The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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Monday, January 24, 2011 - 5A
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The Michigan Daily - michigandailycomMonday, January 24,2011 - 5A
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SMOKING
From Page 1A
smokers, who continue to cho
to smoke, move to the edges
campus space," Winfield sa
"Sidewalks across the Diag, si
walks across the Engineer
campus, the Music campus,
so on are all off limits."
Smoking will only be allow
in a University parking lot
structure if the smoker lig
up in a privately owned vehi
according to the report.
Thereportstatesthat there
"substantial discussion, and
ferences of opinion" about allo
ing smoking within vehicles.
committee agreed to review
measure in two to three years.
To discourage smoking
campus, the report recommen
no new smoking shelters, or ph
es to smoke outside, be instal
on campus. Additionally,
requested that all cigarette bi
containers be moved from outs
buildings to near public roads.
Implementation of the smo
free policy will cost appro
mately $240,805, according to
report. Included in the budge
the addition of a program coo
nator to help oversee and imp
ment the Initiative.
This individual, who has not}
beenhired, will report tothe m
TENURE
From Page 1A
want to," Hanlon said.
He added that the cha
wouldn't extend the time it ta:
a faculty member to gain tent
but rather the amount of ti
they have to build his or her ca
And while the governing bo
ies at schools and colleges n
decidetochangethe probation;
period if Hanlon moves forwa
with the proposal and the rege
approve the revision, Hanlon sa
he doesn't expect many chang
to occur.
"I don't expect there to be
big rush for people to cha
because right now there are v
few schools who are up agai
the current limit," Hanlon sai
"They rouldalready be chang
if they really wanted to push
limit."
Currently, most schools at 1t
University actually have less tin
the maximum eight-year ten
clock in place. The Law Scht,
for example, uses a five-year p
bationary period, and most otb
schools have a six-year probati
ary period.
However, a few schools
campus use a seven-year p
bationary period - includ:
the Medical School, the Der
School and the Ross School
Business - which places their
the limit once the one-year tern
nal period is included.
Hanlon said he expects 1
Medical School would be 1
most likely to take advantage
the longer probationary peri
if implemented. An informal pi
COMMON APP
From Page 1A
application process gets hardc
it's more committed people w
apply"
Hanlon said that last year 1
University overshot its targ
number of students by about 4(
students, and this year the targ
number of students is 5,970. In l
year's admissions cycle, the Ur
versityreceived 30,947 applicar
Of those applicants, 15,436 we
offered spots at the University.
The current freshman ci.
size - the largest to date at 6,41
students - is higher than w
University officials estimated la
year.
University President Mary Si
Coleman told the Daily in Si
tember that the freshman cla
size increase was not intend
and should be avoided this yeai.
The University will be esi
cially cautious this year, Hani
said, and more deferrals are beii
issued this cycle. Though t
admissions office uses a calculi
ed system to gauge the number
students to accept, Hanlon said,
is essentially a guessing game.
"You've got this decision-mi
ing process made by 18-year-ol
and that's pretty random alread
he said. "We do our best."
Hanlon said University of
cials weren't caught off guard
this year's jump in applicati
numbers.
"Everything is kind of
ager of the University of Michigan
Health System's Tobacco Con-
sultation Service and will be in
charge of education, training,
ose evaluation, data collection and
of enforcement of the smoking ban.
aid. In an interview last week with
de- The Michigan Daily, Coleman
ing said she is pleased with the com-
and mittee's report.
"I'm actually very happy with
ved it, and we'll move full speed
or ahead," Coleman said. "We really
hts needed time for preparation, and
cle, I like the fact that we're starting
now because I think campuses
was that tried to (ban smoking) from
dif- one day to the next with no prep-
aw- aration just didn't work. So this
The gives us some time, and we'll try
the to resolve the issues. I think it's
the right way to go."
on Though smoking will be pro-
nds hibited in unauthorized areas
ac- starting July 1, individuals caught
led smoking on campus after the ban
it is implemented won't be ticketed
utt or arrested. Instead, Winfield
ide said the rule will be policed by
peer pressure - comparing the
ke- ban to when seat belts were first
)xi- put in automobiles.
the "It's much like what I experi-
t is enced when seat belts came in,"
di- Winfield said. "They were put in
ple- every car by law, but you weren't
required to use them. There was
yet more and more mediaattention to
an- the safety that they gave you and
more and more people were using
them."
Changes to the University
Standard Practice Guide will be
made to reflect the new policy,
and signs will be posted through-
out campus to inform visitors and
guests of the smoke-free policy.
"We don't plan to make this
something where people get tick-
ets," Winfield said. "On the other
hand, there are ways to address
these issues. Let's say there is a
person who continues to smoke
right outside a residence hall.
