NEWS
New Medical School
dean appointed
After spending 10 months as
the interim dean of the Univer-
sity School of Medicine, James
Woolliscroft will take up the
position permanently on July 1.
See page 2.
OPINION
From the Daily:
Gitmo must go
Since President Bush exploit-
ed the tragedy of Sept. 11 for
political gain, the detention
center at Guantanamo Bay, with
its lax standards and indefinite
detention policies, has come to
represent America's worst. In
. another string of challenges to
its legality, two separate courts
recently handed down deci-
sions that reaffirm that the Bush
administration is out of line.
It's time for Congress to get on
board too.
See page 4.
SPORTS
A wrap-up of the
baseball season
The Michigan baseball team
lost in its super regional to Ore-
gon State June 11. What caused
the Wolverines' season to end in
Corvallis? Baseball beat writers
Courtney Ratkowiak and Andy
Reid weigh in.
See page 11.
SHAY SrAsiOLA/oaiiy
The Ann Arbor Green Fair exhibited a hybrid bus on Friday to give Ann Arbor residents a preview of the envirosmentally
friendly future of the city's public transportation system.
A2embrac-es hybrid buses
TEXTBOOKS
Custom
solution to
textbook
dilemma
Customization option will
lower cost to students,
panel says
By AMINA FARHA
Daily Staff Reporter
High textbook prices might be
the result of a "broken" market
system that state or federal leg-
islation can't fix, said a congres-
sional advisory committee in its
report to Congress in May.
The Advisory Committee on
Student Financial Assistance, an
independent research panel orga-
nized by Congress, said high text-
book prices could be blamed on a
"producer-centric" market that
doesn't allow consumers to influ-
ence how products are formatted
and sold.
Instead of regulating the text-
book market, which the report
says would be ineffective, the
committee recommends an online
marketplace where professors
nationwide can order custom-
made electronic or print copies of
texts for students to purchase.
According to the report, these
texts consisting of material from
several publications would elimi-
nate the cost of chapters that pro-
fessors don't plan on covering,
while protecting copyrights.
The University's Textbook Task
Force, which has been investigat-
ing how to reduce the cost of text-
books since 2006, proposed a plan
to digitalize much of the campus
textbook market in its report to
the Senate Advisory Committee
on University Affairs in May.
In the long run, the task force
said it would also like to establish
a website for instructors to com-
See TEXTBOOKS, Page 7
While city makes eco-
friendly move, 'U'
keeps old buses
By JAKE HOLMES
Daily StafflReporter
Public transportation in Ann
Arbor is about to become even
more environmentally friendly.
Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje
recently unveiled plans to curb
the amount of fossil fuels used by
the city's buses.
As part of "The Mayor's Green
Energy Plan," the Ann Arbor
Transportation Authority plans
to replace all its buses with a
"green fleet" of hybrid buses
within three years.
But while Ann Arbor plans to
use city funds and outside grants
to buy 15 hybrid buses by Novem-
ber, the University has no plan to
introduce hybrid technology to.
its own buses.
Although the hybrid buses use
about 30 percentless fuel than the
ones used now, they cost about 83
percentmore,AATA maintenance
manager Terry Black said.
Keith Johnson, the general
manager of the University's Fleet
and Garage Operations, said that
because the hybrid buses cost so
much more than regular ones -
$550,000 versus $300,000 - the
University will hold off on buying
hybrid buses for now.
But Johnson said the Univer-
sity plans to reinvestigate hybrids
in 10 to 12 years when higher fuel
costs and lower prices of hybrid
technology make the transition a
more cost-effective option.
Replacing every bus in the
AATA's 75-bus fleet with hybrids,
which Hieftje has pledged to do
over the next three years, will
require a hefty initial investment,
but Black said he expects the city
to see more than just a return in
environmental well being. Over
the next 12 years, Black said the
AATA expects to save $2,500,000
in fuel and maintenance costs as a
result of introducing the hybrids.
Johnson said the financial ben-
efit would not be as great for the
University because its buses typi-
cally only rack up half the mile-
BY THE NUMBERS
$550,000
The cost of a hybrid bus.
$300r000
The cost of the model of bus
the University uses.
age of city buses.
"It's just more attractive to
them," he said,
Hybrid technology is espe-
cially beneficial for vehicles that
encounter frequent stop-and-go
trafficlikebuses. Hybridbuses are
mostly powered by fuel combus-
tion, but are assisted by electrical
energy. When the bus's brakes are
applied, a generator converts the
energy released from deceleration
into electrical energy, which is
stored in a battery and used when
the bus accelerates.
See BUSES, Page 7
INDEX
Vol. cXvIiENo. 145
02007The Michigan Daily
michigandoiiy.com
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