The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, February 3, 2012 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, February 3, 2012 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Slaying of girl,12,
was over cell phone
A shooting that left a 12-year-
old Detroit honor roll student
dead stemmed from a misunder-
standing about a mobile phone
that escalated into gunfire at the
girl's home, her mother said.
AmandaTaltontoldtheDetroit
Free Press that a man came to her
northwest side home Tuesday
night believing she had a phone
that belonged to another woman.
She denied she had it and closed
the door. That's when shots were
fired through the door, striking
her daughter, Kade'jah Davis,
multiple times.
"We were running and getting
down," Talton said.
A 19-year-old man suspected
in the shooting was arrested
early Wednesday, while his
35-year-old mother, who police
believed drove him to the home,
was arrested late Tuesday, police
said.
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa
Groundhog wars:
Rodents diverge
on winter forecast
Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney
Phil told people to prepare for six
more weeks of winter yesterday,
making him the minority opinion
among his groundhog brethren
who seem to think that spring is
coming early.
But with such a mild and rela-
tively snowless winter so far, who
can tell the difference?
Phil's "prediction" came as he
emerged from his lair to "see" his
shadow on Gobbler's Knob, a tiny
hill in the town for which he's
named about 65 miles northeast
of Pittsburgh.
Yet groundhogs in at least five
other states - West Virginia's
French Creek Freddie, Georgia's
Gen. Beauregard Lee, Michigan's
Woody the Woodchuck, Ohio's
Buckeye Chuck and New York's
Staten Island Chuck (full name:
Charles G. Hogg) - did not see
their shadows. Nor did Ontario's
Wiarton Willie or Nova Scotia's
Shubenacadie Sam.
BRUSSELS
NATO discusses
* Afghan draw back
Defense Secretary Leon Panet-
ta said yesterday that NATO allies
have agreed broadly to step back
from the lead combat role in
Afghanistan and let local forces
take their place as early as next
year, a shortened timetable that
startled officials and members of
Congress.
Obama administration officials
scrambled with varying degrees
of clarity to explain that Panetta's
announcement en route to the
NATO defense ministers' meet-
ing here that he hoped combat
troops would move into atraining
and assistance role beginning in
2013 was not a policy change, but
an optimistic look at the already-
established timetable.
CAIRO
Two dead in street
* clashes as soccer
riots rock Egypt
Police shot and killed two
protesters in Suez, Egypt, early
today, a health official said, the
first to die in clashes that erupt-
ed around the country after a
riot at a soccer stadium killed
74, as sports violence spiraled
into a new political crisis for
Egypt.
Protesters blame police for
failing to control the riot after
the soccer game in Port Said. In
Cairo, thousands demonstrated
yesterday in front of the Interior
Ministry, which oversees the
police. Demonstrators threw
rocks, and police responded
with clouds of tear gas. Hun-
dreds were treated by medics.
In Suez, witnesses said about
3,000 people demonstrated in
front of police headquarters
after news spread that one of the
victims in the Port Said riot was
from their city.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
PROGRAMS
From Page 1
renewable energy sources and
farming. This is Wright's third
year leading the program. He
took bringing students to Pata-
gonia in southern South Ameri-
ca to study hydropower in 2008
and 2009.
Despite the lack of engineer-
ing students in his class, Wright
said he understands why stu-
dents from across the University
are inclined to enroll given its
interactive approach and inter-
national component.
"You can talk about things in
a lecture setting, and that's a sat-
isfactory way to learn," he said.
"But if you can learn something
about a very particular issue
and then go talk to people who
might be directly involved in it
on a day-to-day basis, it becomes
a much more powerful learning
experience."
Apart from being a popu-
lar option for students to study
abroad, the course empha-
sizes the University's atten-
tion to sustainability research,
which, according to Univer-
sity researchers and research
administrators, is growing in
scale and scope.
At the Graham Environmen-
tal Sustainability Institute, inte-
grated assessments - studies
that devise solutions to directed
environmental problems with
the aid of policymakers - have
expanded the scope of issues the
University can address, accord-
ing to Don Scavia, the Institute's
director.
Scavia said he is optimistic
about the research the Universi-
ty's faculty is currently conduct-
ing on sustainability.
"We've hit the sweet spot in
where we ought to be going and
what we ought to be doing," Sca-
via said.
Scavia, who also serves as
University President Mary Sue
Coleman's special counsel on
sustainability, said one such
assessment culminated in the
$14 million sustainability plan
Coleman announced last Sep-
tember.
Larissa Larsen, associate
professor of urban planning
and of landscape, is conducting
research for two additional Inte-
grated Assessments, including a
study on how midsize cities in
the Great Lakes region can adapt
to climate change in the coming
years.
Larsen - in collaboration
with colleagues and students
from the School of Natural
Resources and Environment, the
Gerald R. Ford School of Pub-
lic Policy, the School of Public
Health and the College of Engi-
neering - is surveying policy-
makers in Ann Arbor, Grand
Rapids, Marquette, Mich. and
Milwaukee, Wisc., about their
concerns with environmental
issues.
The team has also been can-
vassing random residents in the
cities to seek their opinions on
prominent environmental top-
ics highlighted by legislators,
including precipitation and tem-
perature. Larsen said the team
will then conduct research about
the issues in those cities and
analyze the input from lawmak-
ers and citizens to make policy
recommendations.
Larsen is also studying the
links between transportation
and sustainably grown food
in parts of Ypsilanti. Since the
areas of Ypsilanti and Ypsi-
lanti Township are among the
poorest in Washtenaw County,
Larsen said she and Joe Grengs,
associate professor of urban and
regional planning, are looking at
the feasibility of bringing local
vendors of sustainably grown
food to bus stops and stations.
