The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 - 3
The Michigan Daily michigandailycom Tuesday, March 17, 2009 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
GM to close
midsize-car factory
for three weeks
General Motors Corp. will tem-
porarily close a midsize-car fac-
tory near Pontiac, Mich., for three
weeks due lower demand for its
products, a company spokesman
said yesterday.
GM's Orion Township plant,
which makes the Pontiac G6 and
Chevrolet Malibu, will close the
weeks of March 30, April 6 and
April 13 to "align production with
market demand," spokesman Chris
Lee said.
The factory has about 3,200
hourly workers who will get state
unemployment benefits and sup-
plemental pay from the company
that total about 85 percent of their
base pay.
The closure is specific to the
Orion plant's products and not part
of alarger company production cut,
Lee said.
NEW YORK
If government gets
way, Ruth Madoff
will get nothing
Prosecutors probing Bernard
Madoff's massive fraud are deter-
mined to leave his wife with almost
nothing after telling a Manhattan
court that they consider more than
$100 million in assets, most of it
listed in her name, the fruits of her
husband's crimes.
The government even includ-
ed a $39,000 Steinway piano and
$65,000 in silverware, both owned
by Ruth Madoff, in items it said it
will try to force the Madoffs to for-
feit. The list was in a three-page
document filed in U.S. District
Court late Sunday.
Brenda Sharton, a lawyer with
a Boston firm representing several
burned investors, said the govern-
ment's aggressive approach with
Ruth Madoff isn't surprising.
"I don't think it's unusual ...
given the magnitude of the fraud,"
she said. "It would be unusual if
they didn't go after whatever assets
they can get."
WASHINGTON
Obama plans boost
in lending for
small-businesses
Seeking to counter a chorus of
unhappy Republicans and nervous
Wall Street investors, President
Barack Obama and his economic
team are taking a cheerier tone
while making billions in federal
loans available to the nation's
struggling small businesses.
Obama and Treasury Secre-
tary Timothy Geithner yester-
day planned to announce a broad
package that includes reduced
small-business lending fees and an
increase on the guarantee to some
Small Business Administration
loans. A day earlier, the president's
adviserssaidintelevisioninterviews
that they remained confident in the
nation's economic fundamentals, at
times adopting upbeat rhetoric the
president once mocked.
"The fundamentals are sound
in the sense that the American
workers are sound, we have a good
capital stock, we have good tech-
nology," said Christina Romer, who
heads the White House Council of
Economic Advisers.d.
In report, faculty
members call for
greater protections
From Page 1
The report calls on the
regents and University admin-
istrators to create a policy that
will extend faculty members'
academic rights to include the
freedom of speech as defined in
this circumstance.
"We recommend that the Uni-
versity ... expand the definition of
academic freedom to cover speech
'on matters of public concern as
well as on matters related to pro-
fessional duties and the function-
ing of the university,' " the report
said.
According to the report, such
a change would protect faculty
members from a possible aca-
demic freedom issue, like the one
at the University of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee in the future.
"Such a change would have the
benefit of discouraging routine
use of administrative discipline
against professors who raise
internal criticisms against this
university's policies and their
implementation," SACUA wrote.
Although the full report is
posted on the regents' website,
the regents will not officially
receive the report until their
monthly meeting on Thursday
afternoon.
Classics and Law School Prof.
Bruce Frier, who helped draft the
report to the regents, said earlier
this month that the report was
meant to notify the regents of the
issue, but that he didn't expect
the regents to take action on it.
"It really is just a courtesy to
the regents," he said. "It's not
that I think anyone really expects
the regents to do anything (about
this) themselves."
Frier said SACUA wanted to
bring the issue before the regents
now, while the issue is not of
immediate concern, to avoid the
perception that the report had
any ties to a situation on campus.
"We wanted to proceed now
before there was a controversy
so it would not seem that when a
controversy eventually occurred
it was coming up in the context of
some specific debate," he said.
SACUA has already met with
the Office of the President, Office
of the Provost and the Office of
the General Counsel on the issue.
University spokeswoman Kelly
Cunningham said the University
doesn't believe this is a topic of
concern or that anythingneeds to
be done about the issue.
"Our commitment to pro-
tecting faculty free speech is as
strong as ever," she wrote in an
e-mail. "(The court cases) do not
change our fundamental philoso-
phy and commitment to faculty
free speech and academic free-
dom."
In an exclusive interview yes-
terday, Provost Teresa Sullivan
said she didn't yet know enough
about the issue to choose a side.
"I don'thave a sufficientunder-
standing of (the cases)," she said,
adding that she would need to
review a legal memorandum on
the issue first.
