' SEX TOY TALK C
How a trip to the Safe Sex the Stearns Co Cti
* Store became a journey s home for thou
through sexual literacy. uniq
SEE OPINION, PAGE 4A
(1b4e 1Nidc~igan &iIa.1j
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, October 15,2009
michigandaily.com
MICHIGAN FOOTBALL
Rodriguez
backs off
GPA claims
PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM COPT
Bruce Wasserstein (third from right) stands with fellow Daily staffers in 1966 during an emergency meeting over a disagreement with the Board in Control of Student Publications.
Wasserstein dead at 61
Daily alum revolutionized the world of mergers
Notion that team
had highest GPA
ever not based on
data, official says
By MATT AARONSON
and JACOB SMILOVITZ
Daily News Editors
Michigan head football coach
Rich Rodriguez distanced himself
yesterday from an assertion he has
made in the past that this year's
team had the program's "highest
GPA ever recorded."
Rodriguez said in a statement
posted yesterday on the Athletic
Department's website that he
made the claim "several" times in
the past. The most notahle among
them was during his Aug. 31 press
conference in which he defended
the program against a Detroit
Free Press story that alleged the
team violated NCAA rules regard-
ing practice time and offseason
workouts.
"They're working hard in ath-
letics, and they're working hard
in academics," Rodriguez said
at the press conference, discuss-
ing his players' work ethic on
and off the field. "And they've
showed that in the balance, in
that endeavor, in the way they've
recorded the highest GPA ever
recorded."
He added: "And as a coach, I am
very, very proud of them."
Readthe University's
responsetothe Daily's
infimationrequestonour
website, richigandaily.com.
After the press conference,
The Michigan Daily request-
ed, through the Freedom of
Information Act, the cumula-
tive grade point average for the
men's football team for every
year since they won the NCAA
National Championship in 1997.
According to a report in the Free
Press published online today,
the Detroit paper made a similar
request.
Both informationrequestswere
denied.
"No responsive records exist,"
Patricia Sellinger, the University's
Freedom of Information Act coor-
dinator, wrote in the response to
the Daily.
In a recent interview, Kallie
Michels, associate vice president
for communications for the Uni-
versity, said that Rodriguez used
the unconfirmed metric as a way
to motivate the team.
"The goal was to motivate his
team," she said, adding thatRodri-
guez felt his players could accom-
plish their "personal best" if they
were "motivated academically."
Rodriguez had requested the
data, but Michels said University
officials "don't calculate that kind
of stuff."
Instead, when Rodriguez
requested the data, officials
from the University's Academic
See RODRIGUEZ, Page 7A
By NICOLE ABER In finance,
DailyStaffReporter Wasserstein is
perhaps best
Bruce Wasserstein, whose savvy known for
decision-making and pragmatic developing a
disposition lead him on a trail of more aggres-
successes from the University's sive strategy
campus and The Michigan Daily in mergers and
newsroom to the loftiest positions acquisitions WASSERSTEIN
on Wall Street, died Wednesday at - now termed
the age of 61. the "hos-
Wasserstein, the chairman and tile takeover." But for those who
CEO of Lazard, an investment worked in the Daily newsroom in
bank, was first hospitalized Sun- the mid-to-late 1960s, Wasserstein
day due to an irregular heartbeat, was known for his shrewd report-
according to the Associated Press. ing, strategic and brilliant mind
The cause of death is still not and jumbled appearance.
known. Born in Brooklyn on Dec. 25,
1947, Wasserstein - who started
his career as a lawyer - quickly
became a Wall Street luminary by
the early 1980s. He brokered one of
the biggest deals of the 20th cen-
tury: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts's
takeover of RJR Nabisco, a deal
canonized by thebook "Barbarians
at the Gate." He also facilitated the
industry-altering Morgan Stanley-
Dean Witter and AOL-Time War-
ner mergers.
Long before his days of billion-
dollar dealmaking, Wasserstein
attended the University of Michi-
gan for his undergraduate edu-
cation and served as the Daily's
executive editor from 1966 to 1967.
As a reporter and editor, Was-
serstein covered numerous top-
ics during a tumultuous time on
campus and at the Daily. Accord-
ing to Mark Killingsworth - the
Daily's editor in chief from 1966 to
1967 - Wasserstein's most notable
coverage was of the University's
response to a subpoena from the
House Un-American Activities
Committee in September 1966.
That coverage, according to
Killingsworth, demonstrated the
underlying intelligence that would
be Wasserstein's trademark for the
rest of his life.
