“Last summer we provided
over a thousand internships to
LSA students, and we awarded
over a half million in scholarship
money such that any student
could
take
an
internship
regardless of need,” he said.
He also described how LSA
was creating a name for itself
among employers in various
pre-professional fields, such as
business.
“Just within the last month,
we’re having employers who
are calling our internship office
saying we’ve had your LSA
students
with
their
history
majors, econ majors, political
science majors,” he said. “We
want to come interview LSA
students for jobs.”
In addition, he said taking
advantage of the liberal arts
experience helps prepare students
for life after college, noting that
94 percent of LSA students are
employed or in graduate school six
months after graduating.
Overall, Martin encouraged
students to make the most of
their time in the LSA.
“I’d
pick
whatever’s
the
most fun,” he said. “What’s the
subject you find fascinating?
That’s what you should chase
after. And if you haven’t found
that yet, keep looking.”
Martin said he plans on
having two or three of these
forums a semester at various
locations around campus, as well
as hosting open office hours once
every three or four weeks.
“It’s really an opportunity for
me to hear from students, and for
us as a college to be responsive to
whatever it is students want to
talk about,” he said.
Social Work student Kendall
Johnson, who is a graduate
student adviser to the Dean’s
Ambassador Program, said she
considered the evening successful
despite the small turnout.
“The fact that Dean Martin is
trying to reach out to students
is different from other deans,”
Johnson said. “So I think that
students are seeing that, and
it’s just going to be a matter of
continuing to get the word out.”
LSA senior Jason Colella,
president
of
LSA
student
government, thought the smaller
setting
was
an
interesting
variation on past events.
“This one was more intimate
and on a smaller scale, which
allowed us to have a more personal
conversation,” Colella said. “We
maybe got less of the policy ideas
out of it, but we got more heart-
to-heart human reaction, which
is a good perspective.”
Marjorie Horton, assistant
dean
for
undergraduate
education,
said
she
hopes
attendance is better in the future.
“I was disappointed that more
first year students didn’t come
because I think that it was really
a very deliberate choice on Dean
Martin’s part to come out to
where the students live and be
accessible,” Horton said.
She said she thinks working
more closely with housing and
involving residential advisors
will expand the audience at
future events.
The next of the dean’s forums
will take place in Mary Markley
Residence Hall on Oct. 29. A
third forum is planned for Dec. 8
in the Michigan Union.
wife Betty donated $5 million
of the total budget in 2012,
which kicked off a subsequent
fundraising
campaign
to
renovate the nuclear facility.
The
Nuclear
Engineering
Laboratory will function as a
center for professors, researchers
and
students
to
continue
research on topics like nuclear
energy and advancements in
power plant technology. The
four-story building will contain,
among other features, gamma
ray testing centers and student
collaboration rooms.
Ronald
Gilgenbach,
chair
of the department of nuclear
engineering
and
radiological
sciences,
said
the
lab
will
create a host of new research
opportunities.
“This laboratory will make
the world a safer place by
developing new techniques and
guiding policies to detect nuclear
weapons materials,” he said.
Dean of Engineering David
Munson, Jr., wrote in an e-mail
to The Michigan Daily that the
original building’s thick walls will
make it a good location for nuclear
research, as they were built to
shield from radiation damage.
Munson added that one of the
lab’s focus areas will be nuclear
nonproliferation. He also noted
that much of the research will be
conducted by graduate students,
with room for undergraduate
research as well.
“The research in the new labs
will be oriented at detection
and
imaging
of
radioactive
sources, with applications to
nuclear nonproliferation, and
improvements to nuclear power
plants,” Munson wrote. “The
goal of the U-M work in that
regard is to create improved
means to detect and localize even
small amounts of fissile material,
which can be used to make
nuclear bombs. The objective is
to make it very difficult to hide
this material or transport it
across borders.”
Both Munson and Gilgenbach
emphasized the need to continue
important nuclear research in
today’s society and said it will
lead to nuclear energy being used
in a safer way.
