Michigan Recreational Sports rebranding as Michigan Recreation
Michigan Recreational Sports will be renamed Michigan Recreation this summer, reflecting the continuing expansion of the department’s scope to broaden opportunities that support the physical and mental well-being of U-M students, faculty, staff and greater campus community. This change in the department’s name also aligns with the strategic priority of health and well-being within the Division of Student Life and U-M’s Vision 2034. The new department name of Michigan Recreation comes as U-M prepares to open the more than 200,000-square-foot Hadley Family Recreation and Well-Being Center in fall 2025. The comprehensive recreation center features an indoor aquatics center, a track for jogging and walking, spaces for weight and cardiovascular training, multiple gymnasium courts, group exercise rooms, climbing areas, courts for squash and racquetball, a cycling studio, and more. For more information, go online to recsports.umich.edu.
College of Pharmacy hosting Safe Medical and Sharps Disposal
The College of Pharmacy will host a free Safe Medication and Sharps Disposal event from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 1 at Ingalls Mall. Accepted items include pills/tablets/capsules; liquids and glass vials; creams and ointments; patches and inhalers; vitamins and supplements; veterinary medicine; controlled medications; and sharps and sharps containers. Items such as sunscreen, insect repellant, cosmetics, hair care, personal hygiene products, aerosol cans, blood or infectious waste and tobacco will not be accepted. Safe medication and sharps disposal helps reduce the risk of drug diversion/abuse/misuse, preventing accidental poisoning and ingestion by children, risk of virus transmission, and keeping potentially harmful substances out of our water and landfills. During a similar event in October, approximately 1,000 pounds of medical waste was collected from community members in Washtenaw County.
Michigan Debate team captures national tournament win
The U-M Debate program recently won the 38th annual American Debate Association National Championship. The three-day tournament, held March 8-10 in Houston, featured nearly 200 competitors from 25 institutions. In the tournament’s final round, LSA students Eleanor Barrett, a freshman from Austin, Texas, and Jiyoon Park, a junior from Topeka, Kansas, defeated Northwestern University on a 3-0 decision. Earlier in the elimination rounds, they also defeated teams from Emory University, the University of Kentucky and Liberty University en route to the tournament victory. For two other U-M teams, Avinash Shah and Conner Shih reached the “Sweet Sixteen,” and Rebecca Davidov and Ben Saudek reached the elimination round of 32. U-M’s Debate Team began in 1903 and is one of the oldest debate programs in the United States. The team will conclude the 2024-25 season April 3-7 at the 79th annual National Debate Tournament in Spokane, Washington, where U-M is the defending champion.
‘Painless: The Opioid Musical’ available for licensing nationwide
“Painless: The Opioid Musical” started as an idea by Chad Brummett, co-director of OPEN, when he gave a lecture to high school students and learned that almost 75% of them admitted to having easy access to unused opioids. After Brummett contacted Vincent J. Cardinal, professor and former chair of musical theatre, in 2018, students at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance were invited to hear true stories of people in recovery and loved ones of people with substance use disorder from Face Addiction Now. These stories were translated into songs by undergraduate student Jacob Ryan Smith and formed “Painless: The Opioid Musical.” Last month, “Painless” became available for licensing across the country through Innovation Partnerships at U-M. With this non-commercial license, organizations across the country will be able to hold performances of “Painless” in their communities free-of-charge for up to one year. After gaining the rights to performance, organizations will receive access to sheet music, instrumental tracks, production instructions, marketing resources, and additional educational tools.
Want to preserve biodiversity? Go big, U-M researchers say
Large, undisturbed forests are better for harboring biodiversity than fragmented landscapes, according to University of Michigan research. Ecologists agree that habitat loss and the fragmentation of forests reduces biodiversity in the remaining fragments. But ecologists don’t agree whether it’s better to focus on preserving many smaller, fragmented tracts of land or larger, continuous landscapes. The study, published in Nature and led by U-M ecologist Thiago Gonçalves-Souza, comes to a conclusion on the decades-long debate. “Fragmentation is bad,” said study author Nate Sanders, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. “This paper clearly shows that fragmentation has negative effects on biodiversity across scales. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to conserve small fragments when we can with our limited conservation dollars, but we need to be wise about conservation decisions.” Read more about this study.
— Compiled by Jeff Bleiler, The University Record
