* The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
SHIRVELL
From Page 1
official.
In the inaugural post on Chris
Armstrong Watch in late April,
Shirvell wrote about Armstrong's
election and his campaign to
become MSA president. The first
post was accompanied by a photo of
Armstrong that has "Resign" writ-
ten over his face and a rainbow flag
with a swastika in the middle of it
next to him.
In that post, Shirvell pointed
out Armstrong's time serving as
chairman of MSA's LGBT commis-
sion, which Shirvell describes as "a
commission that solely focused on
utilizing the student government
to promote the radical homosexual
agenda, including gay 'marriage'
and adoption 'rights."'
"Armstrong's radical agenda
includes mandating 'gender-neu-
tral' housing," Shirvell also wrote
in the post, "so that cross-dressing
students will not have to share a
dorm room with a member of the
same sex. This proposal, how-
ever, endangers female students,
as it will also force heterosexu-
als of different genders to share
the same room and will undoubt-
edly lead to a massive increase in
rapes."
When Armstrong arrived on
campus this fall, Shirvell wrote
a post on Sept. 1 entitled "What's
Past is Prologue: Armstrong's VIO-
LENT Supporters & the Coming
Persecution this Fall."
In that post, Shirvell warned "...
if events this past spring and sum-
mer are indicative of what's to come
this fall when Armstrong is called
out in public about his outright lies,
then Christian, pro-life, and minor-
ity students on campus should be
aware that they will be VIOLENT-
LY persecuted."
Another post in early September
criticized Armstrong's comments
at New Student Convocation. At
the event, Armstrong told the new
students in attendance that their
"time here in Ann Arbor is as much
about your own self-discovery as it
is about your career."
On his blog, Shirvell described
that comment by writing, "It is
clear that Armstrong's remarks
constituted nothing more than a
thinly veiled attempt to cause sexu-
ally confused, and perhaps some
impressionable, 17-and-18-year-
olds to experiment sexually with
members of their own gender."
Other blog posts have been
entitled "Chris Armstrong: The
PRIVILEGED Pervert" and "Chris
Armstrong&His Bullhorn: Portrait
of a Radical Homosexual Activist at
Work."
In the interests of decency, the
Daily decided not to publish some
of the most inflammatory passages
from the blog.
At last week's MSA meeting,
Shirvell called on Armstrong to
resign during the community con-
cerns portion of the meeting, criti-
cizing his affiliation with senior
society Order of Angell. In particu-
lar, Shirvell accuses Armstrong of
lying during his campaign about his
intention to join Order of Angell.
"Even the first gay MSA presi-
dent is corrupted by his power," he
said at the MSA meeting. "You all
should impeach him."
The society, formerly known as
Michigamua, has been criticized
for allegedly using Native Ameri-
can artifacts as part of its meetings
and rituals in the past. In 2007, the
organization formally changed its
name, and in an effort to become
more transparent, began publish-
ing alist of its members and making
its records available to the public.
Its meetings and activities, how-
ever, remain secretive.
Tuesday night's meeting wasn't
the first time Shirvell showed up
at a campus event to criticize Arm-
strong. In May, students, LGBT
rights activists and community
members gathered outside the
Walgreen Drama Center on North
Campus to counter a protest by
the Westboro Baptist Church. The
church had planned to stage a pro-
test against a production of "The
Laramie Project," a play that cen-
ters around the murder of Matthew
Shepard, an openly gay student
who was beaten to death in 1998.
Though the church's protestors
never showed, the counter-protest Shirvell - who graduated in
continued anyway, with signs call- 2002 and was active on campus in
ing for love and acceptance. the pro-life community when he
Shirvell, photographed by Daily was a student - wrote that he feels
photographers and identified in a compelled to speak out against
May 20 article on PrideSource.com, Armstrong because of his ties to the
also attended the protest, follow- University as an alum and because
ing Armstrong and holding a sign of his "pro-life, pro-family" beliefs.
accusing him of racism. "Armstrong's agenda is immoral,
Witnesses reported that when in my opinion," Shirvell wrote.
Armstrong addressed the crowd, Shirvell has a history of taking
Shirvell attempted to speak over controversial positions on LGBT
him with accusations that Arm- issues.
strong lied to the University com- A Feb. 7, 2010 post on the blog
munity. "Cox Watch" included e-mails
Shirvell first became aware of from Shirvell to a member of the
Armstrong and his presidency after Michigan Log Cabin Republicans,
reading an article in the Detroit an organization that focuses on gay
Free Press in April, he wrote in and lesbian Republican activism.
the e-mail interview. The article - In the e-mails, Shirvell referred
called "Gay student leader elected to members of the organization as
at U-M seeks activism" - reported "sick freaks."
on Armstrong's status as the first According to an Aug. 13, 2008
openly gay MSA president, the sup- article in The Michigan Messenger,
port he's received from students Shirvell celebrated the departure
and his campaign platform, which of Sean Kosofsky - then-director
included issues like gender-neutral of the Triangle Foundation - when
housing and weekend dining hall he moved from Michigan to North
hours. Carolina. Shirvell called Kosofsky
Shirvell wrote that after reading "the state's most visible proponent
the article, he became concerned of the radical homosexual agenda,"
about what he called Armstrong's on RightMichigan.com, according
"deeplyradical agenda." He decided to the Messenger article.
to create a Facebook page to voice In a Jul. 14, 2005 article in the
his criticisms of Armstrong. The Daily called "Gay pride sticker
page was later removed because it sparks controversy at pizzeria,"
contained what Facebook adminis- Shirvell was quoted discussing his
trators deemed offensive material, dislike of a gay pride sticker placed
which prompted Shirvell to create on the door of New York Pizza
his blog. Depot on East William Street.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - 5
Shirvell told the Daily at the time
that he had been led to believe the
owners of NYPD were pressured
to put up the sticker "to appease
the homosexuals who frequented
NYPD on Friday nights."
