has looked more and more
toward private and commer-
cial donors for support to
supplement declining federal
support.
Federal funding for sci-
ence has declined over the
past five years, and President
Bush's proposed budget for
2009 would continue that
trend.
Bush's budget would con-
tinue a six-year trend of
inflation outpacing biomedi-
cal research funding by not
granting a funding increase
to the National Institutes of
Health.
The National Institute of
Health is the single largest
source of federal funding for
the University, contributing
nearly half its total research
budget. In the 2007 fiscal
year, the University received
about $387.7 million from the
NIH, about 47 percent of the
University's total research
budget.
While the biomedical sci-
ences have taken a hit in
Bush's proposed budget,
physical science funding
would be increased signifi-
cantly. The budget would pro-
vide an increase of about 19
percent for the Department
of Energy's Office of Science
and about 14 percent for the
National Science Founda-
tion.
The Department of Ener-
gy and the National Science
Foundationrepresent smaller
portions of the University's
funding than the NIH. In
the 2007 fiscal year, funding
from the National Science
Foundation made up about
8 percent of the University's
total research budget and
funding from the Depart-
ment of Energy made up
about 2 percent.
President Bush's proposed
budget would bring funding
for science research to about
$29.3 billion, representing an
overall increase of 3 percent.
The Chronicle of Higher Edu-
cation reported that about 60
percent of that money goes to
universities.
Mike Waring, executive
director for federal relations
atthe University, said schools
need funding increases that
exceed the rate of inflation.
"The last two years here in
Congress haven't been kind
to science accounts," Waring
said. "Universities need sus-
tainable growth in all of the
science accounts."
Waring called increased
funding, "an investment in
America's future."
Michigan senators Debbie
Stabenow and Carl Levin,
both Democrats, listened
as Coleman made her case
to the Democratic Steering
Committee.
Kathleen Long, a Levin
staffer, said in an e-mail mes-
sage that, "Senator Levin
believes that a robust federal
(research and development)
program and commitment to
science is critical to U.S. com-
petitiveness."
Levin's sentiments echoed
Coleman's request that leg-
islators increase federal
funding for university-based
research.
"The support of Congress
and the president is more
importantthaneverintoday's
global economy," Coleman
said. "This is an investment
in America's future that we
cannot afford not to make."
LEAK
From Page 1A
Jim Knight, managing editor
of The Ann Arbor News, did not
return repeated calls for comment
last night.
Cunningham said the Univer-
sity is taking information leak
"extremely seriously." She also
said University officials warned
GRADUATION
From Page 1A
of graduation. Most buses will stop
running at 12:45 p.m., but two shut-
tles will continue until 5:00 p.m.,
going every half hour from the Diag
to the Varsity Tennis Center and
the Glazier Way lots.
Shuttles will run from most
local hotels and several campus
buildings with available parking,
like Crisler Arena. All University-
owned parking structures will be
open and free for the day while Ann
Arbor city lots will offer a flat rate
for that day.
To deal with the large influx
of people to the Diag, event plan-
ners will have portable toilets set
up throughout the area and more
indoor toilets available in the sur-
rounding-buildings like the Natural
Science Building and Mason Hall.
Graduation organizers will
also set up overflow locations in
Hill Auditorium, which will open
at 8:30 a.m. on graduation day,
and Ingalls Mall, which will have
a video display, bleachers and
speakers.
During the ceremony, graduates
will wait in a staging zone on the
the newspaper not to use the
leaked data on two occasions
between October and the publi-
cation of the series first article on
March 16.
Additionally, University Provost
Teresa Sullivan sent an e-mail to
all University student-athletes on
March 26 that said "the University
informed the paper that the infor-
mation was confidential and was
obtained in violation of federal law
east side of West Hall. They will
follow the sidewalk through the
underpass in West Hall, passing the
Shapiro Undergraduate Library,
and then cross the main stage
located just in front of the Hatcher
Graduate Library.
At the Senate Advisory Commit-
tee on University Affairs's meeting
on Monday, University President
Mary Sue Coleman said she thinks
the Diag ceremony will be a suc-
cess.
"It will be a lovely graduation,"
she said.
The ceremony is planned to take
place on the Diag, rain or shine, and
is set to last from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Coleman said she hopes the cer-
emony will return to Michigan Sta-
dium nextyear.
"We'll be back to the stadium as
soon as we can," she said.
LSA senior Jane Rho, creator of
the Facebook group "Petition To
Keep Spring Graduation 2008 At
The Big House," said the lack of
information available to students
about graduation has her con-
cerned.
"My friends and I are excit-
ed because it's never been done
before," she said. "But I just can't
help but be uneasy."
as well as University policy, which
strictly forbids such disclosure, but
to no avail."
In the same e-mail, Sullivan
wrote that she was "deeply dis-
turbed by the decision of the Ann
Arbor News to publish private and
confidential information about
individualstudents, such as grades
and transcripts, without notifying
them."
Cunningham said University
WORKPLACE
From Page 1A
tion and answer session with the
students, one person asked how
to mentally prepare for workplac-
es that mightnot be welcoming to
gays.
Solmonese said one should
have a group of people to lean on
just in case his or her work envi-
ronment is hostile.
"A support system is key," Sol-
monese said. "I think that when
you go into those types ofjobs that
swallow you up it's really impor-
tant to maintain a balance."
A woman named Alison who
attended the event, but asked
that her last name not be printed
because she is notopenly gay, said
the talk was interesting but that
ultimately the decision to come
out to co-workersis individual, no
matter how welcoming the envi-
ronment.
Naomi, another student who
asked that her last name not be
used, said the talk gave good
information for gay students
entering the workplace.
"I think we're starting a con-
versation about identities in the
workplace," she said.
officials believed the release of looking into the release of the data
student-athletes' private academic didn't think any student-athlete
information "has had a negative had given the paper permission to
impact on students." publish their academic records in
She said University officials the series.
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Graduates!
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Spena-m Your'Summer
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Contact us:
summer.stanford.edu
summersession@stanford.edu
(650) 723-3109
STAN FORD
UNIVE ITY
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