MSA participates in Big Ten Conference

By Jane Krull

Daily Staff Reporter

BLOOMINGTON -- Conducting business as usual, Michigan Student Assembly members worked on passing resolutions -- only this time it was at the Association of Big Ten Schools Conference this past weekend at the University of Indiana.

Peace and Justice Commission Chair Jessica Curtin proposed two resolutions to the association pertaining to affirmative action in higher education.

The first resolution supported moving the admissions trials from Detroit to Ann Arbor and expressing solidarity with the fight to defend affirmative action. The University's Law School and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts are being sued over the use of race as a factor in admissions.

The resolution was amended to lend support toward educating University students on affirmative action but not to actively defend affirmative action.

Also, a resolution in support of the National Summit of the New Civil Rights Movement to be held at the University in January failed 8-9.

"ABTS had a prime opportunity to act, but choose to cower between their legs," Associated Students of Michigan State University Rep. Quinn Wright said.

Some MSA representatives thought the University's student activism was a factor that made it positively stand out from the other Big Ten institutions.

"I came to realize how passionately active our students are with the issues that pertain to them," LSA Rep. Edgar Zapata said. "Other (Big Ten) students are opposed to take on higher authorities through their student governments."

MSA President Hideki Tsutsumi said he thinks student activists are a hindering factor for the assembly.

"I thought it was lucky that other schools don't have activists so they can focus on more tangible campus issues," Tsutsumi said.

Minnesota Student Association President Matt Clark was surprised to hear about the MSA's attempted resolution on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, addressed at its meeting two weeks ago.

"We wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole," Clark said of his student government.

ABTS also held issue sessions during the conference where the 80 attending representatives could share their different approaches to campus matters.

This past fall, the University of Illinois started Webmail, an Internet-based e-mail system. Webmail has been a successful alternative to Telnet, Illinois Student Government Director of Federal Relations Jeff Shapiro said.

"It makes Telnet look like Flintstones," MSA External Relations Committee Member Kristy Heiss said.

Heiss plans to talk to the University of Michigan's Information Technology Department to see if a program like this could feasibly be started in Ann Arbor.

Tsutsumi said he was very enthusiastic about some programs started at the University of Minnesota, such as having bookstores put their textbook list on the Internet, an option he has been campaigning for.

"I am very encouraged that this can happen," Tsutsumi said.

Minnesota also began a "U-Pass" program that teams the university with the city bus system to expand routes and have more frequent buses to help the 80,000 commuters to campus.

The U-Pass program "took 2,500 cars off campus, which has made parking easier," Clark said.

Tsutsumi hopes to start a similar program at the University and said the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority has already agreed to expand routes and times.