The University of Michigan announced Google Drive storage for students, faculty and staff will be decreased to 250 GB following Google’s decision to discontinue unlimited storage for all non- paying members. Alumni will have their storage decreased to 15 GB, the standard amount provided to a Google account. According to a statement from Information and Technology Services, the University decided providing 250 GB to each user was the best solution which balanced cost, change and finite resources. According to ITS, the change affects less than 0.5% of students, less than 3% of active faculty and less than 10% of alumni and retirees. Though the decreased storage is projected to affect a small number of students, some are opposed to the change. LSA sophomore Ashrith Bandla told The Michigan Daily they feel the decision arose from greed on the part of Google. “I honestly feel like this is a modern-day story of corporate greed in America,” Bandla said. “I feel like it’s a real travesty and a slap in the face to students. I think it’s a horrible, horrible decision.” In an email to The Daily, ITS affirmed they had no choice when Google discontinued unlimited storage, explaining that unlimited storage is a thing of the past. “Unlimited storage began in 2014, before Google offered 30GB per person,” ITS wrote. “As business models in the tech world evolve, users of the technology adapt. The University of Michigan is no exception. Currently, Google no longer offers unlimited storage to any of its education customers.” LSA freshman Tawseef Rahman told The Daily they understand the necessity for the change, and said they only use a small amount of the allotted 250 GB. “It doesn’t really affect me that much, because I’m just writing documents, making presentations and working on sheets, with the three core apps Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides,” Rahman said. “But I’m not storing like 500-page tax documents.” In order to limit data usage, the University changed the process of creating shared drives on Jan. 3, requiring users to use the shared drive manager tool on the ITS website rather than allowing creation directly within Google Drive. “(The change to shared drives) was done to enable better data lifecycle management, therefore positioning the institution to be better prepared to adapt to future technology changes,” ITS wrote in an email to The Daily. According to the University’s ITS website, shared drives are used to store collaborative data and “are not for personal data.” The storage limit for U-M shared drives was also decreased to 15 GB, and most changes to shared drive administrative settings must be completed within the shared drive manager tool. While Google Drive storage has been limited, other cloud storage solutions for active U-M students, faculty and staff include Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox. Though, according to ITS, these options have greater limitations on real-time collaboration than Google Drive does. “Google Drive is recommended for collaboration within the U-M community,” ITS wrote. “It provides a secure environment within which to maintain or share the university’s sensitive unregulated data, as well as some—but not all—types of sensitive regulated data.” As storage options change, students like Bandla view believe Google’s policies are trapping universities into using Google Suite. “I feel like (Google) kind of trapped colleges into this mindset (of using Google) over … OneDrive by initially just keeping (unlimited storage) free,” Bandla said. “I feel like (Google) already had a plan to switch into this limited storage tier. It was just kind of like a gimmick for colleges to … switch over to Google Drive because (storage was) unlimited.” The Daily’s inaugural lab spotlight is the Laboratory of Nutrigenomics, established and led by Monica Dus, professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology in LSA. The lab’s primary focus is the study of how interactions between food, genes and the brain influence health and disease. The Lab The Laboratory of Nutrigenomics is bright and vibrant, perched on the fourth floor of the Biological Sciences Building. The lab’s glass walls invite both sunlight and the numerous undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs and lab technicians to filter in and out of the space. Adjacent to the wet lab is Dus’ office, the door easily identifiable by the presence of a paper unicorn. Dus’ personality and passion for her work is exemplified by the pink, sparkly, sugar-themed decorations sprawled across her office walls. A framed photograph features the original inspiration for Dus’ research: her dogs. “What led me to study food was my two dogs, Cupcake and Sprinkles,” Dus said in an interview with The Daily. “When I was in graduate school, they ate 10% of their body weight in chicken jerky. I left a bag of chicken jerky on top of the kitchen table. They’re little dogs, I don’t know how they got it, but they did, and they were sort of passed out in a food coma. That really struck me because I started thinking: how is it possible that these two little creatures would eat so much, and make themselves so sick with it? That got me really interested in how the brain perceives food.” Dus decided to apply her curiosity regarding her dogs’ food-induced lethargy to humans and founded the Laboratory of Nutrigenomics at the University in 2015, focusing on the study of food components as fuel for cells in the body via genes. “The way cells receive information and integrate is through genes,” Dus said. “That’s how I eventually got into genomics, the connection of food and the brain and looking at what bridge is, which is these nutrient sensitive genes.” Dus explained the subject of nutrigenomics as the interaction between food and DNA, specifically how nutrients within food are catalysts for genetic expression in the body. “It turns out that nutrients can essentially act on these little switches (in your DNA),” Dus said. “You can think of the genetic switches of the switches in the light switches in the room, only that instead of being next to the door, imagine they’re hidden under the bed. And so you have to do a lot of work to either turn them up or down.” Dus isn’t the only one calling the lab home. A large research team consisting of four post-doctoral research fellows, one laboratory technician, one master’s student and five undergraduate research assistants spoke with The Daily on their work alongside Dus on the lab’s many projects. Post-doctoral research fellow Daniel Wilinski said his role in the lab is primarily concerned with data collection and analysis. “I generate lots of data,” Wilinski said. “It takes a long time to understand and generate (data) and then I think that’s kind of an undersold aspect of what we do.” LSA senior Carina Yiu said her experience in the lab is different each day and can come with a wide variety of responsibilities. When analyzing data, she said some days are more regular. However, when she is running experiments, many days can be chaotic. “I would say there’s not really a normal day in the lab,” Yiu said. “I think when you’re doing data analysis and just analyzing stuff that you have, that (day) is maybe more typical … but when you have ongoing experiments, your day completely revolves around them. 2 — Wednesday, February 8, 2023 News January Lab Spotlight: Laboratory of Nutrigenomics RESEARCH UMich limits Google Drive storage The Daily’s research beat presents their inaugural monthly lab spotlight Following Google’s discontinuation of unlimited storage, the University announced limits on Google Storage for students, faculty ADMINISTRATION PHOTO OF THE WEEK The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MATTHEW SHANBOM Daily Staff Reporter CARLINE PENDELL Daily News Editor LUCAS CHEN/Daily Artwork from the interactive exhibit Traces. 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