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Ann Arbor, Michigan

Thursday, February 23, 2012

michigandaily.com

State Senate
passes bill
on GSRA
unioniZation

TODD NEEDLE/Daily
U.S. Rep John Dingell (D-Mich.) speaks at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy about the current state of Congress yesterday.
Dingell criticizes lack
bipartisanship in Congress

Legislation now
moves to state
House for vote
By RAYZA GOLDSMITH and
HALEY GLATTORN
Daily NewsEditors
Ongoing efforts by the Gradu-
ate Employees' Organization to
obtain unionization rights for
graduate student research assis-
tants have faced a setback, fol-
lowing passage of a bill in the
state Senate yesterday that clas-
sified GSRAs as students, not
public employees with right to
organize.
Introduced by state Senate
Majority Leader Randy Rich-
ardville (R-Monroe), the leg-
islation will restrict graduate
students from achieving status
as public employees, thereby
preventing them from claiming
collective bargaining rights and
obtaining representation from
a union. Yesterday's vote comes
just one day after it had passed
through the Senate Government

Operations Committee, and the
bill will now move on to the
state House of Representatives.
The vote also comes on the
heels of an emergency meet-
ing by the University's Board
of Regents to pass a resolution
in opposition to the bill. The
regents voted 6-2, along party
lines,, to approve the resolu-
tion and instructed Cynthia
Wilbanks, the University's
vice president of governmental
affairs, to garner support among
state legislators to vote against
the bill.
Bob McCann, communica-
tions director for Senate Minor-
ity Leader Gretchen Whitmer
(D-East Lansing), said Senate
Republicans approved the billso
quickly - it was introduced last
week - to avoid interference
from negative public feedback.
"They were hoping to get it
through before the community
had a chance to weigh in on it,"
McCann said. "We like to think
that as part of our democratic
process, people have an appro-
priate amount of time to think
See UNIONIZATION, Page 2A

U.S. Rep. discusses
shortfalls of
legislative branch
By ANDREW SCHULMAN
Daily StaffReporter
Stashed away in the office
of U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-
Mich.) is a letter written by a
colonial-era British parliamen-
tarian. The letter, which he
said he reads from time to time,

states in part: "I owe the people,
I serve the duty of the British
truth, the greatest decency, the
greatest humility and the great-
est ethics."
At a discussion held at the
Gerald R. Ford School of Public
Policy yesterday, Dingell told
the crowd of about 100 stu-
dents that the letter serves as
more than a symbol of his civic
responsibility to the public - it
reminds him of what he believes
has gone wrong with Congress
in the last decade. Dingell criti-

cized the representative body
for its persistent partisanship,
unfulfilling promises to the
public and its abdication of pub-
lic duty.
Dingell, who is the longest-
serving member in the history
of the House of Representatives,
said he was "distressed" at
the current state of politics
in Congress. At the event, he
repeatedly attacked the lack of,
bipartisanship between Demo-
crats and Republicans and
blamed it for many of the issues

in Congress today.
"I remember in Congress
when members had huge differ-
ences but great friendships that
went across the aisle," he said.
"That still exists among some of
the older members, and it's pos-
sible it could be done. But the
taxpayers, the voters, the media
have got to tell Congress, 'You
work for us. We expect that you
will not have the kind of hostile,
destructive behavior that we're
seeing."'
See DINGELL, Page 2A


STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CSG challengers considered
running on the same ticket

MIDTERM WIND DOWN

Mersol-Barg,
Singh decided to
form new parties
By GIACOMO BOLOGNA
Daily StaffReporter
Central Student Government
presidential candidates Kevin
Mersol-Barg and Shreya Singh
considered running on the same

ticket before announcing their
respective candidacies, accord-
ing to a source affiliated with
CSG.
Singh, the current CSG trea-
surer and a Business junior, is
running on the newly formed
youMICH ticket, and Mersol-
Barg, a Public Policy junior and
an LSA assembly representative,
is running with OurMichigan,
also a recently created party.
Singh and Mersol-Barg were

among the five candidates that
competed for MForward's nomi-
nation at the party's Feb. 3 nomi-
nating convention.
MForward chose LSA junior
Aditya Sathi, vice speaker of the
CSG assembly, as its candidate
for the CSG presidency.
"They talked about running
together, but they both wanted
to be president," the source said.
"It didn't work out."
See CSG, Page SA

LOCAL BUSINESSES
Gourmet waffle restaurant to
open on S. Fourth Ave in April

MCKENZIE BEREZIN/Daily
A student relaxes between classes in the Chemical Engineering Building yesterday.
Team of scientists use gravitational
lensing to examine unseen galaxies

n
W

Ann Arbor quest to expand he city's culi-
nary offerings.
ative bringing Noah Goldsmith recently
announced that he plans to open
afel House to a new eatery focusing on spe-
cialty waffles at 217 S. Fourth
hometown Ave. in April. The restaurant,
to be called Wafel Shop, will be
CHELSEA LANDRY established in the former loca-
Daily StaffReporter tion of A2 O'Hair salon.
Goldsmith wrote in an e-mail
spite the recent closure of interview that the menu was
nber of local shops in the inspired largely by his study
one Ann Arbor native is abroad experience in the Neth-
ning to his hometown in erlands. Along with his business
of finding success in his partner Rob Daly, Goldsmith

constructed the menu primarily
around two varieties of waffles
- the Brussels and the Liege.
The Brussels waffle has "a
soft and fluffy interior, and a
crispy exterior," and the Liege
waffle, Goldsmith's favorite, is
"dense and sweet, baked with
chunks of pearl sugar that cara-
melize throughout," he wrote.
The design of the new space
will utilize preexisting archi-
tectural elements, including the
building's original tin ceilings
and wood floor, according to
See WAFFLE, Page 5A

~ - - - - -- -1- - -- - -- - ---

By
Des
a num
area,
return
hopes

Re
hav
Spa
access
galaxy
the we

osearchers now astronomers.
Keren Sharon, a visiting schol-
e unique view of ar at the University, is a member
of a scientific team that recently
outer space discovered a more detailed image
of a galaxy in space using gravi-
By DANIELLE tational lensing - a natural phe-
STOPPELMANN nomenon in which the trajectory
Daily StaffReporter of large space objects is shifted
due to gravitational fields, allow-
ce enthusiasts now have ing for greater visual access to
to images of a part of the entities like galaxies, stars and
never seen before due to black holes.
ork of a team of University "Gravitational lensing happens

when light from somethingthat is
really far away behind you travels
close to a very massive object ...
And because of the gravitational
field that this massive object cre-
ates, the light bends its trajec-
tory," Sharon said.
Specifically, Sharon said
instances of gravitational lensing
occur when a cluster of galatesi
interferes with the trajectoryHof
light from an object behind the
large cluster, adding thlnt this is
See GALAXIES, Page SA


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