Spinnaker [Distributed: Wednesday, January 17, 2007]

Planning is underway for the 2007 Homecoming Week at the University of North Florida.

Nest Fest 2007: Rock, Flock and Swoop is currently scheduled for Feb. 2 - 10 and will feature activities for all interested students and alumni. Director of Osprey Productions Adrian Semerene said his organization, an agency of Student Government, is working in conjunction with the Alumni Association to present this year's festivities with a budget of more than $51,000.

"We're joining forces with the Alumni Association to put together one unified Homecoming," Semerene said. "Last year, the alumni had their own Homecoming called Nest Fest and we [the students] had ours, Ozzie Gras 2006. This year and every year after will be titled Nest Fest."

In addition to presenting one united Homecoming for the entire school, several new activities will be presented this year.

The week starts off Feb. 2 with the powder puff football tournament. While this has been a popular Homecoming event for the ladies in the past, this year the guys can take part with powder puff cheerleading.

"I was very active in high school, and I thought powder puff cheerleading was always a good time," Semerene said. "It was fun to dress up and act weird, so I'm glad we're bringing it to UNF."

Anyone familiar with Drew Carey's sketch comedy show "Whose Line is it Anyway" will immediately recognize this year's Homecoming comedians, Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood. The duo will perform at 8 p.m. Feb. 3 in the Arena. Admission is free for students, $5 for alumni and $10 for the public.

Stand-up comic and former "Saved by the Bell" cast member Dustin "Screech" Diamond will be hosting the lip sync competition at 8 p.m. Feb. 7. Judges for the contest will be chosen from a pool of faculty, staff and alumni.

Another new activity this year is the pep rally, which will be held at 2 p.m. Feb. 8 on the Green. Directly following the rally is the "Yell like Hell" competition at 5 p.m., where students can perform a 60-second cheer to show off their Osprey pride.

The annual Homecoming dance at 8 p.m. Feb. 9 will adhere closely to the Rock n' Roll theme of the week with an '80s theme party and a casino game night featuring live music from cover band 80'z Enuff.

"I've always seen movies where they had live bands during dances so we wanted to bring that same atmosphere to our dance," Semerene said. "This is going to be the first time we've had a live band instead of a DJ."

Admission is free for students and $20 for alumni. '80s fashion is optional but encouraged.

One noticeable omission to this year's Homecoming Week lineup is the parade and float building competition. The event was cut due to poor turnout the past few years, which Semerene attributed to a lack of community involvement.

Derek Angel, a senior communications major and member of the Chi Phi fraternity, was annoyed by the removal of the parade and float building event.

"That was my favorite part of Homecoming," Angel said. "I'm kind of pissed off that they didn't include the float building."

A full list of events and times for the 2007 Homecoming Week is available by contacting Osprey Productions.

"We hope to have a larger turnout from past years because of some of the new events and the increase in school spirit," Semerene said. "Everything is going amazingly for this year's Homecoming."

New transit fee approved for students

The Student Fee Assessment Committee passed the implementation of a new fee that will cost the students at the University of North Florida over $1 million annually.

The new transportation access fee is to be paid by students on a per-credit basis along with their tuition to fund the transit system that is scheduled to begin service in the fall.

After reviewing student feedback, a fee of up to $3.85 was approved by the fee committee Tuesday after discussion between university officials and Student Government representatives.

The exact amount of the fee is yet to be determined because it is contingent upon the total cost of the transit system, said Shari Shuman, vice president of administration and finance.

Skipper Consulting Inc., a transit consulting firm hired by the university to help implement the system, estimates the cost of running a transit system during the fall, spring and summer semesters to be between $960,000 and $1.1 million per year. The proposed system would run from one end of the campus to the other on two routes.

The estimate from Skipper does not include fuel, overhead and other costs, Shuman said.

The infrastructure needed to support the system may be paid by the university on behalf of faculty and staff, who will be able to ride the shuttle, Shuman said. But that has not been decided for sure, she said.

