CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Candidates for LSA SG pitch their platforms VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily
Engineering junior Will Royster (Left), candidate for CSG President, and LSA sophomore Matt Fidel (Right), candidate for CSG Vice President, speak at The Team Rally on the Diag on Monday. LSA senior DaShuane Hawkins and LSA sophomore Cierra Jackson (center) perform with the Movement Dance Team.
‘The Team’ holds rally on the Diag to garner support Party provides music, food before polls open on Wed. for CSG elections By EMMA KINERY Daily Staff Reporter
Two days before the polls are set to open for Central Student Government elections, The Team bared the cold Monday evening to spread the word about their platform goals and rally voters. The Team will run LSA
junior Will Royster as the party’s presidential candidate and LSA sophomore Matt Fidel for vice president. Campaign supporters handed out flyers and offered cookies, Domino’s pizza and Tim Horton’s coffee and hot chocolate to passersby in the Diag. “We’re showing campus a good time,” Fidel said. “Everybody’s walking through the Diag, it’s free to join in, just kind of see what The Team’s all about.” Aside from a DJ’s table in front of the Hatcher Graduate Library, the Black Student Union, the Cool Club — a University cloth-
ing startup — and University fashion groups NOiR and Bronze Elegance also set up tables to promote their respective organizations. “This is a great platform for us to get our message out, but to also support other student organizations, and that’s what we want to be here for,” Royster said. “We asked other organizations to be a part of this so that they can get their message out as well. That’s a big part of our platform and it’s successful.” Royster said having the organizations there showed that even though The Team has yet
to be elected, the party still cares about advancing their platform on campus. “Authenticity: that’s been our campaign strategy,” Royster said. “Just at this rally we talked about creating a platform and empowering people, but we’re not waiting until we get elected; we’re doing that now, and that’s something that we have a track record of.” Music played throughout the rally, and campaign members and students danced between speeches and discussions about The Team’s policies. The rally See TEAM, Page 3
Uncontested exec. candidates focus on diversity, student engagement By ALYSSA BRANDON Daily Staff Reporter
Though chalk messages touting Make Michigan, The Team and the Defend Affirmative Action Party began covering campus in advance of this week’s Central Student Government election, students pitched platforms Monday night for another race — LSA Student Government elections. At the event, several LSA Student Government candidates presented their platforms and answered questions during a candidate forum in the Michigan Union. The presenters included LSA juniors Jason Colella and Reid Klootwyk Colella, the uncontested candidates for LSA SG
RESEARCH
ANN ARBOR
‘U’ wins funding for microbiome science program Interdisciplinary training initiative to explore human health and disease By ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS Daily Staff Reporter
Beginning next fall, the University will launch an multidisciplinary science-training program. The program, called Integrated in Microbial Systems: Modeling, Population and Experimental Approaches, will combine population and microbiome sciences to explore human health and diseases. A microbiome is defined as the microorganisms in a particular environment. Betsy Foxman, program codirector and professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, said the goal of the program is to train scientists who are able to apply laboratory and population approaches to the study of microbial communities in human health. “Our long term research goal is to learn how to sustain healthy microbial communities and to manipulate unhealthy ones so as to improve human health,” Foxman said. Tom Schmidt, the program’s other co-director and professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, said he hopes the program will lead to new discoveries about how the microbiome is related to diseases. He added that the program’s work could extend beyond
WEATHER TOMORROW
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just human health and allow study of microbial communities in other organisms like animals and plants. Schmidt said the program will be able to fund four doctoral students per year. Other students will also be able to benefit from workshops and symposia hosted by the program. “We are looking for people who reach across the traditional academic boundaries, people who are willing to gain expertise not only in microbiology, but also in modeling and ecology and dealing with large datasets that come with the study of the microbiome,” he said. The program will be funded through the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award, which will provide $2.5 million over a five- year period. The fund donates money to similar programs at universities across the country with the goal of integrating the fields medicine with public health. The University was one of the four grant recipients in 2014. The other three were Dartmouth College, University of Rochester and Washington University in St. Louis. Russ Campbell, communications officer for Burroughs Wellcome Fund, said the University’s program connects bench sciences and public health. “Students who would have otherwise taken a traditional laboratory-based Ph.D. are thinking about problems through a public health lens and students who would have otherwise trained in traditional public health approaches are exposed to the power of asking questions at the molecular or See MICROBIOME, Page 3
president and vice president, respectively. Colella and Kloowyk’s platform calls for improving campus climate and increasing diversity. The goal reflects that of the University leadership. In February, University President Mark Schlissel held a leadership breakfast to consider issues related to diversity on campus, including diversity of the student body and faculty, inclusion and the creation of a strategic diversity plan. Klootwyk, who serves as vice chair of the LSA SG communications committee, said addressing issues regarding international and transfer students is an important part of addressing diversity. “Our international student mentorship program is a huge project we’re working on,” Klootwyk said. “I’m also working on a project that will allow transfer students to defer enrollment as freshmen are able to.” Colella, who currently serves See LSA SG, Page 3
ArborBike bike share relaunches for spring
RITA MORRIS/Daily
Eight new stations to open in May following last season’s success
Craig Hupy, Ann Arbor’s Public Services Administrator, proposes a budget for the Public Services General Fund during a City Council Hall Meeting at Larcom City Hall on Monday.
