The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, September 25, 2015 — 3A

NEWS BRIEFS

University 
releases report on 
fracking practices

University 
researchers 

released findings from a three- 
year study on hydraulic fracking. 
Fracking, which injects mixtures 
of water, chemicals and sand deep 
underground to open cracks in 
sediment, thereby releasing oil or 
natural gas, has sparked a national 
debate. Though the report takes 
no stance on the use of fracking, it 
includes suggestions for how the 
public can become more involved 
in shaping fracking policies. 

Founders of 
Nutshell to create 
local tech hub

Guy Suter, Lindsay Snider 

and Ian Berry, the founders of 
Nutshell, a customer relationship 
management 
software, 

purchased 
three 
properties 

in downtown Ann Arbor. The 
purchasers 
plan 
to 
open 
a 

portion of the 24,000 square feet 
to other Ann Arbor tech startups. 
According to city records, the 
three properties were purchased 
for approximately $6 million. 

Mud Bowl event 
to continue after 
roadblocks

Former members of the Sigma 

Alpha Epsilon fraternity will now 
host the annual Mud Bowl as an 
independent organization, unaf-
filiated with SAE or any other 
other organization. Because the 
SAE house is owned by alumni, 
not by the fraternity’s national 
organization, they say they can 
host the event without affiliation.

The former SAE chapter house 

at 1408 Washtenaw Ave. will still 
serve as the event’s venue.

Former SAE President Brett 

Mizzi, a Business senior, said the 
organization has developed a risk 
management plan, hired security 
and purchased insurance for the 
event. 

Mizzi said as University stu-

dents, the event’s organizers have 
the right to assemble on private 
property.

The University’s Office of Greek 

Life had attempted to apply a pol-
icy that prevents current Greek 
life members from participating in 
events held by a chapter that had 
been expelled from campus. SAE 
was expelled from the Interfrater-
nity Council in 2011.

microorganism like a bacteria and 
getting that to spin the fiber,” Lee 
said.

Microbial cellulose is related 

to cellulose derived from cotton, 
which makes up a large percent-
age of commercial clothing. Lee 
outlined three main benefits of 
microbial cellulose: it is more eco-
logically sustainable to grow, it is 
much purer and it absorbs dyes, 
which are usually toxic in their liq-
uid form, much more effectively.

The process of growing micro-

bial cellulose, which takes about 
three weeks in total, involves cre-
ating a bath of nutrients, a carbon 
source and microbes. Lee accom-
plishes this with green tea, refined 
sugar and a complex community of 
yeasts and bacteria. This commu-
nity, called a symbiotic colony of 
bacteria and yeast — or SCOBY — is 
identical to that which makes the 
drink kombucha. As the microbes 
feed and multiply, they produce 
cellulose in a thick mat that can 
be later washed, dried and cut into 
fabric.

Art & Design junior Harsha 

Devaraj said he thought this pro-
cess was particularly interesting.

“The final product that she came 

out with, the jackets, were really 
cool. But I really enjoyed the pro-
cess. Seeing the time-lapse of the 
bacteria synthesizing the material 
was easily the coolest part of the 
whole thing,” he said.

Lee also talked about her 

involvement in growing cow skin 

for leather. She spoke about an 
epiphany moment she had while 
discussing lab-grown tissue with a 
synthetic biologist.

“If it was possible to grow 

human tissue in the lab, why not 
animal tissue? And in fact, why 
still require killing an animal just 
to obtain certain parts of it if it’s 
possible for us to grow the correct 
cells and just use those tissues?” 
she said.

LSA senior Léa Ono said the 

sustainability 
focus 
resonated 

with her.

“It always troubled me how 

wasteful the material process is,” 
she said. “In order to dye any fab-
ric, we have to wear gloves and a 
mask and a full body coat because 
the dyes were so toxic. So I was 
thinking about the beet dyes and 
vegetable dyes and how amazing 
it would be if we could do leather 
with mammalian cells.”

