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Friday, October 9, 2015 — 3A

curriculum, which often consists 
of teaching basic science and 
anatomy for the first two years, 
then clinical science for the last 
two years.

In line with this vision, one of 

the programs the Medical School 
launched this year was an “initial 
clinical experience” for its first-
year students. This program 
allows students to see firsthand 
how healthcare 
teams 
come 

together 
to 

provide 
good 

patient 
care, 

Mangrulkar 
said.

“Before, 

shadowing 
doctors 
and 

being 
in 
the 

clinic 
during 

the first year 
of med school 
was something 
you had to arrange for yourself,” 
said Charlie Frank, a first-year 
Medical School student, said. 
“But now, every other week 
we are in a clinic, shadowing a 
diverse healthcare team that not 
only includes doctors but includes 
other 
important 
healthcare 

professionals such as nursing 
assistants and social workers.”

In addition, a new “doctoring” 

course has been established for 
first-year students, where they 
will learn about clinical and 
interpersonal skills in medicine 
in an intimate setting with two 
faculty members who will work 
with them for their entire four 
years. 

Lastly, the Medical School has 

unveiled the MHome learning 
community for all of its students. 
The program divides students 
into houses, and each house has 
a director, faculty members, and 
students of all medical school 
years, Mangrulkar said.

This allows students to work 

within a smaller community, 
plan community service events 
and focus on integrating their 
learning across the curriculum.

Ed Hur, a second-year Medical 

School student, said MHome 

provides a great opportunity for 
older Medical School students to 
mentor younger ones.

“The idea of the MHome is to 

bridge the gap between first-, 
second-, third- and fourth-year 
med students,” Hur said. “We 
often have meet and greets with 
the first-year students, where 
older students like myself can 
give them advice on things such 
as research opportunities.”

Facility 
renovations 

accompany 
the 
curriculum 

changes. Among these is the 

Taubman 
Health 
Sciences 
Library, which 
underwent 
a 

$55 
million 

renovation. 
The 
new 

library 
was 

designed 
to 

bolster 
the 

improved 
model 
of 

medical school 
education.

“The new library supports 

team-based learning that focuses 
on problem solving,” Mangrulkar 
said. “This will support the idea 
of students being change agents 
in society.”

Curricular changes are not 

being introduced all at once, 
Mangrulkar said.

For example, the “Paths of 

Excellence” 
programs 
that 

were designed to allow students 
to focus on a specific area of 
medicine are being introduced 
gradually. Initially optional, they 
will now become mandatory for 
the incoming Medical School 
class.

Frank said initial feedback 

from the curricular changes has 
been positive overall.

“The way medicine has been 

taught for a long time is now 
outdated,” he said. “The best 
doctors of the future are those 
that not only have a strong basic 
science understanding, but also 
have excellent clinical skills, 
teamwork skills and a social 
understanding. Teaching these 
skills was nonexistent in medical 
school education before, but is 
now at the forefront of the new 
curriculum.” 

curriculum and worked with 
her during her life.

Ward 
studied 
the 
Black 

Power movement in graduate 
school and, in that context, 
became 
familiar 
with 
the 

Boggs’ work.

“Although she’s not African 

American 
herself, 
she 
was 

very much immersed in the 
Black community in Detroit 
and the Black circles across the 
country,” Ward said.

Born in Providence, R.I., in 

1915, Boggs was the daughter 
of Chinese immigrants. Early 
in her childhood, her family 
relocated to New York, where 
Boggs grew up. She completed 
her 
bachelor’s 
degree 
in 

philosophy at Barnard College 
and her doctorate in philosophy 
at Bryn Mawr College in 
Pennsylvania.

“I 
would 
describe 
her 

as 
a 
philosopher-activist,” 

Ward said, “She never taught 
philosophy, but philosophical 
thinking was always important 
to her.”

After 
participating 
in 

the March 
on 
Washington 

Movement — formed to protest 
segregation in the armed forces 
— in the 1940s, Boggs was 
inspired to continue fighting 
for equal opportunity for the 
Black community for the next 
seven 
decades. 
Influenced 

deeply by Marxism and left-
wing radicalism, she became 
active in the labor party, civil 
rights and the Black power 
struggles.

Ward 
said 
Boggs’ 
more 

visible 
accomplishments 

through the University, such 
as her honorary degree, were 
important, but what’s more 
noteworthy 
were 
the 
less 

visible displays of University 

friendship such as the years of 
guest lecturing.

