The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 7A
IN THE GROOVE
In Halloween garb,
MSA passes stem
cell resolution
Groove, a percussion group, performs during the Live! Michigan event that took place in the Mendelssohn Theater yesterday. The event hosted other events and videos
such as a performance by the Friars and a documentary about Insomnia Cookies. All of the money from tickets went to University of Michigan Dance Marathon which
raises money for pediatric rehabilitation.
Wal Street jumps an, ut no one sirelaxin
Resolution comes one
week before voters
consider Proposal 2
By MATT AARONSON
Daily StaffReporter
At the front of the room, Hell-
boy, Mr. Incredible, Superman and
Wonder Woman sat around a table
while Batman performed opening
roll call. A bull and a deer in the
corner tried in vain to force candy
through their polyester mouths.
It was Justice League-meets-
Animal Kingdom-meets-Town
Hall last night in the Michigan
Student Assembly's chambers, as
the Halloween-costumed body
debated and passed a resolution
supporting human embryonic
stem cell research in Michigan.
The resolution, authored by rep-
resentatives Gibran Baydoun and
Paula Klein, claims that Michigan
is "one of five states with the most
severe restrictions on embryonic
stemcellresearch."Itcitesresearch
outlining the practice's potential
benefits and argues that having
fewer restrictions would be benefi-
cial to the University and the state.
Proposal 2, a state ballot initia-
tive that stands to loosen restric-
tions on embryonic stem cell
research, is set to go before voters
next Tuesday. The authors origi-
nally intended to pen a resolution
explicitly stating the assembly's
support for the initiative, but the
Michigan Campaign Finance Act
of 1976 forbids the use of pub-
lic resources to advocate for or
against a ballot measure.
MSA's funds, which come from
student fees, are considered to be
public resources.
The contentious moral and
political nature of the issue did
little to deflate the festive atmo-
sphere,because the debate focused
overwhelmingly on the question
of the resolution's legitimacy.
Representative Andrew Chinsky,
who said his brother benefitted
from such research, opposed the
resolution even though he person-
ally supports the cause.
Chinsky argued it was "not an
appropriate issue" for MSA to dis-
cuss.
"I don't think that we have the
responsibility to express the opin-
ion of the student body on this
matter," he said, adding that he
doubted it would have an impact
if it passed.
Representative Tim Hull had
similar feelings.
"I don't feel like it's MSA's place
to go take a stance, particularly
when people have moral objec-
tions to this research," he said.
Baydoun disagreed, citing
MSA's status as a representative
student body and arguing that
"if there's anywhere" where stu-
dents' opinions should be spoken
for, "it's here." He referenced
University President Mary Sue
Coleman's presentation at last
week's Board of Regents meeting
in which she voiced her personal
support for Proposal 2.
"With greater research into
embryonic stem cells, we can
expand our development of ther-
apies and cures and extend our
commitment to the well-being of
the people in Michigan," she said.
The resolution passed with 21
votes for and 5 against.
Dow rose nearly 900
points yesterday
(AP) - Wall Street's best day
ii two weeks - and one of its best
ever - brought little real reason to
celebrate.
Even 'the manic, final-hour of
buying that sent the Dow Jones
industrials soaring almost 900
points Tuesday was overshadowed
by the reality that it could turn on
investors in an instant.
The extraordinary, lurching
volatility that has gripped Wall
Street since the financial melt-
down began in mid-September
meant there were no guarantees
the rally would hold, not even for
a few days.
tnvestors are expecting a cut
in interest rates when the Federal
CAMPAIGN
From Page 1A
problem with that."
Wilson went on to discuss the
potential of adult stem cell lines to
cure diseases. Kmiec challenged
Wilson by asking how he could
support McCain while denouncing
' Obama for his pro-life stance.
"Because there's no perfect can-
didate," Wilson replied.
According to polling data from
the Pew Forum on Religion and
Public Life, Catholics make up about
25 percent of the U.S. electorate,
Reserve announces its decision
Wednesday. But they're also star-
ing into an economic abyss, brac-
ing for a recession of a depth no
one knows for sure.
Any other day like this - the
Dow and the Standard and Poor's
500 both rose almost 11 percent -
might have ended with boisterous
cheers and paper tossed into the
air. On Tuesday, 4 p.m. came with
meager applause.
"I don't think it will be a sus-
tained move," said Matt King, chief
investment officer at Bell Invest-
ment Advisors.
The Dow finished 889 points
higher to close at 9,065. On Oct.
13, the Dow rose 936 points, its
best ever; no other single-day
rally has come close in terms of
points to what happened Tues-
day.
making them a key group for both
candidates. In their life narratives,
Senators Obama and McCain often
recount experiences that led them
to find their religious identity.
