The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, January 25, 2013 - 5
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, January 25, 2013 - 5
SOCIAL
From Page 1
Twitter account's followers tri-
pled from 9,9000 to 30,200, and
the University's Facebook page
received 100,000 new likes.
In a March interview, Miller
said she hoped to establish the
University as a national leader in
the use of social media.
"In the same way that the Uni-
versity is a top school in so many
other ways, we can and should be
a ground-breaker and a thought-
leader in social media," she said.
"We should be a school that other
schools can look to and say 'That's
how the University of Michigan's
doing it. They're doing it right and
that's how we should be doing it
too."'
While Miller served inthe posi-
tion, she curated the University
of Michigan Social Media plat-
forms and social profiles. She also
launched the @umichstudents
Twitter account in July, which is
hosted by a different University
student each week.
Each department and specific
position at the University under-
go unique interviews and employ-
ment processes, which all involve
a background check, according
to University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald.
When asked how the Universi-
ty may have missed Millers claim
that she had her diploma on her
resume, Fitzgerald said that this
was an unusual circumstance,'
and that it does not happen often.
The job listing closes on Feb. 13.
HACKATHON
From Page 1
The competition offers $5,000
in prizes with a $1,500 cash prize
for first place.
Students will arrive Friday
evening and the competition will
begin at midnight and end Sun-
day morning.
"(On Sunday morning) we're,
going to have an expo similar to,
like, a science fair where we're
inviting the public in," Fontenot
said. "You're going to pretty
much be demoing your hacks to
anyone who's interested."
MHacks has already spent
about $50,000 on the event so
far. The majority of that money,
$23,600, will pay for transpor-
tation costs, including buses to
shuttle students from students
from other schools in the region.
The next highest expenditure is
$16,500 on food - with $3,000
allodated for Red Bull alone.
The hackathon will be financed
by donations from several spon-
sors, including Mail Chimp, ven-
ture capital firm Andreessen
Horowitz, Groupon and others.
Despite its sizeable budget,
MHacks has allocated no money
for lodging. But Fontenot said
that's deliberate.
"At a hackathon, you usually
take, like, a 3-hour nap or some-
thing in the middle, but you don't
get a full night's sleep," he said.
Nonetheless, there will be "desig-
nated nap rooms" with neck pil-
lows, Fontenot added.
At the end of the competition,
Fontenot said the best app isn't
necessarily the most profitable
app, but the most usable. Teams
cheating by teams is a possibil-
ity, but preparing an app before
the competition could do little to
help ateam's cause.
"(Cheating) has happened
before and it's somewhat hard
to detect," he said. "I honestly
think that the most innovation
comes in this kind of setting
where you're completely under
pressure."
He continued by saying the
limited time forces apps to be
fairly basic, but these form the
foundation for later development.
"A lot of the most successful
apps ... started off really, really
simple," he said.
Last weekend, programmers
from the University traveled to
the University of Pennsylvania
for PennApps, which Fontenot
said is the nation's premier col-
lege hackathon. Fontenot said
MHacks intends to overtake Pen-
nApps in terms of prestige and
student involvement.
440 students participated in
PennApps and MHacks already,
has about 450 students signed
up, Fontenot said still shy of the
500-student goal.
Students interested in sign-
ing up for MHacks can sign up at
the Hackathon's event page. The
event is free.
ONLINE
From Page 1
MOOCs are very important as a
new forum for education, they are
also limited in many ways.
"MOOCs are an incredibly
handy vehicle for packaging up
material that can be taught effec-
tively in this style," Russell said.
"Having said that, not all educa-
tional material fits into this for-
mat equally well."
Performance studies such
as music or theater complicate
the matter, but Russell said
he believes new technologies
will arise to satiate the need to
advance these disciplines.
"You will start to see the inte-
GEO
From Page 1
said that without zero-premium
GradCare, they could not afford
to attend grad school at UM."
However, Howard argued that
this will not be a problem for
GEO. She noted that as long as
most members stay active, right-
to-work legislation will have little
to no effect.
"GEO has an advantage because
gration of different sorts of real-
time interaction technologies
in a sort of collaborative sense
and in an individual one-on-one
sense that will allow us to evolve
in ways that will allow this stuff
to happen," Russell said.
