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Wednesday, January 21, 2015
CELEBRATING OUR ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
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Vol. CXXIV, No. 51
©2015 The Michigan Daily
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the statement
Governor also
urges voters to pass
ballot proposal to
fix roads in May
By EMMA KINERY
Daily Staff Reporter
Staying true to his nickname,
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, the
“tough nerd,” emphasized edu-
cation as one of several means to
create opportunity in his State of
the State address Tuesday.
Using a “river of opportunity”
as a metaphor for improving edu-
cation and job prospects in the
state, among other issues, Snyder
said he will shift the state’s focus
from creating new programs to
addressing problems.
“Quite often we’re addressing
symptoms. We’re not addressing
root causes. In some cases, we’re
actually facilitating dependency
on government,” Snyder said.
“That’s not right.”
Snyder said his plan would
focus on five principles: people,
causes, increasing results without
increasing cost, community and
measuring outcomes.
Though several other gover-
nors who may be potential 2016
presidential candidates discussed
national policies in their address-
es, Snyder primarily emphasized
Michigan-centric policies. Snyder
has not discussed any potential
2016 candidacy despite specula-
tion.
On education, Snyder intro-
duced several key initiatives that,
if passed, would impact Michigan
students from preschool to higher
education, including calling for
legislative support for a statewide
evaluation system for K-12 teach-
ers and a commission to study
third-grade reading scores.
He also announced he will ask
the legislature to include an addi-
Snyder talks education
in State of State address
AMANDA ALLEN /Daily
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder gives the 2015 State of the State address at the State Capitol in Lansing on Tuesday.
City will engage
in efforts to
displace temporary
camps humanely
By LARA MOEHLMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
The heaviest topic of discus-
sion of Tuesday’s Ann Arbor
City Council meeting centered
on the city’s homeless camps.
The dialogue came in the wake
of numerous demonstrations by
public commenters supporting
these camps.
In recent months, Council-
member Stephen Kunselman
(D-Ward 3) has been targeted
by members and allies of Ann
Arbor’s
homeless
commu-
nity following statements last
November that some considered
offensive. These claims resulted
in a petition to recall Kunsel-
man, which was approved in the
first week of January.
Subsequently, the council dis-
cussed and approved a revised
This year’s
event open to
undergraduates
By EMILY MIILLER
For the Daily
Over 40 employers and hun-
dreds
of
students
gathered
Tuesday in the Dana Build-
ing’s Ford Commons for the
University’s first campus-wide
Green Career Fair. Open to all
University students, the fair
showcased internships and jobs
centered around environmental
and sustainability issues.
Though the School of Natu-
ral Resources and Environment
has organized similar fairs for
graduate students in the past,
this year’s event was open to all
students.
The fair was co-hosted by
the student organizations Stu-
dents for Clean Energy and Net
Impact Undergrad, and spon-
sored by the environmental
consulting firm Antea Group.
LSA
senior
Jesse
Selvin,
president of Students for Clean
Energy, co-organized the event
and said many students are
concerned about sustainability,
but do not know how to become
involved.
“We really want to make sure
students know sustainability is
something that’s vital both on
campus and afterwards,” Sel-
vin said. “And not only that it’s
vital, but that it’s available, it’s
accessible.”
Selvin added that he was
pleased with the diversity of
participating companies.
“I would say it runs the gam-
bit from environmental consult-
ing companies to engineering
companies to nongovernmental
organizations and research,” he
said.
Han Zhang, a representative
from Dow Chemical, said it is
important for students to rec-
ognize that they can apply their
interest and skills in sustain-
ability beyond college.
LSA senior Michelle Dimuzio
said she liked the fair’s con-
centration on environmental
careers in contrast to larger
career fairs. She attended the
Assembly plans
to transfer nearly
$9,000 to library
By TANAZ AHMED
Daily Staff Reporter
The Central Student Gov-
ernment’s main focus Tuesday
night was funding additional
power stations in the Shap-
iro Undergraduate Library to
address
students’
mounting
needs to charge up.
The new electricity expan-
sion proposal would place an
additional 67 table-mounted
power stations in the UGLi.
These would include three
power outlets and one USB port
each.
Because there were ques-
tions about the project’s total
cost and the need for charging
stations to include USB ports,
the resolution was ultimately
referred to CSG’s finance com-
mittee and will come to a vote at
next week’s meeting.
Installation
costs
would
amount to $8,772 — the resolu-
tion in place proposes that CSG
cover the costs with money
from its Legislative Discretion-
ary Fund by transferring it to
the UGLi’s facilities coordina-
In address,
Obama calls
for reduced
college costs
Foreign policy,
middle class also
prominent in State
of the Union
By JACK TURMAN,
ALLANA AKHTAR
AND SHOHAM GEVA
Daily Staff Reporters and Daily
News Editor
President Barack Obama gave
his seventh State of the Union
address Tuesday evening before
a Senate and House controlled
by the Republicans for the first
time during his presidency.
The
president’s
speech
touched on several key issues
from his years in office, includ-
ing conflict in the Middle East
and the economic recession. He
expanded on proposed reforms
in several areas announced by
the White House in the weeks
leading up to the address as
well.
Chief among his reforms
were proposals to impact the
price of paying for college as
part of an overarching theme
addressing “middle-class eco-
nomics.”
“Middle-class
economics
means helping working fami-
lies feel more secure in a world
of constant change,” Obama
said. “That means helping folks
afford childcare, college, health
care, a home, retirement — and
my budget will address each of
these issues, lowering the taxes
of working families and putting
thousands of dollars back into
their pockets each year.”
In the address, Obama specif-
ically stressed a plan announced
earlier in the week to simplify
and consolidate the American
Opportunity Tax Credit, an
2009 initiative that gives low
and middle class families tax
benefits on higher education
costs. Though the AOTC is set
to expire by 2017 under the cur-
rent tax plan, Obama said he
hopes to make it a permanent
feature of the tax code, with
the amount of credit adjusted to
keep up with inflation.
The president also proposed
making it easier to apply for tax
credits, as well as require col-
leges and universities to pro-
GOVERNMENT
Green Career
Fair focuses on
sustainability
CSG considers resolution
to invest in UGLi outlets
Complaints
lead to new
homeless
legislation
CAMPUS LIFE
ANN ARBOR
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
See POTUS, Page 3A
See OUTLETS, Page 3A
See SNYDER, Page 3A
See GREEN, Page 3A
See HOMELESS, Page 3A
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
LSA freshmen Anna Bauer and Maddie Rabe, members of the University’s chapter of the College Democrats, view
the State of the Union at the College Democrats watch party in the Weill Building on Tuesday.
DEM VIEWING PART Y