a The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 5A
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The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 5A
In 2009, Sullivan sai the 'U'
can fix 'crummy classrooms'
From Page lA
During the interview, Hanlon
also hinted that more of the build-
ing may be renovated in the near
future.
"Stay tuned on this," Hanlon
said after being asked about con-
verting classrooms in Dennison
Hall. "I think you're going to hear
something fairly major pretty
soon."
Hanlon didn't specify what
the "fairly major" announcement
would be. However, it's unlikely
that the renovation of only the
sixth floor would constitute a
"fairly major" announcement,
since Sullivan already announced
plans to renovate a floor of the
building in an interview with The
Michigan Daily in 2009.
"It won't hurt the educational
program. In fact, it will make it
better because nobody's going
to have to teach or learn on the
fourth floor of Dennison any-
more," Sullivan said at the time.
"We can replace these crummy
classrooms with better class-
rooms."
The renovation and relocation
of the programs is part of an ini-
tiative to better utilize existing
facilities owned by the University,
Hanlon said.
"We remain very committed
to making better use of our class-
room facilities," he said. "We
want to use our University space
as efficiently, as effectively as
possible."
Ultimately, Hanlon said, that
means converting outdated class-
rooms to better meet the needs
of the University, which could
reduce the amount of space the
University leases.
"In instances where we built
these sort of banked classrooms
CITY COUNCIL
From Page 1A
to a previous and private discus-
sion about a medical marijuana
moratorium. At this closed-door
meeting in late July, the city
attorney was present to discuss
the moratorium.
The moratorium then appeared
on the agenda of the public meet-
ing without prior discussion
between all council members,
Askins said. The Council ended
up passing the moratorium.
According to a column posted
on the Ann Arbor Chronicle web-
site last night, the publication
sent a letter to city council and
the city attorney on Aug. 11 ask-
ing that the council at their Aug.
19 meeting admit that the closed
session wasn't in compliance with
the Open Meetings Act, abandon
the moratorium the council pre-
viously approved, seek out public
comment on the moratorium and
take "appropriate action" on the
proposal.
LAB
From Page1A
cise nanoscale measurements
researchers require for nanome-
chanical engineering.
Ho added that the building
will help University faculty con-
tribute to research on the behav-
ior of nanoparticles, which is
indispensable to fields like manu-
facturing and medicine.
College of Engineering Dean
David Munson echoed Hu's sen-
timents, saying that the center
was noteworthy for its capacity
for innovative research projects.
"Michigan Engineering has
always been strong in traditional
large-scale mechanical engineer-
ing areas including automotive
research," Munson said in the
release. "This new, facility will
propel us to the next level. It will
allow researchers to pursue excit-
EATBLUE
From Page 1A
that the money is actually being
spent on food as it's intended,"
Laiderman said.
The Eatblue meal plan card is
meant to attract more interest by
way of a variety of deals and dis-
counts.
"In order to entice students to
get their parents involved we do
a lot of discount promotions and
different kinds of deals within the
cards themselves, so you can get
a lot of free food promotions and
discount by purchasing with the
cards," said Laiderman.
Laiderman says the cards have
been very successful so far.
"We just signed on our toOth
cardholder which, for a new pro-
gram, we're pretty excited about
that," said Laiderman.
Law studentJeff Klein saidthat
if the discount was large enough,
he might think about it, but oth-
erwise did not think it would be
worth restricting himself to a
handful of restaurants.
"I'd rather just carry cash," said
Klein.
Business School senior Bill
Penegor said he definitely would
be interested in an off-campus
card option, because it would
allow him to have a way for his
parents to pay for his food.
Emily Francis, the local mar-
keting consultaut for Chipotle
Mexican Grill, located on the 200
block of S. State Street, explained
ing projects at the frontiers of
mechanical science and engineer-
ing, where the discipline intersects
with nanoscience and biology."
Munson went on to thank U.S.
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.),
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich)
in addition to Democratic Gov.
Jennifer Granholm for their
efforts in supporting the con-
struction of the complex.
Granholm praised the new
complex in the press release and
discussed the potential impact of
the research projects housed by
the building.
"This new facility will help
train the next generation of
engineers in our state, and pro-
duce the cutting-edge research
and development in energy,
health care and manufacturing
that will continue to diversify
our economy and create jobs,"
Granholm said.
that the decision to take part in
the new meal plan card was large-
ly to make eating at the restaurant
easier for students by offering
them another way to pay.
"On a lot of our campus loca-
tions we look at the student-based
card to see if we can make it eas-
ier on the students and give them
other ways to frequent their favor-
ite places on- and off-campus,"
Francis said.
Francis added that more pro-
motion is necessary to make sure
customers know which restau-
rants are involved.
