Union sanctions.
“What
Russia
might
be
experiencing
if
these
sanctions are effective is the
undermining
of
economic
growth,” she said.
Cook also noted varying
levels
of
unrest
within
Russian
society
as
living
standards remain stagnant or
even decline. She referenced
the recent protests against
the Russian government in
response to a proposal to
raise retirement age from 60
to 65 for men and 55 to 60 for
women.
“My sense is that what was
underground before, in terms
of economic discontent, is
just bubbling to the surface.
Pension reform is something
that has not been a partisan
issue. There were all kinds of
people protesting on Sunday,”
Cook said. “There has been a
rupture in the social compact
that is leading to the agitation
of people and the breaking of
this agreement not to protest
or argue for more democracy.”
Community High School
student Ben Clingenpeel, an
Ann Arbor resident, said he
attended the lecture to learn
more about the current state
of relations between the U.S
and Russia.
“This is a topic I’ve been
gaining interest in, as I think
a lot of people in this country
have,” he said. “I’m trying to
stay informed.”
“My sense of the commission
is that we want to be welcoming
of devices that expand the
choices that people have for
transportation,” Feldt said.
The committee heard from
Raymond Hess, the Ann Arbor
transportation manager, who
noted
existing
legislation
will
soon
regulate
electric
skateboards and allow their use
in city streets. The scooters are
similar devices, and Hess stated
the city will likely regulate them
in the same way.
However, this legislation was
written before the Bird scooters
appeared in Ann Arbor, so it
is possible the city will adjust
its
regulatory
agenda
after
considering the visible impact of
the devices.
Commissioner Scott Trudeau
expressed interest in imposing
a tax on the scooters, noting
the city of Portland, Ore.,
is projected to collect more
than $1 million this year on a
similar tax. Trudeau also stated
imposing a limit on the total
number of scooters in the city
could be a reliable way to prevent
the influx of devices from
overwhelming the city. He also
noted the possibility of placing
speed limiters in the scooters
corresponding to local speed
limits.
He further expressed a desire
to ensure the scooters were
available for use to all parts of
the city, not just the wealthiest
corners.
Ann Arbor resident Victoria
Green was the only resident to
speak about the scooters during
the public comment portion
of the meeting. She expressed
concern over the city’s response
but holds reservations about the
possible impact of the scooters’
presence.
“I was surprised when the
city’s response to the wide-scale
implementation of Bird scooters
was an outright prohibition,”
Green said. “I think Ann Arbor
is best for most people when we
have a variety of transportation
options. I do share concerns that
I’ve heard among many of my
friends in the University about
the sudden appearance of large
numbers and issues especially
around using public space to
store them.”
Steve
Dolan,
director
of
University
Transportation
Services, expressed frustration
with the company for dropping
the fleet of scooters without
notice. He noted several similar
companies had reached out to
the city requesting to expand
their business to Ann Arbor,
receiving
responses
stating
the city is supportive of such
transportation companies but
needed to prepare infrastructure
or legislation first. Bird ignored
this request. Hess stated other
companies attempting to “play
by the rules” have now contacted
the city upset about Bird’s
presence in Ann Arbor.
Trudeau noted the city is
already
attempting
to
find
solutions to similar problems
posed
by
other
forms
of
transportation and stated these
efforts could be easily expanded
to include Bird scooters.
“I think a lot of the problems
that these things potentially
generate are problems we’re
already trying to solve,” Trudeau
said.
Commissioner Bradley Parson
echoed this sentiment and said
the city should consider how the
scooters fit into existing laws
— they are technically neither
vehicles nor motorized — before
imposing new regulations.
“This is a gray area and I
encourage the city staff response
to allow things to develop instead
of react quickly,” Parsons said.
At the close of the discussion,
Feldt asked the members to
consider what action to take
with respect to the scooters.
Feldt proposed the commission
create a charter for a task force
or advisory committee to aid the
city in dealing with the scooters
and the commission resolved to
do so.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, September 13, 2018 — 3A
FRE E SWING DANCING
Swing Ann Arbor offers free swing dancing classes to kick off the semester behind Hatcher Wednesday night.
RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Hanna-Attisha said. “For about
a year and a half I was also very
blind to what was happening in
Flint. I was telling my patients
that everything was okay. I was
drinking the Kool-Aid — that
the water was fine and that it
was fine for the kids to drink.
