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Ann Arbor, Michigan

Friday, March 20, 2009

michigandaily.com

DANCIN'AND ADVANGIN'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -
The blue NCAA insignias
were sewn on the left
shoulder of the Michigan
men's basket-
ball team's jer-
seys.
Per NCAA
rulestheSprint
Centerwasvoid -
of advertising.
CBS, the
home of March RUTH
Madness, LINCOLN
broadcasted I
the game.
At -Wednes-
day's team dinner, Michigan men's
basketball coach John Beilein
allowed the Wolverines to eat at
The Cheesecake Factory instead of
at their team hotel. He figured they
deserved it. Desserts aren't nor-
mally served. during team meals,
but sophomore forward Manny
Harris ordered both ice cream and
brownies.
No matter how many elements
you added, it still seemed surreal.
This is the NCAA Tournament.
And Michigan is there.
After an 11-year absence from
the Big Dance, just getting a bid
would have been enough for some.
But from the tipoff of Michigan's
62-59 win over Clemson last night,
the desire for more was obvious.
The Wolverines were playing in
the Tournament and actually
dominating.

Sophomore forward Manny Har-
ris connected on three 3-pointers
in the first half. Freshman guard
Stu Douglass stole the ball at half
court and finished with a dunk to
force a Clemson timeout. His team-
mates erupted from the bench and
rushed towards him like it was the
national championship game.
Maize-clad fans chanted "The
Victors" during a timeout, com-
pletely unprovoked.
Michigan held a 16-point lead
early in the second half.
But this team believed all of it
was real all along.
Junior forward Deshawn Sims
admitted he had some pregame
anxieties, and a couple early air-
balls proved it.
And when Clemson came within
one point, with less than a minute
to play, redlity finally hit for every-
one else.
What were the Wolverines really
doing here?
"To a lot of people, it probably
felt like that but ... to ourself, we
expected to win," Harris said. "We .
wanted to win and that was the
main thing."
Harris, the player pegged to turn
Michigan's program around, came
back with yet another unstop-
pable play -- maybe the biggest of
his young career. And you better
believe it looked good on national
television.
With his team down one with
See FIRST ROUND, Page 7

CLIF REEDER/Daily
Michigan guard Stu Douglass shows some attitude after scoring in last night's first-round game against Clemson. The Wolverines won 62-59 and will play Oklahoma Saturday.


Mahanti Rorro pull
out slim victory in
studentgov. elections

MSA V. GIBRAN BAYDOUN
Baydoun charged for improprieties

ReMichigan
candidate held onto
charity funds in own
bank account
By JENNA SKOLLER
Daily StaffReporter
ReMichigan presidential can-
didate Gibran Baydoun faced
charges of improperly handling'
Michigan Student Assembly funds

at a pre-trial in the MSA Cham-
bers at 10 p.m. last night. The actu-
al trial will be tonight at 5 p.m. in
MSA Chambers.
General Council Michael
Benson filed a Central Student
Judiciary case against Baydoun
on behalf of MSA. CSJ accepted
two of the acts Benson present-
ed, the repercussions of which
could prohibit Baydoun from
being an authorized signer for
any organization registered with
MSA. Baydoun could also face a
$50 fine.

The funds,which were raised for
University of Michigan Dance Mar-
athon, were recovered Wednesday
morning, according to MSA Presi-
dent Sabrina Shingwani.
Any money raised should have
been donated directly to the
UMDM office immediately fol-
lowing the event, MSA Treasurer
Lisa Averill said. Baydoun, who
served as Homecoming Commit-
tee Chair, instead deposited the
$2,527.42 that was raised from
T-shirt and water bottle sales
See CHARGES, Page 7

Michigan Vision
Party executive slate
won 49% of vote
By TREVOR CALERO
Daily News Editor
Inahotlycontestedrace,Abhishek
Mahanti and Michael Rorro of the
Michigan Vision Party secured
the presidential and vice presiden-
tial seats for the Michigan Student
Assembly, according to unofficial
results released last night.
Mahanti, an Engineering junior,
and Rorro, an LSA junior, collected
2,196 votes - roughly 49 percent
of the total vote - just 223 more
than opponents Gibran Baydoun
and Greg Caplan of the reMichigan
Campaign, who received 44 per-
cent of the votes.
Kate Stenvig and Alanna Owag-
bemi, presidential and vice presi-
dential candidates for the Defend
Affirmative Action Party, won 268
votes - 6 percent of the total votes.
"I couldn't believe it," Mahanti
said ofhearingthenews that he had
won. "The first thought that came
to my hetd was 'this is incredible
that this whole thing worked."'
Mahanti said he was going to
PRANK VOTING
The Daily's favorite write-in votes cast in this
week's Michigan Student Assembly elections.
Barack Obama -7 votes; Mickey Mouse
- 3 votes; Rush Limbaugh - 3 votes; Karl
Rove - 2 votes; Yoda - 2 votes; Poops
McGee - 1 vote; Cheeseburger - 1 vote;
Mike Hart -1 votes; Dalai Lama -1 vote;
Jeff Lebowski -1 vte; Stephen Colbert
- 1 nate; Hillary Clinton - 1 note; John
McCain -1 vote; Paul McCartney -1 vote;
Mary Sue Coleman -1 vote; Batman and.
Robin - 1 vote; I couldn't care less if I
tried, seriously-1vote

