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Tuesday, February 16, 2016
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Vol. CXXV, No. 74
©2016 The Michigan Daily
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 33
LO: 10
Researchers aim to
use new technology
to reduce injury in
high-contact sports
By ALEXA ST. JOHN
Daily Staff Reporter
Researchers at the University
of Michigan are aiming to make
progress
toward
encouraging
safer equipment for athletes and
raising awareness about common
brain injuries that can occur
on the field — an issue of rising
concern in both professional and
college sports — through new
helmet technology.
A new sports-helmet prototype
capable of dissipating impulse
from impact and taking kinetic
energy away from the skull and
brain while playing high-contact
sports is being developed by a team
in the College of Engineering.
Though helmets currently used for
sports like football are intended
to protect against skull and brain
injuries, this new prototype aims
to step beyond that with new
understandings about how the
brain becomes injured.
Co-author of the study Ellen
Arruda, a professor of mechanical
engineering, said the project
began by looking at applying
lightweight materials to the blast
and impact associated with high-
contact sports.
“It’s only recently that we’ve
understood
traumatic
brain
injuries,”
Arruda
said.
“The
helmets that we’re using weren’t
designed to protect the brain;
they were designed to prevent
skull fracture … Now that we
understand that they also have
to protect the brain, we realized
that literature had virtually no
information on how to go about
doing that … no one carefully
looked at what it would take to
optimally reduce the force and
impulse of an impact in a helmet
design over and over and over
again.”
Arruda said she and her
colleagues specifically researched
football and were thus well
prepared
to
try
to
initially
See HELMET, Page 3
Political candidate
addresses packed
EMU audience
By CAITLIN REEDY and
LYDIA MURRARY
Daily Staff Reporters
More than 9,000 people
cheered and stomped their feet
in response to the arrival of U.S.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D–Vt.) at
Eastern Michigan University’s
Convocation Center Monday.
Sander’s visit was his first to
the state of Michigan during his
campaign and comes just three
weeks before the Michigan
primary on March 8. Sanders
will return to Michigan on
March 6 for a Democratic
debate held in Flint.
At the Monday rally, he
largely
addressed
familiar
topics
surrounding
his
campaign, many of which had
personal connections to the
mostly young, local crowd —
including
issues
pertaining
to Flint, higher education and
youth voter turnout.
He also touched on recent
events,
referencing
U.S.
Supreme
Court
Associate
Justice Antonin Scalia, who
died on Saturday.
There
is
immense
speculation
about
whom
President Obama will choose as
his nominee to replace Scalia,
and
how
much
resistance
that nominee will face from
the Republican majority in
Congress.
Senate
Majority
Leader
Mitch
McConnell
(R-Ky.) said in a statement
Saturday that he thought the
seat shouldn’t be filled until the
next president takes office.
Calling the GOP’s response to
Scalia’s death an example of the
party’s doctrine, Sanders said
it was their chance to prove
See RALLY, Page 2
KRISTINA PERKINS/Daily
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) enjoys a warm welcome from the crowd at the Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center on Monday.
See SANDERS, Page 4
Researcher focuses
on Greek life in
discussion of
racism on campuses
By SOPHIE SHERRY
For the Daily
More than 100 people filled
the Michigan League ball-
room Monday night to hear
author Lawrence C. Ross dis-
cuss research highlighted in his
latest book “Blackballed: The
Black and White Politics of Race
on America’s Campuses.”
The event aimed to both dis-
cuss Ross’ research and prompt
audience members to reflect on
how his findings regarding race
relations on college campuses
apply to the University of Mich-
igan, organizers said.
Courtney Monroe, council
adviser for the Office of Greek
Life, planned the event along
with the Office of Multi-Eth-
nic Student Affairs and the
Department of Afroamerican
and African Studies. Members
of the Panhellenic Council also
attended and lead a Q&A ses-
sion after the event.
The event began with liba-
tions offered by Prof. Elizabeth
James from the Department
of Afroamerican and African
Studies, which are given as a
sign of respect and acknowledg-
ment for those who have passed.
