The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - 3A
COUNCIL
From Page 1A
candidate to succeed in a bid for
political office in the U.S. when
she was elected to a Council seat.
Preceding her in 1972 were two
other student councilmembers:
Universityalums Nancy Wechsler
and Jerry DeGrieck.
Ann Arbor attorney Tom Wie-
der, who was a University stu-
dent in 1972 and participated in
several Democratic City Council
campaigns during that time, said
there was a heightened atmo-
sphere of student involvement
locally, namely because of the
threat of being drafted.
"In '72, the Vietnam War was
still going on and student activ-
ism across the political spectrum
was a big deal," Wieder said. "On
campuses, everybody was into
politics - politics were much
higher on the list of things to get
involved in and think about, talk
about, particularly in a town like
Ann Arbor."
Mike Henry, chair of the Ann
Arbor Democratic Party, also
pointed to the war as a reason for
the spike in student involvement,
which he said contrasted with
today's climate around student
activism.
"I don't think the culture or
the things going in society are
exactly like they were in the
'70s," he said. "We were coming
off a war where a whole lot of
youngpeople died,where a whole
lot of young people were coming
back to really difficult challenges
they would have to deal with."
Kozachenko, Wechsler and
DeGrieck all ran on the Human
Rights Party ticket, a liberal and
student-focused third party that
emerged in the 1970s follow-
ing the ratification of the 26th
Amendment to the U.S Constitu-
tion in 1971, which gave 18-year-
MIDTERMS
From Page 1A
shifting closer to reality, given
the results of the recent midterm
election.
"In town, it's very promi-
nent, mostly because it's been
decriminalized since the 70s,"
said Samantha Anderson, mem-
ber liaison at Om of Medicine, an
Ann Arbor marijuana dispensary.
"People are more open to it all
around, whether you are an adult
or you're younger because there's
just more leeway with the differ-
ent charters that the city has for
cannabis use."
Anderson said Om of Medi-
cine has 4,000 active patients, but
has a total of 6,000 patients in its
computer system. Of these 6,000
patients, Anderson said, around a
quarter are University students or
Washtenaw Community College
students.
Along with the service it pro-
vides to patients, Anderson added
that Om of Medicine has fund-
raising events for politicians and
political initiatives.
"That definitely has stirred up
alot of different pieces of legisla-
tion that's going all over the coun-
try," Anderson said. "Just the
acceptance of that is helping our
cause because if people are going
to be open to adult use, they're
definitely going to be looking
into supporting medical cannabis
too."
VIGIL
From Page 1A
went on. By the end of the night,
law enforcement reported at least
61 arrests.
Movements to address race
relations and campus climate
are not unfamiliar to the cam-
pus community. The University's
Black Student Union and the
organization By Any Means Nec-
essary have held events and pro-
tests in recent months, largely in
response to stagnant minority
enrollment at the University.
LSA junior Imani Gunn, BSU
political actions co-chair, said
the discussion of Brown's death
goes beyond issues of race.
"I think it's really important
to make people aware of the
Mike Brown decision," Gunn
said. "It is our goal to make sure
people know we are not OK with
this decision. Our voices need to
be heard, and I think if you want
to look at it as a race thing you
can, but also as a human rights
olds the right to vote.
Since then, there haven't been
students on City Council. The
Human Rights Party lost its seats'
in the following election, and
ultimately dissolved to become
a part of the Socialist Party of
Michigan several years later.
The past few years' involve-
ment, both from the Mixed Use
Party and from candidates like:
Democratic McMullen, represent
some of the first instances of stu-
dents participating in City Coun-
cil since the '70s.
Both Wieder and Henry said
they saw this resurgence in stu-
dents running as different from
the '70s, drawing less on a-nation-
al sense of political activism and
more from a group of individuals
engaged in city politics.
Leaf, the former co-chair of
the Mixed Use party and a 2015
Council candidate, agreed.
