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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday November 14, 2014
michigandaily.com
GOVERNMENT
Legislators
to consider
civil rights
proposals
GOING VIRAL
Democrats,
GOP disagree on
provisions to protect
gender identity
By SHOHAM GEVA
Daily StaffReporter
Sparking what was predicted
to be contentious topic in both
this year's lame duck session
of state legislature and beyond,
there are now two different ver-
sions of an amendment to the
state's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights
Act up for consideration in Lan-
sing.
The act as it currently stands
protects state residents from
workplace, housing and other
forms of discrimination on the
basis of religion, race, color,
national origin, age, sex, height,
weight, familial status and mari-
tal status.
The first proposed amend-
ment, introduced concurrently
by Rep. Sam Singh (D-East Lan-
sing) in the House and by Sen.
Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor)
in the Senate in September, pro-
poses new protections for to
include both sexual orientation
and gender identity or expression
as protected identities - a change
Democrats have unsuccessfully
sought multiple times over the
past few years.
Thessecond, introduced
Wednesday afternoon by Rep.
Frank Foster (R-Petoskey) in the
House, only proposes including
sexual orientation, and was met
with criticism from both LGBTQ
advocates and the Democratic
caucus.
Rep. Adam Zemke (D-Ann
Arbor), who co-sponsored Singh's
bill, said the main issue with Fos-
ter's proposal was his omission of
proposed protections for gender
identity and expression.
"The important thing that we
need to understand is that the bill
that was introduced by Rep. Fos-
ter is not a compromise," Zemke
said. "It's sending the message
that discrimination against one
group of people is okay as long as
we're protecting another group,
and that's not right."
Republicans in the state legis-
lature have argued that a recent
Equal Employment Opportu-
nity Commission ruling, which
found that discrimination against
transgender people qualifiedas
sex discrimination, could also
apply to the ELCRA, which they
say would effectively create
protections for gender identity.
Democrats and LGBTQ advocacy
See RIGHTS, Page 3A
VICKI LIU/Daily
Maris Eisenberg, assistant professor of Epidemiology, speaks about the tlobalr esponse to Ebola at the "Fear,
Panic, sod Isolation: thola sod Public Health" panel at the School of Puhlic Health Thursday.
ACADEMICS
Intergroup reltions
to itrodce mno
ARTS
Writers
unite for
10-hour
session
Espresso Royale to
host comprehensive
Write-a-thon
ByALEXANDER BERNARD
Daily Arts Writer
On the outside of the glass,
people hustle by, minds buried
in their cell phones and Spo-
tify playlists. The autumn wind
sweeps across their face and
underneath their scarves, send-
ing chills through the fingertips
that press against scratched
phone screens.
On the inside, fingers drum
againstkeyboards andtypewrit-
ers as undergraduates, young
authors and writing instructors
hash out the beginnings of short
stories, novels, poems, memoirs
and the "Acknowledgments"
section of their books. People
stop on the street, press their
noses against the glass and, in
my imagination at least, won-
der, "Are we allowed to feed the
writers?"
This Friday, Nov. 14, the
Undergraduate English Asso-
ciation and Fiction Writers
Review will host the "Novem-
ber Write-a-thon," a 10-hour
event dedicated to writing,
editing and creating new lit-
erature, all within the toasty
confines of Espresso Royale on
State Street.
See WRITEATHON, Page 3A
IGR courses will
also satisfy LSA
Race & Ethnicity
req. next semester
By AMABEL KAROUB
Daily Staff Reporter
Beginning next semester,
students will officially be able
to minor in Intergroup Rela-
tions.
In addition to a formal minor
designation, an IGR class will
count for the University's Race
and Ethnicity requirement for
the first time.
IGR, now in its 26th year, is a
social justice program designed
to foster discussion and learn-
ing about social identity and
inequality. The program focus-
es on open discussions between
students, as well as promoting
leadership experience for the
students who facilitate these
discussions.
IGR's seven courses have
now been formalized into the
minor, complete with core
courses and multiple track
options to fulfill the require-
ments. The minor involves a
total of either eight or nine
classes and totals between 19
and 22 credits.
IGR Co-Director Kelly Max-
well said the minor emerged
in response to high student
demand. IGR previously
offered a Certificate of Merit
for studentswho took anumber
of IGR courses, but students
taking multiple classes in IGR
wanted their experience to
appear officially on their tran-
scripts.
Over the past year, IGR has
worked to develop a proposal
and curriculum for the minor,
which LSA approved this fall.
Maxwell said the timing is par-
ticularly ideal, adding that it's
becoming increasingly impor-
tant for students to commu-
nicate with others who have
See MINOR, Page 3A
PIANO MAN ADMINISTRATION
Schlissel calls for review
of 'U' sustainability plan
CHANMEE CHUNG/Daily
San Cristobal plays at the 4th Annual New Beat Happening Battle of the Bands Thursday at the Michigan League
Underground.
SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN
Despite improvement over last year,
Detroit tops nation for violent crime
Campus struggles
to meet goals for
waste, greenhouse
gas reductions
By GENEVIEVE HUMMER
Daily StaffReporter
University President Mark
Schlissel announced in a release
last week that the University
plans to review its sustainability
goals.
"To be the model public uni-
versity - and to be a responsible
leader in the communities we
serve - we must achieve our
full potential in sustainability,"
Schlissel wrote in a release.
The goals, established by
University President Emerita
Mary Sue Coleman in 2011,
included five operations-focused
sustainability goals: to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, Uni-
versity transportation emissions
and waste tonnage, to purchase
sustainable food and to pro-
tect the Huron River. The year
2025 was set as the deadline for
achieving the goals.
Schlissel has recommended
working groups review the
University's progress on meet-
ing these goals and re-evaluate
future plans related to sustain-
ability.
Hank Baier, associate vice
president for facilities and oper-
ations, and Don Scavia, special
counsel to the president for sus-
tainability and director of the
'Graham Sustainability Institute,
will lead the process.
In an interview with The
Michigan Daily, Scavia said
Schlissel received a letter co-
signed by the leaders of 50
student organizations express-
ing their continued interest in
the 2011 sustainability goals,
which many of them helped to
create. In the letter, students
urged Schlissel to review the
existing goals and to enact
more aggressive initiatives. A
week or two later, he received a
similar letter from members of
the faculty.
Scavia said a review of the
sustainability goals was origi-
nally scheduled for next year,
but after receiving letters from
students and faculty, Schlissel
decided to conduct the review
this year.
"He thought it was impor-
tant as the new president to take
a look at it (the sustainability
goals) and he wanted definitely
to engage the operations staff
as well as faculty and students
to take a look at it collectively,"
Scavia said.
Three teams of faculty, stu-
dents and staff are now working
to schedule their first meetings.
One team will review green-
house gas emissions, another
waste reduction and the final
group will focus on the culture
of sustainability on campus.
While initiatives to improve
University transportation emis-
sions and purchase sustainable
food have seen success, oth-
ers have been more difficult to
accomplish.
Despite the 2011 goal to
reduce carbon gas emissions by
25 percent, University data pub-
lished by the Office of Campus
Sustainability show that emis-
sions decreased in 2012, but
then increased in 2013. Trans-
portation emissions have seen
decreases, but waste production
has actually increased since the
adoption of the goals.
"Greenhouse gas and waste
reduction are priorities because
those goals require the greatest
investment to achieve, and our
progress is not as rapid as we'd
like," Baier said in arelease.
Another goal of the review is
to educate students, faculty and
staff on campus about sustain-
ability.
Scavia said the Graham Sus-
tainability Institute has created
behavior change programs like
Planet Blue Ambassadors and
the Planet Blue Student Innova-
tion Fund to engage students in
current sustainability issues.
The institute also works with
the Institute for Social Research
to conduct an annual survey that
measures campus behaviors
and knowledge of sustainability
practices. The survey, which tar-
gets faculty, students and staff,
has run for two consecutive
years.
The survey conducted in 2012
found that while students were
more aware than faculty of cam-
See SUSTAINABILITY, Page 2A
Students have
varied reaction to
comprehensive 2013
FBI report
By NEALA BERKOWSKI
Daily StaffReporter
As reported by the FBI earlier
this week, Detroit had the high-
est rate of murder and violent
crimes in 2013.
Four offenses are categorized
as violent crime in the report:
murder, forcible rape, robbery
and aggravated assault. Out of
Detroit's699,889 residents, there
were 14,504 reported violent
crimes, or 2,072 violent crimes
per 100,000 people. Three hun-
dred and sixteen of those crimes
were murders, which is approxi-
mately 45 murders per 100,000
people. In contrast, Ann Arbor,
with a population of 116,799, saw
247 violent crimes in 2013, three
of which were murders.
Overall, however, violent
crime fell in the city and across
the nation. The estimated num-
ber of violent crimes in the U.S.
decreased by 4.1 percent, while
the estimated number of violent
crimes in Detroit decreased by 3
percent. Murders fell by18 per-
cent in Detroit and by 4.4 per-
cent nationwide.
Despite high crime rates in
Detroit, some University stu-
dents and student groups work-
ing in Detroit say these statistics
will not change their view of the
city, mainly because Detroit's
crime issues are not new to
them.
LSA freshman Melissa
Ramirez, who was born in
See DETROIT, Page 3A
WEATHER HI: 35
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