ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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ACADEMICS
Assembly discusses release of evaluations HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
Joint faculty and student committees await approval of reccomendations
Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, discusses the important role of entrepreneurship in the future of Detroit in Robertson Auditorium on Monday.
Facebook co-creator talks impact of social media site Chris Hughes gives advice to young entrepreneurs at Business school By REBECCA SOLBERG Daily Staff Reporter
Audience members browsed Facebook on their phones while waiting for one of the
social media site’s creators to speak in the Robertson Auditorium Monday evening. Allison Davis-Blake, dean of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, moderated the event. She asked Chris Hughes about a number of topics, including his journey as one of five people co-founding Facebook, his work for the Obama campaign in 2008 and the advice he had for young entrepreneurs. Facebook was founded in 2004
by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCullum and Hughes. The social media site now has more than 1 billion users in 19 countries. Hughes began the discussion with a disclaimer: the Facebook story was different from that portrayed in the popular 2010 film “The Social Network.” Rather, he said, a few undergraduate students at Harvard University
had the idea for a social media site and with the right spark and motivation, Facebook was able to become the massive network it is today. He told attendees that a small idea can have a significant impact on making a huge difference in the world: Facebook, he said, began with the simple idea to connect friends and family and 12 years later, the site has evolved into See FACEBOOK, Page 2
By ISOBEL FUTTER Daily Staff Reporter
Silke-Maria Weineck, chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, discussed student course evaluations at Monday’s Senate Assembly meeting, updating the assembly on their initiatives to create policies for the release of evaluations. Last fall, the Faculty Senate voted to defer releasing course evaluations until policies on the release were in place and there were changes in the structure of the evaluations to be viewed. Two committees, composed of faculty and representatives from Central Student Government were charged with performing these tasks. The recommendations
BUDGET
CAMPUS LIFE
A City Council examines 2017 deer cull funds
‘U’ chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta disbanded
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Body also discusses solutions for high number of retiring police officers By MARLEE BREAKSTONE Daily Staff Reporter
Monday evening, Ann Arbor City Council convened for its first work session on the city’s fiscal year 2017 budget, which is slated to be passed in May. Staff retention in the Ann Arbor Police Department and funding for the city’s ongoing deer cull were among the most contentious budgeting factors discussed at the meeting. Ann Arbor’s budget is determined over a two-year process, and this is the second year in that process. However, City Treasurer Matthew Horning said there are still many important new factors to consider. “It’s a much easier process than last year, but we still have some decisions to make,” Horning said at the start of the meeting. Larry Collins, Ann Arbor’s interim community services area administrator, discussed funding for the city’s ongoing deer cull. The deer cull was initially budgeted as a one-time cost of $20,000 for 2017, but Collins said the actual cost of the project will be around $35,000. Collins said no current bill exists to account for the total
WEATHER TOMORROW
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costs of the cull. Before the cull began, the city agreed in its contract with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to receive a bill at the end of the first quarter of the process. The cull began Jan. 2, 2016. Collins said he was unsure how much the culling activities will cost in the upcoming years. A city meeting to discuss potentially using nonlethal methods for the cull will be held with city residents on Friday. “We just don’t have the data yet … we’re not done,” Collins said. “My hope and my belief is that $35,000 won’t be needed for the cull in the upcoming year.” Ann Arbor residents have complained since the summer of 2015 about the lack of transparency from city officials regarding the cull’s costs and the details and effects of the cull. Councilmember Sabra Briere (D–Ward 1) said she disapproved of Collins’ inability to provide clear parameters of the cost of the cull. Collins said he does not know at this time the amount of funding required to complete the deer cull. City Administrator Tom Crawford promised to provide Briere and other city councilmembers with written updates containing information about the costs of the deer cull. He did not specify when those updates would be distributed. Along with the cull, Robin See BUDGET, Page 2
have been sent to University of Michigan Provost Martha Pollack for review, Weineck said. If approved, course evaluations will be released starting fall 2016. The policies suggested include a stipulation that allows course evaluations to only be released to students, preventing their release to other UM community members or the public. Additionally, course evaluations would only be released if one of two thresholds are met: a 50 percent participation rate for the class overall or a minimum of 30 evaluations total per class. “We decided to put the threshold in to encourage participation,” Weineck said. “The students told us they wanted this information, so it seemed a good idea to say, ‘OK, you can have this, but you need to provide the information as well.’” Another suggestion made by the committee was to allow faculty facing difficult life situations or emergencies to opt out of release of evaluations for that year. See SACUA, Page 3
Women’s fraternity faced multiple disciplinary sanctions over past months By ALYSSA BRANDON Daily News Editor
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
University of Cincinnati professor John Eck shares his opinions and ideas about police issues at the 21st Century Policing meeting held in Weil Hall on Monday.
Panel on police reform cites Cincinnati as model city During event, speakers emphasize problem solving, community equity By KEVIN BIGLIN Daily Staff Reporter
At the Ford School of Public Policy Monday evening, panelists discussed ways police reform in Cincinnati can serve as a model for cities across the United States to adopt a more community-based approach to issues of police brutality, touching on collective
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experience in the field. The event, “21st Century Policing: Lessons from Cincinnati,” was hosted as part of the University of Michigan 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium and moderated by David Thacher, assistant professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning and Reuben Miller, assistant professor of Social Work. In his remarks, Thacher emphasized that opportunities to implement police reform are made possible through the work of social activists. “We’re at a really important moment in American policing right now,” Thacher said. “We
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have a level of social attention to policing and scrutiny in policing that we haven’t seen in probably about 50 years. We have a window of opportunity in policing for real and lasting change, and we have that window because of the passion and commitment of so many civil rights activists over the past two years who have put policing in the national spotlight so successfully.” Participants in the talk were key members involved in the process of Cincinnati’s police reform after a series of deaths prompted a lawsuit from the Cincinnati Black United See POLICE, Page 3
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The Eta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta women’sfraternity at the University of Michigan was disbanded Monday. A letter obtained by The Michigan Daily from Theta’s national president Laura Doerre to chapter members states the decision was made in a unanimous vote by the fraternity’s grand council on Sunday. In the letter, Doerre said the decision to disband the chapter came after several suspensions and disciplinary action from both the University and the national chapter, including a recent suspension effective during the spring semester. The letter didn’t specify what events prompted the disciplinary actions or suspensions. Doerre also wrote that the fraternity recently violated University sanctions that were administered during the Spring semester. “On February 10, Vice-President Mandy Wushinske and I visited campus and met with members of your cabinet and university administrators including the dean of students,” Doerre wrote. “At that time it was clearly stated that all members and new members of See THETA, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS...............6
SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................6 SPORTS......................7