The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 13, 2005 - 3 Petition seeks to restrict student parking By Muhammad Saleem Khan Daily Staff Reporter Frustrated with a lack of parking space, the North Burns Park and Oxbridge neighbor- hood associations have submitted a petition to the Ann Arbor City Council to create parking districts that will require a special permit for cars parked longer than two hours between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Peter Nagourney, co-chair of the North Burns Park Association, said the parking problem can be attributed to daily commut- ers parking their cars on the neighborhood's streets. The parked cars make it difficult for resi- dents, service personnel and visitors to park anywhere near resident's homes, Nagourney said. "The problems concern the environment, street safety and inconvenience for residents," Nagourney said, "Long-term car storage has made it impossible for the city to clean streets, remove leaves and do proper snow clearance on a regular schedule," Prue Heikkinen, president of the Oxbridge Neighborhood Association, said parking is a problem that affects everyone in the city, but that the daily commuters who take advantage of residential parking have become a great annoyance to residents. "If I'm paying thousands of dollars in prop- erty taxes, I should at least be allowed one spot in front of my house," Heikkinen said. Jesse Levine, president of Michigan Stu- dent Assembly, said he does not agree with further restrictions on public parking. "I've received my fair share of parking tickets and am against further regulations that would impinge upon public parking spaces at the expense of students," Levine said. Levine said the proposed parking poli- cies for the Oxbridge and North Burns Park neighborhoods are misguided, and the timing couldn't be worse for students. Levine and Stuart Wagner, MSA's Campus Improvement Commission chair, scheduled a meeting with Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje to discuss a multitude of issues - parking being one of them. Wagner said various solutions to the park- ing problem are being pursued, including a delay to the parking districts vote until the fall when more students will be in the city. Connor Henley, president of Pi Kappa Phi, agrees with Heikkinen that a reduction in parking will affect students, but he said that most of the parking is misused. "Obviously, any reduction of parking spaces near the University community would adversely affect students. However, from my observation, the majority of parking spots utilized within the Burns Park district are for long-term storage or extended parking," Hen- ley said. Even though students parking in the neigh- Local neighborhood associations have submitted a petition to the city council to limit student parking from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. borhood have led to the parking problem, stu- Nagourney said. dents living in fraternities, co-ops and group "During this time students living in group houses in the area have been involved in housing within the neighborhood have always neighborhood meetings to work on a solution, been informed about neighborhood meet- Nagourney said. ings, have attended these meetings and have "Our neighborhood association has been been involved in discussions that led up to the working on this problem for over two years," parking district proposal." Students concerned over closed Coke meetings By Christopher Zbrozek Daily Staff Reporter Members of the Coke Campaign Coalition have sent a letter to several University administrators requesting a meeting to discuss concerns about the way the University is reviewing the con- tract with Coca-Cola. The University's Dispute Review Board, which is investigating charges of unethical behavior by the Coca-Cola Company, held a closed meeting on May 9 to reach a decision whether to main- tain the University's contract with Coke. Despite finding evidence to support alle- gations of pesticides in Coke products in India and labor violations in Columbia, the DRB has not yet released a final rec- ommendation regarding the University's business with Coke. One of the University's contracts with Coke will expire June 30. The letter sent by the student coalition alleges that the DRB's decision to hold its final deliberations in a closed ses- sion constitutes a violation of the state's Open Meetings Act. Although there are some exceptions, the Open Meetings Act generally requires public bodies to allow public access to their meetings. The University has held that as an advisory board, the DRB is not subject to the Open Meetings Act. University spokeswoman Julie Peter- son said previously that a Michigan Supreme Court case in 2000, Feder- ated Publications Inc. v. Michigan State University Board of Trustees, allows the University to hold closed advisory-board meetings. SPIRITUALITY Continued from page 2 too religious until six or seven years ago," Wong said. Still, some students said they believed that religion can provide structure for morality. Zahier said having a spiritual base helps keep her cen- tered while coping with the hectic college environment. "The college experience strengthens my spirituality," she said. According to the study, many students expected reli- gious or spiritual structure to be emphasized by their is.. University ,like most public universities, privately run groups to meet students' spiritual Father Tom McClain, pastor at St. Mary's Student Parish, said that numerous opportunities and resources are available for students, such as "weekly worship, availability of literature and staff members for spiritual direction." Miller said he does not believe it is the public universi- ty's role to assist in spiritual and religious development. "There are groups on campus that are the service pro- viders for students," Miller said. In the letter, the students also express concern that the DRB has not taken ade- quate measures to ensure student repre- sentation on the board. The DRB's procedures state that two of the board's seven members should be students. Following the May 9 meeting, LSA sophomore Julia Ris resigned from the board. Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality, which has previ- ously suggested members for the DRB, supported the nomination of LSA sopho- more Ben Grimshaw as a replacement. Although MSA President Jesse Levine has spoken with Grimshaw, the DRB has not yet taken action to replace Ris, said RC junior Clara Hardie, a Coke Coali- tion member. According to the DRB's procedures, members of the DRB are chosen by the University's chief financial officer. Peterson said the offices of University President Mary Sue Coleman and Chief Financial Officer Timothy Slottow, as well as DRB member Dennis Poszywak, had received the students' letter Friday. 'The University is considering the concerns raised in the letter," Peterson said. She added that the University may not meet the students' request that a date for a meeting between students and administrators be set by today. Students involved in the campaign against Coke were not pleased with the pace of the DRB's process. "People across the country and world are very concerned about what is happening at Michigan," Rackham student and coalition member Andrea Samulon said. Xlarge PIZZA 0 Cheese & 1 Topping a $10.99 On 2nd XLarge Pizza$8.99 ther great specials avilable for delivery ly $ I delivery charge Hours: o "pon perstomer 2111 Packard St Sun-Thurs llam-12am Ntdimny r (734)662'100 Fri-Sat llam-lam ARBOR_ Computers, L.LC Residential - Commercial " Certified Technicians " Lptap/Desktop Repair " PC Hadwarae & Software Ugades &Ins ta lti " Data Back-Up & Recover y -Virus Detection&Removal F " Wireless Network } "MentnthsAdadRe i 10%OffRepair or Upgrade WE WARRANTY OUR WORK 734.2629512 Swww.arborcomputers.com | Ann Arbor *0 announcing our first annual Fake Rd fnitost! , Try to find the "fake ad" in today's paper. 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