s The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - 5
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - 5
SACUA
From Page 1
the diversity statement would be a
goal of the faculty and the admin-
istration.
SACUA members did not
approve the drafted diversity
statement, and the body sent the
draft back to the Committee on
University Values and the Com-
mittee for an Inclusive Univer-
sity.
The draft stressed the need for
diversity at the University and
called for the administration to
dedicate significant resources
and measures to improve diver-
sity.
VIGIL
From Page 1
"I was detained twice for
peaceful protesting," she said.
Dlewati read the names of the
students who were killed during
COUNCIL
From Page 1
plete a thorough review.
"The proposed resolution
simply provides additional guid-
ance to the planning commission
and sets a clear deadline," Briere
said. "I believe the scope of work
is accomplishable in six months
and should be something Council
members can support."
Councilmember Mike Anglin
(D-Ward 5) said he was concerned
that the public would not be able
to comment on the issue as it went
to the planning commission, but
Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje
said the residents will be able to
write in and give feedback at more
informal meetings.
Councilmember Stephen Kun-
selman (D-Ward 3) said he was
worried about what Hieftje called
a "concrete deadline." Both he and
the mayor said they want to make
sure the review would return to
City Council by the deadline.
MENTORSHIP
From Page 1
tions are not where they should
be; we are really happy that about
40 percent (of optiMize partici-
pants) are women."
optiMize aims to "connect stu-
dents who want to do things with
people who know how," Sorensen
explained.
Business sophomore Sripriya
Navalpakam, who founded a
micro-financing start-up, turned
to optiMize with a business pitch
and an aspiration to expand it into
the greater community.
"One thing that they've created
right now is a community of excit-
ed students who are really pas-
sionate about creating change,"
Navalpakam said. "We weren't
really a part of this before we
joined optiMize."
Navalpakam explained that
working with low-income com-
munity members on her venture
has led to a number of typical
challenges. While accepting that
social entrepreneurship entailed
a fair degree of stress, she said
optiMize has connected her with
lasting mentors.
While many SACUA members
said they agreed with the senti-
ment of the measure, they had
disagreements over the language
used and initiatives it proposed.
Engineering Prof. Rachel Gold-
man said the statement should
take into account the diversity
initiatives that are already ongo-
ing at the University, as well as
make suggestions on how the fac-
ulty can contribute to making a
more diverse community.
"We can come at this with
supporting what the University
is already doing," Goldman said.
"Anything we suggestbeyond that
should be in that same flavor."
Physics Prof. Finn Larsen said
the committees should also work
on an addendum that encourages
supporting students from dif-
ferent socioeconomic and racial
backgrounds. Other members
of SACUA agreed with his com-
ments and discussed options to
support students from disparate
backgrounds.
Engineering Prof. Kimberlee
Kearfott, the chair of SACUA,
added that the main purpose of
the statement should be about
providing a diverse community
where student could learn from
the differences they have from
other students.
After a redraft of the statement
that will factor in the comments
from SACUA members, the state-
ment will again be considered.
CARTS
From Page 1
"is a good incubator" for entre-
preneurs seeking to enter the
food industry without the risk of
opening a permanent restaurant.
Former Mark's Carts contribu-
tors Eat and The Lunchroom
have since evolved from cart to
full restaurant.
Mark's Carts also provides
an opportunity for restaurants
to broaden their customer base
beyond the confines of their
restaurant locations. Though
Hut-K and Satchel's BBQ have
permanent locations a few
miles from downtown, the food
cart atmosphere allows them to
attract new customers who may
return to the full location in the
future.
"Washington Street was really
kind of quiet," Hosed said. "But
when the carts came, it activated
the street and started to build
community. People would just
come by to visit and participate
in the social aspect of it."
Mark's Cart's will also be a
part of the FestiFools activities
on Sunday. Festifools is a giant
puppet parade put on by the
University's Lloyd Hall Scholars
Program.
Ji Hye Kim, a chef and man-
ager at San Street, has partici-
pated in Mark's Carts since its
inception three years ago. She
said vendors will be creating
special dishes and decorat-
ing their carts for FoolMoon, a
night festival before Festifools
on Friday.
"We're putting up lights and
handmade signs and trying to
have more fun than we normally
do, whichis abiggoalbecause we
do have a lot of fun anyway."
