The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Striking musicians
protest Bing's State
of City address
In a town where hard hats
- not concert tuxedoes - have
been the marks of union street
credibility, striking Detroit
Symphony Orchestra musicians
protested Mayor Dave Bing's
decision to deliver his State of the
City address inside an orchestra
hall that hasn't heard a note from
them in months.
The picket - one of the big-
gest public displays for the musi-
cians since they walked off the
job Oct. 4 in black concert dress
- illustrated the rising stakes for
the workers and the symphony,
which suspended its full season
Saturday after the musicians
rejected what management had
said was its final offer. No new
negotiations are scheduled.
About 100 musicians and mem-
bers of other labor unions carried
signs yesterday night outside the
Max M. Fisher Music Center in
Detroit after a day in which other
union workers protested outside
the capitols in Michigan, Wiscon-
sin and other states.
HOWELL, Mich.
Michigan State
alum among four
slain by pirates
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) -
Michigan relatives of a woman
killed by Somali pirates say she
was having the adventure of a
lifetime sailing the world on a
luxury yacht.
Phyllis Macay of Seattle and
three others were shot to death
Tuesday by pirates, who boarded
their yacht Friday and took them
hostage several hundred miles
south of Oman.
Macay is a former resident of
the Detroit suburb of Southfield
and a graduate of Michigan State
University.
Her~Trother John Macay lives
in Howell. He tells WLNS-TV his
sister "was always intrigued to
meet the people and live the life-
style" on her global adventures.
WASHINGTON D.C.
Judge dismisses
suit against Obama
health care plan
A federal judge has thrown
out a lawsuit claiming that Presi-
dent Barack Obama's require-
ment that all Americans have
health insurance violates reli-
gious freedom.
U.S. District Judge Gladys
Kessler dismissed a lawsuit yes-
terday filed by the evangelical
Christian legal group the Ameri-
can Center for Law and Justice
on behalf of five Americans who
prefer not to purchase health
insurance. Three are Christians
who say they rely on God to pro-
tect them. The two others have
a holistic approach to medical
care.
* The case was one of several
lawsuits filed against Obama's
health care law.
MEXICO CITY
Mexican president
* criticizes U.S. help
in fighting drug war
Mexican President Felipe
Calderon says the U.S. govern-
ment isn't doing enough to help
Mexico in its fight against drug
cartels.
He also isn't happy about U.S.
diplomatic cables that he con-
tends wrongly criticized Mexico's
anti-drug strategy, saying U.S.-
Mexico relations were strained
after the documents were made
public by WikiLeaks.
"I have found cooperation
on this matter with President
(George W.) Bush and with Presi-
dent (Barack) Obama, but obvi-
ously institutional cooperation
ends up being notoriously insuf-
ficient," Calderon told the Mexi-
can newspaper El Universal in an
interview published yesterday.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
MINOR
From Page 1A
conjunction with their academ-
ic concentration.
Along with the required
courses, students who minor
in writing must compile an
electronic portfolio. Gere said
this presents an opportu-
nity for students to reflect on
their growth as writers and to
explore writing in new media.
"Part of learning to write
well is to become reflective
about your writing," Gere said.
"The electronic aspect of the
portfolio also allows for manip-
ulation and the creation of dif-
ferent versions, which would
be useful when applying to var-
ious graduate schools or jobs."
Gere also said one of the rea-
sons for creating the minor was
to make students more market-
able in the current economic
downturn.
"In this economy, we need to
help students in every way pos-
sible to make themselves more
attractive on the job market
and to graduate schools," Gere
said. "One of the most impor-
tant things that our society is
looking for is people who write
well."
In order to create a minor
that is distinguishable from
the long-established English
major, Gere said the Sweetland
Writing Center worked with
colleagues from the English
department to set up the new
academic discipline.
The process for implement-
ing the new minor began last
fall, and the center is currently
accepting applications from
qualified LSA students until
March -7. According to Gere,
the deadline was established so
the center can notify students
of their acceptance before reg-
istration for the next semester
begins.
