Despite 
frigid 

temperatures, 
about 
100 

students 
and 
community 

members marched through 
the streets of Ann Arbor 
on Thursday night to “take 
back the night” and raise 
awareness for sexual assault 
on college campuses.

Though 
Take 
Back 
the 

Night is believed to have 
originated 
in 
19th-century 

London 
when 
women 

marched for safer streets, 
it has since evolved into an 
international 
movement 
of 

over 1,000 annual marches 
and rallies. These events, 
such as the one in Ann Arbor, 
work to provide a safe place 
for survivors of sexual assault 
to come together and share 
their stories.

Take Back the Night and 

University 
of 
Michigan 

Students 
Against 
Rape 

organized the Ann Arbor 
march and rally, and allowed 
organizations with similar 
goals 
such 
as 
SafeHouse, 

Sexual 
Assault 
Prevention 

and Awareness Center and 
Planned Parenthood to table 
inside the Michigan Union, 
where the rally was held.

Ann Arbor residents Tom 

and Pam Swider kicked off 
the rally, themed “The Power 
of Words,” noting it was their 
ninth year of organizing the 
event and the 39th annual 

rally in Ann Arbor.

Pam Swider emphasized 

the importance of the rally as 
a way to create an accessible 
space for victims of assault 
to reach out to others, as well 
as to overcome the feeling of 
shame that sometimes follows 
an assault.

“Shame is such a powerful 

and harsh aspect of sexual 
violence,” she said. “But the 
more we talk about it, the 
easier it is for someone who 
has been assaulted to reach 
out to others for support and 
help.”

State Sen. Rebekah Warren 

(D–Ann 
Arbor) 
gave 
the 

opening 
address, 
during 

which she emphasized the 
power of events like Take 
Back the Night to incite 
dialogue surrounding sexual 
assault. She presented the 
statistic that only 20 percent 

Making 
a 
pun 
on 
the 

culinary arts, the University 
of 
Michigan 
Bicentennial 

Office held a Feast of Ideas 
on Thursday night, providing 
an “intellectual sampler” of 
short talks representing some 
of the University’s academic 
offerings.

More 
than 
a 
dozen 

University staff and professors 
went to local businesses around 
Ann Arbor as part of one of 
the University’s bicentennial 
celebrations 
intended 
to 

highlight 
the 
University’s 

impact and contributions to 
the community-at-large.

The 
multi-part 
event 

featured 
a 
diverse 
lineup 

of 
professors, 
providing 

expertise in all areas of the 
University.

In a University press release, 

Michelle 
French, 
associate 

director of the Bicentennial 
Office, said the event was 
intended to strengthen the 
ties between the Ann Arbor 
community and the University 
it houses.

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, April 7, 2017

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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 62
©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 BICENTENNIAL, Page 3

Day-long 
festivities 
celebrate
U-M’s 200th

ANN ARBOR

Series of talks from faculty 
around Ann Arbor aim to 
advocate academic success

ANDREW HIYAMA

Dail Staff Reporter

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Students start the Take Back the Night march in front of the Union on Thursday night.

Around 100 march in annual Take Back 
the Night event against sexual assault 

Series of performances preceded the march, discussed curbing sexual violence

KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See NIGHT, Page 2

The 
Residence 
Halls 

Association 
presented 
and 

passed its official decision to 
endorse a 3-percent increase 
for room and board rates for 
the 2018-2019 academic year 
at Couzens Residence Hall on 
Thursday evening.

The 
RHA 

recommendations, 
authored 

by 
LSA 
sophomore 
Sujay 

Shetty, president of the RHA, 
and 
RHA 
representatives 

Rabi 
Osagie 
and 
Dylan 

Rushton, 
Engineering 

freshmen, include a 1-percent 
increase 
for 
operational 

purposes and a 2-percent 
increase 
for 
Residential 

Life Initiatives — a program 
dedicated to improving the 
residential living experience 
at the University of Michigan.

Shetty said in a press 

release the resolution will 
be presented to the Board of 
Regents, who will ultimately 
make a final decision on room 
and board rates.

