I Wednesday, July 16, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Yost After Hours:A'M' women's hockey eklySummerEdition Michigaaiyco ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY FOUR YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Wednesday. July 16.2014 By DAVID MALINOWSKI Daily Sports Writer Entering Yost Ice Arena with the women's hockey team on the ice is like walking into an office after hours. It's one of the most historic college rinks in the coun- try, but the lights are half-dimmed and the building is cold. The muf- fled sounds of skates and pucks fill the air. Winged helmets move about the ice, but the wings are in yellow tape on store-bought navy helmets. This is not the perennial cham- pionship-contending men's team coached by Red Berenson. This is Michigan women's hockey. This is a team where reality hits its play- ers square in the face with every drop of sweat. Still, it's life for players who have passed up bigger opportuni- ties to play here. "You need something to kind of keep you going, and that for me is hockey," said sophomore alternate captain Jenna Trubiano. Offered a roster spot on a var- sity squad elsewhere, she instead chose to play closer to her New Baltimore, nities for girls to play hockey in the state of Michigan after high school. While there was a Division I team at Wayne State in Detroit, it folded after succumbing to finan- cial pressure. There are now just two programs in the state - Fin- landia University and Adrian Col- lege - both Division III. "As a female hockey player, the number one thing you have to look at is academics, but I think it's kind of ridiculous that there's not a women's D-I team to pursue in the state of Michigan," Trubiano said. "It's embarrassing, actually." Susan McDowell is officially an assistant coach for the women's hockey team, but her experience with the sport goes back decades. She co-founded the team in 1994 and played at the college level. It has been 17 years since wom- en's hockey was up for varsity appointment at Michigan. In 1997, the Athletic Department put three women's sports up for varsity- appointment - soccer, water polo and hockey - to choose two. "(Women's Ann Arbor. MI JAYLLACANTILINA/Daily Jenna Trubianoand Monica Koronwont fulfill the dream uf playing Michigan varsity hockey, but they maintain hope for the future. Michigan home. The desire that brought her here "Yo u started when she was 10 with somet a Detroit Red Wings game on kind of TV. "My fam- going, ily wasn't hock- ey-oriented for me is - nobody else (in my family) played it," she said. "I saw Henrik Zetterberg make this one move on TV and I told my dad I wanted to do that." A rising fifth-year senior, Ann Arbor native Monica Korzon, captained AAA Detroit Honey- baked to a state championship and played several seasons at SUNY Plattsburgh in upstate New York, winning two D-III national cham- pionships. "My dad really wanted a son, and he never got one," Korzon said. "His equivalent was turn- ing his four daughters into hockey players. For me, it's a family sport. When it's cold enough on Christ- mas morning, we'll play pond hockey. "I love hockey. It's who I am." There are almost no opportu- hockey was) in top priority," need McDowell said. "The board of hing to control recom- mended that we keep you go to the Board of Regents." and that Soccer was selected, leav- s hockey." ing water polo and hockey as the remaining two sports for promotion. "They ended up taking water polo," McDowell said. "The anec- dotal information was that water polo was going to be a $350,000 a year investment (all-inclusive), whereas ice hockey would have been a $750,000-800,000 deal." The justification for the appointment ranges from travel costs to facility maintenance. At the time, Canham Natatorium was entering just its seventh year of operation, having enough capacity to support an extra team. Soccer already had practice fields and game fields in place, leaving the question of how to divide ice time at Yost Arena. The process never got that far, and ice hockey was tabled for females due to facility and fiscal constraints. Promoting the longtime club sport to varsity status would pres- ent a couple of issues. First is Title IX, which could require the school to add another men's sport to accompany the addition of wom- en's varsity hockey. Furthermore, in order for Michigan to maintain two varsity hockey programs in the eyes of the Athletic Department, it needs two rinks, as opposed to moving the women into Yost with the men. "It's not impossible," Athletic Director Dave Brandon told The Detroit News in January. "But, if you were to do it the right way, which is the Michigan way, you'd build a facility with two sheets of ice." Building another facility would add a hefty startup fee to travel and maintenance costs for the new varsity sport. "It would certainly draw some fan attraction, as all of our teams do," Brandon told the News. "But I'm sure the fan interest in it would be far below the cost of the program." In the late 1990s, one of Michi- gan's chief rivals, Ohio State, forged onward with creating women's teams. Using a selective process, a group of athletic offi- cials decided to create women's programs that would parallel existing men's spot Among addition en's lacrosse and State added a wom program to the var The program fa uphill battles in a Like the state of r lacks a large popu en's hockey player ing pool is very t extra costs on rec the east coast, Can and even Europe,t sports don't have1 field a complete roster. "Decisions are made on the possibilities of the recruit- ing pool," said Miechelle Wil- lis, the school's Executive Director of Ath- letics. "We knew what we were getting into, but it wasn't a sig- nificant enough hu the sport." Other obstacle faced were compet ties. Ohio State want program live up to mantra: The trav academics, studen competition all ha tional. "Adding sports rts. sions, dropping sports are tough s such as wom- decisions, but every campus rowing, Ohio looks at their environments, their hen's ice hockey opportunities for national com- sity fold. petitiveness," Willis said. "What aced a litany of may