The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, December 3, 2412 - 5A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom N CW S Monday, December 3, 2D12 - SA
More women serve in
the U.S. Marine Corps.
Five rewarded at annual
Kennedy Center Honors
Efforts seek to
add more females,
diversity to
organization
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Marine
1st Lt. Brandy Soublet is about as
far from the war front as possible
at her desk in the California des-
ert, but she's on the front lines of
an experiment that could one day
put women as close to combat as
their male peers.
The Penfield, N.Y. woman
is one of 45 female Marines
assigned this summer to 19 all-
male combat battalions. The
Defense Department in the past
year has opened thousands of
combat positions to women to
slowly integrate them and gauge
the impact such a social change
would have on the military's abil-
ity to fight wars.
No branch is likely to feel that
change more than the Marine
Corps.
* The small, tight-knit force is
the most male of the armed ser-
vices and prides itself on having
the toughest and most aggressive
warriors. The Corps historically
has higher casualty rates because
it is considered to be the "tip of
the spear," or the first to respond
to conflicts. It also was among the
last military branches to open its
doorsto women, formingthe first
female Corps in 1943, accord-
ing to the Women's Memorial in
Washington D.C.
But changing times are chal-
lenging the traditions of the
force, long likened to a brother-
hood.
Modern warfare has put
women in combat like never
before over the past decade, even
though a 1994 policy bars them
from being assigned to ground
combat units below the brigade
level, which were considered too
dangerous since they are often
smaller and closer to combat for
longer periods.
Already under pressure to
provide the same opportunities
for women, the Defense Depart-
ment was hit Tuesday with a
second lawsuit by female ser-
vice members - including two
Marines - charging that the
gender barriers unfairly block
them from promotions open to
men in combat.
The lawsuits are intended to
accelerate the military's slow
march toward lifting the ban
that plaintiffs allege has barred
women from 238,000 positions.
Defense officials say they
recently opened 14,500 jobs to
women, and they need to move
cautiously to ensure the change
will not disrupt wartime opera-
tions. Soublet and the other 44
women are part of the quiet,
slow transformation. Women
make up about 7 percent of the
Marine Corps compared to
about 14 percent overall among
the military's 1.4 million active
military personnel.
She said some Marines ini-
tially eyed her pioneering pres-
ence in the all-male battalion
with skepticism.
"The way that I would
describe it to friends and family
was it was kind of like I showed
up to work in a costume," the
25-year-old logistics officer
said in a phone interview from
Twenty-Nine Palms, a remote
desert base east of San Diego.
"They stared a little bit but after
a while it wasn't like, that any-
more."
That experience may play out
on bases and boats worldwide as
the Pentagon levels the battle-
field.
Hoffman,
Letterman, Led
Zeppelin receive
awards
WASHINGTON (AP) - David
Letterman's "stupid human
tricks" and Top 10 lists vaulted
into the ranks of cultural acclaim
Sunday night as the late-night
comedian received this year's
Kennedy Center Honors with
rock band Led Zeppelin, an
actor, a ballerinaand a bluesman.
Stars from New York, Holly-
wood and the musicworld joined
President Barack Obama at the
White House on Sunday night
to salute the honorees, whose
ranks also include actor Dustin
Hoffman, Chicago bluesman
Buddy Guy and ballerina Natalia
Makarova.
The honors are the nation's
highest award Tor those who
influenced American culture
through the arts. The recipients
were later saluted by fellow per-
formers at the Kennedy Center
Opera House in a show to be
broadcast Dec. 26 on CBS.
Obama drew laughs from his
guests when he described the
honorees as "some extraordi-
nary people who have no busi-
ness being on the same stage
together."
Noting that Guy made his
first guitar strings using the
wire from a window screen, he
quipped, "That worked until his
parents started wondering how
all the mosquitoes were getting
in."
The president thanked the
members of Led Zeppelin for
behaving themselves at the
White House given their history
of"hotel rooms trashed and may-
hem all around."
Obama noted Letterman's
humble beginnings as an India-
napolis weatherman who once
reported the city was being
pelted by hail 'the size of canned
hams."'
"It's one of the highlights of
his career," he said.
All kidding aside, Obama
described all of the honorees
as artists who "inspired us to
see things in a new way, to hear
things differently, to discover
something within us or to appre-
ciate how much beauty there is in
the world."
"It's that unique power that
makes the arts so important," he
added.
Later on the red carpet, Letter-
man said he was thrilled by the
recognition and to visit Obama at
the White House.
"It supersedes everything,
honestly," he said. "I haven't won
that many awards."
