The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2010 - 7A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, March 17, 2010 - 7A
OSCR director candidate, Wilgus,
talks vision for conflict resolution
Wilgus is first of two
candidates to visit
campus this week
ByPETER NOORANI
Daily StaffReporter
Jay Wilgus, one of two final
candidates for the position of the
director of the University's Office
of Student Conflict Resolution,
gave presentations this week for
students, members of the Univer-
sity community and Ann Arbor
residents to convey his future
hopes for OSCR if he gets the job.
The University has been search-
ing for a new director of OSCR
following the departure of for-
mer director, Jennifer Schrage in
December 2009. Monita Thomp-
son, co-director of The Program
on Intergroup Relations, has led a
search team in finding a replace-
ment.
OSCR had planned for Wilgus,
currently the assistant dean of
students at the University of Utah,
to host a student presentation on
Monday evening, but no students
attended. Yesterday morning's
public presentation in the Union's
Wolverine Room drew a crowd of
about 45 people. While many of
those in attendance were mem-
REMAINS
From Page 1A
can students on campus, including
myself, and I can say confidently
that we are looking forward to the
return of our ancestor's remains to
our communities," she wrote.
She added that the status of the
"culturally unidentifiable" remains
in the University's possession has
caused a lot of tension between the
University and Native American
groups in Michigan.
"This whole situation with the
1,390 Native American human
remains in the U of M Museum
of Anthropology has caused a lot
of pain for the Native American
community; we have struggled to
see our ancestors return home for
many years," she wrote.
Despite the controversy, Univer-
sity spokeswoman Kelly Cunning-
ham said the University is aware
of the recent change in the act and
will comply with its regulations.
"We just became aware of it
(Monday), so at this point we're just
digesting what the regulations say,"
Cunningham said.
Rackham graduate student
Veronica Pasfield, who is also a co-
@1 chair of Native Caucus - a gradu-
ate student group - and a member
SURVEY
From Page 1A
brief description of what gender-
neutral housing entails, followed
by questions that will indicate
whether or not students support
the proposal.
"We (the GNH coalition) decid-
ed to do a survey because we felt
it would be the most efficient way
to gauge the resident's feelings on
gender-neutral housing," Schmuk-
er said. "I think the survey will be
received well by students. This is
allowing residents an active role
in deciding the future of their resi-
dence halls."
LSA junior Caitlin Sadler, presi-
dent of the Residence Hall Associ-
ation, wrote in an e-mail interview
that the GNH coalition was cre-
ated by a group of RHA represen-
tatives from a number of different
student organizations and govern-
ments in order to investigate gen-
LAWSUIT
From Page 1A
against the five named defendants.
According to the lawsuit, she is
seeking damages, costs and inter-
est in excess of $25,000 for each
charge.
One of the articles in question,
titled "In Other Ivory Towers,"
ran on page two of the Daily on
Feb. 2, 2009 and was published on
the Daily's website.
"In Other Ivory Towers" is a
short feature published weekly
in the Daily that details happen-
ings on other college campuses
using various other news outlets
as sources.
Inthe article that was published,
Rowe attributed information to an
article in The Diamondback - the
University of Maryland's student
newspaper - and two pieces from
The Chronicle of Higher Educa-
tion. Graca contended in an edi-
tor's note published on the front
hers of OSCR, students and police
officers also attended the event.
After a brief introduction from
Thompson, Wilgus began his
45-minute presentation, during
which he spoke about his personal
views on conflict resolution and
outlined the challenges that he
believes OSCR and the University
as a whole face.
Wilgus, who received an honors
bachelor of science in speech com-
munication from the University of
Utah in 2001, has worked exten-
sively in conflict resolution. After
receiving his Master of Dispute
Resolution from Pepperdine Uni-
versity's Straus Institute for Dis-
pute Resolution he earned a Juris
Doctorate from the S.J. Quinney
College of Law at the University of
Utah, where he was a member of
the Utah Law Review.
Wilgus became the assistant
dean of students at the Univer-
sity of Utah in 2007, where he is
also the director of fraternity and
sorority life, a counselor with Stu-
dent Advocacy - a sub-committee
of the Dean of Students Office -
and a mediator with Community
Conflict.
Despite his law education and
work as a part-time attorney in
Salt Lake City, Wilgus said he pre-
fers his work as a mediator rather
than as a lawyer. At his presenta-
tion on Tuesday, Wilgus discussed
his theories on student conflict
resolution, and said that while
many other schools may prefer
to focus on student judiciary sys-
tems, he prefers a system of edu-
cation.
"I don't want students thinking
of OSCR as a principal's office,"
Wilgus said. "We educate and
repair harm."
