ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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GOVERNMENT
Engineering Dean Whitmer talks literacy, housing and health resigns, takes job at care in 2026 State of the State Penn State University “Over the last seven years, we’ve delivered on the kitchen table issues. Wages and GDP are up, crime and overdose deaths are down.”
Karen Thole, the first female dean of the College of Engineering, was appointed in May 2024 GLENN HEDIN Daily News Editor
Engineering Dean Karen Thole announced Friday she will resign from her position at the University of Michigan to become the inaugural director of The Pennsylvania State University’s new National Security Institute. Her last day at the University will be May 14. Thole previously served as the head of Penn State’s department of mechanical engineering from 2006 to 2021, founding the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine Lab during her tenure. Her new work will focus on growing the National Security Institute by fostering collaboration with Penn State’s existing applied research programs and coordinating with national security research interests in the public and private sectors. Thole was appointed as the first female dean of the College of
Engineering in May 2024. She was recently elected into the National Academy of Engineering, a nonprofit organization established to promote the engineering profession and advise the federal government. In an email to The Michigan Daily, Paul Corlis, assistant vice president for public affairs and internal communications, wrote the University is thankful for Thole’s work in Ann Arbor. “We are grateful for Dean Thole’s service to the College of Engineering,” Corliss wrote. “We wish her well as she returns to Penn State and support her decision to return to her research endeavors in this critical role. The move puts her close to the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) Lab she spent two decades building at Penn State. This work is important to her, and recently earned her membership in the National Academy of Engineering.”
Holly Burkhart/DAILY An aerial view of the University of Michigan North Campus.
GIA VERMA & JONAH FELDMAN Daily News Editor & Daily News Contributor
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivered her eighth and final State of the State address from the Michigan State Capitol’s House Chamber Wednesday evening. In her address, Whitmer highlighted her accomplishments during her past two terms as governor and goals for her final year in office. During her opening remarks, Whitmer said she is proud of the state’s recent progress. “Over the last seven years, we’ve delivered on the kitchen table issues,” Whitmer said. “Wages and GDP are up, crime and overdose deaths are down. Pre-K, school meals and community colleges are all free. Taxes on retirement, tips, overtime and Social Security gone. We fixed more roads, built more homes and replaced more lead pipes than ever, and more people moved into Michigan from other states and out for the first time since the early ’90s.” Despite these accomplishments, Whitmer outlined three areas for improvement: increasing literacy rates, creating more affordable housing and forgoing medical debt. She said bipartisan collaboration is the most effective way to address these issues in a time of increasing political polarization. “We’re all exhausted by the endless division,” Whitmer said. “Too many people are quick to judge and eager to spin everything
ADMINISTRATION
Jonah Feldman/DAILY Governor Gretchen Whitmer delivers her last State of the State address from the Michigan House Chamber Feb. 25.
they read, watch or hear. … But despite these national challenges, Michiganders can show the way forward. We can show the rest of the country how we work together to get things done.” Whitmer first addressed the issue of literacy. Currently, fourth graders in Michigan rank 44th in the country for reading scores, with boys falling behind girls in every age group. Whitmer said she is hoping to combat this issue during her final year in office. “Literacy is a national challenge,” Whitmer said. “No matter who becomes governor after me, they’ll have to continue this work, because,
simultaneously, our economy demands every child possess stronger reading, writing and critical thinking skills than ever before, and yet, we’re not keeping up with top states — but we can. We can close the gender gap and raise the bar for all kids.” Whitmer’s 2027 fiscal year budget recommendation proposes $625 million for literacy support — the largest targeted literacy investment in Michigan’s history. She said her Every Child Reads plan consists of teaching reading early, using proven teaching methods and emphasizing extra help. “First, we start teaching reading earlier. Those early
years are crucial, it’s when young brains are best able to absorb new information for babies and toddlers,” Whitmer said. “Second, let’s get proven literacy teaching practices into all Michigan classrooms. … Finally, extra help. Now, potential is universal, but opportunity is not.” Whitmer then addressed Michigan’s housing affordability. The first-time home buyer median age has increased to an all-time high of 40 years old since 1990; Whitmer said she understands Michiganders’ frustrations, referencing her own experience as a homeowner.
