Genevieve Urbain awaits her turn to speak during public commentary at the March 15, 2012 UM board of regents meeting. She was one of three people who spoke on the topic of Willis Ward, urging regents to find a way to honor the African-American athlete who played football for UM in the 1930s. (Photos by the writer.)

With minimal discussion, regents dispatched a variety of action items during the meeting, including several related to health education, facilities and athletics. They authorized a $50 million new building for the School of Nursing, as well as $20.5 million in renovations at the Taubman Health Care Center. In athletics-related items, regents approved renaming the Crisler Arena to Crisler Center, reflecting the broader uses there, as it has expanded in recent years. The board also authorized a $2 million increase in the budget for renovations at Yost Ice Arena, bringing that project to $16 million.

Ron Zernicke, dean of the School of Kinesiology, gave the meeting’s only presentation. He described the school’s facilities and academic programs, and the pressures of its increasing student enrollments. For undergraduates, kinesiology is the fourth largest school at UM’s Ann Arbor campus, with 877 students.

As part of her opening remarks, UM president Mary Sue Coleman reported that Fred White – a retired university auditor –has been hired as project manager to implement recommendations from an internal audit. The audit relates to an incident last year involving child pornography allegedly viewed on a UM health system computer. White will also serve as a liaison for an external review ordered by the board at its February meeting.

Several reports were received during the meeting as items of information, including the regular report on internal audits, and a summary of ongoing construction activities. Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, noted that the Fuller Road Station has been removed from the construction project list. He told regents that the university and city of Ann Arbor couldn’t agree on a memorandum of understanding on the joint project, but that he thinks it’s still a good aspiration. [See Chronicle coverage: "UM, Ann Arbor Halt Fuller Road Project"]

As it did at last month’s meeting, public commentary focused on better access to a childcare subsidy available to parents who are UM students – an issue being negotiated by the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) – and equity for students who are charged out-of-state tuition because they are undocumented immigrants. Students urged regents to support both issues.

The meeting ended with three speakers – including eight-year-old Genevieve Urbain – asking regents to honor Willis Ward, an athlete at UM during the 1930s who faced discrimination because of his race. Regent Martin Taylor, who said Ward had been a friend and fraternity brother, got consensus from regents to seek recommendations on how Ward might be appropriately recognized.

Regents Meeting: Change of Venue

Most regents’ meetings are held in the first-floor boardroom of the Fleming administration building, located at 503 Thompson St. in the university’s central campus, across from West Quad. The room can be a cramped space, especially when turnout from the public is high. The board table takes up the center of the room, with seating for the audience and media located to the sides.

Regent Libby Maynard, left, talks with Sally Churchill, UM's vice president and secretary. Churchill's responsibilities include being the administration's liaison to the regents.

In the past, off-site meetings have typically been limited to UM’s Flint and Dearborn campuses. But in the last few years, more meetings have been held in other cities as well as other locations on the Ann Arbor campus. Regents met in Grand Rapids in April of 2010, and in downtown Detroit’s Westin Book Cadillac hotel in March of 2011, for example – both meetings focused on partnerships in those cities.

This year, the regents’ January meeting was held on the sixth floor of the Ross School of Business building, and included a presentation by the school’s dean, Alison Davis-Blake.

At the start of the March 15 meeting – held in the wood-paneled Pendleton Room of the Michigan Union – UM vice president and secretary Sally Churchill told regents that the changes in venue are a work in progress. She noted that regents have been meeting in the Fleming building for about 50 years, and while the university has expanded during that time, the meeting space has remained the same. She said she was glad to see there was space at the Pendleton Room to hold all the people who attended. [The room was packed primarily with students, many of them wearing yellow "Maize Out" T-shirts. Staff brought in more chairs before the meeting started, to accommodate the crowd.]

Churchill concluded by saying the regents may see some changes in the coming months, in terms of meeting venues and format.

According to the Michigan Union website, the Pendleton Room has capacity for 300 people standing or 200 in an “auditorium” set-up. For the March 15 meeting, a U-shaped table configuration was set up for regents and UM executive officers in an area that was cordoned off with stanchions to separate them from the audience and media.

The meetings are not videotaped. Audio recordings are made and available upon request, but are not posted online.

President’s Opening Remarks

UM president Mary Sue Coleman began her remarks by noting that the earlier in the month university had been awarded a 2012 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization. UM’s commitment to global engagement is long-term and unwavering, she said, observing that the university first began admitting international students in 1847. Coleman also pointed to UM’s 2010 accreditation process, which focused on global engagement. The Simon Award will be formally presented in November at a ceremony in Washington D.C., and Coleman thanked all of the faculty, staff and students who make global engagement a priority.

Coleman also mentioned the 2012 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, which ranked UM 12th among public and private institutions.

Turning to other news, Coleman praised Dow Chemical Co. for a $10 million gift to support the study of pressing sustainability challenges – complementing the university’s existing sustainability initiative. Andrew Liveris, Dow’s chairman and CEO, had announced the news at Monday’s Detroit Economic Club lunch, which was packed, Coleman said. The funds, to be awarded over six years, will support the Dow Sustainability Fellows Program, which will include graduate fellowships and a lecture series focused on sharing sustainability research and best practices. Coleman thanked Dow for this “historic” gift, and for advancing the next generation of sustainability scholars and leaders.

Mary Sue Coleman at the March 15, 2012 regents meeting.

Coleman also gave a brief update on the university’s response to an incident last year involving child pornography allegedly viewed on a UM health system computer. She said that she and the regents wanted the community to know that the university was making “excellent progress” in following up on the internal audit and board’s directive.

By way of background, at the board’s Feb. 16, 2012 meeting, regents voted to start an external investigation into the six-month lag between the time the incident was initially reported in May of 2011, and action taken by university officials to investigate. A former medical resident, Stephen Jenson, was arrested in mid-December. The university administration had issued its own report on an internal audit in early February, with recommendations to improve security and communications. [.pdf of UM report] But regents felt more needed to be done, and asked Coleman to work with board chair Denise Ilitch to make recommendations for outside consultants who could be hired to carry out an additional investigation.

At the March 15 meeting, Coleman reported that Fred White, a retired senior auditor at the university, has been hired as project manager to implement the recommendations from the internal audit and to act as a liaison for the external review.

Coleman also noted that she had testified earlier this month at the state House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, in support of more state funding. She said she urged legislators to set a goal of returning the state to the top 10 nationwide in terms of state funding for higher education. She said she knew it would be a long-term goal, but that setting a goal is the first step toward achievement.

Coleman highlighted the six honorary degrees that regents would be asked to authorize later in the meeting, to be awarded at UM’s spring 2012 commencement on Saturday, April 28 at Michigan Stadium. In alphabetical order, the degrees will be awarded to: Jose Antonio Abreu, a Venezuelan pianist and music educator; Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent; investment banker J. Ira Harris, president of JI Harris & Associates; journalist and author Susan Orlean; Richard Sarns, biomedical entrepreneur and inventor; and author and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg. Four of the recipients – Gupta, Harris, Orlean and Van Allsburg – graduated from UM. Gupta will be giving the commencement address.

Coleman concluded her remarks by wishing good luck to the men’s and women’s basketball teams in the NCAA tournament, as well as to the men’s ice hockey team in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tournament. [UM men's basketball team was subsequently defeated by Ohio  University in the first round on March 16, while the UM men's hockey team beat Bowling Green State University on Friday to advance to the finals on Saturday night against Western Michigan, a game UM lost by a 3-2 score. The women's basketball team will play their first round on Sunday, March 18.]

New School of Nursing Building

On the March 15 agenda was a $50 million project to build a new facility for the University of Michigan School of Nursing. The school is currently located at 400 N. Ingalls, in a former hospital built in 1913. The new location will be nearby at the north end of Ingalls, near the Kingsley intersection. [.pdf of map showing location of the new nursing school building]

Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, told regents that this project has been in the works for many, many years. Provost Phil Hanlon noted that the school is a leader in curriculum development, especially in the area of simulations. That requires a different kind of building than the current one, he said, which is used for offices, classrooms and research space. The proposed 75,000-square-foot building will include instructional space, a clinical learning center, and simulated patient suites.

The new building is intended to accommodate an additional 40 new faculty and staff members over the next five to ten years, according to a staff memo. The memo states that 125 parking spaces will be lost because of the construction, but that UM will be increasing the amount of parking in the nearby medical center campus, and will be using transit services to bring faculty, staff and students in from remote parking lots.

The architectural firm RDG Planning and Design will be handling the project’s design.

The nursing school’s dean, Kathleen Potempa, attended the March 15 meeting but did not formally address the board.

Outcome: Regents unanimously approved the new building project for the School of Nursing.

Taubman Health Care Center Renovations

Two items involving a total of $20.5 million in renovations at the A. Alfred Taubman Health Care Center were on the agenda for approval at the March 15 meeting.

Regents were asked to authorize a $13 million project on the first and second floors of the center, which were vacated after the recent opening of clinics in the C. S. Mott Children’s and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospitals. The 35,000-square-feet of space will be used for a multidisciplinary transplant clinic, an outpatient non-cancer infusion center, and a same-day pre-op clinic. In addition, clinical services will be expanded for neurology, neurosurgery, otolaryngology, and radiology. The outpatient pharmacy also will be relocated and expanded into a shared retail space with MedEQUIP.

The architectural firm of Harley Ellis Devereaux has been hired to design the project, which is expected to be complete by the spring of 2013. The center is a four-story building located at 1500 East Medical Center Drive, on UM’s medical complex.

Regents were also asked to authorize $7.5 million in renovations of the center’s third floor, which houses outpatient clinics and administrative areas for the Internal Medicine department. The project will renovate 27,500-square-feet of clinical space for gastroenterology, pulmonary, renal, infectious diseases, rheumatology, medical genetics and general medicine.

Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, noted that both renovation projects were included in the university’s capital plan.

Outcome: In separate votes, regents authorized renovations to the Taubman Health Care Center. 

Athletic Facilities

Two action items were on the agenda that directly related to UM athletics: Renaming of the Crisler Arena, and a change in the budget for renovations at Yost Ice Arena.

Athletic Facilities: Crisler Renaming

Reflecting an upgrade to facilities, regents were asked to authorize changing the name of Crisler Arena to Crisler Center. UM’s chief financial officer, Tim Slottow, noted that the arena has become more of an all-purpose facility since it was built in 1967. It now includes the adjacent William Davidson player development center with practice courts for men’s and women’s basketball teams, locker rooms and offices, a club area, retail shops and other specialized spaces. The player development center had been renamed in honor of Davidson at the regents’ Feb. 16, 2012 meeting, following a $7.5 million donation from the William Davidson Foundation to the UM athletics department.

Outcome: Regents unanimously approved renaming Crisler Arena to Crisler Center.

Athletic Facilities: Yost Renovations

Regents were also asked to authorize a $2 million increase in the budget for renovations at Yost Ice Arena, with the additional funds to cover more detailed historic window replacements and higher-than-expected costs for steel and new bleachers. Yost is located at 1116 S. State St., in the university’s south/athletic campus.

The project’s original $14 million budget had been approved by regents at their June 2011 meeting, with a schematic design authorized in October 2011. In January 2012, regents authorized issuing bids and awarding construction contracts within the $14 million budget. At that time Slottow had indicated this request for an increased budget was in the offing, dependent on securing more donations for the project. Since then, the project received a donation of $400,000 from Don Graham. Athletic department reserves will cover the remaining increase, Slottow said.

The project includes replacing seating on the east, south and west sides of the rink, improving accessibility and emergency exits, converting the west side media balcony into a series of loge boxes, adding a new level five on the west side for media, and constructing new corner and stair platforms for additional seating. The project will be paid for out of athletic department revenues and donations, and has been designed by Rossetti Architects Inc. of Southfield, Mich. Renovation are expected to be finished by the fall of 2012.

Outcome: The increased budget for Yost Ice Arena renovations was unanimously approved.

Environmental Engineering Degree

Creation of a new undergraduate degree in environmental engineering was on the March 15 agenda. The bachelor of science degree, to be offered by the College of Engineering, would be available starting in the fall of 2012.

According to a staff memo, undergraduates who previously studied environmental engineering “were advised to earn a degree in civil engineering, given the structure of the job market for environmental engineers. However, the field has matured considerably and the employment options and employer criteria are more diverse today. The proposed degree will provide students interested in environmental engineering the opportunity to focus their coursework more deeply in the necessary natural sciences, such as chemistry and biology.”

Provost Phil Hanlon began describing the degree, but was interrupted by regent Kathy White, who participated in the meeting via speaker phone. She said it sounded like a great idea, and she moved the item for a vote.

Outcome: Regents unanimously approved the creation of a new undergraduate environmental engineering degree.

Conflict of Interest Items

Regents were asked to authorize 10 items that required disclosure under the state’s Conflict of Interest statute. The law requires that regents vote on potential conflict-of-interest disclosures related to university staff, faculty or students.

The items often involve technology licensing agreements, research agreements or leases. This month, companies involved are Avicenna Medical Systems Inc., Peacock Holdings, 3D Biomatrix LLC, Atterocor Inc., Brio Device LLC, Evigia Systems Inc., HistoSonics LLC, Michigan Aerospace Corp., Mozaic Solutions LLC, and Situmbra Inc.

Outcome: Without comment, regents approved the 10 conflict-of-interest disclosures in one vote.

Public Commentary

Ten people spoke during public commentary at the end of the March 15 meeting, covering four general topics: Expansion of the university’s child care subsidy being negotiated by the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO); minority enrollment and tuition equality for undocumented students; TEDxUofM; and honoring Willis Ward.

Public Commentary: Child Care Subsidiary

Four students spoke in support of an expanded child care subsidy, some of them with their children in tow. By way of background, childcare subsidies are available for eligible students in the following amounts: $2,250 for one child; $3,300 for two children; and $4,350 for three or more children. The subsidy will increase annually based on the annual average tuition increase at UM childcare centers. [.pdf of application for UM childcare subsidy]

Katherine Brion, a member of the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), spoke during public commentary in support of improvements to UM's childcare subsidy.

Katherine Brion, a graduate student and GEO member, told regents that she has three children ages 6, 3 and 1 – her youngest, whom she held while speaking, turned 1 that day. Brion said she was lucky, because her family can afford full-time childcare. To illustrate the need for childcare, she described a typical day of juggling her studies, work and family responsibilities.

The GEO has several concerns about the proposed changes to the childcare subsidy, Brion said, including the fact that the amount of the subsidy is too low and it doesn’t make allowances for unemployed spouses and other situations that affect eligibility. The university’s goal is to retain a diversity of students, she said. She urged regents and the administration to support a more inclusive policy for all students.

Daniel Birchok also spoke while holding his young daughter – he said she thanked them for the cookies and fruit. [A table with food and beverages was set up in the room.] He expressed concerns about the outcome of committee meetings between the GEO and administration regarding the childcare subsidy. In the GEO’s last contract, he noted, members agreed to a lower wage increase in exchange for setting aside $150,000 to address childcare needs. [The contract, ratified last spring, included a 2.5% wage increase instead of an originally proposed 3% increase for the 2011-12 academic year.]

Without the subsidy, Birchok said he’d have to cut his child’s daycare schedule in half, and would have to try to work on his studies while taking care of her. He’s concerned about his student colleagues who aren’t eligible – if their spouses work less than 20 hours per week, for example, or if their spouses’ visas prohibit achieving the subsidy’s work requirements. There’s also no provision for unemployed spouses who are looking for work, and in this difficult labor market, he said, that’s an issue.

Birchok noted that at a March 7 meeting of the childcare subsidy committee, a UM administrator had indicated that she doesn’t favor making any changes. He expressed dismay at her legalistic, bureaucratic response. The GEO made concessions in order to make changes, he said, and the university shouldn’t feel that it’s fulfilling its obligation simply by holding committee meetings on the issue. He advocated for increasing the subsidy and making it possible for more students to study at UM.

Samantha Montgomery introduced herself as president of the GEO. She noted that Gov. Rick Snyder had recently signed legislation that prohibits graduate student research assistants (GSRAs) from unionizing. [Snyder signed the bill on March 13, hours before the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) had been scheduled to meet to discuss the issue. An effort had been underway at UM to organize GSRAs, led by the GEO. For background, see Chronicle coverage: "GSRA Bill: UM Regents Debate Opposition"] Montgomery said that despite this attack on their collective bargaining rights, the GEO remains committed to improving the lives and working conditions of all employees.

Montgomery noted that the most recent GEO contract had focused on issues of parents, trying to improve the lives of students with children. The GEO had agreed to deal with outstanding issues – those that weren’t resolved in the contract – by forming a committee with representatives from both the GEO and the administration. Unfortunately, the committee hasn’t made much progress, she said, and the administration’s latest offer was disappointing. She asked the regents to support the GEO’s “reasonable counteroffer.” That counteroffer includes setting up a secondary subsidy based on the number of hours that a student’s spouse is unavailable for childcare. As an example, $2,000 would be the maximum proposed subsidy for a spouse who’s unavailable between 16-19 hours.

Patrick O’Mahen, a graduate student and member of the Central Student Government, said he wasn’t there to merely offer an opinion, but to offer concrete help. The CSG had recently passed Resolution 1742 “unanimously and enthusiastically,” he said. It allocates $35,000 in CSG revenue to help fund a childcare subsidy pilot program for the coming academic year. O’Mahen outlined several stipulations to the funding, including that the funds be used for direct grants to needy parents, and be used for all students, not just GEO members. He urged regents to support improvements in the childcare subsidy, and to make UM more family-friendly.

Public Commentary: Child Care Subsidiary – Regent Response

Regent Julia Darlow clarified with O’Mahen that he was making this request on behalf of the student government. She noted that it was not appropriate to interfere with collective bargaining talks. But since O’Mahen was representing a request that was separate from the GEO proposal, Darlow asked provost Phil Hanlon to provide regents with more information on the topic. Hanlon indicated that he would do that.

Public Commentary: Coalition for Tuition Equality, eRACism

Luz Meza spoke as a representative of the Coalition for Tuition Equality, but said she also fully supported the GEO and their efforts. As she began speaking, dozens of students stood in support of her remarks, many of them holding signs indicating their affiliation with various student organizations. [This action had also occurred at the Feb. 16, 2012 regents meeting for the same topic.]

