The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, November 21,2011 - 5A ARMSTRONG From Page 1A the University, he gained a 1 support through the Spect Center, the LGBT commt and the student governr He said he hopes other stud can have a similar experi through the scholarship. "We're all lucky to have community," Armstrong sa: the crowd. "We're all luckyt here and find who we are1 and we know not everyor lucky enough to have Mich and not everyone is able to1 such an amazing communit Ann Arbor." In a YouTube videoP strong released on Wedne to announce his scholarshil detailed his own experienc being bullied last year by fo Michigan Assistant Atto General Andrew Shirvell. Shirvell was fired last No' ber after criticizing Armst in public protests and on a titled "Chris Armstrong Wa on which he claimed Armst was promoting a "radical h( sexual agenda." Armstrong's father Steve attorney in Connecticut, said speech at the gala on Friday the University community he Armstrong and his family to with the difficulties his fa faced. He added that the s arship will allow the Armst family to continue to shoe gratitude. "(We) endured the even the past year only because o strength and courage of our but we soon came to realize where that strength and cou was coming," Steve said. "We the University respond with powerful, resounding and The Intramural Sports Building is receiving several updates including new televisions today. fled voice to shameful attacks on durin Chris." Shirv In response to Armstrong's the la YouTube video, Shirvell said in don o lot of an interview with The Michigan claim trum Daily on Friday that Armstrong's "Sh unity statements in the video falsely in her nent. accuse Shirvell of "stalking and dutyt dents bullying," which Shirvell claims ent," ence did not occur. ney is "There was no bullying, no appea this stalking, and now, Mr. Armstrong there id to has opened himself up to further a con to be liability by accusing me of com- repre here, mitting a criminal offense, which ... and ne is is stalking," Shirvell said. Shi igan Shirvell added that he will is wit be in amend the complaint in his coun- don, v ty as tersuit against Armstrong to seek Onde damages for these new comments is nor Arn- in the YouTube video. He said he "Fi 'sday also sent Armstrong's lawyer, whett p, he Deborah Gordon, a request to unkn ce of retract Armstrong's statements. "Seco rmer AccordingtorGordon, Shirvell's flict v 'rney claim that the YouTube video is his "defamation" is meaningless. Ther vem- "We are suing him under the says i rong civil stalking," Gordon said. "So Go blog it's Chris's opinion that he stalked schol tch," him, and I think any reasonable "I rong person could find evidence of thing omo- that." somet Gordon said Shirvell's percep- said.' e, an tion of defamation is skewed, as tive r d in a Shirvell claims his blog against thatn that Armstrong was not slander. go th lped "(Shirvell) thinks he can write deal u cope a 100-page blog about my cli- In imily ent saying the most outrageous, night chol- ridiculous things about him, and schol rong he says that's not defamation ..." tions w its Gordon said. "But the minute you the fu say anything about (Shirvell), it's "W ts of defamation." arshil f the Shirvell filed a new motion on come son, Thursday to disqualify Gordon as Shi from Armstrong's lawyer due to a con- on th rage flict of interest. Shirvell said he schol saw believes Gordon had contact with who 1 one the attorney general investiga- he do uni- tor on his case, Mike Ondejko, reaso ONCE UPON A CONCERT g the investigation before ell was fired. Shirvell said wsuit he filed against Gor- on Oct. 28 is based on this 1. ce's putting her interests r own lawsuit ahead of her to Chris Armstrong, her cli- Shirvell said. "If the attor- s being sued separately, the arance of impropriety is because there's obviously flict of interest if she has to sent herself in that lawsuit Iher client." rvell's most recent motion :hout legal merit, said Gor- who said she never talked to jko about Shirvell, and there conflict of interest. rst of all, why he cares her I represent Chris is own to me," Gordon said. ndly, he says I have a con- with Chris, but if you read papers, it's nonsensical. e's no conflict, and what he s false." rdon said Armstrong's new arship is "wonderful." think it's great that some- positive can come out of thing so hateful," Gordon "There can be some posi- esult to all of the craziness my client and others had to rough and put up with and with." the e-mail interview last , Armstrong wrote that the arship is accepting dona- and he hopes it will grow in ture. re are hoping (the schol- p) will grow for years to ,'Armstrong wrote. irvell refused to comment he purpose of Armstrong's arship to support a student has faced bullying, claiming esn't understand "the real n" for the fund. From Page 1A at the NCRB have already been activated and the sets at the CCRB and IM Building will be functional starting today, Can- ning said. The TVs will be spread throughout the cardio workout areas in all three gyms, accord- ing to Canning. The workout machines will have receptors for headphones, allowing users to hear the audio feed from