The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT Possible shuffling of Ford's leaders Friday, February 10, 2012 - 3 YOU CAN DANCE, YOU CAN JIVE Two of the architects behind Ford's remarkable turnaround are retiring, and their departureshave intensified the guessinggame over who will become the next CEO. For now, Chief Executive Alan Mulally isn't going anywhere. The energetic, 66-year-old Kansan is considered a hero for bringing the company back from financial disaster. He insisted on yesterday that he'll continue to lead Ford. But the retirements of two top lieutenants - CFO Lewis Booth and Product Development Chief Derrick Kuzak - on April 1 remove two of the five inside contenders for the CEO job. Their departures have renewed water cooler talk about who takes over for superstar Mulally. LANSING Gov. Snyder ties extra K-12 school funding to learning Michigan's governor said Thursday that the state should capitalize on its brightest econom- ic outlook in a decade by opening its checkbook to school districts - but only those that can show their students actually are learn- ing from year to year. Republican Rick Snyder's plan for districts to compete for $70 million in extra state money is part of a growing trend in perfor- mance-based education funding as cash-strapped states look for ways to do more than just spread scarce dollars around. With Michigan heading into a new budget year without the chronic deficits that plagued it for the past 10 years, Snyder wants to reward schools for how well they educate, not for merely having the best and brightest students. Sever- al states have tied financial incen- tives to standardized test scores, but-&"der's-plan is somewhat dif- ferent. WASHINGTON Pentagon eases job limits for women New orders from the Penta- gon: The military on Thursday formally qpened thousands of jobs to women in units that are closer to the front lines than ever before, reflecting what's already been going on as female American soldiers fight and die next to their male comrades. The new rules, affecting thou- sands of jobs, will break down more of the official barriers that have restricted the military posi- tions women can take. They're being sent to Congress, and if lawmakers take no action after 30 work days the policy will take effect. The changes still aren't coming fast enough for some in Congress * or the military. They noted that the rules still ban women from serving as infantry, armor and special operations forces, which are considered the most danger- ous combat jobs. GUADALAJARA, MEXICO 15 tons of meth found in Mexico Thehistoric seizure of15 tons of pure methamphetamine in west- ern Mexico, equal to half of all meth seizures worldwide in 2009, feeds growing speculation that the country could become a world platform for meth production, not just a supplier to the United States. The sheer size of the bust announced late Wednesday in Jalisco state suggests involvement of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, a major international trafficker of cocaine and marijuana that has moved into meth production and manufacturing on an industrial scale. Army officials didn't say what drug gangs could have been behind the dozens of blue barrels filled with powdered meth. Army Gen. Gilberto Hernandez Andreu said the meth was ready for pack- aging. There was no information on where the drugs were headed. -Compiled from Daily wire reports TERESA MATHEW/Daily Engineering Sophmomore Heema Karunakaram participates ina dance workshop in the Michigan League yesterday. PROPOSAL the additional detail on the new From Page 1 funding that is tied to perfor- mance metrics so we can analyze the impact." ing decreases were contin- Wilbanks did not respond to gent upon a tuition cap of a an interview request for further 7.1-percent increase for in-state comment. students. Last June, the Univer- In a town hall meeting that sity's Board of Regents voted to was streamed live on his Face- increase tuition by 6.7 percent book page, Snyder praised the for in-state students and 4.9 per- metrics for addressing the rising cent for out-of-state students. higher education costs. University President Mary "We made a major commit- Sue Coleman said in an inter- ment to education, putting more view with The Michigan Daily dollars back to work in educa- that she is concerned about tion," he said. "College is too the longetivity of the funding expensive, and that's a challeng- increases Snyder has proposed. oing area." "My overarching concern is ThoughSnydersaidthetuition that it's only one-time money," increases this year were favor- Coleman said. "That's very dif- able measures, he added that he ficult because if it doesn't go in plans to consider further ways of the baseiteuld be taken away reducing costs that will be effec- next year." tive in the long run. He pointed Coleman added that she is to encouraging dual enrollment particularly concerned about the of high school students into col- formula funding method Snyder lege programs as a possible solu- has recommended because it tion. will be difficult for well-estab- "If you think about it, if you do lished institutions like the Uni- enough of that, you could bring versityto improve much more on down your college costs a lot their current performance. because you might be able totake "We're a mature institution, awholeyearor so off your college we graduate a lot of students - up to a year - and that would already, and we already have a mean huge savings," he said. very high graduation rate," Cole- During the online event, Sny- man said. "And it seems like one der also outlined his vision for of the things that they're looking education in the state. He advo- at is the increase in numbers (of cated a plan called P-20, which, graduates), and we're already unlike the traditional K-12 so high that we're not going to education, would emphasize grow substantially." achievements from preschool In the University's fiscal year through college. 