Meza noted that last month, regents had heard from Daniel Alejandro Morales on the issue of tuition equality, and she was there to talk about the same thing. She thanked regents Julia Darlow and Kathy White for reaching out to the coalition.

Meza described her own high school experience in Detroit, and said she doesn’t see the diversity of her high school – where about 44% of students are black and 31% are Latinos – reflected at UM. She said she was able to afford college because she could get in-state tuition. She worked hard to get here, she said. She has friends who also worked hard but who can’t attend because of their immigration status. They would be forced to pay out-of-state tuition, and couldn’t afford it. She urged regents to support the campaign for tuition equality, so that she could return to Detroit, look people in the eye and tell them that UM is doing something to make a change.

Laura Washington spoke on behalf of a student-led campaign called eRACism. Racism still exists, she said. UM needs to create not just a more diverse campus, but also a more welcoming one. It’s a common misperception that we live in a post-racist society, she said, but in fact racism isn’t an historical issue. It’s still constantly shaping students’ experiences. Washington then read several statements from students who described their encounters with racism on campus.

Washington urged regents to support  the 1970 Black Action Movement goal of achieving 10% black student enrollment. Currently the percentage of black students at UM is 4.77%, and should be increased to 10% by 2016, she said. Secondly, eRACism is demanding that a course on inter-group relations be mandatory for all incoming freshman by 2014, to improve race relations and cultural sensitivity. Washington said that eRACism also supports the goals of the Coalition for Tuition Equality. She noted that everyone has a common goal of diversity and equal educational opportunities. “It is time we actually live up to that commitment,” she concluded.

Public Commentary: Coalition for Tuition Equality, eRACism – Regent Response

Regent Julia Darlow asked provost Phil Hanlon to give a full report on tuition equality in the context of undocumented students, saying she’s concerned about the issue. Regent Libby Maynard asked for information about how many current UM students are in that category and are paying out-of-state tuition.

Public Commentary: TEDxUM

Benjamin Mason, an undergraduate engineering student, is the executive director of 2012 TEDxUofM and was on hand to promote the March 29 event to be held at the Power Center, 121 Fletcher St. in Ann Arbor. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design, and the 18-minute lectures at its conferences – known as TED Talks – are focused on what organizers call “ideas worth spreading.” TEDx events are independently organized, with guidance from the original TED. It’s an invitation-only event – both speakers and the audience must apply to attend.

The first TEDxUofM was held two years ago, Mason noted, and drew about 300 people. Last year, the event’s theme was “Encouraging Crazy Ideas” – inspired by an August 2010 Forbes column written by UM president Mary Sue Coleman – and more than 1,800 people attended, with tens of thousands more watching online, he said. It was the largest TEDx event in North America, Mason said, and at the time it was the only one that was completely organized by students. [Talks from the previous TEDxUofM can be viewed here.]

This year’s theme is “Inform Transform,” Mason said, focusing on informing students and transforming their perceptions. He encouraged regents to participate.

Public Commentary: Willis Ward

Three people spoke about Willis Ward, an African-American who played football for UM in the early 1930s. [For background on Ward, see John U. Bacon's Chronicle column: "When Ward, Ford Played Ball for UM"]

Buddy Moorehouse introduced himself as a 1982 UM graduate and a co-writer of the recent documentary ”Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game.” [Link to documentary's trailer on YouTube] Moorehouse said he’d been a sports editor at the Michigan Daily, UM’s student newspaper, and thought he’d known everything about Michigan football. But until recently, he hadn’t known about Willis Ward. He described Ward’s experience on the team, including Ward’s friendship with teammate Jerry Ford and a controversial incident when UM’s head coach at the time, Fielding Yost, benched Ward in a game against Georgia Tech because of his race.

Regent Martin Taylor said he'd been a personal friend of Willis Ward, and supported finding a way to honor the former UM athlete.

Despite all that, Ward loved UM, Moorehouse said. Yet Ward hasn’t been honored because his story has been lost to time. This year would have been his 100th birthday, and it would be a good time for the university to figure out a way to recognize Ward, Moorehouse said. There is only one permanent memorial to a black athlete on UM’s campus – a plaque honoring Jesse Owens, mounted on a wall near the outdoor track. Owens set four world records at UM’s track in 1935, but there’s no memorial for Ward, who beat Owens twice.

Brian Kruger, a co-writer and co-producer of the documentary, picked up the commentary. He told regents that the documentary has been screened all over the country, including at Detroit public schools. His goal is to screen the film at every school in Michigan. Kruger also said he hoped the documentary could be viewed by UM students – it might be a tool to start discussions related to issues that had been raised earlier during public commentary, he said.

The last speaker was Genevieve Urbain, who told regents she was eight years old and a second grader from Brighton. She had watched the documentary about Ward and Ford. Urbain listed off several things that were named for others from that era, like the UM Ford School of Public Policy and Yost Ice Arena. She noted that Ward had beaten Jesse Owens – “an Ohio State drop-out” – yet Ward didn’t have anything named after him. She thought a building, street or monument should be named to honor him.

Urbain said her mother graduated from UM, and that she’d like to attend as well – she’d be in the UM freshman class of 2022. “Go Blue!” Urbain concluded, “and remember Willis Ward.”

Public Commentary: Willis Ward – Regents Respond

A DVD of the documentary was distributed to regents. Martin Tayler said Ward had been a personal friend and a fraternity brother, a golfer and a “great all-around athlete.” Ward had been proudest of beating Jesse Owens, Taylor said, and it does seem like something could be done to honor him.

Andy Richner agreed. Kathy White said she’d already watched the DVD and she encouraged others to watch it too. She also supported finding innovative ways to make the story meaningful for students at the university, as well as for schoolchildren in the state and nation.

Taylor asked whether there was consensus among board members to direct Sally Churchill – UM’s vice president and secretary, who serves as the administration’s liaison to the regents – to take action. He proposed that Churchill talk with athletic director Dave Brandon to come up with recommendations about how to appropriately honor Ward. Other regents concurred.

Present: Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio), Julia Darlow, Larry Deitch, Denise Ilitch, Olivia (Libby) Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andy Richner, Martin Taylor, Kathy White (via speaker phone).

Next board meeting: Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 3 p.m. at the Fleming administration building on UM’s central campus. [confirm date]

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According to a staff memo, the arena has become more of an all-purpose facility since it was built in 1967. It now includes the adjacent William Davidson player development center with practice courts for men’s and women’s basketball teams, locker rooms and offices and other specialized spaces. The player development center had been renamed in honor of Davidson at the regents’ Feb. 16, 2012 meeting, following a $7.5 million donation from the William Davidson Foundation to the University of Michigan athletics department.

This brief was filed from the Michigan Union’s Pendleton Room on UM’s Ann Arbor campus, where regents held their March meeting. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

The project is adding about 63,000 square feet of new construction. The renovation includes building new spectator entrances, retail spaces, ticketing areas and a private club space. In addition, roughly 54,000 square feet would be renovated to accommodate accessible seats, increase the number of restrooms and concession areas, and add other fan amenities. Construction is expected to be finished by the winter of 2014.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the Fleming administration building, on UM’s Ann Arbor campus. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman before the start of the May 19, 2011 regents meeting, which was held at the Fairlane Center on UM's Dearborn campus. (Photos by the writer.)

The issue was a resolution introduced at the start of Thursday’s meeting – an item not originally on the agenda – to support the rights of graduate student research assistants to decide whether to organize and be represented by a labor union. Before the vote, Coleman spoke out against the move, describing the relationship between graduate researchers and faculty as a special one that was fundamentally different than an employee-employer relationship. Changing the nature of that interaction could affect the university in significant ways, which she said caused her deep concern. The board’s two Republican regents – Andrew Richner and Andrea Fischer Newman – also objected to the resolution, both criticizing the fact that it had been introduced at the last minute without time for adequate discussion.

The resolution passed on a 6-2 vote, with Richner and Newman dissenting. It was notable in part because, with the exception of votes regarding tuition increases, nearly all votes by the board are unanimous, and in accord with the administration’s recommendations.

The meeting also included a variety of other action items, but none that spurred commentary by regents. They voted to increase room and board rates for 2011-12 by 3%, approved the schematic design for a $52 million expansion of Crisler Arena, and authorized the tenure or promotion of 169 faculty members on the Ann Arbor campus.

Regents also authorized creation of the Institute for Health Care Policy & Innovation, a new venture to be housed at renovated space in the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) – a $13.7 million renovation project that regents also authorized at the meeting. Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, executive vice president for medical affairs, said the institute will be the largest co-located group of health care researchers anywhere in the world.

In other action related to the NCRC, regents approved agreements – among a collection of 17 conflict-of-interest disclosures – with six start-ups that will lease space in the former Pfizer site, as part of the university’s Venture Accelerator program.

And in another item added to the agenda during the meeting, regents voted to approve the hiring of Lisa Rudgers as UM’s new vice president for global communications and strategic initiatives, effective June 1 with a salary of $270,000.

The board also got an update from Sue Scarnecchia, UM’s vice president and general counsel, on the Compliance Resource Center – a new website that coordinates various compliance efforts at the university.

At the end of the meeting, philosophy professor Carl Cohen spoke during public commentary, passionately urging regents to intercede in the renovation of East Quad in order to prevent the Residential College from being pushed into smaller, inadequate space. The RC is a living-learning program that Cohen helped start in the 1960s, and that’s housed at East Quad. If regents did nothing, he said, “your Residential College will atrophy and fade away.”

Resolution of Support for GSRA Right to Organize

In a move that one regent called unprecedented, regents voted 6-2 to support the rights of graduate student research assistants to decide whether to organize and be represented by a labor union.

The resolution was introduced near the beginning of the meeting by Julia Darlow, the board’s chair. It states:

Consistent with the University of Michigan’s proud history of strong positive and mutually productive labor relations, the Board of Regents supports the rights of university Graduate Student Research Assistants, whom we recognize as employees, to determine for themselves whether they choose to organize.

UM president Mary Sue Coleman spoke against the resolution in a statement she read aloud prior to the vote. [.pdf file of Coleman's full statement]

Coleman told regents that she feels passionate about the issue personally, and is deeply concerned about it on an institutional level. She sees research assistants as students, not employees. This opinion has been formed from her past experience as a graduate student researcher, she said, as well as her work as a faculty researcher and mentor to graduate student researchers. If GSRAs choose to organize, it would fundamentally change the relationship between the GSRAs and faculty, she said. This relationship is key to recruiting both faculty and graduate students, she added.

Further, a student’s performance as a research assistant is indistinguishable from their progress as a graduate student, she said. They aren’t evaluated as employees – they’re measured in terms of their progress toward completing their degree.

Coleman noted that the funding for these positions is not a work-for-hire approach. Faculty raise funds to support the graduate student’s total education – including their apprenticeship in the lab or in other research-based academic settings, she said. “This has been an extraordinarily effective strategy for more than 60 years, and it is a model used by every major research institution in the country.”

It’s been a long-standing university policy that graduate student research assistants receive pay and benefit increases that are comparable to increases received by graduate student instructors (GSIs), Coleman said, so that GSRAs are not at a disadvantage. [GSIs are represented by the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) union. The GEO has been lobbying for GSRAs to have the right to negotiate terms of their employment.]

Coleman concluded by saying the university has enjoyed excellent relationships with the unions that represent some of its employees, and she expected that positive working relationship would continue. If regents adopted this resolution, the administration would abide by the applicable election procedures and work to ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote can make a full and fair evaluation of the issue, she said.

Coleman said she appreciated the board’s concern for students as well as for UM’s academic quality. “We have worked through many vexing issues together, and although there is disagreement over this issue, I know we share an unwavering commitment to this great university.”

Resolution of Support for GSRAs: Regents Response

Regent Larry Deitch said he didn’t have an opinion about whether GSRAs should organize or not, but he was confident that they are employees, and as such they have collective bargaining rights. If they organize, that’s their choice, he said. It’s also the right of the university administration to reject any contract that doesn’t protect the qualities that Coleman had articulated, he said.

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman spoke against a resolution that recognized the rights of UM's graduate student research assistants to organize.

Regents Andrew Richner and Andrea Fischer Newman – the only Republicans on the board – both spoke out against the resolution. Both expressed dismay that they’d only received notice of the resolution shortly before the meeting.

Richner called the decision to act against the advice of the president unprecedented. He pressed Darlow to answer questions about who would define the group of GSRAs for the purpose of determining the bargaining unit. Darlow responded by saying that the term “graduate student research assistant” is defined in UM’s faculty handbook, and that there is already a process in place for determining how to define the bargaining unit. It’s premature to state who would be part of that, she said – that will be worked out later.

Richner asked whether Darlow would agree that the president can define that class of employees. Certainly not, Darlow responded. As Richner asked another question, Darlow said she didn’t feel it was appropriate to go into details about how this will be implemented. The board does not dictate the actions of the president, she said – they articulate policy.

Richner said it seemed then that Coleman would have some freedom to negotiate the makeup of the bargaining unit. Darlow said she’d already responded to that statement. Will the president, deans and others have the power to educate the campus about their views on this resolution and how it might impact the university? Richner asked. Darlow replied that everyone on the board was committed to the principle of academic freedom.

Richner then asked what Coleman was supposed to do with this policy. What if she determines that the law provides that graduate student research assistants aren’t employees? At this point, Darlow – clearly exasperated – told Richner that if he wanted to comment about the resolution, he should make a statement rather than try to use her as a vehicle to make his points.

Richner said there were a lot of questions about this resolution, and he didn’t feel they had a clear understanding of the issue. It’s one of the most important votes they’ve taken since he’s been on the board, he said, and he was disappointed that regents didn’t have the opportunity to discuss it – they’ve spent more time discussing issues of far less importance, he noted. He felt it would have a negative impact on the university’s reputation and on its ability to recruit faculty and students, and that there will be negative consequences to academic freedom.

Newman also objected to the resolution. She’d just seen it about 20 minutes before walking into the room, she said, though she understood that others on the board had known about it before then. She wished they’d had an opportunity to talk to people who would be impacted by this vote. She noted that she’d had experience working with unions both through her job and as a regent.[Newman is senior vice president-government affairs for Delta Airlines.] But the relationship between a GRSA and a faculty member is not an employee/employer relationship – it’s learning-centered, she said, and the university’s reputation hinges on that. They’ve worked hard to keep UM strong in the wake of competition, and this change would be harmful.

It was a rare occurrence when the majority of the board had such a fundamental disagreement with the administration, Newman said, adding that she found it deeply troubling. GSRAs should not be considered employees, she said, and she opposed the resolution.

A voice vote was taken without further discussion.

Outcome: By a 6-2 vote, regents approved the resolution, with regents Newman and Richner dissenting. Deitch left the meeting immediately following the vote.

Room & Board Rates for 2011-12

Regents were asked to increase residence hall rates at the Ann Arbor campus by 3% this fall. The rate increase for Northwood Community Apartments – housing primarily for graduate students and families on UM’s north campus in Ann Arbor – is 1% for the 2011-12 academic year. [.pdf of proposed rate increases]

Chart showing University of Michigan room & board rates for 2011-12. (Links to larger image)

Normally, the topic of room and board rates falls under the purview of the vice president of student affairs, Royster Harper. But Harper was out of the country, so provost Phil Hanlon made a few remarks before the regents’ vote. He noted that significant improvements to UM’s residence halls have been made over the past several years, with strong support from regents. Capital investments require a very careful balance between providing the best possible facilities for students, he said, while maintaining reasonable housing rates.

Hanlon said the rate increases reflect an anticipated increase of $2.6 million in expenses related to employee costs, food supplies and other items, but that the University Housing staff was able to reduce operating expenses in other areas by about $1.7 million for fiscal 2012, which begins July 1, 2011. He indicted that effort allowed the rate increases to be lower than they might otherwise be.

A staff memo accompanying the proposal indicates that the 3% increase for residence halls is divided into two components: 1% for increased operating costs; and 2% for residence hall renovations. Room and board costs for a single residence hall room would increase from $10,970 to $11,300. A double would increase from $9,192 to $9,468.

In April, Eastern Michigan University’s board of regents approved an aggregate 2.15% room and board increase, and a 3% increase for university apartments. A list of housing rate increases at peer institutions was provided as part of the regents meeting packet. At the top end is Duke University, with a 5.9% increase. A 5.1% increase is slated for Michigan State. Among other Big Ten universities, UM is at the low end of rate increases – only Purdue University has a lower rate increase, at 2%. However, UM’s room and board costs are among the highest in that group – only Northwestern and Purdue cost more. [.pdf file of comparison housing rates]

Regents had no comment on this item.

Outcome: The board unanimously approved increases in room and board rates for the Ann Arbor campus in 2011-12. They separately voted to approve a 2.9% increase for residence halls on UM’s Flint campus.

New Communications VP Appointed

In an item that wasn’t on the original agenda, regents approved the appointment of Lisa Rudgers as vice president for global communications and strategic initiatives. Her appointment takes effect June 1, with a salary of $270,000. She replaces UM’s previous vice president of communications, David Lampe, who stepped down from that job earlier this year. He now serves as executive director of research communication in the office of UM’s vice president for research.

Rudgers was the university’s vice president for communications from 2000-2007. She left the university to start her own consulting firm – Lisa Rudgers & Associates – where she worked for other institutions, including Eastern Michigan University. A 2007 article in The Ann Arbor News reports that EMU paid Rudgers $37,000 for media consulting services, providing advice on releasing a report and communicating with the media after a probe into the December 2006 death of EMU student Laura Dickinson.

In 2009, Rudgers returned to UM on a part-time basis as special counsel for communications in UM’s Law School.

In her new role, Rudgers’ responsibilities include developing the university’s communications strategy and overseeing the Freedom of Information office, Michigan marketing and design, public affairs, internal communications, Michigan public media, presidential communications, the film office and the news service. She will be a member of the senior management team and will advise deans, directors, executive officers and the president regarding communications, according to a statement issued by the university.

Crisler Expansion

At Thursday’s meeting, the board was asked to approve the schematic design for a $52 million Crisler Arena expansion project. The board had given its initial approval of the project at its January 2011 meeting, and had selected TMP Architecture and Sink Combs Dethlefs as the architects. Regents had also previously approved – at their October 2010 meeting – a renovation of the arena’s infrastructure and a replacement of seating to a capacity of 12,800.

