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January 18, 2011 - Image 5

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The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, January 18, 2011- 5A

RODRIGUEZ
* From Pagel1A
"I'm really hoping it brings a
sense of hope," Aren wrote. "Some
sense of life goes on."
Aren added that he is very
thankful Rodriguez thought of the
* Salvation Army.
"He was very gracious when he
donated," Aren wrote. "(He) gave
the best wishes to anybody who
might be encouraged or might ben-
efitas a result of the proceeds."
LSA senior Max Aidenbaum
attended Saturday's event and said
he doubted whether the items had
more value because Rodriguez
once owned them.
"I guess (it's) just for the humor
aspect, not really for added value
in terms of a keepsake that brings
back good memories," Aidenbaum
said.
Farmington Hills, Mich. resi-
dent Jack Kramer, who won a Uni-
versity of Michigan Golf Polo for
$130 at the auction, said he was
happy to beat out other attendees
in a close bidding race.
"I'm not sure if it was worth the
price, but it was worth the pride,"
Kramer said. "It'll be kind of cool
out on the golf course with a little
story behind it."
Toledo, Ohio resident Elaine
Covert said she was happy to be at
the event and was impressed Rodri-
guez chose to donate the items.
"I think it was a classy way for
him to exit," Covert said.
MLK
From Page 1A
the initiative to end injustice.
"Some of us have had the oppor-
tunity and therefore, we can live a
better life," she said. "But we have
to always think about those who
do not have (opportunities) and
we have to do whatever we can,
wherever we are, to make life bet-
ter for all of us."
Sherrod said it's time for people
to come together regardless of
skin color and cooperate to enact
change.
"We may be different colors, but
when you pull the covers off, we
are all justhuman beings who have
the capacity to love, the capacity
to work together, the capacity to
make where we live the best place
in the world," she said.
LSA junior Justin Baerwolf,
who attended the event, said,
for him, the speech was a Call to
action, and inspired him to get
involved in the greater University
community.
"I thought she did a really good
job of applying it to more than just
the civil rights movement," Baer-
wolf said. "I'm not really involved
in a lot of student (organizations),
and I'm going to go home and
probably immediately work on
building my college experience to
be more than just about serving
myself."
At a separate event yesterday,
Berry, a sociologist and author,
discussed the power of King's

MESA-Trotter House celebrates
40 years of community on campus

Vice Provost Lester
Monts announces
$10,000 donation to
multicultural center
By PAIGE PEARCY
For the Daily
A large group of students,
alumni, faculty and guests gath-
ered Sunday to celebrate the
anniversary of the Office of
Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs
and the William Monroe Trotter
Multicultural Center. Since their
founding, MESA and the Trot-
ter House have aimed to promote
acceptance and multicultural
development by informing and
supporting University student
organizations.
By mid-afternoon on Sunday,
about 70 people joined the anni-
versary celebration at the Trot-
ter House on Washtenaw Avenue.
Visitors were greetedby the sound
of jazz music to celebrate the com-
mencement of the year-long com-
memoration. Multiple speakers,
singers, rappers and students
expressed their gratitude and
reflections about the organization
and the center at the event.
Evans Young, LSA assistant
dean for undergraduate educa-
tion and the opening speaker at
the event, said that throughout
the center's 40-year history, there
have been two constant factors
- challenges working with "very
limited budgets" and the dedica-
tion of community members.
"In the face of those budgets

and just by the nature of the peo-
ple involved, a history of very cre-
ative staff, students and faculty
engaged in making this a home for
students of color at the University
of Michigan," Young said.
MESA and the Trotter Mul-
ticultural Center started in 1971
after the Black Action Movement
sponsored demonstrations at the
University. The series of events
prompted awareness of a need
for a campus organization for
black students in which impor-
tant issues could be addressed. In
1981, the organization expanded
to include students of all races and
ethnicities.
Lester Monts, the University's
senior vice provost for academic
affairs, said at the event that stu-
dent protest was "very effective
in bringing about change" during
MESA and Trotter's beginnings.
Monts ended his address by
donating $10,000 of his office's
budget to MESA and Trotter
House's newly-established annual
fund.
Henry Johnson, vice president
emeritus of Student Services at
the University, told the audience
of the progress the organization
has made to achieve its current
position on campus.
"I think the corner has been
turned and Trotter House is
beginning to fulfill its mission as a
multicultural programming site,"
Johnson said.
MESA aids numerous student
organizations including- events
organized by sorority Delta Tau
Lambda - a traditionally Latina
sorority that represents all women
of color.

