On Saturday afternoon, more
than 50 high school students,
residents and local politicians
gathered in Liberty Plaza in
downtown Ann Arbor to demand
legislative
action
against
gun
violence. The Washtenaw Youth
Initiative, a local group led by and
composed of high school students,
organized the rally. They invited
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich.,
and state Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann
Arbor, to speak at the event, as well
as activists from the gun violence
advocacy groups Moms Demand
Action for Gun Sense in America
and Physicians for the Prevention
of Gun Violence.
The
Washtenaw
Youth
Initiative is composed of students
from 12 different high schools in
Washtenaw
County
according
to the website. The group meets
weekly in the Neutral Zone, a
teen center in downtown Ann
Arbor, and has approximately 50
members.
Claire Robinson, a junior at
Pioneer High School and an
active WYI member, said the rally
was primarily aimed at bringing
together high school students.
“No one else has honestly
been bringing about change,”
Robinson said. “But we’ve been
working really hard and still have
high schoolers across the country
(organizing), like March For Our
Lives and Parkland, and I think
that that’s starting to bring about
change.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will
be delivering the University of
Michigan’s spring commencement
address
for
the
Ann
Arbor
campus. Additionally, Nobel Prize
winner Randy Schekman will
be delivering the address for the
Rackham Graduate School events.
The Board of Regents will approve
the honorary degree recipients
for spring commencement during
their upcoming March 28 meeting.
Whitmer
is
a
lifelong
Michigander who was elected
as Michigan’s 49th governor in
November 2018 after previously
serving in the state House of
Representatives
from
2001-06
and state Senate from 2006-
2015. Her address will make
her the sixth sitting governor
to speak at a commencement in
the past 40 years. Her legislative
achievements included an increase
in the minimum wage with a cost-
of-living adjustment and health
coverage expansion to more than
680,000 residents.
Additionally,
Whitmer
has
taught at the University, as well as
at Michigan State University.
Kellie Lounds, Public Policy
senior and former chair of College
Democrats,
told
The
Daily
Whitmer’s presence could send a
powerful message.
“Personally, I’m thrilled that
Governor Whitmer will be our
commencement speaker,” Lounds
wrote in an text message. “College
Dems campaigned hard for her
in the fall and it’s been incredible
to see her hit the ground running
in her efforts to set Michigan
on the right track and make it a
state that works for everyone.
Governor
Whitmer’s
presence
at our commencement also has
the potential to send a powerful
message about how critical our
public universities are to the
success of our state and about the
importance she places on making
Michigan a state where college
graduates want to stay and grow
for the long term.”
Along with receiving the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine,
Scheckman is also a professor
of
cell
and
developmental
biology at the University of
California, Berkeley. His research
investigates the mechanism of
protein traffic in the secretory
pathway in eukaryotic cells.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer outlined
her plan to increase funding for
education and repair Michigan’s
roads with a hike in fuel taxes in
her 2020 budget, an effort to follow
through on her campaign promise
to “fix the damn roads.” The
recommendation, which Whitmer
presented to the state legislature
on Tuesday, calls for raising the
motor fuel tax by $0.45 per gallon,
increasing an estimated $2.5 billion
a year.
Whitmer told state lawmakers
the tax hike was necessary to fund
the repairs but recognized the cost
was “too great to bear in one fell
swoop,” instead opting for three
subsequent $0.15 increases to be
implemented from Oct. 1, 2019 to
Oct. 1, 2020.
“There’s no doubt that the
enormity
of
this
problem
is
staggering,” Whitmer said. “If
we’re going to solve these problems,
if we expect anyone to invest in
Michigan, we’ve got to invest in
ourselves, and I have a plan that will
get us to 90 percent of state roads in
good or fair condition by 2030.”
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, March 11, 2019
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
A2 students,
politicians
attend gun
control rally
ANN ARBOR
The Washtenaw Youth Initiative held
the event, invited U.S. and State reps
MARIA SOBRINO
Daily Staff Reporter
By its own admission with data
from 2017, the University of Michigan
consumes a “substantial” amount
of energy, making a net-zero carbon
footprint a tall order, especially given
the University’s relatively late arrival
to tackling climate change.