Don Dethlefs, CEO of Sink Combs Dethlefs, was on hand to give a brief description of the project – his Denver-based firm specializes in sports projects. The expansion will add about 63,000 square feet of new construction, and includes building new spectator entrances, retail spaces, concession areas, ticketing counters and a private club space. In addition, roughly 54,000 square feet would be renovated to accommodate accessible seats, increase the number of restrooms and concession areas, and add other fan amenities. Dethlefs said a new colonnade will for the first time mask the arena’s service functions, such as its loading dock and trash area.

Dethlefs described the addition as essentially enveloping the current structure. The concourse level will include significantly more restrooms for women, and a roof deck accessible to fans, with a view to the east. One of the new entries will allow access to the southwest, convenient for people who park at the Pioneer High School lot, he said. Glass entries will make the building seem like it’s glowing at night when events take place there, he said, and allow for natural lighting in the day to reduce energy costs.

Construction is expected to be finished by the winter of 2014.

Outcome: Regents unanimously approved the schematic design for Crisler Arena’s expansion.

Institute for Health Care Policy & Innovation

On Thursday, regents approved the Institute for Health Care Policy & Innovation, a new venture to be housed at renovated space in the North Campus Research Complex – a $13.7 million renovation project that regents also authorized at their May 19 meeting. Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, executive vice president for medical affairs, told regents the institute will be the largest co-located group of health care researchers anywhere in the world.

The institute will be part of UM’s Medical School, and bring together researchers who are studying a range of topics related to health care services, including insurance design and preventative care. The hope is that housing researchers in close proximity will spur additional innovation and collaboration. It’s expected that researchers from other parts of the university – including the colleges of engineering and pharmacy, and the schools of nursing, public policy, public health and dentistry – will eventually become part of the institute.

A national search for the institute’s director will begin soon. That person will be appointed by the president and will report to the dean of the Medical School. The president will also appoint an executive committee to help oversee the institute.

As part of this effort, regents approved a $13.7 million renovation project at the NCRC – the former Pfizer site. The project entails renovating 120,000 square feet in Building 16. Five floors, three conference rooms and a fitness center will be renovated as part of the project.

About 100 researchers who’ll likely join the institute are already working at NCRC, in different locations on the site. Eventually, more than 500 researchers could be part of the venture.

SmithGroup will serve as architect for the project, which is expected to be completed in the spring of 2012.

Outcome: In separate unanimous votes, regents approved both the creation of the institute and the NCRC renovation project.

Tenure and Promotion Approvals

Regents were asked to authorize tenure or promotion cases for UM faculty in the Ann Arbor campus, presented by provost Phil Hanlon and Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, executive vice president for medical affairs.

Hanlon began by saying the university’s preeminence rests in large part on the quality of its faculty. Decisions that they make regarding tenure and promotions will shape the future of the institution, he said – they take the process very seriously. Of the 233 cases that were reviewed, 169 were accepted.

Hanlon recalled that when former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had given a lecture earlier this year on campus, she’d been asked which role she preferred – secretary of state, or faculty member at Stanford. He said she responded by saying she most preferred being provost, because it allowed her to see into the future of knowledge being developed, as she reviewed the work of faculty who were up for tenure and promotion. Hanlon and Pescovitz agreed that it was a highlight of their jobs, too.

Hanlon and Pescovitz each highlighted three examples of exemplary faculty, reading descriptions of the accomplishments that each person had achieved. The faculty who were highlighted include: Anthony Grbic of the College of Engineering; Laura Kay Kasischke in the College of Literature, Science & the Arts; Tiya A. Miles in the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies; Gary Hammer in the Medical School’s department of internal medicine; Celina G. Kleer in the Medical School’s department of pathology; and Alexandra Minna Stern in the Medical School’s department of obstetrics and gynecology.

Outcome: Regents approved the recommendations for faculty tenure and promotions.

Infrastructure Projects

In addition to Crisler Arena and NCRC renovations, regents approved other infrastructure-related projects at their May 19 meeting.

Infrastructure Projects: Beal Avenue Water Main

A $2.2 million water main project on Beal Avenue involves a 60-year-old, 12-inch water main, which serves all university buildings along Beal Avenue between Hayward Street and Bonisteel Boulevard, on UM’s north campus. Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, often jokes about the exciting nature of these infrastructure upgrades, and this meeting was no exception.

According to a staff report, recent breaks have reduced water service reliability, and buildings in the area have experienced water infiltration from flooding. A recent study recommended that installing a storm relief sewer is the best way to reduce the surface flooding. UM’s Department of Architecture, Engineering and Construction will collaborate with Hubbell, Roth & Clark Inc. to design the project. Construction is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2012.

Outcome: Regents unanimously approved the Beal Avenue water main project.

Infrastructure Projects: University Hospital

Two projects for the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers’ University Hospital – totaling $9.7 million – were on the agenda.

A $4.8 million project to improve access to the hospital’s computed tomography angiography (CTA) technology includes renovating two radiology rooms to house a new CTA scanner system. The architectural firm Integrated Design Solutions will design the project, which is expected to be complete by the fall of 2011.

In addition, regents approved $4.9 million to replace an existing CT simulator with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, and to renovate roughly 1,800 square feet in the hospital to accommodate the new MRI. The architectural firm Project and Design Management LLC will design the project, which is scheduled for completion in the winter of 2012.

Outcome: Regents unanimously approved the two University Hospital projects.

Building Named for Gorguze

Regents were asked to authorize naming the College of Engineering’s Engineering Programs Building as the Gorguze Family Laboratory. Vincent T. and Gloria M. Gorguze donated $5 million to fund an expansion of the building, located on UM’s north campus.

Vincent Gorguze received a bachelor’s degree from UM in metallurgical engineering in 1941. He worked for Ford Motor Co. and Curtiss-Wright Corp. before joining Emerson Electric in 1962, eventually becoming president and chief operating officer. Gorguze is now co-founder and chairman of Cameron Holdings Corp., which specializes in acquiring and operating manufacturing, industrial services and distribution companies.

Outcome: Regents approved renaming the Engineer Programs building as the Gorguze Family Laboratory.

Wolfson Endowment

Regents were asked to approve a variety of uses for $419,000 in estimated income from the Julian A. Wolfson and the Marguerite Wolfson Endowment Funds, which support the UM law school faculty. The uses include paying for faculty to attend professional meetings, equipping faculty offices, and sponsoring the Wolfson Scholar-in-Residence program, among other things.

Regents also approved continued use of the Wolfson reserves – unspent endowment income accumulated from prior years – as recommended by the law faculty for emergency and housing loans to the faculty.

Outcome: Regents unanimously approved items related to the Wolfson endowment funds.

Conflict-of-Interest Disclosures

On Thursday’s agenda were 17 items that required disclosure under the state’s Conflict of Interest statute. The law requires that regents vote on potential conflict-of-interest disclosures related to university staff, faculty or students. Often, the items involve technology licensing agreements or leases.

This month, the items included seven lease agreements, 11 licensing agreements and three research agreements with various companies, including several based in Ann Arbor.

Six of the agreements relate to start-ups that will lease space in the university’s Venture Accelerator program, located in Building 26 at the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) – the former Pfizer site on Plymouth Road. The highest-profile among those was a three-year lease agreement with Lycera Corp., which is planning to occupy 14,134 square feet of laboratory and office space. The item had been withdrawn from the regents’ April 2011 agenda because the deal hadn’t been finalized in time for the meeting. It was not on the original May 19 agenda, but was added at the meeting as a supplemental agenda item. Lycera is a start-up that’s developing treatments for autoimmune diseases like psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The lease would begin during the summer of 2011, with Lycera paying a monthly rate of $42,083.33 and 3% annual increases. The lease is a full service gross lease – all costs are covered by the monthly rent. In addition, Lycera will enter into an animal services agreement during the lease, paying standard rates for UM’s regulatory oversight of research animals for no more than $500,000 annually.

The disclosure was triggered because three UM employees also own stock in Lycera. They are David Canter, executive director of the NCRC; Lycera co-founder and UM professor Gary Glick, who also serves as the company’s chief scientific officer; and associate professor Anthony Opipari, a Lycera co-founder who serves on the firm’s scientific advisory board.

Other start-ups leasing space at NCRC that were approved by regents include Advanced Battery Control, Chemxlerate, Edington Associates, JBR Pharma Inc., and Reveal Design Automation Inc.

The remaining conflict-of-interest disclosures related to the following entities: 1250 N. Main LLC, BHJ Tech Inc., Arbor Research Collaborative for Health, Baker-Calling Inc., LectureTools Inc., Possibilities for Change LLC, SenSigma Inc., and Vortex Hydro Energy.

Outcome: Without discussion, regents unanimously authorized all 17 conflict-of-interest disclosures.

Presentations: Compliance Website, MSA Report

In addition to a presentation related to business education at UM’s Dearborn campus, regents heard two other reports, regarding: (1) a new compliance website; and (2) the Michigan Student Assembly.

Presentations: Compliance Website

Sue Scarnecchia, UM’s vice president and general counsel, gave an overview of a new website that coordinates various compliance efforts at the university. The Compliance Resource Center has been developed over the past 18 months, Scarnecchia said – a process that included interviews with over 100 individuals and many campus groups. She introduced two staff members – Fiona Linn, compliance project manager, and Kris Snook, senior paralegal and compliance coordinator – who took the lead on that effort.

Sue Scarnecchia, UM's vice president and general counsel, gave a presentation about a new website that coordinates the university's various compliance efforts.

They also looked at the approaches taken by more than two dozen other universities, Scarnecchia said, and found two basic models: (1) a centralized compliance office; or (2) a decentralized approach, with compliance efforts handled by individual units. They didn’t think either model would work for UM, so they created their own, she said.

They didn’t want to create a duplicative process or add employees, so they decided to develop a website that coordinates existing compliance offices campuswide, she said. In addition, a compliance coordinator position was created – that job is held by Snook. The website is intended to respond to queries from outside entities or the regents, if questions arise about compliance issues. It also is designed to help people who are new to the university or to their roles, guiding them through compliance processes and providing resources.

The site allows users to browse by topic – such as athletics, health care or tax/financial – or by activity or operation. It also provides compliance overviews related to specific roles – faculty, staff, researchers or managers. There are mechanisms on the site to report concerns or ask questions, and a guide to “acting ethically.”

The site launched in March, and has had 3,500 unique visitors and about 13,000 page views since then, Scarnecchia said. Other universities have also started to ask if they can copy UM’s site design, she said.

Presentations: MSA Report

DeAndree Watson, president of the Michigan Student Assembly – the university’s student governing group – gave regents an update on MSA’s efforts to promote student activism, including an effort to boost recycling and composting on campus. He also noted that high school students at the University Academy, a Detroit charter school, have decided to model their student government bylaws and constitution based on MSA documents. Students from the school were coming to campus the following day to meet with him and other MSA leaders, he said. [.pdf file of MSA report]

Public Commentary

Carl Cohen was the only speaker during the meeting’s two opportunities for public commentary.

Cohen, a UM philosophy professor at the Residential College, outlined the history of the RC, a living-learning community located within the East Quad dorm. He noted that he was one of the faculty who designed the program, which opened in 1967.

UM philosophy professor Carl Cohen advocated for design changes in the upcoming East Quad renovations, to better accommodate the Residential College program.

Cohen said the RC does what’s now being praised at the new North Quad: “We integrate the residential circumstances of undergraduates with their university studies.” When the college celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2007, more than 10% of graduates returned for the event – normally, such reunions only bring about a half percent, he said. What’s more, “our students have been more than loyal – they have excelled,” he said.

East Quad is about 70 years old, and will soon get a “badly needed” renovation, Cohen said. The RC, which he said will be exiled for the 2012-13 academic year, recently was shown plans for where the program will be located after the renovation. “Present plans are a total disaster,” he said. Spaces that have been used by the RC will be returned to university housing, and instead the program will be given less space in undesirable locations – including windowless cubicles for faculty in the basement, and classrooms and small offices that are “jammed on top of one another.”

“In this cramped and profoundly unsatisfying setting we simply cannot survive,” he said. Senior faculty won’t come, he added, nor will undergraduates be attracted to it.

Cohen urged regents to intervene and ensure that adequate space is provided to the Residential College in the renovated East Quad. He said he knew how passionate regents have been in supporting undergraduate education. “You have an opportunity to manifest that support,” he said. “You can make your pleasure known – you can save the college of which we have all been so proud. But if you do nothing, the planned deployment of spaces will go forward, and your Residential College will atrophy and fade away.”

Present: Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio), Julia Darlow, Larry Deitch, Denise Ilitch, Olivia (Libby) Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew Richner, Kathy White. Martin Taylor participated by speaker phone. Deitch left the meeting following the vote on the GSRA resolution.

Next board meeting: Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 3 p.m. at the Fleming Administration Building, 503 Thompson St., Ann Arbor. [confirm date]

This $52 million project will add about 63,000 square feet of new construction. The renovation includes building new spectator entrances, retail spaces, ticketing areas and a private club space. In addition, roughly 54,000 square feet would be renovated to accommodate accessible seats, increase the number of restrooms and concession areas, and add other fan amenities. Construction is expected to be finished by the winter of 2014.

This brief was filed from the regents meeting at the Fairlane Center on UM’s Dearborn campus. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

Stephen Forrest, left, talks with David Lampe before the start of the Jan. 19, 2011 University of Michigan board of regents meeting. Forrest, UM's vice president for research, gave a presentation on the university's research efforts. Lampe is vice president for communications. (Photos by the writer.)

Stephen Forrest, UM’s vice president for research and chair of the board for economic development agency Ann Arbor SPARK, described the concept of an “innovation pipeline,” with the input of funding and ideas yielding an output of jobs, prosperity and expanded opportunities for faculty and students. The process has leaks and clogs, he noted, but the university has strategically applied patches – citing as an example the Venture Accelerator program that launched this month.

And Jim Baker, director of the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences, was on hand to embody the efforts of faculty who successfully translate research into economic development. Baker’s talk focused on the rewards of creating new businesses – he observed that one reason why students come to UM is to enhance their economic prospects and improve their lives. Baker talked about the importance of keeping those graduates in Michigan to aid in the state’s economic recovery – and doing that requires jobs. He noted that the four companies he has helped launch in Ann Arbor have brought in $160 million in investments and created 45 new jobs so far.

Regents took action on several items during the meeting, including approval of two projects related to the athletics department: A $52 million renovation and expansion of Crisler Arena – the second phase of a major overhaul of that facility, which was built in 1968; and a $20 million project to install video scoreboards at Michigan Stadium, Crisler Arena and Yost Ice Arena. David Brandon, UM’s athletic director, made a brief appearance at the meeting but did not address the regents publicly. And this month’s biggest athletic-related news at UM – that Brady Hoke was hired as head football coach – received only a mention as part of president Mary Sue Coleman’s opening remarks. He did not attend the meeting.

Seven people spoke during public commentary on a variety of topics. Among them were: (1) a call to reassess Fuller Road Station, a proposed parking structure and possible train station near UM’s medical campus; ( 2) questions about the medical leave of Ken Magee, executive director of UM’s Department of Public Safety (DPS); (3) thanks from the leader of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival for the university’s support of that annual event; (4) criticism of the use of live animals to train survival flight nurses; and (5) a plea for financial support for The Loyal Opposition to the Status Quo (LOSQ), a nonprofit launched to address disparities between African-Americans and Caucasians.

President’s Opening Remarks

Mary Sue Coleman began by saying she was honored to have been in the state capitol the previous night to attend Gov. Rick Snyder’s State of the State address. He delivered a powerful vision for the state and its return to prominence, she said, and public universities will play a role in that rejuvenation. The state is facing serious economic challenges, and “as a university, we are ready to do our part” for Michigan’s recovery, Coleman said. She noted that they were also awaiting word on the state budget, which will include appropriations for Michigan’s public universities.

A strong spirit of enthusiasm and optimism isn’t limited to Lansing, Coleman said. She welcomed Brady Hoke as UM’s new football coach, and thanked the campus community for making him feel welcome. They all sense his deep affection for the university, she said, and they’re looking forward to the 2011 season.

University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman, left, talks with Nancy Asin, assistant secretary of the university, before the start of Thursday's regents meeting.

Coleman then highlighted several honors recently bestowed on people connected with the university. Nine faculty members had recently been named as fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a prestigious honor. Allen Kim, a UM engineering student, was named College Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneur magazine. He was recognized for his startup Bebarang, a baby clothes rental service. Of the five finalists for that award, two were from UM, which Coleman said speaks volumes for how the university is embracing the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Two new university building projects received architectural awards, Coleman noted: (1) the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) was given the 2011 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award for Architecture, one of the top honors in that field; and (2) the newly expanded Michigan Stadium was given a Best of the Best Award by McGraw-Hill Construction. Each building provides entertainment and inspiration, Coleman said, adding that it’s wonderful to see recognition for the extensive work that’s gone into them.

University Research & Economic Development

The meeting’s main presentation – by Stephen Forrest and Jim Baker – focused on the university’s research efforts. Forrest is UM’s vice president for research; Baker is a faculty member who wears many hats, including as director of the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences and co-founder of several technology firms.

Forrest began with a bit of historical context, noting that the regents had passed a resolution in 1996 that supports a strong technology transfer program as an “integral component” of the university’s overall mission. The statement of support had far-reaching implications, he said – it seems passive, but a lot of activity has flowed from that.

Rick Snyder, who helped launch the economic development agency Ann Arbor SPARK, and Mike Finney, who served as its president, have recently risen to positions of extreme importance statewide, Forrest noted – Snyder as governor, and Finney as head of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., an appointment made by Snyder. Snyder and Finney both expect universities to participate in the state’s recovery, he said – and “that’s not a passive expectation.” They expect action. But UM can’t be “green” in a brown field, Forrest said. If the state overall isn’t prosperous, the university won’t be able to attract the students and faculty they need.

Graphic of an "Innovation Pipeline." (Links to larger image)

The old model of a university as an ivory tower is outdated – now, UM bleeds out into the city and beyond, making it a “rather blurry-edged university,” he said. Partnerships with other organizations – including government entities, universities, industry and international institutions – create a university that’s connected, he said.

