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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, November 19, 2009
michigandaily.com
FROMICE BLOCK TO BLOCK 'M'
FINANCING YOUR EDUCATION
Debate over
Promise still
simmering
SAM AN T HA TR AU BEN/Daily
LSA junior David Shlecter, a member of the Michigan Ice Carving Team, carves an ice sculpture in the Diag yesterday. The sculptures were being carved for
the Michigan football game against Ohio State during the Student Group Performance Showcase.
LGBT ISSU E S
The subtleties of a bathr oom sign
Lawmakers, University
administrators work to,
find new funding source
for popular scholarship
By KYLE SWANSON
Daily News Editor
More than 45 days after the start of the
state's fiscal year, state politicians and
college administrators alike are still fac-
ing pressure from students and parents
demanding answers about the elimina-
tion of the popular, merit-based Michi-
gan Promise Scholarship.
In a series of interviews yesterday,
lawmakers and University administra-
tors discussed the future of the problem,
signaling that while it may currently lay
as a casualty of the prolonged budget
fight in Lansing, it remains a hot issue for
both groups.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm,
who vowed late last month to continue
fighting for the program, made no secret
of her intentions in a conference call with
college media outlets last week. During
the call, she urged college students to join
together, "rise up," and push state legisla-
tors to restore the Promise Scholarship
program.
"We need students to know that this
fight is on and that we can win it and that
these legislators are persuadable," Gra-
nholm said on the call, "butthey won'tbe
persuaded if we're quiet."
As part of her effort, Granholm is cur-
rently in the middle of a campaign in
which she is visiting several universities
across the state to rally support for the
restoration of the scholarship. She visited
Michigan State University on Wednes-
day and is expected to speak at Eastern
Michigan University on Monday.
As part of her tour, a stop at the Uni-
versity of Michigan's flagship campus
was originally on Granholm's schedule.
However, a representative for Granholm
told The Michigan Daily yesterday the
governor's visit has since been removed
from her agenda.
In her call last week, Granholm told
college media outlets that funding to
restore the Promise Scholarship could
easily be derived from slowing the imple-
mentation of the Earned Income Tax
Credit - a move she said could provide
more than $150 million in savings for the
state.
Asked about Granholm's plan, State
Rep. Pam Byrnes (D-Lyndon Twp.) told
the Daily yesterday such measures would
only delay the problem.
"It's a one-time shot," Byrnes said of
Granholm's plan. "We've been doing one-
time fixes all along and thatreally doesn't
address the problem."
The problem is a daunting one. In the
final budget signed by Granholm, many
programs, like the Promise Scholarship,
were cut to help balance the state's bud-
get from a $t.9 billion deficit.
Despite significant trimming to the
state's pocketbook, projections for next
year's state budget already include a
$1.4 billion deficit - meaning more cuts
to state services will need to be made or
additional revenue will need to be gener-
ated.
As a solution to these budget woes,
See PROMISE, Page 3A
LGBT leaders question
decisions surrounding
s sign outside of Union
;gender-neutral bathroom
By OLIVIA CARRINO
- ~ Daily StaffReporter
'A recent change in the sign outside of
i gender-neutral bathroom on the third
floor of the Michigan Union has caused a
bit of a public relations headache for the
building's administrators.
Members of the Michigan Student
Assembly's LGBT Commission were not
happy with the sign change - which
replaced a gender neutral bathroom sign
featuring a male and a female figure with a
family bathroom sign - saying they felt the
University failed to notice the need to have
a gender-neutral bathroom.
After urging from the Spectrum Center,
the family bathroom sign was removed and
is set to be replaced by a new bathroom sign
that will feature one figure; half male, half
female.
LSA junior Christopher Armstrong,
co-chair of the LGBT Commission, said
he was disappointed with the new family
bathroom sign.
"I think that we were just frustrated
to see it be labeled as a family restroom,
because it sort of made it seem like the
building had just forgotten the purpose of
why that was to be a gender-neutral bath-
room," he said.
Armstrong explained the purpose of
gender-neutral bathrooms is to create "a
more inclusive space for a trans individu-
al."
