Posts by Charles Gregg-Geist
EMU tuition increase bigger than University’s
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Aug. 1, 2008
Students at the University were upset when the University Board of Regents announced that next year’s tuition will be 5.6% higher. So you can imagine what Eastern Michigan University students are thinking after seeing a 7.7% increase in their tuition and fees.
The Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents approved the new rate Wednesday, along with a more than 5% increase in dining and housing costs. It also approved a 10.3% financial aid increase.
The hike translates to $579 a year more for in-state undergraduate students at Eastern, for a total of $8,069. The increase is less than in-state lower-level students in the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts will shoulder (an extra $590), meaning Eastern will remain about $3,000 a year cheaper than the University. Tuition for freshmen and sophomores in LSA will be $11,037 next year.
The increase was approved at a special meeting of EMU’s Regents with no discussion, the Ann Arbor News reported.
McCain’s opposition puts affirmative action in spotlight
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 29, 2008
Though race has been a central issue in this year’s Presidential race, affirmative action has seen little discussion. John McCain’s support for a ballot initiative that would ban race- and gender-based affirmative action in Arizona is putting the issue back on the national stage.
McCain has not supported moves to end affirmative action in the past, saying they were too “divisive” since 1998. But he came out in support of the ballot proposal in his home state Sunday, marking a concrete difference between himself and Barack Obama, who supports affirmative action.
Ward Connerly, whose American Civil Rights Initiative is behind the proposal in Arizona and several other states, has been pushing for McCain to support the ban in part because it would provide that contrast with Obama.
Democrats have said in recent days that McCain switched his position specifically to appeal to the conservative Republican party base, which generally opposes affirmative action. McCain has tried to paint his support of the measure as an outgrowth of his long-held opposition to quota systems.
Obama, who also opposes quotas, said McCain “flipped his position.” Ballot proposals like the one in Arizona were really “designed to drive a wedge between people,” Obama told a gathering of minority journalists, the AP reported.
Affirmative action ban might affect 100 scholarships at University of Colorado
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 27, 2008
As Ward Connerly’s American Civil Rights Institute pushes affirmative action bans like the one in Michigan onto the ballot in more states around the country, universities are trying to figure out what the passage of such a ban would mean for them. The University of Colorado completed its assessment of the effects last week. An affirmative action ban will be on the ballot in Colorado this November.
Affirmative action is one component of the secondary part of CU’s two-part admissions process. The primary part examines things like GPA, test scores, extracurricular activities and letters of recommendation. The second considers work and research experience as well as criteria that might qualify students for affirmative action based on race, gender, legacy and socio-economic status.
The proposed ban would eliminate the considerations for race, gender and ethnicity, but have no other effects on the admissions process, the CU report concluded. The report also said the university’s outreach programs wouldn’t be affected, but didn’t come to a clear conclusion regarding scholarships with specific provisions based on race or gender. The scholarships with such provisions were established by donors who set the criteria, which CU said made their status under the ban uncertain. There are about 100 with such provisions at the school.
In Michigan, public universities cannot consider race or gender in awarding scholarships, but private institutions may, and many do.
Solar car team overcomes penalties to keep large lead
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 19, 2008
The University’s solar car team is enjoying Winnipeg, Canada right now, more than an hour ahead of its closest competition, the team from Principia College. Continuum arrived at Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba at 11:32 this morning and the team is now enjoying themselves at a barbecue thrown by the college.
College of Engineering senior Jeff Ferman said the team was happy with the progress Continuum had made since leaving Sioux Falls, South Dakota Friday.
“The drive today was wonderful,” Ferman said. “We’ve been going right at the speed limit.”
But things haven’t been going as well as they might for the team. Continuum would be even further ahead of the pack if not for some costly penalties they picked up on the drive into Sioux Falls.
The team was set back twenty minutes for four counts of speeding. But the big penalty the team picked up was for an hour and ten minutes when Continuum’s emergency braking system began to wear out.
Continuum uses “regenerative braking” most of the time, Ferman said, because it regains some of the power that would otherwise be lost by braking. But they use mechanical brakes, like those found on any other car, when they need to stop quickly.
