speaker of the assembly. Reps. 
Noah Betman and Ben Meisel, 
both LSA sophomores, received 
nominations. 
Betman 
was 

ultimately elected to the post.

As speaker, Betman said he 

hopes to improve the logistical 
and transparency issues in the 
assembly 
through 
initiatives 

such as making the assembly’s 
agenda known to the general 
public before meetings and asking 
representatives to submit reports 
from their respective meetings.

Reps. Allie Lisner and Catherine 

Bergin, both LSA sophomores, 
received nominations for vice 
speaker of the assembly.

Bergin, who was elected to the 

position, emphasized the past 
experiences she felt made her a 
qualified nominee, such as acting 
as the host and writer for her high 
school broadcasting show.

“Despite it being my first year 

here (on CSG), I feel I would 
definitely be an asset as vice 
speaker,” she said.

Third-year Law student Paige 

Becker, who served as this year’s 
CSG election director, was the 
guest 
speaker 
at 
Tuesday’s 

meeting. The Undergraduate 
Election Code requires Becker 
to debrief the assembly after 
each election.

Becker said there was a voter 

turnout of 24 percent in this year’s 
presidential and vice presidential 
election, which rose from 22 
percent in last year’s election. 
Further, more than 100 candidates 
ran for a seat on the assembly, 
and 40 out of the 58 seats on the 
assembly were contested.

Becker also suggested potential 

changes to the election code. 
These 
included 
limiting 
the 

number of complaints each party 
is allowed to file, improving 
campaign volunteer education and 
the possible institution of a run-off 
election in certain cases.

The only new piece of business 

presented in Tuesday’s meeting 
was a resolution requesting the 
University’s Investment Office 
conduct an audit every three years 
of all companies the University 
invests in that may be committing 
unethical practices anywhere in 
the world.

“I thought that I saw that 

students weren’t very happy 
with 
how 
the 
University’s 

endowment was being spent,” 
said Engineering senior Andy 
Modell, author of the resolution.

The 
resolution 
further 

requested if these audits find 
any companies responsible for 
immoral actions, they present 
a plan that will reposition the 
University’s funds to a “materially 
superior ethical state.”

The assembly requested the first 

audit be presented by the end of 
March 2016. The resolution moved 
to the resolutions committee.

The complete list of CSG 

representatives 
elected 
to 

leadership positions:

Finance 
Committee 
Chair: 

Business sophomore Jacob Metzger

Finance Committee Vice Chair: 

Business sophomore Eva Scarano

Resolutions 
Committee 

Chair: LSA sophomore Swathi 
Shanmugasundaram

Resolutions 
Committee 
Vice 

Chair: LSA junior Lucky Mulpuri

Rules 
Committee 
Chair: 

Rackham student Jared Ferguson

Rules Committee Vice Chair: 

Rackham student Ramon Martinez

Communications 
Committee 

Chair: LSA junior Taylor Helber

Communications 
Committee 

Vice Chair: Engineering junior Katy 
Culver

Executive 
Nominations 

Committee Chair: LSA sophomore 
David Schafer

Executive 
Nominations 

Committee 
Vice 
Chair: 
LSA 

sophomore Andrew Simor

Ethics Committee Chair: LSA 

sophomore Thomas Hislop

Ethics Committee Vice Chair: 

LSA sophomore Joe Ambrose

Aaron King, associate professor 
of 
ecology 
and 
evolutionary 

biology and mathematics at the 
University, and his colleagues, 
sought to answer what lead to this 
overestimation.

In the study, King and the 

other co-authors argue that faulty 
modeling was the cause for the 
errors in the initial predictions. 
In an e-mail to the Michigan 
Daily, King said no model is 
perfect, as they work through 
oversimplification.

“Like 
maps, 
(models) 

oversimplify reality,” he wrote. 
“Also like maps, that’s what makes 
them useful. The challenge in 
using models is to capture the 
key elements while ignoring the 
irrelevant details.”

King said one of the problems 

was that the model ignored the 
randomness in how Ebola is spread 
from person to person. An infected 
person can transmit the virus to 
either a few or many people, he 
said, so disease transmission is not 
entirely predictable.

“Models 
that 
ignore 
the 

random element in disease spread 
are simpler and easier to employ, 
but overstate the predictability of 
an outbreak,” he wrote.

Marisa Eisenberg, assistant 

professor 
of 
epidemiology 

and mathematics, wrote in an 
e-mail to the Daily that making 
predictions in the early phase of 
an epidemic is also challenging 
because 
researchers 
have 
to 

analyze with limited information.

“The 
lack 
of 
data 
and 

unreliability of what data there is 
can be very tricky to deal with,” 
Eisenberg wrote. “It’s a bit like 
weather prediction in some ways 

— making short-term predictions 
is more doable, but long-term 
predictions are more difficult and 
require more data.”

