- U-M ‘ahead of schedule’ in expansion at ex-Pfizer site
(annarbor.com, January 22, 2012)Five years after Pfizer announced its plans to leave the facility, U-M—which acquired the 174-acre property for $108 million in 2009—has about 1,000 employees at the site. The university expects to have 1,700 by the end of 2012. “We’re pretty ecstatic about what’s happening,” said U-M president Mary Sue Coleman.
- Human trafficking a growing crime in the U.S.
(USA Today, January 22, 2012)Nade ended up in the care of the University of Michigan Law School’s Human Trafficking Clinic, the only clinic of its kind in the U.S. devoted solely to helping human trafficking victims. The 2-year-old clinic, which currently has 30 open cases, got a tip about Nade from a national human trafficking hotline. The clinic staff helped her find a safe place to live in the area and continues to counsel her. Her captors have fled the country.
- A StarKid Is Born
(NY Times, February 12, 2012)In the real world, Moses is a bartender who lives in Williamsburg. But on the Internet, it’s a different story. He is an original member of Team StarKid, a troupe of two dozen former University of Michigan theater students whose hilarious “Harry Potter” parody, “A Very Potter Musical,” turned them into viral stars in 2009. (Moses played an overenunciating Severus Snape, complete with a clenched jaw and a black wig.) The troupe hit three of the medium’s erogenous zones—singing, good-looking young people and Potter nerddom. Fans love StarKid, he explains, because like “Glee,” it proves that musical-theater success “is not impossible.”
- College Goal Sunday brings students out
(MInbcnews.com, February 12, 2012)Students filled out forms at the University of Michigan-Flint taking their first step to higher learning. Roman Peabody, who attends Mott Middle College attended the event. He says “I’m flat broke right now, so anything I can get is a great help.” Financial aid officials say of U of M Flint’s 8,000 students, around 70% receive assistance.
- Rangers Rookie Hagelin Is Finding His Own Way
(NY Times, January 23, 2012)“Carl had the speed, but there wasn’t much to him,” said the NY Rangers’ chief scout Gord Clark, referring to Hagelin’s 5-foot-11, 180-pound frame. “But when they told me he committed to Michigan, it changed everything. Red Berenson plays an up-tempo system. It often doesn’t work out this way with a prospect because N.H.L. teams don’t have control, but Carl could not have gone to a better place to develop.”
- Speedy LaMarre rising swiftly through ranks
(MLB.com, February 6, 2012)In a year when one former Red and University of Michigan product enters the Hall of Fame in Barry Larkin, an up and coming Reds prospect and Univ. of Michigan product hopes to be in the Majors. Or at least very close. Taken in the second round of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft, speedy outfielder Ryan LaMarre is progressing rather quickly…and rather well.
- Online dating: the secret science of love at first byte
(msnbc.com, February 8, 2012)In 1965, a pair of University of Michigan undergrads found each other with the help of a primitive computer dating program. Mina Jo Rosenbloom was in her junior year when she and Michael Linver, just admitted to medical school, became computer dating’s digital Adam and Eve. She didn’t have much faith that it would work. He came across a crazy ad for a dating service that used computers. Their mutual willingness to take a chance paid off.