michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, February 22, 2016

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Michigan won the 2016 Big Ten 
women’s swimming and diving title

» INSIDE

Making a splash

Researchers could 
contribute to future 
travels to the planet

By KEVIN LINDER

For the Daily

NASA recently funded a 

University of Michigan design 
for spacecraft thrusters as part 
of its Next Space Technologies 
for Exploration Partnerships 
(NextSTEP). The NextSTEP 
program encompasses various 
projects, all aimed at bringing 
humans closer to manned 
missions to Mars.

The project at the University 

is led by Aerospace Engineering 
Prof. Alec Gallimore, who was 
named the next Engineering 
dean Thursday.

His design, called the X3, 

is the thruster component of a 
larger propulsion system called 
the XR-100, which is the project 
of major aerospace engineering 
firm Aerojet Rocketdyne. NASA 
awarded $6.5 million to Aerojet 
Rocketdyne for the XR-100, $1 
million of which has been given 
for work on the X3 thruster 

Noting current 
events, speakers 

emphasize impact on 

citizens 

By RACHEL COHEN

Daily Staff Reporter

On Friday, a group of panelists 

from Flint, Detroit, Highland 
Park and Muskegon Heights 
spoke at the University to discuss 
water access and management in 

communities of color as part of an 
event for Black Heritage Month.

Each panelist had a different 

expertise 
including 
research, 

science, political and activist 
backgrounds. All of the panelists 
agreed, however, that water is 
a public good that should be 
available for every person to 
access.

Leon 
Howard, 
program 

manager in the Office of Multi-
Ethnic 
Student 
Affairs 
and 

moderator of the event, said the 
Office of Multi-Ethnic Student 
Affairs wanted this event to 

address concerns about water 
access in communities of color and 
to delve into why the management 
of water has tremendous impacts 
on communities.

“We wanted to do a panel 

focused on water access and 
management in communities of 
color because of what was going 
on in Flint and other places across 
the state when it comes to being 
able to access safe water,” he said.

One of the topics of the panel 

was the ongoing effect of water 
crises 
as 
well 
as 
long-term 

Wolverines keep 
intensity up all 
week, hold off 

Indiana for victory

By COLE ZINGAS

Daily Sports Writer

Saturday night, in a unified 

leap, the Michigan women’s 
swimmers, 
divers, 
coaches, 

trainers, 
and 
the 
Big 
Ten 

Championship trophy splashed 
into 
the 
pool 
at 
Canham 

Natatorium, 
capping 
off 
a 

victory years in the making. 
Over the course of the four-
day Big Ten Championship 
meet, the Wolverines beat out 
the 12 other Big Ten teams and 
claimed their first Big Ten title 
since 2004. 

“The only way to put that 

in words is to cry for joy,” said 
Michigan coach Mike Bottom.

The Wolverines dominated 

the meet, leading from the 
second 
day 
on. 
After 
the 

100-yard freestyle, in which 
freshman Siobhán Haughey set 
a pool record with a time of 47.71 

and senior captain Ali DeLoof 
finished third, the meet was all 
but over. And after the 200-yard 
butterfly, with two events still 
remaining, the Wolverines had 
put themselves out of the reach 
of second-place Indiana, the 
only team within 400 points of 
the Wolverines. 

However, 
DeLoof 
didn’t 

always know that Michigan 
would accomplish this much. 
Three years ago, DeLoof was a 
freshman struggling through 
weeks of 20 hours of practice 
in the pool. It was Bottom’s first 
year with the program, and the 
team finished sixth in the Big 
Ten. DeLoof helped the team 
to improve over the next two 
years — placing fifth in the Big 
Ten in 2014 and third in 2015 — 
but taking the next step was still 
somewhere in the distance for 
the Wolverines. 

“We imagined it at the 

beginning of the year, but it was 
always just a possibility,” said 
sophomore Clara Smiddy.

