2A — Monday, February 1, 2016
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
2-News
THREE THINGS YOU
SHOULD KNOW TODAY
The Michigan men’s
basketball and hockey
teams both beat Penn
State at Madison Square
Garden on Saturday.
>> SEE SPORTS on 1B
2
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Film
screening
WHAT: University
Professor Silvia Pedraza
will host a screening and
discussion of “War and
Peace,” a film on the Latino
struggle for civil rights in
the United States.
WHO: Department of
Latina/o Studies
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30
p.m.
EXCEL guest
lecture
WHAT: Music publishing
executive Jim Kendrick
will discuss legal issues
for musicians, from
copyright to rental income.
WHO: School of Music,
Theatre & Dance
WHEN: 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Earl V. Moore
Building- Room 2058
University
Philharmonia
Orchestra
WHAT: Oriol Sans will
conduct the UPO’s first
concert of the winter
semester, featuring Jean
Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1.
WHO: School of Music,
Theatre & Dance
WHEN: 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: Hill Auditorium
Amid reports of child
trafficking. more than
10,000 children may
have
disappeared
from
asylum reception centres
since arriving in Europe
during an ongoing migrant
crisis across the continent,
BBC reported.
1
U.S. Postal
Service Job
Fair
WHAT: Ann Arbor Post
Office is seeking staff for
paid positions. A job fair
will be held in collaboration
with The Career Center.
WHO: The Career Center
WHEN: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00
p.m.
WHERE: 7920 Jackson
Rd., Ann Arbor MI 48103,
UA 190 Union Hall
At least 50 people
were killed in ISIS
attacks on the Shia
shrine
of
Sayyida
Zeinab in the
Syrian capital of Damascus,
the BBC reported. The 5
years of civil war in Syria
has resulted in more than
250,000
deaths
and
11
million people displaced.
3
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
LSA senior Devon Jones talks about his experiences with microag-
gressions in a discussion about campus climate facilated by the Cen-
tral Student Government at the Michigan Union on Friday.
Lecture on
Khorsabad
WHAT: Melissa
Eppihimer from the
University of Pittsburgh
will give a lecture on the
heroes of Khorsabad, the
ancient Assyrian capital.
WHO: History of Art
WHEN: 4:00 p.m.
to 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: Kelsey
Museum of Archaeology-
Lecture Hall
Theatre
design exhibit
WHAT: Students will
showcase their porfolios,
derived from class work
and external productions.
WHO: School of Music,
Theatre & Dance
WHEN: 12:00 p.m. to
6:00 p.m.
WHERE: Duderstadt
Center (Media Union)-
Gallery
Panel on
Europe’s
political shift
WHAT: A panel of
University professors will
discuss the rise of right-
wing parties in Hungary,
Poland and France.
WHO: Center for
European Studies
WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: School of Social
Work Building - 1636
TED Talks
WHAT: Karen Bantel
will host a screening
and discussion of
two TED talks.
WHO: Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute
WHEN: 3:00 p.m.
to 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: Turner Senior
Resource Center,
Please report any
error in the Daily
to corrections@
michigandaily.com.
TUESDAY:
Campus Voices
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Photos of the Week
WEDNESDAY:
In Other Ivory Towers
MONDAY:
On the Daily
On the Daily: Michael Moore
Students can
now apply to use
system for research
projects
By ALEXA ST. JOHN
Daily Staff Reporter
To facilitate and encourage
undergraduate work on research
requiring
high-performance
computing resources, the Uni-
versity
Advanced
Research
Computing – Technical Servic-
es is launching a new program
allowing students the use of a
computer system called Flux.
Flux is a shared computing
cluster operated by ARC-TS that
is available throughout campus.
It is a large computer with thou-
sands of individual processors
that students can use for high-
powered computing uses.
Originally, Flux high-powered
computing resources were only
available for faculty members
and graduate students work-
ing on postdoctoral research.
However, the resource has been
extended to include undergrad-
uates who have a research activ-
ity that could require and benefit
from using Flux.
Eric
Michielssen,
associ-
ate vice president for research,
is responsible for advanced
research computing and coordi-
nating computational and data
science for the entire campus.