Engineering graduate student
Marc Ruch, a nuclear engineering
researcher, said part of working
in the new facility will involve
shining a more positive light on
the potential of nuclear energy, as
opposed to a sometimes negative
connotation
associated
with
nuclear power.
“Nuclear
engineering
is
really the only solution to global
warming. It’s a source of energy
that’s
economical
without
producing carbon emissions,”
he said. “What this space, in
particular, is going to be doing,
at least for the lab that I work
with, is help improve our ability
to detect the proliferation of
nuclear weapons as well.”
Similarly, Gilgenbach said
the research on safe nuclear
energy is a priority and will
continue
to
be
when
the
laboratory is complete.
“The research that we’re doing
on nuclear thermal hydraulics
will not only make nuclear
energy safer, but it will allow us to
improve the efficiency of nuclear
reactors, since nuclear power is
still the only carbon-free baseload
energy that’s available that doesn’t
rely on wind, sun or essentially
hydroelectricity,” he said.
3-News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, September 23, 2015 — 3A
‘U’ names worker
found dead in
Chemistry Building
The man found dead in the
University’s chemistry building
on September 15 was identified
on Tuesday as Lamont Smith,
The Ann Arbor News reported.
Smith was found by a cowork-
er around 3:50 am in medical
distress.
When
paramedics
arrived he was pronounced dead
on scene.
While the results of the
autopsy have not been released
yet, officials believe he died of
natural causes.
Smith had worked as a custo-
dian with the University for 25
years.
University continues
campus ban on guns
amid lawsuit
In August, Ann Arbor resident
Josh Wade sued the University
for the right to carry his gun on
campus, the Detroit Free Press
reported.
The University filed a report
to the state in defense of the
ban this week. According to the
University, under the Michigan
Constitution schools do not have
to abide by legislation concern-
ing weapons and they are thus
allowed to ban guns on campus
property.
Wade
sparked
controversy
last spring when he demonstrat-
ed his right to open carry at an
Ann Arbor High School choir
concert.
‘U’ Water Center
receives $3
million to conduct
research on algae
Researchers from the University
received a $3 million grant from
the Erb Family Foundation to
study the impact the Detroit
River’s algea has on the blooms in
Lake Erie.
The grant will last 3 years.
Researchers will analyze the
efficiency of Detroit’s “green
infrastructure” projects which
are created to maintain storm
runoff in the city.
The algae, which plagues Lake
Erie each year, release toxins into
the water. When the toxins build
up they make the water unsafe
to drink. In August 2014, over
400,000 inhabitants of Toledo
were without drinking water as a
resault of the algae.
Former state rep.
outsted amid
scandal is eligible
to run again
Cindy Gamrat, former repre-
sentative for Michigan’s 80th
district, will be eligible to run for
her former seat, Michigan’s Sec-
retary of State ruled this week.
Gamrat was voted out of
Michigan’s House of Represen-
tatives eariler this month after
an investigation found she had
misused state funds while hav-
ing an affair with former Rep-
resentative Todd Courser, who
resigned the night she was voted
out.
The scandal made national
news. To prevent their affair
from becoming public Courser
sent an email claiming him to
be addicted to pornography and
seeking a male prostitute.
Courser and Gamrat have
both filed to run for their former
seats.
—EMMA KINERY
NEED
MORE
NEWS?
@MICHIGANDAILY
NEWS BRIEFS
identify techniques which can
be used to educate millennials
on finances.
In particular, Ferguson said
more education is required
on saving for retirement. As
the president of a retirement
savings
organization,
he
said he frequently interacts
with individuals who are not
thinking about it and are not
saving enough — or even not
saving at all.
“I think that the biggest
problem can be just not thinking
about it,” Ferguson said. “It’s
been long said that people spend
more time planning for vacation
than their retirement.”
