N c.Vs Monday, September 22, 2014 - 3A The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com ~ 4 "MIDTOWN" P DOWNTOWN tl. u F l i : r ,i n . v I 1 li / r i IIn r iy n M i 1.{ni 'r r Connector budget for this year: $153,650 Total # of trips made sInce Oct ober 5,2013 6000 Student groups and classes that have utilized the connector 60. Puposes for the connector [1%) Claus'" tuot Student Croup [7%] X4% - Commuting-Reserch [9%] Oter [10% JAt teerdine a e u~rea t Osuag HONORS From Page 2A annual increase determined by the University's Board of Regents. In a brief question and answer session followinghis presentation, he expanded upon this point. "To me, the biggest scandal in college football is greed ... greed is going to kill college sports as we know them," he said. "This is a nonprofit, state university. Nobody here gets market value. Nobody here gets to return an investment. You don't come to a big university to cashin." LSA sophomore Steven Ober- lander said he liked the pre- sentation particularly as an out-of-state student without as much background on Ann Arbor's early years. "I thought it was amazing," Oberlander said. "He's definitely passionate. It was just interest- ing to hear a lot about the his- tory ... also, his perspective on campus life and how this really is, in his mind, the greatest place in the world." Katherine Britton - the mother of LSA freshman Mat- thew Britton, a new Honors student - and her husband Ed attended the event with their son. Mrs.Britton said the lecture attuned her to the fascinating, intellectual avenues to pursue within the Honors Program. "The mix of academics and football is, in fact, one of the hallmarks of Michigan, and it's sort of fascinating that that's the topic that was chosen for the parents," she said. "In some ways, it's interesting in the Big Ten how football is kind of this unifying factor in a way that it isn't in many ofthe other confer- ences, and he certainly brought that out, which is part of the Michigan ethos." CONNECTOR From Page 1A after assessing student demand via survey. The results of the ini- tial survey from February 2013 indicated that over 75 percent of possible riders - students, faculty, 1 staff and community members - were 'very likely' to use the ser- vice if it were provided. In its trial year, the Connector fulfilled that demand: approxi- mately 150 people travelled from Ann Arbor on the Connector per week in the fall and winter, and 100 per week in the spring and summer months. Since its launch in October 2013, there have been approximately 6,000 rider trips out of Ann Arbor. Rackham student Carolyn Lusch was hired on as the Trans- portation Coordinator for the Detroit Center Connector and helped shape the Connector into its current form. "We set up a very rudimentary system for making reservations at first," Lusch said. "It was literally just a Google doc that I checked every day so that we would know who was riding." The reservation system is now a little more involved - a website through the University where students can visit to see all the available dates and times that the connector is running, reserve a seat and check out events that are taking place downtown. The service is primarily for Mcard holders but students and faculty are allowed four guests per day. The reservation serves two purpo ses: to ensure that rid- ers have a spot on the bus and to collect data about why riders are AEROSPACE From Page 1A The events also discussed the future of the industry. The series included panels on the future of aerospace academics, the future of aircrafts and the future of space travel, among others. During the "Panel on the Future of Space Exploration and Use" Friday, speakers from select aerospace engineering companies and organizations - Blue Origin, NASA's Johnson Space Center, SpaceX and Orbitals Science Cor- poration - spoke about the future of commercial space travel. Rob Meyerson, president and program manager of Blue Origin, which discussed the company's goal to increase the number of people that can fly to space while simultaneously lowering the cost of commercial spaceflight and UMHS From Page 1A that the walking route was poorly lit and that drunk men accosted them when they were walking late at night. The MNA claimed one staff member was forced to walk the uphill route from Wall St. to the hospital while she was eight months pregnant. Throughout the week, the MNA reported the University was less than responsive to the nurse's concerns. Friday, the Univer- sity agreed to the MNA's terms, said Dawn Kettinger, commu- nications director for the MNA, meaning nurses could return to parking in the nearby structure and that there would work with nurses to increase safety at the Wall St. structure. going to Detroit. "Last year, our largest segment was people going to visit family," Lusch said. "Then after that was people doing cultural events down here. The main purpose of this is to enrich the cultural and edu- cational connection. We do see people visiting their family as still a way to enrich their education because it's helping them stay con- nected to their support network while they're pursuing an educa- tion inAnn Arbor." LSA freshman Tayler Thur- man, a Detroit native, took the Detroit Connector Friday for the first time to go visit her family for her birthday. "I think this is really cool, espe- cially since it's free," Thurman said. "It's really convenient." Rackham student Joshua Shipper takes the Detroit Connector to commute to class from his residence in Detroit. A New York native, Shipper lived in Ann Arbor for a while but found he missed living in an urban environment. "To be near such a major city and to not partake in it felt weird, in some way," Shipper said. "To claim that I was close to Detroit but to not actually be a part of it felt weird. I just feel more at home in a city." Because this is its first year being funded by the University, the Detroit Connector team's main goal is to keep growing ridership. They are targeting University groups and classes that may want to take cultural field trips to the city. Since the Connector begassits service, approximately 60 student groups have used the Connector. "There isn't a quota that we need to maintain, per se," Lusch said, "but we have been told by the University that they are monitoring it. So anyone who has ever considered riding it, ride it." If demand becomes great enough, they would consider adding more stops to the route in Ann Arbor and in Detroit. Currently, the bus runs Thursday through Sunday at various times throughout the day. It begins its route at the University of Michigan Detroit Center on Woodward Avenue, makes another stop behind the Detroit Institute of Arts, then heads to Ann Arbor, stopping at C.C. Little. On the way to Detroit, students drive through the heart of downtown, stopping at the Renaissance Center before heading back to the Detroit Center to begin the route again. Though Detroit is mostly a driving city, the stops available provide access to key areas of cultural interest. Cafes, bars, restaurants and other attractions are within walking distance of the three stops. Employees at the Detroit Center have information regarding bike rentals and the Detroit public bus system to explore less central destinations. In an effort to make the Connector less intimidating to students who aren't used to public transit, Lusch launched Transit Tuesdays, a weekly meeting in Ann Arbor in the Michigan League. Lusch goes and sits at a table marked with the Detroit Center sign, and is available for questions and comments regarding the service. "The future of this project depends on the riders," LuschF said, "And our showing that the service is being used alot." EXPERIENCE From Page 2A was a serious time commit- ment. However, many students expressed concern with how the event was promoted and organized. LSA junior Mea- gan Shokar, public relations chair for the Sikh Students Association, said in an e-mail interview the SSA was disap- pointed by how the event was conducted. "Most of all we are dis- appointed in the manner in which GIEU chose to ... adver- tise the event simply as a 'free lunch,' " Shokar said. "Langar is a holy concept ingrained in the faith of Sikhs, yet Sikh- ism was not mentioned on the Facebook event or on the flyers for the event. At the very least, it would have been very ben- eficial to give out educational materials to those who picked up the meal." Langar on the Diag did not have people sitting together and, Shokar said she. did not know what the event was actu- ally about. "The purpose of Langar is to have members of a diverse community come together and eat, side-by-side, regardless of their backgrounds or own reli- gious beliefs," Shokar wrote. "The word 'langar' is special to Sikhs all across the globe, and to accurately portray its mean- ing on a campus where there is already little awareness of Sikhism is absolutely vital." ASSAULT From Page 1A The play, "Good Kids," addresses the themes of rape and hookup culture among young adults. The play is based on the 2012 Steubenville High School rape case, where the sexual assault of a teenage girl by two members of the high school foot- ball team was heavily publicized through pictures and videos posted on social media. After each performance, speakers will answer questions from the audience and address various aspects of the topic. Dr. Christopher Kilmartin, a stand- up comedian and international- ly-recognized expert on violence prevention and gender, will be one of the speakers. "We want to set the bar high," Eaton said. "That's why we came up with this outreach initiative regarding the rape and respect culture. We wanted the play to have a larger impact and have a piece of creative work be the impetus to start a change of heart and a change of mind about the subject." The play is intended to launch a campus-wide conversation about community responsibili- ftes and individual choices in regards to preventing sexual assault and harm to others. SAPAC Director Holly Rider- Milkovich said that in light of the White House's new campaign, It's On Us, which asks colleges and individuals to take on the issue of ending sexual assault, the initiative is an opportune way to spread the play's message on campus. "Sexual violence prevention is something we need to work on constantly," Rider-Milkovich said. "We want to support stu- dent activism and encourage and help guide student voices on this issue to the extent that students continue to really find value and meaning and vigor in this proj- ect. We will continue to support it and we will also support new ideas and new projects because certainly there is a lot of work to be done." improvingsafety. Lauri Hansen addressed the emphasis on human spaceflight and their latest project, the Aster- oid Redirect Mission, which aims to artificially redirect an asteroid into the moon's orbit in order to study its properties. The mission gained attention in the aerospace community, as they are hoping it will be a stepping-stone to more involved human missions into deep space. The panels not only provided information on the work being done in the industry currently, but they also stressed the impor- tance of student involvement and the role of our generation in aero- space. Frank DeMauro, vice president at Orbital Sciences Corporation, which focuses on development and launch of satellites and rock- ets, spoke about giving commer- cial access to space and their new spacecraft, Cygnus, which could provide new opportunities for travel into deep space. "I'm very excited about the caliber of students that come from our colleges," DeMauro said when asked about the education stu- dents are receiving at universities. Students attending the panel were able to see how all the dif- ferent parts of the industry, from engineering to marketing, worked together to achieve a common goal. Engineering senior Jose Gomez, after attending the panel on space travel, said he realized "The common consensus (among the panelists) is that it is the stu- dentstoday that are going to really make the difference and really push our species beyond Earth- orbit and into space. "I feel a little bit more empow- ered now," he said. EVACUATION From Page 1A There are three weather- mapping systems that track dangerous weather systems, Piersante said. One is in the emergency operations center on game day, another is located in the separate DPSS operations center and the last is monitored by the athletic department. Piersante said he knew there would be a high chance of bad weather during the game and noted that information was communicated to fans in advance of the storm on the scoreboard. Once a lightning strike was detected, fans were asked to evacuate. Piersante said he thought the process went smoothly and that it was not chaotic. "There was no panic at all that I observed," he said. "Perhaps because we did put the warning out, I think a lot of people were prepared." ' Kinesiology sophomore Casey Aman said that people were more frantic than usual because it was raining heavily and there was lightning, but that most people had left by the time the storm began because the team was losing badly. LSA sophomore Joe Shea said he observed some disturbances in the crowd, including some students who were worried about lightning striking the metal seating. "I think it was a little chaotic just because ifyou look at how the Big House is set up, there really is only that one entrance," he said. "You enter the stadium, and you go to your seats - you start at row 70 and you walk all the way down. It doesn't feel extremely conducive for evacuations." JOIN THE MICHIGAN DAILY michigandaily.com/join-us "They've agreed to reverse the policy and also to work with the Union to monitor safety at the Wall St. structure in case employ- ees do want to continue parking there," Kettinger said. Although Kettinger was glad the University showed concern for the nurses' safety, she said the plan should never have been enacted in the first place. She claimed UMHS did not consult with any nurses in creating the plan and said the change seemed unnecessary since the closer parking lot usually has plenty of parking at night. "This plan was just thrown at everybody with no notice and no inclusion, and no discussion with nurses and other employees who would be affected by it," Ket- tinger said. "This really shouldn't have happened." Nurses had the option of pay- ing $531 more for a Blue parking pass, which would allow them to park in a closer lot. Previously, the cheaper Yellow pass would allow staff to park in the closer lot. Thursday, WXYZ Detroit reported 300 nurses had paid for the upgraded passes, but that they would have the option of changing back to a Yellow pass with this newest policy reversal. This is not the first time the Wall Street structure, which opened July 7, has been the topic of controversy. Originally pro- posed by UMHS during their 2005 expansion, it has faced criticism from local residents and Ann Arbor City Councilmembers. UMHS lead public relations representative Kara Gavin could not be reached for comment at the time of publication. Daily News Editor Ian Dilling- ham contributed to this report.