let us have conversations about 
important issues in informal set-
tings,” Alfarhan said.

For Eljamal, the Chai Circles 

and community dinners through 
MEdAN have given her the 
chance to explore shared identi-
ties.

“The spaces the MEdAN 

has created have enabled me to 
self-reflect and reclaim my nar-
rative, and these opportunities 
to reclaim my narrative are so 
empowering, in a way that is very 
hard to put into words,” Eljamal 
said.

For Ekotto, similar conversa-

tions emerge from Fanon’s work. 
Ekotto took questions from stu-
dents as they further discussed 
race, oppression, identity and 
colonialism. With each question, 
Ekotto noted how many of these 
considerations come up before in 
Fanon’s work.

“I 
realized 
it’s 
extremely 

important that if we’re talk-
ing about questions of identity, 
because this group they’re inter-
ested in reclaiming their identity, 
I think it’s important that they 
understand the bases — how you 
get to even understand who you 
are,” Ekotto said.

to provide input on a new policy.

“We really want this to be stu-

dent-focused and based on stu-
dent input,” Lustig said.

The code’s tentative language 

was presented at the forum and 
most attendees’ comments were 
centered around the possibil-
ity that the document’s language 
could infringe on students’ free-
dom of speech. Many were con-
cerned that the honor code gave 
the University too much power.

“As a member of the University 

of Michigan community, I will 
honor the institution with hon-
esty and integrity,” the proposed 
honor code states.

The code continues by asking 

students to pledge to promote 
inclusivity and respect, uphold 
the University’s reputation and 
refrain from cheating, stealing 
and plagiarism.

“I understand that if I fail to 

act in accordance with the afore-
mentioned principles then I will 
face appropriate consequences to 
be determined by my peers and 
faculty members,” the code con-
cludes.

Several attendees thought the 

overall language of the code was 
broad and vague.

Students also suggested the 

document define the code’s geo-
graphic parameters. Attendees 
asked if the code would apply to 
students while they were outside 
of Ann Arbor or Michigan.

The desire to create an honor 

code was propelled, in part, by 
incidents in Northern Michigan 
where six University Greek life 
chapters caused extensive dam-
age at two ski resorts.

Some students wanted to know 

if a student would always be con-
sidered as representing the Uni-
versity, or if their actions were 
only considered a reflection of the 
University in specific situations.

Despite his concerns, LSA 

freshman 
Grant 
Strobl 
was 

pleased CSG hosted the forum.

“I’m happy to see that the stu-

dent government wants to listen 
to the students,” Strobl said. “I 
think the honor code is great. I 
just want to make sure that it is 
respecting student rights to speak 
freely and engage in academic 
and controversial topics on cam-
pus because that is what the Uni-
versity of Michigan is all about.”

Law student Amanda Urban, 

associate chief justice of Central 
Student Judiciary, also found the 
forum helpful.

“I think this code gives us a 

really great opportunity to move 
forward in being able create 
something that is student-driven 
with students holding each other 
accountable instead of a closed 
process where administrators are 
making all the decisions with-
out students,” Urban said. “That 
being said, we have to be very 
careful of the language of the 
code and making sure that it’s 
fair.”

The task force will host anoth-

er forum on Feb. 25 on North 
Campus in the Pierpont Boule-
vard Room.

Adviser, said during public 
commentary he believes the 
renovation will be a worth-
while investment. Building a 
Better Michigan is a student 
advisory group for the Univer-
sity’s unions and recreation 
buildings.

“I invest time and energy 

into these projects so that my 
first-year residents, students 
that I give campus tours to, 
my younger brother and future 
generations of Michigan stu-
dents have access to quality 
exercise facilities,” he said. “We 
renovate in the hopes of giving 
the IM building the opportuni-
ty to be self-sufficient in years 
to come.”

Harper said the project’s 

planning has involved feedback 
from approximately 2,000 stu-
dents, faculty and staff mem-
bers.

The 
original 
renovation 

plans included new racquet-
ball courts, locker rooms, and 
group fitness and weightlifting 
rooms. Updates to plumbing, 
staff office rooms, wireless net-
working and wiring, exterior 
window replacement, mason-
ry repairs, as well as lighting 
improvements and a gym floor 
replacement are also planned.

The renovation is scheduled 

for completion in fall 2016.

The board also approved 

the demolition of a South State 
building formerly owned by 
publishing company Edwards 
Brothers Malloy. The demoli-
tion is intended to create addi-
tional land for the construction 
of a $168 million athletic com-
plex approved by the regents 
in September. The $2.4 million 
price tag is included in the proj-
ects total $168 million budget.

The additional land will both 

provide for future stormwater 
management and reduce wet-
land impact during the com-
plex’s construction.

