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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, February 10, 2015

CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Panel explores 
connections 

between health and 

social justice

By ALLANA AKHTAR

Daily Staff Reporter

Agriculture, food access, race 

and social justice were all topics 
of conversation during a panel 

discussion held Monday to kick 
off the University’s first-ever 
Detroit Week.

Detroit Week examines a vari-

ety of barriers in the city, includ-
ing racism and poverty and 
encourage community service in 
the city, according to Public Poli-
cy junior Blair Sucher, education 
chair of the Detroit Partnership 
and recruitment coordinator for 
the Semester in Detroit.

Several student groups includ-

ing the Detroit Partnership, the 

Black Student Union, Black Vol-
unteer Network, Semester in 
Detroit and LSA Student Gov-
ernment sponsor Detroit Week, 
with features two more Detroit-
focused events scheduled for 
Wednesday and Saturday.

Titled the “Race and Food 

Justice Panel,” Monday’s lecture 
examined food and agriculture 
in terms of their historical and 
current impacts on the city. The 
lecture also explored how food 
helped shaped present racial 

relationships within the city.

The 
panel 
included 
local 

activist Oya Amakisi; Kami 
Pothukuchi, professor of Urban 
Studies at Wayne State Univer-
sity; and Anthony Hatinger, gar-
den production coordinator for 
the Central Detroit Christian 
Community Development Cor-
poration.

Sucher said the panel aimed 

to look at social justice from a 
unique lens and to push stu-

Guidelines to 

simplify current 
policy for student 
responsibilities

By TANAZ AHMED

Daily Staff Reporter

Central Student Government 

has commissioned a task force 
to establish a University-wide 
student honor code. The code 
would stand in addition to the 
pre-existing Statement of Stu-
dent Rights and Responsibilities 
— a set of standards to which 
students agree to adhere by 
upon accepting admission to the 
University. 

Established by CSG President 

Bobby Dishell, a Public Policy 
senior, the task force is designed 
to create an honor code covering 
academic integrity, individual 
behavior and student rights.

“The aim of the task force, 

and eventually the honor code, 
will be to encourage and moti-
vate students to hold ourselves 

to a higher standard,” Dishell 
wrote in a press release. “Cur-
rently there is not one place 
where students can turn to in 
order to know what our commu-
nity stands for. It’s important 
that, as students at Michigan, 
we understand our roles as the 
leaders and best both on and off 
campus.”

In an interview with The 

Michigan 
Daily, 
CSG 
Vice 

President Emily Lustig, an LSA 
senior and chair of the task-
force, said the University lacks 
a clear, institution-wide honor 
code.

“Only certain colleges or 

schools within the University 
have honor codes and they are 
adhered to at different levels,” 
she said.

The Statement acknowledges 

this decentralization, noting 
that numerous entities have 
individual conduct policies and 
mechanisms for sanctioning for 
violations of standards. In addi-
tion, Lustig said, the Statement 
is sometimes too long to be com-
prehensive. Lustig said short-

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

RITA MORRIS/Daily

Oyatunde Amakisi, community resource manager of the Greening of Detroit organization, speaks at the Race and Food Justice Panel in the Annenberg Auditorium 
at the Ford School on Monday.

See DETROIT, Page 3
See HONOR CODE, Page 3

Body discusses 
Fitness for Duty 

policy during 

executive session

By CARLY NOAH

Daily Staff Reporter

At their weekly meeting 

Monday afternoon, the Senate 
Advisory Committee on Uni-
versity Affairs discussed the 
reorganization of several Senate 
Assembly committees.

SACUA also reviewed proce-

dures related to the University’s 
Office for Institutional Equity 
and the Fitness for Duty and 
Professional Standards for Fac-
ulty. Both were discussed dur-
ing a private executive session, 
which are not open to the public 
or the press.

The Fitness for Duty policy 

offers protocals for situations 

when faculty are deemed physi-
cally or mentally unable to 
perform their jobs. The policy 
provides for the possibility of 
financial 
compensation 
dur-

ing a University investigation 
of competency and one year of 
severance pay if their employ-
ment is terminated due to their 
condition.

Last year, SACUA considered 

revisions the policy to mediate 
conflicts between provisions of 
the Americans with Disabilities 
Act and the University’s current 
policy.

The ADA does not require 

faculty state the reason they 
are unable to perform their job. 
SACUA concluded that the Uni-
versity could rework the lan-
guage of the policy to make that 
provision explicitly applicable 
to faculty with physical or men-
tal illness.

The committee also dis-

cussed restructuring the body’s 
committees 
to 
reduce 
the 

number of committees under 
SACUA.