Skipper Consulting also presented the university with two additional options to run the system off campus to Melrose Student Suites on Kernan Boulevard and to the St. Johns Town Center, which would require another $300,000 - $370,000 in funding.

Student Government representatives recommended against those options after reviewing them with students.

"By having this basic package, we can present a foundation for the future," said Dorrell Briscoe, SG vice president and senior political science major. Briscoe said future student governments may feel different and can add additional services as they see fit.

Now that the committee has approved the transportation access fee, it will go before the Board of Trustees at the end of the month for approval.

In the meantime, the university is looking for firms interested in providing the transit service to submit proposals, Shuman said. The university will then select a few firms to negotiate with and go from there, she said.

Once a firm is selected and the specifics of the transit service are determined, the exact cost to students will be known, Shuman said.

University gearing up for SACS

While the University of North Florida isn't scheduled for a visit from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools until 2009, university officials are already beginning preparations.

The SACS team will examine UNF to make sure it meets the eligibility requirements for "reaffirmation," said Shawn Brayton, SAC liaison and assistant director of academic affairs. Reaffirmation is a renewal of the university's accreditation, she said.

"It is an ongoing, daily act at UNF, ensuring compliance with SAC," Brayton said.

According to the UNF Academic Affairs Web site, accreditation "indicates to current and potential students, as well as alumni, faculty, administrators, state legislators, the interested public, and all University stakeholders, that a given institution's organization and management processes are regularly reviewed in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness. Accreditation also evidences that faculty possess the appropriate qualifications to teach the curricula that they are scheduled to offer."

To be eligible for reaffirmation, an institution must comply with all 12 of SACS core requirements, SACS comprehensive standards and federal regulations, Brayton said. To ensure the university meets those requirements, the university has assembled an institutional effectiveness team, she said.

"They are a leadership team for the institution to help guide us as we move forward in the official process," Brayton said.

Members of the team include Dr. Thomas Serwatka, vice president and chief of staff, Dr. Mark Workman, provost and vice president of academic affairs, and Shari Shuman, vice president of administration and finance, the dean of each college and other university officials, according to the academic affairs Web site.

The team has been conducting a readiness audit to identify areas where the university may be in partial or non-compliance, Brayton said. The audit was started last summer and is planned to be finished this summer, she said.

The purpose of the audit is to make sure the university adhering to all policies and procedures and is doing what it says it's doing, said Dr. Anita Vorreyer, director of the UNF Women's Center.

"I have not identified any areas which we are in non-compliance," Brayton said.

A new requirement for re-affirmation is the development of a Quality Enhancement Plan, which is a "forward-looking, non-episodic event for the university focused on student learning or the student learning environment with an impetus for improvement," Brayton said.

Currently the university is in what Brayton said she would call phase two of the development of the QEP - selecting a topic.

A team of faculty, university officials and students has been assembled to create the QEP, Brayton said.

"Without that plan, we will not have re-affirmation here at UNF," Brayton said.

The team is to come up with the plan for improvement of student learning or to the student learning environment at UNF, she said.

The team will be asking for input from the university community in response to the question, "If you could change just one thing you would change at UNF to improve student learning or the student learning environment - what would it be?"

"We've started in a timely fashion at UNF and we have a very comfortable time in which to achieve this," Brayton said.

The university was initially accredited in 1974 and was last reviewed for reaffirmation in 1999.

Race not to be considered at UM

Hours after the University of Michigan announced it would set aside its hard-fought practice of using race and gender in admissions, a U.S. Supreme Court justice opened the door for the nation's highest court to wade into the already thick legal entanglement.

Caught in the middle of a legal battle over Proposal 2 that could take years to resolve are students such as 17-year-old Lauren Hollier of Detroit, who is among the roughly 10,000 would-be undergraduates who have applied to UM but have yet to hear whether they'll be accepted for the fall term.

For Hollier, a senior at Renaissance High School, Wednesday's news was troubling.

"I think it's a step back, I guess, from all that's been done to make universities more diverse so everyone had an equal chance," said Lauren, who is of African-American and Native-American heritage. "It's disheartening."

