The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, January 16, 2014 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, January16, 2014 - 3A

REGENTS
From Page 1A
University President Mary
Sue Coleman, Provost Martha
Pollack, Tim Slottow, executive
vice president and chief finan-
cial officer, and Sally Churchill,
vice president and secretary, will
accompany the eight regents.
Ora Pescovitz, University
Health System chief executive
officer, Jerry May, vice president
for development and E. Royster
Harper, vice president for student
life will also participate in some
of the sessions.
Sessions to cover affordability,
healthcare and digital education
During the trip, the group will
hold a series of meetings designed
to provide insights into a set of
challenges facing higher educa-
tion institutions across the coun-
try.
Similar to the California trip
schedule, which tapped leaders
from University of California-
Berkeley, Stanford University and
Google, the regentswill hear from
the East Coast's top university
administrators during two days of
sessions.
Though a portion of the discus-
sion in California included the
ongoing budget difficulties faced
by the University of California
system, the New York trip sched-
ule is weighted more towards
sessions with leaders or former
leaders of private institutions.
The regents plan to meet with
Bill Bowen, president emeritus
of Princeton University, Peter
Salovey, president of Yale Univer-
sity, Mike John, retired executive
vice president for medical affairs
at Emory University and Edward
Miller, retired executive vice
president for medical affairs at
John Hopkins University.
However, in an interview with
The Michigan Daily, Coleman
said New York is a place where a

lot of people are broadly thinking
about higher education's greatest
challenges. She emphasized New
York's central location as a key
factor in facilitating the schedul-
ing of sessions with leaders from
up and down the East Coast.
"I think that a lot of the ideas
they have and the lessons they've
learned over time will be appli-
cable for us," Coleman said.
Bowen, who is the current
president of the Mellon Founda-
tion, will lead the regents in a
discussion about how best to fos-
ter an evolution in undergraduate
education while maintain quality
instruction.
Bowen secured funding for
the studies testing the efficacy
of online learning at the Mellon
Foundation.
"He is one of the most knowl-
edgeable people in the world
because he has been at it for so
long and he has funded work and
really looked at the evidence and
the data," Coleman said.
Similar conversations about
the role of online education have
been ongoing at the University. In
the fall, Pollack launched a series
of town hall forums on digital
education.
Salovey, the president of Yale
University, will also lead a dia-
logue covering the University's
most prominent issues, includ-
ing diversity, affordability and
engaged learning.
Though the regents discussed
affordability and digital educa-
tion during last year's trip to Cali-
fornia, healthcare will also be at
the forefront of the regents' agen-
da in New York.
Coleman said the new empha-
sis on this particular discussion
emerged from the recent imple-
mentation of the Patient Protec-
tion and Affordable Care Act, one
of the biggest factors changing
the evolution of university health
systems.
In the fall, multiple speakers

at the public presidential search
forums said experience managing
a large health system is a critical
trait need in the next University
president.
John, the former executive
vice president for medical affairs
at Emory University and Miller,
retired executive vice president
for medical affairs at John Hop-
kins University, are scheduled to
lead a dialogue on the future of
healthcare reform and academic
medical centers.
Coleman said all of the meet-
ings are designed to foster open
dialogue, rather than structured,
less engaging PowerPoint presen-
tations.
"(The trip) gives an opportuni-
ty to sort of break out of the mold,
and not have the structured meet-
ings and the committee meetings
thatwe would normallyhave with
the regents meeting," Coleman
said. "It gives an opportunity for
people to have a wider ranger dis-
cussion, think in different ways."
Regents to engage donor, alum-
ni network
Coinciding with the Regents'
meeting will be two events host-
ed by the University's Office of
Development to work the New
York donor base. There are cur-
rently 38,000 alumni living with-
in 50 miles of New York City.
The events will take place less
than three months after the Uni-
versity kicked off the Victors for
Michigan campaign, which aims
to raise $4 billion over the next
few years. Though the Univer-
sity will not actually raise money
during the two New York events,
development officials hope engag-
ing donors will translate into gifts
down the road.
May, the University's vice
president for development, is
spearheading this week's event,
along with the University's two
development officers based in
New York and a third officer from
Boston.

