such as the Black Panthers.
“There’s been a profound
shift, a historiographical shift,
one might say, a political shift,
that’s made it possible to write
about radical anti-state orga-
nizations that was absolutely
not true when I was in graduate
school,” she said.
Murch was working on a book
on the Black Panthers when she
realized the history of incarcera-
tion is central to research on race
and marginalized groups.
“It started out very empirical-
ly, with trying to understand why
such large numbers of southern
born migrants ended up in juve-
nile systems,” she said.
The study of the carceral state
also has implications for other
areas of study, such as research
on crime and drug policy.
“It’s very difficult to write
about a drug economy without
dealing with the state apparatus
of punishment,” she said.
Most recently, Murch has
studied political mobilization
in current social movements
against mass incarceration and
police brutality. She travelled to
Ferguson, Mo. after last year’s
protests, following the fatal
shooting of an unarmed, Black
teenager by a white police officer,
to study the “explosion of activ-
ism” there. She said these kind of
events are important for shaping
how researchers reinterpret the
period in which incarceration
rates soared in the U.S.
Thompson began her discus-
sion by agreeing with Murch’s
assertion that many historians
who study incarceration stum-
bled on the topic while study-
ing other things. Thompson, for
example, came across the topic
while working on a book about
Black activism and civil rights in
Detroit.
“We all came to this quite as a
surprise to ourselves,” she said.
“I didn’t even see in my own
book, which is fundamentally
about police brutality and funda-
mentally about the carceral state
… I didn’t understand what a car-
ceral state was. I didn’t see the
forest for the trees.”
Thompson also worked on
a book about the Attica Prison
Riot, which took place in the
Attica Correctional Facility in
1971. While working on the book,
Thompson realized the connec-
tion between civil rights and the
increasing incarceration rate.
She recounted asking of herself,
“Well wait a minute, something
happens after Attica. After 1971
we start to lock everybody up.
What’s the relationship? Is there
a connection here?”
She also noted that this body
of research has been largely
fueled by women and feminists,
and that experts in this area have
recently been called upon to edu-
cate legislators in Washington,
D.C., an unusual request for his-
torians.
One question she answered in
Washington was how to accom-
modate the wealthy interest
groups and corporations who,
like legislators and historians,
believe in decarceration, but
don’t know what to do when this
decarceration happens. She sug-
gested funds be diverted from
the prison system into social wel-
fare, charter schools and other
services that will help those most
affected by the incarceration
trend.
“I thought (the event) went
pretty well,” Lassiter said. “We
got some really good questions,
including a number of really
good ones from undergrads. We
didn’t resolve anything today, but
that’s not how historical discus-
sions usually happen. The goal
is to ask the right questions as
much as finding easy answers.”
Chen sought support from
the GEO to submit a grievance
hearing to Taubman College.
Ware said the GEO believes
Taubman
College
breached
protections outlined in Article
9 of its collective bargaining
agreement with the University.
The article states that once an
offer has been made to a potential
GSI and the GSI signs a contract,
the duties can be changed or taken
away completely, but the pay,
benefits and tuition waiver can be
no less than what was promised.
“This is one of the articles in
our contract that is most dear to
us,” Ware said. “In addition to it
being an awful situation for Alex,
who doesn’t deserve to be in the
situation that she’s in, it’s also a
threat to job security for all GSIs.”
According to Ware, Taubman
College has declined to overturn
their decisions thus far in prior
grievance hearings for Chen.
Monday’s
protest
occurred
during
her
third
grievance
hearing with Academic Human
Resources. Ware said a mix of
more than 100 graduate and
undergraduate
students
and
University
alumni
attended
Monday’s
demonstration,
but were denied access to the
grievance hearing.
Upon request for comment on
the issue, University spokesman
Rick
Fitzgerald
said
Monday
evening he could not discuss the
matter.
“It’s not appropriate to discuss
these types of personnel issues
publicly,” he said. “This matter
is being addressed appropriately
through the process outlined in
the GEO collective bargaining
agreement.”
Ware said many people were
intersted in learning the outcome
of Monday’s hearing.
“Everybody that was at the
Taubman building today came
hoping to watch the meeting,”
Ware said. “We did request a room
large enough for that to take place,
but (Human Resources) took the
position that they didn’t want any
spectators in the meeting.”
According to Ware, officials
closed the blinds in the meeting
room
and
held
the
meeting
privately while four or five police
officers monitored protesters from
a classroom next door.
