The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
January 18, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom January18, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Drug sniffing dog
found after escape
Officials say a German Shep-
herd that formerly worked on
bomb-sniffing duty in Washing-
ton, D.C., has been recaptured
after escaping on arrival in the
Detroit area.
WWJ-AM reports the dog
named Arco ran away in Romu-
* lus after arriving Monday night
on a cargo flight to Detroit Met-
ropolitan Airport from Tucson,
Ariz., and being let out of a crate
to go to the bathroom.
Nadine Karsevar runs an
organization that rehabilitates
dogs and says the dog was mak-
ing the trip to Michigan to a new
home.
SEATTLE, Wash.
Snowshoer resorts
to burning money
to stay warm
A snowshoer who was lost in
a blizzard for two days on Wash-
ington state's Mount Rainier said
he stayed alive by digging out a
snow tunnel and burning his
paper money for warmth.
Yong Chun Kim, 66, of Taco-
ma, told KOMO-TV of Seattle
that he had fire starters with him
and first burned some leaves.
Then he started burning person-
al items: his socks and then $1
and $5 bills from his wallet.
Kim, who served in the South
Korean military in the Vietnam
War, told the station that skills
he learned as a soldier helped
him survive.
Kim also said he marched in
place to keep warm and took
cover in a tree well - the hole in
the snow under a tree. He fought
off sleep but dreamed of his wife
and a nice hot sauna.
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C.
Gingrich demands
disavowment of
Islamic law
Republican presidential can-
didate Newt Gingrich says a
Muslim-American seeking office
in the U.S. would have to publicly
renounce Islamic law to receive
his backing.
Speaking at a town hall yes-
terday in West Columbia, S.C.,
Gingrich was asked whether he
could support a Muslim-Ameri-
can candidate.
The former House speaker
replied that it would depend
entirely on whether the person
would commit in public to give
up sharia, of Islamic law.
Gingrich said he is totally
opposed to Islamic law and sup-
ports a federal law that would
pre-empt it.
ABUJA, Nigeria
Christmas day
* bomber escapes
after gun battle
The suspected mastermind
of the Christmas Day bombing
of a Catholic church in Nige-
ria escaped custody after being
arrested in the country's capi-
tal, police acknowledged yes-
terday - an embarrassment for
a nation struggling to contain
increasingly bloody sectar-
ian attacks by a radical Islamist
sect.
Authorities said Kabiru Soko-
to planned the bombing that
killed 38 people at St. Theresa
Catholic Church in Madalla, just
outside Nigeria's capital Abuja.
But his arrest at the mansion of
a state governor in Abuja, and
subsequent escape, raised more
questions about the govern-
ment's ability to stop the radi-
cal sect, known as Boko Haram,
which claimed responsibility for
the church attack.
Federal police spokesman
Olusola Amore said in state-
ment that a local commissioner
ordered Sokoto transferred to
another police station in Abaji,
just outside of Abuja and that the
policemen escorting him were
attacked by suspected sect gang
O members who freed him.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
JONESIN' FOR A JOB
WIKIPEDIA
From Page 1
Wikipedia is joined by other
websites, including Wordpress
and Reddit, that disconnected
their services today out of soli-
darity or displayed their public
disapproval like Google, which is
displaying a black banner over its
logo today.
MacKie-Mason added that
students worried about the Wiki-
pedia outage should remember
there are other sources of infor-
mation on the Internet.
"It may be hard for today's stu-
dents to remember, but all of us
had to find information without
Wikipedia not very long ago."
Engineering freshman Brad
Olson, who had previously heard
about the planned blackout, said
he would be disappointed there
were barriers limiting his use of
Wikipedia.
"If that were to go down ... I
would probably be pretty upset,"
Olson said. "It would feel like I
lost a resource."
However, some students said
they aren't concerned about
the repercussions of not being
able to use Wikipedia for a day,
mostly because they do not have
any immediate schoolwork that
requires online research.
Engineering sophomore Jer-
emy Ross said most students are
able to use other resources on the
Internet to gather information.
"It might make researching
something more difficult," Ross
said. "But you can find almost
all of the information, I would
assume, that's on Wikipedia on
different websites."
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
LSA sophomore Angel Ting receives help from a career advisor during a Resume Review Night at the Career Center
yesterday.
TESTING University Committee on the
Use and Care of Animals.
