The last few winters have not been favorable for deer in Ann Arbor. Since City Council approved a deer management program in 2015 to reduce the size of the local population, 274 have been killed and 78 surgically sterilized. The city’s fourth deer cull began Jan. 2, closing parks across Ann Arbor with the aim of killing up to 150 deer by the end of the month. Sharpshooters from White Buffalo Inc., the Connecticut-based company that has carried out the program for the last two years, will hunt deer on public and private property, including land owned by the University of Michigan, through Jan. 27. Christopher Dick, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan, said the cull is necessary to keep the deer population in check and protect the local ecosystem. “They basically eat away at the forest understory, so there’s no regeneration of the forest,” Dick said. “What happens when you have these deer take off is this destruction of their own habitat if there’s no kind of predation. If you want Ann Arbor to have healthy parks and vibrant forests that take up carbon and help mitigate climate change, if you want a safe environment for kids to grow up and not be worried about ticks and diseases associated with overabundance of deer, then we really have to think about managing this urban deer population.” Deer management has cost the city more than half Ken Powell, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion faculty liaison at the University of Michigan, held a lecture regarding the issue of diversity within the aerospace field, focusing on implicit biases, stereotype threats and the accumulation of disadvantage. About 50 students and faculty attended the lecture Thursday afternoon. Powell used social science research to discuss the hiring process of faculty within the STEM fields, as well as statistics about the general diversity and its challenges within the U-M Aerospace Engineering Department. He further encouraged students to properly respect professors and to also hold professors to the same standards. “Each of your professors are experts and there’s no question about that, trust me … so treat them accordingly and try to take them as experts in their fields first,” Powell said. “On the flip side, I think you need to hold us as faculty at a similarly high professional standard.” Powell gave students further A recent article by Online College Plan named the University of Michigan as the best online college for pre-medicine degrees in the country, scoring 189 points out of the total 200 points. There is no defined pre-med major at the University. However, according to Outline College plan, most students interested in medical school tend to pursue degrees in biology, chemistry, or physics. In order to be considered for the ranking list, the schools must have at least a partial online program in at least one of the three majors, have proper accreditation, be based in the United States and operate as a nonprofit institution. The University qualified for the ranking system because even through students must attend campus part-time to complete a biology, chemistry or physics degree, the University also offers many online classes through Coursera. The first fully online degree programs offered at the University began in spring of 2018 and have continued to expand. Though the University does offer some online programs, they michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Friday, January 11, 2019 ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. INDEX Vol. CXXVIII, No. 51 ©2019 The Michigan Daily N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 michigandaily.com For more stories and coverage, visit ANN ARBOR Fourth year of deer cull controversy sparks debate Federal gov’t shutdown can affect University research, proposals DESIGN BY WILLA HUA Protests surround protecting local ecosystems and animal sterilization LEAH GRAHAM Daily News Editor Researchers say continued closure may result in larger, long term consequences The partial federal government shutdown is affecting a number of U.S. agencies, including ones that fund research at the University of Michigan. The shutdown, which began on December 22st, 2018, over a spending bill surrounding President Trump’s proposed border wall, has lasted 21 days with no clear end in sight. In the meantime, approximately 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay. National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, part of the Department of Commerce and the National Endowment of Humanities are among the federal agencies funding University research that are being affected. Federal institutions funded over half of the University’s research spending money in fiscal year 2018. Alex Piazza, Senior ELIZABETH LAWRENCE Managing News Editor The Ross School of Business Bridge program will graduate its first student, Rackham student Abram Ayala, this year in June. The Business Bridge program began last summer and is one of various bridge programs available to undergraduate and graduate students possessing different academic interests. These bridge programs are transitional programs to doctoral study with an emphasis on attracting a diverse student body into the field of work. In 2010, the Rackham Graduate School was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation titled “Building Bridges, Creating Community, and Wise Mentoring: Building Institutional Capacity to Enhance Diversity in STEM Disciplines” which allowed them to create and fund four STEM bridge programs. Before the Business School program, there were programs for applied mathematics, applied physics, ecology First Ross Bridge Program graduates ACADEMICS Faculty, participant discuss representation in academia as main goal of organization CATHERINE NOUHAN Daily Staff Reporter DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily Ken Powell, the Arthur F. Thurnau professor of aerospace engineering and DEI faculty liaison, speaks on implicit biases and their impacts in a lecture about the lack of diversity in the aerospace field Thursday in the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Building. Professor addresses diversity issues in aerospace field during lecture series Emphasis placed on implicit biases, stereotypes and aggregation of disadvantage PARNIA MAZHAR Daily Staff Reporter ‘U’ holds top online pre-med degrees ACADEMICS ‘U’ freshman retention and graduation rates contribute to top rank AMARA SHAIKH Daily News Editor See RANKING, Page 3 See BRIDGE, Page 3 See SHUTDOWN, Page 3 See DEER, Page 2 Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily See LECTURE, Page 3