The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, November 8, 2012 - 5A. The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, November 8, 2012 - 5A REGENTS From Page 1A as a regent," Bernstein said. "I am eager to begin to serve the Uni- versity and the people of Michi- gan." Bernstein holds a bachelor's degree, a law degree and an MBA from the University and is cur- rently the president of the Sam Bernstein Law Firm, his father's legal practice. He previously worked on the Clinton admin- istration and was appointed by former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm to sit on the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. Bernstein attributed his elec- toral success to an unortho- dox campaign for the position, including a bus tour of the state to raise awareness about the election. "We ignored every piece of conventional wisdom that was imparted upon us," Bernstein said. "We campaigned in a way that I felt honored the extraor- dinarily important role that the University of Michigan plays in our state, and the important role in leading the University." During his well-publicized campaign, Bernstein consistent- ly advocated for lowered under- graduate tuition, the creation of "Go Blue Bonds" to provide stu- dents with access to lower interest rate loans and the reallocation of some portion of the University's endowment to financial aid. "The most important prior- ity that faces higher education is addressing skyrocketing tuition and the burden of crushing stu- dent debt," Bernstein said. He added that in the long term, he saw a coming divide among public universities between those who could adjust to the new reality of funding for public education and those who could not. "We are in a transformative moment in'higher education and there will be public universities that will figure this out," Bern- stein said. "There will be win-. ners and losers. The losers will be left behind and so will the states in which they are located ... the stakes could not be higher." Diggs, who holds undergradu- ate and medical degrees from the University, is currently the owner of a laser and cosmetic dermatology practice in Grosse Pointe Farms. Inan Oct. 27 inter- view with The Michigan Daily, Diggs echoed Bernstein's assess- ment that tuition and affordabil- ity are the most pressing issue facing the University and the Board of Regents. "I think there are ways to make U of M just as financially attractive as other institutions around the country," Diggs said. "I do think that the regents and the administration ... could have a leadership role in trying to encourage the Legislature to continue to pay appropriations (to the) University." Diggs could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. One of the Republican regent nominees, Robert Steele, spoke several hours before returns came in and said the down-ticket races would almost certainly fol- low the trend set by higher races. "The regents or any of the State Board of Education-type races are at the bottom of the ballot and follow the top of the ballot," Steele said. "If Obama wins, I probably won't, if Rom- ney wins, I probably will." Steele, who ran unsuccessful- ly against U.S. Rep. John Dingellt (D-Mich.) in 2010, said he did not have any plans to run for office in the future. Dan Horning, the other Republican regent nominee, who previously served as regent from 1995-2002, was not immediately available for comment. MCCORMACK From Page 1A ly hard and I'm happy that hard work pays off, since that's what I teach my kids every day," McCor- mack said. "I received 10 out of 10 newspaper endorsements and really worked hard to develop relationships around the state to make sure people understood that I was committed to having a court where politics didn't play a role and everyone got a fair shake and I think my message resonated." McCormack's campaign included a lengthy shout-out in a political advertisement featuring the cast of "The West Wing." In the YouTube ad, the cast encour- ages Michigan voters to fill out the nonpartisan ballot, mention- ing' that McCormack is on, the ticket. They discussed McCor- mack's platform to bring integrity and fairness for ordinary people to the court. McCormack's sister, Mary, starred in the last three seasons of the show, and helped secure the mention. A video of the ad posted on YouTube by McCor- mack has received more than 1 million views. McCormack also appeared on the E! show "Chel- sea Lately" in October to discuss wrongful convictions with host Chelsea Handler. McCormack has been a law professor at the University'since 1998. She serves as the associ- ate dean for clinical affairs and founded the Michigan Inno- cence Clinic in 2009, a group thai works in Michigan courts to exonerate wrongfully accused individuals using non-DNA evi- dence. McCormack will have to resign from her work at the Uni- versity when she begins her posi- tion in the Michigan Supreme Court to remain impartial. RACE From Page 1A Harris said shewas approached by a high school teacher from the area who suggested bringing the exhibit to the University so her students could be exposed to learning more about race issues. "What's great about it is that it gives people all kinds of ways to start talking," Harris said. Harris said the three primary themes in the exhibit are science, history and lived experiences. To supplement the visiting exhibit, the museum will also be incor- porating a self-developed gallery, "Race in This Place: A Communi- ty Conversation," which will open on Nov. 16. The gallery seeks to address issues revolving around race in health, immigration, the educa- tion system and the legal system. It includes video, art and inter- views with citizens about race in Washtenaw County, according to the Museum of Natural History's website. "We recognize that it is a national focus," Harris said. "We wanted to incorporate into peo- ple's experience a look at