become too narrow or collapse.

According to Scott Hollister, 

a 
professor 
of 
biomedical 

and mechanical engineering, 
tracheobronchomalacia occurs 
once in every 2,200 births. In 
the United States, that averages 
about 1,500 to 1,800 patients a 
year with the condition, with 
ranging severity. While some 
kids with a mild form of the 
condition will not need medical 
intervention, 
those 
with 

moderate to very severe forms 
require treatment that can 
potentially be life-saving.

“The kids exhale, which 

puts a negative pressure in 
the airway that tends to want 
to collapse the airway,” he 
said. “With normal cartilage 
it will hold up the airway, but 
with these kids it collapses 
completely and they can’t get 
air out of their lungs.”

Hollister 
said 
he 
began 

working 
with 
3D 
printing 

technology as an approach 
to 
treating 
the 
condition 

when he met Glenn Green, an 
otolaryngologist at C.S. Mott 
Children’s 
Hospital, 
in 
the 

summer of 2011. Green suggested 
working on an external device 
that 
could 
directly 
treat 

tracheobronchomalacia.

The 
splint 
used 
for 

tracheobronchomalacia 
is 

three-quarters of a cylinder, 
with a small opening on one side 
of the cylinder. Since a person’s 
airway is similar to a tube, and 
part of that tube is collapsing, 
the splint is placed surgically 
on the exterior of the airway to 
pull the airway open.

“We do a CT scan for the 

child prior to the surgery, and 
so when the child exhales we 
can see where the collapsed 
segment is and how long the 
collapsed segment is,” Hollister 
said. “Then from the inhalation 
scan, we get an idea from the 

diameter of the collapsed region 
under inhalation pressures.”

The 
doctors 
take 

measurements from both scans 
and use those measurements 
to design the splint. While all 
splints have the same general 
geometry, the diameter and 
the length of the cylinder are 
customized for each patient.

Hollister said the doctors 

were worried about whether 
or not the splint would allow 
for growth of the patient over 
time. To address this challenge, 
doctors took periodic imaging 
to look at the size of the 
airways, and determined that 
airways still grow, even with 
the attached splint.

Hollister said he was already 

familiar with Materialise, as 
he had previously used their 
software to teach a class and 
employed it while developing 
the splint.

Hollister said the company 

contacted him upon hearing 
about 
the 
first 
procedure 

using the splint in 2013, and 
wanted to help develop the 
technology for clinical use. The 
company, which has a branch 
in Plymouth, Mich., used its 
technology to help design the 
customized splints. Since Green 
and Hollister work on the 
project through the University, 
Materialise needed to work 
with the University to come up 
with a licensing agreement for 
the technology.

“This agreement is a critical 

step in our goal to make this 
treatment readily available for 
other children who suffer from 
this 
debilitating 
condition,” 

Green said in a press release.

Polycaprolactone, 
the 

material used to make the 
splints, is bioresorbable, so 
fluids in the body will cause the 
polymer to break down over 
time. This particular polymer 
takes about three to four years 
to be completely resorbed by the 
body, making a repeat surgery 
unnecessary.

While 
currently 
the 

technology is not approved 
by the FDA, the agency has 
given clearance to use it for 
emergency life-or-death cases. 
The splint has been implanted 
in four children, all of whom 
were between about three and 
16 months of age. The doctors 
reported that the patients all 
responded well to the surgery. 

“Here 
at 
Materialise, 

we strongly believe in the 
transformative 
power 
of 

great 
collaborations, 
such 

as the one we have enjoyed 
these past two years with Dr. 
Green, Dr. Hollister and all 
others who have contributed 
to this life-saving application 
of 3D printing,” said Bryan 
Crutchfield, managing director 
of Materialise U.S.A. in a press 
release. 
“This 
collaboration 

is proof that when the right 
skill 
sets 
and 
technologies 

are combined, solutions can 
be found for problems once 
thought impossible.”

to begin with, so managing all of 
that is going to be difficult,” he 
said. “We all have to reel in our 
expectations a bit about what we 
can do as a staff and what we have 
the resources for.”

The search for a new city 

administrator 
is 
an 
extensive 

process that could take up to 
three months. The administration 
committee, with the help of a 
search firm, will narrow down 
the potential applicants for the 
post. After finalists are selected, 
a series of public interviews and 
forums will be held before a 
recommendation is made to City 
Council.

Tom Crawford, Ann Arbor’s 

chief financial officer, is serving as 
interim city administrator.

Ackerman said it will be crucial 

in the coming months to find 
suitable replacements for these key 
positions.

