Last 
winter, 
Engineering 

sophomore 
Sam 
Greeley 

developed a severe case of 
Achilles 
tendinitis, 
an 
ankle 

injury confining her to crutches 
for weeks, adding unexpected 
challenges to her daily life.

After 
receiving 
attention 

from the University of Michigan 
Hospital, 
Greeley 
was 
not 

informed of the accommodations 
available to her from Services 
for Students with Disabilities. It 
was not until two days after her 
hospital visit that she learned 
about 
the 
services 
available 

to 
students 
with 
temporary 

conditions.

“I wasn’t given any contact 

information for a ride or a cab 
(from the hospital),” Greeley said. 
“While you are mostly mobile on 
crutches, travelling just down 
the hallway, especially in the 
beginning, was very tiresome.”

In 2015-2016, 108 students 

were registered with temporary 
disabilities, according to the 
SSD 
Annual 
Report. 
When 

students injure themselves, they 
face an unanticipated number 
of challenges when confined to 
crutches, wheelchairs and others 
walking aids. All services are free 
to students.

Nursing sophomore Madison 

Farmer broke her ankle during 
the winter of 2016 and was put on 
crutches. She wasn’t aware of SSD 
until four days after her injury.

“I was (using Uber to go) to all 

of my classes, but that got very 
expensive and so someone told me 
about Services for Students with 
Disabilities,” Farmer said.

SSD offers a number of services 

to 
students 
with 
temporary 

disabilities, including Paratransit, 
which provides a free ride to 
students with disabilities around 
campus, and adjustable furniture, 
to ease the pain of injuries and 

accommodate any student.

SSD Director Stuart Segal 

his 
office 
could 
improve 

communication about its services. 
Often, students with permanent 
or temporary disabilities remain 
unaware of the services available 
to them.

“I have to admit, this is one area 

where I think we could do a better 
job because this not only concerns 

students 
with 
temporary 

disabilities, this concerns students 
with all the disabilities,” Segal 
said. “It breaks my heart when 
I talk to a senior, who has been 
here four or five years, finally 
somehow makes it here and gets 
the accommodations and they 
look at me and they say: ‘Jeez I 
wish I knew you guys were here 
four years ago.’ ”

The number of high-dose opioid 

painkiller prescriptions written 
to veterans has declined following 
the release of a Veterans Health 
Administration plan to reduce the 
potentially addictive substance, 
according to a new study conducted 
by the University of Michigan and 
Ann Arbor researchers. 

Published 
in 
the 
scientific 

journal Pain, the research study 
found prescriptions written from 
high-dose 
opioids 
decreased 

by 16 percent and prescriptions 
written for very high-dose opioids 
decreased by 24 percent. The 
journal also noted the prescribed 
combination 
of 
opioids 
and 

sedatives, a possibly a deadly one, 
decreased by 21 percent over the 
course of two years.

The plan, coined the Opioid 

Safety Initiative, was introduced 
in 2013 in an attempt to reduce 
risky 
opioid 
prescribing 
and 

other 
potentially 
lethal 
drug 

combinations.

The OSI is a computer system 

that oversees prescriptions and 
provides physicians with additional 
knowledge for safer prescribing. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, January 23, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 13
©2016 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

SPORTS...........B SECTION

See VETERAN, Page 3A

Veteran
overdoses 
fall due to 
program

RESEARCH

Study finds plan reduced 
number of high-dose 
opioid prescriptions

KENNEDY WERNER

For the Daily

MAX KUANG/Daily

Ann Arbor resident Vick Haviland holds up a sign at the Women’s March in downtown Ann Arbor on Saturday.

Students with temporary disabilities 
face unexpected challenges on campus

Transportation issues among the chief concerns of those needing assistance

COLIN BERESFORD

Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See DISABILITY, Page 3A

The Ann Arbor City Council 

approved a $143,296 contract 
with 
OHM 
Advisors 
— 
an 

architectural 
firm 
based 
in 

Livonia — earlier last week to 
conduct a complete inspection of 
the city’s streetlights, including 
prioritization of repairs and cost 
estimates. Such an inspection 
occurs 
at 
least 
once 
every 

10 years, according to City 
Councilmember Chip Smith (D–
Ward 5).