When they used the mechanical brakes to slow Continuum’s descent down a hill towards a stoplight, they had some trouble stopping, but just thought the driver hadn’t begun braking soon enough, Ferman said. About five miles later — after successfully stopping at a number of lights and stop signs using the regenerative braking system, Ferman emphasized — they tested the brakes and realized that their brake pads had worn through. Though they were only five miles from the site they’d chosen to stop for the night, but two miles later they pulled off the road, he said.
The team won’t file an objection to the penalty, Ferman said, but he also maintained that it hadn’t made any errors.
“While (our brakes) were reduced in one form, we have redundant systems for a reason,” he said. “We were operating safely.”
But he added, “Given that the penalty was for running with an un-ordinary brake system, we did do that, so we’re not going to appeal that.”
The team will submit a brief to race officials explaining why they decided not to stop immediately. But for the most part, the penalties seem to be in the past, and the team is pleased with their position. They even got to partake in a parade today, Ferman said.
“Morris (Manitoba) has an annual stampede,” he explained. “It just happened that this weekend was the parade.”
When Continuum arrived at the little town the parade was just getting organized. At first team members were worried they’d have to stop and wait for it to finish, but that didn’t happen.
“Rahter than wait for it, they let us join the parade,” Ferman said.
Parading through the town with the horses did slow Continuum by about ten minutes, but Ferman seemed philosophical about the loss.
“It would have been worse… if we had come later. They did stop teams,” he said, and added, “We did get some good press from it.”
Solar car team leads North American Solar Challenge Race
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 17, 2008
For many students, summer is a time to work, take an internship, and see their families. For others, summer is a chance to travel — to leave Ann Arbor, to leave their home town, and see a little more of the world. For 18 undergraduates, it’s an opportunity to usher a solar-powered car across the continent from Dallas, Texas to Calgary, Alberta.
Right now, the University’s Solar Car Team and their car Continuum are parked in Sioux Falls, South Dakota waiting for their competition to catch up. They arrived in Sioux Falls yesterday at 12:35 p.m., an hour and 40 minutes ahead of their closest competition, the team from Principia College. The next team to arrive, from Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany, pulled in an hour and 35 minutes after that, around 3:15 p.m.
The University’s team was also the first to qualify for the race, and won the right to start first by outlasting the other cars on a racing track. Engineering senior Steve Hechtman, Continuum’s project manager, said the early start allowed them to escape bad weather and was part of the reason the team was able to take a big lead.
“The front-running teams were able to use their battery packs to get out in front of the storms, but the slower teams got caught up in the storms and that really slowed them down,” he said.
Another reason for its success is the car’s ability to stay on the road. Hechtman, who is also one of Continuum’s drivers, said they haven’t had any mechanical errors or even a flat tire. Some “electrical bugs” kept them off the road for about 20 minutes in the first day of driving, he said, but there haven’t been any other problems in the 22 hours they’ve spent on the road.
In fact, he said the biggest constraint so far has been the speed limit, which has been about 55 mph on most of the highway they’ve driven. But they’ve done a good job staying at a legal pace, and haven’t picked up any penatlies, which are assessed for traffic violations.
We’ll see if they can keep it up. At about 2400 miles, the NASC is the world’s longest solar car race.
I’ll keep you up to date on the team’s progress here on The Wire, but you can also check the team’s blog for reports from the road.
Desmond Tutu will lecture on campus in October
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 16, 2008
Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the first black Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, will lecture on campus October 29. Tutu will give the Wallenberg Lecture after receiving the Wallenberg Medal from University President Mary Sue Coleman.
Tutu is best known for his efforts to end South African apartheid as the head of the South African Council of Churches. He championed international disinvestment to weaken the South African government, and led protests that were critical in freeing Nelson Mandela from prison.
Mandela later appointed Tutu chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is widely acknowledged as having played an important role in encouraging harmony in the South Africa when Apartheid ended.
He was also an outspoken critic of Nazism and Communism. The Wallenberg Medal is awarded annually in honor of Architecture Alum Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg was sent by Sweden to Budapest, Hungary in 1944, and is credited with saving as many as 15,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps by issuing them passports identifying them as Swedes awaiting repatriation. He is thought to have been killed in a Moscow prison in 1947.
ESPN on the Diag Monday
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 12, 2008
Does the University’s athletic success make Ann Arbor the top sports city in the country? Maybe. It’s one of 20 cities ESPN is considering in its search to find TitleTown, USA.
