Around Campus:
- Robert Cohen/AP
Student government votes against Ferguson resolution, despite past support
A resolution asking Central Student Government to stand against “increased racist, unjustified police brutality” and support all nonviolent action of youth to combat it was dismissed Oct. 6 by a 22-11 vote.
The legislation — a direct response to this summer’s shooting of unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. — was introduced to the assembly Sept. 16 and postponed Sept. 23.
Members of By Any Means Necessary, a pro-affirmative action organization, mobilized around the vote and told student representatives that passing the resolution would constitute an opportunity for minority students on campus to get involved in the Ferguson movement.
Ironically, three amendments were discussed and ultimately passed before the assembly voted on the resolution; however, they were not enough to earn the approval of the majority.
School of Public Health releases Ebola-oriented video series
Researchers in the School of Public Health have filmed a number of YouTube videos to raise awareness about Ebola and place its current outbreak — and subsequent media scare — in context.
The series comprises six videos, each of which runs between two and three minutes and addresses a pertinent question about the hemorrhagic fever.
These include queries regarding the extent to which Ebola is contagious — not as much as one might think; it is only spread through direct contact with bodily fluids — why the current outbreak is so severe and why a vaccine doesn’t currently exist, among other issues.
Blimpy Burger returns, as does its polar bear paraphernalia
Just more than a year since closing its original location on South Division and Packard streets, Ann Arbor stronghold Blimpy Burger returned last Friday, opening its doors at 11 a.m. and drawing 40-person-long lines throughout its first hours of service.
The burger joint left its old storefront in Aug. 2013 to make way for the incoming Munger Graduate Residence Hall — the University bought the property for $1.075 million.
Customers traveled from miles away to get their Blimpy Fix; one couple drove from Dundee, 30 minutes south of Ann Arbor. One of the restaurant’s most enduring clients, Herm Steinman, who has been a patron since 1958, even played the bagpipes in celebration of the official reopening.
Around the World:
United States’ first Ebola patient dies
Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient in Dallas, died after his condition worsened from serious to critical over the course of the 10 days he was hospitalized.
Duncan was one of six people who have been treated for Ebola in the United States thus far; three have recovered and two are in the midst of treatment.
In addition, officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Duncan was quarantined, said they had admitted a second patient hours after Duncan’s death for possible exposure to Ebola.
Duncan had been treated with an experimental drug called brincidofovir. In the wake of the news, five of America’s busiest airports will now increase post-flight preventative measures to combat the spread of Ebola by requiring travelers returning from West African nations to go through extensive screening.
Ferguson police chief denies allegations of racism
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson had an exclusive interview with The Washington Post this week, in which he denied claims that he and his department are racist — in fact, he asserted the opposite.
Jackson talked about formative experiences growing up in the St. Louis area, where he said he was primed to be accepting of all people regardless of race. If anything, he said, seeing Black friends prejudiced against in his youth inspired him to be fair as a law enforcer.
“As a young policeman, it made me made sure that I treated everyone fairly because I had a sense of this perception [that police sometimes treated black people differently],” he told the Post. “Since I was aware of it and knew it was real, I wasn’t going to be a part of it. … As a supervisor and as a commander, I’d do everything I could to make sure that no one undermined my direction and behaved in such a manner.”