The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - 3A
PHARMACY
From Page 1A
to raise $20 million during the
campaign. Patel is the chairman
of the school's board dedicated
to fundraising development.
"It's a small college, and so
the $20 million is quite sig-
nificant, and I think we have
enough people helping us that
we should be able to meet
our target," Patel said. "I am
pleased to be a part of the col-
lege and do whatever we can."
Patel said he hopes to main-
tain a cycle of donations
through graduate students
receiving his scholarships.
"We're just hoping that the
most deserving students will
get it and that, at some point,
once they are successful, they
will pay back to the college," he
said.
Patel was born and raised
in Africa and completed his
undergraduate degree in India.
He then finished his studies
at the University's Pharmacy
School, where he received his
doctorate in 1979. He currently
resides in Salt Lake City, Utah,
and works as a venture capital-
ist with his company, vSpring
Capital.
Patel said he has fond memo-
ries of his time spent in Ann
Arbor and appreciated the
wealth of activities available
to him along with the unique
educational experience that the
University offered.
"Without going to Michigan I
would not have been able to get
where I am, so I feel it's impor-
tant to help other students to
get their education," he said..
Peter Niedbala, the college's
director of pharmacy advance-
ment and external relations,
said Patel's contributions were
to the school have been incred-
ibly generous.
"He is really contributing
not only resources but also time
as chairman of our campaign
efforts, and it's very humbling
that he has made this time com-
mitment to the college," Nied-
bala said. "He is helping focus
our volunteer board on iden-
tifying prospects and helping
create enthusiasm for helping
the college achieve its goal."
In addition, Patel has been
recognized in the past with
the University's Distinguished
Alumni Award in 2009 and
the Willem J. Kolff Lifetime
Achievement Award in 2013.
Pharmacy student Ronak
Shah said the Patel Fellow-
ships are currently funding
his tuition and other college
expenses.
"This will help the Universi-
ty to go ahead in the future and
truly becoming one of the lead-
ers in the field of research and
academia," Shah said.
BioUtah president and CEO
Kimball Thomson, who knows
Patel through his membership
on BioUtah's board of directors,
praised his contributions to the
community.
"...He is a giver and a genu-
ine great man," Thomson said.
"He gives so much of himself to
others and to the community.
He really is one of the modern
fathers of biotechnology here in
the Western states."
HOLIDAY
From Page 1A
Harry Belafonte will give one
keynote memorial lecture in Hill
Auditorium. Belafonte worked
with King himself, as well as
President John F. Kennedy and
Nelson Mandela on justice issues.
Belafonte is also the recipient of
an Emmy Award, a Tony Award
and a Grammy Award.
Motivational speaker Albert
Mensah is scheduled to give a
lecture at Rackham Auditorium
later in the day. Phyllis Meadows,
associate dean for practice and
clinical professor of health man-
agement and policy at the School
of Public Health, will also give a
speech about community health
at the Dow Auditorium in the
Towsley Center.
In the Modern Languages
Building, the MLK Children
and Youth Program will target a
younger audience with storytell-
ing and musical performances.
Studentsinthe Schoolof Music,
Theatre and Dance will perform
at the Power Center as well. The
performance will revolve around
this year's themes. The Michigan
Community Scholars Circle of
Unity will perform on the Diag as
they sing in honor of King and his
legacy.
Finally, an art exhibit in the
Hatcher Graduate Library Gal-
lery will be open starting Monday
and continuing through Feb. 28 -
documenting the history of race
at the University from its found-
ing to the present.
CELEBRATE
From Page 1A
regarding having parents as
students since many women
were returning to the class-
room almost immediately after
having children. Achieving
tenure was difficult for women
whose careers were interrupt-
ed by starting a family, as the
time requirement for attaining
tenure did not allow extended
maternity leave. The University
changed these policies in the
1990s, a time when few other
universities were taking steps
to accommodate these situa-
tions, according to Hollens-
head.
But Hollenshead said those
changes took much longer than
she had hoped.
"If you had asked me then,
in 1970, 'Where will you be in
2013?' I would've said 'Oh, it'll
all be solved!" she said.
CEW's current director, Glo-
ria Thomas, said it is obvious
that gains for women have not
been equal across the board.
