ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Friday, October 2, 2015
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CAMPUS CONTEXT
With survey data, admins assess sexual assault at ‘U’ New initiatives, evaluative process kick in a year after Schlissel arrives
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
By ALLANA AKHTAR
Host Bill Kurtis at a taping of National Public Radio’s “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” at Hill Auditorium on Thursday. The show was presented by Eastern Michigan University’s public radio station, 89.1 WEMU, in honor of their 50th anniversary.
Daily Staff Reporter
Wait, Wait... Don’t Tell Me 2 brings famed show to A
University President Mark Schlissel and his administration have spent the last academic year working to roll out new policy initiatives regarding several campus issues — most notably, athletics, diversity, sexual assault, alcohol abuse and Greek life. The Michigan Daily concludes this week’s “Campus Context” series by delving into the chain of events that has led to a closer examination of the University’s approach toward sexual assault on campus. The overview: Though discussion of sexual assault on college campuses has generated discussion in the past, the case of former football kicker Brendan Gibbons brought the issue into the increased public focus. In January 2014, the Daily reported that Gibbons had been perma-
Host Peter Sagal talks Greek life, Michigan football at Hill Auditorium By EMMA KERR Daily News Editor
Peter Sagal, host of National Public Radio’s “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!,” opened Thursday night’s live show to a sold-
out audience in Hill Auditorium. Hosted in collaboration with public radio affiliate WEMU and the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, the show returned to Ann Arbor for the first time since 2007, when it was hosted at The Michigan Theater. Producers and hosts of the show entered the stage clad in maize and blue hats and attire. Sagal was not hesitant to joke with the audience about the University’s recent notoriety in regard to student alcohol consumption
and Greek life. “This is the first time we have been allowed to the University’s campus. They had to make sure we could handle our liquor — I’m hoping to pledge a frat while I’m here,” Sagal said. Sagal continued, referencing the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity’s suspension following a January ski trip incident, saying, “As a Jewish man myself, I felt proud.” The famous quiz show’s special guest this week was University lecturer John Bacon, an
award-winning sports journalist and University alum. Bacon is also a member of the Board of Student Publications, which works with The Michigan Daily. Having written three of his seven books specifically about Michigan football, Bacon told stories of his time interviewing and even training with players. By way of explanation for the national attention Michigan football receives, Bacon told Sagal, “When you put your fist See WAIT WAIT, Page 2
CAMPUS LIFE
RESEARCH
Students rally for Planned Parenthood
Gathering supports women’s health org. amid accusations, controversy By EMMA KINERY Daily Staff Reporter
Students pledged to “Stand with Planned Parenthood” in an event on the Diag on Thursday to show support for the embattled women’s health care organization. In recent months, Planned Parenthood has faced a firestorm of accusations suggesting the nonprofit organization profits from the sale of fetal tissue of aborted fetuses to medical researchers — which would violate federal law. In July, an anti-abortion group released a series of undercover videos featuring Planned Parenthood representatives describing the process of preserving aborted fetuses for research purposes. LSA senior Amanda Vita, co-communications chair of Students for Choice, the organization that hosted the event, said the purpose of the event was to show support for the organization amid the controversy. “We are trying to raise support for Planned Parenthood amongst the media firestorm that’s happening surrounding Planned Parenthood and all of the congressional opposition,” Vita said.
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“We’re trying to show Planned Parenthood that we still stand with them.” Planned Parenthood has repeatedly stated it does not profit from the sale of fetal tissue, and that the videos are manipulated to create a fabricated message. Several state investigations have found the organization has not mishandled fetal tissue. The House Oversight Committee and Government Reform Committee grilled Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards about the videos for more than four hours Tuesday, and many Republicans threatened to block budget resolutions to fund the federal government if funding for the organization was included. A bill to fund the government through December that included funding for Planned Parenthood was passed Wednesday. During the day, students wrote letters to current Planned Parenthood staff members and launched an Instagram campaign to rally support by taking photos of students holding “Stand With Planned Parenthood” signs. By 12:00 p.m., Vita said she estimated about 100 students had stopped and spoke with members of the organization. “I’m really, really passionate about this cause,” said Engineering sophomore Sonia Thosar, who stopped by the event. “I just think that women’s bodily autonSee PARENTHOOD, Page 2
nently separated from the University for violating the school’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy — four years after the case had been reported. The delay brought into question the efficacy of the University’s adjudication policies. Months later, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into the University and more than 100 other schools’ handling of sexual assault cases. Since then, the University has been working to improve its prevention programs and make its policies more effective and transparent. The changes: Some changes are more visible than others. In 2013, the University updated its sexual misconduct policy to meet new standards recommended by the U.S. Department of Education. The updated policy decreased the burden of proof applied in sexual misconduct cases. Under the policy, decisions require a “preponderance of evidence,” which means an incident is more likely to have occurred than not. The University took part in two sexual assault surveys under Schlissel’s aegis — one See SCHLISSEL, Page 3
Nobel Prize winner talks advances in microscopes New technology improves ability to view important cellular interactions By TOM McBRIEN Daily Staff Reporter
GREG GOSS/Daily
LSA Senior Lania Robinson holds up self identifying sign during the Being Black Discussion at Trotter Multicultural Center on Thursday.
Black Student Union hosts event on intersectionality Students talk about how Black identity is defined on campus By ALYSSA BRANDON Daily Staff Reporter
Dozens of students crowded into the main lobby of Trotter Multicultural Center on Thursday for “I’m Black and…” — an open discussion that parsed the various cultural, ethnic and sexual identities within the Black community. Hosted by the Black Student Union, the forum was geared toward educating students on
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intersectionality — the concept of recognizing the interconnections between identities, particularly when it comes to discrimination. Public Policy senior Hattie McKinney, BSU vice-speaker, began the conversation by asking attendees how they would define being Black. While some attendees said Blackness is defined by music, dance, hair or fashion, LSA sophomore Shavon Edwards said she feels Blackness is often misdefined by people within the Black community. “I feel like a lot of people in our culture define Blackness in terms of a textbook definition and by history, and as we all know, history is never told
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INDEX
in our favor,” she said. “When we are describing what Black should be, we should not base it off of books or how other people told us how we were at that time. For us to progress as a people, we need to come up with our own definition of what Black is.” McKinney then extended the question and asked attendees to think about what it means to be a Black student at the University. Some attendees said it means to be from Detroit and to be attending the University on a need-based scholarship. One student said it means to be the sole liaison to the Black community when any Black See BSU, Page 3
Vol. CXXV, No. 3 ©2015 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
In 2004, Eric Betzig was unemployed, tinkering in his friend Harald Hess’s living room. In 2005, he was a research group leader at the impressive Janelia Research Campus in Virginia on his way to winning the 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry. The tinkering had paid off, leading Betzig to invent a microscope that saw things no other microscopes could. Betzig spoke at the Medical School on Thursday morning about developing the photo-activated localization microscope, or PALM, and gave an overview of the recent developments in microscopy. Traditionally, the limiting factor for microscopes was not their magnification. Instead, it was a property called “resolution,” which refers to the shortest distance between two separate points in a microscope’s field of view that can still be distinguished as distinct entities. If you imagine a microscope as drawing a picture, microscopes with poor resolution draw with See NOBEL, Page 3
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