“With the climate in the 
nation and here locally in 
Ann Arbor, we have seen an 
increased reporting of these 
interpersonal violence crimes, 
and we encourage increased 
reporting,” Burke said.
CSG also voted to fund 
bringing motivational speaker 
Brandon Farbstein to campus 
for an event titled “Ten Feet 
Tall.” Farbstein was diagnosed 
with 
metatropic 
dysplasia, 
a rare form of dwarfism, at 
age two. Business sophomore 
Paul Schmitz worked to bring 
Farbstein to the University, 
saying his story needed to be 

heard.
“He really has a story that 
resonates with every single 
person, and my goal is to get it 
to as many people as possible,” 
Schmitz said.
Farbstein speaks about his 
experience 
with 
depression, 
cyberbullying and life with 
his diagnosis to empower his 
audience. This semester, the 
University has placed more 
of an emphasis on equity and 
inclusion of disabled individuals 
on campus, creating a new slate 
of programming titled Investing 
in Ability.
CSG also passed a resolution 
to 
subsidize 
MDining 
gift 
cards during final exams. The 
resolution will provide a total 
of 150 cards, each good for one 
swipe, distributed over three 

days 
during 
exams. 
Public 
Policy 
senior 
Drea 
Somers, 
co-author of the resolution, 
said the gift cards are “strongly 
recommended for Pell Grant 
students, but any student can 
pick it up.” The cards will not 
have an effect on financial aid.
At the end of the meeting, 
CSG 
passed 
a 
resolution 
that 
will 
require 
its 
representatives to attend one 
event hosted by organizations 
representing students of color 
each month. LSA senior Cece 
Huddleston wrote the resolution 
to 
serve 
underrepresented 
voices on campus.
“We are all at this school, 
and we are all Wolverines,” 
Huddleston said. “I just want 
us to get to know people outside 
of ourselves so we can truly 

represent the school and act the 
way we were elected to act.”
Finally, CSG President Daniel 
Greene, a Public Policy senior, 
read a statement denouncing the 
University’s response to sexual 
assault 
allegations 
against 
SMTD professor David Daniels. 
The council had no objection to 
the statement. 
“When 
the 
normal 
institutional 
processes 
fail, 
we, as leaders of CSG, have 
a responsibility to hold the 
University’s 
administration 
accountable,” 
the 
statement 
read. “We expect the University 
to 
respond 
appropriately 
to 
allegations 
of 
sexual 
misconduct. We will work to 
ensure that they do so.”

new homeowner, an existing 
homeowner, you’ve got a lot 
of things to attend to, one of 
those 
being 
snow-clearing, 
particularly if you live in a 
Snowbelt 
city,” 
Albis 
said. 
“When it comes to this type 
of service, you’re relying on 
a workforce that isn’t pretty 
business-savvy. 
There’s 
no 
rhyme or reason to how or when 
they show up. So even when you 
have a contract with them, the 
level of transparency is zero.”
Albis designed SnoHub as a 
mobile technology solution to an 
inefficient industry, comparing 
it to services like Airbnb or Uber. 
The company first targeted 
individuals with trucks and 
plows to be contractors, and is 
now looking to expand testing 
in the Midwest. One of his goals 
was to make sure customers 
can rely on SnoHub to send 
the appropriate workers and 
equipment, from students with 
shovels to snow plow businesses 
with trucks.
“As a contractor, this is part 
of your onboarding process,” 
Albis said. “You delineate what 
type of worker you are. So 
whether you’re a snow plower, 
shoveler, snow blower, you just 
tick that off and you take photos 
of whatever types of equipment 

you have, upload that to our 
backend and we’ll approve. 
Customers 
can 
order 
and 
specify that they don’t want a 
snow plow guy ripping up their 
lawn.”
Business sophomore Garrett 
Wilson works for SnoHub as 
its digital media director. He 
said SnoHub is now trying to 
recruit more contractors to 
supplement the high demand 
of homeowners. In particular, 
SnoHub is looking for shovelers 
to attend to smaller driveways 
unable to handle the huge plows 
of winter snow vehicles.
“We noticed last year that 
a lot of driveways weren’t 
exactly fit for a pickup and a 
plow a lot of times,” Wilson 
told The Daily. “You know, 
smaller driveways or smaller 
houses, they’re more fit for 
just somebody with a shovel. 
And additionally, it provides 
another way for us to get 
contractors to get into the 
SnoHub 
ecosystem, 
people 
that maybe are interested in 
the concept but don’t exactly 
have a pickup and a plow on 
them. What we introduced this 
year is SnoHub Shoveling. So 
say you’re a student, a college 
student at Michigan, you can 
sign on to the app. It literally 
takes five minutes and then 
you can accept jobs the same 
way that other contractors do.”
Wilson 
emphasized 
how 
easy the app is to navigate, and 

