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he Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 7A
w Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, November17, 2010 - 7A
IRVELL
Som PagelIA
e right to be a bigot and to freely
press his bigotry."
Jones said in the interview that
he believes that the wording of
PS Policy and Procedural Order
n Trespass is too vague and that
iis ambiguity allows for an abuse
f power to take place.
She also expressed concern
bout the way the appeals process
structured.
"Right now, if you've been
anned from campus and you want
appeal that decision, you appeal
at straight back to the director of
he Department of Public Safety -
'ho is the person who issued you
he ban," she said.
The goal of the letter, according
o ACLU-UM officials, is to start
dialogue and begin revising the
respass policy with DPS and the
Jniversity.
DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown
said "the Department's official
statement is that we have received
the letter and we will be reviewing
it."
Shirvell started a blog in April
called Chris Armstrong Watch
that criticized the MSA president
and accused him of promoting
a "radical homosexual agenda."
In addition, Shirvell appeared at
multiple events where Armstrong
was present including an MSA
meeting, where Shirvell called for
Amrstrong's resignation.
Shirvell's criticism of Armstrong
gained national attention in Sep-
tember, and Michigan Attorney
General Mike Cox fired Shirvell
last week for what he said was
"conduct unbecoming of a state
employee."
Armstrong and his lawyer
have also filed complaints with
the Michigan Attorney Griev-
ance Commission against Shirvell
alleging that he violated the state's
professional conduct code for
attorneys.
Student government elections now live
From Page 1A
"The issue with UMEC is that
we really have been working on our
visibility withinthe CollegeofEngi-
neering but we still have a long way
to go," Fisher said. "Being the Col-
lege of Engineering student govern-
ment is a tough job, and we've tried
to do student outreach. But a lot of
people still don't really know what
UMEC is. We're trying to improve
that and improve UMEC as a result."
Student government leaders and
election directors have been coor-
dinating their efforts to advertise
elections with flyers and events,
according to LSA-SG President Ste-
ven Benson.
"Everyone working together for
the student body to get together and
vote is something that has never
really been done before," Benson
said. "It's usually individual govern-
ments campaigning for their indi-
vidual elections."
Zac Berlin, LSA-SG election
director, said that student govern-
ment leaders hope that increased
communication between various
student governments and pooled
funding will be more effective in
attracting students to vote in fall
elections.
Benson added that the wide range
of advertisements around the cam-
pus community are geared toward
promoting the act of voting in stu-
dent government elections itself.
"If you've noticed, all the cam-
paign efforts, like, as little as the
Facebook advertising to as big as
the flyers we're making, don't nec-
essarily say 'Vote LSA Student Gov-
ernment Elections,' 'Vote UMEC
Elections,' "Benson said. "They say
'Vote in the Student Government
Elections in General'."
Desphande said that another
major strategy for improving voter
turnout was recruiting candidates
that would campaign competitively.
"What we focused on this year
was actually getting as many candi-
dates as possible to run for elections
because we can advertise the elec-
tions as much as we want, but there
is a significant proportion of the
student body who just doesn't pay
attention," Desphande said.
He added that advertising is not
only key in getting students to vote
but it also provides a forum for can-
didates to promote themselves over
their opponents.
"In hotly contested elections,
when all these candidates are run-
ning, they have lots of competition,
advertising, they're trying to get as
many people as possible to vote for
them. That really drives up voter
turnout," Desphande said.
Additionally, Desphande has
sent out two campus-wide e-mails
reminding students about elections
and he said he plans to send one
more out tomorrow.
UMEC Vice President and Elec-
tions Chairperson Aristo Chang said
that UMEC had 15.7-percent eligible
voter turnout for elections last fall,
higher than both LSA-SG or MSA.
He added that he hopes to build on
that level ofvoter turnout for today's
election.
"It was a pretty huge increase,
and alot of that is two things: there
was a stronger push from the exec-
utive board in terms of advertising
the actual elections, and another
side was the competition within
the actual elections, the people
running and actually campaign-
ing and promoting the elections,"
Chang said.
UMEC is hosting a grilled cheese
lunch today in the Duderstadt Con-
nector from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
to advertise elections. UMEC mem-
bers will be making free sandwiches
for students, and candidate posters
will be displayed.
While Desphande hopes voter
turnout for MSA elections will
increase to 15 percent this year and
Fisher says that UMEC is aiming for
20 percent, Berlin said he has a more
ambitious goal.
"Obviously, everyone should be
voting so 100-percent voter turnout
would be awesome," Berlin said. "I
don't know how realistic that is."
In an e-mail interview, MSA
President Chris Armstrong, echoed
Berlin's sentiment, writing that the
"elections are about maintaining the
strength of and amplifying the stu-
dent voice."
"It is only so often that students
have the chance to voice their opin-
ions in the affairs of the University,"
Armstrong wrote. "These elections
are the chance for students to pick
those voices. Through their votes
for MSA representation, students
will impact the decisions that are
made at the administrative level."