Even just a few days ago, 

DeLoof — who was named first-
team All-Big Ten on Saturday 
— didn’t know if she would be 

Residents discuss 
frustration with 

government, burden 

on families

By LARA MOEHLMAN

Daily Staff Reporter

As national media attention 

and 
a 
state 
and 
federal 

declarations of emergency over 

Flint’s water crisis draw eyes to 
the city’s community, residents 
are tasked with continuing to 
live within the city’s bounds, 
feeling the crisis’ effects.

On 
a 
Friday 
afternoon, 

Saginaw Street — the city’s 
main drag — is quiet, with 
several residents walking into 
the restaurants and shops that 
have survived the economic 
hardships that have plagued the 
area since the closing of a nearby 
General Motors plant almost 

seventeen years ago.

On the University of Michigan-

Flint campus, a few students 
linger in the Harding Mott 
University Center watching T.V. 
on communal screens, eating or 
paging through thick textbooks. 
 

Signs around campus tell 

students the water is OK and safe 
for them to drink. Students rely 
on state-issued purifiers on each 
faucet and drinking fountain to 
protect them from any possible 
lead in the city’s water supply 

while on campus.

Cody Worswick, a sophomore 

computer science major from 
Marysville, Michigan considers 
himself 
fortunate. 
Before 

enrolling at the University’s 
Flint campus, his mother was 
aware of the dangerous water 
quality within the city’s limits, 
he said, and bought him a filter, 
which he uses for all of his 
drinking water.

Worswich said he doesn’t 

After FOIA, body 
has data but must 
wait for University 

approval

By JACKIE CHARNIGA

Daily News Editor

LSA senior Cooper Charlton, 

Central Student Government 
president, said Sunday that 
course evaluation data could be 
released for student use as early 
as fall 2016.

The organization has gained 

the data from a Freedom of 
Information 
Act 
request, 

Charlton said, but cannot release 
it until it secures approval from 
the Provost’s office.

CSG has been advocating for 

the release of course evaluations 
since Charlton’s party, Make 
Michigan, took office this fall. 
Charlton said two committees 
led by Sean Pitt, LSA junior and 
CSG chief of staff, and Anushka 
Sarkar, LSA junior and CSG 

chief programming officer, have 
submitted reports to the office 
of the Provost regarding the 
construction of a new course 
evaluation instrument and a 
new release policy. If approved, 
the University of Michigan will 
release the course evaluation 
data.

This is the first time CSG 

has submitted a FOIA request 
for course evaluations since 
2011, according to Pitt. He 
wrote in an e-mail that the 
recommendations 
formed 

by the committees will be 
considered by the University in 
determining what information 
will be collected and released 
from course evaluations, and are 
not directly related to the FOIA 
request.

In 
2011 
and 
prior, 
the 

Michigan 
Student 
Assembly, 

now known as CSG, regularly 
filed Freedom of Information 
requests 
to 
release 
course 

evaluation data for a course 
selection advice site. Pitt said 
though these efforts have fallen 

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Burton resident Raymond Blake speaks about how he has seen the effects of the water crisis firsthand as a volunteer for Catholic Charities at Flint on Friday.

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Terry Thompson, School of Public Health assistant professor, speaks about water access and communities of color 
during a panel at Hatcher on Friday.

INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 78
©2016 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com

NEWS......................... 2A

OPINION.....................4A

CL A SSI FI EDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A

SUDOKU..................... 2A

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A

SPORTS MONDAY........1B

NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Freshman Haughey guides M to title
MICHIGANDAILY.COM/SECTION/SPORTS

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

WEATHER 
TOMORROW

HI: 38

LO: 18

CSG makes 
progress on 
release of 
course evals

In Flint, impacts of crisis 
apparent in day-to-day life

Michigan wins 
B1G title, ends
12-year drought

Panel looks at links between 
race, access to clean water

‘U’ project 
funded by 
NASA for 
Mars trip

ACADEMICS

SPORTS
RESEARCH

See EVALUATIONS, Page 2A
See FLINT, Page 3A

See NASA, Page 3A
See PANEL, Page 3A
See SWIMMING, Page 2B

