The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - 7A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, October14, 2009 - 7A
she is interested in the environ-
MAJOR mental track within the Interna-
From Page 1A tional Studies major because it
"applies environmental studies to
"This major offers us an oppor- international issues."
tunity to switch reference fields Kollman has high hopes for the
so that we can actually become new major.
bi-lingual in the language of the "We're only six weeks into the
world as well as the language of semester and we have 25 stu-
America," Waltz said. dents," he said. "I think it will be a
Daniel Herwitz, director of the pretty popular concentration."
LSA Institute for the Humanities, If Kollman is right, the Univer-
further emphasized the value of sity has plenty of catching up to
preparedness by noting the role do. Many comparable universi-
the program will play in students' ties have had programs in Inter-
study abroad experiences, giving national Studies for upwards of
them the "skills to think about ten years.
what it is to be someplace." At Washington University in
"(Studying abroad) has to be St. Louis and Johns Hopkins Uni-
linked to a certain intellectual versity, International Studies is
preparation, so when you go, you the largest undergraduate major.
know enough about where the hell Emory, Indiana, Duke and Wis-
you are when you get off the plane consin also boast big numbers in
to be able to start listening to peo- International Studies concentra-
ple and what they have to say," he tors.
said. "Listening just doesn't come When asked why Michigan
out of nothing." lagged in the trend to establish an
Geared toward students who International Studies major, Koll-
hope to someday do work that man said the University wasn't in
spans oceans and cultures, the a rush to set up a program that
concentration will provide stu- wasn't up to its rigorous, innova-
dents with a range of skills for tive standards.
the "understanding of things "I think it took us a while to get
internationally," as Herwitz put it right, and that's what we did. We
it. didn't rush in to it. We took the
Lenora Paige, an LSA freshman time to make this a program that
who attended the discussion, said we'll be proud of," he said.
Public Safety spokeswoman.
CRIME Brown said that no weapon was
From Page 1A seen or implied at the time of the
robbery.
identifying someone." Brown identified the perpetra-
Dokshina described the man tor as a black male, about 40 or 50
as about six feet tall, dressed in years of age.
all black with a scruffy beard. She Dokshina said that the whole
said he appeared to be unarmed. event caught her very much off-
The man is believed to have been guard.
wearing a dark Carhart-type jack- "He seemed like a friendly
et and a black skullcap, according man too," Dokshina said, "how
to Diane Brown, Department of deceiving."
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ENROLLMENT
From Page 1A
concerned with this decrease and
is making efforts to prevent a fur-
ther decline in minority numbers
through outreach programs.
"We certainly are concerned
about this, and we made every
effort possible to both identify
young students who are under-
represented to encourage them to
apply and then encourage them to
enroll," Spencer said.
Though the number of under-
represented minority students
who chose to enroll was down
this year, the number of underrep-
resented minority students who
applied to the University and the
number of those students accepted
increased during this past admis-
sions cycle, Spencer said.
According to Spencer, this
decrease in underrepresented
minority students who chose to
enroll at the University is also due
in part to the economic climate
and the inability to attract stu-
dents to visit the University due to
the recession.
Spencer said the ban on affirma-
tive action has also hindered the
University from recruiting stu-
dents based on race or ethnicity
and from presenting scholarships
based on such factors, which he
faults for the decrease in under-
represented minority students at
the University.
"And of course, the (amendment)
itself limits the amount of effort we
can put in both outreach and schol-
arship, and all those things were
very major factors," he said.
Spencer said while there is no
guarantee there willbe an increase
in underrepresented minority stu-
dents who enroll at the University
in the future, the University has
increased its outreach efforts to
high school students to educate
them on how to be successful when
applying to the University.
"There's no guarantee that we
can do anything when you can't
use race as one of your factors,"
Spencer said. "But we're going to
do everything we can to start early
outreach programs, identifying
students in the ninth, tenth grade.
"And we're going to enhance
the way that we are already com-
municating with them," Spencer.
continued. "(We've) got to re-dou-
ble those efforts to try and make
certain that we touch as many stu-
dents as we can."