Students can vote in student gov-
ernment elections online at vote.
umich.edu. Polls opened at mid-
night and will close at 11:59 p.m.
tomorrow.
f
MSA
I1rom Page 1A
ively.
Though MSA's new constitution,
which dictates the ideals behind
the compiled code, doesn't techni-
cally take effect until March, by
implementing the compiled code
last night the changes dictated by
the constitution were essentially
put into practice.
At last night's meeting, Watson
said that he hopes to streamline the
assembly and make it more respon-
sive to students' needs.
"A lot of people (on the assem-
bly) aren't communicating. I think
the role of the speaker is to really
get those people to work together,"
.Watson said, "to basically create a
system where the students can get
more from the assembly by people
working collectively and also to
lead the assembly through this
transition period."
Watson said that his primary
goals would be to engage Universi-
ty students who feel alienated from
MSA and hold assembly members
accountable for attendance and
voting records by posting them on
MSA's website.
"The first thing I want to do
is hold these town hall meetings
every month so the students can
know what the assembly is doing,
so the students can be updated
on what their representatives are
doing," Watson said in an interview
after the meeting. "Another thing I
want to do is to post the attendance
recordswith excuses that represen-
tatives give on the website, so the
students can know who's attending
the meetings, and who's not attend-
ing the meetings."
While MSA executives will no
longer have a vote in the assembly,
the MSA president will have power
over new legislation and will serve
an advisory role at MSA meetings.
Committees will operate within
the legislative branch of the assem-
bly and commissions as part of the
executive branch.
The new code also redistributed
the MSA budget, directing more
money to discretionary spending.
Additionally, under the new con-
stitution elections for MSA mem-
bers will no longer be staggered.
Instead, MSA will hold elections
once in March for all positions.
- Julie Halsey contributed
to this report.
VETERANS
From Page 1A_
Mich., is also a former United
States Congressman who served
on the House Armed Services
Committee.
Schwarz said the goal of his
speech was to shed light on the
problems associated with return-
ing veterans and the challenges
they face when assimilating into
society.
Schwarz told the story of a vet-
eran, who he called "James," as an
example of veterans who have a
difficult time assimilating.
He said James probably suf-
fers from a little-known con-
dition called traumatic brain
injury. Unlike the more common-
ly-known psychological disorder
post-traumatic stress disorder,
TBI changes the chemical and
physiological make-up of the
brain.
"James is the poster-child for
former Army, Marine, Air Force,
Navy and National Guard men and
women who have PTSD or TBI,"
said Schwarz. "We identify TBI
as what we think is a signature
wound of the Iraq and Afghani-
stan campaigns."
Schwarz encouraged the audi-
ence and specifically the veterans
in the room to "never lose sight"
of the problems associated with
returning veterans, emphasizing
that these issues would exist for
the rest of their lives.
After Schwarz spoke, a panel
of University student-veterans
and members of Student Veterans
of America held a question-and-
answer session.
Derek Blumke, co-founder of
Student Veterans of America and
a University alum, responded to a
question about the future of pro-
grams for student veterans. He
said the University sets the stan-
dard for how he'd like to see other
universities accommodate student
veterans.
AnthonyArnold, a Navyveteran
and an LSA senior, said he wishes
he would've gotten involved in
student-veteran support systems
earlier.
Arnold said he took 18 credits to
try and capitalize on the benefits
offered by the Post-9/11 GI bill
that offers full tuition to veter-
ans for 36 months after returning
from duty.
"One of the reasons I didn't
(get involved) was the workload,"
Arnold said.
Now Arnold belongs to SVA and
is also a member of both a social
and professional fraternity.
Ryan Pavel, a Marifle veteran
and LSA junior, said he wishes
there was a stronger community
of student veterans on campus. He
added that a lot of returning vet-
erans prefer to keep their student
lives and their experiences as vet-
erans separate.
"It really is a matter of reaching
out to individual people," Pavel
said.
Two student veterans on the
panel shared Pavel's sentiment
about the difficulty offinding a place
among student-veteran groups.
Sarah LeMire, an Army vet-
eran and a graduate student in
the School of Information, said
she has not found her niche as a
female veteran, a mother and an
older student at the University.
"The biggest problem is finding
where you fit," LeMire said.
Michael Bohl, a Marine veteran
and a University medical student,
said he would reconsider his lack
of participation in student-veteran
groups after listening to the testi-
monials on the symposium panel.
Jeremy Glasstetter, a senior at
the University of Michigan-Flint
and an Army veteran, said that his
experience alongside internation-
al soldiers has encouraged him to
try to not only create a stronger
community of American student
veterans, but to also create a col-
laboration among student veter-
ans around the world.
Glasstetter added that the SVA
has intentions to partner with
existing student-veteran organi-
zations in other countries.
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