Forrest showed a Rube Goldberg-esque graphic of an “innovation pipeline” to illustrate the dynamic nature of the research process, and obstacles potentially blocking that process – he observed, for example, that university culture can act like a wad of hair or steel wool in the pipeline. The goal is to identify leaks, breaks and blockages, and patch them, he said. The outcome is jobs and prosperity.

One of those patches recently hit the news, Forrest said: UM’s Venture Accelerator, a new business incubator that opened earlier this month at the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC), the former Pfizer site. About 500 people attended the grand opening, he said, and most of them were from outside the university.

Though they’ve been talking about a business incubator for more than a decade, it was the regents’ decision to buy the Pfizer site that “flipped a switch” to make it happen, he said.

Saying that if they aspire to be the best, they’d better know where they stand now, Forrest showed a chart comparing UM to peer institutions in three research metrics: Licensing agreements, number of start-ups using university technology, and revenues from intellectual property – for example, from royalties on licensed research or from an equity stake in a company.

Chart showing research metrics at various universities. (Image links to higher resolution file.)

Agreements are important because they show what’s at the beginning of the pipeline, Forrest said. He also cautioned that revenues can be “bursty,” reflecting perhaps just one technology that “hits” for a particular period. Overall, UM is in the top tier, he observed, “but we’re definitely not at the top.”

At UM, revenues from technology transfer approached $40 million in fiscal 2010, which Forrest attributed in large part to one-time revenues from the licensing agreement for FluMist, which was developed at the university. This year, that figure will likely be significantly lower.

Forrest then announced the recipients of the 2011 Distinguished University Innovator Award: Ken Wise and Khalil Najafi, who are both faculty focused on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. They’ve spurred their students to start many companies based on academic research, Forrest said, making UM “the center of the MEMS world, which is a big world.”

Forrest concluded his remarks by saying there’s urgency to take advantage of the current climate. Because of changes in Lansing, the Ann Arbor SPARK model will be rolled out across the state, he said. [Forrest serves as chair of SPARK's board of directors.] He appealed to the regents to be patient, saying there is no quick fix or single action that will improve the innovation pipeline, “but I think we’re well on our way.”

Jim Baker focused his part of the presentation on the rewards of creating new businesses. Students come to UM to improve their lives, he said – and part of that includes enhancing their economic prospects. He reported taking his daughter on a university admissions tour, and observed that many parents looked distressed – most of their questions during a Q&A related to financial aid, he said. They want a better life for their children – for the university, he said, “this mission can’t be ignored.”

UM has a heritage of providing opportunities that aren’t available elsewhere, Baker continued. As an example, he noted that he graduated from Williams College in 1975 – the first year that the institution admitted female students. [UM admitted its first female student in 1870.]

Current challenges make this role of economic enhancement crucial, he argued. There’s a widening economic disparity, especially in Michigan. Our future is knowledge-based, he said, and most wealth creation will be due to new businesses. That was part of the governor’s message in his State of the State address, Baker said.

Baker acknowledged that universities don’t create jobs, but said that their actions can support job creation. They need to change their culture in order to help entrepreneurs thrive, and to keep them from leaving Michigan. Baker noted that he’s CEO of NanoBio, a company he co-founded. He’s not CEO by choice, he added, but rather because it’s difficult to recruit someone to take that job.

He asked, rhetorically, whether it’s possible to change their culture in this way while still maintaining UM’s high academic standards. Yes, he said – and doing so will put more emphasis on translating basic research into marketable applications, provide for a broader range of research activities, and bring in support from a wider variety of sources.

The four companies that Baker has helped launch – NanoBio, Avidimer Therapeutics, PhotonAffinity, and BioPartners LLC – have brought in $160 million in investments, including $30 million in the past 18 months, he said, creating 45 new jobs.

Baker concluded by saying that he hoped these companies could serve as examples to students, showing them how to improve their own lives, “and more importantly, keep their lives here in Michigan.”

After his presentation, regent Larry Deitch told Baker they were honored to have him as part of the university community. Deitch asked what they could do better – in what ways is the university not supporting faculty who are brilliant researchers and would-be entrepreneurs?

Baker replied that they often talk about needing money or lab space, but the most important thing is people. Every year, the university brings 6,000 of the most remarkable kids in the country to UM, he said. The university needs to find a way to keep them here. If students graduate and stay in Michigan rather than leave for jobs in Chicago or the coasts, it would transform Michigan’s culture, he contended. Graduates need to know that there’s an opportunity here to make their mark.

Capital Projects: Crisler Arena, Scoreboards, Tunnels

Regents approved several building-related projects at their Jan. 20 meeting, including two items that weren’t on the original agenda: A $52 million second phase of renovations at Crisler Arena, and a $20 million project to add video scoreboards at Crisler, Michigan Stadium and Yost Ice Arena. In introducing the items at the table, UM chief financial officer Tim Slottow cited the tight timetable the projects are under as a reason for being added at the last minute. UM president Mary Sue Coleman added that this wasn’t their preferred method of handling it, but said that in this case, it was necessary.

Tim Slottow, UM's chief financial officer.

Crisler Arena Renovations

Regents unanimously approved a $52 million renovation and expansion of Crisler Arena – the second phase of a major overhaul of that facility, which was built in 1968. The new construction will add about 63,000 square feet for new retail spaces, spectator entrances, ticketing areas and a private club space. About 54,000 square feet will be renovated to improve Americans with Disability Act accessibility, and increase the number of restrooms and concession stands, among other things.

Regents also approved TMP Architecture of Bloomfield Hills, working with Denver-based Sink Combs Dethlefs, to design the project. At their January 2010 meeting, regents had approved a $23 million phase one renovation of infrastructure and replacement of spectator seating at Crisler. A schematic design for that phase was approved in July.

The same architecture firms also designed the new basketball player development center at Crisler, a two-story, $23.2 million addition that will be completed later this year. That project was approved by regents in September 2009.

Video Scoreboards

In a second sports-related agenda item, regents unanimously approved a $20 million project to install video scoreboards at Michigan Stadium, Crisler Arena and Yost Ice Arena. The high-definition scoreboards will be put in place before the start of the 2011-12 season.

In addition, the Michigan Sports Television production studio – which manages operation of the scoreboards – is relocating to Michigan Stadium. The studio is normally housed at Crisler, but will be at its temporary location until renovations at Crisler are completed in 2012-13.

Tunnel Refurbishment

Over the past few years, regents have approved several projects to repair and refurbish the utility tunnels that run underneath campus. An agenda item for a $2.55 million repair of a utility tunnel running under Huron Street received unanimous approval from regents at their Jan. 20 meeting. The project covers a 500-foot stretch of tunnel, with plans to completely replace about 120 feet and repair the rest of it with patches and epoxy injections. Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber – a Grand Rapids engineering and construction firm – will design the project, which is expected to be finished in the winter of 2012.

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman joked that this must mean the tunnel system actually exists – it isn’t a myth. Slottow indicated that a tunnel tour could be arranged for her.

Institute for Social Research

The regents most recently got a report on Institute for Social Research activities at their September 2010 meeting, when director James Jackson gave an overview of ISR’s work. A $23 million expansion of ISR’s building on Thompson Street had been approved by the board in April – they signed off on the project’s schematic design in July.

This month, the regents unanimously approved a $1.5 million project to install a fire suppression system in the oldest part of the building, now known as Wing One. That 82,000-square-foot structure was built in 1965. According to a memo accompanying the request, the fire suppression system will eliminate the need for fire separation barriers between the existing building and the addition.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures

Regents authorized 10 items that required disclosure under the state’s Conflict of Interest statute. The law requires that regents vote on potential conflict-of-interest disclosures related to university staff, faculty or students. Often, the items involve technology licensing agreements or leases.

This month, four disclosures related to leases between the university and start-up companies that are leasing space in UM’s North Campus Research Complex, as part of the Venture Accelerator program: Phrixus Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Civionics LLC; 3D Biomatrix Inc.; and Eng XT Inc.

The remaining disclosures involved deals with the following entities: TechSpek (website development); Cornell Farms (to house sheep for research purposes); ElectroDynamic Applications (to provide development support services for a 100 kW class Nested Hall Thruster); Li, Fischer, Lepech and Associates LLC (technology licensing agreement); Ascentage Pharma Group Corp. Ltd. (research agreement); and Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc. (research agreement).

There was no discussion on these items.

Michigan Student Assembly Report

Chris Armstrong, president of the Michigan Student Assembly, gave his monthly report to regents about MSA activities. Among the MSA’s projects are efforts to develop an open housing policy, improvements in course guides, and support of a petition requesting that UM stop using live animals in its survival flight nurse training.

Armstrong also noted the popularity of MSA’s Airbus service to Detroit Metro airport, reporting that over 2,000 students had used the service on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and even more people used it over the holidays. He said that MSA is working with UM’s parking and transportation office on a car rental service for student service groups. A similar program was previously offered by the university’s Ginsberg Center, but has been discontinued.

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman asked about the rental car service – who has the liability for that? Armstrong said MSA was simply providing the funding. It was his understanding that liability issues caused the Ginsberg Center to drop the service. Sue Scarnecchia, UM’s general counsel, said this was the first she’d heard about the program – though she allowed that others in her office might be handling it. She assumed the program would be insured by the university, but told regents that she’d look into the matter.

Public Commentary

Seven people spoke at the end of the meeting, during the time set aside for public commentary.

Robb Woulfe, executive director of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.

Robb Woulfe, executive director of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, told regents that the festival is preparing to celebrate its 28th season, and he was there to say thanks for the university’s support. For 21 days each summer, the festival transforms Ann Arbor with its offering of music, films and other entertainment, drawing thousands of people to the city. It wouldn’t be possible without their partners, Woulfe said, particularly the university. He thanked them for supporting this community tradition.

Douglas Smith has spoken at several previous regents meetings, often criticizing the university and UM’s Department of Public Safety for its treatment of Andrei Borisov, who was dismissed as a research assistant professor in the university’s pediatrics department. [Smith also spoke at the Jan. 5, 2011 meeting of the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, questioning the use of Tasers by law enforcement officials.] At this month’s regents meeting, Smith began by asking “Where the heck is Kenny Magee?” He noted that DPS has been without leadership since Magee, the department’s executive director, went on paid medical leave in October 2010, and said that complaints filed with the department have been stymied. Smith said that the official reason given for Magee’s departure is medical leave, but he claimed that rumors are rampant that it’s related to sexual harassment allegations.

Ken Magee, director of UM's Department of Public Safety, in a photo take at the Jan. 22, 2009 regents meeting.

Smith told regents that he has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the university for “any records or communications regarding any allegations, suspicions or complaints of sexual harassment or sexual misconduct” by Magee. However, he reported that his FOIA request has been denied, with the university citing attorney-client privilege. He said he was appealing the decision to the regents, asking them to overturn it and grant his request, which he doesn’t believe is covered by attorney-client privilege. He said he also doesn’t believe the university has provided all the documents that would be responsive to his FOIA request.

[By way of background, Magee – who grew up in Ann Arbor, and whose father was a UM professor of neurology – worked in a variety of law enforcement jobs, including with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), before returning to Ann Arbor. He was hired by the university to lead the DPS in November 2008.]

Magee’s attorney, Nick Roumel, said in a phone interview that they are aware of the rumors but that “the rumors aren’t true” and Magee is “absolutely on approved medical leave.” No investigation is being conducted, he said. Roumel acknowledged that Magee helps out at Antelope Antiques, but said he’s not employed there. Nor has he opened a magic shop, Roumel said, though he has leased retail space in the cluster of shops where Antelope is located. In general, UM considers outside employment acceptable if it doesn’t conflict with someone’s job duties at the university, Roumel said – again stressing that at this point, Magee is on medical leave and not working elsewhere.

In a phone interview with The Chronicle, UM spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said that Magee went on medical leave in October, and that there’s no investigation being conducted. Beyond that, he said the university does not comment on personnel issues.

Raymond Mullins introduced himself as an Ypsilanti native, and a graduate of Howard University and the UM law school. He has been president of the Ypsilanti/Willow Run chapter of the NAACP, and is a co-founder of The Loyal Opposition to the Status Quo (LOSQ). The nonprofit group was launched to address disparities between African-Americans and Caucasians, including the academic achievement gap, imprisonment and poverty. When members of LOSQ met with university officials last year seeking support, they were told that because of the state’s anti-affirmative action laws, UM can’t fund efforts to increase the academic proficiency of minority students, he said. In that case, Mullins said he was asking regents and university executives to direct his group toward development entities that could help LOSQ raise money to meet their goals.

Mullins said a major program to address these goals is called the LOSQ Challenge, aimed at helping minority students in grades 6-12 in the areas of visual and performing arts, humanities, sciences, math and business. They’ll be sponsoring a free event on Feb. 26 at the Peace Neighborhood Center in Ann Arbor – the Fourth Annual Celebration of African-American Life in Washtenaw County, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The LOSQ general membership meetings, which are open to the public, are held on the third Saturday of each month at 30 N. Washington St. in Ypsilanti, from 2-4 p.m.

Ellora Gupta came to the regents meeting to ask for their support of the 21st Asia Business Conference at UM’s Ross School of Business. Gupta is co-chair of this event, which will take place on Jan. 28-29 and feature 21 speakers on nine different panel discussions. The conference is only about 55% toward its fundraising goal, she said, and they need help in putting on this event, which she described as something that helps set UM apart from other institutions. Funds are raised by students, she noted, and it’s been difficult in this economy, especially since UM isn’t located in a business hub.

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman asked whether Gupta’s group had talked to UM’s solar car team – that team does a great job in raising money, she noted. Newman encouraged the students to be creative in their fundraising, not just this year, but going forward. “I know you guys can figure this out,” she said.

UM graduate student Joel Batterman urged regents to explore alternatives to expanding their parking system, and to reassess the need for the proposed Fuller Road Station.

Joel Batterman, a graduate student in urban planning who is specializing in transportation issues, spoke to regents about the university’s transportation policies, in light of UM’s phase 2 draft reports for its Integrated Assessment of Campus Sustainability. [.pdf file of Batterman's remarks to regents]

Batterman pointed to findings that he said have significant implications for the university’s transportation policies, specifically as they relate to expanding its parking facililities. He described the university’s perceived parking capacity problem as really a problem of parking allocation. Though parking near the central campus and medical campus is at capacity, for example, many other lots – such as those in the north and south campus areas – are underutilized, with average vacancy rates of 20% and 28%. UM’s purchase of the former Pfizer facility, now called the North Campus Research Complex, has increased parking capacity even more.

Structuring the pricing system for parking to better match demand would prompt more people to use the existing park-and-ride lots and shuttle buses, Batterman said, which would make additional parking in high-demand areas unnecessary. It would also yield operational savings, he noted, and affect future investments. He observed that each parking space at the proposed Fuller Road structure is estimated to cost $44,000 – or the equivalent of undergraduate tuition for four years. Related to that, Batterman said he and others would be meeting with university and city staff to ask them to reassess the proposed $43 million Fuller Road Station, a joint city/UM parking structure, bus depot and possible train station located near UM’s medical campus. He urged regents to support an approach that would cut costs and pioneer innovative transportation solutions.

UM students Joseph Varilone and Akshay Verma both spoke against the use of animals in UM’s survival flight nurse training, strongly objecting to the practice. Varilone noted that in November 2010, the Michigan Student Assembly passed a resolution urging the UM Health System’s Surivival Flight Course to use simulators rather than animals. The administration has been secretive about this issue and its policy is opaque, Varilone said – “we not only expect, we demand better.” Verma noted that animals feel pain and stress, just as humans do. He wondered how UM can claim to be “leaders and best” when they’re using an archaic pedagogical technique. [UMHS issued a statement last year regarding the use of animals in flight training.]

Present: Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio), Larry Deitch, Olivia (Libby) Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew Richner, Kathy White. Denise Ilitch participated in the meeting via conference call.

Absent: Julia Darlow, Martin Taylor.

Next board meeting: Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 at 3 p.m. at the Fleming Administration Building, 503 Thompson St., Ann Arbor. [confirm date]

Pete Arbour and his daughter Lilly, who live in Rochester Hills, are on a mission to meet with all of their elected officials – including University of Michigan regents. A UM photographer took a photo of them with regents after the July 15 meeting. From left: Julia Darlow, Andrea Fischer Newman, Pete Arbour, Lilly Arbor, Mary Sue Coleman, Denise Ilitch. (Photos by the writer.)

The pair added five more names to the “met” category on Thursday, when they attended the UM regents meeting. They got their photo taken with regents and president Mary Sue Coleman after the meeting. During the meeting, they had a chance to see presentations, some rare public disagreement among board members, and votes on a range of items.

The disagreement stemmed from a proposal to lower the distribution rate on the university’s endowment from 5% to 4.5%. Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, made the case that the change will help protect the core of the endowment’s value. Julia Darlow, the board’s new chair, argued that they shouldn’t spend less at a time when families are struggling, noting that much of the payout goes toward financial aid and instruction. Other regents disagreed with her and the change was approved, with Darlow and Denise Ilitch dissenting.

Regents also voted – in each case, unanimously – to approve designs for three construction projects: at Crisler Arena, a golf indoor practice facility, and the Institute for Social Research, which is building an addition. Architects for each project gave presentations of the schematic designs before the votes.

Also unanimous was a vote to approve a $1.25 million purchase of assets of the Michigan Information Technology Center Foundation (MITC), located in the South State Commons on Oakbrook Drive. As a result of the sale – a voluntary turnover foreclosure – the university will be taking over MITC’s computing resources. Regents approved two conflict-of-interest disclosures as part of the deal, with regent Katherine White recusing herself from the votes.

Leaders of the Clements Library and the UM Film Office both gave presentations to the board, featuring celebrities past (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln) and present (Pierce Brosnan, Rob Reiner). Regents also heard a report from the chair of the Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty, who in general indicated that the overall status was good, but could be better. Specific recommendations to improve conditions were outlined.

Finally, the meeting’s only speaker during public commentary, a board member of the UM Student Sustainability Initiative, described for regents a vision of “zero waste” sporting events. They tried it at a football tailgate last fall, and will aim for a zero waste men’s basketball game against Harvard in December. The ultimate goal: An entire campus that doesn’t send any material to the landfill or incinerator.

