michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, February 12, 2015
CELEBRATING OUR ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Higher education,
K-12 programs
slated to receive
funding increases
By SHOHAM GEVA
and JACK TURMAN
Daily News Editor and
Daily Staff Reporter
Despite a projected short-
fall in Michigan both this fiscal
year and next, higher education
received a funding increase in
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s
budget announcement Wednes-
day morning.
In
a
presentation
to
the
state’s lawmakers, the governor
announced the state budget for
the 2016 fiscal year as well as revi-
sions to the 2015 fiscal year bud-
get. Those changes are intended
to account for a deficit, which was
announced at the state’s biannual
revenue estimating conference in
January. Administration officials
have attributed the deficit to an
unprecedented number of busi-
nesses recently cashing in on tax
credits issued over the past sev-
eral years.
Snyder proposed a 2-percent
increase to university funding
and 1.4-percent increase in com-
munity college funding, a move
similar to his previous budgets.
Nonetheless, the overall level
of state higher education fund-
ing remains lower than it was at
the start of his tenure, due to a
15-percent cut the governor rec-
ommended in 2011.
Even with the unexpected
shortfalls, Snyder told reporters
at a press conference Wednesday
afternoon he was pleased with
the budget proposal.
“We should be very proud of
the economic outcomes of our
state so far and the future of our
state looks very bright,” Snyder
said.
Last month, the House Fis-
cal Agency projected a $454.4
million deficit, but State Budget
Director John Roberts updated
that number in a recent report to
GOVERNMENT
See BUDGET, Page 3A
‘U’ community
remembers victims
of shooting
By LARA MOEHLMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
Members of the University
community gathered Wednes-
day night for a candlelight vigil
on the Diag to honor the memory
of three Muslim students shot
and killed in Chapel Hill, North
Carolina.
Dental student Deah Shad-
dy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor
Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and
her sister Razan Mohammad
Abu-Salha, 19, were all found
dead in their apartment Tuesday
evening.
Police linked it to a dispute
over parking, but are also inves-
tigating the incident as a poten-
tial hate crime. All three of the
victims were Muslim.
Holding cups containing can-
dles, roughly 200 people gath-
ered around memorial candles
placed on the ground to spell out
“CHAPEL HILL” before listen-
ing to several speeches and reci-
tations made by students, faculty
and community members deliv-
ered from the steps of Hatcher
Graduate Library.
The
University’s
Muslim
Student Association hosted the
hour-long event.
Barakat was a second-year
dental student at the Univer-
sity of North Carolina. His wife
was planning to enter the same
school in the fall. Razan Moham-
mad Abu-Salha was an architec-
ture and environmental design
student at North Carolina State
University in Raleigh.
Police have identified the
RUBY WALLAU/Daily
Students gather in memory of the three victims of the Chapel Hill shooting during a vigil hosted by the Muslim Students Association on the Diag Wednesday.
See VIGIL, Page 3A
60 students vote
to donate funds for
foster care support
program
By PAIGE PFLEGER
Daily Staff Reporter
A crowd of 60 students slurped
soup and raised money for
Detroit-based charities Wednes-
day evening as part of The Soup,
the second event of the Univer-
sity’s first-ever Detroit Week.
Organized by the Detroit Part-
nership, the Black Student Union,
the Black Volunteer Network,
Semester in Detroit and the LSA
Student
Government,
Detroit
Week is hosting three events to
examine problems the facing the
city as well as promote communi-
ty outreach. The week kicked off
Monday with a panel on race and
food in the city and will conclude
Saturday with a volunteer project
at the Franklin Wright Settle-
ment in Detroit.
Inspired by Detroit SOUP, a
monthly dinner that funds micro-
grants for Detroit-based projects,
The Soup raised $325 for charity
by providing students with a $5
soup dinner and an opportunity
to vote for the charity who would
receive the proceeds from the
event.
All the participating organi-
zations, including Detroit Urban
Debate Education, Society of
Hispanic Professional Engineers
and the Loud Voice Movement,
are campus groups with the mis-
sion of empowering youth in the
Detroit community.
“I love this event because it
continues the engagement with
Detroit, and allows the Detroit
Partnership to collaborate with
other groups,” said Public Policy
junior Blair Sucher, education
director for the Detroit Partner-
ship. “To me, that’s so important,
because it’s awesome to see peo-
ple from all areas of study come
out and support Detroit.”
Each organization presented
their mission and service goals
while students ate their soup.
Detroit Urban Debate Educa-
tion is a student organization
that sends students to schools
CAMPUS LIFE
See SOUP, Page 3A
Accolade recognizes
efforts to promote
advancement for
women of color
By SARAH KHAN
For the Daily
Lorna Goodison, a former
University English professor,
was honored for her literary
work Wednesday evening in a
ceremony at Stamps Audito-
rium.
Goodison,
a
former
Afroamerican
and
African
Studies professor, received the
Shirley Verrett Award for her
poetry and short stories. Given
to a faculty member whose
work encourages the advance-
ment of women of color in the
arts, the award was created in
2011 to honor the late Shirley
Verrett, a former University
professor and renowned opera
singer.
The award is sponsored by
the University organization
Women of Color in the Acad-
emy Project.
In response to receiving the
award, Goodison said she felt
enormously thankful.
“To be associated with the
caliber of Shirley Verret is a
very wonderful and extraordi-
nary thing,” she said.
During the opening portion
of the ceremony, Kinesiology
Prof. Rebecca Hasson, a mem-
ber of the WOCAP, said Verrett
See AWARD, Page 3A
Human Rights
Commision talks
outcome of Aura
Rosser shooting
By ANASTASSIOS
ADAMOPOULOS
Daily Staff Reporter
The Ann Arbor Human Rights
Commission convened Wednes-
day evening at City Hall to dis-
cuss the possibility of establishing
a civilian oversight board for the
city’s police force.
Seven citizens attended the
meeting in total, with several
expressing discontent both about
the November death of Aura
Rosser, who was shot by an Ann
Arbor police officer, and a pros-
ecutor’s determinationlast month
that the shooting was justified
self-defense.
Dwight Wilson, a member of
the HRC, said he has met with
representatives from four com-
munity groups who expressed
their concern about the circum-
stances
surrounding
Rosser’s
See OVERSIGHT, Page 3A
ANN ARBOR
ANDREW COHEN/Daily
Former English Prof. Lorna Goodison gives her acceptance speech as the recipient of the 2015 Shirley Verrett
Award at the Walgreen Center Wednesday.
A look at the University’s
popular satirical paper
» INSIDE
the every three
b-side
Gov. Snyder
presents FY
2016 budget
proposals
Vigil honors students
killed in Chapel Hill
Detroit Soup
raises $325 for
city-based org.
Former professor receives
‘U’ award for literary work
Police
oversight
debated
INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 65
©2015 The Michigan Daily
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