Each month, The Michigan Daily publishes a compilation of bills in the Michigan legislature for students at the University of Michigan to be aware of. The following article explains five bills that have been introduced, passed or signed into law by the Michigan legislature or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer throughout the month of February. 1. Ban on discrimination of hair styles typically associated with race Status: Introduced in the Senate First introduced Feb. 21 by state Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, Senate Bill 0090 would expand the definition of race under the 1976 Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act which bans discrimination on the basis of religion, race, Color, national origin, age, sex, weight and familial and marital status in employment, housing and public resource matters. The bill, known as the “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” or CROWN Act, would amend the existing Act’s racial protections by banning discrimination based on certain hair styles and textures historically associated with race. The bill would protect hairstyles including, but not limited to, “braids, locks, and twists.” The bill marks the third time the CROWN Act has been introduced in the Michigan state legislature after the bill failed to make it out of the Republican-controlled House Operations Committee in 2019 and 2021. “(Hair discrimination) is one of the most pressing issues that I hear about, particularly for our Black women,” Anthony told WKAR News earlier this month. “(This includes) folks who have experienced real discrimination, not received promotions on their jobs, not been able to take school pictures in elementary schools, not been given health care services based on how they wear their hair.” If passed, Michigan would join over a dozen states in ensuring protections against hair discrimination. Though the U.S. House of Representatives passed a federal version of the CROWN Act in March with bipartisan support, the bill was unsuccessful in passing the U.S. Senate. The Michigan bill was referred to the Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety for further review. 2. Updated school emergency procedures Status: Introduced in the House Introduced on Feb. 14 by state Rep. Kathy Schmaltz, R-Jackson, H.B. 4088 would amend Michigan’s school code to implement recommendations from a bipartisan legislative task force formed after the November 2021 Oxford High School shooting. The bill proposes the formation of a school-crisis team at all public K-12 institutions in Michigan which would “rapidly address” school safety concerns and require all parents be notified every time the crisis team convene. The bill was introduced just one day after a mass shooting at Michigan State University left three students dead and five others critically injured. In a statement, Schmaltz said she felt the timing of the bill’s introduction represented the urgency of passing legislation to protect students. “The horrifying events that unfolded at Michigan State University once again shattered our sense of security and left people across our state with a feeling of deep despair,” Schmaltz said. “In the days following the Oxford tragedy and again today we ask ourselves ‘How could this happen?’ It’s a complex issue with no one simple solution, but the bipartisan bills we introduced represent a willingness to work together to improve school safety and address the mental health needs of Michigan students.” The bill was referred to the Committee on Education for further review. 3. Personal finance requirement in public schools Status: Introduced in the House H.B. 4057 was introduced by state Rep. Lori Stone, D-Warren, at the beginning of the month and would enable K-12 students to obtain their required economics credit through completion of the personal finance requirement. The introduction of the bill comes after Whitmer signed a law in June that requiring all K-12 students to take a personal finance class prior to graduation. Each month, The Michigan Daily’s research beat publishes a feature on one University of Michigan laboratory to highlight the efforts of the lab team and the importance of the research. The following article is the lab spotlight for the month of February 2023. The Michigan Daily’s second lab spotlight focuses on the U-M HomeLab, which opened in 2017 as part of the BioSocial Methods Collaborative. The lab offers spaces that can be adapted to the needs of research groups outside of the University seeking to pursue their investigations. The Lab The basement of the Institute for Social Research looks much like that of any other building with its white cinder blocks lining dimly-lit hallways, but that all changes when entering the HomeLab. According to Alicia Carmichael, research process manager for the BioSocial Methods Collaborative, the lab rooms are designed to simulate a real household environment, which is useful for researchers in a number of fields, including psychology, sociology, product development and kinesiology. “(The HomeLab) really is a playground for investigators,” Carmichael said in an interview with The Daily. “It’s (also) a great mental space for designers. So if you’re trying to design a medical product or just a