2-News

2 — Friday, January 9, 2015
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

THREE THINGS YOU 
SHOULD KNOW TODAY

Jim 
Harbaugh 
is 

filling out his coaching 
staff. 
Yesterday, 
he 

introduced D.J. Durkin as 
his defensive coordinator 
and 
linebackers 
coach. 

Durkin served as one of 
Harbaugh’s 
assistants 
at 

Stanford from 2007 to 2009.

2

CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES

Helen & Edgar

WHAT: International 
Theater will host the 
performance, a tale of 
a strange childhood in 
Savannah, from Edgar 
Oliver and the creative 
team behind The Moth. 
WHO: University Musical 
Society
WHEN: Today at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Walgreen 
Drama Center

Masters recital

WHAT: Percussionist 
Hannah Weaver will 
perform a host of 
classical pieces using a 
range of instruments.
WHO: School of Music, 
Theatre & Dance
WHEN: Today at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Earl V. Moore 
Building, Rehearsal Hall

New Year 
with UMix

WHAT: This week’s 
UMix event will feature 
many activities, including 
live music, DIY vision 
boards, free giveaways 
and prizes, photo booths, a 
Free Midnight Buffet and 
a screening of the movie 
“Ouija.”
WHO: Center for Campus 
Involvement
WHEN: Today from 10 p.m. 
to 2 a.m.

Feel Good 
Friday

WHAT: The first 40 
attendees will win a free 
screening of “Selma”. 
WHO: Trotter 
Multicultural Center
WHEN: Today at 1 p.m.
WHERE: Trotter 
Multicultural Center

Please report any 
error in the Daily 
to corrections@
michigandaily.com.

Next 
Wednesday, 
the 

French satirical magazine 
Charlie Hebdo, which 

was attacked by gunmen who 
killed 12 people, will publish 
one million copies instead of 
its usual 60,000 to stand up to 
“stupidity,” the Straits Times 
reported. 

1

TUESDAY:

Professor Profiles

THURSDAY:
Student Voice

FRIDAY:

Photos of the Week

WEDNESDAY:

In Other Ivory Towers

MONDAY:

This Week in History

LEFT 
Renaud 
Garcia-Fons 

demonstrates 
his 
technique 

on the double bass for the Sall 
Fleming 
Masterclass 
Series 

Tuesday at Stamps Auditorium.
(Sam Mousigian/Daily)

RIGHT Obama gives a speech on 
improving the middle class at a 
Ford Motor manufacturing plant 
in Detroit Wednesday. (Luna 
Anna Archey / Daily)

NEED MORE 
PHOTOS?

See more Photos of the 
Week on our website, 
michigandaily.com.

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by 

students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may 

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are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must 

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Editor in Chief

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Finance

finance@michigandaily.com

Historical 
symposium 

WHAT: This symposium 
will feature panelists from 
the University speaking on 
“empathy and experience in 
the writing of history.”
WHO: Eisenberg Institute
WHEN: Today from 12 
p.m. to 2 p.m.
WHERE: Tisch Hall

Faculty recital 

WHAT: Aaron Berofsky on 
the violin, Ellen Hwangbo 
on the piano and Kathryn 
Vopatek on the violin 
will play through a set 
of classical pieces from 
composers Mozart and 
Prokofiev.
WHO: School of Music, 
Theatre & Dance
WHEN: Today at 8 p.m. 
WHERE: Walgreen Drama 
Center

The 
Midwest 
is 

experiencing blasts of 
arctic air, with Grand 
Marai, 
Minnesota 

registering a -54 degree wind 
chill. All-time lows have been 
reported in New York and 
North Carolina, Weather.com 
reported.

3

York faces civil 
suit

BY NABEEL CHOLLAMPAT

THE WIRE

Former University 

football player Csont’e York, 
who was sentenced on two 
counts of misdemeanor 
assault, is now facing a civil 
suit for punching a man last 
July.

Tarantino

BY JAMIE BIRCOLL AND 

AKSHAY SETH 

THE FILTER

Daily Arts Editors Bircoll 

and Seth discuss the career 
of Quentin Tarantino from 
the perspective of a direc-
tor, spanning movies from 
“Reservoir Dogs” to “Pulp 
Fiction,” in the first part of 
an ongoing series. 

ON THE WEB... 
michigandaily.com

Grand jury investigating loans 
to Kansas governor’s campaign

Sam Brownback’s 
campaign faces 
federal scrutiny

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 

federal grand jury is looking 
into loans made to Kansas Gov. 
Sam Brownback’s re-election 
campaign and has ordered the 
state’s ethics chief to testify 
next week as part of its investi-
gation, according to a subpoena 
obtained by The Associated 
Press.

Carol Williams, the executive 

director of the Kansas Govern-
mental Ethics Commission, was 
summoned to appear before the 
grand jury Wednesday in Tope-
ka, according to documents the 
AP obtained through an open 
records request. She also was 
ordered to provide documents 
pertaining to loans Brownback’s 
campaign received in 2013 and 
2014.

The only loans listed on 

campaign 
disclosure 
reports 

for those years are one from 
Brownback and others from 
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer. Colyer 
loaned Brownback’s campaign 
$500,000 in August — the third 
such loan the governor’s run-
ning mate made to their re-
election bid — according to the 
last disclosure report, filed days 
before the November election.

The loans, the first of which 

was made in December 2013, 
raised eyebrows on the cam-
paign trail because loans in such 
large amounts are rare in Kan-
sas political races and because 
the money was repaid within 
days.

Brownback’s spokeswoman, 

Eileen Hawley, said the investi-
gation “has no merit.”

