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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, March 13, 2015
CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Husband Mat
Chavez arrested
Wed. on assault and
battery charges
By ANASTASSIOS
ADAMOPOULOS
Daily Staff Reporter
A fundraising campaign ini-
tiated by a University student
has raised several thousand dol-
lars for an Ann Arbor homeless
couple.
On March 1, Kinesiology
junior
Michael
Funkhouser
began an online funding cam-
paign aimed at raising $10,000
for Mat Chavez and his wife
Danielle Chavez. Mat Chavez
usually plays guitar for dona-
tions on the corner of State and
North University Street, out-
side of Walgreens. Funkhouser
said he had seen the two on the
street many times and had lis-
tened to Mat Chavez’s guitar
playing, which he found to be
very good.
“I stopped to talk to him one
day and I realized he had a real-
ly unique and really cool story
and I started thinking of ways to
help him out,” Funkhouser said.
“And the next day I came back
with the plan of videotaping his
story and seeing if other people
would take notice of it.”
Since March 1 the campaign
has attracted 245 donors who
have contributed a total of
$6,952 as of Thursday evening.
Mat Chavez was arrested
Wednesday with charges of bat-
tery and assault, the Washtenaw
County Jail confirmed on Mon-
day. He was still being held as of
Thursday at 5 p.m.
Ann Arbor Police declined
to provide exact details of the
incident, and the Chavez couple
was not available for comment.
However, Funkhouser said he
spoke to Danielle Chavez about
20 minutes after the incident
took place.
“Danielle told me that anoth-
er homeless man spit in her face
and Mat retaliated by hitting
the guy,” Funkhouser said. “The
homeless man then called the
police on Mat and a warrant was
issued for his arrest.”
Funkhouser’s description of
the incident could not be con-
RIME works with
clinics to increase
awareness among
low-income patients
By NABEEL CHOLLAMPAT
Daily Staff Reporter
Approaching its second year
on campus, the student organi-
zation Redefining Innovation
in Medical Engineering has
devoted time to a diverse array
of projects, from helping rural
communities in India to working
on health policy solutions for the
Metro Detroit area.
RIME is focused on providing
medical solutions to patients in
lower-income markets, according
to Engineering freshman Colin
Halow, a member of the group.
This year, the group is planning to
refocus its efforts locally.
They are currently working
with three clinics in the area —
the HUDA Clinic, Cass Clinic
and Hamtramck Clinic.
Harish Kilaru, RIME co-
founder and co-president, said
he helped found the organiza-
tion last year to develop medical
devices for rural areas.
Last year, RIME’s target area
was in rural India. The group
created a device that could diag-
nose jaundice, a yellow discolor-
ation of the skin, from outside
the skin. According to Kilaru,
however, the device had issues
with actual implementation.
“We realized it’s very difficult
to design a product for a market
that you can only visit once or
twice a year,” Kilaru said. “It’s
hard to understand what they
value, and we had a lot of assump-
tions that we couldn’t validate
until we went to the country.”
This experience led the group
to switch gears and focus closer
to home. Projects in the works
for this year include a rewards
system to incentivize patients to
refer others to clinics by offering
discounts at places like the Salva-
tion Army and food pantries.
“We want to see whether the
rewards are enough to incentiv-
ize people to tell their friends
to go to the clinic,” Kilaru said.
“We’re trying to increase the
number of low-income patients
that are utilizing primary care,
and that issue stems from the
fact low-income patients don’t
often know where the clinic is.”
The group is also developing a
website for patients and provid-
ers that will provide information
about which services are offered
at individual clinics.
The group’s members include
undergraduates as well as grad-
uate students. RIME is funded
through Innovate Blue, and also
received funds from last year’s
Optimize Social Innovation Chal-
lenge on campus.
Halow said he thought the
organization’s work, especially
the shift in focus to more local
‘What would you
do in 15 seconds?’
discusses impacts
of rocket fire
By LARA MOEHLMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
If you were given 15 seconds to
seek shelter from an approaching
rocket, what would you do?
For Israelis living in Sderot, a
city near the Hamas-controlled
Gaza strip, this question is not a
hypothetical one.