Sullivan said that while there
isn't time to review the issue right
now, she may look into it over the
summer.
"I think that right now we
don't have time to get a complete
legal memorandum on this," she
said. "I'd like to see if General
Counsel can help me with that in
the summer."
President Mary Sue Coleman addresses the Faculty Senate Assembly yesterday to discuss the affairs of the University.
SENATE ASSEMBLY
From Page 1
cating our students is absolutely
critical," she said. "We do believe
the University of Michigan will be
well-positioned."
Although the University may
receive additional money from the
federal stimulus package, Coleman
said the University would not use
that money for recurringexpenses.
"We will not pay ongoing
expenses of the operating budget
- that will have to be paid forever
- with one-time money," she said
of the stimulus funds.
Coleman stressed how impor-
tant faculty members were to the
success of the Michigan Differ-
ence campaign. The ,campaign,
which ended at the end of last
year, set the record for the largest
fundraising effort of any public
university in the United States.
"As I review what's happened
in the campaign, I am always
reminded of the participation
INTERNET
Vermont considers From Page 1
of the faculty and how much of
our faculty ... made what I con-
sider to be unbelievably gener-
ous donations to the University,"
she said.
Coleman also discussed the
University's plans to purchase
the Pfizer's former Ann Arbor
complex, saying the purchase will
advance the University's mission
and will help stimulate the econ-
omy.
"(This will) permit the Univer-
sity to do things it couldn't even
have dreamed of," she said: "(It
will) change the shape of the Uni-
versity."
University officials announced
in December they would purchase
the former Pfizer complex on
North Campus. The University is
currently in the due diligence pro-
cess in considering exactlywhat to
house in the facility. The closing
on the Pfizer deal is also expected
to be announced in June, barring
any unanticipated complications.
Another new addition to the
University that Coleman dis-
excited and really happy," she said.
"They thanked us over and over."
Joan Ervin, a graduate of the
College of Engineering, also trav-
eled to Kenya.
"You could feel that they under-
stood that this could really change
their lives," Ervin said. "They
wanted to learn how to do every-
thing for themselves."
Trisha Donajkowski, a fellow
graduate of the College of Engi-
neering and the third of the trio
to go to Kenya, said the system is
comprised of a satellite dish, a solar
panel, batteries and "electronics
that manage the modem and wire-
less router. She added that the sys-
tem is operated by a combination
of solar energy and battery power
to account for the many locations
without electricity.
Ervin said the system works
by transmitting a signal from the
computer to a satellite dish. The
satellite dish then relays the sig-
nal to a ground station in Europe
where the desired information is
retrieved and sent back to Africa
via the satellite.
"Basically we are bypassing all
the infrastructure that is usually
required," Zurbuchen said.
He said the system was installed
to create a type of Internet cafe,
cussed is the recently formed film
office. The new office will handle
the influx of requests from film
studios to film on campus, as a
result of the state's 40-percent tax
incentive for the film industry.
Coleman specifically talked
about the recent filming of Betty
Anne Waters - starring Hilary
Swank and Minnie Driver - that
filmed on campus over spring
break. The filming allowed hun-
dreds of students to serve as
extras and learn more about the
film production process, she
said.
On March 25, the University
will launch a new website to high-
light the University's accomplish-
ments and ongoing work, Coleman
said.
"(It will be) a one-stop shop
(with) easy to find information
about events that are of interest...
particularly to people involved in
some of our funding," she said.
- Shruti Gandhi
contributed to this report.
where community members could
gather to surf the Web.
Since the engineers left Kenya in
November, Moran said "everything
is really working well. They really
haven't had many major problems
that we've heard of."
She said government officials
are able to use the Internet to
send documents faster than in
the past. She added that citi-
zens have utilized the Internet to
learn about education, obtaining
a visa, agriculture and disease
prevention.
All the students involved agreed
that connecting Kenyans to the
rest of the world through prod-
ucts of their own labor was a life-
changing experience.
"I guess just my favorite thing
was just that I could do something
that I love," Donajkowski said. "I
could apply engineering in a way
that seemed like it mattered."
Ervin said the experience. has
made her realize what kind of work
she wants to do in the future.
"I think all of us are excited that
we got to work on something that
we actually went and built and
implemented it and saw the effects
of our work," she said. "It got us
all fired up about doing something
similar in the future."
same-sex marriage
Lawmakers to hold
hearings on bill
that would allow
same-sex marriage
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -
Nine years after it played host
to a bitter fight over civil unions,
Vermont's Statehouse is again a
gay rights battleground.
