The project was driven in large
part by Munger, both in terms of
providing a vision for the final
product and funding most of the
construction costs. The real estate
tycoon had previously funded a
similar model of graduate stu-
dent housing at Stanford Univer-
sity, and his record-breaking $110
million donation to the Univer-
sity in September 2013 was given
expressly to fund such a project in
Ann Arbor.
E. Royster Harper, vice presi-
dent for student life, said Munger
brought a unique perspective to
the project.
“Charlie’s vision was uncon-
ventional,” she said. “It broke a
lot of rules about what people
thought was possible in graduate
education, and it didn’t consult
any of the people who thought
they should be consulted.”
This
approach
sometimes
drew criticism from students,
particularly those who criticized
the price tag to live there, which
is between $850 and $900 per
month, but was originally slated
to total about $1,000 monthly.
Schlissel praised the forward-
thinking ambition of Munger and
credited him for the project’s suc-
cess.
“He approached the University
with a different way of thinking
about living and learning space,”
Schlissel said. “A way that would
purposefully foster the kind of
interactions that lead to the con-
nections across disciplines that
will actually solve big problems.”
Social Work student Arlene
Chandra said living in Munger
has been a positive experience so
far.
“As a social worker I’m going to
be coming across so many differ-
ent walks of life and I’m going to
need to be able to connect with all
my clients and what they’ve expe-
rienced,” she said. “By living with
so many different people, I am
able to learn about different top-
ics and how to engage with other
students.”
bill, colleges can grant Perkins
loans to students who applied
before July 1 for the current school
year, but will not grant new loans
to new students.
Institutions
can
continue
awarding Perkins loans to stu-
dents who had been offered those
loans in the 2014-2015 school year.
These students are eligible for
ongoing Perkins loans until Sept.
30, 2020, or until they graduate if
that date is sooner, so long as they
remain in the degree programs in
which they were enrolled when
offered their most recent loan.
Under the program, these
500,000 students are awarded a
total of approximately $1 billion
a year at about 1,500 colleges and
universities nationwide. Program
advocates argue that the funds,
which are only a small portion of
the $150 billion the federal gov-
ernment awards in student loans
and grants each year, have made
higher education possible for mil-
lions of students in the U.S.
However, Mark Kantrowitz,
publisher of the college financial
planning website edvisors.com,
argued the Perkins program has a
less significant impact than other
federal student loan programs,
namely the Federal Stafford loan
program, which he said accounts
for about $100 billion in federal
financial aid.
Kantrowitz said the average
Perkins loan is relatively small:
usually
between
$1,000
and
$2,000.
According to Margaret Rodri-
guez, senior associate director at
the University’s Office of Financial
Aid, the federal government sub-
sidized the cost of Perkins loans
when the program began. How-
ever, it has not allocated funds to
the Perkins program since 2004.
“When the program started,
the federal government provided
funds to the institutions to make
loans,” she said. “And then the
institutions had to match those
funds with some of their own
money.”
Rodriguez said the lack of fed-
eral funds has not stopped colleg-
es from awarding Perkins loans.
The University, she said, has been
using repayments from previously
awarded loans to offer new loans
to current students. She also noted
eligibility for Perkins grants is
based upon demonstrated need,
which is determined by the infor-
mation students provide on the
FAFSA.
“We have a certain amount
of money available — and that
depends on how much is col-
lected in any particular year —
and we use those funds to help
needy students, both graduate and
undergraduate, meet their costs of
education,” she said. “So we look
at our applicant pool every year
and determine how much we can
offer (to each student).”
Rodriguez said 4,500 under-
graduate and graduate students
at the University receive Per-
kins loans, and that last year the
University
had
approximately
$12 million available last year to
award in Perkins loans alone.
In total, according to the Uni-
versity’s Office of Budget and
Planning, the University awarded
more than $200 million in finan-
cial aid to its students in 2014.
“The Perkins loan is part of
what we call an aid package — put
together with grants, scholar-
ships, work study in some cases,
and federal direct loans to offer a
variety of sources of aid students
can use to meet their need,” Rodri-
guez said.
Kantrowitz said colleges are
typically attracted to awarding
Perkins loans to students because
they are associated with greater
flexibility. Perkins loans, he said,
are a form of campus-based aid,
and individual schools are able
to choose which students receive
them.
“Colleges often use the Perkins
loan money to fill in gaps in their
financial aid packages,” he said.
Students who receive these
loans pay no interest while they
are in school, and when they grad-
uate, their loans will carry a 5-per-
cent fixed rate. Additionally, if
borrowers commit to certain pub-
lic service jobs after graduation
for between one and five years,
they are eligible to have all or part
of their Perkins loans forgiven.
Kantrowitz said he, too, is not
optimistic the Senate will act to
continue the program. However,
he argued this is a positive: it
would be cost-effective to elimi-
nate the program, and expand the
Federal Stafford Loan program
instead.
