Women’s fraternity
faced multiple
disciplinary sanctions
over past months
By ALYSSA BRANDON
Daily News Editor
The Eta Chapter of Kappa
Alpha Theta women’sfraternity
at the University of Michigan was
disbanded Monday.
A letter obtained by The
Michigan Daily from Theta’s
national president Laura Doerre
to chapter members states the
decision was made in a unanimous
vote by the fraternity’s grand
council on Sunday.
In the letter, Doerre said the
decision to disband the chapter
came after several suspensions
and disciplinary action from both
the University and the national
chapter,
including
a
recent
suspension effective during the
spring semester. The letter didn’t
specify what events prompted
the
disciplinary
actions
or
suspensions.
Doerre also wrote that the
fraternity
recently
violated
University sanctions that were
administered during the Spring
semester.
“On February 10, Vice-President
Mandy Wushinske and I visited
campus and met with members
of your cabinet and university
administrators including the dean
of students,” Doerre wrote. “At
that time it was clearly stated that
all members and new members of
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Tuesday, February 23, 2016
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Joint faculty and
student committees
await approval of
reccomendations
By ISOBEL FUTTER
Daily Staff Reporter
Silke-Maria Weineck, chair of
the Senate Advisory Committee
on University Affairs, discussed
student course evaluations at
Monday’s
Senate
Assembly
meeting, updating the assembly
on their initiatives to create
policies
for
the
release
of
evaluations.
Last fall, the Faculty Senate
voted to defer releasing course
evaluations until policies on the
release were in place and there
were changes in the structure
of the evaluations to be viewed.
Two committees, composed of
faculty and representatives from
Central
Student
Government
were charged with performing
these tasks.
The
recommendations
have been sent to University
of Michigan Provost Martha
Pollack for review, Weineck said.
If approved, course evaluations
will be released starting fall 2016.
The policies suggested include
a stipulation that allows course
evaluations to only be released
to students, preventing their
release to other UM community
members
or
the
public.
Additionally, course evaluations
would only be released if one
of two thresholds are met: a 50
percent participation rate for the
class overall or a minimum of 30
evaluations total per class.
“We
decided
to
put
the
threshold
in
to
encourage
participation,”
Weineck
said.
“The students told us they
wanted this information, so it
seemed a good idea to say, ‘OK,
you can have this, but you need to
provide the information as well.’”
Another
suggestion
made
by the committee was to allow
faculty
facing
difficult
life
situations or emergencies to opt
out of release of evaluations for
that year.
See SACUA, Page 3
Chris Hughes gives
advice to young
entrepreneurs at
Business school
By REBECCA SOLBERG
Daily Staff Reporter
Audience members browsed
Facebook
on
their
phones
while waiting for one of the
social media site’s creators
to speak in the Robertson
Auditorium Monday evening.
Allison Davis-Blake, dean of
the Stephen M. Ross School of
Business, moderated the event.
She asked Chris Hughes about
a number of topics, including
his journey as one of five people
co-founding
Facebook,
his
work for the Obama campaign
in 2008 and the advice he
had for young entrepreneurs.
Facebook was founded in 2004
by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin
Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin,
Andrew
McCullum
and
Hughes. The social media site
now has more than 1 billion
users in 19 countries.
Hughes
began
the
discussion with a disclaimer:
the
Facebook
story
was
different from that portrayed
in the popular 2010 film “The
Social Network.” Rather, he
said,
a
few
undergraduate
students at Harvard University
had the idea for a social media
site and with the right spark
and motivation, Facebook was
able to become the massive
network it is today.
He
told
attendees
that
a small idea can have a
significant impact on making
a huge difference in the world:
Facebook, he said, began with
the simple idea to connect
friends and family and 12 years
later, the site has evolved into
See FACEBOOK, Page 2
Body also discusses
solutions for high
number of retiring
police officers
By MARLEE BREAKSTONE
Daily Staff Reporter
Monday evening, Ann Arbor
City Council convened for its
first work session on the city’s
fiscal year 2017 budget, which
is slated to be passed in May.
