The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com A MOMENT OF REMEMBERANCE SAMANTHA TRAUBEN/Daily LSA freshman Omar Fares participates in a group moment of silence on the Diag yesterday to remember those who have died in the Iraq War. LOT From Page 1A the space. "I would really like to see a large employer come in, a busi- ness that wanted to use that as a headquarters or an office facility," he said in an interview. The prime location of the Library Lot, between the Main Street and State Street areas, makes it "vital to downtown's future as it knits together the two primary activity areas," according to Susan Pollay, executive direc- tor of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. A committee appointed by the Ann Arbor City Council hired The Roxbury Group LLC, an external consulting firm, to review the two hotel-conference center proposals and draft a recommendation. According to a report prepared by The Roxbury Group, Valiant LANSING From Page 1A together a proposal and people will listen to you, that's really what the platform allows," McDowell said. McDowell said MSC also pro- vides an opportunity for out-of- state students to gain a better grasp of issues plaguing the state as a whole, rather than just the college towns of Ann Arbor and Flint. "I think we're also hoping for a better understanding of what the issues are in Michigan," McDowell said. "Not everybody who's in the caucus grew up in Michigan. They may have come here for college, and they don't really know what's going on outside their own college experi- ence." Many students' presentations yesterday focused on how to incor- porate economic stability and job creation in a state facing budget and economic woes. Business senior Michael Averbook and LSA senior Sam Hartman proposed a new method of public transportation in the city of Detroit that establishes a separate lane for busing, with sophisticated traffic lights that would allow for quicker and more efficient transportation. Averbook and Hartman also pro- posed an incentive in the form of a tax break for those who abstain from owning a car in order to encourage residents to use public transportation. They also hope that development of the program would help create more jobs in the Detroit area. "We think this will decrease the purchasing of new cars some- what and will encourage the use of public transportation," Averbook said. "This will also increase jobs through running more bus routes and constructing new bus lanes on the roads." SCHOOLS From Page 1A implementation of the program, which was scheduled to start in Fall 2011, back to allow more time for planning and increased com- munity input. "Given more time to look at vari- ous options, we can come up with a plan that will be more satisfying," AAPS administrator LeeAnn Dick- inson-Kelley said at last night's meeting. Despite the criticisms, Cathy Reishel, a clinical associate pro- fessor at the School of Education who is helping to lead the project, said that if adopted, the plan would allow for students to choose to par- ticipate in academic enrichment activities at the school during the one- to two-week intersessions. Intersessions would provide students an "extra opportunity to dig into interesting academic work," Reishel said, adding that lessons taught during the breaks would expand on material taught proposed 178,000 square feet of new development, which includes a conference center, a four-star hotel, six high-end condomini- ums, extensive office space, a res- taurant and a public plaza. The report states that Acquest has plans for a 148,000-square- foot development, with space for an eight-story boutique hotel, ground-level retail space and a public plaza. This proposal would eventually place a conference cen- ter across the street at the former YMCA site on South Fifth Avenue, but Acquest doesn't plan to con- struct that facility immediately. Acquest Vice President Doug- las Smith said in an interview that having a separate conference facil- ity provides the city more flexibil- ity in terms of future expansion. "Because (our proposal) de- coupled the hotel and the con- ference facility, it provided a longer-term opportunity to grow that conference-convention busi- ness in order to support the down- town," Smith said. However, the Roxbury report, which is available on the city's website, found that Acquest's proposal did not provide enough details about the financing of the project. "The Acquest team chose not to provide a specific proposal outlin- ing how it would finance its proj- ect, relying instead on its track record of financing other similar projects as evidence of its capac- ity," the report's executive sum- mary states. Valiant's more comprehensive financial strategy led the Rox- bury Group to decisively recom- mend the Valiant proposal for the Library Lot site. According to the report, Valiant offered voluntary revisions to its original proposal, making it a more attractive offer. The modified scheme reduced the size of the conference center, added one floor of office space and guaranteed against any financial shortfall, eliminating debt liabil- ity for the city. Smith said Acquest had no plans to revise its proposal. According to Pollay, the city of Ann Arbor hasn't officially reviewed Roxbury's conclusions. "A City Council-appointed committee reviewed the Roxbury report and is recommending that the developer recommended by Roxbury be put forward to City Council for approval," she wrote in an e-mail interview. However, Hieftje says he's in no hurry to accept a proposal because construction isn't sup- posed to be completed on the site until December 2011. "The real estate we're talking about won't even be available for another year and a half because it's a big hole in the ground," Hieftje said in. "There's just no rush to do anything about it given that particular circumstance." PETA From Page lA the class felt it was necessary. In an e-mail interview yester- day, a public relations official at the University of Michigan Health System reaffirmed UMHS's sup- port for the course's practices. "While nearly every aspect of the Survival Flight course uses simulators, for very specific procedures, using anesthetized animals is the only way we can ensure our Survival Flight nurs- es are capable and competent enough to perform those pro- cedures in the field on humans, including babies," the e-mail said. The official requested anonym- ity because several individuals