“We will need to hire a terrific 

city administrator who can oversee 
the whole operation, hire a strong 
community service administrator 
who can improve those customer 
service aspects of City Hall,” 
Ackerman said. “Then, make sure 
we have a good building manager 
and planning manager to make sure 
that any development that does go 
forward is attractive and safe.”

In 
November, 
council 

unanimously 
approved 
City 

Administrator 
Steve 
Powers’ 

recommendation to appoint James 
White as Ann Arbor police chief. 
Currently an assistant police chief 
with the Detroit Police Department, 
White begin his new position in 
Ann Arbor on Jan. 11, 2016.

Police-community relations
The year started with continued 

protest against police brutality 
in light of the death of Ann Arbor 
resident Aura Rosser, who was shot 
by an Ann Arbor police officer last 
November. 

In late January, the Washtenaw 

Prosecutor’s Office concluded Ann 
Arbor Police Officer David Ried 
would not face criminal charges for 
the fatal shooting.

Following the ruling, protesters 

gathered outside City Hall to 
protest the decision. Protesters 
filled downtown streets, disrupting 
traffic 
and 
shouted 
chants 

including “Black Lives Matter.”

Late December 2014, council 

voted to appropriate $173,760 to 
upgrade the police in-car cameras 
and 
body 
cameras. 
However, 

in 2015, discussion continued 
surrounding the use of cameras, as 
many activists say that policy does 
not go far enough. Austin McCoy, 

a Rackham student with the 
grassroots activist organization 
Ann Arbor to Ferguson, said he has 
seen no evidence of progress from 
the police.

“We don’t know if the police are 

using them yet, we don’t know if 
the police is undergoing diversity 
training,” McCoy said. “We just 
know that it was announced a long 
time ago.”

Ann Arbor to Ferguson was 

created 
after 
Rosser’s 
death, 

aiming to fight for justice of 
Rosser’s death in the spirit of the 
protests in Ferguson, Mo., where 
a Black man was shot by police in 
2014.

City Council’s Human Rights 

Commission announced in January 
it would explore the creation of a 
Civilian Police Oversight Board 
to review police conduct. In 
September, Council unanimously 
approved a proposal to grant the 
Human Rights Commission the 
authority to review individual 
discrimination complaints brought 
forth by residents. As of now, there 
is no explicit Civilian Oversight 
Board.

Also this year, John Seto, former 

AAPD police chief, announced 
his retirement andaccepted a role 
as director of the University’s 
Housing 
Security 
and 
Safety 

Services.

A question for many, like McCoy, 

is how City Council will address 
police-community interaction in 
the coming year, especially with 
the new Police Chief James White. 
McCoy said it’s been difficult for 
the Ann Arbor to Ferguson group 
to hold conversations in Ann Arbor 
about these issues.

“In terms of Aura Rosser’s 

killing specifically, folks have 
been able to rationalize it,” McCoy 
said. “They say there’s only been 
one shooting in the last 30 years, 
this was a mistake. Ann Arbor is 
typically seen as a progressive, 
small city. Then it’s like, with all 
these sorts of discourses around 
the city circulating, raising the 
issue becomes a little tough. There 
are people who just believe that 
this is an anomaly and that there’s 
not really a problem.”

McCoy said he hopes that White 

will enter his role with context of 
the Rosser shooting in mind.

“We would hope from any 

new police chief here would first 
be an acknowledgement of what 
happened last year with Aura 
Rosser and the shooting,” McCoy 
said. “We also want to see that the 
police chief has done some studies 
on police-community relations, 
especially as it pertains to people of 
color in this city.”

Among questions from those 

like 
McCoy, 
several 
council 

members said they believe White is 
well positioned for the job.

“Chief White has experience 

working with a civilian review 
board in Detroit, so I think he’ll be 
very useful to help us navigate that 
process,” Warpehoski said. 

“Moving forward, we need 

to work so that we have a very 
comprehensive look at race and 
policing, and really incorporating 
a commitment to that into our 
training 
and 
processes 
and 

programs,” Warpehoski said.

Councilmember 
Chip 
Smith 

(D–Ward 5) said he is confident in 
White’s ability to take on the role of 
police chief.

“The new chief was selected 

largely because he’s been a leader in 
the police community interactions 
in Detroit,” Smith said. “They were 
fraught with a lot more issues than 
we were. I’m really excited to see 
the new ideas he brings in and I do 
think there will be a considerable 
push to have the police be more a 
part of our community.”

Pedestrian safety and 

transportation

In early 2014, City Council 

designated a citizen-led task force, 
dubbed the Pedestrian Safety and 
Access Task Force, to research and 
produce recommendations to City 
Council in regard to pedestrian 
and cyclist safety in the city.

