The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, December 5, 2014 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, December 5, 2D14 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Detroiters protest
grand jury decision
Dozens of people have held a
lie-down protest in downtown
Detroit over a New York grand
jury's decision not to charge a
white police officer in the choke-
hold death of a black man.
The decision Wednesday not
to bring charges against Officer
Daniel Pantaleo triggered pro-
tests around the country. With
temperatures hovering around
freezing, protesters lay down
on the ground for a "die-in" at
Detroit's Campus Martius at
midday Thursday.
MISSOULA, Mont.
Teenagers testify
in student killing
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -
Two teenagers testified Thurs-
day that they had stolen items
from the garage of a Montana
man accused of killing a high
school student in that very place
weeks later, and one of the teens
said that may have been one
factor that led to the German
exchange student's death.
Mykle Martin, 17, and Tristan
Staber, 18, described how they
went "garage hopping," or bur-
glarizing garages, in search of
alcohol and other things after
dark and hit Markus Kaarma's
house.
Kaarma is accused of baiting
the shooting victim, Diren Dede,
into sneaking into his garage
early April 27, and killing him
with four shotgun blasts after
being alerted by a motion detec-
tor. He has pleaded innocent to
deliberate homicide, citing fear
of harm to his family and prop-
erty after he'd been burglarized
twice before the shooting.
LONDON
Kerry calls on the
* Russian-gov't to
uphold cease-fire
U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry said Thursday that Russia
could rebuild its relations with
the West "if it simply helps to
calm turbulent waters" on its bor-
der with eastern Ukraine, where
pro-Moscow separatists are fight-
ing with Kiev forces.
Speaking in Basel, Switzerland
at a meeting of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, Kerry called on'Moscow
to uphold an earlier cease-fire
agreement, which calls for with-
drawing its support for the sepa-
ratists in Ukraine and persuading
them to release hostages, The
U.S. and European Union have
imposed sanctions on some Rus-
sians and separatists as punish-
ment for their actions.
"The U.S. and countries that
support Ukraine's sovereignty
and rights do not seek confron-
tation," Kerry said. "It is not our
design or desire that we see a
Russia isolated through its own
actions."
MANAMA, Bahrain
Bahraini activist
jailed for insulting
king
A Bahraini court on Thursday
sentenced a prominent opposition
activist to three years in prison
for insulting the king after she
tore up the monarch's photo, her
lawyer said. The activist, Zainab
al-Khawaja, gave birth only a few
weeks earlier.
Al-Khawaja was also fined the
equivalent of around $8,000, law-
yer Mohammed al-Wasti told The
Associated Press.
Al-Khawaja is part of the Gulf
island monarchy's most promi-
nent opposition family. Her father
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is serving
a life sentence for his role in 2011
protests by Shiites demanding
greater rights from the Sunni-led
government. Her sister Maryam
was sentenced this week in absen-
tia to a year in prison on charges
of assaulting police. Maryam is
currently in exile in Denmark.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
AFFORDABILITY
From Page 1
At Thursday's conference, sev-
eral speakers also stressed the
importance of college graduation
for building the economy and
strengthening the middle class,
and said the event would help
organize leaders to increase the
number of college graduates in
STEM fields, particularly women
and minorities.
At the event, every school lead-
er was asked to commit to work
on a specific problem in educa-
tion, such ascollegereadiness and
investing in academic advisers for
high school students. The Uni-
versity has opted to work toward
increasing the number of college
graduates working in the fields of
science, technology, engineering
and mathematics, an area Little
said the University plans to con-
tinue placing emphasis on in the
coming years.
As part of this initiative, Little
said the University of Michi-
gan-Dearborn plans to focus on
increasing the number of advi-
sors available to high school stu-
dents. They will partner with the
Michigan College Access Net-
work, a non-profit organization
whose mission is to increase col-
lege readiness, participation and
completion in Michigan.
"The goal is to increase the
percentage of students at the
effective schools who apply to
community college or universities
to 90 percent and to increase the
percentage of students who apply
for federal financial aid to 70 per-
cent," he said.
