The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - 5A NEWS BRIEFS NEW YORK Steering-shaft corrosion causes Ford to recall 370,000 cars Ford is recalling 370,000 cars due to potential corrosion to their steering shaft that may result in loss of steering. No incidents or injuries have, been reported. The cars include 2005 to 2011 Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars. About 355,000 are in the U.S. and 15,000 in Canada. Dealers will inspect the cars and may replace the lower inter- mediate steering shaft and if necessary resecure a lower steer- ing column bearing and replace the upper intermediate steering shaft. NEW YORK Time Warner, CBS end dispute, resume programming TV network CBS and cable pro- vider Time Warner Cable have ended their payment dispute and expect programming to resume in millions of homes Monday night. The agreement ends a month- long blackout of CBS and CBS- owned channels including Showtime Networks, CBS Sports Network and the Smithsonian channel that affected more than three million homes in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York and began Aug. 2. The companies were in dispute about how much Time Warner Cable Inc. would payfor CBS Corp. programming. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed. RIO DE JANEIRO Brazil condemns U.S. spy program as 'unacceptable invasion' The Brazilian government condemned a U.S. spy program that reportedly targeted the nation's leader, labeled it an "unacceptable invasion" of sov- ereignty and called Monday for international regulations to pro- tect citizens and governments alike from cyber espionage. In a sign that fallout over the spy program is spreading, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that President Dilma Rousseff is considering cancel- ing her October trip to the U.S., where she has been scheduled to be honored with a state dinner. Folha cited unidentified Rous- seff aides. The president's office declined to comment. The Foreign Ministry called in U.S. Ambassador Thomas Shan- non and told him Brazil expects the White House to provide a prompt written explanation over the espionage allegations. JOHANNESBURG Mandela released from hospital, will receive home care South Africans on Monday welcomed Nelson Mandela's discharge from a hospital after nearly three months of treatment amid concerns that his health remains so poor that he still must receive intensive care at home. An ambulance returned the 95-year-old leader of the anti- apartheid movement to his home in the leafy Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton on Sunday. The office of South Afri- can President Jacob Zuma said Mandela remains in critical and sometimes unstable condition and will receive the same level of care that he did in the hospital, administered by the same doc- tors. -Compiled from Daily wire reports CRIME From Page1A alert was sent out. The student's name is being withheld at her request and in accordance with Daily policies regarding survivors of sexual assault. The student questioned wheth- er a crime alert should be sent out because she was concerned about the safety of the other members of her apartment building. "I'm wondering what has to be deemed dangerous enough to get an alert," she said. According to the Clery Act, the University is required to send out crime alerts only when a crime, considered to be a public safety threat, occurs on campus. In the past, UMPD has gone beyond its jurisdiction and released alerts about crimes that occurred near- by and are considered threats to public safety. In order. to receive informa- tion about crimes that occur off campus, University Police said they must establish relation- ships with AAPD. Past incidents, including the*delayed discovery of repeated sexual assaults at a Zaragon Place apartment, shed light on communication, issues between the University and the city. AAPD is not required to volun- teer the information and, unlike the University, does not employ a full-time public information offi- cer to coordinate with media and make the public aware of dangers to public safety. MISCONDUCT From Page 1A ly begin an investigation during the course of a private conversa- tion. SAPAC Director Holly Rider- Milkovich said first-year students are informed multiple times about confidential and non-confi- dential locations. "Many times students have trust relationships with people who are in non-confidential locations and chose to share their information with them," Milkovch said. "And we want for that to happen because we want students to share their informa- tion in a place where they feel safe but we hope always that that is an informed choice." Once allegations are made, the first step is to provide the survi- vor with support services, like a SAPAC advocate, per the new policy. Next, the University pro- vides an assessment to determine if any temporary intervention is needed, such as if the accuser and the accused share classes or live in the same residence hall. Two employees in the Office of Institutional Equity, which is responsible for investigating civ- il-rights abuses at the University, have been assigned to investigate all sexual misconduct allegations. The policy also indicates that no party has an obligation to meet with the investigators, and can choose not to cooperate with an investigation. In cases when the survivor does not want to meet with investigators, a special review panel will meet to deter- mine if the investigation