Arbor Update

Campus

Umich progressive student publication?

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 27. January 2005

UPDATE [1:30pm] – the meeting location is the Michigan Student Assembly Chambers (3909 Michigan Union)

The following e-mail is making its way around…

Subject: New liberal publication meeting

This email is being sent out to as wide a spectrum of liberal student organizations as possible. I know that there a lot that are missing so PLEASE FORWARD THIS WIDELY.

For those who are first hearing about this now, here is a quick summary of what’s going on: A progressive organization called Campus Progress is interested in funding existing and start-up liberal publications on campuses across the country. I’ve been in contact with them and they are very excited about the possibility of starting a publication here at Umich. The first step, though, is applying for the grant and that entails some decisions.

I want to include as many people as possible in the decisions that need to be made for the application to Campus Progress. I’m sorry for the really short notice, but the deadline is January 30th. We will be meeting today (January 27th) at 7:00PM either in the SORC conference room on the 4th floor of the Union or in the MSA chambers on the third floor of the Union. I’ll send out a one-line email tomorrow to let you know for sure. Some of the issues we have to discuss include: four more dedicated people’s names to put on the application, decisions on how often this pub will be printed, do we want a website as well, how many pages there will be in each issue, how many actual copies will we print per issue, how we will publicize, etc. These are all questions I think should be decided by the group and not by me alone.

I’ve only included the emails of groups and individuals that I know to be progressive and that I, and others, could come up with off the top of our heads at the moment. I really want this meeting to be as representative of the liberal community on campus as possible despite the short notice. I know that there are more people out there who are interested. Please forward this to anyone you think may be interesting in participating or even just throwing out a couple ideas.

I look forward to seeing everyone. This is a fantastic opportunity and I’m excited to see where it can lead.

Thank you,

Ryan Werder

p.s. start rolling around some ideas for the name of this publication.

Comment [9]

Politics

Juan Cole on Iraq's Election

Posted by Ari Paul on 27. January 2005

On Marc Cooper’s (the Nation) audioblog:

University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole talks with Jon Wiener about the problematic Iraqi elections scheduled for January 30.

Regional

Michigan Dept. of Ed proposes computer essay grading

Posted by Murph on 24. January 2005

The Freep reports that state Education officials are proposing to use computers to grade essays in K-12 classrooms, following an model that Indiana education officials have claimed success with.

Using computers instead of people to grade essays could save time and money, educators say. It also could help students become better writers because computers can provide quicker feedback.

But the plan faces skepticism from those who say the human element should remain in essay evaluation. Educators don’t doubt the computer software’s ability to grade spelling and punctuation, and say it would save time for teachers, who often are stuck grading essay questions after school on their own time.

But they have misgivings about the computer program’s ability to evaluate content, which often is subjective and subject to debate.

Comment [4]

Regional

Controversial Klan robe to be destroyed

Posted by Murph on 24. January 2005

A KKK robe, displayed in a Howell auction house’s front display window and originally slated for auction as historical memorabilia on 17 January (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) was removed from the window, and the auction date pushed back, after objections from the community.

The Detroit News reports that Howell’s city officials have decided to purchase the robe and destroy it,

“We need to make this point for our city,” Howell Mayor Gerri Moen said.
. . .
Many of the leaders talked about how the area’s reputation hurts the community. Pat Convery, president of the Howell Chamber of Commerce, said she knows of local businesses that are apprehensive about investing in the community because of what they have heard about Howell.

“It’s a real problem,” Convery said. “It’s a real economic development problem. It’s a huge issue.”

After more than an hour of discussion, the leaders decided to start raising money to buy the robe. The 1960s-era robe could fetch $2,000 or more, Gray said. Other Klan memorabilia that will be auctioned include records, pocket knives and belt buckles.

The Livingston 2001 Diversity Council, a local group that promotes tolerance throughout the region, is collecting the funds to purchase the robe.

Howell Area Fire Chief Jim Reed said he could issue a burning permit so officials could burn the robe on the spot.”

Donations for this purpose are being accepted by the Howell Chamber of Commerce at (517) 546-3920.

Comment [5]

Site Announcements

AU to get corporate competition?

Posted by Murph on 24. January 2005

ArborUpdate’s fairy godfather has alerted us to possible competition—from MLive. A post by Advance Internet’s President, Jeff Jarvis, says,

Advance Internet, which includes NJ.com, MassLive.com, OregonLive.com and other fine local sites, is about to create a half-dozen town blogs in those markets—new, group blogs (using iUpload) to which any neighbor can contribute. These will live alongside the many individuals’ blogs, local forums, newspaper headlines, blogs outside the services (and their RSS feeds), and more. The idea is that—as in GoSkokie.com and NorthwestVoices—people may not want to start their own blog but they have plenty of news to contribute to their communities: opinions, news updates, sports reports, photos, calendar items, and so on. The hope is also that once we have a critical mass of content in a town from all these sources, a critical mass of audience is sure to follow. This means, we hope, that we can target ads down to the town level and automate them, saving the cost of sales and production, and price them in such a way that we can serve local advertisers who heretofore could not afford to market in big papers. That, I emphasize is the hope—untested, unproven. Testing that is the job.

