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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, April 6, 2016 — 3A
ANDREW COHEN/Daily
LSA freshman William Presley answers questions on the strengths and weaknesses of current presidential campaign
slogans at the Michigan Political Union meeting at the Michigan Union Tuesday.
management across the state.
“Deer are a problem all
over, you can’t do one thing
in Jackson, another thing
in Ann Arbor, another thing
in Dearborn and another in
Warren,” Powers said. “You
can’t just say the DNR has
the authority to do whatever
they
want
with
wildlife,
otherwise
somebody
can
take a bazooka in downtown
Detroit on Woodward Avenue
to shoot at turtles … there has
to be limits.”
CULL
From Page 2A
will aim to promote its history
and commitment to academia
through
research
and
to
candidly talk about past tensions
between campus communities.
“We discovered that many
students
don’t
know
our
University’s
contributions
to intellectual life, and that
people don’t know our history
that well because we don’t do a
good enough job of promoting
ourselves.” Oland said. “For our
exploration into past tensions,
we understand that it can be a
difficult theme to talk about,
but we are really trying to push
that. It is important that the
bicentennial isn’t just a year-
long celebration and a party all
the time. But we want to show
that we have made mistakes in
the past, and have learned and
grown from them.”
Student
organizations
were advised to tailor their
bicentennial events to the six
themes
of
the
celebration:
serving the people, pursuing
ideas, creating and inventing,
teaching
powerfully,
challenging society and forever
hailing.
In discussing each them,
Oland
emphasized
the
importance
of
serving
the
people, which he said, aims
to
commemorate
both
the
University’s history of public
outreach,
as
well
as
the
community
involvement
of
student organizations.
The themes of pursuing ideas
and
creating
and
inventing
themes are a celebration of the
creation of new ideas through
research
and
innovation
at
the University, Oland added,
saying bicentennial activities
by student organizations can
focus on the role of innovative
thinking and ingenuity at the
University.
Among the other themes,
Oland said challenging society
and powerfully teaching aims
to
showcase
how
different
areas of the University have
shirked conventional thinking
to promote new ideas. He
characterized the final theme
of the bicentennial, forever
hailing, as a celebration of
school
spirit
incorporating
groups such as the University’s
athletic
departments
and
popular clubs.
Student organizations raised
multiple potential issues they
wanted to work on during a
Q&A session after the event,
including
integrating
North
Campus into the University
bicentennial,improving
social
media outreach and engaging
the Ann Arbor community were
the focus of a Q&A session.
Engineering
junior
Eve
Gendron,
a
bicentennial
representative
from
the
College of Engineering Student
Government, said she thought
bringing Engineering related
events
to
Central
Campus
will be a focus of the student
government.
“The World-Fair style event
in the fall of 2017 will be a great
opportunity to bring student
project teams to showcase their
designs,” Gendron said. “Events
like that will be important
because it will allow students
from all over campus to see
what happens on all corners of
campus, and that’s really what
the bicentennial celebration is
all about.”
BICENTENNIAL
From Page 3A
In response to the incident,
University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald emphasized the
balance between free speech
and inclusion on campus.
“We all understand that
where speech is free it will
sometimes wound,” he said.
“But our message is this:
We are fully committed to
fostering an environment that
is welcoming and inclusive
of everyone. Tonight we are
reminded there is much work
yet to be done.”
Stewart largely based his
remarks on the protesters,
who he said were calling
for the University to take
disciplinary action against
students who spread hate
speech, such as the messages
written on the Diag, and
asking
students
to
sign
a petition to that effect.
Though
emphasizing
that
the statements written on
the Diag Wednesday were
“awful and Islamophobic,”
he said expelling students
for such an offense would set
a dangerous precedent for
limiting free speech.
“We
all
just
have
an
opinion that we want to
voice and that’s an important
part of democracy,” Stewart
said.
“The
second
you
start silencing people, you
make a move toward an
authoritarian
government,
and it’s not anybody’s right to
decide who does and does not
get silenced.”
He added that he disagreed
with the idea that violence
results from hate speech,
noting that if someone were
explicitly to make a call to
violence, then free speech
protections already would
not apply.
“My primary concern is
that we end up in a society
where the government can
step in and say, ‘Hey this
multiculturalism and diversity
because you recognize that
these issues are intersectional,
and we have to work together to
solve them.”
When
asked
about
the
importance
of
diversity
on
campus,
Virginia
Lozano,
an alum of the School of
Art
&
Design,
warned
against
simply
increasing
percentages,
stressing
the
need for integration. She and
her sister, Beatriz Lozano, are
co-founders of Leesta, an online
platform that teaches history
to elementary school children
through
the
perspective
of
women.