LSA sophomore Guadalupe
Ayala, a member of Delta Tau
Lambda, said she decided to
attend Sunday's event to support
her sorority sister who spoke on
the student panel. Ayala said she
also wanted to show her appre-
ciation for MESA helping the
sorority with multiple events and
programming.
"(Trotter House is) a place
where we can come and actually
be heard and supported to put up
our events on campus," she said
The University of Michigan
Gospel Chorale, formerly the Uni-
versity of Michigan Black Gospel
Choir, performed at the event, and
was followed by reflections from
faculty and students involved
with MESA.
LSA senior Jessica Perez spoke
on a student panel that discussed
the influence MESA and the Trot-
ter House have had on students'
lives and the future of the organi-
zation.
"I think it's time for MESA-
Trotter, especially with this
40-year mark, to see where
they have come from but not to
stop," Perez said. "There's a lot
of hard issues just waiting (to
be addressed) ... and I think it's
time."
Rackham student Kya Man-
grum said she came to the event
not knowing much about MESA's
or the Trotter House's history.
"I was really impressed by the
sense of community here - the
sense that people felt at home
here," Mangrum said. "It was
enlightening, and I think it's going
to encourage me to come visit
more."

JED MOCH/Daily
An auctioneer at the Salvation Army in Wayne, Mich. auctions off former Michigan
football coach Rich Rodriguez's Michigan apparel on Saturday, Jan.15, 2011.

rhetoric to affect change. The rea-
son King's speeches were inspira-
tional, Berry said, is that he would
spend hours critically thinking
about his words in order to deliver
them effectively.
"It's amazing to me that we
don't think about King as a great
thinker, we think about him as a
man of faith," Berry said. "But
have you ever read the letter from
the Birmingham jail where he
cites and crosses out and corrects
his own stuff from his own mind?
This is a thinker."
Berry also spoke about the role
of technology in today's society.
According to Berry, while the
current generation may be more
technologically advanced than
their elders, younger people lack
wisdom. Because of this, she said
it is the job of the older generation
to guide the younger generation.
"Some of us (elders) are so frus-
trated with you, but it is our job to
go, 'Yes, it should be your call to go
forward faster than I can go, but
not so fast,"' Berry said.
Engineering freshman Trebec-
ca McDonald said Berry inspired
her to think critically about her
ideas and the importance of
King's message.
"I thought she did a really good
job at trying to make us think and
trying to open our minds, so we
not only look at (King's) speeches
and memorize the words for how
powerful they were, but to actu-
ally know that they had meaning
and that they were a thought pro-
cess," McDonald said.

She said she thought Berry's
message will also help her in her
learning process.
"It will impact (my studies)
because it will help me to not take
things at face value," McDonald
said. "Especially in the College of
Engineering where you have to do
problem solving and you have to
kind of think outside of the box."
In addition to Sherrod and
Berry's speeches, the symposium
also featured several lectures and
activities throughout the day,
including performances on the
Diag in an hour-long event titled
"Circle of Unity."
University alum Robin Gold-
berg, the event coordinator, said
the festivities were developed so
that students could engage in civil
rights issues and talk about how
they impact their future.
"The event is meant to give peo-
ple and groups a chance to express
their hopes for the future and dis-
cuss their experience of the civil
rights movement," Goldberg said.
The symposium also included
a poetry slam titled "We the Peo-
ple." The performance featured
Ann Arbor native Angel Nafis,
who discussed her experiences
growing up as "an African Ameri-
can girl in a predominantly white
society." Actress Val Gray Ward
also spoke at the event, narrating
historical events and struggles in
the civil rights movement.
"I definitely think that the arts
are a way of impacting the com-
munity positively," Ward said in
an interview after the show.

PANHANDLING
From Page 1A
discussions into policy.
"We'll need to involve the Uni-
versity community," Briere said.
"Every year there is something
like six or seven thousand new
University members, and these
are people who have no long-term
ties to Ann Arbor ... they aren't
familiar with what's common."
The task force plans to remedy
this problem by annually supplying
information to the public, speifi-
cally new students at the Univer-
sity, so that they are informed
about how to respond to panhan-
dlers without offering money.
Briere said the task force has also
recommended that information on
panhandling in the city should be
provided at the University's new
student orientation, in the Uni-
versity's student handbook, on the
University and city of Ann Arbor
websites, as well as displayed in
State Street store windows.
Briere described the internal
struggleofindividualsapproached
by panhandlers - whether to dis-
cuss housing, food and addiction
treatment options with them or
simply give them money. Often
people choose to give money with-
out understanding that, for many
panhandlers, addiction is usually
the real problem, she said.
There are a number of pro-
grams in Ann Arbor and the sur-
rounding area, Briere said, like
Dawn Farm - a shelter for alcohol
abuse - and programs through
the court system to ensure addicts
get help instead of jail time.
"People who are feeling sorry
for someone who says, 'I'm hun-
gry, I'm homeless, I need a bus
ticket out of here,' may think
they're providing .something,
but they're really only providing
money so somebody can feed their
addiction," she said.

