CSG absolutely cannot fill its pur-
pose. It is not possible for CSG to fill 
its purpose if it can’t represent its 
students. There are certain needs 
that the different communities 
require and if those people are not 
on student government, it’s really 
hard to identify those needs and 
execute on the appropriate strate-
gies to fulfill those needs.”

Comparing CSG presidential and 

vice presidential representation to 
the student demographic break-
down reveals disparities in almost 
all categories but white students.

“The environment is not always 

created on CSG to be welcoming 
of very different perspectives,” 
said LSA junior Meagan Shokar. 
Shokar served as secretary dur-
ing her freshman and sophomore 
years and as vice president earlier 
this year before stepping down due 
medical purposes.

The student demographic break-

down was obtained through aver-
aging racial identities of the student 
population from 1993 to 2015, using 
the years 1995, 2000, 2005, 2014. 
Data was obtained from the Office 
of the Registrar.

Numbers prior to 1993 were not 

available in accessible formats, 
constricting the comparison years 
to after 1993. The comparison was 
also limited because the University 
does not recognize certain nuances 
in ethnicity and gender. It does not 
report how many students do not 
conform to the gender binary, nor 
the ethnicity of international stu-
dents (called “non-resident aliens” 
in the Registrar’s data), nor how 
many Arab students attend the 
University — who are classified as 
white. Asian students are grouped 
into one category despite the dif-
ferences among, say, Pakistani, 
Malaysian or Korean communities 
on campus.

Also complicating the conclud-

ing analysis is an “unknown” cate-
gory, totaling 7 percent of the scope 
between the four years averaged 
between 1993 and 2014 .

The Daily’s analysis found that 

Asian American and Black students 
on campus are well represented 
compared to their respective popu-
lations on campus. Black presidents 
and vice presidents have accounted 
for 10.7 percent of presidents and 

7.1 percent of vice presidents in the 
last two decades, 66 percent higher 
than the Black population.

As international students are not 

ultimately sorted into racial catego-
ries, it may be that Asian students in 
general are actually under-repre-
sented as CSG executives due to the 
large proportion of international 
students from Asia.

LSA senior Alex Abdun-Nabi, 

CSG treasurer, attributed these 
groups’ proportionally large repre-
sentation on CSG to their legacy as 
activists campus wide, particularly 
the Black Student Union’s activity 
in the past year.

“It doesn’t surprise me that 

they’re involved in CSG because 
it’s a prime way to make change on 
campus,” Abdun-Nabi said.

Other groups have less vigorous 

representation. No CSG president 
or vice president for the last 20 
years have identified as Hispanic 
or Native American. These groups 
have comprised, respectively, 4.18 
percent and 0.53 percent of the stu-
dent body on average.

Three Latina students noted the 

general lack of Hispanic students as a 
barrier for greater CSG representation.

“I don’t think it’s lack of interest in 

CSG, it’s the lack of support,” Nurs-
ing junior Anna Pokriefka said as to 
why more Latinos were not leaders 
of CSG. “They don’t feel a sense of 
community or feel discriminated by 
the majority population.”

LSA senior Sarah Ballew, co-

chair of the Native American 
Student Association, wrote in an 
e-mail interview that she does not 
think CSG is representative of her 
and others.

“I don’t think it is representa-

tive, exactly, because it doesn’t have 
an adequate number of members 
that are WOC/Native American,” 
Ballew wrote. “This would inhibit 
representation because that view-
point is missing.”

Abdun-Nabi noted that, of the 

hundreds involved in CSG, there is 
representation at levels other than 
president and vice president.

“President and vice president 

are not the only people,” he said. 
“Sometimes they’re not the people 
doing the most work.”

One-fourth of presidents and 

less than one-third of vice presi-
dents have been females, who com-
prise 52 percent of the student body.

“I would argue very strongly 

that we have amazing female lead-
ers on this campus with all sorts of 

racial identities and sexual orienta-
tions, so why are none of them run-
ning for president or vice president 
seat this year?” Public Policy senior 
Carly Manes said. She was a repre-
sentative in the 2013-2014 academic 
year and ran for CSG president.

Students of similar identities 

tended to succeed each other as 
CSG leaders. For instance, from 
2002-2006, every vice president 
was female. In 2009, 2010 and 2013, 
every president identified as Asian. 
Similar trends applied for other 
identities, indicating that students 
could set trends for representation 
on campus or bring their own social 
networks into CSG.

Many former or current CSG 

members who were interviewed 
pointed to that trend in particular, 
framing it positively or negatively.

Party politics

The process for earning the CSG 

presidency or vice presidency often 
starts with being identified by exist-
ing CSG members as a candidate. 
Often, that’s done with a political 
party, not unlike national politics.

