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Monday, March 23, 2009
michigandaily.com
THE NUANCES OF NETWORKING
For GSIs, an
ethical puzzle
on Facebook
W ithout clear policy, Shaheen's policy of accepting stu-
dents' friend requests after the
'U' instructors form semester.
However, he voiced several
their own, ad hoc concerns about GSI-student inter-
actions outside of the classroom.
friendship rules "There are a myriad of concerns
that range from perceptions of
By JASMINE ZHU favoritism to outright inappropri-
Daily StaffReporter ate relationships," he said. "That
being said, I did tell my students
The question of whether or not that if they wanted to friend me I
to accept a student's Facebook would accept their requests after
friend request has been perplex- the semester."
ing GSIs since the social network- When asked if the University
ing website took off a few years had any central policy governing
ago. Facebook friendships between
But the lack of a clear, central professors, GSIs and students,
University policy regarding online John King, vice provost for aca-
relationships between faculty'and demic information, said "the short
students has forced GSIs to form answer is 'no.'
self-imposed, ad-hoc guidelines. King said that while he could
Many GSIs said they decline imagine circumstances in which
friend requests from students dur- social networking sites like Face-
ing the semester,but tend to accept bookcouldbeused for questionable
them after the semester ends. activity,Universityadministrators
While this policy remains unoffi- had not yet deemed it appropriate
cial at the University, it appears to to step in.
be a common practice across the "This University doesn't jump
many of the University's depart- on the opportunity to create poli-
ments. cies justbecause there is an issue,"
Jonathan Shaheen, a GSI in the he said.
Philosophy Department, said he He added that he had not yet
practices a policy of accepting stu- been made aware of any issues,
dents' friend requests only once though, he admitted, such cases
the term ends. wouldn't likely cross his desk.
"I would guess that the typical The concern of inappropri-
policy is to let students drive Face- ate relationships between GSIs
book interaction, and accept what- and their students is explicitly
ever they want," Shaheen said. addressed in the UM Faculty
A GSI in the Political Sci- Handbook.
ence Department, who wished According to Section 8.D.12 of
to remain anonymous because the handbook, which outlines per-
he was not permitted to discuss sonal relationshipsbetween facul-
department policy, also shared See FACEBOOK, Page 3A
0
(From left to right) Forward Manny Harris, coach John Beilein and guard David Merritt during Saturday's loss to Oklahoma. See SportsMonday for more on the game.
~~"he first step inatraon
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -
t's the ending to a story many
have been waiting more than
decade to tell.
It doesn't conclude during the
National Invitation Tournament or
the Big Ten Tournament.
It ends at the NCAA Tournament
second-round postgame press con-
ference with Michigan men's bas-
ketball coach John Beilein looking
slightly choked up and red in the
eyes.
It ends with Beilein laying a
reassuring right hand on the back
of junior forward DeShawn Sims
as his go-to big man made sense of
everything.
"We were a win away from the
Sweet 16," Sims said after No. 10
seed Michigan's
73-63 loss to No.
2 seed Oklaho-
ma on Saturday.
"It doesn't get
no sweeter than
that for a team
that finished
10-22 last year.".
Actually, it RUTH
didn't get any LINCOLN
sweeter for
many of last sea-
son's teams with 20 or more losses.
Of this year's 65 tournament
teams, Michigan had the worst
record last season. And just one
other 20-plus-loss team last season
- Radford - made this year's Big
Dance.
It's a turnaround no one outside
the Michigan locker room expect-
ed, but it can be the start of some-
thing bigger.
With their first tournament bid
since 1998, the Wolverines have set
the bar high. In the next few sea-
sons, this team has a special oppor-
tunity: to keep it there.
It's been so long since Michigan
was a tournament regular. From
1985 to 1998, the Wolverines missed
the NCAA Tournament just twice.
And this is the first decade since the
1960s Michigan hasn't reached the
Final Four.
In 1999, few made a fuss that for-
mer Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe's
team, which went 25-9 the previous
season, finished a dismal 12-19.
"I'm more than satisfied with the
job Brian has done," then-Athletic
Director Tom Goss told the Detroit
Free Press in March 1999. "I've
seen the kids' skills develop, and
he's gotten them to play hard every
night. Brian's going to be a good
coach over time. In my view, he's
going to be one of the finest coaches
we have here at Michigan."