Lee said the process of “bio-

fabrication” 
through 
microbial 

cellulose was difficult to produce 
in large quantities and may have 
a limited impact on the fashion 
industry as a whole. However, cit-
ing examples of mushroom-derived 
furniture, bacterially constructed 
bricks and biofuels, Lee said inter-
sections between design and fash-
ion will be influential in decades to 
come.

“I fundamentally believe today 

that the future of creativity and 
design in working materials is real-
ly going to intersect and depend on 
what’s happening in biology,” she 
said.

mittees asked EMU President 
Kim Schatzel and Oakland 
University President George 
Hynd 
for 
their 
opinions 

regarding the performance-
based 
standards 
and 
the 

tuition cap.

The members asked wheth-

er the presidents saw the cap 
as positive reinforcement or 
punishment and what they 
thought the subcommittee 
could do to prevent such sub-
stantial tuition hikes from 
becoming a recurring trend.

Hynd said the performance 

metrics are good ones, but 
he thinks the tuition cap is 
restrictive.

“They are the ones (college 

presidents) might be able to 
have an impact on, so I think 
that makes sense,” he said. 
“The tuition restraint can be 
viewed as either a carrot or a 
stick, and I think that’s prob-
ably worthy of some discus-
sion.”

Schatzel said EMU has not 

increased its tuition rate in 
years because her school is 
committed to keeping college 
affordable and that the tuition 
remains comparatively low.

“In 2005, our tuition was 

roughly equal to that of our 
peer institutions,” she said. 
“Ten years later, our tuition is 
5 to 13 percent lower than our 
peers. With the recent tuition 
increase, 
Eastern 
remains 

13 out of 15 in tuition costs 
among Michigan’s public uni-
versities.”

Schatzel said this shows 

EMU’s financial well-being 
and has kept expenses low so 
that it has not had to increase 
tuition 
substantially 
every 

year.

“At Eastern we clearly 

understand 
that 
approxi-

mately 80 percent of every 
dollar we spend comes from 
the pockets of our students, 
and the remaining 20 percent 
comes from the taxpayers of 
the state of Michigan,” she 
said.

She also noted that fresh-

man enrollment has risen 
rapidly at EMU, and that the 
school is dedicated to pro-
viding 
students 
with 
the 

best resources. However, she 
said, it is difficult to do that 
at a university that has lower 
financial reserves than many 
other public institutions in 
the state without increasing 
tuition.

Schatzel said the majority 

of students — 87 percent — at 
EMU are Michigan residents, 
which, she said could explain 
why the school may have 
fewer 
financial 
resources 

than other schools.

She used the University of 

Michigan as an example to 
prove this point, noting 45 
percent of its student body 
is from out of state and thus 
pays 
significantly 
higher 

tuition than the majority of 
students at EMU.

Hynd echoed Schatzel’s 

sentiment and said Oakland 
wants to meet students’ pri-
orities and invest in their 
educations, but doing so on a 
limited operating budget is a 
challenge.

“Neither the university nor 

the state has generated suf-
ficient resources to meet the 
needs of our students,” he 
said. “Oakland’s all-in tuition 
rates have long priced below 
the comparable rates of our 
state peers. Although we are 
grateful and encouraged to 
see the state of Michigan has 
begun to reinvest in higher 
education through increased 
appropriations, the fact is that 
historically, Oakland has been 
underfunded.”

He said Oakland spends 

less per student than do most 
public universities in the state 
because the school receives 
less state funding than the 
statewide average.

“Oakland has done its best 

to keep tuition increases as 
manageable as possible for 
students and certainly their 
families,” he said. “These 
efforts have kept us within 
the bottom half of Michigan 
public universities when it 
comes to the all-in cost of edu-
cation.”

State Rep. Mike McCready 

(R–Birmingham), 
co-chair 

of the House Appropriations 
subcommittee on higher edu-
cation, said the two subcom-
mittees would meet again to 
further discuss these issues.

was changed in the survey dur-
ing the process of distributing it 
at other schools.

“AAU changed the way they 

did that at other campuses after 
we gave them that feedback,” 
Axinn said. “We were among 
the very first to go, and it was a 
mistake, so we helped them fix 
it further. When you say, ‘Oh, 
the statistics are different com-
ing out of different schools,’ it 
turns out they sort of did a differ-
ent survey everywhere. It’s ‘the 
same,’ but not really the same. It 
means two percentage points is 
not very big.”

