Students of color felt accepted 
more individually than they 
believe minority students as a 
whole are accepted.

Overall, the data from the 

study indicated that social 
identity is the largest factor 
in minority students’ sense of 
“not belonging” to the Univer-
sity community.

Soderstrom and her team are 

hopeful that those who attend-
ed the event were inspired to be 
more aware of how social iden-
tity can impact University life.

“Our 
research 
questions 

were 
around 
just 
thinking 

about 
how 
social 
identity 

impacts 
undergraduate 
stu-

dent experiences,” Cohen said. 
“So if students left being more 

cognizant of that, if faculty 
left thinking about when orga-
nizing or structuring their 
classrooms, and engage the 
community around them, that’s 
a good thing.”

Soderstrom said she hopes 

sharing the results of the study 
prompts future discussions of 
social identity and inclusion.

“We 
have 
representation 

from a lot of different groups 
on campus that can impact 
different spaces on campus,” 
she said. “We hope that this 
prompts future conversations 
about things we can proac-
tively do and take control over, 
and how to structurally engage 
some of those spaces.

Soderstrom said she is hope-

ful the findings of the research 
project will be published for 
the University community in 
the near future.

Bradley 
Taylor, 
associate 

director of the Museum Stud-
ies Program and member of the 
project’s Board of Directors, 
said that despite destruction 
to some of the artwork, what 
remains is not to be discredited.

“There’s a belief out there 

that the fires have brought the 
Heidelberg Project to an end,” 
Taylor said. “That’s not true at 
all. If you’ve been out there the 
site’s been cleaned up and (Guy-
ton) is already out there creating 
new stuff in the foundations of 
the buildings that were burned 
down.”

Whitfield said the fire dam-

age is no longer visible, which 
surprises people who expect to 
see it when they come to view 
the art. She added that the fires 
have led to some positive out-
comes, including the installa-
tion of solar-powered lighting 
in the neighborhood and a new 
security system to monitor the 
art.

The recent string of arsons 

is not the first time the Heidel-
berg Project has faced adversity, 
Whitfield said. She noted that 
the project was partially demol-
ished by the city in 1991 and 1999 
amid pending safety concerns, 
local 
complaints 
about 
the 

crowds of visitors and general 
conversation asking whether or 
not the project was really “art.”

“Each time the Heidelberg 

Project was partially destroyed 
it came back stronger,” she said. 
“In my mind, what Tyree has 
done is he’s just created a new 
platform each time on the can-
vas.”

Whitfield said at the time, 

these obstacles proved chal-
lenging, but she and Guyton 
gained perspective over time.

“With the things that we 

went through, it grew us,” she 
said. “And so we can come to 
a point now and say, ‘that’s all 
part of the process. We know 
all this negativity is playing a 
big part in what we’re doing.’ 
But how we conclude it is what’s 
most important.”

Guyton said visitors have 

transformative 
experiences, 

often influenced by conversa-
tions between visitors attracted 
to the site.

“Heidelberg is the realest 

place,” Whitfield said. “I think 
one of our board members 
called it a sacred battleground 
that has taken all the scars of 
Detroit. It provides that plat-
form that people can discuss 
real issues.”

LSA senior Adam DesJar-

dins, who attended the discus-
sion, said he fell in love with the 
Heidelberg Project after many 
visits — showing friends and 
family around and talking to 
Tyree at the site.

“(Heidelberg) is just a real-

ly welcoming place, so to see 
(Guyton) speak and be recog-

nized was really cool,” he said. 
“I think his whole point about 
sparking creativity was really 
important in terms of find-
ing yourself and how you can 
spark other people’s creativity 
through your own creativity. I 
think that’s something that’s a 
takeaway for me because that’s 
so much of what (Guyton) does 
so well.”

One of the Heidelberg Proj-

ect houses is called the “Dotty 
Wotty House,” and Guyton’s 
mother currently lives in it. Tay-
lor said there are plans to poten-
tially convert the house into a 
museum.

