The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam

Thursday, November 10, 2011 - 5A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, November 10, 2011 - 5A

'U' profs. research use of
energy in social networks

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Former head football coaches Rich Rodriguez and Joe Paterno talk at Michigan Stadium after a game in 2009. Paterno was
dismissed from his position last night amid a sex abuse scandal at Penn State.

PATERNO
From Page 1A
lead the division-leading Nittany
Lions through November and its
bowl game.
Paterno leaves Happy Valley
with a lifetime 409-136-3 record
at the helm. He carried Penn
State into the Big Ten in 1990,
winning two national champion-
ships and three conference titles.
The reaction from Ann Arbor
was subdued.
"The one thing I can tell you
is I have the utmost respect for
everything coach Paterno has
done on the field," said Michigan
coach Brady Hoke Wednesday
afternoon before the news of
Paterno's firing. "It's a situation
that's obviously unfortunate. It's
one that doesn't affect us. We've
got to worry about Michigan
and the decisions we make get-
ting ready for this week, going to
Illinois and winning the football
game."
Regardless, Paterno won't be
NONPROFITS
From Page 1A
i program offered through the
University's Nonprofit and Pub-
lic Management Center.
For nine years, the program
has given graduate students
the opportunity to serve as
active members on the boards
of various local nonprofit orga-
nizations, according to Rishi
Moudgil, associate director of
the University's Nonprofit and
Public Management Center. Ini-
tially, the program was only for
students pursuing an MBA in
the Ross School of Business, but
it has since expanded to include
those earning master's degrees
in the School of Social Work and
the Ford School of Public Policy.
According to Moudgil, a stu-
0 dent in the Board Fellows pro-
gram receives a mentor who
guides them during their time on
the board. Students in the pro-
gram can become involved with
anything from financial plan-
ning to working on developing
0 strategy and surveying, as Jones
did for the Salvation Army.
Moudgil said the Board Fel-
lows program is a way for gradu-
ate students - who often are
not on campus as long as under-
graduate students - to immerse
themselves in the community.
"One of the really positive
feedback we get from (the par-
ticipants) is that this is their
opportunity to really engage
with the broader community
and learn about Ann Arbor,
Southeast Michigan, what peo-
ple are doing (in the area) and
have a real experience to apply
their skills," Moudgil said.

forgotten in Big Ten history. The
conference's championship tro-
phy bears his name - not Michi-
gan legend Bo Schembecher's or
former Ohio State coach Woody
Hayes's.
"The Big Ten trophy is the
Stagg-Paterno Trophy, and I
think that says it all in how much
he's given to college football,"
said Michigan senior defensive
captain Mike Martin.
In 1968, Michigan Athletic
Director Don Canham trav-
eled to Pittsburgh to meet with
the hottest young coach in the
nation. He wanted Paterno as
Michigan's next head football
coach.
Paterno, then 42, was com-
ing off an undefeated 11-0 sea-
son at Penn State. He declined
the offer. Canham hired a young
Bo Schembechler from Miami
(Ohio).
"And once a year, Don used
to write me a letter and say,
'Thanks,' " Paterno joked before
the 2009 season.
Schembechler went on to
After students apply for the
fellowship, they are selected for
interviews with the Nonprofit
and Public Management Center
staff and the participating orga-
nizations. The groups then sub-
mit criteria for a candidate, and
the center matches the appli-
cants with the organizations.
This year the program select-
ed 35students from 75 applicants
- the most it has ever received
in one year, Moudgil said. The
fellows have been paired with 22
participating nonprofit organi-
zations and have already started
their work. It is expected that
board members contribute about
eight hours per month to their
positions.
Rackham student Katherine
Valle, who is pursuing her mas-
ter's degree in Public Policy, is
serving as a Board Fellow this
year for Girls on the Run of
Southeastern Michigan, a non-
profit organization that encour-
ages healthy living among
preteen girls through running.
She will create their strategic
plan during her time working
with the organization.
Valle said she is enthusiastic
about her placement. Though
she has yet to attend a formal
board meeting, she has already
been in contact with different
members and has started work-
ing.
"I felt honored to have
received (the fellowship) and
honored to also work for an
organization that I feel like my
personal mission for my life goes
hand in hand with, and I believe
the work that they're doing is
great," Valle said.
Valle, who has already worked
on strategic planning interna-