During the show, comedian
Tina Fey said she grew up watch-
ing her mom laugh at Letterman
as he brought on "an endless
parade of weirdos."
"Who was this Dave Letter-
man guy?" Fey said. "Was he a
brilliant, subtle passive-aggres-
sive parody of a talk show host?
Or just some Midwestern goon
who was a little bit off? Time has
proven that there's just really no
way of knowing."
Alec Baldwin offered a Top 10
reasons Letterman was winning
the award, including the fact that
he didn't leave late night for a six-
month stint in primetime --a not-
so-subtle digatrival Jay Leno.
Jimmy Kimmel, who will soon
compete head-to-head with Let-
terman on ABC, said he fell in
love with Letterman early in life
and even had a "Late Night" cake
on his 16th birthday.
"To me it wasn't just a TV
show," Kimmel said. "It was the
reason I would fail to make love
to a live woman for many, many
years."
For Buddy Guy, singers Bonnie
Raitt, Tracy Chapman and others
got most of the crowd on its feet
singing Guy's signature "Sweet
Home Chicago."
Morgan Freeman hailed Guy
as a pioneer who helped bridge
soul and rock and roll.
"When you hear the blues, you
really don't think of it as black or
white or yellow or purple or blue,"
Freeman said. "Buddy Guy, your
blue brought us together."
Robert De Niro saluted Hoff-
man, saying he had changed act-
ing, never took any shortcuts and
was brave enough to be a perfec-
tionist.
"Before Dustin burst on the
scene, it was pretty much OK for
movie stars to show up, read their
lines and, if the director insisted,
act a little," De Niro said. "But
then Dustin came along -- and he
just had to get everything right."
By the end ofthe night, the Foo
Fighters, Kid Rock and Lenny
Kravitz got the crowd moving
to some of Zeppelin's hits at the
Kennedy Center.
Jack Black declared Zeppelin
the "greatest rock and rollband of
all time."
"That's right. Better than the
Beatles. Better than the Stones.
Even better than Tenacious D,"
he said. "And that's not opinion --
that's fact"
PROPOSAL 2
From Page 1A
Reviewing the case en bane, the
6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
in an 8-7 decision on Nov. 15 that
Proposal 2, the state-wide ban on
racial preferences that was passed
by popular vote in 2006, was
unconstitutional.
Judge R. Guy Cole Jr. wrote in
the majority opinion that Proposal
2 violates the Equal Protection
Clause by placing an undue.bur-
den on those seeking affirmative
action.
After the decision, George
Washington, a lawyer for the pro-
affirmative action group By Any
Means Necessary, and Univer-
TRANSIT
From Page 1A
difficult.
"The only way to make this
work is it has got to be region-
al," Casperson said. "There's
got to be buy-in from the whole
region, not just Wayne County or
Detroit. That's been kind of the
struggle all the way through this
thing."
While the proposal has
received its fair share of opposi-
tion, Casperson said it is not pri-
marily based around party lines
and there has been bi-partisan
support.
Much of the opposition has
emerged in Washtenaw County,
where local political leaders
have said they want to opt out
of the plan. Dan Smith, a mem-
ber of the Washtenaw Board of
Commissioners, said he views
Washtenaw County as a second-
ary focus.
"The concept is interesting,
but I think there's a lot bigger
problems that Wayne and Oak-
land County need to iron out
before Washtenaw County gets
involved," Smith said.
State Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann
Arbor) said because the Ann
Arbor Transportation Author-
BATTERY
From Page 1A
the project was aimed at keeping
manufacturing current with the
newest technology available.
"Based on the tremendous
advances that have been made
in the past few years, there are
very good reasons to believe that
advanced battery technologies
can and will play an increasingly
valuable role in strengthening
America's energy and economic
security," Chu said.
University professors and
state leaders likewise hailed
the project, which includes
nearly 40 other labs, universi-
ties and businesses nationwide,
as a key achievement for the
state to maintain its status as
a leader in the manufacturing
industry.
Mark Barteau, the director of
sity philosophy Prof. Carl Cohen,
who authored Prop. 2, said they
expected the Supreme Court to
take up the case.
Cohen estimated the odds to
be "97 percent, I'd say, maybe
98."
If the Supreme Court opts to
rule on the case, the Court might
need "a still picture" of affir-
mative action and the effects of
absence on universities to rule
effectively, according to Law
Prof. Mark Rosenbaum, who
argued the case in favor of affir-
mative action.
While Rosenbaum called the
order to stay the ruling a disser-
vice to the state, he said it was a
practical necessity given that the
ruling came down in the middle
of an admissions cycle.
