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 

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