23 minute read
Athletics
Records will be broken as Titans look to rise again
By P.J. Gradowski
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The 2021-22 season is here, so fans will get a chance to see some history made in Calihan Hall, all while watching the Detroit Mercy men’s basketball team rise to prominence again. For the Titans, the season will look to pick up where they left off last year. The red, white and blue went 11-3 in its last 14 games, reaching the Horizon League Championship quarterfinals and finishing just a few seconds away from advancing to the semifinals. “We are better and have more talent than we have had the last few years,” said head coach Mike Davis, who is looking to take his fourth program to the NCAA tournament which would make him only the 13th coach in NCAA history to do that. “I like the way we have practiced since the start of the summer. We have worked hard and I think we are in for a good season.” This year’s Titans are built around star guard Antoine Davis, already an NCAA record holder who can knock down a few more school, conference and NCAA marks this season. In three seasons, Davis has scored 2,040 career points, third in school history, and his 316 3-pointers are second in school and Horizon League history. He already owns four of the top 11 scoring performances in Titan history, with his 48 points against Wright State in 2019 just one shy of the school mark and the most points ever by a Titan and HL freshman. Last season, he etched another mark with 46 points against Robert Morris in the opening
round of the playoffs, the most ever by a conference player in the postseason. Of all the NCAA players who have ever suited up, only 608 have amassed 2,000 career points. Just 73 players have posted 2,500 points, a feat Davis can reach. Once he gets to 378 career 3-pointers, that will also put him in the top 30 in NCAA history. As a rookie, he connected on a NCAA freshman record 132 3-pointers, breaking the mark held by Stephen Curry, and his 3.85, 3-point field goals per game is currently fifth all-time in the NCAA record book. “He is a dynamic scorer,” said school record holder Rashad Phillips ‘02. “He has a great skill-set, he can shoot and is a dynamic player. I can only be proud of a player like that breaking the school record and all the success he has had.” Davis is just 279 points behind the top-scoring mark in school history, and he is second in school and Horizon League history with his 3-pointers, just 32 shy of the record, both held by Phillips. Along the way for the school record, he has passed several Titan greats in Terry Duerod, John Long and Dave DeBusschere. “He has worked hard to get where he is at,” said coach Davis. “I am proud of him for what he has accomplished because I see the hard work he has put in for so many years, but I am most proud that even with all the awards and honors, he is still working and wants to win for his team.” Another record that Davis can secure is the NCAA record for double-digit scoring games, which is 115 by Lionel Simmons and Chris Clemons. He has netted double figures in all 82 games he has played in — reaching at least 17 points in 66 of them with 59 career 20-point games, 20 career 30-point outings and four 40-point contests. The Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year, Davis is the second leading returning scorer in the country at 24.0 points per game and can become the first player in conference history to top the league in scoring in all four seasons. He also enters the year hitting a school-record 51-straight free throws, the longest current active streak in the country. It’s not about the records for Davis, though. “It is something that you look at and are kind of amazed to be in that same category with all those great players, but I want to win,” said Davis. “We have improved every year, but we want to win the league and go to the NCAA Tournament, that is my goal and the team’s goal.” For the men’s and women’s basketball schedules and to purchase tickets, visit detroittitans.com.
In brief
DeBusschere in NBA’s top 75
Former Titan great Dave DeBusschere ’62 was selected to the NBA’s 75 Anniversary Team. DeBusschere was a three-time consensus All-American under coach Bob Calihan during his career with the Titans (196062) and is still the all-time Titan leader for career scoring average (24.8 points per game) and total rebounds (1,552), and is the fourth-leading scorer (1,985) in school history. He played in just 80 career games as freshmen were not allowed to participate. DeBusschere — who won NBA titles with the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973 — was an eight-time NBA All-Star (1966-68, ‘70-73) and one of the best defensive players in league history. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983.
