The university will host a public transportation technology forum that will bring vendors and experts together with state and local governments and the university. They will explore future transportation opportunities, including development of a more efficient system to connect the Central, Medical and North campuses. Possibilities include rail, monorail, dedicated road and other technologies.
“In recent years, the campus has experienced tremendous growth through academic, research, clinical and athletic initiatives,” says Hank Baier, associate vice president for facilities and operations. “At the same time, the need for responsible environmental stewardship has taken on even greater importance. Limited state funding has added to our challenge and highlighted the need for sustainable resource management.”
The public session will be from 7-9:30 p.m. March 10 in Stamps Auditorium. It will include a presentation from students in the College of Engineering and a panel discussion with individuals representing different transit approaches.
The forum is coordinated with other local initiatives and agencies that are routinely engaged in regional transportation activities including the City of Ann Arbor, State of Michigan, Downtown Development Authority, Michigan Department of Transportation, Ann Arbor Transportation Authority and the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study.
Baier also notes the university will use the research and information gathered at the public session to advance the university’s transportation technology planning activities and to ensure U-M is considering all possible innovations.
ISR hosts human rights lecture
Judith Blau, University of North Carolina and director of the Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, N.C., and president of the U.S. chapter of Sociologists without Borders, will lecture on “Localizing International Human Rights Laws” at noon Friday at the Institute for the Humanities, Room 2022, 202 S. Thayer St.
Blau is the founder of the journal Societies without Borders: Human Rights & the Social Sciences and serves on the Science & Human Rights Coalition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her books on human rights (with Spanish author Alberto Moncada) include “Human Rights: Beyond the Liberal Vision.”
The lecture is sponsored by The Center for International and Comparative Studies and the Institute for the Humanities.
