1 e Ic 1 an 4:3at19
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
michigandaily.com
INAUGURATION DAY
Students head for Washington
College Democrats,
NAACP organize
buses to Inauguration
By LINDSAY KRAMER
Daily Staff Reporter
While many students will be
spending today glued to their
screens as Barack Obama is sworn
in as the 44th president of the Unit-
ed States, some lucky students will
have a chance to watch the action
firsthand in Washington D.C.
To celebrate the inauguration,
members of the University's chap-
ter of College Democrats cara-
vanned to Washington, D.C. for the
event - even though only a few of
the 15 students going actually have
tickets. The University's chapter of
the NAACP also organized a bus to
take a group of students to D.C., but
most of the students who rode the
bus don't have tickets either.
When Obama is sworn in today,
officials expect between one and
five million people to attend, even
though only 240,000 tickets were
made available to the general pub-
lic through members of Congress
and the Presidential Inaugural
Committee.
Ticket holders will watch the cer-
SEND US YOUR
INAUGURATION
PICTURES
InaugurationDay@umich.edu
emony from the steps of the Capitol
Building. Those without tickets will
be able to watch the event on big
screens throughout the National
Mall. This is the first inaugural
event in which the entire National
Mall will be open for the public.
Though mostof students going to
the Capitol don't have tickets, stu-
dents attending the inauguration
said they are looking forward to
being in D.C. on this historic day.
College Democrats Chair
See INAUGURATION, Page 7A
Google's
Page next
graduation
speaker
CELEBRATING MARTIN LUTfHER KING, JR. DAY
University alum,
Google co-founder
chosen to give
address on May 2
By KYLE SWANSON
Daily StaffReporter
Larry Page, Google's co-
founder, will be the speaker at
this spring's commencement
ceremony,
University
President
Mary Sue
Coleman
said in an
interview
yesterday.
Page, LARRY
a Univer- PAGE
sity alum
and current
president of products for Google,
will deliver the commencement
address at this spring's ceremo-
ny on May 2.
If approved by the Board of
Regents at its monthly meeting
Thursday, Page will also receive
an honorary doctorate in engi-
neering when he speaks at the
ceremony.
"Celebrating the accomplish-
ments of the class of 2009 will be
all the more special with Larry
Page as our speaker," Coleman
said. "In a relatively short period
since his own graduation from
Michigan, he has made a mean-
ingful and lasting contribution
to society."
A native of East Lansing,
Page was influenced by his
parents and began his fascina-
tion with computers when he
was six years old. Page's father,
Dr. Carl Page, also a University
alum, taught computer science
at Michigan State University
for more than 25 years, before
his death in 1996. Larry Page's
mother, Gloria, worked as a
database consultant.
During his time at the Uni-
versity, Page served as the pres-
ident of the University's chapter
of Eta Kappa Nu - the national
honor society for electrical and
computer engineering students
- and was a member of Tau
Beta Pi, an engineering honor
society.
Page graduated with honors
from the University in 1995 with
a bachelor's degree in computer
engineering. He continued his
education at Stanford Universi-
ty, where he earned his master's
degree and began a Ph.D. pro-
gram. It was there that Page met
Sergey Brin and together they
founded Google in 1998.
Page served as Google's
founding CEO for three years
before assuming his current role
in 2001. Page also serves on the
company's. board of directors
See GRADUATION, Page 7A
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond delivers the keynote speech of the Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium in Hill Auditorium yesterday. ,CHRIS DZOMBAK/Daily
Bond: Rights fight ot over
NAACP chair says
Obama's election a
step but not the end
By CHARLES GREGG-GEIST
Daily StaffReporter
In the keynote address of the
23rd Annual Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Symposium,
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond
told the large crowd assembled
in Hill Auditorium that while
Obama's election is a major vic-
tory for the Civil Rights Move-
ment, it is not the end.
"We know one man climbing
,to the top of the mountain does
not mean the end of the climb for
everyone else," he said to mur-
murs of approval. "The NAACP
is not the National Association
for the Advancement of one Col-
ored Person."
Throughout his speech, Bond,
a civil rights leader and founding
member of the Student Nonvio-
lent Coordinating Committee,
emphasized the challenges that
remain for the African Ameri-
can community. He pointed
specifically to high rates of pov-
erty, incarceration and homicide
among African Americans.
Bond, a former Georgia Dem-
ocratic state legislator, repeat-
edly criticized the Republican
Party for ignoring issues that are
important to minorities.
"The Republican Party has
focused almost entirely on its
base and marginalized the rest of
the country," he said. "As long as
they donotlooklike orrespondto
minority voters, the Republicans
will remain a minority party."
He was also vocal about the
fight for affirmative action.
"For most of us the idea that
See BOND, page 7A
REGENTS PREVIEW
Crisler to be
renovated
Comedian discusses black media
I
'Senior Black Wilmore spoke yesterday
to a crowd of over 300 in the
Correspondent' Michigan Union Ballroom
about his career, Barack Obama
talks about his and the state of race relations
in America.
rise to stardom "A lot of people have said that
now that we've elected Obama,
By EMILY ORLEY America isn't racist anymore,"
For the Daily Wilmore said. "I don't know if
I agree with that. I mean if we
In a speech to mark Martin elected Flavor Flav, that would
Luther King Jr. day yesterday, show that America is done with
Larry Wilmore, the "Senior racism."
Black Correspondent" for "The Despite his jokes, there was no
Daily Show with Jon Stewart," , humor in Wilmore's voice when
touched on the importance of he discussed the importance of
the day and discussed his rise the election.
from a stand-up comedian to Growing up in the era of Jesse
a correspondent for one of the Jackson, Wilmore said he knows
most watched comedy shows on firsthand about how hard it has
television. See WILMORE, page 7A
50,000-square-
foot, $23M project
to add practice,
training facilities
By KYLE SWANSON
Daily StaffReporter
The University Board of
Regents will soon take the first
steps toward the construction
of a new practice facility for the
men's and women's basketball
teams.
In its monthly meeting
Thursday, the Regents will
consider a proposal from the
Department of Intercollegiate
Athletics to construct a new
basketball training and prac-
tice facility adjacent to Crisler
Arena, which hasn't undergone
major structural repairs since it
opened in 1967.
The new facility will address
the growing need for more prac-
tice space due to shared facilities
and difficulties with schedul-
ing. A letter sent to the Regents
signed by Athletic Director Bill
Martin and the University's
Chief Financial Officer Tim
Slottow sought permission for
a 50,000-square-foot addition,
which is estimated to cost more
than $23 million. Additionally,
the new facility will perma-
nently displace about 60 parking
spaces, along with an additional
90 parking spaces during con-
struction.
The proposed facility will
house two new basketball prac-
tice courts, team locker areas, a
strength and conditioning area,
an athletic medical space and
coaching and staff offices.
In a separate statement
released Monday, Martin said the
project is very important to the
future success of both basketball
teams.
"This is a major step forward
in improving our basketball
facilities," he said. "The facility
will allow our student-athletes
to practice later inthe day, giving
them more flexibility in schedul-
ing their academic classes."
John Beilein, the men's bas-
See CRISLER, Page 7A
CHRIS DZOMBAK/Daiy
Larry Wilmore of "The Daily Show" speaks in the Union Ballroom yesterday.
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