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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, October 10, 2008
michigandaily.com
FUNDING DISCOVERIES
U' sets
research
spending
record
With federal grants harder
to secure, partnerships with
industry bring in more money
By ELAINE LAFAY
Daily Staff Reporter
* University research expenses broke $875.8 mil-
lion for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, a 6.4 percent
increase from last year and the highest sum spent
on research and development in University his-
tory.
For the most current year, federal funding cov-
ered 69.8 percent of the research - a 2.7 percent
increase from last year. The bulk of the increased
funding came from private industry, which rose
by 11 percent.
Because of the increasingly unreliable nature
of federal research spending, University officials
have grown wary of depending too heavily on the
government and pursued more research partner-
ships with private companies.
"Many in our faculty who work with industry
recognize that if they're going to increase their
See RESEARCH, Page 7A
STUDY MONEY
The University's research spending in the last three fiscal years
$1B
$800M
$600M
$ 400M
$200M
0
2005 2006 2007
SOURCE: UNIVERSITY NEWS SERVICE
Graduation slated for Big House
After being held in Diag
last year, ceremony will
return to stadium
By TREVOR CALERO
Daily StaffReporter
Spring Commencement will move back
to the Big House after the University was
forced to relocate last spring's ceremony to
the Diag, University officials said yester-
day.
Last spring's ceremony was held on the
Diag in a compromise with students after
University officials decided the ongoing
$226-million renovation project would pre-
vent it from being held at Michigan Stadi-
um.
After that decision, the University had
initially planned to hold the event at East-
ern Michigan University's Rynearson Sta-
dium.
University spokeswoman Kelly Cun-
See COMMENCEMENT, Page 7A
DIPLOMA DIPLOMACY
Last January, when University adminis-
trators announced the ceremony would be
mnved ftem Michigan Stadium to Eastern
Michigan University due tonconstruction,
thousands of students and University
alums signed petitions to move the event
back to campus.
University officials weretflooded with
e-mails, many demanding that commence-
ment be moved back to the Big House.
The University polled about 3,000
graduatingstudents about the com-
mencement location, givingthem a choice
between the Diag and Elbel Field. Sixty-six
percentvoted tonthe Dag.
The event cost the University $1.8 mil-
lion, or about $1.5 million more than the
average cost of holding commencement in
Michigan Stadium. The ceremony took two
weeks to set up.
Due to space constraints, each gradu-
ate was only given six tickets compared
to the eight tickets usually available in the
Big House.
MCTOnVTN TI-TVNF.TCTNRnR
SAM WOLSON/Daily
Christopher Mintz-Plasse, known for portraying McLovin' in the movie "Superbad," was confronted on the Diag by preacher Michael Venyah yesterday. Venyah repeatedly called him "Hollywood
Man" and told Plasse that he was going to hell. In response, Plasse said that he loved his job, before quickly being ushered away by the television staff. Plasse was on campus promoting his new
movie "Role Models," which was screened last night.
* CAMPAIGN 200 *
STEM CELL RESEARCH
After withdrawal, McCain adjusts strategy Proposal language questioned
Campaign spent $1.3
million in week prior
to Michigan pullout
By CAITLIN SCHNEIDER
Daily StaffReporter
After all but conceding Michigan
a week ago, Republican presidential
nominee John McCain's campaign
has taken on an air of urgency,
* ramping up efforts in what they
consider winnable toss-up states.
According to the Wisconsin
Advertising Project, the McCain
campaign spent $1.3 million on
advertising in Michigan between
Sept. 28 and Oct. 4. Democratic
nominee Barack Obama enjoyed
a 13-point lead in the state over
McCain at the end of September,
according to polling data from the
Detroit Free Press. The campaign's
resources are now being funneled
to other, more contentious swing
states like Florida, Virginia, New
Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado and
Nevada. Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota
and New Mexico are also closely
contested.
Because both candidates were
previously doting on Michigan,
once considered a swing state,
many analysts said McCain's deci-
sion to pull out of the state marked
a turning point in the election.
McCain spent time this week in
Wisconsin and Virginia, and his
schedule shows stops in Iowa in the
See MCCAIN, Page 7A
A CAMPUS DIVIDED
Activists debate
wording of initiative
that would loosen
state stem cell laws
By EMILY BARTON
Daily News Editor
Carly Collins, like many LSA
seniors, is stilluncertain about her
post-graduation plans. However,
her plans differ frommanyseniors
because where she goes to gradu-
ate school could be determined by
the outcome of the November 4
election.
Collins is a cellular and molec-
ular biology major, and works
in the neurology lab on campus,
using embryonic stem cells for her
research on epilepsy in rats.
She hopes to go on to graduate
school here at the University to
research human embryonic stem
cells.
"If any of the schools is going to
discover something it's going to be
Michigan and I want to be a part
of this," she said.
But with Michigan's current
laws, she will have to go out of
state to make this possible.
"We're making discoveries on
animals that we can't transfer to
humans," Collins said. "We can
do animal stem cell research but
there's no way we can move for-
BENS MON/Daily
A researcher works with stem cells from mice embryos in a a lab in the Biomedi-
cal Science Building last Friday.
wardto use it on humans,you can't
put animal stem cells in people."
But Proposal 2, if passed, may
change that come November.
The ballot initiative will over-
turn a 1978 Michigan law that
bans the destruction of embryos in
research. It will allow scientists to
use embryos that would otherwise
be discarded from fertility clinics
to derive their own stem cell lines.
It would not change Michigan's
ban on cloning.
Proponents of the ballot initia-
tive, members of a group called
Cure Michigan, are pushingfor the
proposal to pass because embry-
onic stem cells have the potential
to cure diseases like Parkinson's
and Juvenile Diabetes. But the
opposition - Michigan Citizens
Against Unrestricted Science and
Experimentation - says the bal-
lot language doesn't provide for
enough restriction to prevent the
research, and resulting therapies
and cures, from being misused.
Cure Michigan supporters
are quick to contest that view.
The campaign asked Dykema
Attorney Richard McClellan,
who specializes in government
policy, to analyze the proposal.
In a letter addressed to John
Schwartz, chair of Cure Michi-
See STEM CELLS, Page 7A
SAM 5WOLON/Daily
LSA junior Josh Strazanac, a member of the College Democrats, and LSA sophomore Geoff Baier, a member of the Cvllege epub-
licans, participated in a debate held last night in Weill Hall.
FOR MORE ON THE DEBATE, SEE PAGE 3A. FOR A SLIDESHOW OF THE EVENT, VISIT WWW.MICHIGANDAILY.COM.
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