Wilgus said he's in favor of
OSCR's Statement of Student
Rights and Responsibilities - the
code thatcgoverns student conduct
on campus - and that it can be
viewed as "students stating com-
munity norms" rather than a set of
rules set by the school's adminis-
tration.
If he secures the position of
OSCR director, Wilgus said he
hopes to create an atmosphere
that would allow Michigan stu-
dents to graduate with better con-
flict resolution skills.
"The assumption is that conflict
is unavoidable...it's how we deal
with conflict that is important,"
he said.
Wilgus said he prefers to use
the Spectrum of Conflict Resolu-
tions options, which is a guide for
students about how to make use
of OSCR's resources in resolving
conflicts - like using a mediator
- rather than taking action that
could lead to punishment. He said
if he becomes director, he'd like to
make a push to use both OSCR's
statement and the Spectrum of
Conflict Resolution Options in
order to help students deal with
conflict.
Wilgus said OSCR and the
University of Michigan lead the
nation in what he hopes will
become a revolution in student
conflict resolution. He said he's
"not interviewing this position to
maintain the status quo."
In an interview on Monday,
LSA senior Rokimas Soeharyo,
who works at OSCR, said that
much of the reason the Univer-
sity has taken a new approach to
conflict resolution stems from the
campus's diverse student body.
Wilgus alsosaid thatcthe change
is fueled by the University's wish
to provide better services and
positive learning experiences for
its students.
Will Hathaway, co-general
manager of OSCR, said after Wil-
gus's presentation on Tuesday
that he is "very articulate."
The selection process for a new
director of OSCR continues this
week. Jim Neumeister, the direc-
tor of Northwestern University's
Office of Judicial Affairs, will
speak this evening and Thursday
morning.
At last night's
meeting, MSA
pres. separates
himself from
former party
of the Bay Mills Tribe, said though
she and members of other tribes
appreciate the new ruling, they feel
that the University has not always
acted in compliance with the 1990
law.
"I don't understand why U of
M's non-compliance with the spirit
and letter of this law has been over-
looked or tolerated for the last 15
years," she said.
Though Pasfield said the Uni-
versity has not met the wishes of
Native Americans in the past with
regards to the remains, she and
other members of the Native Cau-
cus were glad to see the formation
of the University's committee in the
fall, which she said will help lead a
smooth transition to the new regu-
lations.
"I'm so grateful that the repatri-
ation committee has been formed
and that the new regulations have
been announced while-the (Uni-
versity's) committee is doing their
good work," she said.
Pasfield said she feels the new
rule is indicative of the fact that
many museums - including the
University's Museum of Anthropol-
ogy - have had issues complying
with the original law.
"The fact that a 15-year tug-of-
war about regulations surround-
ing 'unidentifiable remains' has
resulted in a stronger call for their
return to a peaceful burial to me
shows how out of step obstruc-
tionist museums are in this law,"
she said.
According to a March 15 Nation-
al Park Service press release, there
are more than 124,000 "culturally
unidentifiable" Native American
human remains in museums and
exhibits across the nation. The
release stated that 4,000 individ-
ual remains have been returned to
tribes for burial.
John O'Shea, a curator at the
University's Museum ofAnthropol-
ogy and former member of a NAG-
PRA review committee, wrote in an
e-mail interview that the museum
and the University have been abid-
ing by the NAGPRA guidelines in
deciding whether or not to return
remains.
"I believe the museum does a
good job of caring for the human
remains in our collections and that
we havebeen forthrightand prompt
when claims of cultural affiliation
have been made by Native groups,"
he wrote.
According to the University's
Office of Public Affairs website,
the University has returned human
remains and other cultural objects
to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of
Odawa Indians, Little River Band
of Ottawa Indians and the White
Mountain Apache Tribe.
O'Shea wrote he thinks the addi-
tiontothe actisnotaligned withthe
original intent of NAGPRA because
under the new rules, unidentified
remains may be returned to tribes
that may not necessarily be affili-
ated with the remains.
"I think it goes well beyond the
legislative intent of the act (NAG-
PRA) in that it requires ancient
remains to be transferred to groups
that are not culturally affiliated
with the remains," he wrote.
O'Shea added that he believes
the change in the act could have
negative consequences for museum
collections nationwide.
"The new rule could result in
the complete removal of all Native
remains from all federally-funded
museums in the U.S.," he wrote.
O'Shea wrote that if Native
American remains were removed'
from museums, researchers would
only be able to study remains from
past populations from Europe, Asia
and Africa and wouldn't be able to
make new discoveries about North
American populations.
The new regulation will go
into effect on May 14, 2010, with a
60-day period for citizens to com-
ment on the rule on the national
NAGPRA website.
prove useful.
