ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Thursday, October 3, 2013
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
FUN IN THE HARVEST SUN
SCIENCE
Research on treatment for ALS aided by stem cells Testing of new surgical treatment moves to Phase II By IAN DILLINGHAM Daily Staff Reporter ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
TOP LEFT: LSA junior Rebekah Kreckman gives tours of the campus farm during the Sustainable Food Program’s annual harvest festival at the Matthei Botanical Gardens Wednesday. BOTTOM LEFT: Musicians perform for students as part of the fesitval. RIGHT: Graduate student Lauren Materne participated in a doughnut-eating contest.
CAMPUS IMPROVEMENT
Renovations head north Pierpont Commons, Mitchell Field to recieve upgrades By YARDAIN AMRON Daily Staff Reporter
North Campus-ers feeling left out from the dizzying residence-hall renovations on Central Campus will soon have their own to boast about — albeit on a smaller scale. The Commons Café is sched-
uled to close for renovations in March as part of a larger, campus-wide project to update student facilities initiated by Building a Better Michigan, a student-run organization created to advise renovations across campus. Through 2020, the project hopes to bring improvements to aging facilities including Mitchell Field, the three recreational sports buildings and two of the three unions. Built in 1965, Pierpont Commons has apparently lost much
of its student appeal. Through information from student surveys distributed by Building a Better Michigan, dissatisfaction with the food options and usable study and organizational spaces became apparent. “(Pierpont Commons) doesn’t offer healthy, affordable and attractive dining options,” LSA senior Louis Mirante, co-chair of Building a Better Michigan, said. “It doesn’t facilitate the academic, social or physical well-being to the degree that it should.” Renovations to the café hope
to address this by offering an increased variety in food choices and better study space. Four new, restaurant-like serving areas will bring in a range of quality cuisine, such as those found in the recently renovated dining hall of East Quad Residence Hall. A ‘Fire & Ice’ station is in talks to serve freshly-prepared Ramen or stir-fry; a hearth-oven station will serve gourmet flat-bread pizzas and freshly baked bread; an international cuisine station See RENOVATIONS, Page 5A
M AKE IT WORK
Looking for presidential candidates, both inside and out
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
Solar car team heads ‘down under’ for race
Regents will have to weigh the benefits of ‘U’ experience vs. outside perspective By AMRUTHA SIVAKUMAR Daily Staff Reporter
University President Mary Sue Coleman broke long-standing precedent when she was appointed despite not having any prior affiliation with the institution. By July 2014, that aberration may become the start of a new trend. As the first president to be appointed from outside the University since 1979, Coleman proved to stakeholders worldwide Filling Fleming that she could manage the ropes of three university campuses, an athletic department with the fifth-largest national revenue and a consistently top-ranked health sysSee CANDIDATES, Page 5A
WEATHER TOMORROW
HI: 82 LO: 64
Though the Food and Drug Administration remains closed due to the federal government shutdown, researchers at the University are pushing forward the development of stemcell therapies, with the hope of improving the quality of life for individuals with life-threatening disabilities. Researchers at University Hospital and the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute are exploring the use of stem cells in the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — also known as Lou Gerhig’s disease, a neurodegenerative condition that causes cell death in spinal cord neurons that control movement. Patients with ALS suffer from loss of muscle control and often die of respiratory failure. Neurology Prof. Eva Feldman presented recent results from her research at an event Wednesday evening at the Taubman Institute’s Kahn Auditorium for an audience of about 40 students
and faculty. Feldman discussed the completion of Phase I trials of the new stem-cell therapy and her plans for Phase II. While Phase I trials typically test the safety of a treatment in human patients, Phase II tests the treatment’s efficacy. Feldman’s research team received approval for Phase II of their research in May and has since begun tests. Shortly before the event Wednesday afternoon, a third patient enrolled in the trial had the surgical procedure, in which a surgeon injects stem cells into specific regions of the spinal cord. Although it is too early to record changes in disease progression, Feldman said the three patients have experienced “no adverse consequences” from the procedure. Stem cells have the unique ability to fulfill a wide variety of tasks by developing into specialized cells depending on their environment. When these cells are injected into the spinal cord of ALS patients, they surround diseased cells and slow the progression of cell death, Feldman said. “Depending on how you grow them … they can become any cell in the body,” Feldman said. Feldman’s treatment uses a See ALS, Page 5A
‘Generation’ will compete in four-day, 1,800-mile race in Australian desert ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Art & Design freshman Sophie Schank tests her group’s Rube Goldberg device at the Art & Architecture Building Wednesday.
Daily Staff Reporter
GOVERNMENT
Equal pay advocate talks gender discrimination Lilly Ledbetter is namesake of Obama’s first law By CAROLYN GEARIG For The Daily
Lilly Ledbetter, a gender-equality advocate and namesake of the 2009 Equal Pay Act, made remarks to a
crowd of more than 200 people at Rackham Auditorium Wednesday evening. “If I say one thing tonight that will change an individual’s life, I will have done my job,” Ledbetter said at the beginning of her speech. In 1979, Ledbetter said she faced discrimination at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Alabama, where she worked as a supervi-
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sor. In 1998, after 19 years of alleged sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the company, she received an anonymous note that showed the salaries of three of her male co-workers who held the same position as her. The three males monthly salaries were nearly $6,000, while hers was $3,727. Ledbetter originally won a See EQUAL, Page 5A
NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM The Liner Notes: Latin jazz takes center stage MICHIGANDAILY.COM/BLOGS
By STEPHANIE SHENOUDA
INDEX
One hundred team members. Seven national championship titles. Five top-three world championship finishes. This Sunday, the University Solar Car Team is competing in the World Solar Car Challenge, and they’re hoping this will be their year. After spending the last two years building and designing Generation, the team’s latest car, several members have traveled to the Australian outback, where they’ll compete with teams from around the world in a 1,800-mile race to the finish and the title of world solar-car champion. Over the course of four days, competitors from 40 schools and 23 countries will race from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then charge their cars until 7 a.m. the next
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morning for the next day of racing. LSA junior Ian Sullivan, the team’s business director, spoke to The Michigan Daily from Arizona, where he was currently attending a sponsorship conference. He said he learned at the conference how to effectively work with companies to gain resources for the coming year. “We’re all definitely really excited about Sunday’s race,” Sullivan said. “Though we’re proud to consistently be in the top, this is our best chance ever to win, and that’s always our goal, so we feel like we just need to go in and take it.” Sullivan noted a rule change this year that mandates that each car have four wheels instead of three, which will make this year’s car more efficient and competitive. He said the team is always working on improving technology and sustainability, but this has probably been the most major change their design has undergone. Engineering and Business junior James Kauney, a thirdSee SOLAR, Page 5A
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