The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

RODRIGO GAYA/Daily
Speaking in the Modern Languages Building yesterday, controversial author David Horowitz called the Muslin Student Asso-
ciation an "arm of the Jihadist movement" yesterday in a speech sponsored by the Young Americans for Freedom as a part of
the group's Radical Islam Awareness Week.

APPLICATIONS
From Page 1A
"Asian/Pacific Islander," "Cauca-
sian/White," "Hispanic/Latino,"
"Native American/Alaskan" with
a write-in space for tribal affilia-
tion and "Race not included above"
with a write-in space.
Abou-Chakra said adding the
new category would exemplify the
University's commitment to creat-
ing a more diverse campus.
"If we're going to say we're a
University that prides itself on
diversity and welcoming students,
then the University's application
should reflect that," Abou-Chakra
&aid.
Abou-Chakra said larger cul-
tural groups like the Black Stu-
dent Union or the Latino Students
Organization benefit from receiv-
ing contact information at the
beginning of each year for students
vho selected the "African-Ameri-
can/Black" or "Hispanic/Latino"
category on their application. She
said this information makes it eas-
ier for groups to recruit large num-
bers of incoming students because
the University provides the groups
with that contact information.
Groups like the Arab Student
Association, though, don't receive
that information at the beginning
of each year, said LSA sophomore
Kamelya Youssef, the external
relations chair for the Arab Stu-
dents' Association. Youssef said

that makes it more difficult for
groups like ASA to contact Middle
Eastern or North African students
enrolling at the University.
"All of our contact is done by
word of mouth andFestifall, and we
have no contact with anybody sim-
ply based on their status as an Arab
or North African," Youssef said.
"These students will have a better
campus experience if they're more
involved with ethnic groups."
She said that by adding a check
box, the University would be
showing a commitment to the Arab
community on campus
"Since the check boxes are real-
ly all about regional and ethno-
geographic origin, when anybody
thinks of the Caucasian category
they think of places from all over
Europe," Youssef said. "But when
they think of Middle Eastern, they
don't think of them as under that
Caucasian headline."
The Michigan and United States
censuses, which dictate what racial
and ethnic categories the Uni-
versity includes on its admissions
applications, don't classify Middle
Eastern and North African people
as a separate ethnic group on their
surveys. Instead, the censuses cat-
egorize them as "White."
University spokeswoman Kelly
Cunningham said the University
collects racial and ethnic informa-
tion on its admission applications.
as directed by the state and federal
rules and regulations.
"We have certain reports that

were required to submit to the state
and the federal government, and
so we collectspecific data for those
purposes," Cunningham said.
Until the state or federal gov-
ernments add a racial or ethnic
category similar to "North Afri-
can/Middle Eastern" to their cen-
sus surveys, the University will
continue asking students for the
same racial and ethnic informa-
tion, Cunningham said.
Susan Wilson, director of
the University's Office of Stu-
dent Activities and Leadership,
acknowledgedthe value of the data
groups like the Black or Latino Stu-
dent Unions get from applications,
but said there are several ways for
students to be exposed to different
cultural groups on campus. She
cited student organization fairslike
Festifall, Winterfest and North-
Fest as opportunities for organi-
zations to distribute information
and recruit new students without
needing their individual contact
information. She also said thatthis
year's incoming students were the
first to complete the University's
"Student Interest Survey," which
allows students to list the types
of organizations and activities in
which they're interested. Near
the beginning of the fall semester,
students are then e-mailed a list
of organizations corresponding to
their survey responses.
"Our goal is to make cultural
and ethnic communities transpar-
ent to students," Wilson said.

