around the significant problem 
that certain childhood cancers 
have 
in 
causing 
death 
in 

children.”

According to the National 

Cancer Institute, cancer is the 
leading cause of death past 
infancy among U.S. children. 
An estimated 10,380 new cases 
of childhood cancer will be 
diagnosed in 2016 and about 
1,250 children ages 0 to 14 are 
expected to die from childhood 
cancer in the same period.

Opipari also said there is 

a need for more funding in 
pediatric cancer research and 
treatment.

“The second thing we wanted 

people to understand is how little 
funding goes to the study and 
research in childhood cancers,” 
Opipari said. 

A majority of cancers are 

typically 
associated 
with 

advancing age. However, Steven 
Pipe, a pediatric hematologist 
and oncologist at Mott, said some 
of the most exciting advances in 
cancer research are occurring 
in the pediatric realm. Both the 
University and Wisconsin, which 
are ranked second and fourth, 
respectively, for total research 
and development expenditures 
in 2014 by the National Science 
Foundation, are at the leading 
edge 
of 
this 
fight 
against 

childhood cancer, he added.

“I’ve been working (at Mott) 

for almost 25 years and I can see 
us for the first time really making 
major headway with some of the 
more difficult to treat pediatric 
malignancies,” Pipe said.

He 
highlighted 
two 

breakthroughs 
in 
particular 

being pioneered at Mott: precision 
oncology and immunotherapy. 
In precision oncology, doctors 
comb through a patient’s DNA 

to identify mutations in their 
tumor, which can then be 
matched to specific therapies. 
The immunotherapy approach, 
on the other hand, leverages the 
patient’s own immune system. 
Both of these methods are part 
of a larger movement away from 
nonspecific treatments, such as 
chemotherapy and radiation, to 
methods tailored to the patient’s 
own unique cancer.

A team of Mott researchers 

led by Rajen Mody, professor 
of 
pediatric 
oncology 
and 

hematology at the University, 
published a paper in late 2015 
showing the results from the 
first 102 patients enrolled in a 
precision oncology study at the 
hospital. In 46 percent of the 
patients, 
genetic 
sequencing 

revealed 
new 
targets 
for 

therapies and several children 
were believed to have been cured 
of their cancers, according to 
Opipari.

“We now have a clinic at 
Michigan, 
a 
personalized 

pediatric cancer clinic, where 
patients are coming from all 
over the country to participate 
in 
our 
sequencing 
trial,” 

Opipari said.

The University has had a 

long history of participating 
in cross-campus partnerships 
to advance various health 
initiatives. The annual Ohio 
State-Michigan Blood Battle, 
for example, began in 1982, 
with last year’s battle bringing 
in a total of 4,770 blood 
donations. In 2003, students 
began another tradition, the 
Face-Off 
Blood 
Challenge, 

with in-state rival Michigan 
State University.

Opipari saidif this year 

goes well, the hospital would 
like to explore expanding the 
competition.

“The big goal is that if this 

works, what we’d like to do is 
to make this a Big Ten wide 
challenge,” 
Opipari 
said. 

“We’d like every one of the Big 
Ten teams to get onboard as 
Michigan and Wisconsin have 
started the charge.”

2-News

2A — Wednesday September 21, 2016
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use the Huron River as a source 
of drinking water.

Robert Kellar, communications 

specialist for the city of Ann 
Arbor, said the spill was relatively 
minor but the city cannot release 
more information to the public 
until it has submitted its report 
of the incident to City Council. 
Kellar said the report would 
likely be turned in Wednesday 

morning.

“The 
overflow 
was 
quite 

small, so there is not a significant 
impact,” he said. “But we are still 
taking tests out there.”

This is the third overflow 

incident to occur this year, with 
previous incidents at Bird Hills 
Nature Area, where an estimated 
36,000 gallons spilt over the 
course of 60 hours, and at Malletts 
Creek, where 400,000 of sewage 
overflow was generated across a 
two-week span.

At 
the 
City 
Council 

meeting Monday night, City 
Administrator Howard Lazarus 
said the city will be putting forth 
greater effort going forward to 
prevent such incidents.

“It is always our intent to 

be protective of our natural 
environment,” he said. “When 
something like this occurs, we 
all feel that we have let the public 
down in protecting our natural 
resources, and we will be ever 
more diligent in making sure 
that, to the best of our abilities, it 
does not occur again.”

SEWAGE
From Page 1A

WISCONSIN
From Page 1A

student organization advising.

