State research
economic benefits
top $17 billion
The state of Michigan’s
University Research Corridor
contributed $17.5 billion to the
Michigan economy in 2015,
according to a University
press release this week. The
URC is a collective of research
by the University, Michigan
State and Wayne State, and
boosted economic activity in
every region in the state due to
student spending, spending on
operations and alumni earnings.
The URC’s overall earnings
are up this year from 2014, as
is the number of patents issued
and transfers of research and
development. For every dollar
invested in URC universities,
the press release announced,
the state receives $22 back in
benefits.
State workers in
Flint were warned
about water
The Detroit Free Press reported
Thursday evening that state
workers in Flint arranged for
coolers of filtered water in their
offices in January, even as they
announced to the public that
the city’s water was safe to
drink.
“While the City of Flint
states that corrective actions
are not necessary, DTMB is
in the process of providing a
water cooler on each occupied
floor, positioned near the
water fountain, so you can
choose which water to drink,”
read a notice from the state
Department of Technology,
Management and Budget.
Spokespeople from the
DTMB responded that its
office provided water coolers
due to health notices posted
in December that the city had
claimed already subsided,
and never deemed the water
unsafe, but instead provided
alternatives for its employees.
Detroit teachers
sue city public
schools
The Detroit Federation of
Teachers filed a lawsuit against
Detroit Public Schools Thursday
morning and demanded the
city’s emergency manager step
down due to the condition of
school buildings.
The lawsuit, on behalf of the
union and its national and state
affiliates, argues that the run-
down buildings cause students
“to spend their young lives in
deplorable surroundings,” and
suffer irreperable damage to
their health as a result.
The union also called for
improvements to building
codes and a cohesive plan for
remodeling school buildings.
—RIYAH BASHA
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, January 29, 2016 — 3
ed 7, Michigan State University
Police Department reported 5,
Saginaw Valley State University
Police reported 4 and Central
Mich University Police Depart-
ment reported 1. Other universi-
ties had zero.
Andrea Bitely, the attorney
general’s director of communi-
cations, said city size could play
a role in the varying numbers of
untested kits among different
departments.
“Larger population centers are
most likely to have more sexual
assault kits in general,” she said.
“That’s why you see bubbles in
certain places and it’s more asso-
ciated with population than it
being a college town.”
State officials now plan to use
the survey data to coordinate
local efforts to process the kits
with help from state police. Bite-
ly noted that some kits may have
been left untested intentionally.
“Some of them were associat-
ed with crimes where the suspect
confessed or pled guilty or the
police knew what happened and
they were able to secure a convic-
tion or a plea in another way,” she
said. “Just because this kit was
not tested does not mean justice
wasn’t served.”
Diane
Brown,
University
Police spokesperson, said she
could not comment on the
descrepancy between reported
AAPD and UMPD untested rape
kit numbers. AAPD Detective
Lieutenant Robert Pfannes did
not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
smoking ban in place helped
the city become a smoke-free
environment.
“Part of the goal of the parks
is to provide places of health
and wellness for the citizens of
Ann Arbor, and with the trend
of non-smoking areas, espe-
cially in public due to second-
hand smoke, we just feel that
parks are an obvious place to be
smoke-free,” Landefeld said.
Since the ordinance went
into effect, Landefeld said there
have been no tickets issued and
no negative feedback from resi-
dents.
Councilmember
Chuck
Warpehoski
(D–Ward
5),
who introduced the original
legislation allowing the city
administrator to declare parks
smoke-free zones, said his
interest in the topic stems from
having three young children.
“Our parks and playgrounds
should be places of health, not
places where kids are going
to be exposed to second-hand
smoke or picking up cigarette
butts and putting them in their
mouth,” Warpehoski said.
Warpehoski said after his
legislation was passed, the
decision
on
implementation
was handed over to the Parks
Advisory
Commission,
who
made the first recommenda-
tion as to what parks were
going to be the first to hold the
ordinance. The initial 77 parks
placed priority on playgrounds
and downtown parks.
“I think that we’re moving in
the right direction,” Warpehos-
ki said. “We’re setting up poli-
cies to make sure that more and
more of our parks are places for
health and not places for haz-
ardous second-hand smoke.”
Councilmember Sabra Briere
(D–Ward 1), said council heard
many complaints about people
smoking in public areas prior to
the bans being set in place.
“The city had no regulation
to enforce any kind of control
because there was no ordi-
nance,” Briere said. “People
who found themselves at play
areas with adults who were
smoking, or in front of City
Hall where everybody was
smoking right outside the door,
there was no legal recourse.
They could request all they
wanted that the smokers move
aside, but the smokers some-
times didn’t feel very much like
doing that.”
Briere said the city placed
the ban on only about half the
parks initially to find out how it
might impact residents.
Echoing Landefeld, Briere
also said she has not received
many grievances from Ann
Arbor citizens regarding the
ban. Most of the attention the
issue received has come from
the media, she added.
“The
biggest
concern
I’ve heard anybody mention
includes e-cigarettes,” Briere
said. “People who believe they
are being healthy by smoking
e-cigarettes instead of tobacco
with fire are resentful that
this applies to e-cigarettes. I
don’t exactly understand that
because, in my view, this is
about smoking in parks, it’s not
(just) about smoking.”
