The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com

Wednesday, February 16, 2011- 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Mayor Bing views
New Orleans post-
Katrina recovery
DETROIT (AP) - Mayor Dave
Bing, working on plans to reshape
Detroit neighborhoods, was get-
tingawalkingtourofNewOrleans
to observe how that city is recov-
ering more than five years after
Hurricane Katrina devastated the
Gulf Coast.
Bing and other members of
his administration were meet-
ing Monday with New Orleans
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Bing
spokeswoman Karen Dumas told
The Associated Press. They were
in New Orleans to see relocation
efforts, blight reduction and land-
use strategies.
"There are a lot of similarities
to Detroit in terms of energy ...
post-Katrina issues they are expe-
riencing we also are experienc-
ing," Dumas said.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Fed. govt to save
money by painting
rooftops white
Bucketsofwhitepaintarebeing
put to use against the govern-
ment's red ink.
President Barack Obama's
pile of budget papers does not
just propose big-dollar savings
in spending programs. It's got an
assortment of nickel-and-dime
ideas, too.
One, from the State Depart-
ment, is to paint the roofs of
embassies white to keep inside
temperatures cooler and cut air
conditioning bills. Estimated sav-
ings: a little over $1 million a year
worldwide. The department has
reworked its roofing requirements
to favor white paint or at least
light gravel when possible in new
construction at embassies and its
buildings in the U.S.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.
21-year-old man
confesses to killing
college girlfriend
A 21-year-old man has admit-
ted killing his former girlfriend
while she was home from col-
lege for Thanksgiving break and
dumping her body in a park.
Syracuse mediareportthat Ste-
ven Pieper, of Liverpool, pleaded
guiltyyesterdaymorninginOnon-
daga County Court to second-
degree murder in November's
slaying of 20-year-old Jenni-Lyn
Watson.
Pieper admitted strangling and
suffocating Watson inside herpar-
ents' home in the town of Clay on
Nov. 19 and hiding her body in a
wooded area in a nearby park.
Watson had returned home
from Mercyhurst College in Erie,
Pa., for Thanksgiving the day
before she was killed. Searchers
found her body eight days later.

PHOENIX, Ariz.
Elderly man found
after stranded in
desert for five days
Henry Morello began to lose
hope after being stranded in his
car in the Arizona desert for five
long days in which the 84-year-
old drank windshield wiper fluid,
used car mats to stay warm and
read a car manual from cover to
cover to pass the time.
Then, he heard a knock on a
window from a hiker, and sud-
denly his long, painful ordeal was
over.
"I just kissed him," Morello
said of the hiker. "He looked like
an angel to me."
Morello described his ordeal
at a hospital news conference
yesterday as he recalled making
a wrong turn while driving home
Feb. 7 from a restaurant and end-
ing up stuck in the desert. His car
and cell phone battery soon went
dead as rescuers looked for him.
Morellosaidhe became strand-
ed when - realizing he made a
wrong turn - made a U-turn and
ended up in a ditch.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

REPORTER
From Page 1A
military policy. The focus of his
lecture was to present the suc-
cesses and failures of the COIN
implementation in Afghani-
stan.
In his lecture, Chandrasek-
aran spoke about the turmoil
surrounding reconciliation
between the Taliban and other
peace deals in Afghanistan. He
said constitutional compro-
mises might be necessary to
restore peace to the country.
Chandrasekaran also
emphasized the difficulties the
U.S. faces in deciding whether
to continue funding Afghani-
stan's reconstruction amid
America's own faltering econ-
omy.
"I spent a lot of time this
afternoon talking about weak-
nesses in the COIN Strategy,"
Chandrasekaran said at the
event. "But perhaps the biggest
weakness is the disconnect
between the desire for quick
results on the part of the Amer-
ican public, many members of
Congress and the White House,
and the reality that counterin-
surgency takes time."
Staying on top of news
abroad is vital, Chandrasek-
aran said. He added that Amer-
MSA
From Page 1A
funds to student organizations
this semester, according to
School of Music, Theatre and
Dance senior Eric Maier, chair
of BPC and a co-author of the
resolution.
CSC, which allocated about
$55,000 to student commu-
nity service organizations this
semester, meets twice a semes-
ter. The funding controlled
by BPC and CSC comes from
MSA's budget.
Under MSA's amended
Compiled Code, more students
unaffiliated with the assem-
bly will be able to serve on
BPC and CSC. According to
the resolution, MSA endorses
decreasing the number of MSA
representatives required to
serve on the SOFC "because of
the high demand to serve on
the commission from students-
at-large and the lack of interest
from voting assembly repre-
sentatives."
Maier said in an interview
after last night's meeting that
there has been a lack of inter-
est among MSA members in
the SOFC.
"Not only was it hard to
get reps to come up, but with
the few reps we could get up
we weren't allowed to really
accept that many students-
at-large," Maier said. "So we
thought a better way to go
about this was to have a lower
minimum number of reps for
both the budget and commu-
nity service committee."
LSA Rep. Omar Hashwi,
who voted against the resolu-
tion, said at the meeting that
he was concerned the resolu-
tion didn't address the under-
lyingcause of SOFC's problems
- MSA members' failure to
attend meetings.

