“I always think about this 
sexual misconduct, sexual 
assault, sexual harassment 
as an issue that impacts 
people 
individually, 
right?” Williamsen said. 
“These 
are 
things 
that 
impact people personally 
in a traumatic way … but 
it’s 
also 
a 
community 
issue, 
and 
we 
know 
that. 
Communities 
are 
impacted when something 
happens. 
Communities 
are also places where we 
support things happening 
and 
traditions, 
where 
sometimes 
we 
don’t 
intervene when we see 
something 
happening 
because we think it’s not 
our problem, or we just 
look away because ‘that 
can’t be right.’”
Panelist Amy O’Neal, an 
activist and choreographer 
of 
Opposing 
Forces, 
a 
dance troupe expressing 
ideas 
around 
femininity 
and 
masculinity, 
shared 
a 
personal 
story 
of 
experiencing misconduct. 
She 
said 
at 
the 
after 
party of her solo dance 
performance, 
an 
arts 
newspaper critic paid an 
attendee $20 to pull her 
pants down. O’Neal said 
she felt vulnerable and 
exposed, noting the power 
dynamics involved.
“I 
think 
there’s 
this 
power 
dynamic 
that 

sometimes 
happens 
with 
performers 
and 
audience 
members 
and 
administrators 
that 
they think they know us 
because of the things that 
we show,” O’Neal said. 
“And in the place where I 
was supposed to feel safe, 
I don’t feel safe anymore.”
Panelist Eun Lee, founder 
of The Dream Unfinished, 
an 
activist 
orchestra, 
discussed her experience 
being 
inappropriately 
touched in a work setting. 
She said she was talking 
to donors at a fundraiser 
for 
the 
nonprofit 
she 
worked 
for 
when 
an 
unknown man touched her 
without consent. Lee said 
instead of finding the man 
immediately, she continued 
her discussion with the 
important donors. When 
she told her coworkers, 
they were supportive but 
also prioritized the event. 
No one told their boss until 
the next morning after the 
fundraising 
goals 
were 
met.
Lee said she often feels 
the goals of organizations 
are more important than 
people, and she discussed 
how this is something that 
needs to change. 
“I 
myself 
wondered 
whether it was worth it 
to bring attention to what 
happened,” 
Lee 
said. 
“But what kind of culture 
are 
we 
creating 
where 
organizational 
interests 

are prioritized above the 
safety of people?”
Another 
audience 
member said he does not 
think there is a way to 
eradicate sexual predators 
or end this type of behavior. 
He said it is inherently part 
of human nature. 
“It seems to me that 
sexual 
predation 
has 
existed for thousands of 
years,” he said. “It seems 
like 
sexual 
predation 
has become embedded in 
human 
nature. 
We 
can 
enforce 
zero 
tolerance, 
but are we able to actually 
prevent it?”
Panelist 
Laura 
Fisher, 
co-founder 
of 
#NotInOurHouse, 
an 
organization for victims of 
sexual harassment in the 
theater industry, disagreed 
with the audience member 
and said all people have 
a choice in how they act. 
She said claiming sexual 
predation is human nature 
is not an excuse. 
“I do not think sexual 
predation is something to 
accept in the workplace, 
in any workplace,” Fisher 
said. “We know more than 
we used to, not only about 
how 
the 
body 
operates 
and how there are not two 
genders, how we actually 
can control ourselves if we 
would like to. I think as 
humans, what we have is 
both choice and control.”
Andrew 
Fyles, 
a 
Music, Theatre & Dance 

sophomore, told The Daily 
after the event that he 
really 
appreciated 
the 
open discussion the panel 
fostered. He said there 
is a lack of opportunities 
to talk about the recent 
accusations, 
and 
he 
thinks students can learn 
from 
hearing 
others’ 
personal experiences with 
sexual misconduct in the 
workplace.
“I just think it was cool 
that there was a way for 
people to have discussion 
about 
this 
because 
it 
seems to be a very big 
topic of discussion lately, 
and there doesn’t seem to 
be any actual discussion 
about it from peer to 
peer,” Fyles said. “I think 
it’s nice that Michigan 
has these resources and 
these events for people to 
have these conversations 
and for people to share 
their stories about how 
they 
experienced 
these 
issues.”
Fyles also said he wished 
the 
panelists 
discussed 
more solutions, as he is 
unsure of what action to 
take moving forward.
“I think it was a little 
bit unclear as to exactly 
what the solutions are, 
honestly,” Fyles said. “But I 
think it was still helpful to 
be able to have a discussion 
about it even though I’m 
not sure what exactly to 
take away from it or what 
to do next.”

