GRANT HARDY/Daily
Engineering junior Julie Rieland builds an oversized Jenga tower in an event held by the Center for Entrepreneurship outside the
Duderstadt Center on North Campus Wednesday.
BUILT TO TOPPLE
3-News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, September 8, 2016 — 3A
for the first time in decades. The
Gandy Dancer was the location
of the original station, before
the restaurant existed. The
fourth potential location for the
new station is the city-owned
surface parking lot in Fuller
Park.
Councilmembers Sabra Briere
(D–Ward 1) and Jack Eaton (D–
Ward 4) have both expressed
opposition to building the new
station in Fuller Park because
it’s
technically
park
land,
despite hosting a parking lot
for the University of Michigan
Health Systems.
Eaton said he’d like to see the
Gandy Dancer repurposed as
a station due to the building’s
beauty.
“The Gandy Dancer is a much
nicer building and it would great
if we could use that, I just don’t
know what the likelihood of that
is,” Eaton said.
While many people believe
Amtrak is used as a commuter
train for University employees,
it’s used mostly by travelers,
Briere said. Thus, the Fuller
location, though close to the
University hospital, may not be
useful for those who use Amtrak
the most.
“Looking at U of M’s employee
base — where their zip codes
are — they are not concentrated
in the east and they are not
concentrated in Jackson, to
the west,” Briere said. “So, the
likelihood that this will meet
commuter needs may not be as
high as some anticipate.”
A community organization,
Protect A2 Parks, has also
mobilized against the Fuller
location,
asking
citizens
to
contact
their
local
council
member urging them to push an
Amtrak station there.
“If park land is used for
transportation
purposes,
the
decision
makers
must
demonstrate that there is no
‘prudent or feasible alternative
location,’ ” the website reads.
“We believe that the Depot
Street location is both prudent
and feasible, and that its use
will provide the best benefit to
the community.”
Councilmember
Zachary
Ackerman (D–Ward 3) said he
believes that the Federal Rail
Association
will
recommend
the station which is the best
option for the community and
commuters and did not express
a preference.
Cooper and Ackerman also
both said they believe the most
important thing is that the
project continues progressing.
“This is a time of a lot of
momentum
for
a
possible
commuter rail to Detroit but
also investments from Amtrak
in the next 15 years for high-
speed rails from Detroit to
Chicago, with Ann Arbor being
a critical stop along the way.”
Ackerman said. “We are already
the busiest Amtrak station in
the state and I think we need to
be a leader as we move forward.”
AMTRAK
From Page 1A
senior
Callie
Munn,
an
Academic
Success
Partner
at SuccessConnects, said the
program offers a variety of
opportunities for these students
to find their community within
the larger University setting,
ultimately
aiming
to
aid
students in their transition to
college.
“We cover (in the program)
academic
wellness,
physical
wellness, mental wellness and
financial wellness,” she said.
“We provide the students with a
home away from home.”
On Wednesday, following a
light reception where students
had the opportunity to meet
each other and the staff of
SuccessConnects,
there
was
an informational presentation
about the program. It featured
speakers
including
Robert
Sellers, the vice provost for
Equity, Inclusion and Academic
Affairs.
During his speech, Sellers
spoke about the advantages
of coming from a diverse
background.
“What
makes
Michigan
great?” he asked the audience.
“From
my
perspective,
it’s
what we define as diversity. If
you have more perspectives
surrounding a problem, you’re
more likely to get more creative
and successful solutions.”
Sellers
also
emphasized
the normality of struggling
in
college
and
encouraged
students to form a strong
community to help cope with
the stresses and transitions of
college life.
“Everyone
struggles,”
he
said. “It’s important that you
don’t struggle by yourself. The
people that are successful do
not struggle by themselves.”
Hector Galvan, University
alum
and
current
Success
Coach, said he thinks the
variety of resources available
to the SuccessConnects student
scholars
are
valuable
and
should be utilized throughout
their time at the University.
“There a lot of resources
here focused specifically on
developing you as a student,”
he said. “We are here to help
you explore those resources on
campus to take you to where
you want to be.”
Gloria Taylor, director of
the Office of Multicultural
Academic Initiatives, said the
SuccessConnects
orientation
and
program
are
part
of
her office’s commitment to
the University’s mission of
diversity, equity and inclusion.
“The arm that we represent
is diversity and inclusion,” she
said. “We do programs that
provide a more comfortable
space for students.”
Program manager Sharon
Burch said the key to the
program is their belief in the
capabilities of their student
scholars, and their overarching
goal to help students recognize
a higher level of success beyond
the average student.
“We know that they’re going
to
be
successful
anyway,”
she said. “A higher level of
achievement is what we are
hoping that these students take
away from this.”