Currently, the average cost 

of a single room is $12,974, 

See RHA, Page 3

Residence
Hall Assoc. 
negotiates 
room costs 

CAMPUS LIFE

Committee negotiates the 
changes with the Division 
of Student Life Thursday

CALEB CHADWELL

Daily Staff Reporter

Covering 
 
issues 
such 
as 
higher 

education 
and 
influencing 

change 
through 
academia, 

University 
of 
Michigan 

President 
Mark 
Schlissel 

highlighted on Thursday what 
he considers the importance 
of being a research institution 
socially, 
economically 
and 

internationally.

However, Schlissel veered 

from the central topic of the 
colloquium — a President’s 
Bicentennial Colloquium event 
held at the Rackham Graduate 
School featuring four former 
University presidents, including 
Harold T. Shapiro, James J. 
Duderstadt, Lee C. Bollinger 
and Mary Sue Coleman — to 
speak about issues he found 
more significant: immigration 
and a university’s responsibility 
to speak out within the current 
political climate.

“The challenge we’re going 

to confront in this very political 
era is: How do we walk that line 

between picking on issues that 
we can contribute to that make 
our mission stronger, make our 
University stronger and more 
valuable to society without 
being categorized or dismissed 
as inappropriately acting in 
the political space?” Schlissel 
asked.

Beforehand, 
Gary 
Krenz, 

director 
of 
bicentennial 

planning, 
wrote 
in 
an 

email interview the event’s 
significance was twofold.

“First, to be able to have a 

group of people together who, 
all told, can reflect on such a 
large portion of the University’s 
history 
is 
very 
exciting,” 

Krenz wrote. “It allows us 
to compare similarities and 
differences across time. Second, 
these presidents collectively 
represent an amazing amount 
of experience in higher ed 
leadership, so having them 
together to discuss challenges 
will be very enlightening.”

Susan Alcock, special council 

for institutional outreach and 
engagement, was joined by 

Presidents
event covers 
civic duty of
University 

Massive Online Open Courses prove 
beneficial outside the classroom 

See SCHLISSEL, Page 3

ADMINISTRATION

Joined by four former U-M presidents, 
Schlissel talks current political climate 

ALEXA ST. JOHN
Managing News Editor 

Students, faculty members also face challenges, see room for improvement with the portal

School of Information Prof. 

Charles Severance has been 
interested in Massive Open 
Online 
Courses 
since 
the 

moment he was first introduced 
to them.

“When MOOCs came along in 

2011 or 2012, I was like, ‘this is 
going to be the biggest use of the 
internet for teaching that the 
world’s ever seen, and I got to be 
part of it,’ ” Severance said. “So 

I sort of shoved my way in and 
got to be part of the first round 
of courses that the University of 
Michigan published on Coursera 
(a host website for MOOCs), 
which were really the first real 
MOOCs.”

Just as Severance expected, 

MOOCs have exploded in the 
past five years, and both he 
and the University have been 
on the cutting edge of MOOCs 
production ever since.

James DeVaney, the associate 

vice 
provost 
for 
academic 

innovation for the University, 

told the Daily in an email 
interview the University was 
one of the first four schools 
to partner with Coursera in 
2012. Since then, the school has 
produced over 100 MOOCs and 
forged strong partnerships with 
both Coursera and edX, another 
host website for MOOCs.

Currently, the University’s 

MOOCs alone have reached over 
5.6 million people from around 
the world, according to DeVaney, 
and the University shows no 
signs of slowing production any 
time soon.

“It’s really pretty when it’s 

done, but it takes a lot longer 
than it used to.”

The first major MOOC — 

an introduction to artificial 
intelligence — was launched 
by Stanford University in 2011, 
and out of this experiment 
came MOOC provider websites. 
In most cases, these providers 
act as intermediaries between 
universities 
and 
“learners,” 

which is the MOOC-jargon term 
for a student.

The University of Michigan 

MAYA GOLDMAN

Daily Staff Reporter

See MOOCS, Page 3