Virginia
Lozano
is
also a former Michigan Daily
photographer.
“It’s easy to get caught up in
numbers,” she said. “But who’s
to say that someone in the class
actually feel like they’re part of
the entire campus? And I think
it’s the inclusion part of diversity
that needs to be focused on.”
The panelists were also asked
to define political correctness
and
discuss
their
position
on it. Art & Design senior
Beatriz Lozano said political
correctness is not asking too
much of the public, adding
that those who reject political
correctness
are
behaving
selfishly.
“Unfortunately,
a
lot
of
people are more concentrated
about being called racist, being
called sexist or giving off a bad
image than they are about really
hurting somebody,” she said.
Speaking
to
instances
of
racism and sexism, School of
Education Prof. Debi Khasnabis
discussed the significance of
identity, saying it formed much
of her path in life. Recounting
her experience as one of the very
few minorities in her elementary
school, she said she was bullied
for her skin color but found
comfort on the weekends in her
Indian immigrant community.
Relating her experiences to
the University, she emphasized
the
importance
of
locating
marginalized individuals in the
classroom.
“Who’s not feeling like they
belong here?” Khasnabis asked.
“Who’s feeling marginalized?
Who’s feeling left out? Who’s
feeling unheard? Who’s feeling
voiceless? And in any space
you go, and I guarantee you,
someone feels that way, always.
And it’s up to us, it’s up to the
people who feel they belong,
that they have some power and
privilege in that space, to try to
do something about it.”
Dennis Hayes, a resident
of Allen Park, Mich., said he
found Khasnabis’ life story most
memorable, for he was always
the majority.
“(Khasnabis’ experience is)
a very scary thought, when you
think about it,” he said. “It’s
hard for us to understand, but
it was telling that she gave that
story and see how she’s moved
in her professional development
away from that and helping
people to overcome what she
had to endure herself.”
Scott Page, a professor of
complex
systems,
political
science and economics, touched
on marginalization and the
challenges students often face
through cultural differences,
pointing
to
his
family’s
experience
while
living
in
France.
“Anytime two kids saw each
other, they would rub hands like
this and bump fists,” he said.
“This is for any kid regardless
of
social
class.
There’s
a
strong sense of inclusion and
community.”
He said these experiences in
France caused him to realize
there is a significant difference
in
awareness
of
privilege
between the United States and
France.
Education junior Samantha
Suh said the panelists’ advice
to place oneself in groups with
different people resonated with
her, adding that her experiences
as an active member of the Asian
American community helped
her form opinions similar to
those of the panelists.
“Real change can happen
when you cross communities,”
she said. “When you push
yourself
into
communities
that you don’t feel comfortable
in, that is where most of the
learning is going to happen.”
Business
junior
Sushmita
Mukherjee, Lean In’s other
co-director
of
internal
operations, emphasized that the
event could teach people that
change happens one person at a
time.
“Lean
In
is
all
about
empowering individuals, and
a lot of the time because these
institutionalized
structures
that
give
rise
to
sexism,
racism, classism … you feel very
helpless. But this conversation
is aimed to say that, ‘Hey, even
though sometimes these things
are institutionalized, you can do
something about it,’ ” she said.
DIVERSITY
From Page 1A
UNION
From Page 1A
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Bailey Oland, an administrative assistant senior at the University’s Bicentennial Office, speaks about the bicentennial
celebrations in the 2017 calendar year and how students can get involved in events at the Michigan League Tuesday.
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could potentially lead to unrest
and thus you’re not allowed to
say it,’ ” Stewart said.
Students also discussed the
issue of diversity on campus. LSA
junior Joshua Strup, president
of the Michigan Political Union,
acknowledged the University
has broadly encouraged the idea
of diversity, but added that he
thinks the institution is strict
in its definition of it. He said he
would like to see the University
attract more student veterans
on campus.
“We have long since promoted
the idea of diversity, but it
appears they don’t want to be
diverse in their diversity,” Strup
said. “That they want to focus
on race and gender… they don’t
want to encourage diversity of
thought. Whereas veterans can
bring this in.”
Currently,
roughly
1.5
percent
of
the
University’s
student population are veterans,
compared
to
3
percent
of
the
overall
United
States
population.
Strup, who is a veteran,
emphasized the University is
veteran-friendly upon arrival.
However,
he
also
said
it’s
important
just
for
service
members to know the University
is an option after separating
from the service and entering
the civilian world.
“I do not ask for special
entrance requirements or any
type
of
affirmative
action
program on behalf of veterans,”
Strup said. “What I would
like to see the University of
Michigan do is take part of its
recruiting budget and make
sure
the
University
has
a
presence through materials at
the different transition points
on air bases, army posts, marine
camps and naval ports.”