Opening Remarks

UM president Mary Sue Coleman touched on a wide range of topics during her opening remarks, starting by welcoming Phil Hanlon to the board table as the university’s new provost – the comment was greeted with a round of applause. Coleman also congratulated the UM Hospitals & Health Centers, noting that they placed 14th in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of the nation’s best hospitals, and that they were ranked in all of the specialties that the magazine rated as well. This is the 16th consecutive year that UM has been ranked among the best by this publication, Coleman said.

UM president Mary Sue Coleman chairs the monthly meetings of the UM board of regents, as an ex officio non-voting member of the board.

Coleman noted that earlier in the week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke had visited campus as part of a daylong forum on innovation and the role of research institutions in economic development. The Obama administration is holding four such sessions, but this was the only one hosted in the Midwest, she said. Coleman said she was honored to be named one of three co-chairs of a new National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the discussion from the July 13 forum – which included members of the Obama administration, researchers, university officials and business leaders – will help shape the council’s work.

Offering congratulations to UM students on the solar car team, who recently won the 2010 American Solar Challenge race, Coleman described the solar car as the “fastest ever built,” reaching speeds of 180 mph at the Ford proving grounds “for about 30 seconds.” She reported that she heard the biggest challenge during the race was dealing with a black widow spider in the car. This is the third consecutive year that UM has won the American Solar Challenge.

Finally, Coleman noted that in the fall, UM will be welcoming the largest incoming class in its history – roughly 6,350 students. Overall, there were a record number of applications for 2010-11 – over 31,000 – and of those, nearly 16,000 students were offered admission. She noted that Hanlon, UM vice president for student affairs Royster Harper, and others are working hard to ensure that campus is ready for the start of classes in the fall.

Endowment Distribution Policy Changed

At Thursday’s meeting, regents were asked to change UM’s endowment distribution policy, reducing the distribution rate from 5% to 4.5%, with a gradual implementation over several years, starting in the quarter that ends Sept. 30, 2010.

Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, told regents that changing the distribution rate “is not something we do lightly.” The goal is to safeguard the corpus of the pooled endowment funds, which stand at an estimated $6.7 billion.

Regents last approved a change in distribution rate in 2006, and before that in 1995. In 1995, the board lowered the rate from 5.5% to 5%, with the recommendation that they consider eventually lowering it to 4.5%. The rate was based on a one quarter lagged, 12 quarter (three year) average market value. Then in 2006, the rate remained in place, but regents approved extending the period for calculating the average market value from 12 quarters to 28 quarters.

Slottow noted that markets have been volatile. In a cover memo provided to regents, he described the end of 2008 as “brutal,” and said that the future investment environment might not be as favorable as the previous two decades of high returns and low inflation. That view supported “lowering the endowment distribution rate to a more sustainable level that will help endowment distributions keep up with inflation.”

Slottow told regents that inflation has averaged 4% over the past decade, while annual median investment returns on endowments was 4.1%. By spending 5% of the return, the value of the endowment corpus is eroded.

Slottow pointed out that this was just one of a range of investment strategies the university has in place – strategies that he characterized as prudent. He said they’d implement the change so that the actual distribution amount wouldn’t decline – that is, the amounts that academic units would receive won’t be affected. They’ll take as long as they need to make the change smoothly, he said, and that the deans and development officers have given the plan their full support.

Before the vote, several regents made statements about the change. Julia Darlow, the board’s chair, read prepared remarks, saying that it sends the wrong message to the public at a time when many families are struggling. She noted that universities have been cautioned against hoarding the tax-free funds in their endowments, while supporters of this approach argue that it’s preserving the funds in perpetuity. She said she suspected that “perpetuity” can sound like a long way off to families who are struggling to make ends meet, and she’s concerned that this move will fuel alienation between the public and the university.

Darlow said she respects the sophisticated calculation that’s intended to yield a higher endowment value in the future. But if they’ve learned anything in recent years, it’s that even seemingly reasonable assumptions can prove “mightily inaccurate.” It’s far more important to continue their remarkable development efforts and their talented investment strategy, she said, to achieve the same goals.

Darlow also noted that 20% of the endowment payout is applied to financial aid, and about 24% goes toward instruction. This is not the time to restrict spending in either of those areas, she said. It’s not a wise move. [.pdf file of Darlow's full remarks]

Several regents responded with opposing views. Andy Richner said he disagreed, citing the rate of inflation and the rate of return, and saying they simply can’t sustain a 5% payout. The university need to adjust in order to maintain spending at a sustainable level.

Libby Maynard said she had initially had concerns about the strategy, and had consulted with Slottow as well as others she knew in the financial profession. It seemed to her that lowering the distribution rate to 4.5% achieved a balance, allowing the university to maintain the value of its endowment.

Martin Taylor, participating in the meeting via conference call, said he also supported the change. The staff is best in class at fundraising, investing and managing those investments, he said. They have the confidence of donors to the university, and it seemed to him that regents should show support, too. Substituting their own judgment for the judgment of investment experts is ill-advised, he concluded.

Outcome: Regents approved lowering the endowment distribution rate from 5% to 4.5%, with dissent from Julia Darlow and Denise Ilitch. Larry Deitch was absent.

Regents Vote on Several Expansion, Renovation Projects

On the agenda were several items related to ongoing construction projects, including three presentations by architects working on 1) Crisler Arena, 2) the golf indoor practice facility, and 3) the Institute for Social Research.

Crisler Arena Renovations

At their Jan. 21, 2010 meeting, regents approved a $20 million renovation project for Crisler Arena. On Thursday, one of the architects for the project – Don Dethlefs, CEO of the Denver-based architecture firm Sink Combs Dethlefs – presented schematic designs for the infrastructure work. Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, told regents that this initial phase was taking care of “the stuff behind the walls.”

The project includes replacing the roof and conducting asbestos abatement; installing new fire detection, alarm, and suppression systems, an emergency generator, and new heating and ventilation units; and upgrading the electrical system. The project will also replace the seats in the lower level, making changes to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those changes include relocating and widening the aisles, and adding hand rails and an elevator.

The work is expected to wrap up in the winter of 2012. It’s being done in conjunction with a $23 million addition to Crisler – a two-story, 57,000-square-foot basketball training facility that will include offices for men’s and women’s coaching staffs, locker rooms, two practice courts, film-viewing and hydrotherapy rooms, conditioning space and other amenities.

Outcome: Without discussion, regents unanimously approved the schematic design for the Crisler Arena infrastructure renovations.

After the vote, Mary Sue Coleman said, “There are a lot of people who’ll be glad to see that.”

Dan Jacobs of A3C describes where the new golf indoor practice facility will be located.

Golf Indoor Practice Facility

Dan Jacobs of the Ann Arbor Architects Collaborative (A3C) gave a presentation on the schematic design for the new golf indoor practice facility. Regents had approved the $2.5 million project at their May 20, 2010 meeting.

The 10,000-square-foot building will be located at the end of the UM Golf Course driving range, near the intersection of South Main and Ann Arbor-Saline Road. It will include a putting and chipping area, driving bays for the existing driving range, a team gathering space, coaches offices, locker rooms, a conference room, and storage.

Jacobs told the regents that the driving bays will accommodate both the men’s and women’s golf teams, and will include a set-up to allow players to be videotaped while practicing. The Mission-style design will include a green roof intended to emulate the color of weathered copper, he said – but he assured regents that it wouldn’t look like that green, referring to the color of Michigan State University. The project, funded with athletic department resources, is set to be finished in the summer of 2011.

Outcome: With no discussion, regents unanimously approved the schematic design of the golf indoor practice facility.

Institute for Social Research Expansion

Terry Sargent of the architectural firm Lord, Aeck & Sargent Inc. presented the schematic design for an expansion of the Institute for Social Research building. Regents had already approved the $23 million project at their April 15, 2010 meeting.

An architect's rendering of the expansion on the Institute for Social Research building. The view is from Division Street, looking south.

A four-level addition is planned, adding 44,700 gross square feet to the existing building at 426 Thompson St. Another 7,200 square feet will be renovated. The project will be paid for in part by federal stimulus funds via a grant from the National Institutes of Health. The expansion will allow the institute to house its research programs under one roof.

Sargent explained that the existing building is L-shaped. The expansion will square out the structure, with the new space located on the northwest corner of the site, on the Division Street side.

Slottow noted that because of the NIH funding, they were on a tighter-than-usual timeline, but that they’d been hitting their deadlines so far.

Outcome: With no discussion, regents unanimously approved the schematic design.

North Campus Chiller Plant: Change in Funding Source

At their May 20, 2010 meeting, regents approved an expansion of the North Campus chiller plant. That original approval stated that the project would be paid for by funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – federal stimulus dollars.

On Thursday, regents voted on a revision to the approved funding source. Rather than using stimulus funding, the project would instead use resources from UM’s utilities and general fund budgets.

The original plant was built in 2005 and provides chilled water to several North Campus buildings. The project would expand the system by 8,500 square feet and add two 1,300-ton chillers. It will be designed by the UM Department of Architecture, Engineering and Construction, working with the architectural and engineering firms of C2AE and S3 Architecture, with construction completed by the fall of 2011.

Outcome: With no discussion, regents unanimously approved the change in funding source.

UM to Acquire MITC Assets

Regents voted on a $1.25 million purchase of assets of the Michigan Information Technology Center (MITC), located in the South State Commons on Oakbrook Drive. According to a cover memo provided to the board, the sale is being made through a voluntary turnover foreclosure. Tim Slottow, UM’s CFO, told regents that MITC “is not succeeding in their mission.” The center opened in the spring of 2005, and is described on its website as an “information technology industry accelerator”:

The MITC serves as the state and region’s information technology industry accelerator by providing a central location that facilitates the co-location of leading edge IT organizations with education and industry-supported services. MITC provides a unique location for new IT companies to get their start and for established IT companies to network into Michigan’s and the region’s IT community.

The MITC Conference Center is a groundbreaking facility designed to showcase the advanced-technology industry and serve as an icon for marketing the state and region as a center for information technology. Merit Network and Internet2 both use the facility and support activities and programs that are collegiate in nature, focused on a learning and knowledge transfer environment.

UM is already a tenant in South State Commons, and will be expanding its operations and data center there as part of this acquisition. Regents also approved a total $1.9 million project, which includes the $1.25 million MITC data center purchase plus $650,000 in facility improvements.

The Michigan Information Technology Center (MITC) building.

Separately, regents voted on two items related to the MITC acquisition – votes that were required under the state’s conflict-of-interest statute. In the first item, UM’s information and technology services unit planned to enter into a licensing agreement for providing Internet2 with computing resources at the Michigan Academic Computing Center, which is housed at MITC. The university is taking over operations of the computing center, as part of its acquisition of MITC assets, and will charge Internet2 $58,000 annually for the services.

The conflict-of-interest statute applies to this deal because three people with significant roles at Internet2 – Doug Van Houweling, Barbara Nanzig and Mike LaHaye – are also employed by the university. Van Houweling is a professor at the UM School of Information, and until earlier this month served as president and CEO of Internet2. Nanzig is Internet2′s chief of staff and LaHaye serves as the nonprofit’s director of technical services.

A second conflict-of-interest disclosure is related to the deal because two university employees – James Peggs and Len Middleton – serve on the board of United Bank & Trust-Washtenaw. Peggs is a professor of family medicine and assistant dean for student programs at the UM Medical School; Middleton is an adjunct professor at the Ross School of Business.

The university is buying MITC assets from the bank, through a voluntary turnover foreclosure sale. As part of the deal, UM has agreed to forgo collection of its account receivable from MITC, with a balance of about $740,000.

Outcome: Without discussion, regents approved the purchase of assets and two related conflict-of-interest disclosures. Regent Katherine White recused herself from the votes.

UM Film Office: “Let’s Go to the Movies!”

Earlier in the meeting, Lee Doyle gave an update on activities of the UM Film Office, which she leads. It’s one of several duties she holds as chief of staff for the Office of the Vice President for Communications – a role that includes being the university’s chief Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) officer. [Observant Chronicle readers will also recall Doyle's name from recent meeting coverage of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission – Doyle is likely to join that group.]

Doyle – who kicked off her presentation by saying, “Let’s go to the movies!” – had brought with her a pair of sunglasses which she donned whenever she dropped the name of a movie star who’d filmed on campus, and there were many. (Pierce Brosnan was a particular favorite.)

She noted that tax incentives for filmmakers, passed by the Michigan legislature in 2008, created a new industry for the state. The 42% tax refund given for money spent by the film industry in Michigan, including salaries and fees, meant that more films started shooting here. UM professor Jim Burnstein, who heads UM’s screen writing department, helped develop that legislation and serves on the governor’s film office advisory council.

Lee Doyle, head of the UM Film Office.

The university created its film office to coordinate efforts because they saw several opportunities, Doyle said – for economic development, for providing hands-on student experiences, and for positive exposure for the university. They coordinate with the Ann Arbor Film Office, she said, which operates out of the Ann Arbor Convention & Visitors Bureau. Doyle introduced the head of that office, Kay Seaser, who attended the regents meeting.

Since 2008, UM has received 25 inquiries or scouting visits, and 10 movies have been shot on campus. Some offers were declined by the office, which reviews all scripts and accepts scripts that reflect well on the university and its values, Doyle said. [The Chronicle overheard one regent quip, "No porn!"] Sometimes, they’ll suggest script changes – in one case, a throw-away line was deleted, Doyle said, because it referred to students partying. The review standard is higher when the film is actually set at UM, she added.

The film office has other roles as well, including assistance in scouting locations – location scouts typically visit the site an average of five times, Doyle said. They also help with coordinating logistics for the shoot, often involving the university’s department of public safety, electricians, fire marshal, custodians and facilities managers. The university charges a fee to recoup costs for these efforts. The office also looks for ways that students can get involved in the process, shes said.

Doyle ticked through a list of movies that have been filmed on campus, noting that 75% of films shot in Ann Arbor have some scenes at UM, and 15% of all movies made in Michigan have filmed at UM. Movies include: Myth of the American Sleepover, Conviction (formerly called the Betty Anne Waters Story), Trust, Answer This (formerly titled Trivial Pursuit), and Salvation Boulevard, among others.

Doyle noted that Answer This – the first movie in which UM “plays itself,” she said – features recently retired English professor Ralph Williams as a character based on himself. It will premiere this fall at the Michigan Theater. She described The Myth of the American Sleepover as “extremely low budget” – so much so that she was pulled into it as an extra, to portray an 18-year-old college freshman. (She noted that this bit of movie magic was achieved by pulling her hair into a ponytail and facing away from the camera.) The movie also uses the front of Angell Hall as the entrance to a sports coliseum.

The movie Trust, directed by David Schwimmer, used the former Pfizer campus – now owned by UM and called the North Campus Research Complex, or NCRC – as sets for an airport, a Chicago ad agency, FBI headquarters and a hospital. A film that’s currently shooting – The Double – has used NCRC as a stand-in for FBI headquarters, and during the week of July 19, as CIA headquarters. Richard Gere will be on set for that, she said.

The film industry has had an estimated $6 million economic impact in this area, Doyle said, giving several examples: Hotel room nights increased from 4,500 in 2008 to 20,500 in 2009; one film crew sent its staff to eat at downtown restaurants over four days, generating about $8,000 in revenue; the production of Youth in Revolt spent $2,000 on umbrellas at Downtown Home & Garden. Rob Reiner, who directed Flipped, loved the Fleetwood Diner so much that his wife bought him a painting of it at last year’s art fairs, Doyle said. Restaurants are used for wrap parties, warehouses are rented for storage, vacant offices are used for temporary film staff.

The film industry also has created a range of opportunities for hundreds of students so far, Doyle said. They’ve worked as extras and production assistants, and have been able to take master classes with directors and screenwriters.

Doyle also described two initiatives that the film office has started: 1) the Creative Film Alliance, in partnership with Michigan State and Wayne State universities, which launched a 2010 Summer Film Institute earlier this month; and 2) a partnership with the Traverse City Film Festival, in which student films are entered. Students and faculty will also attend the festival, which begins July 27, to serve on panels, to teach, and to judge festival entries.

The film office promotes the university’s image, Doyle said, showcasing UM as a great destination, and putting it on the radar of influential people. She concluded with a photo published in Sports Illustrated of Hilary Swank at a UM basketball game, with her boyfriend and his son. The boy was wearing a maize Michigan T-shirt.

Clements Library

Regents heard a presentation from Kevin Graffagnino, director of UM’s William L. Clements Library, who brought with him some items for show-and-tell – four rare documents from the library’s collection:

• A document dated April 18, 1775 from General Thomas Gage to Lieut. Col. Francis Smith – an autograph draft of orders to send British troops to Lexington and Concord in search of colonial military supplies. The orders in the document resulted in action that started the American Revolution.
• A two-page letter dated July 21, 1776, from George Washington to Messrs. Yates, Jay and Livingston of the New York legislature. In it, Washington reports on the defenseless nature of the American position at the Highlands, news of British victory at Fort Moultrie, S.C., and other updates.
• A three-page letter dated Aug. 12, 1803, from Thomas Jefferson to John Breckenridge, defending the Louisiana Purchase.
• A letter dated June 10, 1863, from Abraham Lincoln to Gen. Joseph Hooker, urging Hooker to pursue Robert E. Lee’s army rather than concentrating on the capture of Richmond, Virginia.

Julia Darlow, chair of the UM board of regents, looks at a letter that "started the American Revolution" – one of four historical documents from the Clements Library that its director, Kevin Graffagnino, brought to the July 15 regents meeting.

Though the regents were somewhat distracted by the documents, which were sheathed in plastic, those who were paying attention heard Graffagnino briefly describe the history of Clements, which was dedicated in 1923. At the dedication ceremony, William Clements stood on the steps and told the gathering this, Graffagnino said: “I do not want undergraduates at my library. I don’t want graduates at my library. I don’t want faculty at my library.” This left a rather small universe of users, Graffagnino noted, and he assured regents that the library had considerably expanded its outreach since then.

Since Graffagnino arrived as director in 2008, that outreach has increased even more. For one thing, he joked, they put a sign in front of the building.

UM leads the nation in many things, he concluded, but for early American history, Clements leads the world – it’s something they should be proud of.

Responding to a query from regent Libby Maynard after his presentation, Graffagnino noted that next year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Given the breadth and depth of documents in the Clements’ collection from that era – including thousands of letters written by soldiers on both sides of the conflict – the library is expecting to see even more activity over the next few years, he said.

