The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Tuesday, October 3, 2017 — 3
CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily
Paul McCartney performs in Detroit Sunday evening.
SIR PAUL
Scholarship, which is a $5,000
need-based scholarship given
to
undergraduate
students
and that can be can be divided
between one or two recipients.
This year, Ortega motioned for
the award to be given to two
students with the money split
evenly among them.
SACUA
member
Dave
Wright,
an
accounting
professor in the Ross School
of Business, brought up the
introduction of a campaign
to raise more money for the
award, since the committee
only grants the scholarship
every four years.
“There are three years of
students who aren’t eligible
for that scholarship,” Wright
said. “If we had more money in
the pot we could be doing this
every year.”
As
further
support
for
dividing the award between
two
students,
Ortega
mentioned splitting the money
would have less of an impact on
the winning students’ financial
aid. This ushered in further
discussion on amending the
scholarship. SACUA member
Ruth Carlos, a professor in the
Medical School, believed the
award should not negatively
affect a student’s financial aid.
“We’re
just
substituting
one grant for another grant,”
Carlos said.
SACUA
From Page 1
as the company has found its
way into retailers across the
country. MONTA has even
been featured on Buzzfeed,
obtaining a spot on its “26
Awesome
Beauty
Products
You Didn’t Know You Could
Get At Urban Outfitters.”
De Coster’s business is a
solo operation; she manages
all the marketing, branding,
production and social media.
She finds she needs separate
calendars
for
school
and
MONTA to keep up with the
volume of work.
“Balance is still something
I’m trying to figure out,
honestly,” de Coster said. “You
have to make a lot of sacrifices
and really love what you’re
giving up some normal college
experiences for.”
The business was born out
of personal struggles in de
Coster’s life. While in junior
high, de Coster experienced
medical issues that forced
her to be more cautious about
what she puts in her body.
This, in conjunction with an
extensive leg injury obtained
four days into de Coster’s
freshman year, provided the
inspiration for MONTA.
Instead of sitting in her
dorm
room,
however,
de
Coster
used
aromatherapy
as an outlet for her negative
emotions and created the first
MONTA products.
“MONTA
was
born
to
express my longing for nature
and to relay those emotions
in
another
language,”
de
Coster said. “There is a faith
component, as it expresses my
relationship with God also; I
can look outside and view his
ultimate creativity.”
MONTA
has
partnered
with other businesses to craft
new, communal products. One
such collaboration is with Los
Angeles based fashion line
Gracemade, where the two
will create a rollerball entitled
“Be Still.” De Coster will also
be working with Alex Elle,
writer and self-care advocate,
and Tara Mackey, owner of
The Organic Life.
Jasmine Rennie, creative
director
and
owner
of
Gracemade, chose to work
with de Coster due to a shared
faith-driven background and
mutual appreciation for each
other’s brands.
“She just has a beautiful
story; her whole concept of
creating her scents was based
on her own faith journey
and things and places she
experienced in her discovery
of who God was in her life,”
Rennie said. “She has a great
mind and a great spirit about
her and it shows throughout
everything she does in her
company.”
As MONTA begins to gain
more traction, de Coster is
planning to expand the size
of her operations. She intends
on taking advantage of the
Business
School’s
student
facilities, like the Zell Lurie
Center for Entrepreneurship,
to
help
her
make
this
transition.
As her business begins to
grow, so will her workload.
Business
sophomore
Max
Devooght, a friend of de
Coster, believes de Coster’s
work ethic is well suited for
this change.
“Everybody’s sitting there
and enjoying themselves on
gameday and she’s building
a business,” Devooght said.
“Her business is literally an
extension of herself; I didn’t
know it was possible to be that
connected to a business.”
MONTA has not only been an
outlet for de Coster’s emotions,
but for her artistic side as well.
She sees her products as a unique
blend of business and creativity
and feels it will not be easy for
anyone else to replicate.
“I consider MONTA half
business, half art,” de Coster
said. “There is no one else that
has the same design eye or
personal experiences as I do, so I
like to refer to the products as my
sensory diary and no one else
can write my diary for me.”
MONTA
From Page 1
facility to an outside source. It put
out a Request for Proposal — known
in the city as an RFP — looking for
a company to contract the compost
management. WeCare Organics,
which was then based in New York
but since merged with Arkansas-
based Denali Water Solutions,
answered that call. In February of
2011, it took over the contract and
has been managing Ann Arbor’s
compost since then.
