Sanzotta, a plaintiff in a law-
suit filed earlier this month
by Ann Arbor Residents for
Public Safety against the city
to halt the cull, expressed her
frustration with the council’s
decision to move forward.
“I see you don’t care much
about facts, or public safety,”
Sanzotta said. “Our council
has been bought and sold —
cheaply.”
Barry Powers, the attor-
ney representing Ann Arbor
Residents for Public Safety,
referred to the lawsuit in an
especially tense exchange
during
which
he
moved
beyond the area given to
public speakers, approaching
council.
“If you start this cull in
the face of the Constitu-
tion, you’re all violating your
oaths of office,” Powers said.
When
Councilmember
Sabra Briere (D–Ward 1)
requested that Powers return
to the podium as he deliv-
ered his speech he refused,
stating the room belonged to
the public, and was met with
applause from the crowd.
“What do we want? Stop
the Shoot!” the crowd chant-
ed between each speaker.
“When do we want it? Now!”
Other residents speaking
during public commentary
used less pointed rhetoric,
but nonetheless questioned
the need for the cull and said
their concerns for public
safety were not being fully
addressed.
Ann Arbor resident Ellen
Rowe told the council that
although deer are an occa-
sional nuisance in her back-
yard, they are integral to Ann
Arbor’s habitat.
“The idea that City Coun-
cil could overturn firearm
laws behind closed doors
without
citizen
input
is
unconscionable, as is the
short
turnaround
time
between the announcement
of park closing plans and its
implementation,” she said.
“Ann Arbor should be a
leader in developing non-
lethal means of controlling
nuisance deer, and while it
may take money and several
years to create such a plan, it
would set standards and pro-
tocols around the country,”
she added.
In response to the con-
cerns, Briere pointed out
measures the city has taken,
including the distribution
of postcards to residents
near where the cull would
be active, modifications to
school bus routes to keep
schoolchildren away from
culling areas, and the use of
GPS by cull shooters to verify
a 450-foot safety radius from
all residential properties.
The cull is currently slated
to begin Wednesday, barring
any legal action stemming
from the lawsuit filed earlier
this week.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, January 6, 2016 — 3A
University
revises disability
protections
In a press release, the University
introduced a revised employment
policy for workers with disabilities.
The update followed an agreement
with the Department of Justice
to update policy and training
procedures, and will adhere to the
Americans with Disabilities Act.
The ADA calls for the
reassignment of current faculty and
staff members to a position of equal
merit when a disability inhibits
their job performance.
In the Record, Laurita Thomas,
associate vice president for
Human Resources, said a qualified
employee does not need to compete
as heavily with other applicants for
an open position if the transfer is a
result of disability.
State of emergency
declared in Flint
According to the Detroit
Free Press, Gov. Rick Snyer
(R–Mich.) declared a state of
emergency in Flint and Genesee
County on Tuesday due to Flint’s
contaminated drinking water.
An investigation into the
contamination led by the U.S.
Attorney’s Office and the
Environmental Protection Agency
was also confirmed.
In 2014, excess lead
contaminated Flint’s drinking
water following its supply from
Lake Huron to the Flint River. The
pollution rose lead levels in affected
children, which has the potential to
interrupt brain development.
According to the release, Snyder
is working with the Flint Water
Advisory Task Force to develop
short- and long-term plans to
restore clean water to the area.
Bill signed
eliminating straight-
ticket voting
Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill
Jan. 5 to eliminate straight-ticket
voting in which voters can select
one box on a ballot to vote for all
candidates from a single political
party, the Detroit Free Press
reported.
To account for the possibility of
slower lines at the polls, Snyder also
pushed for the state Senate to pass
a bill allowing no-reason absentee
ballots. Republicans in the state
Senate voted to break the tie-bar
linking the measure in December
with the elimination of straight-
ticket voting.
However, the Free Press
reported that Republicans added
a $5 million appropriation to the
bill recently which will allow
for more voting equipment. The
appropriation is intended to
accomodate the longer and slower
lines at the polls.
Obama calls for
action on gun
control
During an emotional live
address from the White House on
Tuesday, President Obama shared
his executive actions to reduce gun
violence. Mark Barden, whose son
died in the Sandy Hook Elementary
shooting, introduced the president.
NPR outlined the plan’s four
main points.
Obama’s plan requires all
firearm vendors to possess a license
and to conduct background checks
before sales.
The plan makes it possible
for states to share information
about individuals banned from
purchasing guns due to mental
health issues — $500 million will be
allocated to increase mental health
care access.
It also improves enforcement
of existing gun laws and adds
200 new agents to the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives.
Finally, the plan encourages
research in gun safety technology
conducted by the Departments of
Defense, Justice and Homeland
Security.
