The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
William Clay Ford,
Lions owner, dies
of pneumonia at 88
William Clay Ford was born
into a fortune and spent much of
his life staying away from fame
as he steered the family business
and owned an NFL franchise.
The man reverently referred
to as Mr. Ford, the last surviving
grandchild of automotive pioneer
Henry Ford and owner of the
Detroit Lions, died Sunday. He
was88.
Ford Motor Co. said in a state-
ment that Ford died of pneumonia
at his home in Grosse Pointe. He
worked for the company bearing
his name for more than half of
its 100-year history. He bought a
business of his own, the Lions, a
half-century ago.
WASHINGTON
Senate backs bill
to eliminate 'good
solider' defense
The Senate overwhelmingly
approved a bill late Monday mak-
ing big changes in the military
justice system to deal with sexual
assault, including scrapping the
nearly century-old practice of
using a "good soldier defense" to
raise doubts that a crime has been
committed.
On a vote of 97-0, the Senate
rallied behind a bipartisan plan
crafted by three female senators
- Democrat Claire McCaskill of
Missouri and Republicans Kelly
Ayotte of New Hampshire and
Deb Fischer of Nebraska - that
wouldimpose ahalf-dozenchang-
es to combat the pervasive prob-
lem of rape and sexual offenses
that Pentagon leaders have lik-
ened to a cancer within the ranks.
"Unanimous agreement in the
U.S. Senate is pretty rare - but
rarer still is the kind of sweeping,
historic change we've achieved
over the past year in the military
justice system," McCaskill said
after the vote.
WASHINGTON
New research
finds elephants
understand people
Dr. Seuss had it right: Horton
really does hear a Who. Wild ele-
phants can distinguish between
human languages, and they can
tell whether a voice comes from a
man, woman or boy, a new study
says.
That's what researchers found
when they played recordings of
people for elephants in Kenya.
Scientists say this is an advanced
thinking skill that other animals
haven't shown. It lets elephants
figure outwho is a threat and who
isn't.
The result shows that while
humans are studying elephants,
the clever animals are also study-
ing people and drawing on their
famed powers of memory, said
study author Karen McComb.
LOS ANGELES
Restored Pollock
masterpiece debuts
at Getty Museum
"Mural," the brilliant Jackson
Pollock painting that took 20th
century American art in a new
direction, has re-emerged from
seclusion with a stunning face-lift
that's given it a brighter look and
an even more towering presence
than it had before.
The oil-on-canvas masterpiece
that measures more than 8 feet tall
and nearly 20 feet long has been
under wraps at the J. Paul Getty
Museum for more than a year,
undergoing an extensive restora-
tion,
Painted in 1943 for wealthy art
collector Peggy Guggenheim, it
represents a key moment in Pol-
lock's career in which he began to
move from creating more symbol-
ic, regional forms to the abstract
expressionism of his "drip" paint-
ings that would both distinguish
his career and transform the art
world.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
SACUA
From Page 1
A minimum of two nominees
are required before a vote can be
held, and the only existing nomi-
nee is Law Prof. Richard Fried-
man, who has opted to continue
his service on the Oversight com-
mittee.
Members of the University's
Board of Regents will join SACUA
for their next few meetings,
with Regent Mark Bernstein (D)
appearing on April 7 and Regent
Julia Darlow (D) appearing on
April14.
Social Work Prof. Karen Stall-
er, SACUA Chair, also shared
information regarding University
President Mary Sue Coleman's
retirement celebration. The event
will be held this Friday at 3 p.m. in
the Rogel Ballroom of the Michi-
gan Union.
Coleman is retiring in July
after 12 years of serving the Uni-
versity. Actor Jeff Daniels will
emcee the event, which is open to
the public.
SACUA will be holding an elec-
tion meeting on March 24, where
three new members of the com-
mittee will be selected to serve
three-year terms. Currently, nine
professors are seeking election
the three spots on the committee.
SAE
From Page 1
deaths, events with consequences
that have never been consistent
with our membership experience.
Furthermore, we have endured a
painful number of chapter clos-
ings as a result of hazing."
Brandon Weghorst, associate
executive director of communica-
tions for the SAE national orga-
nization, said the penalties for
chapters that continue to practice
pledging or hazing rituals will be
severe. Weghorst said any behav-
ior causing new members to feel
like "second class citizens" will
result in removing individual
members or closing an entire
chapter.
