The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Economy will get
worse before it gets
better, Obama says
President-elect Barack Obama
said the economy seems destined
to get worse before it gets better
and he pledged a recovery plan
"that is equal to the task ahead."
Obama also said in an interview
broadcast yesterday that the sur-
vival of the domestic car-making
capacity is important, yet any
bailout must be "conditioned on
an auto industry emerging at the
end of the process that actually
works."
Less than six weeks before he
takes office, Obama said that help
for homeowners facing foreclosure
is an option as part of his plan. He
sidestepped a question about when
he plans to raise taxes on wealthy
Americans.
Obama's interview on NBC's
"Meet the Press" was his most
extensive since winning the White
House more than a month ago.
"The economy is going to get
worse before itgetsbetter," he said
twice in the early moments of the
interview, taped Saturday in Chi-
cago.
CHICAGO
Dodd: GM chief
should step down
A senator who will help deter-
mine whether the auto industry
gets a$15billionbailoutsaidyester-
daythattheheadof GeneralMotors
should step down, telegraphing
what could be a congressional
demand for a top-line shake-up in
Detroit in exchange for financial
life support.
Rick Wagoner, the chief execu-
tive of GM, "has to move on,"
said Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.,
chairman of the Senate Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs Com-
mittee. He spoke on CBS' "Face the
Nation."
"I think you have got to consider
new leadership," Dodd said. Asked
if that should be a condition of any
bailout, he added, "I think it is
going to have to be part of it."
"I think it's clear GM is in the
worst shape," Dodd said before
specifying the need for Wagoner to
BEIJING
Nations meet to
discuss N. Korea's
nuclear program
Envoys from the United States
and five other nations gathered
today for talks on mothballing
North Korea's nuclear program,
amid dour predictions for prog-
ress in the negotiations.
The six, who also include South
Korea, North Korea, China, Japan
and Russia, were to hold bilateral
meetings before sitting down for
formal talks Monday afternoon,
a South Korean official said. He
declined to be identified because
he was not authorized to speak to
the media.
North Korea - which tested a
nuclear bomb in 2006 - agreed
last year to disable its main reactor
in exchange for aid.
But the North recently said it
would not allow inspectors to take
samples from the nuclear complex
to verify its past activities, casting
doubt on the chances for progress
in negotiations on methods to vali-
date the North's accounting of its
nuclear programs.
NEW YORK
Scientists say brain
pills can be used by
healthy people
Healthy people should have the
rightto boost their brains with pills,
like those prescribed for hyperac-
tive kids or memory-impaired older
folks, several scientists contend in a
provocative commentary.
College students are already
illegally taking prescription stim-
ulants like Ritalin to help them
study, and demand for such drugs
is likely to grow elsewhere, they
say.
"We should welcome new meth-
ods of improving our brain func-
tion," and doing it with pills is no
more morally objectionable than
eating right or getting a good
night's sleep, these experts wrote
in an opinion piece published
online Sunday by the journal
Nature.
The commentary calls for more
research and a variety of steps for
managing the risks.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Pakistan targets Mumbai suspects
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP)
- Pakistani troops seized a camp
used by the extremist group
blamed in the Mumbai attacks and
arrested more than 12 people, mil-
itants and a security official said
Monday.
The raid was the first known
action by Islamabad in response
to the attacks, which have sharply
raised tensions between nuclear-
armed rivals Pakistan and India
and raised concerns in Washing-
ton over its campaign against al-
Qaida in the region.
India says the Mumbai siege
was carried out and plotted by
Pakistani militants belonging to
MARIJUANA
From Page 1A
vices Bureau, a process likely to
take months to complete.
"The program is expected to
begin on April 4, but until then,
everything is the same as it was in
June, in July, in August," McCur-
tis said. "And it will remain the
BUSINESS SCHOOL
From Page 1A
phen Ross.
The reception drew hundreds
of students, many who were eager
to see the inside of the new facility
for the first time. Many students
at the event said they were excited
for the Business School to have a
new building.
Business School senior Justin
Killion said while he's excited to
use the new facilities, he's less
than impressed with the build-
ing's exterior.
"Honestly, I think the burnt
orange, while I understand the
tiles are for energy efficiency, is
pretty ugly, but it is growing on
me slowly," he said. "The carpet
choice leaves much to be desired
in the main area. It looks a little
like someone used it for a drop
cloth while they were painting
with some pretty hideous colors."
Featuring a cavernous three-
story glass atrium named the
Davidson Winter Garden, the
grandeur of the new Business
School becomes apparent as soon
as you walk in the door.
From the deeolv stained hard-
the banned Laskhar-e-Taiba. It
and the United States are demand-
ing Pakistan crack down on the
perpetrators.
Troops briefly exchanged fire
with people at the camp during
Sunday's raid close to the town
of Muzaffarabad in the Pakistani
part of the disputed Kashmir
region, the militants said.
A senior intelligence official
confirmed the raid and arrsts.
He said the detainees were
being questioned over any possible
links to the Mumbai attacks and
several injured people were being
treated at a military hospital.
He spoke on condition of ano-
same until the medical marijuana
program is officially put in place."
The patient ID card or, if neces-
sary, a caregiver, will be enough to
protect patients from prosecution
for one year, after which re-appli-
cation to the program is required.
LSA junior Chris Chiles, execu-
tive director of Students for a
Sensible Drug Policy, said the pro-
posal's passing was great news for
wood halls and staircases to the
walls adorned with over 200
pieces of contemporary artwork,
including paintings and sculptures
from the Ross Art Collection, the
building is more reminiscent of a
home than of a typical academic
building.
