As spring practice kicks off, the Michigan football team LAMChasAmany questions to wwA " "address, particularly at flquarterback. Farmers Market U PAGE 8A Solar Project u nn sr-kroec D cm ev D eelopent Athorty E l li lidi~n4ai, Ann Arbor, Michigan THE CAMPUS COMMUN Rule change could alter 'U' handling of remains Wednesday, March 17, 2010 michigandaily.com DIGITAL DRESS REHEARSAL Museums must now reassess culturally unidentifiable Native American remains By CAITLIN HUSTON Daily StaffReporter A change in the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act may force the University of Michigan's Museum of Anthropology - as well as muse- ums across the country - to redis- tribute their collections of Native American human remains. The act requires museums to maintain inventories of Native American artifacts, make inven- tory lists available to the public and work closely with tribes to return artifacts that are associated with specific tribes. On Monday, a NAGPRA com- mittee approved a change in the act that will force museums - like the University's Museum of Anthropology - to inform Native American tribes that "culturally unidentifiable" remains found in their tribal regions may potentially be returned to them. Before the addition to the act, museums were not obligated to return anyunidentifiable remains. Currently, the University's Museum of Anthropology houses 1,390. "culturally unidentifiable" remains, which have been the sub- ject of controversy in the past. After much debate on campus about the remains, the University formed the Advisory Committee on Culturally Unidentifiable Human Remains last October to deter- mine how to deal with the Native American culturally unidentifiable remains that are in the museum's collection. According to an Oct. 15 Michi- gan Daily article, the committee was created partially in response to the expectation that NAGPRA would soon be revised and to help the University decide how best to deal with the remains. LSA sophomore Alys Alley, the co-chair of the Native American Student Association at the Univer- sity, wrote in an e-mail interview that she and other members of the group believe that the new rule will mean that the culturally unidenti- fiable remains in the University's possession will be returned to their respective tribes. "Many of those remains that are held by the University of Michi- gan Museum of Anthropology are the ancestors of the Native Ameri- See REMAINS, Page 7A Video Studio Consultant Jeff Alder prepares for "Mapping the River" yesterday in the Duderstadt Center Video Studio. The show is an interdisciplinary performance on the endless cycle of water and will be performed on Wednesday night. RHA to survey udents today on gender-neutral housing optons Survey meant to assess residents' interest in proposal By CHELSEY DAMBRO For the Daily The Residence Hall Associa- tion will be sending out a survey today to gauge students' interest in the option of gender-neutral housing to those living in Univer- sity Housing. In April 2009, the Spectrum Center Student Advisory Board drafted a proposal to reevalu- ate the current gender-neutral housing option. Since then, many groups on campus like the Ameri- can Civil Liberties Union, the Michigan Student Assembly, and now, RHA have supported the proposal to make accommoda- tions for students who may feel uncomfortable living in same-sex living arrangements. Though there are options cur- rently available for transgender students, the proposal would offer students more gender-neutral housing options. The Spectrum Center website states that current gender-neu- tral housing accommodations are made on a case-by-case basis and that applicants have no guarantee that their preferences will be met due to limited space. In addition, according to the University Housing website, stu- dents undergoing sex reassign- ment surgery are placed in rooms according to their birth gender until their surgery is complete. LSA sophomore Lindsey Schmuker, who is involved with the Gender Neutral Housing Coalition and Working Group and chair of the Housing Advocacy Committee of RHA, said she had a large role in creating the survey According to Schumker, the survey is expected to include a See SURVEY, Page 7A A PURLTCI NTERVIEW MSA pres. apologizes once again for website expense Website developers say overspending was the result of miscommunication By ELYANA TWIGGS Daily StaffReporter Michigan Student Assembly President Abhishek Mahanti con- tinued to apologize last night for a failed MSA website that cost $9,244.60. At the assembly's meeting yes- terday, Mahanti said though an attempt to fix MSA's old website cost more than $9,000, the cost of the project was originally esti- mated to be $3,000 to $4,000. "This was not a line item bud- get," Mahanti said at the meeting. "We did not have a hard limit set." In an interview after the meet- ing, Mahanti said he was sorry the project ended up being so expensive. "I apologize for the expendi- ture," he said in the interview. "I've taken responsibility for it and hope we can move on." At the meeting, Mahanti told representatives that it was a mistake for him not to inquire further about how much money was being spent on the website or See MSA, Page 7A JAKE FROMM/Daily Jay Wilgus, a candidate vying to become the directorof the Office of Student Conflic tResolution, gives a presentation in the Wolver- ine Room of the Michigan Union yesterday. Wilgus, the assistant dean of students at the University of Utah, explained his vision for OSCR dyring his presentation. For a full story on Wilgus's visit to campus, see News, Page 7A. ST. PATRICK'S DAY While fraternities are permitted to have holiday parties tonight, nonehaveregistered with IFC Daily, 'U'sued by former editor Daytime festivities scheduled to end by *0 1p.m., leaders say By VERONICA MENALDI Daily StaffReporter St. Patrick's Day partying at fra- ternities on campus is something of a campus tradition, and accord- ing to Interfraternity Council offi- cials, the activities are sanctioned by the IFC. Michael Miniaci, IFC's vice president of social responsibility, wrote in an e-mail interview that events that take place during the day can't be regulated by the IFC's Social Responsibility Committee. But if fraternities do have daytime parties, they're expected to fol- low the rules laid out in the IFC's Social Environment Management Policy - like having sober moni- tors and not using glass bottles. Fraternities are allowed to have parties tonight as long as they're registered with the IFC, but as of IFC's deadline Monday night, no fraternities had registered parties, See IFC, Page 7A Three current and former editors also named in lawsuit By JOSEPH LICHTERMAN Daily StaffReporter A former Michigan Daily news editor has filed a lawsuit against the University of Michigan, The Michigan Daily and three current and former Daily editors. The former editor and current University student, Julie Rowe, resigned from her position as a senior news editor at the Daily in March 2009 after top editors claimed Rowe had plagiarized in two articles - one of which ran in print and online, while the other was discovered before publica- tion. In her lawsuit, filed recently in Washtenaw County Circuit Court and disclosed in the University Board of Regents monthly liti- gation report on Monday, Rowe alleges that Gary Graca, then edi- tor in chief of the Daily, Courtney Ratkowiak, then managing editor and now a columnist for the Daily, and Jacob Smilovitz, then man- aging news editor and current editor in chief of the Daily, were For the full text of the lawsuit ksee wrong in their assessment that her actions constituted plagia- rism. The suit also claims that the University sanctioned the newspaper's alleged unfair treat- ment by neglecting to appropri- ately supervise the Daily - which claims to be editorially indepen- dent. Rowe has brought four charg- es - defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and denial of substantive and procedural due process rights - See LAWSUIT, Page 7A WEATHER HI: 63 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail TOMORROW LO news@michigandaily.com and let us know. NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY,COM Daily Arts's guide to this week's online diversions. MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS/THE FILTER INDEX NEW S ...............2.................2A CLASSIFIEDS........... h.........,6A Vol CXX, Not10 OPINION... . . 4A SPORTS....8A......................A (201 TheMichiganlDaily ARTS.......5A THE STATEMENT.................B michigondoily.com S........... p A 4