"Everything would be topsy-
turvy," he said. "It would be
changing the rules in the middle
of the process, and that would
lead to mass confusion and
claims of unfairness."
The Supreme Court could
wait until October of next year
to decide whether to review the
ruling, Rosenbaum said. If that
is the case, the Court might not
issue an opinion until the spring
of 2014, meaning this admissions
cycle and the next could proceed
without the University being able
to use affirmative action in its
admissions decisions.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
ity directly receives federal Smith said county officials
funding, an additional layer of ultimately have no say in the
bureaucracy through an RTA final language of the bill, but
could disrupt the strengths of suspects that, if passed, the final
Ann Arbor's current transporta- policy will not include Washt-
tion system. enaw County
Irwin also said the bill privi- "The concerns they had are
leges bus transportation over valid concerns," Casperson said.
rail projects, making it difficult . On a trip to Detroit in October,
to create new rail plans, such U.S. Secretary of Transportation
as a commuter route from Ann Ray LaHood said the appropria-
Arbor to Detroit Metro Airport. tion of millions of dollars in fed-
In the RTA's proposed structure, eral funding for a metro-Detroit
rail development would require rail project is attached to the
a unanimous vote to move for- approval of the legislation.
ward. According to Casperson, in
"If we're going to be part of a order to receive the money, the
Regional Transit Authority, we federal government needs a
want to be part of an RTA that cohesive organization like the
treats all modes equally and proposed RTA.
tries to solve the transit prob- Irwin said the Transportation
lem with transit solutions that Committee is sensitive to the
are not married to one particu- concerns, and while it's possible
lar technology or another, but to to work outa compromise, legis-
try to give our citizens the best lators may decide the bill needs
advantage of the buck over the to be pushed forward quickly
long term," Irwin said. during the lame-duck session of
Additionally, the Senate's ver- the Legislature.
sion of the bill includes a clause As the proposal awaits a vote
that would allow the passage of on the House floor, Casperson
regional millages without unan- emphasized its importance for
imous agreement. This means metro Detroit and the state of
that even if Washtenaw County Michigan.
voters decline to pass a millage, "If Detroit is going to be suc-
it could still pass with enough cessful and come back and grow,
votes in Wayne and Oakland I don't know how you do it with-
counties. out that component."
SUSTAINABILITY
From Page 1A
ly as committed to pursuing sus-
tainability on campus," Pfeiffer
said.
Thirty-five studentleaders met
in September to discuss the agen-
da, and six student organizations
have pledgedto help work toward
the agenda's goals - including the
Greek Life Sustainability Team,
Compost Michigan and the Envi-
ronmental Issues Commission of
the Central Student Government
- according to Pfeiffer.
Pfeiffer said she is in contact
with more than 50 student orga-
nizations, and those groups were
set to finalize their pledge on Fri-
day.
Andrew Horning, the direc-
tor of the Graham Sustainability
Institute, said the institute serves
as a channel for students to pro-
pose ideas to the administration
and develop more student and
faculty input in decision-making.
"It seems like virtually every
new creative sustainability ini-
tiative on campus starts with a
push fromthe students," Horning
said. "'I think the fact that stu-
dents continue to do that effec-
tively and orderly as possible is
exactly what we want. The more
thoughtful the students are, the
better the chance they have at
succeeding."
Horning said the combined
efforts of the student organiza-
tions will make sustainability on
campus more achievable.
"All the student groups are
only going to be as successful as
they are able to work together,"
Horning said. "Trying to weave a
fabric through all of these groups
will bring success."
Horning added that he hopes
student and faculty cooperation
will complete 4the University's
sustainability goals by 2025.
Leah Zimmerman, a Rackham
student in the Herb Institute for
Global Sustainable Enterprise
andastudentsustainabilityboard
member, said the board will prob-
ably be unable to complete each of
the goals within the school year
because they were designed for
long-term implementation.
"We did want to set some
reach goals, and some big pic-
ture goals that we really want to
work towards as students," Zim-
merman said. "We also included
some language in the agenda that
would suggest where we wantthe
University to go. Obviously that is
limited because the focus is on
student efforts, but we included
stretch goals for student groups."
Pfeiffer said the SSI is looking
at each individual goal and apply-
ing them to the student body
accordingly.
For waste prevention, the SSI
is working with Music Matters,
MRelay andTEDx University of
Michigan to make their events
waste-free next semester.
"They're all large events that
are happening and affect a huge
amount of students in the student
population," Pfeiffer said.
She added that working with
these student organizations
would provide the opportunity
for feedback for nextyear's agen-
da.
"We can look back and see why
we weren't able to make all of
these events waste-free," Pfeiffer
said. "We would be able to work
with the administration to make
it easier for students to compost
and give them the infrastructure
to do so."
