Arts 9 'Art School'
aims too high
Sports 13 Softball wins second
consecutive
Big Ten title
www.michigandaily.com
One-hundred-sixteen years ofedtorialfreedom
Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXVI, No. 118
Monday, May 15, 2006
Summer Weekly
02006 The Michigan Daily
'Dangerous' Prof. fights
extremism with books
Cole shifts focus from job candidacy
at Yale University to helping rebuild
the U.S. image in the Middle East
By Walter Nowinski
Daily Staff Reporter
Despite numerous reports that Yale University is consider-
ing offering him a position, outspoken LSA Prof. Juan Cole
refused to comment on whether he will leave the University.
"As things stand, no offer has been made," Cole said.
Cole said he will not comment until he receives an official
offer from Yale.
"Right now it would be like asking me if I am running for
president," he said.
Earlier this year, Cole was named one of the nation's 101 most
dangerous academics by right-wing author David Horowitz.
Numerous conservative commentators have criticized Yale's
consideration of Cole, based on comments he has made on his
blog, Informed Comment. On the site, Cole has been highly criti-
cal of Israeli defense policies and the Iraq war.
John Fund, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, censured
Yale for considering Cole and accused him of being "a notori-
ous anti-Israel professor." According to Fund's column, Cole said
Israel was the "the most dangerous regime in the Middle East."
Cole responded to Fund's allegation of being anti-Israel on
his blog, calling it a lie. He said while he is not anti-Israel, he
does believe that Israeli policies of assassinating suspected ter-
rorists were dangerous to U.S. interests because they inspire
sympathy for fundamentalist groups like Hamas, Palestine's
leading political party.
A spokesperson for Yale University said the university had not
yet made a decision on whether to offer Cole a position as profes-
sor of contemporary Middle Eastern studies and would not com-
ment on Fund's column at this time.
'While Cole's commentary on the Middle East remains contro-
versial, his most recent endeavor, the Americana Translation Proj-
ect, has drawn widespread support.
The organization, founded earlier this year, will partner with
Arabic language publishers to translate important works of Amer-
ican political thought into Arabic and distribute them throughout
the Middle East.
Cole hopes that his project will help to educate people about
core American values - such as freedom of religion and democ-
racy - in a region where most information about the United
States comes from television and film.
Cole said the widespread ignorance of the United States in the Mid-
dle East creates a fertile environment for anti-American propaganda.
He also said the lack of information available about America
is not only troubling from an intellectual standpoint but is also
potentially dangerous. For example, there is not a single Arabic
university that teaches American history in Arabic, Cole said.
"The kind of anti-American propaganda that fuels terrorism flour-
ishes in an intellectual atmosphere of near ignorance," Cole said.
Cole hopes that his organization will help to combat that igno-
rance by making important American texts widely available.
In the past, the United States Information Agency translated
important American books and operated a series of libraries
across the Middle East. However, the agency was scrapped in the
See COLE, Page 3
LSA Prof. Juan Cole receives frequent media attention for his
of U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East.
City weighs in on plans for new high school
- Recent graduates,
residents and school board
members debate details
By Marlem Qamruzzaman
Daily Staff Reporter
Ann Arbor Public schools officials have
long recognized the need for a third high
school in the city. Forty years after purchas-
ing land for a new facility, passions are heating
up as Ann Arbor parents and students argue
against proposals surrounding the school. But
University students who graduated from local
high schools said some of the controversy is
overplayed.
The Board of Education has owned the
property on the corner of M-14 and Maple Rd.
since the 1960s, but decided a new school has
now become a necessity, said Liz Nowland-
Margolis, communications director of Ann
Arbor Public Schools.
There are currently 2,200 students at Huron,
M 450 at Community High and 2,300 students at
Pioneer.
The Board is building the school to alleviate
the problems of overcrowding, Nowland-Mar-
golis said. The new school is slated to open in
the fall of 2008.
LSA senior Sheena Darty, a Pioneer High
School graduate, said the halls were often
so crowded that students had to push their
peers out of the way to get to class.
"It was like a fight for your life to get to
class,' Darty said.
She added that most of the classes consisted
of 3 or more students, despite the portable
classrooms located on the tennis courts and
behind the school.
LSA sophomore Aaron Markel, a gradu-
ate of Huron High School, said his classes
were not crowded but the hallways were
often jammed.
"The design had more to do with (over-
crowding) than the actual number of stu-
dents," he said. "Five hallways converge
at one point."
The new school's $96.3 million bud-
get - $8.4 million over the Board of
Education's original budget - is a main
point of contention between parents and
administrators.
Additional expenses include a geother-
mal heat pump, which will save thousands
of dollars per year for the district and a wind
turbine, which will be used to study wind
speeds in science classes.
The school will have a state-of-the-art the-
ater as well.
While some University students said the
current budget seems somewhat excessive,
many others said they think designing an
attractive building is important.
See HIGH SCHOOL, Page 3
GRAPHIC BY BRIDGET O'DONNELL/Daiy
The Ann Arbor Board of Education recently approved a budget of $96.3 million for a new high school, located
on the outskirts of the city. Contractors have already begun constructing the foundation of the new building,
scheduled to open in the Fall of 2008. The name of the new school is yet to be determined.