2013 budget development let- Mike Boulus, executive direc- terreleased in November, Cole- for of the Presidents Council, man initially expressed concern State Universities of Michigan, with Snyder's formula funding said Snyder's budget offered few model, arguing that the Univer- additional funds in most areas, sity shouldn't be compared to including higher education. other state universities to receive "This is a pretty lean budget, funding. and there's very little increase in "The objective of formula this budget," Boulus said. funding should be to allocate Boulus said while the Presi- funding based on the value that dents Council welcomes any each university brings to the additional funding to highereodu- state, so that the formula pro- cation, he believes the hike was vides financial incentive for each minimal. university to maximize that "This is what I call a small value," Coleman wrote. step toward restoration," Bou- In her letter, Coleman sug- los said. "I wouldn't even call it gested that the state use the an increase; I'd call it additional Carnegie Classification of Insti- funds. I think that's an accurate lotions of Higher Education - a statement to make. The money is framework for understanding one-time money. It's not there in institutional differences of uni- year two of his budget." versities across the country - to Boulus added that the gover- determine appropriate funding nor's proposed increase is not for state universities. enough to replace major losses Cynthia Wilbanks, the Uni- from budget cuts of several state versity's vice president for gov- universities in recent years. ernment relations, released a "It's $36 million for higher statement yesterday that sup- education - a relatively small ported the proposed increase amount when you put it in per- allocations to higher education, spective to what we've lost in the adding that it will be important past decade. We lost $213 mil- to thoroughly examine formula lion just last year," Boulos said. funding logistics when finalizing "And when you put that on a per- the budget. student basis, last year's cut was "We are encouraged to see $827 on a per-studentbasis. the proposed increase in fund- Regarding the formula meth- ing for higher education," Wil- od for higher education funding banks said. "It's important to get allocation, Boulus said the met- rics should compare state uni- versities relative to their fellow institutions. "It's a good investment strat- egy, and I think the metrics that the governor has selected are fair," Boulus said. "But it takes a look back on past performance without any measure against peers. I think it can be improved, so that you look at these metrics not just against yourself in past performance but against your peers and progress made over time." LSA senior Amanda Caldwell, president of the University's chapter of College Demo- crats, said this year's 3-percent increase does not make up for significant cuts in past years. "We've had cuts after cuts after cuts. It has been way more excessive than 3 percent," Caldwell said. "It's moving in the right direction, but we need to make more drastic moves over the next years." The University's chapter of College Republicans could not be reached for comment as of last night. State Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) also noted that the 3-per- cent increase is not sufficient. "We know that our univer- sities will really be struggling with the cuts that came down last year, and the state budget is in a position to make up some of those cuts, and 3 percent doesn't really do it," Irwin said. Irwin added that he feels many state legislators are not yet putting ahigh enoughpriorityon education. "We know that in Washtenaw County, investing in K through 12 and higher ed. is a good invest- ment for the future," Irwin said. "And unfortunately, we have had a hard time getting that through to the folks (in the state legisla- ture)." Irwin said world-renowned Michigan institutions, like the University, may lose their pres- tige if they continue to suffer from cuts. "The luster on the crown jew- els in our higher ed. system has started to fade," Irwin said. If the governor intends to boost the state's high-tech econ- omy, he should be investing high- er education, Irwin said. "In general, I'm just really confused on how our governor, who brands himself around words like 'innovation' and 'com- peting for the new economy,' can turn around and propose big- ger cuts to the institutions that actually provide that benefit for people in the state of Michigan," Irwin said. "Innovation is driven by those institutions." -Daily Staff Reporters Aaron Guggenheim, Peter Shahin and Andrew Schulman contributed to this report INNOVATION From Page 1 gram in Entrepreneurship, which offers certification in entrepre- neurship to students. More than 15,000 students have been involved in the center's entrepreneurial programs. Eighty .start-ups have been involved with TechArb - a start up -incubator in downtown Ann Arbor - and more than 100 speakers have spo- ken at the center's lecture series, Entrepreneurship Hour. Neal said students involved in the center's programs are not solely focused on making money, but rather on impactingthe world. "It's really about changing people's lives and doing it in a sustainable way," Neal said. "We really want to encourage students to think big -and destructively about changing people's lives for the better." The center has a number of goals for the upcoming years and plans to launch a master's program in entrepreneurship this fall. In the next five years, Neal said he wants to continue to expand the resources available to students to faculty members and researchers. Neal attributes much of the center's success to high levels of support from University Presi- dent Mary Sue Coleman and David Munson, dean of the Col- lege of Engineering. "It's hard to imagine a better case scenario than to have the dean (of the College of Engineer- ing), the (University) president as well as the governor and the pres- ident of the United States all sup- portive of the work we are doing," PEACE