As students gear up for the
University of Michigan’s Student
Government elections on March
27 and 28, The Daily sat down
with LSA presidential and vice
presidential candidates to talk
platforms, vision and plans. In
this installment, we profile the
Wang-McKillop ticket. This is the
first in a series profiling each set of
candidates for the executive team.
LSA junior Brian Wang, the LSA
presidential candidate, and LSA
sophomore Mary McKillop, the
LSA vice presidential candidate,
both got involved with LSA
Student Government during their
first year on campus.
Wang said he enjoys helping
other students understand what
the University has to offer. He
credited his inspiration for running
to
Pharmacy
student
Ibtihal
Makki, who encouraged Wang to
run for president last year.
“(Makki) reached out to me last
year hoping I was going to run for
president, but I told her I was a
sophomore,” Wang said. “I was a
little too young (and) I still wanted
to get more experience, but this
year when I was considering to run,
I definitely reflected back on that
text … I took it as a compliment. It
was one of the largest reasons why
I decided to run.”
When Wang was looking for a
running mate, he said he wanted to
find someone who was passionate
about student government and
experienced in dealing with a
variety of situations.
“I think one of the reasons why
I asked Mary to run with me is
because I saw her passion for how
well she connected with other
students that she was bringing into
our organization,” Wang said. “I
really liked the way she handled
herself, handled the situations that
came up, addressed the issues that
our new representatives faced, and
just overall was a great presence
and resource for these other
students and kids who want to get
involved and came in with, you
know, open minds and just really
want to try and understand what
we’re about.”
McKillop said she enjoys
asking
students
what
they
would like to see happen and she
strives to improve her leadership
style by asking others what she
could do better.
“I guess my inspiration to
run for vice president started
when I became the chair of
the appointments committee
because originally I was only
the (vice) chair of the Internal
Review Committee,” McKillop
said. “When Brian asked me
to run with him to be vice
president, I knew that I could
step up and do it because of
what I had been doing as the
chair
of
the
appointments
committee and also I was just
really excited to be able to be a
part of bringing LSA to the next
level of representing students’
interests.”
Wang
said
he
would
describe his leadership style as
constructive and democratic.
“I
think
most
of
my
experience that I’ve gained for
the last three years has really
come from listening to other
people,” Wang said. “I was a vice
chair for a few committees for a
year and a half, and the best way
I learned and contributed was
listening to other people and seeing
what they had to say, because as a
first-year student, you come in here
with very little knowledge of how
the University runs.”
The campaign’s platform is
broken down into three main
points: accessibility on campus,
academics and student life.
On
the
accessibility
point,
McKillop said the candidates
hope to implement iClicker and
calculator rentals for students
because some students can’t afford
to buy those materials.
McKillop said the idea of fixed
tuition rates is also an important
part
of
accessibility.
Fixed
tuition is when a student pays the
same tuition from year to year
without any increases. Wang
said implementing this idea will
make it easier for students to
attend the University. McKillop
added that the principle has
been implemented at George
Washington University and the
new tuition would be proposed
to be the average between
under
division
and
upper
division tuition. According to
the U.S. Census Bureau, average
household income increased by
1.8 percent from 2016 to 2017. In
2018, the University announced
a 2.9 to 3.9 percent increase in
tuition for the following year.
“When people come here, they
don’t know how much they’ll be
paying in three years,” McKillop
said. “The average income in the
United States doesn’t change
that much from year to year, but
tuition does … and so it’s very
much an issue of accessibility
because people who are of a
lower socioeconomic status are
the most affected by an increase
in tuition.”
THE PINBALL M ACHINE : UX CRUCIBLE
ON THE DAILY: NEIL PATRICK HARRIS NAMES GANDY DANCER AMONG FAVORITES
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: REGENTS GETS GRIM
MINORITY NEWS
Actor Neil Patrick Harris and his
husband, David Burtka, a Michigan
native and professional chef, named
Ann Arbor’s Gandy Dancer as one
of their favorite restaurants. The
actors recently listed their top ten
favorite restaurants for OpenTable’s
new feature, Tastemaker lists, which
allows users to explore the favorite
restaurants
of
frequent
diners,
including many celebrities.