The 
Border-to-Border 
Trail is part of a larger 
project, 
the 
Iron 
Belle 
Trail. The Iron Belle Trail 
spans 
over 
2,000 
miles 
and 
connects 
Detroit 
to 
Ironwood, 
in 
the 
upper 
peninsula. 
The 
specific 
section of the trail in Ann 
Arbor would pass through 
Ypsilanti and connect with 
Dexter.
Sanderson also mentioned 
the county has teamed up 
with and received funding 
from 
Huron 
Waterloo 
Pathways. He believes by 
getting the approval from 
the community now, the 
county can apply for grants 
sooner.
Hanzel 
went 
over 
the 
details of the tunnel. She 
told residents a feasibility 
study had been done and 
would be updated for a better 
estimate for grant funding. 
The 
city 
of 
Ann 
Arbor 
also worked closely with 
construction companies to 
create accurate dimensions.
“We were thinking for 
dimensions 
approximately 
14 feet wide, 10 feet tall for 
the interior space,” Hanzel 
said. “We’d like to have 
lights on the interior. We’ll 
hopefully have the budget to 
improve the exterior.”
Construction 
may 
not 
start until 2020 or 2021. 
Following the presentation, 
the room was open for 
discussion and community 
members 
voiced 
their 
concerns on the timeline. 
Ann Arbor resident Kim 
Hill, 
who 
attended 
the 
meeting, told The Daily the 
city should put the issue on 
their list of priorities.
“I would like them to 
prioritize 
it,” 
Hill 
said. 
“It’s something that’s been 
obvious 
for 
years. 
They 
studied it back in 2005. 
They couldn’t get funding, 
is what they said. So now, 
you have this feasibility 
study already, you’re going 

to update the numbers, just 
concentrate on getting the 
money. I’m not worried it 
won’t happen, just worried 
it will take a little bit of time 
— longer than it probably 
should.”
Many 
residents 
were 
excited about the tunnel 
and trail. Ypsilanti resident 
Ashley Fox was especially 
excited 
about 
the 
trail 
connecting Ann Arbor and 
Ypsilanti.
“I just wanted to strongly 
endorse this project,” Fox 
said. “I think it’s a really 
important one and … I think 
it’s really important not just 
that this crossing would be 
there, but that we would 
have the path getting there 
clearer, especially coming 
from Fuller Road.”
Ann 
Arbor 
resident 
Valerie Shinebarger enjoys 
biking near the Barton Dam 
and looks forward to the 
idea of a bridge — part of the 
Border-to-Border trail — to 
help create a safer way to get 
to the park.
“I 
like 
what 
Peter 
Sanderson said: ‘It would be 
the gateway to Ann Arbor,’ 
because really there’s no 
way to bike to Dexter right 
now,” Shinebarger said. “I 
see people there all the time 
and I’m really excited to be 
able to do it safely because 
with MDOT putting more 
of these barriers to make 
people 
safer, 
it’s 
more 
dangerous because people 
are still doing it anyway, but 
now they’re having to jump 
over things and slide down 
a hill.”
Sanderson said he was 
pleased with the meeting, 
but 
understood 
there 
is 
always 
a 
possibility 
of 
opposition.
“I think the crowd seemed 
generally supportive of the 
project, but we’ll see what 
kind of comments we get 
back,” Sanderson said. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 — 3A

