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January 28, 2010 - Image 5

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The Michigan Daily, 2010-01-28

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0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 5A

Announcement
expected about
UM-MSUgame
at the Big House

From Page 1A
record. Less than a month ago, the
Philadelphia Flyers and Boston
Bruins played outdoors at Fen-
way Park in the 2010 NHL Winter
Classic.
But with more than 100,000
seats available at Michigan Sta-
dium, the attendance record from
the first installment of the out-
door rivalry could be broken next
December.
ENTREPRENEURS
From Page IA
gesnt challenges ofhaving a business
in college was balancing his life
as a student and running his own
business. Bornhorst is a program-
mer for Mobiata.com - a company
that develops travel applications
for smart phones.
"I was a part-time student in my
last semester, and I was working
full-time at that point," Bornhorst
said. "It was hard to balance, but it
was really enriching."
Bornhorst said though complet-
ing his coursework and attending
to his company was difficult, the
technical skills he gained in his
engineering and entrepreneurship
courses helped himto run his busi-
ness.
Business senior Josh Lin is a co-
founder of the Nexecon Consult-
ing Group - a student-consulting
group that advises local businesses
and University departments on
their marketing strategies. Nex-
econ works with a wide range of
clients which include Sava's Cafe
and No Thai!.
He said one of the reasons he

Next weekend, Michigan will
take on No. 3 Wisconsin in its
first outdoor game since the
"Cold War" in the Camp Ran-
dall Classic on Feb. 6. But as of
Jan. 22, the long-awaited game
in Madison had only sold 42,000
of the estimated 80,000 tickets
available.
Check back with michigan-
daily.com this week for more
updates and details on the "Cold
War II."
was able to start his own business
while still attending the Univer-
sity is because there were many
resources in the area to help him
financially or otherwise.
Lin said help from Ann Arbor
SPARK- a local economic devel-
opment agency that helps young
entrepreneurs start companies of
their own.- was the "cornerstone"
of Nexecon's early development.
Leahy said Ann Arbor SPARK
also recently provided MyBand-
Stock with a $10,000 grant.
Linsaid though it's difficultto be
a student and a business owner at
the same time, his business school
courses helped him both in advis-
ing clients and in making Nexecon
a more efficient business.
But he said he learned one of the
most important lessons outside of
the classroom.
"At the end of the day, if you
don't recruit the right team, you're
going to be one of the only people
staying up until four o'clock in
the morning trying to get things
done," Lin said. "If you're going
to recruit people with passion and
with strengths in different areas, it
can become a cohesive group that
can drive things forward."

VIGIL
From Page1A
As more people gathered, candles
were passed out while music contin-
ued to play in thehbackground. Then,
the vigil began with a brief Power-
Point presentation recapping the
events and aftermath of the earth-
quake.
Followingthepresentation,which
included resources on how students
could get involved with the Haiti
relief efforts on campus, President
Mary Sue Coleman addressed the
crowd that had come to pay respects
to those affected by the devastating
earthquake.
Coleman told those at the vigil
that though the current aid efforts
are vital, it is important for them to
remember that aid will be needed in
the longterm, too.
"Our challenge in the future is
going to be not to forget when Haiti
is no longer on the front page of the
newspaper, and we don't see it on the
news every night, that we are still
willing to give money because it is
going to take a long time to rebuild,"
Coleman said.
Following Coleman's speech,
Associate Prof. Emeritus Ruth Bar-
nard from the School of Nursing
and Armando Matiz, a researcher
and lecturer from the School of
Public Health, spoke to the crowd -
addressing the importance of find-
ingwaysto assist with the rebuilding
efforts.
And while those gathered fought
to keep their candles lit in last
night's windy weather, Kinesiology
ACCREDITATION
From Page 1A
tunity for self-improvement.
"I'm really not worried about
us being reaccredited, but it is
important to me for us to use this
opportunity and not just treat it
as one more thing we've got to
do, but really take advantage of
it," Sullivan said. "Ben van der
Pluijm has done a really good job
of digging in deeply and we were
way ahead of ourselves in getting
this report ready."
Van der Pluijm said the biggest
section of the report is the assess-
ment of the learning environment
at the University. He said as part of
this, the committee came up with
learning outcomes tailored to every
school and college, which outline
what is expected of students grad-
uating from the University.
"We came up with a list of learn-
ing outcomes," van der Pluijm said.
"It's a working document. It doesn't

