michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, October 16, 2015
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
ADMINISTRATION
CAMPUS LIFE
Return on
investment drops
15.3 percent since
2014 report
By ALLANA AKHTAR
Daily Staff Reporter
FLINT
—
Though
the
University’s
endowment
continued
to
increase
in
fiscal year 2015, its return on
investment decreased by 15.3
percent from 2014, University
administrators
announced
at
Thursday’s University’s Board of
Regents meeting.
The endowment is a pool of
funds, much of which are received
from
donors.
The
principal
amount of the fund remains
untouched, but is invested and
grows with interest from year
to year. The University does not
spend all the resulting interest,
resulting in a theoretically never-
ending source of funding.
“You can think of it, in a way,
as this giant bond … which pays
out a certain amount of interest
every year to the University,”
said Rafael Castilla, director of
investment risk management in
the University’s investment office,
said in a 2014 interview with The
Michigan Daily.
The
total
value
of
the
endowment increased to $10
billion this year from $9.7 billion
in 2014, due to a 3.5-percent
return on investment in fiscal
year
2015.
The
distributions
from the endowment, which
represent
the
money
the
University spends from returns
on the endowment, were $292.5
million this year. In 2014, the
endowment had an 18.8-percent
return on investment, and chose
to distribute $284.4 million.
The
University
bases
its
distributions on a seven-year
average
of
the
endowment’s
value, pulling a set percentage of
that average value every year. In
2014, the University implemented
a reduction to the set percentage,
from 5 to 4.5 percent annually.
“Our investment team’s long-
Conversation focuses
on ‘U’ definition of
incapacitation
By EMMA KINERY
Daily Staff Reporter
Seeking to gather input on how
the University addresses sexual
assault
on
campus,
students
and Sexual Assault Prevention
and Awareness Center officials
gathered in the Michigan Union
on
Friday
for
a
roundtable
discussion. The forum focused
on proposed updates to the
University’s
Student
Sexual
Misconduct Policy.
A series of similar roundtable
discussions
are
scheduled
through Nov. 3 and SAPAC
Director Holly Rider-Milkovich
said she has already recognized
potential improvements to the
draft since the sessions began
earlier this month.
“We
are
learning
from
students every single time we
do one of these roundtables,”
Rider-Milkovich said. “We heard
tonight, for example, that we
should make clear on the policy
who is responsible for ensuring
that
sanctions
are
enforced.
That’s a really important point,
and that is not a point we have
heard
from
others.
That’s
just one example and we have
those examples for every single
roundtable we’ve done.”
The
roundtables
are
the
second of three stages Rider-
Milkovich said are in the works
before a new policy on student
sexual misconduct rolls out next
semester, as part of a process that
first began when the policy was
last revised in 2013.
In
November
2014,
the
University
began
collecting
feedback from the administration
and external experts on sexual
misconduct policies on campuses,
as well as reviewing how other
schools around the country were
addressing the issue.
A University survey released
in June indicated that 22.5
percent of female undergraduates
experienced
sexual
assault
within the past year. A similar
survey conducted at 28 research
universities by the Association of
American Universities, released
in
September,
showed
about
30 percent of undergraduate
women at the University reported
experiencing
nonconsensual
penetration or sexual touching
by force or incapacitation. That’s
almost 7 percent above the
national average.
The
University
is
now
considering revisions to the 2013
policy, with a draft of a new
sexual misconduct policy open to
student input — an opportunity
A look at the voices of Michigan
football
» INSIDE
Gathering on the Diag
features prayer, songs,
personal connections
to events abroad
By LEA GIOTTO
Daily Staff Reporter
Students
gathered
on
the
Diag on Thursday night to honor
victims of terror attacks that have
taken place in the Israel over the
past month.
The event, which was co-hosted
by multiple student organizations
including J Street, WolvPac, the
American Movement for Israel
and I-LEAD, featured prayers and
accounts from those somehow
affected by the attacks.
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
Engineering sophomore Kevin Wolf recites a prayer for those who have been affected by terror attacks in Israel at a
vigil on the Diag on Thursday.
By ALEXA BORROMEO
Daily Video Editor
“My calc teacher is so
foreign that she spoke in
Chinese for a full minute
before
realizing
it
wasn’t
English”
-Anonymous
(Yik
Yak,
September
21,
2015,
100
upvotes)
“Really wishing my foreign
GSI came with subtitles right
now.”
-Anonymous
(Yik
Yak,
October 2, 2015, 156 upvotes)
Discriminating
remarks
like
these
have
become
commonplace
amongst
undergraduate students on
our campus. Maybe you’ve
overheard side comments in
the back of lecture filled with
more than 100 students about
your professor’s accent or
listened to friends complain
about having a “foreign GSI”
in the dorms. Maybe you’ve
even
responded
to
these
comments made on popular
college campus social media
platforms such as Yik Yak.
This video series was made
in an attempt to respond to
these comments by providing
a direct perspective and voice
from our professors and GSI’s
who
face
discrimination
because of their language and
culture.
Each interview was done in
the instructor’s first language.
“Having this conversation
in English and reproducing
the same feelings of feeling
different
is
meaningless,”
said Psychology and Women’s
Studies GSI Özge Savas.
Speaking
in
one’s
first
language on a daily basis is a
privilege that many students
at the University, including
myself, have; we are able to
fully express ourselves
and easily communicate our
ideas without second thought
or fear of being misunderstood
or judged based on our ability
to speak a language. To reverse
this privilege, even if only
within the scope of this video
series, will hopefully put those
of us at the University who
do speak English as our first
language, or speak English as
our only language, in a role
that we are not too familiar
with - the patient role of
translating and understanding
in language that isn’t your
own.
See INVESTMENT, Page 3A
See VIGIL, Page 3A
See SAPAC, Page 3A
ALEXA BORROMEO/Daily
The Michigan Daily asked international professors and graduate student instructors what it’s like to teach classes in English.
From top left, clockwise: “We are a minority on campus, and we do not have a good pathway to raise the community’s awareness of our difficulties and
to understand and appreciate our efforts.” GSI Yidi Li, from China. “I feel like when they see me and when I speak that they think, in some form, that
I am a second-class professor.” Professor Luis Felipe Sfeir-Younis, from Chile. “At the end of the day what is really hard, in my opinion is to just be
yourself, not being fluent.” GSI Claudio Vilas Boas Favero, from Brazil. “Sometimes, I still feel nervous when students talk fast. And when I ask them
to reiterate again I’d be worried if the students would be like ‘Haha, she didn’t understand me’ and they would be making fun of me in the back.” GSI
Yang Wang, from China.
TEACHING IN
TRANSLATION
University
investment
portfolio
totals $10B
Students host vigil for victims
of recent terror attacks in Israel
SAPAC talks draft
sexual assault policy
INDEX
Vol. CXXIV No. 12
©2015 The Michigan Daily
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