Smith said the inspection is 

regular, but noted it is coming 
after city employees noticed 
the bottoms of lamp posts were 
“rusted out” while looking into 
replacing lights in the Kerrytown 
neighborhood of Ann Arbor.

Last October, Huron High 

School student Qi-Xuan “Justin” 
Tang, a 16-year-old, was struck 
by a car and killed while crossing 
a poorly-lit crosswalk on Fuller 
Road while on his way to school. 
Since 
that 
accident, 
more 

streetlights have been installed 
near the high school, and a 
school zone has been established, 
reducing the speed limit from 40 

See LIGHTING, Page 3A

City looks 
to ‘U’ for 
street light
funding 

ANN ARBOR

Ann Arbor City Council 
plans to prioritize repairs 
and additions in new plan

ANDREW HIYAMA

Daily Staff Reporter

Michigan students, Ann Arbor residents travel to 
D.C. to attend rallies alongside state lawmakers 

CAROLYN GEARIG/Daily

Protestors for the Women’s March walk through Washington D.C on Saturday. The rally began at 10:00 am and attendees began marching at 2:30.

50 local women, 4 men take bus, aim to promote women’s rights, protest election of President Trump at national march

- LSA senior, Florence Rivkin

Ann Arbor was still dark at 7:45 

a.m. as staff shielded by umbrellas 
from the rain filed into the LSA 
Building. Outside, a group of 50 
women and four men in damp coats 
and signs shielded in plastic bags, 
some seeking refuge under the 
angles of the Cube, waited for their 
bus to Washington D.C. to arrive.

In about four hours, Donald 

Trump would be sworn in as 45th 
president of the United States and 

the 44th president, Barack Obama, 
would board a helicopter and fly out 
of the capital he had called home for 
eight years.

The bus would never make it to 

D.C. by then, but it never intended 
to. The women weren’t interested 
celebrating 
the 
inauguration, 

rather, they wanted to be there for 
the aftermath. On Friday, Trump 
was inaugurated, and on Saturday, 
women from all over the country 
would gather for the Women’s 
March on Washington.

A week before the inauguration, 

The Washington Post reported 

that city officials had received 200 
permit requests for bus parking for 
the inauguration itself, and 1,200 
for the Women’s March. Going into 
Jan. 20, the president-elect had a 
37-percent approval rating.

Trump’s election was met with 

mixed emotions across the country 
— the president lost the popular 
vote but won on the electoral. Many 
women were saddened by the loss 
of Democratic candidate Hillary 
Clinton, and even more so the loss 
of the prospect of the first female 
president. Regardless of political 
party, though, women were weary 

of the incoming president — for 
his policies threatening issues like 
reproductive health, and for his 
rhetoric against women (see: the 
infamous “grab her by the pussy” 
hot mike video).

It was these concerns which 

prompted the surge of Facebook 
events for women organizing and 
demonstrating in response. The 
movement eventually consolidated 
under the Women’s March on 
Washington — though, there were 
also smaller marches across the 
country — including one in Ann 
Arbor.

LSA senior Florence Rivkin, 

donning 
a 
pink 
“WOMEN’S 

HEALTH MATTERS” shirt, stood 
at the front of the bus and explained 
why she would march.

“I think it’s going to be a really 

lovely message to show thousands 
and thousands of people, women, 
men, every identity, coming together 
and showing everyone that we 
actually love each other and the U.S. 
doesn’t have to be a hateful place,” 
Rivkin said. “I want the Trump 
administration to know I am going 
to be fighting for my rights and I am 
going to be fighting for everybody 

else’s rights … this is the beginning 
of a movement, not the end.”

Rivkin organized the event with 

high-school-friend-turned-college-
roommate 
LSA 
senior 
Lalitha 

Ramaswamy. Rivkin was upset 
following the election and a family 
friend suggested she do something 
about it and go to the march.

“I came home and Lalitha was 

sitting in our room and I was like, 
should we do this?” Rivkin said. 
“And she was like, yeah. And she 
made the Facebook event and we 
ordered the bus the next day.”

EMMA KINERY

Editor in Chief

See MARCH, Page 3A

M ARCH ON

“This is the beginning of a movement, not the end.” 

