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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

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Proposed legislation
would enable high
schoolers to take
college courses

By EMMA KINERY

Daily Staff Reporter

In accordance with Republican

Gov. Rick Snyder’s alternative edu-
cation initiative, several bills were
introduced into the Michigan leg-
islature last week regarding higher
education.

In his State of the State address,

Snyder said he aims for Michi-
gan to become the number one
state for skilled trades programs,
and praised alternative education
routes such as dual enrollment for
high school students and appren-
ticeships.

Dual enrollment for high

school students

State Sen. Darwin Booher (R–

Evart) introduced Senate Bills 36
and 37 last week, which would
allow high school students to

enroll in community college cours-
es. Should these bills pass, high
school teachers could receive qual-
ifications to teach certain college-
level classes, which the students
could subsequently take without
traveling to a community college
campus.

Booher, who is the Community

Colleges chair, a subcommittee of
the Senate Appropriations Com-
mittee, noted that concurrent
courses were the best way to put
dual enrollment into practice, as
not all high school students have
the luxury of commuting to com-
munity college after school.

“Part of the kids that didn’t have

jobs after school or didn’t have
some kind of requirement, they
could go, but not every student can.
A lot of them have jobs, and a lot of
them have athletics,” Booher said.
“This is the fair way to do it; they’re
already there.”

SB-36 proposes that any “school

district or public school academy
may partner with 1 or more post-
secondary institutions or 1 or more
intermediate school districts and

Students examine
self-acceptance
with spoken-word

performances

By ALYSSA BRANDON

Daily Staff Reporter

Inspired by the critical-

ly-aclaimed
“Vagina
Mono-

logues,” a dozen University

students appeared on the Lydia
Mendelssohn Theatre stage on
Tuesday night to share their
experiences
grappling
with

body image.

Sponsored by the Univer-

sity Health Service, the “Body
Monologues” featured 12 spo-
ken-word
performances
by

University students.

Though
performers
often

stopped during their mono-
logues for comical asides to the
audience, the performance also

addressed more serious issues
such as low self-esteem, eating
disorders, suicide and sexual
identity.

Public
Health
student

Tahiya
Alam
performed
a

monologue titled “Chai Tea or
Latte?” which discussed how
her struggles with gaining
acceptance in both American
culture and her native Bengali
culture often made her feel like
an outsider.

“My skin will always stand

out in this crowd,” Alam said.
“Growing up in the Midwest,
I was landlocked in a sea of
white, forever an outsider.”

In the monologue “Mischief

Managed,” Engineering senior
Jake Heller examined how his
struggle to accept his weight
led him to contemplate suicide.

“I truly believed that being

dead was better than being
fat,” Heller said during his per-
formance.

Jazz, punk, rock
and techno all
have deep roots

in the city

By PAULA FRIEDRICH

and STEPHANIE DILWORTH

Daily Staff Reporters

DETROIT
—
From
Berry

Gordy’s Hitsville, USA to Emi-
nem’s “8-Mile,” Detroit’s geogra-
phy is strewn with music history.
But the legacy of Detroit’s music
runs far deeper than the names
that first come to mind. It runs
from the methodic din of facto-
ries, from unsatisfied suburban
teens and from clubs now shut-
tered.

It’s
nearly
impossible
to

name a genre that isn’t rooted in
Detroit this history still affects
musicians and venues working in
the city today — from jazz to rock
to techno.

Detroit jazz and

a ‘Culture of Mentorship’
Every Tuesday night at Cliff

Bell’s, the Marcus Elliot Quartet

takes the stage. Audience mem-
bers order drinks and chat while
the guys on stage play — eyes
closed, fingers dancing. Elliot
leads on saxophone, throwing out
rolling, brassy swells. He dips off
stage every now and then to give
space for another musician to
solo: Michael Malis on the piano,
Steven Boegehold on the drums
or Ben Rolston on the bass.

The quartet all came up

together in Detroit’s close-knit
jazz scene, and while they’re all
still in their early to mid-twen-
ties, they credit much of their
development and success to the
long lineage of musicians that
played jazz before them.

“Detroit has such a deep his-

tory, not only in jazz, but in
Motown, techno, hip-hop —
everything,” Elliot said. “It’s
just really, really deep and I just
wanted to make sure I tapped
into that.”

Detroit’s jazz scene stretches

back to the early 1920s when 11-
or 12-piece bands like the Jean
Goldkette Orchestra and the
nationally
famed
McKinney’s

Cotton Pickers played for crowds

Nearly 20 students
convene in UMMA

for candid talk

By ANASTASSIOS
ADAMOPOULOUS

Daily Staff Reporters

Though
the
University’s

Museum of Modern Art offers
a number of renowned exhi-
bitions, Tuesday night at the

UMMA was as much about lit-
erature and science as the arts.

LSA Dean Andrew Martin,

who assumed the dean’s office in
September 2014, held a discus-
sion with students in the Mul-
tipurpose Room of the UMMA,
where he explained both his
short- and long-term adminis-
trative goals. He held a similar
discussion in November.

The chat follows the inau-

guration of five new minors by
LSA for this year’s winter term:

Yiddish Studies, Arab and Mus-
lim American Culture, Art and
Design, Intergroup Relations
Education and Entrepreneur-
ship.

Martin spoke to about 20

students on a variety of issues,
including
interdisciplinary

studies, the Race and Ethnicity
requirement and his main pri-
orities as LSA dean over the next
few years.

He said one of his main goals

Online update
allows users to

track success with

sustainability

By NABEEL CHOLLAMPAT

Daily Staff Reporter

The University’s Planet

Blue Ambassador program,
an online sustainability ini-
tiative, received an upgrade
this past month as new
improvements were made to
its user interface.

PBA launched in 2013 as

part of former University
President Mary Sue Cole-
man’s campus-wide sustain-
ability goals. The program
aims to engage faculty, staff
and students in campus
sustainability through an
online platform.

Program
Coordinator

Nicole Berg said the pro-
gram has received posi-
tive
feedback
since
the

program’s launch.

“There is a lot of sup-

See ENROLLMENT, Page 3A

See PLANET BLUE, Page 3A
See DEAN, Page 3A

GOVERNMENT

DETROIT

See MONOLOGUES, Page 3A

See DETROIT, Page 2A

CAMPUS LIFE

BRIAN BECKWITH/Daily

Eastern Michigan University alumn Kamilah Davis-Wilson performs at the Body Monologues show where participants share their stories at the Lydia
Mendelssohn Theatre in the Michigan League on Tuesday.

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

LSA Dean Andrew Martin answers students’ questions at Desserts & Coffee #withDeanMartin in the UMMA
multipurpose room Tuesday.

State bills
could allow
students to
dual enroll

Body Monologues explore
experiences with self-image

Array of music
styles shaped
by Detroiters

LSA Dean talks diversity,
interdisciplinary initiatives

Planet
Blue web
interface
improves

INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 59
©2015 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com

NEWS......................... 2A

OPINION.....................4A

SPORTS ......................7A

SUDOKU..................... 2A

CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A

THE STATEMENT..........1B

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