After announcing plans to pursue
a path to carbon neutrality in
October, University President Mark
Schlissel launched a commission on
Feb. 4 to develop recommendations
for achieving sustainability. Campus
climate activists welcomed the
commission, which is composed of
faculty, students and administrators,
as well as local officials and
environmentalists.
Engineering junior Logan Vear,
president of the Climate Action
Movement, supported the creation
of the commission, but worried
about conflicts of interest presented
by the involvement of certain
members of the newly selected
group. Vear, who was named
to one of the commission’s two
student spots, expressed concern
about the inclusion of Brandon
Hofmeister, senior vice president
of governmental, regulatory and
public affairs at CMS Energy and
Consumers Energy, as well as Camilo
Serna, vice president of corporate
strategy at DTE Energy.
“(It was) highly disappointing
that DTE and Consumers Energy
were given spots on the commission
itself instead of potentially in an
advisory panel, given their history of
fighting against climate policy, their
advocating for natural gas expansion
and
particularly
their
direct
conflict of interest being financially
dependent upon U of M,” Vear said.
ATTICUS RAASCH &
LEAH GRAHAM
Daily Staff Reporter &
Daily News Editor
Online MBA program to
launch in fall of 2019
ACADEMICS
‘U’ to be first top 10 business school with virtual degree
Gov. Whitmer announced
as commencement speaker
State’s top officerholder to headline graduation for Class of 2019
AMARA SHAIKH
Daily News Editor
Another collapse
Second half struggles bury
Michigan in loss to Michigan
State, squandering chance at
a regular season Big Ten title
in East Lansing.
» Page 2B
Beginning in fall 2019, the
University of Michigan’s Ross
School of Business will launch a
part-time, online MBA program,
making the school the first top-10
business school in the country to
offer an online degree alternative.
The Business School currently
runs weekend and evening MBA
programs for professionals who
are unable to commit to the full-
time MBA track. These part-time
programs allow students to both
work full-time and earn their
degrees but require students to
be in close proximity to the Ann
Arbor campus.
Wallace Hopp, the director
of part-time programs at the
Business
School,
said
the
increased accessibility will enable
the program to reach a wider and
more diverse cohort of students.
The program is currently only
offered to students in the U.S. but
can accommodate travel or study
abroad plans more easily than the
weekend or evening MBA tracks,
which demand more face-to-face
contact between professors and
students.
“We’re not backing away from
(the weekend MBA program)
at all,” Hopp said. “We’re not
replacing that program. (The
online program) is for the people
who don’t have a family situation
or a career situation where they
can get to Ann Arbor every
other weekend. They might be
traveling, they might be doing
their study from South America
or wherever — it doesn’t matter,
because they’re able to access
this.”
According
to
Hopp,
the
business school faculty officially
voted to approve the creation
of the online MBA program in
February 2018. Hopp said prior
to the vote, the business school
administration had been lobbying
to create the program for nearly
two years.
“To get to that point, of course,
we had done a lot of work to
have a concrete proposal for the
faculty to evaluate,” Hopp said.
Although the online MBA
program
will
not
require
students to convene in Ann
Arbor every other week for
class, Anne Schoen, the associate
admissions director for part-
time MBA programs, said the
admissions committee will hold
applicants to the same standards
as all of the Business School
programs. Schoen said the ideal
student would have between
five and seven years of working
experience in the business field,
an average undergraduate GPA of
3.4 and a GRE score between 158
and 160 out of 170 possible points
for both the quantitative and
verbal sections.
“From
an
admissions
standpoint, application is the
same, requirements are the same
and standards are the same,”
Schoen said. “So there’s nothing
different that we’re looking for
from this population of students
that we wouldn’t normally look
for in a traditional student.”
2020 budget
calls for hike
in gas tax to
repair roads
GOVERNMENT
Proposal also features
3% increase in funding
for all public universities
LEAH GRAHAM
Daily News Editor
GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 84
©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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 B
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Governor Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the University of Michigan’s Spring Commencement address.
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LIAT WEINSTEIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
University carbon neutrality effort
features allies with cloudy records
Two members in the new commission are executives at DTE and Consumers Energy
DESIGN BY ALICE HUTH