4A - Monday, February 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4A -.odyeray2, 04TeMcia aiy-mciadiy C4e idtigan Daih3 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MEGAN MCDONALD PETER SHAHIN and DANIEL WANG KATIE BURKE EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Donating to school priorities The regents need to push donors to fund University priorities n Thursday, the University's governing Board of Regents approved a series of renovations that will change the landscape of the institution. These initiatives again demonstrate a recent pattern of priorities that allocate funds to large and successful programs within the University that only benefit a small percentage of the student body. It additionally must be called into question whether or not some of these primarily brick-and- mortar projects will benefit the University in the most effective way. In order to provide more students with a superior academic experience, the University must refocus on raising money for underserved areas of the institution. The changes approved bythe regents includea student body comes from underrepresented new Biological ScienceBuilding, a new academic minority groups - half of what it was for the building for the Stephen M. Ross School of class of 2013. Especially in light of the #BBUM Business, the refurbishment and modernization campaign,even asmall portionof StephenRoss' of the historic President's Residence and an recent donation to the Business School might be extensive renovation of the Kresge Business better spent trying to recruit underrepresented AdministrationLibrary.Additionallytheregents minorities and implementing programs to also approved the endowmentcand namingof the make Ross more accessible to these students. head football coach position, which will now be The University needs to consider what can called The J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head be done to change the pattern of donations and Football Coach. The changes are not inherently improvements being allocated for schools and problematic; they will no doubt improve the programs that do not need more funding. There University'sofferingsand benefitstudents inthe is of course, nothing wrong with donating to long run. But these most recent projects fail to schools and programs that already receive a lot triage the University's most pressing needs, and of funding. It is natural for graduates to want to that's where the problem lies. donate to their home schools. However, uniform The Business School will now build a new policies should be written to help fund essential academic building, renovate its library and programs that are being neglected and address implement an exterior cladding project to problemsthaarebeingignored-andtheVictors Sam Wyly Hall, the Business Administration for Michigan campaign takes a step in the right Executive Dormitory and the Hill Street direcion.Its three goals do not explicitly include Parking Structure. The total estimated cost capital improvements, and while some donors of this project is $135 million, albeit funded may be interested in funding a building, the completely by donations. Though these are campaign's focus on student support, engaged positive changes for the school, these changes learning and (somewhat more nebulously) "bold raise several concerns. For instance, these ideas" emphasizes experiential possibilities over changes only benefit a small percentage of the physical plant changes. student body. Furthermore, it must be asked Additionally, Regent Mark Bernstein (D- if an aesthetic renovation is what a school that Ann Arbor) ran on a campaign that proposed is painfully lacking in diversity really needs, that a single-digit percentage of all donations These funds could be better invested into should be automatically set aside for financial addressing the fact that the school severely aid. He has held his position for more than a underrepresents females and minorities. The year and should push more strongly for this Bachelor of Business Administration Class of policy change so it has a greater effect during 2015 has a class size of 505, according to the the Victors for Michigan campaign. This could Business School's website, but women make up help makedonations, such astheRossdonation, only 30 percent of the overall class population. benefit more people in ways that are a greater Most astonishingly, only three percent of the priority for the institution as a whole. THE STUDENT UNION OF MICHIGAN I Does the'U'protect people or profits? This Tuesdaythe StudencUnion of Michigan We suspect Hoke's alibi was an attempt will be joining together with its allies to protest to evade scandal. Scandal is embarrassing thehandlingofthe BrendanGibbonsexpulsion. and often reduces profits for the University. We will gather in the lobby of the Rackham It requires time and attention and damage Auditorium at 2 p.m. and march through control. It requires people hired to do one campus. In this article, we will briefly outline thing to divert their attention to something some of the reasons whywe are protesting. unpleasant and embarrassing. However, Beforebeginning,wewanttoemphaticallysay it is not Hoke's right to invent an alibi and webelievesurvivorshavetherighttocontroltheir cover someone else's tracks. There is a stories, and as allies, we are obligated to respect difference between declining to comment and their choices. Survivors should be allowed to beingmisleading. heal without their traumas being routinely and We are also completely baffled as to why the graphically described and scrutinized by an University administration did not do a better uninformed public. We do not support demands job communicating how its sexual assault for the release of details about this case. We wish policy works. As far as we can tell, the extent of to express our solidarity with the survivor and response to this winter's uproar was University hope the public chooses to respectcher privacy. President Mary Sue Coleman and Hoke's That being said, the administration owes us "statements" asserting that athletics in no way some answers regarding its response to student influence how sexual assault is handled at the outrage over the revelation ofGibbons expulsion. University. These statements were published All of us deserve to feel safe on this campus, with a brief description of the University policy. and the response of top-level administrators to University policy regarding sexual conduct this situation has left many in our community changed in 2011 to adhere to the mandate issued convinced there is no institutional justice. This by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for makes our campus feel unsafe and prone to Civil