Shirvell also said at the time that
he urged members of St. Mary's
Student Parish, which he said he
was a member of at the time, to
request the removal of the sticker.
But Pat Waters, operations direc-
tor and pastoral associate for the
congregation at the time, said that
members of the parish were more
upset with Shirvell's comments
than the sticker's presence.
Gabe Javier, assistant direc-
tor of The Spectrum Center, said
in an interview last month that
Armstrong is a great role model
for LGBT students on campus and
that Armstrong will be able to deal
effectively with the criticism.
"I think that Chris will arise to
any challenges that come his way
with integrity," he said.
Armstrong declined to comment
on the matter in an interview last
month and after Tuesday night's
meeting, but pledged to serve the
student body.
"I have always been open and
honest about who I am in my life,
and I can only do the same in my
role as MSA president," Armstrong
wrote in an e-mail to the Daily.
- Daily Staf f Reporter Elyana
Twiggs contributed to this report.
APP
From Page 1
had iPhones," Yang said in a phone
interview from San Diego, where
he now lives.
The initial plan had been to cre-
ate an application, which would
streamline the process of using
the University Directory to make it
more accessible to students.
"I find that the process, since you
have to use a computer to search for
this information, and then insert it
into your phone to be very exten-
sive," Yang said. "So I wanted to
implement the process in such a
way that we could access the infor-
mation directly from your phone
and add it to your contacts."
Once the initial feature was
implemented, Chan and Yang
decided to expand the project and
add more features.
The app novallows iPhone users
to check dining hall menus for any
dining hall on campus; use Magic
Bus to find the exact location of
their buses in real time; read Uni-
versity news from several different
sources, including The Michigan
Daily, The University Record, the
U-M News Service and Michigan
Today; and to search for buildings
with a guide to help decipher the
abbreviations of campus buildings.
Though practical, Chan and
Yang admit that the Michigan
iPhone application also has its fair
share of gimmicks.
"We have a feature that plays the
Fight Song, so when you click the
Michigan logo, the fight song plays
and when you shake it, the key
sound occurs," said Yang.
And because it was developed
for a class project, Chan and Yang
said they never intended for the
program to become the official
University iPhone app.
"It was really unexpected for me
because I didn't intend to make it
the official Michigan iPhone app,"
Chan said in an e-mail interview.
"I planned to release it to the app
store on my own but then Apple
rejected the app because it has the
Michigan logo in it."
But after the app was rejected,
University officials, who were
interested in buying the app,
approached the developers.
"We demoed it to the University
in February and they seemed very
interested and impressed with the
app," Yang said. "We showed it to
the ITS department and they gave
us an offer to buy it from us and we
accepted and we sold it to them."
John Gohsman, the director for
applications and information ser-
vices at the University, explained
that the University became inter-
ested in developing an application
around the time the class project
was underway.
"We constantly look at how stu-
dents are trying to obtain informa-
tion; and what we were seeing was
more smart phones and things in
students' hands," Gohsman said.
Gohsman said institutional
use of mobile phone applications
has been a recent trend across the
nation, but certain key distinctions
set Michigan's approach apart from
others'.
"I think what's unique about
Michigan is that we started with
something that students devel-
oped and I think that's one point,"
he said. "The other is what we're
trying to do is create tools and
resources for more students, for
staff and for faculty to build a lot of
things."
For this reason, Gohsman said
the University is expecting to see
a lot of mobile apps related to the
University in the near future.
"We will help them with the
licensing that they need to get it out
into the app store or the Android
store," Gohsman said.
Building off of the excitement
generated for this app, Gohsman
said the University is also running
an innovation challenge to improve
upon Chan and Yang's creation.
In the meantime, however, stu-
dents seem fairly pleased with the
Michigan iPhone application.
LSA junior Joshua Brady, who
uses the application, said though
he doesn't live on campus, he still
finds the application helpful.
"I wasn't using it so much dur-
ing the summer, but now that it's
fall, I've been using it more. I use
it mostly for the directory," Brady
said. "I think it would be more
useful if I was living in the dorms,
because they have the whole menu
up for all the dining halls."
The most recent statistics show
that there were about 6,300 down-
loads just before school started.
However, Gohsmansaid hebelieves
that number is considerably higher
now that the school year is under-
way.
In addition to providing a ser-
vice for University students, devel-
oping the app has also helped Chan
and Yang with their careers. Both
developers were computer science
majors and are now software engi-
neers at Qualcomm in San Diego.
"We got an A+ in the class, so
it was pretty good ... I showed off
the app in my (job) interviews and
all of my interviewers were very
impressed by it," Yang said.
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