billion dollars, whatever the fig-
ure is, and redirect it to the Pell 
Grant program” Kantrowitz said.

The 
University’s 
Office 
of 

Financial Aid said they couldn’t 
say how many students use the 
AOTC because those deductions 
are filed through IRS, not the Uni-
versity.

In light of the president’s sec-

ond proposal, which would make 
two years of community college 
free, Kantrowitz noted that in 
community colleges — where 
more than half of the students are 
typically lower income — tuition 
is already effectively free because 
they already use the Pell Grant 
and AOTC. Thus, the president’s 
second proposal would lead to 
low-income students using less of 
the credit they would be eligible 
for under AOTC.

“So that would actually lead to 

a decrease in the tax credits used 

by low-income students despite 
the expansion of the amount for 
which they are eligible,” Kan-
trowitz said. “It’s difficult to say 
what the impact would be, but I 
believe it sounds good on paper, 
but the reality after implementa-
tion might be substantially differ-
ent.”

Peter Riley Bahr, associate pro-

fessor of education at the Universi-
ty, said reducing the cost of college 
is an important goal, as cheaper 
or free tuition makes access to 
higher education easier. However, 
he also noted that tuitions are not 
the only costs community college 
students incur, as many of them 
face living expenses, family and 
childcare responsibilities.

“We have to remember that 

making a college less expensive is 
a good thing but it’s not a complete 
solution to the financial barriers 
that students face,” he said.

Bahr noted that students who 

enroll in community college do 
so for a diverse range of reasons. 
Some students are not full time 

and not all are seeking to complete 
credentials, but may be retrain-
ing and getting certificates and 
licenses. Therefore, the way the 
program is implemented is also 
important.

“I would hate to see free college 

with strings attached, like ‘You 
must be a full time student, you 
must be these other things,’ that 
may or may not fit, or will not fit 
the college going model for some 
segments of the population,” he 
said.

Bahr said he’s not optimistic 

that the legislature actually imple-
ments the plan due to the political 
climate, but praised Obama for 
highlighting the issue.

“He has done many things 

well, but one thing he has done 
really well in his administration 
is draw attention to the value and 
significance of community col-
leges in our society today,” Bahr 
said. “There is no question that 
community colleges are playing a 
larger educational training role in 
our society and our economy.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, January 30, 2015 — 3

cate people on Brazil culture and 
have this lovely evening,” she 
said.

The IEDP class curriculum 

and trip itinerary were planned 
entirely by the students. Stu-
dents applied to the program last 
September and have been orga-
nizing the class since November 
2013. They will be in Brazil for 
the duration of spring break.

Chanera Pierce, a Public Pol-

icy graduate student, said the 
IEPD program was the reason 
she chose the University in the 
first place.

“One of the most attractive 

features was the opportunity 
to not only critically examine 
a country but to actually visit,” 
Pierce said. “I saw that and I was 
like, ‘One, I will be at this school; 
two, I am going to do this pro-
gram.’ ”

Rory Pulvino, a dual-degree 

graduate student in Law and 
Public Policy, is group president 
and said the IEDP program also 
drew him to the school. Pul-
vino said Brazil’s wide array 
of socio-economic populations 
paired well with his interest in 
economic development abroad—
compelling him to propose Bra-
zil originally.

The goal for the class is to 

learn about Brazil’s policies 
through direct contact with the 
country’s stakeholders. Students 
are researching five focus areas 
— economic development, social 
welfare, environmental issues, 
urban planning and security —
and producing policy analysis 
papers following their visit.

Pulvino said the group will 

meet with representatives from 
Brazilian organizations like the 
Ministry of Cities, the Ministry 
of Science, Technology and Inno-
vation and the Ministry of Social 
Development, among others.

“I’m interested in land issues, 

property issues and natural 
resource management and Bra-
zil obviously has a lot of these 
issues,” he said. “They have the 
Amazon, which is obviously a 
massive global natural resource 
that needs to be managed, hope-
fully correctly. They also have 
urban issues that are very inter-
esting, especially in terms of 
property laws.”