MLive is another of Advance Internet’s “fine local sites”. Well, welcome to the 21st century, MLive.

Comment [15]

Campus

DART Center recruiting organizers on campus

Posted by Murph on 24. January 2005

Representatives from the Direct Action & Research Training (DART) Center will be on the University of Michigan campus Thursday, February 3, 2005 in Mason Hall, Room 2325 at 5 pm to discuss vocational careers in the field of community organizing, and to schedule interviews with interested students from the History program.

The Direct Action and Research Training (DART) Center is a national nonprofit network of affiliates, founded in 1982 to assist in the development of strong, congregation-based, grassroots community organizations committed to democratic principles and values of justice and fairness. The DART Network currently consists of 21 affiliates spread throughout Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, and Kentucky, each with their own leaders, staff, funding base, and accomplishments toward justice at the local level. DART affiliates have fought and won across the country on a broad set of issues including:

• Education reform in low-performing public schools
• Fair immigration policies
• Police misconduct
• Living Wage campaigns & job training
• Affordable housing, etc.

We are broadening our power into new communities throughout the country by training a new generation of community organizers through the DART Organizers Institute. This paid training program has enabled dozens of people to launch professional salaried positions in the field of grassroots community organization. It’s an excellent opportunity for people interested in organizing at the local level around common issues affecting low-moderate income communities like affordable housing, quality public education, youth services, crime, etc.

On Thursday, February 3, 2005, representatives from DART will schedule interviews for anyone interested and discuss how community organizers:

• Develop and training leaders to take successful action on community problems
• Identify and train local leaders
• Strengthen communities through One-on-One relationship building

The Information Session will take place on the University of Michigan campus Thursday, February 3, 2005 in Mason Hall, Room 2325 at 5 pm. If you are interested, but cannot make the info session, please contact: Ben MacConnell at ben@thedartcenter.org or (785) 841-2680 immediately. We will also schedule interviews with interested parties for the following day to take place in the UM Career Center. More information is available at: :http://www.thedartcenter.org.

International

South and Southeast Asian Artists Respond: A Concert to Honor and Aid Victims of the December 26 Tsunami

Posted by MarkDilley on 22. January 2005

Wednesday, January 26, 2005
7:00 PM
Rackham Auditorium, The University of Michigan

The Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies and the International Institute at the University of Michigan, and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, with the support of other university programs, will present a concert of South and Southeast Asian dance and music to honor and aid victims of the earthquake and tsunami on December 26, 2004.

One month to the day after this tragedy, a distinguished group of Asian artists will come together to mark its effect on our community and our world. The principal performers are world-class professional dancers and musicians from Indonesia and India, all of them visitors in residence at U-M. Their performances, born of ancient cultures shaped in part by millennia of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, monsoons and floods, will serve as an observance for the University and Ann Arbor communities of lives lost and changed. The concert will also offer an opportunity for members of the audience to help with relief efforts through contributions to Oxfam, which is doing excellent work on the ground in South and Southeast Asia.

The concert’s headliner will be Didik Nini Thowok, a superb Indonesian dancer, who will be in residence at U-M for the week of January 23 – 29. Didik is a star in Indonesia, as a dancer, choreographer, and television actor. Unusual for traditional Javanese dance, he performs primarily women’s roles, dancing with such artistry that he often leaves audiences wondering whether they have been watching a man or a woman. He is particularly known for his mastery of a difficult technique called topeng dwi-muka, or “two faces” masked dance. Dancing both backwards and forwards, Didik switches between two characters, one for the mask worn on his face, and the other for the mask worn on the back of his head. His unparalleled abilities in this form can thoroughly confuse his audience as to which is forward, and which is backward: generating a compelling illusion upon a compelling illusion. Following his U-M residency, in February Didik will be the featured performer at a major concert for tsunami relief sponsored by the United States Indonesia Society and the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Washington DC.

Our second dancer is V.A. Gayathri, a prominent Bharatha Natyam dancer who is currently in residence at the U-M Center for World Performance Studies. Bharatha Natyam is an ancient and vibrant form of dance from Southern India; over two thousand years old, the form features complex and intricate footwork, fluid arm movements, an extensive vocabulary of hand gestures, eye, neck and head movements, and storytelling. An alumna of U-M, Gayathri has her family roots in Tamilnadu, the area of India most affected by the tsunami.

