plans to stay at the University for 
10 years before moving on to other 
work. 

According to Lewis, the Center 

will pull students and faculty 
“across school and disciplinary 
lines” to research current problems 
and brainstorm concrete solutions. 
The Center for Social Solutions 
will 
channel 
the 
University’s 

brainpower and resources into 
direct action.

“I came to realize that in the 

academy, in certain parts of the 
academy, we spend a lot of time 
both theorizing and studying 
problems,” Lewis said. “In other 
parts of the academy, we try to 
think 
about 
applications 
and 

clinical solutions.”

Lewis said he is interested 

in “framing the right question, 
but also coming up with the best 
solution.”

The Center for Social Solutions 

will address three key areas of 
concern. The first pillar of the 
center’s mission is diversity and 

race. One project related to race 
issues will be the “Our Compelling 
Interests” book series, which 
Lewis will continue working on at 
the University.

“I’m bringing it with me to 

Michigan and to the Center,” he 
said. “We have published two 
books so far to date in partnership 
with Princeton University Press. 
We have subsequent volumes 
already either in development or 
poised to come out in the next 
year.” 

The Center for Social Solutions 

will develop other initiatives, 
beyond the book series, to address 
what Lewis says is “the nation’s 
need to think about diversity as an 
asset.”

In 
addition, 
Lewis 
hopes 

to work through the center to 
increase dialogue about the history 
and legacy of U.S. slavery.

“What we want to do with the 

center is to work with universities, 
museums, arts orgs, theatres, 
social justice institutions, public 
parks, national parks, etc. to begin 
to look at that history in a more 
integrated fashion,” Lewis said. 
“So much about the American 
present, even when it’s not stated, 

is about that part of the American 
past. Slavery looms there in the 
shadows, and what we want to do 
is actually see if we can’t bring it 
out into the spotlight and deal with 
it directly.”

The center will also address 

issues of water access. Lewis wants 
to develop a model for moving 
water “from flood-prone areas to 
drought-stricken areas.”

“It’s 
not 
an 
engineering 

problem, we can actually move 
water,” Lewis said. “It’s a fiscal 
problem. It’s a regulatory problem. 
It’s an environmental problem. It’s 
a social problem.”

One 
reason 
that 
water 

distribution is a social issue, 
says Lewis, is that proximity 
to water often correlates with 
socioeconomic status.

The final focus area of the 

Center for Social Solutions is 
the future of work in the face of 
increasing 
automation. 
Lewis 

sees new technology as important 
and 
beneficial, 
but 
considers 

job displacement as a result of 
mechanization a serious social 
concern.

“My question about the future 

of work is this: How do we think 
about the dignity of labor in an 
automated world?” Lewis said.

The center will conceptualize 

ways to make new technology 
considerate of human needs.

“I want the center to really 

work with the technologists who 
are developing these new tools 
and these new systems and these 
new ways of working to think 
about the dignity of labor and how 
we craft that into all our design 
features,” Lewis said.

The three core interests of 

the Center for Social Solutions 
are, in Lewis’s opinion, urgent 
and challenging problems. Still, 
he thinks the center will be 
adequately equipped to address 
race, water and the future of work.

“These are three projects that I 

can imagine, in partnership with 
others, that we can solve some 
parts of, if not the whole thing,” 
Lewis said. “If we’re successful by 
any measure it will improve the 
common good.”

The idea for the Center for 

Social Solutions has been in 
the works for quite some time. 
In developing his plan, Lewis 

reached out to colleagues across 
the country, discussing the 
feasibility of a Center for Social 
Solutions.

Lewis decided to establish the 

center in Ann Arbor because of 
the University’s many resources 
and because of his connection to 
the University.

Faculty 
members 
and 

administrators at the University 
were 
receptive 
to 
Lewis’s 

proposal. President Schlissel, 
LSA Dean Andrew Martin and 
Provost Martin Philbert have 
worked alongside Lewis to pave 
the way for the Center for Social 
Solutions.

“Earl Lewis is an outstanding 

historian and educator, and 
we are fortunate that he is 
returning to the University of 
Michigan,” Dean Martin said 
in a press release. “Not only 
will he be a strong leader for 
the Center for Social Solutions, 
but he will provide wisdom and 
experience as a faculty member 
in LSA’s departments of History 
and Afroamerican and African 
Studies.”

Over the summer, Lewis will 

continue to sort out logistical 
and administrative details, such 
as hiring staff and acquiring 
space on campus.

Lewis has a specific vision for 

how the project will unfold. The 
Center for Social Solutions will be 
organized into “collaboratories,” 
or interdisciplinary groups of 
people focused on the same 
problem. Lewis hopes to get 
students involved in the center’s 
work as research assistants 
and team members. In fact, the 
center will eventually offer a 
curriculum tied to various social 
projects.

Lewis believes the Center 

for Social Solutions will be an 
impactful way for students to 
put the skills they learn in the 
classroom to use.