ica's ongoing involvement in
Afghanistan will likelybe a key
issue in the 2012 elections.
"I think one of the most
important things people can do
is to both better understand the
situation out there and also to
appreciate the sacrifices peo-
ple are making there," Chan-
drasekaran said in an interview
after his presentation.
Chandrasekaran's lec-
ture was part of an ongoing
series sponsored by the Cen-
ter for Russian, East European
and Eurasian Studies titled
"Afghanistan 2011: Connec-
tions, Communities, Crises."
LSA senior Andrea
Rondquist, who attended the
event as part of a class require-
ment, said she enjoyed the
lecture and wants to attend
similar talks in the future.
"I think he had aslot of good
things to say about what's going
on with the insurgency at this
point in time and ... how an
agreement might be reached
eventually to bring some peace
to Afghanistan," Rondquist
said. "The main thing that I
learned is that there is still a
long ways to go, and there will
still be a lot of decisions that
will have to be made that will
be crucial to the success or fail-
ure of the campaign in the end."
"Is there a problem with the
Compiled Code, or is there a
problem with the assembly?"
Hashwi said. "There's like 30
of us right here. There's not
two of us that can serve on the
commission?"
MSA President Chris Arm-
strong wrote in an e-mail
interview after the meeting
that decreasing the MSA pres-
ence at SOFC meetings won't
reduce MSA management of
funds.
"In regard to MSA over-
sight, the entire assembly - all
elected representatives - must
approve funding allocation res-
olutions presented bythe fund-
ing commissions after each
funding cycle," Armstrong
wrote. "This process informs
all representatives of funding
allocations and increases the
transparency and accountabil-
ity of the funding process."
Maier suggested that MSA
representatives might be too
busy to attend SOFC meetings.
"I think that the people sit-
ting around the table are some
of the most active students on
campus, and they are inevita-
bly busy," Maier said after the
meeting. "Everyone supports
funding for student organiza-
tions wholeheartedly on the
assembly."
Maier said the appropriate
allocation of funds was more
important than MSA's involve-
ment in BPC and CSC.
"With this I am more con-
cerned that the funding gets
done than I am with the
MSA being completely privy
to what's going on," Maier
said. "In my experience, the
students-at-large are just as
capable, if not more than, the
students sitting around the
table."
- Jenny Rotter

contributed to this report.

Plan changes in part to lessen tuition burden

From Page 1A
current retirees, continual cov-
erage for retirees' dependents
and providing increased retire-
ment contribution based on
length of service, according to
the press release.
The CORHB also proposed to
offer as much time as possible
before the change was enacted,
the press release states.
The changes suggested by the
CORHB were to be made within
15 years, but revisions acceler-
ated the plan to take place in an
eight-year span, Thomas said.
Though the plan was accelerated
to immediately put less pres-
sure on the University's bud-
get, Thomas said the concern to
allow enough time for adjust-
ment wasn't ignored.
"It is still a significant amount
of notice to our staff about the
change and time for them to plan
for that change," she said.
Thomas also said the Univer-
sity held forums last year that
were open to faculty, staff and
current retirees to offer their

input on the priorities in the new
retirement plan.
"Nobody wants to make these
kinds of changes," she said. "but
we had lots of input about how to
make them."
Ed Rothman, chair of the
Senate Advisory Committee on
University Affairs and a profes-
sor of statistics, served on the
CORHB that developed the plan.
In an e-mail interview, Roth-
man wrote that faculty mem-
bers understood the need for the
change.
"This is not very welcome for
many of us, but a necessary evil
of a poor economy," he wrote.
"Other campuses have cut retir-
ees' health care for new employ-
ees entirely."
Rothman added that he
thought the committee that put
the proposal together did the
best it could given the state of the
economy and prohibitive health
care prices.
"The constraints were real -
our economy is not terrific and
the cost of health care is what it
is," he wrote.
When examining compara-

tive health plans at other, simi-
lar universities, Thomas said
administrators found that the
University is more liberal with
their plan.
"We have been significantly
generous in (our retiree health
plan) compared to our market
peers," she said. "So we have an
opportunity to continue a quality
benefit for our faculty and staff
in their retirement, but to pre-
serve it, we needed them to share
more of the cost."
Thomas added that the retiree
benefits for some staff is paid for
by tuition and that University
is trying to control the recent
increase in tuition, which was 1.5
percent for in-state students and
3 percent for out-of-state stu-
dents this year.
Thomas said though the
plan was only announced last
week, she has already received
mixed reactions through e-mail
responses.
"They're disappointed that
we have to make a change," she
said. "but they recognize that it's
a sound approach to making the
change."


