3-News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, February 1, 2016 — 3A
Ginsberg Center
announces effort
to up involvement
Mary Jo Callan, director
of the Ginsberg Center on
campus, is spearheading an
outreach initiative to increase
community involvement in
giving back to others, according
to a press release. The center
was founded about 20 years ago
to facilitate student engagement
in learning service experiences.
Now, it promotes student
growth through community
service.
The initiative, created by
Callan, includes outreach to
campus and the community
in an attempt to see how they
can best serve all of the schools
within the University and the
people of Ann Arbor. Callan
said she hopes the center can
benefit all schools, colleges,
faculty, staff and students.
Through focus groups and
interviews, the program has
identified common needs
between the University and
community. The needs include:
preparation for students
participating in community
engaged learning, a way to
connect the expertise of the
University and the community,
increased coordination between
centers and infrastructure
for maintaining relationships
between the public and the
University.
The center hopes to focus on
these needs moving forward.
University study
suggests animal
brain size predicts
intellectual ability
According to a new University
study, in collaboration with
Michigan State University,
University of Wyoming and
University of Minnesota, a
mammal’s brain size predicts
its problem-solving ability, the
University Record reported.
During an experiment, 140
zoo mammals were taught to
open a box with a lever and
animals with a larger brain
did a better job learning and
improving on the task.
University researcher
Ben Dantzer, professor of
psychology, said this research
highlights that animals who live
in groups are not necessarily
better problem solvers
than those who live alone.
Researchers also said this study
could help better understand
the evolution of problem
solving in mammals, as most
other research has focused on
different species, like fish and
reptiles.
Annual Detroit
event to benefit
Flint community
The annual Winter Blast
Festival at Campus Martius
Park in downtown Detroit will
benefit the city of Flint this year,
according to the Detroit Free
Press.
The event will continue to
support its annual beneficiary:
needy children in the metro-
Detroit area. The funds for this
cause are gathered through
festival admissions, which are in
the form of a $2 donation, three
non-perishable food items or a
children’s book.
The event is sponsored by
Quicken Loans and will take
place Feb. 12 through Feb. 14,
containing many snow-themed
attractions.
Meridian Health plan
will match up to $40,000 in
donations at the time of the
event and Talmer Bank will
contribute $1 from each ride on
one of the event’s attractions,
the snow slide. Ten percent
of each of the 75 music acts’
booking fees will also be
contributed to the Flint water
crisis.
—KATIE PENROD
NEWS BRIEFS
senator. He clutched a binder
of policy positions or notes he
would later flip through, but
not really read from, inside the
Masonic Center’s basement. He
waved. And then he disappeared
inside.
If the most salient moments
of a presidential campaign occur
on brightly lit debate stages
or at highly choreographed
rallies studded with celebrity
surrogates and stuffed with a
thousand people waving logoed
campaign signs, then it’s the
small moments, off-the-cuff and
raw, that in many ways color the
lore of Iowa’s caucuses.
Jason
Noble,
a
political
reporter for the Des Moines
Register, said in Iowa, intimate
interactions with voters still
matter, largely because of the
nature of a caucus. He said that
holds true even as super PACs fat
with millions of dollars to spend
on inundating the airwaves
seem to draw the importance of
ground-level campaigning into
question.
“This
is
not
a
primary
election where you just drop in
for 15 minutes and cast a vote,”
Noble said. “You actually have
to show up at seven o’clock at
night and participate in the
process. And that requires an
extra level of commitment, so
that really requires that the
campaigns engage with their
supporters in a really personal
and retail way.”
So, what is a caucus exactly?
In Iowa, one of 13 states to
utilize the formats and the first
in the nation to select primary
candidates, each of the state’s
almost 2,000 precincts host a
Democratic and a Republican
caucus. These gatherings are
usually held in school gyms or
community center auditoriums,
and often last several hours.
Voters have to be registered
members of the party whose
caucus they want to attend.
For
Republicans,
caucus
goers hear from a supporter
of each presidential candidate
before they cast their vote by
secret ballot. Those results
are then tabulated and inform
the number of state delegates
allotted to each candidate. At a
Democratic caucus, attendees
literally stand in a corner of the
room marked off for those who
support their candidate and
supporters of each candidate
speak on behalf of their pick,
trying to convince voters to
switch into their camp before
everyone’s
preferences
are
counted.
There’s
a
catch,
though. If a candidate doesn’t
achieve a 15 percent threshold
in the caucus — as is likely to
happen for former Maryland
Gov. Martin O’Malley in many
precincts — those supporters
have to switch to another
candidate and jockeying for
those voters ensues.