But the topic has not been a cen-
traltheme ineither ofthe candidate's
stories, which could be one reason
polling showed that Senator Obama's
former Democratic rival Hillary
Clinton won the Catholic vote by a
large majority. In the general elec-
tion campaign, the Obama campaign
has fought hard to earn the votes of
those Catholic Clinton voters.
According to Pew data, Obama
currently leads McCain in white
Analysts ventured a number of
explanations for the sudden rally
- including coming interest rate
cuts, bargain hunting, a market
desperate to find a bottom and the
expectation that banks, at the urg-
ing of the White House, will quit
hoarding money and start making
loans.
"There is nothing fundamen-
tal that came out today or yester-
day that would take it up or down.
We're all groping for something
meaningful to talk about," said Bob
Andres, chief investment strategist
at Portfolio Management Consul-
tants. "The market is exhausted
from going down."
The mood on Main Street
is decidedly more pessimistic,
and new data Tuesday showed
Americans are more depressed
than market , analysts had
non-hispanic Catholic registered
voters 49 percent to 41 percent.
Kmiec said he received scrutiny
from the church after his endorse-
ment of Obama, who is pro-choice.
In his closing statement last night,
he recounted being refused com-
munion during church services and
being verbally scolded by the priest.
"Fight for your faith. Fight for
thecallingofthehumangood.Fight
for the truth of the human person,"
Kmiec said. "Senator Obama will,
and that's why IShave given him my
vote in clear conscience."
After about 90 minutes of ques-
tions, audience members were
expected.
The Conference Board's con-
sumer confidence index plunged
to the lowest level in its 41-year
history in the wake of this month's
financial meltdown, the sharp
drop in home prices and increas-
ing job losses.
The index fell to 38, down from
a September reading of about 61 -
the third-steepest monthly decline
since the board started the mea-
sure in 1967. Analysts, way off the
mark, had expected 52.
"It's the worst consumer envi-
ronment since the 1981-1982
recession," said Adam York, an
economist at Wachovia Corp.
Americans believe "there's a
very dire situation in the U.S.
economy right now, and they're
not far from being right," he
added.
asked to discuss their thoughts and
concerns with those at their table.
Each table had a discussion facili-
tator who lead the talks. k
Engineering senior Joey Per-
oxky attended the forum after
hearing about it at St. Mary's,
where he attends church. He said
abortion and health care are the
most important issues for him,
adding that his table's discussion
helped make a decision of who to
vote for.
"There were differing views, but
the views people had were well-
reasoned and helped a lot with my
thinking," Peroxky said.
Blizzard closes schools,
highways in northeast
New York, Vermont
and Pennsylvania
affected
PORTJERVIS, N.Y. (AP) - The
first big snowstorm of the season
in the Northeast closed sections
of major highways yesterday and
blacked out more than 100,000
utility customers.
The National Weather Service
posted a winter storm warning for
parts of New York state, in effect
until 8 a.m. Wednesday, and issued
winter storm advisories for parts
of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and
Vermont.
"It looked like a mini blizzard in
October,"said Joe Orlando, spokes-
man for the New Jersey Turnpike
Authority. "We're salting the roads
and we haven't even gone trick-or-
treating yet."
Up to a foot of snow was pos-
sible in parts of upstate New York,
with wind blowing at 25 mph and
gusting to 40 mph, and as much as
9 inches of snow was forecast in
Vermont's mountains, the weath-
er service said.
Up to 13 inches of snow had
fallen by Tuesday afternoon in
Pennsylvania's Pocono Moun-
tains.
TREES
From Page 1A
Buckeyes. But there's more to
it than that," she said. "It's just
'been a really fun way to get peo-
ple involved that aren't necessar-
ily environmentalists," McCusker
said.
TUTU
From Page 1A
No tickets are required to attend
Wednesday night's lecture. Wendy
Ascione, one of the event's planners,
advised students to arrive at Hill
well before the doors open at 7 p.m.
The University plans to broad-
GOOGLE
From Page 1A
especially those still protested by
copyright, will be accessible online.
"If it's an in-copyright work in
this settlement, my guess is we are
at the very best, a year and a half
away, and it could be twice that," he
said.
After the scanning process is
completed, Courant said, the Uni-
versity community will have access
to some of the world's largest book
collections.
The $125 million from Tuesday's
settlement will go toward the cre-
ation of a program called the Book
Rights Registry, which will pay
authors and publishers royalties
from advertisement revenue earned
when their works are accessed
online. It will also be used to pay
certain copyright holders whose
works have already been scanned
withouttheir approval, and to cover
the legal costs of the plaintiffs.