Staff retention in the Ann
Arbor Police Department and
funding for the city’s ongoing
deer cull were among the most
contentious budgeting factors
discussed at the meeting.
Ann
Arbor’s
budget
is
determined over a two-year
process, and this is the second
year in that process. However,
City
Treasurer
Matthew
Horning said there are still
many important new factors to
consider.
“It’s a much easier process
than last year, but we still
have some decisions to make,”
Horning said at the start of the
meeting.
Larry Collins, Ann Arbor’s
interim
community
services
area administrator, discussed
funding for the city’s ongoing
deer cull.
The deer cull was initially
budgeted as a one-time cost of
$20,000 for 2017, but Collins
said the actual cost of the
project will be around $35,000.
Collins said no current bill
exists to account for the total
costs of the cull. Before the cull
began, the city agreed in its
contract with the United States
Department
of
Agriculture
Animal
and
Plant
Health
Inspection Service to receive
a bill at the end of the first
quarter of the process. The cull
began Jan. 2, 2016.
Collins said he was unsure
how much the culling activities
will cost in the upcoming
years. A city meeting to discuss
potentially
using
nonlethal
methods for the cull will be held
with city residents on Friday.
“We just don’t have the data
yet … we’re not done,” Collins
said. “My hope and my belief
is that $35,000 won’t be needed
for the cull in the upcoming
year.”
Ann Arbor residents have
complained since the summer
of 2015 about the lack of
transparency from city officials
regarding the cull’s costs and
the details and effects of the
cull.
Councilmember
Sabra
Briere (D–Ward 1) said she
disapproved of Collins’ inability
to provide clear parameters of
the cost of the cull. Collins said
he does not know at this time
the amount of funding required
to complete the deer cull.
City
Administrator
Tom
Crawford
promised
to
provide Briere and other city
councilmembers with written
updates containing information
about the costs of the deer cull.
He did not specify when those
updates would be distributed.
Along with the cull, Robin
During event,
speakers emphasize
problem solving,
community equity
By KEVIN BIGLIN
Daily Staff Reporter
At the Ford School of Public
Policy
Monday
evening,
panelists discussed ways police
reform in Cincinnati can serve
as a model for cities across the
United States to adopt a more
community-based
approach
to issues of police brutality,
touching
on
collective
experience in the field.
The event, “21st Century
Policing:
Lessons
from
Cincinnati,” was hosted as part
of the University of Michigan
2016 Martin Luther King Jr.
Symposium
and
moderated
by David Thacher, assistant
professor of Public Policy and
Urban Planning and Reuben
Miller, assistant professor of
Social Work.
In his remarks, Thacher
emphasized that opportunities
to implement police reform
are made possible through the
work of social activists.
“We’re at a really important
moment in American policing
right now,” Thacher said. “We
have a level of social attention
to policing and scrutiny in
policing that we haven’t seen
in probably about 50 years. We
have a window of opportunity
in policing for real and lasting
change, and we have that
window because of the passion
and commitment of so many
civil
rights
activists
over
the past two years who have
put policing in the national
spotlight so successfully.”
Participants in the talk were
key members involved in the
process of Cincinnati’s police
reform after a series of deaths
prompted
a
lawsuit
from
the Cincinnati Black United
See BUDGET, Page 2
See POLICE, Page 3
See THETA, Page 3
HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, discusses the important role of entrepreneurship in the future of Detroit in Robertson Auditorium on Monday.
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
University of Cincinnati professor John Eck shares his opinions and ideas about police issues at the 21st Century
Policing meeting held in Weil Hall on Monday.
ACADEMICS
Assembly
discusses
release of
evaluations
Facebook co-creator talks
impact of social media site
BUDGET
A2 City Council
examines 2017
deer cull funds
Panel on police reform cites
Cincinnati as model city
CAMPUS LIFE
‘U’ chapter
of Kappa
Alpha Theta
disbanded