Matthew Manning, a Public 

Policy graduate student, was one 
of the members who worked on 
creating the original syllabus for 
the class. He said it was impor-
tant to both educate everyone 
on Brazil before the trip, as well 
as prepare the group with skills 
like public speaking. He said the 
prospect of getting final papers 
published is also appealing to 
many in the group.

Also included in the curricu-

lum are frequent posts to a pub-
lic blog and presentations to the 
class on students’ respective Bra-
zil research.

“The website right now, what 

we want, our vision for it is to 
be kind of like a resource on just 
Brazil in general to build up a 
following of people,” Manning 
said. “We wanted to incorporate 
a strong writing element. And 
of course presentation skills are 
very important in a professional 
environment so we wanted to 
also have this presentation.”

While still in Ann Arbor, the 

group is contacting to experts on 
Brazil and urban issues to learn 
from first-hand sources. Man-
ning said he recently scheduled 
for Paulo Sotero, director of the 
Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute 
in Washington, D.C., to visit in 
February.

Though the IEDP program has 

run since 2000 — with students 
traveling to countries like China, 
Peru, Jordan and others — this 
year’s trip is made unique by its 
advising professor: Public Policy 
Prof. Melvyn Levitsky, who was 

the U.S. ambassador to Brazil 
from 1994 to 1998. His resume 
also includes serving on the Unit-
ed Nations Economic and Social 
Council and other senior-level 
positions throughout a 35-year 
career as a diplomat.

Levitsky, 
who 
surprised 

guests Thursday with a rendition 
of “The Girl From Ipanema,” said 
he hopes to offer an extra level 
of insight to the students from 
his own experiences in Brazil. 
Levitsky said another goal for 
the trip is outreach to the com-
munity, establishing connections 
with organizations to create a 
two-way street of collaboration 
between Brazil and the Universi-
ty. He said he hopes to encourage 
students in the area to apply to 
the University and also establish 
an internship opportunity for 
current University students this 
summer—a common goal of each 
IEDP program.

Manning, Burdette and Pierce 

all said Brazil actually shares 
similar racial and social issues to 
the United States, both today and 
throughout history. However, 
they said most Americans are 
unfamiliar with those parallels. 
These topics include police bru-
tality, racial tensions and poverty 
in the favelas, or Brazilian slums.

Pierce 
has 
already 
done 

research on Brazil’s social poli-
cies. She said her report on Bra-
zil’s “Minha Casa Minha Vida” 
(My House My Life) national 
housing policy gives her a head 
start on exploring the country 
next month. More specifically, 
Pierce is interested in further 
exploring the country’s racial 
tensions and how the laws affect 
Afro-Brazilians.

“Just because they didn’t 

have a formal and institutional-
ized policy that supported dis-
crimination does not mean their 
ongoing policies did not implic-
itly 
support 
discrimination,” 

she said. “So, you have the Black 
community having the lowest 
literacy rates, or they are largely 
not employed in white-collar 
positions.”

Another interest for many 

students is the economic impact 
of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Man-
ning and others explained how 
opposition groups to the Olym-
pics have sprouted following the 
2014 World Cup in Brazil, with 
many Brazilians seeing the event 
as doing more financial harm 
than good for the population as a 
whole after mismanagement and 
possible corruption.

Manning said he’s looking 

into arranging meetings with 
both the Olympic committee and 
opposition groups in Rio.

Levitsky said he’s also excited 

for the students to work through 
the planning process of a diplo-
matic trip.

“If somebody’s doing a trip, 

like the President of the United 
States, to the director of a sec-
tion in a non-governmental orga-
nization, the trip is not for fun. 
They’re going to find out and try 
to learn how, actually, Brazil has 
done quite a bit better in terms of 
growth—although the last couple 
years aren’t as good—than so 
many other countries.”