In light of the $525 million the
University raised in New York
during its last fundraising cam-
paign, The Michigan Difference,
May reallocated development
resources and added an addition-
al officer to the state to work the
donor base more frequently.
At Thursday night's event, the
focus willbe on engagingthe Uni-
versity's high level donors, and
May said he is surprised by the
event's expected turnout.
"We thought we were going to
have about 110 of our donors ...
but this time we're having 150, at
least," May said. "We're having a
spectacular response."
May said the larger than
expected showing is for three rea-
sons: well known New York real
estate mogul Stephen Ross will
host the event, the University's
regents will be in-house and the
event is being held at Jazz at the
Lincoln Center.
In addition, eight students
from the School of Music, The-
atre, and Dance are being flown to
New York to perform a few songs
for the gathering of donors.
The cost of the fundraising
event was not available at time
of publication, though the money
will come from Office of Develop-
ment funds.
"We want them (the donors)
to come, we want them to have
a good time, and then we'll talk
with them about what they can
do," May said. "Some of those
donors can do $25,000, but some
can do $500,000."
A breakfast planned for Fri-
day morning will be less showy
and focused on engaging the next
generation of donors. Mayand the
development team will shift gears
slightly to engage 50 to 75 young-
er alumni who mightbe lookingto
make their first gift.
"Some of those people will be
the big donors in the next cam-
paign," May said.

CAUCASUS
FromPage1A
between Western Asia and East-
ern Europe. The country was
divided between the Russian
and Ottoman empires in the 19th
century and was persecuted
by the Ottomans during War
World I. Before the Soviet Union
conquered Armenia in 1920, 1.5
million ethnic Armenians were
systematically exterminated by
the Turks during the Armenian
Genocide. In recent decades,
according to the Central Intel-
ligence Agency, Armenia has
undergone economic growth.
Saparov focused on the ethnic
conflicts within the Caucasus.
The Bolsheviks - the leading,
leftist party in Russia after the
fall of the Russian Empire in
1917 - redefined the borders
in Armenia in the early 20th
century. The meddling is often
blamed for creating ethnic strife
in the European nation. Sapa-
rov delved into the Bolsheviks'
mindset and intentions while
creating borders.
In his lecture, he also ana-
lyzed the Caucasus Mountains
region from a broader perspec-
tive, spanning across centuries
of history.
"You need to look at the bigger
picture to see how small events
fit into the bigger picture," Sapa-
rov said.
Saparov arguedthat the Sovi-
ets' actions are not as sinister as
commonlyunderstood.

"If you zoom in at the close
conditions you start realizing
that this is actually the result of
a number of decisions taken by
people tryingto solve immediate
problems - it's not a long term
predetermined process," Sapa-
rov said.
Kathryn Babayan, director of
the Armenian Studies Program,
said she hopes events such as
these serve to generate public
interest in Armenia.
"One of the things that we
try to do is to create an intel-
lectual community that reaches
out beyond just those who are
studying Armenian history or
literature but actually reaches to
a global faculty as well as under-
graduates," Babayan said.
Rackham student Vahe
Sahakyan, a Ph.D. candidate in
Near Eastern Studies, said he
was impressed with Saparov's
angle.
"This was a unique approach
that Arsene takes because it
looks at the whole region, not
into a specific country," Sahaky-
an said.
Engineering junior Antonina
Malyarenko attended the lec-
ture with a mission to gain more
knowledge on the Caucasus.
"Every day in class we have to
talk about current events and a
lot of these particular things are
still going on - like the conflicts
and stuff - so I'd personally like
to learn more so I can have more
of a background to talk about in
class."

Archdiocese releases
papers chronicling
decades of sex abuse


COLD
From Page 1A
ages is perhaps due to the system
Ann Arbor currently has in place
to deal with inclement winter
weather. Like most cities, Ann
Arbor has a fleet of salt trucks and
plows that it sends out on specific
routes to deal with winter weath-
er.
The vehicles are sent out on two
shifts: one lasting from 1 p.m. to
6 a.m., and one lasting from 6 a.m.
to 2 p.m. During heavier snow-
falls, the service vehicles will take
two 12-hour shifts.
Plow crews' first priority is
snow removal on major streets
that are considered essential
routes for emergency vehicles and
traffic. Only second to that are
residential roads. The city also

