Ann Arbor City Council met 

Monday evening to discuss 
topics 
including 
pedestrian 

safety and crosswalk policies, a 
millage to fund the Washtenaw 
County Mental Health and 
Sheriff 
departments, 
and 

suicide prevention in the city’s 
parking structures. 

Discussion 
on 
pedestrian 

safety began during the public 
commentary 
period 
at 
the 

beginning 
of 
the 
meeting. 

Several local residents brought 
up concerns about crosswalk 
safety in Ann Arbor.

Ann 
Arbor 
resident 

Stephanie Preston, leader of 
local 
organization 
A2 
Safe 

Transport, stressed the need 
for a new crosswalk near 
Community High School at 
the corner of North 5th and 
Detroit streets. All crosswalks 
normally 
utilized 
in 
the 

immediate area are unusable 
due to construction.

“We’ve been working with the 

city and with Community High 
School to figure out a solution,” 
Preston 
said. 
“Currently 

there’s a DDA (Downtown 
Development 
Authority) 

project in Kerrytown, adjacent 
to Community … this will 
promise to be a great project; 
however, it will take all year. 
In the meantime, there is no 
safe way for these students 
to get to school. … It’s a very 
tricky intersection, we get that. 

There’s only one location where 
they could get across safely 
and we know that the city can 
prioritize having some safe 
options.”

Citizens also raised general 

concerns 
about 
crosswalks. 

Jared Hoffert, current Ward 2 
City Council candidate, voiced 
his worries that a review of 
the city’s current pedestrian 
crossing policies would lead to 
its abolishment.

“I would like to express my 

sincere desire that any review 
of this law is with an eye 
toward further education of its 
specifics to the residents of Ann 
Arbor, both pedestrians and 
motorists alike,” Hoffert said. 
“Ann Arbor has always been 
a city that values pedestrian 
safety and our laws need to 
reflect this value.”

Later in the meeting during 

an additional public comment 

session Soraya Streeter, Ann 
Arbor resident and Skyline 
High School student, and her 
friend turned attention back to 
the need for a crosswalk near 
Community High School.

“We 
both 
have 
friends 

and my little sister goes to 
Community,” 
Streeter 
said. 

“We’re 
concerned 
because 

they seem to be the type that 
wear all black. … My sister has 

The University of Michigan 

is used to winning competitions 
in 
various 
schools 
and 

departments, but the one it’s 
entering now isn’t exactly about 
academics.

Instead, University President 

Mark Schlissel is calling upon 
students to take part in a Big 
Ten Conference competition 
to help increase voter turnout 
rates.

“I invite you to take part 

and help the University of 
Michigan – and our society 
– win,” Schlissel wrote in an 
email circulated to the entire 
University community Sunday 
morning, 
focusing 
on 
the 

importance of voter turnout. 
This comes as no surprise as 
the state is approaching the 
2018 midterm election cycle 
next academic year.

Over 
the 
course 
of 
the 

next year, the Big Ten Voting 
Challenge will take place across 
all 14 universities within the 
Big Ten Conference, ending 
with the results of turnout rates 
among students for the 2018 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, September 19, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 92
©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

CROS SWO R D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

See COMPETITION, Page 3

University
joins Big 
Ten voting
challenge

CITY COUNCIL

Schlissel encourages ‘U’ 
participation in contest
for increased voter turnout

DYLAN LACROIX
Daily Staff Reporter

ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily

Ann Arbor residents present their concerns to Mayor Chris Taylor and City Council at the Ann Arbor City Council 
meeting at Larsom City Hall on Monday.

Ann Arbor City Council considers 
improvements for city crosswalk safety

The council also met to talk about increased mental health resources in the city

MAYA GOLDMAN

Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See CITY, Page 3

In 
response 
to 
several 

recent incidents of racism on 
the University of Michigan 
campus and throughout Ann 
Arbor, students and faculty 
hung up posters with phrases 
of solidarity and support for 
targeted groups Monday night.

“You are loved, valued, and 

important. Hatred has no place 
here. The Michigan community 
stands with you,” a poster read.

