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ABOUT CAMPUS
 I

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN OQUIST

mss( QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"Doesn't it seem like Chelsea's "The wrath of God
sort of being pimped out in is the only way I
some weird sort of way?" can describe it."

The 'genius house' encouraged - at least in the arena
of intellectual debate. Think some-
Honors luncheon? Telluride thing like the salons of 18th century
gets free room and board Paris, but now, 24 hours a day.
"Itis academic,butwe'renotreal-
ly about academics," said Anthony
From the outside, Telluride Mariano, an LSA freshman and
House - with its muted tan bricks, Telluride resident. "It's more of
metal front door and solid, square an eagerness to learn from other
fagade - seems more reminiscent people and to teach them what you
of a Soviet-bloc apartment building know."
than cozy student housing. Entirely governed by its residents,
But the house's residents are Telluride House displays elements
anything but bland, uniform and of student expression from the bed-
colorless - though more than a few rooms to the basement of the laby-
could probably expound in depth on rinthine structure. To brighten the
Marxist ideology. cinder block hallways leftover from
"Everyone has hidden, and not the building's days as a sorority
so hidden, surprising talents," said house, students adorned the walls
Ridley Jones, an LSA sophomore with abstract designs, a Mondrian
and Telluride resident. square and the handprints of new
Jones is a resident of what is prob- residents. One former residentspent
ably the most elite, least celebrated over a year constructing an Islamic
residential community on campus. style mosaic patio using small piec-
But Telluride - a residency program es of broken glass bottles.
founded at Cornell University with Current residents' majors con-
just one sister branch in Ann Arbor stitute a kind of mosaic themselves,
- doesn't need to flier on the Diag to with students specializing in fields
attract applicants. The offer of free like chemistry, English, econom-
room and board is enough to draw ics, public health and sculpture.
the eclectic mix of over-achievers Every year, each student makes one
and modern-day philosophers who presentation, or "pub speak," on a
are the residents of what's known to self-selected topic to the house. The
many as "the genius house." most recent "pub speak" centered
The house's residents aren't on molecular dynamics. Last week's
exactly bookworms or quiet wall- presenter spoke about archaeology.
flowers. Telluride was created as "Everyone's pretty omnivorous
a type of living situation where intellectually," said Jones, who
fighting among housemates is has a self-proclaimed "public spe-
heart of the world's motor capital,
BRANCH CAMPUSES Dearborn could have been the cen-
From page 5B ter of research and innovation that
foresaw and mitigated the state's
into the same type of regional pow- present economic predictament.
erhouses California has benefited And while Flint is as distinct
from. The campuses were founded from Dearborn as it is from Ann
on forward-thinking ideals, but Arbor, Flint spokeswoman Jenni-
have never been given the oppor- fer Hogan stresses that the campus
tunity to grow to fill the expanding is proud to be integrally linked to
needs of the state. the University of Michigan at Ann
Dearborntodayis astrongliberal Arbor.
arts college with a respected engi- "We are three campuses of the
neering program, and 83 percent University of Michigan, as opposed
of its graduates stay in the state of to three separate campuses," Hogan
Michigan. As Dearborn spokesman said.
Terry Gallagher puts it: "We're gen- Flint has expanded significantly
erating the leadership of industries since its inception in 1956 and is a
and communities in the area." vital feature of the city of Flint and
A focus on the local community Genesee County.
and economy has been Dearborn's "The campus does quite a bit
driving force since its founding, but to impact the economics of this
how much more comprehensively community," Hogan said. "A lot of
would the institution be able to fill growth has happened and that is
that purpose if its roots in engi- positive for the city of Flint - to
neering'and business had been cul- take buildings that were not being
tivated by the state? Located at the used and to turn the property over