CORPS From Page 1 office, and the fact that we have many graduates going in to Peace Corps, and then many Peace Corps volunteers (are) coming back to campus to get graduate degrees." Since the University's nursing program was added to the Peace Corps website last month, the school has alreadyreceived phone inquiries about the program, according to Davis. Currently, more than 80 academic institu- tions have Master's International programs in various studies. The Master's International program was established in 1987. Davis said she believes the program will draw in students because of its unique nature. "We know the interest is out there," Davis said. "People who are already interested in Peace Corps are looking at these pro- grams and seeing that Michigan has a nursing program, and we're the only ones so far. It's specially groomed to draw students who are interested in service and in nursing." The University currently ranks fifth in the number of Peace Corps COLEMAN From Page 1 edged that University officials recognize that the buildings are in "terrible" shape. Harper and Coleman spoke candidly about the University's plans to update both the IM Building and the Central Cam- pus Recreation Building. The University has already hired consultants and is working with a student advisory panel to determine what the best course of action should be, Harper said. Coleman added that a sur- vey sent to students last week was intended to determine how often students use the buildings, and if students would be will- ing to pay an additional fee to underwrite the renovation and. maintenance of the buildings. "What most institutions do is that they have a mandatory stu- dent activities fee to fund recre- ation facilities," Coleman said. "We wanted to test to see if that was acceptable to students." Other construction projects Coleman and Harper addressed include plans for a new School of Nursing building, renovated laboratories on Central Campus and expanded laboratory facili- ties on North Campus. Like recent fireside chats, Harper and Coleman again addressed transportation dif- ficulties for students traveling between North and Central Campuses. Kinesiology freshman Andrea Neal said. There are several practicums at the centerin whichstudentslearn to apply entrepreneurial skills to coordinate with University- affiliated and student-organized groups on a number of events and programs, including TechArb and 1000 Pitches - MPowered's annual entrepreneurial competi- tion. BusinessjuniorAlex Schiff said the practicums have been among his favorite classes at the Univer- sity. Schiff, a former Michigan Daily columnist and co-founder of Fetchnotes, an online note-tak- ing application for short messages and notes, said the Entrepreneur- ship Practicum helped him devel- op the idea for his company. Engineering alum Gillian Hen- ker is the co-founder of Design Innovations for Infants and Mothers Everywhere, a company that develops low-cost medical devices for emerging markets. She said the Center for Entre- preneurship taught her to better communicate with professionals in the business world, adding that the practicum she took was "a great way for hands-on learning." Henker said one of the great- est benefits of the center for her company was being a part of TechArb. "Within TechArb, we've defi- nitely evolved as a business sig- nificantly," Henker said. Henker added that entrepre- neurship is burgeoning at the University, as students and facul- ty continue to develop innovative business ventures. "Professors are realizing that having this entrepreneurial skill set will better prepare people," Henker said. volunteers, nationwide. Accord- ing to Davis, it was only natural that the University took the lead in implementing the new nursing program because of its close ties to the Peace Corps. "I think it's keeping with our tradition with the Peace Corps," Davis said. "It makes sense that we would be at the forefront of something like this, we have a history with the Peace Corps." The University has a storied history with the Peace Corps, starting with former Kennedy's impromptu speech late at night to students on the steps of the Michigan Union in 1960 as he campaigned for president. In his speech, Kennedy encour- aged students to spend two years assisting people in countries around the world. This call to action inspired University, stu- dents to sign a petition pledging to volunteer their time abroad, which led to the formation of the Peace Corps in 1961. In fall 2010, the University commemorated the 50th anniver- sary of the Peace Corps program with various symposiums and events, including a 2 a.m. reen- actment of Kennedy's original speech. Acosta inquired about how the University was addressing transportation between the two campuses, particularly during peak hours. Coleman highlight- ed the fact that Harper has been riding the buses to better under- stand the situation facing stu- dents living on North Campus. "I feel your pain," Harper said, in regards to experiencing bus transportation. Harper said she is continuing to work with the University's Parking and Transportation Services to improve transporta- tion for students, adding she is frustrated by the failure of PTS to consider ' the time students spend waiting and walking to the bus when measuring perfor- mance. "They are really clocking 'get on the bus, get off the bus,' but that's not the lived experience," Harper said. "It's leave my house, wait, get on the bus, get off the bus (and) walk. Transportation is (only) clocking when the bus is supposed to be there, so we keep having intense conversations." According to Coleman, the University is currently in the process of acquiring new buses to alleviate congestion. Harper said adding buses would comple- ment existing transportation resources, which will provide better operating hours both on weekdays and weekends. "Particularly, students on North Campus say they still live on the weekends, so they'd like to be able to travel," Harper said. LIKE THE DAILY ON FACEBOOK 4i y Z