MCAN currently supports a
statewide network of 40 college
academic advisers available to
high school students, but follow-
ing Thursday's event, the organi-
zation hopes to reach 80 advisors.
Little said both the Dearborn
and Ann Arbor campuses are
committed to increasing college
attendance for disadvantaged stu-
dents, though the Dearborn cam-
pus has a much higher population
of low-income students.
"The percentage of students on
our campus who are Pell (Grant)
eligible is 44 percent," Little said.
"The Ann Arbor percentage is
something like 12 to 15 percent. A
much higher percentage of lower
income students attend the Dear-
born campus."
SURPLUS
From Page 1
fessor of Public Policy, said in
many cases, the acquisition of
military-grade equipment could
prove more hazardous to commu-
nities than helpful.
"We have seen in community
after community that has this
equipment - and Ferguson is
a great example of this - that
when police have this equipment,
they tend to use it and it makes
them look like an occupying force
instead of a force trying to protect
the peace," Rohde said.
In recent months, police in
Ferguson, Mo. have used military
equipment, tear gas and other
riot gear to control protests in
the wake of the police shooting
of Michael Brown, a Black teen-
ager. Their use of force has drawn
criticism from a number of groups
in recent months, prompting
Amnesty International to send a
group of observers to the city to
monitor police.
Brown said University police
have not requested any equip-
ment from other federal grant
programs, and do not have any
equipment beyond standard issue
sidearms and long guns. Instead,
he said the University can bor-
row tactical equipment from the
county as needed, as well as coor-
dinate with other agencies like
the Michigan State Police Bomb
Squad in situations necessitating
higher security.
Universities across the country
have tightened security responses
in recent years following several
instances of mass shootings on
college campuses.
The Ann Arbor police said they
do not have documents listing
weapons or gear of military grade
received from the federal govern-
ment.
STARTUP
From Page 1
Yu said the program is
divided into three parts. Dur-
ing the first semester, members
of Startup High School visit
high schools, present to stu-
dents about the organization
and encourage them to submit
pitches through the group's
website. Pitches are accepted
on an individual basis.
The top 30 to 50 students
are selected to compete with
the ideas they pitched, which
leads to step two: a series of
entrepreneurship workshops
hosted by Startup High School
on a weekly basis to help the
students develop their projects
and prepare them for launch.
This year's workshops will
begin in February, though the
group is still trying to find a
central meeting location. Yu
said Startup High School mem-
bers might be dispersed indi-
vidually to teach workshops at
local centers given the expand-
ed audience.
At the program's end, the
students attend a final summit
where they present to apanelof
judges. The top five pitches are
awarded prize money.
Business sophomore Ovijit
Datta, another Startup High
School co-director, outlined
the criteria for a pitch's initial
selection into the program.
"We will look for what kind
of passion does this student
have?" he said. "Does he or
she have any credibility in this
area? What kind of (research
and development) is required
to create the service? Have they
ever engaged with this idea
before?"
One of the organization's
biggest goals, Datta said, is to
expand participants' percep-
tion of what it means to be an
entrepreneur.
"From textbooks, they kind
of learn that an entrepreneur is
someone who assumes risks in
the factors of production ... to
pursue a venture," he said. "But
that's really not the case. We
really want students to realize
that entrepreneurship exists
in all fields outside of just busi-
ness."
Yu added that Startup High
School encourages its high
school students to consider
entrepreneurship beyond
the stereotypical technology
project. He said the organiza-
tion stresses the importance
of social entrepreneurship as
well.
"We decided that the best
way that we could start is to
have a program where these
students have a chance to meet
real entrepreneurs, experience
entrepreneurial events," he
said. "And that was the origi-
nal inspiration. We're trying
to give, introduce those stu-
dents to entrepreneurship at
a young age so they can get a
head start."
Datta said last year's top
prize winners reflected Startup
High School's mission.