"The reality is we know all the
good things that our members do
everydaythat don'tget attention,"
Weghorst said. "This is one way
to help put us on the path we need
to be on to help prevent some of
those incidents from ever hap-
pening again."
LSA sophomore Brett Mizzi,
president of the University's
chapter of SAE declined to com-
ment on the policy change.
LSAjunior Tommy Wydra, IFC
President did not comment on the
University chapter's chances of
rejoining the officially sanctioned
Greek community, but said they
should easily adapt to the new
national policies.
"I've worked a little bit with
the leaders of SAE and I'm confi-
dent that they will be able to make
a smooth transition," he said.
"They've got some good leaders
over there."
AWARENESS
From Page 1
of FMD are female and that usu-
ally it takes five years to diag-
nose it because the symptoms
are vague and often overlap with
other symptoms," Kline-Rogers
said. "That's where the regis-
try is making a lot of significant
contributions, in helping to elu-
cidate some of these symptoms."
Dr. Santhi Ganesh, assistant
professor of human genetics and
internal medicine, has worked
with patients in the clinical reg-
istry and their families to study
the genetics of FMD. She said
there is a genetic component to
the disease.
"The cause of FMD is not well
FILM
From Page 1
ture because many people are
not familiar with them."
Communication Studies
Prof. Aswin Punathambekar
coordinates the films screened
each Monday. Punathambek-
ar introduced the movie and
explained how the film pokes
understood, but there appears
to be a familial genetic com-
ponent," Ganesh wrote in an
e-mail. "We hope the genetic
study will provide insight into
why arteries undergo abnormal
remodeling in FMD patients, on
a molecular and cellular level.
This knowledge may be used to
develop targeted therapies for
FMD."
Shannon Fry, who has also
been diagnosed with FMD, is
listed in the clinical registry
and is a patient of Dr. Ganesh.
Like Mace, she was misdiag-
nosed with hypertension before
being diagnosed with FMD. She
said she has been profoundly
affected by Mace's work, and has
been workingto raise awareness
about the disease as well.
"I started visiting the FMDSA
fun at the Indian upper-middle
class.
"By watching the movies I've
picked up on more subtle ele-
ments and aspects of the culture
that I hadn't noticed before,"
Hartz said. "Certain things I
hadn't noticed before are better
explained through the context
of watching a movie."
Many students from Punath-
ambekar's class on Indian
Media in the World attended
website and started learning as
much as I could through them,"
Fry said. "I became a part of Dr.
Santhi Ganesh's study ... I think
the awareness is very impor-
tant."
Although more and more
patients are being diagnosed,
Mace said the disease is still
considered rare. In her latest
effort to raise awareness, she has
petitioned successfully, with the
help of state Rep. Patrick Somer-
ville (D-District 23), for March
11 to be FMD Awareness Day in
Michigan.
"It started well over a year
ago," Mace said. "I'd actually
e-mailed Congress, from Con-
gress I was told to contact my
state representatives. I talked
with different states ... Pat
Somerville took the time to actu-
the film screening.
Ann Arbor resident Jerri
Jenista and her family have
attended almost all the movies
screened by the Theme Semes-
ter.
"We love Indian movies,"
Jenista said. "It was funny. I
love those old '70s clothes and
furnishings."
In addition to weekly film
screenings, the Theme Semes-
ter hosts lecturers, art exhib-
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - 3
ally initiate it for me."
The Michigan Legislature
approved the awareness day on
Thursday. Kline-Rogers said she
hopes the day will help to reduce
the misdiagnoses.
"We want providers to be
more aware that this is a disease
that's out there, and it's very
often misdiagnosed and unrec-
ognized," Kline-Rogers said.
"We want it to be somethingthat
people think about ... we want
that provider to say'oh, I wonder
if this is FMD."'
Mace said for FMD Aware-
ness Day 2015, she hopes to go
even bigger.
"Next year we'd like to take it
national," Mace said. "We'd like
to get every state involved now
that we know how the process
works."
its and music performances
pertaining to Indian culture
throughout the semester.
The program is hosting the
Doris Duke's Shangri La: Archi-
tecture, Landscape, and Islamic
Art exhibit in UMMA and will
host qawwali performer Asif
Ali Khan on March 21.
The upcoming Fall 2014
semester will shift the focus to
sports and their affects on the
University.
ENGINEERING
From Page 1
announced outcome of the
elections and served as chair
over the motion to approve the
results. The motion passed 36-6
to approve the newly elected and
appointed representatives.