spreads a de-icing agent, com-
posed ofboth sand and salt, across
roughly 98 miles of roadway.
However, the city is not respon-
sible for clearing most sidewalks.
Rather, it is the duty of residents
and business owners to clear side-
walks around their property. City
ordinance states that residents
have 24 hours to clear the side-
walks after a snowfall of greater
than 1 inch.
Kellar said enforcement of the
sidewalk regulations is difficult
because the city does not have
workers to monitor sidewalks.
"It requires public participa-
tion to enforce," Kellar said. "We
ask people to either call us or go
online ... to help fix that."
He added that the city has
developed a social media presence
and does a sufficient job respond-
ing and listening to citizens via

online platforms.
The city does not pay for snow
removal and street maintenance
from property proceeds, but
instead uses state funding to pay
for the programs. Kellar noted
this common misconception, and
said since state funding has not
increased since 1997, the city has
been held back from increasing its
capacity to remove snow.
"We get a lot of people asking
us: 'Why don't you buy more snow
plows or get more people on the
roads?' " Kellar said. "Well, that's
because we get the money from
the state to pay for that."
Councilwoman Sabra Briere
(D-Ward 1) said the cleanup pro-
cess is much better than it was
just five years ago, and credited
the new City Administrator Steve
Powers as well as a much more
"assertive" sidewalk process as

the primary agents of change.
"I think having a city admin-
istrator from Marquette, where
they really know how to deal with
snow, has been a real plus for us
and the community," Briere said.
"I also think the fact that the
city administrator is now talking
about looking at how we did and
improving on it for next winter is
also a real plus."
Briere also noted the contrast
in public opinion between when
she first began her tenure on city
council and now.
"I got constant complaints
about how days after a snowfall
somebody's neighborhood would
not have been plowed," Briere
said. "People now are impatient
because their neighborhood
hasn't been plowed in five hours."

Survivors look for
closure, reparations
from church
CHICAGO (AP) - The release
of 6,000 pages of documents
by the Archdiocese of Chicago
raised hopes Wednesday among
sex abuse victims and their
lawyers that new light will
be shed on what the Catholic
Church knew and did - or didn't
do - about decades of allegations
against priests.
The nation's third-largest
archdiocese handed over to vic-
tims' attorneys a trove of com-
plaints, personnel documents
and other files for about 30
priests with substantiated abuse
allegations, as part of settle-
ments with the victims.
The lawyers, who have fought
for years to hold the church
accountable for concealing
crimes and sometimes reassign-
ing priests to positions where
they continued to molest chil-
dren, said they expect to make
the documents public next week.
While church officials called
the agreement an effort to "bring
healing to the victims and their
families," the victims said the
disclosures and transparency
were the only way to learn from
what happened, make sure it is
never repeated and help both
them and the church recover and
move forward.
"Hopefully it will help oth-
ers out there struggling to come
forward and get help," said Joe
Iacono, 62, a Springfield, Ill.,
resident who was abused in the
early 1960s while he was a stu-
dent at a Catholic school outside
Chicago.
Iacono said he was hoping the

documents include records relat-
ing to the priest who abused him.
A ranking official for the arch-
diocese, Bishop Francis Kane,
opened a Wednesday news con-
ference explaining the document
release by apologizing for the
abuse.
"I have seen firsthand the pain
and suffering of the victims and
their families," Kane said. "What
we are doing now, I hope that it
will bringhealing and hope to the
people thatchave been affected by
these terrible sins and crimes."
Archdiocese attorney John
O'Malley warned that the docu-
ments will be "upsetting." "The
information is painful; it's dif-
ficult to read, even without the
benefit of hindsight," O'Malley
said.
The documents are similar
to recent disclosures by other
dioceses in the U.S. that showed
how the church shielded priests
and failed to report child sex
abuse to authorities. Church
officials said most of the abuse
occurred before 1988 and none
occurred after 1996.
Cardinal Francis George,
who has led the archdiocese
since 1997, did not attend the
news conference. But on Sun-
day he released a letter of apol-
ogy to parishioners that said all
incidents were reported to civil
authorities and resulted in settle-
ments.
In fact, the archdiocese has
paid about $100 million to settle
sex abuse claims, including those
against Father Daniel McCor-
mack, who was sentenced to
five years in prison after plead-
tog guilty in 2007 to abusing five
children while he was a parish
priest and a teacher at a Catholic
school.


