and readily observable.”
As such, Teodoro argued if
a water system is run by the
local government, then it will
naturally focus on reducing
the price of water to appease
residents — a stance that will
also inadvertently lead to lower
water quality.
“The goal of every politician
who wants to get re-elected
wants to minimize price and
maximize quality,” Teodoro
said. “However, because of
how much more visible prices
are than quality for water, the
long-run outcome is low prices
and low quality.”
Alternatively,
in
private-
run water systems, the price
companies
are
allowed
to
charge for water is limited by
how much they invest in their
water infrastructure, which is
a limit enforced by the public
utilities commission. Because
of this, they are incentivized
to over-invest in their water
infrastructure, which will lead
to high quality water but also
high prices.
“The goal of every company
is to make profit,” Teodoro said.
“As such, they are incentivized
to maximize investment so that
the public utilities commission
will allow them to raise prices
in
conjunction
with
their
higher investments. As such,
private water tends to be high
price and high quality.”
However,
Teodoro
also
argued
public-private
partnerships
are
not
the
solution to this dilemma.
“In
public-private
partnerships,
the
local
government
sets
the
price
for the water and the private
company has to figure out
how to maximize its profits
within that,” Teodoro said. “As
such, the incentive for these
private companies is to reduce
operating costs. This results in
low-priced water but also low-
quality water.”
Furthermore,
Teodoro
disputed the perception that
public-private
partnerships
are a solution for financially
constrained
water
markets,
emphasizing
how
they
are
a
mechanism,
not
a
self-
sufficient source of revenue.
“Privatization
of
public
partnerships are not sources
of capital. In the end, the
money’s
coming
from
the
same people,” Teodoro said.
“The rate increases are still
going to be needed to upgrade
infrastructure, or else they will
continue to fail.”
After the talk, Sheny Puspita,
a
Public
Policy
graduate
student, reflected on her views
of the water systems and her
main takeaways from the talk.
She discussed how more
successful systems tend to be
small, privately-owned water
plants, but improvements are
needed in larger, public water
systems.
“The private-owned model
only works with small-scale
water plants, but we need to
improve number of larger-scale
water plants,” Puspita said.
Puspita also acknowledged
private water plants do tend to
produce higher quality water
and operate more efficiently.
“I believe that private water
plants will enhance the quality
of water and efficiency of water
plants,” she said.
Puspita spoke of her concern
of how politicians would use
public-private partnerships to
shield themselves away from
their responsibility for their
constituencies’ water systems.
Marc Jaruzel, a Public Policy
graduate
student,
echoed
some of the skepticism for
public-private
water
system
partnerships.
“Public-private partnerships
aren’t
necessarily
the
fix-
all,” Jaruzel said. “There is
some evidence that it may be
beneficial, but we just can’t say
definitively whether P3s will
be beneficial or not.”
Jaruzel commented on how
having competing public water
systems would not be a feasible
solution either.
“I think public competition
would be really challenging
because you would have to
have different pipes laying
in the ground from different
companies,” Jaruzel said. “I
think it would take a really
creative solution to get utilities
to compete in a similar way as
other businesses.”
And think of the students
with disabilities or injuries that
are going to have a hard time
getting to and from classes this
week.”
In an interview with The
Daily,
McAllister
said
she
understands
the
difficult
logistics
behind
canceling
classes,
but
the
University
should
take
the
safety
of
students and staff into account.
“I think there’s a biased
assumption that all students live
very centrally … close to the Diag
and so it’s not that big of a deal if
there are bad conditions because
it’s not that far to go, but that’s
not the case,” McAllister said.
“I think that in the mix of it, we
forget about students who live
off campus or far from campus
and have to commute; their
lives are put in danger by having
to drive in these conditions.
Students who are disabled have
to find a way to get to campus
through all of the mess as well.”
LSA junior Iman Elkahlah
lives about 15 minutes away
and commutes to campus. She
said the University should value
safety over classes as the roads
she takes to get to school are not
fully cleared of snow.
“I’m debating whether I’ll be
able to go to class or not because
my safety is my number one
priority,” Elkahlah said. “The
campus roads are clean, but the
roads in downtown Ann Arbor
are harsh. They are not taking
into consideration the roads to
come here.”
When asked about taking
disabled and commuter students
into consideration, the Office
of Public Affairs declined to
comment.
Blue busses face difficulties
The University of Michigan
Campus Bus System Facebook
page posted Saturday about the
predicted hazardous weather
conditions in the coming week.
