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 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @michigandaily JOIN THE FUN. “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