what's going on in our local community around race ... The focus is to identify what the issues are but more importantly who is working on trying to make things better." A condensed version of the exhibit will be brought to the' University to accommodate the space limitations at the museum. However, Harris said nothinghas been removed in the process of condensingit. The Understanding Race Proj- ect faculty at the Museum of Natural History trace student perception on race throughout the exhibit to see how their views have been impacted and examine how people have formed relation- ships. Involvement in the Under- standing Race Project goes beyond the LSA theme semes- ter and includes a wide range of community involvement among Washtenaw County's 10 school districts, the Ann Arbor District Library and the Ypsilanti District Library. Harris said community efforts have been underway since January 2012. "The purpose of it is to stimu- late a national conversation about race," Harris said. "It's been so successful and popular ... Our vision for this exhibit is to use it as an opportunity to encourage con- versations about race not only on campus but also in the Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County commu- nity and in the schools." She added: "I hope that every student at the University of Mich- igan will see the exhibit. I hope that they will take part in some of 'the amazing programs that they are liningup." Education graduate student Clara Ng-Quinn, an Understand- ing Race Theme Semester gradu- ate intern and an Understanding Race Student Steering Committee adviser, said 133 courses in the LSA Winter 2013 semester will incorporate race and relate the theme to a variety of topics. "The ultimate goal of the steering committee is to engage as many students as possible in this theme of understanding race through big events, through small events, through discussions, bringing speakers in, bringing performances in," Ng-Quinn said. She would not release specific details for events because they are still in the planning stages and there areno definite details yet. However, she did say there will be three to four major events that will relate to a wide variety of audience members in addition to smaller niche events and col- laboration with cultural student organizations. The steering committee is ana- lyzing how sexuality, class and gender relate to race. They are trying to relate those sub-themes into the courses offered as part of the winter 2013 semester. Ng- Quinn said though some subjects obviously relate to race, other topics, such as women's studies, will incorporate aspects of race through their relative topics, such as gender and class. "My hope, at least, is that this theme semester will provide opportunities for students to engage in discussions about race in a positive environment and to hopefully chip away that stigma about talking about race," Ng- Quinn said. "I really think that race is something-that is useful to talk about; it doesn't matter what race you are." Ng-Quinn said any student interested in joining the collabo- ration effort is welcome to join the student steeringcommittee. Noel Gordon, an LSA senior and student steering committee member, said the committee is looking to incorporate race into various aspects of student life, from medicine to sports to art. "One of the things that I would like to achieve is to really make issues of race salient to people as they sort of understand it," Gordon said. "It's equally impor- tant to make sure students find conversations about race very accessible to them and relevant to them." Gordon said students might refrain from having conversa- tions about race in fear of saying something wrong or offensive, and promoting open dialogue is important to removingstigmas. "If we don't have these coh- versations in sort of genuine and authentic ways, while admitting that some people will probably say the wrong thing in the pro- cess, then no one's ever going to learn anything," Gordon said. "It's important for me ... to help students understand that it's okay to make mistakes while talking about race because that's the only way we're ever going to get to a better understanding." BIKE WEEK From Page 1A Fund last fall, which will distrib- ute $150,000 over a three-year period to large-scale sustain- ability projects, including biking programs. In 2011, Coleman announced $50,000 of the fund was to be used for the Bike Air Pumps and Fix-it Station, the Reusable Con- tainers Program, the Sustainable Food Kiosk and the University Campus Farm. Arielle Fleisher, a Public Health graduate student and bike project leader, said she came up with the idea for Bike Week after she injured herself on a beam on the repair station shortly after it was installed and wanted to educate students about their use.. She added that Bike Week should help students and Ann Arbor residents use the installa- tions properly. "We don't want to just put (station tools) on the ground and walk away," Fleisher said. "The goal is to get people to really use these products and to use them well. They only are as good as they are used." On Tuesday, the- Univer- sity-held a bicycle resource fair called Bike Fest at the Central Campus Transport Station. Stu- dent ambassadors at the event helped explain how to use the new stations ind throughout the week more than 50 bike ambas- sadors will take shifts explaining their uses to passersby. Fleisher said she hopes Bike Week will not only inform stu- dents on howr to use the new installations, but also inspire them to advocate for other causes they believe in. "This is your campus, and you can make changes on it and advo- cate things if you keep it going," Fleisher said. "If you really keep the momentum going, this is a great way to get things done." University alum Andrew Bradburn volunteered to be a bike ambassador after moving back to Ann Arbor recently. He said he hopes the bike