6A - Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam

fiA - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 The Michiga Daily. ... cianalyo

MSA passes resolution
in support of lifting
affirmative action ban

150 people attend unveiling of .
$750,000 public art sculpture

Resolution backs
Sixth U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeal's
July decision
By RAYZA GOLDSMITH
Daily Staff Reporter
Representatives of the Michi-
gan Student Assembly's legisla-
tive branch passed a resolution
yesterday in support of the Sixth
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal's
decision to uphold affirmative
action.
While six representatives of
the Student Assembly voted no
and five abstained, 11 members
of the assembly voted in favor of
the resolution. The assembly's
representatives debated the reso-
lution, with a number of people
opposed to affirmative action due
to its basis on race rather than
socioeconomic status. Only 22
representatives out of 40 active
representatives in the Student
Assembly voted at yesterday's
meeting.
The resolution that passed
does not take a definitive stance
on what the University's policy
toward affirmative action should
be. Instead, it states that MSA
supports the Sixth U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeal's decision in July
that ruled a ban on affirmative
action is unconstitutional. How-
ever, last month, the court said it
would rehear the case.
The text of the Senate Assem-
bly resolution states that there

has been a 36-percent drop in
minority enrollment in the Col-
lege of Literature, Science and
the Arts since the 2006 state-
wide ban on affirmative action.
Additionally, there has been a
26-percent decrease in minor-
ity enrollment in the College of
Engineering, a56-percent drop in
the Law School and a 48-percent
decrease in the Medicine School,
accordingto the resolution.
MSA President DeAndree
Watson said he supports the res-
olution and is pleased it passed.
"I think that it's good that we
supported it, but I also think it's
important that we acknowledge
the concerns that were raised,
which is that students want to see
this as a holistic view," Watson
said. "I think it's good that stu-
dents, particularly student lead-
ers at the University of Michigan,
are looking at this issue."
A number of representatives,
including Engineering Rep.
Crissie Zuchora, objected to the
resolution on the basis that affir-
mative action doesn't address
socioeconomic status.
"Just taking in race and eth-
nicity is not enough for affirma-
tive action. It should also take in
social-economic considerations,
and that's why I opposed,"
Zuchora said in an interview
after the meeting.
The resolution's author, Art &
Design Rep. Ryan Herberholz,
told the assembly that the oppor-
tunity to attend a public univer-
sity should be equal for everyone,
regardless of what resources
may have been available to them

in high school. Herberholz said
despite the fact that he would
have been a prime candidate
for socioeconomic affirmative
action, he believes race-based
affirmative action evens out the
playing field.
"This is an equalizing factor
... it's not hurting anybody," he
said.
Zuchora said she would like
to pass another resolution in
the future that considers socio-
economic status. Watson agreed
that socio-economic status
should be a factor in affirmative
action.
"We've moved beyond the era
where it's blatant racism, and
it's more of an issue about your
socio-economic status and your
background," Watson said.
Rackham student Kate Sten-
vig, a member of the Coalition
to Defend Affirmative Action by
Any Means Necessary, was one
of the authors of the resolution.
Though she is not a member of
the Student Assembly, she was in
attendance last night and spoke
during the community concerns
portion of the meeting.
In an interview after the
meeting, Stenvig said it is crucial
that University students take a
stand in support of affirmative
action.
"Students at U of M have a
really important opportunity to
play a leading role nationally in
the fight to defend affirmative
action," Stenvig said.
- Alison Weissbrot and Robbie
Austin contributed to this report.

From Page 1A
ing the sculpture - commissioned
by German artist Herbert Drei-
seitl - due to disagreements about
public art fundingin the city.
The structure, which cost
$750,000, features a tall bronze
sculpture with a fountain at the
crest that dispenses water into a
retention pond. Blue lights, which
Dreiseitl compared to stars, illu-
minate the structure. A walkway
that leads to city hall will com-
plete the piece at the end of the
month.
In a speech at the event, Drei-
seitl - who has given lectures at
the University in the past - said
he began working on the piece in
2009, designing and assembling it
with doctoral students at the Har-
vard School of Graduate Design
where he was a fellow.
Chamberlin said people will be
able to appreciate the work of art
upon entering the building.
"With this art, we've created a
sense of place," Chamberlin said.
"A place that will be a gathering

spot."
Chamberlin also praised the
work of several volunteers who
contributed to the piece.
"It really has been a pleasure for
all ofus as volunteers to work with
the city staff, the architects and
all of the volunteers on the task
force," she said.
Following Chamberlin's
speech, Ann Arbor Mayor John
Hieftje noted that the piece had
been the subject of controversy
among community members.
"There is no public art pro-
gram that has been created with-
out dissent or without public
argument, and indeed that's part
of what happens with public art,"
Hieftje said. "It gets people talk-
ing. It's one of the reasons we
need it."
But according to Hieftje, the
money that funded the sculpture
couldn't have been used any other
way. He added the money allo-
cated for the public art program
would not have been allowed to be
spent in other departments.
In an interview after the event,
Chamberlin also addressed the

controversy about public art fund-
ing.
"It's going to be hard to be a
nay-sayer after tonight," Cham-
berlin said. "It's hard for people
in difficult times to imagine what
this can do. But I think that the
spirit that was here tonight and
the kind of spirit that public art
engenders ... just makes it part of
the communityimmediately."
In an interview after the event,
Dreiseitl said it was his first piece
made of bronze and the first piece
he had made mostly with robotic
sculpting.
"I (tried) to work very hard to
make something beautiful, some-
thing that relates people to the
beauty of water," he said.
Dreiseitl noted that working
with the local architecture, design
and fabrication companies that
assisted him with the structure
was a different experience from
working with his personal team
he typically works with.
"I had to jump into cold water
(here)," said Dreiseitl, adding that
the collaboration went well for
all parties involved.


