The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - 5
Coleman talks to faculty
body about state funding
Fr
TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daly
Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje organizes the agenda before the City Council meeting yesterday at City Hall.
CITY COUNCIL
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view, University spokeswoman
Kelly Cunningham wrote that
the University would assess these
guidelines in an effort to improve
diversity on campus.
"The University continues its
longstanding commitment to pro-
moting the educational benefits
of diversity, and will carefully
review the guidance to see if it
offers any additional ideas that
would enable the University to
promote those educational ben-
efits in a manner consistent with
Proposal 2," Cunningham wrote.
University Law School Prof.
Mark Rosenbaum, who is also
a lawyer for the American Civil
Liberties Union, said he believes
it is unlikely the University will
implement the new guidelines.
One reason, he said, was that
evidence has shown that when
BOWL
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ing into whether students will
be excused from the first day of
classes ven, Wednesday, Jan. 4
for the game. Depending on the
class and under typical circum-
stances, if students do not attend
the first two days of instruction,
they can be dropped from the
course roster.
In an e-mail interview yes-
terday, LSA senior Jessica Kraft
wrote that she is concerned about
missing the first day of classes,
but plans on e-mailing her pro-
fessors to ask to be excused since
she is going to the game. She
added that she believes the ben-
efits of attending the Sugar Bowl
outweigh the risks of missing the
first day of winter semester.
"One of my classes is full, so I
hope that it will not mean that I
will be dropped for not attend-
ing the first day," Kraft said. "At
the end of the day, however, I've
accepted that these are memo-
ries that I will have forever, and
ones that I would not want to
give up."
Kraft wrote that she plans to
ASSAULT
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Brown said both DPS and
Housing Security officers will
continue to be "vigilant" when
patrolling the area.
However, LSA freshman Alim
Leung, a Baits I resident, said she
is concerned DPS officers do not
sufficiently patrol the residence
hall.
"Definitely there could be more
DPS around here," Leung said. "...
I'm here late, and I see one police
officer every few hours."
admissions decisions are made
based on economic class, as sug-
gested in Obama's criteria, insti-
tutions do not achieve the same
level of diversity they would have
if they had selected students
based on race.
"It won't even be close," Rosen-
baum said. "... The goal of a genu-
inely diverse student body is to
look for all the factors - all the
different identities that different
students could bring to a univer-
sity campus. And the experience
of (economic) class is not the
same as the experience of race."
Since Proposal 2 became a
state constitutional amendment
in 2006 - by a vote that Washing-
ton noted was divided along racial
lines - the number of underrep-
resented minority students at the
University has declined every
year barring only last year, when
the percentage stood at 10.6, in
an increase from the 9.1 percent
in the 2009-2010 freshman class.
drive to the game in New Orleans
because flights are too expen-
sive. After the 8:30 p.m. game,
she and her roommate will spend
the night in the Big Easy rather
than drive home Wednesday
night.
"It doesn't seem fair for stu-
dents to be punished for sup-
porting our team because due to
circumstances beyond our con-
trol, our bowl is a night game the
day before the first day of class-
es," Kraft said. "The University
should recognize the fact that
kickoff of the Sugar Bowl is only
12 hours before classes start for
winter semester."
LSA senior Joey Bergren
said he purchased Sugar Bowl
tickets on the assumption that
his instructors would excuse
him from the first day of class.
Bergren said Wednesday is his
busiest day next semester, so he
hopes his professors will under-
stand the scheduling conflict.
"I'm (leaning) on the fact that
teachers will be a little more
lenient," Bergren said. "It's a
school-wide thing, it's not like a
certain group of people. We're
all part of this University; it's
our team that's going. I would
LSA freshman Ryan Rich-
mond, also a resident of Baits I,
said it is disconcerting that the
incident occurred in his residence
hall.
"It's a little scary that there's
somebody out there that would
do that," Richmond said.
Richmond added that he is
confused as to why DPS officers
are unable to find the suspect of
the sexual assault considering he
is an "acquaintance" of the survi-
vor.
LSA junior Breanna Couturi-
er, another Baits I resident, said
she was surprised by the incident
Last year, however, also marked
the first time new Higher Educa-
tion Opportunity Act guidelines
were implemented for students'
reporting their ethnicities.
Washington said the guide-
lines released last week could
increase the enrollment of under-
represented minority students if
the University chooses to imple-
ment the federal measures.
