The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 - 7A
STEM CELL
From Page 1A
include the study of stem cell
lines for other diseases such as
Huntington's disease and Rett
syndrome, Smith said.
The creation of the lines was
aided by a partnership between
the University and Genesis
Genetics of Detroit, a company
that tests days-old embryos for
genetic diseases, according to a
University press release issued
Monday.
O'Shea described how the
embryonic stem cells are the
result of in vitro fertilization,
a process available to couples
who have a history of genetic
SAPAC
From Page 1A
intended to clear up discrepancies
between university policies and
the Department of Education's
policy, Duncan said during the
conference call. The guidelines
came in the form of a document
released Monday titled the "Dear
Colleague Letter" and details the
protocol schools and universi-
ties must follow under Title IX,
which "prohibits discrimination
on the basis of sex in any feder-
ally funded education program or
activity," the letter states.
"(The Department of Educa-
tion) is issuing the (Dear Col-
league Letter) to explain that the
requirements of Title IX cover
sexual violence and to remind
schools of their responsibilities
to take immediate and effec-
tive steps to respond to sexual
violence in accordance with the
requirements of Title IX," the let-
ter states.
SAPAC Director Holly Rider-
NORTH CAMPUS
From Page 1A
munity Center last month that
the University is eager to make
North Campus more attractive to
students.
"The idea is to take what's so
wonderful and beautiful about
North Campus and build on it
rather than fighting it..." Harper
said at the fireside chat. "(We're)
just trying to think about what's
unique about North Campus
that we could do that would
make it feel less secluded or less
isolated, so you'd have both the
trees and the squirrels and the
muskrats and all that, but some-
times a little bit of a party atmo-
sphere."
Elizabeth Zollweg, project
manager of the North Cam-
pus Initiative, who organized
tonight's event, said the proj-
ect is trying to improve existing
programs on North Campus by
increasing student awareness of
CHURCH
From Page 1A
Gray said.
The program is sustained on
private donations, supplemented
by aid from other churches and
businesses in the area, Gray said.
Over the years, the church has
had hundreds of volunteers from
across the community and a vari-
ety of religious denominations.
Gray said she didn't realize
the program would have such
longevity when it initially began,
but each year the number of peo-
ple coming to the breakfast has
increased. In addition to the com-
munity's homeless population, she
said other disadvantaged individ-
uals in the area occasionally seek
meals, including those struggling
to make ends meet while working
minimumwage jobs.
Beside serving food at the
breakfasts, Natalie Mobley, a
local nurse practitioner, volun-
teers to take blood pressure for
those who need a check-up.
"(It's a) simple thing I can do
as a volunteer, and I make sure to
refer the clients to a source of care
if they need it," Mobley said.
Mobley said because of the
recession, she's seen an increase
in the number of people using the
service since she started volun-
teering at St. Andrew's in 2004.
"For many people, this is the
only meal they get each day,"
Mobley said. "The breakfast is
truly a life-saving program."
disease that allows them to have
an embryo grown in a culture
dish and tested for genetic dis-
ease. If the embryo tests posi-
tive for a genetic disease, O'Shea
explained, the embryo will not
be used for reproduction, and
couples have the choice to freeze
it, throw it out or donate it to sci-
entific research.
Before Michigan voters
passed a ballot initiative in
2008, University researchers
could not legally use donated
human embryos for research
purposes. Since the proposal's
passage, couples can choose to
donate their embryos, instead
of them being automatically dis-
carded.
According to O'Shea, other
Milkovich said there is no dis-
crepancy about how to handle
sexual violence at the University.
"Nearly all of the pieces that
they are asking for colleges and
universities to implement, we
already have in place," Rider-
Milkovich said.
She said programs like peer
education have been available
since SAPAC was established 25
years ago. SAPAC, which is oper-
ated under the University's Divi-
sion of Student Affairs, raises
awareness about sexual assault
and abuse and "provide(s) people
with the tools to be able to pre-
vent those crimes in the first
place," Rider-Milkovich said.
"Our education and prevention
measures are ahead of the curve
across the board," she said.
