e id igan 0i1 Ann Arbor, Michigan Thursday, April 8, 2010 michigandaily.com 2 police, fire officials split on cause of weekend fires MARISSA MCCLAIN/Daily LSA sophomore Rick Stepanovic looks at his reflection after shaving his head for a Sigma Phi Epsilon fundraiser for Saint Baldricks, an organization that raises money for pediatric cancer research. In return for Alpha Delta Pi sorority donating $100 to the cause, Stepanovic shaved the sorority's letters into his head. For a story on the fundraiser, see Page 7A. FINANCING YOUR E DUCAT ION In student aid overhaul, traces Of U officia l past and present A fire C The depar cause occurs pus on The treati accorc report 28 to But fii agree, deuce a resu Marsl said it The house one ar separi cars m apartr Street invest and fi In Chain APD contends sized that though the fires are "suspicious," at this point, AAFD s were caused by has no evidence that suggests the blazes were caused by arson and arson, but fire therefore AAFD officials can't stand by the crime report. ep disgAccording to Chamberlain, the AAFD has the ultimate say as to By DYLAN CINTI whether the fires were arsons, DailyStaffReporter but the police are handling the criminal investigation. Ann Arbor police and fire In a separate interview last tments are divided over the night, an Ann Arbor police ser- of two suspicious fires that geant who requested to remain red at residences near cam- anonymous because they weren't n Saturday morning. permitted to speak publicly on police department is the investigation, said the police ng the two fires as arsons, department already has enough ding to its crime statistics evidence to treat the fires as t for the week of March arsons. April 3 released yesterday. The sergeant said the close re department officials dis- proximity in both timing and saying they have no evi- location of the fires is indicative suggesting the fires were of arson. lt of arson, Ann Arbor Fire "There were four things that hall Kathleen Chamberlain caught on fire in a single night,' n an interview yesterday. the sergeant said. "We're trying fires - a blaze in a rental to use a little common sense." on State Street that killed The police are not even consid' nd injured two others and a ering the possibility that any of ate incident in which three the fires were accidental, accord- cent up in flames under an ing to the sergeant. ment building on Church "If it had just been one fire, - are currently under then maybe," the sergeant said. igation by both the police "But four fires?" re departments. The sergeant also said the yesterday's interview, police department is treating the berlain repeatedly empha- See FIRES, Page 7A 'U' served as one of 100 testing grounds for direct student lending program By BETHANY BIRON DailyStaffReporter President Barack Obama recently signed a bill into law that aims to overhaul student aid by implementing direct stu- dent lending at colleges across the nation. But this won't mean much of a change for the University where direct student lending has been in place for years. In fact, cur- rent and former University officials were involved in' the development of the concept of direct student lending, and the University served as a testing ground for the program. Thomas Butts was the direc- tor of the University's Student Financial Aid office from 1971 to 1977, and later, the deputy assistant secretary for Stu- dent Financial Assistance for the federal government dur- ing President Jimmy Carter's administration from 1977 to 1981. Butts then worked in the University's Office of Govern- ment Relations in Washington D.C. in the early 1990s, during which time he collaborated with former State Rep. William Ford (D-Mich.) to develop a direct student lending pilot program for select schools across the nation. In 1994, the University became one of 100 schools to take part in the direct student loan initiative. According to Butts, the decision to take part in the program was largely due to the desire of former Univer- sity President James Duderstadt to change financial aid pro- grams at the University and his asking Butts for help in getting that accomplished. "My role was to develop this See LOANS, Page 7A UNIVERSITY RESEARCH 'l' researchers hopeful after successful particle collision -W . , , University had a hand in historic Large Hadron Collider test By LILLIAN XIAO Daily StaffReporter in a 17-mile tunnel located underneath France and Switzer- land, the Large Hadron Collider - the largesthigh-energyparticle accelerator in the world - under- went its first beam collision early last week, marking a quantum leap toward testing current mod- els of physics. Researchers at the Euro- pean Organization for Nuclear Research - some of whom are from the University of Michigan - hope the energy generated by the LHC will produce collisions between subatomic particles and answer key questions surround- ing the creation of matter and other dimensions. "It's goingtobean excitingfew months ahead," said J. Chapman, a professor emeritus of physics at the University and one of the LHC researchers. The LHC has the potential to accelerate beams of particles along its 17-mile circumference in just microseconds, Chapman said. The head-on collisions pro- duce an array of particles, and See COLLISION, Page 7A POLITICIAN ON CAMPUS Former U.S. Rep., Law School alum Ford talks policy at campus event Shannon Schulyer of PriceWaterhouseCooper gives a talk on corporate responsibility at the Ross School of Business yesterday. Schulyer said corporate responsihility is important for hoth prospective employees and consumers. 'U'alumtalks corporate responsibility A di car t lecture, Ford people about a variety of issues, includingthe economy, the prima- scusses health ry voting system and the recently passed health care reform bill. e, party politics During his talk in the Ford School of Public Policy's Annen- By SCOTT SUH berg Auditorium, Ford com- Daily StaffReporter mended President Obama's resiliency in passing health care ersity Law School alum reform, but was quick to point out rmer United States Rep. that it should merely be viewed as E. Ford, Jr. returned to a first step to a more comprehen- s yesterday to speak before sive effort to expand health insur- vd of approximately 150 ance in the country. "My hope is that over the next few months that we view this moment as really just another starting point around health care, that the fixes that have to come, that some of the test runs in this health care bill will seek to deter- mine the next steps," Ford said. Ford, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, also praised the presi- dent for his recent decision to allow offshore drilling along the See FORD, Page 7A Shannon Schulyer says consumers are basing decisions on ethics of companies By WHITNEY WILD Daily StaffReporter About 100 students gathered in the Ross School of Business last night for a talk by a Univer- sity alum on corporate and social responsibility. Shannon Schuyler, managing director of corporate responsibil- ity at PriceWaterhouseCooper - an assurance, tax and corporate advisory service provider - spoke at the event about the importance of corporate responsibility to both consumers and prospective employees. "The topic of corporate respon- sibility is a dynamic topic, and it should be one that leadsto debate,". Schuyler said during her presenta- tion. Schuyler focused on raising awareness of the ethical respon- sibilities that corporations may shoulder and tried to create a dialogue between presenters and members of the audience. At various points during her presentation, Schuyler gave audi- ence members opportunities to voice their opinions about social and corporate responsibility. The first question Schuyler asked was whether or not mem- bers of the audience care about See SCHULYER, Page 7A Univ and fo Harold campus a crow WEATHER HI: 49 TOMORROW LO 33 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. NEW ON MICHIGANOAILY.COM Panelists talk accessibility at transportation forum. MICH IGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS/TH E WIRE INDEX NEW S ...... ..............2......... .2A SPO RTS ..............................5A Vol. CXX, No.125 SUDOKU.. . . 3A CLASSIFIEDS.................A.....6A N2N.The.Michigan.Daily. ...4A B- SI D E B michigondoilycom OPN O ...4A B S D .......... .......1 .