"I think it's going to mitigate
the effect, but it's not going to get
to the same outcomes," Washing-
ton said. "It is not a substitute for
race."
But Washington said he would
embrace any effect the guidelines
have on University policies, no
matter how small.
"I welcome any attempt to get
a more diverse student body -
it's what a university education
should be about," Washington
said. "But nobody should think
for a moment that it's going to
replace or supplant Prop. 2."
SACUA members
pass resolution in
response to Penn
State scandal
By MARY HANNAHAN
Daily StaffReporter
In a meeting with the leading
faculty governance body, Univer-
sity President Mary Sue Coleman
responded to questions about
state funding and future fresh-
man class sizes. The faculty also
passed resolutions responding
to student protests at California
universities and a resolution con-
cerning the Penn State sex abuse
scandal.
Coleman said to members
of the Senate Advisory Com-
mittee on University Affairs
yesterday that the University
currently receives 30 percent
less state funding than when she
assumed office in 2002. But in
the face of the reduced funding,
Coleman said faculty and admin-
istration have done a "great
job" cutting costs and increas-
ing efficiency without harming
interaction between faculty and
students.
Coleman said state funding is
crucial to maintaining the Uni-
versity's level of academic excel-
lence. 15-percent was cut from
the 2012 fiscalyear budget, which
totals $5.77billion.
"I am hopeful the governor
will have a budget that realizes
the need to invest ... in higher
education," she said.
Coleman acknowledged that
NCRC
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sities, government workers and
industryexecutives to improve
the state of American manufac-
turing.
One of the partnership's mis-
sions is to identify high-impact
technologies to help the U.S.
increase its level of global com-
petitiveness. Jack Hu, associate
dean in the College of Engineer-
ing and a professor of manu-
facturing technology, wrote
in an e-mail interview that the
technologies are versatile and of
great economic benefit to manu-
facturing companies and the
U.S. economy.
"These technologies are
ones that can be used by sev-
eral industries, that may have
profound impact on energy effi-
ciency, jobs and the overall U.S.
economic competitiveness," Hu
wrote.
COLEMAN
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mostly business-related, and
she will be speaking with vari-
ous donors.
"For me it's a development
opportunity, and I get ,to talk
to people who are donors to the
University," Coleman said.
Turning the discussion in a
different direction, LSA junior
Amanda Orley asked Cole-
man how administrators plan
to keep University graduates
working in Michigan.
Coleman urged students to
consider staying in the state
before looking elsewhere for
jobs. To encourage the rever-
sal of what is known as the
brain drain, Coleman said she
asks Michigan businesses to
offer internships for students
and added that her involve-
ment with Business Leaders
for Michigan - an organiza-
tion working to make Michigan
a top state for business - has
students are concerned about the
high cost of a college education,
but said she believes a college
education is essential to maintain
a high quality oflife. She also said
it gives students the opportunity
to grow in various ways.
"Students come out of here
very different than when they
came in," she said. "We give them
the tools to have great lives."
SACUA member Ed Roth-
man, a professor of statistics,
asked Coleman why the Univer-
sity doesn't increase the size of
incoming classes, saying that he
believes it would provide more
people with a quality education
and create greater revenue for the
University.
Before increasing the sizes
of incoming freshman classes,
Coleman said the administration
would need to figure out how
to more efficiently use space in
classrooms and residential build-
ings.
SACUA PASSES
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT
OF PEACEFUL PROTESTS
Earlier in the meeting, SACUA
members passed a resolution
demonstrating their support for
the peaceful protesters at the
University of California, Berkeley
and the University of California,
Davis who made headlines last
month. The resolution called
upon University of California
administrators to refrain from
using police force against stu-
dents.
On Nov. 18, police officers at
UC Davis pepper-sprayed stu-
dents peacefully protesting by
In May, the AMP will release
information about the high-
impact technology includ-
ing which innovations should
receive a greater amount of fed-
eral funding.,
Earlier this year, Obama
chose University President
Mary Sue Coleman and Hu to
head the partnership's Shared
Facilities and Infrastructure
workstream, which is based
at the University and aims to
expedite the improvement of
manufacturing technologies.
The all-day event next Mon-
day will include tours of the
University's manufacturing and
robotics labs, a panel discus-
sion and meetings for each of
the four AMP workstreams -
Technology Development, Pol-
icy, Education and Workforce
Development and Shared Facili-
ties and Infrastructure.
