MARISSA ANDREOU/Daily
The Samuel T. Dana Building is home to the School of Natural Resources &
Environment.
2-News
Thursday, September 15, 2016 — 3A
News
director
of
the
Michigan
Theater, said pledges to fund
the restoration currently total
$6.2 million out of the $8.5
million needed to complete
the campaign, with most of the
funds coming from donations
by private citizens.
“We’re
about
halfway
through the project,” Collins
said.
“We’ve
raised
about
three quarters of the total
needed
to
complete
the
project. The last two million
will be toughest to raise. The
vast majority of it (donations)
are from private citizens and
local foundations.”
Renovations officially began
Tuesday, following a special
event with donors and members
of the Michigan Theater, the
State and Michigan Project
leadership
committee
—
headed by co-chairs Judy Dow
Rumelhart and Ambassador
Ronald N. Weiser — campaign
co-chairs Martha Darling and
Gil Omenn and Ann Arbor
Mayor
Christopher
Taylor,
making the ceremonial first
deconstruction of some of
the brick outside the State
Theatre.
“We
are
thrilled
this
evening to formally announce
the
State
and
Michigan
Project:
our
campaign
to
renovate the State Theatre
and to make critical capital
improvements to our beloved
Michigan
Theater,”
said
Hillary Murt, the Michigan
Theater Foundation chair.
For many students, such
as LSA seniors Kat Johnson
and Eric Grant, the State
Theatre closing temporarily is
bittersweet — because though
they cannot attend any shows
at their favorite local venue
during their final school year,
it’ll be a better experience for
them in the future.
“I’m happy that they’re
doing renovations,” Grant said.
“But also I’m really jealous
and kind of angry that this is
my last year here.”
Johnson said she has been
seeing a film at the State
every month since she was a
freshman. She has gotten to
know people better, such as
Grant, by attending midnight
premieres at the State with
them.
“I think it’s a great way
to bring students into film,
overall,”
Johnson
said.
“I
think the State’s role is pulling
young people into movies.”
Both agreed that the art
house experience is unique to
the State. When it comes to
choosing what films to show,
they said the State does a good
job curating their titles to not
just include the next big movie.
“It’s just this classic art
house, midnight movie kind
of place,” Grant said. “You just
go there to see a movie and
experience that kind of art
house feel.”
Collins said he recognizes
students love to go to movies to
take a break from school, and
hopes the long-term benefits
of the project outweigh the
current construction. Overall,
he
said
the
two
theaters
combined
offer
a
unique
opportunity for students to
enjoy art films while they are
on campus.
“The
purpose
of
the
Michigan and State Theatre is
to present cinema not only as
a fun enjoyable thing to do but
as a vital cultural resource,”
Collins
said.
“Having
a
diversity of cinema — the kind
of cinema you might see in a
big city — that’s the kind of
thing that a university town
likes. A very sophisticated,
educated, town and university
like the University of Michigan
like this kind of thing. So many
places just don’t have these
specialty movie theaters.”
STATE
From Page 1A
her about the tour. In a statement
Tuesday,
Weaver
criticized
Trump’s
visit
as
purely
for
publicity.
“Flint is focused on fixing
the problems caused by lead
contamination of our drinking
water, not photo ops,” she said.
She added that the water plant
employees “cannot afford the
disruption of a last-minute visit.”
According to the Detroit Free
Press, prior to Trump’s arrival,
several dozen people gathered
outside of the plant to protest his
visit, criticizing Trump for what
they described as the insincerity of
his visit. This sentiment remained
throughout Wednesday.
During Trump’s remarks, Rev.
Faith Green Timmons interrupted
Trump when he began to talk
about Clinton, saying, “Mr. Trump,
I invited you here to thank us for
what we’ve done in Flint, not to
give a political speech,” according
to the Free Press.
Trump
responded
to
the
interruption by saying he would
return to the subject of Flint and
continued his speech on helping
solve the city’s problems.
“I can only say in the strongest
of terms that we can fix this
problem, it’s going to take time, it’s
amazing the damage that’s been
done,” Trump said, according to
the Detroit News. “But we’ll get it
fixed and … it will be fixed quickly
and effectively and Flint will come
back. Most importantly, we’ll bring
jobs back to Flint.”
The Michigan Republican Party
fired back at the idea that the
candidate’s interest was not about
Flint’s residents during his visit
with a statement, charging that
Clinton used the city as a political
tool during the primary season
and no longer cares about the city.