The results in question are
related to the race for the posi-
tions of president, vice president,
and director of administration.
Rackham student Boying Liu
was seated as president, though
Liu ran for the position of vice
president. Similarly, Engineer-
ing sophomore Selina Thompson
ran for director of administra-
tion yet was seated as vice presi-
dent. Engineering sophomore
Anna Shrestinian did not appear
on the ballot, but was seated as
director of administration.
Liudefended her appointment
as President on the authority of
the General Council. She said
that there was no vocal opposi-
tion to her assuming the role of
UMEC president from any mem-
bers during the January 22 gen-
eral meeting.
Engineering senior Kenneth
Mull, the former vice presi-
dent of UMEC, said in a Jan. 22
e-mail to Lady that Engineering
sophomore Diego Calvo, won the
election but withdrew over win-
ter break.
According to Article III of
the UMEC Constitution, in
the event of a vacated seat, the
Executive Board should appoint
an interim officer to be approved
by a vote of the General Council.
No such motion was made by
UMEC following Calvo's resig-
nation. The alleged vacancy of
the seat is still unclear, as Calvo
was not yet sworn in as president
when he resigned.
Petitioners also argued the
eligibility of both candidates and
voters for the UMEC is also in
contradiction with the All-Cam-
pus Constitution and CSG Com-
piled Code. According to Article
III of the UMEC Constitution,
members of UMEC are defined
as students who are enrolled in
either the College of Engineer-
ing, Computer Science within
LSA or Rackham Engineering
programs.
However, according to the
All-Campus Constitution, stu-
dents of one constituency may
not sit on the body of another
constituency. Each student in
the University pays a $1.50 fee
along with tuition for his or her
respective school's student gov-
ernment. Since UMEC collects
fees exclusively from undergrad-
uates of the College of Engineer-
ing, the petitioners argued that
UMEC should exclude Rackham
and LSA students from elec-
tions.
The petitioners said that as
a Rackham student, Liu should
not be allowed to serve as
UMEC President. Additionally,
Rackham students were among
those who voted on the motion
to approve the election results
at the Jan. 22 meeting. The peti-
tioners argued that this vote
should also be discounted for the
same reason.
The defendant said that
UMEC should not be this exclu-
sive, as currently only roughly
$15,000 of the $24,000 budget
comes from mandatory student
fees. Also, they said the purpose
of studentgovernment should be
to serve respective student com-
munities, even if those constitu-
encies overlap.
Though no official verdict
was reached, each justice shared
individual opinions at the con-
clusion of the hearing. While
the justices overall agreed that
the December UMEC elections
were handled incorrectly, it
is still unclear what the exact
details of the verdict will be. Ste-
vens said the case was extremely
muddled.
Law student Andrew Weis-
berg, UMEC associate justice,
said the election should not be
valid because of the delayed
timeline. LSA senior Brandon
Barlog, UMEC associate justice,
agreed, and repeatedly said the
issue originated with UMEC's
failure to hold elections in
November in accordance with
its bylaws.
LSA senior Lukas Gar-
ske, UMEC associate justice,
and LSA senior Anita Parikh,
administrative justice, both
pointed to the negligence of the
outgoing 2013 UMEC Execu-
tive Board in the outcome of the
election.
Parikh said that the current
officials should not necessar-
ily be punished for the mishan-
dling of the election.
"It was not their fault that the
elections were held so poorly by
the previous board," she said.
However, the justices were
unanimous in that a constitu-
tional convention should be held
inthe near future by both parties
to address the conflicts between
the UMEC Constitution and All-
Campus Constitution.
Stevens said that revisions
to both constitutions are inevi-
table.
"I see this opinion as tempo-
rary no matter what happens,"
he said.
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Airline's lack of information angers relatives
Malaysia Airlines
sends officials to
Beijing as search
continues
BEIJING (AP) - The
anguished hours had turned
into a day and a half. Fed up
with awaiting word on the miss-
ing Malaysia Airlines plane,
relatives of passengers in Beijing
lashed out at the carrier with a
handwritten ultimatum and an
impromptu news conference.
Faced with an emergency, the
airline said it was doing all it
could to answer questions about
Flight MH370, which disap-
peared from radar Saturday with
239 people aboard while heading
from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The uncertainty over the plane's
whereabouts was frustrating
relatives, but also hindering the
carrier's ability to respond: It's
difficult to deliver a clear mes-
sage with so much still unclear.