In
his
closing
remarks,
Sellers offered the students in
the audience a piece of advice
encompassing
the
goals
of
SuccessConnects, saying would
change their lives for the better.
“Always do your very best at
whatever it is you’re doing at
that particular time, given all
the things that you are facing,”
he said. “Do no more, but do
no less. If you live by that, then
you will be in control of your
happiness.”
SUCCESS
From Page 1A
with the Office of Academic
Innovation after first being
proposed by the academic
unit leadership that oversees
the area of specialization.
“These
exciting
new
courses were selected for
many reasons as they create
new
pathways
for
global
learners to connect to the
U-M community and level
up as data scientists; align
with institutional priorities
around academic excellence
and diversity, equity, and
inclusion; and seek to address
important questions around
opportunities in residential
and
hybrid
learning,”
DeVaney wrote.
The University has been
partnered
with
Coursera
since 2013 and edX, another
online
course
company,
since 2015. Combined, the
University has created more
than 90 MOOCs with nearly 5
million enrollments.
DeVaney
wrote
that
the
students
enrolled
in
these
classes
are
typically
prospective
Michigan students, current
undergraduate and graduate
students as well as alumni
and learners from more than
200 countries around the
world. The instructors do
not receive class rosters for
MOOCs like they would for
an in-person college course
so they do not know exactly
who their students are.
Jim Lepkowski, a research
professor at the Institute
for Social Research, is part
of the team that created
the
Data
Collection
and
Analysis Specialization — a
specialization the University
shares with the University of
Maryland.
Lepkowski, who is part
of a group that has worked
in Survey and Methodology
for more than two decades,
said the impetus for the
specialization
came
from
a
course
hosted
by
the
University of Michigan and
the University of Maryland.
Parts of the course are filmed
at Michigan and parts are
filmed
at
Maryland,
but
students at both universities
experience the class live.
After
several
years
of
experimenting with a flipped
classroom
experience,
the
team realized they wanted
to do more of this kind of
teaching
and
contacted
Coursera
about
creating
a course on how to write
questions for surveys.
Lepkowski said the course
was surprisingly successful,
and the team wanted to do
more to teach about the
science behind surveys.
“We began to view (the
success of the first course) as
an opportunity to spread the
word about surveys, survey
research
and
the
science
behind it,” Lepkowski said.
“Not just anybody can do
a survey but if you really
want to do it well, here are
the basic principles that you
could use to write questions
or to select a sample or to
collect the data.”
It was then that Coursera
contacted
them
about
specializations
and
they
decided to create the Data
Collection
and
Analysis
specialization.
There
are six courses and one
capstone project under this
specialization. While some
of these courses have not yet
been finished or released,
there
are
already
3,000
people enrolled.
Each
course
in
the
specialization
consists
of
units which have exercises
that include multiple-choice
questions
for
students
to
answer, trying until they
are
correct,
as
well
as
open-ended
short
answer
questions. For open-ended
questions, students have the
chance for their work to be
peer evaluated. Each unit also
has a discussion board where
students can post questions
about
the
exercises
and
lectures.
Lepkowski said Coursera
allows instructors to monitor
how students learn and see
their progression throughout
the course.
“There are numbers we can
see about how many students
are doing what,” Lepkowski
said.
“We
can
see
what
questions they’re struggling
with, when they’ve made
multiple attempts to answer
correctly and we can see their
responses to questions on the
discussion boards and see
what their writing is like.”
Christopher
Brooks,
a
professor in the School of
Information, is part of the
team that created Applied
Data Science with Python.
He said after creating some
courses with Coursera, he
approached some faculty and
his dean about creating the
specialization
around
last
December.
Brooks
created
the
first two courses for the
specialization.
Before
the
first course is released on
Sept. 26, Brooks said there
will be a beta test that a group
of University students will
take to see which parts of the
course they like and which
parts
need
improvement.
Following the first release, a
new course will be released
each month.
Brooks said MOOCs are
beneficial to students because
they can learn at a time and
place of their choosing.
“It’s anytime, anywhere
learning
so
students
can
watch in their dorm room,
watch it on the bus, watch it
at midnight in their pajamas.
They can also skip parts that
they know already,” Brooks
said.
Another benefit of taking
MOOCs,
Lepkowski
said,
is
that
there
are
more
opportunities to see where
students are struggling and
to make connections between
the material and difficult
areas, which can be harder
to do in a physical classroom
settings.
“Sometimes in the courses
that you take you don’t get
much of a sense of how it
all
fits
together
between
courses,” Lepkowski said. “I
think Coursera helps in being
able to see the broader picture
of what this is all about.”
Lepkowski
said
though
there are a lot of opportunities
to
interact
with
other
students and the instructor
on Coursera, he does not
think it compares to a regular
classroom experience where
students
are
face-to-face
with an instructor.
