ing, ensures residents are pleased
with new buildings downtown.
“We did not want to repeat
the mistake of 413 East Huron,
creating a massive building that
overwhelms
the
residential
neighborhoods next to it,” Lumm
said. “This site, at 425 South Main
is one that has the same potential,
and fortunately we do have the
opportunity to address that risk
before it becomes a reality.”
Source: City of Ann Arbor
The site at 425 Main St. cur-
rently includes a surface-level
parking lot and the DTE Energy
building.
Downtown development has
been an ongoing conversation in
the City Council, and when the
proposed zoning changes to this
area were presented to the coun-
cil for its first reading on Dec. 1,
three council members believed
a D2 limitation was not strict
enough. There was also some con-
fusion among council members
as to the meaning of D2 zoning,
and the council went considered
multiple amendments to the ordi-
nance, all of which failed. The
zoning proposal has been under
consideration since June 2014.
Councilmember Stephen Kun-
selman (D–Ward 3) expressed
concerns about enforcing strict
height restraints on downtown
buildings. He also referred to
the risk of a repeat of the experi-
ence with the building on 413 E.
Huron.
“Height limits create blocky
buildings. I want to see some-
thing different, something more
palatable to this community,”
Kunselman said
Other discussions at Monday’s
meeting surrounded the need
for an amendment to the city’s
chicken ordinance (which stipu-
lates regulations for residents
who wish to have chickens on
their property) ultimately post-
poned until September, with mul-
tiple council members asking why
they needed to worry about fixing
something that is not broken.
City Council is scheduled to
meet next on Jan. 12 for a Plan-
ning Commission working ses-
sion at the Community Television
Network building. The Council’s
next regular meeting will be Jan.
20 in the normal council cham-
bers in City Hall.
time I looked at myself as a stu-
dent. I studied something I real-
ly love and then all of a sudden
this kind of put me on the map.”
Prince Charles attended the
concert and personally gave
Chan her award. Chan said she
didn’t know she would meet
him and was occupied with the
opportunity to conduct the Lon-
don Symphony Orchestra.
“He was trying to talk to each
of the contestants and when he
saw me, he just came straight
to me and he was just like, ‘You
know you’re amazing, right?’”
she said. “I could see that he was
so moved. That he felt something
in the concert, in the music and
he was just like a normal per-
son.”
As winner of LSO’s conduct-
ing
competition,
Chan
will
receive a year-long contract as
assistant conductor of the LSO
and receive a cash prize.
Chan said she is happy to
receive the award as a female
artist and hopes it leads the con-
ducting field to acknowledge
more of its female members.
“There have been female
conductors out there in leader-
ship positions,” she said. “But of
course if you compare it to the
other men out there, we don’t
have a lot of us working.”
While Chan had a musical
childhood singing and playing
piano, her interest in conducting
derived from the first orches-
tra concert she attended, which
coincidentally was orchestrated
by a female conductor.
“It’s so interesting what the
conductor does,” she said. “You
don’t make a sound. You make all
these gestures and people will
play. And it’s interesting because
that first concert that I’d seen in
my life, the conductor was also
a female conductor, so immedi-
ately something kind of stirred
up in my heart.”
Chan said the best part of con-
ducting is the leadership aspect
of the role.
“In the end, you really make
the team better,” she said.
“That’s what I love about it. You
inspire people to become better
and at the same time you become
the spirit behind the team.”
After she completes her con-
ducting degree in May, Chan
hopes to join the LSO and put
on a concert in her hometown of
Hong Kong sometime this year.
“It has also been a dream for
me to bring what I have been
learning back home to share
with people back there, like
my family,” she said. “It would
be wonderful if a concert could
happen.”
16 dissenters in the House and
only Sen. Coleman Young Jr. (D–
Detroit) dissenting in the Senate.
Snyder told the Detroit Free
Press he found it difficult to find
an agreeable plan to increase
revenue for roads during the pri-
mary and general elections last
fall. However, Snyder urged the
audience during his inauguration
address to vote for the initiative
in the spring.