The post advised students of
possible bus delays and warned
of the chance of frostbite after 10
minutes of exposed skin under
the current weather conditions.
On Monday afternoon, a Blue
Bus slid off the road and hit a
nearby tree.
Stephen
Dolen,
executive
director
of
logistics,
transportation
and
parking
at the University, said the
department is working to ensure
buses run on schedule in this
week’s snowy weather. He said
there is an additional challenge
making sure enough staff is
able to safely get to work, and
the department is trying their
best to get as many overtime
volunteers as possible.
“Any weather event has a
huge impact on transit,” Dolen
said. “Things are going slower,
and our drivers are directed to
not take any additional chances
because they are trying to stay
on time. When it comes to days
like this, you have to be safe and
do the best you can to stay as
on time as possible. We’re very
considerate of what’s going on
with the cold.”
Other
schools,
businesses
close for inclimate weather
Multiple services and events
on campus were closed or
rescheduled Monday. The LSA
Social Impact Fair, originally
scheduled for Monday evening,
was rescheduled for March
11.
Center
for
Global
and
Intercultural Study closed at
3 p.m. and moved a First Step
session to Tuesday afternoon.
The
Fishbowl
closed
early
Monday
afternoon
due
to
weather-based student safety
concerns, and Espresso Royale
on South University Avenue
closed early at 8 p.m.
U-M Dearborn and U-M Flint
both closed on Jan. 28. Eastern
Michigan University canceled
classes Jan. 28, and Wayne
State University will close at
4 p.m. on Tuesday and reopen
on Thursday. An additional 72
public schools in the Metro
Detroit area are scheduled to
close Tuesday.
Michigan’s state government
offices in the Lower Peninsula
also
shut
down
due
to
emergency
snow
conditions
Monday morning. Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer issued a statement
saying the offices plan to reopen
Tuesday.
“This is about keeping all
Michiganders safe,” Whitmer
wrote in the statement. “All
motorists are encouraged to stay
off of the roads. If you must be
out, please drive safely in these
dangerous weather conditions
and be respectful of road crews
working to clear snow and ice.”
University to monitor weather
conditions
University
spokeswoman
Kim
Broekhuizen
said
the
University is paying attention
to the current situation. Going
forward,
Broekhuizen
said
administrators
will
make
decisions
about
canceling
classes accordingly.
“The university is closely
monitoring
the
weather
forecast for later this week,”
Broekhuizen wrote in an email
interview with The Daily.
Regardless of the University’s
official decision, some students
are considering staying home in
the coming days as temperatures
are
predicted
to
plummet.
Engineering sophomore Jake
Kovalic said none of his classes
have been canceled, but he
thinks
the
snowy
and
icy
conditions will have an impact
on campus operations. A low
temperature
of
negative
17
degrees Fahrenheit is predicted
for Wednesday with possible
wind chills as low as 40 degrees
below
zero
Tuesday
night
through
Thursday
morning,
according
to
the
National
Weather Service.
“Last week it was very icy,
and at least one of the days,
every surface was iced,” Kovalic
said. “I would hope they cancel
classes. I’ll see how the weather
is on Wednesday, but I might not
go either way.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, January 29, 2019 — 3
ACTIVISTS
From Page 1
SNOW
From Page 1
Enrolled
students
are
frequently put in contact with
employers on Capitol Hill, the
Smithsonian and within the
federal bureaucracy.
According
to
PSIP
Supervisor
Lynn
Halton,
also an alum of the program,
PSIP sees students all the
way through the internship
application
process,
and
provides further guidance and
accommodations once students
begin their summer work.
“Once
they’re
hired
for
internships in D.C., they have
housing,
we
connect
them
up with one-on-one alumni
mentors and we plan policy
talks and social events for
them,” Halton said.
For undergraduates enrolled
in
PSIP,
the
first
several
months of the year are typically
when internship applications
open up and students begin
looking into job opportunities.
Due to the shutdown, Halton
and other faculty advisors have
been forced to contend with the
difficulty of communicating
with employers in the public
sector.
“There isn’t staff there,” she
said. “For the agencies that are
closed, there is no one there
to answer. If someone sends
a resume, we don’t know if
they’ve received it. The process
has definitely been slowed by
that.”
Ben Schuster, a Business
sophomore in PSIP, has already
submitted several applications
through
the
University
program. Schuster hopes to
secure an internship in the
Federal Reserve, a policy think
tank or on Capitol Hill in the
office of a U.S. senator.