Hu wrote that the goal of
the meeting is to gather input
from manufacturing profes-
been helpful on this front.
Engineering senior Scott
Wilson asked Coleman and
Harper about public trans-
portation and ways to link the
Ann Arbor campus to Detroit.
As examples of the connec-
tion between the two, Harper
mentioned the Ginsberg Cen-
ter, which provides commu-
nity service opportunities in
the city including Alternative
Weekends and Alternative
Spring Breaks, the Detroit Part-
nership - an organization that
creates volunteer opportunities
for students in Detroit - and
the University's America Reads
Tutoring Corps, a program in
which University students help
local elementary school chil-
dren with their reading skills.
"It's important that we travel
abroad and to be out and about
in the world, but we really
could make- a commitment to
something much more local,"
Harper said.
Wilson also brought up his
concern that North and Central
sitting on the ground. Earlier
in November, protestors at UC
Berkeley were assaulted by cam-
pus police during a peaceful pr-
test.
The SACUA resolution states
that if similar incidents occur at
other universities in the future,
the administrations of these
schools should engage in a dia-
logue with the protesters and lis-
ten to their concerns.
SACUA MEMBERS
RESPOND TO PENN
STATE SCANDAL
SACUA members passed an
additional resolution in response
to the sexual abuse scandal at
Pennsylvania State University.
The resolution provides sugges-
tions about how to prevent simi-
lar scandals at the University of
Michigan and stresses that each
individual, whether a victim or a
witness, is responsible for report-
ing criminal behavior.
Coleman said she has been
actively working with the Office
of General Counsel to enhance
the sense of personal respon-
sibility in reporting crimes on
campus. She said the scandal
at Penn State, in which former
football coach Jerry Sandusky
is accused of sexually abus-
ing young boys, has increased
awareness of crime reporting
and hopes it is an opportunity to
make improvements at the Uni-
versity.
"Out of something bad that
happened, I hope there's some
good thatcomes -thatitwillcre-
ate an opportunity to talk about
these issues," Coleman said.
sionals and the general public to
improve the U.S. manufacturing
industry and prevent operations
from moving abroad.
"The United States is still
the biggest manufacturer in
the world," Hu wrote. "But the
manufacturing sector lost sev-
eral million jobs during the last
decade due to improvement
in manufacturing efficiency
as well as outsourcing. When
manufacturing goes offshore,
research and development
activities are likely to follow."
However, Hu wrote that he
believes the U.S. should contin-
ue investing in manufacturing
in order to increase employ-
ment opportunities, spur the
economy and ensure national
security.
Speakers at the event will
include representatives from
the U.S. Department of Defense
and industry leaders from busi-
nesses such as Ford Motor Com-
pany and Dow Chemical.
campuses aren't as connected
as they could be.
Coleman said improving
transit between the two cam-
puses is an important way the
University tries to make North
Campus more accessible for all
students.
"We'd love to have a mono-
rail," Coleman added with a
chuckle.
Harper said she frequently
rides the buses to and from
North Campus to get the stu-
dent perspective, but she said it
is a "real struggle" to make the
campus more appealing. The
North Campus Initiative is one
attempt to do so.
In an interview after the
event, Coleman said almost
every student who comes to
her monthly fireside chats has
a chance to ask questions and
provides valuable input.
"One of the things I love
about Michigan students is
they're not shy about telling
me what they think," Coleman
said.
assume tnat tney wouiau oe
lenient towards that."
Like many other students who
won't be back for the first day
of class on Jan. 4, LSA senior
Maura Beyer wrote in an e-mail
interview that she won't be back
in Ann Arbor until Jan. 5.
"I am not really concerned
about it, and I guess I'll have to
deal with that issue in January
if it does arise," Beyer wrote.
The deadline to purchase tick-
ets in the student section at the
Superdome is Thursday.
because she thought most major
crimes that have been reported
have occurred on Central Cam-
pus. But Couturier added that
because the suspect was a "vis-
iting acquaintance," she is not
particularly concerned for her
safety.
"I still feel pretty safe here,"
Couturier said. "My feeling about
the safety might have been differ-
ent if it wasn't somebody that she
personally knew that was visiting
her."
- Daily Staff Reporter Josh
Qian contributed to this report.
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