ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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ACADEMICS
Assembly endorses ‘U’ divest committee CLAIRE ABDO/Daily
New City Council members Zachary Ackerman (D-Ward 3) , left, Sabra (D-Ward 1) Briere and Jane Lumm (I-Ward 2) recite an oath before being officially inducted to the Ann Arbor City Council on Monday.
New members sworn in at first session of council term Council approves next police chief, sends off outgoing city administrator
James White, an assistant police chief with the Detroit Police Department, as Ann Arbor police chief, discussed the allocation of funds in preparation for winter weather and discussed the rezoning of the Nixon Farm properties. The council unanimously approved City Administrator Steve Powers’ recommendation to appoint White to the role. White will start the position on Jan. 11, 2016. “I’m happy to be able to support this appointment,” Lumm said. “The national search resulted in three very strong qualifying finalist candidates, and I believe Mr. White is an exceptional candidate. He will serve Ann Arbor very well.” Councilmember Sumi
By ISOBEL FUTTER Daily Staff Reporter
Monday’s Ann Arbor City Council meeting featured two new faces — newly elected members Chip Smith (D– Ward 5) and LSA senior Zach Ackerman (D–Ward 3). The council also welcomed back Jane Lumm (I–Ward 2), Sabra Briere (D–Ward 1) and Jack Eaton (D–Ward 4), who all returned to council for another term. The council appointed
Kailasapathy (D–Ward 1) said she felt Ann Arbor residents responded well to White during the interview process. Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor also voiced support for White’s appointment. “The three candidates were each excellent and would have served as chief ably and well,” Taylor said. “I look forward to working with Mr. White as police chief; he will have an important task.” White was one of three finalists in running for Ann Arbor police chief, alongside Interim Police Chief Jim Baird and Rob Severance, a deputy city manager in Texas. John Seto, former AAPD police chief, accepted a role as director of the University’s Housing
Security and Safety Services and announced his retirement from AAPD in May after 25 years with the department. While council welcomed White to the city, they also said goodbye to City Administrator Steve Powers, who announced plans to accept a new job as city manager in Salem, Ore. in August. Tom Crawford, Ann Arbor’s chief financial officer, will serve as interim city administrator while the administration committee searches for a replacement. Powers thanked the council for giving him the opportunity to serve the city of Ann Arbor. “Thank you for taking a chance on a small county, community guy, and letting me work with you,” Powers See CITY COUNCIL, Page 3
Faculty body calls on regents to consider investments in oil and gasoline By GENEVIEVE HUMMER Daily Staff Reporter
Divest and Invest, the student-led campaign calling on the University to divest from oil and coal, scored a small step forward at Monday’s Senate Assembly meeting. The Senate Assembly voted to support a resolution advocating the formation of a committee to review the University’s investments in oil and coal. During the meeting, the assembly also heard an annual report on the academic performance of the University’s student athletes. The assembly discussed fossil fuel divestment last spring, but lost quorum before the motion to vote. Even with support of SACUA, the University’s Board of Regents must endorse the committee before it can form. Divest and Invest president Nicholas Jansen, an LSA senior, noted divestment is just one approach to addressing climate change. “We realize climate change is a huge problem; we’re not saying that this is the
MUSIC INTERVIEW
ADMINISTRATION
Singer Vanessa Carlton takes artistic control By AMELIA ZAK Daily Music Editor
Vanessa Carlton was a fading memory in the minds of ’90s kids everywhere, her name merely standing as an indication of the seminal classic, “A Thousand Miles.” From 2002 to 2005, Carlton’s sugary piano ballads filled the radio airwaves. These Billboard-topping hits, like “A Thousand Miles,” “White Houses,” and “Ordinary Day,” were a heavy load to bear for one so young. The fast fame swallowed her name and image with what she was most known for. In the media vacuum that this early success created, Vanessa should have lost control of her image. By now, she should have fallen off into some island of once-famous musicians. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Carlton recounted these early successes in a positive light: “It’s not all being measured up against some pop culture moment I had with a song I wrote when I was 16. Everyone has allowed me to grow.” But with natural talent, hard work and a heavy concentration on individualistic musical