Regent Julia Darlow asked Graffagnino to elaborate on some of the library’s outreach efforts. In addition to obvious things like putting out a sign, he said they were reaching out to other UM libraries to find ways to work together. They can’t prosper in isolation, he said.

Committee on the Economic Status of Faculty

Fred Askari, a UM professor and chair of the Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty, gave regents a summary of the CESF report at Thursday’s meeting. [Representatives from the Dearborn and Flint campuses presented their reports separately.]

Askari noted that by 2013, half of UM faculty will be eligible for retirement. A trend away from tenured and tenure-track faculty has potential to damage the reputation of the institution, and he called for the university to maintain and rebuild its ranks of tenured faculty. It’s a competitive environment – he cited examples of UM faculty being offered lucrative packages from other universities, and said it was all the more reason to provide enhanced compensation and benefits.

The CESF report lists a range of recommendations:

• Provide transparent salary information, and study low outliers to evaluate reasons for low compensation. Salary needs to be enhanced to avoid a pay cut from benefit cost shifts, as well as to become more competitive with peer institutions.
• Give the Senate Assembly a voice in choosing a truly representative group of institutions against which UM is benchmarked in future studies of salaries and benefits. Benchmark to academic institutions only – there is no need to include Henry Ford Health System in the benefit benchmark, for example. Benefits should be grandfathered for those already hired to the greatest extent possible.
• Support plans to keep the university autonomous, rather than have legislators in Lansing set faculty salary and benefits.
• Enhance university contribution to disability benefits. Make life insurance and disability policies portable when people leave the university.
• Preserve retirement benefits at current levels, with a written commitment from the university that retirees will retain their current benefits. Preserve the retirement benefit match at current levels. If this is not possible in the future, then these benefits should be grandfathered for those currently hired.
• Adopt the Benefits Committee recommendation of Michigan Education Trust matching for tuition of faculty dependents. For faculty and staff dependents, provide reduced tuition and fees for spring and summer terms, where classroom seats sit vacant awash in fixed costs. Alternatively, offer more merit scholarships for faculty tuition relief.
• Engage the athletic department in constructive discussions about how they may better serve the university by assisting with planning of recreational sport facilities, bike and fitness trails that connect all of campus. Implement plans to engender a culture of fitness for the faculty and students.
• Renovate and expand the Main Hospital to eliminate double rooms, except in cases of national disaster.
• Enhance the economic status of the faculty by investing a portion of the endowment in a Michigan Venture Capital Fund, and increase the input of faculty and staff with expertise, which may facilitate success.

Regents had no comments or questions for Askari after his presentation.

Public Commentary: Zero Waste

Ryan Smith, a board member of the UM Student Sustainability Initiative, was the only speaker during public commentary. He gave regents an update on SSI activities, focusing on their “zero waste” efforts.

Ryan Smith, an undergraduate engineering student, spoke to regents during public commentary about a "zero waste" project spearheaded by the Student Sustainability Initiative. Smith serves on the SSI board.

They have a vision of zero waste sporting events, Smith said – defined as doing everything they can to avoid sending materials to the landfill or to be incinerated. Last fall, they organized the first-ever zero waste tailgate, he reported. [See Chronicle coverage: "Michigan Tailgate Tries for Zero Waste"] Their next effort will be more ambitious: A zero waste men’s basketball game on Dec. 10 against Harvard.

Smith urged regents to institutionalize zero waste, as the next step in making the university a leader in sustainability. The sports program is a good place to start, because it’s highly visible, he said. The approach would be a smart business decision, too. The path is clear, Smith concluded, and he hoped to see UM become the first zero waste campus.

Regents responded to Smith’s remarks with applause.

Present: Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio), Julia Darlow, Denise Ilitch, Olivia Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andy Richner, Martin Taylor (via conference call), Kathy White (via conference call).

Absent: Larry Deitch

Next board meeting: Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 at 3 p.m. at the Fleming Administration Building, 503 Thompson St., Ann Arbor. [confirm date]

UM regent Denise Ilitch, right, talks with Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, executive vice president for medical affairs, before the start of the Jan. 21 meeting of the board of regents. Ilitch, a Democrat from Bingham Farms, did not declare her candidacy for governor at Thursday’s meeting. (Photos by the writer.)

The relatively short meeting also included a report on the university’s contribution to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.

Two people spoke during public commentary. A local Sierra Club board member, James D’Amour, told regents that the group opposed the Fuller Road Station, a joint UM/city of Ann Arbor project being built on city-owned parkland. He urged them to “take no part in this unethical act.” They later approved the project.

And UM student Alex O’Dell described his vision for TEDxUofM, an April 9 event on campus being modeled after the influential TED Talks, where speakers get 18 minutes to share “ideas worth spreading.”

President’s Opening Remarks

President Mary Sue Coleman began by referring to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, saying that they were not aware of any UM faculty, staff or student who’d been there during the quake, ”and for that, we are very grateful.” She described the university’s efforts to raise money, collect supplies, and donate blood, among other things, and said student groups were meeting that night to coordinate their efforts too. This is not a short-term effort, she said – Haiti will require assistance in the months and years to come.

UM provost Teresa Sullivan, right, talks with regents Andrea Fischer Newman, left, and Olivia Maynard, center, after the Jan. 21 board of regents meeting. Sullivan has been named president of the University of Virginia, and will be stepping down from her UM post later this year.

Coleman also noted that earlier this month, UM provost Terry Sullivan had been named the first female president of the University of Virginia. She’ll start that job on Aug. 1.

Sullivan walked into the room as Coleman was making these remarks, prompting the regents and other executives to applaud as she made her way to her seat at the board table. She apologized for being late, reporting that she’d been on the phone with a Congressman from Charlottesville. Coleman said they’d miss Sullivan tremendously but wished her well. She joked that they’d all come to visit, since the president’s house there has lots of extra bedrooms. A formal send-off is being planned for later in the year.

Segueing to other transitions, Coleman said that 300 university employees were preparing to move into the North Campus Research Center, known as NCRC – the former Pfizer campus that UM bought in a deal that closed in June 2009. She said they’ll be the first of thousands of faculty, students and staff who’ll use the research and office facilities in the coming years, and that it’s exciting to see activity there begin to unfold. Also invigorating, she said, was a recent Detroit Economic Club event over which she presided at Cobo Center on Jan. 19. At the DEC event, Detroit mayor Dave Bing and leaders of Oakland, Wayne and McComb counties described a positive outlook for the regional economy. UM is playing a role in that, Coleman said.

Finally, Coleman noted the recent death of UM president emeritus Robben Fleming, saying that as president from 1968-78, he had signed the diplomas of many of the regents. She said he’ll be missed, and that she’s grateful for the devotion that he and his wife Sally gave to the university and to higher education.

Research Report: “A Pretty Good Year”

Stephen Forrest, vice president for research, gave a presentation at Thursday’s meeting about the university’s research efforts. Unlike reports that people are getting in the corporate world, he said, “we’ve had a pretty good year in the world of research.”

At left: Stephen Forrest, UM’s vice president for research, following his presentation to the board of regents. Next to him is Royster Harper, vice president for student affairs.

In FY 2009, which ended June 30, the university for the first time surpassed $1 billion in research spending, Forrest said – a 9.4% increase from 2008. The funding was earned competitively, he added: “There are no earmarks in that $1 billion.”

All of this happened in a year that saw the university’s largest research partner – General Motors – declare bankruptcy, Forrest said, and at a time when funding available for research is shrinking.

Last year, researchers were awarded more than $218 million in federal stimulus grants – those dollars aren’t included in the $1 billion total, he said, and will show up in the fiscal 2010 report.

Also during the year, university researchers disclosed 350 inventions – an all-time high – and launched eight start-up businesses. This was despite a market that made it difficult to get financed and in which deals “were almost impossible to put together,” he said. Venture capital investments in UM start-ups topped $82 million last year.

Research is now the third largest entity in UM’s portfolio, Forrest said, following the health system at $2.2 billion and education at $1.2 billion.

One element that will spur even more research growth, Forrest said, is the North Campus Research Center, or NCRC. He called it a “transformational opportunity,” though it’s a transformation that will happen over several years. He said the former Pfizer campus provides the collaborative space to reinvent how research is done, allowing researchers to work with businesses and government agencies, tackling “human-scale” projects – large, interdisciplinary problems in human health and sustainability/energy. Forrest said the NCRC will include operations of the UM Business Engagement Center, Technology Transfer, and possibly a faculty start-up accelerator.

To do all this, the university is cultivating a culture of entrepreneurship, Forrest said. As an example, he pointed to a presentation at last month’s regents meeting by “the Toms” – Tom Kinnear, executive director of the 10-year-old Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Ross School of Business, and Thomas Zurbuchen, associate dean for entrepreneurial programs at the College of Engineering.

Forrest said he’d be asking regents to approve some policy changes in the future that would improve faculty incentives for entrepreneurial activity. He closed by showing an aerial shot of the NCRC, titled “UM’s Field of Dreams.”

Later in the meeting, Forrest also announced that Vic Strecher, a professor in the UM School of Public Health, has been named Distinguished University Innovator for 2010. Strecher founded HealthMedia Inc., an Ann Arbor firm that was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2008. [See Chronicle coverage: "Live at PJ's: It's HealthMedia!"] Strecher will be honored at a March 25 ceremony that will be open to the public. The event begins at 4 p.m. in the Biomedical Sciences Research Building Auditorium.

Haiti Relief Efforts

Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, executive vice president for medical affairs, gave a report on relief efforts for Haiti by members of the UM health system. The efforts are being led by Tony Denton, chief operating officer of UM Hospitals & Health Centers. Pescovitz said there’s been an extraordinary outpouring of support from the entire campus. They’ve received calls with requests to work with various federal agencies, she said, and are doing so. “We stand ready to serve in any way we possibly can,” she said.

On Jan. 20 they shipped a 40-foot container of basic medical supplies via World Medical Relief, a Detroit-based charity – the shipment should arrive in Haiti sometime next week, she said. The UMHS Survival Flight has been registered with FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) – two patients from Haiti had already been transported to UM, arriving the evening of Jan. 20. She asked that the media respect their privacy.

Pescovitz said the best way for people to help was to contribute to the American Red Cross. She also urged the media not to overstate UM’s role in relief operations, which she described as relatively small in the context of national efforts.

Regent Olivia Maynard asked how many UM medical personnel had signed up to volunteer in Haiti. Pescovitz said about 100 people had registered online, but there were very specific criteria for the medical and nursing personnel. At this point, there is one UM resident working in Haiti, she said. The university will only pay for employees who go there under the auspices of a federal agency. And people will likely stay only for two-week periods, she said, because of war-zone-type conditions.

Crisler Arena Renovations, Other Projects Approved

Regents moved through the bulk of their agenda with little discussion. All requests – including several related to UM athletics – were approved unanimously.

Renaming the Michigan Wrestling Center

Ralph and Dorothy Bahna gave $2 million to support the new Michigan Wrestling Center, and regents approved naming the facility in their honor as the Bahna Wrestling Center. The building, which opened earlier this month, is located on the university’s athletic campus on South State Street.

Bil Martin, UM’s athletic director, attended the Jan. 21 regents meeting and spoke briefly about a couple of projects that were on the agenda, including the renovations at Crisler Arena and the naming of the wrestling center.

Bill Martin, UM athletic director, was on hand at the meeting and described Ralph Bahna to the regents as a former 115 pound freshman wrestler who went on to incredible success. At UM, Bahna won an individual Big Ten championship in 1964. The $2 million gift is the largest given to UM athletics by a former varsity letter winner. Bahna is chairman of Priceline.com and was previously CEO of Cunard Lines Ltd., which he transformed from a shipping company into a cruise-line operator.

Crisler Arena

When Mary Sue Coleman asked for someone to move the agenda item for Crisler Arena renovations, regent Kathy White said, “Oh, so moved!”

The project has been on the agenda in different ways for months. At their September 2009 meeting, Don Dethlefs, CEO of the Denver-based architecture firm Sink Combs Dethlefs, showed regents the schematic designs for a $23 million addition to Crisler, a two-story, 57,000-square-foot basketball training facility that will include offices for men’s and women’s coaching staffs, locker rooms, two practice courts, film-viewing and hydrotherapy rooms, conditioning space and other amenities.

At Thursday’s meeting, regents approved  the $20 renovation project for Crisler, and the selection of TMP Architecture for its design. The project includes replacing the roof and conducting asbestos abatement; installing new fire detection, alarm, and suppression systems, an emergency generator, and new heating and ventilation units; and upgrading the electrical system. The project will also replace the seats in the lower level, making changes to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those changes include relocating and widening the aisles, and adding hand rails and an elevator.

Regent Julia Darlow asked about the ADA compliance, and Hank Baier – UM’s associate vice president of facilities and operations – said they were confident that they’d meet ADA requirements. They’d been meeting with individuals and groups representing the disabled, he said, and would share the new designs with them, as well as discuss the issue with code consultants and the architects.

In a related item, regents authorized the university to issue bids and award construction contracts for the basketball training facility to be added to Crisler.

Brandon Officially Appointed

David Brandon did not join Bill Martin at the regents meeting, where Brandon’s appointment to replace the retiring athletic director was approved with little fanfare. During her opening remarks, Mary Sue Coleman described Brandon – CEO of Domino’s Pizza, a former regent and UM football player who was coached by Bo Schembechler – as “a perfect leader for our athletic program.”

Brandon’s appointment as the Donald R. Shepherd Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, effective March 8, 2010 through March 7, 2015, was approved as part of a list of other personnel actions. It was wedged between an item correcting the criteria for a professorship at the UM Medical School and the naming of Randall Repic as chair of UM-Flint’s Department of Earth and Resource Science.

A cover letter to Brandon’s appointment notes that he will remain chairman of Domino’s, a role that does not require day-to-day responsibilities.

Earlier in the meeting, during the report on fundraising by vice president of development Jerry May, regent Martin Taylor said it was notable that David and Jan Brandon had given $800,000 to the university in December. From the development report:

98,523 shares of Dominos Pizza, Inc., common stock; for the David A. and Jan Brandon Scholarship Fund and other support in the Department of Athletics, for the Brandon Professional Resource Center and Archive in the School of Education, for the David and Jan Brandon Prostate Cancer Survivor Fund in the Medical School, and for the Building Project Fund in the Museum of Art; and for support in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital. (Valued at $798,529)

May noted that it was a payment on an earlier pledge they’d made during the university’s Michigan Difference fundraising campaign. [The Brandons pledged $4 million in 2006, half of which was earmarked for the new C.S Mott Children's and Women's Hospital. The Brandons, along with former UM football coach Lloyd Carr and his wife Laurie, lead fundraising efforts for the $523 million hospital.]

Fuller Road Station

During public commentary at the beginning of the meeting, James D’Amour – a member of the executive committee for the Huron Valley Group of the Sierra Club – spoke regarding the Fuller Road Station project, which was on the regents’ agenda.

James D’Amour spoke to the UM regents during public commentary, on behalf of the Huron Valley Group of the Sierra Club. The group opposes the Fuller Road Station being built on city-owned property that’s designated as parkland.

Identifying himself as “a proud alumni of this fine university,” D’Amour reported that at the local Sierra Club’s Dec. 14, 2009 meeting, they passed a resolution opposing the project, a joint venture between the city of Ann Arbor and the university. He said they were deeply disappointed that city officials who had recently assured citizens that parkland wouldn’t be sold without a vote by the public were now willing to convert city parkland into a parking structure.

“This violates the spirit of the city’s charter,” he told regents. “It is a breach of trust by the city with its citizens, who believed that they voted on a charter amendment that would protect and maintain its parks for generations to enjoy. The precedent of the city converting parkland to non-park uses is a disaster. The Sierra Club urges you to take no part in this unethical act.”

Regents were asked to approve the project and authorize appointing an architect. From the cover memo:

The first phase of the development of this major intermodal transportation complex is the Fuller Road Station project which includes site preparation and construction of an intermodal facility that includes: four covered bus loading/unloading zones and waiting areas; a covered area for bike hoops and lockers; parking for 1,000 vehicles (78 percent for university and 22 percent for city use); improvements to Fuller Road immediately adjacent to the site for vehicle access; and upgrades to the multi-use path along Fuller Road.

The university will manage the construction of the Fuller Road Station project. That includes building the facility on city property, following city code review and inspection, and collaborating with the city for their approval of design. This project is unique since we would be constructing the facility on city-owned property and following city building codes. We will also need approval for the lease on city-owned land since it would be for a period of greater than ten years. We will seek approval of the lease at a later date, but prior to seeking bids or awarding construction contracts for the project. A parking structure operation and maintenance agreement will be developed concurrently with design of the project. The City of Ann Arbor will manage the site preparation at an estimated cost of $3,000,000. In addition, at the City’s expense, they will undertake an environmental assessment of the property. Although there will be a temporary loss of some leased parking spaces during construction, there will be an increase of approximately 780 university parking spaces as a result of this project.

The estimated cost of the project is $46,550,000. Costs will be shared between the University of Michigan and the City of Ann Arbor in proportion to the number of parking spaces available to each (78 percent and 22 percent respectively). Total university funding, not to exceed $36,309,000 (78 percent), will be provided from Parking resources. The construction cash flow may be provided, all or in part, by increasing the commercial paper issuance under the commercial paper program, secured by a pledge of General Revenues, and authorized by the Board of Regents. The parking structure consulting fm of Walker Parking Consultants will design the project. Design is scheduled to begin immediately, and we will return with a construction schedule when we seek approval of schematic design.

D’Amour and others have spoken at recent Ann Arbor city council meetings on the same issue of parkland sale in connection with Fuller Road Station.

[See Chronicle coverage of the city council's Jan. 4, 2010 meeting and the city council's Jan. 19, 2010 meeting. The issue of using property for this project that's designated as parkland was also discussed at the Jan. 19 meeting of the city's park advisory commission. At that meeting, PAC commissioner Gwen Nystuen said the project “raises all kinds of questions and precedents that we should fully discuss.”]

Regent Julia Darlow expressed concern about the issue raised by D’Amour, and asked if it were true that the structure was being built on parkland. From the map, she said, it looked like it was now a parking lot. The property is located off of Fuller Road, just north of the UM medical complex.

CFO Tim Slottow said the university had been leasing it from the city for use as a surface parking lot for more than two decades. But he said it was a point they should clarify, since they’d be building on property they didn’t own.

