michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, December 4, 2015
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
University President Mark Schlissel addresses students during his monthly fireside chat with students in the Michigan Union on Thursday.
During fireside
chat, president also
expresses opposition
to divestment
By LARA MOEHLMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
For
University
President
Mark Schlissel’s final fireside
chat of the semester, several
students had the opportunity
Thursday afternoon to engage
with the president on a wide
variety of campus issues, from
student debt to the University’s
sexual
assault
investigation
policy.
E.
Royster
Harper,
vice
president for student life, was
also present for the event,
which was held in the Pond
Room of the Michigan Union.
Harper took notes throughout
the meeting, which serves as a
monthly platform for students
to raise topics of concern to the
president.
Campus diversity
When asked about his next
steps following the Diversity
Summit held last month to
improve diversity, equity and
inclusion on campus, Schlis-
sel said the University is very
far from its end goal: building
a campus community that is
reflective of the society which
it intends to serve.
“We’ve made some progress
this year, but it’s going to be
forever,” he said. “We’re going
to be working on this as long as
I’m president. It’s not going to
be over in three years or some-
thing, so we have a long way to
go.”
However, Schlissel did out-
line specific programs that
have already been initiated in
the past year to improve the
Legislation could
expand scholarship
program to five more
school districts
By SAMANTHA WINTNER
Daily Staff Reporter
The Michigan House Work-
force and Talent Development
Committee
heard
testimony
Thursday on legislation related
to the state’s promise zones as
they prepare to formulate a rec-
ommendation for the full House,
where representatives could vote
on two bills in the near future.
The testimony concerned Sen-
ate Bill 0539 and Senate Bill 0540,
which seek to expand a statewide
program launched in 2008. That
program aims to cover some or
all of the costs of in-state tuition
at public schools after financial
aid awards with a combination of
state and private funds. The bills
propose five additional school
districts be labeled as promise
zones, making a total of 15.
Anna Mooney, deputy chief of
staff for Sen. Goeff Hansen (R–
Hart), and Brianna McGarry, a
legislative assistant for Sen. Jim
Ananich (D–Flint), delivered the
testimony Thursday on behalf of
the two senators, who each spon-
sored one of the bills.
The Michigan State Trea-
sury supervises the establish-
ment of the promise zones,
which currently serve students
in 10 high-poverty school dis-
tricts. Students’ eligibility for
these scholarships, as well as the
amount they are each eligible
to receive, often depend on how
long they have attended school
in the district, and could also be
contingent on factors such as col-
lege GPA.
In an e-mail interview, Cyn-
thia Wilbanks, vice president for
government affairs, noted the
growing interest of school dis-
tricts across Michigan in estab-
lishing promise zones.
“The expansion of the prom-
ise zones has been stimulated by
the interest of several more com-
munities in the state that want to
support the post-secondary edu-
cation aspirations among their
residents,” she said.
During her testimony, McGar-
ry said the creation of more
promise zones is important to
increasing access to higher edu-
cation in Michigan. She noted
that there have been districts,
such as Flint, that want to estab-
University Chorale
Union continues
the tradition with
new leadership
By MICHAEL FLYNN
Daily Arts Writer
One of the longstanding tra-
ditions of Ann Arbor’s music
scene
is
the
annual
per-
formance
of
George
Frid-
eric
Handel’s
renowned
oratorio,
“Messiah,”
by
the
Uni-
versity
Cho-
ral Union, a choir comprised of
Ann Arborites and University
students. Every year, Ann Arbor
residents comes to Hill Audito-
rium to witness Handel’s beau-
tiful musical rendition of Jesus
Christ’s birth, life, death, resur-
rection and ascension to Heaven.
This year, the job of directing
the annual production was given
to Scott Hanoian, a conductor,
church organist and University
alum who now serves as the Uni-
versity Choral Union’s conductor,
directed the annual production.