He said launching this program
is an attempt to make access to
research computing resources
easier and less intimidating to
undergraduate students.
“Before, all science was done
using theory or experimenta-
tion,” Michielssen said. “Now,
we don’t have to develop new
theories to understand some
phenomena. We don’t have to
go into the lab and do physical
experiments, we can simulate all
of these phenomena on a com-
puter and use a computer as our
virtual lab bench.”
This initiative also encour-
ages undergraduates to receive
endorsement from a faculty
member, and though gradu-
ate students and faculty pay
for accessing Flux with money
that often comes from research
grants,
undergraduates
can
access Flux free of charge.
For undergraduates to apply
to use Flux, they must fill out a
form on the ARC-TS website to
request its resources through
Flux for Undergraduates and
include an abstract of the
research project requiring the
resource.
Despite
opening
up
the
resource to undergraduate stu-
dents, Michielssen said because
of the faculty and graduate
research going on requiring
extensive use of the machine, it
will be available with some lim-
its.
For undergraduate students
working with faculty mem-
bers, the faculty member will
endorse the student and justify
their need for access to the com-
puter resource, and the student,
whether they are individual
students or a part of a student
organization, will be given an
account. Michielssen said ARC-
TS wants students to work with
a faculty member.
The University has only been
using Flux for about six years,
but nearly all 19 schools and col-
leges have found a way to use the
resource.
“We didn’t quite know how
this facility would be used,”
Michielssen said. “We didn’t
quite know how to partition off
a section to enable undergradu-
ate access. Frankly, it has been a
very steep learning curve, and if
we could have done it two years
ago, we would have.”
Michielssen said though Flux
just opened and undergraduate
use is lower, it could rise in the
future.
“That would be a great prob-
lem to have and we will do our
best to accommodate (under-
graduates),” Michielssen said.
“We want undergrads to be fully
aware of the potential of compu-
tational and data science both as
a career path and as an avenue
for further study.”
Rackham student Jonathan
Stroud,
organizational
chair
of the Michigan Data Science
Team, said being one of the pilot
student groups to use Flux has
allowed the team to try many
different things.
The MDST competes in com-
petitive data science competi-
tions against data scientists from
around the world in online pre-
diction challenges.
“People can make predictions
about certain data sets and you
can go forward on how accurate
your predictions are,” Stroud
said. “We submit those predic-
tions to a website that has all
those answers hidden and they
score us on how well we did
and rank us against other teams
around the world.”
Stroud said the opportuni-
ties offered by this system are
unique and advantageous for
their team.
“As far as we know, we’re
the only group that does any-
thing like this at any university,”
Stroud said. “They’ve given us
a lot more resources than we’ve
ever really anticipated. We’re
still figuring out how we want to
use all of this.”
Stoud said before having
access to Flux, it was difficult for
members of the team to run any
computations on their personal
computers that required more
than a few hours to run because
the students would need their
computers for other uses during
that time.
“These are really computation
intensive tasks that (students)
are running,” Stroud said. “It
really helps on Flux being able
to have this remote system that’s
always going to be up.”
Krishna
Garikipati,
asso-
ciate director for research at
the
Michigan
Institute
for
Computational Discovery and
Engineering, said there was pre-
viously a gap between research
opportunities and undergradu-
ate students.
Undergrads to gain access to
high performance computers
ON CAMPUS CLIMATE
Water is not the solution to the crisis in Flint
— according to award-winning filmmaker and
activist Michael Moore.
Despite community efforts at the University
and around the nation to provide clean water to
Flint residents, Moore said sending water bottles
will not help the city’s water crisis.
In a letter addressed to “America” on his
website, Moore said sending clean water can-
not undo the damage already present in Flint’s
citizens exposed to the water. He said the brain
damage in citizens with elevated levels of lead
in their blood will have to suffer neurological
impediments, lower IQs and behavioral prob-
lems all throughout their lives.
“No check you write, no truckloads of Fiji
Water or Poland Spring, will bring their inno-
cence or their health back to normal,” Moore
said. “It’s done.”
Moore said sending water to the city is only
a temporary solution, as Flint’s 102,000 citizens
each require at least 200 bottles of water per
day for cooking, bathing, washing clothes, doing
dishes and eating.
