ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Thursday, October 17, 2013
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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ADMINISTRATION
Enrollment breaks record for fifth year For first time in ten years, women make up majority of freshman class By JENNIFER CALFAS Daily Staff Reporter
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Business senior Sean Paquet sings in front of the Hatcher Graduate Library for a Stamp Nation event Wednesday. The event featured University singers and songwriters and aimed to get the word out about the new student group.
Startup spawns student group that helps artists Students perform in Diag concert organized by Stamp Nation By CLAIRE BRYAN For the Daily
Students walking through the Diag Wednesday evening heard something different from the usual pleas from students passing out handouts, miscellaneous preaching and the shuffling of shoes hitting pavement.
STATE GOVERNMENT
Student artists performed on the steps of Hatcher Graduate Library on the Diag on the cold, windy evening. This performance was the first scheduled by a new student group, Stamp Nation. The club, co-founded by LSA senior Omar Hashwi and LSA sophomore Amrutha Sivakumar — who is a Daily staff reporter — was formed after Hashwi decided to bring his business venture to campus in a way that would allow students to practice their art without worry of funding. Hashwi’s startup, Stamp.fm, which
launched last year as a nonprofit site, organizes performances that are free for performers. Stamp.fm hosts regular tournaments in which performers compete for the crown: the best artist in Ann Arbor, Michigan or elsewhere. “I wanted to create a nonprofit site where we throw concerts and help create bands and foster a community on campus without thinking about money,” said Hashwi, who served as the former Central Student Government vice president. “Just to have fun and have a good time, and I’m doing See ARTISTS, Page 5A
With 43,710 students registered for fall 2013, enrollment at the University has set an all-time record for the fifth consecutive year, according to the Office of the Registrar. The total number of students increased by 284 students — 0.7 percent — from the 2012 total. Setting a record for the seventh consecutive year, applicants for this fall’s entering class reached 46,814, a 10 percent increase from Fall 2012. Of those applicants, the University accepted 15,570 — 19 more than in 2012 — with a 33 percent acceptance rate, more competitive than last year’s 36 percent acceptance rate. While enrollment increased overall, membership across various parts of the University varied. Undergraduate enrollment grew by 1.1 percent to 28,283 students. The freshman class outnumbers the 2012 class by 54 students with 6,225 students. The number of graduate and professional students is 15,427, a 0.1 percent change from the previous year. For the first time in 10 years, the freshman class consists of a 51.6-percent majority of women. Men constitute 48.3 percent of the class, or 3,035 students.
ORGAN DOCTOR
BUSINESS
Reps find ‘U’ alums develop app room for to foster food sharing STEM in bugdet LeftoverSwap helps users get a meal and reduce waste By EMILIE PLESSET For the Daily
Zemke and Rogers secure $375K for STEM partnership By BEN ATLAS Daily Staff Reporter
Some members of the Michigan House of Representatives are demonstrating financial commitment to improving science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at all levels. Representatives Adam Zemke (D–Ann Arbor) and Bill Rogers (R–Brighton) announced this week that they had secured $375,000 of the state’s budget for the Michigan STEM Partnership, a publicprivate collaborative focused on improving STEM education and providing children with the skills necessary to thrive in an evolving advanced economy. The funds will support a comSee STEM, Page 5A
It’s about as American as apple pie — which, coincidentally, is part of the problem. In an effort to combat obesity issues in the United States, University alumni Dan Newman and Bryan Summersett have launched a free iPhone app, LeftoverSwap. The app aims to reduce food waste and promote local eating by allowing users to buy and sell leftover food. Users can advertise leftovers simply by posting a photo of their food while buyers can browse for nearby leftovers and arrange for pickup or delivery. “(The app) assuages the guilt about not wasting any food,” Newman said. “If someone picks it up, you’re rescuing the food. On both sides of the equation people feel good about the transaction.” The app is marketed as a way to make a small impact in solving problems of obesity and world hunger, as well as a way to grow community ties. Newman said the app already has 4,000 users and is gradually growing in popularity across the country. “The first confirmed leftover swap
happened in New York and it was the same day we launched it,” Newman said. “The person who picked it up said how it was probably the best bag of chips he’d had just because it was so rewarding.” The duo developed the concept for the app in 2010 on a lark after graduating from the University. While visiting Summersett in Seattle, Newman said the two former roommates ordered too much pizza for dinner and had to throw it away. “We thought how good of an idea it would be to broadcast that we had this pizza to people in the area if they wanted any, because otherwise it was going to go to waste,” Newman said. LeftoverSwap went into production in July when a San Francisco Weekly reporter showed interest in the concept after discovering the website Newman had made for the nonexistent app as an example coding and web design project. “We decided we would definitely make (the app) a real thing after all the interest in it,” he said. While LeftoverSwap operates with good intentions, more than a few may be wary of eating a stranger’s leftovers. “There are people who find it totally disgusting because food is a very personal thing, and they have a right to be,” Newman said. “Hopefully, we can change the cultural tone towards sharSee FOOD, Page 5A
Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs, said in a statement that he was impressed with the “rising caliber” of this year’s freshman class. The University also holds a 97-percent retention rate for freshmen and a 91 percent six-year graduation rate, which is 33 percentage points above the national average for four-year institutions. Using a new federal demographic classification for the past four years, the University has been able to track data on race and ethnicity. Under these guidelines, the number of underrepresented minority freshmen — which include African American, Hispanic American, Native American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students — saw a slight increase 10.6 percent this year, 0.6 percent more than last year. For the total number of students enrolled, students who identify as white represent the majority, with 27,399 students, or 72.6 percent. The next largest represented groups in University data were Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, representing 15.3 percent, 6 percent, 5 percent, 1.2 percent and 0.3 percent of the total number students, respectively. Enrollment data came out a day after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Schuette vs. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, another chapter in the state’s affirmative action See ENROLLMENT, Page 5A
PATRICK BARRON/Daily
Daniel Mikat, doctoral student in organ performance, discusses his music before performing at his dissertation recital in Hill Auditorium on Wednesday.
EVENT PREVIEW
Art is Open Source to blend technology, art at lecture Latest speakers at Penny W. Stamps lecture series By GIANCARLO BUONOMO For the Daily
Some artists use paint, others use stone and still others use phone numbers collected from comments on porn sites. Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico hope to provoke with their Romebased project, Art is Open Source, which explores “the mutation of human
beings with the wide and ubiquitous accessibility and availability of digital technologies and networks,” according to Art is Open their website. “They’re really Source pushing the envelope,” said Chrisstina Ham- Thursday at ilton, director of the 5:10 p.m. Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Michigan Theater Series. The Art is Open Free Source creators will be the next speakers in the series, which brings participants See TECHNOLOGY, Page 7A
backstage/frontstage Take a look at “A Little Night Music” from both sides of the curtain.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 12 ©2013 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A SPORTS......................6A
SUDOKU.....................2A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A B-SIDE ....................1B