The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, November 21, 2013 - 5A
SERVICES
From Page 1A
tivity of the matter.
In a Nov. 1 letter obtained
by The Michigan Daily, 19 LSA
department chairs and program
directors called on University
leadership to arrange a meeting
with department representatives
to address concerns related to
shared services.
The letter was addressed to
Coleman; Pollack; E. Royster
Harper, vice president for stu-
dent life; Timothy Slottow, exec-
utive vice president and chief
executive officer; and Laurita
Thomas, associate vice president
for human resources.
The signatories listed three
main concerns with the project's
implementation. First, the chairs
and directors said they should
have been consulted earlier in
the decision-making process.
Second, they claimed the proj-
ect has been characterized by an
aura of secrecy, which spiraled
rumors and increased anxiety
among staff.
Third, the departmental
leadership said shared services
"amounts to a dehumanization
of the workplace." The authors
were also concerned that most of
the affected employees are pre-
dominantly women from lower-
income backgrounds.
"In a recent communication,
President Coleman writes that
the 'Victors for Michigan' cam-
paign 'starts with the heart of
our university - the faculty and
staff who dedicate themselves
to excellence at Michigan.' We
agree with the sentiment whole-
heartedly, and respectfully
request that AST be implement-
ed with the respect and appre-
ciation the staff members at the
heart of the institution so richly
deserve," the letter said.
Silke-Maria Weineck, chair of
the Department of Comparative
Literature, said in an interview
that University administrators
had cleared their calendars for a
meeting during the week leading
up to the Victors for Michigan
campaign launch. Pollack, Slot-
tow and Thomas attended the
meeting, which took place on
Nov. 7.
"They responded immediate-
ly, and they responded with great
openness," Weineck said. "I
think it was a very constructive
meeting. Martha Pollack seemed
very open and acknowledged
that mistakes had been made.
They asked many times what can
we do to make this better."
Weineck said LSA's depart-
ment leaders' most significant
demand was a promise of no lay-
offs.
While the administration
could not commit to this promise
at the meeting, University lead-
ers announced in a Nov. 14 letter
that no layoffs would result from
the transition to a shared servic-
es center.
Before the University made
this announcement, many Uni-
versity staff members were con-
cerned as uncertainty mounted
in their departments.
In an anonymous letter sub-
mitted to a department chair
DIRECTOR
From Page 1A
ward, particularly in the fields of
research and patient care.
"As director, they will have
to have administrative skills
in health care and health-care
delivery, because with all of
the changes in health care and
health-care reform it's becom-
- who wished to remain anony-
mous speaking about AST - one
day before the administration's
announcement, an employee
expressed anxiety related to the
minimal information provided
regarding her future at the Uni-
versity.
"I cannot even tell you how
anxious and worried and sick
this charade has made me,"
the employee wrote. "I cannot
sleep. I do not know what I will
do if I find myself without a job
next year. I have worked for the
University a long time. I am not
'young' and I have family who
relies on my job. I do not know
what will happen to us. I try so
hard to do a good job and I've
never received a bad job review
or have been reprimanded about
anything about my job perfor-
mance, ever."
The administration addressed
issues surrounding communica-
tion in their letter distributed to
faculty and staff.
"It is clear we were not sensi-
tive or consultative enough in
the planning and communica-
tion of this initiative," the state-
ment said. "We deeply value
every member of the university
community, and regret that the
early stages of the process did
not live up to our shared values."
Even after the University
promised no layoffs would occur,
faculty members continued to
send letters regarding the antici-
pated effects on their respective
departments.
"However important as this is
for the targeted staff, the crisis
we now confront as a university
and a community is less a crisis
of money than a crisis of values,"
a letter from the Women's Stud-
ies Department said.
The letters expressed disap-
pointment in the University's
decision to pull valued staff from
their departments. In some cases,
impacted staff members have
worked in their departments for
more than three decades.
"From our perspective, AST
will disconnect vital individuals
from our departments and ware-
house them in remote locations,"
the Department of American
Culture letter said. "While the
AST architects have attempted
to give this a nice gloss, we view
these new working conditions as
unacceptable, promising a grim
existence that others have com-
pared to an 'accounting sweat-
shop."'