LSA senior Alex Perlman,
co-owner of The Beet Box, said
FestiFools complements the
environment of Mark's Carts,
and was optimistic about his
business during this year's sea-
son.
"We feel that we are intimate-
ly connected with the FestiFools
parade, and we're just one stop
throughout the whole event, so
we're trying to emulate the same
energy they have going on in
their festivities," Perlman said.
Hosed said events allow the
carts to interact with the com-
munity while the sponsors ben-
efit from the "built-in audience."
"We are definitely feeding off
the community, and the com-
munity is feeding off us," Hosed
said.
Kim said she hopes to grow
herbusiness withinthe nextyear
into a "full-service, casual Asian
Eatery," just as Eat and The
Lunchroom have grown beyond
their carts.
"I see Mark's Carts as a com-
munity of entrepreneurs and a
hotbed for venturing out to strike
on your own forbigger and better
things," Kim said.
Kim added that guests view
Mark's Carts as a cohesive com-
munity ratherthan eight individ-
ual businesses competing with
each other. The carts have a sym-
biotic relationship and engage in
"friendly competition."
"We kind of sink and swim as
a team."
the bombing of Damascus Univer-
sity and shared a story of a young
boy from an impoverished family
who was also killed in the attack.
He said the boy was known for
selling gum around the university
to earn extra money.
LSA junior Zeinab Khalil has
Resolution to approve 413
East Huron site plans delayed
City Council moved to delay a
vote on the resolution to approve
the plans for the site at 413 East
Huron Street that would create a
14-story apartment building with
an underground parking garage.
A moratorium was placed on
the development, whichis settobe
built in the D1 zoning area, twice
before. At the March 18 City Coun-
cil meeting, members engaged in a
lengthy discussion that lasted well
past midnight - most ended up
agreeing that they should re-eval-
uate the project.
Many of the previous issues
raised have been mitigated, and
the current resolution address-
es alternative tree mitigation, a
contribution to city parks, drain
requirements and energy speci-
ficities, among others.
Suspension of public artfunds
City Council approved a reso-
"Moving forward it's going to
give us a really strong ecosystem,"
Navalpakam said. '"Being entre-
preneurs, it gets really stressful
and I just find myself reachingout
to everyone for advice."
Grace Hsiao, co-founder and
CEO of Warmilu - a social start-
up created to help infants who
are at a high risk of death from
hypothermia - worked with the
optiMize teams and members and
provided "realistic, grounded cri-
tiques."
"For social ventures, the people
who (need the help) may not be
able to afford the product or the
service," Hsiao said.
On April 4, the 19 teams of
students who have been working
with the optiMize team will gath-
er to present their business pitch-
es. Four to five teams will then
take their developedbusinesses to
compete for a stipend and show-
case their products on April 18 at 7
p.m. at the University of Michigan
Museum of Modern Art.
While Sorensen hoped the
start-ups developed through opti-
Mize would be able to continue to
grow after the challenge, educa-
tion is the real goal.
"Most start-ups aren't going to
been to countless vigils for Syria
over the last two years. She said
the rights being demanded by
the Syrian people are basic and
merely an attempt to live a digni-
fied life.
"It's not as complicated as peo-
ple want to make it seem."
lution to extend the Percent for
Art Program's funding suspen-
sion until May 31.
The suspension, set to expire
the night of the May meeting,
was first extended on Dec. 3,
2012.
City Council's intent in sus-
pending the funding is to allow
their committee - the Public
Art Task Force - to reconsider
city code with regard to public
art and to allow City Council
members time to review these
considerations. The committee
is currently still in the course of
reviewing city code. They have
asked for more time to finish
their work.
Briere said she believes the
extension should be granted due
to unforeseen delays.
"I think that the task force has
been quite effective in working
through its concerns about pub-
lir art and public art funding, but
in the last month we have run
into inevitable delays," Briere
said.
be the ones to change the world,"
Sorensen said. "But at the same
time, in order to get to that point
you need to try and fail."
He said optiMize's next step
would be to develop an educa-
tional curriculum that could inte-
grate with course plans of LSA
students. Currently in talks with
administrators, Sorensen said he
hoped optiMize would be able to
provide to students several one-
credit courses on social problems
and solutions to inspire pitches
amongstudents.
"I think something that's not
as obvious is that people who
want to do this, want it to be
rigorous," he said "It needs to
be an experience where by the
time you go through it you are
actually prepared to start doing
something."
