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Monday, February 1, 2016
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 62
©2016 The Michigan Daily
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A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A
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CL ASSIFIEDS............... 5A
S P O R T S M O N DAY. . . . . . . 1 B
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 41
LO: 38
University
efforts in
Flint spark
concerns
Nation’s focus shifts to Iowa
residents as caucuses begin
‘U’ introduces
Warde Manuel
to lead athletics
Annual Makeathon aims
to spark innovative ideas
Greek life
director
announces
plans for
retirement
Mary Beth Seiler to
leave post this year
after long tenure at
University
By CAMY METWALLY
Daily Staff Reporter
After 37 years of working for
the University’s Office of Greek
Life, Director of Greek Life Mary
Beth Seiler confirmed her plans
to retire this year in an interview
with The Michigan Daily on Jan.
19.
Seiler shared in an interview the
challenges and successes of Greek
life during her time as director,
acknowledging the negative media
attention and difficulties faced by
the community over the past year,
but overall praising the current
and future state of Greek life.
Last winter, the University’s
chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu
caused thousands of dollars worth
of damage at Treetops Resort
in
Gaylord,
Mich,
prompting
In third 36-hour
competition,
students of all
majors compete
By JENNIFER MEER
For the Daily
The third annual Makeathon,
a 36-hour design competition,
was held this weekend at
the North Campus Art and
Architecture
Building.
The
MPowered event aimed to allow
students of any major at any
point of study, ranging from
undergraduates to Ph.D.s, to
create innovative art designs
and products.
The event consisted of a
Product Design Competition,
a Fine Arts Showcase and a
Case Competition in which
teams competed for awards and
recognition.
The
event
began
Friday
evening
in
the
Chrysler
Auditorium
with
an
introduction to the competition.
After that, teams spent Friday
night coming up with design
ideas and strategies, and then
used the remainder of the
weekend to work on them.
During the production process,
teams only had a list of materials
and a workspace.
For
the
Product
Design
Competition’s
“Around
the
House” category, one team
created an automatic bartending
machine. A member of the team,
Engineering sophomore Scott
Laorr said his team had what
he described as a spontaneous
creation experience.
“We had never done this
UConn athletic
director will start
work March 14
By MAX BULTMAN
Managing Sports Editor
In front of a crowd of media,
coaches, donors and former
athletes, University President
Mark
Schlissel
introduced
Warde Manuel as Michigan’s
next Athletic Director on Friday
in a press conference at the
Michigan Union.
Manuel, who is currently the
athletic director at Connecticut,
will officially begin work at
Michigan on March 14, taking
over
for
interim
Athletic
Director Jim Hackett, who has
held the position since Oct. 31,
2014.
Manuel
holds
three
degrees from the University
—
a
bachelor’s
degree
in
general studies with a focus
in
Psychology,
a
master’s
degree in social work and an
M.B.A. from the Ross School of
Business — and played defensive
line on the football team for
legendary Michigan coach Bo
Schembechler. He also worked
in the Athletic Department
in various roles between 1996
and 2005, ultimately serving
as Associate Athletic Director
under Bill Martin.
Given
his
ties
with
the
University, Manuel said he made
no effort to play coy when he was
contacted about the job opening.
“I want to say it was maybe,
officially, some time toward the
beginning of December that (the
Turnkey Search firm) reached
out to see if I had interest in the
position,” Manuel said at his
press conference. “I laughed
when
they
asked
me
that
question, like, ‘Are you really
asking me if I have interest in
being the Michigan A.D.?’ And
(the recruiter) said, ‘Yeah, really,
I just need to hear the answer.’
“And I said, ‘Hell yeah!’ ”
Manuel, who was among 82
candidates Turnkey considered,
inherits
a
self-sustaining
athletic department with an
operating budget of $151 million
per year. Hackett, who was part
All eyes turn to
state as it begins
the 2016 election
primary process
By SAM GRINGLAS
Daily Staff Reporter
During
the
past
weekend,
Michigan Daily journalists spent
three days in Iowa covering
candidates from both parties as
they compete for their party’s
nomination in the 2016 presidential
election.
Look
for
continuing
coverage from the Daily in the
lead-up to the Iowa caucuses, the
first in the nation, on Monday.
DAVENPORT, Iowa — By 3:15
p.m. on a balmy Saturday late in
January, only a couple of campaign
volunteers were still hanging
around the front door of the
Masonic Center in Clinton, Iowa
when a big blue bus slid down the
building’s back alley.
The supporters who had come
here to see Bernie Sanders had
by then gone indoors, where they
waited eagerly in tightly packed
rows of metal folding chairs for
their candidate to arrive. With all
the action now inside the center’s
dated basement, the streets turned
quiet. The sun hung low, and
most of the few stores lining Fifth
Avenue had already closed up for
the night. Across First Street, a
train barreled by on tracks that
stand between Clinton and the
Mississippi River.
In an alley that hugged the
back of the Masonic Center just
off a street that was also empty,
there was Sanders — a presidential
candidate who the next day would
draw 2,200 people to a rally in
Decorah, Iowa. But now there
were no “Feel the Bern” chants. No
camera crews lay in wait. Sanders’
wife, Jane, emerged first. An
adviser or two followed. Then, the
Group of students,
faculty pen letter
after closed meeting
on research projects
By EMILY DAVIES
Daily Staff Reporter
A group of University faculty,
staff,
alumni
and
students
raised concerns in an open
letter last week to University
President Mark Schlissel over
what they characterized as
a lack of engagement with
the Flint community in the
University’s tri-campus efforts
about the city’s ongoing water
crisis.
“In order to serve the people
of Flint, we must vigilantly work
to dismantle the concentration
of knowledge and power that
created the Flint water crisis,
and to ensure that the same
denigrating
and
dismissive
systems
are
not
replicated
through
the
University’s
response,” the letter read.
The letter was spurred by
an event closed to the public,
Friday, during which about
140 faculty members from the
University’s Ann Arbor, Flint
and Dearborn campuses met to
discuss potential collaborative
research projects surrounding
the water crisis. The meeting
was led by UM-Flint chancellor
Susan Borrego and provost
Douglas Knerr.
The research in question
is part of the University’s
effort to address Flint’s lead-
contaminated water and its
detrimental
health
effects,
which stemmed from the city’s
decision to change its water
source from Detroit Water and
Sewerage Department water
to the Flint River. The river’s
water was corrosive to lead in
Flint’s old pipes, leading to high
levels of lead in the public water
for 18 months.
Citing the fact that the
STATE
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters at a town hall meeting at Eagle Elementary School in Clinton, Iowa on January 23, 2016.
SPORTS
ACADEMICS
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Ian Culver, a Kendall College of Art & Design student, presents his team’s product for Makeathon, a 36 hour design
competition, at the Art and Architecture Building on Sunday.
See FLINT, Page 3A
See IOWA, Page 3A
See GREEK LIFE, Page 2A
See MAKEATHON, Page 3A
See MANUEL, Page 3A
The Michigan men’s basketball and hockey
teams beat Penn State in New York City
» INSIDE
Penn Statement