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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