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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 — 3

DETROIT 
Federal judge will 
not order new trial 
for Chicago activist 

A federal judge in Detroit has 

denied a request for a new trial 
for a Chicago Arab activist con-
victed of lying about her role in 
two terrorist bombing deaths in 
Israel when she immigrated to 
the U.S.

Judge Gershwin Drain ruled 

last week that Rasmieh Odeh’s 
argument for a new trial lacked 
legal merit.

In his ruling, Drain said evi-

dence showed the Palestinian 
native illegally obtained U.S. 
citizenship by failing to disclose 
her conviction for the fatal 1969 
bombings in Jerusalem.

Israel imprisoned Odeh for 

life for her role in the bombings, 
including one that killed Hebrew 
University 
students 
Edward 

Joffe and Leon Kanner at a gro-
cery store. Odeh, 67, said Israeli 
authorities tortured her into 
confessing.

LOS ANGELES
False report of 
gunman causes 
panic in airport

About 
20 
passengers 
fled 

through emergency doors and 
onto the tarmac at a Los Angeles 
International Airport terminal 
Monday after someone wrongly 
announced that an armed man 
was on the loose, authorities 
said.

The “misinformed announce-

ment” apparently stemmed from 
a police pursuit of an unarmed 
driver, which ended outside Ter-
minal 2, LAX Police Sgt. Belinda 
Joseph said.

Police responded to an emer-

gency call around 9 a.m. that a 
man may be trying to commit 
suicide off airport property. 
They apprehended the man, 
and the fire department took 
him to a hospital for treatment 
of an unspecified condition. But 
“someone said that there was a 
man with a gun, which was not 
true,” Joseph said.

MOUNT CARBON, W.Va
Train derailment 
sends tanker of 
crude oil into river

A train carrying more than 

100 tankers of crude oil derailed 
in southern West Virginia on 
Monday, sending at least one into 
the Kanawha River, igniting at 
least 14 tankers and sparking a 
house fire, officials said.

There were no immediate 

reports of injuries. Nearby resi-
dents were told to evacuate as a 
state emergency response and 
environmental officials head-
ed to the scene about 30 miles 
southeast of Charleston.

The state was under a win-

ter storm warning and getting 
heavy snowfall at times, with as 
much as 5 inches in some places. 
It’s not clear if the weather had 
anything to do with the derail-
ment, which occurred about 1:20 
EST along a flat stretch of rail.

CAIRO, Egypt
Egypt bombs ISIS 
in Lybia, calls for 
action from UN 

Egypt bombed Islamic State 

militants in neighboring Libya 
on Monday and called on the 
United States and Europe to join 
an international military inter-
vention in the chaotic North 
African state after extremists 
beheaded a group of Egyptian 
Christians.

The airstrikes bring Egypt 

overtly into Libya’s turmoil, a 
reflection of Cairo’s increas-
ing alarm. Egypt now faces 
threats on two fronts — a grow-
ing stronghold of radicals on its 
western border and a militant 
insurgency of Islamic State allies 
on its eastern flank in the Sinai 
Peninsula — as well as its own 
internal challenges.

—Compiled from 
Daily wire reports 

Team in an interview with The 
Michigan Daily.

“It can be hard to find groups 

on campus where your identities 
and ideas truly matter to those 
around you, but that’s not an issue 
on The Team,” she said.

Make Michigan has not offi-

cially announced candidates for 
this year’s election cycle. Repre-
sentatives from the party could 
not be reached for comment Sun-
day evening.

Abudaram said several forUM 

members are also running as can-
didates for The Team. Last year, 
forUM’s candidates failed to cap-
ture the CSG presidency and vice 
presidency, but secured several 
representative seats.

He said he hopes the new party 

will help move CSG away from 
problems 
with 
partisanship, 

which they’ve experienced in the 
past.

“We want to broaden our 

scope and move beyond this par-
tisan stuff that has halted CSG,” 
Abudaram said. “You can tangi-
bly feel it halting CSG this year, 

which is not OK.”

Abudaram said the new party 

is reaching out to many campus 
organizations to better under-
stand and implement solutions to 
issues on campus.

“We need CSG to be a place 

where the executives and the 
assembly recognize, ‘OK, I’m not 
an expert on this issue, but there 
are many people on this campus 
who are experts on this issue,’ ” 
Abudaram said.

He said CSG’s initiatives to 

prevent sexual assault on cam-
pus, for example, could benefit 
from 
increased 
collaboration. 

CSG and the “I Will” campaign 
partnered earlier this year to host 
workshops to educate students 
and raise awareness about sexual 
assault on college campuses.