According to the CIA World 

Factbook, Brazil ranked eighth 
globally in gross domestic prod-
uct in 2013. Many of the students 
in the class said their peers who 
are less familiar with the coun-
try tend to short sell its success, 
considering it a “developing” 
country rather than a major 
global force.

“In reality, it’s a much more 

complex story on the ground,” 
said Lauren Burdette, a Pub-
lic Policy graduate student. “If 
you don’t actually learn the 
history of a country and learn 
what’s actually happening on 
the ground, you run the danger 
of making a lot of assumptions 
of what life is actually like there 
and assumptions can make real-
ly bad policy.”

BRAZIL
From Page 1

can only say that every rider with 
whom I’ve spoken to felt safe.”

Safety questions surrounding 

Uber’s operation is just one facet 
of the Uber controversy, which 
has emerged internationally as 
well.

In Ann Arbor, local taxi ser-

vice owners and operators have 
raised financial concerns in addi-
tion to the safety concerns raised 
by members of the community 
and City Council.

Merlyn Wade, owner of Ann 

Arbor Cab, has been in the taxi 
business for almost 30 years. He 
submitted a five-page testimony 
to state legislators, outlining the 
flaws in a Michigan House of 
Representatives bill proposed 
in December. The bill called for 
statewide mandatory permits, 
insurance and screening for driv-
ers for services such as Uber and 
Lyft.

Wade said, if passed, the bill 

would have allowed Uber to con-

tinue operating the same way it 
has been, without following reg-
ulations taxicabs have to follow.

“They would have been able 

to operate without a chauffeur’s 
license, 
without 
commercial 

insurance, without commercial 
plating,” he said.

He added that those rules are 

put in place to protect both the 
passenger and the driver in a 
taxi.

“They might seem archaic, but 

they’re there for a reason,” Wade 
said. “And the rules and the reg-
ulations that we have to follow 
out here are not excessive.”

Wade also noted the unfair 

advantage he sees in the Uber 
business model.

“I have a wife who’s termi-

nally ill and I’ve got five chil-
dren I’m trying to feed, and I 
follow the rules and I come out 
here, just like my drivers do, and 
these guys are allowed to come 
out here and operate illegally, 
and take food off the table of my 
family? How is that right?” Wade 
said.

“I don’t have a problem with 

Uber doing business. I have a 

problem with Uber not following 
the same rules everybody else 
follows,” he added.

John Etter, president of Blue 

Cab Company, expressed simi-
lar views. His cab company pays 
$5,000 to $10,000 per car a year.

“To have a competitor that 

doesn’t have to pay that? That 
doesn’t seem right,” Etter said.

Etter said he has seen busi-

ness suffer as a result of Uber, 
especially with the student mar-
ket on weekend nights.

In response to the new tech-

nology Uber on which operates, 
Etter said Blue Cab is working 
to develop an app of its own, 
which would allow customers to 
see where the cars are and keep 
their credit cards on file.

While taxi companies attri-

bute a drop in customers due 
to Uber, Ann Arbor taxis them-
selves are not immune to safety 
concerns from the community. 
In 2013, the Ann Arbor News 
reported a Blue Cab taxi driver 
was arraigned for two misde-
meanor 
assault 
and 
battery 

charges after a female customer 
reported he kissed her.

UBER
From Page 1

was stayed a day later, mean-
ing no more same-sex marriages 
could be performed in the state 
pending an appeal by the state to 
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 
Sixth Circuit. In November, the 
Sixth Circuit reversed the district 
court’s decision, upholding the 
state’s ban.

Following the Sixth Circuit 

decision, DeBoer and Rowse 
appealed 
their 
case 
to 
the 

Supreme Court.

Earlier this month, the U.S. 

Supreme Court agreed to take 
up the case, consolidating it with 
three other similar cases from 
other states in the Sixth Circuit.

The Ann Arbor City Council 

will vote on Monday to decide 
whether or not Ann Arbor will be 
listed as a “Supporting Municipal-
ity” in this Supreme Court case.

By approving the listing, Coun-

cil members will state that the city 
is in favor of legalization of same-
sex marriage in the state.

