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GOVERNMENT
State reps introduce open meeting resolution
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LSA sophomores Anais Rachel and Sara Uhlenbecker pet a therapy dog as part of a stress reduction event at Shapiro Undergraduate Library on Monday.
PUBLIC SAFETY
By ALLANA AKHTAR
‘U’ officials discuss sexual misconduct, alcohol use Experts say universities must combat excessive drinking By JACK TURMAN Daily Staff Reporter
Though national reports may illustrate a correlation between alcohol use and sexual assault,
recognizing the problem is just half the battle for universities trying to create a safer campus. Antonia Abbey, a professor at Wayne State University who has been researching alcohol’s prevalence in sexual assault cases since the early 1980s, said alcohol plays a large role in sexual assault, but emphasized it is not the cause of sexual assault. In addition, Abbey noted many perpetrators have multiple risk factors for committing sexu-
al assault — such as different attitudes about women, anger and aggression — that contribute to a pre-inclination toward sexual assault. “If somebody already has some of these risk factors and then they’re drinking, I think that can be that kind of final igniter that puts them over the line,” Abbey said. “But, it’s not like alcohol is going to make someone be sexually aggressive who doesn’t have any of those risk factors.”
Proposal requires governing boards to open ‘informal’ meetings to public Daily Staff Reporter
Abbey said the impairments and questionable decision-making alcohol can cause adds to the risk factors for a perpetrator committing sexual assault. Abbey cited a research study in which women, after drinking, were randomly assigned to read a story that featured common characteristics of a date rape. These stories were embedded with risk cues, such as a man giving a woman a lot to drink at See MISCONDUCT, Page 3
A group of Michigan state representatives introduced a proposal earlier this month that would require records belonging to governing boards be open for public inspection. Furthermore, the resolution would change the wording that requires “formal sessions” of governing boards be open to the public, to all “meetings.” The proposed amendment to the state’s constitution — which would apply to the University’s Board of Regents — would require an agenda or specific statement regarding the purpose of all meetings be made public. According to Ed McBroom (R–Vulcan), the resolution was developed after he and other rep-
resentatives learned that during an unspecified public university governing board meeting, almost all the regents phoned into the meeting, and nearly none were physically present during voting and public comments. “Where do people go for the meeting, and how could the members of the board know the opinion of the public when they weren’t even here to hear the testimony?” McBroom said. McBroom said the representatives who introduced the bill believe accountability and transparency for elected governing boards is essential. “This constitutional amendment will return transparency and accountability to these boards, and give the legislature the constitutional authority to decide when these boards can meet in closed session,” McBroom wrote in an e-mail. The resolution has been submitted to the House Committee on Oversight and Ethics, and must be approved by the House and Senate before being placed on a statewide See OPEN MEETINGS, Page 3
ADMINISTRATION
Faculty senate talks changes to OIE policy
DETROIT businesses
Red House Imports coffee company partners with area non-profits By NEALA BERKOWSKI Daily Staff Reporter
The Detroit Beat came up with the business series to take a look at what some University alums were doing in the city. Whether these wolverines were from the city originally, or just studied here in Ann Arbor, they, like many alums, were drawn to Detroit and its start-up culture. In the series, we profile these UM grads and the small businesses that they began, to get a better idea of the diverse range of opportunities in Detroit. Read the rest of the series online at michigandaily.com. A red house on Hamilton Road in Ann Arbor now serves as the logo of Red House Imports, a Detroit-based coffee company co-owned by University alums Jamie Olson and Travis Heeren, who graduated in 2011. Olson said he remembers sitting on the porch of the house on Friday afternoons, he had valuable conversations with his friends. “We sort of selfishly named the company after the house to remind ourselves that you want
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to be a business that’s going to make the right decisions for the right reasons every step of the way,” Olson said. Though Red House Imports was founded in August 2013, it really began in September 2014 after more time and energy was put into growing the business, Olson said. He is currently running the company while Heeren is in graduate school in Vermont. Olson said Red House Imports sells their coffee online on their website, through Door to Door Organics and in seven stores in Metro Detroit. These locations include Parker Street Market in Detroit and Ypsilanti Food Co-op. “Our landlord from Hamilton has a bed and breakfast on Washtenaw and she was the first business-to-business sale that we had,” he said. “So she brews it for her clients every morning.” Red House Imports has a special focus on being environmentally and economically conscious, while also giving back to the economy, Olson said. “One of the things that is kind of unique is that we chose to start it without seeking investments because we didn’t want to give away from the mission of the business,” Olson said. Heeren said he chose to base the business in Detroit because of his love for the city and Olson said he is also coming to understand
