The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - 5
PRESIDENT
From Page 1
think this is the greatest uni-
versity in the world, with the
greatest depth and breadth of
research in the world - I need
someone who understands that
world."
White also emphasized
that the confidentiality will
be very important throughout
the interview process, "so that
when we do select someone, we
haven't had some leak of infor-
mation that could be a prob-
lem."
White referenced Coleman,
who was president at the Univer-
sity of Iowa at the time she inter-
viewed for her current position at
the University, as a prime exam-
ple of why the candidate process
should remain secret until it's
completed.
"Think about if she hadn't
gotten the job, how that would
have looked on her career - on
her life at Iowa - that she was
interviewing elsewhere. So,
confidentiality is of the utmost
importance."
FOREST
From Page 1
The city has closed off traffic
on South Forest Avenue between
Hill Street and South Univer-
sity Avenues until Oct. 31 and
has announced plans for a detour
route. Those who use parking
structures on the avenue will still
have access during the construc-
tion.
DPSS
From Page 1
cerns from police and security
chiefs and create multi-faceted
strategies for education, train-
ing, as well as environmental and
infrastructure design.
One of Washington's biggest
priorities is to ensure that there
are open lines of communica-
tion between law enforcement
officials and the community.
Though most would think law
enforcement data is about crime
mapping and incident statistics,
Washington said it's more than
that.
"When you think about
data, you think about num-
bers and lines," he said. "I
think about relationships. So,
when you have relationships
with a broader, traditional and
non-traditional folks, in law
enforcement those are your
information streams."
Washington said he stands
in more of a strategic, vision-
ary role than the University's
police and security chiefs, who
deal with day-to-day opera-
tions.
"We feel like there are
opportunities for usto fill some
gaps in a broader way, and by
educating our community in
areas like workplace violence,
or an active shooter," Washing-
ton said. "In each one of those
areas ... education and training
is being done, but it's not nec-
essarily unified, and it's not a
blended approach to safety and
security."
Nonetheless, Washington said
he will remain transparent and
will develop cross-department
strategies.
Working with multiple units,
including departments in the
Division of Student Affairs,
Washington said there's oppor-
tunity for a more consortium-
based approach to community
policing.
"I think that education is
always a two-way street,"
Washington said. "I think
there's always opportunity for
us to learn from the community:
what their needs are, what the
trends are, and make sure that
we're equipped to contribute
as part of a broader multidis-
ciplinary approach to problem
solving."
Washington said it's impor-
tant to look at emergency pre-
paredness as a University-wide
responsibility. He said DPSS will
work with unit heads to develop
security plans that fit their spe-
cific needs.
He wants to take a more in-
depth look at building access and
the protection of property, both
physical and intellectual.
During the day, entrances
to most University buildings -
with the exception of residence
halls and some parts of the
medical campus - are largely
unrestricted. Washington said
it's important for people to be
aware of their surroundings as
to deter troublesome visitors,
but noted that there may be
other options for the University
to further protect its assets and
community.
Some of the possibilities
Washington offered for addi-
tional security included a
requirement that Mcards be
worn at all times, or the instal-
lation of additional video sur-
veillance.
Currently, the University
employs relatively few surveil-
lance cameras. In the past,
student and civic groups have
rallied around the idea of limit-
ing surveillance at the University
and in Ann Arbor.
Though he understands
individuals in the University
community may have con-
cerns about video surveillance,
Washington said the University
should be prepared to imple-
ment more video cameras if
there's tolerance for them on
campus.
Both the DPSS and Wash-
ington's role were created after
a report from the security con-
sulting firm Margolis Healy
& Associates exposed seri-
ous communication problems
among University Police and
other security agencies on cam-
pus. The report was compiled
after faults in communication
resulted in a six-month delay
in reporting a Medical resident
Stephen Jenson's possession
of child pornography to law
enforcement.
Even though the report pro-
vides recommendations as
to how the University should
improve communication among
security agencies following the
Jenson incident, Washington
said he doesn't plan on reflecting
on past problems.
