4 The Michigan Daily - Orientation Edition 2007

Battle brewing over funds Masturbating trespasser
booted from frat

Three research
universities say they
should get separate
appropriations
By JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
Daily StaffReporter
Mar. 23, 2007 - Worried about
becoming second-class citizens
in higher education funding, nine
of the state's 15 public universi-
ties formed a coalition to block a
push by the state's three research
universities - the University of
Michigan, Michigan State Univer-
sity and Wayne State University
- that would allow the schools to
receive state funding separately.
The coalition of colleges, called
The Education Alliance for Mich-
igan, is lobbying against the plan
in Lansing.
The colleges are worried that
the creation of two appropriation
systems would lead state legisla-
tors to neglect the state's smaller
universities and allot them less

money, said Western Michigan
University spokeswoman Sheryl
Roland, a member of the coali-
tion.
"The separation of appropria-
tion is an end to the unity between
universities and could lead to two
separate, but unequal, tiers of
higher education," she said.
The three research universities
want to be considered separately
from the restbecause of their spe-
cial roles in the state economy as
research institutions, University
of Michigan spokeswoman Kelly
Cunningham said.
The plan was endorsed by
Gov. Jennifer Granholm in her
February budget proposal. The
presidents of the three research
universities asked to be consid-
ered separately for funding in
testimony before a state appropri-
ations subcommittee on Feb. 28.
The universities decided to
push for a. separate appropria-
tions system because they think
a program the state created two
years ago to allocate funding has
been largely ineffective, Cun-
ningham said.

The current formula doesn't
allow state legislators toaccurate-
ly evaluate whether investment in
research at the three major uni-
versities has beenbeneficial to the
state, she said.
She said the universities
receive 95 percent of the research
funding dollars that come from
sources outside Michigan and
consequently bring more to the
state economy.
"That's what we're asking for
- for the state to have an accu-
rate measure of what we're giving
back," Cunningham said.
She said the University isn't
trying to cut itself a bigger slice of
the state appropriations pie.
The coalition members are con-
cerned that creating a separate
pot for the funding of research
universities would increase the
financial gap between schools.
The University of Michigan at
Flint, the University of Michigan
at Dearborn and Northern Michi-
gan University are the only public
universities in the state besides
the three research universities
that haven't joined the coalition.

Woman refused to
leave PIKE house in
mid-afternoon
By JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
Daily StaffReporter
Mar. 26, 2007 - Police have been
unable to locate a woman who
entered the Pi Kappa Alpha frater-
nity house without permission on
Thursday and began to masturbate
on a couch.
While fraternity members were
eating in the dining room, a woman
entered the house's living room,
took off her clothes and started
masturbating, said LSA junior Dan
Nye, the president of the Washt-
enaw Avenue fraternity.
No one saw the woman enter
the house or knew how she got in.
Nye said she could have entered
through the front door, which was
left propped open while it was
being repaired.
Fraternity members asked the
woman to leave the house, but she

refused and continued masturbat-
ing for about half an hour, Nye said.
When members asked the
woman if she was all right, she
casually replied that she was fine,
he said. The woman was talking
on her cell phone at one point, said
LSA sophomore Adam Bayard, a
member of the fraternity.
She walked out of the front door
wearing only a thigh-length black
coat after a fraternity member
called the police, Nye said. When
police arrived minutes later, the
woman had already left.
According to a police report,
the woman was between 20 and
30 years old, had short brown hair
and appeared to be under the influ-
ence of drugs.
"Obviously, she was very dis-
turbed," Nye said. "It was not how
a normal person would respond to
people."
Fraternity members said they
will throw out two couches in the
living room because of the inci-
dent, Nye said.
Policesaid thebreak-inappeared
to be an isolated incident.

E


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