LSA freshman Rubani Walia, 
a member of MPowered, said she 
welcomes the results of the study, 
feeling empowered by the increased 
opportunity. 
“I definitely have seen a gender 
disparity in the business fields,” 
Walia said. “But when I joined 
MPowered and started gaining 
exposure to venture capitalists as 
well as those working in startups, 
I began to see a potential for that 
gender gap to close. Though I have 
always been confident in my ability 
to succeed in business regardless 
of my gender, it helps to know that 
there are women in Ann Arbor that 
I can look up to and turn to.”
While 
female 
investors 
and 
women-owned businesses are still 
underrepresented on the venture 
market, the study found the climate 
was 
steadily 
improving. 
After 
examining 
how 
startups 
with 
female founders performed after 
their first round of capital compared 
with those that did not, the study 
determined most had raised a 
second and third round within three 
to five years, some eventually going 
public. Those who went public did 
so at about the same rate as other 
startups without a female founder.
According to the study, Ann Arbor 
is the metro area with the largest 
share of these “first financings” 
secured by female startups.
Among the 19 cities with above-
average shares of women-founded 
startup activity, Ann Arbor topped 
the list. Between 2005 and 2017, 29 
percent of female startups secured a 
first round, compared to the national 
average of 16 percent. Holding 58 
percent of first financings, Ann 
Arbor had almost three times the 
national average of 21 percent of 
women-founded shares between 
2016 and 2017. Memphis, Boulder, 
and Honolulu had shares of about 40 
percent and St. Louis; Providence, 
Rhode Island; Tampa, Florida; and 
New Orleans were all around 30 
percent.
The cities identified in the study 
all had women-founded shares of 
startup activity greater than the 
country’s 
average 
percent 
and 
an average of at least four first 
financings each year from 2017 to 
2016 or from 2017 to 2005.
The study’s author, Ian Hathaway, 
noted in the report the bigger cities 
benefited from large established 
startup communities.

“Because these four cities are 
both large and gender diverse, 
they drive a substantial portion of 
women-founded startup activity 
overall,” Hathaway wrote.
Hathaway said this disparity 
could be because the number of 
female investors located in the 
region is much higher than a smaller 
city, or because the city supports 
industries that historically have had 
more companies founded by women. 
Sectors like consumer products and 
services, health care and software 
are among the industries with a 
larger share of female founders with 
venture-backed financing. 
Lucy Sanders, co-founder and 
CEO of the National Center for 
Women & Information Technology 
and author of the CAE report’s 
foreword, 
encouraged 
startup 
cities to create a more amenable 
community 
for 
female-founded 
companies. 
“Technology investors and other 
leaders, both men and women, must 
perform as champions for female 
technologists and entrepreneurs,” 
Sanders wrote in the report. “They 
must be informed and equipped 
to pass along their guidance and 
encouragement 
effectively, 
with 
a clear understanding of both the 
values and unique challenges to 
gender inclusion embedded in our 
current systems and operations.” 
According 
to 
Hathaway, 
mentorship programs or support 
groups to inspire young female 
entrepreneurs may be a way to 
start improvement. Business senior 
Hayley Rogers, co-president of 
Michigan Business Women, said a 
strong network of women is essential 
for aspiring entrepreneurs.
“Both the academic curriculum 
as well as the community in 
MBW push individuals to try and 
innovate,” Rogers said. “You feel like 
you can do anything, you are taught 
the basic skills of starting a business, 
and you have the resources and 
experiences of those around you — it 
makes starting a business seem like 
less of an obstacle.”
Rogers said it made sense Ann 
Arbor was one of the top places for 
women-led startups to prosper.
“I am not surprised by the 
findings of the study,” Rogers said. 
“Ann Arbor is and will always 
be a hotspot for learning. Given 
this atmosphere and the support 
available from the University of 
Michigan, I understand why female 
entrepreneurs can succeed.”

STARTUPS
From Page 1A

TUNNEL
From Page 1A

REEF
From Page 1A

POVERTY
From Page 1A

CLIMATE
From Page 2A

“Some of the people who are 
playing 
various 
community 
roles in the simulation are 
people 
who 
are 
formerly 
homeless, some are on public 
assistance,” 
Warpehoski 
said. “They bring a real-life 
experience to the role and to 
the simulation that can provide 
an authenticity and perspective 
that is difficult to bring in from 
just reading about it.”
During 
the 
simulation, 
each 
volunteer 
was 
given 
a 
specific 
community 
role 
to play, occupying the roles 
of 
policemen, 
employment 
officers 
and 
mortgage 
collectors.

