()I ~ N~ 11\\INIF 1111 4 I6F I 11 O I\4II6IIF.\ Ann Arbor, Michigan Friday, February 22, 2013 michigandaily.com RESEARCH 'U'bracing for possible cuts in fed. funding Forrest says "They listen to us, so it's up to us to help the federal gov- sequestration would ernment understand what the research opportunities and what take $40 million the competitive opportunities f h are in the future," Forrest said. rom researCa "It has been innovation that has been the motor and the engine of By JENNIFER CALFAS the American economy since the and SAM GRINGLAS Second World War." Daily Staff Reporters While federal funding has decreased over time, the Uni- As federal research funding is versity's research budget rose to on the line, the University is on $1.27 billion this past year. The high alert. If Congress doesn't increase was due largely to the reach a deal to reduce the federal University's use of its swn funds deficit before March 1, across- to replace federal funding - the-board cuts will be automati- which decreased from $824 mil- cally be set in place - akin to the lionto $795 million this past year. so-called fiscal cliff that was nar- The University's growing part- rowly avoided at the end of 2012. nerships with private industry At the University's Board of have helped offset the decrease Regents' meeting Thursday, Ste- in federal appropriations. phen Forrest, University vice In an interview last Friday, president for research, and said University Provost Phil Hanlon the University could experience a said the University will work $40-million reduction. National to improve research funding to research funding would be cutby alleviate the problem of reduced $12 billion. federal support. Forrest said that, regard- "We certainly will work as less of the outcome of the cuts, hard as we possibly can to make or sequestration, the Univer- the case for U of M research to sity is entering a period of flat be an ever-growing part of the or declining federal research federal pie," Hanlon said. "That's funding. However, since Univer- one way that we can react to the sity research placed first among shrinking federal budget is to public universities and second improve our percentage of fund- among all universities this past ing that comes our way, and we year, it may be able to leverage will certainly do every effort to this clout at the federal level. See FUNDING, Page 3 ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily At the first official Board of Regents meeting of the semester, plans to renovate two residence halls were approved. Regents OK renovations Also confirm Pollack as next University provost By SAM GRINGLAS Daily StaffReporter During its first public meet- ing since December, the Univer- sity's Board of Regents convened Thursday to approve an array of construction projects, includ- ing large-scale renovation plans for two University residence halls, as well as to approve the appointment of Martha Pollack, the University's vice provost for budgetary affairs, as the Univer- sity's next provost. Last month, the regents assembled in California to meet with higher-education leaders and donors in lieu of an official January meeting. As a result, Thursday marked the first offi- cial appearance of Regents Mark Bernstein (D-Ann Arbor) and Shauna Ryder Diggs (D-Grosse Pointe) since assuming their positions in January. REGENTS APPROVE SOUTH QUAD DESIGN As the next step in plans to renovate South Quad, the board approved designs for the $60 million project that was passed at its meeting last September. The project will create a Central Campus dining center, similar to that of the Hill Dining Center that services multiple residence halls. Additionally, the updates would add improve- ments to bathrooms, lounges, study rooms and music practice spaces. The renovations will mostly focus on the ground floor and first floor, covering in total 106,700 square feet of space. Individual dormitories will not be altered. "Thisisacrucialcontinuationof the residential life initiative phase two," Timothy Slottow,the Univer- sity's executive vice president and chieffinancialofficer said. Chris Purdy, a project man- ager for the SmithGroupJJR architecture and engineering firm, presented the schematic design to the board, mention- ing that students were involved with its design. "The planning process for this project thus far starting early last year involved exten- sive involvement from the stu- dents," Purdy said. "A number of focus groups were held to really gain the students' perspective on the project and what they would really like to see." Slated for completion in the summer of 2014, the bulk of the plan's cost goes toward structural improvements such as plumbing, heating and a fire detection system. Helen Newberry, Betsy Bar- See REGENTS, Page 3 CAMPUS LIFE Crime alerts focus of 'I Will' conversation I 11''M 11,111,1111111 ''I'll illill l ..... . .. ............. 