The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT
From Page 1
DETROIT
Feds to probe Ford
cars for stalling
The National Highway Traf-
fic Safety Administration says it
will investigate problems with
stalling or surging engines in
nearly 725,000 Ford cars and
SUVs.
The probe affects Ford Escape
and Mercury Mariner SUVs and
Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan
sedans from the 2009 through
2011 model years.
The vehicles can unexpect-
edly go into "limp home mode"
at reduced power, the agency
said in documents posted Mon-
day on its website. NHTSA and
Ford have received almost 1,500
complaints about the problem.
There were three crashes and
one injury.
NEW YORK
Stocks drop in sync
with Italy's chaos
Stocks are having a bad flash-
back to last spring, when fears
about the European debt crisis
sent the market spiralinglower.
On Monday, election results in
Italy showed a race too close to
call, leaving investors fearful that
the country will struggle to form
a government that can move for-
ward with reforms to revive the
economy.
The Dow Jones industrial aver-
age posted its worst drop in more
than three months. The Standard
& Poor's 500, which had its first
weekly decline of the year last
week, piled on more losses Mon-
day.
ROME
Italy faces political
gridlock after
crucial election
The prospect of political paral-
ysis hung over Italy on Monday
as near complete official results
in crucial elections showed -an
upstart protest campaign led by
a comedian making stunning
inroads, and mainstream forces
of center-left and center-right
wrestling for control of Parlia-
ment's two houses.
The story of the election in the
eurozone's third largest economy
was shaping up to be the aston-
ishing vote haul of comic-turned-
political leader Beppe Grillo,
whose 5 Star Movement has capi-
talized on a wave of voter disgust
with the ruling political class.
Another surprise has been the
return as a political force of bil-
lionaire media mogul Silvio Ber-
lusconi, who was forced from the
premiership at the end of 2011
by Italy's debt crisis, and whose
forces now had a strong chance
of coming out on top in the Ital-
ian Senate. His main rival, the
center-left Pier Luigi Bersani,
appeared headed toward victory
in Parliament's lower house.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
lot of enticing incentives, includ-
ing very cheap housing, Ros-
ner said. He also pointed out
Detroit's unique ability to allow
a college student a high level of
impact on a major city.
"If you go and do your job,
whatever it may be, in New York
or L.A., or a high-density city
with a lot of people doing a lot of
different things, the likelihood
that you're going to positively
impact the environment around
you in the city and the citizens
around you is quite low," Ros-
ner said. "The interesting thing
about Detroit is because the
innovation happening in the
city is only just recently start-
ing to reboot itself, the ability
for someone to make an impact
in the community or within a
sector of business in the city is
highlylikely."
Rosner said he was "infatu-
ated with the culture" of Detroit
and worries that a combination
of fear and ignorance is prevent-
ing students from experiencing
the city.
"Don't get me wrong, the city
is still dangerous, and there's
cities all around the world that
are dangerous, and so it's not
like the negative stigmas aren't
true, but there's a lot between
the lines that exists that's really
exciting," Rosner said.
LSA junior Morgan Princing,
a co-creator of Detroit Wolver-
ine, participated in the Semester
in Detroit program last spring
and plans to return again this
summer. She agreed that stu-
dents' fears about Detroit may
be too harsh.
"It's just more or less like
another city, and you have to be,
you know, safe as you are any-
where," Princing said, "I wasby
no means discouraged by it."
Both Princing and Rosner
said the benefits of working in
Detroit far outweigh the risks,
and they encourage students to
get involved in the city as much
as possible.
"Detroit just has a lot of per-
sonality, and I think there's a
lot of ways that Detroit kind of
inspires people," Princing said.
"The whole do-it-yourself cul-
ture can be very inspiring."
In the future, Detroit Wolver-
ine wants to partner with other
Detroit-focused groups on cam-
pus to increase access to the city
for the students. Specific goals
include a Detroit internship fair,
increased transportation to the
city and "Friday Nights in the D"
weekend outings.
High-stakes trial
begins over 2010
Gulf oil spill
PHYSICIANS
From Page 1
who have neurological disorders,
so my reputation is important, but
people come to me because they
have to," Jacobs said.
Jacobs added that the honor
demonstrates how far she and
YOUMICH
From Page 1
to come from."
The party's goal is to create a
collaborative environment.
