10A - Monday, November 9, 2009
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com .I
iDA - Monday, November 9, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 0
TRANSPORTATION
From Page 1A
the FullerRoadstructure.
Anglin confirmed that city offi-
cials considered the Hospital's park-
ing shortage as they mapped out the
transit station.
"The University definitely needs
the parking in that section," Anglin
said. "The structure will relieve that
parking burden."
In addition to providing hospital
parking, the transit station is also part
of an ambitious plan to both establish
a local commuter rail service and to
link differentforms of transportation
through what Councilmember Ste-
phen Rapundalo (D-Ward 2) called
"an intermodal center, bringing
together trains, cars, buses and inte-
grating cycling and pedestrians."
The ultimate goal, Rapundalo
said, is to reduce to number of cars
entering and leaving the city, as well
as those within the city itself.
Anglin said the transit center, with
its proximity to the Amtrak rail, will
help lay the foundation for a transpor-
tation hub by providing parking, bike
storage and busing for commuters.
"This center has the infrastruc-
ture potential for further develop-
ment," Anglin said.
Those potential developments
include establishing East-West and
North-South commuter trains to
accommodate the roughly 75,000
commuters who come into town
every day, Rapundalo said.
"We're definitelylooking at a much
broader transportation network (than
currently exists)," Rapundalo said.
BothRapundaloandAnglinpointed
out that these changes can't take place
without comprehensive community-
wide budget conversations.
"Ihopethatwecanmove forward,
but in this economy it's hard to tell,"
Anglin said.
The transit station is the first phase
in the city's broader plan to both
decrease traffic congestion in the
city and make Ann Arbor a more vis-
ible transportation hub. According to
Anglin, even high-speed rails aren't
completelyout of the question.
"At this point I think that's just a
pipe dream," he said. "But it certain-
ly could move in that direction if all
the pieces came together."
LAWSUIT
From Page 1A
another professor's lab to detect
radiation, the article reported.
The lab contained Cesium 137 -
a highly radioactive material -
but Hartman claimed he didn't
know if the Cesium was active.
McGee sent an e-mail to the
University's Radiation Safety
Service on Feb. 16, 2008 to report
his exposure to the radiation. He
also informed the University's
Department of Occupational
Safety and Environmental Health
that he witnessed Hartman dis-
posingchemicals ina sink McGee
thought led to a storm drain.
University spokeswoman
Kelly Cunningham wrote in an
e-mail interview that the alleged
safety violations were not true.
"Mr. McGee could not have
been exposed to radiation as the
machine in question was locked
and inactive at the time he and
Prof. Hartman were in the area,"
she wrote.
She added that an Occupa-
tional Safety and Environmental
Health investigation determined
the chemical waste Hartman
allegedly dumped in a sink was
properly disposed.
Though McGee claims he was
fired for reporting safety viola-
tions, Cunningham says that is
not the case.
Cunningham wrote that the
project McGee worked on was
completed before the end of his
appointment, and the depart-
ment decided not to reappoint
him for another term even before
the incident occurred.
"This decision was made long
before Mr. McGee raised any
concerns," she wrote.
McGee received full pay and
benefits until the end of his term.
However, the annarbor.com arti-
cle states he was denied employ-
ment with another professor
after he was terminated.
When reached last night,
McGee said he wouldn't com-
ment on the case until later this
week.
Hartman could not be reached
Sunday evening.
COLEMAN
From Page lA
ics, which is uncommon among
other universities.
"We are very fortunate here
that the presidents have been able
to sort of be in charge, and we've
had good administration and a
good athletic director who has put
us in an extremely good financial
position," she said.
Despite Coleman's optimism,
many university presidents who
responded in the report ques-
tioned how long they could sustain
their current athletic operations
given escalating athletic expenses.
Roughly half of the respondents
said their current athletic models
will impact the number of varsity
sports they will be able to main-
tain in future years.
Coleman said the University has
been "very conscious" about the
need to create sustainable athletic
operations.
She cited the work of Athletic
Director Bill Martin, who focused
on athletic sustainability issues
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during his nine years as director.
In the 1999 fiscal year, the Ath-
letic Department suffered a $2.8
million deficit. According to docu-
ments from a University Board
of Regents meeting in 2008, the
department was projected to run
a $10.3 million surplus during the
last fiscal year.
Martin recently announced that
he will retire next September, and
Coleman said she is searching for a
new athletic director who will also
make fiscal stability a priority.
"One of the issues that I will
be looking for in the next athletic
director is somebody who can
articulate the ways in which to
keep what we do at Michigan sus-
tainable," she said.
In the report, many university
presidents cited the hardships asso-
ciated with mounting athletic costs.
Three-fourths of the presidents
interviewed for the study said that
athletics present a unique prob-
lem in controlling costs compared
to other schools, departments and
units at their universities.
At the University of Michigan,
costs appear to be similarly on the
rise. But unlike most other uni-
versities, the University of Mich-
igan's budget has been running
at a surplus of late.
Bill Martin and Jason Win-
ters, chief financial officer for
the Athletic Department, esti-
mated athletic revenue would
increase this year to about $94
million and expenditures would
be roughly $85.6 million, accord-
ing to documents prepared for a
June regents meeting.
Those numbers are both up
from the year before, when Mar-
tin and Winters budgeted rev-
enue from University athletics
to be about $90.5 million and
operating expenses about $80.2
million.
Factors affecting costs includ-
ed the rising salaries of coaches
and the number of coaches and
athletic personnel, according to
the report.
Eighty-five percent of presi-
dents responded in the interview
that they thought salaries for
football and basketball coaches
were too high and that salaries
are the "greatest impediment" to
athletic sustainability.
However, more than half the
presidents indicated they feel
they have no power to reduce
coach's salaries because of the
amount of private support that
funds those salaries.
About two-thirds of presi-
dents replied that policy changes
should be studied in an effort to
cut down on the number of ath-
letic personnel and coaches of
revenue-producing sports. More
than half expressed a desire to
decrease the number of coaches
of non-revenue sports.
Presidents also identified the
pressure to renovate and build
new athletic facilities as a factor
that impacts athletic spending.
University of Michigan Ath-
letic Department has spent heav-
ily on its facilities duringthe past
few years as well. Renovations to
the Big House are expected to
cost $226 million. Other major
athletic construction projects
include the $26.1 million Al Glick
Field House for football practice
and the new basketball practice
facility, which is estimated to
cost $23 million.
Despite these large price tags,
Coleman said the University is
responsible about its athletic
expenditures.
"Even though we have a lot of
construction and renovation going
on in athletics, I don't feel like it's
irresponsible," she said. "We've
met all of our budget targets."
While financing new con-
struction projects can be a
challenge in an economic reces-
sion, 62 percent of presidents
surveyed said the effect of the
economic downturn on athletic
budgets mirrored the effect on
other divisions of their institu-
tion. Reasons for this included
proportional cuts in athletic and
academic spending and a loss in
both public and private funding
to all units of universities.
Almost all the presidents
agreed that they felt confident
the financial information they
received from their athletic
departments was accurate. But
eight out of 10 presidents said
there needed to be greater trans-
parency in athletic operating and
capital costs.
One anonymous president
said in the report that transpar-
ency would help solve budget
problems.
"If our public is fully aware
of the money and other issues, it
will support proper values," the
president said.
Regardless of all the challeng-
es associated with maintaining
high-cost athletic departments,
the majority of presidents
believed athletics benefited their
universities by increasing the
number of applicants, generat-
ing more donations and raising
school spirit.
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