Ferguson listed three ways
for businesses and organizations
to maximize their employee’s
retirement savings plans and
encourage them to save. The
first was to automatically enroll
employees
in
a
retirement
savings plan so that instead of
forgetting to sign up, they would
have to unenroll if they did not
want to participate.
His next suggestion was to
implement automatic escalation,
so that when an employee earns
more money, a greater amount
of earnings is also taken off their
paycheck into their retirement
plan. Finally, Ferguson said he
wants companies to give their
employees a chance to think about
how the funds from the retirement
plan will have to last them.
Though
he
acknowledged
college
students
probably
aren’t thinking about saving for
retirement, he told the crowd
they should be.
“For those of you who have
loans, probably the first thing
to do would be to resurface that
debt and pay it off,” Ferguson
said. “Plan to do both and
sequence them properly.”
Ferguson, introduced at the
talk as the top Black economist
of his generation, also touched
on diversity in the field of
economics itself, saying he’d
like to see more of it.
He said a combination of
an
intimidating
intellectual
environment,
the
types
of
research done within the field,
and
the
math-based
work
might create an unappealing
atmosphere for many students,
but
that
students
of
all
backgrounds should consider
the profession.
“There are very few African
American economists in my
generation,” he said. “I think
the real problem with the
profession is that it is simply not
diverse enough — be that race
(or) gender. There’s something
about the profession that is off-
putting for lots of people.”
POLICY
From Page 1A
NUCLEAR
From Page 1A
DEAN
From Page 1A
being associated as one who wants
to get rid of them I think helps
me with the youth vote. Being a
Detroit Republican, meaning I
want to go after the minority vote
and actually saying how I would
do it, makes me different as well.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
told attendees that the thought
Michigan — as well as several
other states that typically swing
Democratic — were well within
the GOP’s grasp, if the right
nominee were elected.
“Everybody used to think that
Michigan was a blue state,” he
said. “Over and over again, you
hear it, right? Well, Michigan,
because
of
Republican
leadership at the state level,
isn’t blue anymore. It’s red.
And at the national level, it’s
purple trending red. And if we
elect the right nominee, it’ll go
Republican in November of next
year. That’s just not idle chatter.
That should be our aspiration.”
And
it
wasn’t
just
the
candidates who thought so. State
leadership and state Republicans
in attendance in many ways
led the charge in purveying
this
optimism,
pointing
to
Michigan’s economy, the policy
work of Gov. Rick Snyder and
the control the state party
has over both branches of the
legislature, the governor’s office,
the attorney general’s office and
the secretary of state.
Citing the tenure of former
Michigan
Gov.
Jennifer
Granholm (D), Ronna Romney
McDaniel, Michigan Republican
Party chairman, said the state
is doing well because of its
Republican leadership, and that
will resonate with voters in the
presidential election.
“We
have
a
story
of
Republican
leadership
and
how it’s done,” she said. “Under
Jennifer Granholm, jobs were
fleeing our state. Our state was
on the decline. I had friends
lose homes. I had friends move
away from the state, have to file
bankruptcy, lose their jobs. And
to see that people are coming
back because Michigan has
come back is a wonderful story.”
The theme of the conference
— Michigan: Foundation for the
Future — focused on that idea.
There was plenty of attention
focused on the prominence of
Michigan in Washington, with
panelists all weekend talking
about how to take lessons
learned in Michigan — like
revitalization efforts in Detroit
or initiatives to promote skilled
trades — to the national stage.
After
calling
Washington,
D.C. broken during a panel
discussion, Snyder said many of
Michigan’s successes could be
replicated on a nationwide level.
“We’re a great country still,
but we have a broken political
culture,” Snyder said. “And it’s
manifested in Washington more
than anywhere else.”
Whether
Republicans
will
actually
take
Michigan,
of
course, is a question that will
be decided far into the future
— especially with the current
state of the GOP field, where the
eventual nominee could be any of
the 15 candidates still in the race.
But on whether the current
optimism is warranted or not,
history seems to suggest that it
will be an uphill battle.