“Both our offices focus on 

social identity as a core part of 
who we are and how we interact 
with students, so we decided that 
we wanted to partner together,” 
Chien said. “People often will visit 
both of our spaces in their journeys 
around learning about how they 
want to be involved on campus and 
who they are.”

Chung Kwan Fan agreed, saying 

that working together has been 
beneficial for both organizations.

“I think that we really want 

to address more the piece of 
intersectionality, 
of 
addressing 

different identities and multiple 
complexities of those identities as 
well, so we do already have great 
collaborations between the two 
offices so we decided to thrive 

upon that,” he said. “So it’s not 
just for LGBT students of color, 
but it’s trying to address different 
identities at the same time as well.”

He said the point of the open 

house was to usher in new students 
and offer them support through 
what can be a difficult transition, 
especially for LGBTQ and minority 
students.

“Really to be aware of the 

resources 
that 
MESA 
and 
Spectrum 

offer, 
especially 
the 
support 

services, knowing that being part 
of the LGBTQ community brings 
all our challenges to somebody’s 
transition to the University, so 
knowing that those resources exist 
for them to be able to get to know 
more of their own identity, but also 
how to navigate the system, of U of 
M being such a large university,” 
Chung Kwan Fu said. “Knowing 
their resources about how to 
explore themselves, but also how 
to interact and connect with 

others.”

MESA 
Director 
Trelawny 

Boynton stressed that despite the 
amount of racial progress made 
in the last several decades, MESA 
still has a necessary role at the 
University, especially for incoming 
students.

She noted that the organization 

is in the process of creating their 
own strategic plan, paralleling a 
University of Michigan-wide effort 
launched last year by University 
President Mark Schlissel to create 
a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 
plan for campus.

“We were created almost 50 

years ago, and we want to make 
sure we’re answering relevant 
questions for why we still need 
to be here, why do we still need 
to do the work that we do and to 
what end,” she said. “And we think 
there’s a compelling reason, we just 
want to prove it to folks who still 
need to know and be reminded.”

MESA
From Page 1A

that LSA offers. Units within the 
University were each tasked with 
individually 
developing 
plans, 

which have now been combined 
into one campus-wide plan.

According 
to 
Dillard, 

parts of the plan have already 
been implemented. She cited 
administrators 
working 
to 

incorporate diversity criteria to 
justify faculty pay raises as one 
an example. She also said the LSA 
Opportunity Hub has established 
a laptop loan program, which has 
already loaned out 425 laptops 
to students from family incomes 
of less than $50,000, of which 40 
percent 
are 
underrepresented 

minorities. 

During Tuesday’s forum, LSA 

Dean Andrew Martin spoke of the 
importance of implementing the 
DEI plan because of how a strong 
emphasis on diversity strengthens 
the community.

“Now perhaps more than ever, 

we need to embrace that diversity 
makes us stronger and better,” 
he said. “ ‘Diversity, equity and 
inclusion’ must be more than a 
slogan.”

Martin highlighted a part of 

the called “Goal for Inclusive 
Classrooms,” 
which 
involves 

overhauling 
LSA’s 
Race 
and 

Ethnicity requirement by creating 
smaller sections with more of an 
emphasis on clear discussions and 
dialogues. Currently, LSA students 
must take one class designed as 
R&E before graduation, though 
the 
requirement 
has 
faced 

criticism from students over broad 
criteria for that designation. The 
College of LSA initiated a review 
of the requirement earlier this 
year.

Martin also emphasized that 

the implementation of the DEI 

plan will be effective only with 
the efforts of every member of the 
University.

“This 
will 
require 
real 

mechanisms for creating a campus 
environment where all students, 
faculty and staff feel valued and 
where everyone is able to take 
full advantage of the resources 
and opportunities that make LSA 
the premier public liberal arts 
institution,” he said.

Dillard 
also 
noted 
the 

importance of unity, saying a 
part of the plan responsible for 
connecting to various departments 
could use more detail.

“I think it’s a big hole in the 

plan right now,” she said. “It will 
take a lot of work and a lot of time 
… LSA is huge. We have over 70 
departments.”

LSA senior Nicole Rutherford 

said that after consulting in a 
small group at the forum that 
while they were enthusiastic 
about opportunity housing and 
the positive impacts it could 
have for transfer students, they 
had concerns about some of the 
practical aspects of the plan.

“Some 
questions 
that 
we 

had, that you identified it as a 
hole, is the partnerships with 
departments, what that will look 
like,” Rutherford said.

Some parts of LSA are also 

choosing to launch their own 
efforts alongside the University’s 
strategic plan. Trelawny Boynton, 
director of the Office of Multi-
Ethnic Student affairs, said at 
a different event Tuesday that 
MESA was in the process of 
creating a plan in order to reaffirm 
their place in the community.