Patrick Manning, the stu-
dent services administrative
assistant at the Sweetland
Writing Center, said students
who are accepted can begintak-
ing courses to fulfill the minor's
requirements this spring term,
though the gateway course for
the program is not scheduled to
begin until fall.
Students who have declared
a concentration in LSA and
have completed their first-year
writing requirement with a
satisfactory grade may apply
for the minor. Once accepted,
declared students will take
at least five courses through
the Sweetland Writing Center
and the English department.
Students are also required to
incorporate their concentra-
tion program into the minor
by taking upper-level writing
requirement designated cours-
es in their concentration or in a
related field.
Other areas of LSA have
increased their focus on stu-
dent writers as well. The
English department recently
introduced a new minor, cre-
ative writing, which students
may begin applying for this fall.
Susan Parrish, the director
of undergraduate studies in the
English department, wrote in
an e-mail interview that she is
happy LSA has accepted two
new minors, adding that she
feels the two programs will be
complimentary and will fos-
ter writing development at the
University.
"With both of these minors
in place, students will have
more opportunities to work on
and perfect their writing- a
form of expression still indis-
pensable even in our increas-
ingly digital, multi-media age,"
she wrote. t
Parrish wrote that the minor
in writing differs from the Eng-
lish concentration because it is
focused on expository writing,
rather than literature-based
writing.
LSA sophomore Khari
Jones, a brain behavior and
cognitive science major, said
he thinks the writing minor
is very appropriate as-a minor
will help demonstrate that stu-
dents from non-writing majors
have the ability to write.
"It would be a good thing
for employers to see, since they
can't assume that someone is a
good writer," Jones said.
ANNA SCHULTE/Daily
Local tea house Crazy Wisdom on Main Street. The shop offers live music every Friday and Saturday night
HEART ATTACKS
From Page 1A
potential for gender differences
in heart attack treatment.
"What we found was after con-
trolling for other factors such as
age and other co-morbidities, the
in-hospital mortality risk for men
and women were the same," Jack-
son said. "We also found women
had higher rates of transfusions,
or bleeding issues, and higher
rates of vascular complications."
Jackson explained that age
andother risk factors have a large
impact on heart attack mortality.
"Gender is certainly part of
the story, but it's not the whole
story," she said.
Past studies have shown that
women with heart attacks had
higher rates of mortality than
men, but these differences were
attributed to women generally
being older, Jackson said. She
noted that old age comes with
increased coronary risk factors,
which means that the women
in the study were more likely to
have diabetes or hypertension.
Increased chances for blood
issues could suggest that wom-
en's vascular disease is different
for women because it may put
them at a higher risk for vascular
complications, Jackson said. She
added that menopause may also
be a factor responsible for the
changes in women's vessels.
Jackson said the study shows
the need to explore the differ-
ence in heart attack management
techniques for men and women.
Because women were shown to
have higher rates of vascular
complications, Jackson said she
and her colleagues may also need
to look at changing on-site man-
agement of acute care in order to
decrease risk of vascular compli-
cation.
She added that more research
avenues need to be explored since
women tend to develop heart dis-
ease later in life than men and are
affecteddifferently by risk fac-
tors like hypertension.
"We've only just begun to
study. There's still alot out there
that needs to be answered," she
said.
Jackson said in the future she
would like to take her research
a step further by determining
if doctors should be perform-
ing different protocols or types
of heart attack management for
women.
By tailoring and personalizing
cardiovascular care and preven-
tion to a greater degree, Jackson
said she could "do the greatest
good for the greatest population."
SACUA
From Page 1A
simply to alleviate the symp-
tom that's already evident in
parts of the Medical School,"
Rothman said. "Those fac-
ulty who choose to select that
option can do so, and those
faculty who don't want to
be subjected to a longer ten-
ure clock don't need to check
that."
Under the current system,
faculty may only extend their
tenure period for personal or
health reasons upon request.
