ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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PUBLIC SAFETY
WMU sees criticism of emergency alert system
GREG GOSS/Daily
English journalist, Mil Yiannopoulus, speaks on issues regarding feminism and mysogyny during the debate against Julie Bindel at the Michigan League ballroom on Teusday.
Controversial figures debate feminism, freedom of speech Event at Michigan League draws large campus, state crowd By BRANDON SUMMERSMILLER Daily Staff Reporter
A debate featuring controversial public figures Julie Bindel and Milo Yiannopoulos took place Tuesday night in the ballroom of
the Michigan League. During the debate, the two speakers exchanged arguments about feminism, debating whether the feminist movement impedes an individual’s freedom of speech. Hosted by The Michigan Review, the event drew a crowd of several hundred people, some of whom drove across state lines to hear the pair. Engineering senior Hunter Swogger, one of the event organizers, said the Review
wanted to bring Bindel and Yiannopoulos’ voices to the University’s campus in order to expose the campus to new ideas. “The entire point is to hear prominent people of prominent ideologies come together and speak,” Swogger said. Yiannopoulos has been the subject of significant criticism for his opinions on individual feminists and feminist ideology, namely his views that feminists invent problems that do not exist
— such as campus rape culture and the gender wage gap. Bindel, who considers herself a second-wave feminist — a movement focused sexuality, family and workplace issues that lasted from the 1960s to the 1980s — has also received criticism for her treatment of modern feminists and the transgender community. Both Yiannopoulos and Bindel, who are British, have been banned from multiple universities in the See DEBATE, Page 3A
Modifications to come in light of recent shootings in Kalamazoo By RIYAH BASHA Daily Staff Reporter
Students at Western Michigan University are raising questions about the reliability and efficiency of emergency alerts concerning off-campus incidents at their college after Saturday night’s mass shootings in Kalamazoo. Jason Dalton, an Uber driver in the city, shot eight people at random while picking up riders throughout the city between 6 and 10 p.m., killing six and injuring two victims. The incidents occurred in three separate county jurisdictions across the span of more than four hours, with Dalton moving within two miles of WMU grounds at times. No alert was
sent out by WMU. WMU junior Philip Faustman said he drove by the crime scene on his way home from work, but had no idea what had occurred. “I did see about 20 cop cars there. I couldn’t find anything out until about 11 p.m. when local news reported the news,” he said. “But on Saturday night when kids are out at bars, no one’s in dorms, there’s incredible on-campus traffic moving offcampus. When a large chunk of the student body is going to be affected by this, why was there no alert?” WMU has an emergency alert system similar to the University of Michigan’s, capable of alerting students, faculty and staff by phone and e-mail. Unlike the University, WMU’s system only reports threats occurring directly on campus, the minimum required of schools by federal law under the Clery Act. After backlash about the lack of an alert, WMU president See ALERT, Page 3A
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CAMPUS LIFE
CSG talks resolutions, recalls three members
‘U’ rank drops in business poll on academics New York-based publication considered 477 colleges in study By ANNA HARITOS Daily Staff Reporter
Tuesday, Business First — a publication based in Buffalo, New York — released an ranking of the top public colleges in America. The University of Michigan placed second in the rankings, a drop from its first place ranking in 2015. The University declined to comment on the ranking. The University’s first place spot was taken this year by the University of North Carolina, which was the runner up in the 2015 rankings. According to the study, the University scored 97.621 points out of 100. The ranking of 477 four-year public universities is based on 20-part formula created to indicate which institutions offer their
students the best educational experience. The formula looks at indicators of excellence, diversity, prestige, affordability and economic strength.The breakdown of the statistics looked at for each university covers a wide range of departments. It includes the school’s admissions process, economic communities, tuition, retention rates, diversity, reputations, resources and housing costs. All the statistical information that was reported was from the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Other publications’ college rankings — such as the U.S. News and Forbes — were also taken into consideration. The University is ranked first among the 15 Michigan institutions that were included in the study. The second was Michigan State University in 37th place, and Michigan Technological University in 124th place.
Body discusses issues of abseentism at meetings By ANNA HARITOS Daily Staff Reporter
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Senator Marco Runio (R-Fl) speaks at a rally in Grand Rapids on Tuesday evening.
Presidential hopeful Rubio hosts rally in Grand Rapids Republican candidate talks student debt and American Dream By CAITLIN REEDY Daily Staff Reporter
At Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R–Fla.) campaign stop in Michigan on Wednesday, all roads led to the American
Dream. Weeks before Michigan’s presidential primary on March 8, Rubio visited the Lacks Enterprises Inc. factory — a car part manufacturer just outside of Grand Rapids. Two thousand supporters gathered in a storage warehouse for the company to hear Rubio, who discussed the burden of student loans and what he characterized as the country’s failures, ranging from military to the current
campaign. In particular, Rubio spoke of his frustration with current levels of student debt in the United States — Market Watch reported on average a debt of a $35,051 for students graduating in 2015 — a topic he said he is the sole Republican candidate to address. “You go to school, you do everything they ask you to do and you end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in See RUBIO, Page 3A
At Tuesday’s meeting, representatives of Central Student Government discussed medical amnesty, recalling representatives, an upcoming mental health survey and two resolutions. During the meeting, the assembly voted to call on the University to enact all-encompassing medical amnesty, including drug violations, for the University and for the state of Michigan. Currently, the state provides medical amnesty only for underage drinking. “A Medical Amnesty Policy cannot achieve its goals unless it protects both the caller for help, and the person experiencing the medical See CSG, Page 3A
the statement The Literary Issue: Light of your life, fire of your loins
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INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 80 ©2016 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7A
SUDOKU.....................2A ARTS....................5A S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . 1 B