ROSY THOUGHTS?
After Saturday's blowout against
elaware State, Stevie Brown talked
. ose Bowl hopes. Is that realistic?
EE SPORTSWEDNESDAY, PAGE 1B
E1le %idligan Ba hg

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Wednesday, October 21,2009

COOKING UP A PROTEST

michigandailycom
HOUSING SHAKE-UP
Res. halls
to overhaul
room picks

TOREHAN SHARMAN/Daily
Engineering junior Joey Juanico speaks to a group of protestors in front of City Hall on Friday. The protest was meant to push city officials - who had previously sent let-
ters to BOX House and other residences on State Street - to stop trying to prevent tailgates on Football Saturdays.

CITY COUNCIL
Proposal on Argo Dam tabled
At meeting, both includingthe Michigan Men's Club the resolution, which coupled two citizens attended to hear the coun-
Rowing Team. issues - keeping the dam and initi- cil's decision.
Sides of issue come A recent "dam-in" resolution ating repairs - into one resolution. Concerns about Argo Dam were
sponsoredby Councilmembers Mar- Councilmember Carsten first raised in 1995 because of a
out in full force cia Higgins (D-Ward 4), Stephen Hohnke (D-Ward 5) voiced fur- fishery study, said Laura Rubin, the

If proposal passes,
same-room and
same-hall policy will
be discontinued
BySTEPHANIE STEINBERG
Daily StaffReporter
A perfect storm of residence hall
closings, learning community obli-
gations and room shortages have
led officials in University Housing
to seriously consider changing the
residence hall sign-up process for
next year.
Under the proposed policy, stu-
dents would no longer have the
option to apply for the same room
or a room in the same residence
hall in which they currently reside.
Instead, all students would be
placed in a campus-wide lottery.
Housingspokesman Peter Logan
said the proposed change is the
result of an anticipated shortage of
2,200 rooms that will not be avail-
able to returning students inter-
ested in living in the same room or
residence hall.
Logan said the combination of
residence halls that will either be
closed for construction, open to
only first- or second-year students
or reserved for learning communi-
ties next year makes it impossible
to figure out a fair sign-up process
in which students can choose the
rooms they want.
"For that reason, we thought it's
probably going to be more equitable
for most resident students to simply
offer from the start the campus-
wide sign-up step and forgo the
same hall, same room steps that
proceeded it," he said.
Part of the complication results

from the fact that starting next fall,
Couzens Residence Hall will be
closed for renovation. As a result,
approximately 550 fewer rooms
willbe available.
About 120 students in the Michi-
gan Community Scholars Program
and 60 students in the Honors
Program - who currently reside
in Couzens - will be relocated to
other residence halls..Honors stu-
dents will move to South Quad, but
it is not yet confirmed where MCSP
students will be housed.
ThoughNorthQuadwillbeopen-
ing next fall, Logan said it won't
solve the room deficiency. The new
hall will have approximately 450
rooms, but the University will still
lack 100 rooms after losing the 550
spaces in Couzens.
While Logan could not confirm
where students from MCSP will be
placed, he said they will not be put
in North Quad.
Additionally, all of Mary Mar-
kley Residence Hall and three
houses in Baits II will be reserved
for first-year students as part of the
First-Year Experience Program.
This makes approximately 1,495
spaces unavailable for upperclass-
men. In the past, upperclassmen
could apply to live in Markley or
any house in Baits, but with the
freshmen programs, they can no
longer do that.
While Stockwell Residence Hall
is set aside for returning students,
the residence hall concentrates on
its Sophomore Year Experience
Program. Logan said this poses
a problem for sophomores cur-
rently residing in Stockwell who
may want to live there again next
year. He said Housing may allow
some current residents to return
to Stockwell next year, but it has
See HOUSING, Page 9A

L

The
undeci
Counc
day nib
would
Dam a
The
1920,
to the
River,
water
a suits
activit
five At

Rapundalo (D-Ward 2) and Sandi
By LILLIAN XIAO Smith (D-Ward 1) proposed that
For theDaily Argo Pond be maintained and any
infrastructure deficiencies in Argo
future of Argo Pond is still Dambe repaired. The resolution was
ided as the Ann Arbor City introduced only a few daysbefore the
il unanimously voted Mon- City Council meeting, with council
ght to table a resolution that members expected to vote on the
repair 90-year-old Argo resolution Mondaynight.
nd save Argo Pond. With only seven council mem-
dam, which was built in bers present at the meeting and six
today serves as a barrier votes required for the resolution
natural flow of the Huron to pass, the Council decided it was
which makes the body of best to address the matter at a later
before it, termed Argo Pond, date.
able option for recreational During the meeting, Coun-
ies - like practice for the cilmember Sabra Briere (D-Ward
nn Arbor-area rowing teams 1) expressed uncertainty regarding

