The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 5
BENEFITS
From Page1 1'
competition, with one faculty
member questioning what he
believed to be the University's
marginalization in this aspect.
Many echoed concerns about
maintaining stature and that
these proposed changes would
make the school "average" in
this regard. expressed concern about hav-
The Senate Assembly Com- ing the necessary deliberation
mittee for University Affairs is and feedback needed to reach a
expected to reach a decision by consensus.
the end of the semester, though The next Senate Assembly
SACUA chair Karen Staller meetingis scheduled for Nov. 18.
CAMPUS
From Page 1
Person said. "They have more
applicants than they can pos-
sibly- deal with, but lots of other
institutions more like UM-Flint
and UM-Dearborn probably have
similar kinds of challenges."
As a commuter campus tra-
ditionally relying on Genesee
County residents, UM-Flint is
working to expand its enroll-
ment of international students,
first-time students and military
* veterans.
- To recruit those students,
UM-Flint has been reshaping its
identity over the past five years to
capture a larger demographic. In
2008, UM-Flint opened its first
residence hall after five decades
as a commuter campus.
Donna Fry, an associate dean
in the UM-Flint School of Health
Professions and Studies, said the
campus is still grappling with its
character.
"We're still trying to define
ourselves more clearly, and
becoming a residential in addi-
tion to a commuter campus is
part of that definition," Fry said.
"I think we need to define how
far we're going to go in terms of
the residential part of our cam-
pus."
UM-Flint's growth has also
been spurred by recent glimmers
of renewal in the economically
distressed city. The city of Flint
has operated under a series of
four emergency financial man-
agers since December 2011, all
appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick
Snyder. I
"This growth has been a result
of the transformation of both
the campus and the downtown
area," Davidson, the admissions
director, said. "Flint has received
quite a lot of revitalization in the
last few years, and that has con-
tributed to a much more inviting
environment."
UM-Flint's role in the future
of the city seems equally as deci-
sive.
When the University opened
a satellite institution in Flint in
1956, the city's assembly lines
were still humming. Business for
General Motors - the automo-
bile company founded in Flint
in 1904 - was booming. Brand
new Buicks rolled out of plants in
Northeast Flint bound for desti-
nations across the United States.
But as companies shuttered
their factories in the second half
of the 20th century, urban decay,
unemployment and crime packed
a heavy punch. At its peak, Gen-
eral Motors employed more than
80,000 blue- and white-collar
workers in the city during the
1970s. Today, the company has
fewer than 8,000 employees
across all of its Flint operations.
The population has also fallen
from 196,940 citizens in 1960 to
100,515 today. In 2012, Forbes
rated Flint as the most dangerous
city in the United States.
Despite initially bleak pros-
pects, downtown is beginning to
find its footing. Spurred in part
by UM-Flint's recent growth, the
city is mounting a comeback.
"If you came into town and
you drove around, you could see
we are an anchor tenant in the
city of Flint," Person said. "This
campus has a huge footprint in
the middle of the city. We are an
economic driver."
Mark Hoffman, owner of
Hoffman's Deco Deli on Garland
Street, said Flint's downtown
has changed dramatically over
the past few years. He correlates
Flint's revitalization with the
UM-Flint's move towards a resi-
dential campus.
Hoffman, who has been
in business for five years, has
noticed big impacts on the local
economy since UM-Flint intro-
duced student housing in 2008.
Students and faculty are frequent
customers at the deli, located a
few blocks from campus.
"UM-Flint has been a big part
of helping Flint regain its popu-
larity," Hoffman said. "Every-
body around here welcomes
the University with open arms
because they know it will impact
their business and stimulate oth-
ers."
Hoffman, one of UM-Flint's
approved caterers, said the Uni-
versity strives to work with local
businesses as well.
"As long as they keep doing
what they're doing, in five years,
Flint could be another Ann
Arbor," he said.
Fry, the associate health dean,
said the school also works with
the city to collaborate on stra-
tegic planning for Flint's future
development. She added that the
next chancellor will play a large
role in determining the extent of
UM-Flint's future connections to
the city. Person will step down
from her role as chancellor in
August 2014 - one month after
University President Mary Sue
Coleman finishes her term as the
leader of the University system.
A search for a new chancellor is
already underway.
"Over the years we've had
more or less of that," Fry said.
"And right now, we really need
more."
