The University of Michigan’s 
Board of Regents met for their 
first meeting of the 2019-2020 
school year Thursday. Regents 
Jordan Acker (D) and Michael 
Behm (D) were not present, and 
chair Ron Weiser (R) arrived 
late. 
University President Mark 
Schlissel began the meeting by 
thanking E. Royster Harper, 
vice president for Student Life, 
for her time at the University. 
Harper 
announced 
her 
retirement this week.
“After 
an 
amazing 
four 
decades 
of 
service 
to 
the 
University and to generations 
of our students, among student 
life leaders in our nation, Dr. 
Harper has set the standard,” 
Schlissel said. “And it’s a very 
high standard. Throughout her 
career, including 18 years as vice 
president, she worked tirelessly 
to enrich the lives of students. 
She supported their academic 
and career aspirations, their 
health and their goals as people 
so they could reach their full 
potential.”
Schlissel then discussed the 
University’s new measures to 
prevent 
sexual 
misconduct, 
including 
a 
new 
online 
module that is required for all 
employees. He said nearly half of 
the University’s employees have 
completed it so far. 
“Already, 
47 
percent 
of 

University 
employees 
have 
completed training,” Schlissel 
said. “The senior leadership 
takes this very seriously, and I am 
pleased to report that all regents, 
executive officers and deans on 
all three of our campuses have 
already completed this training. 
The deadline for completion is 
December 31.” 
Ben Gerstein, Public Policy 
junior and president of Central 
Student 
Government, 
then 
took the stand. He started by 
discussing what CSG hopes to 
accomplish this year. 
“Our 
priorities 
for 
the 
upcoming year include elevating 
student voices in the potential 
renovations to North Campus, 
namely for an increase in North 
Campus’s health and wellness 
resources,” 
Gerstein 
said. 
“Additionally, we are acting on 
student concern surrounding 
financial barriers to academic 
inclusion and success, namely 
textbook affordability and the 
high cost of homework access 
codes.”
Gerstein 
continued 
by 
expressing CSG’s support for 
the Washtenaw County Climate 
Strike tomorrow, and for the 
University in joining the Climate 
Change Coalition.
“I want to acknowledge the 
activists organizing tomorrow’s 
Washtenaw 
County 
Climate 
Strike 
for 
highlighting 
an 
important cause through their 
activism 
and 
showing 
the 
urgency of action,” Gerstein 
said. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, September 20, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Pushing 
a 
strand 
of 
magenta hair out of her face, 
Ruth 
Leonela 
Buentello 
recovered from a tearful 
moment. 
Buentello, 
this 

year’s Efroymson Emerging 
Artist 
in 
Residence, 
was 
recounting an incident in her 
hometown of San Antonio 
where nine migrants died in 
a case of human smuggling. 
The migrants, who were 
undocumented and had most 

likely just crossed the U.S.-
Mexico border, died after 
spending hours in a Walmart 
van without air conditioning 
in the middle of a notoriously 
hot Texas summer. 
“They were begging for 
their lives,” Buentello said. 

“And 
no 
one 
published 
their names, their family 
members. … I just don’t know 
how to not feel and not say 
something.”

San Antonio-based artist opens exhibit 
on struggles at US-Mexico border
Efroymson Emerging Artist showcases experiences of undocumented immigrants

ZAYNA SYED
Daily Staff Reporter

Ann Arbor Public Schools 
will allow students to leave class 
to participate in the “Global 
Climate Strike” on Friday if their 
parents approve. 
In a letter to parents that was 
posted online by the organizers 
of 
the 
Washtenaw 
County 
Climate Strike, AAPS Deputy 
Superintendent David A. Comsa 
said the schools aim to provide a 
safe environment for students on 
campus.
“We 
are 
clear 
that 
our 
students are expected to be 
in school and to remain on 
school grounds,” Comsa wrote. 
“Students may only be excused 
from our campuses with parental 
permission in advance of an off-
campus event. Our work with 
our student leaders is focused 
on activities on our campuses. 
With 
advisement 
from 
law 
enforcement, we discourage our 
students from gathering at any 
sites off of our campuses.”