According to the U.S. Justice
Department's Justice Blog, the
University was one of 11 educa-
tional institutions honored by
the department in 2010 for its
commitment to combating sexual
assault. However, other universi-
ties have received more negative
universities have been making
embryonic stem cell lines while
Michigan laws prohibited the
practice. She said she hopes to
make an impact on the diseases
that have not been studied by
other universities.
According to Sean Tipton,
spokesman for the Coalition for
the Advancement of Medical
Research, the University's proj-
ect is a step in the right direction.
The coalition is a national group
that works to discover improved
treatments for diseases.
"It's an important advance,"
Tipton said. "People have known
that you can make stem cell lines
with specific disorders, and this
expands that work with some
new conditions.
attention for their sexual violence
policies.
Yale University students and
alumni filed a complaint last
month with the Department of
Education's Office for Civil Rights
about the university claiming
the administration didn't effec-
tively deal with several situations
involving sexual misconduct that
occurred in the last few years,
according to an April 1 Yale Daily
News article. The complaint
states that Yale violated Title IX.
Despite the recent grievance,
Duncan stressed during the con-
ference call that the release of the
guidelines was completely inde-
pendent of Yale's situation.
Rider-Milkovich said SAPAC
has not taken any actions in direct
response to Biden's announce-
ment at this time, but added that
the program always aims to get
better.
"We are always looking for
ways to improve our prevention
approach and also improve our
services to survivors," Rider-
Milkovich said.
^A U'LE/Dy
Former head football coach Lloyd Carr speaks at a School of Public Health symposium yesterday.
CARR
From Page1A
Carr said participation in
sports is important for students
and children, but necessary pre-
cautions must always be taken to
ensure safety.
"(It's) always important to
remember the risks involved and
preparing for the safety, health
and well-being of ourselves
before engaging in such sports,"
Carr said during the discussion.
In an interview with The
Michigan Daily after the event,
Carr said people should take
advantage of the University's
resources to educate themselves
about concussion prevention.
"I think it is important to
recognize that there are a lot of
things going on at this University
from an educational standpoint,"
Carr said. "It is important that we
take advantage of this potential
and put it to good use in stopping
this injury problem."
While Carr highlighted the
University's resources, another
panelist, David Sleet, associate
director for science in the divi-
sion of unintentional injury pre-
vention at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, focused
on steps the CDC has taken to
spread information to athletes
and coaches about how to prop-
erly deal with concussions.
Sleet also spoke about trau-
matic brain injuries in children,
citing that children ages 10 to 14
are most likely to suffer from con-
cussions or other traumatic ,rain
injuries. He added that traumatic
brain injuries are responsible for
50,000 deaths and 235,000 hos-
pitalizations each year.
The CDC offers more than
200,000 training sessions annu-
ally to youth sports coaches and
staff on how to properly diag-
nose, treat and prevent traumatic
brain injuries, he said.
"It is very important to recog-
nize that sports are not the only
way a concussion is suffered,"
Sleet said. "It is also important to
note that a concussion can occur
- despite common belief - with-
out loss of consciousness, and in
fact, more commonly does occur
without loss of consciousness."
A player who suffers a concus-
sion might forget plays, appear
dazed or confused, have long-
lasting dizziness or speak in inco-
herent sentences, Sleet said. He
stressed the importance of iden-
tifyingandreportingthese symp-
toms to ensure players' safety.
The third panelist, Jeffrey
Kutcher, the director of the
Michigan NeuroSport Concus-
sion Program at the University,
said one of the biggest miscon-
ceptions about head traumas,
specifically concussions, is that
they primarily occur in football.
However, he noted that over the
past severalyears,one ofthe most
common sports in which Univer-
sity athletes suffered head trau-
mas was water polo.
Head injuries are not a new
phenomenon and have been an
issue for decades, Kutcher said.
He added that the National Col-
legiate Athletic Association was
founded in 1906 at the direction
of former President Theodore
Roosevelt to help prevent injuries
in college sports.
"Head injuries are not a new
concept," Kutcher said. "This
was first described in 1928 in
boxers, so these problems have
been occurring for decades. This
is nothing new, as has the process
of prevention, arguable at too
slow of a rate."
what is offered there. Zollweg
said she invited Harper, members
of the Division of Student Affairs
Assembly and Loren Rullman,
associate vice president of stu-
dent affairs, to attend tonight's
event at the Pierpont Commons
Cafe at 6 p.m.