Business 
graduate 
student 

Michael Proppe, who was CSG 
president during the 2013-2014 aca-
demic year, said CSG parties gener-
ally last about two years in name 
and are grouped by two ideologies. 
According to Proppe, one is typical-
ly based on tangibility, accomplish-
ing goals that are feasible during 
the candidate’s one-year term. The 
other, he said, is typically more 
idealistic. Members of this party 
may, for instance, focus on making 
campus climate more comfortable 
rather than things more easily mea-
sured when reviewing the year.

Abdun-Nabi, who is not affili-

ated with a party, described these 
parties as a good way to enter and 
lead CSG.

“A lot of the gatekeepers in CSG 

are not exercised by CSG,” Abdun-
Nabi said. “They’re exercised by the 
party.”

Proppe, who ran with Make 

Michigan, a party that has won 
the presidency two years in a row, 
said the groups are generally posi-
tive. He said they promote diversity, 
and to win the election, candidates 
must have a diverse slate of repre-
sentatives.

“The parties are actively recruit-

ing people and talking them into 
running, either because they think 
they’re very intelligent and hard 
workers or they think they have 

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EASY BREAZY.
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2A — Thursday, March 26, 2015
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THREE THINGS YOU 
SHOULD KNOW TODAY

 In this week’s B-Side, 
Daily 
Arts 
Editor 

Karen Hua looks at 

the screenwriting industry 
at the University through 
the stories of several faculty 
members. 

FOR MORE, SEE THE B-SIDE, PG. 1B

2

CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES

Storing data 

WHAT: Henry Neeman, the 
director of the Oklahoma 
University Supercomputing 
Center for Education 
and Research, will give a 
presentation on why storing 
large data is difficult. 
WHO: Michigan Engineers 
WHEN: Today from 2:30 
p.m to 3:30 p.m. 
WHERE: Cooley 
Building-G906 

Publishing 
industry 

WHAT: Alum Kevin Sul-
livan will hold a presenta-
tion to share his knowledge 
about the publishing indus-
try. Sullivan has 13 years 
of experience in the field. 
WHO: The Career Center 
WHEN: Today from 
1:30 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. 
WHERE: The Career Center 

Shakespeare 
performance 

WHAT: A performance 
that combines songs and 
Shakespeare prose. 
WHO: School of Music, 
Theatre & Dance 
WHEN: Today at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Duderstadt 
Center
Please report any 
error in the Daily 
to corrections@
michigandaily.com.

The black box from an 
airplane 
that 
crashed 

in the French Alps on 

Tuesday was recovered, the 
BBC reports. The black box 
has usable information about 
the flight, which reportedly 
contains 
a 
cockpit 
voice 

recording. 

1

Linguistics 
information 

WHAT: Students 
interested in linguistics 
classes should participate 
in the department-wide 
backpacking session. Pizza, 
pop and advising will also 
take place. 
WHO: Department of 
Linguistics 
WHEN: Today from 5:30 p.m 
to 7 p.m. 
WHERE: Lorch Hall, 403 

Companies 
Kraft 

Foods 
and 
 
Heinz 

will merge, Buisness 
Insider reported. The 

two companies will become 
Kraft Heinz Co. The new 
organization 
is 
expected 

to generate $28 billion in 
revenue each year. 

3

Combustion 

WHAT: Aerospace 
engineering prof. at 
Princeton University 
Richard Miles will give 
a lecture on new ways to 
anaylze combustion. 
WHO: Aerospace 
Engineering
WHEN: Today from 4 p.m 
to 5:30 p.m 
WHERE: Boeing Lecture 
Hall, Room 1109 

Fiction reading 

WHAT: Kazuo Ishiguro, 
the author of seven novels, 
will give a book signing and 
reading. His work has been 
translated into more than 40 
language. Two of his books 
were adapted into highly 
acclaimed films. 
WHO: Helem Zell Visiting 
Writers Series 
WHEN: Today from 6 p.m 
to 7 p.m. 
WHERE: Museum of Art, 
Apse 

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Art & Design Prof. Janie Paul, founder of the Prison Creative 
Arts Project, gives a tour of the 20th annual Art by Michigan 
Prisoners exhibit at the Duderstadt Gallery Wednesday.

ART EXHIBIT

TUESDAY:

Campus Voices

THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk

FRIDAY:

Photos of the Week

WEDNESDAY:

In Other Ivory Towers

MONDAY:

This Week in History

“Quote from a meeting yesterday: 
“The University of Michigan is 10,000 
different businesses, united by a football 
team.”