While increasing student con-
nectivity seems like an abstract
idea, Dishell said a tangible
solution is creating a leader-
ship network that would aim to
bring student leaders together
for issues and events and regular
meetings.
"This leadership network
would be able to collaborate,"
Dishell said. "This leadership
network would be able to sup-
port each other, and it would be
able to spread the information,
so campus in a year is going to
be a much more interconnected
campus."
Another goal of youMICH is
to continue the entrepreneur-
ial mindset of the current CSG
administration. In particular,
Proppe said youMICH would
like to introduce an entrepre-
neurship learning community.
LSA junior Laurel Ruza said
other platform promises include
an MCard app for students'
smartphones, a 24-hour caf on
North Campus, and a survey that
incoming students would take at
orientation to connect them to
FACULTY
From Page 1
range from $5,000 to $15,000
per year.
LEAD currently supports 127
students, including 40 fresh-
men inducted in the past year.
Coleman said the program
also increases the success of
recruiting out-of-state stu-
dents, better matching efforts
at University's in-state recruit-
ment.
"We also need to be able to
recruit out-of-state (students),
but oftentimes that problem is
financial. That's why the LEAD
scholarship is so important,
which is why I'm encouraging
it," Coleman said.
The committee also
addressed the possibility of
working with the Business
Leaders for Michigan round-
table - which is composed of
CEOs that are the state's larg-
est job providers - to raise
funds for the University.
BLM is working on a stra-
tegic plan to turn around the
state's economy. Ten years ago,
Michigan was a top-10 state in
terms of job creation. Current-
ly, it is in the bottom 10, having
lost 800,000 jobs in the past 10
years.
Hanlon said the source of
support and funding that BLM
is working toward providing is
vital for improvingthe health of
Michigan's economy by boost-
ing the University's financial
base.
her department have come in the
last few years.
"I actually work with three
other partners, but when I start-
ed it was only me and it was hard
because I worked in the ICU day
and night by myself," Jacobs said.
"Everything gets turned over to
you, being critical care trained,
but it helped me to see how to
student organizations in which
they mightbe interested.
If youMICH were to lose the
presidential election, Ruza said
the party would still look to
enact part of its platform.
"As party chair I look to our
presidential, vice presidential
candidates to get a lot of the
things done, but I also look to our
representatives," Ruza said. "If
we get some of our representa-
tives - hopefully all of our rep-
resentatives in CSG next year
- they'll be able to fulfill some of
our goals."
Ruza said youMICH wants to
see that its representative candi-
dates have their own goals, too.
Proppe boasts his experience
as speaker of the assembly.
"Now I'm ready to take that
experience that I've had in the
legislature and move over to
the executive side of things,"
Proppe said. "Just seeing the
process of writing a resolution
getting this through and then
carrying out the actions of that
resolution is something that I
don't think a lot of people get to
see within CSG."
Proppe added that he plans
to use his experience to better
engage assembly representatives.
Throughout the course of
assembly meetings, represen-
tatives and CSG members are
"It's great to have an exter-
nal voice outside the Univer-
sity making this case," Hanlon
said.
SACUA member Rachel Gold-
man, an engineering and phys-
ics professor, asked Coleman if
BLM is interested in drawing
investment for higher educa-
tion in general or specific fields
after hearing a claim that there
is a corporate interest in creat-
ing more engineering schools in
the state.
Coleman said support for
higher education transcends
engineering and covers all
fields of education.
"There have been a lot of
concerns nationally for sci-
ence, technology, engineer-
ing and math ... (but) business
leaders, in my opinion, have
felt that a higher education
investment is a good education
investment in all fields, not
narrowing the focus at all,"
Coleman said. "There is some
evidence that suggests that
students (who study liberal
arts) will form critical skills
that they will be very success-
ful as leaders."
Coleman also said diversity
in education should be valued
and sought after in a quickly
globalizing and interdisciplin-
ary world and academic envi-
ronment.
"We want to teach students
that regardless of discipline,
how do you think?" she said.
"How do you solve problems?
How do take the body of inter-
disciplinary knowledge that
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 - 3
better build our program, and
how I could make the ICU better
than ever before, which is what
we're being recognized for."
Jacobs said though the bar
is constantly being raised,
this recognition is "intrinsi-
cally valuable" because it's an
acknowledgment of the work she
does every day.
able to discuss projects they're
working on or upcoming issues.
Proppe said representatives are
"underutilized" in these projects
and issues.