Somebody could take that indi-
vidual through the OSCR'process
with the Office of Student Con-
flict Resolution as acomplainant."
Winfield said that if a Universi-
ty staff member is found violating
the policy, the person's supervisor
would go through "the standard
disciplinary process" outlined
in the Standard Practice Guide.
While Winfield said this process
"could include discharge," which
is the worst case scenario.
The committee's recommen-
dations were made with smokers
and non-smokers in mind, Win-
field said.According to the report,
focus groups were held and sur-
veys were conducted over the past
year and a half in order to gauge
how the University community
felt about the initiative.
Subcommittees made up of stu-
dents, faculty and staff were also
established to advise the com-
mittee in writing their report.
The subcommittees consisted of
smokers, nonsmokers and former
smokers.
While the Tobacco Consulta-
tion Service will be responsible
for overseeing the implementa-
tion of the initiative, a new advi-
sory committee - established
by the University's executive
officers, chaired by Winfield and
composed of students, faculty
and staff - will be in charge of
reviewing and potentially alter-
ing the policy after implementa-
tion.
Winfield said one of the issues
the committee may undertake is
to examinethe scope of the smok-
ing ban. For instance, properties
off campus that are owned by the
University, like Wolverine Tower
located on South State Street will
also be subject to the smoking
ban.
"Wolverine Tower is owned by
the University, but there's a Com-
erica Bank there," Winfield said.
"We haven't addressed (whether
Comerica employees are subject
to the ban), and I honestly don't
know how that's going to be set-
tled."
Winfield said the Chancellors
of the campuses in Dearborn and
Flint will enforce the smoking
ban in ways that are most prudent
for their individual campuses.
SHIRVELL
From Page 1A
anti-gay remarks in the e-mail.
The report describes the reac-
tion of Shirvell's two supervi-
sors, Assistant Attorney General
Joel McGormley and Michigan
Solicitor General Eric Restuccia,
who instructed him to "never
engage in this conduct again."
According to the report,
Shirvell agreed.
However, Shirvell's payroll
records, as well as the dates and
times of his Facebook posts,
show that Shirvell continued
using state resources to perpe-
trate such behavior - despite his
claim that he had stopped - the
report states.
According to the document,
Shirveli "verbally assaulted his
supervisor by screaming profani-
ties for which he was disciplined
... contacted a college student's
out-of-state employer in an
attempt to get him fired ... (and)
improperlyused state resources."
Shirvell called the office of
former U.S. House of Represen-
tatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-
Calif.) this past summer, when
Armstrong was an intern there,
to get Armstrong fired, according
to former articles in The Michi-
gan Daily.
When Shirvell was advised
by his superiors to change his
behavior - specifically to stop
producing his blog, Chris Arm-
strong Watch, which alleged
that Armstrong was pursuing
a "radical homosexual agenda"
among other things - Shirvell
responded by saying "he did not
care" if he was sued, according to
the report. The report also states
that Shirvell "provided evasive
and untrue answers during his
Disciplinary Conference."
The Attorney General's
office began an examination of
Shirvell's harassment of Arm-
strong on Oct. 4, 2010, the report
states. Shirvellwas fired for inap-
propriate conduct including anti-
gay harassment of Armstrong
on Nov. 8, 2010, according to an
article in the Michigan Daily on
the same day.
Gordon said in an interview
last night that she hopes the
contents of the report will help
the Michigan Attorney Griev-
ance Commission fully under-
stand Armstrong's case against
Shirvell. Gordon and Armstrong
filed a complaint before the com-
mission in October alleging that
Shirvell violated several eth-
ics and standards attorneys are
required to uphold.
Gordon added that she hopes
the report gives the commission
cause to take disciplinary action
against Shirvell or necessitate
that he receive counseling.
"Obviously even the Attorney
General's office's employer real-
ized some of the stuff he was
doing was inappropriate and had
asked him not to do it," Gordon
said. "I think this material that
I've received just really portrays
him as somebody completely
lacking in judgment, which does
support our argument to the
State Bar of Michigan, that until
he gets some counseling or some
assistance, he should not have a
'license to practice law."
The report also described
an incident in which Shirvell
waited outside Armstrong's
house in Ann Arbor at 1:36 a.m.
to take photographs of a party
Armstrong and his roommates
were throwing. According to the
report, Shirvell walked by the
house twice in order to "deter-
mine whether Mr. Armstrong
was following the rules govern-
ing underage drinking that as the
MSA president he espoused."
Shirvell later called the Ann
Arbor Police Department to
report the party. He took photos
and videos of the police at Arm-
strong's home in order to post it
later on his blog, according to the
report.
The report also states that
Shirvell was convicted for driv-
ing under the influence of alcohol
on June 8, 2009. He received six
months probation.
of about half of the faculty at the
Medical School showed 80-per-
cent support for extending the
probationary period to a 10-year
maximum, Hanlon added.