The demolition process for 

the building, which was vacated 
in December 2014, is slated to 
begin in April 2015, and will be 
completed by Summer 2015.

Academic calendar 

revisions

The regents discussed an 

action request submitted by 
University Provost Martha Pol-
lack suggesting changes to the 
winter 2016 academic calendar 
to accommodate the Jewish hol-
iday of Passover as well as Greek 
Orthodox Easter.

This 
conversation 
also 

expanded to discuss recent out-
cry from students regarding 
the fall 2015 academic calen-
dar, which currently has exams 
scheduled to end Dec. 23.

These dates would effectively 

shorten winter break by four 
days compared to this year’s 

break, and could force out-of-
state students to travel home on 
Christmas Eve.

More than 5,000 students 

have signed a petition created 
Monday to change the fall 2015 
dates. The petition was origi-
nally circulated by members of 
a classroom group project titled 
“Crush the Calendar.” Several 
members of the group attended 
the meeting.

Kinesiology sophomore Wil-

liam McPherson spoke to the 
regents during public commen-
tary on behalf of the group.

He said the late exam sched-

ule would hurt many students 
due to the high cost of airline 
prices and overcrowded air-
ports on days near Christmas 
Day, as well as cause interna-
tional and out-of-state students 
to potentially miss Christmas 
due to extended travel time.

“We believe that any exams 

on such a late day will have neg-
ative repercussions on students, 
faculty and families,” McPher-
son said.

The 
group 
has 
proposed 

changing the calendar to either 
shorten or eliminate the Fall 
Study Break in October, or begin 
classes before Labor Day.

“We would appreciate the 

opportunity to work alongside 
with the Board of Regents in an 
effort to find an academic cal-
endar that works both for the 
administration and the student 
body,” he said.

In response, Pollack said 

beginning classes before Labor 
Day wasn’t feasible.

“Beginning 
classes 
before 

Labor Day simply won’t work, 
especially this year, for a num-
ber of reasons,” she said. “I 
think it is important to under-
stand that the reason the last 
day of finals is so late this year 
is because Labor Day moved ear-
lier and earlier and earlier, and 
this year it was September 1st 
and next year it falls on Septem-
ber 7th.”

However, she said the regents 

would 
consider 
shortening 

or eliminating Fall Break if a 
majority of students agreed.

“I am completely willing, 

and I think the board would be 
completely supportive, if the 
student body as a whole wanted 
to eliminate the study break,” 
Pollack said. “But we do need to 
get a sense, not just from a small 
group of students, but from a 
large group of students.”

Fall Break was originally pro-

posed in 2001 by the Michigan 
Student Assembly, now CSG, 
and approved unanimously by 
the Board of Regents.

Pollack said she would meet 

with 
CSG 
President 
Bobby 

Dishell, a Public Policy senior, to 
discuss the issue further.

New appointment 

approvals

The regents approved several 

new appointments and reap-

pointments at the meeting.

Kevin Hegarty, current vice 

president and chief financial 
officer at the University of Texas 
at Austin, was approved as the 
University’s chief financial offi-
cer and executive vice president.

University President Mark 

Schlissel 
announced 
Mon-

day that he would recommend 
Hegarty, who held his position 
at UTA for 14 years. In April, 
he will take over for Douglas 
Strong, interim executive vice 
president and chief financial 
officer.

The previous executive vice 

president and chief financial 
officer, Tim Slottow, held the 
position for 12 years. He left 
his post last year to assume the 
presidency at the University of 
Phoenix.

During his tenure, Slottow 

worked closely with Univer-
sity President Emerita Mary 
Sue Coleman to initiate several 
cost saving programs, includ-
ing a strategic sourcing program 
designed to cut costs by buying 
supplies in bulk. He also helped 
launch the Administrative Ser-
vices 
Transformation 
initia-

tive, a controversial program 
designed to increase efficiency 
by consolidating department-
level employees in a shared ser-
vices center.

A certified public accountant, 

Hegarty was formerly the vice 
president and chief financial 
officer of Dell Financial Servic-
es LP. He serves on the boards of 
NewComLink and the Greater 
Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Hegarty said the opportunity 

arrived at the right time for him, 
as other UTA administrators 
were also rethinking their posi-
tions.

“It’s one of the number one 

publics,” Hegarty said in an 
interview with The Michigan 
Daily. “When we compare our-
selves at the University of Texas 
to other great public universi-
ties... the University of Michi-
gan is always near the top, so it’s 
a great opportunity.”

In an e-mail to faculty and 

staff Monday, Schlissel thanked 
Strong for his service to the Uni-
versity as CFO and welcomed 
Hegarty.

“My recommendation of Mr. 

Hegarty follows a successful 
and competitive search pro-
cess,” he wrote. “I thank the 
members of the search commit-
tee for their thorough efforts 
leading to this outstanding rec-
ommendation.”