Through potential collabora-
tion with the Flipped Semester,
Sorensen said the program would
be able to attract a larger mem-
bership.
"In terms of the future of
education at U-M, I think this
kind of action-based, immersive
learning experiences are what's
going to keep Michigan a Leader
and Best."
Help shrinks as poverty spikes
in the across the United States
Charities
dwindling in
number nationwide
BALTIMORE (AP) - Anto-
nio Hammond is the $18,000
man.
He's a success story for
Catholic Charities of Balti-
more, one of a multitude of
organizations trying to haul
people out of poverty in this
Maryland port city where one
of four residents is considered
poor by U.S. government stan-
dards.
Hammond says he ended up
in Baltimore three years ago,
addicted to crack cocaine and
snorting heroin, living in aban-
doned buildings where "the
rats were fierce," and financing
his addiction by breaking into
cars and stealing copper pipes
out of crumbing structures.
Eighteen months after find-
ing his way to Catholic Chari-
ties via a rehabilitation center,
the 49-year-old Philadelphia
native is back in the work
force, clean of drugs, earning
$13 an hour cleaning laborato-
ries for the Biotech Institute of
Maryland and payingtaxes.
Catholic Charities, which
runs a number of feder-
ally funded programs, spent
$18,000 from privately donat-
ed funds to turn around
Hammond's life through the
organization's Christopher's
Place program which provides
housing and support services to
recovering addicts and former
prisoners.
Such success stories are in
danger as $85 billion in fed-
eral government spending cuts
begin squeezing services for
the poor nationwide. The cuts
started kicking in automati-
cally on March 1 after feuding
Democrats and Republicans
failed to agree on a better plan
for addressingthe national def-
icit. They are hitting at a time.
of spiking poverty as the U.S.
slowly climbs out of the deep-
est economic downturn since
the Great Depression of the
1930s.
"All I wanted to do was get
high," Hammond said. "I didn't
even know any more how to eat
or clean myself"
Now he lives with two other
men in housing subsidized by,
the charity, got his driver's
license and bought a car. What
he marvels at the most is that
he has been accepted after a
20-year absence by some of his
nine children. That's the best
part, he said. "At least I know
now they might not hate me."
The U.S. Census Bureau
puts the number of Ameri-
cans in poverty at levels not
seen since the mid-1960s
when President Lyndon B.
Johnson launched the fed-
eral government's so-called
War on Poverty. As President
Barack Obama began his sec-
ond term in January, nearly
50 million Americans - one
in six - were living below the
income line that defines pov-
erty, according to the bureau.
A family of four that earns less
than $23,021 a year is listed as
living in poverty. The bureau
said 20 percent of the country's
children are poor.
Although it is far from the
country's poorest city, Balti-
more's poverty rate far outstrips
the national average of one in
six.
Catholic Charities of Balti-
more is a conduit for state and
federal money for programs
designed to help the poor. The
charity plays a major role in
administering Head Start, a
federal program that provides
educational services for low-
income pre-school children
and frees single mothers to find
work without the huge expense
of childcare.
The spending cuts, known as
the sequester, are going to hit
Head Start especially hard.
"Before the sequester only
half of the need was being met.
Now, after the cuts fully take
effect, there will be 900 chil-
dren already in the program
who won't be able to take part,"
said William McCarthy, execu-
tive director of Catholic Chari-
ties.
Apple apologizes in China after
service criticism over repairs
Afghan teenager fatally stabs U.S.
soldier playing with children
U.S. death toll rises
due to fighting in
warmer weather
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)
- An Afghan teenager fatally
stabbed an American soldier in
the neck as he played with chil-
dren in eastern Afghanistan,
officials said Monday, as the U.S.
death toll rose sharply last month
with an uptick in fighting due to
warmer weather.
Last week's calculated attack
shows that international troops
still face a myriad of dangers
even though they are increas-
ingly taking a back seat in opera-
tions with Afghan forces ahead
r of a full withdrawal by the end
of 2014.
Just one U.S. service mem-
ber was killed in February - a
five-year monthly low - but the
American death toll climbed to at
least 14 last month.
Overall, the number of Ameri-
cans and other foreign forces
killed in Afghanistan has fallen
as their role shifts more toward
trainingand advisinggovernment
troops instead of fighting.
But a series of so-called insid-
er attacks on foreign troops by
Afghan forces of insurgents dis-
guised as them has threatened
to undermine the trust needed
to help President Hamid Kar-
zai's government take the lead in
securing the country after more
than 11 years at war.
