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

NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM
‘U’ receives film producer’s archives
MICHIGANDAILY.COM/SECTION/NEWS 

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

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