DEAN
From Page 1A
"I think we're going to stay
committed to '(leading) in
thought and action,' and take it
to the next level," she said.
University President Mary
Sue Coleman wrote in a Univer-
sity press release issued yester-
day that Davis-Blake was the
ideal candidate to lead the Ross
School of Business.
"Alison Davis-Blake is a
known leader with strong ties
to business communities," Cole-
man wrote. "I am particularly
impressed with her commitment
to international experiences for
students. Her strengths align
perfectly with the mission of the
Ross School to train leaders in
thought and action."
Hanlon said in an interview at
the event that it was held to wel-
come Davis-Blake and to give her
an opportunity to meet everyone
in the Business School.
"I think that she will be a very
active dean and she'll be inclu-
sive of everyone's views," Hanlon
said. "And (she) will want to be
out there and know everybody,
so this seems like a great start to
that."
Students wandered in and out
of the event in between classes to

say hello to Davis-Blake.
Business sophomore Michael
Cueter said he wanted to be a
part of the welcoming event after
receiving Hanlon's e-mail early
Monday morning.
"I'm excited," he said. "I
saw the event online, and I just
stopped by after class to cel-
ebrate."
Cueter said he hasn't heard
much about the new dean, but
the news he has received about
her has only been favorable.
"I hear she is very capable for
the job," he said. "I am in a class
with the (current) Dean (Bob
Dolan), and he's talked about her
positively."
Dolan said in an interview
last March that after serving
as dean for 10 years, he would
pursue other opportunities - a
move influenced in part by simi-
lar career changes by other top
business school deans around
the country.
Business graduate student
Jennifer Hu said she went to the
event because she was curious to
learn more about Davis-Blake.
"I was interested because
she's our first female dean in the
Business School," she said. "So I
just wanted to come out and see
what her perspective is and what
experiences she'll bring."
Davis-Blake's work focuses on

the area of human resources,
Hanlon wrote in the e-mail to
Business School students.
"She is an expert in outsourc-
ing arrangements and organi-
zational employment practices
such as the use of temporary and
contract workers and the design
of organizational salary struc-
tures," Hanlon wrote.
According to the University
press release, Davis-Blake has
been the dean at the Carlson
School since 2006. She earned a
bachelor's and master's degree
from Brigham Young University
and a doctorate in organizational
behavior from Stanford Univer-
sity in 1986.
Prior to arriving at the Uni-
versity of Minnesota, Davis-
Blake worked at the University
of Texas, Austin from 1990 until
2006- ultimately becoming the
university's associate dean for
academic affairs, according to
Hanlon's e-mail. Davis-Blake
also previously worked at Carn-
egie Mellon University as an
assistant professor of industrial
administration.
Davis-Blake said at the event
that she is excited about her
move to Ann Arbor.
"This looks like an amazingly
fun college town," Davis-Blake
said. "and I'm delighted to be a
part of it."


NIH
From Page 1A
human disease," Medical School
Dean James Woolliscroft wrote
in the press release.
In an e-mail interview, Steven
Kunkel, senior associate dean of
research for the Medical School,
wrote that the University's NIH
funding increased from fiscal
years 2009 to 2010. He said the
boost in funding could be par-
tially attributed to more NIH
sponsorship of grants to fund
state-of-the-art hospital equip-
ment. Six separate grants were
obtained to fund more than $3
million worth of equipment, he
wrote.
The process of acquiring a
NIH grant, which researchers
across the country compete for,
begins with an application that
explains a project's potential
outcome as well as specific finan-

cial and resource needs, accord-
ing to Kunkel. Peer committees
at the NIH then review submit-
ted application packets. -
"The NIH is interested in
funding priorities and sponsor-
ing specific scientific areas, as
well as opening opportunities
to foster creative science," Kun-
kel wrote. "Our faculty spends
months putting together a
response to one of these oppor-
tunities."
Among the areas in which
the funding is distributed are
clinical and laboratory studies,
grants for training graduate stu-
dents and postdoctoral fellows.
and awards that benefit beginner
researchers, the press release
states.
Kunkel noted that the Medical
School has "significant exper-
tise" in multiple areas of biomed-
ical research. He wrote that one
study that received a significant
amount funding is about how

bacteria called gut microbiome
affect an individual's health.
"We have had great success
in securing funds to study how
the microbiome can impact your
health," Kunkel wrote. "Our
investigators received large
grants to do a genetic assessment
of the various bacteria that live
in us."
Considerable funding has also
been allocated to the study of
pulmonary obstructive disease
in the lung, its mechanisms and
approaches to treat the disease,
Kunkel added.
Looking ahead, Kunkel wrote
that grants will become more
competitive than ever due to fed-
eral budget cuts.
"The competitive funding
climate has reached a critical
point," he wrote. "Every future
award will be more competitive
than we have ever experienced,
and we will be thankful for each
funded project."

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