The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
Snyder wants to
consider grad.
rates for funding
Gov. Rick Snyder says he wants
part of the funding that Michi-
gan gives its 15 public universities
next fiscal year to depend on per-
formance standards that could
include graduation rates.
Michigan has been cuttinguni-
versity support and is expected
to provide about $1.2 billion next
year.
The Detroit Free Press says
Michigan is one of 17states imple-
menting or studying performance
funding.
A leader of Michigan's univer-
sities say it's an attempt by law-
makers to take more control that
the state constitution places with
university governing boards.
LOS ANGELES
Teen pleads guilty
in killing of Calif.
gay student
A Southern California teen-
ager has pleaded guilty to second-
degree murder in the killing of a
gay classmate in a deal that will
send him to prison for 21 years.
Ventura County Chief Deputy
District Attorney Mike Frawley
says the plea deal was reached
yesterday in the case of 17-year-
old Brandon McInerney, who
gunned down 15-year-old Larry
King at a school in Oxnard in Feb-
ruary 2008. McInerney was 14 at
the time.
The case had been expected to
go to retrial following a Septem-
ber mistrial when jurors couldn't
reach a unanimous decision on
the degree of guilt. The panel
took a series of votes, the last one
with seven in favor of voluntary
manslaughter and five jurors sup-
porting either first-degree or sec-
ond-degree murder.
MANCHESTER, N.H.
Gingrich requests-
private retirement
accounts for youth
Republican presidential con-
tender Newt Gingrich yesterday
proposed allowing younger work-
ers still decades away from retire-
ment to bypass Social Security and
instead choose private investment
accounts that would be subject to
stock market gyrations.
The former House speaker,
who has risen in the polls, would
allow younger workers to take
their share of the payroll tax that
funds Social Security and put it in
a private account.
Employers would still pay their
share of the tax, which would
be used to pay benefits for cur-
rent retirees. But it would create
a funding shortfall that Gingrich
brushed off.
"That gap is more than covered
by the savings" that would come
from giving states control of 185
social welfare programs, Gin-
grich told reporters after a speech
that laid out broad concepts but
lacked key details.
ZINTAN, Libya
Captured Gadhafi
intelligence chief
in secret location
Moammar Gadhafi's captured
intelligence chief is being held at
a highly secret location deep in
Libya's southern desert because
of possible threats to his life, a
government spokesman said yes-
terday.
Abdullah al-Senoussi, who is
wanted by the International Crim-
inal Court in the Netherlands and
by France, is being held in the city
of Sabha by revolutionary fighters
who captured him on Sunday, said
Hmeid al-Etabi, a local spokesman
for Libya's new leadership. But the
prisoner's precise location must be
kept secret, he said.
"The revolutionaries have cre-
ated a total media blackout on his
whereabouts because so many
people want him dead," al-Etabi
told The Associated Press.
Compiled from
Daily wire reports
From Page 1A
center.
Kelly Parent, patient-family
coordinator at the family cen-
ter, said the scattered location of
resources presented a problem
for offering adequate care.
"The main thing I think our
new hospital is going to improve
(is that) our programs are going
to be right in the middle of every-
thing," Parent said.
According to Parent, inpatient
families have benefited the most
from the center in the past, but
the new location will allow out-
patient families to use the facili-
ties as well.
The regrouping will also
have a major impact on clinical
aspects of the hospital. Dr. John
Charpie, professor of pediatric
cardiology, said this is the first
time cardiac surgeons with the
University Hospital have been
located in the same area as car-
diology testing areas and outpa-
tient clinics.
"This really allows us to func-
tion as a program that can pro-
vide all of the cardiac services
to our patients in one location,"
Charpie said.
Charpie said the new set up
will allow for clinical, education-
al and research collaboration. He
added that it will solve problems
the hospital has had with conti-
nuity of care.
"Thevastmajorityof criticism
by families in the past was about
the physical layout (of the hospi-
tal)," Charpie said. "These issues
have now been removed."
IMPROVING PATIENT AND
CONFERENCE ROOMS
In addition to the layout of
departments, staff members
also gave input regarding the
design of the new patient rooms.
The rooms now contain features
that save time in emergencies
and make routine processes
easier. Parent pointed to newly-
installed oxygen equipment on
each side of patient beds - a
small addition staff members felt
was important.
"This way, you're going to
have quick and easy access to
hooking up a patient to whatev-
er itisthat theyneeinonatter
what side (of them) you are on,"
Parent said.
Charpie said the staff also
suggested patient rooms be
located across from each other
so nurses stationed outside the
rooms could easily monitor mul-
tiple patients simultaneously.
The rooms were originally sup-
posed to be identical and fac-
ing the same way, according to
Charpie.
"The problem with that is that
operationally, it does not allow
a nurse to care for more than
one patient at a time," Charpie
said. "Unfortunately, you don't
have one nurse for one patient
everywhere throughout a hospi-
tal - that's just not a sustainable
staffing model."
Charpie also pointed to new
break-away doors in the inten-
sive care units as additions that
will allow doctors to access
patients more quickly.