In August 2015, the task force 

released a 59-page report, detailing 
the causes of accidents involving 
pedestrians in Ann Arbor. The 
report also provided dozens of 
recommendations and suggestions 
regarding crosswalks, sidewalks 
and roads.

In September, the task force 

presented the report and its 
findings to the council in awork 
session. They unveiled Vision 
Zero — an initiative that strives 
to eliminate fatalities or serious 
injuries to pedestrians.

The study found that crashes 

involving 
pedestrians 
only 

represented about 16 percent of all 
crashes in Ann Arbor. However, 
pedestrians account for one-third 
of the fatalities and one-fourth of 
all serious crash-related injuries. 
It also noted a 22-percent increase 
of pedestrian crashes per year over 
the five-year period 2010-2014.

In an October meeting, the 

council voted to adopt the Vision 
Zero initiative and made it an 
official city goal to have zero 
traffic-related fatalities by 2025.

Despite the adoption of Vision 

Zero, Smith said there is a long 
way to go before he will be satisfied 
with pedestrian safety in the city. 
He said City Council needs to 
reevaluate how they are budgeting 
for pedestrian safety.

“We 
allocated 
$115,000 
to 

implement the recommendations 
of the Pedestrian Safety Task 
Force,” Smith said. “That’s the cost 
of one rectangular flashing beacon. 
This doesn’t reflect what people 
want here.”

Smith said he hopes that council 

will continue to work on improving 
these issues through 2016.

“We’ve had two cyclist deaths 

in the last month,” Smith said. 
“You never want tragedy to define 
policy solutions that your city 
develops. However, what these 
two tragedies say to me is that we 
have a need in Ann Arbor for non-
motorized infrastructure. As we 
look forward to how do we create 
better conditions for walkers and 
bikers, we have to be able to fund 
those infrastructure ordinances.”

Deer cull

Winter is looking dreary for 

the deer population of Ann Arbor. 
Council voted in September to 
implement a deer management 
program. Then, in November, 
the 
council 
agreed 
to 
hire 

sharpshooters to carry out a 
deer cull. The cull — or selective 
reduction of wild animals — 
was implemented in hopes of 
controlling the deer population in 
Ann Arbor. The cull is set to begin 
in January 2016. Whether deer 
will be killed on campus property 
remains unclear.

Surprisingly to many council 

members, 
the 
cull 
received 

significant 
uproar 
in 
the 

community. At an early November 
council meeting, roughly 200 
people filled the council chambers 
to provide input on the cull.

Ann 
Arbor 
resident 
Sabra 

Sanzotta also decided to take 
matters into her own hands. 
Last Monday, she filed a petition 
to recall Councilmember Kirk 
Westphal (D–Ward 2) due to his 
vote in support of the plan.

If the petition receives 1,791 

signatures from registered 2nd 
Ward voters, this would force a 
special May runoff election ahead 
of the August primary.

Warpehoski said the deer cull 

has been a significant challenge for 
the council in the past year.

“The deer cull has been the most 

controversial issue we have faced 
this year,” Warpehoski said.

Many community members felt 

that the cull was a violent solution 
or that the deer population did not 
pose a threat to the community. 
However, not everyone was against 
the cull; some residents attended 
the November council meeting to 
express their support.

Council will continue to see 

the effects of the cull into the 
coming year and re-evaluate how 
to further address the influx deer 
population in Ann Arbor.

Smith said he hopes Ann Arbor 

will begin to address different 
issues in 2016 and move on from 
the deer cull.

“It disappoints me as a resident 

of this community, that if you were 
to ask me what the biggest story of 
2015 was, it would be the deer cull,” 
Smith said. “We have so many 
other issues: pedestrian and bicycle 
safety, the ongoing discussion of 
police community relationships, 
several high level city people at 
the city leaving. People are going 
to look back at 2015 as the year 
that the deer debate dominated 
everything.”

Housing affordability

Housing affordability in Ann 

Arbor has also been a hot topict this 
year. Throughout the year, several 
different housing plans have come 
forward for debate..

In 
January, 
council 
began 

discussing 
accessory 
dwelling 

units. Accessory dwelling units are 
located within a home’s interior or 
serve as a new addition to a home. 
The council began to discuss 
loosening the city restrictions on 
accessory dwelling units to allow 
for more of them.

In February, council approved a 

new set of affordable housing goals, 
committing the city to work with 
other partners in creating nearly 
2,800 affordable housing units by 
2035.

