The Michigan Daily- michigandaily.com

Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
MARQUETTE, Mich.
Obama to make
UP town a model
for the country
President Barack Obama is
taking his nationwide broadband
access campaign to Michigan's
Upper Peninsula, where people
love their isolation and open spac-
es but are hungry for economic
opportunities that will keep more
of their children from moving
away.
Obama's making a stop today
in Marquette, which is trying to
develop a web-based economy
that will serve as a model for other
communities.
Obama's National Wireless Ini-
tiative calls for extending coverage
to 98 percent of the population.
GAUHATI, India
Three released
after kidnap on
Indian tiger reserve
Separatist militants released
three volunteers from WWF-
India on Tuesday who were
kidnapped two days ago in a
northeast Indian tiger reserve,
but three others were still being
held, local officials said.
Police were questioning the
three Indian women, who were
found in good health wander-
ing out of a dense forest Tuesday
afternoon near the border with
Bhutan after the militants con-
tacted local journalists and told
them of the release, local council
administrator Kampa Borgoyari
said. Reporters were unable to
speak with the women before
police took them away.
Borgoyari refused to say if the
militants made any demands and
denied journalists access to the
women, as authorities work to
free three male volunteers.
The group of six was abducted
Sunday while counting the tiger
population at the Manas Tiger-
Reserve in Assam state. The
park, which spans into neighbor-
ing Bhutan, has a sizable popula-
tion of Royal Bengal tigers and
wild Asiatic elephants.
DENVER
Judge dismisses
Air Force Academy
prayer lawsuit
A federal judge has dismissed a
lawsuit seeking to block a prayer
luncheon at the Air Force Acad-
emy.
U.S. District Judge Christine
Arguello ruled Wednesday in
Denver. She says associate pro-
fessor David Mullin and a watch-
dog group, the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation, didn't show
they had legal standing to bring
the suit.
They alleged the event vio-
lates the constitutional separa-
tion of church and state because
it appears to be sponsored by the
academy itself, and because Mul-

lin and other faculty members
believe they'll face retribution if
they don't attend, even though it's
officially voluntary.
Following the judge's ruling,
the academy's chaplain agreed
to make it clear at the start of the
luncheon that it's an event spon-
sored by the chapel, not the acad-
Uemy as a whole.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
Robber fatally
shoots Haitian
journalist at bank
Haitian police say a radio
journalist has been killed by a
gunman who tried to rob him
outside a bank.
Deputy police spokesman
Gary Durosier says Jean Richard
Louis Charles was fatally shot on
a busy street in Port-au-Prince
after withdrawing about $1,000.
Durosier says the 30-year-old
Radio Kiskeya journalist resisted
when he was assaulted by three
robbers yesterday. One of the
gunmen shot him in the head
and the shoulder, and he was
declared dead at the scene.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

HEALTH CARE
From Page 1A
likely to be uninsured than
other age groups, Larsen said.
Roughly 5 percent of Uni-
versity undergraduates and 10
percent of graduate students
are without health insurance,
according to a Jan. 19 Michigan
Daily article.
However, provisions in the
new act will give students a
"peace of mind," Larsen said,
since dependents are now
allowed to stay on their par-
ents' health insurance plans
until age 26.
Three million students are
currently covered under stu-
dent health care plans through
their college or university, but
many of these plans limit what
is covered and which doctors
individuals may visit, Larsen
said.
The University offers an
optional health insurance plan
for domestic students and a

mandatory plan for interna-
tional students, the Jan. 19
Daily article reported.
Approximately 1,400 stu-
dents are currently enrolled in
the domestic plan, which costs
$224.83 per month, according
to the article.
However, the new health
care law will guarantee that
students receive the same
health care as other demo-
graphics, which gives "stu-
dents and young people more
control over their health care,"
he said.
The changes impact anyone
enrolled ina U.S.-based health
care plan, including interna-
tional students, Larsen said.
Aaron Smith, executive
director of Young Invincibles
- an organization that works
to make the cost of health
care more reasonable for col-
lege students - said in the
conference call that the act
represents a "major victory
for college students and their
families.

"Theavailabilityof affordable
health care has been something
students have been requesting
for years," Smith said.
Eight out of nine colleges
surveyed were found to have a
clause in their insurance plans
that excluded students with
pre-existing conditions, Smith
said, but the new act will pre-
vent this.
In a world where 15 percent
of adults have a chronic medi-
cal condition, Smith said, "all it
takes is one accident or illness
to rack up thousands of dollars
in debt."
He added that this kind of
debt often forces students to
drop out of college.
With the new act, 80 percent
of every dollar a person spends
on premiums will go to health
care coverage, as opposed to
the current percentages, which
often fall between 20 and
50 percent, Smith said. This
change, and others like free
preventive care, will begin to
take place in 2012, he said.