HOROWITZ
From Page 1A
Muslim Students' Association, said
in an interview that she disagreed
strongly with Horowitz's charac-
terization fo the group, saying it's
wrong to group all Muslims into
one category.
"MSA is not representative of
one single ideal," she said.
Mohamed said the group was
awareofHorowitz'slecturebecause
of advertising on campus but chose
to ignore his appearance because it
did not want to give Horowitz any
additional publicity.
Horowitz devoted about half his
lecture to discussing what he called
heavy liberal leanings on college
campuses.
Horowitz, the author of a book
called "Indoctrination U: The Left's
War Against Academic Freedom,"
also argued that liberal professors
are forcing their views on their stu-
dents.
HOUSING
From Page 1A
she said.
Murray MacDonald, Dartmouth's
associate director for undergradu-
ate housing, said that while some
alumni voiced concerns about the
system, most students there sup-
ported the system after it launched
last fall.
The level of student demand has
not been the same here, though.
Peter Logan, the University of
Michigan's housing spokesman, said
the University is unlikely to follow the
trend anytime soon because there's
not enough demand from University
students to warrant the change.
"From what I've been able to find
out, there has not been before a sig-
nificant expression of interest in
this from the student body," Logan
said."We're not inclined to change
a policy that we don't feel there's a
demand to change."
The University provides gender-
neutral housing options in some
cases, but only for students who
claim they don't identify as male

"The left is rapidly converting
the University to the University of
Havana and Tehran," he said.
Horowitz said professors should
work harder to present alternative
points of view on political issues.
"In a democracy, the purpose of
education is to teach students how
to think - not to tell them what to
think," he said.
Horowitz argued that the politi-
cal left has been largely respon-
sible for providing students with a
one-sided education lacking criti-
cal perspectives on controversial.
issues like climate change.
He said the left's willingness to
"tar and feather" all opposition has
been unchallenged.
"Administrators are cowards,"
he said. "They do not want to take
on the left because it is protected by
the faculty."
In his book "The Professors: The
101 Most Dangerous Academics
in America," Horowitz listed two
University professors - History
Prof. Juan Cole and Anthropology
or female and ask for those room
assignments.
Gabe Javier, assistant director of
The Spectrum Center, which han-
dles lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-
gender affairs at the University, said
the housing office works closely
with his group despite not making
the gender-neutral option available
to all students. He cited the avail-
ability of private and semi-private
bathrooms as examples.
Javier said the idea ofhaving gen-
der-neutral housing at the Universi-
ty for all students is appealing, but
that it may take time.
"I think we still have a long way
to go before we would switch to
something like that," he said.
Earlier this year, a plan to imple-
ment a gender-neutral housing pol-
icy at a New York school hit a wall
when there wasn't enough student
support to go through with it.
officials at Ithaca College were
ready to begin offering gender-neu-
tral housing last fall but shelved the
plan, citing a lack of interest from
students. Linda Koenig, assistant
director ofhousing and communica-
tions at the Ithaca, N.Y., school, said

Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 5A
Prof Gayle Rubin - as promoters of
.radical agendas in the classroom.
In responding to allegations
of McCarthyism from his crit-
ics, Horowitz said he never called
for the firing of faculty for their
beliefs.
Horowitz said he believes that a
true democracy necessarily gives
individuals the freedom of expres-
sion.
"You can't fire people for their
views," he said.
Horowitz has drafted a docu-
ment called the "Academic Bill of
Right," which lists eight principles
for limiting political bias in the
classroom.
The Georgia General Assem-
bly adopted the document in
2004, but it was rejected by the
Pennsylvania State Legislature
in 2006. The proposition lost
steam there after a Pennsylvania
legislative committee concluded
that students' right to an unbi-
ased education were not being
violated.
just four people requested the new
living arrangement. Officials there
had hoped at least18 students would
apply for the new plan, she said.
"We had such a small applicant
pool that we couldn't justify moving
forward," she said.
LSA junior Vinny Haddad said
he would take advantage of a gen-
der-neutral living option if it were
offered at the University.
"I would probably think it would
be easier to live with a girl," Haddad
said, adding that people of the same
sex often disagree with one another
anyway.
Engineering. sophomore Laura
Ligeski said she wouldn't choose
to share a dorm room with a man
if gender-neutral housing were
offered at the University.
"You're going to see a lot of shady
business going on. It would just
make everything more miserable
for housing for students," Ligeski
said. "Most people that would want
to do that are probably coming (to
the University) with a boyfriend or
girlfriend. Ifthey break up, thenyou
have to find new rooms. It would be
an entire messy situation."