Guyton added that students 

from the James & Grace Lee 
Boggs School, a local charter 
school, may soon begin work 
transforming 
an 
abandoned 

house adjacent to the school.

“We’re going to paint stars 

all over this house and the stars 
are going to be a reflection of 
these young people,” Guyton 
said. “Every one of those young 
people are stars, and my job is 
to help them to see that they’re 
stars.”

Taylor said two exhibitions 

of Guyton’s work are scheduled 
to run on campus this year. 
The University of Michigan 
Museum of Art will run one this 
summer and the Department 
of Afroamerican and Ameri-
can Studies Gallery will host a 
small exhibit on the main floor 
of Haven Hall.

3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, February 23, 2015 — 3A

LANSING
Federal funding for 
Michigan roads 
reduced by 8 percent

 As Michigan readies for a 

vote on raising state taxes to 
smooth a deteriorating network 
of roads and bridges, one reason 
is because it’s contending with 
the reality that a significant 
source of money for the projects 
— federal aid — is down.

The Federal Highway Trust 

Fund, 
which 
accounts 
for 

nearly one-third of the state’s 
transportation 
budget, 
made 

about $1 billion available to 
Michigan in 2013. That’s 8 
percent less than five years 
earlier and 15 percent less when 
adjusted for inflation, according 
to figures compiled by The 
Associated Press.

The funding that generally 

comes from federal gasoline and 
diesel taxes was up 20 percent 
over a decade but down 5 percent 
in inflation-adjusted dollars.

LAKE OSWEGO, Oregon
Mothers question 
vaccine benefits

One is a businesswoman and 

an MBA graduate. Another is a 
corporate vice president. The 
third is a registered nurse.

These three mothers — all 

of them educated, middle-class 
professionals — are among the 
vaccine skeptics who have been 
widely ridiculed since more than 
100 people fell ill in a measles 
outbreak traced to Disneyland. 
Critics 
question 
their 

intelligence, 
their 
parenting, 

even their sanity. Some have been 
called criminals for foregoing 
shots for their children that are 
overwhelmingly shown to be 
safe and effective.

“Contrary to the common 

sentiment, we are not anti-
science,” said Michelle Moore, a 
businesswoman who lives in the 
affluent Portland suburb of Lake 
Oswego with her 2½-year-old 
twin girls. “I’m not opposed to 
medicine, and I think vaccines 
have a place. We think it’s a 
medical choice, and it should be 
researched carefully.”

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii
Crews free whale 
caught in crab line

A crew from the Hawai-

ian Islands Humpback Whale 
National Marine Sanctuary on 
Saturday used a pole equipped 
with a knife to saw the line free, 
West Hawaii Today reported.

Several hundred feet of heavy 

line used for hoisting crab pots 
was cut away, said sanctuary 
spokesman Ed Lyman.

Entanglements can result in 

drowning, starvation, infections 
and increased susceptibility to 
ship strikes, according to whale 
experts.

The entangled whale was 

spotted Feb. 13 off the Big 
Island’s Kona Coast by Big Island 
helicopter tour companies.

The West Hawaii Marine 

Mammal 
Response 
Network 

documented the whale’s condi-
tions and attached a tag allow-
ing the animal to be tracked by 
satellite.

GENEVA
Iran responds to 
U.S. nuclear talks

A senior Iranian official is 

responding sharply to warn-
ings that Washington is ready 
to quit nuclear talks unless Teh-
ran agrees to a deal that demon-
strates it does not want atomic 
arms.

Ali Akbar Velayati says stay-

ing or leaving “depends on the 
Americans.”

Velayati was responding to 

U.S. Secretary of State John 
Kerry, shortly before Kerry’s 
arrival Sunday to Geneva. Kerry 
said President Barack Obama 
was “fully prepared” to pull 
the U.S. out before accepting a 
deal leaving Tehran with potent 
nuclear arms-making ability.

