The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, November 24, 2008 - 3A,
NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Dems expect Big
3 to show they're
worth helping
Leading Democrats expect U.S.
automakers will show Congress
next month they are worth rescu-
ing and are capable of returning
to global pre-eminence. Skeptical
Republicans said yesterday that
Detroit's Big Three needed to con-
vince taxpayers that they deserve
an emergency $25 billion lifeline.
With the survival of a major
manufacturing sector at stake,
a top adviser to President-elect
Barack Obama warned the compa-
nies that there is little the govern-
ment can do without a viable plan
to retool and restructure. One
leading Democrat urged Obama to
become more involved.
Executives from Detroit's Big
Three returned home after a pair
of disastrous hearings on Capitol
Hill last week, under orders from
Democratic leaders to provide
Congress with a detailed account-
ing by Dec. 2 of their financial con-
dition and short-term cash needs,
as well as a plan for viability over
the long term.
Hearings are expected the
week of Dec. 1. Lawmakers could
consider legislation the following
week if they are satisfied by the
companies' responses.
"My expectation is that we
are going to see something, that
the auto companies are going to
respond in a way that I think will
give confidence to the Congress
and to the American public that we
need to assist these companies,"
said the House's second-ranking
Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer of
Maryland.
TBILISI, Georgia
Georgian, Polish
presidents'
motorcade fired on
Shots were fired near the mo-
torcade carrying the presidents of
Georgia and Poland yesterday -
the fifth anniversary of Georgia's
Rose Revolution - Georgian offi-
cials said. No one was hurt in the
shooting.
Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili, who led the pro-
Western 2003 uprising but whose
popularity has waned in recent
months, blamed Russian troops in
Georgia's breakaway province of
South Ossetia.
"Frankly, I didn't expect the
Russians to open fire," he said at
a news conference with Polish
President Lech Kaczynski. "The
reality is you are dealing with un-
predictable people. They weren't
happy to see our guest and they
weren't happy to see me either."
Kaczynski said the shots were
fired from only about 30 meters
(100 feet) from the motorcade. He
said it was not clear if the gunfire
was aimed at the motorcade or
shots were fired into the air.
HOUSTON
Astronauts work on
machine to convert
urine to clean water
Astronauts tinkered yesterday
on a troublesome piece of equip-
ment which can convert urine
and sweat into drinkable water
once it's functioning and allow
the international space station to
grow to six crew members.
Station commander Michael
Fincke and Endeavour astronaut
Donald Pettit changed how a cen-
trifuge is mounted in the $154
million water recycling system.
The centrifuge is on mounts and
Mission Control asked Fincke
to remove them and bolt it down
without them.
The astronauts have been
working for the past three days to
get the system running so it can
generate samples for testing back
on Earth, but the urine processor
only operates for two hours at a
time before shutting down.
The water recycling system,
delivered a week ago by the space
shuttle Endeavour, is essential for
allowing more astronauts to live
on the space station next year.
Lead flight director Ginger
Kerrick said engineers hope the
problem is fixed, but they were
studying whether six crew mem-
bers would still be able live at the
space station with the urine pro-
cessor only working for two hours
at a time. The space station crew
is scheduled to grow from three to
six residents next year.
In season fiale, Blue goes down
with a whimper at Ohio State
RATKOWIAK from Page lA
The Wolverines can hope it
won't be as bad next season.
"Ain't going to happen on my
watch asa senior next year,"
Minor said in his postgame press
conference.
But the Wolverines seemed to
believe that at the beginning of
this year, too. This time around,
they'll have to understand where
they went wrong Saturday - and
this season - before they try to fix
those problems next spring.
PREGAME:
Before it even started, the
biggest rivalry game in college
football was already irrelevant.
The ABC broadcasters estimated
just 200 of the 105,564 fans in the
stands were Michigan fans, and it
was easy to believe that, looking
out at the solid red crowd.
Rodriguez had been accused
of not seeing the importance of
the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry
before coaching in The Game, and
the questions about it had already
become annoyingly repetitive by
the time Ohio State week rolled
around.