“Campus is so diverse — it 

would be a bad idea to just assess 
what the campus needs based off 
what these big organizations are 
saying,” Abudaram said. “There 
are a lot of marginalized commu-
nities on our campus and we need 
to hear their voices and make sure 
their voices are heard and make 
sure their needs are addressed.”

Online polls will open March 

25 and 26.

for his service and said the CFO 
would be “sorely missed.”

“Kevin’s love for the Long-

horns is exceeded only by his 
accomplishments improving the 
university, making us one of the 
most productive and efficient 
campuses in the nation and 
leading us through very chal-
lenging budget years,” Powers 
wrote.

The University’s executive 

vice president and chief finan-
cial officer oversees areas relat-
ing to business, finance and 
accounting at the University. 
A large part of the role focuses 
on managing the University’s 
endowment, which hit a record 
high of $9.7 billion this past 
year.

Before his departure last 

year, Slottow had served as the 
University’s CFO for 12 years. 
He launched numerous cost-
saving programs as the Uni-
versity faced a constrained 
financial climate, and oversaw 
the endowment when it reached 
what was then an all-time high: 
$8.4 billion for the 2013 fiscal 
year.

During his tenure, Slottow 

helped initiate measures such 
as strategic sourcing, a pro-

gram designed to cut costs by 
buying supplies in bulk, and 
the 
Administrative 
Services 

Transformation Project, an ini-
tiative that centralized several 
department-level employees in 
a shared services center.

With Hegarty’s appointment, 

Schlissel has filled a majority 
of the interim posts that were 
unfilled at the time he assumed 
office in July.

In 
November, 
Schlissel 

announced he would appoint 
Marschall 
Runge, 
executive 

dean for the School of Medicine 
at the University of North Caro-
lina, Chapel Hill, as chief exec-
utive officer for the University 
of Michigan Health System.

In December, Schlissel rec-

ommended the regents extend 
University Provost Martha Pol-
lack’s contract by three years. 
The 
regents 
approved 
the 

extension in December.

Vice president for research is 

one of the main positions still 
filled by an interim. Currently, 
S. Jack Hu serves in this capac-
ity; the regents approved his 
appointment in November 2013.

Managing News Editor Sam 

Gringlas contributed reporting.

Read about the other proposals 

the regents will consider on 
Thursday at michigandaily.com.

CANDIDATES
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CFO
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without the threat of student 
debt. Lower class students 
could not find institutional 
support, and they struggled 
academically and socially.

Monday’s lecture focused 

on the social component of 
Armstrong’s study.

Armstrong’s 
talk 
began 

by building a thesis that the 
freshman girls were con-
sumed by their social status. 
The girls who were popu-
lar in high school used their 
homecoming-queen 
tactics 

to maneuver their way into 
top sororities. Young women 
sniffed out who was cool and 
associated with only those 
chosen few.

LSA sophomore Shannon 

Stone, who attended the event 
Monday, said the research 
echoed her experience in 
Bursley Residence Hall. In 
her hall, almost all of the girls 
rushed sororities. Stone cur-
rently lives in a co-op, which 
she said she enjoys.

“They would all have din-

ner at the dining hall together 
and they would all sit at one 
of the circle tables,” Stone 
said. “Then they would like 
walk by and make eye contact 
and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, hi!’ 
But they would never invite 
you to sit down. And that was 
weird.”

According to Armstrong’s 

research, the obsession with 
status, in turn, reflected the 
choice to drink, who they had 
sexual relations with and how 
sex occurred — with or with-
out consent, with or without 
protection.

A freshman named Linda 

in Armstrong’s study did not 
drink. Armstrong said this 
choice, along with her lack of 
social savvy, eliminated her 
from the hall’s social scene.

“There is a group on this 

side of the hall that goes 
to 
dinner 
together, 
par-

ties together, my roommate 
included. I have never hung 
out with them once,” Arm-
strong said Linda told her. “It 
kind of sucks.”

Stone said drinking habits 

among Greek life members 
in her dorm were risky. She 
recounted one time where 
her hall’s bathroom was cov-
ered in vomit and caution 
tape — the latter from a “con-
struction 
worker”-themed 

mixer.

Sexual relations were held 

especially at the mercy of 
social status tied to Greek 
life, she said. Armstrong dis-

cussed a senior honors the-
sis conducted by University 
alum Dana Benyas in 2014. 
Benyas drew ties between 
Greek life and relationship 
autonomy.

One female college student 

Benyas interviewed said her 
friends were once astound-
ed that she passed on the 
opportunity to hook up with 
a member of a high-ranking 
fraternity.