He said Perkins loans were
created for those with the high-
est need, but in practice they are
awarded to any student with
financial assistance, regardless of
their relative need.
“There is a feeling in Congress
that the Perkins loan program is
redundant,” he said. “It overlaps
with the existing loan programs,
doesn’t add a lot of value.”
Kantrowitz said if Congress
decided to extend the program to
new borrowers for one more year,
it would incur avoidable costs. To
account for those costs, he said,
Congress would eliminate the
portion of the program called
“grandfathering” — which is what
guarantees students who previ-
ously received Perkins loans will
get more in the future.
“The thinking of opponents of
the Perkins program is that elimi-
nating the grandfathering makes
it a lot easier to kill off the pro-
gram entirely,” he said.
Kantrowitz also noted that
some in the Senate are propo-
nents of simplification and won’t
see value in extending the pro-
gram.
“Especially considering that
for a longer term extension, Con-
gress would have to spend money,
and Congress is in a budget-
cutting mood, not an increas-
ing spending mood,” he said.
“And where would they get the
money?”
Colleges will fight for this pro-
gram he said, because they’re
focusing on promulgating their
existing policies and not consid-
ering what is best for financial aid
policy in the future.
“A
much
better
approach
would be to get rid of the Perkins
Loan program and instead some-
how expand the Stafford Loan
program — maybe expanding the
loan limits or adding some addi-
tional flexibility to the program,
loan forgiveness, or something,”
he said.
Though colleges would lose
some leeway in their financial aid
budgeting processes, Kantrowitz
said, the amount would be man-
ageable. The expiration of the
program, he said, would not be
terribly significant and colleges
could devise their own loan pro-
grams to replace the Perkins pro-
gram if they wished.
Though Rodriguez said she is
unsure if the Senate will approve
the House bill to reinstate the
program, she is not hopeful. She
also said the University remains
committed
to
satisfying
the
financial needs of its students,
despite the expiration of the Per-
kins loan program.
“Of course losing an aid pro-
gram that provides $12 million
is significant, but the University
is looking for ways that it can
continue to meet the full need
of Michigan residents and offer
competitive aid packages to non-
residents,” she said. “We’ve been
studying the issue for a while:
we knew that there was always
a possibility that the program
would go away.”
tation considered the stigma
around recovering patients. He
said this shame felt by drug users
can actually prevent them from
seeking the care they need.
“One of the things we need to
continue to work on is the role
that language plays in perpetu-
ating stigma,” Botticelli said.
“People are afraid of what their
neighbors think, what the police
will think, so we know that stig-
ma has an impact in delaying
care.”
According to the Office of
Adolescent Health over one in
five high school seniors reported
“binge drinking” daily in the pre-
vious month. By senior year, half
of adolescents have abused an
illicit drug one or more times. On
college campuses, the numbers
are larger, and the most common
drugs abused include marijuana,
Adderall and ecstasy.
Recently, a study by University
researchers showed an increase
in the use of all three of these
drugs by college-aged students.
Botticelli
emphasized
the
importance of young people
supporting those close to them
who are in recovery. He said
young people are less likely to be
embarrassed when talking about
addiction, particularly because
so many substance abusers are in
their teens or early 20s.
“What I find tremendously
invigorating is the role of young
people in recovery,” he said. “We
have this explosion of young
people in recovery who are not
going to be silenced by shame
and stigma.”
At the event, Donald Vereen,
director of the University’s Sub-
stance Abuse Research Cen-
ter, presented on the biological
aspects of substance abuse. His
slides graphically depicted the
harmful effects of regular use
of drugs like cocaine, marijuana
and methamphetamine, includ-
ing dangerously high dopamine
levels and slowed brain activity.
He also noted how difficult it
is to treat these cases.
“There are these expectations
that when you have a disease
and when you enter treatment,
you will be cured,” Vereen said.
“There are very few things we
actually cure in medicine.”
Public Health student Lau-
ren Boone attended the lecture
because of her interest in drug
education.
“(It) was informative in help-
ing me to understand what is
going on federally and biologi-
cally and it helped me to identify
areas that I can contribute to in
my research specifically in terms
of drug education,” she said.
Botticelli
said
the
White
House’s agenda for substance
abuse help includes promoting
collegiate recovery programs
and engaging in general out-
reach.
meeting.
“It was, and still is, our belief
that the right to choose our own
members is a crucial part of self
governance,” he wrote. “We will
appeal this decision and believe
that we have a strong case. The fact
that the IFC came to this decision
without a precipitating incident is
extremely disheartening and calls
into question the motives and val-
ues of the member chapters.”