Dan Fischer, director of the
hospital's Child and Family Life
Department, said the larger
size of the new patient rooms
makes his job easier. Whereas
DIABETES
From Page 1
varied in each rabbit. Diabetics
seeking to use the technology
would have to carefully deter-
mine the correlation between
their tear and blood glucose lev-
els to ensure accurate measure-
ments, Meyerhoff said.
He added that it would take
approximately10 to 15 minutes to
collect the necessary amount of
tears for the instrument to work
as it is currently designed.
"We recognize that alot more
needs to be done to scale it down
to a much smaller size," Meyer-
hoff said.
Meyerhoff and his colleagues
have been working on the project
for approximately one year, but
it could also take up to five years
before the technology is avail-
able for consumer use, Meyerhoff
said.
Even if the technology
becomes available for human
use, Meyerhoff emphasized that
the instrument would not replace
blood glucose measurements.
"It's going to be a monitor,"
Meyerhoff said. "It will tell you
The women's clinic on the opening weekend of the new hospital on No. 6.
the rooms in the former facility scratch. We have a precooked
housed two or three patients at a crust, but what we can do with
time, the new same-sized rooms that is unlimited. Today, I made
are all singles. a stuffed potato pizza."
"For us in child life, the space Some members of the staff
really is tremendous," Fischer graduated from culinary school
said. "We now have all kinds and were trained to work in a
of patient rooms so we can do facility like the new hospital's
things more comfortably." kitchen, Schifano said. The staff
The new hospital it is also can now put their culinary skills
intended to improve the work to use, he said, instead of just
environment for staff when reheating frozen food.
they're focused on other aspects "The sky is the limit," Schi-
like teaching and holding confer- fano said. "With their knowl-
ences. edge and experience and with
Charpie said there is a great the help of the dietitians here,
need for the addition of confer- we're going to be able to create
ence and educational rooms for anything."
staff since teaching sessions Schifano said the new kitchen
sometimes happen in the middle has changed the way he feels
of units such as the Cardiotho- about what he does every day.
racic Intensive Care Unit. "I get up at 3:30 in the morn-
"Many times, we have our ing," he said. "And these last
weekly conference standing in few weeks, I've never been more
the middle of the unit and speak- excited to come to work."
ing with 50 people gathered Schifano added that he feels
around a desk," Charpie said. the same kind of positive energy
"That makes it very cumber- from his staff, who love the new
some, and it disrupts the ICU." kitchen and equipment.
He said the new rooms will "I walk in the door, and they
be distant enough to prevent already have the stuff lit up on
disruption to the hospital, but the stove. They already have
close to patients so doctors will everything on and ready to go,"
be readily available in an emer- Schifano said. "That tells me
gency. they're excited."
"It's really an incredible space
that offers patients, families and TAKING PRIDE IN THE
caregivers so much more flex- NEW FACILITY
ibility, so many more resources
and so much more space than we The sense of pride in the new
had in our old hospital," Charpie hospital permeates every depart-
said. ment, and is an attitude that
GLOBAL
From Page 1
darin speaker this year to help
the office direct an international
program that will involve trans-
lating stories into Mandarin for
the global Michigan site.
Rudgers also addressed the
need for multimedia with an
international focus.
"We live in a world, as sad as it
may be, with an often short atten-
tion span," Rudgers said. "So the
ability for us to tell a story quick-
ly and with impact matters. And
today, that often means with ter-
rific visuals, with a great graphic
presentation and with video."
Rudgers stressed that there is
a high demand from University
faculty members and schools for
the News Service to communi-
cate their research to a larger
audience.
"It's clear the demand for us to
tell our stories and for individual
schools and colleges and faculty
members to tell their stories is
just huge," she said.
Rudgers served as the Uni-
versity's vice president for com-
munications from 2000 to 2007.
Last spring, University Presi-
dent Mary Sue Coleman asked
her to return to the position.
Coleman wanted her to address
the tremendous change in the
"scale and scope and demand for
communications globally" since
she last worked at the Univer-
sity.
"In the wintertime of 2007,
there were about 28 million
people on Facebook. Now, last
month, 850 million," Rudgers
said. "The explosion of social
media and our ubiquitous use
of it has really changed the way
people like me do our jobs."
RESOLUTION PASSED TO
EXPAND FACULTY VOTING
Later in the meeting, the Sen-
ate Assembly passed a resolution
aimed at expanding the level of
engagement in faculty gover-
nance by allowing the Faculty
Senate - a group of about 3,000
faculty members including all
professors -to vote on certain
issues determined by the Senate
Assembly. The resolution also
approved the use of an electronic
voting system.
Ed Rothman, a former Senate
Advisory Committee on Univer-
sity Affairs chair and professor of
statistics, said he fully supports
the resolution.
"I'm very much in favor of
this. I think we need to empower
all of the members of the senate
- 3,000 or so of us - to take part
in this process," Rothman said.
"It'll make our jobs more impor-
tant and more visible in a very
positive way."
