ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Friday, September 20, 2019
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Author discusses taking personal Regents approve action to mitigate climate change new $920 million Jonathan Safron Foer highlights new book at signing at Rackham Auditorium
hospital, address STEM concerns
Community members ask Board to tackle issues including child abuse, pedestrian safety LIAT WEINSTEIN & EMMA STEIN Daily Staff Reporters
RUCHITA IYER/Daily New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer speaks on food sustainability in his latest book “We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast” at Rackham Auditorium Thursday night
ALYSSA MCMURTRY Daily Staff Reporter
Best-selling author Jonathan Safran Foer spoke to a crowd of several hundred people at Rackham Auditorium for a book talk Thursday evening. The Ford School of Public Policy collaborated with the Literati Bookstore to host the event. Foer’s book, “We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast,” focuses on changes people can make in their immediate lives to promote environmental sustainability.
Foer highlighted four major contributors to climate change: airplane travel, overpopulation, cars and food consumption. The way people eat is just as important as the other three since it also deals with dangerous pollutants, Foer said. “Eating is the only one of those that immediately addresses nitrous oxide and methane, which are two extremely powerful greenhouses gases,” Foer said. “I think there are focuses exclusively on fossil fuels. It’s good to have a focus on fossil fuels, but bad to have a focus exclusively on fossil
RESEARCH
New tech employed to produce embryoids
Team of researchers study early stages of human development, complications
fuels.” The discussion was moderated by Ivette Perfecto, a professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability. She asked Foer why he did not talk more about the political side of climate change. “Is this a tactical device because do you think that people would dismiss you … or do you truly think that capitalism has nothing to do with it?” Perfecto asked. Foer said he wanted to focus his book on a part of climate change that is not talked about enough.
“The focus of the book is individual action,” Foer said. “In the same way that I acknowledge the fossil fuel industry is a profound problem, but I don’t really write about it in the book because I feel like a lot of people are giving a lot of attention to it.” He acknowledged that, though the government needs systemic change, it cannot be done without some individual change. “The government needs our help and we need the government,” Foer said. See CLIMATE, Page 3
The University of Michigan’s Board of Regents met for their first meeting of the 2019-2020 school year Thursday. Regents Jordan Acker (D) and Michael Behm (D) were not present, and chair Ron Weiser (R) arrived late. University President Mark Schlissel began the meeting by thanking E. Royster Harper, vice president for Student Life, for her time at the University. Harper announced her retirement this week. “After an amazing four decades of service to the University and to generations of our students, among student life leaders in our nation, Dr. Harper has set the standard,” Schlissel said. “And it’s a very high standard. Throughout her career, including 18 years as vice president, she worked tirelessly to enrich the lives of students. She supported their academic and career aspirations, their health and their goals as people so they could reach their full potential.” Schlissel then discussed the University’s new measures to prevent sexual misconduct, including a new online module that is required for all employees. He said nearly half of the University’s employees have completed it so far. “Already, 47 percent of
University employees have completed training,” Schlissel said. “The senior leadership takes this very seriously, and I am pleased to report that all regents, executive officers and deans on all three of our campuses have already completed this training. The deadline for completion is December 31.” Ben Gerstein, Public Policy junior and president of Central Student Government, then took the stand. He started by discussing what CSG hopes to accomplish this year. “Our priorities for the upcoming year include elevating student voices in the potential renovations to North Campus, namely for an increase in North Campus’s health and wellness resources,” Gerstein said. “Additionally, we are acting on student concern surrounding financial barriers to academic inclusion and success, namely textbook affordability and the high cost of homework access codes.” Gerstein continued by expressing CSG’s support for the Washtenaw County Climate Strike tomorrow, and for the University in joining the Climate Change Coalition. “I want to acknowledge the activists organizing tomorrow’s Washtenaw County Climate Strike for highlighting an important cause through their activism and showing the urgency of action,” Gerstein said. See REGENTS, Page 3
ANN ARBOR
San Antonio-based artist opens exhibit AAPS allows on struggles at US-Mexico border students to
Efroymson Emerging Artist showcases experiences of undocumented immigrants ZAYNA SYED
Daily Staff Reporter
Pushing a strand of magenta hair out of her face, Ruth Leonela Buentello recovered from a tearful moment. Buentello, this
year’s Efroymson Emerging Artist in Residence, was recounting an incident in her hometown of San Antonio where nine migrants died in a case of human smuggling. The migrants, who were undocumented and had most
likely just crossed the U.S.Mexico border, died after spending hours in a Walmart van without air conditioning in the middle of a notoriously hot Texas summer. “They were begging for their lives,” Buentello said.
“And no one published their names, their family members. … I just don’t know how to not feel and not say something.”
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
leave class for walkout
School district gives ‘OK’ to participate in strike if parents say they approve
Daily Staff Reporter
LEAH GRAHAM & AMARA SHAIKH
A team of University of Michigan and University of California, San Francisco researchers developed a new technology able to efficiently produce human-like embryos, also called embryoids. The research was published in Nature on Sept. 11. Other scientists have created embryoids in the past, which are made by coaxing human stem cells to behave and organize into structures similar to ones found in very early human embryos. The researchers specifically use pluripotent stem cells, which are able to differentiate into a variety of cell types. The new technology uses a microf luidics device in which scientists first insert pluripotent stem cells and then add chemicals that stimulate the cells to develop into human embryo-like structures.
Ann Arbor Public Schools will allow students to leave class to participate in the “Global Climate Strike” on Friday if their parents approve. In a letter to parents that was posted online by the organizers of the Washtenaw County Climate Strike, AAPS Deputy Superintendent David A. Comsa said the schools aim to provide a safe environment for students on campus. “We are clear that our students are expected to be in school and to remain on school grounds,” Comsa wrote. “Students may only be excused from our campuses with parental permission in advance of an offcampus event. Our work with our student leaders is focused on activities on our campuses. With advisement from law enforcement, we discourage our students from gathering at any sites off of our campuses.”
MICHAL RUPRECHT
See EMBRYOS, Page 3
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Daily News Editors
RUCHITA IYER/Daily LSA Institute for the Humanities presents ‘Yo Tengo Nombre’ by San Antonio-based artist Ruth Leonela Buentello at the Institute for Humanities Thursday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 137 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................5
See WALKOUT, Page 3
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7