The program doesn't current-
ly have a set budget, but Zollweg
said making improvements on
North Campus is an important
goal for the University.
"If Michigan is going to strive
to be the leaders and best, this is
something that needs to bea high
priority for students up there to
really feel that they are the Lead-
ers and Best," she said.
Some future activities on
North Campus may include out-
door concerts and ice skating on
the pond, Harper said.
The initiative is a collaborative
effort between several entities
including the College of Engi-
neering, University Unions Arts
and Programs, the Michigan
Student Assembly North Campus
Looking for a place to volun-
teer when she arrived on campus,
LSA junior Shannon Chase heard
about the St. Andrews breakfast
program and now volunteers
every Wednesday morning. She
said she enjoys helping at St.
Andrew's in particular because it
has built a sense of community in
Ann Arbor.
"I liked that it had been going
on for so many years, and it was
involved in the community,"
Chase said. "It wasn't sensational
or a fad, just people serving peo-
ple in need year after year."
Chase added that volunteer-
ing at St. Andrew's allows her to
get to know homeless individuals
in Ann Arbor in a more personal
way.
"I like learning people's names
and faces because when you see
people asking on the street for
money it's easy to just dismiss
them," Chase said.
In addition to servingthe daily
meal, the church offers a weekly
writing workshop. Beginning at
8:30 a.m. every Tuesday, Court-
ney Mandryk, an English lectur-
er at the University, and George
Cooper, a University lecturer in
English and the Sweetland Writ-
ing Center, come to the church to
guide a small group in writingon
a variety of topics.
Mandryk and Cooper began
working at the church about a
year and a half ago, but the writ-
ing program at St. Andrew's has
been in existence for five years.
The workshop begins with the
Commission and the Residence
Hall Association, according to
Zollweg.
A survey regarding North
Campus has already been admin-
istered to students, Zollweg said.
The survey showed that many
students were concerned with
the accessibility of University
Health Services for sick students
on North Campus. Zollweg added
that students also requested bet-
ter lighting throughout North
Campus and more social events.
Speaking in anticipation of
tonight's event, Zollweg said she
wants to hear more about what
students want in terms of services
and programs on North Campus.
"(It is) an opportunity for stu-
dents to voice their reactions,
their needs ... what they want,"
Zollweg said. "North Campus has
the potential to be fabulous."
- Daily News Editor
Joseph Lichterman and
Managing Editor Kyle Swanson
contributed to this report.
instructor choosing a prompt.
Participants write for about 20
minutes on a fresh topic from the
previous week and then share
their work with one another.
Those who come to the work-
shop are very committed to their
writing, Cooper said. He said the
participants attend the weekly
seminar as a way to express their
ideas and strengthen their writ-
ing. He added that it is important
for everyone to have access to a
program like St. Andrews's writ-
ing workshop.
"Writing is a means of discov-
ery," he said. "It's a discovery of
what one knows ... It's a discipline
and a liberation."
During last week's workshop,
one participant wrote a poem
about Colonel Muammar Gad-
dafi and the situation in Libya.
After hearing the poem, Cooper
told the writer he was surprised
by the change in themes he pre-
sented compared to previous ses-
sions.
"You're focused on the day to
day. And here you were reach-
ing out to the world in a way I
don't think I've known you to do
before," Cooper told him.
Cooper said the workshop
attendees' economic circum-
stances aren't important to the
workshop's functioning.
"I don't know the situation of
the people that come here," Coo-
per said. "We don'ttalk aboutthat
on a day-to-day basis. I know that
everyone here has been through
some sort of struggle."
NORTH!
North, Campus..Rant:
The Good, The Bad,
and The Dude!
Wednesday, April 6th
6:00-7:30 pm
Commons Cafe in Pierpont Commons
North Campus
University of Michigan
Welcome
If you are unable to attend,
email your thoughts,
ideas and stories to
northcampusinitiative@gmail.com
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
DIVISION OF ST UDENT AFFAIRS
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