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
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

See COMMISSION, Page 2A

#rushKTP

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Governor Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the University of Michigan’s Spring Commencement address.

Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

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