The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, September 2, 2014

CRAZE
From Page 1A
freshman year, and said the sense
of community around this Wel-
come Week event is unlike any
other within the LGBTQ commu-
nity.
"This is such a great event,
especially for a lot of the younger
people here at the University who
are coming from a place that may
not be very supportive. I was one of
those people, and it was an amaz-
ing experience to be able to see how
large this community is," Jendry
said. "I feel really connected to the
people here, and for the people who
may just be becoming comfortable
with themselves, to see all of the
student organizations be accepting
of them is reallygreat."
Junichi Shimaoka, coordinator
of liaison services at the Univer-
sity's Counseling and Psychologi-
cal Services, was a representative
at the "Do Something" display put
on at the event by CAPS. Shimaoka
said Gayz Craze is an opportunity
for CAPS to spread hope to new
and returning students, emphasiz-
ingthat 24 percent ofstudents have
had thoughts of suicide in the last
two months, and that this number
is larger within LGBTQ communi-
ties.
"We all know someone who has
been touched by suicide," Shimao-
ka said. "We want to try to reduce
the stigma and create more of a
sense of hope. Students within the
LGBTQ community are very open
to talking about mental issues and
trying to promote a positive mes-
sage."
Summer LaPointe, an LSA
freshman, said she saw Gayz Craze

as an opportunity to get to know
the LGBTQ communityon campus.
"I'm pansexual, so an event
like this is really exciting for me,"
LaPointe said. "I am really glad
that this is happening. Back home,
my parents are really strict, so I
wouldn't have been able to go to an
event like this before."
Similarly, LSA sophomore Alex
Ingraham said he volunteered at
the event to reach out to students
who might not be aware of campus
possibilities.
"In my high school, we
wouldn't have something like
this, so I think it's something
that's important to be promoted
and to bring this kind of educa-
tion to students," he said.
This year, organizers added
a wider range of organizations,
including groups that wanted to
express their support of mem-
bers of the LGBTQ community,
such as the Society for Women
Engineers, Blood Drive United,
Beta Theta Pi, Ross Out For Busi-
ness, Forward on Climate, CAPS,
the Sexual Assault Prevention
and Awareness Center, K-grams,
the Secular Student Alliance,
Lord of Light Lutheran Church,
Advocates for Mental Health and
Students for Choice. SAPAC and
CAPS both had large displays
centering on self-esteem.
"It's a big tradition now. The
thing we did this year is we decid-
ed to bring in more organizations.
Instead of justhaving a few LGBTQ
organizations, we're opening it up
to a lot more organizations, making
it an event that is inclusive to every-
one as it should be. We have a lon-
ger lineup of performances, more
entertainment," Bourke said. "Per-
sonally, I went last year and met all
of my best friends there."

VP
From Page 1A
so privileged to work with her."
In an interview Friday,
Dishell said Lustig is the clear
choice to fill the position.
"She's incredibly well-versed
in CSG, has worked on a vari-
ety of successful initiatives,
I've worked closely with her in
the past both in high pressure
situations and also low pres-
sure situations," he said. "She's
a great writer, great messenger
and just gives a really great per-
spective that's very different
from mine on all sorts of events
that happened on campus and
things that come up during the
year."
In a statement on Facebook,
Lustig thanked Shokar for her
dedication, passion and hard
work in CSG, and stated that
she would be proud to assume
the role.
Dishell said they chose to issue
the announcement and relat-
ed statements on social media
because of the nature of the deci-
sion.
"It's a personal issue, and we
went ahead and made a state-
ment," he said. "There's vari-
ous medias in which we make
statements, and as you know,
social media is one way to go on
the record about something, so
that's why we decided to go that
way."
To officially replace Shokar,
Lustig will first be vetted by
the CSG Executive Nomina-
tions Committee, which will
make a recommendation to the
full CSG Assembly. She will

then need to be approved by the
Assembly with a simple major-
ity vote, according to CSG inter-
im counsel Justin Kingsolver, a
Law School student. The vote
on Lustig's confirmation could
occur as early as the first CSG
meeting of the year on Tuesday.
Dishell said there was an
internal vetting process with
several candidates prior to the
choice to put Lustig forward for
the position. He said he learned
of Shokar's decision to step
down relatively recently, but
he added that he felt there was
enough notice.
"It was somewhat recent, but
not something that's been going
on for a very long time," Dishell
said. "It's not a big secret we've
kept."
Both Dishell and Shokar have
worked on several initiatives
for CSG during the summer,
including the Night Owl bus
route and the Wolverine Sup-
port Network, which focuses on
supplementing mental health
resources on campus. Both ini-
tiatives came from the running
mates' campaign platform.
Shokar said she plans to
remain involved in an advisory
capacity with CSG to whatever
extent she's able to, notably
with the Wolverine Support
Network project. Dishell said he
didn't anticipate any delays in
the initiatives despite the tran-
sition, and added that Lustig
has previously been involved
in much of their planning and
implementation.
"(I'm) fully confident in Emi-
ly's abilities, and very sad to see
Meagan go, but looking forward
to continuing to work hard for
the student body," he said.