“It’s a piece that I love really
deeply, and a work that I think
really speaks to the Ann Arbor
community every year,” Hanoian
said. “What I think has made
‘Messiah’ stand the test of time
and why people keep coming
back to it … is that the piece is
really a perfect marriage of text-
slash-story and music, and the
way Handel brought the text …
to life through music in ways that
reading the text doesn’t bring in
the same way.”
Hanoian grew up as an organ-
ist and attended the University of
Michigan where he majored in
organ performance. During his
undergraduate years, he devel-
oped an interest in conducting
choirs and studied under Jerry
Blackstone, whom he succeeded
as University Choral Union con-
ductor this year. Hanoian was
eventually accepted into the
graduate conducting program at
the University, earning masters
degrees in choral conducting and
church music simultaneously.
“I really developed a passion
for some of the great choral mas-
terworks,” Hanoian said of his
experience in graduate school.
Among these works was Handel’s
“Messiah.”
Save the Deer
group targeting
Ward 2’s Kirk
Westphal
By ISOBEL FUTTER
Daily Staff Reporter
Councilmember Kirk West-
phal (D–Ward 2) is facing a
recall effort from the local
group Save the Deer Ann Arbor
over his vote in support of the
city’s forthcoming deer cull.
A 8-1 majority of council
members voted in favor of a
four-year deer management
plan in August and subse-
quently voted 10-1 in Novem-
ber to hire sharpshooters to
kill 100 area deer this winter in
an effort to control their popu-
lation. Westphal voted along-
side the majority both times.
Sabra Sanzotta, spokesper-
son for Save the Deer, filed the
recall paperwork Monday, cit-
ing concerns with the scien-
tific basis underlying the cull
and potentially negative rami-
fications. Her group has previ-
ously asked the city to gather
more data before taking action.
“There is an unjust, uniden-
tifiable risk to public safety,”
Sanzotta said. “And the cull
that Kirk Westphal voted in
favor of doesn’t have the ben-
efit of scientific evidence to
prove that it’s even effective.”
Sanzotta said she chose to
file a petition against Westphal
specifically because she is a
Ward 2 resident.
In a Thursday interview
with The Michigan Daily,
Westphal said he stands by
Project could also
inform understanding
of Parkinson’s, other
neurological diseases
By KATIE PENROD
Daily Staff Reporter
The brain is one of the most
complex organs in the human
body and has been studied exten-
sively for years — on Earth at
least.
Now, a University professor is
trying to uncover unique effects
the organ experiences as it adapts
to microgravity, or the feeling of
weightlessness, in space.
Kinesiology
Prof.
Rachael
Seidler, through a partnership
with NASA, is exploring how
long periods of time in space
affect the brain and its functions,
as well as investigating potential
countermeasures for the neuro-
logical effects of microgravity.
It currently takes several
weeks to recover from space-
flight, and her research on how
the brain reacts to time in space
could help speed up that process.
Seidler said the project has
connections to research about
brain adaption on Earth as well.
“I’ve always been interested in
monitoring adaptation and how
people learn new motor skills,”
she said. “Adapting to the micro-
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
Michigan Izzat, a male fusion dance team, placed first out of seven groups at Michigan’s Best Dance Crew at the
Michigan League on Thursday.
MICHIGAN ’S BEST DANCE CREW
See PROMISE, Page 3
See FIRESIDE, Page 3
See MESSIAH, Page 5
See DEER, Page 3
See BRAIN, Page 3
Handel’s
“Messiah”
Dec. 5-6
at 8 p.m.
Hill Auditorium
INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 41
©2015 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A RT S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 48
LO: 25
Reps. to
consider
promise
zone bills
‘Messiah’ still
a staple of the
holiday season
in Ann Arbor
Council member faces
recall effort over deer cull
Schlissel talks student
debt, diversity in chat
STATE GOVERNMENT
ARTS PREVIEW
RESEARCH
CITY COUNCIL
Prof. studies
how space
affects brain
activities