"I'm looking forward," Wash-
ington said. "I'm accountable
for what happens now. I believe
that the leaders in place, and to
come, now will have that same
opinion."
LEADERS
From Page 1
Bobby Dishell, president of the
University Council, initially sent
out a report to CSG Assembly
representatives that detailed the
creation of a Presidential Search
Commission under the execu-
tive branch of CSG, but that
order was not passed.
Monday night's resolution
brought forth the student com-
mittee as an alternative that
would extend the push for stu-
dent input beyond the boundar-
ies of student government.
The University Council reso-
lution says the new student com-
mittee would presenta recorded
report of student input during
public forums and continue to
provide input throughout the
year until the president was
selected.
Ten student leaders from
student governing bodies and
organizations throughout the
University will sit on the com-
mittee, including those from
the Arab Student Association,
University of Michigan Hil-
lel, Residence Halls Association,
National Panhellenic Council,
Rackham Student Government,
Dance Marathon, Interfraterni-
ty Council, Black Student Union
and Graduate Employees' Orga-
nization.
"We tailored (the resolution)
to make sure that we canbe most
effective as a student body,"
Dishell said after the meeting.
"While student government
represents the student voices,
it's also important to really get
down to the grassroots parts of
these communities and not just
take from the top."
Dishell will sit onthe commit-
tee and Proppe will serve as an
ex-officio, non-voting member.
In an interview at the meet-
ing, LSA Student Government
President Sagar Lathia said
LSA-SG will actively work to
culminate input from its school
by surveys and other outreach
mechanisms.
While he said he believed
that the student committee was
the "closest we can get" to hav-
ing students personally sit on
the PSAC, Lathia was optimistic
about its ability to push its input
into the PSAC's final decisions.
While the regents have yet
to publicly announce their final
interview or selection process
for the presidential candidates
put forth by the PSAC, Regent
Katherine White (D) assured the
student government leaders that
their solicited input would be
incorporated.
"We have not put anything
in stone of how we're handling
this; it's just about getting as
much information as we can,"
White said. "We want continued
information with the input that
you're going to give us and we
don'twant that to end."
As per the CSG Constitu-
tion, the resolution, having
been approved by the University
Council, will now go through a
vote of the larger assembly Tues-
day evening during its weekly
meeting.
"The fact that we got this
committee created not for noth-
ing (shows that) we can get the
regents to hear our voices,"
Dishell said.
Mexican President gambles
with left-leaning reform
Philadelphia public schools start '
year with over 2,000 fewer employees
Nieto plans to
increase social
spending and
raise taxes
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Presi-
dent Enrique Pena Nieto is
gambling that a surprise plan
to increase social spending and
raise taxes on wealthier Mexi-
cans can quiet much of the left-
wing opposition to his most
ambitious proposal, opening the
state-owned oil company to pri-
vate investment, analysts and
politicians said Monday.
Pena Nieto took aback crit-
ics and supporters alike Sunday
night with a fiscal reform plan
that would introduce Mexico's
first national pension and unem-
ployment insurance plans, along
with its first capital gains and
dividends taxes, its first carbon
tax and its first tax on sugary
drinks.
The plan would also close a
series of tax loopholes and raise
the tax rate on the country's
highest earners.
Many of the measures are
aimed at what was long thought
to be the fiscal reform's primary
goal: increasing one of the lowest
tax collection rates in the devel-
oped world, analysts said. Others
are clearly designed to placate the
left as Pena Nieto tries to push
through a controversial reform
allowing private investment in
the underperforming state oil
firm, Pemex, before the end of his
first year in office, they said.
Notably, the fiscal reform
would not impose the sales tax on
food and medicine, a step that had
been widely expected and was
certain to generate outrage from
the left. The government said the
reform plan, most of which needs
only a majority vote in congress,
would add more than $18 billion
in additional revenues next year,
less than many economic ana-
lysts had hoped.