“We have more work to be
done in, for example, transporta-
tion,” Snyder said. “No one still
likes our roads, and we have an
opportunity to fix that this May.”
According to the Detroit Free
Press, the Michigan Chamber
of Commerce and the Detroit
Regional
Chamber
originally
criticized the plan. The groups
wanted legislatures to directly
vote for road improvement laws
instead of putting an initiative on
a ballot.
The
Michigan
chapter
of
Americans for Prosperity, a con-
servative group aligned with the
Tea Party, has also criticized the
proposal for increasing taxes on
the middle class.
Education funding
The ballot initiative to raise
the sales tax will also determine
whether $300 million a year will
be added toward Michigan’s pub-
lic schools.
The bill, which will remove
sales tax on motor fuel, will sub-
sequently freeze the School Aid
Fund that relies on funding from
this tax.
To help offset losses from this
fund, part of the new statewide
sales tax will go toward educa-
tion, on top of additional funding
from the general fund.
Snyder also lauded his admin-
istration’s investment in pre-
school
education
during
his
inaugural address, which was
included in his $15.8 billion bud-
get in June.
In 2011, the governor cut fund-
ing to higher education by 15
percent, but has since increased
funding by 3.1 percent, 2.2 per-
cent and 6.1 percent in 2012, 2013
and 2014, respectively.
Employment
The governor also mentioned
the need to foster innovation and
creative thinking in the state. He
discussed the need to reinvigo-
rate skilled trades, such as con-
struction and manufacturing, as
an “honorable career path,” while
making technical education a pri-
ority.
Michigan’s
unemployment
rate currently stands at 6.7 per-
cent, 0.9 percent higher than the
national average. According to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the state’s unemployment rate
has dropped 3.2 percent since
November 2008, though 193,909
citizens have left the labor force.
During his first term, Snyder
created and funded various pro-
grams to promote skilled trades
as a way to boost the state’s
employment. The largest, Skilled
Trades Training Fund, was cre-
ated in 2013 to expand training
and hiring for trade-skilled busi-
nesses.
In October, the governor estab-
lished the Community College
Skilled Trades Equipment Pro-
gram to work with community
colleges to provide skilled trades
training for students. The pro-
gram cost $50 million.
Throughout his first term, Sny-
der also promoted technical edu-
cation through various pieces of
legislation, including Senate Bill
66, which requires public schools
to provide information on oppor-
tunities in technical careers, as
well as guidance for including
career and technical educational
classes in the core curriculum.
Snyder’s inauguration address
suggested continued focus on
these areas to lower the state’s
unemployment numbers.
“Let’s lead the nation in the
career tech education and the
skilled trades,” he said in the
address.
Detroit’s revitalization
During his inaugural speech,
the governor said one of his
proudest accomplishments dur-
ing his tenure was his work with
the city of Detroit.
“Detroit has a bright future,
and I’m committed in supporting
the city and achieving that goal,”
he said.
In 2013, the city filed for bank-
ruptcy, making it the largest city
in American history to do so. At
the time of bankruptcy, Detroit
was $18 billion in debt.
In 2013, Snyder appointed Uni-
versity alum Kevyn Orr as the
city’s emergency manager. The
two devised the “grand bargain,”
a controversial bankruptcy-exit
plan that shed some of the city’s
debt to pensioners, but involved
work with the government, busi-
nesses and the Detroit Institute
of Arts to slowly contribute $816
million over time to reduce the
financial impact on pensioners.
Though the bankruptcy con-
cluded, critics have said the
“grand bargain” has not resulted
in sufficient funds for the city.
The plan only generated about
$900 million and projected rev-
enue remains almost stagnant
until 2023.
In October, Snyder touted the
city’s comeback during a talk at
the Law School.
LGBTQ equality
Though the governor did not
mention social issues directly in
his speech, he has come under
criticism throughout his term for
the state’s legislation regarding
LGBTQ rights.
