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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 50
©2013 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM
‘U’ President updates students on diversity plan
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 21
LO: 9
Research finds
venture capitalists
could contribute to
discrepancies
By ALEXA ST. JOHN
Daily Staff Reporter
Female-led startup companies
do not perform as well as
their male-led counterparts
in part because of gender
discrepancies among venture
capitalists, according to recent
University research.
This gap in performance,
the research suggests, is due
to the majority male-driven
nature of venture financing
syndicates.
The study, conducted by
Business
Ph.D.
candidate
Sahil Raina, found there was
a 25 to 30 percent difference
in the average performance
rates of male-led startups
and
female-led
startups,
with male-led startups more
successful overall. Findings
indicated that the difference
in rates depended on whether
the companies were initially
financed by venture capital
partners with at least one
female general partner in the
financing syndicate, or if the
syndicate was all male.
Raina said his interest in this
research began after reading
that female entrepreneurs in
Silicon Valley were having
trouble working with venture
capitalists. However, because
the stories he read were
lacking empirical evidence,
Raina decided to study the
issue himself.
Venture capital financing
works by offering money to
startup companies in rounds
until
the
company
either
goes public or is bought by
another company. Companies
pitch their startups to firms
and
work
toward
gaining
their own funding during the
process. At that point, the
venture capitalists have the
Taubman partners
with schools for
architecture
workshops
By BRANDON SUMMERS-
MILLER
Daily Staff Reporter
Twenty-five Detroit Public
Schools high school students
graduated from a preparatory
architecture program hosted
by
the
Taubman
College
of
Architecture
and
Urban
Planning Monday night.
The
semester-long
joint
workshop
program,
called
the
Michigan
Architecture
Prep Program, was created to
expose DPS students to the
field of architecture and job
opportunities in related fields.
The University has launched
multiple programs in past years
to better connect with cities
across the state.
The
program,
which
launched in December 2014,
allows Taubman faculty and
DPS staff to interact and work
together to develop workshops
for students interested in the
field.
Milton Curry, associate dean
of academic affairs and strategic
initiatives
in
the
Taubman
College of Architecture and
Urban Planning, said Detroit
was chosen as the site for the
program because of the city’s
history with the University.
“The University of Michigan
has a historic role in that it
was founded in Detroit,” Curry
said. “It has a responsibility as
a public university — one of the
premier public universities — to
be a leader.”
Irene
Nordé,
executive
director
for
the
Office
of
Mathematics
Education
in
Detroit Public Schools, said
she thought the program was
highly beneficial for students.
She noted that for the program
to
work,
several
logistical
measures were taken by DPS.
“We had to look for ways to
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Architecture and Urban Planning Prof. Robert Fishman, interim dean of Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, speaks at the Architecture Prep
graduation ceremony at the U-M Architecture Research Studio in Detroit on Monday.
Company fires,
demotes writers,
editors and
photographers
By MEGAN DOYLE
Daily Staff Reporters
MLive
Media
Group
announced Wednesday on their
website that multiple positions
would be eliminated in the latest
restructuring move to impact
the Ann Arbor News.
According to a statement
on
Mlive’s
website
from
John Hiner, vice president of
content, 29 “content positions”
were eliminated in an effort
to restructure the company.
Though the layoff may include
Ann Arbor editors, reporters and
photographers, the statement
notes that the number of content
positions
remain
the
same
overall statewide.
Along with the Ann Arbor
News, MLive also owns multiple
other newspapers across the
state. It was formed in 2012 when
it ombined MLive.com with eight
newspapers across the state of
Michigan in Ann Arbor, Grand
Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon,
Jackson, Flint, Saginaw and Bay
City. Combined, it has the largest
audience of any media company
in Michigan — the website has
a monthly digital readership of
more than 11 million people.
The changes aim to “(direct)
resources to emerging content
and
business
opportunities,
while
reducing
some
management,
support
and
production roles,” according to
the statement.
When asked to comment
further, Hiner wrote in an
e-mail
to
The
Michigan
Dailythat MLive would not be
disclosing the specific details of
the internal restructuring at this
time.
“At this point … we’re going to
let the article we posted stand, in
terms of public comment by our
organization,” he wrote.
