CITY COUNCIL Pn- jh pr u ?x faibi i a1 alusinThe Daily weighs in on netpA us Ma n" is one of tomorrow's City Council elections S^a- ; nt'cipated andbest films.and who deserves your vote. SEE OPINION, PAGE 4A Ann Arbor, Michigan Monday, November 2, 2009 michigandaily.com Final budget cuts Promise, 'U' fund ing After month-long delay, Granholm signed final six budget bills Friday By MATT AARONSON Daily News Editor Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed into law Friday the final six bills of a budget that showed the wear and tear of a legislature crippled by par- tisan battles over how to solve the state's many problems. For the University, the bud- get bears bad news on two fronts: eliminating the popular Michigan Promise Scholarship program and once again cutting back state fund- ing provided to the University. The Michigan Promise Schol- arship provides tuition money to more than 96,000 Michigan col- lege students. Performance on a merit exam given in high school determines the amount a student receives, which can total anywhere from $500 to $4,000 over four years. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told the Daily last month that an estimated 6,096 students at the University of Michigan would be eligible for Promise grants this academic year. These students now have to find another way to fill that gap in their tuition costs. Phil Hanlon, vice provost for-aca- demicandbudgetary affairs,toldthe See BUDGET, Page 7A CLIF REEDER/Daily Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier gets sacked during the team's 38-13 loss to Illinois Saturday in Champaign. For more coverage of the game, see SportsMonday, inside. What's left to say? CHAMPAIGN - inutes before Illinois running back Jason Ford's 79-yard touchdown run officially proved the Michigan football team had hit rock bottom, Greg ANDY Mathews took REID a knee on the sideline. He closed his eyes, hung his head and sighed heavily. A few players and assistant coaches calmly tried to console himbut were quickly dismissed. With three games left in his career - four, if the Wolverines can somehow scrape together one more win - and the season quickly spiraling out of control, Mathews had no words. And who does? What's left to say? How do you justify Rich Rodri- guez's conference record, which now sits at 3-10 through 13 games? It took Lloyd Carr five-and-a-half seasons to rack up that many Big Ten losses, and Bo Schembechler coached for 10 years before his 10th defeat. And it's not as though Michigan is getting outplayed by the best of the best - three losses last year were against teams with sub-.500 records, and let's not forget how epically bad this Illinois team really is. The Fighting Illini have the worstscoring offense in the con- ference, mustering just 16 points a game. Michigan made them look good, with more than 500 yards of offense and 38 points. The Illini have the worst scor- ing defense in the conference, giv- ing up more than 27 points every game. Michigan put up just 13 and died whenever they sniffed the red' zone. And Illinois has the worst rushing defense in the conference, too. With fourshots fromthe one-yardline, the Wolverines couldn't even punch it in with a chance to go up 20-7. The numbers are there: Michi- gan got dominated - thoroughly dominated - by a team that hadn't beaten Football Bowl Subdivision competition in 364 days before Saturday. As Ford broke through on the Illini's final touchdown, shedding pathetic attempted tackles on the way, Mathews and his teammates saw how quickly this season (one that started so well, with four straight wins) was becoming a nightmare. Martavious Odoms, who was See REID, Page 7A FUNDING U-M'S ANN ARBOR CAMPUS The peaks and valleys of state appropriations over the last nine years. 370,000,000 360,000,000 350,000,000 340,000,000 330,000,000 320,000,000 310,000,000 300,000,000 29n0nnn nn I- L , , , , V Q Sources: University of Michigan Office of Public Affairs and legislature.mi.gov. 'U' settles in case of former Dental student Civics and syrup: Students, politicians talk pertinent issues at campus brunch At event, students 1C 1 Alissa Zwick sued the University for wrongful dismissal By KYLE SWANSON DailyNewsEditor University officials have settled out of court with a former Dental * School student who says she was wrongfully dismissed from the school. Asettlementwasreachedoutside of court last week after University officials dropped an appeal of a rul- ing that ordered the University to pay the former student more than $1.7 million. The amount of the set- tlement has not been disclosed. In May 2006, Alissa Zwick, a former Dental School student, filed two lawsuits against the Uni- versity after being dismissed from the University in her third year of study. Zwick claimed she had been caught in a turf war between a Den- tal School administrator and sev- eral faculty members over how to accommodate her attention deficit disorder. The associate dean of the Dental School told Zwick she was expelled from the Dental School because she wasn't fit to practice dentistry. At the time of her expulsion, Zwick had a B average. Zwick's lawsuits claimed her expulsion was a violation of free speech, due process, breach of con- tract and defamation. The cases, filed in the Washtenaw County Circuit Court and the Michigan Court of Claims, were consolidat- ed and sent to a U.S. District Court for judgment. After the University filed a motion to have the case dismissed, all claims were dropped except Zwick's due process claim. The case went to trial in fed- eral court and in December 2008 the jury awarded Zwick $220,000 in economic damages, $500,000 in non-economic damages and $1 million in punitive damages. The University was also ordered to pay approximately $320,000 for Zwick's legal expenses. The University began an appeal after the verdict was issued, which was dropped as a result of last week's settlement. As part of the set- tlement, both parties are asking the court to erase the earlier verdict in favor of the settlement agreement. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald confirmed that the See SETTLEMENT, Page 7A chat education, state budget, other topics By OLIVIA CARRINO Daily StaffReporter At a "Pancakes and Politics" event held yesterday, the Black Student Union brought together students and political officials over brunch for a wide-ranging discussion of governmental issues facing students. Held at the William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center, a group of about 30 students and legislators broke up into groups to talk about education, taxes and urban policy, among other things. Later, the conversation led to a more open forum. Ned Staebler, aDemocratic can- didate for the 53rd District of the Michigan House of Representa- tives - which includes Ann Arbor - encouraged everyone present to participate in this coming Tues- day's elections. "Now we need everybody's skills, we need everybody's input," he said. "Democracy is not free. Its price is participation. Every- body needs to participate." Discussion of the state budget and its effects on students domi- nated the conversation. Sen. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor) TOREHAN SHARMAN/Daily State Sen. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor) talks with students about a variety of issues at a brunch hosted by the Black Student Union at the William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center yesterday. touched on the Michigan Promise Scholarship's funding issues that resulted from the state's budget crisis and billion-dollar deficit and led to the discontinuation of the program. The final state budget that Democratic Gov. Jennifer Gra- nholm signed into law Friday cut the merit-based Promise Schol- arship, which provides tuition money to more than 96,000 Michigan college students. In an interview last month, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told the Daily that an estimated 6,096 students at the University would be eligible for Promise grants this academic year. At yesterday's event, Brater said Democrats have proposed a number of revenue options to help mitigate the situation. Brater stressed that the state revenue stream needs to be reviewed and restructured. She recommended amending the state constitution to make its tax code more progressive - meaning it would be based more on an indi- vidual's ability to pay. Staebler echoed this sentiment. "When you're designing your tax system you want to have a couple of different things in mind. You want it to be simple and you want it to be fair," he said. "And I think a progressive tax system is by far the most fair system that we can have." The conversation also turned See EVENT, Page 7A WEATHER HI:44 TOMORROW LO: 32 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and letus know. NEWONMICHIGANDAILYCOM INDEX NEWS............ Dean Munson's "Thriller" of a Halloween surprise. Vol. CXX, No. 38 SU D OK U.:..... MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS/THE WIRE @2009 The Mchigan Daily OPINION....... michiaandailycom .........2A ARTS....................5A .3A CLASSIFIEDS...........6A ........4A SPORTSMONDAY......... ....1B 4 f