TOREHAN SHARM
University President Mary Sue Coleman speaks ata vigil last night to show support for victims of the Haiti earthquake,

senior Walter Lacy closed the gath-
eringwith a passionate spoken word
response to the tragedyin Haiti.
Once Lacy had finished, the crowd
stood silent, observing a moment of
silence for those killed in the tragedy.
And despite the uncooperative
weather that made it difficult to hear
the speakers at the event, partici-
pants at the vigil voiced their desire
to help the devastated country.
"I wanted to go to Haiti until I
realized that it wouldn't be the most
effective way to contribute, but that
helping any way I can through the
vigil and through other ways on
campus would be much appreci-
ated," said Nursing freshman Emily
lock us into anything, but it starts
to identify what it means to be a
student at the University of Michi-
gan. Whatyouexpectfor (students)
to be when they leave here."
Van der Pluijm said as part of the
study, the committee also came up
with a vision statement for the Uni-
versity.
"(The vision statement) is from
Mary Sue Coleman and executive
officers and it received input from a
lot of other people on campus to try
to describe how the University of
Michigan is today," he continued.
"It's an extension of our mission
statement, but much more practi-
cal for our current activities and
our current interests; it's a living
document."
Van der Pluijm added the com-
mittee dedicated a portion of the
report to explaining the Univer-
sity's budgetary process.
"We put consicleraleeffortlnto
explaining why and how we do the
budget," he said, "and how we are
in relatively good shape compared
receiving their certification. TFA
eventually decided to terminate
the partnership, sending them to
continue their education at Wayne
State University instead.
It was in Nov. 2001 when Ryan
Gall, then a Teach for America
teacher stationed in Detroit, found
out he'd be transferring to a differ-
ent public school across town. Gall
said when he was forced to move
to another school he felt as though
he was "losing his kids."
"I was teaching an astronomy
unit, and I had just glued stars
and planets all over she walls," he
said. "The whole room was trans-
formed to a solar system for the
next day. That night I found out I'd
be transferring to a new school in
the middle of that year, and I was
devastated."
Upon entering his new school,

ihe wire
FOLLOW THE

DAILY'NTFA P
'S NESFrom Page1A

* michigandaily.com/blogs
/the wire

positions," she said. "It came as a
result of a shrinking student popu-
lation and budget challenges the
district faced."
At the end of the first year in
Detroit, it remained uncertain
whether TFA teachers would be
guaranteed placements the next
year. It was then that TFA made
the decision not to send any more
participants to the city. The teach-
ers already there were given the
choice to finish . their two-year
commitments to Detroit or move
elsewhere.
Adding to the problems was a
fracture in TFA's partnership with
Marygrove College, the school
from which TFA teachers were

Diepenhorst.
The Office of Multi-Ethnic Stu-
dent Affairs formed M-HEART,
which led the coordination efforts
for the planning of the vigil, days
after the earthquake struck in order
to unify the entire campus' effortsoto
assist with the devastation. MESA
formed the coalition after multiple
student organizations reached out
demonstrating their interest in
offering aid to the country.
"M-HEART is a student-led orga-
nization determined to make an
impact in any way possible to the
relief efforts," MESA Intercultural
Development Program Director
Linh Nguyen said. "Starting with
to some of our peers and give an
explanation of that"
Because of the University's
exemplary reputation, the HLC
has allowed the University to select
one topic for a special emphasis
study. The HLC only allows insti-
tutions they feel will be adequate
in each of the aforementioned cat-
egories, like the University, to pro-
duce such reports.
In 2000, the University focused
the self-emphasis study on inter-
disciplinary cooperation. This time
around, the study will concentrate
on internationalization.
With over 4,000 international
undergraduate students and an
ever-increasing sense among the
student body that the University is
part of a global community, van der
Pluijm said internationalization
was a logical choice.
With more students traveling
abroadl:8ullivan, sai the ,Jniver-
sity chose this theme to advance
the study abroad program. "We're
thinking about different models,"
Westside Multicultural Academy,
Gall said he experienced his fair
share of challenges. The fifth-
grade class he taught was com-
prised of kids taken from two other
classes in the middle of the year.
"I said,'OhmyLord, it's Novem-
ber and I'm startingethe first day of
school," he said.
Gall said his students literally
kicked and screamed on the floor
and received a number of suspen-
sions when he first started. But by
the end of the year, his students
had made a year and a half's worth
of progress.
Classroom challenges like these
are to be expected for many TFA
teachers across the country. But
Gall said being transferred was
rarely experienced outside of
Detroit. Most teachers in the city
were transferred at least once and
some weren't placed until well
after the first day of school, he
said.
At the end of his first year, Gall
heard TFA would be ending its
partnership with Detroit Pub-
lic Schools after his second year,
making his the only class of TFA
teachers to work in Detroit.
According to Gall, the major-
ity of TFA teachers in Detroit,
including himself, decided to stay
in the city. But despite choosing to
remain in Detroit, only a handful
were offered teaching positions
after their second year.
"Myself and my roommates all
finished out the end of the second
year and they pretty much told all
of us they had no place for us to
stay," Gall said. "A lot of us scat-

