01
8A - Monday, November 23, 2009
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
REMEMBRANCE
From Page IA
by reading from poems he wrote
about the prejudice transgender
people face and the strength it
takes to overcome it.
Following a poetryreading,vigil
participants in the room each read
the name of a transgender person
who had been killed within the
past year and placed a rose in a
vase. After doing this, participants
could take a stone to represent the
strengths and challenges the trans-
gender community faces.
Accordingto the National Coali-
tion of Anti-Violence Programs,
2,424 victims reported anti-LGBT
violence to the organization in
2008. LGBT murders are at their
highest reported levels since 1999,
the report found.
Public Policy junior Stephanie
Parrish saidshe feels it's important
to have events like the Transgen-
der Day of Remembrance because
the transgender community is
"often invisible, even within the
LGBT community."
"So I think that it helps to put
them in the spotlight so we can be
a real community for at least one
day," she said.
Denise Brogan-Kator, a trans-
gender woman and co-founder
of the Rainbow Law Center - a
law firm dedicated to serving
the LGBT community - said in
a speech after the vigil that she
hopes "the world will see the trag-
edy and the injustice and that they
will someday embrace us."
"There will be no memorial
wall built by our country to honor
them," she added. "But make no
mistake, these are our she-roes
and our heroes."
She also played "Taps" in
memory of those who died and
explained that, to her, "Taps" is a
song "to say goodbye."
Attendees were then invited to
share stories of loved ones or any-
thing elsethey felt like contributing.
Noah Meeks, an activist who
came to the event, said he want-
ed to use his life to contribute to
transgender rights.
"I woke up one day and I real-
ized my life could have a greater
impact on the world than my
death," he said.
RODRIGUEZ
From Page 1A
about the investigation.
Both the NCAA and University
investigations were provoked by an
Aug.30Detroit Free Press reportthat
alleged the program "consistently
has violated NCAA rules govern-
ing off-season workouts, in-season
demands on players and mandatory
summer activities under coach Rich
Rodriguez," citing "six current or
former players" who spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
The Athletic Department
launched an investigation into the
matter the following day, and the
NCAA sent Coleman a letter of inqui-
ry on Oct. 23 announcing plans forits
own investigation. The letter said the
NCAA intends to complete the inves-
tigation by the end of this year.
A University audit released on
Nov. 15 showed that the football
team failed to appropriately turn
in Countable Athletically Related
Activities forms - or practice logs.
The failure to turn in CARA forms,
the auditors stated, did not itself
constitute an NCAA violation.
JOB GAINS
From Page 1A
economies since 1971.
According to the RSQE report,
employment and personal income
levels for Michigan hit record lows.
during 2009. Employment shrank
by 6.8 percent, while personal
income decreased by 3.4 percent.
RSQE estimates that a total of
282,900 jobs will be lost in 2009;
that figure is predicted to shrink
to 54,000 jobs lost in 2010, with
losses in 2011 shrinking further to
36,000. However, the RSQE fore-
cast also predicts that there will
be modest levels of net job creation
for Michigan bythe fourth quarter
of 2011, a trend that is expected to
continue into 2012 as well.
Fulton, who spoke on the second
day of the conference, said Michi-
gan's particularly weak economy
this year "is related, of course, to the
unprecedented industry crisis that
the domestic automakers and their
suppliers went through in 2009."
At least since the early 1990s,
Fulton said, automotive sales and
overall employment levels across
the state shared a "striking corre-
lation."
In closing, Fulton emphasized
the importance of diversifying the
state economy, as well as the need
to reevaluate and retool the state
budget process to bring revenues
and expenditures into alignment.
Following Fulton's speech,
Arthur Schwartz, general direc-
tor of labor relations for General
Motors Corp., gave a presentation
about the company's recent expe-
rience with the challenges of cor-
porate restructuring. According
to Schwartz, a University alum,
GM's position in 2009 is grim but
improving.
While admitting that the Chap-
ter 11 bankruptcy experience was
arduous, Schwartz said GM is
already emerging from restructur-
ing a leaner and more profitable
company.
Much like Michigan's economy
suffered from dependence on the
automotive sector, Schwartz said
that GM ultimately placed too
much of its hopes on continued
demand for trucks.
In addition to a diversified
product lineup and better profit
margins across vehicle classes,
Schwartz said that GM's success-
ful efforts to manage debt and cur-
tail expenditures signal that better
times are ahead for the company.
The third and final speaker
at the conference on Friday was
Timothy Bartik, senior economist
for the W.E. Upjohn Institute for
Employment Research. Bartik's
presentation offered eight specific
policy recommendations that he
argued would promote Michigan's
economic development in the long
run.
Notably absent in Bartik's pre-
sentation was any mention of the
automotive industry. Instead,
he most prominently suggested
increasing educational investment.
Among other recommendations,
Bartik claimed that expanding
pre-kindergarten programs, career
academies and summer school
offerings would provide cascading
benefits over several decades as
students enter the workforce with
better educations and stronger
credentials.
As for educating adults, Bartik
said that job re-training closely
linked to specific employers - like
apprenticeships - was another
cost-effective way to improve
Michigan's long-term economic
prospects.
Bartikclosedbysayingthatstate
lawmakers should invest "at least a
billion (dollars) or two a year" in
these educational programs.
"If you're not willing to invest
that, then you're not serious about
affecting things," he said. "You're
just playing games."
0
mom
HA T
H LR R
REL IEF
e .,,
&ie Mlre
.' :,
{;
i
3.
{( .
{ 1
k.. *...
I
to the guys who improved their
game by visiting the Axe Hair Crisis Relief Center.
And - keep up your great efforts, and remind the guys in
your life that hair matters.
REID
From Page 1A
we'll be humbled again. When
you'get in this profession, there's
enough humility to go around for
everybody.
"I'm tired of being humbled."
So are Michigan football
fans, who have witnessed 13
conference losses in the last two
seasons, almost doubling the
amount of games the Wolverines
dropped to conference foes (14)
from 2000-07.
And in the last two years,
Michigan has especially tripped
up in the game that matters most,
geching outscored 63-17 against
Ohio State.
It's simple. Rich Rodriguez says
he's "building a program." But at
this point, it's taken way too long
and the program has taken way
too big of a dip.
There are only four other BCS
conference teams - Iowa State,
Indiana, Washington State and
Washington - that have lost
13-plus conference games in the
last two years. Baylor will join the
list if it loses to Texas Tech next
weekend.
Not even perennial bottom-
dwellers like Duke, Vanderbilt and
Syracuse are on that list. W
"It's hard any time you lose,"
secondary coach Tony Gibson
said. "I don't care where you are
or what you're doing, it's always
hard to lose. You know, you
work 353 days a year for these 12
moments. And we came up short
in seven of them."
Except a down year for Michi-
gan traditionally involves no more
than four losses. This two-year
stretch feels more like an apoca-
lyptic meltdown.
Rodriguez deserves at least
one more season to right the
ship. With hopefully another
full recruiting class coming
in - including freakishly good
quarterback Devin Gardner - the
coach will theoretically do what0
he preached after Saturdays loss:
Recruitthe student-athletes that
fit his system and develop their
talent.
After all, that's his job, right?
But if the Wolverines find
themselves in a similar position
next year - heading into another
lackluster matchp with the Buck-
eyes in Columbus while hoping
for bowl eligibility - it's hard to
imagine that Rich Rod wouldn't
have worn out his welcome.
- Reid can be reached at
andyreid@umich.edu.
WANT TO
WRITE
FOR DAILY
NEWS?
E-mail smilovitz@
michigandaily.com
to get started.
shampoo & styling products
A
t