Council talks budget plans for lighting, road repairs Funding proposals for fiscal years 2016, 2017 slated for a vote in May By ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS Daily Staff Reporter
Ann Arbor City Council convened for another discussion on the 2016 and 2017 fiscal year budgets Monday evening. The meeting focused on public services, including street lighting, streets and facilities upgrades. Craig Hupy, Ann Arbor’s public services administrator, presented the city staff’s proposal for this section of the general fund. Following the lifting of a 10-year moratorium on new streetlights last month, the Council heard plans for potential streetlight expenditures for the next two years. Among the staff’s recommen-
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dations is a $750,000 investment in Kerrytown street lighting in the 2017 fiscal year and an additional $3.25 million for other areas in and outside the downtown area. Hupy said the Kerrytown investment includes 90 street poles and will replace all current lights in the area. While Hupy said Kerrytown lighting has been identified for attention, the city has not yet discussed the actual installation with Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. Councilmember Stephen Kunselman (D–Ward 3) spoke in favor of the Kerrytown investment. “I would highly encourage that the DDA help fund substantially the Kerrytown project,” he said. The report states that each streetlight pole in the city will cost $43,013 over 40 years, which would include the costs of replacement parts, energy and labor. Hupy the city will consider requests for additional or
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upgraded street lighting and rank them against other general fund priorities. The Council also discussed several forthcoming street projects, including a proposal encouraging extensive street reconstruction and resurfacing projects. The report proposes expenditures amounting $7.1 million for annual street resurfacing and $3.7 million for major reconstructions for both years, with another $7.4 million for street and right of way maintenance. Several major and smaller local streets are up for resurfacing in 2015, including the stretch of Packard Street between State Street and Stadium Boulevard and State Street from Eisenhower Parkway to I-94. Councilmember Julie Grand (D–Ward 3) said undergoing multiple projects at the same time could be problematic. City Engineer Nick Hutchinson said Ann Arbor plans to take precautions to let residents See COUNCIL, Page 3
Vol. CXXIV, No. 87 ©2015 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
By LARA MOEHLMAN Daily Staff Reporter
With the snow mostly melted and the sidewalks visible again, the Ann Arbor bike share program ArborBike is back. On Friday, the nonprofit Clean Energy Coalition, in collaboration with the University, the city of Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, reopened ArborBike for the season. The service, which is a bike share program serving both students and residents, first launched in the fall. ArborBike consists of a set of stations around the city and campus that have bikes available for temporary use. At the end of an hour, users return the bikes to one of the ArborBike stations. The program has five kiosks on campus and another at the Ann Arbor Public Library’s downtown branch. Eight more stations will be added by late May to expand the program off campus. The fall 2014 season ended with 293 users and 690 trips over the two-month period before biking season ended. According to an ArborBike press release, ArborBike expects membership to increase dramatically this round due to both an extended summer 2015 season and an See BIKE, Page 3
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