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Wednesday, February 10, 2016
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
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Vol. CXXV, No. 70
©2016 The Michigan Daily
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WEATHER
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Navigating homelessness in the
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» INSIDE
the statement
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Protestors demonstrate their frustrations with Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and their demands for his recall in a march from Hutchins Hall to the Diag on Tuesday.
State representaive
aims to reduce
expenses for college
students
By CALEB CHADWELL
Daily Staff Reporter
In an effort reduce the cost
of college, state Rep. Robert
Kosowski (D–Westland) intro-
duced a bill to the Michigan legis-
lature that would exempt college
textbooks from the 6-percent
state sales tax.
The
proposed
legislation,
House Bill 5309, would eliminate
the tax from textbooks for col-
lege students who purchase them
with a valid student identification
card.
In an interview with the Mich-
igan Daily, Kosowski said his
primary motivation for introduc-
ing this bill was to help students
save money while going through
school.
According to estimates from
the College Board, students at
public
four-year
institutions
spend an average of $1,298 on
textbooks and school supplies
each year. The University’s Office
of Financial Aid recommends
University
students
allocate
$1,048 per year for books and
supplies.
Kosowski
said
his
office’s
research found that the average
cost of textbooks to a student is
$1,300, Kosowski said.
“1,300 dollars is a lot of money
for a college student, if we can
save them even $78 of that, it’s a
positive thing,” Kosowski said.
Kosowski said his office did a
study in Maryland, a state that
also has a 6-percent sales tax and
numerous colleges, which deter-
mined the state collects about
$7 million each year in textbook
sales tax revenue. Kosowski said
this number would be relatively
similar to what could be expected
in Michigan with a textbook sales
tax exemption.
The small decrease in tax rev-
enue would be negligible, and
Demonstrators
connect Flint water
crisis to Black Lives
Matter movement
By RIYAH BASHA and
CAITLIN REEDY
Daily Staff Reporters
Nearly 100 protesters gath-
ered outside Hutchins Hall and
marched to the Diag on Tuesday
afternoon, pushing for a recall of
Gov. Rick Snyder (R) in light of
the Flint water crisis. The pro-
testers marched across campus
shouting multiple chants includ-
ing “Flint Lives Matter” and
“Black Lives Matter.”
A coalition of organizations
including the Ann Arbor-Flint
Solidarity Network and the Ann
Arbor Alliance For Black Lives
initially organized the protest in
response to a panel on Detroit’s
bankruptcy hosted by the Uni-
versity’s Law School that was set
to feature Snyder, however, The
Law School indefinitely post-
poned the event last week, but
protestors still decided to have
the protest.
LSA senior Cassandra Van
Dam, an Ann Arbor-Flint Soli-
darity Network organizer, said
she
believes
pressure
from
protesters motivated the Law
School’s decision.
“Snyder is humiliated,” she
said. “It is clear that, had the
event gone on, it would have
been disrupted and he would
have had to answer to the
human rights violations that
he and his administration have
committed against the people of
Michigan.”
“The
Detroit
bankruptcy
event was postponed because
its organizers don’t wish to dis-
tract from efforts devoted to
higher priorities in the state,”
the Law School’s communca-
GREG GOSS/Daily
Dr. Lee Gill, associate vice president for inclusion and equity at the University of Akron, speaks about his undergraduate
experience at the University at the Rackham Amphitheater on Tuesday.
In fireside chat,
University President
also discusses
Greek life culture
By JEN CALFAS
Daily Staff Reporter
Greek life and mental health
dominated
the
conversation
at University President Mark
Schlissel’s monthly fireside chat
Tuesday.
Held in the Michigan Union’s
Willis Ward Lounge, students
asked Schlissel and E. Royster
Harper, vice president of student
life, about specific initiatives to
improve the mental health ser-
vices the University offers, and
the aftermath of a controversial
all-chapter meeting of Greek life
members in September.
“I don’t think it was appropri-
ately structured,” Schlissel said
of the September meeting. “You
can’t very often force people to
show up and listen. I was disap-
pointed in the fact that people
didn’t listen and showed disre-
spect.”
In
September,
Schlissel
required all chapters of the Uni-
versity’s Greek community to
send at least 70 percent of their
members to a meeting in Hill
Auditorium, where Schlissel said
Greek life culture “devalues” a
University degree and voiced his
disappointment in the party cul-
ture and sexual misconduct that
occurs within the Greek com-
munity.
LSA sophomore Clare Nien-
stedt, a member of the Uni-
versity’s Phi Beta Pi chapter,
asked Schlissel if anything has
improved since the meeting. She
also agreed with Schlissel that
the meeting wasn’t structured
appropriately.
Schlissel said he has since
learned more about the positive
attributes of Greek life, including
the philanthropic work done in
the community and the fact that
members of the Greek commu-
nity have higher GPAs then the
overall average at the University.
However, he said the Univer-
sity is still working to improve
the party culture he voiced dis-
satisfaction with in September.
“My worry is toxic behavior —
University of Akron
diversity adminstrator
delivers Black Heritage
Month address
By ADAM HIYAMA
For the Daily
University of Michigan alum
Lee A. Gill, vice president for
inclusion and equity at the Uni-
versity of Akron, addressed a
group of more than 40 students
at
Rackham
Amphitheatre
Tuesday to outline connections
between the Black Action Move-
ment at the University during the
1970s and the #BBUM campaign
launched in 2014.
The hashtag and social move-
ment surrounding its use gar-
nered national attentionwhen
thousands of people took to social
media to describe their experi-
ences being Black at the Univer-
sity of Michigan.
Hosted by the Office of Multi-
Ethnic Student Affairs, the event
was the inaugural lecture for a
slate of University Black Heritage
Month events. In the lecture, Gill
highlighted connections between
missions of activism during his
time as a student and now.
“If we had social media then,
we would be saying the same
things you’re saying,” Gill said,
referencing the #BBUM move-
ment.
Discussing the 2003 Supreme
Court ruling in Bollinger v. Grut-
ter to uphold affirmative action at
the University’s Law School, Gill
referenced Justice Sandra Day
O’Connor’s opinion for the case
in which she wrote she hoped
diversity would not be an issue in
25 years.
Change caused by
decline in market,
University Plant
operations says
By KEVIN LINDER
For the Daily
Effective Jan. 1, the Univer-
sity of Michigan Plant Build-
ing and Grounds Services has
suspended the collection of
glass for recycling. This change
comes in response to a decline
of local glass recycling markets.
The University’s current sys-
tem is single-stream recycling,
where recyclable materials such
as paper and recyclable plastics
are all collected in the same bin
and sorted at a recycling facility.
Western Washtenaw Recycling
Authority has been the organi-
zation providing recycling ser-
vices to the University, but due
to the decline in the glass mar-
ket, it has ceased its acceptance
of glass materials.
In
an
e-mail
interview,
Andrew Berki, who is the
See SNYDER, Page 3A
See TAX, Page 3A
See GLASS, Page 3A
See LECTURE, Page 2A
See PRESIDENT, Page 3A
NEWS......................... 2A
OPINION.....................4A
SPORTS ......................7A
SUDOKU..................... 2A
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A
S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B
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GOVERNMENT
Crowd fills Diag in protest
to recall Governor Snyder
Schlissel talks
mental health
improvements
Lecture highlights history of
student activism on campus
‘U’ stops
recycling
glasswear
in 2016
Michigan
bill seeks
to remove
book taxes
ADMINISTRATION
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