LSA senior Nick Swider, Delta
Sigma Phi president, said IFC
chapter presidents voted on the
issue at last week’s meeting, but
did not achieve a two-thirds major-
ity to expel the fraternity. Swider
emphasized that he was not speak-
ing on behalf of his fraternity.
“We’ve been alerted multiple
times through the Office of Greek
Life that we are not allowed to
affiliate ourselves with these
particular
individuals,
that
they’re bad news, just stay away,”
Swider said.
Swider said a DKE national
adviser attended the meeting in
support of the merger. He said
the executive board in atten-
dance requested a lesser pun-
ishment, suggesting IFC keep a
closer eye on them rather than
expelling the chapter.
After failing to abandon the
merger
before
Wednesday’s
meeting,
the
expulsion
was
brought to another vote, this time
receiving the necessary majority.
“We have bylaws for a reason,
the bylaws that we do not affili-
ate with a rogue organization and
if we do, we have consequences
through the Greek Activities
Review Panel or there’s conse-
quences that the presidents can
directly take against us which
is what we saw tonight.” Swider
said.
Field spoke at the IFC meeting
and justified their reasoning for
recruiting the Sig members.
“(Field) explained that over the
summer months and beginning of
the school year, he had [COPY:
“been”?]
working
extensively
with their national organization,
their membership and appar-
ently had even taken a vote from
the membership back in April,”
Swider said. “The membership
by a simple majority agreed to
take the kids in Sig into DKE and
merge the chapters.”
according to administrators, is
generally marked by increased
alcohol consumption.
Last fall, DPSS said a short-
ened Welcome Week reduced on-
campus alcohol-related activity
during that time. The number of
ambulance requests to Universi-
ty Housing facilities, calls to the
DPSS Communications Center
related to drinking, noise com-
plaints, urinating in public and
visits to University Emergency
Departments all dropped consid-
erably from 2013.
However,
events
during
the last year have shed a more
intense light on the University’s
party culture.
In January, four University
fraternities and sororities inflict-
ed hundreds of thousands of dol-
lars worth of property damage
on two ski resorts in northern
Michigan.
The Sigma Alpha Mu frater-
nity and Sigma Delta Tau soror-
ity, who stayed at the Treetops
Resort in Gaylord, Mich. during
the weekend of Jan. 16, were esti-
mated to have caused $430,000
in damages, according to the
resort’s general manager.
That same weekend, fraterni-
ties Pi Kappa Alpha and Chi Psi
and sororities Delta Gamma and
Alpha Phi damaged rooms at
Boyne Highlands, a ski resort in
Harbor Springs, Mich.
The damage reported at the
two resorts included felled ceil-
ing tiles, broken walls and dis-
mantled furniture.
Both Schlissel and E. Royster
Harper, vice president for stu-
dent life, have insisted on the
necessity of creating a social
environment less influenced by
alcohol.
In a January interview with
the Daily, Harper said the Janu-
ary ski trip incidents illustrated
part of the problem at hand.
“We can’t keep going this
way,” she said. “Too much at risk.
Too many safety issues. We can’t
keep behaving like we have this
system, and because there are so
many good things about the sys-
tem, that makes the things that
are unhealthy and dangerous
about the system OK. And that’s
what we’ve been doing. I think
that Up North was a wakeup call
for us as an institution and as a
community.”
However,
Schlissel
has
acknowledged that expecting
students not to drink is an unre-
alistic goal, and he would focus
the bulk of his efforts on efforts
to reduce the harm.
“I think it’s impractical to have
as a goal that students won’t drink
on campus,” he said in a Novem-
ber interview with the Daily.
“Even though most of students
are drinking illegally, I don’t think
that’s an enforceable law, but look-
ing at it from the safety perspec-
tive is what I want to do.”
***
In the past month, the Uni-
versity has launched or floated
ideas to introduce several initia-
tives designed to curb drinking
on campus, as well as a party
culture administrators have said
Greek life plays a role in.
In August, the University
unveiled a plan to involve the
parents of first-year students
who violate school alcohol poli-
cies on a case-by-case basis.
The University plans to notify
parents if a first-year student
under the age of 21 “commits a
violation accompanied by other
serious behavior such as need-
ing medical attention, signifi-
cant property damage or driving
under the influence,” or if one
of these students “has a second
alcohol or drug infraction.”
Harper said the policy will
only be implemented in certain
instances.
“Part of what we have talked
about is trying to leave some
space,” Harper said. “Should, in
the course of having a conver-
sation with a student, there is a
sense that actually calling would
not be in their best interest, then
we won’t.”
Mary Jo Desprez, the direc-
tor of Wolverine Wellness, said
the policy is not meant as a
punishment, but as a preventa-
tive measure. She pointed to the
close relationship many students
share with their parents.
“Part of this also is, students
tell us, when we ask them, ‘Who
is the biggest influence on your
decisions and your values?’ they
always say parents or family,”
Desprez said. “So part of this is
us partnering with the people
they have told us are the biggest
part of their support network.”