So it is about all of us being
blind to the injustices that are
happening all around us.”
Hanna-Attisha
also
underscored
her
identity
as
a
first-generation
Iraqi-
immigrant. Her parents escaped
Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s
fascist regime and immigrated
to the United States for their
children to have a chance at
living out the American dream,
and Hanna-Attisha said as a
result, she was acutely aware
of her privilege growing up in
the United States. As a child,
her
parents
never
shielded
her from what was going on in
Iraq, often sharing the current
events of the war. That included
the story of the small northern
Iraqi town of Halabja, which
suffered the largest chemical
attack in history when Saddam
Hussein poisoned over 5,000
people.
“I remember seeing, very
vividly, a picture of a beautiful
baby in a pink blanket lifeless
on the street nestled by her
father who was also lifeless,”
Hanna-Attisha said. “And that
was the milieu of my childhood.
Knowing what people in power
could do to whole populations.”
After
Hanna-Attisha
held
the
initial
press
conference
revealing
her
research
of
the
increased
lead levels in the Flint water,
she was denounced by the
state
government.
While
she expected some of the
hurdles she had to face, she
remembers how nothing could
have prepared her for the
critics’ denial of her research.
Almost every branch of the
state government said she was
unnecessarily
“causing
near
hysteria.”
They
called
her
an “unfortunate researcher”
who was “splicing and dicing
numbers.” She recalls the small
doubt she felt in herself and in
her research for a split second,
until she remembered why she
began this investigation in the
first place.
“This is everything about the
kids,” Hanna-Attisha said. “The
children are my constituency …
and as a pediatrician, I literally
have taken an oath to protect
these kids. These kids are no
different than my children.
One of the reasons I went
into pediatrics is because it is
advocacy work. It is our job to
stand up, to speak up for kids.”
However, she acknowledged
the work she did would not
be possible without the large
community
that
supported
her. She noted it was “a village
of folks who came together
to fight,” made up of moms,
activists, pastors, journalists
and citizen scientists in a
mission to figure this out.
“The other heroes in this
book are our elected officials,”
Hanna-Attisha said. “So state
Sen.
Ananich,
Congressman
Kildee,
Sen.
Stabenow
and
Peters, they had my back at
every
level
of
government.
When, you know, the state was
dismissing me, the EPA was also
dismissing me, Congressman
Kildee was fighting the EPA,
(saying,) ‘No, she’s right, her
data is right.’”
When asked about the real
culprit of the Flint water crisis,
she named “ideologies” as the
true villains.
“This
was
driven
by
austerity, this was driven by
environmental
injustice
and
racism
and
discrimination,”
Hanna-Attisha said. “It was
driven by a lack of democracy.
A disrespect for science. It was
these ideologies that were the
real villains in the story.”
But
Hanna-Attisha
keeps
writing
“prescriptions
for
hope,” not only for her patients,
but also for young people
nationwide.
Second-year
Medical student Erica Odukoya
said Hanna-Attisha should be
applauded for her bold decision
to stay true to her values.
“What I’m really inspired
by is how she was able to take
her commitment to her patients
as being enough of an impetus
to keep moving forward and
disrupt the status quo despite
the costs,” Odukoya said.
Hanna-Attisha noted Flint
is currently creating several
programs to promote child-
development, especially when
it comes to increasing literacy.
With
Hanna-Attisha’s
new
program called Flint Kids Read,
every child in Flint between
the ages of 0 and 5 gets a book
mailed to their house every
month.
Hanna-Attisha’s
former
mentor and SEAS professor
emeritus Paul Webb beamed
with pride upon greeting her
at an informal Q&A at the
School of Environment and
Sustainability, also attended by
members of campus television
station WOLV-TV.
“She may think she’s in the
5-foot area, but I’ve always
looked up to her even as she was
an undergraduate,” Webb said.
Hanna-Attisha
concluded
the book talk with one more
prescription for hope regarding
Flint.
“Flint is not going to be
defined by this crisis, but
rather,
by
our
recovery,”
Hanna-Attisha said.
FLINT
From Page 1A
SCOOTERS
From Page 1A
RUSSIA
From Page 1A
and more.
Mihalcea
and
Wendlandt
developed the course as a way
to expand the ideas of the CS
KickStart
program,
which
encourages women to enroll and
continue
in
computer
science
courses at the University. They
wanted to expand the goals of the
program to more students.