coach the Wolverines for 21 sea-
sons. Paterno never left Penn
State. Until today.
A legacy built over nearly a
half decade has been decimated
in five days.
Of all the speculations for how
Paterno's legendary tenure in
State College would end, no one
could have scripted this finish.
A week ago this outcome was
unimaginable. It ended as a
unanimous vote.
Paterno had a discussion
with the Board of Trustees over
the phone, signifying the split
between him and the university
in the past two days. A 46-year
bond was severed with a phone
call.
He left on someone else's
terms.
His success on the field is
immeasurable, but his legacy is
marred after a decade-long lapse
in moral judgment.
"Right now, I'm not the
football coach," Paterno said
Wednesday night. "That's some-
thing I have to get used to."
tionally, said she hopes her ser-
vice as a Board Fellow will give
her the chance to leave her mark.
"(The Board Fellowship) for
me will give me an opportunity
to do something with some sort
of an impact in a grander scale
than what I have done, here in
the U.S.," Valle said.
When Jones served as a Board
Fellow, the position was extend-
ed from its original duration of
one academic year, allowing her
to serve during her entire time
at the University. As soon as she
graduated the board offered her
an official position as a board
member, and she has continued
to serve since 2009.
Jones said that while the pro-
gram was difficult, it pushed her
out of her comfort zone, which
helped in her future endeavors.
"If you want to have a great
experience, you have to put in
a lot of time and energy into it,
but it pays off in huge brings
and masses," Jones said. "It was
certainly a lot more work than
I expected in a lot of ways but I
loved every minute of it."
Moudgil said Jones's story is
a model for success within the
program that is still shared at
events for the Board Fellows. As
she has continued to serve as a
board member, Jones said she
learned that many of her past
experiences were helpful in the
work she did on the board with
the Salvation Army division.
"You wear that brand wher-
ever you go as a representative,"
Jones said. "In my case it's the
Salvation Army, and being able
to own that and use those oppor-
tunities you come into in your
day to day interactions can really
benefit the organization."

Researchers
receive $300,000
two-year grant
By CLAIRE GOSCICKI
DailyStaffReporter
While logging into Facebook,
Twitter or LinkedIn may seem
as simple as clicking a button,
two University faculty members
suggest there are complex, ener-
gy-intensive processes behind
these mediums for social inter-
action.
Thomas Finholt, professor
of information and senior asso-
ciate dean for faculty in the
School of Information, and Erik
Hofer, lecturer in the School of
Information, recently received
a nearly $300,000 two-year
grant from the National Sci-
ence Foundation to research
energy use of social networks.
The networks include online,
cell phone and other mobile
communications.
Finholt and Hofer have been
involved in this area of study for
BILL
From Page 1A
es bullying and offers legal pro-
tection from accountability to
bullies. Despite the opposition,
the bill passed in the state Senate
last week along party lines, with
26 Republicans voting in favor
and 11 Democrats voting against
it. The bill now awaits approval
by the state House of Represen-
tatives.
The legislation, also known
as "Matt's Safe Schools Act,"
was developed in honor of Matt
Epling, a middle school student
from East Lansing who commit-
ted suicide in 2002. In response
to the outcry about the clause,
the state House is currently
rewriting the bill, pledging to
redact the clause from the bill.
Once it is rewritten, itwill return
to the Senate to bridge consensus
among the viewpoints.
According to Ari Adler, press
secretary for Speaker of the
House Jase Bolger (R-Mar-
shall), House Republicans and
Democrats have been collaborat-
ing to produce legislation that
respects students' First Amend-
ment rights and marks bullying
as unacceptable under any cir-
cumstances.
"We want to have a very gen-
eral anti-bullyinglaw that essen-
tially says, 'Bullying is wrong,
and no one should be bullied,"'
Adler said. "It doesn't matter
what reason you think you're
doing it for, and it doesn't matter
who you are."
Though Adler said most
Republicans and Democrats
in both chambers of the Legis-
lature agree on that principle,
negotiations in the House have
been challenging because the
Senate bill was killed and the
contested clause is expected to
be removed.
"You have a situation here
where you are dealing with dif-
ferences of opinion in regards to
the philosophy of whether there
should be a bullying law or not,
and then you wrap into that the
fact that it is a very emotional

issue for many people," Adler
said.
The starkest difference of
opinion is on whether the law
should or should not include a
specific list of characteristics for
which bullying can be punished,
Adler said. He added that he and
Bolger believe such enumera-
tions would only compound the
intricacies of bullying policies,
and Adler expects a list of spe-
cific acts will not be included in
the bill.
"As soon as you start making
a list of reasons that you cannot
bully someone, you're automati-
cally opening the door to a list
of reasons why you could bully
someone," he said. "As soon as
you create a list of inclusions, you

