2023-09-20 by The Michigan Daily

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Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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UMich rolls out four all-electric ‘Blue Buses’

The University is working to electrify its fleet as part of its sustainability efforts MATTHEW SHANBOM Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan’s Logistics, Transportation and Parking department deployed four new electric buses this fall: three of which were 40-feet long, and one 60-foot, articulated or “bendy bus.” These buses will join the University’s existing fleet of 29 diesel-hybrid buses and 27 diesel buses. The buses were manufactured by automotive company New Flyer and can drive about 250 miles on a single charge. The arrival of the buses on campus was initially delayed due to supply chain delays and safety recalls, in an effort to prevent battery leaks. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Carter Starr, a student transit coach operator, said he has gotten to work with the electric buses firsthand as a driver. Starr said he appreciates that the University is taking steps to reduce vehicle emissions. “(The move to electric buses) is definitely a step in the right direction,” Starr said. “I definitely think that it’s a good thing.” The buses are part of the University’s carbon neutrality plan, which aims to completely eliminate their direct emissions by 2040 and to reduce carbon emission levels from purchased power to net zero by 2025. The electric buses do not

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emit carbon, and the electricity used to power them is sourced from DTE through the power grid. In March 2022, the University issued a request for proposals to source all of their purchased electricity from renewable energy and the University is still looking for ways to incorporate clean energy into their sustainability efforts. Engineering junior Aarti Phatke recently rode one the 60-foot electric bus for the first time, which she said felt spacious in comparison to the other buses she has used in the past. Phatke said she is optimistic about the role electric buses can play toward a carbonneutral campus. “I enjoyed my ride on the accordion bus,” Phatke said. “I think the transition to all-electric buses is going to decrease the University’s carbon emissions. I think it’s a great push to be carbon neutral.” The electric buses are housed at the University’s new transit facility on Dean Road, which was constructed last year to support electric vehicles and improve route efficiency. In an email to The Daily, University spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen wrote that the new facility features “larger maintenance bays, a bus wash and depot chargers.” The 60-foot electric bus is the first of its size on campus and was introduced to accommodate capacity shortages during peak transit times. Currently, the 60-foot

SARAH BAYNE/Daily

A hybrid electric clean mobility bus moves through the Central Campus Transit Center.

bus is operating along the BursleyBaits and Med Express routes, allowing more riders to fit on a single bus when the stop is busy. BursleyBaits, which connects North and Central Campus, is one of the most in-demand routes for the campus community, with buses coming

approximately every 10 minutes during peak times. The 60-foot, larger bus is being used on the Med Express route in accordance with shift changes at the hospital when Michigan Medicine employees need to move to and from the University’s Medical campus.

Phatke said there is a clear benefit to using the 60-foot bus, especially when there are events during the academic year that students need to travel across campus for. “I think it definitely helps towards the beginning of the year when students are figuring out their

classes,” Phatke said. “Same goes (for) exam season when everyone gets out of the exam hall at the same time and the buses are packed again.” The University expects to receive a second order of four electric buses in the spring.

AAPS Board approves superintendent resignation After 10 years, Superintendent Jeanice Swift will step down

JOEY LIN

Daily News Editor

The Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education voted 5-2 Wednesday evening to approve superintendent Jeanice Swift’s settlement and resignation, ending her decade-long tenure after many trustees called for her resignation. Board members Susan Schmidt and Susan Baskett voted against the decision. Swift will continue to serve as superintendent until the board appoints an interim superintendent, but not past Oct. 31, 2023. Swift will

remain on AAPS staff as transition advisor until Dec. 31, 2023. After Dec. 31, she will receive a onetime payment equal to 18 months’ salary at the rate being paid at the time of termination, estimated to be $230,000. The board released a statement Thursday announcing their decision to accept Swift’s resignation and thanking Swift for her contributions to AAPS over the past 10 years. “The Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education and Superintendent Dr. Jeanice Kerr Swift have reached a voluntary separation agreement,” the statement read. “We would like

to thank Dr. Swift for her work in leading the Ann Arbor Public Schools since 2013 and we look forward to working together as we transition to a change in the leadership of the district. The Board is grateful for Dr Swift’s time and dedication to the Ann Arbor Public Schools and we wish her the best.” Swift’s resignation ends over a month of disagreement on the board when they voted on a path toward removing the superintendent after concerns were raised from the board on Sept. 7. Many AAPS parents and community members called for Swift’s resignation following

alleged a inaction after a 7-yearold special education student was allegedly abused by a school bus aide in December 2021. According to Jaime Nelson, the student’s mother, the aide physically and verbally abused her son and the school district failed to look into security camera evidence of the incident for five weeks after the incident was reported. Nelson filed a lawsuit against AAPS, the principal of Carpenter Elementary School and Durham Transportation on July 26 for abusing her child and hiding it from her, law enforcement and Child Protective Services for weeks

