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

Like what you see? Hate what you see?

J O I N D A I L Y D E S I G N

design@michigandaily.com

