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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 70
©2016 The Michigan Daily
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WEATHER 
TOMORROW

Navigating homelessness in the 
Ann Arbor winter 

» 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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HI: 24

LO: 11

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
SUSTAINABILITY