more than 10 years. Their work
has evolved in part due to the
increasing popularity of social
media tools. The goal of their
research is to find ways to make
energy systems more sustain-
able and ultimately help people
manage or reduce their carbon
footprints.
"People maintain their social
networks through a whole host
of supporting infrastructures,
and those all have energy sig-
natures associated with them,"
Finholt said, giving the exam-
ple of a cell phone, which goes
through an energy-intensive
manufacturing and packag-
ing process and uses additional
energy to power its battery and
antenna
Finholt added that he is
concerned about the overcon-
sumption of Earth's fossil fuels,
which are burned to support
many of the processes associ-
ated with socializing.
"We think (social networks)
are a place where some of this
energy consumption is discre-
tionary, and if people knew
what the consequences were,
create a list of exclusions at the
same time."
Still, some lawmakers believe
excluding the enumerations
would weaken the bill's ability
to curb bullying in school. One
proponent, Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-
Ann Arbor), said enumerations
would protect bullied youth
from gaps or lack of specificity in
the policies. Irwin accused state
Republicans in the State House
and Senate of being unwilling to
shield youth like LGBT students,
from harassment.
"(The Senate bill) flies in
the face of what bullying is all
about," Irwin said. "Bullying is
about identifying differences
and picking on them. The Sen-
ate bill says if you can draw some
sort of religious connection to
your discrimination, then it's
OK. That's not going to help the
situation."
State Sen. Rebekah Warren
(D-Ann Arbor) called Repub-
licans' attempt to frame the
enumerations issue as one that
would fail to shield some stu-
dents from harassment a "false
argument." Because the quali-
fication "including, but not lim-
ited to" precedes enumerations
in law, they would encompass
all characteristics for which stu-
dents might be bullied, Warren
said.
"If we make it incredibly
explicit thatwe mean every child
regardless of which of these
characteristics they exhibit or
possess, then we'll have the wid-
est protections possible," she
said.
Though the Senate bill marks
the most significant anti-bully-
ing legislation in the years that
Warren and other lawmakers
have been pushing the issue,
Warren said she might not have
supported it even had the cau-
cus attorney not introduced the
exclusion provision at the last
minute. She criticized the bill's
lack of inclusion of mechanisms
for schools to report their bully-
ing statistics to the state and pro-
viding information legislators
would then use to adjust policy.
"It's such a disappointment

that we would pass a bill that's
so obviously flawed when we're
finally taking a look at it," she
said. "This really is our oppor-
tunity to get something positive
and protective on the books so
that our kids can go to school,
can learn and can get a good edu-
cation without the fear of what
might be waiting for them from
bullies in the classroom."
Jones accused state Demo-
crats of playing the bill for politi-
cal purposes. Neither the clause
nor the legislation as a whole was
intended to excuse bullying or
offer bullies a refuge from liabil-
ity, he said.
"Nothing in this bill says that a
student can go up to another stu-
dent and verbally assault them,"

they might change their pat-
terns of behavior," Finholt said.
For Hofer, the research also
prompts the question of how
much power and energy is truly
required to maintain a friend-
ship. Hofer said he hopes to
better understand the means
by which people network with
one another and develop rela-
tionships, whether it's through
social media such as Facebook
or Twitter, e-mail, cell phone
communication or meeting in
person. Ultimately, this under-
standing could lead to the
creation of more sustainable
technologies to support inter-
personal connections, he said.
Hofer added that the findings
will help answer a broad range
of questions about communica-
tion patterns and how they vary
across different demographics.
"It's a very exciting project ...
It's a chance for us to take a big
step back and look at how all
of these new technologies that
we're using to shape our social
lives are being used in the real
world by people and in what
combinations," Hofer said.
he said. "I don't think that was
the intent at all, and I think the
meaning has been twisted by the
other side of the aisle for politi-
cal purposes."
Jones urged Democratic law-
makers to end their political
wrangling and remember the
reason he introduced the legisla-
tion in the Senate - to mandate
anti-bullying policies and curb
bullying in schools across the
state.
"It's time to stop politics and
start worrying about how we can
have appropriate policies in our
schools to protect our children,"
Jones said.
The bill has also drawn dis-
approval from school district
superintendents statewide.
Superintendents have said they
worry the exception clause will
disarm their abilities to disci-
pline bullies.
Patricia Green, superinten-
dentofAnnArbor Public Schools,
sent a letter to the district's fac-
ulty and staff encouraging them
to write to Republican Gov. Rick
Snyder and state representa-
tives about the Senate bill. Green
wrote in the letter that she found
the exclusion clause "disturbing
and potentially dangerous."
In an interview, Green said
parents wrote to her expressing
their gratitude that she alert-
ed them to the addition of the
clause. She said many parents
wrote to legislators expressing
their disapproval, stating that
the bill did not fully attack bul-
lying.
"It can create potentially dan-
gerous situations for students
to be able to potentially justify
when bullying is allowable," she
said. "We're saying, 'Don't bully,
don't intimidate, don't harass,'
and then you have a situation
where all these exceptions are
allowable and open in some ways
for interpretation."
When informed that Adler
expected the clause would be
excluded from the House's bill,
Green said she was "glad to hear
it."
Ann Arbor Public Schools
already have an anti-bullyingpol-

icy, though Jones said Michigan
is one of three states where such
policies are not state mandated
in public schools. According to
Green, the district's policy clearly
defines bullying and harassment
and outlines measures district
administrators can use to prevent
and punish bullying. But Green
said the state bill, if enacted,
could be a boon to the district's
efforts to limit bullying.
"It means that people are
going to pay much more atten-
tion to that kind of behavior," she
said. "Anything that strength-
ens the effort to eliminate bul-
lying is significant, and I just
want to make sure that we're not
waffling on the issue that kids
shouldn't be bullied."

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