the TVs while using the machines. Smaller projects include add- ing new lobby furniture in the IM Building and the NCRB. Additionally, artificial turf was placed on Elbel Field over the summer, and more than 90 new cardio machines were installed in all three facilities. The last major recreational facilities improvement was done in 1976, when there were 28,000 students at the Uni- versity. Currently, there are 42,000 students, and Canning SPECTRUM From Page 1A said the foundation gives more than $4,0 million to various organizations' and is"centered on LGBT leadership programs, diversity initiatives and devel- opment of CyberCenters, which allow members of the LGBT community to network and com- municate with each other. Bohnett said the foundation focuses on the challenges of health and happiness, earning a living, military and public service, personal safety, legalizing gay marriage and other equal oppor- tunities for members of the LGBT community. To make significant changes, Bohnett said there must be large-scale modifications in culture and public opinion, which can stem from legislation in fed- eral policy such as the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell.' "We have been and we are becoming a broader, progressive movement," Bohnett said. "In my experience ... we take a great deal of effort to integrate with the labor movement, the broader progressive movement." Bohnett added that he is sup- portive of the Obama admin- istration's willingness to enact non-discrimination policies that will impact a variety of LGBT citizens. "I was just at a meeting in Washington this week, and there's averydeliberate, thought- ful and specific approach to include sexual orientation with the federal adherent require- ment," he said. "That means that any contract for doing work for the federal government will have to have a non-discrimination policy in place for sexual orienta- said the recent renovations and upgrades were "absolutely nec- essary." He added that more needs to be done to better the Uni- versity's recreational facilities, including improving natural lighting, increasing capacity, replacing outdated equipment and creating more open spaces. Michigan Student Assembly President DeAndree Watson said encouraging the University to improve recreational facilities is a high priority on the assem- bly's agenda. "Our facilities are no where close to the universities we com- pete with, including Ohio State," Watson said. A group of student leaders called the Core 20 - led by LSA sophomore Vivian Wu, chair of the Student Advisory Board, and LSA senior Jessica Kraft, presi- dent of the Club Sports Coun- cil - is working with a group of consultants to get information from students about their needs tion." At a luncheon on Friday, Will Sherry, associate director of the Spectrum Center, gave a short speech lauding the importance of discussions about LGBSissues amonggenmaratiwcataofanhi: " "This really is the heart of the weekend - it's about being able to collaborate with each other, learn from each other and develop rela- tionships between students and alumni that can be lasting," Sher- ry said during the event. In an interview after his speech, Sherry said getting involved with the Spectrum Cen- ter as a graduate student allowed him to not only help others, but also grow personally. "It really allowed me as a grad- uate student to grow and learn," he said. "I had the opportunity to be a coming-out group facilitator when I was a graduate student and help other students in the process of coming out." Sherry said he also personally sought help from the Spectrum Center, and the experience reaf- firmed his dedication to his work since he went through the trans- gender transition process while he was a staff member at the Spectrum Center. "I know, as a person who sits in a place of a lot of support in the community, that it's still a really hard process, so I can only imagine for people who need to find that support and don't have it readily available, hence the importance of our office on cam- pus," Sherry said. University Dean of Students Laura Blake Jones, who attended the luncheon, said in an inter- view after the event that she is impressed by the Spectrum Cen- ter's work and is looking forward to its future endeavors. on campus, including what they'd like to see in recreational facilities. The group's initiative also includes garnering students' views on improving University unions. The students plan to release a survey next month to develop a funding formula to address these needs. "The three recreation build- ings embody the student experi- ence here at Michigan - what it means to be a student in and out of the classroom," Wu said. "We are not at a capacity to serve the students as it is right now." LSA freshman Ryan Gaiss said he thinks improvements to recreational facilities will encourage more people to go to the buildings, including to cheer their friends on during intramu- ral sports games. "Having fans on the sidelines is a huge confidence booster," Gaiss said. "It gives someone who's competitive like me the urge to do as best as I can." "We're leading the country in terms of being the first place that has a