ACTIVISM
From Page 1A
works. Because the Egyptian
government has power over the
media, Dobbs added, police there
have used Facebook and Twit-
ter to obtain information about
citizens. He also cited China as an
example of a government's "filter-
ing" of the Internet
"The new information technol-
ogy has changed the nature of the
game," Dobbs said, adding that
it's often ambiguous which side
of conflicts benefits more from
online resources.
Regardless, Dobbs said the
Internet plays a pivotal role'in
communicating information
quickly - a function he said is
vital for any form of activism or
protest.
"All revolution in the end
becomes an information revolu-
tion," he said.
Thomas Finholt, professor and
senior associate dean at the Uni-
versity's School of Information,
said in an interview in November
that social media also help engage
students in political dialogue.
"What the Internet offers is
a new halfway engagement," he
said. "People previously, doing
nothing now are involved."
In addition to keeping people
informed and involved, social
media websites serve as a check on
power, Dobbs said, citing Egyp-
tian activists' using cell phones to
document police corruption.
"They smuggle in cell phones
in the police station and surrepti-
tiously take photos," he said.;
Finholt also said cell phones
have become important tools for
political activism closer to home.
He spoke specifically of "flash
mobs," saying that such technol-
ogy allows students to spontane-
ously organize protests, an option
that wasn't available in previous
decades.
"(With mobile devices) it
becomes possible to organize
activity more spontaneously," Fin-
holt said. "A lot of activism in the

past was pre-mobilized."
LSA senior Mallory Jones,
chair of the University's under-
graduate chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union and a for-
mer news editor for The Michi-
gan Daily, said using Facebook
and blogs from local, state and
national chapters are great ways
to distribute information to ACLU
members.
"Even justthrough Facebook, it
is just so much easier to be aware
of things going on," Jones said.
People who are too busy to
attend University ACLU meet-
ings can still keep abreast of the
group's proceedings through
online forums, she added.
LSA junior Brendan Campbell,
chair of the University's chapter of
College Democrats, said new tech-
nologies are an effective way for
student activists to spread their
missions and connectsupporters.
Campbell said College Demo-
crats use online outlets like You-
Tube, video podcasts, Twitter and
bloggingtocomplementmore con-
ventional forms of participation.
Though online media help stu-
dents, Finholt said, they also pro-
duce a sense of disengagement
from the activities themselves.
University students in the past
participated in events like protests
and anti-war marches, whereas
now, students partake in causes
online, which Finholt said limits
actual involvement.
"From the point of view of the
individual, clicking a mouse on a
website isn't very motivating or
engaging," Finholt said. "The 60s
and 70s had a much more public,
in-your-face exposure."
Student activists during those
times had more "aggressive com-
mentary," Finholt said, because
of their desire to defy norms and
expectations of older generations.
Jones said she doesn't believe
online activism can completely
substitute in-person activism.
"Being there in person is still
the heart of activism," Jones said.
"You're always going to see people
on the Diag ... and the Internet's
riot going to replace that."


MPOWERED
From Page 1A
porations, Holtz said. However,
the fair hopes to combat this by
bringing in local businesses that
desire to recruit Michigan stu-
dents.
"One of the main goals of
the fair is to show students
that there are more opportuni-
ties outside of corporate orga-
nizations," Holtz said in an
interview last week. "We want
to help make Ann Arbor the
entrepreneurial hub of the Mid-
west, and this is one of the only
opportunities for small com-
panies to meet students in this
fashion."
Working for an entrepre-
neurial company can provide
students with hands on experi-
ence that allows them to have a
direct impact on the company,
Holtz said.
LSA junior Ankit Mehta, the
president of MPowered, said
the organization believes there
are three ways to foster entre-
preneurship: opening the door
for opportunities, inspiring
students to do business and sup-
porting students who start their
own businesses.
The fair hosted many tech-
nology and business companies
and was open to students of
all majors. The most job open-
ings were in fields involving
engineering; graphic design,
accounting and marketing. The
University's Medical Innova-
tion Center was also present at
the fair and student-run com-
panies made up one-fifth of the
companies in attendance.
Students had the opportu-

nity to introduce themselves
to a multitude of companies,
including MENLO Innovations
- an Ann Arbor-based company
that designs software. MENLO
Innovations CEO Richard Sher-
idan said at the event that he
enjoys being involved with the
career fair.
"The MPowered Career Fair
is a great opportunity that gives
small companies tremendous
exposure," he said.
Amy Klinke, the assistant
director for small company ini-
tiatives at the University's Cen-
ter for Entrepreneurship and
Business Engagement Center,
said she became involved with
MPowered because she felt
there was a need for small com-
panies to meet and hire Univer-
sity students.
Prior to the career fair it
was hard for small businesses
to personally interact with and
recruit students. To meet this
need, Klinke said, MPowered
helped advocate for the devel-
opment of the Center for Entre-
preneurship.
"MPowered and the career
fair create a multifaceted expe-
rience for students where they
can meet and learn about small
startup companies," Klinke
said.
Mehta said he joined MPow-
ered during his freshman year
so he could gain real-world
entrepreneurial experience.
The fair provides an opportu-
nity for MPowered members
and other students to network
with small businesses and get
job leads.
"It is a great way to talk to
startup companies and draws
in a cool mix of people to make

it different from a normal
career fair," Mehta said in an
interview this week. "There are
people there looking to build
ideas."
Working for these smaller
companies provides an oppor-
tunity to channel what students
have learned in the classroom,
Mehta said.
"MPowered is operated like
a start-up company and is an
organization where skills are
transferable," he said. "There
are students at the fair who
want to learn from each other
and make an impact."
LSA junior Linda Chang
said she took advantage of the
opportunity to talk to potential
employers at the career fair.
"I had heard about the fair
and compiled a list of compa-
nies I was interested in and then
looked at their websites," Chang
said. "I was then able to talk to
them at the fair."

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