WEATHER TOMORROW
stylings, Carlton disproved the stigma of the one-hit wonder pop star. Time away from the limelight paired with hours in international studios with renowned producers have helped her regain control on the reigns of her popularity. Her 2011 album, Rabbits on the Run, was the beginning of these decisive changes. Rabbits on the Run, if nothing else, communicated with her audience and former fans that artistic changes were imminent. And in her 2015 effort, Liberman, Carlton swallows whatever former images the media has cast. Her reformed artistry is minimalist, elegant and a quieter kind. With Liberman, she’s not some pop star with three Top 40 hits that may or may not have dated John Mayer. Carlton has regained control over what she always was: a fantastic pianist with an ethereal voice who possesses an lyrical penchant for the lovelorn. Named after Carlton’s grandfather, one of whose paintings of nudes hangs in the eyeline from the piano, Liberman was creatively nurtured by See CARLTON, Page 6
HI: 65 LO: 43
solution that is going to save everything,” Jansen said. “Being students, being at a University with political power and an image that people look up to, this is where we can take a stance and contribute to the problem. It’s a big problem, it’s going to take a lot of solutions.” The University’s Divest and Invest campaign, formed in 2013, has spent the past two years encouraging the University’s administration to divest from fossil fuels, though the objective was recently amended to include only coal and oil, not natural gas. Comprised of faculty, students, staff and alumni, the organization has urged the regents to form a committee that would review the University’s $1.04 billion invested in fossil fuels. Jansen has previously expressed frustration with the regents’ refusal to develop an ad hoc committee to investigate the University’s investments in fossil fuels. “We have overwhelmingly demonstrated time and time again that we meet the three prong requirement needed for the Regents to form an ad hoc committee to look at divesting (from coal and oil) with the most recent being a nearly unanimous vote by CSG to support our resolution that ask the Regents to form the mentioned See SENATE ASSEMBLY, Page 3
Proposed statement revisions move ahead Committee to review changes to student code proposed by CSG RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Engineering senior Erin Moore speaks of her personal experience regarding the University’s race and ethnicity requirement at the Central Student Government Diversity Forum in the CSG chambers on Monday.
LSA forum critiques Race and Ethnicity requirement Students consider class size, need for changes across the schools, colleges By BRIAN KUANG Daily Staff Reporter
During an open forum Monday afternoon, around 20 students expressed dissatisfaction with the LSA Race and Ethnicity requirement
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amid an ongoing review by the LSA Office of the Dean. The current requirement mandates that LSA students take a course focusing on racial and ethnic inequality, as defined by LSA administrators, in order to graduate. A leading concern at the forum was that many of the classes that satisfy this requirement are too large and therefore don’t meaningfully engage students in discussion. The three largest courses that fulfill this requirement are Cultural
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Anthropology 101, Women’s Studies 220 and Public Health 200, which enrolled 693, 366 and 351 students in the fall 2014 semester, respectively. “When I took my Race and Ethnicity requirement it was in a class of over 300 people, and it was one of my favorite classes I’ve taken at the University,” said Public Policy junior Alexandra George, CSG communications director. “But because the class was so large people felt uncomfortable speaking up and See RACE & ETHNICITY, Page 3
Vol. CXXV, No. 31 ©2015 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
By JACKIE CHARNIGA Daily Staff Reporter
Now that the University has concluded the process of gathering community input on its Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities, proposed revisions to the document will work their way through a multi-step vetting process before eventually landing on the desk of University President Mark Schlissel. Every three years, the University’s faculty and student governing bodies provide the University president with potential revisions to the student statement, which outlines conduct expectations and disciplinary measures for students. The next step in the process falls on the Student Relations See STUDENT CODE, Page 3
NEWS...........................2 OPINION.......................4 ARTS........................5
SPORTS........................7 SUDOKU.......................2 CL ASSIFIEDS.................6