Capital Outlay Request

Tim Slottow, chief financial officer, reported on UM’s capital outlay submission to the state, with requests for funding from the legislature. This year, UM is making only one request for a capital project on the Ann Arbor campus for FY 2011: renovation of the G. G. Brown Laboratory Building for the Department of Mechanical Engineering, estimated to cost $64 million.

At their June 2009 meeting, regents approved a $56 million, 66,000-square-foot addition to the building – funding for that project had previously been requested as a capital outlay submission, but the university decided to move ahead on the addition without state aid.

The main building, Slottow said, is in sore need of renovation, but “we’re not holding our breaths” that the state will approve funding. Regent Olivia Maynard asked if there was really any chance of getting state funding. Slottow deferred to Cynthia Wilbanks, vice president for government relations and UM’s main liaison with Lansing. After a long pause, Wilbanks said, “I’m always an optimist” – a remark that drew laughter from the regents.

Public Commentary

UM student Alex O’Dell gave an energetic report on plans to hold the first TEDx event at UM, called TEDxUofM 2010.

Alex O’Dell, a UM student, spoke to the board of regents about the upcoming TEDxUofM, an event he’s organizing on campus that’s modeled after the popular annual TED conference in California.

TED stands for technology, entertainment and design, and the 18-minute lectures at its conferences – known as TED Talks – are focused on what organizers call “ideas worth spreading.” TEDx events are independently organized, with guidance from the original TED.

O’Dell is organizing UM’s first TEDx event, to be held April 9, 2010 at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The first TEDx was held at the University of Southern California and since then others have been held, within rules set by TED. But “we’re looking to put on the big one,” O’Dell said.

The theme is “Do You Realize?” and O’Dell ticked off several examples from the university: Do you realize you can make music on your iPhone? Do you realize that there’s flexible concrete?

Organizers are looking to recruit speakers, he said, as well as funding and other guidance from the regents. Speakers should be affiliated with the university or the Ann Arbor community – building connections is one of their goals, he said.

In addition to the group’s website, they can be followed on Twitter or reached at tedxuofm@gmail.com.

Coleman thanked O’Dell for coming: “I know it’s going to be a great event!”

Present: Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio), Julia Darlow, Larry Deitch, Denise Ilitch, Olivia Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andy Richner, Martin Taylor, Kathy White

Next board meeting: Thursday, Feb. 18 at 3 p.m. in the Fleming Administration Building, 503 Thompson St., Ann Arbor. [confirm date]

UM president Mary Sue Coleman gives opening remarks at the Jan. 21 board of regents meeting.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono, playing at the 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Crisler Arena. (Photo courtesy Leni Sinclair.)

The passage of nearly four decades can dim even the keenest of memories. But to Hiawatha Bailey, the events of that winter afternoon in 1971 are as clear as if they had happened yesterday. Bailey was 23 and working at the communal headquarters of the Rainbow People’s Party in the ramshackle old mansion at 1520 Hill Street in Ann Arbor.

“I was doing office duty,” he recalls, “which entailed sitting at the front desk and answering the phone. Some friends were there, and we were sitting around, tripping on acid, probably, and the phone rings. I pick it up and I hear this voice, ‘Hello, this is Yoko Ono.’”

Bailey, of course, didn’t believe it for a second. “I said something like, ‘Yeah, this is Timothy Leary,’ and hung up. We all got a good laugh out of it.” A few minutes later the phone rang again. This time the voice on the other end said, “Hello, can I speak to David Sinclair, Chief of Staff of the Rainbow People’s Party. This is John Lennon of the Beatles.”

“I wasn’t even that familiar with the Beatles then,” says Bailey, now lead singer for the Cult Heroes, an Ann Arbor-based punk rock band. “I was more into the Stooges and the MC5, more radical rock ’n’ roll. But I knew right away that it really was John Lennon.” He put the call through.

“Dave and John talked for quite some time,” Bailey recalls. “Lennon said, ‘I heard about the benefit that you blokes are putting on, and I wrote a little ditty about John Sinclair and his plight. I’d like to come there and perform it.’”

They Gave Him Ten for Two

John Sinclair – poet, pothead, cultural revolutionary, and Chairman of the Rainbow People’s Party of Ann Arbor, Michigan – was at that time confined to the state prison in Jackson. More than two years earlier he had received a nine-and-a-half to ten-year sentence for the possession of 11.50 grains of marijuana – two joints’ worth – following a trial marked by numerous irregularities.

“The powers-that-be in Michigan had it in for me,” says Sinclair, who now lives in Amsterdam. “They didn’t like what we were doing, establishing an alternative community, defying their authority, smoking grass. First in Detroit, then in Ann Arbor. They fixed on me because I was the most outspoken, and also because somehow I was successful in bringing young people around to my way of thinking.”

Even those who weren’t quite as certain of Sinclair’s blamelessness agreed that ten years in prison for possession of two joints was an unusually severe sentence, and probably politically motivated.

John Sinclair, circa 1969. (Photo courtesy of Leni Sinclair.)

“They wanted to put me away,” Sinclair says, “and so they did.” Following the sentencing, a request for an appeal bond was denied, and the 27-year-old cultural activist went directly to a maximum-security prison.

Sinclair’s sudden departure sent the collective into a state of shock. But his wife Leni and brother David quickly assumed leadership roles and began to direct the effort to free their party’s leader.

In the coming months they worked tirelessly, organizing benefit concerts, demonstrations, and rallies. Wherever possible they enlisted the aid of sympathetic movement celebrities – Allen Ginsberg, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman (whose misguided attempt to win support for Sinclair at Woodstock during the Who’s set earned him a bump on the head, courtesy Pete Townshend’s guitar), Tom Hayden, and others. But after two years of diligent effort they seemed no closer to getting John out of jail.

At some point in the summer of 1971, Sinclair – who was still helping to lead the party from behind bars – decided that what they needed to do was organize one huge benefit rally for the end of the year. With the help of sympathetic student organizations they were able to secure the use of the University of Michigan’s recently constructed Crisler Arena for Dec. 10. (That’s also international Human Rights Day – although no one seemed to realize it at the time.)

A Total Bomb

Utilizing the contacts that they had built up over the years, Leni, David, and the others assembled a list of about a dozen radical speakers and musical performers who agreed to appear at the rally. Then they approached Peter Andrews, an experienced area music promoter who was working as events director at the university. Andrews was a friend of John Sinclair and had previously organized a few small benefit concerts on his behalf. But he wasn’t interested in producing this show.

“I just looked at it and said, ‘This is a total bomb you have on your hands. You’ll get three thousand people tops, and in the fifteen-thousand-capacity Crisler, it’ll only show how little people care about John Sinclair.’”

Andrews, now semi-retired and living in Ypsilanti Township, recalls that the Sinclairs weren’t willing to take no for an answer. “I went to Toronto with my girlfriend just to get away from them for a few days. When I got back, Leni came to see me and she said, ‘John Lennon and Yoko Ono want to play at the rally!’”

Andrews was skeptical, thinking that this might simply be a ploy to get him involved. “I said, ‘Oh, really. And who’s the headliner, Jesus Christ?’”

Leni Sinclair insisted that it was real, however, and explained that Jerry Rubin had talked the Lennons into doing it. Andrews was still doubtful but agreed to fly to New York and meet with John and Yoko. Even today he still marvels at the surreality of that trip to New York with Leni in December of 1971.

Some Time in New York City

“Nobody met us or anything,” he says. “The only thing we had was a telephone number to call. I remember putting a dime in the phone, and dialing the number. John Lennon answered. He said, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve been waiting for ya, come on over, here’s where we’re at, great!’ I hung up the phone and looked at Leni, and I said, ‘We’re hot, we are happening.’”

Sinclair and Andrews took a cab from Grand Central Station to the Lennons’ two-room apartment in the West Village. “They greeted us, they were very friendly, very, very nice,” says Andrews. “I had Lennon sign a contract for $500 to appear, and he crossed it out and put, ‘To be donated to the John Sinclair Freedom Fund.’”

The visitors from Michigan spent about an hour talking with their newfound allies. At one point, Lennon asked Andrews to come into the bedroom and listen to a song he had written to perform at the concert. “He wasn’t sure if the song was appropriate, and he wanted my opinion. He sang the song – ‘It ain’t fair, John Sinclair’ – with that steel guitar he had. I assured him it was totally appropriate, and the lyrics were cool. He was very grateful.”

Andrews shakes his head in wonder at the memory. “I thought to myself, ‘John Lennon’s asking my opinion! Man, this is somethin’ else.’”

After leaving the apartment they had gone only about a block before Andrews realized that even with a signed contract as evidence, no one was going to believe that John Lennon would be at the show. “So we went back, and I asked John if he had a cassette recorder. I wrote a little script out, and he and Yoko read it into the recorder. Now I knew we had it.”

The Magic of John and Yoko

On Wednesday, Dec. 8, two days before the concert, the Committee to Free John Sinclair held a press conference in Ann Arbor. The tape that Peter Andrews had made was played for representatives of the local and national media.

“Hello, this is John with Yoko here,” began the recorded message. “I just want to say we’re coming along to the John Sinclair bust fund rally to say hello. I won’t be bringing a band or nothing like that because I’m only here as a tourist, but I’ll probably fetch me guitar, and I know we have a song that we wrote for John [Sinclair]. So that’s that.”

Tickets went on sale that same day at $3 each. “It sold out in such short amount of time – two or three hours, statewide – that we actually had guards, uniformed guards, to protect the people that got tickets from the ones that didn’t,” says Peter Andrews. “We distributed tickets statewide so that people would have an opportunity – not a big opportunity, but you had a chance if you ran down there and got in line.”

Andrews recalls that they didn’t spend a penny on advertising. It was enough to simply make the announcement of John and Yoko’s participation and let the media take it from there.

From Mop Top to Working-Class Hero

After the breakup of the Beatles, and before his untimely death by an assassin’s bullet in 1980, John Lennon performed in public on only a handful of occasions. In retrospect it may seem odd that one of these was a benefit for a jailed longhair in the cultural backwater of Michigan. But at the time it made perfect sense.

Ann Arbor was in the forefront of the radical movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s. That same period found the famously outspoken Beatle becoming deeply involved in political activism – denouncing war and injustice, attending demonstrations, concocting peace-themed “happenings” with Yoko, encouraging his fans to “Imagine no possessions,” advising them that “A working-class hero is something to be.”

In the summer of ’71 John and Yoko moved to New York on a more-or-less permanent basis and quickly became close with Yippie activists Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Rubin was committed to speaking at the John Sinclair Freedom Rally in December, and encouraged John and Yoko to appear, as well.

It wasn’t difficult to get Lennon interested. He’d been toying with the idea of doing a series of all-star concerts combining rock music with radical rhetoric. After long discussions with Rubin, this morphed into an “anti-Nixon tour” that would travel across the U.S. during the summer of ’72 and wind up in San Diego at the Republican National Convention in August.

The rally in Ann Arbor would serve as a trial run.

Not in Kansas Anymore

John and Yoko arrived with little fanfare in Detroit on Friday, Dec. 10, the day of the concert. Peter Andrews picked them up at the airport in a borrowed limousine and drove them to the Campus Inn in Ann Arbor, where a number of the evening’s musical acts were staying. Andrews had booked the Lennons into the presidential suite.

The crowd at the 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally in Crisler Arena. (Photo courtesy of David Fenton.)

“I thought it was funny to put them up in the presidential suite,” he says, “because this was basically all anti-Nixon. I remember stopping over there to make sure everything was cool. I couldn’t stay, but boy, I wish could have. They were all jamming up in Lennon’s suite. I thought, ‘Damn, this is too much.’”

The event had grown so big so fast that to many of those involved it felt like a waking dream. “It was madness, all of these people, all the music and the politics,” says Hiawatha Bailey. While working backstage at the rally he felt a sudden need for a few minutes away, and walked over to the nearby football stadium.

“I’m sitting there, in this huge, empty stadium,” Bailey recalls. “All of a sudden this whirling dervish picks up a pile of trash, goes around the stadium, and drops it right next to me.” He smiles and shakes his head. “I’m thinking that I’d better get out of there, before Dorothy and Toto show up!”

But for Bailey the unreality wasn’t quite over. “I go back to the arena, and up comes this limo, and John Lennon, Yoko Ono, David Peel and the Lower East Side and all those scalawags that he hung out with, all start piling out. John says to me, ‘You look like someone I can trust, mate, come with me.’”

Bailey became an impromptu bodyguard, helping to hold back the fans as the Lennons and their entourage entered the arena. “These people were ready to rip me apart to get to John Lennon,” he says. “They had their albums they wanted signed, and they were very vehement about it.”

After escorting the company to their dressing room, Bailey recalls, “John turns to me and says, ‘Watch the door.’ Then he hands me a bag of coke, and says to enjoy myself. So I’m leaning up against the door, holding a bag of John Lennon’s blow, and behind me he’s teaching David Peel and those guys the chords to ‘John Sinclair.’ And I’m just like, ‘Man, this is far out.’”

A Long Day’s Night

Peel would have plenty of time to learn the song – John and Yoko didn’t end up taking the stage until around three in the morning, more than two hours behind schedule. They were preceded by nearly eight hours of speakers and musical performers that included Allen Ginsberg, Jerry Rubin, Bob Seger, Phil Ochs, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, poet Ed Sanders, Black Panther Party chairman Bobby Seale, Chicago Seven defendant Rennie Davis, radical priest Father James Groppi, and jazz legend Archie Shepp.

The dramatic high point of the evening was a surprise telephone call from the imprisoned John Sinclair that was broadcast live over the arena’s loudspeakers. Voice choking with emotion, Sinclair spoke to his wife and daughter, conveying his belief that they would soon be reunited. “You could almost see the tears flowing down the aisles,” remembers Peter Andrews.

According to many reports, the other non-musical portions of the program did not appear to have a great impact on the audience. The singers, however, seemed to go over somewhat better. According to the Michigan Daily, Bob Seger was “dynamite,” Commander Cody “kept the audience pretty satisfied,” and Phil Ochs was “good and clever.”

But the big musical hit of the evening – possibly even bigger than the Lennons – was a performer that most people didn’t even know would be there.

A few days before the concert, Peter Andrews was working in his office when the phone rang. It was Stevie Wonder.

After his meeting in New York with John and Yoko, Andrews thought nothing could faze him. But now here he was listening to the wunderkind of soul tell him that, even though he wasn’t in favor of marijuana, he was dismayed by what had happened to John Sinclair, and wanted to be part of the show.

“I’m going, ‘Holy shit.’ I didn’t need a draw, so I decided that Stevie Wonder would be a surprise act. I told him over the phone that I didn’t want anybody knowing about this, and not to make any announcements or anything. There were only about three people other than me that even knew about it until he showed up with his equipment.”

Stevie Wonder performing at the 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally. (Photo courtesty of Stanley Livingston.)

The Wonder of Stevie

Twenty-two-year-old Jane Hassinger was elated when she learned that Stevie Wonder would be appearing that night. As a member of Drug Help, a local grassroots counseling service for youth with drug and alcohol issues, she was working in one of the arena’s two “drug tents” when Wonder took the stage. “I’d been on the job almost the whole time and didn’t really have an opportunity to watch the show,” she recalls.

“But I said to my co-workers, ‘I’m leaving for Stevie Wonder.’ I went up close to the stage. And he was extraordinary. It was as magical as anything I can think of. There was a roar when he came on.”

“We’d all grown up on Motown,” explains Peter Andrews. “When Stevie came out the crowd went bananas. I just loved it, as the promoter of the show. I still almost tear up when I think of the emotion people had.”

It wasn’t just the crowd that went bananas, either. “When Stevie was about to go on, I thought I should tell the Lennons,” says Andrews. “Well, John just flipped. He goes, ‘Stevie Wonder! I gotta see him!’”

Andrews didn’t think that was a good idea, as the ex-Beatle was certain to be mobbed. But Lennon was insistent. “He said, ‘Peter, don’t you understand? Stevie Wonder is my Beatles!’ He’d never seen Stevie perform. So I agreed. We got like ten security guys, and John Lennon and myself were in the middle of the circle, and we went to the back of the stage to watch.”

Yoko Ono and John Lennon performing at the 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Crisler Arena. (Photo courtesy of David Fenton.)

Gimme Some Truth

Stevie Wonder wasn’t there simply to dazzle the audience with his music, however. Like all the performers he was also there to make a political statement.

“Before coming here today,” he said at one point, “I had a lot of things on my mind, a lot of things that you don’t have to see to understand. We are in a very troublesome time today in the world. A time in which a man can get 12 years in prison for possession of marijuana, and another who can kill four students at Kent State and come out free.”

“What kind of shit is that?” he asked the crowd, which responded with a roar.

The audience had also cheered earlier in the evening when Phil Ochs delivered the refrain of his song about the White House’s resident paranoiac:

Here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of

Richard Nixon, find yourself another country to be part of

But of all the performances that night, it was that of the star attractions which was the most overtly political.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono took the stage at around three in the morning. Backed by an improvised band that included David Peel and Jerry Rubin, they sang about the Attica uprising, about the conflict in Northern Ireland, about women’s liberation, and, finally, about the man of the hour, without whom none of it would have been possible:

It ain’t fair, John Sinclair

In the stir for breathing air

Won’t you care for John Sinclair?

In the stir for breathing air

They gave him ten for two

What else can Judge Colombo do?

Gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta set him free

Then abruptly the Lennons were gone, and the show was over.

Don’t Let Us Down

Monday’s edition of the Detroit News contained a review of the rally that ran under the headline, “Lennon Let His Followers Down.”

Of course, not everyone in the audience was disappointed with Lennon’s performance. But it’s easy to see how many would have been somewhat less than impressed. The ex-Beatle’s set was entirely acoustic, long before going “unplugged” became fashionable. He played only four songs, none of which were familiar to the audience. And he left the stage after about 15 minutes.

“Yeah, I was disappointed by John and Yoko’s ‘street art’ performance,” says Jeff Alder, then an eighteen-year-old aspiring musician. “I mean, the great Beatle jamming with Jerry Rubin playing bongos or congas or something he had no idea how to play, along with David Peel and the freakin’ lousy Lower East Side. But I was still impressed that John came to support our guy.”

