Reinventing 
Urban 

Transportation and Mobility 
aims to revolutionize public 
transit through an online app 
that turns transportation into 
an on-demand service. The 
app, which serves travelers on 
the University of Michigan’s 
North Campus, first launched 
this month on January 16. 
While no timeline is set in 
place yet, the developers hope 
to 
eventually 
expand 
the 

service to the University as a 
whole.

RITMO, 
partnering 

with the Ford School of 
Public 
Policy, 
will 
allow 

students, faculty and staff 
to use on-demand shuttle 
transportation linked with 
the University bus system. 
Riders only need to book one 
ticket to their destination and 
wait up to five minutes for 
their shuttle to arrive.

Pascal 
Van 
Hentenryck, 

the Seth Bonder Collegiate 
professor at the College of 
Engineering, is leading the 
RITMO project. He explained 
how the new system hopes to 
resolve inefficiencies within 
our current transportation 
system by solving the so-called 
first and last mile problem, 
when individuals have to walk 
more than a “comfortable 
distance,” typically 1/4 miles. 

Second-year 
Law 
student 

Megan Brown has spent the past 
seven years at the University, 
first 
for 
her 
undergraduate 

education and now for Law 
School.

Now, she has been selected as 

the editor in chief of the Michigan 
Law Review – a University of 
Michigan publication written by 
legal scholars, practitioners and 
students. She also discovered 
she would be the first Black 
person to hold this position at 
the Law Review, which issued 
its first publication in 1902.

She initially held the position 

of an associate editor of the Law 
Review, which she achieved 
after 
a 
rigorous 
process 

involving 
writing 
a 
paper, 

various 
publication-related 

exercises and interviews.

Brown said she felt honored to 

be chosen as editor in chief and 
attributed her success to those 
around her.

“Any 
success 
that 
I’ve 

achieved in Law School is really 
a credit to my classmates and my 
professors,” Brown said. “And 
then once some of these people 
gave me a little more confidence, 
it just felt good to work hard and 
make them happy and proud and 
make myself proud.”

Regarding her role as the first 

Black editor in chief, Brown said 
she had no knowledge of it when 
she applied. The Law Review 
board told her after she had 

been selected. Brown said her 
selection reflects the progress 
the Law School community has 
made.

“I will admit that it did take 

a while,” Brown said. “It should 
have happened sooner. But I like 
to think of this as mostly good 
news. There’s a lot of crazy stuff 
happening on campus and in the 
world racism-wise, and it feels 
good to know that at least my 
community has faith (in me).”

Brown said her classmate 

Johannah Walker, a third-year 
Law student, is someone who has 
encouraged her to be her best. 
Brown met Walker through the 
Black Law Students Association, 
of which they are both members. 
Walker said seeing Brown go 
through the early stages of the 
process and then achieving her 
goals was amazing.

“Megan is what everyone 

says 
she 
is,” 
Walker 
said. 

“She’s intelligent, she’s driven, 
she’s kind and thoughtful and 
generous, but even more than 
that she just works so incredibly 
hard. I think that’s just been 
reflected through everything 
I’ve always seen her do.”

Walker said having Brown 

specifically be the first Black 
editor in chief is significant.

Two days after Michigan 

State University president Lou 
Anna Simon resigned from her 
post, the university’s Athletic 
Director Mark Hollis followed 
suit, according to a statement 
released 
on 
the 
University 

website Friday afternoon.

The resignations come in 

the wake of the sentencing of 
Larry Nassar, the once-world-
renowned physician for the 
USA Gymnastics team and the 
MSU athletic department who, 
over the course of at least three 
decades, 
molested 
hundreds 

of women and girls whose 
treatment he was responsible for. 

A Detroit News investigation 

published January 18 revealed 
multiple employees in MSU’s 
athletic department were told 
of Nassar’s abuse in the decades 
leading up to his firing in 2016. 
Simon herself was informed 
of a police report and Title 
IX complaint against Nassar 
in 2014, but said they were 
reported to her as being against 
an “unnamed physician.”

In his statement Friday, Hollis 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, January 29, 2018

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN 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. 64
©2018 The Michigan Daily

NEWS......................... 2A

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

App aims to 
supplement 
University 
bus system

University agrees to push Richard 
Spencer event to after semester

See RITMO, Page 3A

CHUN SO/Daily

Students walk out of classes and gather in the Diag to protest the University’s consideration of hosting Richard Spencer as part of the #StopSpencer events in 
November. 

RESEARCH

Partnering with Ford School, RITMO 
provides on-demand shuttles for users

KATE JENKINS
Daily Staff Reporter

Administration will offer Spencer spring, summer dates once semester is over

White supremacist Richard 

Spencer will not be speaking 
at the University of Michigan 
this semester, according to 

a statement released Friday 
afternoon.

The University will offer 

Spencer dates after the end of 
the winter semester.

University President Mark 

Schlissel 
announced 
in 

November his administration 
will 
move 
forward 
with 

Spencer’s 
request, 
provided 

they 
can 
ensure 
a 
safe 

environment for the speech.

“Consistent with earlier U-M 

communications, the university 
will continue its ongoing safety 
and security assessments and 
will offer possible dates based 
on 
these 
assessments,” 
the 

November statement reads.

After a lawsuit regarding 

Spencer’s request to speak on 
Michigan 
State 
University’s 

campus, MSU has agreed to 
allow Spencer to speak on their 
East Lansing campus on March 
5.

MAYA GOLDMAN & 

AMARA SHAIKH
Daily News Editor & 
Daily Staff Reporter 

See MSU, Page 3A

Following 
president, 
MSU AD 
steps down

GOVERNMENT

Students set up talk 
to help marginalized 
students professionally

ANDREW HIYAMA

Daily News Editor

JOSHUA HAN/Daily

Second-year Law student Megan Brown has spent the past seven years at the University, first for her undergraduate 
education and now for Law School. 

After 116 years, Michigan Law Review 
names first Black Editor-in-Chief

Classmates describe 2L Megan Brown as “intelligent” and “thoughtful” 

SAYALI AMIN
Daily Staff Reporter

Hockey swept

Michigan hockey team has 

season-long weaknesses 

exposed, gets swept against 

Ohio State
» Page 1B

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

After 
discovering 
she 
had 

three herniated disks at age 27, 
University of Michigan 2008 alum 
Helaine Knapp was determined 
to find an effective, low-impact 
workout. Her doctor suggested 
rowing, but she said she initially 
associated 
rowing 
with 
the 

untouched machine at the gym 
or in her grandfather’s basement. 
Knapp decided to challenge this 
stigma.

Now, following the success of 

its first two studios in Manhattan, 
CITYROW – a rowing fitness 
boutique founded by Knapp – will 
open its third location in Ann 
Arbor at 401 E. Liberty this spring.

“I was really frustrated and 

kind of kept going back to the 
rowing thing like, ‘Is there any 
way to make this sexy and cool and 
chic and available for everyone?’” 
Knapp said. “And so that was sort 
of the impetus behind CITYROW, 
because I knew there had to be a 
better and smarter way to work 
out.”

Knapp 
and 
John 
Rotche, 

another 
University 
alum, 

partnered together to franchise 

See FITNESS, Page 2A

University 
alums open 
Ann Arbor 
rowing gym

BUSINESS

After success at New 
York locations, rowing 
“available for everyone”

JULIA FORD

Daily Staff Reporter
Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

