BECOMING A
WOLVERINE
Coaches and
Atic t anstudent-athletes
come to Michigan for a
bevy of reasons.
For more
see page 11.
NEWS
Stadium lawsuit
proceeds
Any chance to settle the legal
conflict over Michigan Stadium
out of the courtroom has passed.
The Paralyzed Veterans of Amer-
ica are taking the University to
court in September 2008.
See page 2.
OPINION
From the Daily:
Listening in
If there is one thing that
President Bush can't be trusted
with, it's the Constitution. He
has trampled on it for seven
years, and now the Democrats
in Congress has given him one
more opportunity with its new
intelligence bill. Better watch
who you talk to.
See page 4.
ARTS
'Rush'-ed out
Daily Arts is sick of the "Rush
Hour" series. Even Jackie Chan
can't fight his way out of the
abomination that is
See page 9.
The Daily will not
publish again until
the beginning of the
fall term on Sept. 4.
IINDEX
vol CvVII, No. 152
02007 The Michigan Daily
michignduily.com
NEWS.............................................2
SU D O KU ................... ..... ......3
O PIN IO N - ............................ .....4
CLASSIFIED................................... 6
A R T S ..............................................9
SPORTS......... ......11
ISRAELI ACADEMIC BOYCOTT
Colleges protest boycott
with newspaper ad
Former and current
'U' presidents sign in
support
By EMILY ANGELL
Daily News Editor
University President Mary
Sue Coleman and former Univer-
sity presidents Lee Bollinger and
Harold Shapiro, along with presi-
dents of other American colleges,
endorsed an
advertise- NOTABLE QUOTABLE
ment that
appeared " ... I for one
in the New am prepared
York Times
on Aug. 8 to stand in
that agreed solidarity
against
the United with Israeli
Kingdom's academics in
University the face of a
and Col-
lege Union's boycott."
proposed
boycott of - MARY CUE
Israeli uni- COLEMAN,
versities. in a July
The statement.
UCU, which
has about
120,000 members, passed a resolu-
tion158 to 99 in May that supported
a boycott of Israeli universities.
Some union members who are
unhappy with Israel's policies con-
cerning relations with Palestine
advocated the resolution.
Bollinger, who is now president
of Columbia University, criticized
the UCU's decision in a statement
entitled, "Boycott Israeli Universi-
ties? Boycott Ours, Too!" that was
featured in the full-page adver-
tisement. The advertisement listed
about 300 names of presidents of
higher education institutions who
support Bollinger's statement.
Robert Hornsby, Columbia's
director of media relations, said in
an e-mail that Bollinger originally
issued the statement featured in the
advertisement on June 12.
In his statement, Bollinger chal-
lenged the UCU to consider the
effect a boycott would have on col-
leges.
"If the British UCU is intent on
pursuing its deeply misguided pol-
icy, then it should add Columbia to
its boycott list, for we do not intend
to draw distinctions between our
mission and that of the universities
you are seeking to punish," Bol-
linger's statement said.
Coleman first made public her
position on the issue in July when
she published a statement similar
to Bollinger's on the University
website.
"At the University of Michigan,
we have many valued connections
with colleagues in Israel, and I for
one am prepared to stand in soli-
daritywith Israeli academics in the
face of a boycott, should it come to
pass," Coleman's statement said."It
is in the nature of academic boy-
cotts directly to impede academic
freedom and the intellectual dis-
course that are at the heart of our
mission in higher education."
Several prominent universi-
ties' names did not appear in the
advertisement, including Harvard
University, Yale University and the
University of Chicago.
University of Chicago spokes-
woman Julie Peterson said in an
e-mail that University of Chicago
President Robert Zimmer sent his
own letter to Sally Hunt, the gener-
al secretary of the UCU, on July 31.
"President Zimmer believed he
could be most effective by articu-
lating his position directly to the
UCU," Peterson said.
Representatives from Harvard
and Yale could not be reached for
comment.
Coleman's statement said that
the Association of American Uni-
versities, a group of 62 research
universities in the U.S. and Canada
to which the University of Michigan
belongs, also opposes the boycott.
David Askins said that when it comes to Teeter Talk, his blog that consists of
interviews with local peopie on a teeter-totter, "what's said on the teeter-totter is
said on the record."
By JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
ManagingNewsEditor
Last November, Ann Arbor
Mayor John Hieftje discussed city
politics as he rode a teeter-totter
in near-freezing weather with a
man dubbed Homeless Dave.
The setup is one other local
politicians, including State Rep.
Rebekah Warren, City Council
member Leigh Greden and Washt-
enaw County Clerk Larry Kesten-
baum, have also experienced.
David "Homeless Dave" Askins
arranged the interviews for
Teeter Talk - his blog at www.
homelessdave.com that contains
photographs and transcripts from
110 interviews between Askins
and people from Ann Arbor and
surrounding areas.
Askins, a 43-year-old with a
long, straggly beard that is about
20 years old, said he calls him-
self Homeless Dave in the series
because an assistant at a friend's
office once mistook him for a
homeless person and the moniker
stuck.
Teeter Talk began with an
interview with co-owner of Arbor
Brewing Company Rene Greff in
December 2005 and features peo-
ple of many backgrounds - from
musicians and activists to local
families and business owners.
Askins said he tries to interview
a diverse group of "totterees" to
provide a full portrait of the com-
munity. He said anyone could be
on Teeter Talk who's willing to
ride the teeter-totter of truth in
the backyard of his house in the
west side of Ann Arbor.
"I think that certainly anyone
is 'totter-worthy,' " he said.
See TEETER, Page 3