Spectrum Center," Jones said. "We continued to sort of be innovative and lead our peers around the country in terms of piogram areas thut haveopened'a up, and I'm just really excited to see what the next 40 years are going to be like." In an interview during the luncheon on Friday, Univer- sity alum Thomas McCulloch, a retired attorney living in Lan- sing, Mich., said he is surprised and impressed by the continual development of new programs at the University since he gradu- ated in 1975. "It's very interesting because the Spectrum Center didn't exist when I was an undergraduate, and this is just another example where I'm constantly aware and sort of marvel at how times have changed," McCulloch said. McCulloch added that there was no open community of LGBT people when he attended the University. "The gay men, we knew who each other were, but the folks who were out were rare excep- tions," McCulloch said. "It was an interesting sort of undercur- rent going on and we were there, and we knew who we were." LSA senior Alyssa Francini said having an organization like the Spectrum Center is crucial to building tolerance and commu- nity in a collegiate setting. "I wasn't here 40 years ago when things like this had to be created for people to come together," Francini said. "Now, we're lucky enough to be stu- dents at this University where if there's a will there's a way, and if there's a want, it will be given to us." The Michigan Pops Orchestra performs at the Michigan T heater last night for the Once Upon a Time perforrance. O1cials: 32 homes gutted in out-of-season Reno blaze 10,000 residents evacuate from 2,000- acre fire on Friday RENO, Nev. (AP) - Austin and Sarah Hardage were getting their first look at the charred rubble that used to be their home Saturday afternoon when a U.S. Postal Service truck pulled up. "At least we still have a mail- box," Austin Hardage, 23, joked as he ran down the driveway to grab the mail. He then explained how they awoke to a smoky, orange glow through the windows about 2 a.m. Friday before joining nearly 10,000 other southwest Reno residents in an evacuation. Their home is among the 32 that were destroyed by the unusual, out-of-season blaze that spread by gale force winds and ripped through the Sierra foothills. Gov. Brian Sandoval was among a number of leaders who opined on Saturday that it was a miracle that scores more homes weren't lost. "This was not only a wild land, urban-interface type fire, it was also a metro fire where we had homes that were actively burning in densely populated areas," Reno Fire Chief Mike Hernandez said. Many families "had to leave in the middle of the night with very, very limited possessions and they are coming back to dev- astation, to nothing," he said. "So our hearts and prayers go out to those families." With flames speeding down the hillside behind the Hard- ages' house, they decided to grab some clothes and the pets and flee at about 2 a.m. "Three computers, two dogs and two rabbits. That's pretty much all we have now," Austin Hardage said Saturday, his voice giving way to some tears. "I'm sorry," he told a reporter. "It hadn't really hit me until I start talking about it." The house itself in an upscale gated community near Lak- eridge Golf Course burned to its foundation. "It's all just glass and twisted metal," he said. - But in a twist that played out time and time again across the 2,000-acre fire, neighbor- ing houses on either side were untouched by the flames. "It's just amazing - Murphy's Law," Austin Hardage said. "It didn't even touch either house on either side. It doesn't make any sense." A few miles away, Tim Swee- ney ended up on the good side of a similar situation. "The house directly south of me burned completely down," he said. But Sweeney's house - with stucco walls and a concrete tile roof - suffered relatively minor damage when blowing embers got underneath the tiles and started burning in the attic. "Just about everything around the perimeter of my house is gone," Sweeney said. "Luckily, there was no real damage to the house except where they had to cut holes in the ceiling," he said. Sweeney, an architect who has lived there 25 years, said the flames had gotten within 100 feet of his home atop Windy Hill when he "finally had to get out of there." Reno firefighters showed up about the same time, he said. "Those guys just busted their butts fighting that fire. They first thought they were not going to be able to save it," Sweeney said. Sandoval said after a heli- copter tour of the area Saturday that while the loss of homes was tragic, the 400 firefighters on the lines are heroes for saving more than 4,000 houses that could have burned in the blaze investigators suspect was start- ed by arcing power lines. "When you see something like that, you can't help but be struck by the awesome and random power of nature," Sandoval said about the blackened path of the fire that snaked along the edge of the foothills. "It is nothing short of a miracle the amount of homes that have been saved," he said. WANT TO KNOW WHICH PROFESSORS GIVE THE HIGHEST GRADES? Visit www.maizeandbluereview.com SEE WHAT GRADES PROFESSORS GIVE AND COURSE EVALUATION RESULTS.