for so long and that the rent 
is getting raised on them but 
that’s sort of the unfortunate 
downfall of being a small busi-
ness,” she said.

Bathish said in his experi-

ence, many students aren’t 
necessarily interested in sit-
ting and eating when they go to 
Amer’s.

“A lot of the students are on 

the go anyway so the reduced 
seating won’t affect them,” 
Bathish said.

LSA senior Stephanie Choi, 

echoed Schuman’s sentiments.

“It definitely got smaller, a 

bit more crowded; it’s a differ-
ent experience from usual.”

Choi added she hopes small 

business 
like 
Amer’s 
stick 

around.

“They’re very unique and 

Ann Arbor-esque,” she said.

Bathish said he wanted to 

assure students nothing was 
cut from the menu, and the 
quality of the food will remain 
the same. He said he’s confi-
dent that these renovations 
won’t affect business.

“My formula has always been 

the same: same quality of food, 
same 
distributors,” 
Bathish 

said. “As long as the overhead 
stays the same, I plan on being 
here for another 28 years.”

Chief Information 
Officer announces 
retirement 

Laura Patterson, the University’s 

chief information officer and 
associate vice president for 
Information and Technology 
Services, announced her retirement 
Thursday after 23 years of working 
at the University. 

In an e-mail to Information 

and Technology Services staff 
members, Patterson wrote, “As 
we complete the implementation 
of NextGen Michigan and work 
begins in earnest on the goals and 
initiatives outlined in the new IT 
strategic plan, I believe it is the 
perfect time to pass the torch to a 
new leader.” 

Patterson’s role consists 

of overseeing the leverage of 
information technology across the 
University’s three campuses and 
health system. Though Patterson 
will not officially step down 
until tihis summer, she will work 
with University President Mark 
Schlissel in the meantime to recruit 
the next CIO.
Cit y of Detroit 
investigates DPS 
buildings

Detroit mayor Mike Duggan 

(D) announced safety inspections 
of all Detroit Public Schools 
buildings Wednesday evening 
in response to complaints from 
teachers and parents about the 
poor state of safety in schools, the 
Detroit Free Press reported. 

Many teachers took part 

in “sickout” protests staged 
earlier this week 
 during which 

mass teacher absences forced 
some schools close for three 
days. Duggan promised both 
legislative reform and concrete 
solutions to reportedly hazardous 
conditions in DPS buildings such 
as extremely cold buildings, mold 
and rampant mice. 

Legislation introduced 

Thursday by Gov. Rick Snyder 
upset many state Democrats who 
called the plan unsatisfactory. 
The bill proposed a nine-person 
interim school board charged 
and hiring a superintendent until 
a new school board is elected 
next November. 

“It doesn’t go far enough to 

address our concerns,” State Rep. 
Brian Banks (D–Detroit) told the 
Detroit Free Press. “This is just 
going to be another form of an 
emergency manager.”
Jesse Jackson 
expected to attend 
Flint water rally 

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. will 

attend a rally over the Flint water 
crisis taking place this Sunday 
at Heavenly Host Church in 
Flint, MLive reported. Jackson 
has previously condemned the 
state’s handling of the crisis in 
an opinion piece published in the 
Chicago Sun-Times earlier this 
month, writing that Gov. Rick 
Snyder considers Flint residents 
“disposable.”

A recent spike in Legionnaires’ 

disesase in Flint sparked 
national outrage and calls 
from public figures, including 
Michael Moore, Erin Brokovich 
and Tim Gremiel, state House 
Democratic leader, who are 
calling for Snyder’s resignation if 
he knowingly participated in the 
contamination. 
Ithaca College 
president steps 
down after protests

Tom Rochon, president of 

Ithaca College, announced his 
resignation Thursday. Ithaca was 
among the campuses rocked by 
racially charged protests this 
winter, and according to NPR, 
faculty and staff expressed in a 
vote they had no confidence in 
Rochon’s ability to effectively 
manage racial dialogues on 
campus and respond to students 
of color. 

Rochon hired a chief diversity 

officer, but students continued to 
criticze him for failing to foster 
relations with Black students. 
Rochon’s resignation will be 
effective next July. 

— RIYAH BASHA

NEWS BRIEFS

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, January 15, 2016 — 3

AMER’S
From Page 1

who identify as having non-
white skin, this area of study 
holds a particular importance.