“She didn’t just say what 

she had to say and leave. She 
really engaged with students, 
challenged 
students,” 
Ward 

said. “She challenged everyone 
she 
spoke 
with 
to 
think 

more deeply about what they 
were interested in and to see 
themselves as able to come up 
with the ideas and carry out 
the actions to bring about the 
changes that we need.” 

Ward 
said 
Boggs 
and 

her husband lectured at the 
University as early as 1962.

“She’s been 

coming 
to 

U of M for 
decades,” 
Ward 
said. 

“In the 1970s 
they 
started 

coming every 
year.”

Boggs 

settled 
in 

Detroit in 1953 
and 
shortly 

thereafter wed James Boggs, an 
employee of Chrysler and fellow 
civil rights activist.

Their 
home 
became 
a 

hub for visiting civil rights 
leaders, a breeding ground for 
fellow organizers hoping to 
see reforms for women, labor 
equality, education access and 
an 
end 
to 
institutionalized 

racial discrimination.

“From over seven decades 

of 
being 
an 
activist 
and 

writer there was this really 
rich network of overlapping 
communities,” Ward said.

Ward said Detroit was an 

important base for Boggs to 
develop her ideas and a network 
of activists because she saw the 
changes occur firsthand. 

“When she came to Detroit it 

was at its peak population of 2 
million,” Ward said. “She lived 
through the population and 

economic decline in those 60 
years.”

As 
of 
2013, 
Detroit’s 

population is 688,701.

Along with serving as an 

informal center for visiting 
activists, Boggs and her husband 
created several organizations 
to 
increase 
community 

development to combat the 
aftereffects of the Detroit race 
riots in the 1960s.

Boggs also continued the 

tradition of uniting communities 
through education and activism 
in Detroit later in life with 
the creation of her charter 

elementary 
school — the 
James 
and 

Grace 
Lee 

Boggs School 
— in 2013.

LSA 

sophomore 
Darian 
Razdar, 
an 

intern at the 
Boggs School 
last 
year, 

wrote in an e-mail interview, 
that his interest in human 
geography and radical social 
justice initially led him to apply 
for an internship.

“I saw a revolution happening 

at the Boggs School thanks to 
the visions of James and Grace 
Lee Boggs, and it continues to 
give me faith in the work we 
do,” Razdar said. 

Razdar added that he was 

intrigued by how the school 
operated under a model called 
Place 
Based 
Education, 
a 

learning process which allows 
students 
to 
explore 
their 

communities at young ages.

Amid these efforts, Boggs 

also continued political writing. 
She co-wrote the book “The 
Next 
American 
Revolution: 

Sustainable Activism for the 
Twenty-First Century” in 2011, 
describing how radical social 

change can be created in the 
modern world.

Ward 
said 
Boggs’ 
work 

profoundly 
influenced 

the 
reading 
materials 
and 

subject matter of his classes, 
which includes her book in a 
curriculum that centers around 
meaningful engagement with 
communities 
beyond 
the 

University.

Her involvement was also 

central 
to 
the 
University’s 

Semester in Detroit program.

Wards said Boggs had been 

involved with the program 
since its inception and was 
instrumental in the process.

“She was connected to the 

program from the beginning — 
in her work and her writing and 
these networks that she built 
were instrumental,” he said. 

Razdar, who participated in 

Semester in Detroit, wrote that 
the program helped inform his 
interest in connecting with the 
city.

“I had one of the most 

enriching 
educational 

experiences I could ask for with 
Semester in Detroit,” Razdar 
wrote. 
“All 
the 
academics 

provide a great context for 
actually living and engaging 
with the city through my 
internship, 
working 
with 

grassroots 
communities 
and 

just getting to know other 
people living there.”

Overall, 
Razdar 
said 
he 

thought Boggs would want 
those she educated to reflect 
back on her life and move 
forward with their activism.

“She’d want us to reflect on 

what she had taught us and to 
keep going, and planting the 
seeds for revolution in ourselves 
and our communities,” Razdar 
said. “So, that is what I have 
resolved to do in light of her 
death. Rest in Power, Grace 
Lee Boggs.”

here in North America by at least 
13,000 years ago. The mammoth 
shows signs of human association 
way before that,” he said. “The 
age of this mammoth could very 
easily be very old, and if we buy 
this theory of human association, 
then we can push back the time 
(humans) were here.”

The mammoth tusks, which 

contain growth layers, serve as a 
kind of record of the mammoth’s 
lifespan, according to Fisher. 
With further study, the team will 
be able to estimate the year the 
mammoth was born.

The 
team’s 
preliminary 

hypothesis on how the mammoth 
came to be buried in Chelsea is 
that early humans were storing 
its remains in a pond for later 
consumption.