Our third and fourth performers, Pamardi, a master dancer and teacher from Indonesia, and Jun Wakabayashi, a master Butoh dancer from Japan, are artists-in-residence at the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. Together, they are leading a year-long Asian Theater Workshop for U-M students, working to generate a new visual/movement vocabulary for Asian theater. Their work in the fall semester has been striking, engaging, and poignant. The form is highly improvisational, building on the sense of space they feel at the time, with the movement developing from the flow of water within and through their bodies.

The program will be opened by the U-M Gamelan Ensemble, playing “Wilujeng,” a traditional Javanese piece that often begins gamelan concerts in Java. “Wilujeng” also translates to slamèt, the Javanese word from the same root as salaam and shalom. “Wilujeng” is traditionally played to bring peace and safety to the artists, the audience and the world. The gamelan will be led by Matheus Wasi Bantolo, artist-in-residence at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies from Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia.

We will also feature music from South Asia.

The concert is free and open to the public. Contributions in cash or check will be accepted for Oxfam-USA at the door. Suggested contributions are $5 or higher for students, and $10 or higher for others. Rehearsals for the concert will be open to the public between 1 pm and 5 pm, and contributions will be accepted at that time too.

In addition to the Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies, the International Institute and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, this concert is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Humanities, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments, and Arts at Michigan.

For more information, please contact the Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies at 734.764.0452, by email at csseas@umich.edu, or see our web pages at
www.umich.edu/~iinet/csas and www.umich.edu/~iinet/cseas and www.umich.edu/~iinet/cseas .

Comment [2]

Regional

Detroit Legend - Sunday nights

Posted by MarkDilley on 22. January 2005

Techno with Juan Atkins

8pm, Oz, 210 S. 5th Ave., $5

Inspired by 1970s German electronic band Kraftwerk, this funky, legendary Detroit-area DJ pioneered techno in 1982 as part of Cybotron and then on his own as Model 500 and Infiniti. He hosts an evening of electronic dance music.

via eCurrent

Also, a little spanking of Oz’s website. They don’t have it updated. Go wikiweblog!

Environment

Local ag land sees double-digit price increases

Posted by Murph on 22. January 2005

Washtenaw County has released its annual “tentative ratios” report, as an estimate of increases in real estate value in local cities and townships. Agricultural land in the eastern half of the county saw impressive increases:

n many areas of the county, residential property posted smaller increases in value compared with the previous year’s gains. But agricultural land values in the townships of Ann Arbor, Lodi, Pittsfield, Salem, Saline, Superior and York rose by double-digit figures. The townships with the biggest gains in agricultural land values were Salem with 24 percent and Superior with 21 percent.

In the residential category, Ypsilanti topped all cities in the county for the second year in a row with a 6.7 percent rise in home values, followed by Ann Arbor (5.8 percent), Milan (5.8 percent), Saline (3.7 percent) and Chelsea (3.2 percent).

Rising property values on agricultural land cause increased property taxes (though, due to 1994’s Amendment A, taxable value increases are much much lower than the 20-some percent increases in value), squeezing farmers—since most of the increase in value is speculative, and based on the land’s developable value, rather than on any increase in farm profitability, rising values pressure farmers to sell to developers.

Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt plan, which involves buying development rights from farmers, is meant to reduce the appeal of selling farmland by slashing taxable value. Most of the targeted area for the Greenbelt plan is within the fastest-appreciating Townships. Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt Commission has been criticized for “slow” progress, largely based on the rate at which values are rising.

Comment [1]

Politics

Enders Reports Chaos in Iraq

Posted by Ari Paul on 21. January 2005

David Enders’ latest dispatch from Iraq appears in the Nation this week, after the author escaped being showered with glass after a car bombing in Baghdad.

From the Nation:

“My house was destroyed,” said Umm Hussein, whose husband returned to Falluja in January to find their belongings unsalvageable. She cradles her sick son in her arms. “Every house in our neighborhood was destroyed. We have nothing left. How can I take my baby to the hospital?”

Sheik Hussein Abo Ahmed, who acts as a de facto head of the camp, led a demonstration in front of the Green Zone to demand greater rights for the refugees. Among their demands were unfettered return, compensation for destroyed homes and dead family members, and the right of journalists to be let into the city to film the damage.

“I saw one of the boys in the camp yesterday playing with a toy gun, and I asked him, ‘Why don’t you play with a soccer ball,’ and he said, ‘It is because I want to kill American soldiers for killing my uncle and my father,’” Hussein said.

Enders is a University alum and a former news reporter at the Michigan Daily. His book, Baghdad Bulletin, will be available on University of Michigan Press in April.