More than 200 same-sex
marriage opponents, cheering
and wearing buttons that read
"Marriage - A Mother & Father
for Every Child," converged
Monday on Montpelier as law-
makers began a week's worth
of hearings on a bill that would
allow gay and lesbian couples to
marry.
If approved, Vermont would
join Massachusetts and Con-
necticut as the only U.S. states
that allow gay marriage.
The measure would replace
Vermont's first-in-the-nation
civil unions law with one that
allows marriage of same-sex
partners beginning Sept. 1.
Civil unions, which confer some
rights similar to marriage, would
still be recognized but no longer
granted after Sept. 1.
Supporters cast the debate as
a civil rights issue, saying a civil
unions law enacted by the state
in 2000 has fallen short of the
equality it promised same-sex
couples. Its appeal has declined,
too: In 2001, the state granted
1,876 civil unions, compared
with only 262 last year.
Passing a gay marriage bill "is
one of the most important civil
rights issues of our time," said
Greg Johnson, a Vermont Law
School professor who testified
before the state Senate Judiciary
Committee on Monday.
While the bill won't guaran-
tee federal benefits, supporters
say it would provide societal
recognition, improve access to
health benefits and eliminate
one of two obstacles to federal
protections such as Social Secu-
rity survivor benefits.
all areas around the world in need
of the Internet but eventually cen-
tered its attention on Africa.
"We focused a lot on the ground
system, how we could design a
low-cost system that's very easy to
deploy, easy to transport and sim-
ple to use," Moran said.
While the students never imag-
ined their designs wouldbe applied
to real-life scenarios, last summer
the program's sponsor, Google,
decided to turn their prototype
into reality.
Moran said after hearing about
Google's plans to finance their
trip to Kenya, "we were just blown
away, we couldn't believe it."
Once they knew their systems
would be used, Moran said real-
life conditions like heat and dust
had to be taken into consider-
ation.
Moran said the Kenyan commu-
nities they helped received them
with open arms. She added that
as she and her team entered a site,
residents would run alongside the
trucks and offer to help with the
assembly process.
"They were really eager, really
Tuesdays Are South Of The Border
Corona/Des Equis Specials All Night
$2 Te jmi fa ,S tfn Ks=e ,A,- vodko Drink
25% Off Mexican Fare ,& NO COVER
I'mmobr Rnrnti 4mmmeal4mm4m 1A *a% dummu -m
I
TEHRAN, IRAN
Former president - s
pulls out of Iranian 310 M ~WdSt. M Imm734%0100 - toud uxt to eMaywd w4I S1We
presidential race
Iran's most prominent reform-
ist, former President Mohammed
Khatami, pulled out of the race
against the country's hard-line
president yesterday, saying he didn't 7 3 2 4
want to split the pro-reform vote in
upcomingelections. 2 1 3
Khatami's entry into the race
against President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad a month ago boost- 8 3 4 7
ed the hopes of some among the
reformists, who favor improving 5 6 9
ties with the West and liberalizing
Iran's conservative Islamic gov- 4 7 5
ernment.
But two other prominent reform-
ists entered the race for the June 12
electionafterKhatami. Oneofthem,
former Prime Minister Mir Hos- 9 8
sem Mousavi, is a former hard-liner
who Khatami has said has a better
chance of siphoning conservatives'
votes. With Khatami pulling out,
Mousavi is now seen as the leading 3
reformist candidate.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Accounting M.S.A.
Biology M.S.
Biostatistics M.S.
Business Administration. M..A.
CellandMolecular Biology M.S.
Communications M.S.
Corputer information Systems M.S.
CriminalJustice M..
Education M.Ed.
M.Ed. - Reading/Language Arts,
School Counseling, or Special Education
ducational Specialist in Leadership Ed.S.
Engineering M.S.E.
English M.A
Health Admninistration M.H.A.
Health Sciences M.H.S.
Medical and Bioinformatics M.S.
Nursing M.S.N.
Occupational Therapy M.S.
Physical Therapy D.RP.T
Physician Assistant Stud is M.PA
Public AdmnistrationM dA
Social Work M.S .W
Taxation M.S.T
EXCELLENTCHOICE. Grand Valley offers 80 areas of
study in 26 respected graduate programs, including
business, education, engineering, and health care. U.S.
News and World Report rated us first in the Best
Universities-Master's category in their review of up-and-
coming schools in the Midwest in part because of
our reputation for academic excellence, outstanding
faculty, and affordable tuition. Call or visit online to learn
more about the programs, people, and partnerships that
make Grand Valley an excellent choice for a graduate
degree. gvsu.edu/grad 1 616.331.2025
@GRANDVALLEY
STATEUNIVERSITY
v