That 
would 
also 
mean 

primitive 
humans 
would 

have had the technology and 
capabilities to hunt the large 
creatures, which has been the 
case in other prehistoric animal 
findings in Michigan.

Signs of human interaction 

would 
include 
cut 
marks, 

which would be found only 
after the bones are washed and 
cleaned.

The team also found a stone 

flake tool among the bones, 
which, 
Fisher 
hypothesized, 

could have been used by humans 

to cut mammoth bone.

Michael Cherney, a research 

assistant in the Museum of 
Paleontology 
and 
a 
Ph.D. 

candidate in geology sciences, 
said 
mammoth 
findings 
are 

comparatively less common in 
lower Michigan, noting that 
mastodon findings are actually 
more common locally.

According to Smithsonian 

Magazine, 
mastodons 
and 

woolly mammoths are two 
distinct 
shaggy-haired 

species, though they are both 
considered 
proboscideans, 

which are generally described 
as species of animals with 
tusks and trunks.

“There 
are 
around 
300 

mastodon 
skeletons 
recorded 

for Michigan,” Cherney said. 
“There’s only on the order of 30 
mammoth sites, and most sites 
only include a few bones here and 
there.”

Cherney 
and 
Fisher 
both 

stressed that there is much work 
to be done in terms of dating and 
researching the recovered bones, 
but the significance of the find is 
already apparent.

“Just 
the 
fact 
that 
it 

has tusks and teeth, it’s a 
significant find that it has 
those 
things, 
and 
they’re 

preserved well enough that 
we should be able to say a lot 
more,” Cherney said. “If the 
date turns out to be very old, it 
could be quite significant, but 
it is hard to say at this point.”

of consent. The core of the 
definition — “Consent is a clear 
and unambiguous agreement, 
expressed outwardly through 
mutually 
understandable 

words or actions, to engage in a 
particular activity” — remains 
unchanged.

However, the drafted policy 

outlines 
several 
clarifying 

bullets, including the idea that 
“Consent is not 
to be inferred 
from 
silence, 

passivity, 
or a lack of 
resistance, 
and 
relying 

on 
non-verbal 

communication 
alone may not 
be 
sufficient 

to 
ascertain 

Consent.”

In April, a 

Michigan Daily report pointed 
to a discrepancy between the 
definition of consent taught by 
the Sexual Assault Prevention 
and Awareness Center — which 
promotes consent as requiring 
verbal agreement — and the 
official policy, which does not.

E. 
Royster 
Harper, 
vice 

president 
for 
student 
life, 

sent an e-mail to the student 
body on Oct. 1 advertising the 
roundtables, and also promoted 
a digital feedback survey for 
those who cannot attend in 
person.

In February 2014, the U.S. 

Department 
of 
Education 

announced 
it 
would 

investigatethe 
University’s 

handling of sexual misconduct 
reports. That investigation is 
ongoing.

In a September interview 

with the Daily, Schlissel said he 
hoped to unveil updates to the 
sexual misconduct policy before 
the new year.

“The goal of making change is 

to have the process be as fair as 
possible to the complainant and 
the respondent to help us arrive 

at a decision 
which is the 
right 
one,” 

Schlissel 
said.

Last 

January, 
Schlissel 
announced 
a survey to 
gauge campus 
climate 
on 
sexual 

assault. 

According 
to 
the 
survey 

results, 11 percent of University 
students reported experiencing 
nonconsensual sexual behavior 
over the course of the 2014-2015 
academic year.

“As a university president, a 

physician-scientist, an educator 
and a father, the issue of sexual 
misconduct keeps me awake at 
night,” Schlissel said when the 
survey results were released 
in 
July. 
“I 
feel 
personally 

responsible for the safety and 
well-being of all students at the 
University of Michigan.”

POLICY
From Page 1A

FOSSILS
From Page 1A

BOGGS
From Page 1A

CURRICULUM
From Page 1A

“The issue of 
sexual assault 
keeps me awake 

at night.”

“The way 

medicine has 
been taught for 
a long time is 
now outdated.”

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ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

UPPER: Research Assistant Katrina Lewandowski carefully cleans mud off a mammoth skull at the Ruthven Museum of Natural History on Thursday. The 
remains arrived at the museum yesterday morning after they were discovered beneath Jim Bristle’s soybean farm in Lima Township last week. LOWER: Carts of 
sediment from around the excavation site sit in the hallway of the Ruthven museum’s research wing. 

“She didn’t just 

say what she 
had to say and 

leave.”