Alder, who today works as a studio technician at the University of Michigan, remembers being much more affected by Stevie Wonder’s performance. “Like John L., it was real impressive that he even came to play. Only Stevie actually came to play!”

But Alder admits that these are minor points. The bigger goal was to show support for John Sinclair. “The coolest thing of all was that it worked,” he says. “Regardless of any critiques of the performances and all the yapping, it worked.”

“We got John out!”

Bring Him to His Wife and Kids

Seventy-two hours after the commencement of the rally, John Sinclair was free.

For a brief moment the state penitentiary in Jackson became the backdrop for a scene out of some sort of freaky countercultural version of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” As flashbulbs popped and movie cameras rolled, the burly, long-haired revolutionary enjoyed a tearful reunion with his tiny wife Leni and their young daughter Sunny after almost two-and-a-half years apart.

This was no miracle, however. Rather, it was the result of years of concerted effort on the part of hundreds of people, not just to free John Sinclair but also to reform what many felt were the state’s draconian drug laws.

The day before the rally, the Michigan State Senate passed a bill that drastically reduced penalties for marijuana possession. Three days after the rally, the Michigan Supreme Court granted Sinclair bail pending appeal, after having denied six previous such requests.

The question remains about how much of an effect the event itself had on winning Sinclair’s freedom. The timing is, of course, very suggestive. The justices, however, maintained that their decision was made solely in light of the passage of the new drug bill.

Peter Andrews thinks that even without the spectacle of the rally, Sinclair would have eventually been released. “What it did,” he suggests, “was say, ‘How about right now!’”

However it happened, John Sinclair was out, and all who had struggled so long rejoiced. But the denouement wasn’t wholly Capra-esque. Peter Andrews believes that he lost his job as a result of the rally, which was simply too extreme for university administrators.

Disaster also struck John Lennon, who subsequently found himself under intensive FBI surveillance and threat of deportation. The anti-Nixon tour was canceled, and the former Beatle shied away from political activism for the rest of his life.

But Leni Sinclair, for one, remains grateful for John and Yoko’s efforts on behalf of her ex-husband, and is still tickled to have been mentioned in one of Lennon’s songs.

“Just knowing that we’re part of history is a good feeling,” she says.

John Lennon Sat Here

Walking the peaceful, tree-lined streets of Ann Arbor today, one sees little that evokes the time when John Lennon and Yoko Ono came to town to sing for the freedom of John Sinclair. It is difficult to conjure up the passionate, volatile milieu of that bygone era – the demonstrations, the sit-ins, the marchers with their protest signs, the smell of tear gas in the air.

There are a few reminders of the city’s radical past still to be found here and there: Ozone House, the People’s Food Cooperative, the Ecology Center, the Ann Arbor Film Festival – and the Herb David Guitar Studio on the corner of Liberty and Fourth. There the connection to Lennon’s visit is particularly strong – in the back amid rows of guitars sits a chair that Liverpool’s favorite son once occupied nearly 40 years ago.

“He just roamed into the shop that day,” remembers Herb David. “Nobody knew who he was. He was this little red-headed guy who didn’t look like anything you thought John Lennon looked like.”

A chair that John Lennon sat in 38 years ago, at Herb David Guitar Studio in Ann Arbor. (Photo by the author.)

David recognized him, however. “I said, ‘Hi, John.’ He said, ‘I’m not John.’ So I asked who he was. He said, ‘I’m his cousin.’ I said, ‘OK – hello, cousin.’ Then I let him go, and he just roamed around and we talked.” At some point during his visit Lennon felt like taking a load off, and ended up creating an instant curio for David’s shop.

“It’s fun to have,” he says. “It has a mystique. People get excited about sitting down in the chair. I say, ‘Sit in that chair, you’ll feel different.’”

When asked if he really believes that, David grins mischievously.

“You never know,” he says.

Could it be possible? Could the chair somehow be imbued with the spirit of the John Lennon who came to Ann Arbor 38 years ago?

The John Lennon who asked only that we “Give peace a chance,” and who every holiday season wishes all a “Happy Xmas” and assures us that “War is over, if you want it?”

The John Lennon who stood on the stage in Crisler Arena and said to the assembled thousands, “We came here not only to help John [Sinclair] and to spotlight what’s going on, but also to show and to say to all of you that apathy isn’t it, and that we can do something. OK, so flower power didn’t work. So what? We start again.”

Could the spirit of that John Lennon somehow inhabit the chair?

If so, maybe we all should take a minute to sit in it.

Alan Glenn is working on a documentary film about Ann Arbor in the ’60s. Visit the film’s website for more information.

Matt Schroeder, president of the Ann Arbor firefighters Local 693, spoke to UM regents at their Sept. 17 board meeting about how possible firefighter layoffs could affect campus safety. (Photo by the writer.)

University of Michigan Board of Regents (Sept. 17, 2009): UM regents heard two presentations at their Thursday board meeting that closely linked the university and the community of Ann Arbor. Jim Kosteva, UM director of community relations, gave an update on the ways that the university is involved with the city, including payments as well as partnerships. And Matt Schroeder, president of the Ann Arbor firefighters Local 693, spoke during public comment on the possibility of additional layoffs among city firefighters and the potential impact it would have on the university.

Regents also heard several other reports and updates: from the director of the Life Sciences Institute; an architect working on the new basketball practice facility at Crisler Arena; and two alumni who hope to get the university more involved in an effort called Patriot Week.

And during her report on the board’s personnel, compensation and governance committee, regent Andrea Fischer Newman said that UM president Mary Sue Coleman had requested – and the committee agreed – not to raise Coleman’s salary this year.

We’ll begin with the issues most directly related to the Ann Arbor community: Kosteva’s report, and Schroeder’s public commentary.

Community Engagement

Cynthia Wilbanks, UM’s vice president for government relations, introduced Kosteva’s presentation by saying that in any relationship there are ups and downs, and that UM works to achieve more ups.

Kosteva cataloged several ways that the university interacted with the community, starting with UM’s relationship with the city government. UM and city staff meet monthly, he said, to discuss construction projects and other issues that might require planning and coordination. The university contributes about $125,000 annual to street repaving, he said, and is currently providing rent-free space for the Ann Arbor Police Department’s detective bureau, during construction of the city’s new municipal center.

UM partners with several government-related entities, Kosteva said, including the Downtown Development Authority and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. He cited specific examples, such as the proposed Fuller Intermodal Transportation Station, the Forest Avenue parking structure (a joint DDA/UM project) and the M-Ride agreement, in which UM pays AATA to allow university students, faculty and staff to ride AATA buses without paying a fare when they board.

The university also pays the city about $8 million each year for water, sewer and stormwater fees, which Kosteva said represented about 20% of the city’s total water and sewer operating revenues. Connection fees that the university paid the city related to construction projects have increased four-fold over the past five years, and represent over 50% of the city’s total connection fees for that period. Examples include about $550,000 for the Kellogg Eye Center, $500,000 for the Biomedical Science Research Building, and $350,000 for the Cardiovascular Center.

Though the university is exempt from paying property taxes, they pay roughly $23 million annually in leases for space they occupy in privately owned off-campus buildings, Kosteva said. The university currently accounts for about 15% of the area’s occupied commercial lease market, he said.

For bus service, the university paid AATA over $1.073 million in fiscal 2009, Kosteva said. There were 2.2 million UM riders on the bus system during that year. Those ridership numbers, coupled with the university’s own bus system, leveraged $895,000 in federal funding for regional transit in fiscal 2009, he said.

In addition, other UM payments include the rental of parking lots and classrooms from the Ann Arbor Public Schools, and payments for Ann Arbor police services during home football games and other events, Kosteva said. He also listed partnerships between the university and local groups, including:

• the UM School of Education’s Spanish-language program with the Ann Arbor Public Schools;
• the Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools, also in partnership with AAPS;
• regional transportation efforts, including possible commuter rail;
• economic development through Ann Arbor Spark, to which UM contributes $350,000 annually;
• university spin-off companies and business incubator space;
• collaboration with the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau to market and attract visitors to the city;
• support for the Washtenaw Health Plan and the Washtenaw Community Health Organization, a joint UM/Washtenaw County partnership;
• funding and in-kind assistance for a variety of cultural events, including the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, and for local nonprofits like the Hope Clinic, Meals on Wheels and the Housing Bureau for Seniors, among others.

Kosteva concluded by citing several projects that are being discussed between UM and the city, including the possible closure of Monroe Street, the Fuller Intermodal Transportation Station, and the issue of easements and staging for the East Stadium Bridges replacement project.

It was the Stadium Bridges project that elicited the only question from a regent following Kosteva’s presentation. Andrew Richner asked what the time frame was for completion of that effort, an estimated $22 million project to reconstruct the current structurally impaired bridges that span South State Street and the Ann Arbor Railroad. [See previous Chronicle coverage for an update on that project.] Kosteva said he believes the city is planning to start construction next fall. “The sooner, the better,” Richner said.

Ann Arbor Firefighters

Speaking during public comment time at the end of the meeting, Matt Schroeder, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 693, said that his union was concerned about the possibility of 14 layoffs and the possible closure of two stations, due to city budget cuts. They are currently in negotiations with the city, he said, and he was coming to the regents meeting to inform them of the situation. Statements from city administrator Roger Fraser about possible layoffs “send an alarming message to us regarding citizen safety and the safety of our crews,” he said, noting that layoffs would have a direct impact on their ability to provide basic services. There are currently 92 Ann Arbor firefighters.

Schroeder passed out a document that included information on national standards for fire ground staffing, as well as comparisons between communities in the Big Ten and throughout Michigan. Those comparisons looked at general population size, student populations, number of firefighters and equipment. Ann Arbor has the lowest number of career firefighters per 1,000 population of any community in the Big Ten, he said. All but Iowa City have more than 1.1 firefighters per 1,000 people – Ann Arbor has 0.804, a figure that would drop to 0.682 if 14 firefighters were eliminated.

He reminded regents that the university has many large buildings, and relies on Ann Arbor firefighters to respond. [The university does not maintain its own fire department and does not make regular payments to the city for fire service. It does provide rent and operating costs for a north campus fire station, on Beal Avenue near Plymouth Road, which is staffed by Ann Arbor firefighters. The university occasionally makes other contributions, such as $300,000 it paid in fiscal 2004 for a city fire engine.]

Regents expressed support for the issues that Schroeder raised. Regent Larry Deitch said that he was concerned, adding that no other group of people are more selfless and brave than firefighters. Deitch asked what the regents could do to help. Schroeder said that they just wanted to convey the current situation, and that they feel they can’t absorb additional layoffs.

Regent Denise Ilitch said that her sister had been involved in a fire at a Chicago hotel, and a firefighter had saved her life. Rest assured, she told Schroeder, that university officials will do whatever they can to make sure that people in Ann Arbor and students at UM are safe.

President’s Salary: No Raise This Year

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman reported that the board’s personnel, compensation and governance committee had evaluated UM president Mary Sue Coleman and were in unanimous agreement that she was a great president. Newman said she hoped that the Sept. 17 USA Today article, an obituary for NCAA president Myles Brand which mentioned Coleman as a possible successor, was “nothing more than sheer speculation.” Newman cited several accomplishments under Coleman’s tenure during the past year, including completion of a $3.2 billion fundraising campaign and the purchase of the former Pfizer research complex in Ann Arbor.

In recognition of the state’s economic climate, Coleman requested the board not give her a raise this year, Newman said, adding that they complied with that request. [Coleman receives $783,850 in total compensation, including a base salary of $553,500. Last year she received a 4% raise.] Coleman pointed out that none of her executive officers or deans had taken pay raises this year.

Regarding the NCAA job, Coleman said she hadn’t yet seen the article, adding “I’ve got the best job in the world. I just love it.” When someone pointed out that Walt Harrison, a former UM vice president for university relations, was also mentioned as a candidate for the job, Coleman said she thought he’d be great for that position.

Crisler Arena: Practice Facility

Don Dethlefs, CEO of the Denver-based architecture firm Sink Combs Dethlefs, showed regents the schematic designs – which they subsequently approved – for a $23.2 million basketball training facility at Crisler Arena. The two-story, 57,000-square-foot structure will include offices for men’s and women’s coaching staffs, locker rooms, two practice courts, film-viewing and hydrotherapy rooms, conditioning space and other amenities.

The design includes a “Hall of Fame” entry lobby on Crisler’s south side and a “champions” room overlooking the practice courts. These areas are envisioned for use in fundraising and other events. The lobby will be designed with a lot of glass walls and dramatic lighting, creating more of a “front door” to Crisler, Dethlefs said.

A tunnel will connect the facility to seating and the playing court at Crisler. Though the current project won’t include a roof plaza, Dethlefs said that the building will be designed to support such an addition in the future, and the athletic department hopes to eventually raise money to build it. The current project is expected to be finished in the fall of 2011. When the training facility is completed, the Crisler parking area will have about 100 fewer spaces.

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman asked for a report at some future date, giving a summary of all the construction projects that the athletic department has undertaken since Bill Martin took over as athletic director in 2000. Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, noted that a $3 million renovation to the UM football locker room in 2003 was the first investment after the department’s “difficult, dark days,” referring to the years when the department ran a deficit under the previous athletic director Tom Goss.

Other Construction Projects

The regents approved several other capital projects, with no discussion. They include:

• A $9 million electronic building access system. The university will install electronic card readers on the exterior doors of over 100 buildings on campus, which are currently locked and unlocked manually. The system will provide increased security, said Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, giving them the ability to remotely lock down buildings during emergencies, for example.
• Authorization to issue bids and award construction contracts on a $6 million soccer stadium – regents approved schematic designs for the project in June 2009.
• A $1.5 million infusion center at the East Ann Arbor Health and Geriatric Center.
• A $4 million project to upgrade the University Hospital emergency power system.

Life Sciences Institute

Early in the meeting, Alan Saltiel, director of the Life Sciences Institute, gave an update on the organization that was founded six years ago. When she introduced Saltiel, UM president Mary Sue Coleman said that he’d been inundated with calls since he announced his most recent research findings: A gene found in mice appears to control obesity. “Everyone wants to join the human clinical trials,” Coleman joked. Saltiel said his main job in life had become managing expectations.

The LSI started with the goal of recruiting a diverse group of top scientists who could work across disciplines to make new discoveries in the life sciences, Saltiel said. They now have 29 faculty with labs at the LSI building, with disciplines ranging from biology and bioinformatics to genetics and chemistry. In total, some 450 researchers work at LSI, including 150 students from across 14 different departments. They’ve secured over $150 million in research funding since the institute’s inception.

Collaboration is their mantra, Saltiel said. He cited his own research into the “obesity gene” – which long-term has potential to treat diabetes – as stemming from collaboration with several other researchers at the institute.

After Saltiel’s presentation, regent Martin Taylor asked whether the institute was the right size. Saltiel said that the building is full, but that it’s difficult to say whether it should be larger. Now, everyone knows each other, which makes it easier to collaborate. Coleman said that it’s a legitimate question to ask – the LSI model might extend to the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC), the new name for the 174-acre former Pfizer site that UM acquired earlier this year.

Research Funding

In his report to regents, Stephen Forrest, UM’s vice president for research, noted that the university had crossed a major threshold by logging a record $1.016 billion in federal research funding during fiscal 2009, which ended June 30. That’s up 9.4% from the previous year, he said, and includes only a very small amount – about $130,000 – of federal stimulus funding. Stimulus dollars will show up in the report for the current fiscal year, he said. So far, university researchers have been awarded $103.2 million in stimulus grants.

He joked that it took the university 192 years to reach the $1 billion mark, but he has set the goal of reaching $2 billion in eight years. “We’re well on our way,” he said.

Public Commentary

Patriot Week: Two speakers came to encourage UM to become engaged in Patriot Week, which ran from Sept. 11 through Sept. 17, Constitution Day. UM alum Michael Warren, an Oakland County circuit court judge and former member of the state board of education, said that he and his 10-year-old daughter, Leah Warren, came up with the idea for Patriot Week as a way to celebrate the country’s history and founding principles. Each day is dedicated to a different principle – such as the rule of law or equality – as well as a specific historical figure, founding document and symbol, as represented by a flag. He encouraged the university to embrace the event. [On a related sartorial note, Warren was wearing a bow tie with a stars-and-stripes motif.]

Accompanying Warren was David Weissman, who said he holds medical and undergraduate degrees from UM. He noted that Americans – even elected officials – score embarrassingly low on tests of civic knowledge and American history, and that it’s increasingly difficult to compete for attention to teach this information. Patriot Week is a focused approach to address this problem. He said they’d like to see UM host symposiums, student debates and celebratory events to mark the week, and to get students involved in partnerships with local high schools and elementary schools.

In response to a question from regent Andrew Richner, provost Terry Sullivan said that since 2005, the university has already been involved in events related to Constitution Week, which runs from Sept. 17-23. Specifically, she cited a panel discussion being held later that day at the law school, focused on court cases that have challenged the Constitution.

Department of Public Safety: Two people spoke on the same issue related to the DPS. Douglas Smith, a UM alumnus, spoke about the treatment of Dr. Andrei Borisov, whom Smith described as a whistleblower who was beaten by campus police then arrested for assaulting police officers. Smith said Borisov had been a research assistant professor in the university’s pediatrics department when a tenured faculty member took control of – and credit for – some of his work. Smith described a chain of events that he said led to several UM administrators conspiring to fire Borisov and prevent him from getting other jobs at the university. At one point, DPS officers escorted Borisov to his office to retrieve his personal property, Smith said, and ended up arguing with him about the contents of a briefcase, ultimately pushing him against a wall and charging him with trespassing. Smith said that Borisov discussed this incident with Stephen Hipkiss, chair of the DPS Oversight Committee, but that Hipkiss discouraged Borisov from filing a complaint against the officers. This matter should be investigated, Smith said.

Hipkiss also spoke during the time for public comment, and defended both the DPS and the oversight committee that he chairs. He described the committee’s role, and said that it was an advisory group, not a tribunal – they hear grievances, then make recommendations to the university’s chief financial officer, who has responsibility for the department. Hipkiss said that DPS has complied with all of the committee’s requests for information during the 11 years he has served on the committee. He disputed Smith’s claim that there’s not adequate oversight.

The media desk during the UM board of regents meetings. The bottle contains sanitizer for hands, not news reports. (Photo by the writer.)