"Nationally, medical schools
have been leaders in moving to
longer tenure clocks," Hanlon
said.
Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine has no maximum pro-
bationary period for tenure track
faculty, and Mt. Sinai Medical
Center in New York City uses a
17-year probationary period. Sev-
eral other leading medical schools
use longer probationary periods,
often 10 or 11years in length.
The reason for the elongated
tenure probationary periods,
Hanlon said, is because several
factors have changed in recent
years, especially for medical fac-
ulty. These include increased
regulatory requirements for
research that involves humans
or animals. Additionally, Hanlon
said an increase in interdisciplin-
ary research has led many tenure
track faculty members to require
more time to adequately complete
their probationary periods.
The research constraints have
led to increases in tenure track
changes at the Medical School,
Hanlon said. A greater proportion
of tenure track faculty has been
opting for clinical appointments
because they don't have enough
time to complete work for their
probationary periods.
Outside of research con-
straints, Hanlon said he is wor-
ried about the amount of pressure
on tenure track faculty members.
Citing the increase in single-
parent families and the number
of households in which both par-
ents are working, Hanlon said he
believes faculty are feeling more
stress regarding how to strike an
adequate balance between work
and family. Furthermore, Hanlon
said, increases in life expectancy
also mean many faculty members
now face more extensive obliga-
tions to care for their parents.
Hanlon told the Daily he has
consulted with numerous constit-
uencies - including deans, assis-
tant deans, executive committees
and faculty groups - and that his
talk with the Senate Assembly is
the last group he needs to receive
feedback from. He said the feed-
back he has received has been
mostly positive.
Once Hanlon consults with
the Senate Assembly today, the
faculty group is expected to pass
a resolution to support or oppose
the change. It is unclear which,
side the Senate Assembly will
take, but the body's executive
committee, the Senate Advisory
Committee on University Affairs,
is largely opposed to the change,
Hanlon said.
"It's likely to be a vigorous
debate," Hanlon said.
Hanlon said he expects to make
his final decision about how to pro-
ceed before the end of the week.
"If my decision is to propose a
change, it could be happening as
early as (this) week," he said.
If that happens, the proposed
revision, which changes "eight"
to "10" in the existing bylaw,
would be opened for public com-
ment before going to the regents
for consideration. The Univer-
sity's Board of Regents would
then make the final decision to
implement or ignore the proposed
change.
In an interview following last
week's Board of Regents meet-
ing, University President Mary
Sue Coleman told the Daily she is
happy with the proposal Hanlon
may submit to the regents.
"This has been studied pretty
extensively in the University by a
number of committees for a num-
ber of years, and I am very satis-
fied with the proposal because
it ultimately leaves it up to each
school or college to decide wheth-
er or not they want to go this
way," Coleman said.
Coleman also stressed she is
supportive of the change because
it leaves ultimate control over the
probationary timeline with the
faculty, which she said is where
the authority should lie.
If the change is passed, Hanlon
said he would continue to monitor
tenure rates to make sure tenure
track faculty are not adversely
affected by the change.
Asked whether the change
would have any other effects on
the University, Hanlon said he
couldn't foresee any financial
ramifications, but each school and
college would have to evaluate
whether a change might affect its
recruiting and retention abilities.
And while Hanlon appears
to be advocating for the change
prior to his meeting with the Sen-
ate Assembly, he said he won't
make a final decision until after
his meeting with the group today.
"I think there's alot of this that
makes sense, but I want to with-
hold final judgment until I hear
from the Senate Assembly," Han-
lon said.
Andrew Shirvell speaks at a Michigan Student Assembly meeting Sept. 7, 2010.
Thousands march at
Belgaian unity rally
track," Hanlon said. "We're not
surprisedby anything right now."
Erica Sanders, director of
recruitment and operations at
the University's Office of Under-
graduate Admissions, wrote in an
e-mail interview that it's too early
to tell whether the switch to the
Common Application is the rea-
son for the rise in applications.
The University made the
switch to the Common Applica-
tion, Sanders wrote, because the
University's contract with the
previous web application vendor
was set to expire this year.
"The Common Application
was a great fit for our needs," she
wrote. "Many of our common
cross-application schools also use
the Common Application."
The Common Application is a
standardized admissions process
that began in 1975 and allows a
college applicant to fill out a sin-
gle application that can be sent to
414 participating schools. Many
of the schools, including the Uni-
versity, also have supplemental
essay questions.
In addition to the University,
28 other schools joined the Com-
mon Application this year, includ-
ing Columbia University and two
international universities. As a
result, the number of students
applying to schools using the
Common Application rose by 27
percentthis year, accordingto the
Common Application website.