associated with the course have received threatening messages. Asked why the Survival Flight class requires live animals when the University recently switched to using simulator in its Advanced Trauma Life Support class, the same UMHS official said the two classes were designed for different circumstances. UMHS stopped using live animals in its Advanced Trauma Life Support class, after Physician's Council for Responsible Medicine - a non- profit organization that advocates for ethical methods of research - criticized the technique. "While physicians do perform the same procedures, they do so in a controlled environment where ample back-up and support is at hand in emergency or oper- ating rooms," the UMHS official wrote. "Survival Flight nurses must know how to do these proce- dures correctly the first time they are called upon to do so under extraordinary circumstances," the official continued. "Nurses in Survival Flight are called upon to do things that even physicians with ATLS training are not asked to given the unique circumstanc- es under which they are required perform." But Justin Goodman, associate director of laboratory investiga- tions for PETA, said yesterday that the University's use of ani- mals in the Survival Flight course is a "relic" among peer programs. "The University of Michigan's Survival Flight Training course continues to mutilate and kill OFFICE HOURS From Page 1A Many of those who believe Assange is anti-American cite as evidence the recent release of cables specifying sites around the world that officials believe are critical to U.S. security. How- ever, in a recent New York Times article, Assange said the goal of WikiLeaks isn't to purport an anti-American agenda, but rather to push institutions to change in order to see progress. Communication Studies Prof. Graham Griffith, who was at the British newspaper The Guardian when WikiLeaks released an ear- lier set of confidential documents about the war in Afghanistan in July, said editors use a thorough process to decide which docu- ments to release to the public. The Guardian was one of the four European newspapers that recently received the U.S. cables from WikiLeaks. "I left (in July) feeling very positive about the process that The Guardian editors and jour- nalists went through in weigh- ing what they should release to the public," Griffith said. "This is one of those things that I think has been misrepresented. What I can see the process being is that WikiLeaks is releasing docu- ments on its website after the edi- tors at some of these papers have looked at (them)." "I've seen a quote from the Le Monde editor about how (editors and journalists) are seeing their work up on the website, so what editors have deemed to redact is also carrying through to (the) WikiLeaks site in many cases," he said. Though reporters and editors are taking precautions with the documents, government officials have been critical of Assange and hackers have been attacking WikiLeaks since the site started releasing the documents. Collings said officials might start becoming more cautious about future communication methods and protection of infor- mation. The cables that were released were considered "clas- sified" - a relatively low level of confidentiality that may prompt Thursday, December 9, 2010 - 5A cats and pigs despite the fact that human-like simulators are avail- able to replace the use of animals in this course and that they've been shown to better prepare trainees to treat human patients and that they're endorsed by lead- ing medical organizations across the country," Goodman said. Goodman said the Air and Sur- face Transport Nurses Associa- tion - an organization that seeks to advance the work of transport nurses by enhancing the level of patient care they provide - recently confirmed that of the 30 institutions offering its transport trauma courses in the country, only the University uses live ani- mals. "On all counts, the use of ani- mals in this course is- indefen- sible," Goodman said. "It's just a matter of time before it's going to stop. But we're hoping that we're able to give them a gentle nudge and see that it's ended sooner rather than later." And, Goodman said, PETA's campaign of phone calls, e-mails and other events at the University will not stop until the University changes its policy. "The campaign will continue until the school commits to end- ing the use of animals in the course," Goodman said, explain- ing that activity would likely slow down over the holiday break. "But when the next semester starts, the campaign will be in full force on campus again." Asked about Tuesday's phone and e-mail drive aimed at grab- bing Coleman's attention, Good- man said he thinks the volume of calls would be difficult for Cole- man to ignore. "The inconvenience that Cole- man's office may have had to deal with (Tuesday) is nothing compared to the lives of pain and suffering that the animals in Sur- vival Flight are forced to endure," he said. "If we can cause them just a little bit of the discomfort that animals in labs are caused, then we're doing a good job." PETA is not alone in its calls for the University to end its practice of using animals in the Survival Flight course. The Michigan Stu- dent Assembly passed a resolution last month urging the University to switch from using live animals in the course to the simulators used by other programs. the government to alter the system in the coming months. Although Assange has suggest- ed that the documents show U.S. embassy officials engaged in espi- onage for their country, there has also been talk of trying Assange for espionage against the U.S. Griffith said the possibility that Assange will be punished for his decision to release the cables threatens journalistic freedom. "I'm not going to defend Julian Assange, but the bluster about try- ing him for espionage is something that journalists have to find some- what chilling," Graham said. "I think if that's the case, then what would stop administrations from trying New York Times report- ers? (Journalists) should be a little more concerned about it than I think a lot of them are." Currently, WikiLeaks has released only about 1,000 of the 250,000 cables Assange has access to, and news sources around the world continue to report the con- tent of the cables. Arbor Networks, an Ann Arbor- based company, was able to track the WikiLeaks site's movement as it bounced to different domains to resist efforts to shut down