EGAN
From Page 1A
is entirely in PowerPoint - and
despite the average student's
natural aversion to PowerPoint
presentations, the effect is strik-
ing, only one of Egan's many lit-
erary tricks that make the novel
hard to categorize.
"So it's a constellation of sto-
ries that all interact together,"
Egan said in an interview with
The Michigan Daily, explaining
the difficulty of capturing "Goon
Squad"'s unique texture when
trying to describe the novel. "It's
basically like a concept album."
Rock'n'roll and the music
business act as backdrops in the
novel, though ironically Egan
said these days she mostly just
listens to music while running.
She said she isn't the music con-
noisseur people assume she is
after reading the lyrical "Goon
Squad." Rather, music is inte-
gral to the main characters' lives
and to the novel itself, which
grapples with the passage of
time, highlighted by the rapidly
changing music business.
"The teenage years or early
20s is a time when people often
engage with music as a way of

kind of defining themselves, and discipline and willingness to do
I was really interested in that desk work while moonlighting as
moment," she said of music's piv- a novelist are what made writing
otal role in the novel. become her real, full-time job.
Raised in San Francisco when "You've got to put food on
the 1970s punk rock scene was the table, that's not a question,"
flourishing - a beat that almost Egan said of her post-graduation
audibly pulses throughout "Goon life working various office jobs in
Squad" - Egan went on a pivotal' New York City. But Egan stayed
solo trip to Europe at 18 years focused on becoming a writer,
old with nothing but a backpack describing that period as "office
and a Eurail pass. She came back slave work."
knowing she wanted to bea writ- "Some people feel so demoral-
er. ized not having a job with some
Decades later, Egan has writ- prestige, that for them it's really
ten countless short stories that not workable to feel so marginal,"
have appeared in publications she said. "I mean, to be a temp in
like The New Yorker and Harp- New York - talk about a conver-
ers Magazine. She has also sation killer at a cocktail party."
penned her own short story col- While trying to make it as a
lection and three other critically writer in the Big City may seem
acclaimed novels. She informed like a pipe dream to gradu-
the roundtable audience yester- ates who are being foisted into
day that her childhood dream today's economy, Egan said the
was to be an investigative jour- best advice she could give is to be
nalist in the same reinas Har- consistently writing, even if it's
riet the Spy, so it's no wonder consistently bad.
she also stumbled into journal- Egan emphasized that her
ism when doing research for her own hard-knock lifestyle of day-
novel "Look at Me," and has had time grunt work and constant
reporting articles in publications writing and rewriting isn't for
like The New York Times Maga- everyone.
zine. "Basically, you have to find
And though Egan claims she what feeds you and try to set up
wanted to "avoid a real job" in the nuts and bolts of a workable
order to focus on writing, her life."


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Texas man freed
by DNA evidence

RELEASE DATE- Wednesday, October 5, 2011
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Michael Morton
spent 25 years
in prison for the
murder of his wife
GEORGETOWN, Texas
(AP) - A Texas grocery store
employee who spent nearly
25 years in prison in his wife's
beating death walked free yes-
terday after DNA tests showed
another man was responsible.
His attorneys say prosecutors
and investigators kept evidence
from the defense that would
have helped acquit him at trial.
Michael Morton, 57, was
convicted on circumstantial
evidence and sentenced to life
in prison for the August 1986
killing of his wife, Christine.
Morton said he left her and the
couple's 3-year-old son to head
to work early the morning of
the slaying, and maintained
through the years that an
intruder must have killed her.
Prosecutors had claimed
Morton killed his wife in a fit
of rage after she wouldn't have
sex with him followinga dinner
celebrating his 32nd birthday.
Wearing a simple button-
down shirt and a nervous smile,
Morton hugged each of his
half-dozen defense attorneys,
then hugged his parents after
District Judge Sid Harle said he
was a free man.
"You do have my sympa-
thies," Harle said. "You have
my apologies. . . . We do not
have a perfect system of justice,
but we have the best system of
justice in the world."

Addressing reporters
moments later, Morton strug-
gled to hold back tears.
"I thank God this wasn't a
capital case. That I only had
life because it gavethese saints
here at the Innocence Projects
time to do this," he said.
Texas has executed more
prisoners than any other state.
The New York-based Inno-
cence Project, which helped
Morton secure his release, spe-
cializes in using DNA testing to
overturn wrongful convictions.
This summer, using tech-
niques that weren't available
during Morton's 1987 trial,
authorities detected Christine
Morton's DNA on a bloody ban-
dana discovered near the Mor-
ton home soon after her death,
along with that of a convicted
felon whose name has not been
released.
"Colors seem real bright to
me now. Women are real good
looking," Morton said with a
smile. He then headed to a cel-
ebratory dinner with his family
and lawyers.
The case in Williamson
County, north of Austin, will
likely raise more questions
about the district attorney,
John Bradley, a Gov. Rick Perry
appointee whose tenure on the
Texas Forensic Science Com-
mission was controversial.
Bradley criticized the commis-
sion's investigation of the case
of Cameron Todd Willingham,
who was executed in2004 after
being convicted of arson in the
deaths of his three children.
Some experts have since con-
cluded the forensic science in
the case was faulty.

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