"I think the people who are
running tend to be very detail-
oriented, people who are doing
it because they're interested
in it ratier than as part of a big
national plan," he said.
Several other structural
changes have also occurred since
the '70s, which could impact how
successful student candidates are
this time around.
City Council primaries are
now held in August. Leaf said
the timing presents a challenge
when one party dominate Coun-
cil; Democrats currently hold all
but one seat. The election's true
competition thus occurs during
the primary, when many students
aren't in town.
The dividing lines of wards
are also a factor. Though they've
always been drawn out from the
city center, that division is now
more sharply distinguished, with
the city's 40,000 students - over
a third of the city's population
- scattered throughout several
wards.
Complicating matters further,
many of those students also don't
vote. During the November elec-
tions this year, Michigan Daily
reporters at the polls found that
precincts with heavy student
populations had some of the low-
est vote counts in the area.
Leaf also cited several other
institutional issues as barriers to
student voting, including the fact
that absentee voters casting their
vote for the first time in Michi-
gan must submit their ballot in
person.
"You can say whatever you
want - like, I want more student
engagement, I want involvement
- but if the election times are
August, and you have barriers to
students voting, it's not going to
happen," Leaf said.
Henry said in the current cli-
mate, a student-focused platform
wasn't a winning proposition for
local elections.
"I tell most candidates, you
can't just depend on your one
constituency to help you win,"
Henry said. "You have to speak to
everybody. And to be quite frank,
students have not been reliable in
terms of coming out."
"I hope students prove me
wrong, that in the near future
they come out and are really sup-
portive of their own demograph-
ic and their own interests ... but
students don't always do that," he
added.
Leaf said his experience with
the Mixed Use Party demon-
strated that buy-in from city
residents, not just students, is key
to a successful race. Unlike the
student-driven wins of the '70s,
for his forthcoming campaign,
he said, he would be depending
on support from across the spec-
trum.
"It's not going to be a student-
led thing," he said. "A student
might run, but they're going to
depend on other residents."
BY THE NUMBERS
THE UNIVERSITY ENDOWMENT, 1990-2014
1
F
11 ,
Current endowment at 9,1 billion
has grownnearly 400% since 1999
The Univeisity makes 4.5%
return on investment yearly
Endowment grew 1.3 billion
dollars in the past year alone
-" INFOGRA PHIC BY FRANCESCA KELS
ENDOWMENT
From Page 2A
in a particular area."
Broadening the scope of this
technique, the University choos-
es from five "super strategies:"
Venture capital, private equity,
natural resources, real estate
and absolute return. Within each
strategy, the University picks
firms, or "managers," that refine
those areas of investment into
even more specific "asset classes,"
or smaller markets.
often, the larger managers will
hire smaller ones within a more
refined asset class, and this sec-
ond set of managers will finally
invest the University's original
funds in specific stocks.
The goal is for managers with
niche areas of expertise to use
their market knowledge to invest
the University's endowment in
the most efficient way possible,
yielding the highest returns with
the least risk.
overall, these allocations of
money to private equity firms
comprise the University's long
term portfolio, which makes up
a large portion of endowment
spending.
The investments, Part II:
Public equity and
internalfunding
Castillasaidthelong-termport-
folio is often seen as synonymous
with "endowment." However, he
added, a portion of the endowed
funds are invested in public mar-
kets as well. These investments
are liquid, and referred to as mar-
ketable securities.
As indicated in the investment
report, around 27.5 percent of
these marketable securities are
invested in the public stock mar-
ket. The University's top invest-
ment: $13 million in Apple, Inc.
The University has also begun
investing in itself. In November
2011, the University established
the Michigan Investment in New
Technology Startups program,
which allows the Investment
Office to invest in startups "based
on technology that was licensed
from the University of Michigan,"
according to the MINTS website.