"It's reallyaleft-wingreform, a
center-left-wing reform thatgoes
in a progressive direction," said
Carlos Elizondo Meyer-Serra,
a political science professor at
the Center for Economic Teach-
ing and Research, a Mexico City
think tarik.:"You create less pres-
sure in the street. In that sense
it's a correct strategy."
During his first nine months,
Pena Nieto worked with the
country's two main opposition
parties to pass reforms of the
tightly concentrated telecommu-
nications market and the union-
controlled education system.
But his leftist allies in the
Democratic Revolution Party, or
PRD, aren't backing his overhaul
of the state oil company, Pemex
- the centerpiece of his bid to
reverse years ofeconomicstagna-
tion by addressing some of Mex-
ico's longest-standing structural
problems.
And leftist Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador, who lost to Pena
Nieto last year, then split with the
PRD over its cooperation with
the new president, has promised
a series of protests to halt the
Pemex reform. Polls say most
Mexicans agree with him.
Adding to the threat for Pena
Nieto are thousands of members
of a dissident teachers union who
flooded into Mexico City to pro-
test his education reform and
have promised to keep upa series
of disruptive marches.
Pena Nieto announced the fis-
cal reform hours after the first of
Lopez Obrador's demonstrations
in Mexico City. The announce-
ment stole much of the attention
from the protest, which saw a
smaller-than-expected turnout.
"I think it was a proposal with
a political sense of urgency," said
Alfredo Coutino, Latin America
director for Moody's Analytics.
"The fact that it didn't include tax
on food and medicine has a lot
to do with the unrest that we've
seen."
That was a boost for Mexico's
biggest food companies, whose
stock prices went up Monday,
driving a 2.6 percent rise in the
index that tracks the major com-
panies listed on the Mexican
Stock Exchange.
The new social benefits
require constitutional chang-
es that must be approved by a
majority of state legislatures
and two-thirds of Mexico's con-
gress. If enacted, they would not
be universal: Unemployment
insurance would apply only to
the roughly 40 percent of work-
ers with formal jobs, and the
new pensions would be for those
older than 65 earning less than
about $70 a month.
PRD head Jesus Zambrano
welcomed the fiscal reform, but
in a potential sign of trouble for
Pena Nieto, he warned that it
wouldn't lure his party'into sup-
porting private investment in oil
exploration or backing away from
demands for greater political
transparency, another potential
point of tension with the presi-
dent's party.
"This reform, these legal
reforms, aren't interchangeable
with any other, with political or
energy reform," Zambrano said.
"Quite simply, this stands by
itself."
Business groups and many
analysts said the fiscal proposal
did little to spread even some
of the burden for government
spending onto the majority of
Mexicans who work outside the
formal economic system.
The tax rate on workers earn-
ing more than $37,000 a year
would increase to 32 percent
from 30 percent under the fiscal
reform. The proposal would also
impose a 10 percent capital gains
and dividends tax. It would elimi-
nate a range of income tax deduc-
tions and limit overall deductions
to 10 percent of income.
More than half of
guidance counselor
staff remain
laid off
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -
The city's struggling public
sclhools opebed -new term
Monday with larger classes
and smaller staffs, leaving
many to wonder how the nearly
broke district will fare over the
coming year.
Superintendent William
Hite made the rounds at sev-
eral buildings to greet students
and employees. While contend-
ing that Philadelphia's schools
were prepared to open, he also
acknowledged how much they
were missing.
"We still want guidance ser-
vices in every school," Hite said.
"We need a lot more assistant
principals. We need a lot more
teachers. ... We need music the
full year. We need sports the full
year."
The morning bell capped
off weeks of turmoil in one of
the nation's largest districts,
as school supporters spent the
summer staging rallies and
pleading with city and state
officials for badly needed
funds. Hite even threatened to
delay opening day if he didn't
get $50 million to rehire suffi-
cient staff.
Earlier this year, the cash-
strapped system laid off nearly
3,800 workers - from assistant
principals to secretaries - as
rising labor costs, cuts in state
aid and charter school growth
helped create a $304 million
spending gap.