“The next morning my 

friend was like, ‘Did you ever 
hook up with that kid?’ and 
I was like, ‘No’ and she was 
like, ‘But he was in (that fra-
ternity)!’ ” the interviewee 
said.

Another girl said the sex-

ual behaviors of higher-tier 
Greek life members are con-
tingent on status.

“It’s a hierarchy, so the 

(people) in the higher tiers 
have more power,” the inter-
viewee said. “They would 
think that they can just not 
use a condom if they don’t 
want to, especially if it’s a 
girl from a lower tier. It’s like 
her opinion doesn’t matter as 
much.”

Stone relayed a similar 

experience in her hall among 
her peers.

“I think Greek life encour-

ages such a dangerous envi-
ronment because of the huge 
emphasis on social status,” 
Stone said. “It’s basically — 
it seems to me at least — this 
elitist system where you have 
the top-tier frats and sorori-
ties and that gives them this 
insane sense of power over 
people below them both in the 
same-sex interactions and in 
terms of sexual assault.”

The interviews strongly 

suggested a link between 
Greek life status and control 
of sex, Armstrong said.

Armstrong 
said 
many 

top-tier sorority members, 
described 
as 
“beautiful, 

wealthy,” claimed to have 
had no experience with sex-
ual harassment. She said this 
suggests how assault, too, 
is contingent on status. She 
added that women in lower-
ranking sororities or unaffili-
ated with Greek life are more 
prone to sexual assault and 
considered lower status.

“Everyone is vulnerable, 

but not everyone is equally 
vulnerable,” Armstrong said. 
“The women who got into 
higher status sororities were 
more safe because the men 
knew that if they were dis-
respected, they could tell 
the rest of their sorority sis-
ters and that that could have 
major consequences for the 

fraternity guys.”

But the root of sexual 

assault at parties comprises 
more than social dynamics. 
Armstrong 
explained 
how 

universities create environ-
ments 
where 
fraternities 

— areas which young men, 
rather 
than 
universities, 

wield control — are one of the 
few places that freshmen can 
drink.

Sororities are banned from 

hosting parties by national 
chapters, and drinking is 
banned in dorms. For many 
freshman women who want 
to drink, fraternities are a key 
place to do it. This puts men 
and women alike at the risk of 
sexual assault.

“Students are having the 

most dangerous aspects of 
their social life in a place that 
university does not control, 
but they are university-spon-
sored organizations,” Arm-
strong said.

Fraternities can also pro-

vide transportation to par-
ties, set party themes and, 
most importantly, control the 
door and access to alcohol. 
That means young women 
come in and unaffiliated men 
stay out.

To fulfill the expectation 

of consuming alcohol, sex 
and drugs in college, fresh-
men must comply with fra-
ternities’ desires, she said. 
Their high status, Armstrong 
said, provides them “the 
opportunity to victimize,” 
though she said most men do 
not do this.

“In terms of where the uni-

versity is actually dumping 
resources onto a group of men 
and saying, ‘Hey, let’s give 
you the means and the oppor-
tunity. Let’s kind of give you a 
loaded gun, but don’t use it.’ ”

Eliminating fraternities is 

not an option in the opinion 
of many students and univer-
sities. One student mentioned 
she did not believe elimi-
nating 
fraternities 
would 

eliminate sexual assault, and 
Armstrong agreed. Others 
brought up how Greek alumni 
are often the biggest donors.

Nevertheless, 
Armstrong 

said fear of losing social sta-
tus discourages women from 
reporting 
sexual 
assault 

when it does occur. One 
young woman in a sorority 
said she woke up in a frater-
nity bunk one day naked after 
a night of heavy drinking. She 
does not know who assaulted 
her, and never reported it.

“I just got to school,” the 

young woman told Armstrong. 
“I didn’t want to start off on a 
bad note with anyone.”

STATUS
From Page 1

do have the capacity to house all 
the folks who are living unshel-
tered,” she said. “I think the story 
is more so whether or not folks 
are willing to and able to come 
in and out from the cold, and into 
shelter, specifically whether or 
not they have a mental illness, or a 
substance use issue, or something 
that might be preventing them 
from feeling like they can seek 
shelter.”

In response to last year’s 

severely cold temperatures, the 
Washtenaw Housing Alliance has 
made more resources available 
to Ann Arbor’s homeless popula-
tion. Washtenaw County and the 
city are now funding an overnight 
warming center operated by the 
Shelter Association of Washtenaw 

County.