how the contractor job can be a 
great part-time gig for military 
veterans, firefighters or college 
students with free time.
“You’ll sign on and you’ll 
get job notifications from all 

around,” Wilson said. “And you 
can just accept the job and walk 
to the house or you Uber or you 
Bird or whatever you do. All 
you do is snap a before picture, 
you shovel, you snap an after 
picture, you get out of there and 
you get paid in three days. So it’s 
just another way for us to get 
more contractors involved and 

to suit customers’ needs better.”
LSA and Business junior 
Jennifer Chen thought SnoHub 
was an innovative venture, 
but 
wondered 
about 
the 
sustainability of the business 
during summer months when 
snow would not be a problem for 
homeowners.
“What are you going to 
do when there’s no one else 
requesting the service?” she 
asked.
Albis addressed a similar 
concern 
of 
sustainability, 
saying he intends to use the 
SnoHub platform to start other 
similar ventures.
“I have a pickup truck, but 
the utilization of the bed of 
that pickup truck is zero in 
the spring and the summer,” 
Albis said. “So we can use 
that, whether it’s to move a 
piece of artwork, move a piece 
of furniture across town, by 
using the same technical stack 
that we have right now for 
our app in the spring and the 
summer.”
Chen 
thought 
college 
students might find SnoHub 
attractive, especially as home 
renters. She pointed out how 
some students already use 
similar apps for other day-to-
day services.
“College students are busy 
and they don’t want to do it 
themselves, or they might not 
know the resources on how to 
get snow removed efficiently,” 

Chen said. “So maybe asking 
for the Uber-like service might 
be really helpful. And there’s 
already a lot of services that 
do laundry for them. I think 
college 
students 
are 
more 
interested in getting other 
people to do the work for 
them.”
On the other hand, Chen was 
unsure about whether or not 
the students she knew would 
want to work as contractors.
“I think there might be some 
interest but it would be a very 
minimal amount,” she said. 
“Because we’re also college 
students, we’re very busy. And 
there might be some liability 
involved, 
like, 
we’re 
also 
college students, we don’t want 
to obviously get hurt. And it’s a 
very time-consuming business 
... So I think it might be 
difficult to fit into a student’s 
schedule.”
Wilson, 
however, 
sees 
SnoHub and the contractor job 
as perfect for college students 
needing extra spending money, 
and who want to get involved 
in the gig economy.
Albis 
echoed 
Wilson, 
highlighting 
the 
increase 
in gig jobs and contractors 
in industries. For the snow 
removal business, he saw an 
opportunity for job creation 
for many to work in a field that 
doesn’t require a great amount 
of skill.

Army. Edie Meeks, another 
speaker 
at 
the 
ceremony, 
served as an Army nurse in 
the Intensive Care Units at a 
field hospital in Saigon during 
the 
Vietnam 
War. 
Meeks 
referred to her patients as “her 
boys,” emphasizing the close 
connection she shared with the 
soldiers.
The event was organized in 
to help fundraise and spread 
awareness for the creation of 
Michigan’s first Fisher House. 
Fisher House Foundation is a 
nonprofit organization aiming 
to 
build 
large 
communal 
homes next to military and VA 
medical centers for families of 
current military personnel and 
veterans to stay in at no cost 
while their family members are 
in the hospital. There are nearly 
80 Fisher Houses around the 
world, but there are currently 
none in Michigan.
Kate Melcher, co-host of the 
ceremony and former Apache 
helicopter pilot, said her own 
personal experiences with a 
Fisher House while her husband 
was in surgery were what led 
her to fight for construction of 
more. 
“It was my home from the 
moment that I crossed that 
threshold,” Melcher said. “We 
couldn’t do it for the generation 
that came back from Vietnam, 
but Fisher House Foundation 
has been doing this for the 