The change proposed by
SACUA would, according to
the document, simplify the
process for extending the ten-
ure clock.
"The automatically
approved box also relieves the
current problem of judging
whether the reasons for freez-
ing the clock are meritorious
to a dean or a provost; it need
only be meritorious to the fac-
ulty affected, allowing anyone
to freeze their clock without
need of providing sometimes
very personal explanations
to near strangers (and bosses
at that)," SACUAs proposal
reads.
In the document, SACUA
acknowledges that the
"checkbox to stop the clock"
proposal and Hanlon's origi-
nal recommendation are
merely short-term solutions.
The document states that a
long-term solution must be
reached to ensure that fac-
ulty seeking tenure are judged
solely on their teaching and
scholarly work.
According to the propos-
al, external issues such as
decreases in funding from the
National Institutes of Health,
changes in the publishing
industry and ever-changing
family structures coupled
with an extended tenure pro-
bationary period would add
undue pressure to the already
strenuous process of obtaining
tenure.
"For example, when we
blame a change in weather,
or conditions of the field for
poor performance in baseball,
instead of the team's abilities
to adapt to the weather or the
field, we are unlikely to be able
to make a useful change," the
document states. "How then
should we as a faculty pre-
serve what we love about the
academy and make a change
in the way we conduct our
assessment to deal with these
ever changing external con-
straints?"
Rothman said SACUA
would be open to amending its
proposal if any faculty mem-
bers have other good ideas on
how to deal with the issue.
"We have 3,000 tenured
and tenure-track faculty at
the University of Michigan
and perhaps one or two of
them may come up with a
great idea," Rothman said.
"So, it's not as though we're
choosing 5.09 extension or
not choosing 5.09 extension
regardless of our preference.
It's that here's a proposal -
it's an alternative to chang-
ing 5.09 - and I suspect that
there are other proposals and
we'd be happy to hear from
them."
Hanlon put his recommen-
dation up for public comment
Monday, which is a necessary
step for changing any regent
bylaw. The proposal will be
open for public comment for
two weeks. In an e-mail sent
to all faculty members Mon-
day, Hanlon wrote that the
proposal would come before
the regents this spring.
In an interview last night,
University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald said he couldn't
comment about what was said
in Coleman's meeting with
Rothman and Poe, but said the
University was open to hear-
ing what the faculty had to say
on the matter.
"I don't have anything
directly, from President Cole-
man and that meeting,"
Fitzgerald said, "but this is the
period of public comment, and
all of the comments and the
responses that are gathered
or offered during this time
period will be taken into con-
sideration and considered as
the provost and the executive
officers decide to move ahead
with this proposal."
-Daily News Editor
Caitlin Huston and Daily Staff
Reporter Kaitlin Williams
contributed to this report
LEVIN
From Page 1A
U.S. should stand behind non-
violent protests.
"You've got to speak out
against human rights abuses,
you've got to speak for free and
fair elections, you've got to sup-
port people who want to peace-
fully protest," Levin said.
Levin added that it's not the
United States's place to actively
influence the protests.
"You shouldn't intrude with
specificities of other people's
domestic affairs," Levin said.
"You can't dictate who they pick
(for leaders)."
Referring to Afghanistan - a
country Levin visited less than
one month ago - he expressed
confidence in America's progress
in creating Afghanistan police
and army forces and continuing
to fight against the Taliban.
Levin said July 2011 is the pro-
jected time for the U.S. to start
reducing its military presence in
the country.
"Why is this date so impor-
tant? It's important to create a
sense of urgency for the Afghan
government to take responsibil-
ity to its own security," Levin
said. "It's important to let the
American people know that
there is not an open-ended deal
GSRAS
From Page 1A
Gillezeau said at the meeting
he thinks including GSRAs under
GEO's contract would give the
organization more democratic
power and enable it to protect
vulnerable members of the Uni-
versity community.
"It's about signaling power,"
Gillezeau said. "We are much
more likely to signal power with
GSRAs."