“I think it’s a very interest-

ing area,” he said. “Being a for-
mer U-M faculty professor, it’s 
an area we don’t often empha-
size among the residents and in 
other training areas. It doesn’t 
get the resources that it should 
and if you look at the demo-
graphics of this country, we 
certainly need to be spending 
more time understanding skin 
of color.”

According to December 2012 

U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 
by the year 2060, approxi-
mately 57 percent of the popu-
lation will describe itself as one 
the non-white ethnic groups. 
Already, there is a majority of 
people globally who have dark-
ly pigmented skin.

Among the most common 

reasons for people with skin 

of color to see a dermatolo-
gist are dyschromias, which 
are disturbances in pigmenta-
tion. Dr. Alexis said how dark-
er pigmentations might make 
a person more susceptible to 
conditions like hyperpigmen-
tation, keloids, alopecia, lupus 
and many others. However, he 
also noted that increased levels 
of melanin among these indi-
viduals, responsible for deter-
mining skin and hair colour, in 
these people actually serve as 
protection against photoaging, 
skin damage done by UV rays, 
and skin cancer in some cases 
because they provide a natural 
UV shield.

LSA freshman Ari Spellman, 

a member of the Undergradu-
ate Research Opportunity Pro-
gram, attended the event in 
hopes of learning more about 
dermatology.

“I have really little experi-

ence with medicine,” Spellman 
said. “I thought it was very 
interesting to hear the basics 
of dermatology and about the 
differences in dermatological 

issues between skin of color 
and skin of lighter pigmenta-
tion.”

These differences between 

ski of color and skin of lighter 
pignentation can also be ampli-
fied by cultural variances in 
skin care, grooming, percep-
tions of beauty and alternative 
medicine practices, according 
to Alexis. He highlighted dif-
fering treatment methods that 
are used to combat various 
skin ailments as examples of 
this, each of which possess the 
potential to benefit a patient 
though some risks and side 
effects could also exist.

Alexis said his mother is his 

inspiration to study dermatol-
ogy and the nuances of treat-
ment based on skin color.

“My mother was probably 

the first Black dermatologist 
in Toronto,” Alexis said. “I 
was inspired by a number of 
prominent African American 
physicians who I had the good 
fortune to meet.”

featured speakers from civil 
rights activist Cesar Chavez 
to last year’s lecturer Marc 
Lamont Hill, a prominent 
activist and journalist. This 
year, Naomi Tutu will take 
the stage to speak about her 
experiences as a race, gen-
der justice and human rights 
activist. Tutu, the daugh-
ter of South African activist 
Bishop Desmond Tutu, has 
dedicated much of her work to 
cultivating inclusion and rais-
ing awareness about gender-
based violence.

OAMI will live streamed 

the memorial lecture publicly 
for the first time this year. A 
number of watch parties are 
being hosted both by student 
groups on campus and by 
alumni as far away as Cincin-
nati and Washington, D.C. 
Helaire said it was important 
to the planning committee to 
open up access to members 
of the Michigan community 
both on and off campus.

“We have a large alumni 

body and we want to be able 
to reach them with the same 
message,” he said. “As much 
as we celebrate the social jus-
tice legacy with the keynote, 
much of what’s talked about 
here on campus is happening 
right now. Wherever you are, 
we want you to think about 
how to dialogue, network and 
act.”

The symposium’s website 

offers a downloadable watch 
party toolkit consisting of 
logistical tips and ideas for 
discussions after the lecture. 
Engineering senior Saumya 
Khurana, community service 
chair for Delta Theta Psi and 
organizer of a watch party 
tye sorority is hosting in the 
Union, said the livestream 
enables 
more 
students 
to 

watch the lecture in a familiar 
setting.

“I think it’s a great idea to 

watch the speech and have 
a space afterwards to talk 
about it,” she said. “I think it’s 
important to watch as a com-
munity because there’s a lot of 

issues going on currently that 
the symposium addresses.”

In addition to lectures and 

panels, the symposium’s pro-
gram also features multiple 
performances and other cre-
ative homages to both Mar-
tin Luther King Jr. and the 
broader topic of social justice. 
Young Jean Lee, a Brooklyn-
based 
experimental 
play-

wright, is putting on a handful 
of her plays in addition to a 
public interview as a part of 
the School of Art and Design’s 
Penny Stamps Speaker Series. 
The Michigan Theater is also 
screening “CHI-RAQ,” Spike 
Lee’s film about race in Chica-
go, and the Burton Memorial 
Tower bells will even chime 
famous works by African-
American composers.

