Ann Arbor residents gathered in Forsythe Middle School’s cafeteria to discuss plans for a tunnel connection between Bandemer Park and Huron River Drive, as well as the non-motorized Border-to- Border Trail, Tuesday night. The meeting was held by Peter Sanderson, senior park planner for the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission, and Hillary Hanzel, park planner and landscape architect for the city of Ann Arbor. The purpose of the meeting was to raise community awareness and collect general feedback and input at early stages of project development. The meeting began with a PowerPoint presentation detailing the plans of the tunnel and the Border-to- Border Trail. Sanderson shared the intention of the trail, emphasizing the importance of community connection. “The real goal is connecting our communities, connecting people to parks and places together,” Sanderson said. We’re really connecting some of our large facilities together — we have almost 50 parks in the region. The goal of our project is to create a safe and legal connection.” On Tuesday night, more than 50 undergraduate and graduate students gathered in the Ross School of Business’s Blau Colloquium for an event titled “Poverty Simulation: Making Sense of Making it in America,” gaining a perspective on the daily decisions and dilemmas of people facing poverty in the U.S. During the three- hour simulation, student participants were organized into families, assigned demographic roles and were subsequently faced with a series of socioeconomic obstacles, ranging from mortgage payments to childcare and daily transportation costs. The simulation was organized and facilitated by Poverty Solutions, a research center at the University of Michigan launched in 2016, which aims to illuminate the causes and consequences of American poverty in search of viable solutions to socioeconomic concerns felt by millions across the country. Trevor Bechtel, the student engagement coordinator for Poverty Solutions, elaborated on the mission of the University’s center, which is based in the Ford School of Public Policy. “Our goal is to find projects where we can understand what makes a material difference in people’s lives,” Bechtel said. “We have a partnership with the city of Detroit. It’s the only partnership that exists between a major research university and a mayor’s office.” According to Bechtel, Poverty Solutions put a great deal of work into creating a realistic experience for student participants. “We partnered with the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice to do the event,” Bechtel said. “They’ve been doing these for about 25 years. They’re a group down in Missouri, but this simulation is customized to Washtenaw County. They collect volunteers from a whole variety of demographic groups.” Chuck Warpehoski, the current director of the ICPJ and a former Ann Arbor city councilman, explained ensuring the reality of the situations posed to participants was a key factor in crafting the simulation. Warpehoski said many of the simulation’s volunteers provided a real-life perspective to participants. Since the beginning of the academic year, several LSA classes have been participating in a pilot program of iClicker Reef, a new student response system from Macmillan Learning, to ask a wider variety of questions than traditional iClicker remotes. This pilot program is being used to help the LSA Instructional Support Services weigh in on what advantages the system brings, as well as any problems that may arise. Students in the pilot classes can access Reef through an app to answer an instructor’s prompted questions. In addition to handling multiple choice questions, Reef allows students to write short responses and use a target picture to drop points on a chart — something the iClicker remotes cannot do. The app also confirms if the instructor has received the response and records the response feedback for later access. michigandaily.com Ann Arbor, Michigan Wednesday, February 27, 2019 ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Residents of A2 meet to discuss new tunnel plan SMTD event raises awareness about sexual misconduct in performing arts See TUNNEL, Page 3A DARBY STIPE/Daily Kaaren williamsen, director of the u-m sexual assault prevention & awareness center, moderates the Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Awareness and Preven- tion in the Performing Arts event at the Moore Building Tuesday. ANN ARBOR Underpass would connect Huron River Drive and Bandemer Park Panel discussion comes in light of allegations against various professors EMMA STEIN Daily Staff Reporter See REEF, Page 3A LSA course pilots new technology called Reef ACADEMICS App offfers improvements to original iClicker remote, allows for more questions ARJUN THAKKAR For The Daily Poverty Solutions simulates experiences of Americans living below poverty line Research center aims to highlight causes, consequences of financial hardship in US BEN ROSENFELD Daily Staff Reporter See SMTD, Page 3A Often hailed as Michigan’s Silicon Valley, Ann Arbor is home to a variety of entrepreneurs and up-and-coming tech firms. Recently published research now indicates the city is a major hub for women-led startups. A study published by the Center for American Entrepreneurship found Ann Arbor was one of the top cities in the U.S. for female- founded startups. The study is based on the number of these startups — with a criteria of at least one female founder — raising initial venture investments over the past 20 years. In recent years, there has been an increase in women-founded venture-backed startups in the U.S, according to the study. It looked at the number of startups in the U.S. that raised their first round of venture capital financing between 2005 and 2017. From this information, the researchers concluded the share of women-led startups that were able to raise a first round has improved from 7 percent to 21 percent of the total share. See STARTUPS, Page 3A Ann Arbor top spot for female-led businesses BUSINESS City first on list of hubs for startups founded by women that receive capital funding NIKKI KIM Daily StaffReporter GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. INDEX Vol. CXXVII, No. 81 ©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 27, 2019 Picturing the border: memories of Ciudad Juárez, México ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL ILLUSTRATION BY SHERRY CHEN statement See POVERTY, Page 3A The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance hosted an event on Tuesday to raise awareness about sexual and gender-based misconduct in the performing arts, and to explore potential solutions to the problem. The event brought in a crowd of approximately 90 community members and featured a panel, audience Q&A session and a variety of musical performances. This event comes in light of allegations of sexual misconduct this year against Music, Theatre & Dance School professors Stephen Shipps and David Daniels. Panelist Kaaren Williamsen, director of the U-M Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, began the event by discussing how sexual misconduct is both a personal and community matter. She said she understands how challenging it can be to address these issues, but she advocated for creating a culture resistant to sexual assault through prevention and intervention. the KELSEY PEASE/Daily Participants of the Poverty Simulation in the Blau Colloquium gain a sense of barriers and injustices that people of lower socioeconomic status face Tuesday evening. ALYSSA MCMURTRY Daily Staff Reporter Picturing the Border