—CAMY METWALLY
NEWS BRIEFS
CULL
From Page 1A
the college,” Pinder-Grover said.
“It helps faculty identify, ‘Where
do I go if I need more informa-
tion?’”
Engineering Prof. Jennifer
Linderman, associate dean for
graduate education, gave a pre-
sentation to the attendees about
graduate programs at the Uni-
versity and the students in the
College of Engineering.
Linderman said one of the
many attractive features of
the College of Engineering is
the allocation of funding for
research through the completion
of a student’s program. She said
though many faculty members
are unsettled by the thought of
not having the funding for their
graduate student researchers,
the University has the resources
to assist with these concerns.
“The funding is put togeth-
er
through
grants,
internal
and external fellowships, GSI
appointments,” Linderman said.
“An important point to make
here is your department has
made the commitment for fund-
ing, so if worse comes to worst,
you can go to your department
for help.”
The event also featured a stu-
dent panel of Rackham doctoral
students in the College of Engi-
neering who discussed their
experiences researching at the
University. They detailed their
struggles and successes of being
a graduate students and how
their mentors have helped them.
All were researching with a fac-
ulty members at the University.
Many of the faculty members
said they were concerned with
recruiting and matching with
graduate students for research
projects, citing student’s prefer-
ences to work with tenured and
senior professors.
In response, one student
said when choosing a profes-
sor to work with, she cared
more about their personal-
ity and the conversation she
could have with the professor.
The panel also spoke about
faculty communication with
students and the importance
of checking in. The final part
of the meeting was led by
Mentoring Others Results in
Excellence, a committee of
faculty within the Rackham
Graduate School that assist
faculty and students with
mentoring.
Engineering
Prof.
Steve
Skerlos said many difference
challenges can arise in men-
toring a student.
“Mentorship implies some-
thing transformational on the
part of the mentee,” Skerlos said.
“Something that is guiding them
along their way to a new profes-
sional career. That’s a lot more
than advising.”
Skerlos said the difficulties of
mentoring include mismatching
goals, unrealistic expectations,
conflicting
personalities
and
styles, unreliability and compet-
ing responsibilities.
“There’s a huge variability
in mentoring norms on cam-
pus,” Skerlos said. “The MORE
committee works across the
University and within the
committee itself; there are
variable dimensions of vari-
ability with mentoring.”
One of the faculty members
in attendance, Assistant Engi-
neering Prof. Mosharaf Chow-
dhury, said the event gave him
ideas about how to advise stu-
dents.
“I have my views on advis-
ing based on my experience
and the way I interacted with
my advisor,” he said. “This
gave me some more view-
points on how other people
look at it.”
Chowdhury said his biggest
takeaway from the program
was learning about how to set
expectations for students.
“I would think that all the
students always have similar
expectations and will always
be in sync, but that’s not
always the case,” Chowdhury
said.
PANEL
From Page 1A
loss in elderly populations.
It manifests in two forms:
the dry type, where there is
occasional death of certain
regions in the retina, and the
wet type, where retina hemor-
rhage occurs due to the forma-
tion of defective blood vessels
in the eye. Currently affecting
30-50 million seniors world-
wide, the prevalence of AMD
is expected to rise as lifespans
lengthen and populations age.
Mohammad Othman, Kel-
logg Eye Center Research sci-
entist involved in the project,
said AMD is a complex disease
caused by multiple genetic
and environmental factors.
“AMD is a very complex
disease; there is no particu-
lar gene that accounts for the
whole disease,” Othman said.
“It is caused by a contribution
of several genes that might be
altered because of variants
that are present in the genes.”
Also involved in the project
was Kari Branham, assistant
research scientist and genetic
counselor at the Inherited
Retinal Dystrophy Clinic, said
the research would help com-
bat the disease more effec-
tively.
“If you know what you
are fighting against — what
is it that causes people to
get
infected,
and
if
you
can
understand
more
about
the
genetic
causes
and background, then that
information can be used for
the
development
of
more
effective
medications
and
preventions for individuals,”
she said.
The
genome
consortium
collaborated
with
26
research institutions for the
experiment. The University’s
role stemmed from a grant
secured
by
Biostatistics
Prof. Goncalo Abecasis to
conduct genotyping of 43,000
individuals from the National
Eye Institute.
The
consortium
aimed
to learn more about disease
development and pathology,
according to Lars Fritsche,
research investigator at the
Department of Biostatistics.
“The aim of the experiment
was to better characterize the
genetics of known AMD risk
loci and to find new risk loci,”
he said.
Risk loci are regions of
the human genome that may
affect the risk of disease.
“In this experiment, we
jointly
analyzed
millions
of genetic variants in over
16,000 individuals with AMD
and
compared
them
with
almost 18,000 control indi-
viduals. We were able to use
a special genotyping platform
that allowed us to analyze
common as well as very rare
genetic variants in our case
control study.”
