“3 of 6 Ypsilanti City Council members abstain from voting on resolution to prevent abstention”

Posted on May 23, 2013 by | 1 Comment

In “who’s on first”/silly Ypsi City Council news, we have “3 of 6 Ypsilanti City Council members abstain from voting on resolution to prevent abstention” from annarbor.com.  Here’s a quote:

Three Ypsilanti City Council members abstained from voting on a resolution Tuesday that would have prevented them from taking that very action in the future when considering issues.

Council member Pete Murdock proposed a resolution Tuesday that would have required council members to only vote yes or no on each issue facing council unless they had a financial or professional conflict of interest.

Mayor Paul Schreiber, Council members Susan Moeller and Brian Robb abstained from the vote to show their disapproval of the resolution brought forth by Murdock.

Pretty silly and sad that this was brought up in the first place, and had I been on City Council (which will never happen in a million-zillion years) I too would have abstained. Oh, and it is also a story that got picked up by the AP, so Ypsi can look dysfunctional all over the country.

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Posted in In the media..., Ypsilanti

Ypsilanti’s Rutherford Pool surpasses $1M fundraising goal with recent $150K grant

Posted on May 23, 2013 by | Leave a comment

From annarbor.com comes “Ypsilanti’s Rutherford Pool surpasses $1M fundraising goal with recent $150K grant.” Here are the opening paragraphs:

The Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation commission has awarded $150,000 to go toward the construction of Ypsilanti’s Rutherford Pool, pushing the amount raised past the $1 million mark.

In 2011, the parks and recreation commission agreed to pledge a $50,000 grant and a $75,000 loan — $125,000 in total — to the Friends of the Rutherford Pool for the project. The commission unanimously voted last week to rescind the loan and previous grant total, and to instead award a full grant amount of $150,000.

“It’s clearly important to the community and we just wanted to increase our contribution,” said Bob Tetens, Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Director. “I just think it was a remarkable example of everyone getting together on the project. It’s a great project.”

This is great news because I had heard from Friends Chair John Weiss (who is a neighbor of mine) that they were previously close but not quite there with the donations. Now they’re there.

By the way, you can still donate and/or buy a brick (you know, with your name or whatever engraved on it) for the Rutherford Pool.  Here’s a link to the Friends of the Pool web site; here’s a link directly to the brick ordering site. I’m thinking of getting one and perhaps immortalizing EMUTalk or maybe with the slogan “Go Emus” or something?

 

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Posted in EMUtalk.org News, In the media..., Ypsilanti

Rarely is this site about Emus

Posted on May 22, 2013 by | Leave a comment

From philly.com comes “What to do with a stray emu?” which is the story of another lost emu encounter. Here are the opening paragraphs:

After ordering wings from a pizza place Tuesday evening, Robert Leseberg looked out his window and saw a huge bird.

“Oh my god, look how big that turkey is” was his first thought, said Leseberg, who lives on two acres in rural Walnutport, about 15 miles north of Allentown.

But this not-so-wild “turkey,” when stretched fully upright, could raise its big beak above the head of the 6-foot-3 online investor, who soon figured out he was dealing with an emu.

He left it alone until, on his way back with the wings, the bird was blocking his driveway.

Perhaps the emu was not that crazy about Leseberg’s confusion of it with a turkey and/or his order of wings. In the end, Leseberg was able to soothe the bird and to get animal control involved to take the bird away.

 

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Posted in Emus (the bird)

“Time to Fly for the EMU Football Team”

Posted on May 17, 2013 by | 27 Comments

Here’s a kind of strange one:  according to this on the athletics page, the EMU football team is trying to raise $60,000 with its annual golf outing this year and through donations.   There are different prizes for different levels of donation, too; so if you donate $5,000, you can skydive with coach Ron English; if you donate $50, you can get the “ultimate EMUFB Fan Experience.”

What charity will be benefiting from this you ask?  Why, the EMU football team, of course!

This year for our 10th Annual EMU Football Golf Outing we decided to try something different. Coach really wanted to finish his facility projects which already consist of a new indoor practice facility (The Bubble), an updated outdoor facility, completely upgrading the team room and most recently, with last year’s Golf Outing contributions, revamped the locker room.

Fundraising efforts will go to improve:
- Player Locker Room // Coaches Locker Room Bathrooms
- Player’s Lounge
- Team Building // Training Room
- Coaches Offices
- Equipment Room Upgrades

I guess this is the sort of thing EMU football has to do since we don’t have the fan or alumni-base to raise contributions more easily. But considering how much money we’re dumping into the football team as it is, it strikes me myopic and maybe even a little silly that the athletics program is having a fund raiser to get even more money so they can make the bathrooms in the locker room that much nicer.

By the way, when I hear the catch phrase for this campaign, all I can think of is REO Speedwagon from way back when:

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Posted in Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, College Fun, Sports

“Trial date set for man accused of stabbing wife to death”

Posted on May 15, 2013 by | 1 Comment

From annarbor.com comes “Trial date set for man accused of stabbing wife to death.” The man in question here is Jean-Pierre “JP” Trias, who was a long-time/part-time math instructor at EMU until 2012. There’s one paragraph here that suggests what might be coming in terms of Trias’ defense:

It’s alleged that Trias stabbed Porter multiple times the night before Porter’s body was discovered by Pittsfield Township police officers sent to the home to check on Trias. Testimony at a preliminary exam showed Trias called his brother earlier in the day and said he blacked out the previous night, woke up with injuries to his face and he didn’t know if he hurt anyone.