The exterior of the new Busi-
ness School sports sharp lines
and a deep orange fagade, while
the interior features thousands of
square feetofwindows,brand new
classrooms and a 7,500-square-
foot fitness center.
Business School senior Amy
Zeng said she is looking forward
to using the building's new state-
of-the-art facilities.
"I'm particularly excited for the
new gym to open," she said. "It is
so much nicer than the IM build-
ing and the CCRB."
The new facility houses 12 large
classrooms that seat 85 or more
people, five smaller classrooms, a
500-seat auditorium and numer-
ous group study rooms, each with
a flat-panel television. Students
can reserve the study rooms using
touch screens mounted on each
study room door.
Killion said the new classroom
facilities will definitely be an
nymity because of the sensitive
nature of his job.
The militants said the camp was
used until 2004 by Laskhar-e-Tai-
ba to train recruits to fight Indian
rule in its section of the Kashmir.
More recently, it was used by
Lashkar's parent organization
Jamaat-ud-Dawa for education
and charity work, they said.
The militants spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity because they
belongto an illegal organization.
Analysts say Lashkar-e-Taiba
was created the with help of Paki-
stan's intelligence agencies in the
1980s to act as a proxy fighting
force in Indian Kashmir.
patients who had been waiting to
legally use marijuana as a way to
ease pain.
"Doctors are able to make rec-
ommendations to treat or alleviate
patients' debilitating conditions,
which isgreat," he said. "The thing
about this is that it's not a prescrip-
tion - it can't be written on a little
pad. The doctors are really just the
gatekeepers in this."
upgrade from what the Business
School currently uses.
"All of the classrooms were really
nice," he said. "Comfortable chairs,
nice whiteboards, flat screen plas-
mas and projectors were every-
where, so using the new facility will
be a breath of fresh air after hav-
ing to deal with using the cramped
classrooms that we currently have."
The facility is also environ-
mentally friendly, with expansive
skylights, high-efficiency electric
lighting. The building also has
living roofs covered in a drought-
and cold-resistant ground cover
called sedum, and instead of syn-
thetic padding, cork underlying
the floors and walkways. There
are two living roofs on the new
building and one was added to the
Kresge Library. All three are ther-
mally efficient and should help to
reduce heating and cooling costs
while allowing for gutterless rain
and snowmelt management.
A significant portion of the
building was constructed using
recycled materials. Fifty percent
of construction-related debris and
94 percent of demolition-related
debris was recycled, making the
new building one of the greenest
on camous.
ENDOWMENT
From Page lA
Such a rolling average payout pol-
icy helps compensate for volatility
in the financial markets by taking
into account a longer span of time
and financial performance for the
endowment.
Many other colleges and uni-
versities use more current market
values for their endowments to
determine payout amounts. The
University endowment's payout
policy is currently 5 percent of
the seven-year average market
value.
The seven-year average helps
stabilize the University's spend-
ing and shields it from swings in
the market. Rather than paying
out a percentage of the endow-
ment's total current value, the
University instead pays out a
percentage of the endowment's
average value over the last seven
years. Since recentlarge spikes in
the endowment's value weren't
accompanied by large increases
in spending from the endow-
ment, the University won't have
to make deep spending cuts to
account for the endowment's
decline.
Although the University's
endowment reported returns of
6.4 percent in the fiscal year that
ended June 30, the full effect of
the ongoing global financial crisis
was not felt in full until the cur-
rent fiscal year began, and espe-
cially in the past two to three
months.
These losses, though, were not
entirely unexpected for officials
in charge of managingthe Univer-
sity's endowment.
In a September meeting of the
Senate Advisory Committee on
University Affairs, a University
of Michigan faculty governance
board, Chief Investment Officer
Erik Lundberg said he predicted
the next two to three years would
be "rough" and "slow going" for
the endowment.
Some of the losses suffered by
the endowment have likely come
from the fund's stock holdings,
Monday, December 8, 2008 - 3A
which, as of June 30, made up just
over 27 percent of the $7.8 billion
endowment. Between July 1 and
Dec. 1, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average dropped from 11,382 to
8,149 points - a loss of about 28
percent. During the same period,
the S&P 500 - an index of the val-
ues of 500 widely-held U.S. stocks
- dropped by about 36 percent,
from 1,284 to 816 points.
The endowment as a whole con-
sists of more than 6,000 separate
funds, including stock holdings.
Investments in bonds, venture
capital, private equity, real estate
and energy also comprise the
endowment's- overall portfolio,
which is managed by Lundberg
and Chief Financial Officer Tim
Slottow.
The news of the endowment's
losses comes as officials try to cut
expenditures throughout the;Uni-
versity to deal with the difficult
economic climate in the state and
nationwide.
The University says it has cut
expenditures in the general bud-
get by nearly $120 million over
the past five years and plans to
increase that total to $135 million
with cuts to the budget for the
current fiscal year, according to
a report released by the office of
the Provost.
Cost-cutting measures include
renegotiating contracts with Uni-
versity suppliers to reach more
favorable terms, new buildings
that are more energy efficient,
encouraging behaviors that save
on energy costs, and the use of
financial gifts to aid the Univer-
sity's general fund.
Given the volatility of the cur-
rent financial markets around
the world, and the prediction
that the ongoing financial cri-
sis could stretch far into 2009,
University President Mary Sue
Coleman discussed in an Octo-
ber interview the idea of further
lowering the endowment's 5 per-
cent payout.
"I'mnotconvinced weshouldn't
go lower," she said. "If we're gonna
have super volatile times, would
we be better off at four-and-a-half
(percent)?"
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