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
michigandaily.com

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

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

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

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