The first place pitch was
a text-to-speech application
that could understand other
languages, including English,
Spanish and Swahili, among
others, for the purpose of
classroom note-taking. It won
$2,000.
The second place pitch,
named "Paradise Valley,"
aimed to renovate an aban-
doned building in Metro
Detroit and convert it into a
music venue for high school
and college musicians for a
small annual membership fee.
"The scalability of the idea'
doesn't have to be that large
at first," Datta said. "They just
need to realize potential. And
we can help them realize that."
This year, Datta said MPow-
ered is trying to unite its
numerous branch organiza-
tions and integrate their mis-
sions because the ultimate goal
is to expose students to entre-
preneurship.
"I got involved in MPow-
ered because I love mentoring
others," he said. "I love see-
ing when I can help them start
from point A and end up at
point B. It's very remarkable to
see how they deyelop as a per-
son through their professional
skills."
CIVIL WAR
From Page 1
ogy literature suggests that group
violence helps establish cohesion
within militant groups. Gang
rape helps establish relationships
among the perpetrators and can
raise the status of perpetrators,
differentiating group perpetra-
tors from lone perpetrators.
"The basic point of the combat-
ant socialization argument is that
the desire for combatants who
have been forcedly recruited to
fit in is a powerful motivator for
participating in acts of group vio-
lence," Cohen said.
Fitting in is more about attain-
ing protection and access to shel-
ter during the conflict, she said.
Statistics from modern civil wars
show that civil wartime rape
by state and non-state actors is
associated with forms of forced
recruitment, which is in line with
her argument.
Cohen did research following
the wars in Sierra Leone, which
lasted from 1991 to 2002; East
Timor, which lasted from 1975
to 1999; and in El Salvador, a
war from 1979 to 1992. She inter-
viewed former combatants who
spoke to her about their experi-
ences in their respective con-
flicts, including their involvement
in sexual violence.
Her fieldwork yielded a num-
ber of different results, includ-
ing data demonstrating that most
reported rapes were public gang
rapes. Furthermore, there were
reports of gang rapes by both
sexes. There was also a positive
correlation between groups that
abducted most often and those
that raped most often. Finally,
rape was not usually ordered
by commanders, according to
Cohen's findings.
Cohen noted that the com-
batant socialization argument
is not absolute and that specific
background circumstances in
each case affect the occurrence
of rape. She added that societal
effects of mass rape during civil
war are very complicated and
hard to generalize.
Public Policy Prof. Melvyn
Levitsky, a former ambassador
and Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State for Human Rights during
the Reagan administration, said
the presentation offered him a
different perspective on causes of
rape during civil wars. Levitsky
said empowering governments
to prevent armed groups from
abducting people could certainly
help.
"I am intrigued by the research
from a policy standpoint that
seems to indicate there would be
very few tools to stem rape in this
intragroup conflicts, in the eth-
nic conflicts especially," Levitsky
said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to give his annual state of the nation address in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia,
on Thursday.
PutiOn speec suggests
few economic reforms
SAFE
From Page 1
that by the time that termina-
tion letter arrived I was hired...
and I don't want you to say that
Salaita engaged in hate speech.
I very clearly did not engage in
hate speech."
Instead, he said, he would
prefer that people take defini-
tive stances on the issue.
"What I would *prefer for
you to do is simply be honest,
and say 'I hate Salaita's poli-
tics.I don't like his criticisms of
Israel, and therefore he should
have been fired'," he said. "It's
the dishonesty that bothers me.
more than the argument - it's
people refusing to take owner-
ship over their own positions."
On academic freedom in the
classroom, Salaita said there is
often an imbalance of emphasis
between how comfort of stu-
dents with majority identities
and students with minority
identities are considered. Salai-
ta said as an undergraduate he
often heard offensive language
from his professors that he dis-
agreed with.
"Not a single administrator
ever fretted about my comfort
in the classroom," Salaita said.
"Not a single administrator
ever fretted about the comfort
of a non-normative student in
the classroom. Enough of this
discomfort already. Enough.
