The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Thursday, September 27, 2018 — 3A
the council to preserve the
chimney as a free-standing
structure for the protected
species.
Cathy
Theisen,
conservation chair at the
Washtenaw
Audubon
Society, explained chimney
swifts roost during the fall
and spring to keep warm
before migrating back to
South America. Chimney
swifts used to roost in trees
until they were cut down.
“They
usually
would
have roosted in old grove
trees that were hollowed
out
once
they
died,”
Theisen said. “But, in the
early 1900s, all the old
grove trees were taken
… there are so few trees
left for them that they
adapted to living in urban
environments.”
As
of
August,
the
Washtenaw
Audubon
Society
had
recorded
1,400 birds roosting in the
chimney. Theisen said the
birds provide an ecological
advantage for the area
because they eat one-third
of their weight daily in
insects such as mosquitoes,
termites and wasps.
Kathy
Griswold,
who
won the Ward 2 Democratic
primary for City Council
and is now uncontested in
the
general
election,
is
concerned
with council
decisions
becoming
more based in
emotion than
facts.
“One
of
my concerns
is
are
we
going to have
a
formal
decision-
making
process
to
decide
what
to do with the
building?”
Griswold said.
“Frequently
we get input
from
the
community
but it’s more
just (a lot of
emotion) gets
interjected
and we don’t
have
the
facts
and
a
framework
to make the
decision.”
Theisen
says
the
council
has
been
very
responsive to
Washtenaw
Audubon
Society
in
finding
a
conservation
solution.
“My belief is that the
city wants to cooperate,”
Theisen said. “Obviously,
they’re going to have to
(decide) what the citizens
want. That is why it is
so crucial that any Ann
Arbor voter who wants
to preserve this chimney
contact Council.”
Councilmember
Anne
Bannister, D-Ward 1, said
she and Mayor Christopher
Taylor drafted a proposal
for presentation at the City
Council’s Oct. 1 meeting,
which she assured puts
the needs of the chimney
swifts before development
of the property.
Theisen said the beauty
of
the
chimney
swifts
resonates with residents.
“I heard one woman tell
me that on 9/11 after she
watched the buildings go
down that the only thing
she could think to do was
go out and look at the
(chimney swifts) just to
see something natural is
instead of what was going
on in the world,” Theisen
said.
City
officials
are
considering redevelopment
of the dilapidated city-
owned
building.
City
Administrator
Howard
Lazarus said the city is
still
exploring
options
regarding the development
of the property.
“There are no definitive
plans right now. The City’s
intent is to explore options
concerning the chimney
and the swifts as part of the
redevelopment
process,”
Lazarus wrote.
Griswold
believes
the chimney should be
preserved and the rest of
the building torn down.
“That building I think
is an eyesore and is unsafe
and it really needs to come
down independent of the
chimney,
especially
the
part that comes close to
the road,” Griswold said.
“I just don’t see where the
city would allow a private
company to have that kind
of a building standing the
way it is.”
While
no
distinct
plans are scheduled, the
city has been previously
approached
by
multiple
realtors,
according
to
MLive. One realtor, Bud
Falsetta with Real Estate
One, proposed a senior
living facility
owned
by
Morningstar
Senior
Living based
in
Denver.
Conducted
assessments
have
shown
it
is
not
worthwhile
to rehabilitate
the buildings
due
to
costs
and
structural
concerns.
Griswold
said she hasn’t
seen
any
reports from
the city staff,
saying
city
government
operates
on
political
motives
rather
than
data.
“The
culture
of
City Council
and
city
staff for the
last
couple
of
decades
just
hasn’t
really
been
data driven.”
Griswold
said. “They’ve
been
more
politically
driven.”
City
records
also
allude
to
pollution
concerns
of
contaminated soil under
the
property.
According
to
Historic
District
Application Records, the
property’s building code
cannot be changed due to
the flood elevations of the
site. A DRN Architects
reportconcluded
the
building is not a good
candidate for rehabilitation
or reuse.
The Washtenaw Audubon
Society
has
currently
raised
approximately
$5,000 to donate toward
preservation
efforts.
In its letter written to
the council, the society
said they hope to see the
chimney serve as a natural
history site.
“This
is
a
way
we
can
really
change
our
environment with a very
small bit of action,” Theisen
said.
BIRD
From Page 1A
is a community component
needed.
(The
center)
could really be a resource
for people in our general
community, whether it be
with re-entry into society
or for potential students
getting
into
college.