He said the LGBT Commission is trying
See GENDER NEUTRAL, Page 3A
CONT ROVER SIAL MA RKE TING
oosejaw faces criticism
for jail-themed catalog
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Mooseja
Like
e-mail
tics say ads make behind bars in a Moosejaw T-shirt,
but also advertises a "free Moose-
of the hardships jaw Jail Activity Book" that includes
"designyourownprisontattoos" and
icing prisoners a "don't get shanked in the shower
fun maze."
By ALLIE WHITE University alum Emily Har-
Daily StaffReporter ris wrote in a Nov. 9 post on the
Moosejaw Facebook fan page that
sejaw Mountaineering, a she found the campaign "extremely
an institution known for its offensive." Since that post, the fan
r recreation apparel and gear, page has become a soapbox for crit-
tself on its unpredictable and ics and defenders of the campaign
promotions. Past catalog alike - though the defenders are far
include food fights and bad outnumbered.
photos. In an e-mail interview, Moosejaw
e say its most recent catalog, Creative Director Gary Wohlfeill
r, may have gone too far. said the catalog was not intended to
company has received a flood offend anyone.
ative feedback for its jail- "Like all of our campaigns, our
[Winter 2009 promotional goal with Jail was to show our
gn that appears to have customers something unexpected
d customers and community and wacky and not take ourselves
rs alike. too seriously," he wrote. "The idea
winter catalog features mod- behind this particular campaign
oosejaw merchandise posing was to parody the glamorization of
bars and in other jail set- crime and prison by pushing it to its
ncluding a page titled "Let- completely illogical conclusion."
the Warden" with letters Wacky or not, many have
vented prisoners. expressed outrage at what they
e the catalogs will be avail- perceive as an insensitive and
arting today, much of the uneducated treatment of prison and
objection stems from an incarceration.
sent earlier this month to "Prison and jail is not a funny
aw's subscriber list. thing," said Penny Ryder, director of
the catalog images, the the American Friends Service Com-
promotion features a model mittee's criminal justice program.
Ryder said she contacted Wohl-
feill viae-mail to express her disdain
after the promotion was forwarded
to her. In his response, Wohlfeill
wrote that offending people was
"certainly not our intent, nor would
we want to capitalize on the suffer-
ing of another human being."
Ryder responded, suggesting to
Wohlfeill that rather than portray
prison in a satirical light, Moosejaw
should consider hiring "released cit-
izens" - formerly incarcerated indi-
viduals - to staff its warehouses.
Wohlfeill replied that he would "see
what opportunities we may have to
offer."
"One of the main issues of people
going back to prison is because they
don't get work," Ryder said in her
interview withthe Daily.
University alum Amit Weitzer,
who works as a consultant and orga-
nizer for the Michigan Campaign
for Justice, wrote in an e-mail inter-
view that while the ad campaign
would undoubtedly be offensive
anywhere, it is particularly so in a
state like Michigan where "there are
nearly 50,000 people incarcerated."
A 2008 Department of Correc-
tions report listed the number of
prisoners in the state at 48,686.
Both Weitzer and Mary Heinen,
coordinator ofcommunity and youth
programs with the University's Pris-
See MOOSEJAW, Page 3A
SAMANTHA TRAUBEN/Daily
New IFC President Mike Friedman last night. For a full story on the IFC and Panhel elections, go to michigandaily.com.
C A M P U S C R I M E
Former Michigan quarterback
in court for charges stemming
from a botched drug deal
By DEVON THORSBY
Daily StaffReporter
Former Michigan football player Justin Feagin
appeared in Washtenaw County Court yesterday
afternoon before Judge Charles Pope to waive his
right to a preliminary exam for three drug charg-
es brought against him.
The preliminary exam would have presented
evidence to determine whether the case is wor-
thy of a trial. By waiving his right to the exam,
Feagin's case will now go directly to Washtenaw
County Circuit Court proceedings, set to begin
with a pretrial under Judge Archie Brown on
Jan. 6.
With the case now in circuit court, Feagin plans
to plead not guilty to the three charges brought
against him, his lawyers said in court yesterday.
Those three charges are conspiracy to deliver less
than 50 grams of cocaine, conspiracy to possess
25 to 50 grams of cocaine and conspiracy to pos-
sess less than 25 grams of cocaine.
Feagin's charges arebased on an botched drug
deal that occurred last winter, when Feagin
planned to obtain cocaine from his home state
See FEAGIN, Page 3A
WEATHER HI:49
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