The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
NEWS BRIEFS
" DETROIT
Mich. child welfare
agency receives
mixed report card
Michigan's child-welfare agency,
which agreed to improve foster
care and other services for kids, has
made significant progress in some
areas but its overall performance
slipped, according to a new report
released yesterday by a court-
appointed monitor.
Kevin Ryan said Michigan needs
more foster parents and that too
many children don't have perma-
nent families.
"It's still relatively early in the
reform process," Ryan told a fed-
eral judge. "Reform on this scale
takes time."
In 2008, the state settled a law-
suit filed on behalf of nearly 20,000
children by a New York group
called Children's Rights. Michigan
agreed to many changes, including
hundreds of new hires to reduce the
caseloads of workers who oversee
children in foster care or in protec-
tive services.
WASHINGTON
First lady to deliver
3 commencement
addresses this year
First lady Michelle Obama will
be the featured graduation speaker
at three commencement ceremo-
nies this spring.
* Mrs. Obama will speak to gradu-
ates at the University of Arkansas
at Pine Bluff on May 8. The White
House says the university was the
only state-supported institution
of higher education for African-
Americans when it opened more
than 130 years ago.
On June 11, the first lady will
address graduates at Anacostia
Senior High School, a Washington,
D.C. public school Mrs. Obama vis-
ited last year as part of her mentor-
ing program for young women.
And if students at The George
Washington University complete
100,000 hours of community ser-
vice before their May 16 gradu-
ation, Mrs. Obama will speak at
that commencement as well. The
first lady issued the service chal-
lenge to the student body at the
beginning of the school year.
SANTIAGO, CHILE
* Earthquake causes
delayed school year
Chile's earthquake-delayed school
year began Monday, but education
officials said it may take until April 1
* before all students are back in class-
rooms.
About half of the schools in the
disaster zone have some damage
from the 8.8-magnitude earthquake
and tsunami, and others are being
used as staging areas for relief.
While the education ministry hasn't
tallied the total repair cost, it will
likely use up a large part of the $1.2
billion that Chile estimates it will
need for restoring infrastructure.
The earthquake hit on the last
weekend ofthe South American sum-
mer vacation, and many families had
just made back-to-school purchases
of books and uniforms, only to see the
supplies ruined or swept away.
TOKYO
Japan confirms
Cold War "secret"
pacts with U.S.
Japan confirmed yesterday
secret Cold War-era pacts with
Washington that tacitly allowed
nuclear warships in Japanese ports
in violation of a hallowed postwar
principle, effectively acknowledg-
ing that previous governments had
lied about them for decades.
While the move was welcomed
as a step toward greater govern-
ment transparency, atomic bomb
survivors expressed disgust that
officials kept such agreements hid-
den for dozens of years.
The revelations came after an
investigation by a panel of experts
appointed by Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama's government, which
swept to power last fall on prom-
ises to bring more openness to
government. His left-leaning party
defeated the long-ruling conserva-
tives who repeatedly denied the
existence of such agreements.
The findings themselves aren't
much of a shock because declassi-
fied U.S. documents have already
confirmed such 1960s agreements,
and a few former Japanese bureau-
crats have spoken out about them in
recent years.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Obama says he
will root out
health care fraud
Announcement
comes as part of
president's push for
health care reform
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi-
dent Barack Obama said yes-
terday he'll bring in high-tech
bounty hunters to help root out
health care fraud, grabbing a
populist idea with bipartisan
backing in his final push to over-
haul the system.
The White House announce-
ment came as Obama prepared
to travel to Missouri today, tak-
ing his closing argument to the
nation's heartland. The trip will
be his second public appearance
this week to rally support and fire
up nervous Democrats.
The White House released
details of the anti-fraud plan
hours after a fresh challenge to the
administration from major busi-
ness groups that unveiled a multi-
million-dollaradcampaignarguing
that under Obama's plan "health
care costs will go even higher, mak-
ing a bad economyworse."