At Friday's meeting of the
Board of Regents, UM-Flint stu-
dents also asked for more support
from the Uniyersity administra-
tors in Ann Arbor.
During the public comments
segment, three students read
speeches berating regents and
administrators for their failure to
address student concerns on the
Flint campus.
"You have denied us a voice
by failing to provide students
with adequate representation in
the decision making process on
campus," UM-Flint student Sha-
quille Greene, the campus's Black
Student Union president, said in
a speech.
A group of about a dozen stu-
dents stood up and read parts of
the speech in unison.
The students expressed dis-
content with the board's decision
not to meet in Flint next year.
Instead, the regents will hold
their October 2014 meeting in
Grand Rapids, Mich.
"If you feel you can best do
those jobs from Ann Arbor, so be
it," Greene said. "But the tradeoff
has to be that you institute and
support sustainable systems to
address problems on our campus
in your absence."
Flint student government
president Amir Baz echoed simi-
lar sentiments during his report
to the regents.
At presidential search forums
in Dearborn and Flint, attendees
also emphasized the need for the
next president to improve con-
nections between Ann Arbor and
the University's satellite cam-
puses.
Fry pointed out that neither
UM-Flint nor UM-Dearborn is
represented on the Presidential
Search Advisory Committee.
"Sometimes UM-Flint and
UM-Dearborn are kind of
dropped off the radar, and so it's
a matter of keeping on the radar,"
Fry said.
However, Fry pointed out the
satellite campuses benefit from
many symbiotic relationships
such as internship opportunities
and graduate school recruitment.
Fry and Person, who gradu-
ated from the University in Ann
Arbor, said forging relationships
with Ann Arbor administrators
and faculty is also crucial.
"It's just a constant need for
us to try to keep a voice presence
with the regents and the Ann
Arbor campus," Fry said.
And as UM-Flint pushes into
its sixth decade, it will likely con-
tinue to mold its identity within
the University of Michigan sys-
tem and the city of Flint.
"When we say challenges, I
look at those as opportunities,"
Fry said: "Because there are a
lot of good things happening on
campus."
COUNCIL
From Page 1
ken with several council mem-
bers before Monday night, said
he was surprised by the post-
ponement and had the impres-
sion the proposal was generally
supported.
"I think there was a lot of good
information provided ahead of
time," Ford said. "We've been
here before: We went through
a county-wide process, we shift
directions, they asked us to move
us this process forward, we bring
it back and itget delays a little bit
more."
Several council members,
including Marcia Higgins (D-
Ward 4), Sumi Kailasapathy
(D-Ward 1) and Jane Lumm
(I-Ward 2), among others, said
while they would likely sup-
port the proposal, many of
their questions have yet to be
answered because Ann Arbor
residents haven't yet had the
opportunity to be involved.
"I want to be able to hear them
fully support it, and knowing
that my constituents have had
every opportunity to have their
questions answered," said Sally
Petersen (D-Ward 2).
Teanaz Ahmed, Neala
Berkowski and William Lane
contributed reporting.
REDDIT
From Pagel
ure and wolverines, using Inter-
net memes to illustrate his points.
Ohanian also responded to
the most up-voted questions
- questions voted the most
popular by users from the Uni-
versity Reddit page and took
several live questions.
University alum Jeff
Kirschner was also inter-
viewed by Ohanian during the
event. Kirschner founded Lit-
terati, a crowd-sourced orga-
nization that uses Instagram
and geo-tagging to identify
and remove litter in communi-
ties worldwide.
During the onstage inter-
view, Kirschner and Ohanian
advised listeners to embrace
their mistakes.
"It's really hard to not to be
afraid to fail because we are all
taught not to fail," Kirschner
said. "But making mistakes is
OK; it's more than okay because
in order to get somewhere, you
have to make mistakes."
Afterward, there was a
meet-and-greet book signing
and networking event with
Ohanian, hosted exclusively
for University students.
"It was really inspiring,
especially for a younger crowd,
to hear a message from some-
one who's established that
entrepreneurship is a viable
option." said Business sopho-
more Jiaxin Zheng.
"I want to go into entrepre-
neurship but am often discour-
aged by statistics about how
many small startups fail, so I
found him very inspiring."
RESEARCH
From Page 1
of University faculty to visit
Technion, where the sympo-
sium broadened the topic area to
include cardiovascular disease
and diabetes.