The department will have 30
days to consider Chen’s case before
they release a final decision. During
that time, Ware said the GEO plans
to appear before the University’s
Board of Regents to argue Chen’s
case.
“We
hope
that
Human
Resources,
being
intimately
familiar with our contract and
knowing
what
the
contract
requirements are, we hope they
will overturn the decision, and that
we’ll get Alex what she deserves,”
he said.
“It’s ridiculous,” Rahman
said.
“Protesting
against
political correctness … I’m
of course not for that, but I
(also) think it’s really weird
to equate that that to the
Berlin Wall. It doesn’t make
any sense.”
Passersby spoke with YAF
members about the purpose
of the display. The wall had
words
like
“protect
left
handed people” and “report
me”
spray
painted
in
a
graffiti-like fashion.
“We chose words that were
all part of this politically
correct effort, to replicate an
environment where people
are coerced into silence from
expressing
their
beliefs,”
Strobl said.
Students
said
they
felt
some
groups
were
marginalized by the words
written on the wall.
“I believe that people’s
identities
are
being
challenged
based
on
the words on the wall,”
Sweitzer said. “People who
have
suffered
traumatic
experience — you need to be
aware of that when watching
a movie in class, or just going
through life.”
The
aim
of
the
day,
according to Strobl, was to
draw connections between
instances of institutionalized
censorship.
“It is our mission to fight
for
freedom
of
speech,
intellectual discussion and
dialogue and the opportunity
to engage in this dialogue
as a University,” Strobl said.
“If we didn’t have this event
today, I wouldn’t have had
tons of discussions about this
today.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, November 10, 2015 — 3
Theme semesters to
celebrate University
bicentennial
The University announced
Tuesday it will devote courses
in the 2017 winter and fall
semesters
to
celebrate
its
bicentennial.
According to a statment form
Bicentennial Communications,
the winter theme semester,
titled “The Making of the
University of Michigan,” will
highlight the history of the
University.
The fall 2017 theme semester,
“Michigan
Horizons:
The
Possible
Futures
of
U-M,”
will focus on the challenges
and dilemmas facing both the
University and higher education
at large.
Theme
semester
planning
was chaired by Howard Brick, a
professor of history and director
of the Eisenberg Institute for
Historical Studies.
Classes cancelled
at UM-Dearborn
after mall shooting
Police
confirmed
Monday
afternoon that shots were fired
in Fairlane Mall in Dearborn,
Michigan.
The shooting prompted both
a lockdown of the mall and the
University’s Dearborn campus,
which is located across the
street.
Classes
at
the
Dearborn
campus were cancelled and
students were encouraged to
remain indoors.
According
to
police,
the
shooting
occurred
after
a
dispute between two people
escalated.
No
injuries
have
been
reporterd. No arrests have been
made in connection with the
incident.
Wayne County
to build pier at
wildlife refuge
The Wayne County com-
mission voted unanimously to
approve $1 million deal to build
a boat dock and pier at a wildlife
refuge.
The commission made the
agreement with the Downriver
Community Conference. The
conference is an alliance of 20
Wayne County cities and town-
ships dedicated to improving
the Detroit River International
Wildlife Refuge Gateway in
Trenton and Gibraltar.
Plans for the project include
for a 755-foot boat dock and
pier that will accommodate
100 people. A floating pier will
house a boat from the Michigan
Sea Grant program. The pro-
gram, backed by the Univeristy
and Michigan State University,
funds research, education and
training projects about con-
servation and use of the Great
Lakes
The project is anticipated to
be completed in 2017.
In light of student
outcry, Missouri
president resigns
Timothy
Wolfe,
president
of the University of Missouri,
announced he would resign
Monday after students demand-
ed he step down for his alleged
lack of attention to racial issues
on campus.
Following the painting of a
swastika on a campus building,
students at the school began
protesting
the
university’s
administration.
One
student
pledged he would not eat until
Wolfe resigned.
The Missouri football team
also pledged they would not
partipate in any football-related
activities until Wolfe stepped
down.
In his final speech to the Uni-
veristy of Missouri community,
Wolfe said he hopes his resinga-
tion was a step toward healing
on the campus.
—ALYSSA BRANDON
NEWS BRIEFS
equity, inclusion and academic
affairs, introduced the panel,
explaining that its aim was to
contextualize the current state of
diversity at the University before
continuing to develop future plans
later in the week.
“Whatever progress we make
in the future has already been
purchased by the blood, sweat
and tears of those who have come
before us,” Sellers said. “Whatever
heights we reach in the future, we
can only reach those heights by
standing on the shoulders of the
gargantuan contributions of those
who have come before us.”