Essentially,
we
want
to
bring Michigan up to speed
where a lot of institutions
already are.”
The center would also
connect the already existing
programs at the University,
such as the Prison Creative
Arts Project and Inside-
Out
Prison
Exchange
Program, to work together
and further enhance the
relationship between the
University community and
those incarcerated.
PCAP is the one of the
world’s largest prison arts
programs
and
operates
within each of Michigan’s
52 correctional facilities.
These
workshops
allow
for joint projects between
students and incarcerated
individuals to communicate
and creatively write, draw
and perform. Each week,
about 80 volunteers enter
facilities and meet with
those inside. At the end
of
the
semester,
PCAP
publishes both exhibitions
of art and a journal of
writing by the Michigan
prisoners they have worked
with all year.
LSA junior Liv Naimi,
a PCAP executive board
member, is excited about the
prospect of a new carceral
studies program.
“(PCAP) allows students
to see that people inside
are
not
only
creative
but
productive
and
amazing people — it really
humanizes them,” Naimi
said. “Some of them will be
in there forever, and some
of them won’t. Sometimes,
something
as
little
as
playing an improv game,
where people just simply
get to laugh, feels like a
transformative moment.”
PCAP
Director
Ashley
Lucas, a Theatre & Drama
associate professor, believes
education
inside
doesn’t
just
benefit
incarcerated
individuals, but society as
whole by means of public
safety.
“Education
and
family
support are the two things
that really help people to be
successful after they come
home from prison,” Lucas
said. “The vast majority of
the people we’ve locked up
are coming home someday.
Do we want them to come
home uneducated, angry,
having
lived
in
social
environment
that
didn’t
prepare them for the outside
world? Do we want them to
have a lack of connections
to
communities
outside?
Education helps to fix all of
those issues.”
Moreover,
Lucas
said
many
of
those
behind
bars
were
not
afforded
opportunities
to
receive
a good education in the
first place — or perhaps
an education at all. These
programs intend to give
prisoners the chance to have
that
quality
educational
experience,
which
Lucas
hopes
will
help
them
succeed when they reenter
everyday society.
“If you don’t give people
educational opportunities,
they may never know what
they’re
really
good
at,”
Lucas said. “They may have
come from a place with little
stability and crime was the
only viable option, or it may
feel that way if you’re in a
certain set of circumstances
and you don’t realize you
have other choices. There
is nobody who really knows
what their life and career
is truly going to offer, but
education helps us think
those things through and
plan for a better life. It
helps us build relationships
and relate to other people
in a lot of ways you really
can’t function in the outside
world without: It teaches
you a completely different
social code.”
Both
Lucas
and
Thompson emphasize the
barriers many with criminal
records face in securing
employment, housing and
higher education. Earlier
this
month,
Gov.
Rick
Snyder signed a bill into law
banning felon boxes from
state job applications, but
private employers and even
the University itself still
require self-reporting on
applications.
Students applying to the
University have to check a
box whether or not they have
served time. To Thompson,
this act is unjust, and she
hopes the new center will
mitigate the harmful after-
effects of incarceration.
“We want to make sure
we
open
our
doors
to
people who, if they are
qualified to be here, their
criminal
history
should
be irrelevant,” Thompson
said. “We have invested
unprecedented
public
resources in the project of
punishment in the last four
years, which has enormous
ripple effects: it has impacts
on our U-M school system,
it
has
impacts
on
our
economy, and it has impacts
on our voting and on our
democracy. Institutions of
learning are places where
we ask questions.”
Thompson said she aims
for the new center will allow
the University to become a
leader and change-maker in
the field of carceral studies.
“Whether
you’re
a
political scientist interested
in
voting
participation
or
whether
you’re
a
sociologist
interested
in
family structure or whether
you’re a doctor interested in
health outcomes — you can’t
ask any of those questions
without noting the impact
of this massive carceral
state,” she said. “Michigan
is a public institution. It is
time we take the lead on
this.”
INCARCERATED
From Page 1A
survey that shows just over
45 percent of college students
nationally were “extremely sure”
climate change is real — nearly 30
percent lower than the University
of Michigan figures.
Bob
Marans,
a
professor
emeritus and researcher at the
Institute for Social Research,
serves as one of the principal
investigators on the SCIP survey.
Marans said events including
forest fires in California and
volcanic eruptions in Hawaii — as
well as the increasing attention
climate change receives on the
political stage — have made
climate change a more visible
issue. He sees the latest data as
an indicator that students are
becoming more aware of current
events.
