UM-Dearborn fellowship aims to create ‘dream team of sustainability’
A new campuswide initiative is working to bring together sustainability efforts from all four UM-Dearborn colleges. Four students have been selected as Environmental Interpretive Center Collegiate Sustainability Fellows — from each UM-Dearborn college — to improve sustainability practices on campus, both through individual projects and interdisciplinary collaboration. The program is a collaboration between the EIC and the Office of the Provost. Jacob Napieralski, professor of geology and the EIC director since 2023, said he’s learned about the work toward sustainability that happens across campus and wanted a way to amplify those initiatives. “Great things are happening, but it’s not organized in a specific community-facing location,” said Napieralski, who collaborates closely with UM-Dearborn’s Sustainability Coordinator, Grace Maves. “We want to work on sustainability initiatives in a way that it becomes part of our DNA at UM-Dearborn.” Read more about this initiative.
University asks for help clearing parking lots for basketball games
With the recent start of the 2024-25 U-M home basketball season, Logistics, Transportation & Parking and the athletic department is asking for university employees’ assistance as they work to provide parking for game attendees. All personal vehicles are to be removed from the signed areas that prohibit parking within the SC5 (Yellow) Lot and SC6 (Orange) Lot by 5 p.m. on the following weekdays when games are scheduled: Nov. 4, 15, 18 and 21; Jan. 27; Feb. 11, 21, and 27; and March 5. In addition, all U-M vehicles are to be removed from lots SC4, SC5, SC6 and SC7 by 5 p.m. on weekday game days, and on the Friday before the following weekend games: Dec. 7, 22 and 29; Jan. 12 and 19; and March 2. Read more about this on the LTP website.
Kathleen Kruse elected as Senate representative on PDOC
Kathleen Kruse, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and medical director of the Nyman Unit in the Medical School, has been elected to serve as the Faculty Senate representative on the six-member Police Department Oversight Committee. Kruse won a ranked-choice election from among 10 candidates in which Ann Arbor campus Faculty Senate members ranked their top five candidates. If no candidate had a majority, the candidate with the lowest number of votes was eliminated and their votes redistributed to voters’ next choice. This process continued until Kruse was determined the winner. She will serve a two-year term on the committee that considers grievances against police officers and the U-M Police Department. It may make recommendations to the executive director of the Division of Public Safety and Security. The six-member committee includes two students, two faculty members (one Senate faculty and one non-Senate faculty) and two staff members (one union and one non-union). Learn more about the PDOC at hr.umich.edu/working-u-m/workplace-improvement/police-department-oversight-committee.
Researchers to evaluate effectiveness of firearm-storage campaign
Michigan enacted a safe storage law in February mandating secure firearm storage when minors are present. The law seeks to prevent children’s unintended access to firearms and ultimately curb firearm injury and death, the top cause of death in children in the United States. Researchers from the School of Public Health and the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention recently secured a $998,907 grant from the National Institute of Justice to evaluate a safe storage campaign program led by End Gun Violence Michigan. The campaign is a community-led, school-based secure firearm storage campaign in schools across Michigan that seeks to promote safe storage practices in adults and prevent adolescent firearm violence. This work, which will begin in 2025, will be one of the first to rigorously assess the impact of school-based campaigns on secure firearm storage practices. The study will involve 30 Michigan high schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Read more about this campaign.
High school binge drinking predicts midlife alcohol use, study shows
A U-M study reveals that adults aged 35 to 60 are drinking at unprecedented rates, with a striking link between high school binge drinking and risky midlife alcohol consumption. Women, in particular, seem to be experiencing a pronounced surge in risky drinking behaviors, according to the research published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research. About 20% to 30% of midlife adults reported binge drinking — with four or more drinks for women, five for men — and 1 in 10 engaged in high-intensity drinking, having 8-10 drinks in a row. “We found that people who reported binge drinking in high school engaged in higher levels of alcohol use on a range of indicators decades later during midlife, compared to people who did not binge drink in high school,” said author Megan Patrick, a research professor at the Institute for Social Research’s Survey Research Center. “For example, among those who didn’t binge at age 18, only 20% reported binge drinking in midlife compared with 40% among those who did binge at age 18.” Read more about this study.
— Compiled by James Iseler and Jeff Bleiler, The University Record