— @juliewbee

Ann Arbor resident Julie 
Weatherbee tweeted a takeaway 
from a meeting. 

Each week, “Twitter Talk” 
is a forum to print tweets 
that are fun, informative, 
breaking or newsworthy, 
with an angle on the 
University, Ann Arbor and 
the state. All tweets have 
been edited for accurate 
spelling and grammar. 

FOLLOW US!

#TMD

@michigandaily

Training for 
Treatment 

WHAT: The brothers of Tau 
Kappa Epsilon will pump 
out 13,5000 push ups to rep-
resent the number of chil-
dren diagnosed with cancer 
anually. All proceeds will 
go to St. Jude’s Hospital. 
WHO: Tau Kappa Epsilon 
WHEN: Today 
WHERE: The Diag 

Taste of Tea 

WHAT: For fans of tea or 
those who are interested 
in tea sampling, a tea 
tasting event is being held. 
Participants can decorate 
a mug, eat scones and learn 
about the tea brewing 
process. 
WHO: Center for Campus 
Involvement 
WHEN: Today from 5 p.m to 
7 p.m. 
WHERE: The Michigan 
League 

“

U.S Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) 
tweeted about a University event 
in Washington, D.C.

“Enjoyed today’s @umich 
Congressional Breakfast! U of 
M research makes our state 
a magnet of migration and 
opportunity”. 

— @SenGaryPeters “

Ross School of Business tweeted 
about their upcoming program 
in Detroit

“Our faculty members are 
partnering with #Detroit Public 
Schools to reinvent the district’s 
business operations.”

— @MichiganRoss

Committee discusses police 
oversight recommendations

Members agree to 
ask city for funding 
in upcoming budget

By ANDREW ALMANI 

Daily Staff Reporter

The Ann Arbor Human Rights 

Commission’s Subcommittee on 
Civilian Police Oversight con-
tinued deliberations Wednesday 
evening about the proposed cre-
ation of an oversight board for 
the city’s police force.

Subcommittee Chair Dwight 

Wilson, a HRC member, led the 
meeting, focusing on questions 
about the Ann Arbor commu-
nity at large, the operations of 
the police department and how a 
civilian police oversight commit-
tee would function if established.

Over the past few months, 

the 
subcommittee 
conducted 

research on police oversight 
organizations across the nation 

to better understand their logis-
tical difficulties and effective-
ness.

The committee was started 

in response to broad community 
concerns about the role of police 
in the Ann Arbor community.

One of the experts who has 

provided advice to the com-
mittee is Barbara Attard, an 
oversight and police practices 
consultant recommended to the 
board by the ACLU.

In a written statement from 

Attard shared with the subcom-
mittee Wednesday, she high-
lighted the dynamic nature of 
police oversight committees.

“Oversight is not a static pro-

cess and should evolve over time 
to incorporate effective practices 
learned from others, and to be 
continually responsive to chang-
ing community needs,” Attard 
wrote. “In order to succeed, the 
oversight body must be inde-
pendent from special interest 
groups, police … and government 

officials. The community, as well 
as the police officers under over-
sight scrutiny, must trust that the 
oversight agency and its leader-
ship are fair and unbiased.”

The subcommittee has also 

spoken with Richard Jerome, 
the deputy police monitor of the 
NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program. 
Wilson said Jerome indicated 
that all police oversight com-
mittees prompt opposition from 
police unions until the commit-
tee proves to be fair and compe-
tent.

Jerome also said that on 

the other end of the spectrum, 
oversight committees are often 
criticized by police activists 
who doubt the effectiveness 
and impact of the committee’s 
efforts. The best way to counter 
this is via community outreach, 
and 
surveys 
or 
publications 

assessing the committee’s work, 
he said.

The fatal shooting of Ann 

Arbor resident Aura Rosser by 
police last November sparked 
discourse in the community 
about the use of force by law 
enforcement. In relation spe-
cifically to that incident, the 
subcommittee 
also 
discussed 

suggestions of embedding men-
tal health workers within the 
police department.

In the agenda presented to the 

subcommittee, Wilson highlight-
ed Washtenaw County’s Project 
Outreach Team, a program that 
aids police in dealing with men-
tally ill residents, as an already 
existing resource.

“PORT has a 24-hour crisis 

intervention line, which comes in 
handy because the chief of police 
says the majority of people with 
whom they come in contact have 
mental challenges,” he wrote.

Subcommittee members who 

were present included fourth-
year Medical student Mohamad 
Issa, Law student Nick Kabat and 
Human Rights Commissioner 
Pamela Dent.

Read the rest of this story online 

at michigandaily.com.

CSG
From Page 1A

See CSG, Page 3A