Billy Evans, professor emeritus
of chemistry, who has been work-
ingwith the University's Centerfor
Education Outreach, said the Uni-
versity has been communicating
with underrepresented communi-
ties to prevent a further decrease
in enrollment numbers for under-
represented minority students.
"I think that in order to keep
enrollment figures trending
upwards, we're going to have to
find ways of letting that community
know that they are welcome here
and also we have to work at increas-
ing accessibility," said Evans, who
oversaw a study published last
spring on the trends in minority hir-
ing in the University faculty.
vi
F-
c5
w
ENROLLMENT'S UPS AND DOWNS
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
*Total freshman enrollment Enrollmentoftunderrpresented minorities
Source: University oftMichigan Office oftthe Registrar
Though the University has
increased its efforts to draw under-
represented minority students
since the ban on affirmative action,
it is still premature to expect signif-
icant results from these outreach
programs, Evans said.
Evans said the University's com-
mitment to diversity should never
waver in the future.
"We all know that we can do
better, but it's just going to require
a lot of hard work," Evans said.
"But I think we should never stop
focusing on that until the partici-
pation level of underrepresented
minorities at the University begins
to approximate the representation
of the general population."
Despite the current economic
climate, the amount of financial
aid given out this year was also
at its highest in the history of the
University, according to the press
release.
Financial aid from the Univer-
sity was up 11.7 percent for under-
graduates, totaling $118 million
for the 2009-2010 academic year,
according to the report.
This increase in financial aid
came from a boost in Pell Grants,
an increase in work-study pro-
grams available and endowments
to the University, according to
Spencer.
"Those are the kind of things
we're puttingback into undergrad-
uate education because we want
all of our students to have a great
experience here," Spencer said.
- Mike Merar contributed
to this report.
MSA
From Page 1A
more control over its agenda and
a greater ability to focus on issues
that MSA can effectively address.
"This issue at hand is about our
community - whether or not it's
about our constituents or our com-
munity - and in the end it comes
down to items that we can act on,"
he said. "And time and again it's
proven that there are some things
that we can't act on."
Opponents of this resolution
said it restricted community mem-
bers' right to free speech. Rackham
Rep. Kate Stenvig said MSA doesn't
operate "in a bubble" separate from
national and international topics.
"We are leaders not just for day-
to-day goings-on of the University,
but in a larger society and in a larger
world, and these things do matter,"
Stenvig said. "There's a reason why
this assembly has for years been
open for community members com-
ing to speak to us. We have a con-
nection to the outside world."
Public Health Rep. Hamdan
Yousuf said even though the resolu-
tion would have continued to allow
any student to come in and speak, it
could cause hesitation.
"Show us yourID, that's a demean-
ing rule," he said. "We're here to
serve the students. This resolution is
demeaning to the students."
Rep. Andrew Chinsky, in an
attempt to demonstrate the incon-
venient nature of the current policy,
showed off some actingskills.
Holding a sign that read "we are
PennState,"Chinsky,whowasinfavor
of the proposal, played the part of Joe
Paterno, the Nittany Lions' long-time
head coach. He proceeded to trash-
talktheUniversityofMichigan.
Afterward, Chinsky explained
that he was illustrating how anyone
can come in and address MSA about
any topic under the current code.
He said the assembly needs to
focus on the concerns of its constit-
uents: the students.
"We're talking about democracy
and free speech but we have to make
sure that it's not watered down and
not given to people who don't need
it," Chinsky said. "We are here to
protect the democracy and free
speech rights of our students."
Rep. Michael Benson, chair of
the Rules and Elections Commit-
tee, which sponsored the resolu-
tion, said he was pleased with the
debate, even though the outcome
was not what he had hoped for.
"I think that there were some
issues that wereblownup and some
other issues that were understated,
so I imagine the committee will take
the issue up again at some point in
the future," he said.
Chinsky said the resolution was
widely supported by the Michigan
Vision Party, but that the party does
not yet have enough seats on the
assembly to pass it.
"This is definitely going to be a
campaign issue in the upcoming
November elections," Chinsky said.
"This is somethingbthat we care very
deeply and passionately about."
Heather Poole
contributed to this report.
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