LSA junior Kevin Kononenko,
the adviser to the Greek Life Sus-
tainability Team, said he attend-
ed the meeting in September and
immediately joined the initiative.
"I felt like their goals were
right in line with our goals,
especially in waste prevention,"
Kononenko said. "We defined
what goals were realistic and
what way we could work with the
administration."
Kononenko said GLIST cre-
ated a recycling campaign called
Trust for Cups that launched in
October, in which eight fraterni-
ties signed to increase the recy-
cling rates of their houses. The
houses aim to have 35 percent of
their waste be recyclable.
Each fraternity' house has a
recycling operation consultant
that educates the sustainabil-
ity chair of the house on the pro-
cess of recycling, according to
Kononenko.
"The biggest thing that we
shoot for is to have leadership in
the fraternity houses," Kononen-
ko said. "The leaders will then
take the stuff they have learned
and bring it to the entire frater-
nity."
Pfeiffer said the work in waste
prevention gives everystudent an
opportunity to get involved with
sustainability.
"Ithink it's ahuge opportunity
for students from all over cam-
pus, who aren't just involved with
sustainability, to actually care
about the environment," Pfeiffer
said. "It's like the saying, 'We all
live on Planet Blue."'
the Michigan Energy Institute
and a professor of advanced
energy research, said the proj-
ect will be important in forging
advances in energy technology.
"This hub is aimed at break-
throughs in battery technology
for energy storage, because step-
out advances are needed to reach
the energy densities desired for
both automotive and grid storage
applications," Barteau said.
According to Barteau's state-
ment, University research-
ers will look into building new
materials for the project.
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow
(D-Mich.) said in a statement
that the project presents a good
opportunity to grow jobs in the
state.
"When we make things here
and grow things here, we create
jobs here in Michigan," Stabe-
now said. "Michigan is leading
the country in clean energy
innovation and advanced bat-
tery technologies, creating jobs
and reducing our dependence
on foreign oil. These new hubs
will bring together Michigan's
innovative businesses and uni-
versities from across the state
to create more breakthroughs in
advanced battery technologies
right here in Michigan."
U.S. Rep. John Dingell
(D-Mich.) also indicated the
project has potential benefits for
the state in a statement on Fri-
day, adding that it is a good fit for
the University.
"As demand for electric vehi-
cles continues to rise, we need to
invest new technologies that can
be developed here in Southeast
Michigan," Dingell said. "We
must keep fighting to regain our
leadership position in the clean
energy race and this announce-
ment is a strong step in that
direction."
MPOWERED
From Page 1A
Printing, a custom apparel pro-
vider that originated in Naray-
an's freshman dorm room and
has now expanded to markets
around the country.
"We always wanted to be
entrepreneurs," Narayan said
of himself and Ryan Gregg, his
co-founder. "(But) we were a
little bit lucky and we're hoping
to help other people get to that
level."
After a 150-person game of
rock, paper, scissors, the student
entrepreneurs btoke into small-
er groups to attend workshops.
University alum Erik Torenberg
- an MPowered alum, former
Daily columnist and co-founder
of Rapt.fm, a Chat Roulette-style
rapping website - instructed
a workshop entitled "Sell-
ing Yourself," where students
learned about networking and
freestyle rapping.
Other workshops included
"Bootstrapping and Fundrais-
ing," where students learned
about effective fundraising
techniques from Jake Cohen,
the vice president at Detroit
Venture Partners. Another
was "Getting Started in the D,"
where the aspiring entrepre-
neurs discussed potential busi-
ness opportunities available in
Detroit with Maria LaLonde,
the recruiting and development
leader at Bizdom, a tech-based
entrepreneurship accelerator.
LSA junior Sarah Oleinick,
co-director of the summit, said
MPowered's goal is to spread
the entrepreneurial spirit across
campus as much as possible.
"Today we're hoping that they
will learn a little bit in the work-
shops, that they'll meet as many
people as possible, pitch their
ideas and just really get inspired
to take that next step," Oleinick
said of the semi-finalists.
LSA junior Rachel Hamp-
ton's environment-related pitch
earned her a spot in the semi-
finals. She said she came to the
summit to hear stories and learn
from successful entrepreneurs.
"I was really excited to see
what MPowered had to offer,"
Hampton said. "U of M has so
many opportunities, it's like why
not take advantage of them?"
Engineering " sophomore
Joshua Rosefelt said he attended
to learn about earning grants to
get his business idea up and run-
ning, among other things.
"We're really here just to fig-
ure out more of what we can do
next," Rosefelt said.