By Mark Hicks  As the Russian invasion of Ukraine sparks more bloodshed and alarms people around the world, Wayne State University at a rally Thursday heard messages about the global implications of war. Wayne State University professor Alisa Moldavanova teaches a course on ethics, and she said the conflict helped underscore the concepts for her students in real time. “Ethical leadership is about doing the right thing,” she told a crowd gathered on campus. “And I think the world should be doing the right thing. All of us here should be doing the right thing. Much like my family and other people in Ukraine are doing the right thing.” The importance of speaking up, helping and taking action anchored the peace vigil Moldavanova helped lead to support Ukrainians. The event came as Russian forces battled for control of a crucial energy-producing city in Ukraine’s south on Thursday and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea, as Ukrainian leaders called on citizens to rise up and wage guerrilla war against the invaders. The fighting came as another round of talks between the two sides yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors inside Ukraine to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid. “We pray for peace and an immediate end to the violence,” said Ahmad Ezzeddine, Wayne State’s vice president for academic student affairs and global engagement. Viktor Burlaka, who teaches in the WSU School of Social Work and has ties to Ukraine, described the situation as pivotal and galvanizing. “Ukraine did not cease to exist and we are still alive,” he said. “Ukraine is magnified, and today it’s in the heart of the people around the world. We are united and organized as never before.” 

By Steve Tengler  The point of sale (POS) of any business is critically important. If you imagine the register at any retail outlet or fast-food franchise, the operator must know the menu, those items presently sold-out, and the semi-scripted-yet-extemporaneous process of reacting to unforeseen incidents as to salvage the customer relationship. So is the standard life of an auto dealership. Only this year presents multiple challenges that far exceed the norm, and as the annual conference approaches where manufacturers and dealerships meet to coordinate the upcoming year – the 2022 National Automotive Dealers Association Show. The question hangs in the air about whether this year is the most critical for dealerships, specifically the looming areas requiring fantastic communication between manufacturer and dealer are how to presently manage the integrated circuit chip shortage and how to prepare for the anticipated, step-function change in electric vehicle sales. Depending upon the strategies of the manufacturer, supply chain issues have played out either by reducing manufacturing, offering fewer vehicle options, or stockpiling semi-built vehicles with plans to retrofit the shells later. Ford, for example, has stockpiled unfinished vehicles in various sites expressly to maintain manufacturing staffing, to be ready to quickly meet the pent-up demand of new vehicles, and per the words of Wayne State Univesity’s Tim Butler, associate professor of global supply chain management at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business, to avoid “…suffering the long-term effects of not keeping [suppliers] sustained with business…” 

By Nidhi Prakash  As the world enters a third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden said the U.S. is “moving forward safely” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, painting a picture of cautious optimism about dealing with the virus in the coming months. In previous addresses to the nation on the pandemic, Biden took the opportunity to speak directly to those Americans who have resisted getting vaccinated against the virus. On Tuesday, he seemed to hit the message less directly. Matthew Seeger, a health and risk communication scholar and dean of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, said that reaching those Americans is going to take more than a message from Biden or the CDC, given the lack of trust in official sources and scientific authorities among unvaccinated Americans. “I think that this is a much longer-term problem,” Seeger said.  

By Kim Russell   The invasion of Ukraine is causing concerns for people around the globe. The human toll of war is heartbreaking. It has also caused a worldwide economic impact. “It’s really destabilized the Russian economy. You will see the ruble continue to collapse and prices in Russia continue to rise,” said Aaron B. Retish, a Russian history professor at Wayne State University. “It affects the economy obviously most drastically in Ukraine and Russia. It will affect the economy in Europe, especially those that border Russia and are most dependent on Russian goods such as the Netherlands, and then us least of all.” 

Uniquely qualified experts share what can be done to stop accidental shootings involving children. In 2021, nine children were shot with unsecured guns in the Detroit area. So far this year, at least six children have been shot. Firearms are the second leading cause of death among kids in Michigan. And those deaths are entirely preventable. There are 29 states, and Washington D.C., that have laws that penalize parents of a child for allowing access to their guns, known as child access prevention laws. Michigan does have a law that penalizes a parent who knows their child brought a gun to school, but there is no penalty if that gun is fired. Rebeccah Sokol is an assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University. Sokol said in Michigan there are no laws about access prevention, negligent storage, about children having a gun, giving children a gun, and no laws about criminal liability when it comes to a shooting by a child. “These types of laws have been associated with a relative decrease in firearm suicides and unintentional shootings and shooting deaths by an estimated 8% to 19%,” Sokol said. “We do know that the single biggest risk factor for adolescent firearm injury is access to an unsecured firearm. And so, to put this another way: The presence of a firearm in a child or teen’s homes substantially increases the risk of intentional or unintentional firearm death.” 