11 1 ''1 111 pil, Ani, a former Israeli soldier, speaks about his tm with the Israeli Defense Forces at Hillel Thursday Soldiers talk about service in Israel Former servicemen discuss personal stories, Arab-Israeli conflict By CASSANDRA BALFOUR Daily Staff Reporter On Thursday night, a group of about twenty students gathered at Hillel to hear the stories of two former soldiers who served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Business junior Barak Kaufman, presi- dent of I-LEAD - a group that advocates See ISRAEL, Page 3 Campaign aims to increase dialogue on campus sexual assault By ALICIA ADAMCZYK Daily News Editor LSA senior Josh Buoy knows talking about sexual assault isn't easy. In fact, it wasn't until last week that he even spoke about it publicly. But that isn't stopping him from spurring a campus- wide conversation about sexual assault and what the University can do differ- ently to address the issue. Buoy and LSA senior Yonah Lieber- man facilitated a conversation among 15 students on Thursday night at Amer's Deli on Church Street, to address issues they perceive with the crime alert system used by the Uni- versity of Michigan Police Department and the broader implications of sexual assault on campus. Buoy and Lieberman (who was a Daily columnist) are two of four co- founders of the "I Will" Campaign, which organized the event. The cam- paign looks to increase awareness of sexual assault on campus. Part of the campaign involves hosting coffeehouse conversations on a weekly basis to discuss issues related to sexual assault in an informal setting. The theme of this week's conversation was sparked. by an opinion piece Daily columnist Katie Steen wrote in which she criticized the University's crime alertsystem. Recent criticisms of the crime alert system have ranged from a perceived "racialization" of the crime alert per- petrator description, to the time delay between when a crime occurs and when an alert is sent out to students. Buoy said issues with the language and descriptions included in crime alerts might stem from the way in which UMPD releases them. He said that if the police focused more on stu- dents and less on legal procedure, the alerts would be more effective. "Obviously they care about our safety but when they actually send it out, it's a legal obligation they have to make stu- dents aware of that incident," Buoy said. "I think thatifthosetwogoalskindofmerged together more,that could help alot" LSA senior Alex Olkowski, co- coordinator of the Sexual Assault and Prevention Awareness Center's Men's Activism committee, said UMPD and SAPAC have been working together to improve crime alerts, particularly con- cerning usage of language that could be perceived as victim blaming. Though the purpose of Thursday's meeting was to start a dialogue rather than institute any structured change, Buoy encouraged attendees to develop a clear idea of exactly what they found problematic with the crime alerts. The next step would then be to contact University Police Spokeswoman Diane Brown and work with UMPD to rectify the group's criticisms. Brown said UMPD would like to include more information in the crime alerts, but that is often not feasible. She said information is often "shaky" and that the police department is careful not to send out any false information. "We'd love to have more detail about an incident ... about a suspect's description," Brown said. "If there's the perception that the police are See CRIME, Page 3 Unearthing Apple's secrets between classes LSA freshman tech blogger takes on the pros By STEPHANIE SHENOUDA Daily StaffReporter LSA freshman Mark Gurman works a full-time job, is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Jour- nal, and regularly beats his major competitors in releasing exclusive coverage about Apple products and announcements. Nightslastinguntil3 or 4 a.m.have become the norm during the three years that Gurman has reported for technology site 9to5Mac, which spe- cializes in all things Apple. "Apple is a major company, so they have a huge following as far as what's next in their product line," Gurman said. "People are definitely really interested as to what'sgoingon with- in the company and the entire eco- system, so it's our job to tell them." The site gets 10 to 15 million page views a month, a number he attri- butes to people's desire to constant- ly know what the technology giant "has nextup its sleeve." Gurman said the job was a natu- ral progression for him because of his love of Apple products and his interest in journalism. "I met the owner of the site, Seth Weintraub, after I found a domain name before the iPad was announced that seemed to allude to Apple buildinga tablet," Gurman said. "That was big news andI wrote the story after I discovered that, and the rest was basically history." Gurman also broke the news about the new 128-gigabyte-capac- ity, fourth-generation iPad last month, three days before Apple announced the update. "I was able to break that news, and basically the big deal there is that it's more business- and enter- See APPLE, Page 3 WEATHER HI: 32 TOMORROW LO: 23 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. NEW ON M1CH1A.NAJLYcon The Filter: The resurrection of Ribo Kiley MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS INDEX NEW S......................... 2 SPORTS ........................7 Vol. CXXIII, No. 74 OPINION .....................4 SUDOKU.................... 2 ©2013TheMichigan Daily ARTS ...................... 5 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 michigondoily.com