Schumker said advocates of the
proposal still aren't exactly sure
how the logistics might work, but
that it's still important to get stu-
dents' feedback on it to figure out
the best way to move forward.
"We're not sure how gender-
neutral housing might be struc-
tured at Michigan, and how
students would apply for it,"
Schumker said. "Those are details
that are still being explored by
representatives from (the) Spec-
trum Center, Housing and ulti-
mately RHA, too."
Nonetheless, the survey should
prove helpful in discovering the
wants and concerns of students
living in residence halls.
"The responses of the survey
will help inform subsequent dis-
cussions with student groups and
Housing administration," Shmuk-
er said, "and we hope will direct
further dialogue with the campus
community."
From Page 1A
the number of hours that were
put into its development. The
money for the website, he said,
was taken out of the assembly's
2009 fall payroll budget.
"The time sheets were not
available to me," Mahanti said at
the meeting. "It was a question
away, and I neglected to ask the
question and find out how much
I was spending."
MSA's current website was
created free of charge by an
MSA Engineering Rep. Kyle
Summers. The old website was
thrown away because it would
have cost MSA more money to
fix it than to start over.
In the last week, University
students have criticized the
Michigan Vision Party in con-
nection with Mahanti's mis-
management of the website.
Mahanti ran for president on the
MVP slate, though he has since
disaffiliated himself with the
party.
At last night's meeting, Mah-
anti said he is not tied to MVP
and that his actions are not rep-
resentative of the party mem-
bers as a whole.
Jim Brusstar, MSA student
general councel representative,
has taken over the project and
will seek input from other MSA
representatives, specifically
Summers, who Brusstar said has
"technical expertise."
Representatives will work on
revamping the website free of
charge - since no MS rep -
sentative can be paid for labor
that is for the assembly.
Randy Yao, a computer sci-
S ehe engineer and a former
designer of the website, said in
an interview after the meeting
that he put in the most hours out
of the three students who spent
time developing the website.
According to a payroll expense
form, Yao received $2,933 for
working on the website for 209.5
hours.
"We weren't really aware
of what the budget was at the
time," Yao said. "We lost track of
the money that was spent."
Yao added that the situation
should be blamed on the mis-
communication between the
parties involved.
"I think it was a communica-
tion break down between (the
other designers) and Abhishek
(Mahanti)," he said. "The blame
does not fall on any one indi-
vidual. It really kind of falls on
the communication over the big
picture."
He added that he thinks it is
unfortunate the issue wasn't
resolved until it was "too late."
Yao said the whole project was
supposed to cut costs by adding
a feature on the website where
the MSA representatives could
revise the site if there were mis-
takes or announcements to be
added.
Architecture graduate stu-
dent Andrew McIntyre, another
designer that was involved with
website development through
a work-study program, said the
project was too extensive for his
experience in website design.
McIntyre said he asked Mah-
anti to hire two more designers
to help develop the website, as a
result of his inexperience.
"(The website) needed more
than I could give," McIntyre
said.
McIntyre received $543.60
for spending 43.3 hours working
on the website, according to the
payroll expense sheet.
McIntrye said the money that
was spent on developing the
website was unnecessary for the
type of website that MSA was
trying to create.
"$9,000 is probably a third of
what you would pay for a pro-
fessional website, and they got
a third of the. wesite," be saidj,
adding that a student govern-
ment doesn't need a "profession-
al website."
McIntyre also said that the
estimated $3,000 budget was
"misconstrued" because none of
the designers were informed of
the budget.
McIntyre added that Mah-
anti had the information and
timesheets all along.
"Abhishek (Mahanti) knew
what I was working on and what
I was producing, and he had
access to the number of hours I
was working on," he said. "Our
hours were not directly reported
to him, but he could've found out
if he wanted to."
- Whitney Wild
contributed to this report.
der-neutral housing options.
"RHA is interested in finding
out how students feel about this
issue in order to make the best
decision for all residents," Sadler
said. "The proposal that comes
from the Gender Neutral Housing
Working Group will depend large-
ly on the information received
from the survey."
Sadler added that the results of
the survey will help RHA to figure
out the next steps in the process.
"This feedback will provide
RHA with more information about
how residents actually feel about
this issue and will allow this pro-
cess of exploring gender neutral
housing options to move forward,"
she wrote.
Spectrum Center Director
Jackie Simpson told the Daily in
October that while she was hope-
ful about reworking the gender-
neutral housing option, she was
unsure how quickly the process
would be able to move along, if at
page of the Daily on March 5 that
Rowe plagiarized the sources.
"While this particular piece
cited these three sources, it inap-
propriately took complete sen-
tences and phrases verbatim from
them without using quotes. This
implied the material was para-
phrased when, in fact, it was not,"
Graca wrote at the time.