"He was a very hard-headed,
See WASSERSTEIN, Page 7A
UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL
PUBLIC GOES PRIVATE
New center to reexamine 'U' ventures now under one roof
child advocacy process
Law School received
$5 million from U.S.
* Children's Bureau
By LAURA BRUNNER
For theDaily
Today, the laws and systems gov-
erning how cases involving a child's
well-being are handled vary from
state to state. But that could all soon
change with the establishment of
a new center at the Law School,
which officials say will overhaul
the way child advocacy operates in
this country.
The University's National Quali-
ty Improvement Center on the Rep-
resentation of Children in the Child
Welfare System was created after
the Law School received a $5 mil-
lion grant from the U.S. Children's
Bureau of Health and Human Ser-
vices.
The new center will focus on
reconstructing, improving and
standardizing child advocacy pro-
grams nationwide.
Don Duquette, a clinical pro-
fessor of law at the University and
director of the Law School's Child
Advocacy Clinic, will lead the new
center, which will partner with
the American Bar Association,
National Association of Counsel for
Children and KidsVoice - a child
A advocacy group.
Duquette and two other profes- said. However, this is not necessar-
sors will work at the center and ily true for cases in Michigan and
focus on the entire child welfare other states.
system, including all public and In each case, attorneys and
private services that protect chil- guardians want the child pro-
dren from abuse and neglect - tected, but it's difficult to balance
like psychologists, counselors and competing interests, Duquette said.
Child Protective Services. Sometimes a child is taken from a
Duquette said the center will act home for too long and is hurt that
as a pioneer in the field, which until way. Other times, the child is left
in a home where abuse or neglect is
still present.
"There is a huge division and
Center could not a general consensus,"'Duquette
r h* said. "We are going to want to tease
reshape nation's out what differences there are in
e r hone of these cases versus the oth-
The project's end goal in to come
welfare system. to a conclusion ahout the ost
effective means of balancing these
competing interests.
Duquette explained they hope to
now has not had widely accepted accomplish this by meeting three
norms. goals of the grant.
"For the field it's quite exciting," First, they plan to change the
he said. "I am really excited about structure of the child advocacy
this project." system across the country. Sec-
The center will analyze the out- ond, the research team will look
comes of each kind of case and into the discipline and standard-
assess the difference in standards ization of child advocacy law and,
across states, with the goal of find- finally, categorize and publish the
ing what is most effective and best empirical data found in their clini-
for children. cal trials.
Currently, in some states, like "This project will allow us to
Washington, a guardian who is not be creative in designing .mod-
a lawyer must be appointed to each els of child advocacy that seem
child under 12 years of age to work promising and then to run dem-
with the child's attorney, Duquette See ADVOCACY, Page 7A
With one-stop shop,
Michigan Venture
Center hopes to
encourage startups
By JILLIAN BERMAN
Daily NewsEditor
In hopes of spurring more inno-
vation from faculty and research-
ers, the University is launching
the Michigan Venture Center, a
"one-stop hub for University of
Michigan technology," according
to Jim O'Connell, the associate
director for business formation at
the University's Office of Technol-
ogy Transfer.
The aim of the center isto bring
faculty inventors closer to venture
capitalists and entrepreneurs who
can help them turn their inven-
tions into viable startups.
"The University has a tremen-
dous number of technology oppor-
tunities," O'Connell said. "We
have a chance to license those
out to big companies that are out-
side the state, but when there are
opportunities to create companies
or jobs inside Michigan, we like to
do that."
"We want to make sure those
things don't pass us by," he added.
O'Connell said that though the
center brings together resources
that already exist at the Universi-
ty, the move makes the office more
"high profile." That will encour-
age, he said, faculty inventors to
start businesses who might not
have considered doing so other-
wise.
He added that the center's goal
See VENTURE, Page 7A
MORE SOUP FOR YOU
- . t ~ame
JAKE FROMM/Daily
At Hollander's, a specialty store in Kerrytown, Barb Gibson demonstrates how to make buttercup squash soup with the help oftstore
employee George Rodgers yesterday. The event was part ofna series oflcooking classes throughout the fall in Kerrytown Shops.
WEATHER HI: 42 GOTA NEWS TIP?
TOO W LU33 Call 734-763-2459 ore-mail
TOMORROW L: 3 news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Giveme the farmland and nobody gets hurt.
MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS/THE WIRE
INDEX NEWS 2..................... .......2A SPORTS.. . ...........A
Vol CXX,No.28 SUDOKU...........3....... ..- A CLASSIFIEDS.................,....6A
(2009TheMichigan Daily OPINION............................4A THE B-SIDE.. ...... ..,....... 1
michigandaily.com"''''1B