It still wasn't clear he under-
stood on Saturday. Next season,
he has to prove he knows. Espe-
cially in a transition period where
SCHOLAR
From Page 1A
ies, he said he's been interested in
medicine since his childhood.
El-Sayed said he e-mailed many
professors before starting medical
school because he wanted to try
his hand at research. Epidemiolo-
gy Prof. Sandro Galea was the only
one who responded, and has now
been El-Sayed's doctoral adviser
for the past two years, he said.
Prof. Galea said that although
he usually doesn't let students vol-
unteer with his research team, he
let El-Sayed join because he was so
persistent.
After a "very short period of
time, he was exceptional," Galea
said, adding that EI-Sayed's intel-
ligence and hard-working nature,
which he called an "uncommon
combination," will lead the scholar
to impact many fields.
"I think he's a perfect candidate
for Rhodes," he said. "He's highly
deserving and exactly the type
of person who should get such a
scholarship."
E-Sayed said his current inter-
est in the social determinants
of health started after reading a
research study that showed how
the effects of the 9/11 attacks
increased the risk for low birth
weight among Arab-American
women in California. He said he
wanted to see if there were simi-
lar effects in Michigan.
"One thing led to another, and
I just fell in love with the science,
and that's kind of all she wrote,"
he said.
El-Sayed said preparing his
application and practicing inter-
views took "many, many hours."
He met individually with eight
people from the University who
interviewed him to get the Uni-
versity's endorsement, which is
required to be considered for the
scholarship. Then, he said, he
focused on "rewriting and rewrit-
ing and rewriting my personal
statement to get it just right."
In the weeks leading up to
his final interview in Minnesota
this past weekend, El-Sayed said
he constantly drilled himself to
practice how he might answer
questions.
"I'd be working out, and I'd just
so much of Michigan tradition is
being overhauled, the rivalry can't
be overstated enough. Bo Schem-
bechler made his team do drills
in sets of 50 the year after Michi-
gan's 50-14 loss to the Buckeyes.
And next year, Rodriguez should
make sure two sets of numbers
from this season aren't forgotten:
3-9 and 42-7.
After Saturday's loss, Rodri-
guez said, "The quieter I am, the
less drama I have to deal with."
But next year, he needs to empha-
size the importance of the rivalry
so much that Michigan fans are
sick of hearing about it before the
game happens.
It's not just any other game.
When Jim Tressel came to Ohio
State and spoke at his first pep
rally, he made sure Buckeyes fans
knew success started with a win
in Ann Arbor - and he's now 7-1
against the Wolverines.
ON THE FIELD:
When the going got tough this
season, Rodriguez often used
the number of months he's been
the Michigan head coach as an
excuse.
"Nine months," he said back in
September, answering a question
about his team's progress with a
dramatic pause for effect. "Nine
months."
be interviewing myself," he said.
He said he was asked every-
thing in his final interview from
how communism affected public
health to whether the 1967 Arab-
Israeli War was an "accident."
Fiona Rose, a University alum
who won the Rhodes Scholarship
in 1998, started helping El-Sayed
early this year with his applica-
tion preparation, which included
editing at least seven drafts of his
1,000 word personal statement.
"He's wonderful. He's smart,
he's personable, he's sincere, he
cares a lot about other people," she
said. "It couldn't happen to a bet-
ter person."
She said the scholarship will
help him gain a more international
perspective in his research, while
allowing him access to a host of
people and resources that would
otherwise be unavailable to him.
More than 1,500 students
each year seek their institution's
endorsement for the Rhodes Schol-
arship. This year, 209 applicants
from 107 colleges and universities
It was the same the next month
before the Minnesota game.
"Ten months. Geez," he told
reporters exasperatedly, when
asked to evaluate how he's been as
the coach.
But 11 months after he was
hired, his team looked shockingly
similar to how it did in August.
A meager offense featuring a
bad offensive line and an erratic
quarterback.
A defense that gave up the big
plays.
A return game that couldn't
hold onto the ball.
