2-News 2A — Thursday, February 25, 2016 News The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY In today’s B-Side, Natalie Zak grapples with the dark side of her once-favorite YouTube stars, and Jacob Rich chronicles how one chachannel is improving the platform. >>SEE B-SIDE, PAGE 1B 2 CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES CFE Workshop WHAT: Learn about what an entrepreneur is and what it takes to become an entrepreneur as a female engineer or scientist. Refreshments will be served. RSVP required for this workshop. WHO: Maize Pages Student Organizations and Center for Entrepreneurship WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. WHERE: Johnson Rooms SMTD Violin WHAT: A concert featur- ing solo strings perfor- mances from students from the School of Music, The- atre & Dance. They will perform pieces by Bruch, Bach, Paganini and Mozart. WHO: U-M String Students, Presented by Gifts of Art WHEN: 12:10 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: University Hospitals Main Lobby Gendered Robots WHAT: A lecture about the socio-cultural implications of gender. The speaker will address te question: Why are robots gendered? WHO: Jennifer Robertson WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: Lurie Robert H. Engin. Ctr. - Third Floor President Obama said it would be challenging for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to give reason for his decision not to consider a Supreme Court nominee without appearing to be motivated by politics, according to CNN. 1 Texas courts dismissed charges against former Gov. Rick Perry, who was being accused of abuse of power, according to The New York Times. He was the first Texas governor in about 100 years to face criminal charges of any kind. 3 Mochas & Masterpieces WHAT: Instructors from the Ann Arbor Art Center will instruct guests on how to create zentangle artwork on canvas. Refreshments will be served. RSVP required. Fee of $5 per person. WHO: Maize Pages Student Organizatios WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WHERE: Michigan League - Kalamazoo Room Sang-Yong Nam Memorial Lecture WHAT: Listen to an ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United States speak about a security alliance. WHO: Ho-Young Ahn WHEN: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Michigan League - Vandenberg Room Detroiters Speak WHAT: A session to reflect in the different perspectives and narratives of Detroit, taking into account the history of the city. Free bus transportation will be provided for this class via the MDetroit Connector Bus. WHO: Semester in Detroit WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Cass Corridor Commons, 4605 Cass Avenue, Detroit Cochlear Implants Lecture WHAT: The second in a six-part series, this lecture will address how cochlear implants are engineered, how the technology has improved over time and how they’ve changed the lives of many. WHO: H. Alexander Arts, professor of Medicine WHEN: 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. WHERE: Rave Theater, 4100 Carpenter Road Music class WHAT: An early music class by Nevermind, a young ensemble specializing in ancient music, comprised of four musicians from the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris. WHO: Nevermind WHEN: 5 p.m. WHERE: Walgreen Drama Center - Stamps Auditorium ON THE DAILY MARINA ROSS/Daily Ann Arbor resident Devon Coasen makes a coffee at Comet Coffee on Wednesday. E YE ON ART The cold temperatures weren’t the only thing freezing the diag today. The sixth annual Diag Freeze took place today, from 11:32 a.m. to 11:37 a.m. Participants were asked to come to the diag and set two alarms on their phones, one for 11:32 and one for 11:37. When the first alarm buzzes, they must freeze like statues in a position of their choosing. Then, when the second alarm buzzes, they are to unfreeze and carry on as if nothing happened. This event is put on every year by DoRAK at the University of Michigan. The students organizing this event hoped that it would be bigger and better than in years past. “This year we’re looking for more people, more creative poses, and a great time all around. It takes YOU to make this the best FREEZE this campus, or any campus, has ever seen!” reads a post on the event’s Facebook page. Colleen Doran, a sophomore studying dental hygiene, attended the Diag Freeze with four of her friends. She said she admired the creativity of the event and appreciated how different people expressed their individuality. “It was cool!” she said. “A lot of people had good ideas such as the light sabers, building a snowman, etc. We were wishing we got more creative. It would’ve been nice for a bigger turnout but I think the snow may have deterred people. But students were taking videos and smiling which is nice especially around midterms.” According to the Facebook page, 73 people were planning to attend the Diag Freeze, with an additional 278 interested in the event. -MARLEE BREAKSTONE into the classroom. “It’s a really, really tough environment,” Drabik said. “Three or four of the students in the classroom