The announcement is the
latest in a series of similar moves
for newspaper outlets in the
state. Last month, 13 journalists
at the Detroit News accepted
a buyout. Buyouts have also
occurred at the Detroit Free
Press recently.
These buyouts have become
common at newspapers outside
the state as well, including at
The New York Times and the
Washington Post.
The full list of positions that
will be impacted or eliminated
by the changes at MLive have
not been released by the media
group, though some employees
have
publically
announced
changes. Paula Gardner, the
former Ann Arbor editor at
MLive, tweetedthat she will
now be reporting Michigan
business news for the company,
but declined comment when
contacted
by
The
Michigan
Daily.
For some, the move to
eliminate
content
positions
has sparked concern about the
quality of coverage in Ann Arbor
and beyond.
CLAIRE ABDO/Daily
SACUA Chair Silke-Maria Weineck, speaks during the Regents meeting held on Monday in the Fleming Administration
Building.
Grouup also
continues
examining faculty
role in admissions
By ISOBEL FUTTER
Daily Staff Reporter
The
Senate
Advisory
Committee
on
University
Affairs met Monday to discuss
changes to several documents
that govern faculty policy at
the University.
At
a
December
SACUA
meeting, University President
Mark Schlissel addressed the
assembly on possible changes
to the Principles of Faculty
Involvement Blue Document
that would increase faculty
involvement in undergraduate
admissions.
The document, which describes
the
general
responsibilities
faculty
members
have
in
governing the University, has
not been revised since the Senate
Assembly endorsed its second
edition in 2008.
During
the
December
meeting, many members of
SACUA said they felt the
document should be further
amended to address the role
faculty play in undergraduate
admissions.
At
Monday’s
meeting,
SACUA
members
presented
possible
revisions
to
the
document,
concerning
several
aspects
including
the faculty involvement in
undergraduate
admissions,
faculty involvement in faculty
disciplines and the definition
of faculty sections.
Revisions to the definition
of faculty within the principles
sparked a discussion among
the
members.
Kinesiology
Prof. Stefan Szymanski said
the
current
definition
of
faculty is too ambiguous, and
said SACUA should address
whether administrators are
also considered faculty.
“The point is that the things
that they are doing, they are not
doing as faculty, they are doing
as administrators, so that’s
what we need to establish,”
Szymanski said.
Comparative
Literature
Prof.
Silke-Maria
Weineck,
SACUA chair, said SACUA will
work to outline the difference
between a faculty member and
an administrator.
“We need to have a very
clear memo that lays out what
we mean by faculty,” Weineck
said. “We don’t want to take
their power, we just want to say
in document defining faculty
from administrators.”
SACUA plans to work on
the Principles document over
the next few weeks and will
discuss its conclusions with
University
Provost
Martha
Pollack and Schlissel when they
have reached a conclusion. Until
formal suggestions have been
made, SACUA will continue to
adhere to the current guidelines.
See DETROIT, Page 3
See STUDY, Page 3
See MLIVE, Page 3
See SACUA, Page 3
A personal
remembrance of
David Bowie, the
rocker from Mars
By ADAM THEISEN
Managing Arts Editor
There’s a scene in the
movie “Velvet Goldmine”
where
Christian
Bale’s
character
is
with
his
parents watching a David
Bowie-inspired ’70s glam-
rocker
character
give
a
press conference on TV.
The Bowie character talks
openly to reporters about
his
attraction
to
men,
smirking to himself at how
scandalous he’s being, and
Bale’s character imagines
himself jumping up and
down, pointing at the TV,
yelling to his parents “That’s
me! That’s me!”
That’s exactly how I felt
when I first got into Bowie.
I was about 14 and I was
realizing that my feelings
toward boys weren’t what
one would call normal and
I was freaking out because
I didn’t understand it, and
I didn’t even know any gay
adults who could provide
any sort of blueprint for
what this meant now that my
entire perception of myself
had been blown up. So I went
to Google and found David
Bowie, one of the queerest
straight men to ever exist,
an artist who explained so
See BOWIE, Page 5
Study looks
at gender
gap among
startups
Detroit high school students
graduate from ‘U’ program
BUSINESS
MLive reduces
positions by 29
in restructuring
SACUA discusses changes
to Standard Practice Guide
ARTS
The unique
meaning
of Ziggy
Stardust
SCIENCE