Gena Flynn, director of 

inclusion at the School of 
Music, Theater and Dance 
and coordinator of a showcase 
Sunday, held by SMTD and 
featuring famed saxophonist 
James McBride, emphasized 
the importance of including 
creative expression in the 
symposium.

“What’s new is that we’re 

bringing in an outside guest 
and performer really to add 
an opportunity to reflect on 
how music has been used in 
storytelling, and in particular, 
how (social justice) issues and 
history can be shown through 
music and through the arts,” 
she said.

The symposium’s program 

runs from its start this week 
through February, but Helaire 
said he is determined to make 
its impact last throughout the 
year.

“What I’m trying to move 

us towards is asking how can 
we make this not just some-
thing that happens in January, 
but using it as a springboard 
to address issues our com-
munity has,” he said. “That’s 
where the planning commit-
tee comes in, which is made 
up of various units around 
campus. There are people in 
these units doing work related 
to social justice issues, and 
we want to look at how this 
committee can support those 
issues more intentionally.”

SYMPOSIUM
From Page 2

underrepresented individuals, 
but then are not taking time 
to understand what are their 
plights.”

The panelists also sought 

solutions to strengthen minor-
ity voices in the United States.

Taylor stressed the impor-

tance of voter turnout at every 
election, pointing to the 2010 
Republican takeover of the 
state legislature. He fervently 
suggested 
that 
Americans 

work to bring people of color 
back to the voting booths in 
order to elect candidates who 
will bring minority desires to 
fruition.

“Voting is both a means for 

empowerment and an expres-
sion of empowerment,” Taylor 
said. “To the extent that these 
groups feel and experience a 
lack of power within society, I 
think that relates to a lack of 
confidence in the efficacy of 
the political system. We have 
to work on all fronts to fully 
and completely bring these 
groups into society in a mean-
ingful way.”

Panelists, such as Rack-

ham Ph.D. candidate Austin 
McCoy, also spent chunks of 
time discussing voter disen-
franchisement. Each speaker 
touched on voter ID laws and 
closed 
registration 
booths. 

Public Policy junior Swathi 
Shanmugasundaram, 
CSG 

representative and panelist, 
spoke about modern voter sup-
pression tactics.

“Because 
of 
gerryman-

dering and redlining, we are 
putting all these minority 
populations into such a small, 
densely populated area under 
the guides that they will be 
represented, but they get a 
very small proportion of the 
larger scale of representa-
tives,” 
Shanmugasundaram 

said. “It just doesn’t work out.”

When asked who each pan-

elist believes the next presi-
dent will be, all but Mayor 
Taylor, who answered “Hill-
ary,” pointed to Bernie Sand-
ers or skirted the question. 
Regardless 
of 
candidate 

choice, each panelist pushed 
for students and young people 
to put pressure on all candi-
dates to see and act on the 
fact that, as Prof. Country-
man stated, “this is no longer 
a white nation.”

LSA 
sophomore 
Shavon 

Edwards, who attended the 
event, said she enjoyed the 
discussion.

“I’m happy with the conver-

sation,” Edwards said. “I think 
it is really important that stu-
dents get a viewpoint from 
the mayor. I really think that 
the points the panelists talked 
about are important for stu-
dents to hear.”

Symposium events in honor 

of Martin Luther King Jr. will 
continue throughout January.

PANEL
From Page 1

depending on which proposal 
is ultimately chosen.

According to Jennifer Hall, 

executive director of the Ann 
Arbor Housing Commission, 
the trust fund plays a vital 
role in funding affordable 
housing initiatives in the city.

“The primary sources of 

revenue for the fund are gen-
eral fund contributions from 
City Council — sales proceeds 
from the sale of city property 
and private developer contri-
butions,” she said.

Hall added that the devel-

opment of this lot is impor-
tant for the development of 
further projects in affordable 
housing in the city, noting 
that the AAHC is in the mid-
dle of redeveloping all 18 pub-
lic housing sites in the city, 
which include 355 apartments 
for affordable housing. $60 
million is needed to complete 
this project.

Ackerman agreed, saying 

that a healthy trust fund is 
needed in order for action to 
be taken in this area. He said 
other than the contribution 
from the Library lot, there are 
no other clear funding mech-
anisms.

LIBRARY
From Page 2

MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily

Amer’s Mediterranean Deli on State Street is under construction to downsize due to rising rental costs.

SKIN
From Page 1

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