Clinton visited the city in February;
her daughter Chelsea made a stop
there shortly after.
“This blatant hypocrisy gives
a free pass to Clinton, who hasn’t
been to Flint since the Michigan
primary
ended.
She
scored
political points on the backs of Flint
residents, and now has moved on,”
the statement read. “Meanwhile,
Donald Trump is focused on
finding ways to prevent tragedies
like this from happening again.”
During the primary season,
the Flint water crisis emerged as
a major issue for the Democratic
party with attention from Hillary
Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D–
VT) and President Barack Obama,
culminating in a primary debate
in Flint. Weaver also received a
speaking slot at the Democratic
National Convention in July.
This is Trump’s first visit to the
city, and the issue only briefly came
up during a primary debate held
in Detroit. However, Michigan
Attorney General Bill Schuette
spoke at the Republican National
Convention, where he highlighted
the issue.
State Sen. Jim Ananich (D–
Flint) defended Clinton in a press
call prior to Trump’s visit, saying
she is the candidate who has stood
by the side of the city.
“After first refusing to even
comment on Flint when the crisis
broke — and doing nothing for
Flint families since then — Trump
now wants to fly into Flint for
a photo-op,” he said. “This is in
stark contrast to Hillary Clinton,
who has been fighting for Flint
residents. While Trump has failed
to show up and offer to help, Hillary
Clinton came to Flint months ago —
right away — and offered her help
to families affected by the water
crisis.”
Democrats also had a presence
on Flint issues Wednesday —
Weaver joined U.S. Rep. Dan
Kildee (D–Flint), U.S. Sen. Debbie
Stabenow (D–MI) and U.S. Sen.
Gary Peters (D–MI) for a press
conference in D.C., urging federal
legislators to continue to take
action in Flint.
TRUMP
From Page 1A
University’s chapter of College
Democrats, told the Daily he
supports Clinton’s plan, as it
helps the students who truly have
need without overextending to
provide aid to the wealthiest
families who are capable of
paying.
“This is a reconciliation of
Sen.
Sanders’
original
plan
and her hesitation to allow
supremely rich families, such as
the children of Donald Trump
for example, to benefit from free
college when they don’t need it,”
he said. “Her focus on debt free
college, then, would increase
affordability for students with
financial need while still forcing
those with greater means to pay
full tuition.”
On the flip side, Students for
Sanders President Nick Kolenda
argued that, despite the upsides
to Clinton’s plan, tuition free
remains the better alternative.
According
to
Kolenda,
the
corresponding
tax
increase
on the wealthy would act as a
surrogate for paying tuition for
those families and that making
college
entirely
tuition-free
would even the playing field for
all students.
Kolenda said he particularly
finds issue with the requirement
that,
under
Clinton’s
plan,
students must contribute through
work earnings that could be put
to better use.
“Requiring
low-income
students to work a job to stay
tuition-free when other students
can work a job for extra cash or
savings will keep low-income
family students in a game of
catch-up,” he said. “If we make it
tuition-free, then even students
from low-income families can
save up money.”
The other aspect of both plans
is debt refinancing for those with
existing loans. Sanders’ plan
calls for across the board interest
rate cuts for all borrowers, while
Clinton’s
includes
income-
based plans, which would allow
borrowers
to
specify
their
repayments
based
on
their
current income.
With Clinton’s plan for the
state of Michigan, up to 89
percent of families would have
the option for tuition-free college.
The Clinton campaign estimates
that by 2021, 151,000 students
would come from families who
make less than $125,000, making
them eligible for free tuition.
State Contribution
Regardless
of
the
higher
education reform plan’s structure,
if implemented the plan’s success
would depend on the degree
to
which
state
governments
cooperate. State contribution is
essential to Clinton’s plan, but
this may prove difficult in states
that have heavily disinvested in
higher education.
In Michigan, the national
trend of disinvestment has been
clearly reflected by years of
funding cuts culminating in a
significantly larger 15-percent
cut in 2011. Since 2011, funding
has slowly increased, with the
most recent state budget bringing
aggregate funding back to pre-
2011 levels.
Under Clinton’s plan, states
will be required to maintain their
current level of contribution
and to implement a large scale
reinvestment over time — but
some lawmakers are skeptical of
this.
State Rep. Adam Zemke (D–
Ann Arbor) remains critical of
the current legislature’s ability
to reinvest in higher education
on the level needed for Clinton’s
plan to function well. However,
he added he believes Clinton’s
proposal is missing the details
needed to accurately predict its
success if implemented.