In August, council voted to 

amend the 2015-16 budget to 
provide 
additional 
funds 
for 

affordable housing in Ann Arbor. 
They 
allocated 
an 
additional 

$450,000 
toward 
improving 

and expanding the supply of 
affordable housing in the city. 
This gave the Ann Arbor Housing 
Commission money to use toward 
the demolition and redevelopment 
for 64 new apartments.

In other development-related 

decisions, 
council 
considered 

several other housing projects 
and re-zoning ordinances. Among 
the largely discussed were the 
properties on State Street south 
of the Stadium Boulevard bridges, 
which received final approval at 
a September meeting. The new 
apartments will offer affordable 
rates to households earning 60 
percent or less of the area median 
income. Tenants will pay rents 
equal to 30 percent of their income.

In 2016, council will continue 

working toward the goal of making 
rent in Ann Arbor cheaper. Smith 
said he hopes affordable housing 
will be a top priority for council.

“Our budgeting process needs 

to be improved and it needs to be 
reflective of what our priorities 
are,” he said. “It’s a wants versus 
needs; we need affordable housing 
in order to be a sustainable 

community.”

Smith said that finding the 

resources 
and 
allocations 
to 

achieve the 20-year goal will be 
difficult.

“For us, nearly 3,000 units 

doesn’t sound like that much, but 
when we’re barely doing 20 units 
a year, it’s a big deal,” he said. “We 
need to find interested partners 
and put our money where our 
mouth is.”
Timeliness of council meetings

Council meetings are known 

for running late into the night, 
keeping city staff and council 
members in council chambers into 
early Tuesday morning. Though no 
significant changes will be made to 
the agenda format in the coming 
year, a few changes are under 
consideration.

Warpehoski and Councilmember 

Julie Grand (D–Ward 3) proposed a 
change to thecouncil’s set of rules. A 
section of the agenda, new business, 
usually consists of a non-contested 
itinerary of resolutions proposed 
by city staff. Typically, items of new 
business concerning staff are voted 
11-0 with little discussion. Grand 
and Warpehoski said they wanted 
to move the section to the beginning 
in sake of the city staff’s time.

“By putting them at the end of 

the meeting, staff or people that 
have something to do with that 
resolution are sometimes there 
until 11 p.m., midnight, 1 a.m. in 
the morning to be ready to answer 
questions about an agenda item 
that we don’t even talk about at the 
end,” Warpehoski said.

The 
council 
approved 
the 

new set of rules on Monday in a 
unanimous vote. New business will 
now come before consent agenda 
and ordinance readings. City staff 
involved in the ordinances would 
then be able to leave after their 
responsibilities were fulfilled.

“We weren’t running meetings 

in a way that is optimal to staff,” 
Grand said. “We almost uniformly 
vote on (staff-related proposals) 
unanimously, with little or no 
discussion. Staff has been staying 
until the end of our meetings, 
which often go until very late into 
the night, instead of being home 
with their families, or doing just 
about anything else.”

Ackerman, who started as a 

council member in November, said 
he felt that council had not been 
working efficiently as a team.

“As a body, they weren’t working 

collaboratively enough,” Ackerman 
said. “There has to be a basic 
understanding that we all want 
to see a healthy and vibrant Ann 
Arbor. The approaches might be 
different, but at the end of the day 
we should be operating in mutual 
respect and collaboration.”

Laboratory 
and 
Research 
Safety 

Committee.

Sheen said there are various other 

committees that address specific 
safety concerns, but there previously 
wasn’t one designed to investigate 
general 
safety 
in 
research 
and 

academic labs.

The 
policy 
explains 
that 
the 

committee 
will 
function 
much 

like 
other 
University 
oversight 

committees, such as the Institutional 
Biosafety Committee or the University 
Committee on Use and Care of 
Animals. Committee members will 
monitor how well laboratories adhere 
to the policy, and serve as liaisons 
between unit safety committees that 
work with academic laboratories.

The 
committee, 
composed 
of 

faculty and staff, will review incidents 
and concerns regarding safe practices 
in labs and research, and amend 
policies where necessary.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, December 10, 2015 — 3A

ROBERT DUNNE/Daily

LEFT: New city council members Zachary Ackerman (D-Ward 3), Sabra Briere (D-Ward 1) and Jane Lumm (D-Ward 2) recite the oath before being officially inducted to City Council on Nov. 16, 2015. RIGHT: Protesters block cars as part of a march 
organized by Ann Arbor to Ferguson on Monday in protest of police violence on the one year anniversary of the shooting of Aura Rosser by Ann Arbor Police Officer David Ried on Nov. 9, 2015.

CLAIRE ABDO/Daily

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