“Given what’s going on now
with the hurricane that’s coming
in, (in) North Carolina and South
Carolina, a lot more of these kinds
of events are happening and …
people are probably reacting to
what the United States did in
terms of pulling out of the Paris
Climate Accord,” Marans said. “I
think those are some of the factors
that are influencing a greater
concern and awareness about it.”
The results of the latest survey
didn’t surprise LSA senior Tim
Arvan, but they did impress
him. Arvan is the co-director of
Climate Blue, a climate change
action group on campus that sends
a delegation every year to a United
Nations conference on climate
change. Arvan said he’s seen
more awareness of climate issues
among his classmates recently.
“It’s really encouraging to see
this data and to see the leadership
that U of M has, especially relative
to the national average on climate
change awareness,” Arvan said. “I
think this is due to both the quality
of instruction that’s offered at
this university, but also due to
the activism efforts and personal
enthusiasm
for
these
issues,
and the passion to get involved
both politically and scientifically
within the student body itself.”
Earth
and
Environmental
Studies professor Julia Cole has
led classes on climate change
to undergraduate and graduate
students at the University since
last year and does not skirt around
the issue in class.
“I consistently teach it as if
it is scientific fact that we are
changing climate and that it’s bad
and it’s about to get worse because
that is my belief based on working
in this area for a long time,” Cole
said. “There really is no way
around that.”
Cole said none of the students
she’s had at the University yet have
pushed back on her approach. Like
Arvan and Marans, she thinks
the latest SCIP data makes sense
based on what she’s seen.
“I don’t think it’s surprising,”
she said. “That said though,
as a scientist I’d love to think
that people make those kinds
of statements based on (their)
knowledge
of
science,
but
actually, the thing I’ve learned
about communication is that they
don’t, and that they tend to be
persuaded by what their peers are
talking about.”
Nonetheless, Cole said it doesn’t
matter so much how people are
concluding climate change is
important — she’s just happy to
hear they think it’s important at
all.
“I think traditionally climate
change has been one of those
things that is considered to be
extremely important in the next
20 years, but not necessarily
extremely important in the next
year,” she said. “But people vote
and make decisions on their
short-term worries and so if we
keep thinking of it as a long-term
future problem, we’re never going
to solve it.”
Whether students are treating
climate change as an immediate
problem is not quite clear from
the data, though. While he’s
enthusiastic about the latest SCIP
results, Arvan said part of him
worries there isn’t enough being
done on campus to spur action.
“I don’t speak for anyone other
than myself when I say that,”
Arvan said. “But I think a lot of the
work that is done on campus gets
people to feel really good about
climate change issues and problem
solving and that the process
can be a bit of greenwashing
where people feel that they are
contributing enough by using a
water bottle or by implementing
some very, maybe entry level or
simplistic lifestyle changes that
really simplify the problem down
without really diving deeper and
understanding the complexities
and further channels to get
involved.”
This
topic
gained
some
attention at the University’s
Board of Regent’s September
meeting.
Several
public
commenters,
including
LSA
sophomore Catherine Garton, a
co-founder of the U-M Climate
Action
Movement,
detailed
concerns that the University was
not devoting enough attention to
mitigation climate change.
“The University is trying, but
it is not trying hard enough,”
Garton said. “I feel that we have
fallen behind in this regard.
Climate change is the biggest
problem facing my generation.”
Arvan said he isn’t sure
exactly how the University can
translate
students’
concerns
into action. He said that’s “the
million-dollar question.” But he
does believe the latest SCIP data
shows the school is moving in
the right direction.
“Understanding that policy
is really the focal point of
effectuating change and getting
people … politically inclined to
express themselves on these
issues is a is a way to really
drive home local change,” he
said. “But then also I think that
personal lifestyle changes are
really important component of
getting people to appreciate how
their individual impacts can add
up to be really significant … it’s
an ongoing challenge of all the
student organizations involved
in this field to kind of figure out
how to progress on that front.”
CONCERNED
From Page 1A
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NA ACP ALUMNI
CARTER FOX/Daily
Alumni speak to the University of Michigan’s chapter of the NAACP at East Hall Wednesday night.
“I heard one
woman tell
me that on
9/11 after she
watched the
buildings go
down that the
only thing she
could think
to do was go
out and look at
the (chimney
swifts) just to
see something
natural is
instead of what
was going on in
the world,”