the site. "We have a system that moni- tors Internet traffic on a global basis," said Kevin Whalen, Arbor's director of corporate communica- tions. "What WikiLeaks has been doing is just changing the (site's) hosting providers to more robust providers capable of handling (the) attacks." In addition to garnering nation- al attention, the leaks have also hit closer to home at some colleges across the country. The career ser- vices office at Columbia Univer- sity's School of International and Public Affairs advised students last week not to discuss the leak on social networking sites because it could lower their chances of future government employment, according to an article in The Huffington Post. The career office later backtracked and reiterated the school's commitment to stu- dent free speech. Promoting open discussion on the issue, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the Universi- ty "believe(s) a vigorous, informed discussion of important, current topics is good for all of us." SALAM RIDA/Daly Samanatha Hawkins, Michigan Municipal League staff member, talks possible improvements to students' proposals yesterday. Samantha Harkins, staff mem- ber of the Michigan Municipal League and member of the House Commission on Civic Engagement, said the pair's proposal is crucial to economic development in Detroit, especially since it is one of the few cities in the country without a pub- lic rail-system. "At municipal, we love pub- lic transportation" Harkins said. "Detroit is the largest metropolitan region in the country without some sort of public rail transit and that hurts us." Harkins advised that the pair focus especially on job development because it is a major issue among state legislators that transcends party lines and could lead to poten- tial widespread support in the state legislature. "The word jobs is like crack in Lansing," Harkins said. "Everybody is talking about jobs on both sides of the aisle and everyone wants more jobs." According to McDowell, another in class and would focus on read- ing and math. The partnership with AAPS would offer student-teachers from the University the opportunity to work in a collaborative environ- ment with University faculty and teachers at Scarlett and Mitchell. It would also allow teachers and students from different grades to interact, particularly when sub- ject matter overlaps in the cur- riculum. "We could imagine, for example, 8th graders participating with 5th graders in some kind of explora- tion of the First Continental Con- gress," Reishel said. But not everyone is as excited as Reishel about the partnership. Par- ents and members of the commu- nity raised several concerns about the program at the AAPS Board of Education meeting last night. One main point of concern was the change to a blIanced calendar, which one parent said was incon- siderate. "Our family time is precious to important aspect of MSC is that it gives students like Averbrook and Hartman firsthand exposure to the processes and logistics involved in the legislative process at the state level. "It's easy to say that everyone should do x and y, that everyone should eat healthier, but to actu- ally make a proposal that takes into account what exactly you want the legislation to do is not as easy," McDowell said. Jeff Kupperman, associ- ate professor of education at the University's Flint campus and co- facilitator of MSC, said the program gives legislators the opportunity to hear from a group of youth constitu- ents - a voting group that is often underrepresented. "Legislators often tell us (the program) is really special because the proposals are really well- researched, and they're not just somebody saying it ought to be a law," Kupperman said. "The caucus has spent weeks and months work- us," said Elizabeth Baker, whose child attends Ann Arbor Public Schools. "Summertime allows my son to be happy, well-rounded and relaxed." Parents were concerned with the logistical challenges they may face when one child attends Mitch- ell or Scarlett and another attends any of the other district schools operating under a traditional cal- endar. As the plan stands now, the balanced school year would not apply to Scarlett's feeder schools: Pittsfield, Carpenter or Allen ele- mentary schools. Reishel acknowledged the con- cern. "There is no question that it would be difficult for families to have kids on two different sched- ules - not impossible, but it would be different," she said. Reishel added that while a bal- anced school year may be new to the Ann Arbor school district, it is not a new concept. There are over 3,000 schools across the country using such a schedule, she said, ing on these proposals and deliber- ating on them." McDowell echoed his senti- ments, saying that the caucus allows state representatives to learn about the problems that affect students, a perspective they don't normally hear on the House and Senate floors. "It provides a steady stream of ideas and concepts," McDowellsaid. "It's another constituency that's not lobbyists, not corporations and not representatives that are giving ideas of what should be passed." . In the past, MSC representa- tives submitted proposals that have influenced state law. Successful proposals include the designation of texting while driving as a primary offense rather than a secondary offense - a bill that was passed into law this March. "We have had resolutions that have become law; some have started here and some have dovetailed with initiatives that were brought up by other constituencies," Weisserman said. including schools in Grand Rapids, Mich. But some parents at the meeting voiced their support of the part- nership. "I believe that the balanced cal- endar does not shut out the whole summer," said Gloria Yamas, whose children attend Scarlett. "I know that it may be uncomfortable as most change is uncomfortable to people, but the benefits to our chil- dren, to me, are unending." At the meeting, Scarlett Princi- pal Gerald Vazquez cited research published in the "Review of Edu- cation Research" that suggests students lose much of what they've learned during the academic year over the summer months - partic- ularly in the areas of reading and math - in a phenomenon termed the "summer slide." officials chose Mitchell and Scarlett as sites for the project, Mitchell Principal Kathy Scarnec- chia said, due to a discrepancy in students' performance and their diverse ethnic backgrounds. FAN THE DAILY ON FACEBOOK.