An ESPN crew will be on the Diag Monday to film the segment on Ann Arbor, which wll air July 20. It’ll be hosed by Nicole Manske, and feature the University marching band, cheerleaders.
“It’ll be college game day in the summer,” said the segment’s producer Jon Fish, a University Alum.
Former Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1991 and now covers college football on EPSN, will also be on the Daig Monday. Fish said he hopes as many students as possible turn out for the taping, which will begin at noon (though he recommends students arrive between 11 and 11:30).
“Be loud and proud, wear your maize and blue,” he advised, “Sing the victors, chant ‘let’s go blue,’ (do) everything that makes Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor.”
Fish wouldn’t speculate on Ann Arbor’s chances at wining the TitleTown crown, but competition is stiff. Not only are pro-sports powerhouses Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Boston nominated, but so is Detroit, which may draw Michiganders’ votes away from Ann Arbor.
Former student scales The New York Times building
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 10, 2008
University alumni like to call themselves “the leaders and best,” but when 29-year-old David Malone climbed 11 stories up the outside of The New York Times Building early yesterday morning, he was the third person to pull the stunt. And he didn’t even reach the roof!
In all fairness, Malone isn’t actually an alum — he dropped out because the University didn’t offer enough classes on Al Qaeda, he said. That same focus on the international terrorist organization is what motivated him to climb the building. Malone apparently wants to raise awareness about the threat Al Qaeda poses to the country, and so waved a banner reading “Bin Laden’s Plan” from the Times Building’s 11th story. That’s the title of a book he self-published in 2005 about the terrorist threat.
Malone’s climb was reported to police around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. They blocked off streets, positioned a large inflatable cushion on the street underneath Malone, and tried to coax him down, but the only person he wanted to speak to was Jill Coffey, a night editor at the New York Daily News. Police eventually got Malone to come down at around 5:20 a.m. by promising him an interview with Coffey.
He got the idea for the climb as a publicity stunt after two men climbed to the roof of the building June 5. The first was raising awareness about the health hazards of global warming; the second man, about malaria.
So what’s the result of Malone’s early-morning climb? Well, his mental health is being evaluated, and he’s been charged with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, making graffiti, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Jill Coffey had a late night. The New York Times Company is removing at least some of the avant garde bars that grace the side of their building andwhich the three men have used like rungs on a ladder for their hijinks. And the University’s gotten some publicity it probably doesn’t really want.
Where do you think Malone places on the University’s list of eccentric former students?
Steve & Barry’s files for bankruptcy
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 9, 2008
This may be the last incoming class to do its Orientation shopping at Steve & Barry’s. Citing a “generally poor environment for apparel retailers,” the low-price chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a New York court today.
The company says it plans to close some of its 276 stores across the country, and after losing its license to manufacture University of Michigan apparel and souvenirs, it may have little reason to keep the Ann Arbor store open.
Steve & Barry’s will also immediately cut 172 jobs. They will be both in-store and corporate positions, the company said.
Oddly, the bankruptcy filing comes even as the company reported strong sales, according to the Associated Press. Slim profit margins may be the primary cause for the retailer’s financial woes, since in the weak economy customers should be attracted to the cheap products at a place like Steve & Barry’s.
University cancels contract with Pluto Press
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 6, 2008
Nearly a year after first stopping distribution of a controversial book published by Pluto Press, the University of Michigan Press will cancel its contract with the London-based publisher.
Under pressure from pro-Israel groups, the University stopped distributing “Overcoming Zionism,” a book that argues for a single-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem, in August 2007. After reviewing the book in September, the University Press executive committee resumed distribution of the book, but later considered cancelling Pluto Press’s contract.
The University Press was the sole U.S. distributor of books published by Pluto, but it didn’t review the content of those books.
After the University Press’s executive committee considered its contract with Pluto in October 2007, it decided such a move might be a violation of free speech and raise censorship issues, and maintained the contract. The next month three University regents called for Pluto’s contract to be canceled.
In January 2008 the University Press issued new guidelines for its contracts with other publishers. That policy requires publishers that have contracts with the University Press use methods of peer review “reasonably similar” to the Press’s.
Pluto Press doesn’t seek an independent review for the completed manuscript of every book it publishes, which the University Press does. Citing that and other violations of the new policy for third-party publishers, the University sent a letter to Pluto Press last month announcing its intention to cancel Pluto’s contract at the end of the year.