ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
The B-Side Two students plan performance pieces centered around experiences of assault as senior theses.
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ADMINISTRATION
Schlissel to recommend new exec. role for diversity President also announces new programs on poverty and academic innovation
HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
A man smokes outside the Undergraduate Library, a smoke-free zone, on Wednesday.
RIYAH BASHA
Five years later, smoke-free campus policies still cloudy
Daily Staff Reporter
ALLANA AKHTAR Daily News Editor
Students question how policy has been implemented at the University ALEXA ST. JOHN Daily Staff Reporter
LSA sophomore Caitlin Walrath was casually smoking a cigarette near the fountain behind the Michigan Union Tuesday night — an area the University of Michigan designates as “smoke-free.”
Walrath was fully aware of the smoke-free policy when she lit her cigarette — after all, smoke-free campus stickers are pasted on trash cans around campus, literature on smoking cessation sits at the front of University Health Service and student ambassadors frequently hand out kits with tools and information about quitting to those
they see violating the policy. But despite the University’s efforts to keep students from smoking, Walrath said she smokes with friends at popular spots near campus buildings, calling herself an occasional, social smoker of both traditional cigarettes and vaporizers. Needless to say, she does not
think this smoke-free policy is effective. “People smoke in non-smoking places regardless (of policies),” Walrath said. “It’s a fair policy, but should it even be there? Questionable, because no one’s going to follow it.” As of this year, all three of the See SMOKE, Page 3A
Following a week of student protests over campus climate and calls for more action from University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel, Schlissel announced two new diversity initiatives Wednesday morning. He also announced a new multidisciplinary program, Poverty Solutions, that aims to use research to aid those living in poverty, along with multiple other diversity initiatives at Wednesday’s leadership breakfast. “At Michigan we are
strongest when we work to solve problems and promote understanding together as one community,” Schlissel said during a leadership breakfast Wednesday in announcing the changes. Schlissel additionally revealed plans for the University’s upcoming bicentennial next year, including the first University event, set for Jan. 30, 2017, which will feature U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Susanne Baer of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. As the first of the two diversity initiatives, Schlissel announced he would See DIVERSITY, Page 3A
Regional transit plan vote may impact Initiative Robberies looks into ‘U’ Detroit Connector bus services committed
ACADEMICS
CRIME
expanding digital ed.
Funding typically approved only on year-to-year basis
Push aims to connect University education to information age
Though funding for the University of Michigan’s Detroit Connector bus service from Ann Arbor to Detroit has been approved for the next academic year, the long-term future of the service is once again uncertain in the face of new transit advancements. The service, which has faced a tenuous future several times in its short history, transports students between the two cities four days a week. In July of 2015, University officials decided to cancel funding for the MDetroit connector service by the end of 2016, but in April of 2016, CSG passed a resolution to encourage the University to extend the service. However, a regional vote on a proposed transit bill this November, may lead to changes in the service. In August, leaders from four counties in Southeast Michigan — Washtenaw, Maccomb, Oakland and Wayne — agreed on a plan put forth by the Regional Transit Authority that would expand mass transit in the region, including the development of a direct rail service between Ann Arbor and Detroit. This agreement allowed for the bill to be put forth for a referendum vote on the Nov. ballot. Public Policy junior Dylan Bennett, who is co-chair of the
RACHEL COHEN Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan’s new Academic Innovation Initiative, announced during a kick-off event last week, is intended to transform higher education, according to James DeVaney, associate vice provost for academic innovation. “The Academic Innovation Initiative was created to build upon Michigan’s longstanding leadership in higher education, to foster a culture of innovation in learning, and to chart new pathways for leading the way for higher education through the information age,” DeVaney wrote in an email interview. Physics Prof. Tim McKay, who also serves as the faculty director of the Digital Innovation Greenhouse within the Office of Academic Innovation, said while the world has greatly changed with the transition to the information age, undergraduate education has only just started to reflect that. “Almost every aspect of our lives has changed because of this transition into an information See INITIATIVE, Page 3A
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KEVIN LINDER
Daily Staff Reporter
Central Student Government Commission on Detroit Engagement — and is in charge of working with the Office of the Provost to maintain the Detroit Connector — said financial support for the existing service is constantly at risk of not being renewed. “Every year it’s technically in jeopardy, because they’ve been waiting for the Regional Transit Authority to get their referendum on the ballot this November,” he said. Bennett said the results
of the upcoming vote do not necessarily put the bus transit service at risk of being shut down, but rather changed, adding that University President Mark Schlissel and University Provost Martha Pollack have both expressed support for continuing of the bus line. Rather than shutting down, Bennett said if the regional transit bill passes, he expects the Detroit Connector will continue to operate, and will merge with the greater regional
transit system as it continues to grow. “If it’s a yes vote, it’s going to exist, it’s just going to play a bigger part of a bigger transit system,” he said. “I’m really hoping that the RTA bill does get passed and that maybe the Connector becomes phased into a bigger regional plan.” LSA junior Rohin Patel, who co-chairs the Commission on Detroit Engagement, expressed a different view, saying while he thought the RTA would be See CONNECTOR, Page 2A
CONCERT CONNECTION
CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily
Courtney Snyder conducts the School of Music, Theatre & Dance Concert Band’s “East Meets West” concert at Hill Auditorium Wednesday night.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVI, No. 6 ©2016 The Michigan Daily
by armed clown in A2
Masked individual steals money from two local businesses TIM COHN
Daily Staff Reporter
An armed gunman wearing a clown mask robbed the BP gas station located at 3270 Washtenaw Avenue around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night. Later that night, the Ann Arbor Police Department responded to another report of an armed robbery by a man in a clown mask, this time at Domino’s Pizza located at 2601 Plymouth Road. The descriptions of the suspects, according to AAPD detective Matthew Lige, were identical. “Currently, our working theory is that the two armed robberies that happened last night in the city were carried out by the same person,” Lige said. “Who that person is, we still do not know. That is still part of our investigation.” The suspect, according to Lige, displayed the handgun at the BP gas station and Domino’s, and fled both scenes with undisclosed amounts of money. Though the suspect’s identity was concealed by the clown mask, Lige remains confident that the Ann Arbor police will be See CLOWN, Page 2A
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A CL ASSIFIEDS............... 5A
SUDOKU.....................2A SPORTS...................5A B-SIDE.................1B