cialty" for French rap, with ten- selected for interviews.
tative plans to make it her house "We push people very hard to
presentation topic. see if that person is going to back
offbeat interests alone are not down or be passionate about their
enough for admission into the high- ideas and willing to defend them,"
ly selective Telluride House. The Mariano said.
organization conducts a rigorous After the interview, house mem-
admissions process, usually select- bers give the candidate "a no, a weak
ing fewer than ten new members no, a weak yes, or a yes." Final votes
from 50 to 80 applicants. for admission into Telluride House
Applicants first submit a general come down to another meeting of
information form, two letters of rec- Telluride residents, where every-
ommendation, an official academic thing from an applicant's grades,
transcript and five essays on themes critical thinking skills, passions and
like community service and person- background are taken into account.
al passions. Current Telluride resi- Residents can support applicants
dents on the House's Recruitment if they add intellectual or racial
Committee review all the applica- diversity to the house but can't talk
tions and the most outstanding are frankly about replacing an outgo-

ingmember - making null and void
any kind of quota system. Residents
instead look at how much an appli-
cant has achieved considering the
opportunities they've been given.
Mostly, though, Telluride seeks a
diversity of ideas.
"We're looking for someone to
have a perspective that - we don't
already have," Mariano said. "It's
not just someone studying history
for the sake of studying history.
It's someone who because they are
studying history will adda different
perspective to the house."
Not ones to be all work and no
play, Telluride students also use
their ingenuity - and the Telluride
Association's money- tothrowcre-
ative parties that reach beyond the
clich, pimp-and-ho-themed frater-
nity party. A favorite was the Prince
versus Michael Jackson dance
party, where both artists' music
videos played on slide projectors.
That night the house got a surprise
appearance from a stranger who,
as LSA junior Matt Wyble recalled,
came in "drinking from a 40 on
stilts." The mystery guest, in town
with a traveling carnival, then gave
an impromptu performance featur-
ing stunts with fire on the lawn.
The thoughts of Telluride's tena-
cious scholars as they looked upon
the fire-eating clown?
Probably: "Hey, that clown's eat-
ing fire. Man, I'm drunk."
-RACHEL WAGNER
of California's Master Plan, doubts
California's bold initiative could
be recreated anywhere today. In
Michigan, the state legislature and
Gov. Granholm appear to be perpet-
ually at odds in responding to the
state's economic depression - the
governor stressing the importance
of higher education and the legisla-
ture pinching pennies.
We must remember, however,
that California's Master Plan was
also born in a time of economic.
hardship and still overcame apathy
and occasional hostility in the state
legislature. A similarly comprehen-
sive proposal for Michigan might
actually quell the legislature's sus-
picions of Granholm's ambiguous
plans to expand education and job
training.
In any case, it isn't too late to get
started - especially because Flint
and Dearborn, not to the mention
the state's other 12 public institu-
tions, have come so far on their
own.

- DAVID SHUS
Chelsea Clinton's
paigning for Hillar
TALK NGpromptly suspended
POINTS "One push o
-t
co
Three things you can talk about this week:r
1. Goldman Sachs paying for employee sex changes
YOUTUBE
2. Afghanistan's flourishing opium trade
3. Art heists in Zurich VIDEO OF
And three things THE WEEK

STER, a reporter for MSNBC, on
s increasingly active role in cam-
y's presidential run. Shuster was
from appearing on all NBC news
productions

f the button will blow up half of Brisbane."
GEOFFREY MARTIN FRYATT, a 57-year-old man from Australia, threaten-
ing to destroy the city by detonating a suppiy of chemicals with his TV remote
ntrol. Fryatt was drunk at the time, and his lawyer said he was behaving reck-
lessly because he had lost much of his life savings in a case of fraud