All of the University's invest-
ments, and those who the Univer-
sity hires to invest on its behalf,
are held to the Uniform Prudent
Management of Institutional
Funds Act, passed in 2006. This
mandates that the University can
only authorize "costs that are
appropriate and reasonable" asso-
ciated with making these invest-
ments.
"We think of it as investing for
return to support the mission,
which, in the case of the Univer-
sity of Michigan, happens to be
education and research," Castilla
said.
Parameters for divestment
The University also has a set of
individual standards for divesting
funds, which Fitzgerald said are
stringent and rare in application.
"The bar is set intentionally
high ... to somewhat insulate the
investment office from the politi-
cal winds that could change from
one direction to the other," he
said. "So the bar for consider-
ing divesting. is set intentionally
very high and requires this broad
pervasive sentiment throughout
University community to even be
considered."
This consideration operates
through the Board of Regents,
Castilla said. The regents have
voted to divest twice. In 1978, the
University divested from South
Africa during apartheid and in
recent years, divested fromtobac-
co companies.
Fitzgerald added that divesting
on the sole basis of political sen-
timent would both infringe upon
the Investment Office and harm
University projects.
"If we were to shift our invest-
ments based on the political per-
spectives of this group or that
group, we'd essentially be under-
mining the performance of the
overall goal ... (to) maximize the
return so that those disburse-
ments can help pay for endowed
scholarships and the operations
of the University," Fitzgerald
said.
LSA senior Justin Gehr said
progressive students drive the
marijuana-friendly culture, but
Ann Arbor's city laws also con-
tribute to people's perceptions.
"I feel like a lot of it has to do
with some many young forward-
thinking people," he said. "I feel
like that's where the big popula-
tion of marijuana smokers are."
According to Ann Arbor's City
Charter, the penalty for possess-
ing or using marijuana is consid-
ered a civil infraction, similar to a
traffic ticket. Possessing or abus-
ing marijuana results in a fine of
$25 for the first offense, $50 for
the second offense and is capped
at $100 for a third or subsequent
offense.
Individuals who violate the city
charter because of marijuana use
or possession only have to pay the
fine. City charter says "no incar-
ceration, probation, nor shall any
other punitive or rehabilitative
measure be imposed."
However, an amendment to
the City Charter on Nov. 2, 2004
allowed fines to be waived if a per-
son has a medical identification
card recommended by a physician
or another health professional for
medical treatment.
Even with the amendment to
the charter in 2004, the Univer-
sity has different laws pertain-
ing to marijuana possession and
abuse because it is under the
jurisdiction of state laws.
"Because the University is
chartered through the state
legislature, our officers aren't
under the umbrella of the city,"
said Diane Brown, Department
of Public Safety and Security
spokeswoman. "Our officers are
granted their authority from the
state and therefore, enforce state
law."
For possession or use of mari-
juanaon University property, the
penalty is a misdemeanor, which
incurs a fine of up to $1,000 and/
or imprisonment up to one year
for a first offense.
Even though Ann Arbor's City
Charter permits the use of mari-
juana for medical treatment,
citizens and students cannot use
marijuana on campus. Because
the University receives federal
funding, the Michigan Medi-
cal Marihuana Act, which has
been in effect since 2008, does
not take precedence over federal
laws regarding marijuana use.
According to the Annual Secu-
rity Report provided by Univer-
sity police, there has been a rise
in drug arrests over the past
three years, including mari-
juana. In 2013, drug law arrests,
which are reported to University
Police, and drug law violations,
which are reported to Campus
Security Authorities, decreased
from 2012. Over the past three
years, 2012 had 134 instances of
drug law arrests, which was the
highest. In regards to drug law
violations, 2011 had the highest
number of instances at 202 over
the past three years.
PHILO
From Page 1A
on Philo. The service is available
anywhere on campus - excluding
the University of Michigan Health
System's facilities - on either a
desktop or a mobile device.