Helen Simon, one of the 
simulation’s organizers, has 
been 
volunteering 
in 
ICPJ 
simulations since the 1990s. 
During 
the 
event, 
Simon 
managed 
“Quick 
Cash,” 
a 
location 
made 
up 
by 
the 
simulation’s 
organizers 
to 
give out food stamps and 
transportation 
passes 
to 
student participants.
According 
to 
Simon, 
volunteers 
were 
permitted, 
and in some cases, instructed, 
to make tasks more difficult 
for participants. For instance, 
several 
volunteers 
failed 
to provide work checks to 
participants due to long lines, 
or even cheated participants 
who were unaware of their 
rights.

“I think we try to make it as 
realistic as we can,” Simon said. 
“I’m a Quick Cash person and 
I’ve never done this particular 
job before, but (the simulation 
guide) says that if you can get 
away with it, try to cheat the 
person. I’m too kind-hearted, 
I’m not going to try and cheat, 
but evidently it does happen.”
LSA 
freshman 
Nathalie 
O’Hernandez was a student 
participant. 
According 
to 
O’Hernandez, the economic 
struggles 
faced 
by 
her 
simulation 
group 
were 
noticeably linked to factors of 
race and ethnicity.
“It’s something that I’ve 
noticed, 
especially 
with 
my identity — I’m Latina,” 
O’Hernandez said. “And our 

family 
(in 
the 
simulation), 
we’re the Perez family. And 
how many times has a police 
officer come up to us and 
harassed us, asking us what 
we’ve 
done? 
Why 
are 
we 
singled out in that sense?”
O’Hernandez 
said 
her 
perceptions about the biases 
of 
law 
enforcement 
and 
other public resources were 
intensified by her participation 
in the simulation Tuesday.
“It’s just really striking 
how 
the 
stereotypes 
you 
have about these different 
systems are really apparent,” 
O’Hernandez said. “Although 
we have reached a time where 
we are able to talk about these 
things, nothing has changed 
them.”

Mitcham reflected to The 
Daily after the event on the 
opportunity to engage with 
the speakers.
“The speakers are the 
best in their field, so it’s 
the best knowledge you can 
get.”
Mitcham said she left the 
event feeling more educated 
about heat-related issues.

“It’s something that I 
never had thought about,” 
Mitcham said. “You can 
see Michigan doesn’t have 
as many heat stroke cases 
as other states. It really 
hits you, because you don’t 
really see that here, so it 
placed me in the position of 
those people.”
A reception followed the 
event featuring student and 
community organizations, 
including 
the 
Citizens’ 
Climate Lobby and the U.S. 

Environmental Protection 
Agency’s 
SmartWay 
program. Koman invited 
these 
organizations 
with 
the 
intention 
of 
encouraging attendees to 
take action following the 
event.
“I think that students, 
faculty 
and 
staff, 
and 
community 
members, 
everyone needs to be acting 
in their everyday lives to 
be thinking deeply about 
their carbon footprint, how 

to make these changes,” 
Koman said. “We’ve got a lot 
of really exciting solutions 
coming, and we all need to 
be a part of them.”
Balbus echoed Koman’s 
emphasis 
on 
continued 
activism.
“You guys are citizens 
of the University, and you 
have a voice in decisions 
the University makes, and 
this is a big place with a lot 
of impact,” Balbus said. 