—Compiled from 
Daily wire reports 

NEWS BRIEFS

faculty, staff and students on the 
academic side and on the opera-
tion side and really help shape 
where those barriers are and how 
we can overcome them,” Berg said.

Andy Berki, manager of the 

Office of Campus Sustainabil-
ity, said he appreciated Schlissel’s 
interest in sustainability and looks 
forward to the recommendations 
yielded by the review.

“President Schlissel showed up 

on campus and when he arrived 
he very quickly demonstrated his 
commitment to sustainability and 
our efforts on campus,” Berki said. 
“I would expect to see some excit-
ing recommendations come out 
of the teams in June and I would 
think we should hear something 
on campus about the direction and 
recommendations of these teams 
by fall.”

Existing goals have achieved 

varying degrees of success. Berki 
said one of the more challeng-
ing initiatives has been reducing 
greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2006, the University emit-

ted approximately 700,000 metric 
tons of carbon dioxide, Berki said. 
According to a report published by 
the OCS, the University emitted 
roughly the same amount in 2013.

Berki said the University plans 

to invest in a wind turbine project 
over the next several years. The 
initiative is in the “design phase,” 
and she said it could significantly 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions 
when implemented.

“A large project we’ve been 

working on for the last three 
or four years is to increase the 
amount of turbines at our power 
plant,” Berki said. “By doing this 
project with the turbines … we 
should reduce our overall carbon 
emissions by at least 100,000 to 
120,000 metric tons. So that will 
have a significant effect on moving 
our way toward our climate action 
goal of 510,000.”

Berki said another challenge 

has been reducing waste pro-
duction on campus. In 2006, the 
University’s total waste tonnage 
totaled about 13,170 tons, and in 
2013 it was 13,508 tons.

However, 
he 
acknowledged 

that the University’s continued 
expansion has made achieving 
these targets more difficult. While 
he said the University’s sustain-
ability practices have grown more 
efficient on a whole, the increase 
in facilities means total tonnage 
doesn’t reflect those improve-
ments.

“We’ve gone from about 28.5 

million square feet of infrastruc-
ture to about 35.5 million square 

feet of infrastructure over that 
time,” he said. “So actually, like 
a lot of our goals, we’ve kind of 
stayed steady but it’s a worthy note 
we’ve made some progress even 
though the University expanded 
significantly.”

Berki said while the University 

has developed a robust recycling 
program, the next step is to jump-
start a composting initiative.

“One area of our waste stream 

which we need to address is the 
waste that’s leaving our facilities 
that’s compostable,” he said. “Right 
now our institution does not have 
a University wide composting pro-
gram. Through our analysis we’ve 
identified that about 30 percent of 
our waste that’s leaving our facili-
ties could be composted.”

Berki said the Student Sustain-

ability Initiative, a collaborative 
group of sustainability organiza-
tions on campus, promotes zero-
waste initiatives at the University. 
SSI sponsors zero-waste events 
where napkins, utensils, plates 
and food are all composted.

Other goals have achieved 

more success. Berki said emis-
sions from University transpor-
tation operations have decreased 
significantly.

In 2006, 1.17 kilograms of car-

bon dioxide were emitted per 
ride, according to data reported 
by OCS. By 2013, the amount had 

decreased to approximately 0.91 
kilograms of carbon dioxide emit-
ted per ride. The ultimate goal is 
to reduce emissions to 0.82 kilo-
grams per ride.

Berki attributes these accom-

plishments to the University’s 
joint bike share program with the 
city, the 10 hybrid-electric buses 
used on campus and the vanpool 
program that allows University 
employees to carpool to work in 
University-sponsored vans.

Berg said the Planet Blue reus-

able water bottle initiative has 
also proved successful. The stu-
dent-led initiative provides all 
students living on-campus with 
a reusable water bottle and has 
worked to establish water bottle-
filling stations across campus.

“If you look around today com-

pared to three years ago I really 
just see everyone carrying a reus-
able water bottle and I think 
that’s a great way of sustainability 
really getting into culture,” Berg 
said. “That’s a very visible success 
story there.”