SCHLISSEL
From Page 1A
are some of the best people to
help the new president become
acclimated to the University.
Dishell added that an impor-
tant goal will be to strengthen
the administration's ties to the
initiatives of CSG and other
organizations - for example, the
Night Owl bus route - to help
sustain new student services and
resources.
"One thing I've learned ... is
that there's a lot of great ideas,
but if someone isn't incredibly
passionate about it, unless you
really institutionalize it, three
years will go by and the program
will be gone," Dishell said.
BSU Speaker Arnold Reed,
an LSA senior, said the meeting
indicated an effort to further
open up communication across
all facets of the University -
an effort he thinks will help
improve campus climate and
increase connectivity among all
types of University resources.
"The administration has been
very proactive this year in terms
of reaching out to us," Reed said.
"I think especially after last year,
they're really making a con-
scious effort to say, 'Hey, what is
it that we can do for you?' If what
has been goingon here lately car-
ries on to the school year, it'll be
an amazingyear."
Reed said his biggest concern,
which he and others brought up
in the meeting, is that while the
University has a set of incred-
ible opportunities, it lacks "one
thread that really unifies, or
unites or lets everybody know all

of these things."
LSA junior Becca Levin, Hil-
lel's Israel cohort chair, said it
will be necessary not only to give
students a greater awareness of
the University's vast resources,
but also of one another.
"I really think that Michigan
promises from the beginning
that it will make a big school
small, and I think that Michigan
sticks to that ... everyone finds
their niche," Levin said. "The
flipside of that is that, as we get
further in our careers as Michi-
gan students, we sometimes
don't branch out of our groups,
and so there's a lot of amazing
people on our campus that we
don't meet."
She called for some kind of
extracurricular avenue that stu-
dents can use to both meet new
people and sit down to discuss
difficult issues on campus.
LSA senior Tala Dahbour, a
SAFE co-chair, said she hopes
the meeting was "just the begin-
ning."
"We're hoping that President
Schlissel continues meetingwith
us... as marginalized students on
campus, we've never really had
that platformtobe heard, and we
appreciate any time that the Uni-
versity invites us to speak with
them."
At Schlissel's open house,
Harper said the informal lunch
with student leaders is far from
an anomaly; rather, it demon-
strates Schlissel's desire to learn
from the University community.
"We were teasinghim because
he just moved into the house this
morning," she said last week.
"Students are moving in and
unpacking, you're moving in and
unpacking... doing the same."


UMOJA
From Page lA
dent of the Persian Students Asso-
ciation, said the collaborative effort
provided a way for the cultural
groups on campus to get to know
each other.
One of the day's many perfor-
mances featured a traditional Native

American drumperformance bythe
Miskwaasining Nagamojig, mean-
ing"Swamp Singers"in Ojibwe. This
nonprofit group aims to preserve and
revitalize Ojibwe, a Native American
language.
"I think a lot of the audience
enjoyed it; they were very interac-
tive" said University alum Jasmine
Pawlicki, a former member of the
Native American Student Associa-
tion. "Maybe if we had been louder

or had speakers we may have drawn
more people, but I don't know how
often people get to hear pan-tribal
music at the Diag."
LSA junior Kidada Malloy said
she came to the festival to support
the Black Student Union and to meet
new students.
"It's important because it brings
together students from different
backgrounds and communities,"
Malloy said.

Although many student groups
put on cultural events, Gaines and
other members of the BSU said there
should be more initiative from the
University to promote these events.
"The BSU has been doing this
for a long time but that's just some-
thing we decided to do,"Gaines said.
"I think if the University put forth
more effort of having events like this
it would not be up to the students to
do it."

In the past year, a host of student
organizations have demonstrated a
desire for increased discussion about
race on campus. The BSU launched
the #BBUM movement through
Twitter in November to share expe-
riences of being Black at the Univer-
sity and raise awareness on issues of
race and diversity on campus. The
campaign expanded to a nation-
wide conversation, extending to
other universities.

The administration considered
the concernsraisedbythe movement
and facilitated a dialogue thatresult-
ed in a plan to renovate the existing
Trotter Multicultural Center and
search for a building space closer to
Central Campus in the future.
Though future events have not
beensetinstone,thegroupsinvolved
in UMOJA Fest plan to have more
collaborative events throughout the
year.

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