“CS KickStart was successful in
introducing women to computer
science, so we wanted to think
about ways that we could scale
that sort of initiative and reach a
larger audience,” Wendlandt said.
“We wanted to take some of the
CS KickStart material and other
material and turn it into a class
format to make it a little more
accessible to more people and a
broader set of people.”
Richardson
described
how
she
appreciated
being
in
an
environment
designed
for
women, especially given the race
and gender disparities in computer
science
and
STEM
at
large.
University records published in Fall
2015, for example, show the School
of Engineering was 25 percent
female and 2 percent Black— out of
9,428 students enrolled at the time,
only 64 were female Black students.
“It’s geared entirely towards
freshman women (but) anyone
can take it, obviously — I’m not a
freshman,” Richardson said. “But
I like the idea of having a class
that is geared towards people who
are sort of underrepresented and
inexperienced in this field and
giving them the chance to dip their
feet it.”
Mihalcea also pointed out the
lack of women in computer science
field and expressed the EECS
Department’s desire to continue
programs working to combat the
issue.
“The number of women in
computer science is not as high as
the number of men so there is an
imbalance there,” Mihalcea said,
“So this is sort of the motivation
behind initiatives like CS KickStart,
Girls in Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science and other
initiatives
around
trying
to
encourage women both in terms of
recruiting and retaining.”
Though
the
course
was
designed for incoming freshmen
women, Mihalcea and Wendlandt
emphasized anyone is welcome to
join.
“We received a lot of support,”
Wendlandt said, “The department
is very supportive of initiatives to
recruit a lot of people to computer
science. We will add that the class
is open to everyone, not just to
incoming freshman women. It’s
open to anyone that would like to
take it.”
Richardson said she preferred
EECS 198 to other introductory
EECS courses because of its
inclusive and collaborative class
climate.
“Me going into an EECS 183
class was sort of something I never
imagined myself doing because it’s
really intimidating,” Richardson
said. “The environment is very
different — you’re going to be around
very different people and the pace
and the sort of rigor of the course is
so intense. This seemed like a really
good way for me to get to know
something that I was interested in
and kind of excluded myself from
before, and even felt excluded from
just being a woman who studies
other STEM and humanities.”
LSA freshman Monica Iyer
is
another
student
in
EECS
198 who also had little prior
programming
experience
but
wanted to explore the realm of
computer science. Iyer has enjoyed
the course so far and echoed
Richardson’s
sentiment
about
its engaging and collaborative
environment.
“It’s all girls so far, and a lot
of them also haven’t really tried
computer science — or at least
people I’ve talked to,” Iyer said.
“Everyone seemed really excited
and willing to help. We did a little
activity at the end of the first class
and everyone was helping each
other out and having fun with it, so
it was really exciting.”
Iyer said she also appreciated
having the opportunity to delve
deeper
into
computer
science
without
having
to
completely
rearrange her schedule.
“I got a taste of what computer
science is like and the possible
careers it could lead to so I wanted
to continue learning more, but I
didn’t want to completely rearrange
my schedule so the mini course was
just perfect,” she said.
Both
Richardson
and
Iyer
praised Mihalcea and Wendlant for
their enthusiastic instruction and
desire to engage students in the
material.
“The
instructor
is
amazing
from what I’ve experienced so
far,” Richardson said. “She’s very
excited just to learn and share this
knowledge with us and get everyone
really
interested
in
computer
science so it was a very constructive
and exciting environment and I
think everyone felt at ease leaving
the classroom that first day.”
Though the class has only just
begun, Richardson has already
expressed an interest in learning
even more about computer science
in the future.
“Even after just one lecture, and
even the act of enrolling in (EECS
198), has made me think about this
whole other realm of computer
science that I had never considered
before.” Richardson said. “Just all
of the ways it is applicable to life
in general no matter what you’re
studying. I’m already looking at
what EECS course I can take next
semester.”
Mihalcea hopes students will
take the skills they learned in EECS
198 and continue to apply it in
whatever they decide to pursue.
“If they think of computer science
as an option for either right now or
down the road— or (if they realize)
other areas … involve computer
science, so you could do computer
science
even
if
you’re
doing
chemistry or chemical engineering
fields — looking at computer science
as a field that might as well be for
them, I think that would be a win.”
CODING
From Page 1A