From a room set aside at a
hotel near the Beijing airport, a
man with a black shirt emerged
with a statementsigned by about
100 of the relatives, saying that
unless the carrier could give
them some clarity, they would
take their complaints to the
Malaysian Embassy.
"We don't believe Malaysia
Airlines anymore. Sorry every-
one, we just don't believe them
anymore," the man, who refused
to give his name, told a crowd of
reporters Sunday.
By this time, the airline
already had dispatched doz-
ens of caregivers to Beijing and
assigned one to each family,
provided accommodation, food,
transport and financial assis-
tance. It said it was providing
regular updates despite a lack of
information about the plane.
But the initial disorder of
Malaysia Airlines' response, and
its lack of official contact with
relatives in the early going set
the tone for the ensuing hours of
waiting.
"One of the most important
things to remember here," said
Frank Taylor, a former director
of an aviation safety center at
Cranfield University in Britain,
"is that it's much easier to stand
down staff after an initial over-
reaction than to play catch-up
after an initial under-reaction."
The relatives had expected the
plane's arrival at 6:30 a.m. Sat-
urday. About four hours later, a
handwritten note was posted on
a white board in the arrival hall
advising relatives to use a shuttle
service to go to the Lido Hotel to
await information. "It can't be
good," said one weeping woman
aboard the first bus.
But when the family members
got there, they wandered around
lost and distressed before hotel
staff - apparently unprepared -
escorted them into a private area.
It was several more hours before
an airline spokesman made a
brief statement to reporters, pro-
viding little information.
"We're literally trying to find
out what happened and until you
actually find the aircraft youhave
no way of knowing what actu-
ally went on there," the airline's
commercial director, Hugh Dun-
leavy, told The Associated Press
on Sunday. "Our main focus has
been to come here, meet the fam-
ilies, give them as much informa-
tion as we can but without raising
false hopes."
Still, passengers' relatives
gathered in Beijing complained
that the airline hasn't been
forthcoming with information.
Instead of hearing from the car-
rier, they said, they've had to rely
on news reports for updates on
the search.
The initial lack of word led
to criticism that the airline did
nothing in the six hours after the
Boeing 777 jet vanished at 1:20
a.m. while cruising at 36,000
feet. But Dunleavy said the air-
line had immediately notified all
planes in the nearby airspace to
be on the lookout. They contact-
ed air traffic control authorities
in MalaysiaVietnam, and China.
They notified Malaysia's Civil
Aviation Department and Trans-
port Ministry.
The airline made no pub-
lic announcement before the
plane's scheduled 6:30 a.m. land-
ing because it would have had
enough fuel to continue in the air,
Dunleavy said.
About an hour after the
expected arrival time, the airline
released its first statement saying
it had lost contact with the plane.
"It does not mean, and is not
true, that we were not doing
anything in that period. It was
a full ongoing investigation and
search and rescue" by Malaysian
authorities, Dunleavy said.
By Saturday afternoon, the
rumors had started flying, and
airline officials had to verify each
one - all of which took time.
Did the plane land in Nanning,
a southern Chinese city? No, it
did not. Was a crash off the Viet-
nam coast confirmedyIt was not.
Did Vietnamese officials detect
the plane's signal? Officials later
denied it.
In the Lido Hotel, meanwhile,
red-eyed relatives were seeing
the rumors on smartphones but
not hearingthe airline's verifica-
tions. Impatience grew.
After 30 hours had passed
without contact with the plane,
airline officials told the relatives
to prepare for the worst. After
about 36 hours, the relatives at
the Lido issued their statement,
and the man in the black shirt
went before reporters.
"They're still telling us they
can't find this plane," the man
said. "All the information we're
getting is from the media. We,
who are part of the relatives, feel
that this is a very improper and
indifferent way to treat the fam-
ily members."
The airline should have been
more communicative from the
beginning, even if it didn't have
any news to provide, said Ira
Kalb, acrisismanagementexpert
at the University of Southern
California in Los Angeles.
"You have got to get out ahead
of the story and you have got to
do whatever you can to comfort
the relatives of the people that
were on the flight," Kalb said. "If
you don't have all the informa-
tion you just say: 'Look, we're
investigating and we're tryingto
get as much information as we
can and as soon as we get it we'll
pass it on to you."'
By later Sunday, the airline
was trying to speak more regu-
larly with relatives and expedite
passport and visa applications
for those who wanted to go to
Malaysia. Even that came under
fire by some family members.
4