ther concern with what he said was
unclear wording in the resolution,
also noting that the council was
not given adequate time to prepare
for a vote on the resolution.
"We received the revised lan-
guage 20 minutes into this meet-
ing. I would argue there's still
some language in here that seems
ambiguous to me," Hohnke said
during the meeting. "I think it's
incredibly unclear for a resolution
of this magnitude."
With interest in how the Council
would tackle this continued debate,
eight speakers from the communi-
ty presented their positions at the
meeting and many more concerned

executive director of the Huron
Watershed Council. She said, how-
ever, that there has never really
been much serious discussion on
the issue.
The Huron Watershed Council
is a non-profitorganization and the
leader in advocating the removal of
Argo Dam because, as members
say, its removal will restore the
Huron River to its natural course.
Rubin was.the only community
speaker present at the meeting to
voice opposition to the resolution
in favor of keeping and repairing
Argo Dam. She argued that the
U.S. Geological Service has years
See CITY COUNCIL, Page 8A


CAMPUS SAFETY
New DPS program
targets laptop theft

HIGH HOPES

THE METROPOLIS NEXT DOOR
With grant, debate
group could further
help Detroit students

Free program
will offer tracking
system for students
By JOSEPH LICHTERMAN
For the Daily
The Department of Public Safe-
ty is launching a new program in
an effort to track down stolen lap-
tops. Anyone associated with the
University who has a unigname is
now eligible to register their com-
puter or other valuable electronics
- like an iPod or Xbox - on the
DPS website.
DPS spokeswoman Diane
Brown said the aim of the program
is to address the relatively frequent
problem of laptop thefts. There
were 113 such incidents in 2008,
and 88 so far in 2009. The Hatcher
Graduate Library had the highest
concentration of laptop thefts over
this period, according to Brown.
"Laptop thefts have been
becoming an increasing challenge
as people leave them unattended,"
she said.
According to Brown, between

100 and 120 devices have been reg-
istered thus far.
Individuals interested in regis-
tering their laptops provide DPS
with their names and contact
information, as well as the make,
model and serial number of their
laptops.
In turn, DPS sends them two
stickers. The first is a large blue
sticker to be placed on the front of
the computer that states that the
machine is registered property.
The second is a small sticker with
a bar code that lists the DPS iden-
tification number.
Brown said the identification
sticker will be very useful in track-
ing down stolen laptops.
"That particular sticker is man-
ufactured in such a way that when
you try to remove it, it will leave a
residue," she said. "So the theory
is that this should deter some lap-
top thefts because it will be a little
more difficult, we hope, for them
to pawn them."
Though DPS is implement-
ing the plan, the original idea
came from the Michigan Student
Assembly's Campus Safety Com-
See LAPTOPS, Page 10A

^r '
d .;
'
4
. ,
.. ,

Non-profit teaches
high schoolers the
lessons of debate
By MALLORY BEBERMAN
Daily StaffReporter
Detroit Urban Debate Educa-
tion, a campus organization cre-
ated by a group of students on the
University's debate team, is in the
running to win a $10,000 grant
that group members say will help
them change the lives of some stu-
dents in Detroit's troubled public
high schools.
The money would come from
an online competition hosted by
ideablob.com.
Detroit Urban Debate Educa-
tion is a non-profit student orga-
nization started to help create
a stronger debate program in
Detroit's public high schools.
LSA senior Edmund Zagorin, a
member of the Michigan Debate
Team,helped to found the organiza-

cionlastyear.Hesaidhewasinspired
by a sociology class in which he and
his classmates taught the art of
debate to prisoners at a local jail.
"It got to the point where a lot
of the prisoners were saying, 'This
class is great, but we wish we had
it in high school before we com-
mitted crimes and were in jail,'"
Zagorin said.
Zagorin's experience with
inmates prompted himto establish
DUDE with other Debate Team
members in order to support and
expand existing debate programs
in Detroit's public high schools.
Group members applied for
the organization because with
the DUDE's rapid and remark-
able growth has been too fast and
demanding for the club's current
budget, Zagorin said. He said win-
ning the ideablob.comcompetition
would be an "unbelievable break"
for the organization.
Zagorin said DUDE would
use the money from the contest,
which ends Nov. 30, to help build
See GRANT, Page 10A

SAID ALSALAH/Daily
Freshman guard Darius Morris competes ina dunk contest during Michigan Madness
at Crisler Arena on Friday. Despite Morris's strong showing, sophomore guard Zack
Novak stole the show and won the event with a between-the-legs windmill dunk.

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