Although she and some of her classmates aren't thrilled with the decision, the university had to continue its admissions process for the 2007-08 academic year while following the law as the court battles surrounding Proposal 2 play out, UM spokeswoman Julie Peterson said.

"I know that our decision [...] was based on concerns that, in the legal arena, nothing would happen fast enough," Peterson said. "Competitive schools are admitting the same students as we are. We couldn't afford much longer of a delay."

A task force, Peterson added, will look into changes in admission polices that could help increase diversity in future years while still being in compliance with November's ballot proposal.

What Hollier characterized as a step backward, Terence Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, said is a leap forward.

"I think it's a significant turnaround, and it is good news for this year's applicants, regardless of how the other legal fights play out," to know their applications will be considered on the merits of their abilities and not on race, Pell said.

He represents Eric Russell, 29, of Auburn Hills, Mich., in a state lawsuit whose aim is to force universities to immediately implement Proposal 2, which bans the consideration of race and gender, among other things, in public institutions.

"I didn't expect the university to capitulate so soon, but I'm pleased that they have," said Russell, who has applied to the University of Michigan Law School and Wayne State University Law School. "People will look at me and say, 'Oh, it's another angry white male.' But I don't look at myself as angry. I just want equal consideration."

Wednesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens asked all parties involved in a federal lawsuit surrounding Proposal 2 to file briefs by next Wednesday on a motion that seeks an emergency injunction that would allow UM, WSU and Michigan State University six more months to comply with the new law in admissions and financial aid programs.

Pell said that doesn't mean the high court would hear the appeal by the pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary.

"It's a routine administrative matter to ask for briefs in response to a motion such as the one BAMN made," Pell said. "I don't think it's accurate to say the Supreme Court has decided to wade into this dispute. "

BAMN spokeswoman Shanta Driver countered that Stevens' request acknowledges the group's challenge has merit.

"I think it gives momentum to BAMN's efforts, Driver said. "If Justice Stevens issues a decision saying, `Look there are definite federal issues involved' and says there's a case to be made for challenging the constitutionality of Proposal 2, our chances of prevailing . . . are increased enormously," she said.

Peterson said Stevens' request won't have any bearing on the decision to lift the one-week freeze on admissions or affect the policy to strip race and gender from consideration in applications for the upcoming academic year.

Wednesday's news made John Chancey happy. He's also waiting to find out whether he'll be accepted as a freshman at UM in the fall.

The 17-year-old Grosse Pointe South High School student said race shouldn't matter when it comes to admissions.

"I'm totally against affirmative action," said Chancey, who is white. "That affects me, and I wouldn't want that to play a factor in how they consider my application."

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Black frats say film is out of step

When Stan Fleming thinks about Alpha Phi Alpha, community service, not stepping, comes to mind.

Fleming, a member of the African-American fraternity, worries that a new movie downplays the civic deeds of black Greek life while playing up its most visible aspect: the syncopated stomps and claps known as stepping.

"My main fear is that people who don't know anything about black fraternities and sororities will think that all that we're about is putting on step shows," said Fleming, of Des Moines, Iowa. "For me, being an Alpha means being a role model."

Even before its nationwide release last week, "Stomp the Yard," the first Hollywood depiction of black Greeks since Spike Lee's "School Daze," has stirred debate among the 1.5 million members of the country's nine black Greek organizations.

Most were founded during the early 20th Century at a time when lynching and Jim Crow segregation stalled the social and political advancement of African-Americans. And over the years, the organizations have nurtured a who's who of Black America - from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson, to Rosa Parks and Mary McLeod Bethune.

A few black Greeks have called for a boycott of the film, arguing that it mocks the rich histories of the organizations by portraying them as glorified dance groups. But many support the film due to its positive portrayal of black collegians and, in part, because its producers are black Greeks.

The film's plot centers on a rebellious college student who introduces street dancing into his fraternity's step show - highly choreographed performances in which the fraternities and sororities do intricate, rhythmic dance steps in unison.