“There would need to be a fairly
substantial increase in support
from the federal government,”
Zemke said. “And you would have
to have people who are in charge
of the state who would be willing
to prioritize this and we have not
seen that out of the Republican
majority.”
State Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker
(R–Kent County), who chairs the
Higher Education Committee,
agreed with Zemke on the
need for additional details but
appeared more optimistic on the
legislature’s ability to reinvest in
higher education.
“As with many broad, complex
policy changes, the answer is
in the details. How a federal
debt-free college plan would
impact state funding for higher
education would depend largely
on how it is implemented,” she
wrote in an email to the Daily. “I
have made reinvesting in higher
education a priority for several
years.”
The University
The University of Michigan
has
continuously
increased
tuition over the past several
years.
Since
2003,
in-state
tuition has nearly doubled from
$3,434 per semester to $6,928.
The University points to the
disinvestment from the state in
higher education to explain this
jump in student costs. However,
in the same time frame, tuition
revenue has increased by 135
percent, adding $802 of costs
to tuition when discounting the
University’s loss of state funding.
Director of Public Affairs
Rick
Fitzgerald
explained
these increases in an email to
the Daily in June as reflecting
the increasing quality of the
University.
“The cost of running the
University rises each year in part
from inflation and in part from
new initiatives and investments
in technology and all the things
that make U-M a world-class
university,” he wrote.
This
sentiment
was
also
reflected at the Board of Regents
meeting in June — when the
most recent tuition increase was
approved — during which several
regents expressed their belief in
the need to increase funding in
order to improve the University’s
educational offerings.
Paul Courant, professor of
economics and a former provost,
noted concerns about the quality
of
education
the
University
would be able to provide if it
cannot make the same level of
revenue from tuition.
“You can make tuition very
low if you are not buying very
much with it, but actually we buy
a lot with tuition. We have a first
rate faculty, excellent laboratory
facilities and all manner of
support for students in a variety
of areas and tuition is one of the
sources that covers these things,”
he said. “If we have to be debt
free and the state and federal
government cannot come up with
enough money that we normally
generated from tuition then there
will have to be an adjustment
made on what the education itself
is.”
Courant
maintained
throughout that it is difficult
to
conjecture
costs
without
knowing how much the state
and federal government will
contribute.
University
Provost
Martha
Pollack echoed Courant, saying
she does not wish to comment on
Clinton’s plan until more details
are provided.
“I’m just not prepared to speak
to that one yet,” she said. “There’s
not yet a clear enough picture of
what’s being proposed, what the
government would provide, what
would be required of the states.
I don’t want to give you a stupid
answer.”
Elitism and Diversity
Plans
like
Clinton’s
and
Sanders’s for increasing college
affordability have also lead to
concerns about increased elitism
and decreased diversity at top
institutions. The fear is that the
prospect of free tuition would
cause more prospective students
to apply to top tier public
universities over private ones.
This in turn could cause lower-
income and minority students
to
resort
to
lower-quality
universities
or
community
colleges.
At the University, there has
been a push for increased diversity
under University President Mark
Schlissel’s Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion plan. In the state of
Michigan,
affirmative
action
was outlawed under Proposal
2, meaning the University must
find alternative ways to increase
minority enrollment.
According to Courant, since
the
University
already
faces
this issue, he does not believe
Clinton’s plan would significantly
impact current efforts.
“That problem already exists,”
he said. “There’s nothing in
particular in this plan as I
understand it that will make it
more difficult — I expect it may
be harder to find the money.”
REFORM
From Page 1A
by external committees, but it
has been particularly important
for the sustainability programs in
recent years.
“I think the provost analyzed
that this was a really good time
to have a look at sustainability
programs in this space, because
when you look forward to the 21st
century, sustainability is a key issue
for human societies.” Holloway
said. “So it was just good timing to
do that review.”
Soon
after
the
external
review, Holloway said an internal
committee,
the
Committee
on
Academic
Programs
in
Environment and Sustainability,
was tasked with the challenge
of creating a more integrated
structure within the sustainability
programs and it delivered its
recommendations on how to do so
in the spring of 2016.
“(The Internal Committee’s)
report in the spring of 2016
proposed a structure to create
greater synergy and integration
among our sustainability work,”
Holloway
said.
“Within
that
report was the proposal for a new
school that would address global
sustainability challenges at the
intersection of environment and
society and that would do research
and teaching and civic engagement
in that space.”
