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Thursday, October 8, 2009
michigandaily.com
DONATION
DIVIDENDS:
PART 4 OF A
5-PART SERIES
Turnin to
9
business for
U needs
Foundation, corporation support
vital to researchers' efforts
By STEPHANIE STEINBERG
and KYLE SWANSON
Daily Staff Reporters
Working in laboratories and offices across the Uni-
versity, professors and researchers typically have
more ideas than they know what to do with - wheth-
er it's exploring advanced batteries that could help
make widespread use of electric cars a reality, curing
life-threatening diseases in developing countries or
studying how psychological factors influence an indi-
vidual's decision to seek financial help.
While discoveries cannot be made without dedicat-
ed researchers who spend hours conducting experi-
ments and studies, researchers cannot do their work
without proper financial backing.
But with shrinking state appropriations and stu-
dents upset over tuition hikes, private support has
become increasingly important for funding research
at the University.
Though federal stimulus funds may help fill -the
funding gap right now, development officers at the
University work to establish long-term relationships
with foundations and corporations whose financial
support helps maintain fruitful and stable research at
the University.
"They're perhaps a little less interested in the cor-
nucopia of ideas that might exist at the University,"
Jefferson Porter, associate vice president for devel-
pment, said. "They're really looking for that one
thing that's going to help them solve the problem that
they're trying to solve."
FOUNDATIONAL SUPPORT
Foundations are nonprofit organizations that use
financial and sometimes other resources to advance
one or more charitable purposes. Unlike fundraising
from individuals, the University's Development Office
takes a very different approach to securing funding
from foundations.
Maureen Martin, senior director of foundation
relations, explained that foundations are often more
motivated to give based on project funding proposals
assembled by the foundation relations staff than on the
relationship building that other operations may use.
"Professional foundations tend to have a bunch ofstaff
See SERIES, Page 3A
Leading a library revolution
rqxI
How the evolution
of Paul Courant has
revamped the
concept of a library
By STEPHANIE STEINBERG
Daily StaffReporter
Eight floors up in the Harlan Hatch-
er Graduate Library, above the stacks,
rows of computers and groups of stu-
dents buried in books, you'll finda door
with a "Library Administration" sign
hanging above its frame.
If the maps of Constantinople, book-
shelves and rocking chair don't make
it clear, the sign on the desk that says
"hush" reveals that this office belongs
to a librarian. But the man behind this
particular door has revolutionized the
meaning ofthat job.
During the last four years, Dean of
Libraries Paul Courantchas played a key
role in the library revolution - helping
to convert disintegrating, musty texts
scattered in locations throughout the
world into a digitized form that will
forever be accessible in one centralhub
online.
A veteran of University adminis-
trations long past, Courant has held
some of the University's loftiest posi-
tions. From 2002 to 2005, he served as
provost and executive vice president
for academic affairs - meaning that
he wore the dueling hats of the chief
academic officer and the chief budget
officer.
When University Librarian Bill
Gosling retired in 2005, Courant was
asked to lead the search committee for
a new librarian to fill the position.
During the process though, Courant
said he became increasingly curious
with the role of libraries in collegiate
life and society more broadly. His col-
leagues on the committee took note,
and Provost Teresa Sullivan asked
Courant to step down as chair of the
search committee so he could be con-
sidered as a candidate.
He accepted and several months
later was tapped for the position.
Courant said the transition from
provost to dean of libraries was "sort
of like jumping off a train."
"I used to say as provost, when you
hear a dish breaking, it's your dish,"
he said, referencing the responsibil-
ity placed on whomever fills that job.
"And if you're librarian, it's only if a
book falls on somebody's toe, it's your
book."
He explained that the job is less
demanding - with his workweek
shortened from 80 to 60 hours and no
longer having 19 deans and multiple
TOP: Paul Cosrast, with his wife Mara asdtheir dog Bear, inthe living roomof their home near
North Camps. (SAM WOLSON/Daily) IOTTOM: Is his role sdean of liraries, Cora t has
set sutsoIransform the way knowledge is collected sod shared. (CHRIS DZOMBAK/Daily).
administrators reporting to him on a
daily basis.
It's a change that Courant's wife,
Marta Manildi, said changed her hus-
band's life.
In an interview at the fam ly's artsy,
welcoming house near North Campus
Tuesday evening, Manildi said she
enjoys being able to spend more time
with her husband than when he was
provost.
"I certainly see more of Paul now,"
she said, sitting cross-legged in one of
See COURANT, Page 7A
CAMPUS SOCIAL LIFE
Group attempts
to help addicts
AN EVERYDAY REACTION UN R IT A
Stem cell advance
s could repair gland
Recovering substance
abusers face frequent
challenges on campus
By VERONICA MENALDI
Daily StaffReporter
For many students, moving to Ann
Arbor to begin their careers at the
University of Michigan is a time of
excitement, curiosity and maybe a lit-
tle bit of fear. But for School of Social
Work graduate student Ivana Graho-
vac, the emotions were different.
As Grahovac prepared to start her
time at the University, she was also
recovering from a five-year addiction
to heroin. Though she had been clean
and sober for four-and-a-half years
in her hometown of Bloomfield Hills,
Mich., she wasn't sure she could ret-
reate that security in Ann Arbor.
Grahovac said coming to Ann
Arbor was a "leap of faith" and that
onceshe arrived, she felther sobriety
constantly threatened.
"I was constantly getting these
e-mails about being invited to join
people for keggers, drink night spe-
cials and pub-crawls," she said.
"There was just a real lack of under-
standing going on that maybe there
are people for whom this would be
a very bad choice and possibly cause
some serious negative and tragic
consequences to occur."
It was in this environment that Gra-
hovac decided to create Students for
Recovery, a group diming to support
and provide provides information for
students recovering from addiction.
The group also helps students find
sober programming as an alternative to
See ADDICTION, Page 3A
Breakthrough could
help stymie bone
weakening in patients
By ESHWAR
THIRUNAVUKKARASU
Daily StaffReporter
University researchers have taken
a major step toward what some con-
sider to be the next frontier in medical
advancements: regenerative medicine
- the repair and replacement of dis-
eased or otherwise troubled tissues
and organs.
This time, using embryonic stem
cells, scientists have come closer to
being able to create functional para-
thyroid cells as the basis for future
parathyroid gland transplants. .
Located in the neck, next to the
thyroid, are four pea-sized parathy-
roid glands, which are important to
the regulation of calcium levels with-
in bones. For some patients, these
glands may be inadvertently dam-
aged during the course of a thyroid
surgery, resulting in long-term bone
weakening or loss.
Dr. Gerard Doherty, chief of endo-
crine surgery and the lead researcher
for the project, said that he and his
team used stem cells to form differ-
entiated cells. These cells are capable
of producing an important chemical
messenger - parathyroid hormone or
PTH - that directs other cells called
osteoclasts to break down and remod-
el bones.
Decreased. PTH levels in the body
can lead to a condition where bones
soften, resulting in muscle weak-
ness and bone frailty, referred to as
osteomalacia.
"By using molecular markers to
See STEM CELLS, Page 3A
Students in Chem La b125/126 work ova redoo reaction ab investigat-
ing the reactivity of metals and metal ions inside the Chemistry Building.
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