“Imagine yourself being able 

to, 10 years from now, say, ‘I 
worked on something where we 
not only crafted a question, but 
we came up with a solution,’” 
Lewis said. 

A $2,500,000 women’s athletic 

building, complete with the long 
awaited swimming pool, will be 
constructed in the near future, ac-
cording to University officials.

Preliminary plans call for a one 

million dollar swimming pool unit 
to be built first, Prof. H. O Crisler, 
athletic director, revealed. The 
exact date for starting the construc-
tion has not been set.

The building will be constructed 

on the southeast corner of S. Forest 
Ave. anti N. University Ave. The 
houses now located on the Univer-
sity property will be moved.

Lester F. Etter, public relations 

manager for the athletic depart-
ment, was less certain than Crisler 
about plans for the new building.

“I’m not positive of the exact 

location of the proposed building,” 
Etter said. “Its construction will be 
sometime in the future and it’s hard 
to say exactly about some details.” 

Prof. Crisler said the struc-

ture had been authorized by the 
Board of Regents and the Board in 
Control of Intercollegiate Athletics. 
Three architects, Lee and Kenneth 
C. Black of Lansing and Alden Dow 

of Midland, are now working on 
plans for the building.

“We have funds now for the 

pool unit only,” Prof. Crisler said. 
“We’ll leave the rest of the project 
to be constructed when we get the 
money.

“The $1,000,000 available 

for the construction of the pool 
resulted in part from the profits, of 
the University’s intercollegiate ath-
letics program, principally football 
receipts,” he explained.

Several student drives through 

the years also have added to the 
million dollar fund. Outstanding 
among these is Michigras which 
turned $3,050 into the fund coffers 
last spring.

However, Crisler said that they 

are going to proceed and draw 
plans for the full building. “We 
have to look forward to the even-
tual loss through age of Waterman 
and Barbour Gymnasiums.”

Tentative plans for the swim-

ming pool unit call for a three-story 
building, housing a six lane

pool, 75 by 44 feet and adequate 

locker and shower facilities.

“We have considered estimates 

that include spectator space 
for 300 to 1,500 persons,” Prof.. 
Margaret Bell, chairman of the 
department of physical education 
for women, declared.

The remainder of the building 

which will be constructed at a later 
date will contain two

gymnasiums with enough floor 

space to interchange indoor and 
outdoor physical education activi-
ties.

Other facilities for the build-

ing would include therapeutic 
gymnastic equipment, small games 
rooms, classrooms, special facilities 
for a teacher education program’, 
offices, staff rooms, locker facilities 
and a possible laboratory.

The lack of swimming pool 

facilities for women has been for a 
long time a problem with the wom-
en’s athletic department. Women 
have been forced to practice their 
aquatic abilities in the Union pool, 
I-M. Bldg. pool. or a small tank in 
Barbour Gymnasium.

2A —Wednesday, March 7, 2018
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Amid an immigration crisis, 

gun control debate and delicate 
foreign relations landscape, it 
would seem as though President 
Donald Trump would not have a 
lot of time to tweet.

However, 
early 
Tuesday 

morning Trump defied odds 
again, firing up his Twitter 
account before dawn. The tweet 
was 122 characters mocking an 
issue one wouldn’t expect to be at 
the top of any presidential agenda: 
The TV ratings of the Oscars.

To respond to the growing 

presence of social media, even 
among 
national 
leaders, 
the 

University of Michigan is creating 
a new Center for Social Media 
Responsibility, which will be 
housed within the School of 
Information, aiming to explore 
the meaning and threats behind 
social media, a channel Trump 
has utilized as the centerpiece of 
his communication strategy.

Information 
School 
Dean 

Thomas Finholt was inspired 
by 
this 
growing 
dialogue 

surrounding social media and 
made the establishment of the 
center a priority when he assumed 
the position in 2016.

According 
to 
Finholt, 
the 

technological 
revolution 
has 

been trailed by the question of 
the global impact of mass public 
communication.

“From the earliest days of 

the 
internet, 
technologists 

envisioned 
the 
benefits 
of 

broader access to the means of 
public 
communication: 
social 

mobility, resistance to despotism, 
universal authorship and open 
source software,” Finholt said in a 
University press release.

The center will be headed by 

one of former President Barack 
Obama’s social media managers, 
Garlin Gilchrist II. Gilchrist is 
a Detroit native who graduated 
from the University of Michigan 
with degrees in computer science 
and computer engineering. His 

career both in the White House 
and most recently working for 
the City of Detroit highlights 
his passion for working at the 
intersection of technology and 
politics. 

“Our job is to create tools, and 

to use and make our research 
usable 
to 
media 
makers, 

media consumers to platform 
companies, to make sure we 
deal with this ongoing threat 
of more difficult-to-understand 
and potential misinformation,” 
Gilchrist said.

The center will be funded 

with the internal resources 
of the Information School in 
addition to financial support 
from the Office of the Provost.

SHANNON ORS
Daily Staff Reporter

ON THE DAILY: MAJOR IN SOCIAL MEDIA 

SOLUTION
From Page 1A

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