LSA junior Nicholas Jansen, 

an environmental science major, 
wrote in an e-mail interview that 
up until this year he was disap-
pointed by the University’s sus-
tainability efforts.

“I think the University up to 

this past year has done a sub-par 
job to improve sustainability on 

campus,” Jansen wrote. “Most of 
the sustainability improvements 
were applied to just a few build-
ings, we only focused on reduc-
ing our greenhouse gas emissions 
instead of trying to get more 
renewable energy on campus.”

However, he wrote that Schlis-

sel’s decision to convene the sus-
tainability review committees is a 
good sign.

“If the university actually 

listens to what these working 
groups recommend then I believe 
in the next few years, U of M can 
become a leader and model for 
sustainable campuses,” he wrote.

Berki also said it’s important 

that the University lead the nation 
in its sustainability efforts.

“As one of the renowned insti-

tutions of higher learning in the 
country and in the world, we 
need to set an example,” he said. 
“We are the leaders and best and 
I think a lot of people look to the 
University and the institution to 
see what we’re doing.”

Berg said the challenge moving 

forward would be expanding sus-
tainability efforts without adding 
a financial burden to the Univer-
sity’s budgets.

“There’s always a balance 

between helping people operate 
more sustainability without add-
ing to work loads or to cost,” she 
said.

SUSTAINABILITY
From Page 1A

HEIDELBERG
From Page 1A

moment in Black history, but 
for American history at large.

During the discussion, Long 

recounted his experiences with 
racial discrimination during 
the 1960s and described the 
hate that fueled the church 
bombing.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he 

said. “I could smell the gun-
powder and I couldn’t believe 
that they blew up the church 
with people in it. People were 
helping others down the stairs, 
people were bleeding … it 
freaked me out.”

Long said the 16th Street 

Bombing and subsequent death 
of the four girls was a turning 
point in the civil rights move-
ment, even attracting interna-
tional attention — the people 
of Wales even fundraised and 
designed replacement stained 
glass window for the church.

“I think that was one of the 

main catalysts that moved this 
country forward in terms of 

civil rights,” Long said.

LSA freshman Lauren Thom-

as, who attended the event, said 
the film gave her perspective 
beyond her day-to-day life.

“It is very emotional,” she 

said. “It was good to take a 
minute outside of classes and 
remember that there are real 
things happening in the world 
or that have happened.”

Charles Senteio, a Ph.D. can-

didate in the School of Informa-
tion who helped organize the 
event, said a goal for screening 
the film was to connect current 
events related to race and dis-
crimination with the past.

Noting that it’s often diffi-

cult to see ties to past injustic-
es, Senteio said it’s important to 
revisit history as a method for 
preventing similar atrocities in 
the future.

“The conversations we’ve 

had around this event are to try 
to learn from what has taken 
place before and absorb some 
wisdom, 
inspiration, 
some 

humanity from a road we’ve 
already been down before,” he 
said.

SCREENING
From Page 1A

letic Department earlier in the 
school year to come up with a 
plan for lowering football ticket 
prices, he spoke with members 
of the Athletic Department 
about the possibility of special 
need-based pricing.

According to Dishell, the 

Athletic 
Department 
repre-

sentatives he spoke with about 
need-based 
pricing 
initially 

thought that the plan would 
be difficult to implement. But 
eventually, in conjunction with 
the Office of Financial Aid, a 
plan was worked out.

Dishell believes the avail-

ability of need-based pricing is 
the first of its kind in collegiate 
athletics.

“Michigan 
athletics, 
it’s 

something you see so many 
people rally around,” Dishell 
said over the phone Sunday 
night. “So many people you 
meet talk about their experi-
ence with Michigan athletics, 
and the prices were very high, 
extremely high. I kind of real-
ized, why shouldn’t your aid 
package expand? Why should it 
not carry over to another Uni-
versity unit?”

