8A - Monday, September 17, 2012

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

CSJ hears case on College
Republican leadership in
wake of attempted ousting

Organization
claims elected chair
broke Robert's
Rules
By ANDREW SCHULMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
Five months of ambiguity in
the leadership of the Univer-
sity's chapter of the College
Republicans is nearing an end
after the Central Student Judi-
ciary heard opposing arguments
from the chair and executive
board for more than four hours
into the wee hours of Friday
morning.
In April, the executive board
began impeachment procedures
against its newly-elected chair,
LSA senior Rachel Jankowski,
claiming she allegedly broke
Robert's Rules - guidelines for
parliamentary procedure - by
amending the group's constitu-
tion without prior notice.
The constitutional amend-
ments Jankowski passed, how-
ever, would prevent the chances
of her impeachment by requir-
ing a two-thirds vote of the gen-
eral membership, in addition
to an executive board vote, to
remove her from office.
In his written opening state-
ments, LSA junior Russ Hayes,
the internal vice chair of the
College Republicans, alleged
that Jankowski drafted the
amendments to shield herself
from impeachment.
"The spiritofthe amendments
passed were to circumvent
impeachment proceedings," he
CSG
From Page 1A
respective school government
branch and the new overarching
graduate student government.
Parikh argued that CSG is
actively involved with gradu-
ate students, despite graduate
student representatives' sparse
attendance at CSG meetings. In
particular he cited a CSG assem-
bly resolution from the win-
ter 2012 semester that pledged
$35,000 to childcare funding
that is primarily used by gradu-
ate students, and the AirBus air-
port transportation program, of
which he said approximately 30
percent of participants are grad-
uate students.
He added that CSG also
developed the Graduate Student
Affairs Commission last year,
and is looking to increase its
involvement with graduate stu-
dents. Parikh noted that gradu-
ate student organizations are
an "administrative priority" to

said.
Hayes also argued the execu-
tive board was not planning to
impeach her originally in April.
The executive board, he said,
merely wanted to discuss differ-
ences between the two sides.
Hayes said while Jankowski's
actions as the president had led
to "concern," the board's pre-
ferred course of action was not
impeachment.
"Our initial cause for want-
ing to meet with Ms. Jankowski
wasn't to remove her from office,
but to sit down with her and talk
about why we had to move for-
ward as a team," he said.
One of Jankowski's improper
actions, Hayes said, was com-
mitting funds from the Col-
lege Republicans to events with
"polarizing political activists,"
like the Randy Hekman cam-
paign, then a candidate seeking
the Republican nomination for
Michigan's U.S. Senate seat.
However, Jankowski said that
is not the case.
"This event had started to
be planned under the previous
executive board," she said. "The
other members of the (current)
voting executive board were well
aware of the event."
She also argued that the
amendments to the constitu-
tion were an "attempt to provide
more transparency to the group."
"Keeping in mind that the
group's officers are elected bythe
general membership, the amend-
ment specified that the removal
of an officer must also be done
by a vote of the general member-
ship, since they were the ones
who voted the elected member
in," she said.
him.
According to Parikh, the
Student Organization Funding
Committee - the main funding
body of CSG - allocates funding
to groups regardless if they are
graduate or undergraduate stu-
dents at the University.
Parikh stressed that Rackham
is not the only school with grad-
uate students at the University.
If the separation occurred, the
Ford School of Public Policy, for
example, would have its under-
graduate students represented
by CSG while its graduate stu-
dents would represent the new
graduate student government.
"Central Student Government
has done some amazing things
(for) graduate students, and I'm
going to be taking it to another
level through the course of this
administration," Parikh said.
Rackhams student Elson Liu
has been at the University for a
decade and has been an off-and-
on member of student govern-
ment since 2007. Most recently,
Liu was a member of the Univer-

LSA junior Elena Brennan,
the College Republicans external
vice chair, said whether or not
the amendments were appropri-
ate isn't the matter at hand.
"She did not (give prior
notice)," Brennan said. "There-
fore, all of the amendments of
which Ms. Jankowski intro-
duced are in fact void."
Still, Jankowski called the
alleged violations of Robert's
Rules and any other alleged mis-
deeds of her candidacy "fabri-
cated and trumped-up at best."
Brian Koziara, a senior advi-
sor to the group who support-
ed Jankowski's amendments,
called the allegations against
Jankowski "politically motivat-
ed" during his testimony on the
witness stand.
"It's senseless to use (the
rules) just to air grievances
against voting executive board
members," Koziara said. "Of
course they were upset that
(she) got elected, and they want-
ed to remove (her) as soon as
possible."
Jankowski said the strug-
gle over control in the group
throughout the months-long
ordeal has often crossed the pro-
fessional boundary, specifically
pointing to an incident where
she claimed members of the
executive board were actively
following her in April.
"This stalking incident con-
vinced me that this was no lon-
ger a simple matter of these
voting e-board members want-
ing to air their grievances," she
said. "Rather, this had become
a politically motivated witch-
hunt and attempt to remove me
for petty personal purposes."
sity Election Commission dur-
ing the March 2012 election.
Liu said the idea of a separate
graduate student government
was brought up in 2010 when
the student government revised
its constitution, but the idea was
eventually dismissed.
"I think there is value in hav-
ing a body where every student
at the University of Michigan is
entitled to representation," Liu
said. "I think that value would
be lost if, instead of that, you
had two or more bodies inde-
pendently representing dif-
ferent segments of the student
body.
Liu added that a separate
graduate student government
still may not increase graduate
student governmental partici-
pation.
"In the more general case, I
think the average graduate and
professional student is equally
indifferent to the Central Stu-
dent Government and to their
respective school and college
government," he said.