During
the
state
Senate’s
recent lame-duck session, the
legislature failed to pass amend-
ments to the Elliott-Larsen Civil
Rights
Act,
which
currently
protects citizens from discrimi-
nation based on religion, race,
ethnicity, age, weight and marital
status, but not for sexual orienta-
tion or gender identity.
Michigan
gained
national
attention when the Sixth Circuit
Court of Appeals issued a stay
on U.S. District Judge Bernard
Friedman’s decision to allow
same-sex marriage in the state.
The circuit court upheld the ban
this May.
Many critics have called for
Snyder to take a stronger stance
on these issues during his second
term.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, January 7, 2015 — 3A
ZONING
From Page 1A
SNYDER
From Page 1A
AWARD
From Page 1A
which will feature a variety of
documentary-type video seg-
ments, video interviews with fac-
ulty and interactive elements such
as games and online forums.
The course creators said they
sought to approach online edu-
cation in a unique way not yet
seen at the University, which
has made efforts to implement
a range of online offerings in
recent years.
“This is the first time a course
has been offered in this way,”
Rubyan said. “Not that we’re
presenting a drama, but what we
try to do is bring different nug-
gets of that type of thought pro-
cess into this space, so that when
people are watching they have a
sense of scope and feel like it’s
moving, it’s dynamic.”
Presented
in
hour-long
weekly installments, the course
aims to provide students with
knowledge of the U.S. health
care system, Davis said. The
lessons will help students learn
their place in the system — an
effort that frustrates and con-
fuses many Americans — and,
more importantly, learn how
they can work to improve the
system in the future.
Though ongoing health care
reforms, such as the 2010 Patient
Protection and Affordable Care
Act, will be discussed, Davis
said the course is designed with
ample historical context. He
wants to demonstrate that many
of the current issues have been
going on for at least 70 years.
Davis and Rubyan pulled vid-
eos from historical archives and
presidential libraries to demon-
strate how various administra-
tions have approached health
care since the time of former
President Harry Truman.
“The Affordable Care Act
becomes so much more under-
standable through this lens of
history,” Davis said. “We’ve
taken the time to boil down 70
years of history into key themes
that have an arch through all
these presidents.”
The course will also feature
filmed interviews and panel
discussions with experts from
the University’s Institute for
Healthcare Policy and Innova-
tion. Unlike some online cours-
es, which consist of a professor
lecturing over a video slide-
show, Davis said the format is
intended to engage students
and make the material enter-
taining to watch.
“Another
benefit
of
the
online format … is the chance to
combine many different teach-
ing and learning approaches,”
Davis said. “In many cases,
online learning at (the Univer-
sity) is a video of a lecture —
that’s not what this is.”
As is typical with online
courses
currently
offered
through the provider Cours-
era, students have the ability
to earn a certificate acknowl-
edging their completion of the
course, but cannot get Universi-
ty credit. Davis said the course
is intended as a “co-curricular”
opportunity, one which stu-
dents from across the Universi-
ty could use to supplement their
standard course schedule.
COURSE
From Page 1A
to ensure it does not contain the
AIDS virus. Modern tests can
detect and diagnose a human
immunodeficiency virus infec-
tion, which causes AIDS, with-
in nine to 11 days of exposure.
The article also highlighted
data from Australia that con-
cluded that after a 12-month
period, there was no significant
increase in the risk of trans-
fusion-transmitted HIV from
MSM donors.
Rea added that a more equita-
ble policy change would ensure
the safety of all blood from all
sexually active donors, rather
than solely MSM.
“The FDA needs to test
unsafe sexual practices for all
donors,” she said. “It’s abso-
lutely unwarranted to do so just
based on sexual orientation.”
Rea said BDU plans to keep
advocating for more accepting
policy changes.
“We will continue advocat-
ing for a greater change, but
now hopefully we will get more
donors,” she said. “It gives some
hope that there will be more
changes made in the future, but
we still want to be pushing for
more.”
