Monday, May 9, 2011
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
CAMPUS ORGaNZATIONS
'U' camps offer students taste of college life
More than 9,000
youth expected to
attend programs
By AUSTINWORDELL
Daily StaffReporter
For the next three months,
the campus will be bustling with
campers and guests from around
the world as the University hosts
a wide range of academic and ath-
letic-oriented summer camps.
Last summer there were more
than 9,000 participants in a wide
range of University-sponsored
camps, Conference Manager
Bob Miller of Wolverine Sum-
mer Camps said, adding enroll-
ment this summer is expected to
increase as the economy begins to
recover.
"It has been a tough time for
a lot of folks, and I think sum-
mer camps and activities for kids
unfortunately becomes a lower
priority when parents have to
make choices about the discre-
tionary income," Miller said.
The athletic camps range from
soccer to swimming and run from
June through August, according
to the University's website.
The website also showcased
academic camps that focus on
specific disciplines like music,
business, art, literature and tech-
nology.
"These are kids of all ages
searching for knowledge or ath-
letic proficiency," Miller said. "I
believe we give them the opportu-
nity to glimpse inside the Univer-
sity of Michigan experience."
Pamela Staton, the University's
director of Marketing and Confer-
ence Services, said the Universi-
ty's athletic and academic camps
allow prospective students to see
what the University has to offer
and provides campers with a taste
of college life.
"Some campers are so favor-
ably impressed that they aspire to
be (University) students or (Uni-
versity) student-athletes," Staton
said. "The exposure to a Univer-
sity and the impact that it has in
their aspirations to attend U-M is
a huge benefit for our campers."
However, Miller said it is pos-
sible the camps could be affected
by financial cuts in the future as
a result of Republican Gov. Rick
Snyder's budget proposal that
entails a 15 percent cut to higher
education, potentially impact-
ing the University's departmen-
tal budgets that fund the camps.
Even with these prospective cuts,
Miller said he still plans to main-
tain the integrity of the programs.
"All I can do is keep working
hard mentoring and motivating
my staff to convey the bestcamper
experience we can," Miller said.
Staton said she has witnessed
an increase in camp attendance
and diversity in the past few
decades, which she said is impor-
tant in fostering tolerance among
youth.
"The more diverse the atten-
dance, the better for campers to ...
appreciate other culture and lan-
guages while having the love of a
sport as common ground," Staton
said. "We love the diversity. We
attract nationally and interna-
tionally."
According to the website, the
cost of attendance for the summer
camps varies based on the type
of camp and whether a camper
commutes from home or stays in
the dorms overnight, and many of
the camps have scholarship allot-
ments that are made available by
the discretion of a camp director.
All University camps have a
team of counselors, the majority
of which are University students,
Miller said. He added that coun-
selors are trained to help campers
get the most out of their experi-
ence.
"These young adults are so
impressive," he said. "Their ener-
gy and concern for the safety and
overall experience of the young
athletes is amazing."
Miller added that camp admin-
istrators and counselors strive to
make the camp experience reflec-
tive of the broader University
experience.
"Through these programs,
summer here becomes an exten-
sion of the learning, exploring and
discovery experiences that shape
our students here during the fall
and winter terms," he said.
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University hosts conference on climate issues
for students, faculty and activists on campus
'U' emphasizes
interdisciplinary
approach to climate
change issues
By SAMANTHA NORMAN
Daily StaffReporter
While global warming and
climate change has long been a
problem plaguing environmen-
tal scholars, the University held
a conference this past week in
hopes of gaining the input of
researchers in the social sciences
as part of an initiative to increase
collaboration on the issue.
ICARUS II: Climate Vulner-
ability and Adaption: Marginal
Peoples and Environments - a
University symposium held May
5-8 - sought to bring together
scholars, students and activists
to discuss climate variability and
change.
Natural Resources and Envi-
ronment Prof. and Associate
Dean of Research Arun Agrawal,
said the lack of a social sciences
perspective on climate change
is one of the reasons he decided
to develop the conference along
with SNRE Associate Prof. Maria
Lemos in 2009
Agrawal said close interaction
among scholars working on the
issue led to the conference's cre-
ation, adding that there were few
arenas for individuals to meet and
share their research in the field.
"I was working on adapta-
tion to climate change and I
kept meeting people who were
also working on it and they were
always complaining about (these)
things," Agrawal said.
Agrawal emphasized the need
for more social scientists to con-
duct research on climate change
in order to facilitate more effec-
tive results in helping improve
the state or the environment.
"We really need to understand
how societies and human beings
can adapt to climate change and
we really need social scientists to
participate in climate change," he
said.
On Saturday, the third day
of the conference, about 100
participants from 25 different
countries and multiple interdis-
ciplinary backgrounds were pres-
ent to share and listen to ideas
and research on climate change
adaptation.
Debora Ley, a Ph.D. candidate
at University of oxford who pre-
sented a chapter of her disserta-
tion at the conference, said the
event is important in serv as a
way for researchers to present
current initiatives and possibly
develop ways to work together in
the future.
"More than a conference or
symposium, it's to bring people
together to show what they've
been doing their research on,"
Ley said. "There's also dialogue
tables to see what further collab-
orations can be done either inde-
pendently or together."
Ley- who isstudyingthe crite-
ria under which rural renewable
energy systems can simultane-
ously meet the triple objective
of climate change mitigation,
climate change adaptation and
sustainable development of rural
communities in Central America
- said this conference allowed
her to hear about the experiences
of other people who are working
in the same field as her.
"I like hearing from other peo-
ple who work in Central America
to see what they've found to try
and work together. I like to net-
work and see who else is doing
what," Ley said.
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