American Culture Prof. Alex-
andra Stern said moving key staff
to an off-site call center would
immensely damage the depart-
ment's everyday functions.
"There's a lot of local knowl-
edge in departments," Stern said.
"Departments are organic com-
munities where there's a lot of
on-site problem solving."
She said a move toward shared
services could decrease, rather
than improve efficiency.
Staff not only handles finan-
cial and human resource tasks
but also plays a key role in coor-
dinating the inner workings of
University departments.
With these employees relo-
cated, Stern said faculty would
need to spend a greater propor-
tion of time handling paperwork,
ing more and more of a challenge
to be able to run successful large
clinical programs," Wicha said.
After leaving, Wicha plans
to spend more time personally
treating breast cancer patients,
along with conducting more can-
cer stem cell research. In 2003,
his lab discovered breast can-
cer stem cells that are resistant
to chemotherapy and radiation
therapy - leading Wicha and
systems or scanning.
"I'm not whining or complain-
ing about this," Stern said. "I'm
not saying that faculty shouldn't
do their share of needed work for
their own projects and their own
teaching. I think it could have an
impact on the quantity of time
faculty can spend with students,
which none of us want."
Though Weineck, the Com-
parative Literature chair, will
not lose any employees in her
department to the shared servic-
es center, she, like other faculty
members, has felt affected by the
transition.
"I've noticed that even staff
members who are not affected
at all have taken this as a very
worrisome institutional process
by which they feel threatened,"
Weineck said. "There has been
a certain kind of understanding
that we are community. We do
care for each other and this pro-
cess seems extraordinarily cold."
In an interview with the
Daily, one LSA chair who wished
to remain anonymous said her
department's staff convened in
her office, together with their
one staff member told she would
be transferred to a shared ser-
vices center. They cried together.
"This is real pain," the chair
said. "They are the heart and
soul of this department."
On Wednesday, Pollack met
with individual departments,
including American Culture.
American Culture faculty
asked the University to postpone
the shared services transition
for one to two years - a period
after the University's next presi-
dent and permanent LSA dean
assume office, according to a fac-
ulty member present at the meet-
ing with the department. That
timeframe would allow faculty
and staff to participate in the
decisions surrounding a shared
services transition.
The faculty members also
requested no staff in their
department be transferred to the
shared-services center until the
end of that period.
"The meeting with Pollack,
who seems like a very nice and
completely reasonable person,
went well in a way - that is,
everything was communicated
honestly and cordially on both
sides of the fence," said a profes-
sor who wished to remain anon-
ymous. "But it was also kind of
depressing because of course no
decisions were actually made."
Weineck said she sees the
shared services conversation as
an opportunity to strengthen
ties between faculty and Univer-
sity officials.
"I'm quite hopeful," she said.
"I think this process has been on
the whole a positive experience
because it opened up channels of
communication between faculty
and several administrators that
weren't there befor."
As Universities across the
nation begin to adopt shared ser-
vices models, Weineck hopes the
University will choose an alter-
native course.
"My hope is that Michigan,
rather than joining the trend,
can actually establish itself as
the University that does things
differently."
his team to focus on the devel-
opment of new drugs that can
attack stem cells.
"My hope is that even over the
next decade many of the treat-
ments we use now such as che-
motherapy will become obsolete,
and that our treatments will be
much more tailored to individual
patient's tumors and the thera-
pies will be much less toxic than
what we have today," Wicha said.
LSA junior Allen Wu (left), a member of Theta Xi Fraternity, and LSA senior Eric Quang (right), the fraternity's president,
and listen to oral arguments at a hearing Wednesday at the Michgian Union concerning the fraternity's planned racially-
charged party theme.
HEARING
From Page 1A
Allen Wu, who created the Face-
book event, represented Theta
Xi at the hearing.
For considerations of sanc-
tions against the fraternity, the
plaintiffs stressed to the panel
that even if the members of the
fraternity may not have known
the event could cause harm to
certain people and groups on
campus, the impact was more
important than Theta Xi's
intent.
Quang, however, said it was
more important for the panel
to take the intent of the party,
which was not malicious, into
consideration rather than the
final impact. He and Wu also
emphasized that the party was
of Wu's creation, not the frater-
nity's, and that the fraternity
as a whole should not suffer as
a result of one individual mem-
ber's actions.