The Office of Financial Aid 

will begin emailing eligible 
students Monday with instruc-
tions detailing how to purchase 
tickets.

TICKETS
From Page 1A

INCLUSION
From Page 2A

communities.

“We’re trying to hear as 

many different voices as pos-
sible in order to continue to 
be able to create such positive 
change on campus as we’ve 
done in the past,” Pidgeon said.

Charlton has not served 

as a member of CSG, but Pid-
geon noted he co-founded the 
Wolverine Support Network, 
a University-wide peer sup-
port network and one of Make 
Michigan’s central initiatives 
this year.

“With Cooper at the helm, 

given his positions within ath-
letics, we can take on a more 
collaborative approach with 
the Athletic Department in the 
coming year,” Pidgeon said.

In an e-mail interview with 

The Michigan Daily, Charlton 
wrote taht his position as presi-
dent of SAAC during a time 
of change within the Athletic 
Department has prepared him 
for the CSG presidency.

As president of SAAC, Charl-

ton co-authored a viewpoint 
in which the committee criti-
cized 
University 
President 

Mark Schlissel’s comments at 
a meeting of the University’s 
Senate Advisory Committee 
on University Affairs. During 
that meeting, Schlissel called 
into question the academic 
qualifications of some student 
athletes. The viewpoint argued 
that the perception of student 
athletes is easily swayed by the 
media and public opinion.

In 
the 
e-mail 
interview, 

Charlton also said his expe-
riences 
complemented 
Hal-

perin’s leadership experiences 
on campus.

“My relationships with the 

current 
members 
of 
Make 

Michigan, and Steven’s experi-
ence within CSG compliment 
my Michigan experiences and 
perspectives resulting in a 
very balanced executive tick-
et,” Charlton wrote. “We both 
come from very different back-
grounds however share similar 
values.”

Pidgeon 
noted 
Halperin’s 

leadership both inside and out-
side of CSG as the reason he was 
selected for the vice presiden-
tial nomination. Halperin is the 
vice chair of CSG’s task force 
to create a new honor code, an 
LSA dean ambassador and the 
Interfraternity Council’s vice 
president of internal recruiting.

If elected, Halperin said he 

wants to expand the Night Owl 
bus route, increase lighting 
around campus and link CTools 
syllabuses with Google calen-
dar. He would also like to focus 
on larger campus concerns.

“I have been working very 

closely with SAPAC to make a 
positive change in the Greek 
community 
and 
plan 
on 

expanding 
across 
campus,” 

Halperin wrote in an e-mail to 
The Michigan Daily.

The U.S. Department of Edu-

cation is currently investigat-
ing the University’s handling of 
sexual misconduct allegations 
on campus.

As a whole, Make Michigan 

organizers and candidates said 
they hope to continue working 
on student health. Pidgeon said 

along with Wolverine Support 
Network, Make Michigan has 
plans to increase other mental 
health services as well.

“We want to build on that 

success of keeping students 
physically 
and 
emotionally 

safe,” Pidgeon said.

“Through 
de-stigmatizing 

mental well being on campus 
we will be able to accomplish 
goals once thought to hard to 
reach,” Charlton wrote. “Tra-
dition runs deep through the 
academic excellence of our 
students, however it is time to 
include emotional development 
in that tradition.”

The party has not released 

an entire platform because 
they want to wait until they 
receive feedback from constitu-
ents. Make Michigan created 
a Google form for students to 
submit issues they feel need to 
be addressed on campus. The 
form is available on their web-
site and on Facebook.

“We can have a platform that 

we as a party think the students 
want but also what students 
really do want,” Pidgeon said.

Last week, The Team, a new 

campus party that will also run 
candidates in this year’s elec-
tion, announced an executive 
ticket headed by LSA junior 
William Royster, a member of 
the Black Student Union, and 
LSA sophomore Matt Fidel, a 
current CSG representative.

Polls will open online March 

25 and 26.

Check michigandaily.com for 

continuing election coverage.

ELECTION
From Page 1A

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