Noam Bedein, a native Israeli
photographer, is the director
of the Sderot Media Center, a
nonprofit media advocacy cen-
ter dedicated to spreading the
individual voices of Sderot to
the international media and
public. His presentation “What
could YOU do in 15 seconds?” on
Thursday evening drew roughly
30 people to the Michigan Union.
Last October marked Sderot’s
15th year under Qassam rocket
fire from Hamas. Bedein said
that since August of 2005 — when
Israel gave up the Gaza strip ter-
ritory — more than 24,000 rock-
ets have been fired from Gaza
into Israel.
Bedein focused on the nor-
malizing effect that the constant
threat of rockets has had on
Israeli societies such as Sderot.
“I came to this town to become
a student, not knowing too much
about this rocket reality,” Bedein
said. “I noticed how there’s no
public office, government office
or press center to speak out for
the residents. I’ve established
the Sderot Media Center to try
becoming a voice and face of the
region, pursuing this ongoing
rocket reality, which somehow
became acceptable.”
In a photograph he shared
with the audience, a playground
With lighting
moratorium now
lifted, students
lobby for changes
By ANASTASSIOS
ADAMOPOULOS
and ANDREW ALMANI
Daily Staff Reporters
Ann Arbor might soon see
the light.
During the Feb. 17 Ann Arbor
City Council meeting, the City
Council adopted a resolution
that lifted a moratorium on
the installation of new lighting
that had been in effect in since
2005.
The moratorium has been in
effect since fiscal year 2006 and
was adopted due to the increasing
costs of DTE Energy lighting.
With the moratorium lifted,
several
student
governments
are considering proposals to
evaluate
off-campus
lighting
after hearing student concerns
about off-campus safety.
There are two owners of
off-campus streetlights in Ann
Arbor — the city and DTE.
The
city
compensates
DTE
for the streetlights that DTE
owns, both for their use and
their maintenance. The city is
responsible for the maintenance
of the streetlights that it owns, but
still pays DTE for the energy use.
According to a streetlight
whitepaper
created
by
the
Systems
Planning
Unit
in
September 2013, by the close of
the 2013 fiscal year Ann Arbor
had 7,437 streetlights. Of these
DTE owned 5,234 while the city
owned the remaining 2,203.
The city began using LED
streetlights in 2006, according
to the whitepaper. LED lights
are more expensive but have
fewer maintenance and energy
expenses, which makes them
preferable.
The moratorium does not
mean that new lights have not
been installed or that old ones
have not been replaced in the
city. The condition is that these
replacements and installments
do not cause a net increase in
streetlight costs.
The resolution for lifting the
moratorium
was
introduced
by
Councilmember
Stephen
Kunselman (D–Ward 3) and
Annual mental
health event talks
increased stress on
college campuses
By IRENE PARK
Daily Staff Reporter
According to a survey con-
ducted by the American College
Health Association in 2011, 30
percent of college students have
reported at some point in the pre-
vious year feeling “so depressed
that it was difficult to function.”
The National Mental Health
Institute states that depression
may not only affect a student’s
ability to function, but is also
major health risk for suicide and
other forms of self-harm.
The University of Michigan
Comprehensive
Depression
Center hosted the 13th annual
Depression on College Campuses
conference on Wednesday and
Thursday to discuss how student
wellness, and especially depres-
sion, can be addressed to allow
students to perform their best.
University
President
Mark
Schlissel, who gave the welcom-
ing remarks for the opening key-
note Wednesday, said one-third
of college students suffer from
some type of mental health issues
such as depression, anxiety and
suicidal thoughts, but only one-
ANDREW COHEN/Daily
Noam Bedein, head of the Sderot Media Center, presents Israeli children’s drawings about the realities of living under rocket fire during a talk at the Michigan
Union on Thursday.
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Mat Chavez, one of the recipients of a recent GoFundMe campaign , singing on the corner of North University
Avenue and State Street on Wednesday.
See SDEROT, Page 2
See CONCERNS, Page 3
See CONFERENCE, Page 3
See CAMPAIGN, Page 3
See HEALTH, Page 3
INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 81
©2015 The Michigan Daily
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 53
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Poorly lit
off-campus
areas spark
concerns
Israeli speaker highlights
fear in border city Sderot
Campus group
takes on local
health issues
Campaign for A2 homeless
couple raises almost $7,000
Conference
focuses on
impacts of
depression
ANN ARBOR
CAMPUS LIFE
WELLNESS