be l3id~iig1 an I 0 Ann Arbor, Michigan Wednesday, December 2, 2009 michigandaily.com MSA ELECTIONS . MVP continues election gains Thrnout matches last year's election at around 9 percent By MALLORY JONES and JENNA SKOLLER Daily Staff Reporters The Michigan Vision Party won a majority of open seats in the Michigan Student Assembly's elec- tion that ended at 11:59 p.m. last night. Voter participation in the elec- tion remained steady over last year, despite expectations from officials that turnout would rise. Fourteen different colleges held elections for a total of36 open seats, including 11 open LSA seats, seven open Rackham seats and four open Engineering seats. Students could only vote for candidates in their own college. Of the 17 seats with available results at 2:15 a.m. this morning, 11 were filled by MVP candidates, two by Defend Affirmative Action Party candidates and four by inde- pendent candidates. The remaining winners need to be validated by election officials either because the student won by write-in voters or because voters cast ballots for schools that were not their own. The 11 open LSA seats were filled by nine MVP candidates, one DAAP candidate and one indepen- dent candidate. Of the two open Business seats, MSA Rep. Jason Raymond was re-elected as an independent, and MVP candidate Thomas Stuckey filled the other seat. LSA senior John Lin, message chair of MVP, said last night's gains show students approve of the party's actions. "We came out last year and we said we would make the assembly more efficient and more transpar- ent," Lin said. "It's not there yet but we're definitely on that track and students have seen that." Though election officials and MSA representatives hoped for a high voter turnout, 3,565 students out of an eligible 39,671 students - roughly 9 percent of the voting population - cast ballots in this election, according to MSA Elec- tion Director Emily Winter. See MSA ELECTIONS, Page 7A CORTESY OF AARODAVIDMILLER TOP LEFT Aaron David Miller with then-leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat during a visitfto Ramallah in 1998. TOP RIGHT Miller with former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem in the late 1990's. ABOVE Miller, former President Bill Clinton and others during the opening session of the Wye River Peace Conference. A life on both sides of the table AT H LE TIC F AC ILITIE . Soccer stadium gets rezoning go-ahead University alum Aaron David Miller has spent his career negotiating for peace ByJILLIAN BERMAN Daily News Editor WASHINGTON - In the first chapter of his recent book "The Much Too Promised Land," Uni- versity alum Aaron David Miiler sets the scene for the announce- ment in Jerusalem of one of the most historic Middle East peace conferences. For nine months leading up to the 1991 Madrid Conference, Mill- er dealt with "headaches of vary- ing sizes" that accompanied the formation of the first ever meet- ing between representatives from Syria, Israel, Lebanon and a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation. "There wrm no such precedent for anything like that," Miller said of the conference ho an interview this summer. As an adviser on the Arab-Israe- li conflict to then-Secretary of State James Baker, Miller played a role in setting up the framework for the historic meeting. But sit- ting cross-legged and relaxed in jeans and a blue blazer, Miller joked that he had the most influ- ence on American foreign policy earlier in his career - while on the tennis court. "During a doubles match in Cairo, (former Secretary of State George) Shultz was my partner, and I hit him in the back with one of my serves," he said. "It was the See AFTER THEY WALK, Page 2A Pa Com hea The mission nightt Arbor approv ing of of the1 cer con a stadia The South st City Planning prised of three fields - two for practice and one for competition. imission, proposal The stadium, for which prelimi- nary construction has already ds to City Council begun, will seat approximately 2,000 people and include grand- By EMILY ORLEY stands, concession stands, a press Daily StaffReporter area and restrooms. Construction on the site began Ann Arbor Planning Com- last May after the Board of Regents n voted unanimously last approved the project. Troy-based to recommend to the Ann architectural firm Jickling Lyman City Council that the body Powell Associates, Inc. designed e the annexation and rezon- the plan for the building and the 12.5 acres of land at the site