last quarter century and we’re 
going to continue it here in 
Michigan.”
Fisher House says it will 
open its first Michigan location 
in Ann Arbor in 2019, with a 
second opening shortly later in 
Detroit. The organization aims 
to raise $20 million for the 
construction and management 
of these houses.
Several 
of 
the 
speakers 
recounted their battles with 
post-traumatic stress disorder, 
mental health and loss. Army 
veteran 
Melissa 
Raulerson 
illustrated how being a member 
of 
the 
military 
community 
helped her cope with mental 
health issues upon discharge, 
saying 
organizations 
like 
Fisher House, which facilitate 
communal 
support 
among 
military 
families, 
were 
necessary for people like her.
“I went on to lead a small 
group of wives called Wives of 
Warriors,” Raulerson said. “We 
became a family. It was there 
that I learned the meaning of 
thriving and not just surviving.”
LSA junior Michael Koch said 
the event helped to increase 
awareness 
and 
support 
for 
Fisher Houses in Michigan by 
showing people what they were 
supporting.
“When you add a face and a 
story to a cause, it makes it a lot 
more personal,” Koch said.

presents 
in 
terms 
of 
giving 
Democrats 
a 
chance 
to 
win 
back 
important 
positions 
at 
the state and the federal 
level.
Instead 
of 
focusing 
on 
discussing 
their 
platforms 
specifically, 
these 
candidates 
all 
emphasized 
the 
importance of actually 
getting 
out 
the 
vote. 
Several 
candidates 
mentioned 
President 
Donald 
Trump 
won 
Michigan by a margin 
of 0.3 percent in 2016 
— only 2.2 votes per 
precinct 
could 
have 
swung the election in the 
other direction.
The 
University 
has 
been 
urging 
students 
to 
vote 
for 
months 
leading up to Tuesday. 
Last 
September, 
the 

University joined the Big 
Ten Voting Challenge, a 
competition among Big 
Ten schools to improve 
voter 
registration 
and 
turnout numbers.
Candidates urged the 
audience to encourage 
everyone they knew to 
vote. State Rep. Yousef 
Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, said 
his personal experience in 
his first campaign in 2010 
— which he won by two 
votes — showed him no 
vote is insignificant. 
Public 
Policy 
senior 
Kellie 
Lounds, 
chair 
of 
College 
Democrats, 
cited several other large 
campus events that were 
geared 
toward 
getting 
students 
involved 
in 
politics and encouraging 
them to vote, including 
a rally with gubernatorial 
candidate 
Gretchen 
Whitmer early in the year 
and a more recent rally 
that featured U.S. Sen. 
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. 
However, when asked 

about 
the 
University’s 
role 
in 
encouraging 
students to vote through 
initiative such as the Big 
Ten 
Voting 
Challenge, 
Lounds 
expressed 
several 
suggestions 
based on her experiences 
at the University, such 
as 
canceling 
class 
so 
students can vote without 
missing 
lectures 
or 
exams.
“I think the University 
does a great job on doing 
publicity on whether or 
not students should vote, 
but I think if they really 
wanted students to vote, 
they would not have class 
on Election Day, they 
would tell departments 
not to schedule major 
exams on Election Day, 
they would work with the 
city to have more polling 
places 
on 
campus,” 
Lounds said. “There are 
a lot of structural issues 
that the University does 
not do a good job of 
addressing.”

Central 
Student 
Government 
passed 
a 
resolution 
in 
2017 
advocating for Election 
Day to be a University-
wide 
holiday, 
but 
administrators 
have 
not acted on such a 
suggestion. 
Despite 
logistical 
difficulties, 
Lounds 
still said she believed 
more 
students 
seem 
motivated to vote in this 
election than in previous 
elections, based in part 
due to higher numbers 
of absentee ballots that 
have already been cast. 
As of Monday, the city 
clerk’s 
office 
counted 
11,300 voters who turned 
in absentee ballots early 
in Ann Arbor. Across 
the state, the number 
of 
ballots 
issued 
and 
returned is up by more 
than 50 percent from 
2014.
“This compares more to 
a Presidential Election,” 
City 
Clerk 
Jackie 