The attack that killed Sgt.
Michael Cable, 26, of Philpot, Ky.,
last Wednesday occurred after
the soldiers had secured an area
for a meeting of U.S. and Afghan
officials in a province near the
volatile border with Pakistan.
But one of two senior U.S. offi-
cials who confirmed that Cable
had been stabbed by a young
man said the assailant was not
believed to have been in uniform
so it was not being classified as an
insider attack.
The officials, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because
the investigation is ongoing, said
the attacker was thought to be
about 16 years old. He escaped so
his age couldn't be verified.
Cable's brother Raymond
Johnston, a 42-year-old waiter
in Owensboro, Ky., said the Army
told the family the basics of what
happened and that his brother
was stabbed in the neck from
behind.
Johnston said his brother, who
also did a tour of dutyin Iraq, was
"prepared before he left for any-
thing that happened" in Afghani-
stan.
Cable met individually with
Johnston and three other fam-
ily members before leaving for
Afghanistan and had similar con-
versations with each - that the
deployment was extremely haz-
ardous and that his family and
friends should "continue to enjoy
life" if he was killed.
Company vows
to increase
communication
with consumers
BEIJING (AP) - Apple
apologized to Chinese consum-
ers after government media
attacked its repair policies for
two weeks in a campaign that
reeked of economic nationalism.
A statement Apple posted in
Chinese on its website Mon-
day said the complaints had
prompted "deep reflection"
and persuaded the company of
the need to revamp its repair
policies, boost communication
with Chinese consumers and
strengthen oversight of autho-
rized resellers.
State broadcaster CCTV and
the ruling Communist Party's
flagship newspaper, People's
Daily, had led the charge
against the American compa-
ny. They accused Apple Inc. of
arrogance, greed and "throw-
ing its weight around" and
portrayed it as just the latest
Western company to exploit
the Chinese consumer.
The attacks quickly back-
fired, though, and were mocked
by the increasingly sophisti-
cated Chinese consumers who
revere Apple and its products.
State-run media also inadver-
tently revived complaints over
shoddy service by Chinese
companies.
Nonetheless, Apple respond-
ed with an apology from CEO
Tim Cook.
"We've come to understand
through this process that
because of our poor communi-
cation, some have come to feel
that Apple's attitude is arro-
gant and that we don't care
about or value feedback from
the consumer," Cook's Chinese
statement said, as translated
by The Associated Press. "For
the concerns and misunder-
standings passed on to the con-
sumer, we express our sincere
apologies."
Although Apple enjoys
strong support from Chinese
consumers, the vehemence
of the attacks and the impor-
tance of the Chinese market
appeared to have persuaded
the company to appear con-
trite.
The People's Daily news-
paper ran an editorial last
Wednesday headlined "Strike
down Apple's incomparable
arrogance."
"Here we have the Western
person's sense of superiority
making mischief," the news-
paper wrote. "If there's no
risk in offending the Chinese
consumer, and it also makes
for lower overheads, then why
not?"
Chinese observers accused
People's Daily of gross hypoc-
risy and pointed out that the
newspaper had maintained a
stony silence when Chinese
companies were implicated
over food safety, pollution and
other scandals. Meanwhile,
CCTV was shamed when it
emerged that celebrities had
been recruited to blast Apple
on Weibo, China's version of
Twitter, in what had been
billed as a grassroots cam-
paign.
"The public responded in
two ways to this incident,"
popular commentator Shi
Shusi wrote on his Weibo
account. "One group supports
this criticism but quite a num-
ber of people felt that there are
state monopolies which have
severely violated customer's
rights, but which are not being
exposed."
Popular business magazine
Caijing said its readers iden-
tified a long list of abusers,
including state banks that lend
to those with political connec-
tions while stiffing ordinary
savers with low rates on depos-
its; a government oil company
that sets gas prices and other
rates as it sees fit; and state
telecom providers notorious
for their lack of customer ser-
vice.
"If media is going to go after
Apple, let's hope they spare
some thought for those big
Chinese communications com-
panies and other monopolies,
the ones that enrich special
interests in the name of being
publicly owned," Cai Tongqi,
a lawyer from the eastern
province of Jiangsu, wrote on
Weibo.
Consumers seem unfazed
by the state media's attacks on
Apple.