Women’s golf tops in GPA
The Detroit Mercy women’s golf team keeps on scoring aces off the course as the Titans were recognized by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s All-Scholar Team GPA Award as one of the top 25 GPAs in Division I during the 2020-21 season. Detroit Mercy tied for 21st after posting a 3.840 GPA this past semester. This is the fifth time the program has been honored with one of the top 25 GPAs in the nation, following 2019 (3.814 - 6th), 2015 (3.684 - 16th), 2014 (3.838 - 3rd) and 2013 (3.617 - 20th).
Academic All-American
The final accolade in the career of Detroit Mercy men’s lacrosse graduate senior Alex Akins was revealed as the defenseman was tabbed Third Team CoSIDA At-Large Academic All-America. He is just the second Titan lacrosse player to earn the academic distinction, and just the 19th Titan in school history to earn Academic All-American honors.
Under Construction
Building for tomorrow on the McNichols Campus
It takes a lot of planning and innovative thought to upgrade a nearly century-old campus like Detroit Mercy’s at Livernois and McNichols in northwest Detroit. The $55-milion infrastructure plan will touch nearly every building on the campus. The biggest project is, of course, the Student Union renovation and expansion. The first phase is expected to be ready in the spring. Included in this project are new space to attract and recruit students; collaborative areas for gathering — including a multi-level outdoor plaza — gaming areas, study pods and an improved bookstore. In later stages, administrative services will move from the Fisher Building into the new building, making the Student Union the busy heart of the campus.
The University’s beloved Calihan Hall, home of Titans basketball, will have an upgraded atrium, basketball court and Titan Club. All Detroit Mercy student-athletes will benefit from a new Sports Medicine Room inside the facility. Also, Titan Field’s track and field will be replaced. The College of Health Professions & McAuley School of Nursing is raising funds to continue to upgrade its simulation learning environment and enhance the academic experiences of our students in the healthcare professions. In the Engineering Building, unused High Bay space will become the Civil & Environmental Engineering Center for Sustainable Design and Smart Infrastructure, providing an inspiring space for studying the way the built and natural environments interact. And in the Briggs Building, the College of Liberal Arts & Education has developed plans for a new Center for Communications Studies and a Performing Arts rehearsal space. Shiple Hall’s new entrance was completed last year and upgrades to the shared spaces inside are coming soon. Other plans across the Detroit Mercy campuses include an enhanced courtyard entrance for the School of Law’s Riverfront Campus, so it can be used as a place for community gatherings, and the recently completed renovations of the atrium at the Dental School’s Corktown Campus.
In the Briggs Building, a new Communications Studies lab will provide equipment and instruction on methods used in the field today.
Renovations in the Student Union include the Holy Spirit Prayer Room, a place for gathering and contemplation.
The Simulation, Technology and Research (STAR) Center in the College of Health Professions Facility will bring improved collaborative, innovative teaching methods.
s The Civil Innovation Hub will be a place for interdepartmental collaboration and research in the High Bay of the Engineering Building.
s A modern and upgraded Sports Medicine Center will ensure the University can attract athletes and keep them strong and performing well on the field.
These major renovations are made possible in part by gifts from our supporters. Please consider helping by returning a gift in the enclosed envelope.
A second chance changes a life
By Dave Pemberton
Edward Martell was in Wayne County Circuit Judge Bruce Morrow’s courtroom. It was the same courtroom where his life changed in 2005, when he was facing up to 20 years in prison for drug charges. But this time, Martell was experiencing a whole new range of emotions. He wasn’t a defendant: Martell, the recent Detroit Mercy Law grad was being sworn in as a member of the Michigan Bar. It was the culmination of a challenge Morrow gave Martell nearly 16 years earlier.
