8 - The Michigan Daily - Orientation Edition 2006
Scandal marks MSA vote
Nicole Stallings, S4M, edge out
Rese Fox and MPP for presidency in
partisan election
Mar. 24, 2006
By Dave Mekelburg
Daily Staff Reporter
In the most hotly contested Michigan Student Assembly
election in recent memory, the long-dominant Students 4
Michigan held off attackers from both sides.
Nicole Stallings and Justin Paul, running on the S4M
ticket for president and vice president, garnered 2,774 voters,
narrowly edging out the Michigan Progressive Party by 287
votes and the Student Conservative Party by 1,522 votes. The
Defend Affirmative Action Party received 402 votes.
S4M also dominated thel MSA representative elec-
tions, winning 10 seats, seven more than DAAP and
MPP, which were the next closest with three seats
apiece. SCP won two.
Perhaps because of the influx of new parties, 8,519 voters
came out to the polls - substantially more than usual.
The party members gathered in silence as they looked
over the results.
The permeating silence was only punctuated with small
yelps of joy from the members of the S4M camp.
Spam, dirty politics,
website violations plague all
parties in MSA elections
Mar. 27, 2006
By Dave Mekelburg
Daily Staff Reporter
To some in the Michigan Student Assembly, last week's elec-
tions are turning into a never-ending saga of scandal.
It all almost resulted in the Defend Affirmative Action
Party taking control of the assembly.
Angry representatives from three parties bombarded the
MSA Election Board with complaints Friday after the Cen-
tral Student Judiciary's Thursday ruling to extend the dead-
line for filing grievances about the election.
Disregarding the wishes of the election board, CSJ
extended the deadline past the announcement of the elec-
tion results, a move that goes against standard election pro-
cedure. After the ruling, 27 complaints barreled in all at
once just before 5 p.m. on Friday. Most were filed within
15 minutes of the deadline, said Justin Pfeiffer, an election
board member and MSA Law School representative.
Students 4 Michigan filed 25 of the 27, but said they would
not press the charges if none of the other parties filed com-
plaints against the party.
A congregation member of Fred Phelps' Westboro Bapist Church protests
outside of the Mendelssohn Theater. Phelps and his supporters travel the
country demonstrating at productions of the play, "The Laramie Project."
roject draws protests
from religious groups
'U' changes aid policy
Pastor Fred Phelps and
congregation demonstrate
outside University theater
Nov. 21, 2005
By Neil Tambe
Daily Staff Reporter
The drama spilled out of the
Mendelssohn Theatre and into Ann
Arbor when pastor Fred Phelps's
congregation arrived Saturday night
with the message "God Hates Fags"
to protest the University's produc-
tion of "The Laramie Project."
"The Laramie Project," a play about
the death of Matthew Shephard, a man
killed because he was gay, drew protests
from about 15 members of the Westboro
Baptist Church - an ultra-conservative,
independent religious group.
Wedged between. the Michigan
League and North University Avenue,
the protesters arrived with signs in hand
at approximately 7:15, displaying mes-
sages condemning gays. Phelps himself
was not present at the protest.
The group often protests perfor-
mances of "The Laramie Project"
and other pro-gay events across the
nation because of their religious views
regarding homosexuality.
As soon as they arrived, the congrega-
tion was met by 350 to 400 Ann Arbor
community members ready to counter the
anti-gay protest with a protest of love.
The protest began without direct con-
frontation, but eventually some members
against the Westboro Church verbally
engaged the religious group, calling it
blasphemous and hypocritical.
A major player in this counter-
protest was Organizing For Unity, a
coalition of the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and allied community,
and various other student groups.
OFU has been planning a counter-
protest for the last few weeks.
In preparation for the events, the
Michigan Peace Team, a state group
of trained volunteers, was called
upon to ensure a nonviolent atmo-
sphere for the demonstrations.
Switch to CSS/Profile
form worries students
with noncustodial parents
Ma. 14, 2006
By Christine Beamer
Daily Staff Reporter
As Michigan Student Assembly
representatives decry the University's
use of a new financial aid form that
requires students to report the finan-
cial assets and income of noncustodi-
al parents, University administrators
are defending the policy.
The controversy arose when the
University implemented a form, called
the CSS/Profile, that will make noncus-
todial parents of incoming freshmen
responsible for contributing to their
tuition, thus driving down the students'
financial aid packages.
While administrators concede that
the form, called the CSS/Profile, may
cause financial aid complications for
some students with absentee parents,
they argue that the form's indepth
assessment of a family's financial
circumstances should lead to more
accurate, and hopefully more gener-
ous, financial aid packages overall.
Still, many students have expressed
outrage at the policy's threat to students
with absentee parents.
Rese Fox, the Michigan Progressive
Party's candidate for MSA president, has
promised to fight the form if elected.
"How can we expectsomany noncus-
todial parents to open their checkbooks
for their children when they haven't
even opened up their lives for them?"
Fox said at a meeting of the University
Board of Regents Feb. 17.
Fox supports an MSA resolution urg-
ing administrators to eliminate the pro-
file's noncustodial parent questionnaire
and to work with students to develop a
more equitable financial aid policy.
But administrators say the policy will
only adversely affect a small fraction of
students with noncustodial parents.
According to Pam Fowler, direc-
tor of the Office of Financial Aid,
about 10 percent of financial aid
applicants at the University have
noncustodial parents.
Fowler said the financial aid office may
make individual exceptions for students
whose parents are estranged, unavailable
or unable to contribute. She said some
exemptions have already been granted for
incoming freshmen.
Fowler said students who have had no
contact withtheir noncustodial parent for
a number of years may also be granted
exceptions to excuse their noncustodial
parent from contributing to tuition. "Our
goal is not to make this extremely diffi-
cult for students," she said.
In order to obtain such an exemption,
students would have to make a financial
aid appeal and provide documentation
that provided evidence of their situation.
Fowler would not outline specific
ways to provide that documentation
because she said each situation is
decided on a case-by-case basis.
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