Ann Arbor recording studios let Why the Io p local artists give their music the this wee Mii - professionaltreatment Assembly electio SEE TH E B-SI DE, I NSI DE SE Ann Arbor, Michigan Thursday, December 3,2009 michigandaily.com FREE FALL MICHIGAN PROMISE SCHOLARSHIP Students, ' 'teamto lobby for Promise Both parties stand upto $4,000 toward tuition over the course of four years, as deter- to lose if program is mined by the student's score on the Michigan Merit Exam, which not reinstated is taken in high school. This year, 96,000 students would have been By NICOLE ABER eligible for the awards at a cost of Daily StaffReporter $112 million to the state - 6,172 of which attend the University's cam- Students and - administrators pus in Ann Arbor. SAID ALSALAH/Daily Michigan guard Zack Novak dives after the ball in the team's 62-58 loss to Boston College last night in Crisler Arena. The loss marked Michigan's third in a row, and another in which the Wolverines shot poorly from outside, netting just 9 of 34 three-point shots. For more on the game, see Sports, Pages 5A and 8A. CAMPUS COMPUTING Officials: CTools won't shut down again neartermsend are combining resources to forge a stronger lobbying effort to push state lawmak- ers just enough NOTEBOOK to reinstate the MichiganPromise Scholarship-a popular, merit-based program cut from the state budgeton Oct. 30. Their efforts advocating for an already-killed state program have a renewed sense of vigor of late, brought on by Michigan Gov. Jen- nifer Granholm's recent push to re- heat the debate over funding the scholarship. Both students and University administrators have a stake in bringing the scholarship back. Without it, students stand to lose tuition funding that they and their families were counting on. For the University, which has pledged to fill the tuition void for students with demonstrated financial need, the program's elimination carries a hefty price tag - one sure to fur- ther complicate an already delicate budget picture for the next fiscal year. The Promise Scholarship awards Michigan college students COMBINING EFFORTS In a series of speeches at col- leges and universities across the state - includinga stop at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti last week - Granholm called upon studentstocontactctheirlegislators about the program. About two dozenUniversity stu- dents traveled to the event atEMU in a bus paid for by the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. Student groups like the Michi- gan Student Assembly's Commit- tee on External Relations and the LSA Student Government collabo- rated with the Office of Student Affairs on providing transporta- tion, according to Jason Raymond, chair of MSA's Committee on External Relations. "We've been able to come to a mutually beneficial position where clearly the University and the stu- dents have a shared goal in terms of bringing the Promise Scholar- ship back, so it would be crazy for us not to combine our resources," See PROMISE, Page 7A System crashed last semester after course evaluations 0 went paperless By ANNIE THOMAS Daily StaffReporter Ldst winter term, the night before the end of classes was may- hem for students in the Fishbowl, Undergraduate Library and other computing sites across campus. After administrators went paperless with course evaluations, and made them only accessible on CTools, the website crashed and students couldn't access their lec- ture slides and notes on CTools to study for finals. But this semester, officials say students can rest easy. Yesterday, in an interview with the Daily, University officials out- lined their plan for ensuring that CTools doesn't crash during finals time. They cited updates to soft- ware and alarger server as improve- ments that will allow students to fill out course evaluations on CTools without overloading the site. John Williams, executive direc- tor of Digital Media Commons, said that the issues that occurred between April 18-22 this year were not caused because something in the system "broke," but, rather, because the core services that CTools has provided over the last three years had expanded dramati- cally. He addedthe biggest factor inthe crash were very quick, high-volume spikes in the website's usage, that occurred in a matter of seconds. "We didn't anticipate these very short, very high spikes in load because the system is being used in ways that we've never seen before," Williams said. Williams said that "a post-mortem analysis" began immediately after See CTOOLS, Page 3A CLASSROOM CLICKERS 'U'mulls Qwizdom alternatives Students, faculty say clicker isn't meeting classroom needs By CAITLIN HUSTON Daily StaffReporter Soon it may be time to power off the Qwizdom clicker system for good and make way for new tech- nology. Instructional Support Services and the LSA Student Government have been researching replacement options for the student response remotes used in lectures at the Uni- versity, most of which are for sci- ence and engineering courses. The reasoning behind these changes comes from multiple prob- lems ISS has encountered with the Qwizdom system, which has been in place for about three or four years. These problems include multiple technical bugs within the system, a lack of reliability in storing grades and Qwizdom's incompatibility with Apple computers and Win- dows Vista. The set-up of the system also does not allow professors to navi- gate away from the Qwizdom slides. "It kind of discourages profes- sors from using YouTube, or using video clips or audio clips," said Laura Hlebasko, vice chair of the LSA Student Government's Advi- sory Committee to ISS. Student feedback from online evaluations was also taken into account with the selections, which prompted ISS to look into systems that offered options other than a See QWIZDOM, Page 3A UNIVERSITY RESEARCH Chronic pain study gets $1.8M University alum Sam Zell responds to a question during a news conference on Dec. 20, 2007. Zell resigns as Tribune CEO Researchers are better use. The husband-and-wife team using herpes to of Neurology Profs. David Fink and Marina Mata are looking into develop treatments ways that a modified strain of HSV might help patients suffering By JAMES LEE from chronic pain associated with For theDaily nerve damage. Fink said the project used a Cold sores may be a nuisance herpes simplex viral vector to this time of year, but two Univer- carry genes to malfunctioning sity researchers are working on sensory nerves that continue to putting the herpes simplex virus signal pain despite the lack of - the culprit behind cold sores - to other tissue injury. Also the chair of the Department of Neurology, Fink said the human nervous system carries electrical signals for pain along a specific pathway connecting pain-sensing nerve endings to the brain. Con- ventional pain treatments rely on opiates like morphine to interact with opiate receptors along this pathway, thereby inhibiting the brain's perception of pain. The problem, Fink said, is that "opiate receptors are found in a lot See STUDY, Page 3A University alum and philanthropist will stay on as chairman By JILLIAN BERMAN and JACOB SMILOVITZ Daily NewsEditors Sam Zell, a prominent Univer- sity alum whose philanthropic efforts can be felt throughout campus, stepped down today as CEO of the bankrupt and much- troubled Tribune Company. Zell will keep his seat as chair- man of the company. The company's board of direc- tors named Randy Michaels, the company's current chief oper- ating officer, as the next CEO. Michaels was also elected to the board. in an internal e-mail writ- ten by Zell and obtained by The Michigan Daily, Zell wrote that the board of directors made the change in leadership upon his recommendation. Zell also wrote in the e-mail 'that by remaining as chairman, he will continue to provide "stra- tegic oversight and vision to the company's management team." "During the last two years," Zell wrote, "we've achieved a seismic shift in Tribune's focus and culture - we're moving in the right direction and into the New Year with energy and opti- mism." In 2007, Zell positioned him- self to become chairman of the See ZELL, Page 7A WEATHER HI: 33 TOMORROW LO 23 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM Ann Arborites dominate Pokeman tournament. MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS/THE FILTER INDEX NEWS................2A SPORTS..........................5A Vol. CXX, No. 59 SUDOKU. . ..3A CLASSIFIEDS......................6A 009 The Michigan Daily OPINION.........................4A TH E B-SIDE.................1B michigondily.com 'S