Frank W. Wu, dean of Wayne State's Law School, hopes to convince voters the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative is not a blow against racial and sex discrimination as advertised. According to Wu, it will end programs designed to eliminate racial disparities. Critics fear that, if approved, the initiative would limit minority access to educational and job opportunities. Wu will be discussing the initiative at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Wealthy Theater. A photo of Wu is included.

Michigan universities paid more than 500 professors $23.2 million for sabbaticals during the 2004-05 school year according to records obtained by The Detroit News under Michigan\'s Freedom of Information Act. The data represents only the salaries paid to professors while they were away from their jobs. When health insurance and other benefits are included, the cost of the sabbaticals increases to about $31 million. Proponents of sabbaticals say they allow professors to gain fresh insights they share with students, and are critical to attracting and retaining top-flight professors and researchers. Critics say professors typically work only nine to 10 months per year, their teaching loads have dropped dramatically since the 1960s and their schedules already allow ample time to conduct most research. It is also noted in the story that according to data received from Michigan\'s universities, Wayne State University, Central Michigan University and Michigan State University each listed a professor as having been on sabbatical when in fact the teacher had left the university without taking the planned leave. The University of Michigan said it cost more than $200 in staff time just to determine which professors at its Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses were on sabbatical in 2004-05, and for how long. Sidebar graphs list tuition and fee rates and sabbatical data for Michigan\'s public universities, including WSU.

Willie L. McKether, associate director of Wayne State\'s Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues, just completed a 500-page-plus work on Saginaw\'s large influx of black residents during the auto industry\'s heyday. \"People may believe that African-Americans had better experiences after they left the South, but I didn\'t realize the depth of racism that existed here \"people not able to eat at downtown restaurants, the limited economic opportunities outside of General Motors,\" McKether said. After five years of research, McKether is ready to share his findings with the public, either for purchase or for review at Saginaw\'s Hoyt Main Library.

For at least 50 years, there have been calls to replace, or at least supplement, expert witnesses hired by courtroom adversaries with experts appointed by the court. According to advocates of those proposals, the judge-picked scientist could focus on the evidence and advise the jury free from pressures imposed by the side that hired him. Judges in Kentucky already are allowed to appoint their own experts, but they almost never do. Dr. Ralph Slovenko, professor of psychiatry and law at Wayne State University, says court-appointed experts haven't caught on because judges are reluctant to tamper with the adversarial process.

TechTown will launch on Monday, March 13, a massive effort to redevelop the 12-block area it occupies near the Wayne State campus. Beginning at 9 a.m., the event will include presentations by government officials, urban planners and students, as well as discussion groups. TechTown hopes to renew its neighborhood with landscaping, residences, shops and new businesses by 2020.

In a first of its kind event, a Sunni-Shi\'a gathering was held at the Muslim Unity Center in Bloomfield Hills last week. A number of Muslim leaders gathered in Solidarity, not only against violence overseas, but for understanding at home. The local community \"needs to establish an organization that allows meaningful Muslim-Muslim dialogue,\" said Muneer Fareed, associate professor with the department of Near Eastern and Asian Studies at Wayne State.

A sidebar to a story about alternative spring break activities notes that Wayne State University students are volunteering for projects to help wipe out blight in Detroit.

Wayne State University is noted as a regional site for FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) March 16-18. The event is part of the national 2006 FIRST Robotics Competition program. More than 1,125 teams from around the world are competing in 33 regionals to reach the championship in Atlanta in April.

Wayne State is mentioned as the Detroit Regional competition site for the FIRST Robotics Competition on March 16-18.

A sidebar item notes the 2006 Hip Hop Summit Action Network will be making a stop at Wayne State\'s Bonstelle Theatre on March 25.

Wayne State University\'s men\'s hockey team was defeated by Alabama-Huntsville, 3-1, in the quarterfinal round of the College Hockey America tournament held Friday night at the Michigan State Fairgrounds. Tyler Michel scored the loan goal for the Warriors.

Online colleges are the fastest-growing segment of higher education despite questions about their quality. More than 2.3 million people took at least one online college course in 2004, according to one study - a 47 percent jump from 2002. And now, thanks to an act of Congress last week, the door to an online college education is expected to open wider. Colleges no longer will be required to provide at least half their classes on a physical campus to qualify for federal student financial aid. While two-thirds of traditional colleges and universities now offer online courses, the policy change is expected to be especially helpful to those mostly for-profit schools that offer all of their instruction online.

Wayne State University's Law School's Ninth Annual Treasure of Detroit Gala will be held at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday, April 1. During the event, five WSU law alumni will be honored. Biographies, photos and contact information is provided.

The Wayne Law Review, with support of the State Bar of Michigan and the Departments of Criminal Justice and Political Science at Wayne State University, hosted its Annual Legal Symposium March 24 on the topic of public corruption. The all-day event featured national legal experts.

The Wayne State University Law School's Free Legal Aid Clinic is hosting its Spring Reception and Fundraiser on Saturday, April 22, at 1686 Balmoral Drive, in Detroit. The event is designed to raise money to enhance their services and the learning experience for the student attorneys. Contact information is provided.

A brief notes that the exhibit, "Through the Lens of Dan Graschuck: 40 years of sports photography," is running through Aug. 1 at Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library. Contact information is provided.

TechTown plans to seek close to $500 million in public and private support to completely redevelop its 12-block area in Detroit by 2020. Tech Town is collaborating on the project with the University of Michigan School of Architecture and Urban Planning, 75 architecture students from Cass Technical High School and the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, the oldest research and technology park in the country, said Howard Bell, executive director of TechTown. Final plans for the project are expected to be released in October.

Were they fakes or precious relics lost civilizations created? That was the big question a century ago when clay, slate, copper and stone objects decorated with strange hieroglyphics and references to the Bible were dug from Indian mounds all over the Lower Peninsula between 1890 and 1920. Experts, who came to inspect the \"finds,\" uniformly dismissed them as \"fakes,\" \"frauds\" and \"humbugs.\" But a core of believers, including men of the church and others, continued to defend them, some even to this day. The story behind the Michigan relics is told in a fascinating new exhibit at the Wayne State University Museum of Anthropology, one of the Detroit Cultural Center \'s little-known gems. The Michigan Historical Center in Lansing loaned the museum the material on view through the end of the year. Tom Killion, who heads WSU\'s anthropology department, points out that people of that era didn\'t have an understanding of Michigan \'s history and prehistory. \"They didn\'t realize that Biblical and ancient Egyptian relics would not be found in Michigan \'s Native American mounds,\" he says. \"It\'s easy to fill the void with all kinds of stuff.\"

Several dozen West Bloomfield High School students not only witnessed an open-heart operation at an Ohio hospital, they did it without leaving their school. They and students from four other high schools in Michigan and Ohio sat in on an open heart surgery Wednesday through an interactive videoconference. Psychologist John Porcerelli said he is not convinced that showing such graphic images to teenagers is wise. \"It is an exciting opportunity if they can deal with it, but there are some adults who can\'t even watch that,\" said Porcerelli, an associate professor at Wayne State University \'s medical school.

Wayne State senior defenseman Steve Kovalchik was named to the College Hockey America second team.