"You need to be proactive
in approaching reps," Proppe
said. "I think the assembly loves
seeing the reps take charge on
these sorts of things so giving
them more opportunities to take
charge on these sorts of things
can go along way."
Proppe had actually not con-
sidered running for the position
prior to accepting the nomina-
tion.
"I had initially expressed that
I was not interested in the posi-
tion," Proppe said. "I wanted to
continue to play a role in CSG
next year, but I wasn't sure what
that would be."
Proppe added that he felt com-
pelled to run after he failed to see
a "platform that resonated with
what I wanted to accomplish."
"I started to reconsider and,
after chatting with aslot of other
people, I'm really excited to be
doing this and I wish I had made
the decision earlier," he said.
Ruza said Proppe's initial
hesitancy toward springs from
genuine intentions.
youMICH also plans to run
representatives in the March 27
and 28 elections.
you gain and use it to work on
a real world problem? And that
involves many disciplines, not
just one."
After Coleman left the meet-
ing, the committee discussed
faculty retention within the
University, and Hanlon said
in the last academic year, the
amount of faculty solicited by
other universities grew for the
third consecutive year. Over
the past five or six years, the
University won about 61 per-
cent of cases, but over the past
year won only 54 percent of the
cases.
Biology Prof. John Lehman
asked Hanlon and Coleman
about future advancement in
the University's online course
offerings.
Hanlon said new mod-
ules are going to change the
way the University teaches
by allowing for more active
engagement with students,
more student collaboration
and a deeper understanding of
how students learn most effi-
ciently.
"My dad was a country doc-
tor (and) he had almost no tech-
nology," Hanlon said. "I feel
like in the teaching space we
are back where my dad was, if
you want to know whether a
student is learning or not, you
look at them and try and figure
out that dear in the headlights
look ... I think we are looking at
a future where we can use tech-
nology to see how students are
learning."
Attorney says BP
ignored safety
for profit
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP
put profits ahead of safety and
bears most of the blame for
the disastrous 2010 spill in the
Gulf of Mexico, a U.S. Justice
Department attorney charged
Monday at the opening of a
trial that could result in the oil
company and its partners being
forced to pay tens of billions of
dollars more in damages.
The London-based oil giant
acknowledged it made "errors
in judgment" before the deadly
blowout, but it also cast blame
on the owner of the drilling rig
and the contractor involved in
cementing the well. It denied
it was grossly negligent, as the
government contended.
Thehigh-stakescivilcasewent
to trial after attempts to reach an
11th-hour settlement failed.
Eleven workers were killed
when the Deepwater Horizon
rig leased by the BP exploded
on April 20, 2010. An estimated
172 millions of gallons of crude
gushed into the Gulf over the
three months that followed in
the worst offshore oil spill in
U.S. history.
Justice Department attorney
Mike Underhill said the catas-
trophe resulted from BP's "cul-
ture of corporate recklessness."
"The evidence will show that
BP put profits before people,
profits before safety and profits
before the environment," Under-
hill said in opening statements.
He added: "Despite BP's attempts
to shifttheblametoother parties,
by far the primary fault for this
disasterbelongs to BP."
BP attorney Mike Brock
acknowledged that the oil com-
pany made mistakes. But he
accused rig owner Transocean
Ltd. of failing to properly main-
tain the rig's blowout preventer,
which had a dead battery, and
he claimed cement contractor
Halliburton used a "bad slurry"
that failed to prevent oil and gas
from travelingup the well.
BP has already pleaded
guilty to manslaughter and
other criminal charges and has
racked up more than $24 bil-
lion in spill-related expenses,
including cleanup costs, com-
pensation for businesses and
individuals, and $4 billion in
criminal penalties.
But the federal government,
Gulf Coast states and individu-
als and businesses hope to con-
vince a federal judge that the
company and its partners in the
ill-fated drilling project are liable
for much more in civil damages
under the Clean Water Act and
other environmental regulations.
One of the biggest questions
facing U.S. District Judge Carl
Barbier, who is hearing the case
without a jury, is whether BP
acted with gross negligence.
Under the Clean Water Act,
a polluter can be forced to pay a
minimum of $1,100 per barrel of
spilled oil; the fines nearly qua-
druple to about $4,300 a barrel
for companies found grossly neg-
ligent, meaning BP could be on
the hook for nearly $18 billion.