— EDWARD MARTELL
Morrow challenged Martell to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company instead of being a drug dealer, giving Martell three years’ probation instead of sending him to jail. “I took him up on it,” Martell said of the challenge. “He’s my hero. The guy is phenomenal. He sees something in almost all of his defendants. It’s just a matter of who is going to take that opportunity and run with it. “His judicial philosophy is really what the story is here. I’ve made some substantial changes, but his judicial philosophy is I think something that other judges should consider. I think especially when you talk about non-violent drug offenses, there shouldn’t be a tendency to want to incarcerate. I took a couple early bumps and bruises, but eventually I caught my stride.” Martell was a high school dropout, so his first step was getting a GED, which he followed up with an associate’s degree. Martell started searching for schools to earn his bachelor’s degree, his ultimate goal being law school. Detroit Mercy was at the top of Martell’s list because it had a law school and it would accept his transfer credits. Being able to transfer credits was important for Martell because he didn’t want to lose any time, and was on a budget. Growing up in poverty in Inkster had led him down the path of becoming a drug dealer and despite Martell’s good intentions, he likely needed a miracle to be able to afford college. Detroit Mercy had that miracle in the form of the Jesuit Founders’ Scholarship. “They gave me a full academic scholarship,” Martell said. “At that age, I was grown but I was still struggling. I was only a few years out of the streets, so I needed that boost. Detroit Mercy saved me. It was everything, I didn’t know how I was going to pay for college. I couldn’t imagine getting my education without the assistance of Detroit Mercy. I’m grateful, very grateful.” Martell earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 2014 and did a work-study at Detroit Mercy Law, where he hoped to attend. He knew there was no guarantee he would be admitted because of his criminal record and even if he was, Martell wasn’t sure how he would afford it. “When you apply, you gotta come to terms with your character and fitness history,” Martell said. “I had to have a ‘Come to Jesus’ moment with myself and pour myself out in the admissions letter. Let them know I had issues in my past and that’s one of the reasons that I want to practice law, to bring about change and help young men and women not go through the same issues. Ultimately, I was accepted and I was ecstatic. “Then about a week later they called me in and gave me a Fellowship Award, a full academic scholarship and I was just in awe. I was just praising the Lord at that point. Detroit Mercy has been so generous to me.”
The classroom proved to be the easy part; it was outside of the classroom where he began to truly learn how to become a lawyer. “I was blessed to go University of Detroit Mercy, but when I got there, I wasn’t prepared for the social fit,” Martell said. “I was up in age and I come from the streets. Detroit Mercy Law helped to polish me into the professional that I am today. They taught me how to walk, how to talk. “A lot of these professional events, some students don’t go to them, I go to them. They taught me how to shake with my right hand and hand my card in my left hand, how to never drink at an event — I wasn’t drinking anyway but you carry a glass because you don’t want to look awkward. But you don’t want to be that fool everybody talks about the next day either. There’s so much I learned from them. It’s way more than academics, I learned how to be a professional.” Martell was on his way to earning his law degree, but even then, there was no guarantee he would become a lawyer. Before he could even take the bar exam, he had to pass the state’s character and fitness test. Martell said he submitted more than 1,200 pages of documents and letters from three three witnesses. “They deliberated for about 15 minutes and they gave me a favorable recommendation and I just sobbed like a baby,” Martell said. “That was the win right there, not the bar exam. That was the victory and I sobbed like a baby. I’ll never forget that day.” Martell passed the bar exam and then was sworn in by Morrow in his courtroom, a place Martell spent a lot of time in over the years. “I’ve sat in his court room probably 100 times since. I would come back and observe his court room,” Martell said. “The guy is very unique, he’s exciting to watch. Just the way he talks to defendants. He sparked something in me. I can’t give enough thanks. I told him, ‘God saved me, but he used you.’ All Judge Morrow asks of me is to pay it forward. He says, ‘Ed, bring some people with you. Reach down and bring them with you.’ That’s our duty, it’s our job.” Since being sworn in, Martell’s story — first reported by Deadline Detroit — has sparked national attention, being reported by outlets like FOX News, CNN and The Washington Post and he appeared on The Today Show. “With all the media attention, I think it’s important to share my story while we can,” Martell said at the time. “And I’ll tell you why. There’s someone out there who is struggling and I feel with the right love and the right opportunity, that young man or young woman could make something of themselves. Not everyone is going to be an attorney, but they can be a skilled tradesman, they can be a CDL driver, they can be an entrepreneur, there’s a hundred things. I just don’t want people to think just because we come from a place or because we grew up without a father or because we have a past criminal record, that we can’t.” In the months following the media frenzy, Martell says he’s had inquiries about sharing his story via a book, documentary or movie. “It took off so quickly and unexpectedly,” Martell said. “I wasn’t fully prepared for all the media and the success of the story.” The exposure has also led to some unexpected opportunities for Martell. “I’ve been nominated and humbly accepted the Karen Dumas Award for community excellence by the Detroit Community Health Coalition,” Martell said. “I was elected to the State Bar of Michigan Criminal Law Section Council, which isn’t something I was interested in initially. I didn’t really have my eye on getting involved in any political legislative stuff, but one of the veterans for the council reached out to me about a vacancy, nominated me and the people on the council elected me. I got a threeyear term and I’m pretty excited about that. And I got published in the American Bar Association (ABA) Journal. They published my version of my story. It was titled, From Defendant to Attorney: My Journey to the Profession.” But of all the opportunities sharing his story has provided, the one Martell is most excited about is helping clients as an attorney at Perkins Law Group in Detroit. “I’ve been able to affect a lot of people with my story, but it’s made clients trust me and I appreciate that,” Martell said. “There’s just a level of trust between us and I take that very seriously. I come out here work hard and fight for them as if it’s me or one of my children on trial. A lot of clients call me who saw my story in the media. They trust me because of my background. They tell me, ‘You’ve been through what we’ve been through. We trust you.’ That means a lot to me.” Martell feels he’s just getting started and has so much more to give. “It’s been a hard-fought battle, but we won,” Martell said. “And now, a new battle begins. The battle now is to reshape and reframe the narrative. There are good folks out here. Everybody makes mistakes, right? Now, I have the tools to help. Before, I had the passion, now I have the tools to get into the fight. And if I can ever do anything to be of service for Detroit Mercy, I’m there. That’s what Detroit Mercy is about, service. However I can be of service, I’m anxious for the invite.”
Community Spirit
School of Architecture rebrands to highlight program, mission-driven work
Stories by Ricky Lindsay
“It is to really amplify who we are. We are very unique, and it just further enhances our mission-driven, community-based approach to making architecture.” That’s how Dean Dan Pitera explains the reasoning behind a renaming of the University’s School of Architecture to School of Architecture & Community Development. The purpose of the rebranding is to highlight the school’s Master of Community of Development (MCD) program as well as its mission-driven, community-based work. The change became official at the start of Detroit Mercy’s 2021-22 academic year. The new identity is much more than a mere name change said Pitera. It also allows for the MCD program to become even more of a focal point for the renamed school, which will be known shorthand as SACD. New Community Development-related initiatives include the Institute for AfroUrbanism, a Detroit-based research and advocacy organization established by a recent grant from The Ford Foundation; an AfroUrbanism course offered through the MCD program and additional international learning opportunities. Collaborations with other universities are also being explored, as is a Community Development-focused institute, which would operate similarly to the Detroit Collaborative Design Center and provide students with cooperative education opportunities in community development. For now, Community Development will remain a graduate-level program at Detroit Mercy, but students at all academic levels will benefit from its presence.
