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. .r .. .. : :_ T13e mewttc tw tcMSC culsime Scored 9 out of 10 for food- Ann Arbor aews i auruw peupse car tree uuuer aClounse u iviny eeiuuerosep vvsrngenr. 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