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. WEATHEHR :28 GOTANEWS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail. TOMORROW L. 20 , news omichigandaily.com and let us know. ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM The 2008 University Salary Supplement EDITORSPAGE.BLOGS.MICHIGANDAILY.COM INDEX NEW S................. Vol. CXIX, No. 76 SUDOKU............... 020NTheNMi.hi.an..a.ly OPINION. michigandoily.com 1 " " " .............2A A R TS A.................. ............ ..5A ... ........3A CLASSIFIEDS......................6A .......... 4A SPORTSTUESDAY.................1B