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Posted in Faculty Life, In the media...

BoR extends Martin’s contract

Posted on May 11, 2013 by | 2 Comments

This isn’t really news since it has been coming for a while, but as this EMU press puts it, “EMU Board of Regents extends contract of President Susan Martin.”

Two things I’ll mention for now.  First, this press release contains a somewhat useful chart on comparing university presidential salaries, and at $300K (Martin got a raise from $292K) she is in the middle of the pack for presidents of public universities in Michigan, but at the bottom of the list for presidents of MAC institutions.

Second, what a difference a year makes.  A year ago, Martin was under fire for drunken behavior at an alumni event– or not, depending on who you listen to on this. But the BoR put a letter in Martin’s file warning her about this and other “undisclosed incident(s),” and it sure looked like she the BoR was getting ready to not renew her contract.

So what happened? I have two theories and both of these things could be true:

  • If she did have a problem with too many cocktails at the wrong time and the wrong place, then she successfully cleaned up her act. And good for her if that was necessary and/or the case.
  • There’s been a change of membership on the Board of Regents, and the folks who were most interested in chasing her out of town– notably Roy Wilbanks– are now out of the picture.

Any other thoughts?

In any event, good for Susan Martin and good for EMU, I think. Her new contract is for 2 years with a 12 month sabbatical she gets whether she does or doesn’t become a professor. If I had to guess, I’d guess that at that point, she probably wouldn’t teach again and instead retire. Or maybe that’s just what I would do.

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Posted in Administrator Life, EMU President, In the media...

“MICHIGAN DAILY: Majority on University of Michigan’s campus support smoking ban”

Posted on May 9, 2013 by | 4 Comments

From annarbor.com comes “MICHIGAN DAILY: Majority on University of Michigan’s campus support smoking ban,” which is really just a summary of this Michigan Daily article, “Campus smoking rate on the decline.”

I didn’t know there was a smoking ban at U of M, actually.  But it seems to me that if the U of M– a much MUCH larger campus than EMU– can implement a smoking ban that is proving effective, then we can do the same here at EMU.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, In the media..., University of Michigan

The Color Run is coming to town again on Saturday

Posted on May 9, 2013 by | 9 Comments

Geoff Larcom just sent an email reminding us that the color run is back in town. Here’s a map of the locations around campus, downtown, and Depot Town that are going to be impacted by the run. The short version is getting to campus on Saturday during the race is going to be quite a bit more challenging than usual.

I’m at a loss as to why this is appealing to people, and it is apparently very appealing. There are over 100 cities hosting color runs this summer through this one entity/company that is a charity, I guess. Maybe it’s kinda pretty. But I have to say I have the same question as Mark Maynard did here last year.

Maybe I’ll walk down to Depot Town Saturday to take in the spectacle. I’ll be sure to wear something dark.

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Posted in College Fun, Ypsilanti

“Not Everyone Should Go to College”

Posted on May 9, 2013 by | 3 Comments

“But everyone should have the option.” That’s how Matt “Confessions of a Community College Dean” Reed begins his blog post/Inside Higher Ed post “Not Everyone Should Go to College.”  I especially like this paragraph:

No, not everyone should go to college.  But I shouldn’t decide who should and who shouldn’t.  Everyone should have the option — really have the option — so we don’t miss talent based on prejudice masquerading as toughness.  Given real options, people will find the paths that are right for them.  Some will choose paths far away from college, and that’s their right.  But some will show up shaggy and unkempt, and shock the hell out of us.  That’s why we’re here.  It’s a valuable and worthy mission, and one that would be easy to violate in the name of a superficial rigor.  The real rigor comes in creating, sustaining, and improving an audaciously egalitarian institution in a political culture in which the winds blow cold.  It’s cold outside.  Open the door and let people in.  At our best as a culture, that’s what we do.

Like I said, I agree completely with everything DeanDad is saying here, though there are two realities that do rain on this parade a bit. First, successful universities nowadays are tracked based on graduation rates, not “I gave it a try and decided it wasn’t for me” rates, or “I came to school when I was an 18 year-old goofball and then I got my shit together and came back when I was 22″ rates. So because of that, there is a certain disincentive against taking chances on these students who might surprise us.

Second, the main path to the white collar/middle class in the U.S. is through college and there are a decreasing number of good jobs available for folks with only a high school degree in this country. So you don’t have to go to college of course; but you are probably locking yourself into a long-term job in retail or food service or something like that if you don’t.

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Posted in Academics, Faculty Life, In the media..., Student Life

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants student loans to get Fed discount rate”

Posted on May 8, 2013 by | Leave a comment

From the above YouTube clip and also from the Los Angeles Times comes “Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants student loans to get Fed discount rate.” Basically, Warren makes the very reasonable proposition that students ought to be able to borrow money at the same interest rate as the banks that caused the economic collapse that lead to the great recession.

Of course, this has zero chance of becoming law.

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Posted in Budgets, In the media..., Student Life