Furthermore, he said, it’s 

important to remember that the 
AAU survey still featured a rela-
tively small sample; 28 schools 
are not necessarily representa-
tive of a national landscape.

Regardless of comparisons 

to peer institutions, University 
President Mark Schlissel said 
these results represent a discon-
nect between the University’s 
intentions and the end result 
when treating cases of sexual 
misconduct.

“We take every report of 

potential assault or miscon-
duct of any kind very seriously,” 
Schlissel said. “So the obvious 
problem is that we are not get-
ting that message across in a way 
that the students either hear or 
believe.”

E. Royster Harper, vice presi-

dent for student life, echoed this 
sentiment, and added that it is 
the University administration’s 
responsibility to prove wrong 

those who doubt the University’s 
intentions.

“Certainly people’s perception 

is the reality that they’ve experi-
enced,” she said. “Whatever the 
reason is, we know that is not the 
work we’re doing or the intent of 
the work that we’re doing or the 
commitment of the institution. 
So we just have to work harder 
to make sure that that assertion 
simply is not true.”

As for application of the num-

bers — both from the AAU sur-
vey and the University’s internal 
survey — Holly Rider-Milkovich, 
director of the Sexual Assault 
Prevention and Awareness Cen-
ter, said student input will be 
essential moving forward.

“What the institution is doing 

this semester, specifically, is 
really working hard on engag-
ing with our students in many 
different ways — along with our 
faculty and staff — to take a hard, 
critical look at our current sexual 
misconduct policy and really ask 
for our students to engage with 
us on some suggestive revisions 
that are coming down the pike,” 
Milkovich said.

Harper said she plans to send 

out an all-student e-mail next 
week further elaborating upon 
the plans to involve students in 
the process of evaluating the 
University’s Student Sexual Mis-
conduct Policy.

Broadly, Milkovich said stu-

dent organizations, units of Stu-
dent Life and Central Student 
Government are partnering to 
host forums during the revision 
process. During the events, stu-
dents will have the opportunity 
to evaluate revision drafts, ask 
questions and provide feedback.

Milkovich 
also 
mentioned 

that, beyond pre-existing pro-
gramming such as Change it Up 
or Relationship Remix, SAPAC 
has been working with Recre-
ational Sports to create a poster 
campaign to appear in facilities 
across campus. These posters 
will “reinforce the fundamentals 
of respect,” including consent.

“We want to be reinforcing 

that healthy relationships are 
a part of an overall wellness,” 
Milkovich said. “So those kinds 
of messaging, specific to the 
ways that students engage in 
sports on our campus ... is an 
example of those targeted kinds 
of education efforts that need to 
complement the big-scale work 
that we’re doing. And all of that 
has to happen on many different 
levels.”

As in previous interviews, the 

administrators present empha-
sized that sexual misconduct 
has become a community prob-
lem — one that will require a 
cultural shift on the part of the 
students and not only through 
new policies.

“Anything that involves 20 

or 30 percent of a population, 
that’s not a rare event — this is 
everyday life, this is culture,” 
Schlissel said. “And that high-
lights for me that the University 
isn’t going to be able to solve 
this problem without the stu-
dents stepping up and working 
with us to solve the problem, 
because it’s the student culture 
that is supporting or allowing 
this milieu to exist. We’ll only 
be successful if we find ways for 
University leaders to work with 
students and students leaders 
and also the broader student 
community on solutions.”

“I’ve made much less of a 

big deal about the difference 
between 
Michigan’s 
num-

bers and the average of this 
larger group simply because 
the average of the larger group 
is unacceptable,” he added. 
“Regardless of what the num-
ber is, it requires our maximum 
attention, because it’s unrea-
sonable.”

Schlissel 
also 
noted 
that 

despite high rates of sexual mis-
conduct, the rate of people who 
who reported feeling unsafe 
on campus is relatively low — 
a seeming contradiction that 
Dean of Students Laura Blake 
Jones said the University is 
struggling to mitigate.

