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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, April 1, 2016

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Sexual misconduct 
regulation expansion 
could prompt more 

Title IX cases

By CAMY METWALLY and 

RIYAH BASHA

Daily Staff Reporters

Amid 
other 
impacts 
of 
a 

planned new policy on student 
sexual misconduct, University of 
Michigan administrators said they 
are expecting the changes will 
prompt the number of Title IX 
cases to increase.

Title IX investigations are cases 

filed against the University for 
possible violations of federal law 
regarding the handling of sexual 
misconduct. Up until this July, they 
will be governed by regulations 
laid out in the Student Sexual 
Misconduct Policy. After that, the 
University will adopt the University 
of Michigan Policy and Procedures 
on Student Sexual and Gender-
based Misconduct and Other Forms 
of Interpersonal Violence.

The new policy, announced last 

Tuesday, makes several changes, 
including expanding to include 
gender-based 
harassment 
— 

violence suffered due to gender 
identity, sexuality or orientation 
— and intimate partner violence. 
It also modifies the definition of 
consent and the scope of prohibited 
conduct, as well as restructuring 
the 
sanctioning 
and 
appeals 

process.

Anthony 
Walesby, 
the 

University’s Title IX coordinator, 
wrote in an e-mail interview that 
the Office of Institutional Equity — 
the office responsible for processing 
sexual misconduct complaints — 
largely anticipates the rise in cases 
because of the inclusion of gender-
based harassment and intimate 
partner violence.

The revisions come after the 

release of OIE’s annual sexual 
misconduct report in January, 
which showed that though the 
number of reports increased by 
33 percent from 2014 to 2015, the 
number of cases investigated by 
OIE stayed the same. According to 
the report, 29 of the 172 cases OIE 

Contrasts between 
local and federal law 
draw mix of student 

reactions

By ALEXA ST. JOHN

Daily Staff Reporter

Hash Bash — an annual April 

event when pot enthusiasts from 
Ann Arbor and beyond gather to 
smoke marijuana and meander 

around campus — will be on the 
University of Michigan’s Diag 
Saturday afternoon. Nationally 
recognized 
since 
1972, 
Hash 

Bash is meant as a rally for the 
decriminalization of marijuana 
and a more lenient drug policy 
nationwide.

Marijuana legalization, long a 

controversial topic nationwide, 
has gained steam in recent years 
as multiple states have chosen to 
allow the drug either entirely, or 
for medicinal purposes.

Over the past few decades, 

studies have shown it has the 
potential 
to 
have 
powerful 

medicinal effects on conditions 
such as severe or chronic pain and 
cancer. Advocates for the drug 
also argue that overall prohibition 
has been ineffective, and doesn’t 
make sense when compared to 
how alcohol is regulated.

Allen St. Pierre, executive 

director 
of 
the 
National 

Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws, an organization 
that argues for reform of marijuana 
laws, noted that the majority of the 

American public is currently in 
support of legalization.

“The Gallup polling of today 

indicates 
58 
percent 
of 
the 

population supports legalization,” 
St. Pierre said. “When NORML 
was founded in 1970, it was 10 
percent.”

According to the University 

Health 
System, 
however, 

marijuana is not recommended 
by 
some 
medical 
experts 

due to the fact it is not yet 
approved by the Food and Drug 

See MARIJUANA, Page 3
See MISCONDUCT, Page 2

Study says potential 
spill could impact 
720 miles of Great 

Lakes shoreline

By LYDIA MURRAY

Daily Staff Reporter 

A break in the Enbridge Line 5 

pipeline — a 63-year-old pipeline 
that runs beneath the Straits of 
Mackinac and carries up to 23 
million gallons of light crude oil 
and natural gas per day — could 
potentially spill into 720 miles of 
Great Lakes shoreline, according 
to a University of Michigan 
study released Thursday.

Researchers created a model 

to demonstrate 840 possible 
simulations of an oil spill by 
the pipeline and outlines of 
where the oil could go. Based 
on the model, up to 720 miles 
of coastline could be affected 
by a spill and require extensive 
cleanup.

David Schwab, a research 

scientist for the University’s 
Graham Sustainability Institute 
and designer of the simulation, 
said due to the strong, rapidly 
changing currents in the Great 
Lakes, it would be difficult 
to predict how and where 
the oil would be distributed 
to. However, Schwab noted 
the spread would be vast and 
disastrous.

“This is possibly the worst 

place in the Great Lakes in 
terms of how fast and how far 
something would spread,” he 
said. “If there were a spill it 

would be really hard to predict 
where that oil would end up.”