AAPS allows 
students to 
leave class 
for walkout

ANN ARBOR

School district gives ‘OK’ 
to participate in strike if 
parents say they approve

LEAH GRAHAM & 
AMARA SHAIKH
 Daily News Editors

RUCHITA IYER/Daily
LSA Institute for the Humanities presents ‘Yo Tengo Nombre’ by San Antonio-based artist Ruth Leonela Buentello at the Institute for Humanities Thursday.

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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 137
©2019 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

Author discusses taking personal 
action to mitigate climate change

RUCHITA IYER/Daily
New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer speaks on food sustainability in his latest book “We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at 
Breakfast” at Rackham Auditorium Thursday night

Jonathan Safron Foer highlights new book at signing at Rackham Auditorium

Best-selling author Jonathan 
Safran Foer spoke to a crowd 
of several hundred people at 
Rackham Auditorium for a book 
talk 
Thursday 
evening. 
The 
Ford School of Public Policy 
collaborated with the Literati 
Bookstore to host the event.
Foer’s book, “We are the 
Weather: 
Saving 
the 
Planet 
Begins at Breakfast,” focuses 
on changes people can make in 
their immediate lives to promote 
environmental 
sustainability. 

Foer 
highlighted 
four 
major 
contributors to climate change: 
airplane travel, overpopulation, 
cars and food consumption. The 
way people eat is just as important 
as the other three since it also 
deals with dangerous pollutants, 
Foer said. 
“Eating is the only one of 
those that immediately addresses 
nitrous oxide and methane, which 
are 
two 
extremely 
powerful 
greenhouses gases,” Foer said. “I 
think there are focuses exclusively 
on fossil fuels. It’s good to have 
a focus on fossil fuels, but bad to 
have a focus exclusively on fossil 

fuels.” 
The discussion was moderated 
by Ivette Perfecto, a professor 
in the School for Environment 
and Sustainability. She asked 
Foer why he did not talk more 
about the political side of climate 
change. 
“Is this a tactical device 
because do you think that people 
would dismiss you … or do you 
truly think that capitalism has 
nothing to do with it?” Perfecto 
asked. 
Foer said he wanted to focus his 
book on a part of climate change 
that is not talked about enough.

“The focus of the book is 
individual action,” Foer said. “In 
the same way that I acknowledge 
the fossil fuel industry is a 
profound problem, but I don’t 
really write about it in the book 
because I feel like a lot of people 
are giving a lot of attention to it.” 
He acknowledged that, though 
the government needs systemic 
change, it cannot be done without 
some individual change. 
“The 
government 
needs 
our help and we need the 
government,” Foer said. 

ALYSSA MCMURTRY
Daily Staff Reporter

Regents approve 
new $920 million 
 
hospital, address 
STEM concerns

Community members ask Board to tackle 
issues including child abuse, pedestrian safety

LIAT WEINSTEIN 
& EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporters

A team of University of 
Michigan and University of 
California, 
San 
Francisco 
researchers developed a new 
technology able to efficiently 
produce human-like embryos, 
also called embryoids. The 
research was published in 
Nature on Sept. 11.
Other 
scientists 
have 
created embryoids in the past, 
which are made by coaxing 
human stem cells to behave 
and organize into structures 
similar to ones found in very 
early human embryos. The 
researchers specifically use 
pluripotent stem cells, which 
are able to differentiate into a 
variety of cell types.
The new technology uses 
a 
microfluidics 
device 
in 
which scientists first insert 
pluripotent stem cells and 
then 
add 
chemicals 
that 
stimulate the cells to develop 
into 
human 
embryo-like 
structures.

New tech 
employed 
to produce 
embryoids

Team of researchers study 
early stages of human 
development, complications

MICHAL RUPRECHT
Daily Staff Reporter

See EMBRYOS, Page 3

See REGENTS, Page 3

RESEARCH

See WALKOUT, Page 3

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

See CLIMATE, Page 3

