CIie Lid jig1an BaIVj 'NI )._OM Ann Arbor, Michigan 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 TOMORROW LU4 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM Former 'U' baseball player to start for White Sox THEGAME.BLOGS.MICHIGANDAILY.COM INDEX NEWS .............:.................2A CLASSIFIEDS .. . . A........6A Vol CXIX, No. 14 DOPINION ........................4A MORE CAMPUS NEW S........7A 0209 The Michigan Daily ARTS.....A SPDRTSMDNDAY. oichioailp.com A T ................. A S O T M N A .....,...1 h