When asked in August about 

the reasoning for the loans and 
repayment, 
Brownback 
said, 

“I’m not going to explain the 
thought process.”

Some Democrats speculated 

Thursday the loans were an 
attempt to bolster Brownback’s 
fundraising totals, to make 

the campaign appear in better 
shape than it was.

Craig Holman, government 

affairs lobbyist for the cam-
paign finance watchdog Public 
Citizen, said a political motiva-
tion for the loans wouldn’t have 
sparked the grand jury probe. 
Although the loans themselves 
are probably legal, Holman said, 
the timing of them repeated 
three times is “quite suspicious.” 

Brett Berry, general coun-

sel for the ethics commission, 
released the subpoena, which 
the agency received on Dec. 
9, through the open records 
request, but otherwise declined 
comment. 

Colyer told the AP in August 

that the first two $500,000 
short-term loans he made to 
Brownback’s re-election cam-
paign are examples of the good 
stewardship Kansas residents 
expect from government offi-
cials.

Earlier finance reports indi-

cate that Colyer made his first 
$500,000 loan on Dec. 31, 2013, 
the last day covered by a finance 
report due in early January 
2014, and it was repaid on Jan. 
2, 2014. He then made a second 
$500,000 loan on July 23, 2014, 
the second-to-last day covered 
by a finance report due in late 
July. That loan was repaid two 
days later, when a new reporting 
period started.

The third $500,000 loan from 

Colyer was made on Aug. 13, 
and it’s not clear whether it has 
been repaid. The next campaign 
finance report, which would 
disclose such a repayment, is 
due Saturday.

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BUSINESS STAFF
Madeline Lacey University Accounts Manager 
Ailie Steir Classified Manager
Simonne Kapadia Local Accounts Manager
Lotus An National Accounts Manager
Olivia Jones Production Managers
Nolan Loh Special Projects Coordinator
Jason Anterasian Finance Manager

University investment fund 
designed to bolster startups 

Adrenal cancer 
company one of 
many to recieve 

support

BY LINDSEY SCULLEN

Daily Staff Reporter

The Michigan Investment 

in New Technology Startups 
initiative has invested $6.9 
million in 11 different Univer-
sity-based startup companies, 
according to the University’s 
Investment Office.

MINTS is a $25-million 

venture fund managed by the 
University’s Investment Office, 
established by President Emer-
ita Mary Sue Coleman in 2011. 
The initiative invests in start-
up companies that produce 
technology developed at and 
licensed by the University.

Rafael Castilla, director of 

Investment Risk Management 
at the University, said these 
companies must gain prelimi-
nary funding from an inde-
pendent professional venture 
capital investment firm before 
qualifying for MINTS funding. 
Moreover, MINTS would pro-
vide supplementary support 
for research and entrepreneur-
ship.

One of those entrepreneur-

ial research efforts funded by 
MINTS is Atterocor, a com-
pany set on developing a new 
compound — ATR-101 — for 
the treatment of adrenal can-
cer. 
Atterocor 
co-founder 

Julia Owens sad adrenal is 

rare, impacting around 1,000 
patients in the United States.

Owens said that diseases as 

rare as adrenal cancer often 
lie “below the radar screen” of 
major pharmaceutical compa-
nies.

“It was much more compel-

ling for a startup to take on an 
opportunity like this,” Owens 
said. “We do think that there 
will be a reasonable financial 
return for our investors, but by 
doing this in a small company, 
very capital-efficient manner, 
we think that we can do the 
development more quickly and 
make it financially viable to 
develop a drug for such a rare 
population.”

Both 
Frazier 
Healthcare 

Ventures and the Michigan 
Pre-Seed 
Capital 
Fund, 
a 

Michigan Economic Develop-
ment Corporation program led 
by the business incubator Ann 
Arbor Spark, provided Attero-
cor with $250,000 in seed 
funding.

With preliminary financ-

ing under its belt, the company 
qualified for MINTS funding 
after receiving an introduction 
to the venture fund through the 
Office of Technology Transfer, 
the office in charge of commer-
cializing University-developed 
technology and bringing it to 
the market.

During its second round of 

financing, Atterocor received 
$500,000 from MINTS and 
$15.5 million from three other 
venture funds.

Castilla said MINTS is an 

additional support that the 
University’s Investment Office 

is able to provide to companies 
like Atterocor who are rooted 
in University research and 
entrepreneurship.

Both he and Owens noted 

that the University is heav-
ily involved in adrenal cancer 
research.

“U of M has a number of 

adrenal cancer experts and 
adrenal biologists that make 
it uniquely positioned to be 
involved in starting a company 
like Atterocor,” Owens said.

She said this unique posi-

tioning 
comes 
from 
an 

endowment made by former 
Michigan football coach Bo 
Schembechler to the Univer-
sity. Schembechler founded 
the Millie Schembechler Adre-
nal Cancer fund in memory of 
his wife, thereby providing the 
University the money it needed 
to inaugurate one of the only 
multidisciplinary adrenal can-
cer research centers in the 
world.

In addition to holding the 

Millie Schembechler Profes-
sorship in Adrenal Cancer, 
Atterocor 
co-founder 
Gary 

Hammer is the director of the 
Endocrine Oncology Program 
in the Comprehensive Can-
cer Center at the University. 
The EOP has been recognized 
internationally for its accom-
plishments in the treatment 
of adrenal cancer. Atterocor is 
one of the research initiatives 
that has resulted from the cen-
ter.

Castilla 
said 
MINTS 
is 

a “small piece” of the Uni-
versity’s 
venture 
capital 

See FUND , Page 3