this appreciation for the city. “I just got back from Seattle and was like, ‘This is the best city I’ve ever been in,’ ” he said. “Everything is perfect and everything is functional. You can walk five miles straight across the entire city and feel totally comfortable the whole time. And then it kind of dawned on me, like, after living in Detroit for six months, I thought, ‘Well I don’t know if I like that.’ You want to be a part of something and it’s not always easy. And Detroiters have that pride, and I’m just starting to get that.” Red House Imports has partnered with nonprofit organizations in Metro Detroit. Olson said he has been working with Hope Center, a nonprofit food pantry in Macomb. “A lot of food pantries will just be a depressing scene of metal shelves, and a lot of it is empty so you feel like you’re getting the scraps,” Olson said. “You’re having a having a subhuman experience when you’re going out and seeking food from people who are trying to help you, and so Hope Center has totally redesigned it. They’re trying to make it look like almost like a farmers market.” Coffee from Red House Imports supplies the coffee for the pantry. Hope Center pays for the coffee at cost, meaning Red House See RED HOUSE, Page 3
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One Custom City printing, design shop aims to help Detroit community By PAIGE PFLEGER Daily Staff Reporter
The outside of Ron Watters’ studio in Detroit doesn’t look like much — just a door with iron bars on a street scattered with broken glass. But through that door is Watters’ office, a white room with cement floors and walls covered in brightly colored prints and posters. He has a low, smooth voice and comes across as though he’s not trying to impress anyone. He doesn’t have to. Through a heavy metal door, the space opens onto a warehouse containing a spattering of abstract, artsy-looking things — there’s a plastic mold of a dog, a giant Plexiglas dome with sound equipment inside of it, some sort of science experiment involving melting candy and, in Watters’ domain, gigantic screen-printing machines. They look like massive mechanical spiders with multiple arms that reach out to flat metal feet. There are boxes on the floor with T-shirts and sweatshirts spilling out of them.
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This is where Watters does the printing for the business he started, One Custom City. With a mission to give opportunities to rising printers and to help nonprofits in the city, One Custom is more than just a T-shirt business. Watters went to the University in the late ’90s, and he wasn’t surprised to find there weren’t many Black students. His childhood had prepared him for that though. He lived in Detroit with his mother and in Grosse Pointe, one of Metro Detroit’s richest suburbs, with his father. When he attended Grosse Pointe South High School, he was one of the only Black students. “You start liking girls and then their fathers say you can’t go to dances because you’re Black,” Watters said. “At the end of the day, it rounded me.” He pursued a dual degree in LSA’s General Studies and the School of Art & Design industrial design program. During the summer, he worked at automotive plants — not because he needed the money, but because his parents encouraged him to see what the real world was like. Watters said many people he knew from high school didn’t get a college degree because they were making such good money in the plants, but in See PRINTER, Page 3
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Assembly discusses process of resolving discrimination and harassment issues By CARLY NOAH Daily Staff Reporter
During the Senate Assembly’s final meeting of the academic year Monday afternoon, the faculty governance body discussed concerns with Office of Institutional Equity procedures, reviewed a number of standard practice guidelines and discussed the potential for fossil fuel divestment. One of the primary focuses of the meeting was reviewing a report SACUA filed in March which detailed a number of concerns with OIE’s process for handling allegations of instances of discrimination against faculty or misconduct. The report’s central concerns focused on the adequacy of due process protections in OIE procedures, as well as how OIE’s has applied of those procedures in the cases of three faculty members who submitted complaints to SACUA. At the meeting Monday, SACUA Chair Scott Masten, a professor of business economics and public policy, said SACUA was “pretty disappointed” with the written response the faculty governance body had received from University Provost Martha Pollack. See ASSEMBLY, Page 3
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