Rachel Goldman, a SACUA
member and professor of engi-
neering and physics, said she
supports the resolution but sees
the loss of control as a potential
drawback.
"If we adopt electronic voting
for full senate issues, we would
possibly lose a little bit of control
in favor of democracy," Goldman
said.
SACUA member John Lehm-
an, a professor of ecology and
evolutionary biology, said he
believes there could be prob-
lems implementing the resolu-
tion because volunteers would
be needed to organize the online
voting process. Previously they
used paper ballots.
ASSEMBLY PASSES
RESOLUTION CHANGING
CHAIR TERMS
The Senate Assembly passed a
resolution adding on to the exist-
ing term limits for SACUA mem-
bers.
The original policy stated that
there is a one-year limitation for
holding the SACUA chair posi-
tion and a three-year term limit
for SACUA and Senate Assembly
members. With the resolution,
the one-year limitation is extend-
ed to the vice chair and the
three-year limit is extended to
the Senate Secretary, who could
previously serve for one year.
SACUA Vice Chair Kim Kear-
fott, a professor in the Medical
School and College of Engineer-
ing, said she supports the motion
even though it means she will
give up her position next year.
"I am the one person who is
immediately affected by this,
and I think it's a really good idea
because it makes sure there's
a turnover in people and that
people don't get entrenched in
-their- various :postions "'Kear-
fott said.
A STATE-OF-THE-ART
KITCHEN
Staff members' excitement
about the new facility also spans
down to the basement, where
the food-service staff are look-
ing forward to the new kitchen.
According to Diane Knibbs,
associate director of food ser-
vices, the old hospital's cooking
area was never designed to be an
institutional kitchen.
"We couldn't have raw food in
the old kitchen," Knibbs said. "It
had to already be precooked and
chilled down."
Executive Chef Stephen Schi-
fano describes the old kitchen,
which was smaller than the new
building's dry store room, as
crowded and boring.
"There was no creativity,"
Schifano said.
In contrast, staff in the new
facility has room to make food
most people wouldn't expect to
see in a hospital.
The kitchen staff has started
to experiment with different
food items. The new menu fea-
tures options such as Michigan
cherry salad with chicken, ques-
adillas, a sandwich bar, breakfast
wraps and Asian stir-fry dishes.
"We used to have a microwav-
able pizza," Schifano said. "Now
we're making our pizzas from
whether you're high or low, (and
when to) check your blood glu-
cose. (Do not) rely on it to give
yourself insulin."
Meyerhoff said he never
imagined himself as a diabetes
researcher.
"I always swore I would
never work on glucose because
too many people are doing it ..."
he said. "It's such a hot subject,
given the status (of) how many
people have diabetes."
In the United States, 25.8
million people have diabetes,
according to National Institutes
of Health.
In addition to Meyerhoff,
other University researchers will
be focused on diabetes research
with the help of a multimillion
dollar grant received last week.
The Center for Geospatial Medi-
cine at the University's School of
Natural Resources and Environ-
ment received a $6.2 million joint
grant with Duke University from
the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foun-
dation. The grant is part of the
foundation's national diabetes
program, Together on Diabetes,
and the project will be based in
Durham County, N.C.
Unlike Meyerhoff's study, the
Parent said will make the new
hospital an incredible experi-
ence for patients.
"This facility is wonderful
and fantastic," Parent said. "But
still, it's the people who are going
to make the difference for our
patients and our families."
Parent explained that in the
past, drab facilities made the
work environment less upbeat,
especially in internal staffing
rooms, which received no sun-
light.
"They made sure that the staff
rooms have external windows
so people can get the sun thera-
py," she said. "And they can see
what's going on, and it's going to
be really rejuvenating to be able
to see outside."
Small details like these elevate
the staff's morale, Parent said.
"I have to believe that when
you feel happier you're going
to be a happier employee, and
you're going to be better," she
said.
Charpie added that he thinks
the facility is a reflection of what
goes on within its walls.
"We feel that we've been prac-
ticing world-class medicine at a
top institution for a long time,"
Charpie said. "And now, we feel
we have the physical place to
support that contention, and
I think that's a real source of
pride for everyone."
collaboration with Duke Univer-
sity will focus on Type II dia-
betes. The goal of the research
is to examine the relationship
between where diabetes patients
live and the health care available.
With the grant, the research-
ers will use geospatial mapping
- a technology which takes
health care and disease informa-
tion and shapes it to a physical
map of a community-according
to the press release.
Marie Lynn Miranda, direc-
tor of the Center for Geospatial
Medicine, wrote in a University
press release that she is grateful
for the opportunity to investi-
gate the relationship between
disease, health care and location.
Miranda will become the dean of
SNRE on Jan. 1.
Mary Riegle, director of spe-
cial events and individual giving
at the American Diabetes Asso-
ciation office in Detroit, wrote
in an e-mail interview that she
strongly believes research makes
a huge difference in the lives of
diabetics.
"We know so much more
about diabetes than we did 20
years ago because of research,"
Riegle wrote.
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