work here might not work ll departments. there." Michigan, Ohio McDowell circled back to lation of wom- finding money for the program rs. The recruit- through benefactors. hin, leading to "Do I target the alumni and ask ruiting trips to them 'Hey, have you loved this ada, Minnesota sport? Has it given something costs that other to you?' " she said. "Do you give to deal with to something at a bigger level to more people at a more formal-level commitment?" "I'msure the For now, there's not much fan interest in she can do. Play- far ers have come it would be far and gone, games have been won below the cost and lost, but Sfor the players,' of the program. longtime dream of playing Mich- igan varsity hockey, time is insie ART FAIR SPECIAL Map and info Need help finding your way around this iconic Ann Arbor event? >> SEE PAGE 7 NEWS A second city Students find their niche and a sense of community in Detroit. >> SEE PAGE 14 OPINION Open doors From the Daily: The 'U' needs to better uphold the Open Meetings Act. >>SEE PAGE 4 ARTS Hellion The story of struggles in one Texas town delivers with flawed characters >>SEE PAGE 10 SPORTS Yost after hours The women's hockey club team struggles to find its place on South Campus >>SEE PAGE 16 INDEX Vo. CXXIV, .No 5 l2n14 The Michigan Daily N EW S ....................................2 O PIN IO N ...............................4 A RT FA IR ...............................7 A RTS ....................................10 CLASSIFIEDS......................12 CROSSWORD....................12 SPORTS ..............13 ALLISON FARRAND/Daily LEFT: President Mark Schlissel and Governor Rick Snyder pose for a photo after an informal chat on Schlissel's first day in office. RIGHT: The University's new president spins the cube outside the Fleming Administration Building Monday. ADMINISTRATION 'U' sued over violations of Open Meetin gs Act CAMPUS LIFE Ceremony honors N Hall before demolition ROTC members, officers and alumni say goodbye to historic building By MICHAEL SPAETH For the Daily Friday, members of the Univer- sity's Reserve Officers Training Corps held a small ceremony on the front lawn of North Hall to pay tribute to the building they called home for 74 years in advance of its scheduled demolition. The building is being demol- ished to make room for the new 300,000-square foot Biological Science Building, approved by the University's Board of Regents in February, which will house the Department of Molecular, Cellu- lar and Developmental Biology, the Department of Ecology and Evo- lutionary Biology, and collections from the Anthropology, Natural History, Paleontology and Zoology museums. At the event, current and retired members of the University's Air Force, Army and Navy ROTC units adapted the traditional Naval decommissioning ceremony, which signifies the end of a Naval ship's active service, to mark the end of North Hall's service to the Univer- sity. Captain Joseph Evans, professor of Naval Science and Commander of the University's Naval ROTC, said though the building was never commissioned as a ship, it served the same symbolic purpose. "North Hall, muchlike anynaval ship, faithfully served us all and all See ROTC, Page 3 O t I. W1 3i zI Detroit Free Press heads push for more transparency in regent's decisions By SHOHAM GEVA ManagingNews Editor In a lawsuit filed in state claims court Friday, The Detroit Free Press sued the University over vio- lations of the Open Meetings Act in connection with meetings of the University's Board of Regents, alleging that most decisions on University issues are made in private and votes during official meetings are just a formality. The lawsuit relies primarily on a Free Press analysis of regents meetings between January and February of 2014 which found that out of the 116 votes held, the Regents held discussion on only 12 and a no vote by one or more Regentsonly occurred eight times. about official business or policy. "These numbers establish More generally, the state Con- clearly that the regents do, in stitution requires that all formal fact, routinely discuss the issues meetings of public bodies be open they must decide and do routinely to the public. However, regents make their decisions about the often meet informally to discuss University of Michigan's gover- issues, separate from the monthly nance, all behind closed doors, out meetings, which are considered of the public's view, without public formal. These meetings generally accountability, and in violation of include two or three regents as the (Open Meetings Act) and its well as University officials. Constitutional obligations," the The lawsuit also cited two lawsuit read. regents meetings held January The Open Meetings Act is a 1976 2013 and January 2014 in Califor- state law dictating the conduct of nia and New York, which it said the meetings of public bodies such violated the Act because public as the regents. It mandates that notice was not provided, minutes all gatherings between members were not taken, or the public and of those boards, given that they members of the press were not meet certain criteria to qualify as a allowed to attend. meeting, must be open to the pub- In an interview with the Free lic with advance notice and have Press, Paul Anger, Free Press edi- a record kept, among other provi- tor and publisher, said especially sions. The law defines a meeting as given the scope and scale of the any situation where more than a University, he's concerned about simple majority of members of the the lack of transparency to the board are present and discussion public the analysis of meetings involves decision or discussion See LAWSUIT, Page 3 rdle to preclude s Ohio State ition and facili- ted to have the their athletics 'el, equipment, it services and d to be excep- are tough deci- running out. "I think there's a sense of inevi- tability with the participants of the current program, because it's not going to happen while they're here," McDowell said. "They are looking around and seeing are where their peers are playing, wondering where their younger sisters are going, and it's not get- ting the support it needs across the state. That's the struggle."