According to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics between
1979 and 2012, white women's
earnings rose 31 percent while
earnings for Black and His-
panic women only rose 20 and
13 percent, respectively. Data
from the 2012 Current Popula-
tion Survey showed that women
with children earned less than
their childless counterparts,
while men with children
earned significantly more than
their peers.
Consequently, the CEW's
constituency has diversified
tremendously since its incep-
tion when it served mostly
white, middle-class women,
Thomas said. Today, the CEW
offers career counseling and
networking help to a demo-
graphic that includes many
women of color, women living
in low-income situations, single
parents and some men.
"There is still a need - maybe
not as much need for white,
middle-class women - but still
a need for those who are strug-
gling to get to where they want
to be in their careers and in
their education," Thomas said.
She added that the CEW's
role today is to help those who
still face barriers to higher edu-
cation make sure they are not
"doomed to a low-income job."
As tuition rates steadily climb,
financial realities often make a
college education unattainable
for many women and men.
In response, the CEW gives
away $300,000 per year in
scholarships to "non-tradition-
al students," including parents,
those who are transferring
from community college or are
not financially supported by
their family.
"Not all women live the tra-
ditional lives where they come
right out of high school and get
their education and have 2.5
children and all that," Thomas
said.
The CEW Scholarship Pro-
gram awards aid to 50 students
across the three University
campuses every year.
"It's not just needing the
money," Thomas added. "It's
connecting them to a network
of individuals who will sup-
port their efforts as they pursue
their career interests."
It's that network that drew
Thomas back to Ann Arbor
when she took the CEW direc-
torship in 2008. She originally
started working at the Center
in 1995 as a graduate student at
the School of Education.
"It was, in many respects,
a home away from home for
me when I was a grad student
here," she said.
The CEW will continue to
celebrate its semicentennial
throughout the year with a
conference focused on eco-
nomic security and mobility for
women in poverty in May and
an event to bring together past
and current scholarship recipi-
ents in the fall.
The center originally invited
Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize
winning author of "The Color
Purple," to speak at one of the
anniversary's events, but later
rescinded the invitation. The
center decided Walker was "not
the premium choice" for the
event, according to Thomas.
The author posted a letter
allegedly written by her agent
that said funding was cut from
her lecture due to controversial
statements she made about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, the University later
invited Walker to speak at the
biennial Zora Neale Hurston
Lecture for the Department
of Afroamerican and African
Studies, to be held in November
2014.
Walker accepted the invita-
tion on her blog and forgave the
University for the uncertain
circumstances.
"I believe we have all learned
something from our efforts to
reach out to one another, and
I believe also that - if solar
flares or deeply unintelligent
wars haven't carried us off -
it will be a good time," Walker
wrote.
APPLICANTS
From Page 1A
"This sometimes generates more
choices and variables to take into
account than in previous years."
Erica Sanders, manag-
ing director of undergraduate
admissions, said in an e-mail
interview last year that the
increasing magnitude of appli-
cants might yield more Early
Action deferrals.
While some students, like
Boland, opened e-mails welcom-
ingthem to the University's class
of 2018, others were not as fortu-
nate.
"Our high application volume,
coupled with the very strong
credentials of our applicants in
recent years, has contributed
to an increasingly competitive
admissions process," the deferral
letter reads. "As a result, we are
writing to inform you that your
application is currently being
deferred for further review."
According to the letter, all
final admissions decisions will
be released no later than April.
DIVERSITY
From Page 1A
don, who worked in DPE as
a students, shared stories
from his time at the Univer-
sity as a gay man of color and
working with students in the
Oxford Residence Hall. Gor-
don stressed the importance of
cherishing others in one's origi-
nality and building friendships
when trying to create a safe
community.
Gordon described his peers
in the DPE as "a group so fierce
even Beyonce would be jeal-
ous," and added how impor-
tant the friendships within this
community are to being suc-
cessful in their mission.
"One day you soon you'll
come to realize how powerful
this program really is," he said.
"Created in the image of the
great Robbie Ransom, the DPE
is bold and unapologetic in its
pursuit of social justice."
Gordon said the DPE is one
of the only programs on campus
that gives positions of power to
typically marginalized groups
such as LGBTQ students, people
of color and international stu-
dents. He added that students
should realize the importance
of being good to yourself, to
respecting the work you do and
to being willing to compromise.
Trey Boynton, director of
diversity and inclusion, also
spoke of the DPE's significance
and impact in the program,
adding that the group saves
lives and sends a strong mes-
sage to members in the Univer-
sity community.
"We need it more than ever,"
Boynton said. "DPE is housing's
manifestation of our commit-
ment to diversity."
Robbie Ransom, former
director of cultural awareness
and diversity education, also
spoke after receiving recogni-
tion from current DPE mem-
bers. Ransom encouraged the
DPE members to keep on fight-
ing for social justice, even after
graduation.
CSG proposes new system for
honor code revision process
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First meeting of
the year addresses
administration's
transparency
By MICHAEL SUGERMAN
Daily StaffReporter
In a unanimous vote Tues-
day night, the Central Stu-
dent Government Assembly
passed a resolution that called
on the administration to grant
the elected body the power to
screen all proposed amend-
ments to the University's State-
ment of Student Rights and
Responsibilities.
The resolution will now go to
the Student Relations Advisory
Committee for approval. The
SRAC will hold a formal vote on
each of the resolution's stated
recommendations in February.
The measures approved by
SRAC will then be sent to E.
Royster Harper, vice president
for student life, who - if all
goes according to plan - will
pass them to the University's
Office of General Counsel, and
ultimately to University Presi-
dent Mary Sue Coleman for
final consent.
Law student Jeremy Keeney,
CSG student general counsel,
said the proposed modifica-
tions would begin to fix the cur-
rent system, which allows the
office of Student Conflict Reso-
lution and faculty to propose
amendments to the Statement
of Student Rights and Respon-
sibilities without CSG approval.
This process could allow for
changes to be made to the stu-
dent Code of Conduct without
students' consent or input.
"I'm hoping (the resolution)
will be successful," Keeney
said. "We provided Royster and
the chair of SRAC a copy of this
in December. They did reach
out with some clarifying ques-
tions, but not with concerns."
The CSG resolutions com-
mittee will now consider sub-
stantive changes to the Code of
Conduct itself, targeting poten-
tial discrepancies between the
CSG Bill of Student Rights and
the statement's list of rights and
responsibilities.
A new resolution proposing
amendments to students' rights
will go up for vote in the assem-
bly by February 4, Keeney said.
"The combination of these
(resolutions) will be one of the
biggest amendments that have
been passed in a while," he
added.
The efforts to standard-
ize the Code of Conduct are
not CSG's only initiatives to
increase administration trans-
parency. Keeney and Chris
Stevens, Chief Justice of the
Central Student Judiciary, have
also been working to improve
University honor codes since
last semester.
The two have met with
administrators - including
Harper and University Provost
Martha Pollack - to address
code inconsistencies. Right
now, each unit within the Uni-
versity has its own honor code
with varying levels of detail
among the University's schools
and colleges. Although Kee-
ney and Stevens do not wish
to change the organization of
codes by school, they agreed
that they want to increase
transparency and consistency
among the codes.
Keeney said he recently sat
in on two LSA honor code hear-
ings with the permission of
Esrold Nurse, assistant dean for
undergraduate education. He
was impressed with the impar-
tiality with which the dean
conducted himself, but he felt
the students weren't aware they
could have an advocate present
to help present their cases.
"It's not clear what the rights
are and what the process should
be," Stevens said.
The College of Engineering,
for instance, has a procedural
manual for its hearings - but
Stevens said it is not published.
"Personally, I found the sys-
tem to be unfair, at least at the
student-peer level," he said. "It
just seems that the cards are
stacked (against students)."
Keeney and Stevens said
honor code reform would also
benefit the administration by
preventing any litigation stem-
ming from wrongful expulsions
or suspensions.
The pair researched the
honor codes of the University of
California, Berkeley, Princeton,
Yale and Stanford, and has four
principal changes they think
should be adopted. First, they
recommend that honor code
hearings should include written
opinions by the administration.
Additionally, they said they
believe students should have
access to both advocates and
hearing procedures, including
appellate rules. They added that
all honor codes should be easily
available online.
As per Pollack's recommen-
dation, Keeney and Stevens will
meet with a group comprised
of all the University's associ-
ate deans and vice provosts
next week to initiate discussion
of reform, and to potentially
establish a working relationship
with the group for the rest of
the year. The meeting will be
the first of its kind.
"Academic integrity is
extremely important, and I
welcome the fact CSG is think-
ing about our policies," Pollack
wrote in a statement. "I will
be interested to see how their
work progresses."