The district later recouped
about $33 million in costs and,
with the mayor's promise last
month of an extra $50 million,
was able to rehire about 1,650
employees. Even so, students
will get music and sports pro-
grams only for the fall semes-
ter.
One of the biggest issues is
the reduction in guidance coun-
selors. More than half remain
laid off, a major concern in a
system filled with immigrants,
low-income students and chil-
dren from unstable homes, not
to mention concerns about bul-
lying. r .
The full-time counselor at
C.W. Henry Elementary School
has been replaced by a roving
counselor who will visit the
building for just three hours
each week.
"That's simply not good
enough," said Robin Roberts,
who has three children at the
school.
At Bodine High School, teach-
er Kate Reber said college-bound
seniors now share a single advis-
er with 3,500 students across
several schools.
"I don't know who's going
to write their college counsel-
or recommendations," Reber
said.
Staff at Feltonville Inter-
mediate School posted a list
of resources they are missing,
including a counselor, an assis-
tant principal, several teachers
and 45 minutes of math instruc-
tion per day.
And at South Philadelphia
High School, where the super-
intendent ate lunch with a group
of students on Monday, class-
rooms were a tight squeeze. On
paper, about a dozen classes had
more than 33 students, and some
had more than 40, Principal
Otis Hackney said. However, he
noted actual attendance is hard
to judge until at least a week into
school.
The crowding comes as the
building absorbs hundreds of
students from Bok High School,
tineE f 24 schools closed in June
as the district sought to econo-
mize. Some closures mean longer
walks for young children, anoth-
er source of anxiety; others are
bringing together students from
rival neighborhoods.
The district tried to ease ten-
sions among Bok and South
Philly teens by sending about a
dozen on a summertime outdoor
retreat. Still, senior Devon Hen-
derson said he expects trouble.
"There's no telling what could
happen," he said.
Meanwhile, education advo-
cates are urging parents to docu-
ment any problems in official
complaints. They want to show
the state, which supplies the bulk
of the district's funding, that
the dearth of resources violates
Pennsylvania's mandate to pro-
vide a "thorough and efficient"
education.
The district, which serves
about 190,000 traditional and
charter school students, hopes
to recover additional money
through ongoing negotiations
with city, state and union lead-
ers.
Early views of Assad at odds with current image
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BEIRUT (AP) - Those who
knew Bashar Assad in earlier days
say he was uncomfortable being
the son of a president and never
wanted to lead. A soft-spoken,
lisping eye doctor, he enjoyed
Western rock music and electron-
ic gadgets - an accidental heir to
power.
Yet Assad, who turns 48 on
Wednesday, has proven to be
relentlessly resilient, branded by
opponents a brutal dictator who
kills with chemical weapons.
His willingness to do what-
ever it takes in Syria's civil war,
unleashing his military's might
against entire towns and cities,
has so far succeeded in keeping
his regime core in power, even as
large swaths of his country fall
from his control or turn into dev-
astated killing fields.
Nearly three years into the
uprising against his family's more
than 40-year-rule, he has defied
every prediction that his end is
near.
The West once had the impres-
sion Assad was weak or incompe-
tent, said David Lesch, professor
of Middle Eastern history atcTrin-
ity University in San Antonio. "It
took this unleashing of violence
and bloodshed for people to reas-
sess their view of Bashar."
"There is revision, people say-
ing he's a lot tougher than they
thought," said Lesch, author of
"Syria: The Fall of the House of
Assad," who had unusual access
to Assad, meeting him regularly
from 2004-2009.
In the eyes of opponents,
Assad is a murderous autocrat
who would do anything to cling
to power. The U.S and its allies
accuse him of resorting to gas-
sing his own people, a claim the
regime denies.
But for his supporters, he is a
nationalist hero fighting West-
ern imperialism and ensuring
stable, secular rule in a turbu-
lent region wracked by sectar-
ian wars.
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