ambas- sadors will help students learn how to use the bike repair tools and pumps. "People are seeing the sta- tions, interested in them, and will touch the tools, but they don't really know how to work it," Bradburn said. "Just by being out here and volunteering our time to help fix bikes, pump tires and just be around the pumps will help. So when people swing by and ask questions, we will hopefully inform them how to use these stations properly." LSA senior Lauren Beriont, a fellow bike ambassador, said the project also promotes a bike- friendly campus. "It's just to get people outside and make it easier for people to pump their tires by letting them know that all these resources are around now," Beriont said. "I think it's bringing a lot of people excitement." Social work student Braden Latham-Jones, another bike ambassador, said he believes Bike Week will become an annual event. "I think we're looking to host something that's annual, that's regular, and that raises aware- ness about biking in general and commuting by bike as an oppor- tunity so that bike-friendly campuses can be built," Latham- Jones said. "It's a part of a broad- er idea of encouraging bikers as opposed to cars as a means of transportation." Natural Resources and Envi- ronment graduate student Ryan Gourley went to the repair sta- tion at the C.C. Little bus stop after encountering difficulties with his bike's gears. With the help of Bradburn, Gourley's bike was up and running within a few minutes. "It's great to have these stands here, and it's really great this week to have them manned with experts who can help you out and show you what you need to do," Gourley said. MATISYAHU From Page 1A "I would just say it was more of a slower process than I just woke up and decided that," he said in a phone interview with the Michigan Daily. Matis, as he's commonly called, grew up in New York in a Reconstructionist Jewish family. As a teenager, he chal- lenged his religious beliefs, and went on the road follow- ing Phish around the country. In 1995, however, he attended a program in Israel where he explored his heritage and ulti- mately found his Jewish identi- ty. His time in Israel led him to the more observant Orthodox Judaism, which he practiced until his decision to step away in December. Matisyahu's first three plan (to work only with one pro- ducer), but we started working together and we would write songs whenever I was in LA, and then we had about half the record finished" Matisyahu said. "So, we decided we'd go to Israel to work on it some more, and at that point we realized we would have a whole record together." While Matisyahu's music is known throughout the world - you probably know his song "One Day" through NBC's promotion of the 2012 Sum- mer Olympics - he tends to be pigeonholed publically as the Hassidic reggae singer. In Matis's mind, however, this was never the case. "(Being typecast) never real- ly crossed my mind" he said. "Everything I've done, you know, the decisions I've made in my life about my religion, my ideology, my philosophy ... the things that I think, the way I represent myself to the world - all of that comes from within. All of that comes from what I believe to be true." "We don't need to become famous or become successful," Matisyahu added. "People know- who you are, you don't stop living life from the inside ... it always comes from the inside out." Matis revealed plans for an acoustic album of songs "that maybe are a bit more personal," and a new, reggae-feel record- with his band. He also kicked off a two-month college tour in October, to "play some of the smaller towns, play for the kids and what not," and will stop to play a show Thursday at the Blind Pig. He added: "I'll bring my win- ter coat." Michigan Football A History of the Nation's Winningest Program albums, 2004's Shake Off the Dust...Arise, 2005's Live at Stubb's and 2006's Youth, not yl O surprisingly, all have heavy ." P US dn religious themes. While d trehent. all three records were well The Department of Psy reviewed, Youth (which, along at the University of Michigan is conducting a are looking r with Live at Stubb's, went Gold)Fg really brought Matisyahu int that includes receiving one dose of a AdsdigsewthAH really brought Matisyahu into Aut wihNDs' diagnose d commonly prescribed ADHD medication. We hope Healthy adults without AD the mainstream. In 2009, he to learn how the brain functions of those adults with released Light, his third stu- ADHD as well as healthy individuals without ADHD . mPaipants will be din album, and in July of this.'''' year, he put out his latest release!,i 9 1W1 ,cmesto ; Spark Seeker, which debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard Reggae Chart. -"" '; Though he has changed since K U his first record, Matisyahu said his religion will always be inter- twined with his music. "It's something that's going to continue to evolve and 1 3. 4 5 change and depending on how important religion is in my 8 life at that time and what I'm going through," Matisyahu G 2 8 6 3 explained. - "Now, my first record, that's all it was about - me explor- .7 4 ing my Jewish identity through Hassidism and through Juda- 6 5 2 7 9 4 ism," he added. "As my relation- ship with Judaism changes, my relationship with myself and God ... all of these things are prevalent in the music." 6 7 3 9 Spark Seeker was a change for Matis, as he chose to only work with one producer on the album, Kool Kojak. Although Kojak is mostly known for his work with 7 2 6 5 8 pop stars like Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj, Matisyahu said the pair ' had great chemistry together. "Initially I didn't have that Purchase a special hardcover edition exclusively from The Michigan Daily for $39.95 and all of the profits fund the production of the newspaper. Order online or buy a copy at the Student Publications Building on 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor.