The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 3

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 3

NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Retailers call for
an end to price tags
Michigan retailers are ramp-
ing up their campaign to get rid
of the state's unique law requir-
ing price tags on most items.
The Michigan Retailers Asso-
ciation commissioned a study
released yesterday that says the
state's item pricing law is a hid-
den tax on consumers. The study
says it results in higher prices for
shoppers and is no longer needed
for consumer protection.
Michigan Retailers Associa-
tion President James Hallan says
he does not think overall retail
employment would drop if the
law is repealed.
The United Food and Com-
mercial Workers union disagrees
and says jobs would be lost, par-
ticularly in grocery stores.
FAIRPORT HARBOR, Ohio
15 Ohio fires cause
mass evacuations
Built-up pressure in natural
gas lines led to a house explosion,
a series of fires and a brief evacu-
ation order on a frigid morning
yesterday for an Ohio village
of about 3,000 people, none of
whom appeared to be injured.
At least 15 fires were reported
in homes, apartments and other
buildings in Fairport Harbor, a
lakefront village on Lake Erie
about 30 miles northeast of
Cleveland. All had been extin-
guished by mid-afternoon, said
Tom Talcott, deputy chief of the
fire department in nearby Men-
tor.
The fires rendered several
structures uninhabitable, Talcott
said. Officials were still checking
homes in late afternoon to make
sure no gas built up in unoccupied
ones during the day.
DUBLIN, Ireland
Irish government
agrees to rush new
tax-raising bill.
Ireland's government and
opposition chiefs reached an
agreement yesterday that will
allow lawmakers to rush a criti-
cal tax-raising bill through
parliament so that Ireland's gov-
ernment can be dissolved next
week for a national election in
late February.
The breakthrough followed a
week of political calamities for
Prime Minister Brian Cowen,
who botched a Cabinet reshuffle,
resigned as leader of the Fianna
Fail party, and finally lost his
parliamentary majority when his
coalition partners defected to the
opposition.
Last week's humiliation forced
Cowen to call an early election
for March 11. But Finance Min-
ister Brian Lenihan, who led
Monday's negotiations, said the
agreement means parliament
will be dissolved by Tuesday,
Feb. 1, and the election date will

be moved to late February.
TRENTON, NJ.
New Jersey teens
caught sexting
may get legal break
New Jersey teenagers caught
texting or posting sexually
explicit photos online could
avoid prosecution under a mea-
sure that would give first-time
offenders the chance to complete
a diversionary program.
State Assemblywoman Pam
Lampitt of Camden, who is spon-
soring the bill, said it's impor-
tant to teach teens the potential
consequences of their actions
without saddling them with a
permanent criminal record.
"We need to create a path that
places education and forgive-
ness before arrest and prosecu-
tion," said Lampitt, a Democrat.
"Young people - especially teen
girls - need to understand that
sending inappropriate pictures
is not only potentially illegal,
but can leave an indelible mark
on them socially and education-
ally."
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

Clinton shows support HANLON
From Page 1

for Mexico in drug war

U.S. to enforce new
gun regulations
near border
GUANAJUATO, Mexico (AP)
- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton urged Mexico
to stay the course in an admit-
tedly "messy" war against drug
cartels, sayingyesterdaythatthe
Obama administration will help
with new controls on the flow of
American guns across the bor-
der.
Clinton gave strong support
for Mexican President Felipe
Calderon's battle against the
country's entrenched drug traf-
ficking organizations. And she
offered continued U.S. assis-
tance from policing to improv-
ing Mexico's judicial system.
More than 34,600 people
have died in drug-related kill-
ings in Mexico in the four years
since Calderon launched the
offensive against the cartels.
The death toll spiked 60 percent
last year.
, Mayors, police command-
ers, judges and journalists have
been gunned down. Civilians
are increasingly beingkilled and
numerous areas remain lawless.
The war has only mixed support.
Clinton said there was no
alternative to confronting the
cartels head-on.
"It is messy. It causes lots
of terrible things to be on the
news," Clinton said after meet-

ing Mexican Foreign Minister
Patricia Espinosa in the post-
card-perfect central Mexican
city of Guanajuato.
"The drug traffickers are not
goingto give up without aterrible
fight. And they do things that are
just barbaric - like beheading
people," added Clinton, who was
tomeetlaterMonday with Calde-
ron in Mexico City. "It is meant to
intimidate.Itis meanttohavethe
public say, 'Just leave them alone
and they won't bother me.' But a
president cannot do that."
With its cobblestone streets
and colonial churches, the set-
ting for Clinton's meeting with
Espinoza contrasted sharply
with the drug war raging in
other parts of the country, par-
ticularly along the U.S.-Mexican
border and western coast.
The U.S. has provided hun-
dreds of millions of dollars in
support and will deliver another
half-billion in equipment and
training this year. It has helped
train thousands of policemen
and sent helicopters and other
crime-fighting technology.
Clinton has been frank about
the shared American respon-
sibility for the drug problem.
Stubbornly high U.S. demand
drives the trade, and firearms
smuggled from the United States
are involved in much of the vio-
lence, an issue reinforced by a
small group of protesters who
greeted Clinton's arrival with
chants and signs saying "No
more U.S. guns."

ers.
Hanlon also discussed the
University's current budget con-
cerns, saying that while techno-
logical advancements need to be
made to produce skilled students,
the University's "funding model
is unsustainable."
He said that solving budget
issues is currently a challenge for
all universities.
"This is not a University of
Michigan problem so much as it
is a higher education problem,"
Hanlon said.
Technology drives much of the
University's costs, Hanlon said,
so it is necessary that the Uni-
versity examines its technology
expenditures.
In addition to more prudently
determining what drives costs at
the University and reallocating
funds, Hanlon said it is essen-
tial to figure out how to remain
competitive with other univer-
sities. Such competition and
certain distinguishing factors
will help the University garner
alumni donations and invest-

ments in University endeavors,
he explained.
The University's breadth of
intellectual wealth and academic
enterprises, Hanlon said, as well
as its position as the second-larg-
est research university are some
characteristics that separate the
University from its fellow insti-
tutions.
"We are uniquely positioned to
take on some of the world's com-
plex, multifaceted problems," he
said.
A meeting attendee expressed
concerns about whether distin-
guishing the University from
other schoolsis as beneficial as
exploring commonalities. Han-
Ion said that both likenesses and
differences should be considered.
Hanlon listed Harvard Uni-
versity, Princeton University, the
University of California-Berkeley
and others as the University's
main competitors for research
funding and faculty.
The University can appear
unattractive to some professors
and instructors because there is
a larger student-to-faculty ratio
than similar institutions, Han-
lon said. But the University offers
better learning opportunities

and professional training which
attracts faculty, he said.
The, University needs more
faculty members because the
current body is spread too thin,
Hanlon said.
"By any measure we are a
highly successful university," he
said. "We just need more faculty
on the ground."
Some Senate Assembly mem-
bers asked Hanlon how he plans
to keep the University acces-
sible to students of all income
ranges and how he will quell ris-
ing tuition rates. Hanlon said he
thinks the University has done
well to keep costs for students
manageable by increasing the
University's central budget for
financial aid over the last five
years.
"We've been able to actually
weather this storm quite success-
fully," Hanlon said.
Despite careful financial plan-
ning over the past few years,
Hanlon said he does expect a
substantial reduction in state
funding appropriations for the
upcoming fiscal year.
"We are preparing for that,"
Hanlon said. "We are making
contingency plans."

r


COMPANY
From Page 1
change it to Bebarang, Kim said,
because "it sounds like boomer-
ang and babies. Baby clothes
that go and come back to us."
Kim said the award doesn't
mean he's successful yet, but it
inspires him to keep working.
After winning the entrepre-
neur competition, Kim said he
has received requests for busi-
ness partnerships with web
hosting companies anid baby
boutiques. He said he is still
considering all his options.
Bebaroo products are cur-
rently not being sold in order to
focus on improving and mak-
ing changes to the business,
Kim said. The website is set to
launch its services in the United
States within the next three
months.
The company plans to even-
tually serve a wider clientele

and has already received many
opportunities to franchise in
other countries, Kim said. The
need for a cheaper, less waste-
ful way to get baby clothes "is a
global problem," he said.
University President Mary
Sue Coleman honored Kim's
innovative idea at a Senate
Advisory Committee on Univer-
sity Affairs meeting on Jan. 10.
Kim said he is "absolutely
flattered" by Coleman's recog-
nizing his business.
"I would not have won this
competition without the sup-
port of the University," he said.
While the University's entre-
preneurial community already
offers students guidance and
resources to help them get their
ideas into motion, Kim said it's
important to expand the foster-
ing of entrepreneurial ideas at
the University. He said he hopes
"to make the University one of
the best-in-class in entrepre-
neurship."

TENURE
From Page 1
During the meeting, however,
Gina Poe, vice chair of the Sen-
ate Advisory Committee on Uni-
versity Affairs, said the poll was
misleading, as a majority of the
faculty in the Medical School
are clinical faculty - not ten-
ured or tenure-track faculty.
SACUA Chair Ed Rothman,
a professor of statistics, said
though the regents ultimately
vote on whether a faculty mem-
ber should get tenure, only ten-
ured faculty members should be
able to make recommendations
to the regents.
"Only tenured-track faculty
should be eligible to make final
decisions (regarding tenure),"
Rothman said. "And the reason
for this is because, in the Medi-
cal School in particular, we ten-
ured and tenure-track faculty
are a minority."
Poe, an associate professor of
anesthesiology and molecular
and integrative physiology in
the Medical School, added that
they only had two non-clinical
faculty members serve on a 2005
committee that approved of
elongating the tenure period at
the University.
At the meeting, Poe read aloud
several e-mails she received
from her colleagues who disap-
proved of any changes to the
tenure probationary period -
including one from Pharmacol-

ogy Prof. Lori Isom, who served
on the 2005 committee.
"I still think it's a bad idea,"
Isom wrote in her e-mail to
Poe. "Chairs have the option of
extending the tenure process for
individuals already. In the end,
I think that this tenure policy
will only serve to up the ante, so
to speak, for everyone regarding
what is required for tenure and
basically turn assistant profes-
sors into indentured servants.
Working harder for less money
and less security."
According to Rothman, James
Wooliscroft, dean of the Medi-
cal School, recently told SACUA
that all faculty, including clini-
cal faculty, would be involved in
making tenure decisions.
In an interview after the
meeting, Rothman said that
lengthening the tenure pro-
bationary period would affect
faculty on the clinical track and
tenure track differently.
"If you're a clinician and you
don't get tenure, you stay on
and you continue as a clinician,"
Rothman said: "You have a job,'
so they don't mind that flexibili-
ty (in the tenure process). On the
other hand, research scientists,
people who are just doing basic
research...in the Medical School
don't have that opportunity."
According to Rothman, fac-
ulty in the medical school who
don't have a Ph. D. and M.D.
"can't just go on and continue
their lives" if they are denied
tenure after 10 years.

Hanlon said in an interview
with The Michigan Daily last
week that he was waiting to
see whether the Senate Assem-
bly passed the two resolutions
before he made a recommenda-
tion to the Board of Regents on
how to proceed with the pro-
posal.
It's unclear how Hanlon will
proceed now that the Senate
Assembly reaffirmed the 2006
resolution and advocated for
only tenure or tenure-track fac-
ulty to be responsible for making
tenure decisions. Hanlon said
last week that he would make
his recommendation by the end
of the week.
"If my decision is to propose
a change, it could be happening
as early as (this) week," Hanlon
said.
Rothman said a nearly unani-
mous vote was necessary to send
a message that the faculty was
opposed to the change. But if
Hanlon proceeds with his rec-
ommendation, Rothman said he
won't appeal to the regents.
"'Tm-not at all happy about
opening 5.09 at all," Rothman
said. "The issue of tenure goes
back to 1944 here on campus ...
We'll have lots of opportuni-
ties to have other chairs of this
body in the future, but I don't
want to preside over a body that
fools around with our only docu-
ment that guarantees at least an
appeal process for tenure or ten-
ure-track faculty. Opening the
door is a serious matter."


PACEMAKERS
From Page 1
ago with his colleague Timir
Baman, a clinical lecturer in
internal medicine at the Uni-
versity's Medical School, after
Baman had a patient who
requested to have her pace-
maker donated to a deserving
individual after her death.
The idea of pacemaker
reutilization is not new, Eagle
said, but efforts made by other
institutions to create such pro-
grams either failed or fell short
of expectations.
While some doctors perform
recycled pacemaker implanta-
tions on individual cases, Eagle
said his project seeks to "bring
the whole thing into the light."
Without an established
donation program in place,
Eagle said he and Baman first
had to generate public sup-
port for their project. Since the
project began, Eagle said he's
seen an overwhelming level of
interest in the program with
more than 2,000 pacemakers
donated in the last eight weeks
alone.
The majority of donated
pacemakers come from funer-
al homes across the state and
from the Michigan Funer-
al Directors Association in
Okemos, Mich. Eagle said.
LSA junior Lindsey Gaken-
heimer, a collaborator on the
project, said the response from
funeral directors across the
country has been "amazing"
so far.
Gakenheimer said her team
has overseen a steady number
of pacemaker donations, with
as many as 1,000 donated in a
single month. Once the team
collects the devices, Gaken-

heimer said, they're carefully
examined in a lab at the Car-
diovascular Center.
A special machine then
scans each pacemaker to
uncover information about its
battery life, origin and other
details. "Good" pacemakers
are set aside to sterilize for
the upcoming clinical trial the
team plans to conduct, Gaken-
heimer said.
Eagle said he hopes to over-
see the implantation of 250
devices in patients in Nica-
ragua, Guam, the Philippines
and Vietnam during the team's
planned clinical trial this sum-
mer. The donation process will
be facilitated by World Medi-
cal Relief, Inc., a Detroit-based
organization that distributes
medical resources to regions
in need, which often include
developing nations.
"We're confident the patients
that are going to get (pacemak-
ers) need them medically and
financially," Eagle said.
Once the clinical trial is
completed and the team pub-
lishes its findings, Gaken-
heimer said other countries
will have the opportunity to
develop their own programs
modeled after the University's.
Top-rated research hospitals,
like the Cleveland Clinic in
Ohio and Massachusetts Gen-
eral Hospital, have expressed
interest in facilitating the pro-
gram at their own institutions,
she said.
For Eagle, the need for proj-
ect My Heart Your Heart is
simple.
"It doesn't take a lot of
imagination to realize this is
something we have a moral
obligation to do," he said. "We
have a huge opportunity to
make a difference."

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