Robert Killion, executive
director of The Common Appli-
cation, Inc., wrote in an e-mail
interview that the Common
Application website is designed to
diversify the pool of applicants in
addition to lowering the cost and
easing the admissions process for
universities.
"We can offer both a more
sophisticatedtechnology at aless-
er cost than any single institution
could build and maintain on their
own," Killion wrote.
The Common Application
charges $65 per school for domes-
tic students to submit applica-
tions and $75 for international
students, according to the Com-
mon Application website.
Killion, however, wrote that
switching to the Common Appli-
cation doesn't necessarily guar-
antee an increase in applicants for
a university.
"Veryselective colleges get alot
more apps every (year) when they
use the Common App, and very
selective colleges get a lot more
apps every year when they don't
use the Common App," he wrote.
"Michigan did get a lot more apps
this year. But so did MIT, George-
town, and USC. None of them use
the Common App."
Julia Wiener, a high school
senior from Plainview, N.Y. who
was accepted to the Univer-
sity this fall, said she noticed an
increase in interest in applying to
the University among her friends
because of its new presence on
the Common Application web-
site. She said some students who
weren't sure if they were going
to apply to the University were
much more likelyto do sobecause
of the convenience the new appli-
cation system provided.
"A lot of my friends applied
to lots of different schools, and I
think the Common App played a
huge part in them applying (to the
University of Michigan)," Wiener
said.
Jessica Zank, also a high
school senior from Plainview,
N.Y., applied to the University but
was deferred. She said she was
surprised when she received her
deferral notice.
"It was shocking to me based on
students I knew in previous years
who were accepted and the gen-
eral accepted scores," Zank said.
High school senior Madison
Chaness of West Bloomfield,
Mich. said the switch didn't have
much of an effect on her admis-
sions process.
"I only applied to the Univer-
sity of Michigan and Michigan
State University, so it didn't have
a big effect on me," Chaness said.
"But it was a lot easier for my
friends applying to lots of differ-
ent schools."
LSA freshman Rachel Beck-
man said using Michigan's old
application was definitely more of
a hassle.
"I know a lot of people who
actually didn't apply to Michigan
(last year) because they didn't feel
like filling out the extra forms,"
she said.
- Daily News Editor Joseph
Lichterman contributed tothis report,
Rally aims to bring
together Flemish
and Walloon
BRUSSELS (AP) - Tens of
thousands of protesters marched
through the Belgian capital yes-
terday in support of national unity
and to demand that the rival polit-
ical groupings finally form a coali-
tion after seven months without a
government.
Organizers said the peaceful
rally in downtown Brussels - the
seat of the European Union - is
also meant to promote solidar-
ity among the country's Flemish
and Walloon communities and to
reject nationalism.
Police saidbetween 20,000 and
30,000 people took part in the
demonstration called by a group
of university students who say
they're fed up with the political
deadlock.
"We're sending a clear mes-
sage to the political leaders that
we want them to form a govern-
ment," said Felix De Clerck, one of
the organizers.
"We are sick and tired of the
enduring political impasse," said
Thomas Decreus, another orga-
nizer. He said the protest showed
"the people can act where politi-
cians fail: i.e. working together
across the language barrier" that
slices Belgium in half.
The demonstration - the result
of a Facebook campaign under the
banner "Shame. No government,
great country" - was the second
of its kind in just over three years.
On Nov. 18, 2007, around 35,000
people marched through the
capital to vent their anger about
a political deadlock that by then
was preventing the formation of a
government for 161 days.
Like in 2007, yesterday's pro-
test led demonstrators - Franco-
phones and Dutch-speakers - to
a vast stone arch in the Cinquen-
tenaire park. The arch marks
Belgium's independence from the
Netherlands in 1830.
Political parties representing
Belgium's two communities have
been unable to form a coalition
since parliamentary elections last
June - a record period of dead-
lock in postwar Europe.
Politicians have been try-
ing unsuccessfully to broker a
new constitution with increased
regional autonomy for the 6 mil-
lion Dutch-speaking Flemings
and 4.5 million French-speaking
Walloons.
The deadlock has sparked fear
that Flanders could secede from
the union formed in 1830.
Positions in Flanders have
hardened over the years, bringing
to the fore the center-right N-VA
nationalist party headed by Bart
De Wever. He is negotiating on
forming a government with the
socialist PS party, the dominant
political party in Wallonia.
In a reference to De Wever,
several demonstrators carried
pictures of cartoon charac-
ter Bart Simpson with his face
crossed out. Others carried signs
saying "Separation? Not In Our
Name," and "Less Bla-Bla, More
Results."
Many carried umbrellas, hats,
shawls and other items in the
black, gold and red colors of the
Belgian flag. "What do we want?
We want A government," they
chanted.