In 1906, a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld separate but equal education, a tiny group of black men at Cornell University created Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. to uplift one another.

Some scholars note that stepping - not to be confused with the dance that originated in Chicago - wasn't associated with black Greeks until about 1970, well after members made headlines for their leadership and service during the Great Depression, World Wars I and II and the civil rights movement.

The dispute was settled after symbols belonging to Alpha and other black Greek organizations were deleted from the film and Sony donated money toward the King memorial under construction on the National Mall in Washington.

"Our goal for this film is simply to make college life seem accessible to all," executive producer and Alpha Rob Hardy said. "In a society where the value and relevance of black colleges and black Greek letter organizations are under increased attack, the mainstream circulation of the types of images in our film can renew interest among our youth."

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Student Government begins budget hearings

Allocation of the millions of dollars in Activity and Service fees paid every year by University of North Florida students is currently underway.

Many campus clubs and organizations at UNF are in the middle of the budget process and are hoping to secure funding for the 2007-2008 school year.

The Activity and Service Fee Budget, which funds the organizations, is expected to increase from $2,696,400 this year to more than $3 million next year.

The budget is controlled by Student Government and is distributed by the Senate.

Every student at UNF currently pays a $7.49 activity and service fee per credit hour in their tuition. Students will be taking an estimated 395,000 credit hours next year and the A&S fee will increase to $7.83, totaling $3,092,850 according to SG comptroller, Betty Garris.

The B&A committee is responsible for hearing and processing the requests for A&S funds, balancing the budget and presenting it to the Senate.

The 34 clubs, departments and organizations that are funded by SG have submitted their budget requests for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, said B&A Committee Chairperson Sarah Grafton, a senior political science major.

Every Friday for the next five weeks, the budget directors of each organization will come before the SG members and answer a series of questions about their budgets, Grafton said.

After the budget hearings, the committee will deliberate and possibly decrease or increase the funding in some of the requests, Grafton said.

Requests from the organizations for next year currently total $3,404,970, which is $312,120 overbudget.

"We will have to make cuts," Grafton said.

After deliberations, the committee will balance the budget, display it in public view for five days and hold a campus-wide forum to explain the budget process, Garris said.

According to SG statutes, the budget will then be placed on the agenda for the next Senate meeting and, if approved, the budget will be sent to SG President Justin Damiano.

The budget will then be forwarded to UNF President John Delaney for approval. Delaney will have 15 days to approve the budget.

"I have great respect for the students who contribute their time and intelligent deliberation towards this process," Garris said.

Fast-food giants cater to Muslims

First, the new owner of a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken began trying to lure shoppers from the heart of South Asian Devon Avenue. Then a Brown's Chicken and Pasta popped up a few blocks away.

It seemed a strange juxtaposition - all-American fast food, elbow-to-elbow with pungent cuisine from the other side of the globe.

But the secret ingredient both outlets offered was halal, the Islamic analog of kosher, a promise that the meat has been slaughtered and prepared in accordance with Islamic teachings.

And that, in turn, has sparked a neighborhood contest over whose fried chicken is truly halal, or more halal - a 21st century collision of American marketing, immigrant tastes and age-old customs.

The fried chicken wars on Devon underscore the growing power of the Muslim market.

In Muslim countries, fast food giants like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King have long served halal meat and have become popular teen hangouts.

In the West, chains are only now picking up on the halal market. McDonald's has two halal franchises in Dearborn, Mich., one in Australia and is considering another in Britain. A Subway location in New Jersey adopted halal about two years ago. Outback Steakhouse recently announced it offers halal lamb from New Zealand.

"What you're seeing is the impact of the second generation," said Shahed Amanullah, founder of zabihah.com, a Web site that reviews restaurants serving halal. "If you were born and raised here, you're ethnic food is American food. ... This second generation is demanding halal fried chicken, pizzas and Philly subs."

Their parents were buying traditional meat and spices, but 10-year-old twins Subhan and Shan Islam and their sister, Ana Shoaib, 5, dragged the grownups into the Devon Avenue Brown's earlier this month for chicken tenders and fries.

