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Friday, September 11, 2015
CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
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Vol. CXXIV, No. 123
©2015 The Michigan Daily
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 63
LO: 42
SCIENCE
In first all-
chapter gathering,
administrators call
for turning point
By EMMA KINERY
and LARA MOEHLMAN
Daily Staff Reporters
University
President
Mark
Schlissel discussed alcohol abuse
and sexual assault — problems
he said are rampant among the
Greek community — during a
gathering of students from every
chapter of University Greek life
Thursday.
The meeting marked the first
of its kind where all members of
every University Greek life chap-
ter gathered during their 170-year
history on campus.
Schlissel’s argument centered
on the ways in which an unfet-
tered party culture stains the
University’s reputation — not only
for current students, but for the
500,000 people who graduated
before them.
“The value of their degrees are
gonna go down because the repu-
tation of the University of Michi-
gan won’t be the excitement in the
Big House or our teams doing well
under our fantastic new coach,”
Schlissel said. “It’s not gonna be
the kids who receive the Rhodes
Scholarships and the Fulbright
Scholarships, and the famous
professors who do the work that
you’re going to get reflected on
for, or the National Medal for the
Arts that our faculty won this
past week. It’s going to be the
‘Shmacked’ videos. So it’s really
up to you what the value of your
education is going to be, what the
reputation of this institution’s
going to be.”
The talk was met with mixed
reactions, with some students
coughing loudly when Schlissel,
along with other administrators,
mentioned problems such as low
Greek participation in the Uni-
versity’s sexual assault survey,
among other issues.
Each fraternity and soror-
ity was required to have at least
70 percent of its chapter attend
the meeting. Those who failed
to comply will face a semester
of social probation, a letter to
their national organization and a
$1,000 fine.
The meeting comes after a year
of magnified tumult in the Greek
community, marked by national
press coverage of numerous fra-
ternity “ski trips” gone wrong last
winter, in addition to increased
scrutiny of the role of Greek life
in excessive party culture in uni-
versity settings throughout the
country.
Dean of Students Laura Blake
Jones told members of Greek life
that the issues facing their com-
munity are grave.
“I fear some of you have
embraced a work hard, play hard
mentality and that you may have
taken to the extreme what has
us on this downward spiral, and
we know we have to turn this
around,” she said. “It’s clear to
me that if we can’t begin to make
meaningful, student-led progress
and change immediately on our
campus, the future of sorority and
fraternity life as we know it is in
peril.”
Issues on campus
Though Greek life represents
only 22 percent of students on
campus, administrators empha-
sized the influence members
wield on campus culture.
Researchers use
DNA to improve
disease diagnoses
By NABEEL CHOLLAMPAT
Daily Staff Reporter
Researchers at the Uni-
versity’s
Michigan
Center
for Translational Pathology
announced this month a new
breakthrough
in
pediatric
cancer treatment — the use of
genetic sequencing.
Using
a
practice
called
precision oncology, a team
of
University
researchers
conducted a study that used
genetic sequencing to tai-
lor diagnoses and develop
new drug treatment for can-
cer patients for whom stan-
dard
treatments
were
no
longer
effective.
In
some
cases, researchers were able
to recommend early counsel-
ing for family members based
on the results.
Genetic sequencing is the
practice of determing the
unique composition of an indi-
vidual DNA strand — a process
that can provide researchers
and doctors with important
information about a patient,
the disease they have and the
best approach to treating it.
The study’s lead author,
Rajen Mody, a pediatric oncol-
ogist at C.S. Mott Children’s
Hospital and clinical director
of pediatric hematology and
oncology, said the study was
the first of its kind in the field
of pediatric oncology.
The ongoing study, which
began in 2012, is focused on
142 children and young adults
who have a cancer diagnosis.
Eighty percent of patients in
the group had exhausted the
standard treatment options
available. For each patient, the
sequencing
produced
more
than two terabytes of data — a
significant amount of infor-
mation. The tests currently
take more than six weeks to
complete, significantly faster
than previous gene sequenc-
ing mechanisms which often
Activists hope
to influence
legislators before
congressional vote
By ALLANA AKHTAR
Daily Staff Reporter
Ann Arbor residents held a
vigil Thursday night to promote
diplomacy with Iran and rally
support for the Obama admin-
istration’s proposed deal with
that country.
Chuck Warpehoski, direc-
tor of the Interfaith Council
of Peace and Justice and the
event’s organizer, said the vigil
was intended to showcase how
Ann Arbor residents feel about
the deal.
“Our goal is to let members
of Congress know their constit-
uents support this reasonable
deal that will help make the
world safer for nuclear weap-
ons,” said Warpehoski, who is
a Democratic Ann Arbor City
Council member from the city’s
fifth ward.
About 35 people — mostly
Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti resi-
dents — attended the event
outside the Federal Building on
Liberty Street.
Doctors say more
research is needed
despite artificial
heart success
By KATIE PENROD
Daily Staff Reporter
In January, 24 year-old Stan
Larkin left the University of
Michigan Health System with
a SynCardia temporary Total
Artificial
Heart.
He’s
now
waiting for a heart transplant.
Many
patients
aren’t
so
lucky. According to UMHS
doctors, there is much more
research to be done before this
technology is accessible to all
patients—
particularly
chil-
dren.
John Charpie, professor of
pediatrics and director of pedi-
atric cardiology at C.S. Mott
Children’s Hospital, said there
are three categories of devices
doctors can choose from when
treating a patient with a failing
heart. The first device, extra-
Schlissel to Greek life:
Party culture devalues University
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Members of Greek life wait in line to enter a community meeting held by university administration at Hill Auditorium on Thursday.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Ann Arbor resident Dorothy Strotkamp and other demonstrators at the Vigil for Peace and Diplomacy with Iran hosted
by the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice at the Federal Building on Thursday.
» INSIDE
See HEART, Page 6A
See GREEK LIFE, Page 6A
See GENETICS, Page 2A
See VIGIL, Page 2A
The long, turbu
l
e
nt
path
f
r
om Wilmington to An
n Arbo
r
Foo
tb
a
ll
Sat
ur
d
a
y
RESEARCH
Genetics could
shape pediatric
cancer treament
Ann Arbor residents hold
vigil in support of Iran Deal
After historic
procedure, ‘U’
heart studies
move ahead