But the Ellerbe era proved to be
See BASKETBALL, Page 7A
MSA V. GIBRAN BAYDOUN
Baydoun charges
For former MSA pres.
candidate, campus
judiciary rules trial is
enough punishment
By JENNA SKOLLER
Daily StaffReporter
All charges brought against for-
mer Michigan Student Assembly
presidential candidate Gibran Bay-
doun were dropped Friday after the
judicial branch of the University's
student government determined
that having to go through the trial
process was punishment enough.
MSA's Central Student Judiciary
Chief Justice Daniel Horowitz, a
Law School student, said Baydoun,
an LSA junior, should consider the
"strong words" he received from
the three justices trying him and
the concerns from his classmates as
his penalty.
Baydoun, who was chair of the
Homecoming Committee, was
accused of inappropriately hold-
ing onto the $2,527.42 raised for
University of Michigan Dance
Marathon during homecoming last
October for about five months and
of depositing the funds into his per-
sonal checking account.
If a fundraiser collects more than
$500, the money must be depos-
dropped
ited into a MSA account within one
business day of the event, according
to MSA Treasurer Lisa Averill.
On behalf of MSA, Student Gen-
eral Counsel Michael Benson, a
Rackham Graduate School student,
filed a case against Baydoun with
CSJ, calling for the justices to pro-
hibit him from being an authorized
signer for an MSA-registered orga-
nization and to charge him with a
$50 fine. The trial was held Friday
at 5 p.m. in the Union.
During the hearing, Baydoun
admitted to holding onto the money
and depositing it in his bank account.
Because of a robbery in his build-
ing during homecoming week, Bay-
See BAYDOUN, Page 3A
PROGRAMMING WHAT'S NEXT
At Hack U, students get a break
ANNA BAKEMAN/Daily
Dancers perform during the last hour of the 30-hour Dance Marathon event yesterday in the Indoor Track and Field Building.
Dancing in a down economy
Engineering students
compete in 24-hour
contest to produce
the next 'it' product
By STEPHANIE STEINBERG
Daily StaffReporter
You have 24 hours to design a
new computer program or phone
application. Get started.
These were the instructions
given to 20 engineering students
last Friday at the Computer Science
and Engineering Building. The stu-
dents were taking part in Hack U, a
24-hour competition sponsored by
Yahoo! that challenges college stu-
dents across the country to design
new technologies, or hacks.
This is the first time Hack U has
come to the University of Michigan
since the competition started three
years ago.
Evan Goer, Yahoo! community
manager and developer, said Hack
U gives students "the chance to
take an idea and run with it."
"We want them to actually create
an interesting prototype," Goersaid,
"dive into an interesting product
and just build that hack in an envi-
ronment where they have people
around them from (the) industry.
"We bring superstar engineers
around to the college campuses,
and they're able to talk very bluntly
to student audiences about what
different Web technology can do
for you," he said.
Goer was referring to engi-
neers like Rasmus Lerdorf, Yahoo!
employee and inventor of PHP - a
computer language for Web pages
- who lectured in College of Engi-
neering classes the week leading up
to the event.
See HACK U, Page 3A
Dance Marathon captains in bright pink shirts led
the group from the stage located at
reports fundraising the front of the room, their move-
ments wild and sporadic.
numbers slightly dip University of Michigan Dance
Marathon had just begun.
By JASMINE ZHU For 30 hours - from early Satur-
Daily StaffReporter day morning to Sunday afternoon
-- - students from across campus
Saturday morning at 10 a.m., stood on their feet to raise money
C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make and awareness for pediatric reha-
You Sweat (Everybody Dance bilitation programs at C.S. Mott
Now)" blared out of the loudspeak- Children's Hospital at the Uni-
ers in the Indoor Track Building versity and Beaumont Hospital in
on South Campus. Royal Oak, Mich.
Multicolored lights flashed The marathon, now in its 12
above approximately 800 students year, has grown from a small
who gathered for the event. Morale group of 30 students in 1997 to a
major student-run nonprofit orga-
nization. Last year the event raised
approximately $428,000.
This year the organization
raised $388,134, a number UMDM
Executive Director Mike Spada-
fore said is incredible in this econ-
omy.
"I'm 100 percent proud of every-
thing we've been able to accom-
plish this year," Spadafore said.
"Due to some economic times, it's
been impacting everybody. But
we're extremely proud.
"Most of our focus (is) helping
these kids," he said. "Everyone is
in need in these economic times."
She DANCE MARATHON,,Page 7A
WEATHER HI 55
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