In a September interview with
the Daily, Harper said the Uni-
versity was considering delaying
Greek rush.
“Does it make sense to have
students come, and in a week, by
the whole pledging process, we
have thrown them into a whole
environment that we’re worried
about?” Harper asked. “Should
we stay on this path we have,
where we’ve been so committed
to self-governance, that we allow
rush to happen sometimes less
than a week after students get
here? So we’re certainly going to
take a look at that.”
Members of the University’s
Senate
Advisory
Committee
on University Affairs have also
floated the idea of increasing the
number of Friday classes to curb
Thursday night drinking — a
move University Provost Mar-
tha Pollack has said she would be
open to.
The administration has seem-
ingly identified Greek life as help-
ing drive a University culture
marked by excessive drinking. In
September, the University called
a historic, all-chapter meeting of
Greek life, in which administra-
tors said change must occur, or
the future of Greek life could be
in peril.
Schlissel told the crowd that
the University’s reputation was
at stake.
“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,” he 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.”
Moving forward: In response
to negative attention directed at
Greek life in the last year, LSA
junior Sean Pitt, vice president
of public relations for the Uni-
versity’s Interfraternity Council,
said the IFC has begun to revise
its existing risk management
policies.
“This summer, the Interfra-
ternity Council … has under-
taken a major review of all of
our risk management policies to
determine how and where they
can be strengthened in order
to better protect and educate
our members,” Pitt wrote in an
e-mail. “In addition to this work,
we have been rapidly developing
and escalating our existing part-
nerships with SAPAC and UHS
to bring peer led, Greek Life tai-
lored, sexual assault prevention
presentations to our chapters in
order to ensure the retention of
bystander intervention training
information that our members
are given upon entry into the
Greek Community.”
Pitt said the IFC worked to
address
sexual
assault
even
before the University’s survey
results on the topic were released
over the summer.
Among these efforts, he said
Winter 2015 pledges signed a
sexual misconduct prevention
pledge “agreeing to voluntarily
resign their membership if they
do not uphold the ideals, stan-
dards, and values of the Inter-
fraternity Council and Greek
Community at the University of
Michigan and commit an act of
sexual misconduct.”
Members of Greek life have
had mixed reactions to the
administration’s calls for reform.
Many sorority and fraternity
members
expressed
frustra-
tion with the administration
for effectively linking the Greek
community to the problem of
excessive alcohol consumption.
“That was the one big thing
that people were against is that
it was spoken as just the Greek
community,”
one
fraternity
member told the Daily after the
September Greek life meeting
with Schlissel. “If anything, a
lot of the times when incidents
happen it’s people from outside
of the organization that come to
our parties and cause trouble. So,
it’s a message that really should
have been transmitted to the
entire University.”
Many members who spoke
with the Daily said Greek life
actually does a better job than
other organizations at ensuring
parties are safe. Unlike students
hosting house parties or ath-
letic teams hosting team parties,
members say Greek life parties
are heavily regulated.
“We have sober monitors,
attendance lists, strict alcohol
rules and risk-management poli-
cies,” one member said. “Remov-
ing Greek life wouldn’t remove
parties, it would remove safe
parties.”
Dean of Students Laura Blake
Jones said enacting change in the
Greek community will require
more
comprehensive
support
— from national organizations,
the Office of Greek Life, alumni
advisors and parents.
“I’ve been talking with a lot
of parents of Greek life stu-
dents who, similarly, want to be
involved in helping support, and
so we’re taking a really compre-
hensive approach to how do we
create a foundation for these
organizations
to
work
from
that’s really going to help them
to be able to live into their values
and be all the positive things that
we know Greek life can be in the
community,” Blake Jones said.
She added that any work to
improve Greek culture will have
to focus on a variety of issues.
“We have five major areas of
emphasis where we think we
need to do work. The first one is
education, the second one is lead-
ership development, the third one
is risk management, the fourth
one is environmental manage-
ment and the fifth is accountabil-
ity measures,” Jones said.
She acknowledged that hav-
ing the entire Greek community,
rather than just executive offi-
cers, care about enacting a cul-
ture shift will be key to making
real progress.
“There’s such a focus at times
in some groups on the social
scene, and then that eclipses the
service, the academic focus, sis-
terhood, the brotherhood — the
other common elements of the
values,” she said. “And so if we
could have our groups moder-
ate their behavior and really be
thoughtful about potential harm
that could happen, and have not
just the president and the social
chair and the risk manager
worry about those things, but
everybody in the organization
understand and be committed to
wanting to ensure the safety of
everyone, we would come a long,
long way in achieving our goals.”
3-News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, October 1, 2015 — 3A
PERKINS
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DKE
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SCHLISSEL
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MUNGER
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CZAR
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