afterward. In August, nearly 100 current and former AAPS parents signed a letter calling for Swift’s resignation. Following the lawsuit, AAPS board president Rima Mohammad issued a statement saying that the board had recently learned of the incident and would take action to uphold student safety. “The Board recently learned of the bus incident that occurred in December 2021 and we are deeply concerned and dismayed,” the statement read. “Student safety is always our top priority in the AAPS, and we are very sorry to hear about how this incident has impacted the

child and the family. As always, we will take all allegations seriously and address them promptly.” During her 11 years in the superintendent role, Swift successfully campaigned for a tax increase for Ann Arbor residents that would benefit AAPS and passed a $1 billion capital bond in 2019 for the district. According to MLive, Mohammad said that the board will continue to update the community and schedule listening sessions for next steps and information on a search for a new superintendent. Read more at michigandaily.com

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Community music concert celebrates new theme semester The Fall 2023 semester aims to encompass “Arts & Resistance” on campus

ASTRID CODE

Daily Staff Reporter

Students walking through the Diag Thursday evening may have seen and heard hundreds of community members singing, linking arms and swaying along to songs such as “Lean on Me” and “We Shall Overcome.” This community sing was hosted by the Michigan Community Scholars Program, University of Michigan Arts Initiative and Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts with the theme “Songs of Resistance and Hope.” Eugene Rogers, U-M director of choirs, helped lead and plan the event. Rogers told the crowd they were gathered as one community to sing together and uplift voices of resistance. “Some people have asked, ‘What are we resisting against?’ ” Rogers said. “We are resisting against all forms of injustice, all forms of discrimination. You name it, we’re resisting it. But we’re also coming together because we’re hopeful when we think about our country, and how song has brought us together.” Thursday’s event was one of many public events planned for the Arts & Resistance theme semester, a

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partnership between the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Arts Initiative. The theme semester includes over 100 courses, as well as performances, lectures and exhibits such as Respond/Resist/ Rethink and Amal Walks Across America. UMMA Director Christina Olsen told The Michigan Daily the theme was inspired by two of the museum’s exhibits: “Hear Me Now,” which displays the work of Black potters in South Carolina, and “You’re Welcome,” which will feature the work of Cannupa Hanska Luger, a New Mexicobased artist whose work focuses on environmental injustice and gender-based violence. “I think that art has unique capacities to resist, largely because it’s often working … in a way in which knowledge and status quo and cultural categories are themselves getting questioned,” Olsen said. “It has inherent powers of calling attention to power structures, to forms of oppression, to people and ideas that have been marginalized and disenfranchised.” Dave Choberka, curator for University Learning and Programs at the UMMA, told The Daily most of his work on the Arts & Resistance Steering Committee involves reaching out to the U-M community

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to make their ideas happen. “We did a lot of workshops early on about what the theme semester is and what opportunities there are to get funding to do your own things,” Choberka said. “We’ve been really trying to assist people to set up their own programs and then doing a lot of consolidated promotion of those. The community sing is a great example of that.” Olsen said she had long been advocating for the idea of a community sing as one of the main events for the theme semester. “There’s something very profound and communal, of course, about singing and I love the idea of the Arts Initiative putting out to everybody that art is not just for people who are good at it,” Olsen said. “I think that singing and dancing and drawing and all these forms have to be kind of liberated from that idea of proficiency or perfection and that students so need that.” Although accomplished singers such as Alice McAllister Tillman, Our Own Thing Chorale music director, and Jillian Burgam, Detroit Women’s Chorus director, led each song, the organizers stressed that the event was not a concert, and no skill or experience in singing was needed to join in. Christine Modey, Michigan

CALEB ROSENBLUM/Daily Aaron Samuels performs at Community Sing: Songs of Resistance and Hope on the Diag Thursday Evening.

Community Scholars Program director, helped organize the event and told The Daily that when people sing together, they often are breathing together and listening to each other. “It creates this sense of oneness and unity that we don’t get very much in our lives in any other space,” Modey said. “That’s what makes it worth it … The feeling of

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being together and sort of breathing and singing into the world what we want it to be like, not the way it is.” LSA freshman Elizabeth Lane, a member of the U-M Arts Chorale, told The Daily she felt a sense of togetherness and collective action at the event. “I always get kind of nervous at big social events, but it just felt so comforting,” Lane said. “Even

being around so many people, the community was just insane. It was so moving to be around so many people that are just together in the music and in the fight.” LSA senior Macey Owen told The Daily she recognized many of the songs from protests she has participated in.

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