The ad buy, costing between
$4 million and $10 million, will
start today on national cable
TV outlets. Later in the week,
the campaign shifts to 17 states
home to moderate and conserva-
tive Democrats. Their votes are
critical to Obama's endgame for
ELDERSVELD
From Page 1A
the city's first Democratic mayor
since 1929 - defeating an incum-
bent who had held the position for
the 12 years prior to his election.
Lucy Murphy, Eldersveld's
daughter, said her father ran for
mayor of Ann Arbor - much to
her mother's chagrin - because
nobody else in the Democratic
Party expressed interest in the
position. Murphy said her father
convinced her mother to let him
run because he said he had no
chance of winning.
"He and a small group of peo-
ple, who were trying to revital-
ize the Democratic Party in Ann
Arbor, were trying to getsomeone
to run for mayor," Murphy said.
"Nobody wanted to run for mayor
because they all knew they would
lose. He was twisting arms and
finally someone said, 'Well, what
about you? You keep asking peo-
ple to run for mayor. Why don't
you run?'"
Though he was busy at City
Hall, Eldersveld continued to
teach at the University while he
was mayor.
According to University
spokesman Rick Fitzgerald,
Eldersveld would ride his bicycle
to City Hall at 7 a.m. every morn-
ing. Then he would return to
campus to teach his political sci-
ence classes at 10 a.m. After class
let out, he would ride back to City
Hall to complete his work and
attend various meetings during
the evening.
Murphy - a professor of histo-
ry at Ohio State University - said
Eldersveld repeatedly demon-
strated that kind of dedication.
"Even though the mayor's job
was considered a part-time job, he
did everything," she said. "That
was typical of Dad. He would do
so much. He didn't feel like he
was limited. So, when I was a kid,
we would always be late to every-
thing because he'd be doing 14
things during the day."
Eldersveld was considered a
pioneer in ending racial discrimi-
nation in the city, and accord-
ing to Murphy, was the first Ann
Arbor mayoral candidate to cam-
paign in the city's African Ameri-
can neighborhoods and churches.
She added that in the 1960s,
when many congregants left St.
Andrew's Episcopal Church -
where Eldersveld was an active
member for six decades - because
the ministers voiced support for
the civil rights movement, Elder-
sveld stayed at the church.
Eldersveld continued his dedi-
cation to social justice as mayor,
creating Ann Arbor's Human
Relations Commission, , which
aimed to eliminate racial dis-
crimination in housing, banking,
education and business in the
city.
.Eldersveld decided not to run
for reelection in 1959. In 1964 he
became the chair of the Univer-
sity's political science department
- a position he held until 1970.
As chair, Eldersveld turned the
passing legislation to expand cov-
erage to millions who now lack it
and revamp the health insurance
system.
On Capitol Hill, White House
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and
other senior administration offi-
cials met with House and Senate
Democratic leaders, who have
struggled to secure the votes for
the stalled health care legislation.
The two-step approach now
being pursued calls for the House
to approve a Senate-passed bill
from last year, despite House
Democrats' opposition to several
of its provisions. Both chambers
then would follow by approving
a companion measure to make
changes in that first bill.
"We're going to get it done as
soon as possible," Emanuel told
reporters after the meeting.
White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs has said he expects
the House to actby March 18, the
day Obama leaves for an overseas
trip. That timetable would be
tough to meet, and congressional
leaders told Emanuel on Tuesday
that they don't need deadlines
handed down from the White
House, according to Rep. Henry
Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs
the Energy and Commerce Com-
mittee and attended Tuesday's
meeting.
"He was certainly informed
that we don't feel that we want
any deadline assigned to us,"
Waxman said.
department into one of the top
political science programs in the
country.
Eldersveld continued to teach
classes at the University until
2000 as a professor emeritus. In
October 2001, the University's
Board of Regents established the
Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate
Professorship in Political Science.
A collegiate professorship is one
of the greatest honors the Uni-
versity can bestow upon a faculty
member.
Walton co-authored multiple
publications with Eldersveld
and taught a course on American
political parties with him.
"He did these enormous break-
through worksonpolitical parties
and to get a chance to work with
him was just unbelievable," Wal-
ton said, "One of the great bene-
fits of coming to the University of
Michigan and joining the faculty
was to get an opportunity to work
with him. He was the preeminent
scholar. You can't say it any other
way."