In Iowa, the caucus format
dates back to the 19th century
and was largely influenced
by the New England town-
hall style of governance many
settlers
brought
west
with
them. Many observers argue
this format lends itself to the
kind of one-on-one interactions
that are a must for candidates
angling to win in Iowa.
“The people who actually
participate in the caucuses are
actually a relatively small cross-
section of Iowans in general,”
he said.
before,” Laorr said. “We came
into it with nothing prepared.
We actually came up with the
idea in line to register and didn’t
start anything until the morning
of construction. That’s when we
started doing all of our designs and
coding. We came into the morning
with an idea and we went for 24
hours, with two hours of sleep,
but for the most part, we went
nonstop. It didn’t even start to take
form until 10 p.m. last night. It was
mostly all virtual until then.”
The Fine Arts Showcase was
new to the event this year and
emphasized artistic ability with
the winning team creating a web-
based virtual reality experience.
The fine arts team used an Xbox
Connect sensor, typically used for
motion tracking, as a 3D scanner.
From there, the team created a
virtual world, accessible through
any smartphone, and hooked it
up to cardboard goggles. The
team was quick to point out the
collaborative, hands-on nature of
the process.
“The most influential part of the
36 hours has been the people who
have come through and demoed as
we have been working on it — this
was other people in Makeathon,
staff members and some friends,”
said Art & Design sophomore Sam
Bertin, “The energy too. Everyone
was so just excited every step of
the way.”
Art & Design senior Chris
Withers, also a member of the
team, agreed and said teamwork
contributed to the experience.
“Everyone has had suggestions,”
he said. “We got coding advice
from people. It was the perfect
place to be to get all the help we
needed to make it happen.”
The event’s Case Competition
was sponsored by the National
InstrumentsCorporation.
The
task required teams to create a
functioning robot prototype that
could climb stairs.
Rohan
Dasika,
Engineering
senior and one of the directors of
the Makeathon, said the case was
focused on structure.
“We wanted to look at making
from a very structured, judging
point of view, as opposed to
open making,” Daskia said. “The
purpose was to bring in a case and
a have very, very specific problem
to be solved and students would be
judged against the rubric.”
Engineering senior Christopher
Shih said he enjoyed his team’s
creation process.
“The 36 hours were stressful
but not impossible,” Shih said.
“It was definitely hard. I’ve been
awake for over 24 hours. But the
experience of just getting the robot
to work — for instance, out of the
36 hours, ours worked on hour 35.
That’s the positive reinforcement
— that what we did for the last
36 hours worked and actually
fulfilled its purpose. Otherwise,
you don’t waste 35 hours, and you
do learn things. Even if you fail
there is very much to be learned
from experiences like this.”
The
event
culminated
in
an
awards
ceremony
Sunday
afternoon, in which cash prizes
were given out in each category.
“The importance of the event
is to spread the culture of making
across campus,” Dasika said. “This
is one of the avenues that people
can choose to come — explore
creativity, explore making and
bring their ideas to life. Classes
get very routine and monotonous
and it’s just doing problems and
readings. People here have learned
a tremendous amount. I think this
sort of experience is very valuable
in today’s world. And especially
with how the culture of business
is shaping up, I think these are
the skills that are going to carry
people forward in the future.”
MAKEATHON
From Page 1A
meeting was closed to both the
media and Flint residents, the
Equitable Research in Flint
Organizing Committee — a
group comprised of University
community members — sent a
petition to Schlissel Thursday
expressing their frustrations
with the meeting’s lack of
transparency. They also noted
their
appreciations
for
the
University’s willingness to take
action in response to the crisis.
The University has said it
will provide $100,000 in seed
funding for developing research
projects. In an interview with
the Daily on Friday, Schlissel
said he hopes to give faculty the
means to establish preliminary
data
to
eventually
attract
additional funding, and that
the
research
projects
will
eventually allow policymakers
and the national government to
better help the citizens of Flint.
In the letter, the group said
the University is not as focused
on research-based ways to
assist the residents of Flint as
they are academic exploration
through
research.
The
organization said they hope any
future research endeavors will
be carried out in collaboration
with representatives from Flint.
“Historically,
relationships
between
researchers
and
marginalized
communities
have
been
fraught
with
extractive methodologies that
benefit academics but leave
communities unchanged and
worse-off
than
they
were
before,” the letter stated.
The Equitable Research in
Flint Organizing Committee
relayed a list of nine demands
in the letter, including calls for
open and transparent dialogue
between
researchers,
Flint
residents
and
philanthropy-
based University organizations.
The organization also wrote
that
Flint
residents
should
have a say in how the funding
is
allocated,
and
that
the
University
should
provide
services such as child care and
transportation to ensure Flint
residents are included in such
discussions.