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ANN ARBOR
UMich Postdoctoral Researchers’ City Council rezones corner of 5th Organization officially Avenue and Madison Street for recognized as union 14-story high-rise
“We all deeply love what we study, and we just want to be fairly “Just as all of us are fortunate to live in this community, there compensated for it so that we can focus on our work.” are many others who are coming and really need places to live.” ADRIANNE
TOTU-FRANK Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan Postdoctoral Researchers’ Organization became a legally recognized union Feb. 25 by completing a successful card check, with two-thirds of more than 1,500 postdoc employees signing union authorization cards. Recent threats to postdoctoral research funding and resources by President Donald Trump’s administration prompted postdoctoral workers of all U-M disciplines to begin the process of forming a union to protect workers’ rights on campus in late 2024. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Rackham doctoral student Nick Geiser, a UM-PRO postdoctoral organizer, said many postdoctoral researchers are looking for more job security amid these threats. “With the loss of grant funding, many postdocs have already been laid off,” Geiser said. “For those of us who have more secure jobs, they’re far less secure now than they would have been, say, two years ago. … Now, more than ever, it’s important that postdocs join together to try to protect our jobs in the midst of these attacks on federal research funding.” Geiser said when the union begins their first contract negotiations, it will prioritize international researchers’ rights, family care benefits and raising wages to or above the National Institutes of Health minimum rates. “Postdocs are circulating a bargaining survey to assess democratically what our priorities are,” Geiser said. “Right now,
there’s no standard pay for postdocs, so it’s very important that as a postdoc union, we’re able to negotiate a fair base wage for all postdocs. ” In an email to The Daily, Rackham postdoctoral researcher Maria Martinez Navarrete, an international scholar and postdoctoral researcher, wrote that she believes unionizing is an opportunity to protect international workers’ jobs. “(International postdoctoral researchers) e are often among the groups most affected by layoffs and funding cuts, and for international postdocs, losing funding can also mean losing the right to stay in the country,” Martinez Navarette wrote “Unionizing means postdocs can work together and take collective action to defend our jobs and our research.” Unlike other U-M employees, postdoctoral researchers do not receive retirement benefits — another issue Geiser said the union would also like to address in their first contract. “Postdocs are some of the only workers at the University that don’t receive retirement benefits,” Geiser said. “Postdocs are exempt from this benefit currently, and I think a pretty fair place that we would like to land is to try to get the same retirement benefits that other University staff and faculty get.” In an email to The Daily, Paul Corliss, assistant vice president of public affairs and internal communications, wrote the University aims to facilitate a productive contract negotiation process with UM-PRO when they begin bargaining March 25. “The University of Michigan values its relationship with our postdoctoral research fellows,”
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Corliss wrote. “We worked well with the University of Michigan Postdoctoral Researchers’ Organization (UM-PRO) throughout the recognition process. The university looks forward to engaging in good-faith negotiations to achieve an inaugural collective bargaining agreement that is fair and sustainable for postdoctoral research fellows and the university.” In an interview with The Daily, Rackham doctoral student Joseph Mirabelli, a UM-PRO postdoctoral organizer, said the time it takes to form a union posed a challenge because workers want the sought protections considering the national job security threats. “It has been very time consuming to get recognized as a union,” Mirabelli said. “A lot of postdocs find that frustrating because we would like the protections against these cuts that are going on in the Trump administration and to get the wages and benefits that we think are appropriate for a worldclass research university as soon as possible.” Geiser said becoming part of a union will allow postdoctoral scholars to give more attention to their research since the union will protect their jobs. “There are so many postdocs who want to make the University as beneficial and fair and supportive a place as possible to work at so that we can do the best research that we could possibly do,” Geiser said. “We love our research and we want to make the world a better place through the various types of research we do — be it engineering, medicine or mathematics. We all deeply love what we study, and we just want to be fairly compensated for it so that we can focus on our work.”