Eldersveld's research was
focused on comparing and ana-
lyzing political parties and politi-
cal elites. He loved to travel and
did so frequently, as he traversed
the globe in order to conduct
research as he studied the politi-
cal systems of India, the Neth-
erlands, Sweden, Great Britain,
Poland and China.
In the classroom, Walton said
Eldersveld was a "dynamic"
teacher who was beloved by his
students and respected by his
peers. In 1999, his former stu-
dents published a book in his
honor, "Comparative Parties and
Party Elites: Essays In Honor of
Samuel J. Eldersveld." He was
also presented with a career
achievement award from the
American Political Science Asso-
ciation in 1986.
Walton helped Eldersveld
write the second edition of his
book "Political Parties in Ameri-
can Society." Walton said that
while working on the book, the
pair would meet for either lunch
or dinner every Wednesday at the
Red Hawk Bar & Grill. Walton
said those weekly meals allowed
him to get to know Eldersveld on
a personal level.
"He was an absolute decent
human being," Walton said. "Lots
of people have great skills and'
immense talent, and Sam was
certainly one of those individuals.
But, in addition to that, he was an
individual fundamentally com-
mitted to social justice."
Murphy said her father was a
fun-loving person who cherished
his family, enjoyed sports and
appreciated all things Ann Arbor.
"He loved Michigan football,"
Murphy said.
Eldersveld is survived by his
wife Els Nieuwenhuijsen, his
children Samuel Eldersveld and
Lucy Murphy, his grandchil-
dren Bethany Gomez and Colin
Murphy, and his great grandson
Finnegan Murphy.
A memorial service willibe held
Saturday at 3 p.m. at St. Andrew's
Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor.
MSA
From Page 1A
months, beginning last April.
Mahanti said the developers
faced problems that were too dif-
ficult to fix and that he and those
he hired realized the website was
an "institutional failure."
"We realized that the web-
site just wasn't working," he said.
"There were so many things that
went wrong that we couldn't swal-
low all of them."
According to Mahanti, the room
reservation calendar system - a
web application that allows stu-
dents to schedule a room in a Uni-
versity building to study or hold
meetings - was one of the main
obstacles that the developers could
not fix on the website.
Mahanti said his biggest mis-
take throughout the website
design process was that he didn't
fully comprehend the timesheets
for the developers or the cost of the
website until Monday.
Throughout the discussion at
the meeting last night, Mahanti
never blamed the designers for the
cost, but said they never informed
him of how many hours they were
actually working on the website.
"I saw the work getting done,
but I was not aware of the money
being spent or the hours," he said.
Mahanti said that in the future,
MSA payroll needs to be regulated
with more consideration, and the
limit to payroll needs to be decid-
ed in advance. He also said MSA
officials need to thoroughly assess
what MSA staff members are actu-
ally doing for the assembly.
"We as an executive board are
making sure that this will never
happen again," Mahanti said. "I
know the spirit of the website
might not be the highest, but it is an
important tool that MSA needs."
Mahanti has now passed respon-
sibilities of the project to Brusstar.
At last night's meeting, Brusstar
said the main issue with the website
was communication and that the
process needs to be more open. He
said he hopes all the MSA represen-
tatives take part in the process.
"I will try to avoid all the mis-
takes to avoid the quagmire we
have today," Brusstar said at last
night's meeting. "This is abig proj-
ect and needs to be treated like a
big project."
Brusstar added that MSA will
not pour any more funds into
designing the website.
"We will not be spending anoth-
er dollar on this," he said.
MSA TO BRING BIG SEAN,
WALE AND THE
CLIPSE TO CAMPUS
In collaboration with Big Ticket
Productions, the Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly is sponsoring a
subsidized concert to be held in
Hill Auditorium for University stu-
dents on March 30.
According to MSA's website, the
concert, called "AA Chillen with
Wale and The Clipse," will feature
performances by hip hop artists
Big Sean, Wale and the Clipse.
MSA representatives expressed
their enthusiasm for the concert at
last night's meeting.