When
asked
about
the
absence of the media and of
Flint residents from today’s
meeting, Schlissel said in an
interview with the Daily Friday
the meeting was closed to the
public because it was a chance
for faculty of all three campuses
to get to know each other, and
was a preliminary meeting to
help spur academic research.
“Well, (Flint residents and
media) are not professors at
Ann Arbor, Flint or Dearborn,”
Schlissel said. “This is an
academic meeting, it is not a
public meeting to talk about
people’s impressions of what it
is going on. It’s getting a number
of
scholars
with
technical
and
academic
expertise
to
meet one another, because not
everyone on each of the three
campuses knows each other,
and then to talk about ideas
for research projects. They
are not talking about ideas
for community service type
projects. This is projects aimed
at understanding.”
Marjory
Raymer,
special
adviser
to
UM-Flint’s
Chancellor Borrego for media
relations and communication,
said the meeting was closed to
engage many faculty members
who have never met before in
deciding on research initiatives.
“This was really a meeting for
the faculty to begin the process
of talking to one another,”
Raymer said. “Many of them
had never even met before. This
is about allowing the people
who need to brainstorm ideas
that opportunity to brainstorm
ideas openly with each other.
This is about function. This is
about moving forward. This is
about what do we do. This is not
about a media event.”
Tri-campus research-based
gatherings
surrounding
the
Flint water crisis will continue,
Raymer said, though she did not
know whether or not it would
be open to the public.
Raymer also noted resources
that UM-Flint has available
for the public, such as acourse
about the Flint water crises
available for both students at
UM-Flint and to the general
public. She also referenced
other efforts UM-Flint has put
forward in light of the crisis
such as, frequent water testing
and filtering UM-Flint has been
practicing for months, assuring
the campus that the water on
UM-Flint’s campus is safe to
drink.
“This
is
where
faculty
research is impact focused,”
Raymer said. “We have separate
things that are also going on in
the community such as a Public
Health course.”
Ann
Arbor
campus
spokesman
Rick
Fitzgerald
echoed Schlissel’s comment,
desribing
the
event
as
a
preliminary step in discussing
potential collaborative research
projects.
“We don’t expect any specific
outcome, just an initial start to
that conversation,” Fitzgerald
said. “This was a specific call-
out to faculty to talk about
how they might contribute as
experts in particular areas.”
In speaking to the effort,
Schlissel
said
he
believed
this crisis in Flint has a
“silver lining” in serving as a
catalyst to further tri-campus
collaboration.
Similarly,
Raymer said she is grateful
for
the
University’s
recent
involvement in Flint during the
water crisis.
“It is really wonderful to
see how everyone, no matter
what campus they are on, is
really engaged in making sure
we do everything we can, as
University of Michigan and as
people, to help this community,”
Raymer said.
FLINT
From Page 1A
of the search committee to fill his
own seat, has made remarkable
progress in his time, leaving the
department in a state of stability.
Part of that stability came in the
form of Michigan football coach
Jim Harbaugh, whom Hackett
hired. Harbaugh and Manuel
were teammates for one year at
Michigan, and Harbaugh was the
captain of the team when Manuel
was a freshman.
During the press conference,
Manuel reminisced about sitting
in the back of team meetings as a
freshman, with Harbaugh in the
front as a senior. He commented
on how things had come full
circle, with Harbaugh leading
the football team as coach and
Manuel heading up the athletic
department.
Hearing
that,
Harbaugh
stood up and gave Hackett a hug,
slipping Manuel a No. 79 Michigan
jersey with his name on it.
“I used to be able to fit in this,”
Manuel quipped.
While he may not fit in the
jersey, he should fit in well in his
new position. Manuel is the most
experienced
athletic
director
Michigan has ever hired, and he
has built up the foundations of
relationships with some of the
Wolverines’
most
prominent
coaches through visits during
recent years.
Manuel has held his current
post at UConn since 2012, and the
Huskies have won six national
titles with him in charge. In 2015,
13 UConn teams turned in perfect
single-year Academic Progress
Rates. Prior to working with the
Huskies, he served as Buffalo’s
athletic director from 2005-12.
Now, he returns to Michigan
hoping to continue his success
both on and off the field.
“There should be excitement
about the future and potential
for Michigan to not only win Big
Ten championships but national
championships,”
Manuel
said.
“We don’t back away from it. We
never have, and we never will.”
Manuel’s contract will pay him
an annual base salary of $800,000
with deferred compensation of
$100,000 per year. He will be
paid
a
one-time
recruitment
incentive of $250,000 as well as
being provided two cars, moving
expenses and standard university
benefits.
MANUEL
From Page 1A
IOWA
From Page 1A
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