The 2013, the symposium
continued to expand by adding
the Weizman Institute of Sci-
ence and including cancer and
neurobiology as additional top-
ics.
Two breakout sessions fol-
lowed Monday's presentations.
The first focused on the latest
cutting-edge advances in person-
alized medicine.
The second session discussed
biomedical device entrepreneur-
ship, following a recent meeting
between Gov. Rick Snyder and
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. The meeting was
part of Netanyahu's investment
mission to build business ties
between Israel and Michigan, the
Oakland Press reported.
Attorneys for
gunman say he
was coerced
Ex-Carnegie trustee on trialin Texas
Aurora shooter's
lawyers say police
misled him into
talking about bombs
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP)
- Attorneys for Colorado the-
ater shooting defendant James
Holmes argued Monday that
police coerced and misled him
into talking to them about bombs
that were found in his apartment
after the shootings, and they said
his statements shouldn't be used
against him.
Prosecutors scoffed at the
claim and said police had to ask
Holmes about the bombs because
they were a threat to human life.
Prosecutors and the defense
are debating what evidence can
be used against Holmes when he
goes on trial next year on charges
of killing12 people and injuring 70
in the July 2012 attack. Prosecu-
tors are seeking the death penalty.
Holmes pleaded -not guilty by
reason of insanity, and during pre-
trial hearings this month, the two
sides are grappling over evidence
that could be used to undermine
the insanity claim.
That includes statements
Holmes made to police when
they questioned him about the
explosives in his apartment.
Law enforcement officers have
testified they found intricately
planned bombs meant to divert
police from the theater while the
shootings were going on. None of
the bombs exploded.
Prosecutors could use that
alleged diversionary tactic to
argue Holmes knew the theater
attack was a crime - a blow to the
insanity defense, which requires
a defendant be unable to distin-
guish between right and wrong.
Holmes was questioned about
the bombs before he was allowed
to speak with an attorney, even
though police have acknowledged
he had asked approximately 13
hours earlier to see a lawyer.
Defense attorney Kristen Nel-
son said Thursday that Holmes
felt pressured to talk to police
because he was held "in a room
where he was cut off from the rest
of the world," and because the
officers implied they wanted to
know about the bombs to protect
people's lives, not to build a case
against him.
Nelson also said Holmes was
displaying signs of mental illness,
playing with evidence bags, fidg-
eting or suddenly sitting stone-
still.
Police should have allowed a
lawyer to be present "to protect
this mentally ill man from being
the instrument of his own convic-
tion and execution," she said.
Prosecutor Rich Orman said
court precedents allowed police
to question Holmes without an
attorney present because of the
threat the bombs posed..
"It is the-functional equivalent
of a gun to their heads. A bomb
that is goingto go off in the city of
Aurora," Orman said.
Attorneys are also arguingover
evidence from Holmes' apart-
ment, car, phone and computers,
as well as telephone and banking
records. The judge hasn't said
when he will rule.
Even if much of the evidence is
thrown out, prosecutors still have
a strong case, because defense
attorneys have acknowledged
Holmes was the shooter.
However, losing the evidence
would make it harder for pros-
ecutors to persuade jurors that
Holmes was sane. If jurors find he
was insane, Holmes could not be
executed but would be commit-
ted indefinitely to the state mental
hospital.
Texas prosecutor
accuses man of
laundering $500M
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - An
ex-Carnegie Mellon University
trustee was accused Monday
by a Texas federal prosecutor
of conspiring with a romantic
interest to launder half a billion
dollars for a Mexican drug car-
tel.
Marco Antonio Delgado is
being tried in El Paso on money
laundering charges.
Prosecutor Debra Kanof said
in her opening statement that
Delgado discussed a deal with
Lilian De La Concha, an ex-wife
of former Mexican President
Vicente Fox, at a meeting in
Mexico City.
"They talked about $600 mil-
lion and agreed he would get 5
percent of whatever he could
launder," Kanof said.
Delgado's attorney, Ray Velar-
de, says the meetings with De La
Concha were about his expertise
in energy and international law,
not drug money..
"At no time the subject of drug
money was mentioned," Velarde
said.
Delgado is a lawyer and for-
mer Carnegie Mellon trustee
who gave a $250,000 endow-
ment for a scholarship named
after him to assist Hispanic stu-
dents.
Prosecutors say Delgado con-
spired to launder drug profits
from July 2007 through Decem-
ber 2008. They say he's since
participated in financial trans-
actions they believe are connect-
ed to organized crime.