During the event, Monroe said
she asked James to deliver these
libations in the spirit of Black
History Month, saying it was
important to peacefully reflect
and pay homage to those who
made it possible for everyone to
be at the lecture and at the Uni-
versity.
Ross began his lecture by
reciting an infamous chant from
the University of Oklahoma’s
chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon
that made national headlines
in 2014. A video showed mem-
bers of the fraternity chanting
“they would never let a n****r
See RACE, Page 3
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Lawrence Ross, author of “Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses,” discusses
racial prejudice on college campuses in the Michigan League on Monday.
Body will also vote
on new Master of
Science in Nursing
program
By CAMY METWALLY
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan’s
Board of Regents has released
its agenda for its February
meeting this Thursday in the
Michigan Union. This week,
the regents will hear updates
on several investment reports
and construction projects, and
will discuss other reports from
Central Student Government
and the University community.
Construction Projects
The plant extension report
outlined several projects that
are currently in the planning
stages. The most costly of those
projects is the construction
of the new Biological Science
Building, funded by LSA and
Office of the Provost resources,
which is estimated to cost about
$261 million.
The BSB will house the
Department
of
Molecular,
Cellular
and
Developmental
Biology and the Department
of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology, both of which are
currently in the Edward Henry
Kraus Natural Science Building.
The new facility will connect
to the Life Sciences Institute,
allowing for greater and easier
See REGENT, Page 2
RESEARCH
Study aims
to increase
concussion
prevention
In first visit to Michigan,
Sanders talks student debt
Brett Graham:
For Sanders,
idealism is key
Speaker examines role of
institutions in race relations
Regents to
hear updates
on building
initiatives
ADMIN
OPINION
By BRETT GRAHAM
Daily Columnist
Disco and folk music filled
what
little
space
remained
in
the
Eastern
Michigan
University Convocation Center.
Having spent hours outside,
enduring
frigid
temperatures
and seemingly endless line, a
crowd of 9,000 was chomping
at the bit. Anxious to see their
champion, applause broke out
every few minutes, whether it
was the long pause that followed
“Disco Inferno” for no apparent
reason or the campaign aide who
walked out to stock the podium
with bottled water. When it was
finally time, after more than a
few false starts, the applause that
welcomed Bernie Sanders to his
first campaign stop in Michigan
could only be described in one
word — thunderous. Disco and
folk music filled what little space
remained in the Eastern Michigan
University Convocation Center.
Having spent hours outside,
enduring
frigid
temperatures
and seemingly endless line, a
crowd of 9,000 was chomping
at the bit. Anxious to see their
champion, applause broke out
every few minutes, whether it
was the long pause that followed
“Disco Inferno” for no apparent
reason or the campaign aide who
walked out to stock the podium
with bottled water. When it was
finally time, after more than a
few false starts, the applause that
welcomed Bernie Sanders to his
first campaign stop in Michigan
could only be described in one
word — thunderous.
As I scanned the crowd,
I
searched
for
common
denominators
between
the
“Grandmas
for
Bernie”
and
the college students, the young
woman wearing a hijab in
the fifth row and the group of
elderly Black women who sat
near the aisle. White and Black,
old and young, privileged and
poor, people of every creed
and sexual orientation stood
shoulder to shoulder. Together,
they screamed and waved signs,
stomped their feet and lifted
their arms above their heads
like a gospel choir at a Sunday
mass. Regardless of the issue he
discussed, the support was loud
and it was unanimous. Why?
Because Sanders supersedes the
labels that have dominated this
campaign cycle with the simple
fact that he is an idealist.
The media introduces and
perpetuates these labels until
they are taken as gospel by the
average
voter.
Establishment
versus outsider, big money versus
individual
donations,
party
endorsements versus appeal to
millennials are all ways in which
the race for the Democratic
nomination has been framed.
But none of them captures the
central issue of pragmatism and
the role it plays in our politics.
Perhaps the best example thus far
has been the controversy over the
term “progressive.” In response
to doubts raised by the Sanders
campaign
about
her
liberal
credentials,
Hillary
Clinton
fired back by branding herself as