The warming center is held 

at three different Ann Arbor 
churches, with each church tak-
ing responsibility for one month 
during the months of January, 
February and March. A daytime 
warming center is also being 
operated in collaboration with 
the Shelter Association and MIS-
SION A2, an Ann Arbor nonprofit 
organization that advocates for 
the homeless.

In response to the political 

debates over tent communities 
in Ann Arbor, Carlisle said she 
would rather focus on the need 
for more affordable housing with-
in the city.

“If they were offered a place to 

stay inside, I think most of them 
would take that opportunity, but 
I just don’t think we have enough 
resources to be able to offer folks 
pretty barrier-free housing in our 
community,” Carlisle said.

COLD
From Page 1

gel created the petition as 
part of a group project for her 
Organizational Studies class, 
Activism, which, according 
to its course guide descrip-
tion, focuses on the “practice 
of democracy” and asks stu-
dents to review the “writings 
by scholars and practitioners 
of social movements, while 
at the same time requiring 
students to plan and engage 
directly in activism them-
selves.”

This specific assignment 

asks students to write an 
essay identifying a social 
problem that “affects the 
public interest” and “sketch 
a plan to mobilize politi-
cal forces to ameliorate this 
problem.”

Siegel said LSA freshman 

Luke Barwikowski originally 
pitched the calendar issue 
to the class last week. They 
joined four other students — 
LSA freshman Annie Boeh-
rer, LSA sophomore Molly 
Weiss, Kinesiology sopho-
more 
William 
McPherson 

and Art and Design junior 
Laura Maier — dubbed them-
selves “Crush the Calendar” 
and got to work. The petition 
wasn’t an official part of the 
project; they just wanted to 
test the waters.

“We said, ‘Let’s just try a 

petition. Let’s see if we have a 
following at all,’ ” Siegel said.

“This is just the starting 

point for us,” she added. “We 
have a lot of things ahead. 
This was, more than any-
thing, to figure out if this is 
something other people knew 
about. We realized that most 

people didn’t. That changes 
our next step.”

LSA 
sophomore 
Sydney 

Brown, who is from Las 
Vegas, said she signed the 
petition because she feels the 
shortened break will further 
constrain 
already-limited 

time to visit with her family 
during the school year.

“Seeing in the past, as I had 

one of the latest finals last 
year, and given the numerous 
amounts of flight delays and 
travel expenses and every-
thing ... that time adds up in 
regard to cutting out time 
from seeing your family,” she 
said.

She added that by the last 

days of final exams, out-
of-state students are ready 
to return home — and later 
exams would exacerbate this 
issue.

“I think overall, kids will 

do worse on finals because 
they are so homesick and just 
eager to get out, that it’ll just 
create a negative reaction 
among campus,” Brown said. 
“I know firsthand, when I 
had my final on (Dec.19) last 
semester, kids were already 
checked out, ready to go and 
just basically waiting to get it 
over with.”

The 
University’s 
Board 

of Regents is set to discuss 
the 2015-2016 academic cal-
endar at its February meet-
ing Thursday, per an action 
request submitted by Univer-
sity Provost Martha Pollack.

The resolution in place 

does 
not 
address 
Winter 

Break. Instead, it deals with 
potential end-of-year con-
flicts for April 2016.

Siegel said at least some of 

the six “Crush the Calendar” 
founders will be at the meet-

ing.

As is, the academic calen-

dar schedules Winter 2016 
classes to end April 19, “study 
days” for April 20, 23 and 24, 
and exams for April 21 and 22, 
and April 25 to 28. In this sce-
nario, the first day of exams 
would overlap with the first 
night of the Jewish celebra-
tion of Passover.

Furthermore, commence-

ment activities are set to take 
place from April 28 to May 1. 
The latter date coincides with 
Greek Orthodox Easter, or 
Pascha.

“As a non-religious, pub-

lic institution the University 
does not observe religious 
holidays, however we have 
made it a practice to make 
every reasonable effort to 
help students avoid nega-
tive academic consequences 
when their religious obliga-
tions conflict with academic 
requirements,” 
the 
action 

request reads.

Pollack’s 
action 
request 

also proposes that classes end 
April 18, one day earlier than 
scheduled, and exams move 
forward to April 20 to avoid 
overlapping with Passover. 
Additionally, the resolution 
states that “timing of gradua-
tion ceremonies will be modi-
fied” to accommodate Pascha.

Public Policy senior Bobby 

Dishell, CSG president, wrote 
in a tweet Monday eve-
ning that CSG is working to 
resolve the issue of Fall 2015 
semester dates.

“We’ve 
e-mailed 
admin 

to work to resolve the issues 
regarding next year’s aca-
demic calendar,” he wrote. 
“Make your voice heard.”

PETITION
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