While some panhandlers pres-
ent signs claiming hunger and
homelessness, Briere said holding
a sign-doesn't necessarily mean an
individual has a problem finding
food or shelter. Many panhandlers
make more than $100 a day, and
have their own residences, Briere
explained.
"It's not about being homeless:
Most panhandlers are not seeking
money because they need to pay
the rent," Briere said.
According to Briere, many pan-
handlers have shelter available to
them, but choose to" avoid these
locations because they have rules
the panhandlers are unwilling to
follow..
She added that one contributing
factor to the panhandling problem
is the increase of panhandlers
coming from beyond Ann Arbor.
Collaboration with local mer-
chants is another goal of the task
force. Calling the police is one
option, but conversation between
store' owners and panhandlers
about solicitation laws and
ensuring that customers aren't
being bothered is another way to
improve the situation, Briere said.
She said this also requires
cooperation between neighbor-
ing businesses and their clients -
something that happens more on
Main Street than on State Street
and South University Avenue.
"The businesses are less orga-
nized, less interactive - or so I
understand from speaking with
them ..." Briere said. "It's going to
be interesting to change that out-
reach between the businesses so
they work with each other."
Maggie Ladd, chair of the origi-
nal panhandling task force and a
current member of the present
task force, said the task force did
a good job the first time in reduc-
ing the amount of people giv-
ing money to panhandlers. But
because businesses in the area
have changed over time, there's a

need to revitalize the distribution
of information on the-issue.
"I think that when the task
force stopped, perhaps we didn't
continue distributing that infor-
mation as well as we could have,"
said Ladd, who is also the execu-
tive director of the South Univer-
sity Area Association.
This time, however, the task
force faces a new issue. In 2003,
the city had community policing
in place, which involved having
police officers on bicycles in the
downtown area during both the
day arid night. And while police
officers on call are still available,
Ladd said the city needs to find
a substitute for the community
patrol part of the program.
"By virtue of losingthose, we've
lost a lot of the ability to do that
enforcement ... These community
police officers were there all the
time, and they interacted with the
panhandlers, they knew them and
so that's the piece I feel personally
is missing."
Sgt. Mike Lance of the Ann
Arbor Police Department said the
removal of officers was due to a
reduction in personnel with the
AAPD losing more than 100 staff
members in recent years.
However, the University's
Department of Public Safety has
University police officers patrol
Central Campus during the sum-
mer months. Sales and solicitation
of any kind in a University build-
ing or on campus grounds must be
given written permission, accord-
ing to.article 9, sections 1 and 2 of
the University Regents' Ordinance.
DPS spokeswoman Diane
Brown said that while University
Police could issue a citation for
violation of the Regents' Ordi-
nance or arrest panhandlers if
they became aggressive, in most
cases, officers simply ask them to
move along. In certain situations,
Brown said, officers ask panhan-
dlers to leave University grounds.

REGENTS
From Page 1A
the University's research funding,
totaling about $750 million in fis-
cal year 2010 - an increase of 14.7
percent from the preceding year.
Additionally, the University
received $301.1 million in federal
stimulus funds to be used in fis-
cal years 2010 and 2011. Accord-
ing to the report, the stimulus
money has funded more than 547
research projects at the Univer-
sity.
University President Mary Sue
Coleman said in an interview last
month that the University has a
strong relationship with the fed-
eral government.
"Throughout my whole career
I've been at a number of research
universities and Michigan is the
one, I think, that takes advantage
of the fact that our faculty have a
partnership with the federal gov-
ernment to do research - some
of it's basic, some of it's more
applied," Coleman said.

REGENTS TO APPROVE $1.5 BOARD TO CONSIDER $2.5
MILLION UPGRADE TO ISR MILLION UTILITY TUNNEL
BUILDING RENOVATION

The regents will also deliberate
about $4 million worth of cam-
pus construction projects at their
meeting Thursday.
Among the projects to be con-
sidered is a $1.5 million improve-
ment to the fire suppression system
in the existing Institute for Social
Research building, colloquially
called Wing One.
In a communication to the
regents, Tim Slottow, the Univer-
sity's executive vice president and
chief financial officer, wrote that
the new fire suppression system
will allow for an addition to the
ISR building to be built without a
fire separationhwall between the
addition and the existing struc-
ture. The regents approved the tSR
addition in July 2010.
If approved, the project will be
funded by both the ISR and the
Office of the Provost. The installa-
tion of the system is expected to be
completed in the spring of 2012.

The regents are also expected to
green light a $2.55 million project
to renovate utility tunnels beneath
Central Campus under Huron
Street. This project will renovate
500 feet of the tunnels, in addition
to replacing120 feet of the tunnels,
according to Slottow's communi-
cation to the regents.
Slottow wrote in the communi-
cation to the regents that this new
project is part of a series of refur-
bishments to utility tunnels that
distribute power to campus from
the University's Central Power
Plant.
"In 2006 a master plan for tun-
nel infrastructure renewal was
developed that prioritized a series
of tunnel projects, and several
have been completed," Slottow
wrote.
If approved, construction on the
tunnels is estimated tobe complet-
ed in winter 2012, and funding will
come from University Utilities.

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