King 
also 
pointed 
out 

that 
the 
general 
modeling 

theory 
commonly 
used 
to 

predict outbreaks of diseases, 
including Ebola, H1N1, cholera 
and seasonal flu, assumes an 
exponential growth of the cases. 
Therefore, more Ebola cases lead 
to a greater number of predicted 
cases. Exponential growth is seen 
at the early phases of a disease 
outbreak.

Eden Wells, clinical associate 

professor of epidemiology, said 
changing conditions in the three 
West African countries included 
in the CDC predictions, such as 
additional foreign aid workers 
providing education about safe 
burial practices and providing 
medical help, could also have 
been why the disease spread 
much less than expected.

“Many of the assumptions 

that the modelers used were 
that the exponential growth 
would continue,” Wells said. 
“Because there were so many 
things 
rapidly 
evolving 
on 

the ground, the (exponential 
growth) didn’t happen. Models 
can overestimate because the 
assumptions change quickly.”

Wells added that although 

the 
model 
led 
to 
incorrect 

predictions of the outbreak, the 
overestimation 
was 
probably 

helpful in getting people to 
quickly respond to the disease.

“To 
me 
though, 

(overestimation) is not necessarily 
a horrible thing,” she said. “When 
we have to assume the worst 
possible scenario, it is a great way 
to get our government leaders and 
our healthcare providers around 
the world to move quickly.”

3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 — 3A

EBOLA
From Page 1A

amendment in section 168.641 
of the Michigan Election Law, 
elections in cities across the state 
can take place in either February, 
May, 
August 
or 
November. 

Kestenbaum said there has been 
discussion at the state level about 
eliminating the February option.

Grand said she is interested at 

looking into changing term lengths 
as well as the years elections occur. 
Currently, city council terms are 
two years, and elections take place 
annually — with half of the seats 
contested in odd years and half in 
even years.

Holding elections every year 

creates problems for City Council, 
Grand said, as councilmembers are 
less willing to make compromises 
and cooperate when they are 
focused on reelection.

“Having 
gone 
through 
it 

recently in the last couple of years, I 
am concerned about the amount of 
time and effort that it takes to run 
an election versus governing so I 
am interested in other ways that we 
could structure elections,” she said.

Discussing term length, Grand 

said a change to four-year terms 
would help city councilmembers 
engage 
in 
increased 
coalition 

building and more substantive 
work. She also said elections 
should only occur on even years, so 
there would only be elections for 
new councilmembers every two 
years rather than every year.

“I would love to see us go to four 

year terms and (only) even years,” 
she said. “I think that would help 
with voter turnout. I think it would 
also help constituents so they 
could more closely identify their 
councilmembers. So if you have 
someone for a longer term you can 

develop a relationship with that 
person, you know that’s my person 
to go to.”

The 
panel 
also 
discussed 

partisanship in elections. Ann 
Arbor is currently one of only 
three municipalities in Michigan 
that have partisan elections. 
A 
partisan 
election 
means 

candidates are permitted to have 
party labels attached to their 
names on the ballot.

“I 
am 
inclined 
to 
think 

partisanship is not problem, at least 
in Ann Arbor, with the exception 
of the fact that Republicans don’t 
seem to want to run for office in 
Ann Arbor because the label is 
not something they wish to have 
tagged to their name these days,” 
Chamberlin said.

In places like Ann Arbor, where 

most candidates represent one 
party, party labels matter less, and 
sub-parties or factions can form, 
he added.

After 
the 
panel, 
Westphal, 

the 
city 
councilmember, 
said 

increasing voter turnout is critical. 
To this end, he is open to hearing 
new ideas, such as converting to a 
nonpartisan system.

“My goal is to get meaningful 

ballots in front of more people,” 
Westphal said. “However that’s 
done, I think the voters choose to 
do that. I just want to have more 
participation.”

Like 
Westphal, 
all 
three 

panelists 
articulated 
concerns 

with voter turnout. Ohren said 
the city does not need to increase 
the number of voters, but the 
engagement of those who vote.

“I think the question really is 

how do we engage the community 
in the decision making process. 
I think that’s what’s important 
to us,” Ohren said. Not how 
many people vote but rather how 
many people participate in the 

ELECTIONS
From Page 1A

some groups should not have the 
same protection and there’s an 
inherent message in that that is 
really stigmatizing of a group. So 
if you think about young people 
growing up in an environment 
where they hear that, what kind 
of consequences does that have 
on their well-being?”

In response to backlash in 

Indiana, other states’ versions 
of the bills have died or stalled. 
Last week, Gov. Rick Snyder said 
in an interview with The Detroit 
Free Press he would veto the bill 
if it was given to him as a stand-
alone bill.