"We still think there's some
awareness opportunities, where
even though we've got the sticker
in our window... some people may
not know that we accept the Eat-
blue card," she said.
Wendy Shinde, owner of Great
Wraps, on the 300 block of State
Steet, said she was previously
signed with Eatblue, but that the
new meal plan card has not been
used very frequently.
"In theory if they market the
heck out of this and they get a lot
of people signed up, and people
start coming in to use it then that's
a different story," Shinde said.
As of now, though, Shinde says
that it won't be worth keeping the
new meal plan card in the long
run.
"You're supposed to pay a
monthly fee for the machine, and
when it comes to that, I'm going
to say no, because right now ... I'm
getting like one per day," Shinde
said.
The sixth floor of Dennison yesterday. University Provost Philip Hanlon said the floor will be converted into office space.
with horseshoe shaped tables and
lots of technology, we of course
don't want to look at (converting)
those," Hanlon said. "We want to
look at the (classrooms) that are
of lower quality, more traditional
flat-floored, poor acoustics, and
so on."
In addition, Hanlon said it's
better to look for large blocks of
outdated classrooms to convert
into offices because it means
there will be more options for
designing the space.
"That gives us the most flex-
ibility because if you take a set
of classrooms and convert them
to some other use, if they're all
together then we can take out
walls and build other kinds of
spaces," he said.
These factors arguably make
Dennison the perfect target for
renovation and repurposing on
campus.
"A lot of these things drive you
back to Dennison because Denni-
son has a large collection of class-
rooms," Hanlon said. "They're
traditional, flat-floored class-
rooms and as we've said before,
the building itself doesn't have
good landing space once you leave
the classrooms."
Hanlon said there is also an
increasing pressure to continue
working toward the Space Utili-
zation Initiative's overall goal of
using general purpose classrooms
on campus 70 percent of the time
during core hours, with each use
taking advantage of 65 percent of
the seating in the classroom.
"We are bringing online a
bunch of new classrooms," Han-
lon said, referring to new class-
rooms at North Quadrangle and
those being built in the new
Law School Academic Building.
"That's just intensifying the pres-
sure for us to figure out what
classroom stock we really need
and what we can convert to other,
more important uses."
But if that pressure wasn't
enough to drive Hanlon to con-
vert more spaces in Dennison, he
said he has a personal motivation
too.
"I am teaching in Dennison this
semester," Hanlon said, laughing,
"just to remind myself of what the
experience is."
Both Rapundalo and City
Attorney Steve Postema declined
to comment on the recently filed
suit.
Council member Sabra Briere
(D-Ward 1) said that she and other
members of the Council were
caught off guard that the new mor-
atorium was added to the agenda
of the early August meeting.
According to Briere, Rapan-
dulo said the moratorium was dis-
cussed in the closed session but
later retracted the statement after
gauging other council members'
confusion. Briere added that she
was unaware of the moratorium's
origins and that the issue was not
discussed in detail at the closed
session.
"Members of council - myself
included - were surprised that
the moratorium existed, it was not
something that we were expect-
ing," she said. "From a personal
standpoint, I think it's a terrible
thing that anyone would have to
file suit against the city. From a
member of council standpoint, I
would hate to think that Council
or the city at any level fails to obey
any open meetings act."
Briere said in the future, she
hopes the content of closed-door
sessions are disclosed to the pub-
lic after they have been conclud-
ed.
"I would hope that what there
would be would be a consistent,
clear cut understanding of- why.
the council is going into closed
session, what's going to be accom-
plished in that closed session,
what's appropriate to discuss and
what's not appropriate to discuss
in that closed session and that
everyone knows those rules," she
said.
Dennis Hayes, a lawyer spe-
cializing in medicinal marijuana
legislation, said the contents of
the ordinance could have been the
reason for the closed-door meet-
ing, noting that medical marijua-
na is a touchy subject for the City
Council.
"We have been butting heads
with (the city attorney) from the
get-go," he said.
Hayes said the Council would
not extend an invitation to him
for a closed meeting even if the
session focused on medical mari-
juana. He added that his versions
of medical marijuana ordinances
have never been allowed to exist
on the City Council agenda and
that the council has always had.
a "narrow" approach to dealing
with the issue.!
"They would rather have no
relationship with medical mari-
juana-and we won't let 'em," he
said. "In this case, it was a dis-
service to everybody because you
have to have an open discussion
about medical marijuana."
This isn't the first time city
council has been accused of vio-
lating the open meetings act. In
Sept. 2009, the council banned
electronic communication
between council members dur-
ing meetings in order to be more
transparent, after council mem-
bers were criticized for sending
e-mails discussing city business
and sometimes mocking speakers
at the meetings.
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