Gov. Rick Snyder and state
lawmakers
are
introducing
bills to the state legislature
that seek to combat the rising
number of opioid overdoses by
monitoring prescriptions more
closely and enforcing opioid
abuse education. Committees
within the state House and
Senate will begin testimony on
more than a dozen measures to
battle the epidemic.
The
opioid
epidemic
in
Michigan has been growing
steadily, with the number
of
opioid
prescriptions
increasing from 180 million
in 2007 to 690 million in 2016.
Snyder said the new bills are
a step in the right direction,
though they aren’t an absolute
solution.
“There is not just one step
to solve this problem … it’s
about our society, our culture
changing,” Snyder stated. “So
this is very comprehensive
stuff. This won’t be the last
step but another good step.”
Engineering
freshman
Lincoln
Merrill,
publicity
chair of the University of
Michigan’s chapter of College
Republicans, agreed.
“At this point, any measure
taken against the drug that
will help stop the unnecessary
deaths it causes is welcome,”
he said.
New legislation announced
Thursday
has
received
bipartisan support. The bill
limits
the
prescription
of
opioids,
requires
parental
consent when prescribing to
minors and requires public
schools to educate about abuse.
Patients’ drug histories will be
tracked through an electronic
database, as required by a new
law.
The
mandate
on
opioid
education is said to look
similar to a bill in Ohio that
requires
K-12
students
to
be taught about the dangers
of opioid use. If the bill
passes, the program would
be implemented by the 2018
school year by the Michigan
Department
of
Education.
The
bill
was
introduced
by state Rep. Beth Griffin
(R–Mattawan)
and
allows
Michigan’s Prescription Drug
and Opioid Abuse Commission
to design a curriculum for
high school students.
In
an
interview
with
WWMT
radio
station,
Griffin said even prescription
medications
pose
dangers
students need to be aware of.
“As a mom with kids in
sports, it’s good to know
that
this
legislation
will
help educate my kids on the
dangers of taking a drug, even
if a doctor prescribed it,”
Monday
evening,
students
and faculty crowded into the
Anderson Room of the Michigan
Union for a panel discussion
about
minorities
in
public
service,
organized
by
LSA
Student Government and LSA
junior Zoha Qureshi.
LSA senior Julia Gips, LSA
Student Government president,
explained LSA SG organized the
event in the hopes of reaching
out to minority groups at the
University of Michigan.
“There are a lot of people who
feel underrepresented on this
campus, and as president of LSA
Student Government we had a lot
of conversations about how we
can make minority voices better
heard,” she said.
Quershi said organizing the
event was personal to her.
“Being on the Diversity Affairs
Committee and being the vice
chair with that along with Ibtihal
(Makki, an LSA senior), the
purpose of DAC is to make sure
that this campus is as inclusive
as possible to people of different
backgrounds
and
different
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 53
©2017 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
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
See LSA, Page 3
Minorities
in public
service
recognized
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Michigan gubernatorial
candidate Abdul El-Sayed,
faculty speak at event
AMARA SHAIKH
For the Daily
DESIGN BY NOAH SHERBIN
New opioid legislature introduced
hopes to curb addiction in Michigan
Plans include tracking prescriptions and enforcing opioid abuse education
CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See OPIOIDS, Page 3
Marschall Runge, dean of
the University of Michigan
Medical School and executive
vice
president
for
medical
affairs, stopped by the Senate
Advisory
Committee
on
University Affairs on Monday
to talk about the Medical
School and Michigan Medicine
and how these institutions can
better interact with faculty
governance.
Runge, who has been with
the Medical School for two
years and is also CEO of
Michigan Medicine, began his
presentation to the committee
with a PowerPoint outlining
the
missions
and
current
affairs of all three roles of the
University’s
overall
health
system: research, education
and clinical care.
“I strongly believe research
drives innovation and clinical
care and gives us the chance
to be a real leader in this
area,” Runge said. “None of
that can occur … without our
educational programs.”
According to Runge, the
See SACUA, Page 3
Med School
Dean talks
curriculum
at SACUA
ACADEMICS
Marschall Runge, body
discuss improved relations
with faculty governance
MAYA GOLDMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
University
of
Michigan
seniors have been expressing
their
dissatisfaction
with
the
recent
commencement
announcement
as
there
are no plans for a featured
speaker. Many also believe the
University is focusing too much
on the bicentennial celebration
instead of the graduating class
of 2017.
The commencement speech
will
feature
a
multimedia
project
displaying
current
University faculty reading the
words from previous speeches
throughout the University’s
history.
Music,
Theatre
&
Dance
Prof.
Malcolm
Tulip,
who
is
producing
the
exhibition,
said
the
presentation
will
celebrate
both the bicentennial and the
current graduates.
“For years now, we have
become used to seeing great
speeches and events on video,”
Tulip said in a University
press release. “In the early
days of the university this
documentation did not exist
or was lost. This project
assembles a series of excerpts
from
significant
speeches
from the university’s past. In
seven
minutes,
graduating
students and their families
will gain a sense of their place
in the university and nation’s
history.”
In the press release, Interim
Provost Paul Courant said
the
bicentennial
will
not
overshadow the students and
their graduation.
“Graduation, as always, is
principally about the academic
achievements of the students
who are graduating,” Courant
said. “We are pleased and
proud to honor them and their
achievements.”
Despite Courant’s statement,
seniors were frustrated with
the speech presentation.
LSA Student Government
President
Julia
Gips,
an
LSA senior, wrote she was
disappointed when the plan
Class of 2017
voices issues
over plan for
graduation
Motivational speaker highlights
tips for engaging in satisfying life
See COMMENCEMENT, Page 3
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
Public health professor Dr. Victor Stretcher discusses ways to “design a happy life” during his motivational presentation at the Michigan League on Monday.
ADMINISTRATION
Students expressed discontent over ‘U’
announcement to not have central speaker
MATT HARMON
Daily Staff Reporter
Panelist provide different insights to students, attendees in a packed Vandenberg Room
The Vandenberg Room of
the
Michigan
League
was
overflowing
Monday
night
with students waiting to hear
Dr. Victor Strecher, a professor
of health behavior and health
education in the School of
Public Health, speak about
“Designing a Happy Life,” an
event aiming to speak about
personal development.
The event was the inaugural
lecture in a series organized by
the LSA Student Honor Council,
an organization dedicated to
the importance of honorable
behavior in the context of
academia
and
scholarship,
which seeks to hold the event
annually.
Strecher
attempted
to
illustrate ways to compute the
way to happiness.
“This is about designing your
life,” Strecher said. “(But) I’m
not saying I know everything
either.”
Strecher
asked
students
to
identify
their
age,
and
found the crowd was a mix
of
undergraduate
students,
graduate students and parents
from the community.
“Very likely when you were
getting into the University of
Michigan, your parents had a
résumé for you,” Strecher said.
“They had written your résumé
for you in their mind. I’m going
to
take
that
metaphorical
résumé they have for you and
tear it up. Because it is not their
life. It’s your life.”
Over
the
course
of
the
next
hour,
Strecher
veered
from personal anecdotes to
discussion
of
philosophical
texts, drawing from the works
of Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius,
Nietzsche, Buddhist philosophy
and
his
own
personal
experiences to discuss factors
that could lead to personal
fulfillment and development.
At one point, Strecher asked
the audience to think about
their
own
deaths,
taking
inspiration from Steve Jobs’
commencement speech to the
QUINN FALTER
For the Daily
See SPEAKER, Page 3