UNIVERSITY BOARD OF REGENTS
Students lobby regents for freeze
in the University's tuition rates

cseIs DZOMBAK/Daily
Michigan Vision Party candidate Abhishek Mahanti (left), an Engineering junior, won
Michigan Student Assembly president, according to the unofficial election results
released last night. Above, Mahanti and Gibran Baydoun at a debate Monday night.

Regents also discuss
health benefits for
'U' employees,
honorary degrees
By KYLE SWANSON
Daily StaffReporter
Students from across campus
filled the Regents' Room in the
Fleming Administration Building

yesterday to urge the University
Board of Regents at its monthly
meeting to freeze tuition next
year.
Members of the campus group
Stop the Hike
calledonregents NOTEBOOK
and University
administrators to maintain cur-
rent tuition rates for the next
academic year as long. as state
appropriations remain the same.
Speaking before the regents,
Engineeringsenior AshwinLalen-

dran said Stop the Hike hopes to
keep the University accessible to
all students by temporarily halting
the recent up-ticks in tuition.
Lalendran noted that the
Michigan Student Assembly, the
LSA Student Government, the
Ross -School of Business Studnt
Government, the Residence Hall
Association and the Interfrater-
nity Council, among others, have
all passed resolutions supporting
the proposal.
See REGENTS, Page 7

spend the rest of the night relaxing
with his fellow party members. But
in the morning, Mahanti said he
knows there is work to be done.
He said he plans to speak with
current MSA President Sabrina
Shingwani and the rest of the exec-
utive board to talk about how to
move the assembly forward.
This year's election saw a signifi-
cant jump in voter turnout, some-
thing the MSA Election Board was
actively working to improve. Last
winter, 2,246 votes were cast in
the election - about 6.4 percent of
the student body. This year's elec-
tion had more than twice that, with
4,497 students casting votes for the
executive slate.
Election Director Emily Winter
said the more than 100-percent
increase in voter turnout was large-
ly due to the fact that this year's
election did not feature a single,
dominating party.

"Obviously in this election there
are two parties who both had great
visions for the organization and
for the school, and great teams of
people in their campaigns," Win-
ter said. "I think people responded
to that."
For the past five semesters lead-
ing up to this year's election, MSA
was run primarily by the Michigan
Action Party - a party that dis-
solved six weeks ago after Baydoun
and Mahanti, who were supposed
to be the party's presidential and
vice presidential candidates, cre-
ated their own groups.
Hours after hearing the results,
Mahanti said he still couldn't
believe what had happened.
"I guess we had fought so hard
for a campaign that was very prag-
matic and personality based that
I didn't know that people could
mobilize," he said. "I wasn't sure
that this experiment would work."

DANCE MARATHON
A look behind the impact of UMDM

For many families,
Dance Marathon is a
life-changing event
By VERONICA MENALDI
.Daily Staff Reporter
Almost 12 years ago, twins
Miles and Evan Peguese were
born three months early, weighing
only 1 lb12 oz and 1 lb 9 oz, respec-

tively. Their mother, Andrea Peg-
uese, was told that if her children
were to survive they would face a
pretty difficult life ahead.
Andrea said she "never lost
faith and just knew that they were
going to make it." And that is what
they did: her "miracle babies" sur-
vived. In the summer of 2003, her
five-year-old twins were selected
as Michigan ambassadors to rep-
resent the state for the Children's
Miracle Network, an organization

that raises money for children's
hospitals.
But Peguese said that her kids,
who were diagnosed with cere-
bral palsy, would have never got-
ten this opportunity without the.
help of the University of Michigan
Dance Marathon organization.
"It's really because of the Dance
Marathon that we really got intro-
duced to the Children's Miracle
Network and we've been a spokes-
See DANCE MARATHON, Page 7


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