— Dean Dan Pitera
“The values and content taught in the MCD is woven throughout our undergraduate curriculum, particularly things like community engagement,” said Noah Resnick, associate dean of SACD. A new identity has been a topic of conversation for more than a decade, Pitera said. The reasoning is simple: Illustrate that the school is much broader than just Architecture. Before the rebrand, Detroit Mercy was in a unique position as one of the few universities whose Community Development program existed inside its Architecture school. “You would not look to us to find a Community Development program,” Pitera said. “And with the new identity, we are the only school that has it in our name.” Resnick added that there is one other aspect that makes the school unique. “Detroit is principally what makes us unique and uniquely positioned to have a very effective Community Development program,” Resnick said. “It’s because of the nature of this city and the way that we have been able to work in the city, not just through an academic setting but in a real-world setting to make effective change through our communities in Detroit. The expertise that our graduates gain can be applied to communities across the country, but they get a certain type of experience here that because of
For more than a decade, University of Detroit Mercy alumna Lauren Hood ’03, ’12 has envisioned bringing substantial change to community development sectors through a concept called AfroUrbanism, an urban planning approach that centers the lived experience of Black people in the design and creation of Black communities. Hood’s longtime vision will soon come to life thanks to a recent grant from The Ford Foundation. The two-year, $250,000 award funds the creation of the Institute for AfroUrbanism, a Detroit-based research and advocacy organization, which will be supported by Detroit Mercy’s School of Architecture & Community Development. The goal of the Institute for AfroUrbanism is to start changing what information is valued in community development. “As Detroit undergoes rapid change, there are many calls to preserve Black culture in the face of gentrification, but how do we preserve that which is invisible, even to the people who embody it?” said Hood, founder and director of the institute. “The problem is that ‘thriving’ Black culture is invisible. Too often, the association of Black culture is deficit based — poverty, joblessness, homelessness.” Hood’s idea for the Institute developed from what she was experiencing while working as an urban planning strategist and consultant in Detroit, as well as the founding director of Live6 Alliance, a nonprofit planning and development organization. (See story Page 9.) Throughout her career, she has experienced firsthand that people feel they are not being heard and that their needs are
the direct impact they have, even while in school, I think is fairly unique, because we are in the neighborhood physically as well as academically.” Linking Architecture and Community Development through a new identity made sense to Pitera, given how the disciplines go hand-in-hand. “If the soul of a community is the person, and architecture is the objects and things within a community, then if you want to get to the soul of architecture, you need to understand the people of the community,” Pitera said. “Architecture and community are inextricably linked.” Resnick believes the MCD program is directly connected to Detroit Mercy’s mission and Jesuit and Mercy values, especially its capstone project. The capstone project is the creation of a comprehensive community development proposal for a real situation in a specific community that integrates human, organizational, economic and physical concerns. “If you were to look at those capstone topics, you would see that they are all directly engaged with those types of relationships with the community,” Resnick said. “By the time they are in capstone, students are embracing that and picking projects that inherently engage the mission.” Students may also be impacted by SACD’s new identity in other ways. “The Community Development students, what they’ll see is a firm commitment from the entire University behind their degree program,” Resnick said. “Future students are going to know that they are entering a School of Architecture & Community Development, that they’re not simply picking out from one of the 156 schools of Architecture in the country to just get an accredited degree so they can go practice. They’re going to know that the architecture they’re learning is within the context of this greater good of the community.”
not addressed. Hood believes it is vital to teach community development practitioners to value this information. “I was taught that we’re the ones with the degrees, we’re the ones with all the experience and the technical expertise, so we’re the ones who should be doing all the talking and leading everything. But really, there is magic in what people who have lived in a place for a long time have to offer,” said Hood, who is the recipient of the 2020 American Institute of Architects Detroit Charles Blessing Award for her AfroUrbanism approach. The award is presented to individuals who demonstrate leadership in planning and civic issues while pursuing a higher quality life for all. Programming for the Institute for AfroUrbanism will focus on social issues in community development, which Hood says get overlooked. They include cultural heritage, the uniqueness of each community’s culture, ways to preserve and uplift these elements and restoring a sense of well-being. The partnership between Detroit Mercy and the Institute for AfroUrbanism will also extend in the classroom through a new AfroUrbanism course in the Master of Community Development program, which Hood will teach. “Our School has always led with the idea that Detroit has a lot to export to the rest of the country when it comes to communitybased and community-engaged work,” said Dean of the School of Architecture & Community Development Dan Pitera. “The Institute for AfroUrbanism is a prime example of a locally driven expertise that has national and international implications. We are excited that Ms. Hood chose Detroit Mercy to launch this effort.”
HOMECOMING 2021
There was something for everyone the weekend of Oct. 1-2 and more than 1,600 students, alumni, friends, faculty and families returned for events and to simply reminisce. Homecoming events included an outdoor movie and bonfire, reunions of the Classes of 1970 and 1971, the Spirit Awards, which honored seven impressive alumni, family games and good food. Don’t miss out on next year’s event: It’s already scheduled for Sept. 29Oct. 1, 2022!