"Working in this multi-dis-
ciplinary way is really impor-
tant for these kinds of pressing
concerns and questions for how
these communities make good
choices," Larsen said. "There
are so many issues to tackle but
working with a group of diverse
people improves the kind of
answers and resolutions you can
propose."
The interdisciplinary
approach to sustainability
research at the University also
improves researchers' chances
of earning federal grants for
their projects and, in doing so,
expands the range of studies
here, Scavia said. The Univer-
sity has been able to respond to
federal requests for interdisci-
plinary research by assembling
teams from across fields and
schools.
Accordingto Scavia, research-
ers at the Graham Institute have
received about $390 million in
federal grants over the last 10
years. The Campus Sustain-
ability Integrated Assessment
identified climate, water and liv-
able systems as the three most
important areas, and funding
for these areas has increased 40
percent over the last four years.
The benefits of the Universi-
ty's success in acquiring federal
funding have been felt Univer-
sity-wide as researchers unite
to study multifaceted environ-
mental issues. Michael Moore,
dean for research at the School
of Natural Resources and Envi-
ronment, said there have been
increased efforts to acquire fed-
eral grants for large-scale sus-
tainability projects developed in
recent years.
"We have insights that single
insights won't generate," Moore
said. "That's critical. By having a
kind of multi-disciplinary team,
we're able to pose questions that
a single discipline can't."
Moore said sustainability
research at the school centers on
climate change studies since it
has been hard to encourage non-
scientists to care about sustain-
ability.
"It's a huge social problem to
get people to engage and think
about global warming," he said.
"It still feels like it's in the dis-
tant future - it's 20 years off,
it's 40 years off, we'll deal with
it later."
Moore added that sustain-
ability as a whole is a pressing
issue socially, environmentally,
politically and economically.
To address these facets, the
school enlists a variety of fac-
ulty, including ecologists,
geographers, sociologists, psy-
chologists and economists, he
said.
"Some of our research is
political scientists thinking in
political science terms," he said.
"But we also have teams where
ecologists will be working with
hydrologists and working with
economists, geographers and
other social scientists."
Moore pointed to consumer
behavior as a growing field of
sustainability research. Psy-
chologists and sociologists are
partnering with climate change
experts and economists to deter-
mine how to convince citizens to
be aware of their carbon foot-
print and encourage them to
invest in products that reduce it.
"It's a good time to be doing
environment research," he said.
"Funding is relatively good -
there's more opportunities, and
there's more interest from our
faculty."
Scavia agreed and said he was
pleased the University commits
itself to researching sustainabil-
ity issues.
"It's like turning an ocean
liner," he said. "It doesn't happen
quickly, but when it happens, it's
sustained."
FUNDING
From Page 1
no easy answer," Coleman said.
"It's going to be a big challenge
to us, because we already sub-
sidize research to the tune of
about 25 percent of the $1.2 bil-
lion (research budget)."
Despite the possible federal
funding setbacks, Forrest said
he believes in the strength of
the University's research pro-
grams and its continued push
toward innovation. He added
that research initiatives are still
a high priority to the federal
government, and the University
expects to remain competitive
with other leading research uni-
versities moving forward.
"We are hoping that we can
be more competitive so we can
keep building research enter-
prise in the face of cuts," Forrest
said. "The bottom line is that
during these tough economic
times, we are at least encour-
aged by the fact that innova-
tion, research and new ideas
have strong bipartisan support
by both Congress and the presi-
dent."
Forrest added that industry
funding is becoming increas-
ingly important because it
strengthens federal ties.
"We are working hard to
diversify our funding sources, as
corporate funding is important
for many reasons," Forrest said.
"They make us familiar with
problems that are important
in the real world, as essential
(industry) team members are on
many federal proposals."
Coleman said the University
will use its history of success to
look to various other sources to
increase research funding.
"I think we have a lot of
options to look at, that is,
increased philanthropy for
research, which we've had
some big success with, more
interaction with industry -
we've had success with that,"
Coleman said. "We've had suc-
cess in helping our professors
make sure that their proposals
are competitive by doing pre-
reviews and all sorts of things to
help them get a bigger share of
the research budget."
Despite the financial diffi-
culties that may lay ahead for
University research programs,
Forrest said he is hopeful for the
future.
"My outlook for the future
is always optimistic, that is my
nature," Forrest said. "Some
doors close, others will open.
This is a time of enormous
opportunity as things are in
flux. We can do very well and
that is exciting."
Engineering Prof. Paul Car-
son, whose research would be
affected by a funding decrease,
echoed Coleman, and said the
University will continue to com-
pete for research funds from
both governmental and industry
sources.
"Michigan has been concen-
trating on being a major research
universitysince I began 30 years
ago," Carson said. "Our radiol-
ogy department has been the
fourth highest in grant dollars
in the country and it has been
that way for the last five years."
Carson added that he doesn't
think the lack of growth in fed-
eral funding will hinder the
advancement of individual Uni-
versity departments.
"Although national funding
has not grown as much, (the)
biomedical department has
more growth potential (and)
EECS has been a leader in fund-
ing but has slipped in the num-
ber of students," Carson said.
"Regardless, they will continue
to be strong departments."
He added that despite the
federal funding cuts, the Uni-
versity will continue to support
research initiatives, particularly
with potential pending corpo-
rate aid and the newly opened
North Campus Research Com-
plex.
"Federal funding is likely to
decline in the short-term as we
address federal budget issues
and decline more seriously as
we come out of the recession,"
Carson said. "We will not be
growing in research dollars as
we have in the last decade, but
the fact that we have the North
Campus Research Complex with
lots of growth potential, we can
grow despite the decreasingfed-
eral funding."
Daily News Editor Paige Pearcy
contributed to this report
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