Solar installation

Council members will also 

discuss a resolution to approve 
a license agreement with DTE 
Energy to build a solar installa-
tion at the Ann Arbor Municipal 
Airport.

If passed, the city will grant 

DTE the use of Ann Arbor city 
property to install and operate 
photovoltaic systems.

Photovoltaic systems, which 

consist of solar panels and solar 
converters, are sources of usable 
solar power.

If the resolution passes, the 

system will be installed in two 
phases. The contract states that 
the installation will be completed 
on or before December 31, 2017.

Plum Market Rezoning and 

Site Plan

The Ann Arbor Planning Com-

mission has outlined a rezoning 
and site plan for the potential 

opening of a Plum Market on 
Plymouth Road.

Plum Market, which also has a 

store on North Maple Road, sells 
groceries with an emphasis on 
local and organic products.

The proposal is to rezone 2.96 

acres from their designation as a 
Planned Unit Development dis-
trict to a C3, Fringe Commercial 
district, which would permit the 
existing 25,000 sq. ft. building on 
the land to be used as a grocery 
store.

The plan also proposes the con-

struction of a 4,639 square foot 
addition to the building’s north 
side, as well as an outdoor patio.

Construction costs are estimat-

ed to be $300,000.

The plan also recommended 

that the retail center be acces-
sible to pedestrians. In addition, 
it encouraged mass transit access 
and a reduction of the demand for 
parking. Bicycle lanes and side-
walks were also recommended on 
both sides of Plymouth Road. 

CITY COUNCIL
From Page 1

team, the group currently has 
more than a dozen mentors.

Business sophomore Lauren 

Dodge, one of the mentors, said 
the organization gives her to pur-
sue objectives outside of her aca-
demic path.

“I always had a passion for 

business and I was torn between 
whether I wanted to go into 
business or I wanted to go into 
teaching,” Dodge said. “So when 
I heard about Moneythink, I real-
ized that it combined both of my 
passions.”

At Skyline High School, the 

group mentors a class of seniors 
in the school’s three-year busi-
ness magnet program.

Michelle Wargo, a business, 

marketing and information tech-
nology teacher at Skyline, who 
leads the program, said students 
have voiced positive feedback 
about the program so far.

“Financial literacy is really 

important, and I think wherever 
they can get that is great,” Wargo 
said. “And they get the best of 
both worlds with this program 
— they get to have mentors in col-
lege and they get to bond with 
them over other things as well, 
plus learn financial literacy.”

At the beginning of each week, 

Stuart and Lobel teach mentors 
curriculum for the upcoming Fri-
day. The national team provides 
individual lesson topics to help 
guide each chapter, but there is 
some flexibility based on student 
interest, Dodge said.

“We mend the curriculum to 

keep them engaged and make the 
topics relatable to their lives,” she 
said.

Because the Skyline students 

are enrolled in a business pro-
gram, most have already had 
some 
exposure 
to 
financial 

knowledge and skills, either from 
their parents or jobs, Stuart said.

“Especially (because) the les-

sons we’ve had so far have been 
pretty easy, we want to make sure 
they’re still engaged and taking it 
seriously,” Stuart said. “So we’ve 
been stepping it up a bit, and com-
bining two lessons into one.”

The organization also uses 

a smartphone application that 
encourages students to practice 
the skills they’ve learned outside 
of the classroom. One week, stu-
dents were asked to take a picture 
of their bank. The next, they were 
asked to take pictures of purchas-
es they spent money and saved 
money on, and to elaborate on 
whether or not those were good 
purchases.

Moneythink uses a point sys-

tem to incentivize out-of-class 
participation: each time students 
do these tasks they earn points, 
and at the end of the semester the 
group that has earned the most 
points will win a prize.

Before Moneythink started at 

Skyline, its mentors also under-
went an orientation that taught 
them how to serve as effective 
role models to the high school 
students, rather than just a friend.