Because there is no face-to-
face interaction or a degree
attached to MOOCs, students
taking these courses must
use their own motivation
to
complete
the
course.
However, Brooks said this
aspect of MOOCs has helped
expand his teaching, and that
the diversity of students who
enroll in MOOCs has caused
him to be more inclusive in
his teaching.
“One of the big (benefits of
MOOCs) is it helps us think
about
students
differently
because we think about a
broader array of students, a
more diverse population than
we’re teaching,” Brooks said.
The University hopes to
continue
its
partnerships
with Coursera and edX as part
of its commitment academic
innovation, DeVaney wrote.
DeVaney also noted that
the data they receive from
MOOCs will change the way
the
University
approaches
education.
“We look closely at data
from each of our courses, and
across this growing portfolio
of courses, to inform the way
we design, deliver and assess
learning
on
campus
and
beyond,” DeVaney said.
ONLINE
From Page 1A
contender
Donald
Trump,
the youth vote will be both
important, and historically, hard
to get. Young people historically
and consistently have the lowest
voter turnout of any age group.
Students
supported
Sen.
Bernie
Sanders
(I–Vt.)
over
Clinton
during
the
primary
election earlier this year, helping
push him to a narrow upset
victory, though many students
told The Michigan Daily they
voted
for
other
candidates.
Young people also filled the
streets of Philadelphia during the
Democratic National Convention
in July voicing opposition to
Clinton’s nomination. Protesters
argued the candidate unfairly
won the nomination due to
the
DNC’s
favor
towards
Clinton, citing emails leaked by
WikiLeaks.
Public Policy Lecturer Rusty
Hill told the Daily in July he
believes few students would vote
for Donald Trump over Clinton,
but the turnout of students will
be key for a democratic victory.
“Obviously
the
more
depressed the youth vote is, the
better Trump will do in the state
of Michigan,” Hill said.
ASTIN
From Page 1A
the span of four years. Toyota
is also a founding partner
of the University’s Mobility
Transformation Center, which
operates MCity.
Two
University
faculty
members — Ryan Eustice,
associate professor of Naval
Architecture
and
Marine
Engineering,
and
Edwin
Olson, associate professor of
Electrical
Engineering
and
Computer Science — were
hired by TRI to collaborate
on the new research. Both
professors will maintain part-
time faculty positions at the
University during the course
of their research with TRI.
In
the
announcement,
Gill
Pratt,
CEO
of
the
Toyota
Research
Institute,
emphasized
Toyota’s
continued relationship with
the University.
“Toyota has long enjoyed an
excellent working relationship
with
the
University
of
Michigan, and we are excited
to
expand
our
collective
efforts to address complex
mobility challenges through
artificial intelligence,” he said.
Olson,
who,
along
with
Eustice,
is
a
co-director
of
autonomous
driving
development
at
the
TRI
facility, said their role is to
help coordinate the technical
approaches
that
research
teams working at the TRI
facility
take
to
address
aspects of autonomous vehicle
technology including machine
perception,
mapping
and
human interfaces.
“As co-directors, we are
able to help ‘steer the ship’ in
terms of the approaches used
to solve these problems, and
critically, to make sure that
the sub-teams’ work all fits
together,” he said.
There are a wide range of
technical disciplines and skills
required to complete the full
picture of autonomous driving,
according
to
Olson,
and
simultaneously
approaching
all angles and sewing them
together is very challenging.
He said he thinks Toyota is
interested in working with
the University for this reason,
in the same way it works with
Stanford and MIT, to make
use of the expertise and talent
present at the institutions.
“The problems that we are
working to solve are the best
kind: really hard,” he said.
“Fundamental
research
is
needed to solve these problems
and so TRI is investing in
both internal research and
university partnerships like
the one at UM.”
TOYOTA
From Page 1A
removal of anti-Islam chalk
messages written on the Diag
was not a form of censorship,
Schlissel did challenge readers
to be open to all opinions,
if
stated
respectfully.
Some
students said these chalkings
were microaggressions against
Muslim students.
Over the past few years? The
University has adopted several
institutional
changes
around
concerns of micro-aggressions
and triggers in the classroom and
around campus.
During a Leadership Breakfast
in February, Schlissel announced
a new professional development
program in response to findings
in a report from the Provost’s
Committee on Diversity, Equity,
and Inclusion that aim to make
classrooms
more
inclusive
spaces.
“We will be implementing
professional
development
programs to help new faculty to
be more effective teachers for all
of our students.” Schlissel said.
“This means providing skills
to address and prevent micro-
aggressions in the classroom as
well as strategies for effectively
calling upon diverse perspectives
in the classroom to achieve our
learning goals.”.
This initiative, and others like
it, all come from the University
led “Expect Respect” campaign,
which aims to brings awareness
to the impacts of hateful speech.
LETTER
From Page 3A
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