2015-01-22 by The Michigan Daily

CELEBRATING OUR ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Thursday, January 22, 2015

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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GOVERNMENT

Alum starts historic first term in state legislature

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Ta-Nehisi Coates, an Atlantic senior editor and writer, discusses race relations in America at the MLK Symposium at Rackham Auditorium Wednesday.

Award-winning journalist talks race, history in address Ta-Nehisi Coates lectures on slavery, discrimination By ALLANA AKHTAR Daily Staff Reporter

Members of the University community crowded Rackham Auditorium Wednesday evening

to hear acclaimed journalist TaNehisi Coates discuss the history and institutionalization of anti-Black racism in America. “In this country, we believe racism to be a kind of psychosis,” he told the crowd. “A kind of insanity, a sort of inexplicable madness.” Coates, a senior editor for The Atlantic, spoke about his widely discussed Atlantic cover story,

“The Case for Reparations,” which examines the historical oppression of Blacks in the United States. The speech, part of the University’s month-long Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium, was sponsored by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender along with the Department for Afroamerican and African Studies, the Ford School of Pub-

lic Policy and the Center for the Education of Women. Some students and faculty were turned away before the event began because the auditorium was at capacity. “I hope to provoke people; I hope to give them what they brought me here to do,” Coates said in an interview with The Michigan Daily before his See RACE, Page 3A

‘U’ creates new scoring system for transplants By PARISHA NOVA Daily Staff Reporter

University researchers have developed a new testing system that can improve care for patients who need bone marrow and stem cell transplants. Graft-versus-host disease is a life-threatening condition that can occur in response to transplants. GVHD causes immune cells from the transplant to attack the body’s healthy tissue. In patients with diseases such as leukemia, which compromises the body’s immune system, bone marrow or stem cell transplants are necessary. John Levine, professor of pediatrics and the study’s lead author, said in these types of cases, GVHD is a real danger. “Following transplantation surgeries, our major concern is the development of GVHD in our

patients,” Levine said. “However, it is difficult to predict the severity of GVHD at the onset of the symptoms as it varies from patient to patient.” Prior to the research, there was no method for determining the severity of a GVHD case and whether or not it needed treatment. The treatment involves high doses of medication that reduce immune activity, so doctors must be extremely cautious when treating GVHD. Levine and his co-investigators assessed nearly 800 patients and created a scoring system that uses three proteins to assess the severity of each case of the disease. “We found out that it was not one protein but a combination of three recently validated biomarkers TNFR1, ST2, and Reg3a,” Levine said. “We then formulated an equation which computes the concentration of the biomarkers into three Ann Arbor scores. The scores are positively correlated with the amount of risk the diagnosed patient is in, so a score 1 indicates a patient with minimal risk while a patient diagnosed with a score See TRANSPLANTS, Page 3A

HI: 34 LO: 23

For the Daily

When the Michigan Legislature kicked off a new session Wednesday, the House floor included a number of new faces, including state Rep. Stephanie Chang (D–Detroit), the first Asian-American woman to serve in the Michigan House of Representatives. Earning a bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University in 2005, she said the skills she developed through student leadership roles on campus ultimately gave her the confidence and experience to run for state representative. “When I was on campus

around the time of 2005, the Supreme Court case on affirmative action was going on, and I was involved in an organization of students supporting affirmative action,” Chang said. “We mobilized people to get on buses to go to D.C. It was really a training ground for me in terms of learning how to organize and practice coalition building skills.” After graduating in 2005, Chang became a community organizer in Detroit. While living on the city’s east side, she served as an assistant to Grace Lee Boggs, an influential AsianAmerican political activist, and as a mentor with the Detroit Asian Youth Project. She said her experiences at the University prepared her for these tasks. “A lot of the things I did in college really helped prepare me to learn how to organize, build relationships and how to really effectively advocate on differSee CHANG, Page 3A

SCIENCE

Researchers to assess age correlation with driving University receives grant from AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety ANDREW COHEN/Daily

By KATIE PENROD

LSA senior Rebecca David examines fruit flies as part of a genetics course in which students analyze patterns of inheritance and gene interaction in the Undergraduate Science Building Wednesday.

WELLNESS

Pilot program focuses on mental health for athletes Public service videos, counseling make up initiative By KATIE PENROD who has this position

The University is piloting a new program designed to draw attention to the mental

health for student-athletes. The program, which was piloted in the fall and included a public service videos and drop-in counseling sessions, drew participation from 90 percent of the University’s 931 student-athletes. The program, which is a collaboration between the Athletic Department, the School of Public Health and

the food b-side

WEATHER TOMORROW

By DYLAN BENNETT

A N A LY S I S

HEALTH

Formula assesses complications in bone marrow recipients

Stephanie Chang becomes inaugural Asian-American woman in House

the University’s Depression Center, is supported by an $50,ooo NCAA grant. The pilot consisted of presentations that showed two videos in which two former student-athletes, former football player Will Heininger and former swimmer Kally Fayhee spoke about coping skills and their expeSee ATHLETES, Page 3A

For the Daily

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety granted the University Transportation Research Institute a contract to conduct research on the effects of age on driving. The University’s contract, as well as a similar contract given to Columbia University, will fund research in New York, Maryland, Colorado and California. Research Prof. David Eby, head of the Behavioral Sciences Group at UMTRI, will serve as the coprincipal investigator on the UMTRI portion of the project. The project will last five years and address topics such as the effects of medication on driving behavior and outcomes. The pilot of the study will begin in the spring. Eby said while this is the first extensive study on this topic in the See DRIVING, Page 2A

the b-side literary issue

A look at how, why and where ‘U’ students get their local grub

A glimpse at the Helen Zell MFA fiction writing program

» INSIDE

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INDEX

NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7A

SUDOKU.....................2A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A B-SIDE ....................1B