“I’ve applied to a few places,
and I haven’t heard back from
one of them yet,” Schuster said.
“It’s a little concerning, but it’s
understandable.”
Schuster
thinks
this
lack of response is because
maintaining
internship
programs is not necessarily the
top priority for the countless
government
agencies
PSIP
partners
with.
Even
with
the newly passed continuing
resolution, it still may take
some time for agencies to pick
up their work at full capacity.
Furthermore,
it
remains
unclear
if
Democrats
and
Republicans will come to an
agreement within the three-
week
time
period,
failure
of which would result in a
continued shutdown.
Because of this, Schuster
explains, many of his peers
have had to work around gaps
in the system to ensure their
applications reach the proper
employers in Washington, D.C.
“One of my friends knew a
woman who had a connection
to a certain agency that he
wanted to work for,” Schuster
explained.
“She
attempted
to go into the agency’s site to
let people know that he was
applying, and she was unable
to do that because of the
shutdown. It’s small things like
that. And in terms of priorities,
when the government shuts
down, it’s more important to
make sure workers are getting
paid.”
Another
PSIP
student,
LSA
sophomore
Maeve
Skelly,
echoed
Schuster’s
disillusionment
with
the
difficulty of communicating
with employers in the public
sector.
“There’s definitely been a
slowdown in terms of response
time,” Skelly said. “A lot of
students will email government
programs about an internship
and not hear back for a longer
period of time.”
Nonetheless, during the last
month, Halton and other faculty
coordinators at PSIP were able
to work around obstacles posed
by the shutdown through the
program’s numerous contacts
in Washington, D.C.
Perhaps the most helpful
resource for PSIP students has
been the program’s connections
with alumni. According to
Halton, during the last 50
years, a number of bureaucrats,
politicians and public-sector
employers have passed through
PSIP as undergraduates at the
University of Michigan.
“There
are
two
representatives in the U.S.
House that are Michigan PSIP
alums:
Lauren
Underwood
from Illinois and Ted Deutch
from Florida,” Halton said.
“I’ve been in contact with both
of their chiefs of staff and been
trying to connect up so our
students could be there. They
both say that them being in
public policy and the public
arena has evolved from being
in our program.”
Despite the uncertainty and
obstacles
faced
during
the
last month, Halton remains
optimistic. As she explains, the
experience of working through
roadblocks
in
government
should be seen as a lesson for
undergraduates heading down
a career path in public service.
“From a career perspective,
I think it is a good point
for students to realize that
working in the private sector
is different from working in
the
public
sector,”
Halton
said. “It’s kind of a learning
opportunity to realize when
you’re a public servant, things
can be different — these things
“One of the purposes of
the
special
conference
on
Friday was to hear directly
from GEO members about this
topic,” Fitzgerald said. “The
University acknowledges the
courage and commitment of
those who shared their stories
Friday afternoon and these
stories have helped to inform
the process in a productive
way.”
In
April
2017,
members
of the Trans Health Caucus
threatened to walk out of
contract
negotiations
with
HR due to inadequate trans
healthcare coverage. Since, the
Trans Health Caucus and HR
have been engaged in a series
of special conferences as part
of the collective bargaining
process to address the GEO’s
demands.
In March 2018, the GEO
also raised awareness about
trans
healthcare
coverage
by hosting a Trans Day of
Disposability rallyin the Diag.
The conferences and rally put
pressure on the University to
adapt their policies related to
gender transition procedures,
but many Trans Health Caucus
members said they still felt
unheard and ignored by HR.
Ansel Neunzert, Rackham
student and GEO member,
stood
outside
of
Friday’s
special conference in support
of the Trans Health Caucus.
They said they hoped the
conference
would
force
University
officials
to
acknowledge the experience
of trans students when making
decisions
about
healthcare
coverage.
“I really hope that today
they’re going to hear from a lot
of trans people about the ways
that this stuff impacts them,
and get a sense of the fact that
this isn’t an abstract discussion
about the University’s bottom
line — this is people’s lives,”
Neunzert said. “I think it’s
really valuable to get that
first-hand information in a
way that I don’t think HR and
the MBAC (Medical Benefit
Advisory
Committee)
have
heard yet.”
According to Monica Lewis,
Rackham student and chair of
the Trans Health Caucus, the
University agreed to convene
every four months to discuss
transgender
healthcare
coverage but has missed the
deadline
to
arrange
these
meetings twice since April
2018.