"Anything that we put on the
Internet we're responsible for,
and we'd like to take responsibil-
ity for those acts," Quang said.
"As a fraternity, I'd only like to
take responsibility for the spe-
cific problems we have caused."
Fischer said it was obvious
that Quang and Wu still don't
fully understand the effects of
the party. She believes the fra-
VIGIL
From Page 1A
and dealing with the major nat-
ural disaster.
Typhoon Haiyan, which
reached land on Nov. 8, caused
major destruction in the Philip-
pines, killing nearly 4,000 peo-
ple and displacing thousands
more, according the Associated
Press.
CSG representative Jodi
Ramos, a Nursing senior, said
the purpose of the candlelight
vigil was to bring awareness and
supportive to the conditions in
the Philippines.
"As media coverage on the
typhoon wears down as time
goes on, we want everyone
to keep in mind that support
efforts are still needed," Ramos
said.
ternity should take full respon-
sibility for the event and its
ramifications on the entirety of
the University community.
In addition to the insensitive
concept of the party, the plain-
tiffs argued that the steps Theta
Xi leaders took to remedy the
situation, including an apology
issued by Quang and aViewpoint
printed in The Michigan Daily
authored by Wu, displayed a lack
of understanding of and discon-
nect from the reality faced by
many students on campus.
"This hearing is important
because I want to make sure
other students always feel as if
they are a valued member of our
Michigan community," Fischer
said.
"Yes, we were angry, and yes,
I am still angry," said Thomas. "I
am not Black; I am not a woman
... I have never directly experi-
enced racism or sexism, nor will
I ever. I am still upset."
Nagy told the panel that she
brought forth the complaint to
open up a dialogue about the
issues that still plague cam-
pus. She pointed to #BBUM,
the Black Student Union's viral
Twitter campaign, as evidence
of the impact that raising one's
voice against perceived injus-
tices can have.
Wu and Quang both acknowl-
edged that they needed to edu-
cate themselves on racial and
Like several other students
who were present at the can-
dlelight vigil, Ramos has fam-
ily in the Philippines who were
affected by the storm. She said
her family lives in the western
Visayas region - an area devas-
tated by the storm.
"Thankfully, all of my family
is pretty safe, but my parents'
hometown was hit pretty hard
and is in need in a lot of support
right now," Ramos said.
Another focus of the event
was the impact that Americans
have upon climate change and
how this affects others, such as
those in the Philippines.
Public Policy junior Marissa
Solomon said Americans pro-
cess of production is "fossil fuel-
heaving," producing excessive
carbon dioxide and resulting in
climate change.
"This is causing a lot more
sexist issues on campus.
"Moving forward, I definitely
look forward to education and
I really hope that can help me
become more conscious and
aware of the social issues that
people on this campus are fac-
ing," Wu said during a cross-
examination. "I hope that
through this education my fra-
ternity members and myself just
become more aware and respon-
sible for our actions."
After the hearing Quang said
there is much more to learn "for
the parties involved and for the
University."
"I'm glad to open the conver-
sation," he said. "And I believe
not only for the perpetrators of
the harm but just for everyone,
there's a lot to be learned."
Members of the panel asked
questions of both the plaintiffs
and defendants, but did not
make formal statements regard-
ing the case.
After the hearing ended,
Thomas said that it was impor-
tant to have a formal hearing
against Theta Xi so future orga-
nizations could have a record
to look to if similar issues arise
again.
"I think that (members of
Theta Xi) are trying very hard to
have their minds open," Thomas
said. "I am hopeful that they are
as receptive as possible to all
positive change that can occur."
natural disasters," she said.
Solomon said students can
decrease their impact on the
environment by making small
changes, such as unplugging
electronics when they are not in
use. However, she said changes
in policy would have a bigger
impact and encourages students
to urge politicians to make
changes that will benefit the
environment.
FASA sold $5 wristbands
after the vigil to raise money for
the Philippine Red Cross and
Advancement for Rural Kids,
which promotes education and
fights hunger in the developing
world.
Faraon said students who
would like to help the victims
of Typhoon Haiyan should
research and donate to different
charities that are directly help-
ing victims in the Philippines.
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