ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
UNIVERSITY HOUSING
Pipe bursts soak halls, displace residents ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Students and Ann Arbor residents fill Au Bon Pain as it opens for business in the old University Club at the Michigan Union Tuesday.
Union debuts Au Bon Pain Cafe chain fills former home of University Club By RACHEL PREMACK Daily News Editor
Early morning studiers rejoice — there’s a new bakery in town. After months of renovations, the Au Bon Pain cafe and bakery opened Tuesday on the first floor of the Michigan Union. During its opening, the cafe served ready and custom-made sandwiches, salads and bakery items to a small crowd of students and
Ann Arbor residents. Michigan Union director Susan Pile said she was pleased with the opening day turnout, considering Tuesday’s sub-zero temperatures and not all students had moved back to campus. A student-centered opening day with free samples and performances will welcome more students on Jan. 16. Au Bon Pain replaces the University Club, which opened in 1937 and closed this summer. Renovations, which began in late August and ended at the end of the Fall 2013 semester, were conducted to maintain the Union’s heritage while updating
the space for modern students, Pile said. Pile added that the University took care to ensure the new restaurant preserved the space’s character, including the University Club’s original entry arch and flooring. “We were really intentional in working with the arch of Au Bon Pain that we didn’t want to take just their cookie cutter operation and put it here at Michigan,” Pile said. To keep the space University focused, student photography of the campus is also featured in the restaurant. Seating is in a room adjacent
to the serving area and includes between booths, group seating and couches. This seating structure allows Au Bon Pain to be used as a study and gathering space for students. “They heard us in honoring what is the Michigan Union and what is the tradition here, but updating it to make it more usable for student needs today,” Pile said. Laura Seagram, marketing and communications specialist for the Union, said the space can accommodate a stage and be used for poetry slams, a capella shows and other student events. See AU BON PAIN, Page 3A
Council agenda finished from ‘13 By WILL GREENBERG Daily News Editor
The first Ann Arbor City Council meeting of the year was shorter than usual as council members moved quickly through old and new business. The Monday meeting, held on one of the coldest nights of winter thus far, featured a handful of the city’s homeless and their advocates who came to voice their concerns about having adequate shelter during the dangerously cold weather. Several speakers during the public commentary addressed See COUNCIL, Page 3A
By ALLANA AKHTAR Daily Staff Reporter
A handful of students returning to campus this week found their rooms flooded and dorm buildings in need of repair. East Quadrangle Residence Hall, which reopened in 2013 after a year of renovation, and Oxford Residence Hall reported pipe damage on Monday morning and Tuesday morning, respectively. Though record low temperatures from the recent snowstorm caused the breakage in Oxford, the cause of East Quad’s leak remains unknown. University Housing spokesman Peter Logan said there were 17 rooms affected by water infiltration in East Quad, impacting 31 students. University maintenance workers are continuing to dry and clean rooms by extract-
ing all water and setting up fans and dehumidifiers in the affected rooms, Logan said. He added that students’ personal items that were soaked by water from the broken pipe have been sent for cleaning. The University will be providing alternate rooms during the cleaning process. Logan said students should contact University Housing if they need assistance finding temporary lodging or to report items damaged by the leak. Logan said he believes most rooms will be dried out by Friday and students will be allowed to return by Monday at the latest. “We will continue to keep in touch with them when we know when their rooms are habitable,” he said. LSA freshman Ava Tavrazich was displaced from her room Tuesday due to the leak in East Quad after she received a call telling her she could not move back into her room until Friday. University Housing arranged a temporary room for her in West Quad Residence Hall, where she said they would drive her after gathSee PIPES, Page 3A
HOSPITAL
CITY GOVERNMENT
Site plans, old resolutions quickly approved in year’s first meeting
Students in East Quad, Oxford return to flooded residences
Twelve hospitalized in intensive care for H1N1 virus at UMHS After notorious 2009 run, swine flu hits hard again By IAN DILLINGHAM Daily News Editor
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS AND ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
LEFT Ann Arbor resident Matt Wilkin shovels his car out of a snow bank during the ice and snow storm Sunday. RIGHT Snow covers campus following a storm making it difficult for students to return for classes.
Classes commence despite below-zero temperatures Provost requests accomodations for stranded students By MICHAEL SUGERMAN Daily Staff Reporter
As temperatures fell below zero degrees across much of Michigan, University administrators and staff are working to counteract the effects of
extreme weather conditions as students return to school for the start of the winter semester. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the campus will not close for the extreme weather and classes will not be canceled on Wednesday. “Wednesday is the day that is forecast to turn around a bit,” Fitzgerald said. “Because of the campus’ largely residential nature, it is really unusual for the Ann Arbor campus to close
because of weather.” However, Fitzgerald advised students who may be unable to return to campus on Wednesday due to the weather to keep in touch by email with their instructors. “What we’ve learned in the past is that professors are very much understanding of those situations that are out of the control of students,” he said. In an e-mail, University ProSee TEMPERATURES, Page 3A
Twelve patients at the University Hospital are receiving treatment in the intensive care unit after contracting the H1N1 influenza virus — the same strain seen in the 2009 “swine flu” pandemic. Dr. Sandro Cinti, professor of infectious diseases, said several of the patients have been placed on an advanced form of life support known as ECMO — extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. While the procedure is intended to give patients more time to recover from their disease, Cinti said it is both “very serious” and a “last resort” for the most seriously afflicted patients. All twelve patients are currently breathing with the help of mechanical ventilators and receiving aggressive treatment to prevent infection while doc-
tors treat the underlying influenza. The patients range in age from 22 to 58 and most were considered healthy prior to contracting the disease. This range is consistent with 2009 infection patterns, which showed younger demographics infected at a higher rate than the elderly, who were most likely exposed to a similar form of the disease many years ago. H1N1 was most widely publicized during 2009 — prior to the creation of a vaccine — when it killed over 470 individuals in the U.S. Despite fading from the public spotlight, the disease has been present in every flu season since the pandemic, Cinti said. “Last year it was just at a very low level, but this year it’s the main flu going around,” Cinti said. Since the current flu vaccine is designed to protect individuals against the H1N1 flu strain, doctors at UMHS speculate the 12 individuals currently in the ICU did not receive the vaccine, or were infected before it was able to take effect. See H1N1, Page 3A
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 43 ©2014 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A SUDOKU.....................2A OPINION.....................4A
SPORTS.......................6A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B