"There's a lot of excitement and
lots of uproar," Bajaj said. "If you're
a fan, be excited, if you are not,
check them out."
MSA has not sponsored a con-
cert since 2005, when Ludacris
performed at Hill Auditorium.
Current MSA representatives
view the 2005 concert as a failure
because few students attended.
In a Feb.17 Michigan Daily arti-
cle, Mahanti said the low atten-
dance may have been because MSA
charged $30 per ticket for the Lud-
acris concert.
At last night's meeting Bajaj said
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 3A
he hopes MSA doesn't lose money
like it did on the 2005 concert.
"If we loose $125,000, t won'tbe
able to sleep," he said.
Bajaj said that MSA representa-
tives are planning a huge "market-
ing blitz" to encourage students to
buy tickets for the event.
Tickets will go on sale at the
Michigan Union Ticket Office
starting March 11. Student tickets
sold before the show will cost $10
or $15, depending on the seating.
Non-students will have to pay $20
or $25 for a ticket.
RESOLUTION PASSED
TO BAN EXAMS ON
ELECTION DAYS
Passed in a unanimous vote
last night, the Michigan Student
Assembly approved a resolution
to write a letter to the University
Board of Regents that asks them
to prohibit University exams on
national election days. MSA's Voice
Your Vote Commission - a group
that encourages students to vote on-
campus - proposed the resolution.
According to the resolution, stu-
dents found it difficult to attend
classes during the 2008 presiden-
tial election due to long wait lines
at the election polls. The resolu-
tion stated that students who had
exams on Election Day had to leave
the polls early and missed the
opportunity to vote.
Rock The Vote, a national orga-
nization that encourages young
people to vote, also reported that
scheduled exams caused voting
problems at the University, the res-
olution stated.
MSA Academic Affairs Chair
John Lin, an author of the resolu-
tion, said at the meeting that he
plansto send the letter to the assem-
bly for review as soon as it is drafted.
- Jenna Simard
contributed to this report
SOUTH U. FIRE
From Page 1A
enzie can try to prove he won't get
involved in any further criminal
activity.
"The judge has simply agreed
to delay sentence and let him try,"
Carmody said. "At least he'll have
the opportunity to make that
showing for the court."
Carmody said MacKenzie will
either be sentenced to three years
in -r'-- nr-nn-v- ar- f ait -r i"i
or probation. He also said that
based on MacKenzie's past record,
which is minimal, he will likely be
granted a probationary sentence.
Justin Arens, Mackenzie's co-
defendant, pled no contest to two
counts of arson - including the
preparation to burn and arson of
real property - on Jan. 11. Pros-
ecutors dropped the preparation
to burn property charge at his sen-
tencing on Feb. 22.
Arens's lawyer, Raymond Mull-
ins, spoke on his client's behalf at the
-+-t - inc-ad cn-+ tat' Ar ^--'c
drug and alcohol problems may have
been related to the arson and that he
now demonstrates a desire to refrain
fromusingsubstances.
Morris sentenced Arens to 19-
months to 10 years in prison, after,
which Arens made the decision to
request a trial date to reduce his
sentence. The trial is set for June
21.
The remains of the South Uni-
versity Avenue building were torn
down in January. Property owner
Dennis Tice has yet to announce
nnv nl- to C-1P"n+ th Pmntv1n+
I Enter Class of 2010 T-Shirt Design Contest
and Win $250 Cash!
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QyLf u hOO
c'e'ir Qx
The Alumni Association is sponsoring a T-shirt design competition to
celebrate the Class of 2010. Picture your design on the backs of your
classmates!
The T-shirts will be for sale in April and May on our Web site, with
all proceeds benefiting student programs like Welcome Wednesdays,
30-Minute Mentors and free memberships for new graduates.
Deadline: Monday, March 22.
Prizes: Winning design: $250 cash 2nd place: $150 cash
and your design produced 3rd place: $75 cash
by the Alumni Association
Complete rules and entry details at umalumni.com/classof2010tshirt.
facebook.com/AAUMstudents
ALUMNIASSOCIATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN