The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - 3

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, November 11, 2014- 3

Ballroom dance team,
sees major growth

Sole U.S. Ebola patient
scheduled to be released

Group welcomes
almost 150 new
students this year
By TANYA MADHANI
Daily Staff Reporter
Inside the Central Campus
Recreation Building late on a
Monday night, the familiar lyrics
to British '80s pop duo Euryth-
mics' hit song "Sweet Dreams"
permeate the halls. The source of
the sound is the University's Ball-
room Dance Team, a permanent
Monday, Thursday and Saturday
night fixture in the facility's Mir-
ror Room.
LSA junior Brianna ' Mayer,
the team's public relations chair,
leads a group of 60 new team
members through a lesson on the
perfect promenade form along-
side her partner, LSA senior Ter-
rence Tigney. Mayer and Tigney
demonstrate a foxtrot step to the
onlooking students encircling
them - boys on one side and girls
on the other.
"One, two, three, four," Mayer
calls out, moving in time with her
partner.
After two more demonstra-
tions, the two halves of the room
combine to form 30 couples.
Mayer walks to the edge of the
room, where her phone is plugged
into a speaker, and restarts the
familiar foxtrot remix.
Couples clad in everything
from jeans to activewear, Latin
dance shoes to socks, imitate
Mayer and her partner as best
they can. A mix of inexperience
and space constraints result in
some couples bumping and run-
ning into each other.
Rackham student Jon Her-
shaff, team president, said the
club has had their biggest group
of incoming members ever this
year, with close to 150 new stu-
dents entering the collegiate ball-
room dance world.
The-team-which consists-of-
250 members, anticipates out-
growing the University's avail-
able practice space as soon as next
year.
"We're almost too big for a stu-
dentgroup," Hershaff said. "It can
be very difficult to be able to coor-
dinate classes and practices when
youjust have ateam of our size."
Hershaff said he attributes
the growth in interest to active
recruitment during Welcome
Week, during which the team
hosted free lessons in various
ballroom styles. They followed

up those events with dinners and
social activities to allow potential
members to learn about the club's
offerings.
Unlike many dance groups
at the University, the Ballroom
Dance Team does not have an
audition process to become a
member, nor does itrequire mem-
bers to attend every practice ses-
sion.
"You get out of it what you put
into it," Hershaff said. "If there's
some people who just want to get
their feet wet, they could put in
a couple of hours per week. For
people who want to go deeper, the
cap is usually 15 hours a week."
The team allows interested
students to enter the group at
the newcomer level for the first
semester. Members can then
audition for higher-level teams
within the group in every subse-
quent semester.
There are five competition
groups within the club. Try-
outs for these sub-teams last a
few hours in a . mock competi-
tion environment, where couples
are required to come dressed
in full competition attire as the
team's coaches - Steve and Susan
McFerran - judge and sort cou-
ples into respective groups.
A partner is not needed when
first joining the team, but one is
required to audition for a higher-
level. The team currently has
more women than men, causing
five women to enter their first
competition on Oct. 25 at Purdue
University partner-less.
Three blocks down from
where the newcomers are per-
fecting their foxtrot, experi-
enced team members practice in
the Dance Theatre Studio above
Moe Sport Shops on North Uni-
versity Avenue. DTS offers the
Ballroom Team discounted pric-
es for practice and lesson space
four days week in exchange for
services, such as cleaning their
studio.
DTS is much less crowded
than the-CCRB, with only a
handful of couples turning up
for practice. LSA junior Whitney
Raska, a member of the C-team,
said she enjoys the quieter prac-
tices after competitions, because
most people are still recovering
from an exhausting weekend of
travel and dance.
Raska and her partner, Engi-
neering junior Jake Snyder,
started dancing together in the
winter of 2013 and Raska said
due to the disproportionate ratio
of male and female members, she
felt rushed about finding some-

one to dance with for competi-
tions.
"There's always a shortage of
guys to girls," Raska said. "And
it really stinks if you don't (have
a partner) because you have to
dance by yourself, so I started
looking out for people who I
enjoyed dancing with and then
I just asked (Snyder) one night to
be my partner."
Because other boys on the
team initially advised him not
to rush into selecting a partner,
Snyder said, he didn't accept
Raska's offer right away.
"(This was) just to be sure that
we had the conversation with our
partner about whether we had
the same goals, the same com-
mitment level," he said. "Wheth-
er we had the same kind of
dreams from ballroom before we
said yes to a partner. So she will
tell you that I denied her at first,
but I'm going to call it deferring."
Hershaff said he sees picking
partners as being similar to dat-
ing.
"There's some people who just
want to jump right into a part-
nership, but what we try and
recommend is to ask someone to
practice first," he said. "That's
like going out to coffee together.
If you enjoy practicing together,
you ask them to go to a competi-
tion. That'd be like going out to a
dinner date.
"And if you enjoy that and you
want to stay together, you can ask
them to be your partner."
Partners on teams higher than
the newcomer level are locked in
for a semester, but members are
free to switch with a new semes-
ter if some couples do not com-
pete or get along well.
"Ideally you want to dance
with the same partner for mul-
tiple semesters, because then
youget to dance better together,"
Snyder said. "But if partnerships
don't work out, you're not locked
in for life. It'snot like you'remar-
rying somebody."
But newcomer-level partners
LSA junior John Cooper and LSA
freshman Ariel Odlum said they
have enjoyed their first compe-
tition together in Purdue this
weekend and hope to remain
partners for both semesters of
the year.
"(Ballroom) is a good way to
have an entry-level way to get
training, to get good at some-
thing that I can be proud of,"
Cooper said. "That's probably
the biggest (goal), to.get good at
dancingtogether and to compete
and win if we can."

N.Y. Department
of Health declares
ER doctor Craig
Spencer healthy
NEW YORK (AP) - An emer-
gency room doctor who was the
first Ebola patient in the nation's
biggest city has recovered and is
scheduled to be released from
the hospital on Tuesday, health
officials said.
Dr. Craig Spencer, who was
the only Ebola patient being
treated in the United States, has
been declared free of the virus,
the city Department of Health
said Monday in a statement.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said
Spencer has suffered a lot the
last few weeks but has "come
back really strong." He called
Spencer "a real hero."
"I'm sure he's a little weak-
ened from the experience," de
Blasio said, but he's "very, very
healthy."
Spencer tested positive for
the virus on Oct. 23, just days
after returning from treating
patients in Guinea with Doctors
Without Borders. He has been
treated in a specially designed
isolation unit at Manhattan's
Bellevue Hospital, a designated
Ebola treatment center. His
condition was upgraded from
serious to stable last week, and
he was feeling well enough to
request an exercise bike and a
banjo.
His fiancee and two friends

initially were quarantined but
were released and are being
monitored along with hundreds
of others.
Spencer, who's 33, is expected
to issue a statement but not take
questions when he's released
from the hospital.
Health officials have stressed
that Ebola is not airborne and
can only be spread through
direct contact with the bodily
fluids of an infected person
who is showing symptoms. Still,
news of Spencer's infection set
many New Yorkers on edge, par-
ticularly after details emerged
that he rode the subway, dined
in a meatball restaurant and vis-
ited a bowling alley in the days
before he developed a fever and
tested positive.
New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo and New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie responded by
announcing a mandatory 21-day
quarantine for travelers who
have come in close contact with
Ebola patients.
De Blasio and Cuomo
had urged residents not to
be alarmed by Spencer's
Ebola diagnosis, even as they
described him riding the sub-
way and taking a cab. De Blasio
has said all city officials fol-
lowed "clear and strong" pro-
tocols in their handling and
treatment of him and Spencer
did right by calling authorities
as soon as he got a fever.
Spencer may have been
aware of New Yorkers' fears
about his case but didn't dwell
on it, and he remained upbeat

about recovering even in the
worst of his illness, said de Bla-
sio, who spoke to him during his
hospitalization.
The Ebola epidemic in West
Africa has killed thousands of
people, but only a handful of
people has been diagnosed or
treated in the United States.
Those treated in the U.S.
also include American health
and aid workers and a journal-
ist who were in West Africa, a
Liberian man diagnosed with
the virus during a visit to Texas
and two nurses who contracted
it from him. The man, Thomas
Eric Duncan, died; the rest have
recovered.
Colleagues in Guinea have
said Spencer conscientiously
followed safety procedures in
place at the Doctors Without
Borders clinic in Gueckedou.
Spencer, anattending physi-
cian at NewYork-Presbyterian
Hospital/Columbia University
Medical Center, has traveled
around the world to care for the
needy. In the past three years,
he'd been to Rwanda to work
on an emergency care teaching
curriculum, volunteered at a
health clinic in Burundi, helped
investigate an infectious para-
sitic disease in the Democratic
Republic of Congo and traveled
to 32 villages in Indonesia to do
a public health survey.
Colleagues have said Spencer
has the ability to put patients at
ease even when he doesn't know
their language, winning them
over through hugs and smiles.

Obama pushes FCC to
adopt net neutrality rule

Hackers breach U.S. Postal
Service computer system

Sept. attack could
have compromised
sensitive employee
information
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
U.S. Postal Service said Monday
it had been hacked, potentially
compromising sensitive infor-
mation about its employees such
as names and addresses, Social
Security numbers, emergency
contacts and other information.
The FBI said it was leading a
multi-agency investigation into
the breach, which took effect in
mid-September. The intrusion
was similar to those reported by
other federal agencies as well as
in the private sector. The agency
isn't recommending that its cus-
tomers take any action.
"The intrusion is limited in
scope, and all operations of the
Postal Service are functioning
normally," said Postal Service
spokesman David Partenheimer.
He said that customers at
local post offices or those using
its website, usps.com, were not
affected, but that people who
used its call center may have
had telephone numbers, email
addresses and other information
compromised.
Partenheimer said the attacks
affected Postal Service workers
across the board, from the post-
master general to letter carriers

to those who work in the inspec-
tor general's office.
The Postal Service provided
no immediate information on
how many people may have been
affected. It said it employs over
800,000 workers.
Mark Dimondstein, president
of the American Postal Workers
Union, called the hacking "trou-
bling."
"We're starting to get feed-
back immediately. People are
concerned," Dimondstein said
in an interview.
He said that, so far, the hack-
ing "doesn't seem to have affect-
ed the public at all and doesn't
seem to have affected credit
cards, bank accounts and things
like that."
"What we don't know is
whether the Postal Service did
everything they could to protect
the employees," he said.
He said the union did not get a
heads-up about the two breach-
es from the Postal Service offi-
cials even though they happened
weeks ago.
However, the agency did noti-
fy congressional staffers about
the hacking in classified brief-
ings on October 22 and Novem-
ber 7, said Rep. Elijah Cummings
of Maryland, senior Democrat
on the House Oversight and
Government Reform Commit-
tee.
"The increased frequency and
sophistication of cyber-attacks
upon both public and private

entities highlights the need for
greater collaboration to improve
data security," Cummings wrote
Monday ina letter to Postmaster
General Patrick Donahoe.
In a statement, Donahoe
depicted cyber-attacks as "an
unfortunate fact of life these
days" for every organization
connected to the Internet. "The
United States Postal Service is
no different."
"Fortunately, we have seen no
evidence of malicious use of the
compromised data, and we are
taking steps to help our employ-
ees protect against any potential
misuse of their data," the post-
master general said.
The issue is sure to come up
at a previously scheduled Postal
Service public meeting on Fri-
day morning at agency head-
quarters here.
FBI spokesman Joshua Camp-
bell confirmed his agency is
leading a multi-agency inves-
tigation of the hacking but
declined to discuss details.
"Impacted individuals should
take steps to monitor and safe-
guard their personally identifi-
able information and report any
suspected instances of identity
theft to the FBI's Internet Crime
Complaint Center at www.ic3.
gov," he said.
The Postal Service said dis-
closing the breach when it first
occurred could have jeopar-
dized the agency's efforts to fix
the problem.

Policy would. ban
charging content
providers different
rates for service
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pres-
ident Barack Obama on Mon-
day embraced a radical change
in how the government treats
Internet service, coming down
on the side of consumer activ-
ists who fear slower download
speeds and higher costs but
angering Republicans and the
nation's cable giants who say
the plan would kill jobs.
Obama called on the Federal
Communications Commission
to more heavily regulate Inter-
net providers and treat broad-
band much as it would any
other public utility. He said the
FCC should explicitly prohibit
Internet providers like Verizon
and AT&T from charging data
hogs like Netflix extra to move
their content more quickly.
The announcement sent cable
stocks tumbling.
The FCC, an independent
regulatory body led by political
appointees, is nearing a deci-
sion on whether broadband
providers should be allowed to
cut deals with the content pro-
viders but is stumbling over the
legal complexities.
"We are stunned the presi-
dent would abandon the long-
standing, bipartisan policy of
lightly regulating the Inter-
net and calling for extreme"
regulation, said Michael Pow-
ell, president and CEO of the
National Cable and Telecom-
munications Association, the
primary lobbying arm of the
cable industry, which supplies
much of the nation's Internet
access.
This "tectonic shift in
national policy, should it be
adopted, would create devas-
tating results," added Powell,
who chaired the FCC during
the Bush administration until
2005.
Consumer groups and con-
tent providers hailed Obama's
move, with Netflix posting to
its Facebook page that "con-
sumers should pick winners
and losers on the Internet, not
broadband gatekeepers."
"Net neutrality" is the idea
that Internet service provid-
ers shouldn't block, slow or

manipulate data haying across
its networks. As long as content
isn't against the law, such as
child pornography or pirated
music, a file or video posted on
one site will load generally at
the same speed as a similarly
sized file or video on another
site.
In 2010, the FCC embraced
the concept in a rule. But last
January, a federal appeals
court struck down the regula-
tion because the court said the
FCC didn't technically have the
legal authority to tell broad-
band providers how to manage
their networks.
The uncertainty has prompt-
ed the public to file some 3.7
million comments with the
FCC - more than double the
number filed after Janet Jack-
son's infamous wardrobe mal-
function at the 2004 Super
Bowl.
On Monday, Obama waded
into the fray and gave a major
boost to Internet activists by
saying the FCC should explicit-
ly ban any "paid prioritization"
on the Internet. Obama also
suggested that the FCC reclas-
sify consumer broadband as a
public utility under the 1934

Communications Act so there's
no legal ambiguity. That would
mean the Internet would be
regulated more heavily in the
way phone service is.
"It is common sense that the
same philosophy should guide
any service that is based on the
transmission of information -
whether a phone call, or a pack-
et of data," Obama said.
This approach is exactly
what industry lobbyists have
spent months fighting against.
While Internet providers say
they support the concept of an
open Internet, they want flex-
ibility to think up new ways to
package and sell Internet ser-
vices. And, given the billions
of dollars spent to improve net-
work infrastructure, some offi-
cials say it's only fair to make
data hogs like Netflix bear
some of the costs of handling
heavy traffic.
AT&T on Monday threatened
legal action if the FCC adopted
Obama's plan, while Comcast
Corp. said reclassifying broad-
band regulation would be "a
radical reversal that would
harm investment and innova-
tion, as today's immediate stock
market reaction demonstrates."

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