Sunday 
morning, 
three 

Black students in the Michigan 
Community Scholars Program 
discovered 
racial 
slurs, 

including 
“n-----” 
written 

on their dorm room doors. 
The same day, Ann Arbor 
community 
members 
found 

the same word painted onto 
a building near campus, on 
Liberty Street and State Street, 
along with “Free Dylann Roof.” 
Students also tweeted flyers 

See POSTERS, Page 3

Students 
gather, put 
up positive
messages

CAMPUS LIFE

Organizations take stand 
against hateful writing by
 posting welcoming posters

RIYAH BASHA, 

SOPHIE SHERRY & 
ALEXA ST. JOHN
Daily News Editors and 
Managing News Editor

This 
summer, 
South 

University 
Avenue 
was 

characterized as a frenzy 
of 
construction. 
Several 

different projects, including 
the building of new sidewalks 
and new apartment buildings, 
have still been in the works 
since classes let out last April.

LSA 
sophomore 
Josie 

Junkin, a University Towers 
resident, 
was 
especially 

bothered by the construction 
while moving in this August.

“Moving in, it was pretty 

hard to find parking spots,” 
Junkin said. “And walking 
to class, we’ve had to walk 
in the street which is pretty 
inconvenient.”

The sidewalk restructuring 

project, 
which 
is 
a 

collaboration 
between 

the city of Ann Arbor and 
the Ann Arbor Downtown 
Development 
Authority, 

was the first of the projects 
to start, and will be the 

first to wrap up. Because 
of the construction, South 
University Avenue was closed 
to 
two-way 
traffic 
from 

East University Avenue to 
Washtenaw Avenue.

The 
roads 
were 
slated 

to reopen last Friday, but 
at the time of publication 
South University Avenue is 
still blocked off from East 
University Avenue to Church 
Street.

According to Amber Miller, 

a planner from the Ann Arbor 
DDA, the sidewalk repairs 
were much needed. The last 
time they had been updated 
was in the 1980s, and Miller 
said it was starting to show.

“The sidewalk was in really 

bad shape, the trees were 
dying, so that was our first 
priority,” Miller said. “But 
we’ve also been able to put in a 
rain garden to deal with some 
standing water issues, we’re 
able to expand the sidewalk to 
reduce the crossing distance. 
There’s more space on the 
sidewalk for cafes and seating, 

South U Ave. 
construction 
inconvenient 
for campus

Student-parents nationwide face 
a cut in resources under Trump

See CONSTRUCTION, Page 2

AVA WEINER/Daily

ANN ARBOR

Students, locals complain about noise, 
timespan and consequences of building

MAYA GOLDMAN

Daily Staff Reporter

Proposed 2018 fiscal budget will decrease access to funds, necessary child care

For 
the 
vast 
majority 
of 

undergraduate students at the 
University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor 
campus, the prospect of raising a 
family is remote –– something they 
do not imagine doing for another 
several years, or at least until 
they graduate. According to Amy 
Szczepanski, campus child care 
homes network manager for Work 
Life Resource Center, there are only 
57 undergraduates receiving a child 

care subsidy through the Office of 
Financial Aid — though the total 
number of undergraduate parents is 
likely slightly higher.

For more than 4.8 million 

college students across the country, 
however, leading a double life as 
a student-parent — or, factoring 
in work, a triple life — is their 
reality. The time they spend on 
child care makes them less likely to 
graduate on time or at all, and their 
responsibilities as a student force 
them to sacrifice time with their 
children.

And neither child care nor 

higher education are uncostly. With 
what little time they have between 
the two commitments, student-
parents often must work just to 
keep themselves afloat; according 
to reports from Young Invincibles, 
25 percent of student-parents live 
below the federal poverty line, 
and according to the Institute 
for 
Women’s 
Policy 
Research, 

88 percent of student-parents at 
community colleges live below 200 
percent of that.
Child Care Access Means Parents 
in School

One 
of 
the 
few 
programs 

working to address the urgency of 
student-parent needs is Child Care 
Access Means Parents in School, a 
federal competitive grant program 
managed by the Department of 
Education that awards grants to 
colleges and universities intended 
to support or establish campus-
based child care programs for low-
income student-parents.

Funded at about $15 million per 

year, the program is small compared 
to the size of the Department of 
Education’s budget, and, serving 
approximately 5,000 students, the 

ANDREW HIYAMA

Daily Staff Reporter

See PARENTS, Page 3