The investigation into Del-
gado started in September 2007
after authorities seized $1 mil-
lion in Atlanta. Victor Pimen-
tel, the man carrying the money,
told investigators that he, Del-
gado and other men had met in
Mexico and agreed to transport
money for the Milenio Cartel, a
drug-trafficking organization
based in the Mexican state of
Colima and associated with the
Sinaloa Cartel. Mexican gov-
ernment information states the
cartel was mostly disbanded in
2010.
Pimentel, now a key witness
for the prosecution, testified
Monday and produced several
email conversations spanning,
over several months between
him and Delgado. Some of those
conversations contained emails
that he claims were from De
La Concha to Delgado and that
were later forwarded to him by
Delgado.
Pimentel walked Kanof
through the coded language
that he, Delgado and De La
Concha prosecutors say they
used to talk about the money
laundering operation they were
allegedly negotiating with the
drug cartel.
In one email written in
Spanish, De La Concha tells
Delgado "Dear, in relation to
the Girls Scdut cookies that
you are going to try to place,
God willing you can help them
place five more boxes per
school each week. Right now,
instead of 300 they have in the
warehouse 500 boxes and with
the donations that are com-
ing in the amount is going to
increase."
Pimentel told Kanof that
each box of cookies meant $1
million, "schools" were bank
accounts or other geographic
locations and the "donations"
referred to drug proceeds.
In other emails, they talked
about constructors, iron works
and other words to refer to the
deal.
"We are not idiots, we never
dealt with cookies or iron
works. We only had one busi-
ness with these people," Pimen-
tel told the prosecutor.
In another email, Piientel
explained, Delgado forwarded a
letter that De La Concha would
send to Francisco Ramirez
Acuna, then interior secretary,
asking him to hire Delgado as
a lobbyist or representative in
Washington in order to better
the official's image in the U.S.
capital. Pimentel also said that
she requested that Pimentel's
cousin be named head of the
border crossing in Palomas, just
across the border from Colum-
bus, New Mexico.
He added that the plan was to
have an inside.man so they could
"cross anything from the U.S. to
Mexico."
U.S. District Judge David
Briones adjourned the hearing
and said Pimentel's testimony
and the defense's turn to ques-
tion him would continue Tues-
day.
According to U.S. authori-
ties, Delgado admitted to fed-
eral Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents that he
had been contacted by people
in Mexico about slowing down
extradition processes of alleged
cartel members and about mov-
ing up to $600 million from
the U.S. to Mexico. He told the
agents the million dollars seized
was "a trial run" to see if it was
possible, according to the U.S.
government.
If the deal was successful,
Pimentel explained, both he,
Delgado and De La Concha
would receive a percentage of
the money laundered.
Writer promises more U.S. spying secrets
Greenwald says
Snowden reveal
was just the start
DENVER (AP) - The jour-
nalist behind stories about the
National Security Agency's glob-
al spy program promised Mon-
day that there are many more
to come, including details about
the United States spying on its
own citizens.
Glenn Greenwald, an Ameri-
can reporter based in Bra-
zil, spoke by video to a'group
of reporters from around the
Americas gathered in Denver
for ameetingofthe Inter Ameri-
can Press Association. He said
the upcoming reports will be as
significant as the report he co-
wrote in the French newspaper
Le Monde aboutthe NSA sweep-
ing up millions of phone records
in France ina month.
Greenwald said he's com-
mitted to reporting on every
document of public interest
given to him by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden.
He said he does consider the
potential harm that could be
caused by his disclosures and
consults with experienced edi-
tors and reporters in deciding
what to publish. He also said
they present their reporting
to the government at issue to
listen to officials' view about
publishing the information,
but he acknowledged they usu-
ally disregard it.
"I don't think anyone could
say we have not been thoughtful
enough," he said.
Snowden told Greenwald
earlier this year about the vast
communications-monitoring
programs carried. out by the
agency and its international
counterparts. The revelations
have sparked a raucous debate
about the scale of surveillance
and the erosion of privacy in the
digital age.
Snowden received asylum in
Russia in August.
Greenwald said there's a "sus-
tained attack" on press freedom
in the United States, and he crit-
icized the British government
for asking the Guardian news-
paper to destroy data leaked by
Snowden. He called on journal-
ists everywhere to work togeth-
er to defend their rights.
I