FLU
From Page 1A
munity is worried it will be "mod-
erately severe," which would
be similar to the severity of last
year's season.
However, she said there is one
crucial difference from last year's
season: young, otherwise healthy
people are more disproportion-
ately affected than usual.

"When you talk about those
cases in the intensive care unit,
most of those folks are young and
healthy," Wells said. "So what
they have in common was ... a lot
of them didn't get vaccinated."
The strain in question, H1N1, is
another reason why more young
adults are catching the flu this
year. It's still unclear why young-
er populations are more suscep-
tible to the strain, but there are
some hypotheses that came out

of studying the 2009 pandemic of
the same strain.
"It does appear that this
H1Nt strain has some similari-
ties to strains from the 1950s,"
said Wells. "So those people that
are in their 60s or over possibly
have some cross reaction or cross
immunity with this H1N1 strain."
She added that this possibility
shouldn't keep anyone from get-
ting vaccinated.
"Myparents are intheir80s. I'd

be terrified if they weren't vacci-
nated, because that doesn't mean
they won't get it," she said. "They
just have a decreased chance of
getting it."
Wells added that it won't be too
late to get vaccinated until flu sea-
son calms down sometime around
March. The Center for Disease
Control recommends anyone
over the age of 6 months get vac-
cinated.


United Nations raises money to assist
millions of displaced Syrian refugees
Kuwait conference a esis. a d 00 the safety of their people above all dent Bashar Assad for starvi
epctoriethe entire aon
in Kuwait but hope the gathering other considerations." people and blocking interna
yields $2.4 billion focuses greater international Kuwait's Gulf neighbor Saudi aid workers from providing
donation from attention on the conflict. Arabia promised an additional some of Syria's hardest-hit
"The fighting has set Syria $60 million, saying that would "The international co
West, Arab allies back by years, even decades," boost its existing round of nity must use every tool
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki- funding to a total $250 million, disposal to draw the w
KUWAIT CITY(AP)-Western moon said at the start of the event though it did not specify the attention to these offense
nations and their Gulf Arab allies at the lavish Bayan Palace in the time period. It promised $300 said. "'They are not just of
led the promises of support at a Kuwaiti capital. million at last year's conference. against conscience. They at
fundraising conference in Kuwait Ban said humanitarian and Nearby Qatar also promised offenses against the laws of
on Wednesday that generated development agencies "face $60 million Wednesday. The United Kim
pledges of at least $2.4 billion to unprecedented demands" U.S. Secretary of State John announced a pledge of 10
alleviate the suffering of Syrians because of the crisis, and that it Kerry said the U.S. pledge of lion pounds, or $164 m
affectedby the country's relentless "is vital ... the burden be shared" $380 million will bring brings with International Develo
civil war f in helping meet Syria's growing America's humanitarian aid Secretary Justine Greenin
driven from their homes bee aid needs. contribution to Syrianvictims to ing that "the scale of suf
result of the crisis, both inside Kuwait's emir, Sheik Sabah Al $1.7 billion since the war began. that this crisis has caused i
the country and in neighboring Ahmad Al Sabah, opened the con- Half of the money - $177 mil- to exaggerate."
states struggling to cope with ference by pledging $500 million, lion - will go to U.N. programs The European Union pl
the influx. Getting aid to many significantly topping the OPEC for victims still in Syria. The 165 million euros, or $22.
of those in need inside Syria member nation's pledge of $300 rest is for neighboring nations lion.
is a challenge because they million last year. that have taken in an estimated Even violence-wracked
remain trapped in communities He pressed the U.N. Security 2.3 million refugees. which has taken in more
besieged by the fighting. Council to exert greater effort in "We are under no illusion that 200,000 refugees, mostlyi
staggering$6. billion this year to bringing an end to the crisis, and our job, or any of our jobs here, largely autonomous Km
help Syrians affected by the war, urged all those fighting in Syria to are to just write a check," said north, promised $13 mill
its largest-ever funding appeal "put the fate of their country and Kerry, who blamed Syrian Presi- aid.

ing his
tional
aid in
areas.
)mmu-
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world's
s," he
fenses
lso are
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ngdom
I0 mil-
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pment
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than
in the
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