“Michigan has been like the
holy grail for the Republican
party since the 1990s,” said
Political Science Prof. Michael
Traugott. “But they haven’t
really experienced much success.
They probably are looking at
the outcome of gubernatorial
contests, and see how control
of that office has switched back
and forth between the parties.
But the social agenda of recent
Republican candidates hasn’t
really matched very well with
the social agenda of a majority of
voters in the state of Michigan.”
Conference attendees cited
multiple
reasons
for
why
they thought 2016 would be
different, spanning from the
candidates currently in the
race to the current presidential
administration and Michigan’s
elected leaders.
“I think that’s a possibility,
especially this year because I
don’t see the Democrats have
much to offer,” said Tom Banks,
an Ypsilanti resident.
Banks, who said he currently
favored retired neurosurgeon
Ben Carson and Cruz in the race,
added that he thought the pool
of candidates for the Republican
nomination was much stronger
than it was in 2012.
“I see the Republicans have 16
now really excellent candidates,”
he said. “Any of them would be, I
think, could be a winner. None of
them are duds.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
has since supsended his campaign.
Tanner Wright, a sophomore
at
Hillsdale
College
who’s
supporting Paul, said he thought
Michigan would vote Republican
based on public sentiment toward
the Obama administration.
“I mean, you can look back at
the election of 1980, 1984, and
you see that it goes red in those
circumstances, when you have
really unpopular Democrats —
Jimmy Carter at the time — and
you see a Republican win,” he said.
Sandi
Holmes,
an
Auburn
Hills resident who said she was
favoring Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.)
or former Hewlett-Packard CEO
Carly Fiorina, was more cautiously
optimistic about the GOP’s chances.
“I’m hoping,” she said. “I think
our candidates are great, we have
a good selection. Hopefully the
people will see that as well. And
hopefully Republicans will vote.”
Linden resident Denise Graves
said she thought if Michigan did
vote Republican, it would be
due in large part to Michigan’s
Republican leadership.
“I think that’s very much of a
possibility,” she said. “We have
great candidates, and the climate
here in Michigan is moving up,
you’ve seen what we’ve done
under the leadership now, with
it being in Republican control.
And I think what is happening
in Michigan is what we need to
happen all over the country.”
Graves said she thought a
Rubio/Kasich ticket would be the
party’s best chance of success.
Traugott said for some more
moderate
candidates
such
as Ohio Gov. John Kasich,
Michigan could be a possibility,
but that holding on to a moderate
enough position through the
primary would be difficult.
“It
would
increase
the
prospects for the Republican
party to capture the state,” he
said. “But under the new primary
caucus system we’ve had since
1976 … on the Republican side,
in order to win the nomination,
the candidates have had to take
more and more conservative
positions, and that comes back
to haunt them in the general
election. And you can see that
in the posturing in the first two
presidential debates.”
Romney
McDaniel
acknowledged that a Republican
win in Michigan in 2016 would
require hard work. But pointing
to the number of candidates who
have visited Michigan recently
— 10 in the past six months —
she said she thought momentum
was building.
“We’re already seeing that
energy around each of the
candidates as they come into
the state, and unfortunately, the
Democrats — Hillary Clinton’s
been here one time, really, since
last October and that was only
for a $500,000 fundraiser,”
Romney McDaniel said. “She’s
not interacting with Michigan
voters,
and
Republican
candidates are. We’re not taking
for Michigan for granted. We
know it’s going to be a heavier
lift for us, presidentially, but
we’re in play, and our candidates
are showing that they’re taking
Michigan seriously and they’re
GOP
From Page 1A
RUBY WALLAU/Daily
Ann Arbor resident William Gordon volunteers for the Ted Cruz campaign at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference on Saturday. “The biggest thing I like
about [Ted Cruz] is that he’s proven that he’ll fight for principles,” Gordon said. “And I see a lack of fight for principles in the Republican party in Washington right now.”