Researchers
said
the
unprecedented size of the
study allowed them to identify
these rare variants that typi-
cally occur at low frequencies.
The
University’s
multidisciplinary team was
comprised of faculty members,
graduate
and
doctoral
students from the Kellogg Eye
Center and Department of
Biostatistics. The eye center
specialized
primarily
in
sample collection, while the
biostatisticians analyze the
data.
Although the experiment
only began in 2012, the collab-
orative working relationship
between the two departments
is more than a decade old.
Othman said the partner-
ship between the biostatistics
and ophthalmology depart-
ments was important in the
collection of samples for the
experiment.
“Our work in this integrat-
ed department involves clini-
cal and basic research that
goes on at the same time,”
he said. “We have over the
years collected and recruited
almost 1500 individuals who
have AMD for controls.”
In addition to contributing
samples, the team also played
a major role in the consor-
tium’s data analyses.
“We generated several tera-
bytes of raw data and their
analyses took many months,
in some cases, up to 10 CPU
years,” Frtsche said. “Conse-
quently most of the presented
analyses were only doable by
analysis teams with sufficient
computational resources and
expertise, in this case, the
University of Michigan and
the University of Regensburg
(Germany).”
The team said their success
stemmed from institutional
support, the willingness on
the part of patients and con-
trols to participate in the
experiment and, most impor-
tantly, the effectiveness of the
international consortium.
Branham lauded the discov-
ery as a feat of collaboration
between the 26 participating
institutions.
“It is a major accomplish-
ment to have so many scien-
tific institutions, each used
to leading, working together
to put differences aside and
make this happen,” she said.
For those involved, collabo-
ration is also key in moving
forward with the research.
University
researchers
are
currently involved in a follow-
up genome sequencing study
involving the National Eye
Institute and University of
Pennsylvania. Given that only
6,000 out of 43,000 individual
samples in this discovery were
of non-European background,
there are also ongoing efforts
to expand sample collection
globally, Othman said.
He added that he is opti-
mistic that the amount of
research underway will lead
to improved treatments and
solutions.
“The consortium is a reflec-
tion of the desire and drive to
study AMD,” he said. “In the
past, the issue of treatment
wasn’t even addressed. Now
we can see that there is hope,
real hope for individuals with
this condition. They know
that there is something going
on.”
BLINDNESS
From Page 1A
students,” Charlton wrote in an
e-mail interview.
Charlton said in the e-mail
the Statement amendment pro-
cess is the method by which
students defend their rights
and determine the constraints
on their behavior. The State-
ment is amended every several
years by the University — CSG,
along with the Senate Advisory
Committee on Undergraduate
Affairs and the administration,
are the three groups that can
propose amendments.
Seven
amendments
were
proposed during the first term
of CSG, some of which were
aimed toward improving the
amendment process and one
of which targeted improving
student awareness of the State-
ment. All were drafted and pro-
posed by CSG and heralded by
Public Policy sophomore Jacob
Pearlman, CSG General Coun-
cil. The amendments will not
be final until University Presi-
dent Mark Schlissel approves
them; he is expected to consider
changes to the Statement later
this year.
Sexual Assault Reform
The misconduct feedback
process is a product of students
looking inwardly at the causes
of sexual assault and discover-
ing a problem, Charlton wrote.
He said CSG remains steadfast
in its dedication to eradicating
sexual assault on campus.
“We have advocated for
students and will have begun
the institutional and cultural
changes needed to protect stu-
dents,” Charlton wrote.
CSG held round tables in an
attempt to increase conversa-
tion about sexual assault on
campus.
Gameday dining
In September, CSG approved
funding for a new program to
open dining halls earlier on
game days. The pilot program
initially cost Michigan Din-
ing more than anticipated, and
CSG provided $10,000 in order
to sustain the project.
Pearlman said the
initiative helped tens of
thousands of students “stay
CSG
From Page 1A
defend their decision to hire
sharpshooters, as well as
the public process that led
up to the cull, which along
with the lawsuit have also
prompted recall petitions to
be filed against members of
Council.
Among the plaintiffs in
the suit representing Ann
Arbor Residents for Public
Safety include Ann Arbor
resident Sabra Sanzotta, who
filed a petition in Decem-
ber to recall councilmember
Kirk Westphal (D-Ward 2)
for his support of the cull.
At the hearing to deter-
mine the legitimacy of the
recall
petition,
Westphal
said claims of the cull being
unnecessary and high-risk
cited in Sanzotta’s petition
were overstated.
“It has become clear to me
over the last couple of years
that the language is patently
false,” Westphal said. “I take
issue with the notion that
there is danger (with the
cull).”
LAWSUIT
From Page 2A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com