Cotera argued that despite the
University’s history as a leader in
promoting diversity on campus —
most notably through defending
affirmative action in the 2003
U.S. Supreme Court case Gratz
v. Bollinger — the administrative
leadership has often minimized its
commitment to diversity.
She cited the critically low
enrollment numbers for Black
and Native American students
— 4.82 percent and 0.25 percent,
respectively. Noting a lack of
administrative
leadership
in
recruiting and retaining faculty
of color, Cotera said the campus
climate for minority students is
unwelcoming.
“Not a week goes by that a
student of color, whether graduate
or undergraduate, does not come
crying in my office,” she said. “It
happens every week.”
Stephens
said
the
low
enrollment numbers for minority
students is also due to the
normalization of microaggressions
on campus. She said many students
of color believe the University is a
hostile place for minorities, even
before they set foot on campus.
“The University needs to come
to understand that that 4 percent is
in part based on how the University
does business,” she said.
Despite
the
critical
words
panelists had for racial diversity
on campus, Toy remarked on
how receptive and courageous
the University was when he first
conceived the Human Sexuality
Office in 1971.
“The University took, I believe,
an enormous risk in creating what
we now refer to as the Spectrum
Center,” Toys said.
In addition to panel members,
a number of other distinguished
campus
leaders
attended
the
discussion,
including
Nellie
Varner, the first Black regent at
the University; Harold Johnson,
the first Black dean; and Henry
Johnson, former vice president of
student affairs and the first Black
vice president.
Business
sophomore
Dhara
Gosalia said she said left the
event
feeling
that
achieving
a
more
diverse
University
community must occur through
an institutional, systemic way.
“When I came in, I expected
them to talk more about the
history, but I thought it was really
cool that they connected it to the
present times,” she said.
Rackham
student
Tissyana
Camacho said the panel made
her realize how the University
will need to remain committed to
attaining a diverse student body
for a while before achieving it
achieves goals for inclusion.
“I think my biggest takeaway
was realizing that this is something
that is a long-term commitment,”
Camacho said. “I think many if not
all of the panelists discussed that
the change is not going to happen
overnight.”
Toward
the
end
of
the
discussion,
all
panelists
encouraged
senior
leaders
and
administrators,
not
just
students and faculty, to make
campus inclusion a priority at the
University.
“We need everybody involved,”
Stewart said. “We know that when
institutional change happens it
happens when it converges from
bottom up, top down leadership.”
DIVERSITY
From Page 1
WALL
From Page 1
GEO
From Page 1
state. Murch said the carceral
state
“entails
multiple
forms
of
surveillance,
control
and
confinement … the carceral has
to do with when state institutions
take on a punishing function.”
“Mass incarceration is the
symptom. The carceral state
is the cause,” Thompson said.
“We’ll have a carceral state even
if we let a million and a half
people out of prison and we go
back to levels of 1970.”
The discussion also explored
the rise of juvenile incarceration,
and who is responsible for the
policies that encouraged these
incarceration trends, as well as
mass incarceration.
The
issue
of
mass
incarceration is polarizing: some
say it’s a result of policy shift in
the 1960s and 1970s, while others
say it’s due to a longstanding
tradition
of
imprisonment.
Some camps of social scientists
argue the trend is a result of
de-industrialization or under-
policing of Black neighborhoods.
The event began with a
short lecture by each of the
guest panelists. Murch, who is
considered a pioneer in the study
of mass incarceration through a
historical lens, spoke about the
development of of research on
the carceral state.
She said the group of historians
working on the topic is very small,
and research has been limited
until very recently due to bias
against the subjects of research,
such as the Black Panthers.
“There’s been a profound shift,
a historiographical shift, one
might say, a political shift, that’s
made it possible to write about
radical anti-state organizations
that was absolutely not true
when I was in graduate school,”
she said.
Murch was working on a
book on the Black Panthers
when she realized the history of
incarceration is central to research
on race and marginalized groups.
“It started out very empirically,
with trying to understand why
such large numbers of southern
born migrants ended up in
juvenile systems,” she said.
The study of the carceral state
also has implications for other
areas of study, such as research
on crime and drug policy.
“It’s very difficult to write
about a drug economy without
dealing with the state apparatus
of punishment,” she said.