From Page 1 "The University of Michi-
gan takes pride in the animal
ing, cleanliness, ventilation and care programs and the animal
medical needs," Trull said. "It research efforts that are under-
also requires the use of anesthe- taken here at the University,"
sia or analgesic drugs." Dysko said. "We all take our roles
Trull added that updates to very seriously. People like me
the U.S. Public Health Service and my colleagues are needed to
Act in 2002 made it harder for make sure the animals are cared
institutions to receive grants for properly and the procedures
from federal institutions such as that are used are the best and
the Food and Drug Administra- most humane."
tion or Centers for Disease Con- Dysko added that there are
trol and Prevention. various University-specific poli-
"Under the PHS policy, insti- cies that govern animal research
tutions must follow detailed ani- on campus, including the Uni-
mal care recommendations and versity of Michigan Policy State-
establish an Institutional Ani- ment on Animal Research and
mal Care and Use Committee to the Standard Procedures and
ensure that all animals are treat- Guidelines for Animal Use at
ed responsibly and humanely," U-M.
Trull said. Still, LSA junior Akshay
Pat Brown, director of the Verma, director for the Michigan
Office of Laboratory Animal Animals Rights Society, wrote in
Welfare at the National Institute an e-mail that he believes laws
of Health, said a peer review sys- and policies governing animal
tem is in place to provide fund- research are still too weak and
ingonlytowards quality projects loosely enforced.
that have exceeded federal stan- "Every year, more than 100
dards. million animals suffer and die
"The laws and policies require in academic and commercial
federally-supported scientists to research, cosmetic testing and
be accountable from the time educational training," Verma
they first plan their research wrote. "Along with primates,
and to the time the research is dogs and cats, 95 percent of these
completed to protect the welfare animals include rats, mice, birds,
of animals used in research," and others that are not even
Brown said. nominally protected under the
Nevertheless, according to Animal Welfare Act."
PETA, peer review and animal According to Verma, the Uni-
care and use committees don't versity doesn't have a history of
effectively prevent studies that supporting humane treatment
endanger animals. PETA's web- of animals used in research, and
site states that many committees use animals provided from dubi-
approve studies "without ques- ous sources.
tion" and do not fairly represent "Class B dealers, which the
the interests of animals. University works with, are noto-
Despite controversy over the rious for their violations of the
ethics of animal studies, Ian Animal Welfare Act." Verma
Demsky, spokesman for the wrote. "Students can demand
University of Michigan Health their universities to become
System, wrote in an e-mail that more transparent in research
University research has pro- and adopt alternatives."
gressed significantly through the Verma added that proponents
use of animal research. of animal research deceive the
Demsky listed several major public by portraying all research
medical advances made by the as imperative to the advance-
University as a result of animal ment of human medicine.
research, including the extracor- "The reality of the matter is
poreal membrane oxygenation, animals are legally used in high
which was developed using a numbers for curiosity-driven
sheep model in the 1970s and research projects and cosmetic
now helps patients maintain testing that the general public
heart and lung functions world- would not deem necessary,"
wide. Verma wrote.
Robert Dysko, director of the Verma also included exam-
University's Unit for Laboratory ples of animal research prac-
Animal Medicine, said the Uni- tices at the University that he
versity implemented multiple believes violate federal laws,
policies to ensure animal safety including experiments involv-
before stricter laws took effect, ing inducing cocaine addiction
including the formation of the in rats, placing rats in cylinders
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of water and isolating squirrel
monkeys for weeks.
Verma added that he believes
advances in technology and
increased public awareness on
the issue will help reduce the use
of animals in research and the
pursuit of unnecessary research.
University of California, Los
Angeles neuroscientist David
Jentsch, a member of the board
of directors of Americans for
Medical Progress, said some
of the current technology that
replaced animal research over
the past 30 years would not be
possible without discoveries
made through animal research.
"Cell cultures, computational
models - the things you hear
people talk about that are alter-
natives to animal research in
every case - emerged because
scientists discovered in the
course of a study a more tech-
nologically sophisticated way of
doing the study," Jentsch said.
Jentsch, who noted that his
car was once blown up by animal
activists, added that it doesn't
make sense for activists to target
only animal researchers, but also
institutions like fast food chains.