common household product that you want to deploy to millions of homes and millions of people, don’t just jump to those homes and people. Start in a playground like this, control the settings and understand the responses to certain things.” The first space of the “home” is the kitchen, which includes homelike details ranging from a cereal box resting on top of the refrigerator to cookbooks sprawled across the counter. Although the “kitchen” is in a basement, the window decals portray an outdoor scene, allowing researchers to study participants from the other side of the windows without distracting them. The lab also utilizes a variety of wearable devices to track metrics such as heart rate and sweat response in participants, while microphones and cameras are incorporated throughout the room. Although the devices are fairly discreet, Carmichael said participants are always aware they are being monitored. She also explained how the camera system can be adapted to fit the researchers’ needs in different studies. “Depending on who’s coming into the lab, or what we’re trying to capture, we will redesign the camera system,” Carmichael said. “So if we’re working with adults, the cameras will be kind of here at eye level. If we’re working with kids, we need to bring those cameras down to their level because we want their perspective … Sometimes we’re doing balance studies, so what we really want to know about is feet and so we’ll drop the cameras to the ground to capture the motion. It really depends on what the investigator wants to do.” The kitchen is connected to a laundry room space and a bathroom which features two different types of showers: one with a traditional tub and one that is barrier-free. According to Carmichael, since many of the lab’s projects explore accessibility, occupational and physical therapists were involved in the designing of HomeLab. She explained how they recommended inclusion of some non-Americans with Disability Act compliant features, since many people with disabilities do not live in homes with accessible features. “(People with disabilities) might live in a house that was built in the ’50s, it’s retrofitted at most to accommodate them,” Carmichael said. “So most of the time, the (accessible) features aren’t there. But (the physical therapist and occupational therapists) said we want you to be able to remove the challenges whenever you can.” Though the lab’s bedroom is usually connected to the kitchen, the entrance is currently closed while the room is being used to simulate a medical exam room for students to learn how to give treatment and the impact of different types of treatment. The exam room setting is currently being used to simulate the difference in treating patients at home or in a clinical environment. The blue lighting of the exam room contrasts with the warm tones of the “home,” and the “shelves” on the wall are actually the underside of a Murphy bed, which folds up into the wall. The walls are dotted with two anatomy posters, and a drape sheet has been laid out neatly on the exam table. “We (can change the room from a bedroom to a clinic) in two hours,” Carmichael said. “We know our stuff, (and) we have so much documentation for what item goes where.” The Research The HomeLab serves as a testing space for projects across disciplines, setting it apart from many other U-M research environments which primarily serve one area of research. As a result, the lab staff has worked on research in an assortment of areas. One recent project involved tracking muscle activity in people who recently had mastectomies and reconstructive surgeries for breast cancer. Participants were fitted with motion sensors and electromyography sensors to monitor muscle activity. “The surgery causes your muscles to be reattached in a way that they weren’t before,” Carmichael said. “We had (participants) just go through everyday tasks, like here’s some groceries, put them away. Here’s a shirt, put on the shirt, and we were able to demonstrate that their muscle activity had changed … They had changed the way that they were using their muscles to accomplish the same tasks as they were before.” HomeLab also explored the cognitive-motor demands of the skills that older women with arthritis of the hands use to wash dishes in a recent study. Jacqui Smith, co-director of the BioSocial Methods Collaborative, told The Daily older adults frequently adapt to the challenges of aging without noticing it, so direct observation is important. 2 — Wednesday, March 8, 2023 News February Lab Spotlight: U-M Homelab RESEARCH 5 bills to watch in the Michigan legislature The Daily’s research beat visited the Homelab, a lab space that looks like an apartment Every month, the Daily tracks important bills on the Congress floor. Here’s 5 from February: GOVERNMENT PHOTO OF THE WEEK The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com GEORGE WEYKAMP Daily Staff Reporter NADIA TAECKENS & JINGQI ZHU Daily Staff Reporters ASHLEY GRAY/Daily Washtenaw Prosecutors, Eli Savin and Victoria Burton, present at the “Students 4 Decarceration” Speaker Series in the CCCB. The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2023 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. 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