Most recently, Murch has
studied political mobilization
in current social movements
against mass incarceration and
police brutality. She travelled
to Ferguson, Mo. after last
year’s protests, following the
fatal shooting of an unarmed,
Black teenager by a white police
officer, to study the “explosion of
activism” there. She said these
kind of events are important
for shaping how researchers
reinterpret the period in which
incarceration rates soared in the
U.S.
Thompson
began
her
discussion
by
agreeing
with
Murch’s
assertion
that
many
historians
who
study
incarceration stumbled on the
topic while studying other things.
Thompson, for example, came
across the topic while working on
a book about Black activism and
civil rights in Detroit.
“We all came to this quite as a
surprise to ourselves,” she said.
“I didn’t even see in my own
book, which is fundamentally
about
police
brutality
and
fundamentally about the carceral
state … I didn’t understand what a
carceral state was. I didn’t see the
forest for the trees.”
Thompson also worked on
a book about the Attica Prison
Riot, which took place in the
Attica
Correctional
Facility
in 1971. While working on the
book, Thompson realized the
connection between civil rights
and the increasing incarceration
rate. She recounted asking of
herself, “Well wait a minute,
something
happens
after
Attica. After 1971 we start to
lock
everybody
up.
What’s
the relationship? Is there a
connection here?”
She also noted that this body
of research has been largely
fueled by women and feminists,
and that experts in this area
have
recently
been
called
upon to educate legislators in
Washington, D.C., an unusual
request for historians.
One question she answered
in Washington was how to
accommodate
the
wealthy
interest
groups and corporations who,
like legislators and historians,
believe in decarceration, but
don’t know what to do when
this decarceration happens. She
suggested funds be diverted
from the prison system into
social welfare, charter schools
and other services that will
help those most affected by the
incarceration trend.
“I thought (the event) went
pretty well,” Lassiter said. “We
got some really good questions,
including a number of really
good ones from undergrads. We
didn’t resolve anything today,
but that’s not how historical
discussions
usually
happen.
The goal is to ask the right
questions as much as finding
easy answers.”
PROTEST
From Page 1
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
From Page 2
protests.”
Weineck
also
asked
for
Schlissel’s
thoughts
on
the
University
issuing
a
formal
apology to H. Chandler Davis, a
former University professor.
In
1954,
the
University
suspended and terminated Davis
and Mark Nickerson, a tenured
faculty member, for their refusal
to provide testimony to a group
from the U.S. House Committee
on Un-American Activities — as
a result of both professors having
had communist leanings. For
similar reasons, the University
suspended but later reinstated
another
professor,
Clement
Markert.
Davis, a former communist,
spent six months in federal
prison for contempt. Nickerson
and Markert were identified
by the committee as potential
subversives because of their
former communist sympathies,
but avoided federal prison by
citing their Fifth Amendment
rights.
In
1990,
the
University’s
Senate
Assembly
passed
a
resolution regarding the 1954
incident,
which
stated
the
faculty “deeply regret the failure
of the University community
to
protect
the
fundamental
values of intellectual freedom at
that time.” The resolution also
established an Annual Senate
Lecture on Academic and on
Intellectual
Freedom,
“The
University of Michigan Senate’s
Davis,
Markert,
Nickerson
Lecture
on
Academic
and
Intellectual Freedom.”
In
response,
Schlissel
questioned whether it is fair to
condemn decisions made more
than 60 years ago.
“How do you feel about
holding people accountable for
events that happened 60 years
ago, using much more modern
viewpoints?” he asked. “It’s
really easy to look back and say
‘Gee, these people must really
have been out of their minds to
fall in line with McCarthyism
here
at
the
University
of
Michigan.’ ”
He acknowledged that some
of his hesitation stems from his
perspective as the University’s
president.
“I’m
very
sensitive,
now
that I’m the guy in this seat,
to somebody 50 or 60 years
from now looking back on the
orthodoxy of today and saying
‘How on earth could that guy
Schlissel not realize that?’ ” he
said.
Biology Prof. John Lehman,
a SACUA member, pointed to
the United States’ 1988 decision
to apologize for the internment
of Japanese-Americans during
World War II as an example of
the importance of apologizing
for an event, even if it comes
years after the fact.
“It’s not that governments
haven’t taken steps to rectify or
receive reconciliation for things
like the Japanese internment,”
Lehman said. “I think the
government was right to turn
around and say ‘this was a
mistake and we should be aware
of this so we don’t make the
same mistake again.’ ”
Schlissel said he would weigh
the idea of issuing an apology to
Davis with his executive team
and the University’s Board of
Regents.
SACUA
From Page 1
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