“I know that at the University 

of Michigan, we are a national 
leader in prevention work and 
that we’re not just doing the 
minimum of what’s expected of 
us,” Black Jones said. “All of our 
students have very high … num-
bers of participating in multiple 
experiences of prevention, and 
yet our numbers are the way 
they are. For me, that’s the emo-
tional piece … our model is what 
so many campuses are working 
to replicate and do right now, 
and we’ve been doing that and 
sustaining that and our num-
bers are still as bad as they are.”

Milkovich noted that data 

from programs such as Rela-
tionship Remix show that posi-
tive teachings about consent 
and healthy behavior begin to 
“wear off” after about a year.

“More efforts to our students 

across the course of their stu-
dent life span is a frontier that 
we need to figure out how we 
will reach,” she said.

The hope, Blake Jones said, is 

to reach a point where students 

start leading the conversation 
as opposed to having admin-
istrators start it. The Office of 
Student Life has been provid-
ing training for “high-impact” 
groups on campus — including 
ROTC, Greek life, the Michi-
gan Marching Band, student-
athletes and club-sport athletes 
— with the hope that their col-
lective visibility and influence 
will allow them to lead the rest 
of the student community in 
promoting each other’s wellbe-
ing and preventing, among other 
behaviors, sexual misconduct.

Blake Jones said the Univer-

sity is alone among other Divi-
sion 1 institutions in requiring 
every member of every team — 
including athletes, coaches and 
assistant coaches — to take sex-
ual misconduct training.

“The takeaway ending mes-

sages to students in the train-
ing is that if the campus climate 
is really going to change … it’s 
going to be the actions of not 
the dean of students sitting in 
the Michigan Union, or SAPAC 
ardently doing their work, but 
the people who have been inside 
these programs living and prac-
ticing the skills and interrupt-
ing situations of potential harm 
before they escalate,” Blake 
Jones said.

Shifting the responsibility to 

students, it seems, may play a 
big role moving forward — espe-
cially, as Axinn noted, when 
“these data are as far from per-
fect as data can be.”

“You are all adults,” Schlissel 

said. “This is the way your com-
munity is treating one another, 
so think about that. We have to 
think about that together and try 
to solve this issue together.”

Steven Pachman, an attorney at 

Montgomery McCracken Walker 
& Rhoads LLP who specializes 
in sports-related cases, discussed 
the legal and clinical challenges 
that schools, coaches and train-
ers encounter when faced with a 
sports injury. Many of these cases, 
he noted, end in settlements total-
ing millions of dollars.

“The problem is that experts 

still have vastly competing views 
on what constitutes proper stan-
dard care,” he said. “A big issue is 
also lack of documentation — if it’s 
not documented, it didn’t happen.”

Pachman also noted that pic-

tures of injured students create 
compelling narratives for juries, 
causing difficulties for athletic pro-
grams facing litigation. 

“At the end of the day the health 

and safety of the athlete always 
comes first,” he said. “But athletic 
programs do need to make sure 
they’re up to date with documenta-
tion and management protocols for 
legal issues.”

Broglio’s studies have looked 

into issues related to when athletes 
return to play after a concussion, 
concussion epidemiology and the 
history of concussions.

Currently, every student-athlete 

on campus has the option to enroll 
in an ongoing study on the long-
term symptoms of concussions. 
They receive baseline evaluations 
and re-evaluations every year.

“We’re really trying to demon-

strate how often the injury occurs, 
what the long-term effects are, 
things that confound,” Broglio said. 
“We want to just put some facts 
out there and dispel some of the 
rumors floating around.”

ADMINS
From Page 1A

TUITION
From Page 1A

FASHION
From Page 1A

BRAIN
From Page 1A

AMANDA ALLEN/Daily

LEFT: Concussion lawyer Steven Pachman speaks to attendees of the University of Michigan Injury Center Sport Concussion Summit at Junge Family Campions Center on Thursday. RIGHT: 
Joanne Gerstner, professor of journalism at Michigan State University, speaks about media coverage of concussion cases to attendees at the conference.

CONCUSSION SEMINAR

