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Thursday, August 15, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

After 14 weeks of work-
ing on various projects, 
students 
in 
the 
2019 
Information and Technol-
ogy Services Internship 
Cohort lined the Michigan 
League with posters at the 
ITS Internship Showcase 
on Friday. The showcase 
featured a poster session, a 
student panel and closing 
remarks from Ravi Pendse, 
vice president for informa-
tion technology and chief 
information officer. 
This year, the Intern-
ship Cohort was com-
prised of 47 university 
and high school students. 
While many were from the 
University of Michigan, 
there were also students 
from University of South-
ern California, Michigan 
State University and sur-
rounding Ann Arbor high 
schools. 
DePriest 
Dockins, 
co-chairman of the ITS 
Internship planning com-
mittee, stated there was 

a jump in the number of 
applicants this year. 
“We went from about 
130 the previous year to 
320 this year,” Dockins 
said. “We were aston-
ished.”
According to Dockins, 
many students selected 
stood out in enthusiasm 
and ability to grow. Dock-
ins stated many of the 
candidates come in with 
little to no hands-on expe-
rience, so the program 
administrators hope the 
ITS Internship provides 
interns with the perfect 
complement to their strong 
academic background.
Diane 
Jones, 
execu-
tive director of operations 
in ITS, serves as a spon-
sor for the program and 
worked with the planning 
committee to expand and 
improve 
the 
program. 
This year, Jones explained 
they integrated the Wol-
verine Pathways Program 
to introduce high school 
students to technology-
oriented fields. The Wol-
verine Pathways Program 
is a free local program 

that helps seventh through 
12th grade students pre-
pare for college. 
“We’re 
hugely 
proud 
that we’re able to contrib-
ute to that and bring stu-
dents from surrounding 
areas,” Jones said. “The 
Wolverine Pathway Pro-
gram is so important to 
helping students under-
stand how to manage life.”
Tamariah Davis is a 
senior at Ypsilanti Com-
munity High School and 
was a participant of the 
Wolverine Pathway Pro-
gram. She said she learned 
how to use adobe, man-
age responsibilities and 
become more self confi-
dent.
“I’m 
very 
undecided 
about what I want to do in 
life,” Davis said. “I want to 
be a nurse, I want to be in 
ITS, I want to be a teach-
er, I want to be so many 
things … This helped me 
narrow down what I want-
ed to do.”
Michigan 
State 
Uni-
versity senior Raisa Mor-
rison worked on creating 
the ITS Intern Portal to 

improve 
and 
centralize 
intern communication. As 
an English major, she said 
she was able to apply what 
she learned in classes to 
being the project manager 
for her group.
“Being nontechnical, I 
was really nervous,” Mor-
rison said. “But they create 
a lot of space for technical 
and 
non-technical 
stu-
dents.”
LSA senior Joseph Lisi, 
on the other hand, was 
exposed to many different 
experiences that improved 
his technical skills. He 
worked on a project about 
significant incident auto-
mation to improve the 
coordination and respon-
siveness to various infor-
mation 
and 
technology 
issues.
“I was able to take a 
professional business pro-
cess and learn about it and 
learn how to improve it,” 
Lisi said. “It’s not really 
stuff you can learn in 
school.”

Visitors to Ann Arbor City 
Hall last Monday were greet-
ed by a new front desk staffed 
by an unarmed, private secu-
rity guard, where they will 
now need to check in to gain 
access to the third through 
sixth floors. Two days later, 
the University of Michigan 
began installing door locks to 
all classrooms and class labs 
in Mason Hall — the site of a 
false active shooter scare last 
semester — as part of a pilot 
project to enhance security 
and emergency preparedness 
campuswide.
Though planned for ahead 
of time, both projects were 
coincidentally implemented 
the week after a string of 
mass shootings — two less 
than 24 hours apart in El 
Paso, Texas, and Dayton, 
Ohio, and one earlier in the 
week in Gilroy, Calif. — in 
which more than 32 people 
were killed. 
According to the Gun Vio-
lence Archive, as of August 
5 there have been 255 mass 
shootings 
in 
the 
United 
States this year — a rate of 
more than one per day. Soon 
after, the governments of 
Venezuela and Uruguay and 
Amnesty International all 
released travel advisories, 
warning those visiting the 
U.S. of the high levels of gun 
violence.
In 
response 
to 
these 
national trends, institutions 
in Ann Arbor are also taking 
precautions. Though inde-
pendent of one another, the 
two back-to-back projects 
share a common purpose: 
to protect people frequent-
ing the buildings from vio-
lent threats and emergencies 
as mass shootings become 

deadlier nationwide. 
University door-lock proj-
ect
The door-lock project is 
being led by the Division of 
Public Safety and Security. 
Working with a team from 
the University’s Architec-
ture, Engineering and Con-
struction 
division, 
DPSS 
plans to finish the locks by 
the end of August so the 
classrooms can still be used 
in the fall. 
According to a Univer-
sity press release, the pilot 
project will guide University 
administration in exploring 
the scope and process of 
installing door locks to class-
rooms campuswide. DPSS 
Executive Director Eddie L. 
Washington Jr. noted Mason 
Hall was chosen as the first 
location due to its proximity 
to the Diag.
“The safety of students, fac-
ulty, staff and visitors is our top 
priority,” Washington Jr. said. 
“This project is part of our 
broader efforts to continuously 
identify technology, enhance 
alerting and implement train-
ing to ensure the safety and 
security of our community.”
In an email to The Daily, 
University 
spokesperson 
Rick Fitzgerald explained 
Mason Hall was chosen as the 
pilot location in part because 
it was the site of the scare, 
but also since it is an LSA and 
central campus building used 
by many undergraduates. 
Heather 
Young, 
DPSS 
director of strategic commu-
nications, emphasized the 
decision to implement door 
locks in Mason Hall is not 
directly related to the March 
incident, as she explained 
talks between LSA and DPSS 
began in December. 

City, ‘U’ add 
 
new security 
in buildings

Mason Hall gets door locks, City Hall 
receives security guards and front desk

COURTESY OF FRANCESCA DUONG

Read more at michigandaily.com

Interns present work at 
annual technology event

CLAIRE HAO
Summer News Editor

 FRANCESCA DUONG
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at michigandaily.com

Students share projects, take part in panel during ITS open house 

2019 Information and Technology Services Internship Cohort students present at the ITS Internship Showcase in the Michigan League Friday.