“Moneythink emphasizes the 

mentor role,” Stuart said. “So, one 
mentor will have a group of stu-
dents, and it’s the same mentor 
going back to the same students 
every week. This way, they devel-
op a pretty strong relationship.”

Mentors usually work with 

groups no larger than four stu-
dents to allow for this relation-
ship to develop.

Stuart said she and Lobel are 

currently working on reaching 
out to both Huron and Pioneer 
High Schools in Ann Arbor to 
hopefully expand the program.

Their ultimate goal is to have 

one or two partner schools in 
Detroit by fall 2016.

“In Ann Arbor, it’s not the first 

time (the students) are hearing 
about (financial planning),” Stu-
art said. “We want to have a good 
understanding of what we’re 
doing before we reach out to a 
school that needs us a bit more.”

MONEYTHINK
From Page 1

SOTU
From Page 1

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“JOURNALISM IS THE 

FIRST DRAFT OF HISTORY.”

NEWS BRIEFS

LANSING
Legislator proposes 
law to make assault 
on a referee a felony

A state senator is sponsoring 

legislation to make it a felony to 
assault a referee or other official 
at a sporting event in Michigan.

Detroit Democrat Morris Hood 

III said he decided to propose the 
law after referees in southeastern 
Michigan approached him in the 
aftermath of soccer referee John 
Bieniewicz’s death at an adult 
league game in Livonia last sum-
mer. Bassel Saad, a player ejected 
from the game, goes on trial Feb. 
23 on a second-degree murder 
charge.

WYOMING, Mich.
Police officer shot 
in stomach during 
response to dispute

A western Michigan police 

officer and a man who opened fire 
on officers in a community near 
Grand Rapids have been wound-
ed.

Wyoming police Chief James 

Carmody tells WOOD-TV that 
the officers were responding to a 
domestic dispute Thursday after-
noon when the man shot one of 
them.

Carmody says officers returned 

fire, striking the man. His name 
hasn’t been released.

WZZM-TV reports that the 

officer was shot in the abdomen 
and says the man who shot him 
was hospitalized in serious condi-
tion.

Neighbors tell WZZM-TV that 

they heard as many as 40 shots.

WEST PALM BEACH
Treasure hunter 
eluded police with 
cash and tradecraft

A deep-sea treasure hunter 

who vanished during a court 
fight over his $50 million haul 
of gold bars and coins eluded 
capture by hiding in a two-room 
hotel suite under a fake name, 
paying for everything in cash and 
keeping a low-profile, authorities 
said Thursday.

When 
Tommy 
Thompson 

and his longtime companion did 
leave the hotel room, usually 
alone and her more than him, 
they would use a combination of 
buses, taxis and walking around 
to shake anyone who might be 
tailing them.

Thompson, 62, was wanted 

after he failed to appear in an 
Ohio courtroom in 2012 in a law-
suit about the gold he brought 
up in 1988 from a 19th century 
shipwreck. Two investors who 
had funded Thompson’s dream 
to find the shipwreck sued, as did 
some of his crew members, who 
said they also had been cheated 
out of their share.

LOS ANGELES
Suspect charged in 
disappearance of 
Fox film executive

A convicted drug dealer was 

charged Thursday with the 
murder of a 20th Century Fox 
executive, 
who 
mysteriously 

disappeared more than two 
years ago and whose remains 
were found in a northern Los 
Angeles County desert area in 
October.

John Lenzie Creech, 42, was 

charged Thursday with 57-year-
old Gavin Smith’s death, accord-
ing to the Los Angeles County 
district attorney’s office.

Smith was last seen leaving 

a female friend’s home in Ven-
tura County’s Oak Park neigh-
borhood on May 1, 2012. Hikers 
discovered the remains about 
70 miles away, near Palmdale in 
the Antelope Valley, on Oct. 26, 
the Los Angeles County Sher-
iff’s Department said.

Smith was with Fox’s movie 

distribution 
department 
for 

nearly 18 years. He was also a 
former UCLA basketball player 
and had three children.

—Compiled from 
 Daily wire reports