"We come here because it's zabihah and the kids like it," said their mom, Gulshan Shoaib, speaking in Urdu.

That may be music to the ears of Muslims who open halal fast food chains, but the operators of KFC and Brown's quickly learned that entering the market was not as easy as it looked.

Afzal Lokhandwala opened a halal KFC franchise in Lombard, Ill., three years ago, near a mosque and a large Muslim community.

"From day one, it started," he said. "People were coming in and saying, `This is not halal. This is not hand slaughtered. This is machine slaughtered.'"

In Islam, the term halal applies to anything that is permitted. Most food and drink can be halal, except for alcohol and pork. But there is no consensus on exactly what is halal, and what is not, and American Muslims find themselves faced with a variety of interpretations.

Chicken and beef can be halal, but most Muslims believe it must be zabihah, or slaughtered according to Islamic ritual, said Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago.

Zabihah calls for the animal to be blessed, then slaughtered, its throat cut and blood drained. But Muslims are divided about whether that can be reconciled with poultry plant practices of machine-slaughter and stunning the animal before slaughter.

Still others are satisfied with kosher products, believing the Jewish rites used are similar enough, or do not worry about zabihah at all, Mujahid said.

Lokhandwala figured he was safe three years ago with the Lombard shop, when he found that the poultry supplier KFC used also had halal operations for meat it supplied to Singapore, which has a significant Muslim population.

But almost immediately, people began questioning the authenticity of his halal meat. An organization called the Muslim Consumer Group questioned the coating ingredients and processing practices used by KFC and its supplier. Soon, a heated debate about Lokhandwala's restaurant played out on the pages of zabihah.com, the halal food reviewer.

Lokhandwala devoted his franchise's Web site to proving that his fried chicken was halal. He published slaughtering guidelines from Malaysia, where national authorities accept machine slaughtering as halal. Gold Kist says it has halal certification from the Al Huda Islamic Center in Athens, Ga.

And business was good in Lombard, so Lokhandwala jumped at the opportunity last April to buy a KFC franchise located on Western Avenue, just north of the Devon shopping district. He partnered with the owner of a well-known Pakistani restaurant on Devon, Sabri Nehari, which was destroyed in a fire in November.

Meanwhile, the Usmania Group, which owns another popular chain of restaurants on Devon, had begun building a Brown's on Devon, which opened in August.

"People are very orthodox in Chicago," says Mohammad Yaqoob, one of the owners of the Brown's on Devon. "They want to eat zabihah, not just halal."

Brown's, a local chain, allowed Yaqoob and his partners to find their own vendor for halal meat. Brown's President Frank Portillo and his daughter also researched the ins and outs of the halal food industry.

"In all honesty, I had never heard of halal and zabihah chicken," Portillo said. "The Muslim community is growing and they're looking to eat American-type food. It's just a real growth market."

To avoid the controversy surrounding the KFC, the Brown's partnership decided to meet the highest zabihah standards it could.

They selected a Muslim-owned processor certified by the Shari'ah Board of America, one of the most conservative certifying agencies. The chicken they bought was said to be grain-fed and hand-slaughtered.

A sign projecting outside Brown's announces that Muslims can be "100 percent" certain they are eating zabihah meat there, processed according to the strictest Islamic requirements. Another sign praises Allah, indicating the franchise is Muslim-owned. Inside, posters by the cashier detail the handling of the meat, how the chickens are fed and slaughtered.

That's one of the reasons Syed Ahmed, 25, eats here twice a week. Variety is another.

"We get bored of rice and daal (lentil curry)," he said.

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Guantanamo official draws criticism

A senior Defense Department official who broke with Pentagon policy on whether it's honorable for private lawyers to provide no-charge services to Guantanamo captives drew new condemnation Tuesday and even calls for his dismissal.

Charles "Cully" Stimson, deputy assistant secretary for defense for detainee affairs, has sparked a firestorm of anger, from Capitol Hill to America's law schools to even conservative quarters.