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NIKO WILSON
Daily Staff Reporter
The Ann Arbor City Council met Monday evening at Larcom City Hall to approve the rezoning of 558 S. Fifth Ave., clearing the way for a 14-story high-rise apartment complex that drew both sharp neighborhood opposition and strong support from housing advocates. The 0.85-acre parcel, located in the northwest corner of the intersection with East Madison Street, currently contains multiple two-story houses. However, Ordinance B-1 changed the land’s designated use from multiplefamily dwelling and limited industrial to downtown core, allowing house demolition and the development of a new 14-story apartment complex, The Dean. To begin the meeting, the council unanimously passed the consent agenda, containing 27 resolutions including infrastructure contracts for street repaving, park maintenance and water main replacements. The council then held a public hearing for the rezoning ordinance, during which residents of the Germantown neighborhood voiced a variety of concerns about The Dean. At 159 feet and 14 stories, The Dean would be one of Ann Arbor’s tallest buildings. Beverly Strassmann, president of the Germantown Neighborhood Association, said The Dean would cause excessive traffic congestion in a similar fashion to other recent high-rise projects, like The Yard. “One hundred eighty-two student apartments and 84 vehicle spaces create a level of density that this area cannot absorb,”
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Strassmann said. “South Fifth and South Fourth avenues will be clogged by delivery trucks — they’ll be parked in the bike lanes. This is true already for The Yard and many other structures, however The Yard is only six stories, it’s two blocks away. Everything else in the neighborhood is about three stories. You have to go very far to even find something that’s seven stories.” The Dean would stand directly across the street from Elbel Field and near the upcoming 2,300-bed Wolverine Village. The University of Michigan has proposed other developments in the area, including a transit center. Ann Arbor resident Adam Jaskiewicz said the University’s expansion makes the site a prime location for new housing units. “The fact is that downtown has spread to surround this location,” Jaskiewicz said. “It’s an entirely appropriate location for dense, student-oriented housing. This is a great location for a project like this. Please do not deny much needed housing while we are in the midst of a housing supply crisis.” The Dean is being developed by Pennsylvania-based GMH Communities, which operates large residential properties in 16 states, mostly in college towns. Opposition to high-rise proposals on this site is not new; in 2010, the council rejected the Moravian, a proposed five-story apartment complex, following significant neighborhood pushback. Fifth Avenue property owner Richard Jacobson said The Dean raises similar concerns about nearby property values and the neighborhood’s character. “It will overshadow the surrounding 19th-century homes,
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making rental units in those homes — including mine — less attractive to potential renters due to highly increased noise, traffic and shade,” Jacobson said. “The ghastly project is nothing more than a repeat of the Moravian.” When addressing the council, Ann Arbor resident Anne Eisen also criticized the project’s design and said recent developments, such as The Standard, lacked green space and pedestrianfocused planning. “We need pedestrian-friendly designs with retail at the street level, spaces for trees and benches along the sidewalks, because no one enjoys walking alongside a big, solid wall,” Eisen said. “I’m skeptical of what you all and the developers say, so I’m looking at what gets done and I’m thinking of The Standard. … I think it is the ugliest building on Main Street.” Councilmember Erica Briggs, D-Ward 5, acknowledged residents’ concerns but emphasized the need for highdensity projects like The Dean to meet the city’s increasing housing demand. “This is a big shift for the area and I understand your concerns around this,” Briggs said. “Our job at the table is to try to balance a variety of different issues — those being the neighborhoodbased concerns, as well as the larger issues that we’re facing as a community and the need to provide the type of housing to support the needs of our community today. Just as all of us are fortunate to live in this community, there are many others who are coming and really need places to live here.”
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