Briere
added
that
she
believes e-cigarettes contain
other chemicals that could be
just as, if not more, harmful as
the chemicals in regular ciga-
rettes despite some arguing
they are a healthier alternative
for limiting secondhand smoke.
The New York Times reported
that research is inconclusive on
the topic,
“Someone who is smoking in
a nature area may find this an
extraordinarily
inconvenient
solution for their rights, and I
can appreciate that, but at the
same time, I find myself think-
ing, (I’m) not going to embrace
the idea that you have the right
to smoke next to me,” Briere
said.
Councilmember Julie Grand
(D–Ward 1) said she was not on
council when the decision was
originally made, but because
the ordinance is very similar to
those in other cities, she does
not believe the city is overstep-
ping their bounds in enforcing
this policy.
“We just wanted to make
sure that our parks were avail-
able to all residents, including
those that are non-smokers,
and that smoking wasn’t an
appropriate activity in our city
parks,” Grand said.
Much like Briere, Grand said
she has not received any com-
plaints regarding the ban.
“Initially there were con-
cerns
about
enforcement,”
Grand said. “It was put in place
mainly so that if you don’t want
to see smoking in the parks,
that you as a resident have the
ability to point to the sign and
to the policy and to be able to
ask a smoker politely to stop,
and to have that policy behind
you when you make that
request.”
The locations still exempt
from the ban, Grand said, still
allow smoking since people
often smoke cigars while golf-
ing.
As well, one of the locations
Cobblestone Farm is frequently
reserved by the public for wed-
dings and other events, and the
venue prohibits smoking inside
the building.
Overall, Grand said she is
pleased that the policy has
been expanded. She said she
believes the ban can encourage
residents to ask someone not
to smoke and help maintain a
clean environment.
“It’s all self-enforcement,”
Grand said. “There is a provi-
sion in the ban that one could
potentially alert public safety
of non-compliance, but the
intent of the ban was really
self-enforcement that you, as a
resident, could hopefully feel
comfortable politely reminding
someone of the policy, and that
that hopefully will be enough
to make sure that someone isn’t
smoking around you or your
family members.”
KITS
From Page 1
NEWS BRIEFS
So far, users have posted
questions on the app con-
cerning
schoolwork,
like
the latest statistics problem
set or EECS 314 homework.
Some posts ask for advice
on things, such as where
to live, what classes to take
or where to order Chinese
food.
When asked what future
he envisions for Branch,
Wolande answered simply.
“I just hope it becomes
the natural solution for
someone who wants to get
a quick game of pickup bas-
ketball going,” he said.
programs.
“If we got every program to
step back and ask itself ques-
tions about differential impacts,
the effects of that would just be
amazing,” Dillard said.
Another
prevalent
subject
was how faculty and gradu-
ate student instructors can be
included in the initiative. Many
students voiced support at the
discussion for faculty and GSIs
to be trained to encourage stu-
dent engagement with diversity
initiatives in their departments.
Dillard
acknowledged
that there is room to improve
instructors’ sensitivity to issues
of minority students, while add-
ing that GSIs are often inad-
equately prepared to recognize
and listen to concerns about the
different ways in which students
learn.
Discussing some of the diver-
sity mandates that LSA current-
ly implements, Martin asked the
audience about their views on
the goals of the college’s race
and ethnicity course require-
ments. Currently, LSA is review-
ing the requirements as part of
their planning process for the
University’s
diversity,
equity
and inclusion initiative. At their
meeting Tuesday, Central Stu-
dent Government also discussed
several
resolutionsaimed
at
strengthening the requirements.
Many students at the forum
said they thought R&E cours-
es were lacking meaningful
engagement
and
integration
outside of the classroom. Cit-
ing other mandated programs
like Change it Up! — a program
that aims to increase bystander
intervention education — as
well, one student suggested a
long-term program would be
more effective.
In response, Dillard pointed
out the difficulties in expanding
the program so drastically.
“How do you get that result,
but without putting ‘forcing
everybody’ into the same sen-
tence?” Dillard asked.
Kinesiology junior Kristin
Roberts said she was pleasantly
surprised by the event, noting
jokingly she only attended for
the free food.
“It was definitely needed,”
Roberts said. “We could see
that they were actually listen-
ing to us, agreeing with different
points we were saying and kind
of explaining what was going
on.”
LSA junior Reid Klootwyk,
LSA student government vice
president, said he felt the event
was a unique opportunity.
“I think Dean Martin and Dil-
lard are both really open to stu-
dent engagement, which is key,”
Klootwyk said. “It’s not common
for students to be able to engage
in dialogue with deans, on all
sorts of issues, and they’re open
to hearing our voices.”
Klootwyk added that he was
appreciative of the focus on fac-
ulty involvement in the diversity
initiative.
“It wasn’t the proposed guide
for the discussion, but I think
there’s a lot to be said about the
way that GSIs and faculty alike
are trained,” he said. “The deans
are the ones who make those
calls, so yeah, it was really inter-
esting.”
PARKS
From Page 1
INCLUSION
From Page 1
APP
From Page 1
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
@MICHIGANDAILY
MAZIE HYAMS/Daily
LSA junior Kaiyana Dudley speaks about diversity issues on campus and the race and ethnicity requirement with LSA
Dean Andrew Martin in the Michigan League on Thursday.