What they're really saying is,
we don't want those who feel
invested economically or psy-
chologically with the majority
to feel any sort of discomfort."
LSA sophomore Mekarem
Eljamal, SAFE spokeswoman,
said they invited Salaita to the
University because they felt his
message of academic freedom
was particularly relevant in
light of the group's UMDivest
campaign.
SAFE's campaign calls for
the University to divest from
several businesses they allege
supporthumanrightsviolations
against Palestinians because of
their contracts with the Israeli
military. Last year, the group
primarily pursued the initia-
tive through a resolution before
Central Student Government,
which ultimately failed. The
resolution was accompanied by
several large-scale protests and
accusations that voices were
being silenced on campus after
CSG initially declined to vote on
the resolution.
"I hope that (the Univer-
sity community) sees the con-
nection of what happened to
students last year on campus,
what's been happening around
the country" Eljamal said. "It's
not just administrations and
students, or student govern-
ments, but it's administrations
and professors and it hasa dev-
astating impact on careers."
Salaita also touched on
broader views of academic
activism. In response to a ques-
tion from the audience, he said
becoming engaged in politics is
a choice based on both personal
cost and an individual's values.
"You have to think about
where you're at inlifeboth eco-
nomically and personally and
emotionally," he said. "And I say
emotionally because it's hard
sometimes, engaging in politi-
cal issues, for all sides. You hear
things about yourself that you
don't want to hear... it can be
a hard commitment. It can be
unbelievably rewarding also."
LSA sophomore Lamees
Mekkaoui, who attended the
event, said she took away a
heightened awareness about
issues surrounding academic
freedom and academia.
"I thought he brought a very
real tone to something that
hasn't really been talked about
- academic dissent is basically
an untouched field," Mekka-
oui said. "He really brought it
to the table and opened up the
conversation."
Russian president
speaks amid falling
oil prices, economy
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia will
defend its geopolitical inter-
ests, President Vladimir Putin
warned Thursday as he prom-
ised economic reforms to pull
his country back from the brink
of recession. But Putin's patri-
otic bluster and vague promises
did little to assuage real fears
that Western sanctions, plum-
meting oil prices and a collaps-
ing ruble are crippling Russia's
economy.
In his annual state-of-
the-nation address at the
Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin
announced measures to spur
the country'sflagging economy,
which is set to enter recession
in 2015 for the first time in six
years.
"The quality and size of the
Russian economy must corre-
spond to our geopolitical and
historical role," Putin said. "We
must get out of this zero-growth
trap and in the next three or
four years raise our growth to
above-average global levels."
Putin proposed a three-
year freeze on tax inspections
for companies as well as a tax
amnesty for money brought
back to Russia from abroad. But
in a disappointment to inves-
tors, he offered no broader plan
for pulling Russia out of its eco-
nomic downturn.
"His freedom of maneuver is
limited now and many impor-
tant economic factors no longer
depend on him: the ruble rate,
the price. of oil, inflation," said
Moscow-based analyst Maria
Lipman. "No matter what Putin
says, whether he sounds con-
ciliatory and reassuring or bel-
licose and threatening, this
would not affect those basic
factors."
Putin spent much of his
speech blaming his country's
economic woes on the West,
which he accused of wanting to
dismember Russia like Yugosla-
via, which broke up amid wars
in the 1990s. Putin said the
United States and Europe would
have imposed sanctions and
found other pretexts for hold-
ing Russia back even if tensions
had not erupted in Ukraine this
year.
"The politics of containment
were not invented yesterday....
The more we retreat and jus-
tify ourselves;the more brazen
our opponents become and the
more cynically and aggres-
sively they behave," Putin said,
adding that "no one will suc-
ceed in defeating Russia mili-
tarily."
He blamed the volatility of the
ruble, which has lost about 40
percent of its value against the
dollar this year, on speculators,
and praised the Russian central
bank's decision to allow the cur-
rency to floatfreely. The ruble fell
further as he spoke.
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