Rights, outlined in their "Dear Colleague abuse. This has to be addressed. Letter," and avoid losing access to federal When The Michigan Daily broke the story financial funding. We are still in the process of about Gibbons's expulsion, one of the first understanding this change, but we believe that questions people asked was when Michigan the 2011 mandate, which obligates investigations coachBradyHokefoundoutabouttheexpulsion. ofallreportedincidentsofsexualmisconductand Gibbons had not played in the last games of the without placing anundue burden onthe survivor, season. Hoke told reporters he missed the game is probablyvery significant.We find it concerning against Ohio State University because of an that these changes had to be prompted by the injury, and the Buffalo Wild WingsBowl because threat of federal funds being revoked. of a "family matter." The Daily uncovered a fax These incidents have riddled us with to the Athletic Department that communicated doubt about the University's commitment to Gibbons expulsion days before the press protecting our bodies and our stories.We do not conference about the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. understand how they can be so cavalier about We donotknowhow Hokepossiblycouldhavenot such serious matters. Rape is a huge problem known about the separation before he called the on college campuses, but we imagine that the expulsion a "family matter." We find the injury problem would be somewhat relieved if high- storysuspicious. level administrators took it more seriously. At the very least, it looks like Hoke created Sadly, while so much of this appears to be an alibi to cover up the expulsion rather than carelessness or laziness or lack of coordination, simply decline to comment. It looks to the public it reveals a lot about the administration's like Gibbons was receiving special treatment values. At this point, how could anyone believe because of his status asa football player. It looks the administration is committed to a climate like Hoke does not have to follow policy. These of safety and respect? How is this response implications are chilling. They suggest we are possibly acceptable? Their top priorities should on a campus where it is acceptable for certain not be avoiding the inconveniences of scandal, people to commit acts of violence with impunity but rather creating a safe, respectful, fruitful and protection. How could anyone feel safe learning and working environment for all knowing that? The University has made great members of the University community. strides in addressing cases of sexual assault and we do not want to move backward. We don't This article was written by members want lies like this to have a chilling effect. of the Student Union of Michigan. A step backwards n August 4, 1961, a mixed- race baby boy was born to Stanley Ann Dunham in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ms. Dunham was white; her husband, black. Though it was legal in Hawaii at the time, interracial I marriage was PATRICK still illegal in MAILLET 16 states in the United States. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 would not be passed for another three years, meaning that Ms. Dunham and her husband could still be rightfully barred from employment, housing or public accommodation simply based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability and age. Ms. Dunham's husband was Barack Obama, Sr., and their child eventually became the 44th and cur- rent president of the United States. We have come a long way in these last 50 years, and though Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream is still far from realized, widespread discrimination based solely on skin color is fading away. Though the fight for racial equal- ity is still far from over, we are now being faced with the next chapter of the Civil Rights Movement. Last week, Arizona's state legislature passed Senate Bill 1062. This bill grants legal protection to business owners who refuse to serve gay customers because of their religious beliefs. While LGBTQ advocates expect- edly denounced the bill, Arizona's Republican state legislators claim the bill does not endorse discrimination, but instead protects religious free- dom. In defense of the bill, Joseph E. La Rue, legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization in Arizona, said, "In America, people should be free to live and work according to their faith, and the government shouldn't be able to tell us wE La Rue went on to shouldn't be someth leave inside our hous Though La Rue supporter for anti including, but not 1062, his logic in bill is ironically sir LGBTQ advocates i the bill. Let's make a sim with the word "faith let's see La Rue's sta light: "In America, be free to live and to their love, andt shouldn'tbe ableto t that. Love shouldn'tI have to leave inside o How can Conse their political mo individual liberty freedom while believing in laws th expression of sexual orien- tation? When Conservatives vote on mea- sures to allow assault weap- ons that can fire 100 rounds per minute or cut environmental standards for corporations, e can't do that." ly, gay marriage is legal in 17 states, say that "Faith while 33 states still have a same-sex sing we have to marriage ban. Though Arizona is e. the first state to pass a "religious is a staunch freedom" bill such as this one, simi- -gay legislation lar legislation has been introduced limited to, SB in Ohio, Mississippi, Idaho, South support of this Dakota, Tennessee and Oklahoma. milar to that of Although the Arizona bill awaits n opposition to the approval of Republican Gov. Janet Brewer, the very concept that ple substitution a bill like this can make it all the way " for "love." Now to a governor's desk is terrifying. tement in a new One day, I will unfortunately people should have to tell my grandchildren of the work according days when "No Gays Allowed" signs the government were welcomed in some places. I will ell uswecan'tdo inevitably have the look of sadness be somethingwe and borderline embarrassment on sur house." my face - the same look my grand- ervatives claim parents had when they would tell me 'vement values of the days of "colored water foun- and personal tains." They will stare at me with simultaneously huge, innocenteyes and askhowpeo- hat inhibit open ple could have been so bigoted,just as I did when I was their age. Fifty years ago, few people Right now it seems would have - ibelieved that as if America is far America could from fully embracing elect a Black president. When homosexuality. Blacks weren't even allowed the right to eat at the same restaurant they argue that government has no business in peo- ples' lives. Yetwhen it concerns pri- vate matters, such as