“One of the major red flags
that they weren’t taking this
seriously was that there was a
contractual deadline violation,
namely
literally
the
only
stipulation in the contract
that sets out rules for these
meetings is that we have to
meet every four months, and
they missed the four-month
deadline,”
Lewis
said.
“In
September, they missed the
four-month deadline again. I
think it was kind of over the
summer of 2018 that we were
like, yeah, this is not going
anywhere and we’re going
to have to get a little more
aggressive with them.”
University
spokeswoman
Kim Broekhuizen said the
University is still discussing
the healthcare concerns with
GEO.
“We have been meeting with
GEO in good faith to discuss
and review our transgender
benefits,” Broekhuizen wrote.
Though asked about missing
the
four-month
deadline
for
transgender
healthcare,
Kim did not comment on the
allegation from Lewis.
To
provide
HR
representatives
with
the
medical background needed
to participate in the special
conferences,
the
University
called two MBAC meetings
in June and October 2018.
The meetings, which were
led by Philip Zazove, chair
of
Family
Medicine
at
Michigan Medicine, aimed to
discuss healthcare coverage
with
medical
professionals
and advise HR about what
procedures to cover under
GradCare.
Zazove did not respond to
request for comment.
Lewis said the details of
these
meetings
were
not
immediately
available
to
the
Trans
Health
Caucus,
and the board members had
little experience with trans
healthcare
before
making
their recommendations.
“The kind of people who
were on this coverage review
were
primarily
old-school
physicians who don’t have any
specialization in trans care
whatsoever,” Lewis said. “So a
bunch of cis people are going to
meet behind closed doors and
decide whether or not they feel
these transition procedures
are cosmetic and we don’t get
any say in the matter?”
Fitzgerald
said
while
the
University
is
still
in
the
process
of
negotiating
more extensive transgender
healthcare
with
the
GEO,
GradCare coverage includes
many
gender-affirming
surgeries and is on par with
most public institutions.
“The University’s coverage
of gender-affirming services
meets or exceeds that currently
offered by the majority of our
national
peer
institutions,”
Fitzgerald said.
Lewis
and
Morgan
Whitcomb, Rackham student
and member of the Trans
Health Caucus, said they took
issue with how University
officials seemed to exclude
trans voices from the MBAC
meetings and comply with
insurance
policies
that
do
not
cover
gender-affirming
surgeries.
According to MBAC meeting
notes from June 2018 the
Trans Health Caucus obtained
through
the
Freedom
of
Information Act and given
to The Daily, the Michigan
Medicine plastic surgery team
deemed
facial
feminization
and
chondrolaryngoplasty
(Adam’s
apple
reduction)
medically necessary, but the
insurance
providers
Blue
Cross Blue Shield and Blue
Care Network of Michigan
identified them as cosmetic.
Whitcomb said the lack of
trans people present in MBAC
meetings contributed to this
discrepancy.
“They
don’t
want
to
acknowledge that trans people
are
experts
in
their
own
healthcare,” Whitcomb said.
“They have this disconnect
of ‘Well, there’s like doctors
have trained for this.’ The
difference
is
they
haven’t
trained to be experts in trans
care — they’re experts in
other fields and they’re trying
to apply that knowledge to
a different community and
problem without consulting
the community.”
The Trans Health Caucus
has received support from
transgender students, allies
and
the
Rackham
Student
Government
since
the
first special conference in
December 2017. In a November
2018 letter obtained by The
Daily that GEO sent to MBAC
with
419
signatures,
the
organization urged MBAC to
“act with compassion to those
over whom you currently wield
significant power.”
On
Dec.
13,
2018,
the
RSG
unanimously
passed
a resolution in support of
expanding GradCare coverage
for gender-affirming surgery.
10 representatives abstained
from the vote.
Friday’s special conference,
which included a personal
perspectives
section
where
Trans Health Caucus members
recounted their experiences
with
gender
dysphoria,
persuaded HR to cover fertility
preservation under GradCare.
Lewis said that while it was a
victory for the Trans Health
Caucus, the process to achieve
it was a difficult one with more
work to be done.
“It
sucks
that
some
people have to talk about
suicidal
ideation
with
HR
representatives in order to
get healthcare,” Lewis said.
“And it sucks that that’s where
we are at in the process, is
that is talking about graphic
descriptions
of
gender
dysphoria with HR and MBAC.
It sucks that that’s what it
took, but if that’s what makes
progress, hopefully we don’t
have to do it again.”
GEO
From Page 1
PSIP
From Page 1