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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
INDEX
Vol. CXXIII, No. 42
©2015 The Michigan Daily
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A RT S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SPORTS ........................7
SUDOKU....................... 2
CL ASSIFIEDS.................6
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 47
LO: 35
See COUNCIL, Page 2
See FUNDS, Page 3
See SUGAR, Page 3
HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan discusses safety initiatives currently being created in Detroit in Robertson Auditorium on Monday.
Committee:
CSG should
not punish
member
Detroit’s mayor discusses
city’s future in Ross talk
Council makes
organizational
changes for ‘16
Students raise funds for
Indian city hit by flooding
Author talks
history of
Caribbean
enslavement
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
ANN ARBOR
CAMPUS LIFE
ACADEMICS
Ethics board
investigated Jesse
Arm for conduct at
Diag demonstration
By JACKIE CHARNIGA
Daily Staff Reporter
In a report released Monday,
the Central Student Government
Ethics Commission recommended
that the full assembly take no action
toward CSG Rep. Jesse Arm, an LSA
sophomore whose conduct at a Diag
demonstration last month generated
criticism from members of the group
Students Allied for Freedom and
Democracy.
The
report,
which
will
be
considered by CSG on Tuesday,
details the findings of what is
likely the commission’s first ethics
investigation.
Public Policy junior Thomas
Hislop, chair of the CSG Ethics
Committee, said the assembly can
adopt the recommendation with a
majority vote.
In the report, the committee
said their recommendation resulted
from the testimonies of all involved
parties and a review of a video of
the scene recorded by SAFE. Citing
Article VIII of the Student Body
Constitution, the report concludes
each party had equal rights both in
the demonstration and the display of
grievances.
“Representative Arm did not
engage in unethical behavior or
engage in conduct unbecoming of a
representative,” the report stated.
“Just as the SAFE had the right to
peacefully assemble in the Diag,
Representative Jesse Arm had the
right to voice his opinion.”
According to the report, such
an investigation had no precedent,
as no records of previous ethics
investigations were identified during
the process.
“The Rules Committee Chairman,
(Rackham student Jared Ferguson),
informed me that this is the first
ethics committee hearing that CSG
has had that he is aware of,” Hislop
said.
The report said having the
committee move forward with
an ethics investigation initially
seemed appropriate given the video
evidence, though ultimately the
committee questioned whether the
actions called for an investigation.
Arm said earlier this month that he
was particularly surprised to hear
the incident would result in an ethics
investigation.
Body also passes
resolution opposing
state bill affecting
city speed limits
By ISOBEL FUTTER
Daily Staff Reporter
Monday’s Ann Arbor City
Council meeting largely con-
cerned organizational matters
for 2016, as the council amend-
ed and approved the 2016 coun-
cil rules and council calendar.
The council also signed off
on new committee assignments
for the upcoming year, which
included placements for the
body’s two new members.
Recently elected Council-
member Zach Ackerman (D–
Ward 3), an LSA senior, will be
added to six committees. These
include the Ann Arbor Sum-
mer Festival Liaison, the Audit
Committee, the Board of Insur-
ance Administration, Housing
and Human Services Advisory
Committee and the Park Advi-
sory Commission.
Recently elected Council-
member Chip Smith (D–Ward
5) was appointed to five com-
mittees, including the Brown-
field Plan Review Committee,
Budget and Labor Committee,
the Energy Commission, the
Environmental
Commission
and the Liquor Control Com-
mission.
The council also approved
the Rules of Council for 2016
— a set of standard operating
procedures for council-relat-
ed business. Councilmember
Sabra Briere (D–Ward 1) said
the Council Rules Committee
brought forth three compo-
nents: the set of rules, ethics
standards and a code of conduct
for interactions between city
staff and council.
“One of the side effects of
establishing the ethics policies
is how we clarify our role in
this organization,” Briere said.
“That’s what we’ve all been
talking about for a couple of
years and it’s my hope that we
have come up with three pieces
of the puzzle that work for us
all.”
The five new ethics standards
included outlining appropriate
communications between coun-
cil members and city staff. The
new standard states that coun-
cil members may not directly
give direction to city staff, but
instead must speak to the city
administrator, who will then
delegate work to staff.
