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Thursday, February 19, 2015

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Full strategic plan 
recommended by 
committee in Sept. 

not yet released

By GENEVIEVE HUMMER

Daily Staff Reporter

University 
President 
Mark 

Schlissel hosted 200 students, 
faculty and staff members Mon-
day morning in the Michigan 
League Ballroom to jump start 
a campuswide conversation on 
diversity.

Schlissel 
announced 
plans 

for the leadership breakfast in 
December through an e-mail 
newsletter delivered to students 
and faculty. In September, the 
Office of the Provost released 
reports from three faculty-led 
committees that included 13 rec-
ommendations for diversifying 
the campus, including the cre-
ation of a strategic diversity plan.

Michigan Daily reporters were 

not invited to Monday’s event.

According to a University 

press release and several facul-
ty, administrators and students 
who attended the event, Schlis-
sel announced intentions to pri-
oritize the issue during his term, 
echoing sentiments similar to his 
September inaugural address.

“I am committed to making 

diversity, equity and an inclusive 
campus environment a major 
focus of my presidency,” Schlissel 
said. “Together, we can embrace 
the best parts of our past and the 
brightest minds of the future, and 
create new levels of pride and 
excellence for everyone in the 
University of Michigan commu-
nity.”

Though 
Schlissel 
acknowl-

edged the challenges ahead, he 
expressed optimism for the Uni-
versity’s ability to achieve signifi-
cant change.

Issues of diversity, inclusion 

and equity have played a promi-

ZACH MOORE/Daily

The Michigan men’s soccer team (LEFT), the Michigan marching band (TOP RIGHT) and the Michigan baseball team (BOTTOM RIGHT) perform during Mock 
Rock at Hill Auditorium Wednesday.

See DIVERSITY, Page 3A

Men’s rowing 

team earns second 
straight win at event

By LEV FACHER

Managing Editor

The Michigan men’s rowing 

team might not get much public-
ity around campus, but on the 

Hill Auditorium stage, it reigns 
supreme.

Wednesday night, the Wolver-

ine rowers channeled their inner 
Walt Disney to repeat as champi-
ons of the Student-Athlete Advi-
sory Committee’s Mock Rock 
event, an annual charity com-
petition that pits various teams’ 
wacky 
performances 
against 

one another before hundreds of 
current and former athletes, stu-

dents, fans and alumni.

The event was conceived in 

1999 in honor of Jeff Reese, a 
member of the Michigan wres-
tling team who passed away 
while training for an upcom-
ing event. This year, SAAC 
partnered with the Ann Arbor 
YMCA, contributing proceeds 
to benefit children’s programs in 
the Washtenaw County area.

The winning act was an 

impressively orchestrated musi-
cal-theater rendition of “The 
Little Mermaid,” complete with 
dozens of costumed rowers. 
Some of the more notable getups 
included a crab, a large card-
board boat named “S.S. Boat,” a 
jellyfish, a rock, a seahorse and, 
of course, a mermaid.

While appointed judges have 

decided the winner in the past, 

See ROCK, Page 3A

Exchange signs up 

almost 341,000 
residents during 
open enrollment 

By JACKIE MILLER

Daily Staff Reporter

When open enrollment closed 

Sunday, almost 341,000 Michigan 
residents had signed up for health 
insurance through the Affordable 
Care Act’s insurance marketplace 
— a 25 percent increase over last 
year.

Both 
the 
general 
Health 

Insurance 
Marketplace 
and 

the Healthy Michigan Plan, the 
state’s Medicaid expansion pro-
gram, have experienced some 
level of success in the last year.

With the closure of the enroll-

ment period last Sunday, Presi-
dent Barack Obama said 11.4 
million people signed up for or 
renewed their coverage during 
the three month period.

Currently, 
559,965 
benefi-

ciaries are covered under the 
Healthy Michigan Plan, which 
is designed to cover residents 

between the ages of 19 and 64 
who have an income at or below 
133 percent of the federal poverty 
line.

Carrie Rheingans is project 

manager for the Washtenaw 
Health Initiative, a countywide 
drive working to improve access 
to health care for low-income 
residents. She said the enrollment 
rates were surprisingly high.

“Overall, this number has real-

ly blown out of the water any esti-
mates that anybody was making 
in the state,” Rheingans said.

Rheingans added that she is 

not aware of any major issues that 
have occurred within this year’s 
first enrollment period, but noted 
that Michigan residents seem-
ingly learned from the previous 
period, and are becoming smart-
er shoppers.

In particular, Rheingans said 

many are concerned about which 
health insurance plans their doc-
tors will accept, as patients gener-
ally want to stick with the doctor 
that they are currently with.

“Many patients who enrolled 

the first time, last year, who are 
re-enrolling this year have been 

See ACA, Page 3A

Roey Gilad 

discusses regional 

challenges to 
Israel’s borders

By TANYA MADHANI

Daily Staff Reporter

During his second visit to 

the University on Wednesday 
evening, Roey Gilad, consulate 
general of Israel to the Mid-
west, provided an update about 

current events in the Middle 
East from the perspective of 
the Israeli government.

The event, titled “Israel: 

Facing the New Challenges in 
the Current Middle East,” was 
sponsored by the University’s 
chapters of advocacy groups J 
Street, I-LEAD, WolvPAC and 
the American Movement for 
Israel as well as the Universi-
ty’s Center for Middle Eastern 
and North African Studies.

LSA 
junior 
Inbar 
Lev, 

I-LEAD president, said Gilad 
reached out to the organization 

about giving a speech.

“People are very interested 

in the relationship with our 
campus and Israel,” Lev said. 
“(Gilad) gives a very detailed 
perspective of it, as well as 
giving an educated one … and 
I think that’s really important 
for people to hear who don’t 
know anything about the issue, 
or who do and want to learn 
more about the whole environ-
ment.”

In the beginning of his talk, 

Gilad said he was not going to 

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Roey Gilad, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest, discusses Israeli security issues at the Michigan League 
Wednesday.

See CONSULATE, Page 3A

New program to 
focus on training 

local doctors, 
data collection

By RACHEL WADDELL

For the Daily

University faculty and students 

will soon play a role saving lives 
in a country thousands of miles 
away.

The University has helped 

establish a medical partnership 
in Ethiopia, called the Center 
for International Reproduction 
Health Training. Launched Feb. 
6 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the 
collaboration consists of eight 
Ethiopian medical schools and 
a partnership with the Federal 
Ministry of Health of Ethiopia.

The CIRHT looks to equip 

future medical doctors with life-
saving reproductive health care 
services, according to Senait 
Fisseha, the center’s executive 
director and an associate profes-
sor of obstetrics and gynecology.

See ETHIOPIA, Page 3A

INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 69
©2015 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com

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

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

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

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

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

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WEATHER 
TOMORROW

HI: 11

LO: 9

Schlissel 
introduces 
efforts for 
diversity

ADMINISTRATION

Student-athletes unleash
wild sides at Mock Rock

Michigan sees 
increased ACA 
participation 

HEALTH

Israeli consulate general 
talks Middle East politics

‘U’ launches 
reproductive 
health center 
in Ethipoia

RESEARCH