In the lawsuit, Rowe and her
attorney claim the article was not
plagiarized because she attributed
the information to the sources and
never claimed them as her own.
"At no time was there any per-
sonal offering by Julie Rowe: the
column is as it states, a reprinting
of other publications," the plain-
tiff's lawyer wrote in the sum-
mons and complaint.
Contacted by the Daily on Mon-
day, Rowe declined to comment on
the litigation, referring all ques-
tions to her attorney.
Arthur Butler, a Plymouth,
Mich.-based attorney represent-
ing Rowe, said in an interview
all.
However, in an interview last
month, Simpson said she was glad
that RHA has been taking a look at
the gender-neutral housing option
within the residence halls.
"It is important to listen to
students' concerns and evaluate
whether or not their concerns
are viable for the campus at this
time," said Simpson. "The fact
that students are the ones tak-
ing leadership and responsibil-
ity for gathering the information
needed in this area and ulti-
mately identifying recommenda-
tions to the campus community
is what makes Michigan students
unique. Students are the best
indicators and evaluators of what
they need."
In addition, Simpson said that
RHA is the place where students
can voice their concerns about the
residence halls and said she feels
the collaboration between the
Spectrum Center and RHA will
IFC
From Page 1A
according to Miniaci.
According to the IFC's Social
Environment Management Poli-
cy, which states the rules fraterni-
ties are supposed to follow when
hosting social functions, IFC
fraternities are allowed to hold
events Tuesday through Satur-
day as long as they are of a certain
size. Events can only be regis-
tered between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.,
and the size of events allowed
during those days is divided into
different tiers that range from 50
guests to 200 guests.
If a fraternity has an event that
isn't registered prior to taking
place, it is subject to social pro-
bation, the maximum sanction
of which is six weeks of social
probation, Miniaci wrote in the
e-mail interview.
Miniaci wrote that IFC's
Social Responsibility Commit-
tee will be "on rounds" tonight to
look for the possibility of unreg-
istered events. He added that he
spoke with Sigma Pi's president
and was informed that the frater-
nity will not be hosting the event
at night, though according to a
Facebook event, the fraternity
has an event planned during the
day today.
"If they are found by SRC to be
having an event when SRC is on
rounds, they will likely be sanc-
tioned for six weeks of social pro-
bation," Miniaci wrote.
Sigma Pi's party will end by
10 p.m., and thus didn't register
the 'event with IFC, Sigma Pi
president Glen Mitas wrote in
an e-mail interview last night.
The Facebook event previously
stated that the party would last
until Thursday morning at 3
a.m., but according to Mitas, that
was "nothing more than a mere
typo."
"Our event tomorrow is a social
gathering that will occur only
during the daytime," Mitas wrote.
"...We, Sigma Pi Fraternity, are in
full compliance with the IFC's
social responsibility policies."
This past Saturday, also known
as "St. Practice Day," three IFC
fraternities registered events
during the evening, according to
Miniaci. Other fraternities that
hosted events during the day
weren't regulated by the SRC
since the committee can't "logis-
tically regulate events during the
day," he wrote.
yesterday that he believed Rowe
was "wrongly forced into a resig-
nation" after she was accused of
plagiarizing. Butler said he thinks
the case will ultimately be decided
based on what is determined to be
the definition of plagiarism.
"I looked at the dictionary for
the definition of plagiarism and
it said something to the effect of
'presenting one's work as its own,'
" Butler said in a phone interview.
"I've read the article and the
whole scope of the article is that
it's addressing and attributing the
information, the comments, to
the various other campus papers.
At no time did I ever interpret
that as saying that it was her own
work."
Graca and Ratkowiak were con-
tacted Monday about the lawsuit,
but they declined to comment on
the allegations.
Smilovitz also declined to com-
ment on Monday.
"Because it is a litigation mat-
ter, right now, I have been asked
by our lawyers not to comment at
this time," Smilovitz said, add-
ing that he was speaking both as
an individual named in the suit
and as the representative for the
Daily.
Herschel Fink, a Detroit-based
attorney representing the Daily,
Graca, Ratkowiak and Smilovitz,
declined to comment on the alle-
gations in the lawsuit when inter-
viewed yesterday. However, he
said, "we'll defend it vigorously."
University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald told the Daily on Mon-
day he would not comment on the
allegations.
"It's unfortunate that this dis-
agreement has occurred," Fitzger-
ald said. "But, we certainty hope
for a quick and appropriate resolu-
tion."
- This article was not edited
by Daily Editor in Chief Jacob
Smilovitz, Daily columnist
Courtney Ratkowiak or former
Daily Editor in Chief Gary Graca.
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