Rodriguez constantly says
that he can see progress in prac-
tice Sunday through Friday that
doesn't show up on the field. Sat-
urday showed fans can no longer
give him the benefit of the doubt
- in terms of the season, there
was no improvement to speak of.
Experience will solve some
of those in-game problems, and
improving the product on the field
will obviously be the Wolverines'
top priority. Designating a No. 1
quarterback from day one will
help with team attitude and con-
sistency. Rodriguez's on-the-field
problems will be the easiest to fix
because this year's freshmen will
be sophomores, and that year of
experience could be the difference
in next season's close games.
reached the final stage of the com-
petition.
El-Sayed also won the presti-
gious Marshall Scholarship, which
sponsors education in the United
Kingdom. But he said he will fore-
go the Marshall because it doesn't
fund the program he wants.
He said he's excited to study at
such a "historic" university and to
work with people who have simi-
lar research goals in the public
health field.
"It's kind of surreal still, but at
the same time, I think it's an awe-
some opportunity to represent my
state, my country and other Mus-
lim Americans in my situation," he
said.
His wife Sarah said that after
he decided to apply, they both
were committed to helping him
work toward the award.
"Both of us had to go into it 100
percent sure that this is what we
want to do," she said. "He was
really pumped up and ready to
go."
She said that while there are
POSTGAME:
Losing is unacceptable, but a
fragmented team is intolerable.
There had been hints of it all
season, but the careful display of
team unity the Wolverines tried to
preserve all season finally crum-
bled Saturday.
It had been starting to publicly
unravel for a few weeks before-
hand, when Rodriguez announced
last week that Zion Babb and
Jason Kates were no longer on the
team. Others will certainly follow,
includingthe still-unannounced
but likely departure of sophomore
safety Artis Chambers.
Upperclassmen David Moos-
man and Terrance Taylor have
both said more than once in the
last few weeks that some of their
teammates don't always under-
stand the importance of playing
hard.
"Some people in the shadows
that maybe have different agen-
das, we're weeding those people
out," Moosman said last Monday.
But it wasn't until Saturday that
the team's disconnect became
glaringly, embarrassingly clear,
starting with senior Charles Stew-
art's fight with the coaching staff
in the first quarter and ending
with Brandon Minor stopping just
short of calling his teammates out
many talented people, EI-Sayed's
dedication and drive set him apart
from his peers.
"One thing you know, if you
know Abdul, is that he's an
extremely, extremely passionate
person," she said. "He doesn't do
anything halfway."
She said El-Sayed is "extreme-
ly idealistic, which some people
might take as a bad thing, but you
don't really change the world if you
don't have the hope that you can do
it in the first place."
She relayed a story of his high
school chemistry teacher telling
him that he wasn't smart enough
to learn chemistry. When she
by name after the loss.
"It's like some people don't
even like leaving theirself when
they step on the field," Minor
said. "Can't really blame Rich Rod
because everybody on the team
didn't buy in like they were sup-
posed to."
Going into next season, Rodri-
guez's first priority needs to be
getting his team to act like a team
again. He has said he wishes he
got to know his players better on
a personal level, and starting now,
he should make sure he does that.
In the end, Rodriguez said he
hopes this 2008 season will be
remembered as a "blip on the
radar." With all the notoriety it
has gained, that's doubtful.
Tying a program-record, five-
game losing streak within a sea-
son.
Five more average points per
game allowed this season than the
previous worst Michigan defense.
Five more losses than the Wol-
verines had last season.
That just means five months
from now, with spring practice
done and the start of season two
in the transition looming, the
Wolverines' progress needs to be
obvious.
- Ratkowiak can be reached
at cratkowi@umich.edu.
chemistry at the University.
"If someone tells himhe can'tdo
something, that means he's going
to put all of his effort into trying to
do it," she said.
Along with winning the award,
El-Sayed has led a medical mission
to Peru and co-founded Healing at
Home, which raises money for a
local health clinic.
Though he got a chance to cel-
ebrate with his family Sunday, El-
Sayed doesn't have much time to
slow down.
"I've got a huge exam on Mon-
day, so hopefully I can find some
time to study and pass my exam
and enjoy my vacation," he said.
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