I work in should’ve been held back, but they didn’t have the money to support that. You come into this classroom and there are kids at such different levels.” That disparity in ability, she added, is often extreme. “Some kids can’t even read,” she said. “I had one kid that just moved from Mexico, should not have been in the third grade classroom, does not speak a word of English.” Drabik said her school, however, has fared well compared to others in the area. Some schools have reported rodents running around the classrooms, cockroaches, ceilings falling down and water leakages. Conditions like those, that Drabik and many other involved with the school system have noted, didn’t form overnight. For many, the deterioration is largely tied to the district’s now-crippling accumulation of debt, which has resulted in a number of efforts to reduce costs and boost the struggling district over the years. In October 2015, Gov. Rick Snyder announced his overhaul of DPS. The initiative aimed to create a new school system, transition the board and students to the new school district and require the existing district to pay off its debt. The overhaul is estimated to cost the state $715 million dollars by its completion, or about $70 million dollars a year for the next 10 years. Synder’s plan garnered negative reactions from multiple units within DPS. Beginning in November, seven instructional days were cancelled in select schools shortly after Snyder’s announcement. The reason: too many teachers called in sick and refused to come to work. These types of protests, called a “sickout,” were in direct response to the building conditions, pay cuts — teachers have faced multiple cuts over the last five years, including 10 percent cuts in both 2011 and 2014 — and Snyder’s plans. Drabik, who only volunteers on Friday afternoons, said though none of the sickouts were on a Friday, her school, Bennett Elementary was one of the many schools affected by the sickouts. She added that though she was not directly impacted by the protest, she was saddened by the worsening conditions at the school. “It worries me to see these teachers taking sick days,” Drabik said. “These students need to be in school, they need to be there.” On Jan. 19, 2016, following the most recent sickouts, Snyder called on legislature to relieve the school district of $515 million of its debt. He said by April, DPS was in danger of running out of money. For teachers, students and others invested in DPS, the problems Snyder has identified aren’t new, and stretch back much further than that January call to action or the sickouts, back through the past decades of the district’s history. A teacher working for Detroit Public Schools, who requested anonymity due to fear of losing his job, said the conditions within his school have declined drastically over the decade he has worked for the district. He said his school participated in one of the district-wide sickouts in protest of the pay cuts and conditions of other schools. “We didn’t want to get our principal in trouble for having a sickout, but we wanted to call attention to everything else and those people who have these chronic problems with lack of textbooks, lack of supplies and deterioration of buildings,” he said. The teacher said his students don’t get a recess during the day due to understaffing. Instead, they have lunch in the cafeteria and have 20 minutes to play in the gym. “Usually it’s chaos because you have so many children in there and there’s only one or two adults so it’s easier for them to have the kids sit in lines than it is for them to play,” the teacher said. A lack of recess or recreational time is not abnormal for DPS students. According to the teacher, students are often given time inside a gym or a walk around the building in replacement. He said he loves teaching and considers being in the classroom a passion of his, but he worries for the future of his students and others at DPS. “My fear is that students aren’t going to get that good of an education,” he said. “My own children get a great education in another district. The kids in Detroit are just as smart, but they have a bad (reputation). The schools aren’t that great. The teachers are good, but they don’t have the other stuff. The last 10 years I’ve taught, none of my children have had art, music or gym. The children get computers two times a week.” Overall, the numbers bear the teacher’s concern out — DPS falls far below national averages on many metrics of student performance. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Detroit students rank last in all U.S. cities. Most notably, only 27 percent of fourth graders in the NEAP were found to be proficient in reading and only 36 percent proficient in math. The DPS teacher said working every day against the harsh conditions and seeing numbers like that dishearten teachers in Detroit. “It’s hard for Detroit teachers, seeing that we tap out our salaries at $55,000,” he said. “Out of that we have to pay 1.25 percent to the city of Detroit, we have other things that come out. A Utica teacher makes almost $90,000, a Farmington teacher makes $82,000, Walled Lake makes $88,000. It’s difficult to say that we are so poor and Detroit teachers are the ones who are bankrupting the district, when we make $20,000 less than suburban schools. We constantly see how we’re failing.” At the University, which has multiple partnerships, programs and internships in Detroit for students, some linked to teaching, the overall impact of the current climate has been mixed. Elizabeth Moje, associate dean for research and community engagement for the School of Education, said the University hasn’t had many problems with the sickouts affecting interns. However, she said allowing interns to experience these conditions is a learning opportunity for students in the School of Education. “It’s really had quite a minimal direct effect on their experience,” Moje said. “We’re able to discuss the action both of the district and of the teachers as a teaching moment. It becomes a conversation with our interns about both the challenges and conditions that they might face and the decisions that teachers often have to make about how they’re going to work within those challenges and conditions.” For some students, the impact is more personal. LSA junior Micah Griggs, who graduated from DPS Renaissance High School before enrolling at the University, said she thought the conditions in her old school were unacceptable. “It’s really unfortunate that some of the schools have mold and a lack of supplies,” Griggs said. “That’s not conducive to learning at all so it’s unfortunate, students can’t go to those schools. Teachers have to have a sickout because they’re beginning to protest about the state. It’s not as if (just) the power went out. There’s rodents, there’s mold on the walls, there’s no heat.” Griggs said she was fortunate to have attended one of DPS’ newer schools, so there was little decay or deterioration at the time. Renaissance High School, however,closed on multiple occasions for sickouts in January. “It makes me feel as if the students are abandoned,” Griggs said. “I really think that education is so important and it’s key to a lot of success. It’s just being ripped away from them.” Griggs’s siblings currently attend a private school in Detroit. Her brother will be starting Renaissance High School in the fall, and she said she worries about the quality of education he could receive. “I’m concerned about the substance of programs for him,” Griggs said. “I’m hoping that the band, dance and arts aren’t cut. Those things are important for a holistic education.” She added that it’s important for University students to know what is happening in Detroit, Ann Arbor’s neighboring city. “A lot of people don’t know. Just being aware that these things happen — and they happen because we don’t have funding and our funding is used for other sectors.” She said. “This is our neighboring city 30 minutes away.” LSA junior Tishanna Taylor, a DPS Renaissance High School alum, echoed Griggs’ concerns. Taylor’s mother was a teacher at DPS and moved out of the district because of the conditions. “It’s sad to see that teachers are not getting as much recognition they deserve,” Taylor said. “They do such hard work for those who do quality work and they care for their students. To not get compensated appropriately is kind of sad and they resort to leaving the district that they want to help.” She said she hopes people don’t give up on DPS and the many assets and capabilities it still has. “Right now, it just looks very bad with the schools and sickouts and the showcasing of the buildings, things like that,” she said. “I guess sometimes throughout that, we lose sight of what’s important, which is the education for the children.” She said the future of DPS lies in the hands of more than just the people on top. “People should just pay attention or even try to learn more, or watch and see what’s happening with the school system,” Taylor said. “It’s more than just the administration that has to be changed.” DPS From Page 1A 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com ROSE FILIPP Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 rfilipp@michigandaily.com Newsroom 734-418-4115 opt. 3 Corrections corrections@michigandaily.com Arts Section arts@michigandaily.com Sports Section sports@michigandaily.com Display Sales dailydisplay@gmail.com News Tips news@michigandaily.com Letters to the Editor tothedaily@michigandaily.com Editorial Page opinion@michigandaily.com Photography Section photo@michigandaily.com Classified Sales classified@michigandaily.com SHOHAM GEVA Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 sageva@michigandaily.com EDITORIAL STAFF Laura Schinagle Managing Editor schlaura@michigandaily.com Emma Kerr Managing News Editor emkerr@michigandaily.com SENIOR NEWS EDITORS: Allana Akhtar, Alyssa Brandon, Jacqeline Charniga, Katie Penrod, Emma Kinery ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS: Riyah Basha, Marlee Breakstone, Desiree Chew, Anna Haritos, Tanya Madhani, Camy Metwally, Lydia Murray, Caitlin Reedy, Alexa St. John. 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