However, MOOCs also stand
as a potential threat to the Uni-
versity's revenue. Russell added
that while the fear is that MOOCs
will deteriorate the need for uni-
versities, the institutions retain
an "experience that is difficult to
reproduce" in an online platform.
Russell also noted that the use
of MOOCs is still in the experi-
mental phase, and many factors
are unknown, such as how they
will be funded and whether free
MOOCs will prove to be viable
since we have a completely demo-
cratic structure and such a high
turnover rate in our membership,
bottom-up, member-to-member
organizing is already what we're
used to," Howard wrote.
Howard worries the discon-
nected unions will suffer the
most, and GEO's member-focged
strategies are more effective than
the traditional top-down model.
GEO's membership consists of
graduate student instructors and
graduate student assistants, total-
against premium, paid versions.
At the September meet-
ing of the University's Board
of Regents, several members
expressed concerns about pro-
viding the online courses for free
in light of a perennially difficult
budget situation. University Vice
Provost for Academic and Bud-
getary Affairs Martha Pollack
told the regents that while the
University is currently offering
online courses for free of charge,
it could begin charging for pro-
fessional and continuing-educa-
tion courses.
Kaul was not immediately
available for comment.
-Daily News Editor Peter
Shahin contribtued to this report.
ing approximately 1,600 members
per year.
Although the legislation is
unpopular within union ranks,
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and
the Republican-majority Michi-
gan House of Representatives and
Senate created the legislation in
hopes of making Michigan's econ-
omy more attractive to business.
Legislators hope that more
businesses and workers will move
to the state because of the added
freedom.
ABROAD
From Page 1
that maintaining "cultural sensi-
tivity" was also a top priority for
the students participating in the
Take U-M Abroad program.
"You don't really want to
impose your views on any-
one else," she said. "I think it's
important to look for projects
that are not only a good idea, but
also are adaptable."
One student is going to make
a "cross-cultural cookbook" that
'draws from the foods of Michi-
gan and Cape Verde, an island
nation in the Atlantic Ocean near
Africa, where the student will be
studying. Sales of the cookbook
will go toward funding charities
in Cape Verde.
Following the participating
students' trips abroad, Mott said
CSG will be creating a book-
let and a presentation with the
results. She added that CSG is
looking to continue the program
through summer term and may
look for more ways to institution-
alize it.
In an e-mail interview, Busi-
ness senior Manish Parikh, the
president of CSG, called the pro-
gram "spectacular" and noted
its ability to "create impact glob-
ally,"
"A program like this is unique
to Michigan," Parikh wrote.
"(It's) our small way of making
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Yemen: Al- Qaida's No. 2 dies
after U.S. drone strike in Oct.
Caeed al-Shihri's
de
Charles Dharapak/AP
Egyptian protesters try to tear down a ceinent wall built to prevent them from reaching parliament and the Cabinet
building near Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Thursday.
V 0 iolent clashes in Egy on
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ath considered the "rumor about my death ... as
though the lbilling of the mujahi-
major blow deen (holy warriors) by America
is a victory to Islam and Mus-
lims."
AA, Yemen (AP) - Al- Al-Shihri went through Saudi
No. 2 in Yemen died Arabia's famous "rehabilitation"
ands sustained in a U.S. institutes after he returned to his
attack last year in south- home country, but then he fled
men, the country's official to Yemen and became deputy to
gency and a security offi- Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of
d Thursday. an al-Qaida group.
d al-Shihri, a Saudi nation- Al-Shihri's death is considered
fought in Afghanistan and a major blow to al-Qaida's Yemen
ix years in the U.S. military branch, known as al-Qaida in The
at Guantanamo Bay, was Arabian Peninsula. Washington
ed in a missile attack in the considers it the most dangerous
rn city of Saada on Oct. 28, of the group's offshoots.
ng to SABA news agency. Al-Qaida in Yemen has been
agency said that he had linked to several attempted
nto a coma since then. It attacks on U.S. targets, includ-
rt clear when he actually ing the foiled Christmas Day
2009 bombing of an airliner over
curity official said that the Detroit and explosives-laden
had been fired by a U.S. parcels intercepted aboard cargo
:ed, unmanned drone air- flights last year.
