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Thursday, June 4, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

UM-Flint expands program to online format 

School will offer 
Master of Arts in 
Liberal Studies 

online in Fall 2015

By ALEX JUNTTI

Daily Staff Reporter

For the first time, the oldest 

graduate program at the Univer-
sity of Michigan- Flint — Master 
of Arts in Liberal Studies — will 
be available for students in an 
entirely online format. The pro-
gram will be implemented this 
fall.

The new structure of the pro-

gram was conceptualized in an 
effort to provide the flexibility 
and tools necessary for working 
adults to pursue an interdisci-
plinary graduate degree either 
full time or part time.

Established in 1977 as a Rack-

ham Graduate School initiative, 
the Master of Arts in Liberal 
Studies program consists of 33 
semester hours of graduate work 
focused on a broad variety of 
topics in American history and 
culture, encouraging students 
to explore and analyze issues 
associated with national iden-
tity, such as race, gender, poli-
tics and religion. In addition, 
each student must complete a 

thesis and present it to a panel 
of faculty and peers during the 
student’s final semester.

Currently, all core courses 

are available online as well as 25 
approved elective courses. An 
increasing amount of elective 
courses will be available online 
in coming semesters.

Jan Furman, director of the 

Liberal Studies program, spoke 
about how transitioning to an 
online curriculum is helping to 
broaden educational opportuni-
ties.

“It’s a part of making graduate 

education available, accessible 
and more democratic,” Fur-
man said. “The wonderful thing 

about the program is the curric-
ular flexibility because we can 
work with students to fine-tune 
a curriculum that meets their 
goals, but we’re now at a place 
where we need to modernize 
our delivery. If we still want to 
reach working adults, then the 
most effective way of doing that 
is through online instruction.”

Frederic Svoboda, a professor 

in American literature, film and 
culture, added that the inter-
active online format is a great 
way to draw in active learners 
and expand the program’s reach 
beyond the immediacy of cam-
pus.

“Really good students do just 

as well online because they’re 
very active, but the people in 
the middle are actually pulled 
in by the format and become 
more active, and what we’re 
hoping will happen, and what I 
think will happen with the Lib-
eral Studies program online, is 
that we will get a group of very 
involved students or people who 
really want to become involved,” 
Svoboda said. “As soon as you 
put the program online, the 
students can be anywhere. It 
really broadens the market for 
the program, but it also allows 
people who otherwise can’t get 
to campus to still participate in 

CEO
From Page 1

 

RUBY WALLAU/Daily

Associate Prof. Hannah Wittman of the University of British Columbia 
explains her work with agrarian citizenship, food sovereignty and rural 
development at the Food Sovereignty Conference and Symposium at the 
Dana Building last Thursday.

 SUSTAINABLE FAR MING

See FLINT, Page 8

TASTE
From Page 2

this event is about our com-

munity,” Thomson said. “Our 
goal is to connect people to this 
downtown.”

Despite the large portion of 

the student population hav-
ing left for the summer, many 
remaining 
students 
attended 

the event. Rising LSA senior Ben 
Brenner is a frequent patron to 
the Main Street restaurants. He 
said he enjoys the more social 
atmosphere of the event.

“It was definitely advertised 

as more of a townie event,” 
Brenner said. “A lot of the people 
in my house hadn’t even heard 
of it.”

Kerr 
said 
the 
community 

should take advantage of the 
various eateries available in the 
Ann Arbor area.

“Ann Arbor is known as a 

foodie destination — over 200 
restaurants are located in the 
area,” Kerr said. “You may not 
agree with me, but we’re prob-
ably one of the best food destina-
tions outside Chicago.”

Thompson said Taste of Ann 

Arbor highlighted the growth of 
the local food scene.

“The Ann Arbor food scene 

has grown, and continues to 
grow, over the last 10 years,” 
Thomson said. “I feel like this 
is another example of how the 
Ann Arbor food scene has grown 
and is shining and that is what’s 
showcased here today.”

rated” from the University for 

violating the University’s Stu-
dent Sexual Misconduct Policy 
and after former Michigan coach 
Brady Hoke was criticized for 
his handling of sophomore quar-
terback Shane Morris’ helmet-to-
helmet hit in September 2014.

Brandon’s resignation came days 

after MGoBlog.com <a href=http://
www.michigandaily.com/sports/
michigan-wolverines-football-
athletic-director-dave-brandon-
resigns-timeline>reported</a> 
Brandon had responded to fans’ 
e-mails in ways many considered 
unprofessional. The e-mails con-
tained messages such as, “I suggest 
you find a new team to support. I 
really don’t care about your opin-
ions,” and “Quit drinking and go to 
bed.”

Per the terms of agreement 

for his resignation, Brandon was 
scheduled to receive a $3-million 
settlement over four years from the 
University. However, according to 
the agreement, the University can 
lower the settlement amount based 
on income he would receive from a 
new job. 

Before his tenure as athletic 

director, Brandon built a business 
career in Southeast Michigan. 
He served as the CEO of Valas-
sis Communications from 1989 to 
1999, then held the same position at 
Domino’s Pizza from 1999 to 2010.

Bain Capital, the Boston-based 

investment firm that hired Bran-
don at Domino’s when it acquired 
the company, is also the primary 
owner of Toys “R” Us.

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