Beaudry 
wrote 
in 
an email statement to 
MLive 
Monday. 
“We 
issued about 15,000 in 
2016 
and 
only 
8,000 
in 2014. We have had 
about 5-10 people in line 
waiting for ballots pretty 
consistently 
since 
last 
week.”
Rabhi 
was 
similarly 
optimistic 
about 
the 
impact increased voter 
turnout could have in 
this election, but also 
recognized that people 
must be committed to 
vote.
“Go to bed hopeful … 
but with that fire in your 
belly still,” Rabhi said.
Ann 
Arbor 
Mayor 
Chris Taylor made a point 
to mention Proposal A, an 
initiative on Ann Arbor’s 
ballot that would prevent 
the city from building 
a 
17-story 
commercial 
complex 
on 
a 
vacant 
lot near the Ann Arbor 
District 
Library 
and 
would instead mandate 

a city park be built in its 
place. Taylor and other 
City 
Councilmembers 
have 
opposed 
the 
proposal in recent weeks, 
though 
proponents 
of the measure push. 
Reiterating 
a 
similar 
point 
made 
by 
other 
speakers, Taylor targeted 
students by connecting 
this election to a pertinent 
issue for students looking 
for affordable housing.
LSA freshman Andrea 
Bavikatty said she only 
voted for the first time 
in 
the 
primaries 
for 
the midterm elections, 
but explained why she 
felt this election was 
especially important to 
vote in.
“In 
2016, 
obviously 
there 
wasn’t 
incentive 
for people to come out to 
the polls, people weren’t 
really feeling connected 
to the candidates … They 
didn’t really care as much 
as they do now,” Bavikatti 
said.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 — 3A

RALLY
From Page 1A

SERVICE
From Page 1A

Chen thought 
college students 
might find SnoHub 
attrative, especially 
as home renters. 
She pointed out 
how some students 
already use similar 
apps for other day-
to-day services. 

“We are all at this 
school and we are 
all Wolverines. I just 
want us to get to 
know people outside 
of ourselves so we 
can truly represent 
the school and act 
the way we were 
elected to act.”

Several of the 
speakers recounted 
their battles with 
post-traumatic stress 
disorder, mental 
health and loss...
being a member 
of the military 
community helped 
(them) cope with 
mental health issues 
upon discharge. 

SNOW
From Page 1A

CSG
From Page 1A

University 
spokespeople 
maintain standard procedure 
is to defer any reports that 
have criminal elements to law 
enforcement before beginning 
an Title IX investigation
This isn’t the only incident 
in which the University has 
recently 
received 
backlash 
for unreliable processes of 

reporting 
sexual 
assault. 
In October, another Music, 
Theatre and Dance School 
student told her story of sexual 
assault 
and 
the 
stagnant 
investigation currently being 
conducted by the Office of 
Institutional 
Equity. 
Some 
students 
reported 
waiting 
months 
for 
correspondence 
from the University regarding 
their case, while others were 
still waiting for a response.
“We expect the University 

to 
respond 
appropriately 
to 
allegations 
of 
sexual 
misconduct,” Greene and Baer 
wrote in their statement. “We 
will work to ensure that they 
do so.”
Greene, 
a 
Public 
Policy 
senior, and Izzy Baer, an 
LSA junior, ran an executive 
campaign last semester that 
focused 
on 
survivors, 
and 
proposed 
an 
empowerment 
fund 
for 
the 
University’s 
Sexual 
Assault 
Prevention 

and 
Awareness 
Center, 
in 
addition to the implementation 
of a SAPAC Ex-Officio CSG 
Representative. 
Through 
these propositions, CSG would 
provide resources to students 
on topics such as bystander 
intervention 
and 
survivor 
empowerment, according to 
the MVision platform.
“In this time when students 
and survivors on our campus 
may feel like they (sic) voices 
are not heard or do not matter, 

we want to remind those who 
are struggling of the resources 
on campus at their disposal 
should they choose to seek 
help,” CSG Communications 
Director Lydia Barry wrote 
in an email to The Daily. 
“Most importantly, we hope 
to provide a voice for students 
that view the administration’s 
response to this investigation 
as inadequate.”

MISCONDUCT
From Page 1A

Look out for Michigan Daily election coverage Tuesday, Nov. 6!