According to Courant, the Uni-
versity will not pay any of Google's
settlement costs.
The settlement, Courant said,
A similar campaign in Ohio
called "Save the Buckeyes"
began in September. Both the
Ohio and Michigan programs
operate under the Pew Charita-
ble Trusts, a social justice orga-
nization.
"The rivalry is bringing us
together - which, as a Michigan
alum, is a scary thought," McCusk-
cast the lecture to across the street
in the Modern Languages Building
to accommodate the crowd.
Past recipients of the Wallenberg
Medal include Paul Rusesabagina, a
Rwandanhotelmanager,was award-
ed the medal in 2005 for hiS brave
actions that saved more than 1,000
refugees during the Hutu-Tutsi con-
flict; Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai
allows Google and the participating
Universities and other institutions
to digitize their collections without
negotiating individual contracts
with publishers and authors, saving
money and time.
"What would have happened
otherwise, we would have had to
negotiate book by book, publisher
by publisher, for the rights tobe able
to make the book available to some-
body," he said. "Presumably, there
also would have been some pay-
ment there too, but the negotiation
costs would have been huge."
Allan Adler, the vice president
for legal and governmental affairs
for the Association of American
Publishers, said the Google Book
Search project will now be able to
develop and expand its offerings to
readers on a legal footing."
But it remains unclear how much
access different types of Google
users will have.
Courant said the University
will pay for a license that provides
access to all of the content scanned
from all of the libraries. He said
the University will be rewarded for
participatfng in the project through
some reduced access fees for the
er said.
The Stop the Buckeyes Coali-
tion campaigned during the foot-
ball game against Michigan State
University on Saturday, garnering
more than 300 signatures of sup-
port.
Ibanez voiced some criticism of
the campaigns, saying their inten-
tions were admirable but misguid-
Lama and exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader was recognized in 1994 for his
work for nonviolence, human rights
and peace; and Holocaust survivor
and author Elie Wiesel iiy1990.
The medal honors University
alum Raoul Wallenberg, a Swed-
ish diplomat and a 1935 graduate of
the College of Architecture. During
the lastcyears of World War II, Wal-
materials from other libraries.
"The universities that made the
biggest contributions of books will
get credit against that fee for the
contributions they made," he said.
"So it's actually going to be a very
long time before anybody at the
University of Michigan will have to
pay to use these books."
The settlement established a de
facto legal footing of just how much
permission Google needed from
publishers and authors to avoid
copyright infringement.
Organizers of the Google Search
Project and publishers and authors
nationwide have disagreed on what
constitutes "fair use" - a legal doc-
trine that allows the reproduction
of particular works without getting
explicitcapproval from the copyright
holder depending on its distribution
and usage.
Adler said the aspect of the Book
Search project that led to the law-
suits was the "Library Project," in
which participating libraries, like
the University, agreed to digitize
their entire collections including
in-copyright works.
Courant said that though he
thinks it's fair use to buy the books,
ed.
"Education on global warming
and people being aware and taking
action - that's important to me,"
she said. "But I don't understand
the point of stopping the buckeye.
Global warming is very serious
and we should be doing something
about it, but is this just about foot-
ball?"
lenberg saved tens of thousands of
Hungarian Jews from the Nazis by
giving them passports, shelter and
protection. According to Godfrey,
the medal is awarded annually to
"people who, through actions and
personal commitment, represent
the highest standards of commit-
ment to defending humanitarian
values."
scan them and then allow users to
search them, he would draw the
line at mass distribution.
"It would not have been fair use
to make the entire work available
online to anybody on campus," he
said. "That's quite clearly a copy-
right violation."
With the pending settlement,
Courant said the publishers and
authors are allowing what was pre-
viously a violation in exchange for
the settlement payments.
"The publishers and authors in
this setting say (making the collec-
tions accessible online) is OK'with
them because they are going to
make a little bit of money on it and
that pleases them," he said.
Adler said the settlement allows
Google and the publishers to work
together to find a mutually ben-
eficial way of continuing the book
digitization project.
"We think that the settlement is
fair and balanced," he said. "And it
provides a good basis for Google
Book Search to go forward to the
benefit not only of Google, but for
publishers, for authors, for uni-
versity libraries and for readers as
well."
-
N
;
- .
with Divya RoIIa
ove you body like you've never
dreamt before
Oct. 31, 2008
Michigan League, Koessler Room:
10 am- 11.30 am,
11.30 am -1 pm
Michigan Union, Wolvenne Room:
2.30-4pm, 4-5.30pm, 5.30-7pm
I
IF
I
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2008
4:10 PM Alumni Center, Founders Room