Instead, Moore is demanding the removal and
arrest of Governor Rick Snyder (R), who he says
is the perpetrator of the crisis. Moore said Sny-
der caused the crisis by replacing elected officials
in majority Black and poor cities, like Flint and
Detroit, with state-appointed emergency man-
agers, and by cutting costs and services to make
up for cutting taxes for the rich.
Toxically high levels of lead have been cited
in Flint’s water after switching its water source
from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Depart-
ment to the Flint River in a cost-cutting mea-
sure. Since the switch in April 2014, researches
reported critically high levels of lead in the blood
of in thousands of Flint children, which can lead
to serious behavioral problems into adulthood.
Over the past month, students across all three
University campuses — Ann Arbor, Flint and
Dearborn — have responded to the crisis through
providing aid and promoting discussion on how
to move forward. The University’s Prevention
Research Center and the Michigan Youth Vio-
lence Prevention Center are partnering in a cam-
paign to send water bottles to the city.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327
www.michigandaily.com
ROSE FILIPP
Business Manager
734-418-4115 ext. 1241
rfilipp@michigandaily.com
Newsroom
734-418-4115 opt. 3
Corrections
corrections@michigandaily.com
Arts Section
arts@michigandaily.com
Sports Section
sports@michigandaily.com
Display Sales
dailydisplay@gmail.com
News Tips
news@michigandaily.com
Letters to the Editor
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Editorial Page
opinion@michigandaily.com
Photography Section
photo@michigandaily.com
Classified Sales
classified@michigandaily.com
SHOHAM GEVA
Editor in Chief
734-418-4115 ext. 1251
sageva@michigandaily.com
EDITORIAL STAFF
Laura Schinagle Managing Editor schlaura@michigandaily.com
Emma Kerr Managing News Editor emkerr@michigandaily.com
SENIOR NEWS EDITORS: Allana Akhtar, Alyssa Brandon, Jacqeline Charniga, Katie
Penrod, Emma Kinery
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS: Riyah Basha, Marlee Breakstone, Desiree Chew, Anna
Haritos, Camy Metwally, Lydia Murray, Caitlin Reedy, Alexa St. John
Claire Bryan and
Regan Detwiler Editorial Page Editors opinioneditors@michigandaily.com
SENIOR OPINION EDITORS: Jeremy Kaplan, Ben Keller, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Jason
Rowland, Stephanie Trierweiler
Max Bultman and
Jake Lourim Managing Sports Editors
sportseditors@michigandaily.com
SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS: Minh Doan, Jacob Gase, Kelly Hall, Simon Kaufman, Jason
Rubinstein, Zach Shaw, Brad Whipple
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS: Betelhem Ashame, Chris Crowder, Sylvanna Gross,
Leland Mitchinson, Ted Janes, Kevin Santo,
Kathleen Davis and
arts@michigandaily.com
Adam Theisen Managing Arts Editors
SENIOR ARTS EDITORS: Caroline Filips, Melina Glusac, Jacob Rich, Ben Rosenstock
ARTS BEAT EDITORS: Matthew Barnauskas, Christian
Kennedy, Rebecca Lerner, Natalie Zak
Amanda Allen and
photo@michigandaily.com
Grant Hardy Managing Photo Editors
SENIOR PHOTO EDITORS: Zoey Holmstrom, Zach Moore, James Coller
ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS: Claire Abdo, Robery
Dunne, Sam Mousigian, San Pham, David Song
Anjali Alangaden and
design@michigandaily.com
Mariah Gardziola Managing Design Editors
Karl Williams Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com
DEPUTY STATEMENT EDITORS: Nabeel Chollampat and Tori Noble
STATEMENT PHOTO EDITOR: Zoey Holmstrom
STATEMENT LEAD DESIGNER: Shane Achenbach
Emily Campbell and
copydesk@michigandaily.com
Alexis Nowicki Managing Copy Editors
SENIOR COPY EDITORS: Taylor Grandinetti and Jose Rosales
Nivedita Karki Managing Online Editor nivkarki@michigandaily.com
SENIOR WEB DEVELOPERS: Dylan Lawton and Bob Lesser
Levin Kim Managing Video Editor
SENIOR VIDEO EDITORS: Michael Kessler, Abe Lofy, Emma Winowiecki
Michael Schramm Special Projects Manager
Emma Sutherland Social Media Editor
BUSINESS STAFF
Hussein Hakim Finance and Operations Manager
Claire Ulak Production Manager
Jordan Yob Marketing Manager
Matt Pfenning UAccounts Manager
Asja Kepes Local Accounts Manager
Chris Wang Classifieds Manager
Colin Cheesman National Accounts Manager
Anna He Special Guides and Online Manager
Claire Butz Layout Manager
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by
students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may
be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110.
Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates
are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must
be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press.
significant
scrutiny
on
Greek
life at the University. Members
from other University Greek life
chapters also vandalized Boyne
Highlands, a ski resort in Harbor
Springs, Mich.
Seiler
said
though
such
incidents of destructive behavior
stem from individuals’ actions,
they ultimately reflect on the
organization as a whole.
“This
past
year
has
been
uniquely challenging,” Seiler said.
“It became difficult at times to
maneuver that and figure out the
best way to proceed.”
She said the incident was a
wakeup call for everyone, and
emphasized the ways Greek life
has developed positively since the
incident, including a 30-member
task force which was created over
the summer by former Greek life
leaders to reinforce the values
of the Greek community, such
as brotherhood and sisterhood,
leadership and service.
The task force began conducting
research and benchmarking to
evaluate possible improvements
to the Greek life on campus.
The group plans to share their
recommendations at the end of this
semester.
In an interview with the Daily
on Friday, University President
Mark Schlissel emphasized the
importance of the Greek life task
force, as well as other restorative
efforts initiated since the Treetops
incident last year.
“The whole community was
sort of carrying this black eye that
came from essentially inexcusable
behavior driven by alcohol and
other substances, and I think it
was a real cold water on the face
moment for our community,”
Schlissel said. “It’s forced many
people to pay attention who
previously haven’t been paying
close enough attention.”
In
an
e-mail
interview,
immediate
past
Panhellenic
Association
council
president
Maddy Walsh, a business senior,
said she admires Seilers’ patience
and hard work as director of
Michigan Greek Life.
“It’s hard to imagine having the
patience to work with 18-21 year
olds for 37 years,” Walsh wrote,
“but she treats every stressed out
college student with the respect,
care, and time that she would give
her own family.”
Walsh
is
on
the
search
committee to replace Seiler, so she
declined to comment on what she
hopes for in a new director.
Schlissel noted that though he
has no direct involvement in the
appointment of the new director
of Greek life — E. Royster Harper,
vice president of student life, is
overseeing the search committee
— he remains invested in the
process.
“It is an area that I care about,”
Schlissel said. “Hopefully we’ll get
somebody who is excited about
Greek life and wants to help it
thrive by helping us and helping
the students involved minimize
this risk behavior.”
Walsh
added
that
Seiler
successfully engaged with such
important issues within Greek
Life within this past year as
the ski trip incidents, sexual
misconduct
on
campus
and
diversity initiatives.
“With Mary Beth by our
side, my board was able to move
our
community
beyond
the
incidents of ski trip, strengthen
our partnership with SAPAC,
improve
our
new
member
education program, and focus on
Diversity and Inclusion within
the four councils,” she wrote.
Through the task force, Seiler
said as a community, Greek life
continues to take steps toward
improvement moving forward.
“In Greek life, we’re constantly
looking at our issues and our
problems and trying to figure out
what we can do to better address
them,” Seiler said. “We’re always
looking at ways to make things
better.”
Dean of Students Laura Blake
Jones noted in an e-mail interview
that Seiler was recognized this
past December at the Association
of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors
for her role as the longest serving
Greek Life professional in the
country. The University has also
started an endowed leadership
development fund for Greek Life
that was named in her honor.
Jones said the search process
for a new director, which is set to
be completed in mid-April, will
be largely student-led.
“The consistent engagement
of strong student self governance
and leadership of the community
will continue to support the new
director” Jones wrote. “Student
voice and engagement in the
search process is also essential.”
GREEK LIFE
From Page 1A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com