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Ann Arbor, Michigan

Friday, March 27, 2009

michiganaaly om
THE COST OF SAFE SEX
Birth control
prices could
drop at UHS

Displaced West Quad residents hang out and nap on the ninth floor of South Quad after a small fire in their residence hall caused a full evacuation early Thursday morning.
W Quad fire ruled arson

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er Congress lifts clinics across the country that
drug companies may reinstate
trictions, college suchdiscounts, said Mary Hoban,
director of the American College
fles may regain Health Association.
"What will happen now is it
will allow the manufacturer to
reinstate (the discounts), (but it)
By NICOLE ABER can't guarantee that they will,"
Daily StaffReporter Hoban said. "The bill doesn't
say that they have to do it. It just
er the past couple of years, removes the financialbarrier that
rice of contraceptive prod- was put in place by the Deficit
as steadily risen to the point Reduction Act."
e it has become increasingly When employees at the Uni-
ordable for the average Uni- versity Health Service found out
y student. about the January 2007 provi-
hidden beneath the sions that would terminate the
national projects of Presi- discounts, it stocked up on a
Barack Obama's recently year's supply of the birth control
ved stimulus bill is an pill Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, so the
ive with the potential to price would remain at the dis-
e the price of birth control counted level of $21 per cycle,
hat nearly 40 percent of col- according to Gwendolyn Chivers,
romen use. chief pharmacist at UHS.
ring the past two years, the But when the supply ran out in
of contraceptive products September 2008, the price rose to
yrocketed at health centers $50.
llege campuses across the To combat the price increase,
ry after provisions made to Chivers said UHS "switched
eficit Reduction Act took many of our brand prescription
in January2007. These pro- birth control products over to
is dissuaded contraception generic because we wanted to
facturers from continuing keep them in that $20-something
unts to college health cen- price range."
y instating a monetary pen- But despite switching many
n these reductions. patients from the more expensive
rough Obama's budget, the brand name products to generic
vial restrictions on these contraceptives, certain products
ants will be lifted, pumping like Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo and the
ticipation for college health See BIRTH CONTROL, Page 3

Residents report
confusion, lack of
information after
sprinklers set off
By JILLIAN BERMAN
and JACOB SMILOVITZ
Daily News Editors
The small fire in West Quad last
night that triggered a full evacua-
tion of the residence hall has been
ruled an arson, officials said.
Department of Public Safety

Spokeswoman Diane Brownasaid an
arson in a residence hall is "highly
unusual."
"It was apparently intention-
ally set in the hallway of the lower
level," she said.
Peter Logan, spokesman for Uni-
versity Housing, said all residents
whose rooms were not directly
affected by the water damage could
return very early this morning.
Twenty students in 11 rooms
were displaced due to water dam-
age, Logan said. Those rooms are,
as of 3 p.m. this afternoon, still not
habitable due to the water.
"We're anticipating that most

of the 11 rooms that were affected
have been cleaned and will be
available for occupancy this eve-
ning," Logan said. "But if a resident
in one of those rooms feels that it is
too damp ... we'll work with them
to find temporary lodging for the
evening."
The confusion immediately fol-
lowing the evacuation was com-
pounded by an overall lack of
information reaching displaced
residents, according to several stu-
dents outside the residence hall
early Thursday morning.
West Quad resident advisor Kari
Sant said that when the alarms first

started ringing, people thought it
was a false alarm.
"This happened two weeks ago,"
she said. "And it was someone burn-
ing waffles."
Sant said officials had told resi-
dents the event was an "actual
incident" and that "everybody was
asked to evacuate for the entire
night."
LSA freshman Michael Wilinski
said residents weren't informed of
how long they would have to wait
for the clean-up to be completed.
"We played football for a while
but that got old pretty quick," he
See FIRE, Page 3


STUDYING OVERSEAS
Students abroad caught in
French political crossfire

GREEK PHILANTHROPY
With charity, Greek Week goes local

Professors on strike
after policy change
alters who controls
their research
By ANNIE THOMAS
Daily StaffReporter
University students studying
abroad in France this semester may
have gottenmore thanthey original-
ly bargained for.In addition to travel-
ingacross Europe and learningmore
about foreign cultures, students
have been caught in the crossfire of

a months-long battle between the
country's university professors and
the French government.
Since February, protest has
swelled in France surrounding
President Nicolas Sarkozy's edu-
cation reforms. Professors across
France have been cancelling class-
es, causing panic and frustration
for students concerned about com-
pleting their classes and obtaining
credits they counted on in order to
stay on track for graduation.
AccordingtoTheGuardian,aBrit-
ish newspaper, these reforms greatly
effect the research done by French
academics. University professors in
France are required to have a certain

balance of research and academic
teaching. And up until now, profes-
sors' peers determined whether or
not thatbalance was met.
But Sarkozy's education reforms
place that power into the hands of
the university presidents, enraging
French professors worried they are
losing control over their research.
University of Michigan students
studying in Aix-En-Provence, a
region in the South of France,
report they have felt the effects of
the strikes as much as any French
university student.
"The strikes have unfortunately
forced my academic program to hire
See STUDY ABROAD, Page 3

Changing course,
Greeks will donate
funds, efforts to
local charities
By VERONICA MENALDI
Daily StaffReporter
In years past, Greek Week par-
ticipants spent several days rais-
ing money for various charities,
but never got the chance to see the
impact of their donations. But this

year, Greek Week organizers are
hoping to change that by giving
the money to local charities, and
have already raising $48 thousand
to help that cause.
In addition to donating money,
participants are also giving their
time and service to local charities,
including the campus group Will
Work for Food.
Nursing senior Dayna Brooks,
one of the co-directors of Greek
Week, said this shift is benefi-
cial for both participants and the
charities they are helping.
"It's really great to just get

involved," she said. "Not just to
donate moneybecause alotofpeo-
ple just do that. We've really been
focusing this year on service and
giving back to the community."
Steven Weinberg, LSA senior
and president of Will Work For
Food, said he is excited to partner
with the Greek community for
the week because the push to help
local charities through both time
and money is at the core of his
group's mission.
"Students are realizing the
straining economic issues of our
See GREEK WEEK, Page 3

THE SYMPHONY MEETS THE SYNTHESIZER

MKHIGAN STUDENT ASSEMBLY
New MSA heads seek tranispareilcy

Mahanti, Rorro to
rework MSA website,
make it easier to use
By JENNA SKOLLER
Daily StaffReporter
During the hotly contested cam-
paign to lead the Michigan Student
Assembly, Abhishek Mahanti and
Mike Rorro promised to increase
the assembly's accountability and
transparency, if elected.

Now that the race is over, the
pair has started to take their cam-
paign slogans and make them more
concrete.
Rorro said all of the changes
they have in the works have to do
with using the assembly's resourc-
es to cater only to students' direct
needs.
"Going forward into the next
year, our primary goal, as it was in
the campaign, is to bring students
back to the assembly, a place where
people see it as a resource, where
they see their representatives

as public servants," Rorro said.
"Everything that we do is based on
the question, 'Have we made stu-
dent life better here at Michigan
through passing this resolution or
going out and doing this event or
funding this group?"'
Mahanti said one of the most
important changes inbringing about
this increased focus on student
needs is revamping MSA's website,
which he said should be finished by
the beginning of the fall semester.
The two new webmasters MSA
See MSA, Page 7

Daniel Bernard Roumain and DJ Scientific perform in the Pendleton Room of the Union yesterday. About 100 people showed
up to dance at the event presented by Arts Enterprise.


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