Bill McKibben addresses the crowd at Rackham Auditorum on Friday.
Environmentalist McKibben
urges sustainable lifestyles

Founder of
350.org talks
climate change,
renewable energy
By ANNA ROZENBERG
Daily StaffReporter
Renowned environmentalist
Bill McKibben visited the Uni-
versity Friday afternoon to urge
activism for sustainable efforts,
and highlight environmental
issues plaguing the world.
At the event at Rackham
auditorium, co-sponsored by
the Erb Institute for Global
Sustainable Enterprise and the
Graham Sustainability Insti-
tute, McKibben shared pic-
tures and stories of his personal
battle against the oil industry,
before answering questions
from audience members.
"Unless we understand the
scale and pace of (global warm-
ing), it's hard to understand
what scale of solution we need,"
McKibben said in his opening
remarks.
McKibben's website, 350.org,
was founded in January 2008 to
raise awareness of global warm-
ing, and was inspired by findings
by Tim Hanson, a scientist for
the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration. Hanson
found that the safe limit of car-
bon dioxide in the atmosphere is
350 parts per million, and there
is currently 392 ppm.
On October 24, 2009, 350.org
helped spur 5,200 demonstra-
tions in 181 countries to pro-
test lowered carbon emissions.
Despite the protests, McKibben
said world leaders need to col-
laborate to establish policies cen-
tered on sustainable practices.
"It should've been enough,"
MILLAGE
From Page 1A
Scholars Program art director
and FestiFools founder, who
teaches a class through LHSP
that creates giant puppets for the
April parade - said the steer-
ing committee for the festival
has had trouble finding enough
money to hold the event. Accord-
ing to Tucker, in the past, the
event has been funded by LHSP,
private donors to the School of
Art & Design, grants and the
LSA Dean's Office.
"What we do now is just try
to keep our head above water,"
Tucker said. "It would be nice to
see what's ahead five years and

McKibben said. "(Our leaders)
should be taking action, but
they're not."
During his address, McKibben
proceeded to provide an array of
examples of how the Earth has
been negatively impacted by
human pollution.
"Think about the oceans -
our metaphor for vastness," he
said. "The ocean is 30 percent
more acid than it was four years
ago. Its pH, its chemistry, has
changed in a dramatic fashion."
McKibben examined the
erratic weather patterns that
North America has experienced
in the last six months - includ-
ing the national heat wave last
March - using it as another
example of how global warming
has impacted the environment.
"You recall it because it kind
of felt nice ... but it kind of felt
ominous too," he said. "It wasn't
supposed to be like that. Every
flower and tree went immedi-
ately into blossom, and in April
when we had the typical frost,
that was that."
McKibben also discussed how
the abnormal weather nega-
tively impacted grain harvests
in North America, leading to an
increase in prices. He said that
while the 15to 16-percenthike in
costs was manageable for some,
it severely affected many Ameri-
can citizens.
He also shared his initiative to
inspire religious organizations
and schools to divest from fossil
fuel companies.
After discussing the plan,
McKibben closed with words
meant to inspire the crowd.
"I don't know if we're going to
win, but I sure as hell know we're
goingto fight," he said. '
After the speech, listeners
moved to the lobby to mingle,
and had the opportunity to get a
copy of McKibben's book signed.
what it could be like, where it
could go creatively."
Tucker said the new millage
may open the community's eyes
to the city's numerous art insti-
tutions.
"I think public art - if you
start to see fantastic public art
- it makes the invisible visible,"
Tucker said. "And (Ann Arbor)
is a town that embraces the arts
and people should know about
it," Tucker said.
Tucker added that he feels it's
a public duty for the city to pro-
vide art to its residents
"(Art) adds to the whole cul-
tural fabric of where we live,"
Tucker said. "You can't have
something that's great for only
people who can afford it."

LSA freshman Lindsey Scul-
len said she heard about the
event in her environmental writ-
ing class and came because she is
interested in working to protect
the environment.
"There were moments during
the speech where Iwanted to cry
almost," she said. "I knew it was
a problem, but I didn't realize
how large of a problem it was."
Scullen said that after hearing
McKibben's speech, she plans on
getting involved in an environ-
mental organization on campus.
Kyle Overman - an LSA
senior and a member of Students
for Clean Energy, a new organi-
zation on campus - went to the
event to support the movement
for sustainable living.
He added that SCE plans on
asking University President
Mary Sue Coleman to sign a
petition that will show the
University's commitment to
becoming 100 percent sustain-
able.
Fifth-year LSA student
Joseph Evergreen Snow
Varilone was one of the few
audience members who got a
chance to ask McKibben a spe-
cific question.
"I wanted to get a sense of
where the state of the environ-
mental movement is at, specifi-
cally the part of the movement
that has a broad following," he
said.
Varilone said he thinks the
problems McKibben spoke of
are widespread, adding that he
questions the methods of coun-
teracting global warming.
"I think, in some ways, this
is a problem more drastic than
we've ever seen before and
drastic problems require dras-
tic solutions," Varilone said.
lan Dillingham contributed
to this report.
Art & Design sophomore
Gabby Holzer said she antici-
pates seeing more temporary art
pieces in the city if the millage
passes.
"I always like to see chang-
ing art." Holzer said. " ... It will
catch your eye and it gives you
a good experience from a poten-
tially mundane task, like if you
are going to CVS or something."
Grace Ludmer, an Art &
Design sophomore and a Fes-
tiFools participant, said her
appreciation for Ann Arbor is
enhanced by its diverse art.
"(Art) creates so much more
of a culture to the community,
especially in Ann Arbor, in such
an open and young community,"
Ludmer said.

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