tered to the winds, and only about
S or 6 teachers got job offers."
According to a February 20,
2009 Detroit News article, it was
widely believed the Detroit Fed-
eration of Teachers - the Detroit
Public Schools teachers union -
pressured the district into getting
rid of the TFA teachers.
Gall agreed with this assess-
ment, saying the teachers' union
played a key role in TFA's depar-
ture.
"The whole state of Michigan
is extremely unionized," he said.
"Teachers' unions run whatever
alternative teaching placements
there are. If the union doesn't sup-
port something, it doesn't have
much of a chance. And the unions
were not in love with TFA."
Detroit Public School adminis-

the vigil, we also hope to initiate a
donation drive and form long-term
rebuilding efforts with a focus on
education in Haiti."
LSA junior Ghita Vagher, one of
the students who reached out to
MESA, has already begun formulat-
ing future plans to continue provid-
ing support for the country in the
future.
Vagher said that one of
M-HEART's goals is to reach out to
as many student organizations as
possible that wish to help with the
cause. Additionally, Vagher said she
hopes to host a concert and a fund-
raising dinner in the near future to
raise money.
she said. "I think the old model of
spending one semester of my junior
year in Florence isn't what people
want to do for study abroad any-
more."
"I think that they've got differ-
ent ideas in mind. Maybe it would
be three weeks in Beijing and three
weeks in Nairobi and comparing
and contrasting what you saw in
terms of water treatment systems
in those two places," she continued.
"There's a lot more ways to make it
relevant to your program and more
than tourism."
Sullivan said though many
questions remain about what
changes may need to be made
to the University's study abroad
office, the University may consid-
er consolidating the study abroad
offices.
"Other Big Ten schools have
a single study abroad office, we
;dpn't," Slliran said, "We tendIn
have each school or college develop
its own. That would be a logical
thingto look at."
trators and the Detroit Federation
of Teachers did not return phone
calls or e-mails from The Michi-
gan Daily.
TFA officials are currently
exploring the option of return-
ing to Detroit within the next few
years.
In an e-mail interview, Ify
Offor, vice president of new site
development for TFA, wrote there
has been "a lot of local support for
bringing Teach For America to
Detroit."
According to Offor, TFA has
been talking with city leaders
including Mike Tenbusch of the
United Way and officials in Gov.
Jennifer Granholm's office.
Though University graduates
interested in TFA don't have the
option of being placed in Detroit,
many undergraduates participate
in various programs in the Detroit
metro area, with student organi-
zations working at Detroit Public
Schools.
LSA senior Hannah Lieberman
is a member of The Detroit Part-
nership, a student group that does
volunteer work in Detroit. After
being involved with the organiza-
tion for three and a half years and
now the director of the group's
School Program Team, Lieberman
said Detroit's need for qualified
teachers is apparent.
Lieberman said Detroit's non-
compliance with TFA is surprising
given the school district's lack of
resources.
"It's a huge hole in their ideol-
ogy," she said. "In an area of such
need and especially in a school
system that's really struggling

with changing administrations,
not meeting 'Adequate Yearly
Progress' as determined by No
Child Left Behind, Detroit Pub-
lic Schools could use really great
teachers."
Today, Gall is the principal of
Indianapolis Lighthouse College
Preparatory Academy, but his
affection for Detroit hasn't waned.
"If someone were to call me
tomorrow, I think I'd jump at
the opportunity (to return to
Detroit)," Gall said. "Not that
I don't love it here, but I've told
wife many times I would've
taught there until retirement.
I love the kids; I love the city.
Detroit's a punchline all over our
media these days, but something
about Detroit grows on you."

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