This summer, that contract
was up and Ann Arbor once again
put out an RFP for a composting
contractor. WeCare submitted a
request to renew their contract, but
this time, the Holland, Mich.-based
Cocoa Corporation also turned in a
proposal.
It did not receive an interview or
site visit from the city.
According to Cocoa Corporation
CEO Adam Brent, his company felt
its case was persuasive. Not only did
he think it was the best company for
the job, but he also claimed WeCare
was grossly mismanaging the site.
“From my perspective, there
is mismanagement going on at
the facility, and then the contract
was awarded to a company who is
certainly going to continue what I
believe is business as usual, which is
‘we get paid for the tipping (service
of accepting unsorted compost
material), and we’ll just pile it up
and leave it out back like everyone
else is doing and maybe one day
it’ll turn into compost,’” Brent
said. “The city of Ann Arbor has
an excellent compost facility … and
the resource is being, in my opinion,
squandered.”
Brent and his CFO Richard
Hornstein based their allegations
on the fact that WeCare was not
grinding large material or moving
enough of their compost off the
facility. Grinding is an important
part of composting because it breaks
down large woody materials so
they can help along the composting
process.
Grinding and moving compost
is a big part of Cocoa Corporation’s
business model — it sells most of
the compost it accumulates to local
farmers as soil fertilizer — and
it claims it was part of WeCare’s
original contract, too.
“The requirement is, in the
contract with the city of Ann
Arbor, is that the compost facility
is supposed to grind all the
woody material and remove all
the contaminants,” Brent said.
“If you go to the site, none of that
is taking place. In the RFP, we
requested through the Freedom
of Information Act after we had
been denied the contract their
contract … it lists that they have
two grinders. Grinders would be
what breaks down the material.
They don’t have two grinders
there and the one grinder they do
have has been broken two years,
according to the employee that we
spoke to back in August. So they’re
not following through on their
initial contract.”
Brent
and
Hornstein
also
expressed
frustration
that
WeCare doesn’t seem to be giving
back as much revenue to the city
as its company would, if given the
chance.
“We asked for the financial
information from the city but
they wouldn’t give it to us,” Brent
said. “We don’t know how much
WeCare has repatriated back to the
city based on the tipping and the
sale. That would be an interesting
thing to compare because their
original RFP said they were going
to give back $36,000 a year. I’d like
to know if they did that.”
For Brent, the most infuriating
part of the whole debacle surfaced
when he found out whom WeCare
had listed as references on its
proposal submission. One of its
references was Christina Gomes,
the Ann Arbor solid waste and
recycling coordinator. To Brent,
this seemed like a clear conflict of
interest.
“The thing that upset me
the most was that Ms. Gomes
was listed as a reference on the
WeCare RFP,” Brent said. “She’s
one of the three people to make
the decision as to who’s going to
get the contract.”
Neither Gomes nor the city
of Ann Arbor responded to
requests for comment, but city
communications director Robert
Keller forwarded a memo sent by
the city to Brent and Hornstein
when the pair asked why they had
not received consideration for the
contract.
In
the
memo
written
by
Craig Hupy, public services area
administrator, the city denied all
the allegations Cocoa Corporation
had brought against WeCare.
In response to the claim
that WeCare was violating its
contract with the city, Hupy
wrote that Cocoa Corporation had
misunderstood the contract and
that the actual document does not
require any tonnage quantities of
waste removal be met. The city
also denied WeCare has created
a potential landfill problem at the
facility.
“Cocoa’s
accusations
and
assertions are incorrect, and also
show a lack of understanding of
municipal compost operations,”
the memo read.
The memo goes on to explain
why it decided not to interview
Cocoa Corporation after receiving
its proposal submission.
“Cocoa’s priority was third
party waste, which did not fit
within the program goals the City
was looking to accomplish with
the RFP. … Furthermore, Cocoa
presented
extremely
limited
previous experience in compost
management,
its
experience
being only at a single facility that
processes compostable materials
in large part from a limited, and
consisted category of sources…
and only since 2015,” Hupy wrote.
There was no mention in the
memo of the potential conflict of
interest raised by Gomes being a
reference of WeCare and a member
of the selection committee.