Mike Benson, president of
Rackham Student Government,
asked if it was possible for the
GSRAs to organize in a union
when their research and work
are more unpredictable and less
scheduled than that of GSIs, who
teach regular classes.
Gillezeau said GEO's contract
would need to be reworked to
account for these differences,
but he thinks GSRAs should be
included in the contract.
In an interview Friday, Jeff
Frumkin, assistant vice pro-
vost and senior director of the
Department of Academic Human
in Afghanistan." politicians should have a career
Levin also discussed domestic alternative in case their political
issues in his presentation. goals don't work out.
He praised President Barack To explain the significance of
Obama's tenure as "an amazingpolitical involvement, Levin told
two-years, with a huge number an anecdote from-his time as a
of records," and blamed the pop- lawyer and active volunteer in
ular wave of Tea Party activism Detroit working on former Presi-
on what he called its extreme dent John F. Kennedy's cam-
anti-government stand. paign in 1960.
"In the world where I live, Levin said that on Election
compromise is not a dirty word. Day in 1960, after four hours of
We have to compromise if we solicitingvoters and getting only
want to avoid a total shutdown one person to vote, he was left
and if we want to avoid a situ- wondering about the effective-
ation where we can't pay our ness of his efforts.
debt," Levin said. But then the unexpected hap-
Levin went on to reflect onhis pened: "That night ... Kennedy
own political career, which has won by one vote per precinct,"
spanned more than 30 years. Levin said. "I learned a great les-
He used himself as an example son."
to discuss how students seeking Hallie Ryan, a first-year Law
to hold political office will likely School student and member of
have to set their popularity aside the Frank Murphy Society, said
if they're truly committed to she appreciated the small size of
political service. the talk.
"To be a better politician is "It was going to be a small
to be able to vote for what you event so that was kind of attrac-
really believe is the best (policy) tive to for me ... to make it feel a
whatever your constituency is, little more intimate," she said.
rather than voting for your own Ryan added that she appre-
re-election," Levin told the audi- ciated Levin's amiability and
ence comprised mostly of stu- directness asa speaker.
dents. "I thought a lot of politicians
Levin advised students inter- tend to ... not give very straight-
ested in running for office to first forward answers," she said.
run in local elections but pre- "I was really impressed how
pare to deal with a potential loss. straightforward he was with his
He added that aspiring young answers."
Resources, said the University
does not want to discuss union-
izing GSRAs at this time.
"The University is not inter-
ested in voluntarily recognizing
GSRAs as having the ability to
organize," Frumkin said. "It is
not really a good idea."
Frumkin said he doesn't
think the function of GSRAs
has changed much since 1981
when the University ruled not to
include them within GSI's col-
lective bargaining rights. He said
GSRAs can utilize resources in
the University's central offices in
cases of discrimination or abuse
by their superiors.
Patrick O'Mahen, former
communications chair of GEO
and a former Michigan Daily col-
umnist, said after the meeting he
realized it was time for GSRAs to
unionize when he noticed vacant
jobs that should be available to
GSRAs were being filled without
being posted publicly before-
hand.
"You really don't need a
union until you need a union,"
O'Mahen said.
O'Mahen said some GSRAs
aren't receiving time off over
winter break due to the time-
sensitive demands of research.
He said he thinks they should be
compensated for having to work
during the holiday. Despite the
setbacks GSRAs face, O'Mahen
said he feels most are ina decent
position at the University.
"This is the University of
Michigan," O'Mahen said.
"Things are pretty good here
most of the time."
At the public comments seg-
ment of the University Board of
Regents meeting last week, GEO
members expressed concern
about several issues that affect
graduate students - includ-
ing the possibility of including
GSRAs under GEO's contract.
Members of GEO also sent an
oversized letter to University
President Mary Sue Coleman
earlier this month which stated
their request for collective bar-
gaining rights under GEO's con-
tract.
-Daily News Editor
Joseph Lichterman
contributed to this report.
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