Arun Agrawal, a co-chair of the
Committee on Academic Programs
in Environment and Sustainability
and professor at the current Natural
Resources
and
Environment
School, said currently University
faculty work on a wide range of
issues on how to achieve greater
sustainability, but there is a need
for greater coordination between
the faculty and students, leading to
the desire for a new school.
“Most
of
this
coordination
happens in a very decentralized
way, and there’s not that much
coordination
that
happens,”
Agrawal said. “So one talk would
be that if we had a central unit or
core location which would both
track what was going on around the
University and provide information
to everybody in it and which could
also provide some support for
coordination, that would be to the
benefit of both the University and
its faculty and its students, most
importantly.”
Deborah
Goldberg,
another
co-chair
of
the
Committee
on
Academic
Programs
in
Environment and Sustainability
and professor of ecology and
evolutionary biology, said the new
school will be interdisciplinary and
aims to bring faculty of different
academic backgrounds together
through the use of disciplinary
clusters and sustainability themes.
“We
would
have
these
disciplinary clusters that would
be a critical mass of people in a
particular area that you need.
It might be in environmental
chemistry, it might be in ecology,
it might be in urban development,
it might be in environmental
engineering,” Goldberg said.
“And then there would also
be these sustainability themes,
through
water,
transportation,
whatever — again those could
evolve — and that you would
bring people together from those
different
disciplinary
clusters
to work on finding sustainable
solutions to those themes.”
She added that this idea would
solve many of the concerns about a
lack of unity mentioned at town hall
meetings held by the committee
last winter.
“A lot of what we heard is we
need to bring people together, to
find mechanisms that would allow
people from across campus to work
together,” Goldberg said. “Again
and again we heard ‘I work on
this and I know there are people
working on a similar question in
another school but I don’t have a
good way to meet them.’ ”
In addition to the new school
being more interdisciplinary, the
committee also suggested the new
school, the Graham Sustainability
Institute and the Program in the
Environment have more synergy.
Goldberg said the Program
in the Environment, a current
undergraduate program in LSA,
will undergo some changes so that
it is co-owned by the new school
and LSA, as well as any other
schools or colleges that would like
to participate.
“What we recommended and
what my understanding of what
the provost is working on is a jointly
owned program by LSA and the
new school. Students would still be
admitted to LSA, they would major
in the program and still remain
LSA students and have a joint
degree between LSA and the new
school,” Goldberg said.
She added that if, for example,
a student in the College of
Engineering wanted to participate
in the program, they would have a
joint degree in Engineering and the
new school.
Don Scavia, director of the
Graham Sustainability Institute,
said the main changes that will
take place for the Institute is in its
governance structure.
“What we had up until now
was a Dean’s Council that had
about 10 different deans on it,
that was giving advice to the
Institute as we were building and
growing over time,” Scavia said.
“What we’re doing at this point is
transitioning that from an advisory
group into a governance board.
It will be composed of deans or
their representatives from LSA,
from the new school, Engineering,
Public Health, Public Policy, and
Taubman and Business. It will be
co-chaired by the vice provost and
the dean of the new school.”
Scavia said this new format will
allow the Institute to work more
closely with the schools.
“What this will do is give us a
much stronger connection to the
schools in general and this board
will be overseeing the overall
direction of the program,” he said.
Scavia said the changes to the
Institute are occurring this fall,
and after he steps down as director
in December, a new director for the
Institute will start in January.
Agrawal said some of the other
recommendations in the report
are already being implemented,
while others may take more time
to come to fruition. Currently, a
search committee appointed by
Pollack is in the process of finding
a dean, whih is slated to take up
to a year. After the dean is chosen,
he or she will have more say in
faculty searches, and there will
be more progress on the actual
curriculum of the programs. Other
decisions, such as the new name
and the mission statement, should
be decided within the next six
months.
Holloway said he hopes the
University will be recognized
as the best in the field of
sustainability because of its future
interdisciplinary work.
“Sustainability
for
human
activities
isn’t
about
any
one
discipline,
it’s
truly
interdisciplinary.
It’s
about
bringing
disciplines
together
to look at issues from a science
perspective, a policy perspective, a
humanistic perspective,” Holloway
said. “And so I think what we’re
hoping to see going forward is that
the University of Michigan will
be recognized as the key player
in sustainability because we can
bring together expertise in so
many different areas and so many
disciplines.”
SUSTAIN
From Page 1A
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