In its trial phase that began in
early November, Philo is being test-
ed on Ann Arbor's campus, free of
charge, to determine whether stu-
dents would be interested in pur-
chasing subscription plans to the
service in upcomingyears.
Philo CEO Andrew McCollum,
a Facebook co-founder and Har-
vard University alum, said he pre-
dicts Philo will be popular among
University students because the
service provides more flexibility in
how they consume television.
Universities can purchase Philo
for use on their campuses and offer
un-plugged television program-
ming to their students and faculty
members. The serviceitselfisbased
off the television subscription the
University maintains with tradi-
tional content providers. McCol-
lum said individuals not affiliated
with a subscribing institution can't
access the channels.
"The service is basically to get
more people and more students
using it because we think that
once people try it, they'll realize
it's a much better way to watch
TV, and make the University make
this (cable TV) service that they're
paying for more accessible to stu-
dents," he said.
Philo's main benefit to universi-
ties is that it doesn't require a high
bandwidth to operate - giving it
an advantage over popular con-
ventional services like Netflix and
Hulu. However, McCollum said
there are many other indirect ben-
efits from employing Philo services
on a college campus.
For instance, he said, making
Philo available to students might
minimize Internet piracy by allow-
ing users to record segments of
television programming from any
of the available channels for later
viewing.
Andy Palms, executive director
of communications systems and
data centers at the University, said
ITS realized that students want
an alternative to "plugging a cable
into a wall" because of the declin-
ing number of students who paid
for cable TVsubscriptions through
University Housing.
If all goes according to plan, the
University will offer Philo to stu-
dents on a pay-per-subscription
plan starting in Fall 2015. All Uni-
versity students, staff members
and faculty willbe able to purchase
individual subscriptions, though
the service will only be available
within the physical boundaries of
the University.
Pradip Patel, a data engineer-
ing manager at ITS, noted that the
service would pose a change to the
way cable TV is purchased in resi-
dence halls. With Philo, instead of
sharing the costs of cable network
between the two or three stu-
dents who live together in a dorm
room, individual students would
be responsible forpurchasingtheir
own television service.
Forty-eight channels are cur-
rently available on the University's
pilot service, but Patel estimates 96
being available once the final ser-
vice is offered for subscription.
Palms said ITS is not ready to
release what it will charge students.
thing. Someone deserves to be
held responsible, so I think that's
why a lot of people are finding a
personal reason to be involved in
this cause, no matter their race."
Members of the BSU also
painted the rock at the cor-
ner of Washtenaw Avenue and
Hill Street Tuesday afternoon
black with red letters reading
"Black lives matter" and "Be the
change."
LSA senior Geralyn Gaines,
BSU vice speaker, said organiz-
ers hoped to draw attention to
the Brown case.
"I think our reason for paint-
ing the rock tonight was the first
step in trying to raise awareness
around campus and how those
repercussions will effect our
day to day interactions with one
another on campus," she said.
"Looking back to the Trayvon
Martin trial, for this to hap-
pen again is really crazy at this
point."
The group later marched to
Ann Arbor City Hall, blocking
traffic on East Liberty Street.
Communitymembers in atten-
dance chanted, "Hands up, don't
shoot" and "These racists cops
have got to go." Ypsilanti resi-
dent Tony Morgan spoke to the
crowd, saying justice must come
from the people, and it is their
voices and actions only that have
the power to change institutions.
"We have to get the blood off
of our hands," he said. "We have
to understand that this is about
human rights. It's 2014, and we
still don't have equal rights. Some
of you understand that there is a
chance the system may not work
for you some day, and it's not just
the cops, because they are just
the ones on the ground. They are
doing the dirty work, but a lot of
the time, those victims look a lot
like me and you. For every Mike
Brown and Treyvon, there are a
thousand more."
Attorney General Eric Holder
has initiated a federal investi-
gation, despite the grand jury's
decision, and the Justice Depart-
ment is nearing a decision on
whether to press federal charges.
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