He told a Washington, D.C., Beltway radio station last week that American corporations should boycott leading U.S. law firms that provide pro-bono service at the prison camps in the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania condemned Stimson's remarks on the floor of the Senate, where he until recently served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"When lawyers undertake the representation of individuals in unpopular causes, they are entitled to praise, not criticism," said Specter, echoing an earlier condemnation by the new committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt..

Stimson had used the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the offshore detention center to offer up - live, on the radio - a list of prestigious law firms whose attorneys are providing pro-bono legal representation to captives at the U.S. Navy Base.

He called it "shocking" and said corporate leaders should choose between those firms and others whose attorneys do not offer free-of-charge services to some of the 395 men and teens held in Cuba as so-called enemy combatants.

As of Tuesday, nearly 140 law school deans had signed an Internet petition - which can be found at http://www.law. yale.edu/news/4055.htm - declaring themselves "appalled" by the remarks of a fellow lawyer.

"In a free and democratic society, government officials should not encourage intimidation of or retaliation against lawyers who are fulfilling their pro bono obligations," the petition said.

Those who signed included Harold Hongju Koh of Yale Law School, Elena Kagen of Harvard Law School and Dennis O. Lynch of the University of Miami's School of Law.

The Pentagon's senior spokesman, Bryan Whitman, on Friday night distanced the Defense Department from Stimson's remarks, saying they "do not represent the views of the Defense Department or the thinking of its leadership."

Now some critics are calling for the dismissal of Stimson, 43, a former federal prosecutor who is the second Bush administration appointee to run a specially created division known as Detainee Affairs.

"I believe the man should be fired," wrote David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union lobby, in a guest column in The Hill newspaper in Washington.

He called Stimson's remarks "a blatant attempt to threaten the law firms providing the representation to back off and urging their corporate clients to seek representation elsewhere if the firms fail to do so."

Keene also said he believed most Guantanamo captives were guilty of something.

Yet, he wrote, "Without lawyers, the innocent as well as the guilty might end up behind bars and our jails and prisons might come to resemble the hellholes depicted in some old movies showing Southern prisons of the '40s and '50s."

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University of Central Florida to take reins of frat house

School wins case against Pi Kappa Alpha over maintenance of building

The University of Central Florida has won the rights to a rundown fraternity house worth more than $1 million that could eventually house students if hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs are made.

Orange Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Mackinnon handed the university a victory in December after a long dispute with Pi Kappa Alpha - known as the Pikes - about maintenance of the distinctive white house with columns on the university's Greek Row.

Mackinnon found that the defendants breached their lease with UCF by failing to maintain and repair the 10,000-square-foot house, which she awarded to the university.

Repairs could cost more than $600,000, said Maribeth Ehasz, vice president for student development and enrollment services at UCF.

"It's not in livable condition at all, and it's going to take quite a bit to repair it," Ehasz said. "It is in very bad shape."

The university's Board of Trustees filed suit last year, but the dispute dates back to at least 2002, Mackinnon wrote in her 19-page opinion released Dec. 14. Over the years, the owners of the house, the nonprofit Eta Phi Chapter Alumni Association, received notices to repair damages and fix fire-code violations but never completed all the work, the judge wrote.

Gregg Ormond, a Coral Gables attorney who represents Eta Phi and Pi Kappa Alpha, said the building is in disrepair because the university would not let the alumni association fix it and made demands that could not be met within the required timetable.

He said it isn't right that UCF will own the house that the alumni association built after leasing the land from the university in 1988. An appeal is possible.

"My clients are very disappointed with the result and the decision, and we are considering our options," said Ormond, a Pike and a 30-year volunteer for the fraternity.

Nobody has lived in the house since January 2005, when UCF closed it after hearing nothing from the alumni group about fire-code violations, according to the court ruling.

The hurricanes that struck Central Florida in 2004 also damaged the building, as did trespassers after the house was closed.

The air conditioning, plumbing, cabinets, kitchen appliances, windows, shutters, bathrooms, fire-alarm and sprinkler systems need repair or replacement, and vandals made holes in the walls, Ehasz said.