will con- tinue. The panel is charged finding a balance between survivor choice and campus safety, and the Title IX coordinator having the final say on the future of the investi- gation. In many cases, because of the nature of the sexual mis- conduct, an investigation cannot continue without the cooperation of the survivor. Title IX Coordinator Anthony Walesby, associate vice pro- vost and senior director of OIE, explained that in a typical inves- tigation, OIE staff meet sepa- rately with the complainant and accused. "There's never'this back and forth; no one's cross examining," Walesby said. "We ask questions. We ask follow up questions based on the information we have, but you never have to worry about, being in the same room as the person you are accusing and vice versa." Law enforcement investiga- tions and interviews are inde- pendent of OIE activities, but Walesby said UMPD and investi- gators frequently share informa- tion. When determining guilt, OIE investigators will use a lower standard of proof. Known as preponderance of the evidence, the standard declares that guilt is determined if there's enough evidence to suggest a complaintis more likelytrue than not. The final report is then given to the Office of Student Conflict Resolutiorl, where consequences can include probation, suspen- sion and other sanctions. OSCR also coordinates efforts to com- munities affected by misconduct. The differences between the old policy and the interim policy have already resulted in a signifi- cant increase in the number of sexual misconduct cases report- ed to the University. During the 2010-2011 academic year, three cases of sexual misconduct were reported to the University, but in 2011-2012, there were 62 cases of sexual misconduct investigated under the interim policy. CSG From Page1A ises - but these achievements were not without struggles. Graduate students sought secession from CSG, claiming the assembly did notfocus due efforts toward their needs despite utiliz- ing funds received from graduate tuition. The student government was forced to spend what Parikh recalls as several hundred hours seeking a resolution. Like in Winter 2013, when independent candidates Parikh and Hashwi were faced with the task of leading an opposi- tion-dominated Representative Assembly, Proppe and Dishell will lead an assembly domi-, nated by members of opposition party forUM in the wake of elec- tion disputes<\a> that led to the disqualification of that party's presidential candidate, who won the popular vote. In May inter- views, Proppe and LSA sopho- more Pavitra Abraham, forUM's party chair, both said they didn't believe party politics would interfere with the efficiency of student government. "All the representatives will be working on their individual- ized platforms and will be work- ing with other members of the Assembly to draft their resolu- tions," Abraham said. "But they will definitely be able to work (with the executive) to accom- plish all goals for the year." During Tuesday's assem- bly meeting the representa- tives will discuss and vote on a series of resolutions pertaining to CSG rules and look back on a resolution from the winter per- taining to the increased price of student football season tick- ets. Additionally, Proppe and Dishell will finalize and present selected nominations to serve as the chairs of the newly created executive commissions and the executive board to the Assembly. "We're still in the process of interviewing (candidates)," Proppe said. "We were thrilled with the number of applicants we had; it's a great problem to have, but it gets bogged down a little bit in terms of processing all of them." The assembly meets every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. on the third floor of the Michigan Union. HOUSING From Page 1A improving the quality of the resi- dential experience and strength- ening that connection between living and learning," Logan said. Most renovations added enhanced study spaces as well as community areas, two items requested by students in early surveys on housing. On a larger scale, efforts were made to connect students from different dorms within particular neighborhoods, Logan said. The dining halls have played a role in bringing different students together by creating communal dining locations - such as the Hill Dining Center and The Blue Apple at Bursley Residence Hall. "Before the Residential Life Initiative, so many of our halls had individual dining places, and while students with their meal plans could still dine at other locations, the tendency was to dine where you live," Logan said. Logan went on to say that hav- ing fewer but larger dining halls rather than one in each dorm is cost-effective and helps create the neighborhood atmosphere the RLI project intends. New entrances between South Quad Residence Hall and West Quad Residence Hall will also serve to connect students between differ- enthalls. Though a main focus of RLI is on student learning and interac- tion, Logan emphasized that the renovations were "not simply cos- metic." Construction focused primar- ily on older heritage buildings, while leaving major changes to comparatively newer dorms, such as the Mary Markley and Burs- ley Residence Hall, for later. The total project costs $750 million, funded by 2-percent increases in room and board every year since renovations commenced, Logan said. There are no current plans to renovations non-RLI dorms, like Bursley and Markley.