During last year’s lame-duck 

session, the bill was introduced 
alongside expansions to the 
state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights 
Act to include protections for 
sexual orientation. Protections 
for gender identity were also 
proposed, but were not supported 
by the Republican caucus.

“Given all the events that are 

happening in Indiana, I thought 
it would be good to clarify 
my position,” Snyder said. “I 

would veto RFRA legislation in 
Michigan if it is a stand-alone 
piece of legislation.”

Snyder told the Free Press he 

would not support the bill unless it 
was accompanied by an expansion 
of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights 
Act. He also said he does not 
want the LGBTQ protections to 
be included in the RFRA bill, and 
that he wants the two pieces of 
legislation to stay separate.

Woodford said he worried 

that an adjoining bill for LBGTQ 
rights would not be passed while 
the RFRA would.

“My concern would be, if in 

fact the legislation protecting 
— so enumerating gay/lesbian 
people and transgender people 
and such — if that would actually 
go through,” Woodford said.

Other experts on the issue 

said 
with 
or 
without 
the 

extension of the Elliott-Larsen 
Act, the RFRA won’t have a 
malicious impact on any group. 
Dr. Douglas Laycock, a law 
professor at the University of 
Virginia with University of 
Michigan ties, said even though 
he supports same-sex marriage, 
he doesn’t think the law will 
have a discriminatory effect.

“Most of the applications 

of 
Religious 
Freedom 
and 

Restoration Acts have nothing to 
do with discrimination,” Laycock 
said. “They’re about churches 
feeding the homeless, they’re 
about Muslim beards and head 
scarves, they’re about Sabbath 
observance. They’re about all the 
different ways in which minority 
religious practices come into 
conflict with sometimes unusual 
regulations.”

Laycock said some lawmakers 

may 
intend 
to 
discriminate 

through RFRA laws, but said 
viewing the laws through the lens 
of nondiscrimination showed that 
they have many more benefits and 
do not segregate others.

“Your right to believe in a 

religion doesn’t mean very much 
if you don’t have the right to 
practice it,” he said.

Wyatt Fore, spokesman for 

Outlaws, the University’s LGBTQ 
law student organization, said the 
organization is against the RFRA 
bill because it allows a group 
to legally discriminate against 
another. Like Woodford, Fore was 
also unsure whether extending 
the civil rights act would be 
enough to protect others.

“We very much are glad that 

Governor Snyder has threatened 
to 
veto 
RFRA, 
and 
that 

Governor Snyder has called for 
an expansion of the civil rights 
act, but we would need more 
details before we could think 
authoritatively on what that deal 
would be,” Fore said.

Fore drew a parallel between 

the federal government’s approach 
to desegregation in the 1960s with 
the path state governments are 
currently pursuing with RFRAs. 
He said when deliberating on the 
scope of the Civil Rights Act of 
1964, lawmakers had two choices: 
ban segregation or discrimination 
in 
any 
businesses, 
or 
allow 

freedom of choice.

“These contemporary RFRA 

bills very much adopt the same 
sort of theory,” Fore said. “That is 
why these bills are so dangerous, 
not only for LGBT people, but also 
for all people who are protected 
under civil rights acts, because, if 
a baker can say: we will not bake 
for gay people, then they can also 
say: we will not bake for Jewish 
people, we will not bake for Black 
people. That is very much a theory 
of discrimination that the current 
law very enthusiastically rejects.”

RFRA
From Page 1A

In other words, this switch 

would 
allow 
either 
the 

complainant 
or 
respondent 

to appeal the findings of the 
OIE 
investigation 
first, 
and 

then appeal the sanctions after 
findings were resolved.

The change would also create 

two new outlets to field appeals.

OIE appeals would go to a panel 

of three representatives, made 
up of two faculty members — one 
from the Law School — appointed 
by the Senate Advisory Committee 
on University Affairs and a student 
representative appointed by the 
Central Student Government.

This is a change from the 

current policy, where the existing 
general appeals panel includes one 
faculty member appointed by the 
Faculty Senate, one administrator 
appointed 
by 
the 
University 

president 
and 
one 
student 

appointed by CSG.

Additionally, 
OSCR 
appeals 

would 
be 
reviewed 
by 
a 

representative from the Office of 
the Provost. This measure, Rider-
Milkovich said, would allow for an 
objective voice external from the 
process to review documents and 
determine sanctions’ fairness.

“We believe it is important 

to have an outside perspective 
because OSCR is crafting the 
agreement itself,” she said.

Rider-Milkovich added that she 

hopes the appeals process change 
will shorten the time frame 
from reporting misconduct to 
carrying out the investigation and 
delivering sanctions. However, she 
said she recognizes that allowing 
two opportunities to appeal could 
have the reverse effect.