“We’re looking to economize 

SACUA,” said SACUA Chair 
Scott Masten, a professor in 
Public Policy and Business Eco-
nomics.

He said the meeting did not 

finalize any decision, but deter-
mined what matters would be 
taken up in the next Senate 
Assembly meeting.

For example, a merger of the 

Tenure Committee with the 
Rules Committee was suggest-
ed during the meeting.

The Rules Committee cur-

rently works with bylaw chang-
es within the Senate Assembly. 
It was recommended that the 
Rules Committee be granted 
the responsibilities of looking 
at University Standard Practice 
Guides and technology infor-
mation before proposals are 
sent to SACUA.

SACUA member John Lehm-

Analysis shows 
existing studies 
employ imperfect 

methods

By SAMIHA MATIN

For the Daily

Though expanding biofuel 

production is often lauded as 
a key strategy for decreasing 
carbon emissions, a University-
based analysis found that the 
benefits might not be so exten-
sive.

John DeCicco, a research 

professor at the University’s 
Energy 
Institute, 
reviewed 

existing studies that evaluated 
the effectiveness of biofuel as 
an alternative energy source. He 
discovered that the variety of 
computer models used does not 
accurately represent the amount 
of carbon dioxide absorbed from 
the atmosphere when biofuels 
are produced.

Though biofuel, an energy 

source composed from organic 
or food waste products, has gen-
erally been deemed a leading 
eco-friendly option for reducing 
gasoline consumption, DeCicco 
said many of the studies are mis-
leading.

“The government has spon-

sored computer models which 
have made a very basic account-
ing mistake,” he said. “Particu-
larly, they count carbon dioxide 
uptake as it happens. They com-
pletely offset the carbon dioxide 
admitted when the biofuel is 

burned.”

In recent years, scientists and 

researchers have debated the 
advantages and disadvantages 
of biofuel compared to petro-
leum production.

DeCicco, 
however, 
said 

his work takes a step back to 
research fundamental mistakes 
made when measuring carbon 
dioxide uptake throughout the 
decades. His research argues 
against the assumption that bio-
fuels decrease net carbon diox-
ide emissions.

Using a field of soybeans as an 

example, DeCicco talked about 
how these models fail to recog-
nize that lands are constantly 
being 
used 
for 
production. 

Fields previously used to grow 
food are now providing for bio-
fuel production.

“The 
computer-analysis 

methods forget to check what 
land is doing before it is used to 
grow soybeans for biofuels,” he 
said. “They think that the land is 
completely barren. That’s a very 
big mistake.”

Consequently, there has been 

no increase in the removal of 
carbon dioxide from the atmo-
sphere as a result of increased 
biofuel production because the 
fields were already being used to 
grow food.

The research paper also high-

lights the use of carbon foot-
print models and their incorrect 
calculations that carbon diox-
ide emissions are lower with 
biodiesel than petroleum. The 
results are inconsistent with 
the realities of the carbon cycle, 

Despite CDC 

recomendations, 
doctors continue to 
prescribe antibiotics

By PARISHA NOVA

Daily Staff Reporter

Researchers from the Uni-

versity, the London School of 
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 
and the University of Alabama 
have found that Oseltamivir — 
an antiviral medicine marketed 
as “Tamiflu” — shortens the 
duration of influenza symp-
toms by about a day.

When treated with Tamiflu, 

researchers observed a 44 per-
cent reduction in the develop-
ment of respiratory infections 
or other infectious complica-
tions.

Epidemiology Prof. Arnold 

Monto, a researcher from the 
School of Public Health, said 
the study confirms the success 
of antiviral medication in treat-
ing the flu.

“We decided to conduct this 

study as antibacterials are often 
prescribed on grounds that 
antivirals are not as effective,” 
Monto said.

Antivirals typically inhibit 

the development of pathogens, 
whereas 
antibacterial 
treat-

ments kill bacteria.

Monto added that despite 

the recommendations from the 
Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention to use of Tamiflu for 
treating influenza, doctors tend 

SCIENCE
HEALTH

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

SACUA Vice Chair Sally Oey, an astronomy professor, discusses the reorganization of Senate Assembly Committees 
with German Prof. Silke-Maria Weineck at a SACUA meeting in the Fleming Administration Building on Monday.

See BIOFUEL, Page 3
See SACUA, Page 3
See FLU, Page 3

CSG task 
force plans 
to create 
honor code

Detroit Week kicks off with 
discussion on food and race

Research calls 
into question 
use of biofuel

SACUA discusses possible 
committee reorganization

Antiviral 
treatment 
shortens flu 
symptoms

INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 63
©2015The Michigan Daily
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