SMTD
From Page 1A

Statistics 250 is one of 
the classes participating 
in the Reef pilot program. 
According 
to 
Brenda 
Gunderson, 
who 
is 
a 
statistics 
professor 
and 
coordinator for Statistics 
250, 
the 
class 
usually 
keeps 
up 
with 
new 
learning 
technology, 
as it was also an early 
adopter 
of 
the 
original 
iClickers. Gunderson said 
she appreciates the way 
the app anticipates her 
questions. 
“You can come up with 
some 
very 
good 
true-
false and multiple choice 
questions, 
but 
it 
also 
really does help to mimic 
sometimes the ways you’re 
going 
to 
ask 
questions 
in 
assessments 
or 
make 
them think and type up an 
answer,” Gunderson said.
Statistics 250 has been 
piloting 
Reef 
for 
two 
semesters. 
According 
to 
Gunderson, 
her 
students 
told her they found Reef 
to be more engaging than 
traditional 
remotes. 
LSA 
freshman 
Hannah 
Albee, 
a student in Gunderson’s 
lecture, 
said 
she 
enjoys 
the accessibility and wider 
variety of questions.
“(Reef) 
is 
pretty 
straightforward,” 
Albee 
said. “Honestly I don’t really 
have any complaints with it. 

It’s convenient.”
Albee added she hopes 
more classes use Reef. She 
was required to buy a remote 
for her comparative politics 
class 
last 
semester, 
but 
never used it because there 
were problems integrating 
it in the class. According to 
Albee, Reef seems easier to 
implement.
LSA 
senior 
and 
Instructional 
Consultant 
Anthony King approached 
Gunderson as well as other 
professors 
to 
offer 
the 
opportunity to participate 
in the pilot program. He 
explained how LSA started 
supporting 
iClickers 
10 
years ago and is cooperating 
with Macmillan Learning 
to 
test 
out 
Reef 
in 
14 
pilot 
courses 
within 
the 
Statistics; 
Biology; 
Psychology; Sociology; and 
Film, Television and Media 
departments.
LSA 
freshman 
Adam 
Ross’s biology courses this 
semester and last semester 
both used iClicker remotes. 
Ross expressed interest in 
using Reef.
“(Reef) sounds like a great 
idea,” Ross said. “It seems 
more 
convenient 
instead 
of having to worry about 
the batteries forgetting the 
clicker device. I’d totally be 
down to try it.” 
However, 
Reef 
also 
presents some challenges 
that could prove problematic 

for learning environments. 
Ross noted how Reef might 
disrupt grading systems.
“I 
had 
friends 
that 
would use Reef and not go 
to lecture and would just 
answer the questions from 
their computer when it was 
lecture time,” Ross said. “I 
could see why that might 
pose a problem in grading 
for attendance.”
Gunderson 
said 
Reef’s 
interface 
wasn’t 
too 
complicated, 
but 
some 
technical challenges came 
with its implementation last 
semester. Since the course 
is designed so students may 
attend any lecture during 
the 
week, 
Reef 
synced 
all students to the course 
rather than to each class 
section, creating some lag in 
the response system.
“In order for me to give 
good feedback, I want their 
thinking, and I want to see 
the results of the poll in real 
time, not after the fact,” 
Gunderson 
said. 
“There 
were a few glitches because 
of how big the course was. 
Many 
of 
these 
glitches 
were fixed for the current 
semester.”
The pricing model also 
varies between Reef and 
remotes. Whereas students 
can buy a iClicker remote 
for $39 at the Computer 
Showcase or get one used 
for a lower price, Reef is 
available for use free of 

charge in the pilot program. 
King 
explained 
students 
would have to pay a one-
year 
subscription 
fee 
of 
$23.99 to use the app if it 
were officially integrated 
into LSA classrooms.
“The business model for 
the 
cloud-based 
iClicker 
Reef assumes students pay 
for the software they use on 
their own laptops, tablets, or 
phones — this means paying 
for both a subscription and 
needing to have a compatible 
device,” 
King 
said. 
“We 
are 
currently 
exploring 
with Macmillan Learning 
whether 
institutional 
licenses might be an option 
and 
what 
the 
financial 
impact could potentially be. 
It’s premature to speculate 
on how much students might 
pay.”
King explained how LSA 
ultimately needs to weigh 
in on the different effects 
of student response systems 
before deciding if the system 
should be implemented.
“I want to be clear that 
there 
is 
no 
University-
wide ‘transition’ to iClicker 
Reef,” King said. “Individual 
schools 
and 
colleges 
determine 
what 
student 
response system is most 
appropriate for their faculty 
… for a variety of important 
reasons, some instructors 
may prefer to stay with the 
traditional iClicker device-
based version.”

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