“This is our best thinking on 

a way to create a more authentic 
experience, but it’s possible that 
it lengthens the process, which 
is something that we know is a 
significant issue,” she said.

Petrowski mentioned that many 

universities do not separate their 
appeals system to differentiate 
case findings from sanctions.

Student attendees responded 

positively to the change in the 
process, 
but 
voiced 
concerns 

about the pending appeals process 
structure. A main concern was 
with the CSG’s role in choosing 

the student representative for the 
OIE panel.

“I really don’t like that CSG 

picks the student,” LSA junior 
Laura Meyer said, adding that 
she has little trust in CSG or 
knowledge about what it does.

LSA 
senior 
Kathryn 

Abercrombie, 
a 
former 
CSG 

representative and a leader in 
SAPAC, 
echoed 
Meyer’s 
fear 

that the CSG assembly does not 
always represent every voice 
on campus to the fullest extent. 
She mentioned there could be 
other areas on campus, such as 
the Trotter Multicultural Center 
or Intergroup Relations, from 
which the OIE panel could draw a 
student representative.

“I would argue that CSG is not 

representative of the student body, 
and that is I think the source of 
concern with having CSG appoint 
someone,” Abercrombie said.

A 
number 
of 
students 

participating in the roundtable 
talks suggested that the OIE 
panel 
adopt 
an 
open-call 

application 
for 
the 
student 

representative on the panel.

Another 
change 
Rider-

Milkovich 
and 
Petrowski 

proposed 
was 
to 
make 
the 

identity of any witnesses in the 
case known in reports and to the 
parties involved.

The current policy protects 

witness’ 
identities 
to 
make 

students feel more comfortable 
coming forward and sharing their 
stories without fear of retaliation 
in their various social groups.

Rider-Milkovich and Petrowski 

proposed naming the identities 
of witnesses to afford both the 
respondent and the complainant 

the best opportunity to defend 
themselves or prosecute their 
claims, because they could give 
more information regarding the 
accuracy of witness statements 
and motives.

Rider-Milkovich and Petrowski 

said this is the current trend 
for universities that are also 
undergoing policy revisions. They 
added that the OIE investigator 
overseeing a case would have the 
discretion to determine whether 
or not to hide the witness identity 
in cases where he or she believed 
the witness would be in physical 
danger otherwise.

Raina LaGrand, a graduate 

student in the Schools of Social 
Work and Public Health, said 
giving an OIE officer the discretion 
to grant witness anonymity could 
have the potential to be dangerous 
— especially given that the stigma 
surrounding sexual misconduct 
can vary among racial or cultural 
social groups.

“I think that the way different 

communities 
experience 

sexual assault on this campus, 
and 
protecting 
complainants 

or respondents, is drastically 
different,” LaGrand said.

Another potential change to 

the Student Sexual Misconduct 
Policy 
involves 
setting 

strict time limits during the 
investigative procedure.

Currently, the policy says the 

procedure aims to be complete 60 
days after the report is filed. Rider-
Milkovich admitted, however, this 
time frame is often extended.

“Less often we are able to meet 

60 days than we go over 60 days,” 
she said.

However, Petrowski said she 

has concerns about the strict 
timeline, adding that extensions 
are typically granted for a good 
reason, such as allowing for 
the most careful reviewing of 
documents possible.

“I can tell you as a former 

litigator it is much, much, much 
harder to draft a 10 or 15 page brief 
than it is a 50 page brief if there are 
a ton of facts,” she said. “You need to 
be very considerate about the main 
points you want to get across.”

Rider-Milkovich and Petrowski 

also proposed separating the 
appeals 
procedure 
from 
the 

Student 
Sexual 
Misconduct 

Policy to make each item more 
understandable. Petrowski added 
that doing so would also make it 
easier to adjust the appeals process 
independently from the policy’s 
review cycle.

The policy currently posted 

to the University’s website is 20 
pages long and includes a policy 
statement, section for definitions 
and appeals the process.

The proposed changes do 

not currently include revisions 
to the policy’s definition of 
consent. Last week, a report 
published in The Michigan Daily 
noted a discrepancy between 
the definition of consent applied 
during University disciplinary 
proceedings 
and 
the 
more 

stringent definition promoted 
by SAPAC.

Other proposed changes include 

adding a definition of “retaliation” 
to the sexual misconduct policy 
and approaching cases of dating 
violence, domestic violence and 
stalking in a non-sexual manner 
in the same way as allegations of 
sexual misconduct.

POLICY
From Page 1A

CSG
From Page 1A

BRIAN BECKWITH/Daily

Holly Rider-Milkovich, director of the Sexual Assault Preventation and Awareness Center, during the Sexual Assault Policy 
Roundtable at the Michigan League on Tuesday. 