The regents also approved 

Pollack’s recommendation for 
a new dean of the Horace H. 
Rackham School of Graduate 
Studies.

Chemistry Prof. Carol Fier-

ke, chair of the department, 
will take over for Dean Janet A. 
Weiss.

Fierke 
is 
a 
postdoctoral 

graduate 
from 
Pennsylvania 

State University. She has pub-
lished 217 research articles and 
reviews and received grants 
from foundations including the 
National Science Foundation 
and the American Cancer Soci-
ety.

In her time at the University, 

Fierke has received the Distin-
guished Faculty Achievement 
Award and the Jerome and Isa-
bella Karle Distinguished Uni-
versity Professor of Chemistry 
title, among other accolades.

Weiss has held the post since 

2005.

“I’m honored to serve the 

University of Michigan in this 
important 
leadership 
role,” 

Fierke said in a University 
news release. “I look forward 
to working with my new col-
leagues to further enhance the 
experience of graduate study 
for students and faculty.”

The regents also reappoint-

ed Daniel Little to his post as 
chancellor of the University’s 
Dearborn campus through June 
2018. Little has held the posi-
tion since 2000.

CSG president talks new 

projects

CSG President Bobby Dishell 

addressed spoke on a number of 
issues involving CSG, including 
student safety and a proposed 
honor code, as well as a propos-
al to pay the CSG president.

Dishell said he appreciated 

University Parking and Trans-
portation Services’ additional 
funding to the Night Owl bus 
route, a service created by CSG 
that runs late at night to help 
transport students living off 
campus home safely. The route 
was initially slated to end this 
semester, but the funding from 
PTS has allowed it to continue.

According to Dishell, the 

route transported 13,000 peo-
ple in the last year.

At the end of his address, 

Dishell voiced concerns with 
the potential for some students 
to be excluded from running for 
CSG executive positions based 
on socio-economic status.

He said both he and his vice 

president work 30 to 50 hours 
per week, meaning that for stu-
dents who need to devote time 
to work-study or off-campus 
jobs, the position would be 
impossible to do.

Dishell asked the board to 

consider creating some form of 
reimbursement for CSG execu-
tives to allow more students to 
take on student leadership.

“The current job structure 

eliminates many students that 
could potentially do an infi-
nitely better job than I or my 
predecessors,” 
Dishell 
said. 

“Unfortunately, 
this 
means 

that students of privilege will 
likely hold these roles until we 
do something to fix this. And 
to me, that is not right, just or 
fair.”

3 — Friday, February 20, 2015
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

said.

For hundreds of years, the cler-

ics who taught Islam were protect-
ed through an agreement with the 
country’s rulers. However, when 
the Atlantic slave trade took off in 
the region, African kings began 
selling Muslim peasants despite a 
long history against enslavement of 
Muslims, Ware said. This led to the 
spread of Islam to America, Ware 
said.

“When those people are cap-

tured and sold as slaves and they’re 
taken away on European slave 
ships, and they’re dropped in plac-
es, they can reconstitute partial or 
entire copies of the Qur’an because 
they are the Qur’an,” Ware said.

Though some historians believe 

Muslims were unable to pass 
their religion onto their children 
because of this history, Ware said 
he disagreed. He cited several 
instances where Islam was preva-
lent in enslaved America, namely 
a case where slaves kept records in 
Arabic because their masters could 
not write. Other evidence include a 
1920 interview with a woman who 
was freed during the Civil War 
remembered other slaves practic-
ing Islam and a 1860 Louisiana 
census which acknowledged Black 
Muslims.

Ware noted many traditional 

Black superstitions in the United 
States come from Islamic roots, 
which he said additionally proved 
African Muslims were also a part 
of the slave trade.

A common superstition in the 

American South is that if some-
one sweeps a broom over one’s 
feet, in response the person whose 
feet have been swept spits on the 
broom, paralleling a common Mus-
lim practice.

“That’s the reason why for an 

African American convert (to 
Islam), it’s a reversion not a conver-
sion,” Ware said.

Engineering junior Jainabou 

Barry, who attended the event, 
grew up both in Gambia and the 
United States. She said through her 
experience, she was able to expe-
rience differences and parallels 
between the discussion of Islam in 
Africa and in the United States.

“There, my Qur’an school, was 

focused more on the spiritual,” 
Barry said. “Coming here, I saw 
the more political agenda being 
pushed.”

Ware said he saw America 

today as a unique opportunity for 
Muslims — one they have not had 
for seven or eight centuries. With 
freedom of religion in the United 
States, there are Muslims of all eth-
nic and racial background.