- PHIL BREDESEN, the governor of
Tennessee, on the damage caused
by a tornado that hit five Southern
states and killed at least 60 people

you can't:
1. How Valentine's
Day is a commercial
sham
2. Facebook in Span-
ish
3. Guantanamo Bay's
TV night

to the University so something so
positive and productive could be
built instead."
The slated opening of Flint's first
dorm this summer has ushered in
an exciting time for the campus.
This could also be the right time
for the state to utilize the immense
potential of the Flint campus - a
meaningful institution in a city
gutted by the departure of Gen-
eral Motors. It could blossom into
a more broadly vital institution ina
time when the state of Michigan is
experiencing the same strife Flint
did 20 years ago.
Though the scale of the research
conducted at both regional cam-
puses is minute compared to Ann
Arbor, it is a significant seed that
can and must be carefully culti-
vated.
Stressing that Flint already
emphasizes applied research in
fields like biology and physical
therapy, Hogan said, "At our core,
the academics are what matters,

and research is a part of that, so
we're looking to grow because in
general as a campus, we're trying
to grow."
Gallagher stresses also that
Dearborn is already a research-ori-
ented institution.
"I don't want to discount the
value of the research we do here,"
he said. "We do have an active
researching faculty, and they are
making contributions to the local
economy."
Dearborn reported research
appropriations of about $6,051,786
in 2007. That includes a mixture of
federal and state grants as well as
industrial and commercial research
supported by the auto industry.
"It is an expectation of our fac-
ulty that they are also researchers,"
Gallagher said.
It's never too late
It's easy to look at the current
state of Michigan's economy and
be tempted to throw in the towel.
Even Berdahl, the ardent champion

BY THE NUMBERS
Dollars worth of damage the recent snow storms in China have
caused the country
Army troops and reservists who have been called in to provide
aid for the relief effort

Just your typical
guy
He's just an everyday normal guy,
and his "sexual performances are
average."
Or at least that's what the white
rapper in this video maintains. With
a sideways trucker hat, green ban-
dana and oversized coat with a fur
hood, this guy does his best to seem
legit. The flailing arms and shaking
shoulders only make his case stron-
ger.
Throughout the video, guitar
and drums servetas the background
musicto his self-deprecatingrhymes.
He does nmustof his rapping on a roof-
top, though some scenes find him in
front of a red brick wall or in a room
by himself.
This "normal" guy says he works
at customer service for a phone com-
pany, making $12 an hour. He can't
afford a car, so he uses public trans-
portation. He lives in a small apart-
ment and has only $600 in the bank.
He tells us that he's "average look-
ing," and that he hasn't had sex since
2003. But the sex wasn't exactly free
of charge, he confidently says. Oh,
and he's a "Grey's Anatomy" fan.
And yet, with his authoritative
rapping, you'd think he was 50 Cent.
- BRIAN TENGEL
See this and other
YouTube videos of the week at
voutube.com/user/michigandaily

THEME PARTY SUGGESTION
Passing time sans Valentine - Forget the candy
hearts. Forget the tacky cards. Forget the red
roses. It's Valentine's Day weekend, but so what?
Don't let this Hallmark holiday get the best of you.
We recommend you stop gushing and do some-
thing constructive with your time. Cancel those
dinner reservations and spend an evening discuss-
ing whether waterboarding constitutes torture.
Whatever you do, save the tears for another day.
Throwing this party? Let us know TheStatement@umich.edu
STUDY OF THE WEEK
Cousin couples founds to have more kids
Couples who are third or fourth cousins are more likely to have more
children and grandchildren than other couples, according to a studythat
was conducted among Icelanders and published in the journal Science.
The researchers also assert that marriage between third or fourth
cousins maybe advantageous because it could provide for genetic com-
patibilities between the couples.
But the researchers also caution that marriage between close cousins
can increase the chances of the child having a disease by 25 percent.
In the study, researchers examined more than 160,00 Icelandic cou-
ples starting in 1800. They used a genetics genealogical database.
Women who were born between 1925 and 1949 and married a third
cousin had an average of three children and about seven grandchildren.
Those who married an eighth cousin or someone more distantly related
had two children and five grandchildren.
- BRIAN TENGEL

Tons of candles broughtby China's air force to the areas most
severely affected by the storms
Source: BBC