He spoke on condition of In 2011, a high-profile U.S.
nity because he was not drone strike killed U.S.-born
Anwar al-Awlaki, who had been
linked to the planning and exe-
cution of several attacks target-
ing U.S.. and Western interests,
including the attempt to down a
Detroit-bound airliner in 2009
and the plot to bomb cargo planes
in 2010.
Yemen, the Arab world's poor-
est nation, has fallen into lawless-
ness during a yearlong uprising
starting in 2011, when millions
of Yemenis took to the streets
demanding the ouster of their
longtime authoritarian ruler Ali
Abdullah Saleh.
Al-Qaida militants exploited
the unrest and took control of
large swaths of land in the south
until last spring, when the mili-
tary, backed by the U.S., managed
to drive hundreds'of militants
out of major cities and towns.
Since then, the group has
carried out deadly attacks tar-
geting mostly security and mili-
tary officials, including suicide
bombings that targeted military
and security compounds.
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Morsi
Morsi urges hood group. His first six mont t
eaCe among in office were markedby politic
tensions, street protests and an L
ti-corruption economic crunchthat sapped his t
popularity. i
protestors As the protests continued,o
Morsi visited the western city i
RO (AP) - Egyptian secu- of Ismailia to inaugurate a mari- a
rces fired tear gas and time project, but he was received m
ers hurled stones and by activists who blocked a rail- v
V cocktails in a day-long way station, tore down the wel-
tration on Thursday, coming banners and issued a a
fears of a violent anni- statement stating that they were t
r of the 2011 uprising that opposed to inaugurating new s
long-time authoritarian projects while there's corruption t
nt Hosni Mubarak. in the railway system. p
h activists and opposition Later in the day, Morsi urged u
have called for large ral- Egyptians to mark the anniver-
the anniversary Friday sary peacefully. C
o's Tahrir Square and in "I call upon Egyptians to cel- e
f the president palace in ebrate the revolution ... with g
cale suburb, Heliopolis. civilization - and peacefully to t
protests, which left doz- preserve our nation, our institu- n
ured, began before dawn tion, our souls, our streets and i
ral Cairo when protest- our sons," he told agathering in a
d to tear down a cement speech meant to mark the birth-
uilt to prevent them day of Muslim Prophet Muham-
eaching the parliament mad.
e Cabinet building. The "We have to feel that we are
clashes continued after all in one ship and we have to
ass fell on the Egyptian preserve its safety and respect
the people and their free will
e weeks of mass protests which they express in their bal-
upted on Jan. 25, 2011, lot boxes," he added.
ally forced Mubarak out But die-hard fans of Egypt's
e. most popular soccer team, Ahly,
then, Egypt has under- who took part in the clashes,
* tumultuous transition warned in a statement: "The
hat left 74 dead.
The soccer fans, known as
Ultras, also called for mass pro-
ests on Jan. 26, the day a court
s expected to rule on the fate
f security officials being tried
n connection with the deaths
t the soccer game, one of the
world's bloodiest instances of
iolence at a sports event.
On Tuesday, in an attempt to
ssuage anger, Morsi announced
hat the victims will be con-
idered "martyrs." That means
heir, families will receive com-
pensation like those killed in the
prising against Mubarak.
That same day, Egypt's prose-
utor general, who was appoint-
d by Morsi, asked the court to
ive the prosecution more time
o introduce new findings and
new defendants before issuing
ts verdict.
authorized to speak to the press.
Yemen had previously
announced al-Shihri's death in a
Sept. 10 drone attack in the prov-
ince of Hadramawt. A subse-
quent DNA test however proved
that the body recovered was not
that of al-Shihri.
On Oct. 22, al-Shihri denied 4 7 1 5
his own death in audio message
posted on Jihadi websites. , 7 6 8
Also known by the nom de
guerre Abu Sufyan al-Azdi, he 1 6 8 7
denounced at the time the Yeme-
he interim leadership of
y generals until the elec-
st June of Mohammed
of the Muslim Brother-
price of blood is blood." It was a
reference to the deaths of many
of their friends last year in a vio-
lent rampage at a soccer game