"If animal activists were
honest, they are against animal
research and (they) are against
you because you eat Burger
King," Jentsch said. "(If this
were true,) then they would have
no support."
LSA freshman Jasmine
Garmo said she supports animal
research as long as ethical guide-
lines and animal welfare laws are
observed.
"I am all for animal rights, but
I also believe that the recent reg-
ulations set in place have made
animal research safer and not
as detrimental for the animals
involved," Garmo said.
Engineering freshman Aditya
Chintalapati said as long as the
testing is done in humane ways,
it should not be an issue.
"However, I don't think it's
going to be necessary in the
future," Chintalapati said. "In
the future, technology will
become more sophisticated and
most of testing will be done by
computers."
SCHEDULED
From Page 1
Pollack added that she was
glad that the savings could
help curb recent rises in tuition
without harming the quality of
instruction at the University.
"We're dealing in a time of
very constrained resources, so
if we do things like move classes
around and, as a result of that,
still have lower tuition increases
or still have raises for faculty and
staff and have these other ben-
efits - less conflicts for students,
more use of the nice classrooms
- it's kind of a win-win," she
said.
Amid rising tuition and an
increase in operating costs for
the University, Pollack said she
has been examining all pos-
sible methods of saving costs.
Through repurposing of campus
buildings, she said the plan will
slow the rush of construction
that has persisted over the last
decade, noting the University
grew in square feet at more than
2 percent per year from 2001 to
2007.
According to data compiled by
Frances Mueller, assistant vice
provost for academic and bud-
getary affairs, about half of class-
rooms are empty at 8 a.m. and 5
p.m. during the week.
Conversely, classes are often
overscheduled during peak
hours and professors have dif-
ficulty finding open classrooms,
according to Pollack. She iden-
tified three or four classes in
the School of Nursing for which
professors were unable to sched-
ule classes in the same room for
every meeting.
"A lot of faculty think, 'Wow,
we must have a real shortage of
classrooms because I can never
get my class schedule,"' Pollack
said. "Well, actually that's not
true. We have this oversupply,
but the problem is everybody
wants to teach their class at the
same time."
The plan hopes to resolve the
time conflicts by scheduling no
more than 35 percent of all class-
es during peak hours, no fewer
than 35 percent of classes during
off-peak hours - 9 a.m., noon, 3
p.m. and 4 p.m.- and 15 percent
of classes on Fridays, according
to Pollack.
Currently 39 percent of class-
es are held during peak hours,
about 32 percent are during non-
peak hours and 12 percent are on
Fridays.
Kim Kearfott, SACUA vice
chair and a professor in the
Medical School and College of
Engineering, said at last week's
meeting that the over-schedul-
ing problem offered few flawless
solutions, but the rise in the per-
centage of early morning classes
may inconvenience students.
"The young adult mind of a
freshman or sophomore doesn't
work well early," she said at the
meeting.
LSA junior Lars Johnson
said the proposal's potential to
decrease scheduling conflicts
may be particularly beneficial
to underclassmen who are still
determining their majors and
enrolling in courses in multiple
departments.
Overall, Johnson called the
plan "reasonable" because it
checks tuition increases and
aims to prevent scheduling
conflicts for students and pro-
fessors. He said he wouldn't be
more inclined to skip class if it
were earlier, but added that he
thought other students may be
prone to do so until they grew
used to the changes.
"It's tough to get people who
are attentive in class at that time,
and until an actual culture gets
behind it, I'll bet they get a lot of
people who just skip class," he
said.
LSA junior Ray Stapleton said
he would likely skip early lec-
tures, since it's something he
does frequently already.
"I don't like having early
classes," he said. "It sucks when
there's a class I want to schedule
and I see it's at 8:30."
LSA junior Rebecca Lynn, an
employee at the University Hos-
pital, said she works early in the
morning and therefore would
not mind earlier classes since
she would already be awake.
She added that she believes
the plan is fair and sensible,
particularly since she has had
difficulty scheduling Psychol-
ogy classes to fit her major in
the past because the required
courses are often taught at the
same time, forcing her to choose
between classes.
"The tradeoff is definitely
worth it," she said. "If it means
lowering tuition, it's not a huge
commitment. It's not like they're
asking for Saturday or Sunday
classes."
- Daily News Editor Paige
Pearcy contributed to this report
Talk to AIFS Representative Damien Marshall
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19th
A