who someone loves within the confines of their own bedroom, or even with whom they want to go for a walk while holding hands, the government suddenly has all the right to regu- late and deny rights. The bill recently passed by the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature is state-sponsored discrimination and eerily similar to a pre-Civil Rights Act America where Blacks were refused service in most private enterprises. America is unfortunately moving in two separate directions. Current- as whites, how could you blame them? Right now it seems as if America is far from fully embracing homosexuality. I don't know when America will elect a gay president, but in order for that to happen, America mustlearn fromits mistakes and treat gay rights just as it treated civil rights. If we were able to elect a mixed-race man born in an America where some states didn't recognize his parents' marriage, then surely we can fighttogether to grant a newborn who might be gay the same rights as his/her straight counterparts. - Patrick Maillet can be reached at maillet@umich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Barry Belmont, Nivedita Karki, Jacob Karafa, Jordyn Kay, Kellie Halushka, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe KATE STENVIG, AHMED MOHAMED AND TAYLOR JONES A promise long overdue The new anti-racist movement building on this campus has the power to force the University to take the long overdue steps needed to keep promises it made in the 1970 Black Action Movement agreement. On April 1, 1970, the University administration and the University's Board of Regents, under the pressure of an integrated and powerful student strike, promised Black and Latin@ students to take steps to increase the number of minority students on campus. BAM, an umbrella organization comprised of all the Black student groups, and the small but growing Latin@ and Chican@ organizations on campus, began by recognizing that the gains won from the Black students' actions beginning in the mid-1960s, including the creation of special minority scholarships, hiring of Black faculty and new high school outreach programs for Detroit had failed to make the University a more welcoming and less racist campus. BAM understood that increasing minority student enrollment was the prerequisite to changing the University. The main slogan of the BAM struggle was "Open it up or we will shut it down." In 1970, Black students constituted a mere 4 percent of the student body. Latina@ students were treated as invisible. The University administra- tion did not even try to keep accurate statistics on the number of Latin@ or NativeAmericanstudentsoncampus. BAM demanded and won the promise from the University administration and the regents that Black student enrollment would increase to 10 percent of the student body by the 1973-74 school year. It won a second demand to increase Latin@ student enrollment, and agreed to take special measures to increase Latin@ enrollment, including a special recruiter for Chican@ students as a first step. The promise to take the actions necessary to increase Black student enrollment to 10 percent has been broken for 40 years. The University ranked 147th on this year's U.S. News and World Report diversity index. The #BBUM campaign launched this fall documented how pervasive racism is attheUniversity now. If the administration and the regents continue to break the promises they made to minority students and communities 40 years ago, the downward cycle of recruiting and retaining minority students will continue to get worse. Ten years after the Supreme Court victory for affirmative action in Grutter v. Bollinger and 40 years after the BAM strike, the proportion of Black and Latin@ students at the University is declining. In a state that is now over 14 percent Black, Black students comprise less than 5 percent of the student body. The proportion of Latin@ students dropped from 5.6 percent in 2006, to 4.75 percent in 2012, even though the Latin@ community in Michigan continues to grow at a rapid rate. The proportion of Native American students at the University isless than half of the proportion of the Native American population of Michigan. It is time for a change. It is time for the movement to force the Uni- versity administration to keep the promises they made in 1970. This is a modest demand given the fact that the University has had ample time to keep its promises. The adminis- tration has always known how to achieve an increase in underrep- resented minority student enroll- ment. If they claim not to know now, the movement can tell them how. The creation of scores of com- mittees, numerous "fireside chats," and the pledges made by every incoming University president to advance diversity, have done noth- ing to change the campus climate. To make the University a campus that welcomes, nurtures and pro- vides minority students with the same opportunities to learn and develop that it offers to white stu- dents, the University must carry out the promises they knew and agreed were necessary in 1970. Keeping its pledge to raise Black student enrollment to 10 percent, revers- ing the drop in Latin@ enrollment, creating a Dream Scholarship for undocumented students and dou- bling the number of Native Ameri- can and other under-represented students are the first steps the Uni- versity needs to take now to keep the promises it made to provide the an equal quality education for every minority student on this campus. Meeting the 10 percent demand is the one measurable and transparent actionthe University cantaketo prove to minority youth and communities, especially to the students of Detroit, that its commitment to diversity and integration is more than just lip service. If the University will not fulfill the promises they made 40 years ago, there is no reason for the new student, civil rights and immigrant rights movement to believe that the vague and minor promises it is making behind closed doors will ever materialize. Over the next several years the state of Michigan will provide the University with new, much larger public grants. In 1970, the student movement demanded and the regents agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars to increase minority enrollment. The new movement has the power to make the regents use the new infusion of public fundstheywillstartreceiving this year to finally fulfill the historic agreement they entered into in 1970. Onlybykeepingthe letterandspir- it of the promises made in 1970, can the University of Michigan become the great university it claims to be. Kate Stennvig is a University alum, Ahmed Mohamed is an LSA junior and Taylor Jones is an LSA freshman. The authors are members of By Any Means Necessary.