Briere said the ethics rule
was added because city staff
have been compromising their
responsibilities by accepting the
demands of council members.
“When we interrupted some-
Mike Duggan
applies business
perspective in
shaping policy
By GENEVIEVE HUMMER
Daily Staff Reporter
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan,
a University alum, returned
to Ann Arbor on Monday to
speak with a group of Business
sophomores
about
ongoing
revitalization efforts in Detroit.
Duggan, who graduated from
the University’s Law School in
1983, was not new to Detroit
politics when he assumed the
mayor’s office in 2014. From
1987 to 2001, he served as
Wayne County’s deputy county
executive,
and
prosecutor
from 2001 until 2003. In 2004,
he became the president and
CEO of the Detroit Medical
Center, where he remained until
December 2012.
Duggan said one of the pillars
of his campaign was to make
policymaking in the city a more
inclusive process.
“I finished every speech the
same way,” he said. “I said if
I’m the mayor, if you’re going
to vote for me, the ‘us versus
them’ politics is over. It’s no
longer going to matter if you’re
Black, brown or white. It’s
not going to matter if you’re
Christian, Jewish or Muslim.
It’s not going to matter if you’re
gay or straight. It’s not going
to matter if you were born in
the city of Detroit or you’re
an immigrant from another
country. We’re going to build a
city where everyone is welcome
and everyone is included.”
Since becoming the city’s
mayor in January 2014, the city
has experienced a number of
changes. Five months before
he assumed office, the city
of Detroit filed for Chapter
9 bankruptcy. The following
November,
Judge
Steven
Rhodes approved Detroit’s plan
of adjustment.
Now that the city has emerged
from bankruptcy, Duggan said
he is pursuing a number of
initiatives to improve the city.
Over the past year, the city has
installed 58,000 new streetlights
in Detroit to fix the city’s public
lighting problem. According to
Duggan, the new LED lights
have been installed every 300
feet so that most blocks have a
light on each corner and in the
middle of the block.
Business
sophomore
Alex
Business graduate
students gather
$5K after heaviest
rain in 114 years
By ISOBEL FUTTER
Daily Staff Reporter
Two graduate students in
the Ross School of Business,
Sneha
Venkatachalam
and
Preetha Lakshmi Narayanan,
are working to raise money for
Chennai, India, a city facing
the highest rainfall it has seen
in 114 years.
After the flooding started a
few days ago, Venkatachalam
and
Lakshmi
Narayanan
brainstormed ways they could
help the people of Chennai.
The pair both wanted to
provide immediate assistance
to
those
affected
by
the
heavy rainfall as well as find
resources to help with the
aftermath and damages of the
resulting flooding.
Chennai is the capital of
the Indian state of Tamil
Nadu, which is located in
southeast India. Since heavy
rains began in the state, the
army has needed to rescue
5,000 people, and many lack
food and drinking water. Cell
service and electricity have
also been knocked out by
storms, backing rescue efforts
particularly difficult.
“Something needs to be
done,
firstly
because
it’s
raining now and it’s getting
worse,” Lakshmi Narayanan
HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
Rabbi Aharon Goldstein, director of the Chabad House of Ann Arbor, lights a giant menorah on the Diag for the
second day of Hanukkah on Monday.
Five-day symposium
considers impact
of sugar in shaping
gender identities
By RACHEL COHEN
For the Daily
On Monday, several University
units
kicked
off
a
five-day
symposium that will touch on
concepts
including
tourism,
commercialism
and
gender
identities — all through the history
of sugar in the Caribbean.
Gaiutra Bahadur, an author and
journalist whose work has been
featured in The New York Times
Book Review, The Washington
Post Book World, Foreign Policy
Magazine
and
The
Nation,
delivered
a
keynote
address
Monday on the experiences of
indentured Indian women who
immigrated to the Caribbean.
The idea for the symposium
originated with Anita Gonzalez,
a University professor who heads
the Global Theatre and Ethnic
Studies minor in the School of
Music, Theatre & Dance. She had
been working with her colleagues
on a performance project designed
to consider how involuntary labor
by people of color could provide
a mechanism for understanding
the Caribbean more broadly. The
project would eventually form the
See DETROIT, Page 3
See ETHICS, Page 3
IT’S LIT