But the problems, she said, were caused by "several years of neglect by the local group, lack of attention by the national group and lack of leadership by the student group."

Ormond disputed that claim, saying his clients began repairs and were more than willing to finish the job.

In early 2005, the national Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity cut ties to the UCF chapter because of hazing and other violations. UCF already had temporarily suspended the chapter.

During the same period, the chapter admitted at a UCF disciplinary-panel hearing to hazing and failing to keep the house up to code, according to the ruling.

The Pikes estimate that repairs would cost between $100,000 and $150,000, but Ehasz said it would take an estimated $650,000 to bring the building up to snuff.

The student newspaper, the Central Florida Future, reported that UCF has spent $250,000 on legal fees related to the Pike house.

In a footnote to her ruling, Mackinnon took a slap at both attorneys, lamenting that they insisted upon reading aloud from trial exhibits and depositions, filed too many papers and dragged out the nonjury trial for seven days.

"Despite the relative simplicity of the factual and legal issues, the parties [...] submitted excessively lengthy proposed final judgments, replete with irrelevant facts and lengthy quotes," Mackinnon wrote.

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House scales back plan to cut student loan rates

The plan House Democrats will push Wednesday to slash rates on some student loans falls short of a proposal they pitched nearly a year ago when the Republicans controlled Congress.

The House Democrats' plan doesn't cover all student loans - only federally subsidized Stafford loans targeting some middle-income families - and it will take five years to phase in. And though education advocates praise the effort as a nice start, they say it won't do much to boost college access at a time of soaring tuition increases.

Many would rather see Congress focus its efforts on increasing Pell Grants, which focus primarily on low-income families and don't have to be repaid.

"It's a great way to communicate that you support students and their families," Kimrey Rhinehardt, vice president for government affairs at the 16-campus University of North Carolina system, said of Wednesday's vote. "But this is not the panacea for the problem. It's a much bigger problem."

The rate cut would be unlikely to encourage more students to go to college, some advocates say, and it doesn't affect students while they're in school. Instead, it would lower monthly payments for college graduates, saving the average borrower more than $4,200 over the life of the loan.

Democrats say the rate cut begins to tackle the affordability issue. Since 2001, tuition has jumped 41 percent at the nation's public colleges and universities and 17 percent at private schools.

In December 2005, Republicans cut $12 billion from the federal student loan program in the budget reconciliation bill. Pell Grants, which go to the neediest students, have been flat for five years.

In March, Democrats wanted to halve the interest rate to 3.4 percent on all student loans. Their effort in the House failed, but it became a campaign issue for the party.

"We should support (students) with a real federal investment in their education - not a sham that does not help American students and families pay for college," said then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

After doing the numbers, Democrats announced this month that they hope to cut rates on just federally subsidized Stafford loans, used now by about 5.5 million students.

Even then, the reductions would be phased in over five years and would cost nearly $6 billion to implement.

"This is a down payment on addressing the college affordability crisis," said Tom Kiley, Democratic spokesman for the House Education Committee. "It is a first step we can take."

Some Republicans labeled the plan "hypocrisy."

"It's a sham and a lie," said Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, a member of the Education Committee and former community college president. "It wouldn't guarantee that one more student would go to college because of this."

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Print Edition

NEWS

Rock, Flock and Swoop

Powder puff football, lip sync contest, dance, casino night and comedy show plannedMatt Coleman

New transit fee approved for students

University gearing up for SACS

Race not to be considered at UM

Black frats say film is out of step

Student Government begins budget hearings

Fast-food giants cater to Muslims

Guantanamo official draws criticism

University of Central Florida to take reins of frat house

School wins case against Pi Kappa Alpha over maintenance of building

House scales back plan to cut student loan rates

News in Brief

Chartwells to determine dining preferences

Krystal auditioning students for commercial

LGBT to raise awareness

IFC recruiting for Spring semester

World in Brief

Obama forms exploratory committee

Bombings target Iraqi university

Taliban spokesman arrested