Gandy Dancer currently has a
92 percent recommendation rate on
OpenTable and almost 4,000 reviews.
The fine dining restaurant, which
opened in 1970, is known for its seafood
and steaks. It is located in downtown
Ann Arbor, at the intersection between
Broadway and Depot Street.
The term “gandy dancer” is slang
that refers to early railroad workers
in the United States. The restaurant
sits inside a renovated 19th century
railway station. According to reviews
on OpenTable, trains run by the
restaurant.
“Known in railroading days as
‘the finest station between Buffalo
and Chicago,’ the majestic Michigan
Central Railroad Depot deserves that
commendation more than ever as the
Gandy Dancer now,” OpenTable’s
description of Gandy Dancer reads.
Harris and Burtka also listed Roast
in downtown Detroit as a favorite
restaurant, along with a number of other
eateries scattered across the country.
Burtka is a University of Michigan
alum and left his full-time acting career
to study at Le Cordon Bleu College of
Culinary Arts in Los Angeles in 2009.
He currently runs a Los Angeles catering
company called Gourmet M.D. Harris
starred in the popular sitcom “How I
Met Your Mother.”
March 19, 1981
Concerned members of the
University are preparing to
battle the persisting problem of
declining black enrollment as
the University Regents take a
look at the minority enrollment
report today.
The report shows that black
enrollment been falling since
1976 with a record decline
fall of 5.6 percent - the lowest
figure since the report was first
compiled in 1972.
Administrators speculate the
declining enrollment is caused
by several factors, many of
which, they say, the University
can do little to remedy.
Many black campus leaders,
however, University must place
a higher priority on recruiting
and
retaining
minority
students. And they worry that
educationally
disadvantaged
students will be hard hit by the
current budget cutting fervor.
Assistant Director of the
Undergraduate
Admissions
Office Lance Erikson said that
his office
would like to bring more
prospective minority students
to see the campus, but that the
budget
will not allow for it.
And
assistant
admissions
Director Dave Robinson said
that while the University’s
many programs are “somewhat
successful,” the University is
fighting more than the problem
of
contacting
prospective
students.
2A — Wednesday, March 20, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Wang-McKillop look to find ways
to increase accessiblity on campus
LSA Student Government candidates plan to implement iClicker rentals
ZAYNA SYED
Daily Staff Reporter
MICHAL RUPRECHT
Daily Staff Reporter
In their academics point, the
candidates would like to increase
transparency in departmental
grading
in
large
classes.
McKillop said the coursework in
classes like Economics 101 can
be vastly different depending on
the professor, which can impact
students’ grades.
In
addition,
they
would
like to add more details from
course evaluations to Academic
Reporting Tools so students can
get a better understanding of the
class.
“Once you are mid-class or
at the end of your class, you get
reminders repeatedly about filling
out course evaluations, but most
of the information is only for the
benefit of professors and students
don’t get to see it,” McKillop said.
“Some of it was released with
the implementation of ART 2.0,
which you can find on the Course
Guide with grade distributions
and things, but we would like to
see more of them because there
are 27 possible questions to be
asked on the course evaluation
(and) we’d like to see more of the
questions released so students
will be able to better gauge which
courses fit with their needs.”
In their student life section,
Wang and McKillop said they
would
like
to
expand
the
recreational
sports
waiver
program for students of lower
socioeconomic
status.
They
would also like to expand and
improve CAPS functions.
Wang said there is a shortage
of CAPS counselors and office
locations.
“The solution we included in
our platform was at least working
with CAPS to provide a more
informational email and sessions
to
increase
other
students’
knowledge and awareness that
CAPS is a resource that they can
use,” Wang said.
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