“You all have I’m sure heard of 

a strategic plan that’s happening 
campus-wide. Know that we’re 
doing something that is our own 
strategic plan in MESA, so it’s a 
good time to think about why we 
exist,” she said. “We think there’s 

a compelling reason we just want 
to prove it to folks who still need 
to know and be reminded. So, I’m 
going to do a strategic process 
with a whole bunch of our staff 
involved, our student leaders, and 
a group of students that are going 
to guide me through that process.”

LSA senior Eitan Katz, who 

attended the forum, said that 
he likes the plan’s emphasis 
on administration and faculty 
overhauls because of their lasting 
presence at the University.

“To me, a lot of it really focused 

on faculty which I am really happy 
about,” he said. “Students come 
and go every four years, but faculty 
stay here for a lot longer and they 
can have a lot more of an effect on 
the University.”

However, Katz said he is 

concerned about the lack of 
planned student education on the 
principles of the plan, especially 
for first-year students.

“I didn’t see much of a focus 

on orientation,” he said. “And I 
think that’s a big thing because 
students are coming from all 
over the country and it’s a chance 
to have everyone together and 
understand what it means to have 
equity, diversity and inclusion on 
campus.”

Rutherford, in response to 

administrator’s comments, cited 
questions she had about how the 
programs within the plan would 
be evaluated.

“So 
I 
saw 
some 
of 
the 

measurables in terms of we know 
that this part has gotten off the 
ground if we receive this by this 
date, but I’m wondering about 
some of the back end,” Rutherford 
said. “Are we seeing this program 
have the effect that we are hoping 
to, maybe some of the climate 
effects that we’re hoping to see 
overall? And wondering at what 
point some of those evaluations 
might happen and in what way.”

LSA
From Page 1A

sovereignty while not giving the 
union enough authority to make 
up for a loss of strength at the 
national level.

He said one example of 

the power vacuum was the 
European debt crisis, caused 
in part by a global economic 
downturn beginning in 2009. 
Because the EU has limited 
the powers of member states 
to regulate their own currency, 
countries like Greece were hit 
harder by the crisis, but the 
impact of the EU to help was 
muted.

“The 
European 
Union 

eliminated Greece’s power to 
regulate its own currency and 
to react locally to pressures 
of a downturned economy,” 
Halberstam 
said. 
“At 
the 

same time, they did not give 
the 
European 
Union 
the 

corresponding powers to ship 
money into Greece.”

Overall, 
Halberstam 
said 

he 
saw 
Brexit 
as 
Britain’s 

attempt to gain national power 
and distance itself from an 

ineffectual EU that had little 
power to begin with. He noted, 
however, that the process is still 
far from done — the UK now 
needs to notify the EU Council 
of its intention to leave

“That would set into place a 

two-year period, during which 
they can negotiate a ‘divorce 
agreement,’ ” Halberstam said.

Once 
this 
two-year 

period begins, Britain must 
negotiate 
new 
trade 
deals 

and border agreements with 
the remaining 27 EU nations. 
As 
a 
result, 
politicians 
in 

Britain are currently debating 
how to swiftly go about with 
negotiations but also notify the 
EU of the country’s intention to 
leave.

Panelists also discussed a 

number of other ramifications 
of 
Brexit, 
such 
as 
the 

resignation of former British 
Prime Minister David Cameron 
in June following the vote.

“The UK might not be left 

anymore, all you might have is 
‘little Britain,’ not ‘Great Britain 
anymore,” 
Halberstam 
said. 

“That’s going to be something 
that the UK doesn’t want and 
David 
Cameron 
certainly 

doesn’t want to be remembered 
as the man who destroyed the 
United Kingdom.”

The current prime minister 

of the UK is Theresa May, a 
member of the Conservative 
Party, selected after Cameron 
stepped down. May became the 
second female to occupy the 
role since Margaret Thatcher 
resigned in 1990.

Looking beyond the UK, Jones 

also noted the the implication of 
Brexit for Russia, saying a weaker 
EU will lead to greater Russian 
strength in the long term. He 
said this could be a concern 
given Russia’s 2014 forceful 
annexation of the Ukrainian 
peninsula of Crimea, and plans it 
may have beyond that.

“The UK was central to the 

EU’s 
strength, 
which 
really 

means the UK was central to 
the EU’s unity,” Jones said. “The 
UK was viewed as the biggest 
anti-Russia proponent within 
the EU, and the biggest problem 
for Russia when it came to 
negotiations with the EU.”

BREXIT
From Page 1A

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