The Math Corps summer camp at Wayne State University is looking to recruit Detroit students and help them improve their math skills for free. A Math Corps board member said the camp is especially important in the wake of COVID learning loss. In just six weeks at the camp, students can improve their math scores from 30 to 90%. The camp has been helping students for 30 years.

Ukrainian-Americans say they want harsher actions from the United States and NATO countries in order to prevent Russia from overtaking Ukraine. Sanctions have been issued against Russia in hopes that its government will be encouraged to back down; however, Russian and Belarusian forces continue. Aaron Retish is a history professor at Wayne State University with a specialization in Soviet and Russian history. Retish said many scholars did not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin was being serious when he threatened to invade Ukraine. “We thought this was all kind of smoke and mirrors or a big bluff,” Retish said. “Clearly, that was not the case.”

On Friday, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman nominated to the U. S. Supreme Court. Members of the Detroit legal community, including Jamila Jefferson-Jones, professor at Wayne State University Law School and associate director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, praised the historic nomination. “Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a judicial heavyweight,” said Jefferson-Jones. “She was on the Harvard Law Review, which is reserved for the best students in a given class. She has all the tools, including of course her years of judicial experience, her judicial clerkships…Those that I’ve spoken to, of all sorts of backgrounds, are very excited about this nomination. They see her as a gifted jurist and as someone who will do well in the court.” 

Eastpointe High School if one of 25 schools to offer the C2 Pipeline through Wayne State University. The program gives students a look at different careers and hobbies that students don’t always learn about during a normal school day.  

Hannah L. Schacter, assistant professor of psychology at Wayne State University, authored an article about the reduction in bullying that occurred when schooling was online. She says that online school during the pandemic was hard on many teens, but new research has found that students were bullied less during online instruction than while attending classes in person. Bullied teens reported heightened anxiety when they were attending in-person school, but not when they were attending online school. The higher proportion of the year a teen spent in online school, the less likely they were to report being bullied.  

As Michigan continues to recover from the latest COVID-19 surge, state health departments are beginning to ease mask recommendations for indoor public settings. The new guidance now allows individual businesses and schools to decide whether or not their establishment requires masks. According to the state, no immediate resurgence of the virus is predicted so they’re calling this phase of the pandemic “recovery.” Dr. Teena Chopra, professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University, says these relaxed rules mean individuals need to be flexible and more aware of their own risks. “People who are at higher risk…if they’re going to be in a setting where it’s going to be crowded, they should continue masking,” she said.  

For the first time in nearly a week, border officials reported “no delay” Monday as trucks and cars cruised 1.4 miles across the Ambassador Bridge into Canada. Reopening the bridge after a seven-day Canadian trucker protest in Windsor was “a win” for Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said. But economic experts warn the weeklong trade disruption could reverberate in the short- and long-term. Auto industry losses neared $300 million from Monday, Feb. 7 through Tuesday, Feb. 15, the Anderson Economic Group estimates, including $144.9 million in lost wages and $155 million in losses to automakers. This was mostly felt in the Detroit-Windsor region but stretched as far as Huntsville, Alabama. Beyond the immediate blow, the lingering effects of the trade disruption could erode confidence in cross-border trade, said John Taylor, professor of global supply chain management at Wayne State University. For years, Taylor says it could impact long-term decisions on where companies build plants and who to pick as suppliers. “Anything that reduces the confidence in that system and makes us want to use local suppliers, that has a negative impact on the quality of goods, the variety of goods, the price of goods, and so on,” Taylor said.  

COVID-19 vaccines have been instrumental in the fight against the pandemic. Life hasn’t returned to normal yet, but vaccines have been highly effective against severe disease and death, saving countless lives and helping our already strained hospital systems from being overwhelmed. Researchers are already working on the next generation of vaccines in hopes of fighting new strains of the virus and making it easier to deliver vaccines at home and around the world. Nearly 5.9 million Michiganders are fully vaccinated, but as we have seen, variants can present major setbacks. The next generation of vaccines could change how we deliver the shot. Nasal sprays and pills would make distribution easier, but those versions may not be available this year. “We are already hearing about technologically advanced vaccines that can help us with challenges and barriers and storage,” said Dr. Teena Chopra, a professor of infectious disease at Wayne State University. She says easier storage will be key to reaching rural areas and less developed nations, a vital step in stopping viral variants. Dr. Chopra says for now, we need to focus on making current COVID-19 treatments more available, and, in addition to technological advancement, social innovation. “…the U.S. has one of the lowest vaccine uptakes, and I think largely it is due to the lack of trust that our population has. So, I think we need to work on that trust component.,” she said.  