Athletic Department provided the University of Michigan soc- $6 million in funding. mplex for the construction of The University petitioned for um. the site to be rezoned for public complex, located at 2323 land because of the variety of zon- Main St., is currently com- See SOCCER STADIUM, Page 3A Asp W a sembly officials port of gender-neutral housing at its weekly meeting last night, in ill lobby 'U' to an effort to influence University .ing Housing to better accommodate mend housing transgender students in the resi- dence halls. regulations The resolution - authored by Business Rep. Alex Serwer, LSA y JENNA SKOLLER Rep. Chris Armstrong, LSA Rep. Daily News Editor John Oltean and Engineering Rep. Pat Pannuto - calls for the LGBT, Michigan Student Assem- Peace and Justice and Campus ssed a resolution in sup- Improvement Commissions to work with the Spectrum Center to lobby the University for a gender- neutral housing option by next fall. University Housing currently assigns housing by birth gender unless students have undergone sex reassignment surgery, accord- ing to the University Housing website. Students seeking gender- neutral housing are given excep- tions on a case-by-case basis, though the University doesn't guarantee accommodations. "Housing's policy of assignment according to birth gender until sex reassignment surgery ignores the needs of transgender-identified students who have not pursued sex reassignment surgery," the resolu- tion stated. The resolution follows an initial gender-neutral housing proposal from the Spectrum Center Stu- dent Advisory Board introduced last April. In the beginning of this See GENDER-NEUTRAL, Page 3A M SA backs gender-neutral housing B The bly pay WORLD AIDS DAY 2009 Peace Corps event highlights impact of HIV/AIDS abroad Peace Corps official recounts his experiences with disease in Namibia By BETHANY BIRON Daily StaffReporter Yesterday marked the 21st annual World Aids Day, held every Dec. 1 to draw aware- ness to the deadly disease that afflicts 33.4 million people worldwide. To commemorate the day, the Univer- sity's Peace Corps office invited a panel of University graduate students and former Peace Corps volunteers to speak about their experiences dealing with the HIV/ AIDS crisis overseas. At the event, held last night at the Uni- versity International Center, Alex Pompe, a Rackham graduate student and the Uni- versity's Peace Corps campus coordina- tor, spoke about his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in the southern African country of Namibia. "It's a tremendous opportunity to be able to go somewhere for two years. And you're going to be taken care of while you're there and you're going to be given the chance to make meaningful impact on people's lives," Pompe said. "And at the same time you're going to be receiving so much culturally." Pompe worked in Namibia from 2006 to 2008, helping to teach children and young adults about HIV/AIDS and malaria aware- ness and prevention. "(HIV/AIDS) manifests itself in almost every facet of a Namibian's life," Pompe said, explaining that many of his students were born HIV positive and were unknow- ingly carrying the disease. "These are people who hadn't made a decision in their life that led to them devel- oping the disease," Pompe said. Pompe said he would try to educate stu- dents about HIV/AIDS by integrating math problems using real-world examples based on infection rates in his village. See HIV/AIDS, Page 3A AARON AUGsBURGER/Dail' For a full story on the carolersd 9 J ersity medical students carol oustide U.S. Rep. John Dingell's (D-Dearborn) office in efforts, visit the Daly's news blog at Ypsilanti to mar World AIDS Day. The students rewrote the words to 'Jingle Bells and michigandaily.com/blogs/The Wire th.. grppularcarols to protest prooisions of health cae reform legislation that could pre- michganailycnmblns/Ih Wie.vent generic drues that treat HIV/AIDS and other diseases from entering the market. x WEATHER HI: 38 TOMORROW LU0:7 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 orne-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. NEW ON MICHIGANDAILYCOM An Arts Editor's take on Nick Jonas' solo tour. MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS/THE FILTER INDEX NEWS....... Vol. CXX, No. 58 OPNION.., )2009Th MichiganDaily ARTS........ michigondoily.com .... 2A CLASSIFIEDS............ S..........4 A SPO RT S. .................. .......................5A THE STATEMENT...... A.6A 8A ..IB