Schwab’s 
research 
in 

Thursday’s 
study 
goes 
into 

detail about the movement of 
the oil and the extent to which 
shorelines could be damaged. 
Based on the model, nearly 60 
percent of Lake Huron’s open 
water and more than 15 percent 
of Lake Michigan’s open water 
could have visible oil in the event 
of a spill.

The effects an oil spill would 

have on surrounding ecosystems 
were beyond the scope of the 
study, but Schwab said in a 
press release prior to this study 
that the potential effects of an 
oil spill in the area were largely 
unknown, this model shows the 
extent of the possible impact.

“Until now, no one knew 

exactly how much shoreline was 
vulnerable to spills in the Straits 
of Mackinac,” he said in the 
release. “These findings show 
that under the right conditions, 
a spill in the Straits of Mackinac 
could affect a significant amount 
of shoreline and open-water 
areas in either Lake Michigan 
or Lake Huron, or both, very 
quickly.”

Enbridge Line 5 and the 

danger of a potential spill has 
been a matter of concern for 
the public over the past years, 
including on campus. Earlier this 
month, the University’s chapter 
of College Democrats hosted a 
discussion on water issues in 
the state, which highlighted the 
pipeline as a threat.

LSA junior Taiwo Dosunmu, 

communications director for 

See PIPELINE, Page 3

Monday’s meeting 
will also include 
resolutions for 

construction grants

By BRIAN KUANG

Daily Staff Reporter

At Monday’s meeting, Ann 

Arbor City Council will be 
voting on $3.9 million worth of 
appropriations for construction 
contracts 
and 
equipment 

purchases.

Construction

Four 
separate 
resolutions 

related to granting construction 
contracts, worth a total of 2.8 
million, will be voted on.

The resolutions include a $1.6 

million contract award to Doan 
Construction Company to repair 
20 percent of the deteriorating 
sidewalks in the city, as well as 
to increase access to handicap 
ramps across the city. Also 
pertaining to sidewalks, the 
council will vote on a $197,940 
contract award to Sidewalks Plus 
USA for further repair services 
to sidewalks across the city.

The other contracts are a 

$243,077 
allocation 
to 
P.K. 

Contracting Inc. for pavement 
marking 
maintenance 
and 

to E.T. MacKenzie Company 
for 
on-demand 
construction 

services for the next three years 
for $250,000 a year.

Construction Consulting
Noting seasonal fluctuations 

in city construction activities, 
another 
resolution 
proposes 

See COUNCIL, Page 3

Discussion aims 
to draw attention 
to barriers facing 

community

By IRENE PARK

Daily Staff Reporter

Thursday night at the Ford 

School of Public Policy, four 
panelists 
discussed 
various 

obstacles 
the 
transgender 

community 
face, 
especially 

concerning health care, at the 
Trans Health Access Panel.

Approximately 0.3 percent of 

the U.S. population is estimated to 

be transgender — about 700,000 
adults — according to a study 
from the University of California, 
Los Angeles. Transgender is an 
umbrella term for individuals 
whose gender identity and/or 
gender expression differs from 
the sex they were assigned at 
birth.

Laura 
Jadwin-Cakmak, 

the 
panel’s 
moderator 
and 

Health Behavior and Health 
Education 
research 
director, 

said 
transgender 
community 

members face unique health 
care issues for several reasons, 
including discrimination when 
their gender identity does not fit 
in the binary male-female system.

Panelist 
Leslie 
Nicholas, 

a 
naturopathic 
medicine 

practitioner, noted how deeply 
ingrained the binary system is in 
people’s minds, saying it does not 
include those who do not identify 
themselves as simply male or 
female.

“When someone has a baby, 

we first ask them if it’s a boy or a 
girl,” Nicholas said. “Why not ask 
for the baby’s name? Why not ask 
how the baby is doing?”

Several panelists emphasized 

that several countries — including 
Germany, New Zealand and 
Australia — recognize that there 
are more than just two genders.

Jadwin-Cakmak 
highlighted 

how 
health 
care 
problems 

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Pediatrician and sociologist Kathryn Fessler speaks on challenges faced by the transgender community in health care 
at the Ford School of Public Policy Thursday.

See PANEL, Page 3

ADMINISTRATION

Hash Bash highlights state, 
campus marijuana policies

‘U’ expects 
new policy 
to increase 
 

complaints

‘U’ simulation 
tracks impacts 
of oil pipe break

GOVERNMENT

City Council 
set to vote on 
purchases of 
equipment

ANN ARBOR

Transgender health panel 
emphasizes access to care

INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 101
©2016 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com

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