Kilpatrick's plan may stumble before City Council


REGISTRATON
from Page 1A
students that accepting a bribe or
spamming students to swap a class
could be considered a violation of
the school's code of conduct.
Evonne Plantinga, senior, asso-
ciate director of financial aid and
cademic services for the Business
School, said the schoolpre-registers
Business School undergraduates to
ensure the classes are comprised of
a mix of students of different eth-
nicities, genders and nationalities.
Plantinga said that when the
school switched from a two-year
program to a three-year program
in 2006, addressing each student's
individual scheduling concerns
became more difficult for the
school's academic services officers.
Last year, the school began allowing
students to swap classes with each
other through CTools to help facili-
tate the process. From the Fall 2007
term to the Winter 2008 term, more
than 800 swaps were processed.
Before CTools, students could
Oly modify their core course
schedule if they qualified for one of
five exceptions: if they had a docu-
mented health issue, were a student
athlete, had documentation from a
religious leader or organization,
were working on a dual degree or
*ad declared an academic minor
through LSA.
Although the school has tried to
regulate the system, students say it
still has some kinks. "The biggest

problem is that people with 8:30
(am.) classes try and getcoutcof it by
spamming your inbox," Lu said.
In order to find people to swap
with, some students have abused
iMpact, a password-protected net-
work for Business School students,
faculty and staff. Students can use
the network to send a mass e-mail
to the entire Business School com-
munity, but doing so is considered
a "misuse of a University resource,"
Plantinga said.
Business School junior Jamie
Epstein said she has found the mass
e-mails bothersome, but thought
they seemed more effective than
using the CTools site. She estimat-
ed that half the emails she received
about switching core courses were
from students trying to get out of
an 8:30 class.
"Although the spamming can
become overwhelming, annoying
and unnecessary, ifyou want to read
it, you read it, if you want to delete it,
you delete it," Epstein said.
She also said there are difficul-
ties with using the CTools browser,
because student responses are not
typically in chronological order.
Sometimes, old posts from students
who may have already found a swap
partner can linger for days.
To remedy that problem, Busi-
ness School officials have asked
students to delete outdated posts in
the newsletter.
"It gets chaotic," Plantinga said.
"If we could get students to do self
clean-up, then that might help the
clutter of threads."

Because Academic Services
can't guarantee that everyone will
find a swap partner, some students
assigned to the 8:30 a.m. class
aren't able to find a way out. Some
feel that having an early morning
class hurts their chances of earning
a good grade.
"I had two accounting classes at
8:30 in the morning last year, and
I felt it was a barrier in my learn-
ing," Business School junior Mike
Spadafore said. "That is kind of
frustrating because those are class-
es that are tough to learn already
and tough to really absorb."
Spadafore said that he knows
there are students out there who
like waking up early in the morn-
ing. He said the students who like
to wake up early in the morning
should be assigned the classes
instead of people who struggle to
function that early.
"I was forced to take Account-
ing 272 at 8:30 and I could not con-
centrate - I just didn't want to be
there," Epstein said. "I wanted to
learn but I couldn't concentrate at
that time in the morning."
Business School sophomore
Steve Babinec said he didn't mind
having an 8:30 a.m. class, but said
most students aren't as alert in
morning classes.
"When you talk about B-school
competitiveness and grades, hav-
ing an 8:30 a.m. (class), you're at a
disadvantage," he said.
While some students remain dis-
gruntled, some say getting up early
is practice for the future.

DETROIT (AP) - Mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick has tossed his eco-
nomic stimulus plan onto the City
Council's court, but it's unclear if
Detroit's legislative arm is willing
to play along.
The embattled mayor, despite
facing felony perjury and other
criminal charges, continues to
promote the more than $300 mil-
lion bond proposal to improve city
infrastructure and services.
Yesterday, he outlined how $15
million of that amount would pro-
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vide loans for existing businesses
in Detroit and venture capital for
entrepreneurs.
"We don't want businesses to
grow up and leave. We want them
to grow up and stay," Kilpatrick
said.
He urged the Council to pass the
plan and criticized hearings delv-
ing into the machinations behind
an agreementto settle two whistle-
blowers' lawsuits for $8.4 million.
"All of the other things we're
dealing with won't help get anyone

a job," he said of the hearings.
But Council has only received
drafts of the proposal and is not
scheduled to discuss the plan until
April 25, Councilwoman Sheila
Cockrel said.
"This proposal is being, in a
sense, driven by the mayor's cam-
paign needs for a good story," she
said.
"Every document I have is a
draft. I need to see transaction
documents. Give me the deal docu-
ments."


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