ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Monday, November 18, 2013
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ADMINISTRATION
‘U’ officials promise no layoffs in transition Centralization of support services will move HR and finance staffs
RYAN REISS/Daily
Jadyn Freeman, Zoey Taylor and Sara Finachea experiment with chemicals and food dye to make ‘elephant toothpaste’ during FEMMES, Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science, at the Medical Science building Saturday.
STEM passion, starting early FEMMES hopes to inspire young girls to pursue science fields
thetic limb works. That’s unless they attended the capstone event held Saturday by Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering. FEMMES is a student-run organization that hosted the first of its two capstone events. The group of both graduate and undergraduate students arranged for girls to spend a day participating in activities in different science, technology, engineering and math fields. The Michigan chapter of the organization was started in
By BROOKE PEARCY For The Daily
Most fourth, fifth or sixth graders don’t get the chance to learn from a college professor about how the brain sends signals to muscles or how a pros-
2011 after the national group was founded in 2006 at Duke University. Glory May Bradley, one of the 130 girls from nearby schools who attended, has returned to the event for the third time to further explore scientific concepts. “I like doing all of the experiments,” Bradley said. “And I’ve liked science since I could talk.” Rackham student Abigail Garrity, the co-president of FEMMES, hopes the girls will leave with exactly the feeling
Bradley described. “I want them to walk away with a sense of self-efficacy and empowerment,” Garrity said. “I want them to walk away inspired and excited about the experiments and the activities that they participated in.” Each of the activities at the event was created and taught by students and University professors. Activities ranged from making ice cream with liquid nitrogen to creating glow sticks. See STEM, Page 5A
By SAM GRINGLAS Daily Staff Reporter
Though many faculty and staff have expressed concern with the implementation of the University’s new Shared Services Center, University officials assured faculty last week that no layoffs will result from the planned integration of human resource and financial services into the consolidated office. From the centralized location, they will provide those services to the University at large, rather than being placed with specific departments or colleges. In preparation for the merging of services, 50 finance and human resources positions were unfilled over the last few months, allowing the University to maintain positions for all current employees
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
CSG elections to fill recently vacated seats Winners to take office during winter semester By AMRUTHA SIVAKUMAR Daily Staff Reporter
The Central Student Government will hold elections Wednesday and Thursday to fill spots vacated by recalled representatives over the course of the semester, but recruiting candidates is proving to be a challenge. Although the elected assembly representatives are generally elected for full academic-year positions, the representatives who are elected this week will serve only Winter 2014. This cycle, there are six available seats on the CSG assembly: two from Rackham Graduate School, two from LSA, one from the School of Information and one from the School of Public Health. Two parties are running candidates — the Defend Affirma-
tive Action Party and forUM — along with some independent candidates. Currently, the only contested seats are for the LSA representatives, with two candidates running with forUM, one with DAAP and one as an independent. Law School student Bryson Nitta, the election director, said it will likely be difficult to attain a high voter turnout for the fall elections because most races are uncontested. In an e-mail interview, LSA sophomore Meagan Shokar, vice speaker on the assembly, said the majority of representatives elected in March “have been fine with attendance” and those who left the assembly or have been recalled for missing more than six meetings. “Each and every representative wants the best for the student body and all of us at CSG want an assembly filled with representatives who have the time to dedicate to representing their college or school’s needs, wants, and See ELECTIONS, Page 5A
impacted by the change. Additionally, staff members who accept similar positions in the Shared Services Center are not likely to see a decrease in their base salaries. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said administrators completed individual meetings with affected staff members Friday. Many of the employees affected are responsible for services like billing, employee expense reimbursements, travel benefits, vendor payments or registering new employees through Wolverine Access. Traditionally, departments or colleges have retained their own employees who handle these duties. In the new Shared Services Center, each employee will likely specialize in one of these tasks. Each staff member would focus on one area of the shared services spectrum at a University-wide level. The center will open in April and the remaining departmentlevel finance- and human-resources staff will transition there by See TRANSITION, Page 5A
Allowing Saturday to just be Saturday
ZAK WITUS/Daily
Stephen Rush, an associate professor in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, speaks at the MCubed Symposium Friday.
MCubed event showcases interdisciplinary research Faculty members collaborate on humanities-related research projects By CHARLOTTE JENKINS Daily Staff Reporter
More than 200 “cubes” presented research at the MCubed Symposium Friday in Rackham
Auditorium and the Michigan League. Launched in the fall of 2012, MCubed is the first part of the University’s Third Century Initiative, a five-year $50 million plan that aims to promote innovation and collaboration within the University. MCubed’s goal is to empower faculty members in different departments and colleges to work collaboratively to produce research that will have a large societal impact.
A “cube” is made up of three University faculty members from different disciplines who engage in humanities-related projects. Each cube received at least $60,000 of the $15 million in funds available from the program to hire one undergraduate student, graduate student or postdoctoral researcher to help them with their research. At the symposium, the cubes presented their research findings from the See MCUBED, Page 5A
EVANSTON, Ill. — For almost 58 minutes of game time, this was about as bad as football can be played. Neither Michigan nor Northwestern could score points — not because the defenses were playing particularly well, but because the EVERETT offenses were COOK just that bad. At one point in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats had the ball deep in their own red zone and were forced to punt. It traveled a grand total of seven yards. The Wolverines got the ball on the 10-yard line. You couldn’t ask for more of an offensive gift. They lost a yard and had to kick a field goal. It was ugly football. Northwestern dropped four potential interceptions. Two of them would have been pick-sixes. There were a combined 14 punts. On top of that, it was rainy and windy, a precursor to the massive storm that hit Chicago on Sunday morning. See SATURDAY, Page 5A
Bad until the very end Michigan won thanks to the best play Brady Hoke has ever seen
» INSIDE WEATHER TOMORROW
HI: 44 LO: 29
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 31 ©2013 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A ARTS...........................6A
SUDOKU..................... 3A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A S P O R T S M O N DAY. . . . . . . . . .1 B