Friends, 
family 
and 
several 
prominent 
politicians 
braved 
icy 
conditions to honor the 
life of former U.S. Rep. 
John Dingell at funeral 
services 
in 
Dearborn, 
Mich.
The 
longest-serving 
member of Congress in 
history and spouse of 
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, 
D-Mich., 
passed 
away 
last week at the age of 92. 
John Dingell had a heart 
attack in September and 
had been battling cancer, 
though the exact cause 
of death has not yet been 

released.
Several 
politicians, 
including 
former 
Vice 
President 
Joe 
Biden, 
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, 
D-Ga., 
and 
U.S. 
Rep. 
Fred 
Upton, 
R-Mich., 
were expected to speak 
at the services. However, 
though Biden made it in 
time, the harsh weather 
conditions 
prevented 
planes carrying Lewis, 
Upton and Speaker Nancy 
Pelosi 
from 
landing. 
Ninety 
members 
of 
Congress were expected 
to attend, however only 
a third made it to the 
service.

Inside 
the 
Shapiro 
Design Lab, located on the 
first floor of the Shapiro 
Undergraduate Library, is 
a new form of experiential 
learning: 
augmented, 
virtual and mixed reality, or 
“AVMR”, technology.
Virtual reality has been 
widely 
adopted 
within 
fields like nursing, medicine 
and dentistry, allowing for 
modeling 
and 
simulation 
in complex circumstances 
where using real people might 
be too painful or expensive. 
It can be as elaborate as 

locating symptoms that link 
to Alzheimer’s or as simple 
as simulating an elementary 
school’s trip to a zoo or 
museum across the globe.
In fact, VR has already 
found its way onto The 
University 
of 
Michigan’s 
campus. Jim Harbaugh, head 
coach of the University’s 
football 
team, 
uses 
VR 
to recruit potential team 
members, allowing them to 
experience “a day in the life of 
a Michigan football player.” 
The Mcity Test Facility uses 
virtual reality to test the 
reliability of self-driving cars 
in a multitude of different 

traffic scenarios that would 
otherwise be both costly 
and 
difficult 
to 
produce 
in a real-life environment. 
In the Duderstadt Center, 
medical 
students 
can 
examine a human cadaver 
through the lens of the 
Michigan 
Immersive 
Digital Experience Nexus. 
Similarly, 
the 
Computer 
and Video Game Archive 
in 
the 
basement 
of 
the 
Art, 
Architecture 
and 
Engineering 
Library 
on 
North Campus includes a 
Sony PlayStation VR, open 
for 
reservations 
for 
all 
students.

Now, 
virtual 
reality 
has made its way into the 
humanities classroom. About 
a year and a half ago, faculty 
approached 
the 
Shapiro 
Design Lab in a search for 
space 
where 
they 
could 
utilize this new technology 
and produce an immersive 
experience within their own 
coursework 
and 
research. 
The Shapiro Design Lab’s 
equipment is available by 
request and includes Oculus 
Rift, Google Cardboard and 
PlayStation VR. It opened for 
students, staff and faculty 
last year.

Tuesday 
 
night, 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan 
Central Student Government 
held a meeting during which 
Engineering 
junior 
Zeke 
Majeske, chair of the Executive 
Nominations 
Committee, 
expressed his intentions to 
pursue an ethics investigation 
against CSG President Daniel 
Greene, a Public Policy senior. 
Majeske brought up two 
main issues with Greene’s 
past behavior to the Student 
Assembly. 
He 
began 
by 
discussing his belief that the 
president misled the Assembly 
in an attempt to sway the 
potential override of his veto 
of A.R. 8-033, a resolution 
discussed last week titled “A 
Resolution to Reschedule SOFC 
Chair 
Confirmations.” 
The 
resolution proposes to change 
the process of selecting the 
Student Organization Funding 
chair: 
the 
representative 
leading the SOFC, the CSG 
committee 
in 
charge 
of 
allocating funds to various 
student organizations. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, February 13, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Funeral held 
to celebrate 
life, legacy of 
John Dingell 

Whitmer emphasizes education, 
infrastructure at State of the State

See DINGELL, Page 3A

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Govenor Gretchen Whitmer delivers her first State of the State address in the Michigan State Capitol Building Tuesday evening. 

GOVERNMENT

Ceremony for longest serving US rep. 
featured former Vice President Joe Biden 

CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter

Governor discusses policy priorities for administration at first address

ALYSSA MCMURTRY
Daily Staff Reporter

See CSG, Page 3A

President’s
CSG veto 
results in 
controversy

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Conversation continues on 
SOFC resolution, Greene 
gives State of Students 

PARNIA MAZHAR
Daily Staff Reporter

CHRISTINE JEGARI/ DAILY

Students, professors incorporate 
virtual reality systems in classes

Shapiro Design Lab offers access to AVMR technology on campus to aid learning

SAMANTHA SMALL
Daily Staff Reporter

See WHITMER, Page 3A

A 
group 
of 
University 
of 
Michigan 
students 
and 
alumni launched a business 
supporting sexual health both 
on campus and throughout 
the country: BusyBox, LLC. 
BusyBox is a personalized box 
full of sexual and reproductive 
health supplies that are sent to 
customers’ doors, eliminating 
the need to purchase these 
items in a store.
BusyBox, LLC, started by 
Public Health senior Monica 
Smolinski 
and 
LSA 
senior 
Alison Elgass, was created for 
the School of Public Health’s 
Innovation in Action project last 
fall. BusyBox officially became 
an LLC in December. School of 
Education senior Sarah Mason, 
and Kayla Carter, then a graduate 
of the Public Health School who 
is now a doctoral student at the 
University of Washington, also 
joined the team. The BusyBox 
team eventually went on to 
place No. 1 in the Innovation in 
Action competition, encourages 
students to develop a solution to 
a real-world challenge.
See BUSYBOX, Page 3A

Students, 
‘U’ alumni
launch safe 
sex service

BUSINESS

BusyBox provides new 
customized box full of 
sexual health products 

OLIVIA TAUBER
Daily Staff Reporter

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 71
©2019 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit
Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

statement

THE MICHIGAN DAILY | FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Last in line: University climate 
policy faces re-evaluation

ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN KUZEE
PHOTO BY ANNIE KLUSENDORF 

statement

See VIRTUAL, Page 3A

Gov. 
Gretchen 
Whitmer 
delivered her State of the 
State address to Michigan 
lawmakers Tuesday night at 
the state capitol in Lansing. 
Whitmer 
began 
her 

address with a joke about 
being asked to “fix the damn 
weather” — a nod to one of 
her main campaign refrains 
to “fix the damn roads.” 
After 
thanking 
members 
of the state legislature for 
attending, Whitmer dedicated 
the majority of her speech 

to 
discussing 
her 
plans 
for 
repairing 
Michigan’s 
infrastructure and education 
system. 
“Turning a blind eye or 
passing phony fixes won’t solve 
our problems,” Whitmer said. 
“In fact, they make it harder. 
Filling potholes instead of 

rebuilding roads. Pretending 
that little increases can fix an 
education crisis like we have 
… A government that does not 
work today can’t get the job 
done for tomorrow and that 
ends now.” 

the