By Kim Russell  As attorneys argued for an injunction that would give police the ability to arrest protesters who block the Ambassador Bridge, they told a Canadian judge the blockade was proving to have a “catastrophic impact” economically already. They spoke about an impact on all consumers and the auto industry. Economists say it is costing automakers hundreds of millions of dollars. “Once it gets beyond a few days it becomes a very serious problem,” said John Taylor, associate professor of supply chain management at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business. Taylor says right now it could be written off as a short, one-time event by the auto industry, but if the government does not end it, it could change the auto industry in a way that weakens U.S. automakers globally. “It costs a lot of money to sit on inventory, storage, obsolescence when the model year ends financing the inventory. It can easily have a cost of 15% of the value of the inventory in operating expense…” said Taylor. “…Anything that impedes the flow across the border is basically a tax on the price of goods.” 

At a time of heightened racial tension, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and social injustice, Black lawyers have become even more essential to African American communities and the legal progress of the country. Black legal trailblazers of the past have cleared the way for a new generation of Black lawyers, including newly-hired adjunct professor of Wayne State University Law School James Britton. A legal career that spans several years, Britton’s passion for law and equity led him to a path of labor law. Now, in his new role as adjunct professor at Wayne State’s Law School, he intends to give students a tangible image of Black law professionals while guiding them through labor law. Combing his love for law and his knack for education, Britton will now lead the next class of Black attorneys. “I’m one of those people who always wanted to be a lawyer. I don’t remember ever wanting to do anything else,” said Britton. “At first, I wanted to be a Civil Rights lawyer like Johnnie Cochran or Thurgood Marshall. I consider that to be working in the public interest as a union side labor lawyer. My belief is that labor rights are human rights.”  

Albert Zhu, an economics professor at the Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business, talks about the most recent consumer price index report, and what the rapid acceleration of inflation means for our purchasing power in metro Detroit. “So, the reports came out this morning and it very quickly made news headlines. And the number 7.5% for headline inflation and 6% for core inflation, those two are both 40-year highs. And back 40 years ago, that was the period we call The Great Inflation,” Zhu said.  

There are dozens of apps for finding friends, but none of them prioritize couples who are seeking to befriend other couples. The app Cuplr addresses this problem in an innovative, yet familiar way, by combining a familiar swipe-style social media interface with the goal of driving couples to meet up in real life to get to know each other and socialize. Richard Slatcher, an assistant professor of psychology at Wayne State University found that couples indicated feeling more positive about their own relationships after befriending a new couple.  

Economists say the cost of just two days of U.S.-Canada trade being halted at the border is $101 million, maybe more. Wayne State University economics professor Michael Belzer says with the pandemic and the supply chain issues, the long-term effects from the Ambassador Bridge closure could be economically catastrophic. “Twenty years ago, I would have answered that we’ll get ourselves back in order in two or three weeks. Now, I don’t know how long that will take, so this is a pretty major national security threat to the United States as well as to Canada. Belzer said if the Canadian government doesn’t shut this down now and other border crossings are disrupted, the cost is incalculable.   

About 100 protestors unhappy with Canadian COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates for people entering the country have shut down the bridge since Monday. The protests are putting a strain on supply chains. About $135 billion in trade between the U.S. and Canada goes across the Ambassador Bridge every year, and Hugo DeCampos, an assistant professor of supply chain at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business, said roughly one third of that trade is auto-related. The automotive industry has been dealing with supply chain issues throughout the pandemic, and parts shortages have already caused a temporary cut to one shift at a Stellantis plant in Windsor. DeCampos said it’s expensive to keep vast amounts of inventory and that leaves automakers susceptible to shortages. “Now when you stop that bridge, if you have those parts that are required hourly, then you’re in trouble,” DeCampos said. “Anytime an assembly line gets shut down temporarily then not only the assembly plant is not recovering the cost for the machinery and equipment, but now they’re paying some of the highest skilled and highest paid workers to stand idly not creating value. So you get hit with a double whammy.”  

To be more successful when it comes to weight loss goals, the secret may be a good night's sleep. New research suggests that an extra hour of sleep every night could help sleep-deprived people who are overweight eat 270 fewer calories per day without even trying. That change translates to nearly nine pounds of weight loss over a year. The study is not the first to connect sleep with eating patterns. Despite a growing body of evidence suggesting that adequate sleep helps people stick to a healthy diet, sleep still doesn't tend to be part of weight loss conversations - even those that happen between doctors and their patients. But that's changing, says Dr. James Rowley, a professor of critical care and sleep medicine at Wayne State University. "For many years, sleep just was not considered part of the 'equation' so to speak," Rowley said. "Now there is growing recognition that sleep needs to be considered as an important component of cardiovascular health, metabolic health, and exercise and eating. It's clear that adequate sleep is important for overall health." Dr. Rowley said he's already started to recommend more sleep to aid in weight loss and weight maintenance in his own practice, and that this new research is an important piece of the puzzle that reinforces the effect improved sleep quantity can have on calorie consumption.