“The only way that you change 

the nature of the conversation is 
by changing the composition of the 
room,” Ware said. “If as relatively 
privileged upper middle class Mus-
lims we don’t reach out to the Afri-
can American Muslim community, 
to the African immigrant Muslim 
community, to the Bangladeshi 
Muslim community, if we don’t do 
that, then we can lament the fact 
that this conversation hasn’t start-
ed, but the truth is, we haven’t done 
our job to start it.”

HISTORY
From Page 1 

major ramifications for their 
entire organizations and the Uni-
versity as a whole.”

A damaged reputation for 

the University has been a major 
complaint for University admin-
istrators. E. Royster Harper, 
vice president for student life, 
said in a January interview with 
The Michigan Daily that the 
“ski trip” vandalism marked a 
turning point in the University’s 
interaction with Greek life on 
campus.

“We can’t keep going this 

way,” she said. “Too much at risk. 
Too many safety issues. We can’t 
keep behaving like we have this 
system, and because there are so 
many good things about the sys-
tem, that makes the things that 
are unhealthy and dangerous 
about the system okay. And that’s 
what we’ve been doing. I think 
that Up North was a wakeup call 
for us as an institution and as a 
community.”

University 
President 
Mark 

Schlissel added in a February 
interview with the Daily that the 
incident made him quite angry, 
and emphasized that measures 
were necessary beyond mak-
ing those responsible pay for the 
damages.

“Simply allowing restitution 

to be paid and thinking that 
that’s all that happens when 
you do something that actually 
seems criminal, that’s not right 
either,” he said. “So I do think 
that we need to use our existing 
procedures to figure out what 
happened, try to figure out who 
individually is responsible, and 
have an appropriate punishment 
that will really ask people to 
wake up and look at what they’ve 
done and consider very seriously 
their behavior in the future.”

Walsh said leaders from the 

Greek community plan to work 
together and with University 
administrators to shift the Greek 
life culture and prevent similar 
events from occurring again. 
She also noted the importance 
of pairing formal sanctions with 
other measures.

“While I cannot speak to the 

exact sanctions, I would expect 
that punitive measures would 
be the most effective if paired 
with restorative and educational 
efforts as well,” Walsh said.

Regent Denise Ilitch (D–Bing-

ham Farms) thanked Krupiak 
and Walsh for their comments 
and said she accepted their col-
lective apology. She noted that, 
as a University alum and former 
member of Greek life, she was 
happy to see students working to 
ameliorate unhealthy practices.

This is the third year the 

regents opted to replace their 
January public session with 
closed door meetings. In 2013, 
the regents traveled to Califor-
nia where they met with offi-
cials from Stanford University, 
the University of California and 
Google. Last year, the board 
gathered in New York City to 
hear from several higher educa-
tion officials, including the presi-
dent of Yale University.

This time, the regents chose to 

remain in Ann Arbor.

“This meeting is internally 

focused and we will neither be 
meeting with outside speakers 
nor traveling outside the state of 

Michigan,” Regent Kathy White 
(D–Ann Arbor) wrote in a Janu-
ary e-mail interview. “Instead, 
this session is to give the Board 
an opportunity to have long-
term strategic sessions with our 
new President, Dr. Mark Schlis-
sel.”

In a 2013 interview with The 

Ann Arbor News, University 
spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said 
“a scheduling issue” prevented 
holding both that year’s Califor-
nia trip and the regularly sched-
uled January public meeting.

“It falls in the week when 

these people’s schedules were 
already set aside for a board of 
regents meeting,” he said in 2013. 
“They decided to take that time 
that was already in their sched-
ules and handle that differently.”

In 
subsequent 
years, 
the 

regents have continued to hold 
a January strategic session in 
place of a public meeting.

This year, Schlissel said the 

group discussed efforts to diver-
sify campus. He noted the Uni-
versity’s long-standing goal to 
diversify but said the current 
strategies must be improved.

“It really is fair to say that 

there has been a long-term com-
mitment to diversity at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, I think the 
record is really clear,” Schlissel 
said. “The problem is, our suc-
cess hasn’t matched our aspi-
rations despite peoples serious 
efforts and serious commit-
ments.”

On Monday, Schlissel held a 

leadership breakfast on diversity, 
where he gathered input from 
attendees and emphasized his 

administration’s 
commitment 

to inclusion and equity. He also 
mentioned the University’s ongo-
ing efforts to compose a campus-
wide diversity plan, a project 
which he said is slated for release 
in the spring.

“One (component) is work-

ing on undergraduate admission 
and recruitment,” he said. “So 
we have to reach out and find 
talented students in all different 
parts of our state and parts of our 
country without regard for their 
socioeconomic, 
racial, 
ethnic 

background.”

In addition to diversity, Schlis-

sel said discussions touched on 
possible improvements to the 
individual schools and colleg-
es and methods for increasing 
accessibility and affordability of 
higher education.

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SPEAKER
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REGENTS
From Page 1

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