° Gregory Wright, assistant director of planning and design for University Housing, said the buildings included in the project needed facility repairs and those not included will likely need them soon. All residence halls received upgrades to fire-alarm and sprin- kler systems, and most dorms also required upgrades in wire- less Internet capability. Many of the listed repairs in the RLI brief- ing included mechanical, electri- cal and plumbing overhauls inthe outdated buildings. "There was a lot of 'band-aid- ing' going on over the years, and that's why they reached a point where they were putting Band- Aids on Band-Aids," Wright said of the plumbing system. Wright explained that many of the major issues came from try- ing to include modern systems in older buildings. Issues like improper floor height to accom- modate Internet and other wir- ing, and inability to distribute electricity and plumbing in taller buildings, required improvised solutions. The building renovations have also included updates in sustain- ability. Most notably, all buildings are now equipped with occupancy sensors for the lights, and many have low- or dual-flush toilets. "I'm really excited about what we've done and what we're still doing," he said. "The transfor- mation of these buildings is just incredible." Wright said the South and West Quad renovations will take a similar approach to the model used for East Quad Residence Hall. The South Quad project will not alter dorm rooms, but instead focus primarily on lounges and the dining hall. It is scheduled to be completed by August 2014, a tall order accordingto Wright. "There's a lot packed into the short amount of time that we have," Wright said. "It's always touch-and-go, but we've always made it." The University isn't the only Big 10 institution improving its residence facilities in recent years:Thedininghallrenovations and improvements are similar to those undergone at Michigan State University's Brody Neigh- borhood in 2009. The Brody dining hall, used by the six residence halls in the neighborhood, now includes a two-story student lounge and community spaces. The cafeteria, named Brody Square, features nine different eating venues. Five of the residence halls themselves have been renovated, and the sixth is currently under construc- tion. An $83-million renovation to Pennsylvania State University's South Hall dormitories was also completed this year. The dorm rooms, lounges and community spaces were all upgraded and air conditioning was installed. Unlike renovations here in Ann Arbor, building exteriors were also redesigned. A second phase of renovations will be completed at Penn State in 2015. Indiana University has upgraded and built several resi- dence halls in recent years and hopes to improve all of its resi- dence halls by 2020. LSA sophomore Samantha Lyons never felt that her former dorm, South Quad, was desper- ate for repair, but after moving to Stockwell Residence Hall this year, she's is glad to see the dorm updated. "It's nice to try and keep up with the other Big 10 schools and other schools around the coun- try," Lyons said. When you ask a resident of the renovated dorms about their liv- ing situation, the word "hotel" tends to come to mind. LSA junior Iqra Nasir lived in luxury last year in Couzens Resi- dence Hall and said the dorm felt extremely comfortable. "The areas set up in Couzens are wonderful," Nasir said. "There' are lounges on every floor, and it was really helpful to have study areas so close to your room." Since the implementation of RLI, the total dorm capac- ity of the past several years has been notably lower. After clos- ing Baits I Residence Hall and beginning renovations to East Quad in 2011, housing priority was reversed - freshmen were given priority in dorm place- ment. Logan said givingthose rooms to younger students helped ease the transition into college life and relieve the burden of trying to find off-campus housing. "That was not a popular deci- sion," Logan said, noting the frustration of the upperclassmen who expected precedence in the housing lottery. "What we're anticipating is with our full com- plement of rooms back in order of Central Campus, we'll actually have more choices for returning students." The dorm re-openings could also mean fewer undergraduates in Northwood Apartments I and II, though the specifics on the housing selection process have not been finalized. FRATS From Page 1A "I'm not sure what's stopping it or how soon anymore progress can be expected to be made." Seiler said houses here on cam- pus are in desperate need of reno- vations. "Greek life has been in exis- tence at Michigan since 1845, and less than half of the houses have-sprinkler systems installed, which is a major factor in safety and fire prevention," she said. "Because these houses have been around so long, especially the ones in the historic district, the electrical wiring, plumbing and other safety measures necessary are very expensive to make." Seiler said she believes more people would be willing to sup- port facility upgrades if their donation could be classified as a tax write-off. The bill is currently pending in the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee. M8UUniversity Unions . leag e Perpoota Union Campus Information Centers We can help you navigate campus, classes and college life! 734-764-INFO info@umich.edu umich.edu/info Located at the Michigan Union and Pierpont Commons ®I UM Campus Information Centers t @umichcic