BLOOD
From Page 1A
Venezualan textbooks teach socialism
Math and science
are taught in the
context of the
government
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)
— Students here study math
by calculating the benefits of
government
land
takeovers.
They practice English by recit-
ing where late President Hugo
Chavez was born and learn civ-
ics by explaining why the elderly
should give him thanks.
Pro-administration messages
scattered through the pages
of Venezuela’s textbooks have
become yet another point of
conflict in this hyper-polarized
country, where Chavez’s social-
ist party won a bare majority in
the presidential elections of 2013.
Parents recently tossed books
into the streets in front of some
schools and burned them, acts
the loyalist media compared to
censorship by the Nazis in 1930s
Germany. As children head back
to school after winter break,
many Venezuelans remain out-
raged over texts that treat the
founder of a deeply divisive
socialist revolution with the
sort of reverence U.S. textbooks
reserve for George Washington.
Math lessons include calcula-
tions of how much production
has increased as a result of the
government’s agrarian reform
initiative, and how much land
the government still has to
reclaim from private owners.
Students are asked to figure out
how much shoppers save at gov-
ernment-subsidized
appliance
stores created by Chavez.
Learning English? Answer
the question, “Where was Hugo
Chavez born?”
“They are brainwashing our
kids, erasing our nation’s his-
tory, and replacing it with their
own version,” said information
technology worker Hector Cue-
vas, who was appalled when his
son brought home the books as a
sixth-grader.
For defenders, the “Bolivar-
ian” textbooks introduced in
2011 include history traditionally
left out of grade school educa-
tion, and tie lessons to real-life
examples in socialist Venezuela.
Minister of Education Hector
Rodriguez defended the books
this fall, and also urged critics
to work with the government to
improve the collection.
“Certainly
they
can
be
improved,
like
any
human
endeavor,” he said, according
to Venezuelan news website
Noticias24. “Those who want to
criticize should read the books,
and when they find an error they
should let us know to correct it.”
But for opponents, the prob-
lem is not errors so much as what
they see as attacks on govern-
ment foes and propaganda for
controversial programs.
An early edition of the gov-
ernment’s social studies book
shows a photo of an elderly per-
son writing, “Thanks, Chavez”
and instructs students to explain
why.
One book interrupts an expla-
nation of fractions to praise a
food program “developed by the
Bolivarian government to ensure
that the poor can eat.”
While all students receive the
books, they are in widest use
in poor areas, where they are
often the only option for teach-
ers. At Consuelo Navas Tovar
high school at the fringes of one
of Caracas’ sprawling slums,
students in navy blue uniforms
study their English textbooks
at grimy desks crammed into a
bare-walled classroom.
The book has students discuss
a study hall sponsored by a gov-
ernment agency known by an
arcane acronym.
“It’s a project of FUNDABIT!”
one student is told to say.
“That is excellent!” the part-
ner replies.
Geometry professor Tomas
Guardia of Central University
of Venezuela has spent months
documenting what he and his
colleagues call basic errors in
math books. One defines a square
as a shape with four sides, when
that could be a rectangle or a
rhombus.
“I’m not a historian, but if the
math textbook is so problematic,
there’s a good chance this book is
also full or errors and propagan-
da” he said, gesturing to a photo
of Chavez embracing a child in
social studies book captioned,
“The future of the land of Bolivar
is her children.”
Cuevas,
meanwhile,
often
pulls out his father’s old math
textbook to use as a reference
for his son. He fantasizes about
a collection of textbooks that
would reflect his less-sunny
vision of modern Venezuela.
“They always use examples
like, ‘If your mother goes to a
government-subsidized
super-
market and buys two pounds
of sugar and three pounds of
meat, how many pounds does
she have?’” he said. “Why don’t
they use an example like, ‘If you
mother spends two hours in lines
waiting to buy sugar, and later
waits three hours to buy meat,
how many hours has she wait-
ed?’”
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