Mike
Nicholson,
WeCare’s
senior
vice
president
and
development manager, also said he
did not want to comment directly
on the allegations made against
his company. However, he said he
felt the company was following
all the rules it were supposed to
follow.
“At this point in time, we are
in procurement with the city as
our client, and we are following
what we believe to be the rules
of
procurement,”
Nicholson
said. “We’re kind of keeping our
comments to ourselves at this
point in time.”
In Nicholson’s eyes, WeCare,
which is a founding member of the
Composting Council of Michigan,
is doing a great job in Ann Arbor.
He said the company feels it’s been
quite successful in its six years
working with the city.
“We’ve been very successful,”
Nicholson said. “We view the
city as a partner, and we have
provided leadership in the state.
… We are now providing services
for the University of Michigan, for
their zero-waste program for all
their athletic facilities. And most
importantly, we helped the city
implement their residential food
waste recycling program.”
That occurred about three
years after WeCare took over the
compost contract, Nicholson said,
and it’s the reason Ann Arbor
residents and students like Sheedy
can compost at their homes.
WASTE
From Page 1
term effects.
“A subpopulation of the sample
will be followed over time,” Veliz
said. “So we’ll be able to see how
are these diagnosed concussions
influencing outcomes as these
adolescents age into adulthood. So
again, we’ll have two groups, those
who were concussed versus those
who weren’t, and we’ll be able to
ask are there differences? Are they
drastic?”
He also mentioned the role that
sports play in this study.
“There
are
quite
a
few
adolescents who participate in
sports; I’m not saying that sports
is the leading cause of concussion,
but there is a strong association
between participating in sports and
having a head injury,” he explained.
“We also have to understand that 75
percent of children and adolescents
participate in sports at a competitive
level.”
Nursing
sophomore
Lucy
Sandell,
a
member
of
the
University’s Women’s Club Soccer,
claimed this information didn’t
come as a surprise to her.
“I
definitely
believe
that;
especially with sports,” Sandell
said. “I’ve had three concussions
throughout my life, all from playing
soccer. Experiencing more than one
can be very serious, my third caused
migraines that lasted three weeks.”
The study was published in the
Journal of the American Medical
Association in Sept. 26, 2017.
LSA sophomore Will Olvera
responded
he
also
initially
associated
this
statistic
with
sports, especially with the student
body at the University.
“Upon first reaction, I’m not
surprised,” he said. “I’m not really
into sports in general, but I feel like
no matter how much protection
you use accidents happen. It’d be
interesting to see how much more
you’d see among certain sports
like football or lacrosse ... but that
number really doesn’t surprise
me.”
SURVEY
From Page 1
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
the Fourth Street parking
structure. He said the process
was
delayed
in
the
past
because of high costs and
other construction in the area.
“Given
today’s
death,
we’re
moving
forward
to
get the railings put in with
those higher bid numbers,”
Warpehoski
said.
“If
we
find out because of the other
construction that it’s going to
take a long time, we’ll go ahead
and put lower-cost chain-
link fences or something else
that can be deployed more
quickly.”
Ann Arbor resident Peter
Eckstein agreed placing a
railing would help prevent
suicide.
He
dispelled
the
common
myth
that
“if
someone is determined to
kill themselves, they will, so
putting up a fence will make
them do it another way.”
“The statement defies itself,”
Eckstein
said.
“‘If
they’re
determined!’ But often people
aren’t determined in that same
sense. It’s an impulse.”
Eckstein shared the story
about his friend jumping from
the Golden Gate Bridge in San
Francisco after his girlfriend
broke up with him. The bridge
did not have railings back
then.
“These things are often
done on impulse, the gloomy
moment. It’s dark out. The sun
may come out in half an hour,
in 10 minutes. By then you’re
dead,” Eckstein said. “You
may get a job, you may get a
purpose, you may get another
girlfriend or boyfriend. It’s not
‘if you’re determined, you’re
going to do it.’ And it is so easy
to just climb up that wall and
jump off. It’s scandalous that
we let it happen.”
CITY COUNCIL
From Page 1
She just has
a beautiful
story; her
whole concept
of creating
her scents
was based on
her own faith
journey and
things and
places she
experiences in
her discovery
of who God
was in her life,