the students expanded on the 
reasons that might be.

“With the Affordable Care 

Act and the Healthy Michigan 
Plan, the number of uninsured 
patients in Michigan dropped 
significantly, but they found that 
they were still left with a steady 
flow of patients into the clinic for 
the uninsured,” Williams said. 
“They had a suspicion that there 
were reasons why some of those 
patients could be insured but 
were not and thought it was just 
time to ask them.”

Williams helped the Medical 

School 
students 
with 
their 

research. He said the students 
found many of their patients were 
unaware of how exactly the ACA 
could make health insurance an 
affordable option for them.

“Some patients weren’t aware 

of how the tax credits worked,” 
he said. “You can sign up if your 
income is above a certain level 
and still be eligible for tax credits 
and those come back at tax 
time. But calculating the actual 
effect on your annual budget is 
difficult.”

Based 
on 
this 
finding, 

Williams said students realized 
there are opportunities to help 
patients by providing guidance 
for calculating the impact of the 
ACA on their budgets.

Second-year Medical School 

student Brian Desmond is one 
of the students who works in 
the clinic and conducted the 
research. He said another reason 
people are not insured is that 
they don’t always know how to 
sign up for the insurance they 
qualify for.

“Most 
people 
know 
the 

Affordable Care Act happened 
and 
changed 
insurance 

coverage,” Desmond said. “Not 
as many people seem to know the 
details of how that affects them 
individually.”

As a result of these findings, 

the students thought it was 
necessary to provide insurance 
counseling as a feature of their 
free clinic. The government 
provides some of this training 
under the ACA. Desmond said a 
group of six students completed 
the 
training 
to 
provide 

counseling to patients.

“Essentially, our findings were 

strong enough that we thought 
our patients could benefit from 
one-on-one 
counseling 
about 

their insurance options,” he said.

Desmond said the students 

will mostly help patients with 
navigating 
theHealthCare.gov 

marketplace, as well as sign up 
for Medicaid.

Though the task of educating 

and providing all patients with 
insurance may seem easy for 
some people, Williams said, the 
prospect of a monthly payment 
and large deductibles can be 
daunting when coupled with an 
unstable income. Many patients, 
he said, have only intermittent 
work.

“So even though in a given 

year 
they 
might 
technically 

make enough to qualify for 
a 
tax 
subsidy, 
they’re 
less 

certain 
that 
the 
next 
year 

they’re going to make the same 
amount,” Williams said. “The 
unpredictability of it makes them 
hesitant to commit to something 
that has a monthly payment and 
a big copay.”

However, 
Williams 
said 

having 
insurance 
under 
the 

ACA could allow patients to save 
money in the long term. Under the 
ACA, insurance companies are 
required to cover preventative 
tests such as mammograms, 
which 
could 
prevent 
health 

issues down the road.

Williams listed three main 

problems that come from lack 
of insurance. The first is that 
if patients need to go to the 
emergency room, they have to pay 
the bill themselves. The second 
implication is that it’s harder to 
get care for chronic illnesses, 
including 
hypertension 
and 

diabetes, that, if untreated, can 
have more devastating impacts 
in the long run. The third issue is 
the lack of preventative care.

“We see patients all the 

time who just need the basic 
preventative 
care 
but 
can’t 

get it because they don’t have 
insurance,” he said.

Desmond agreed that health 

insurance is key for providing 
the best patient care and said 
though the free clinic will 
probably always be necessary, 
he hopes their research and 
current counseling services can 
help people achieve optimal 
insurance coverage.

“If you look at studies about 

health insurance, really it’s 
in people’s best interest to 
get health insurance and be a 
part of the formal healthcare 
network,” he said. “Our goal is 
to get as many people affordable 
health insurance so that they 
can see someone else and not 
rely on us.” 

between students during the 
latter portion.

“Many of us have watched 

and wondered at the situation 
in Missouri … and I was sure 
people would want to talk about 
this,” McCoy said. “The question 
is how can we replicate some of 
these events?”

McCoy 
noted 
that 
the 

resignations of the Missouri 
system’s 
president 
and 
the 

chancellor of the flagship campus 
were caused by deep-seated 
tension between students and the 
administration. Student protest, 
which came to a head after 
the university’s football team 
refused to play until the president 
stepped down, stemmed from 
what many saw as the school’s 
failure to address several racist 
incidents on campus.

“Consider 
institutional 

failure,” 
McCoy 
said. 

“Administrations are often either 
oblivious or flat-out resistant to 
what students are demanding.”

The lecture also sought to place 

current events in the context of 
local campaigns — particularly, 
last year’s U.S. Supreme Court 
decision to uphold Michigan’s 
affirmative action ban and the 
#BBUM 
movement, 
which 

organized on campus in 2013 to 
provide a voice to the experience 
on campus for Black students. 
The demands of Black student 
groups at the University, McCoy 
said, have remained largely the 
same since their founding in the 
civil rights movement.

“Both 
external 
forces 
… 

and local grievances sparked 
#BBUM,” McCoy said. “But there 
have been consistent demands, 
(like) 
increasing 
the 
Black 

enrollment to 10 percent of the 
student body.”

The 
following 
discussion 

on diversity and treatment of 
minority students was especially 
relevant 
following 
Tuesday’s 

campuswide diversity summit, 
a week-long effort to encourage 
campus diversity and inclusion 
hosted by Univesity President 
Mark Schlissel. Many chafed 
at the portrayal of diversity 

on campus, and commented 
specifically on the summit.

LSA 
sophomore 
Stephen 

Wallace 
expressed 

disappointment 
with 

administration’s 
response 
to 

student demands.

“Some people really think 

Michigan is diverse,” he said. 
“Like, ‘Two Black people in 
my class is so diverse.’ And 
numbers are important, but so is 
experience. It felt like Schlissel 
didn’t understand that.”

“The 
percentage 
of 
Black 

students on (recruiting) flyers 
is so much higher than the 
percentage 
actually 
at 
the 

University.” 
Engineering 

sophomore 
Raymond 
Smith-

Byrd added. “It makes me feel 
like I don’t want your flyers.” 

Students also discussed the 

relationship between free speech 
and racial sensitivity on campus.

LSA junior Vesal Stoakley 

commented 
on 
the 
recent 

controversy at Yale University 
regarding 
free 
speech 
and 

culturally considerate costumes. 
In advance of Halloween, the 
university 
released 
guidance 

encouraging students to avoid 
wearing 
“culturally 
unaware 

or 
insensitive 
costumes.” 
A 

response letter from a Yale 
faculty member saying students 
should be able to wear whatever 
they want later sparked outrage 
from many students.

“We have to keep a campus 

climate 
that 
is 
welcoming,” 

Stoakley said. “But there has to 
be a balance, where we’re not 
infringing on free speech, but 
we’re also considering the other 
side.”

LSA 
freshman 
Schaefer 

Thelen said creating safe spaces 
on campus takes precedence over 
potentially offensive free speech.

“Arguing for free speech for 

the sake of offending others 
doesn’t 
make 
much 
sense,” 

Thelen said.

McCoy concluded the teach-

in by emphasizing that dialogue 
is the first step to any effective 
change on campus.

“I 
think 
if 
students 
pay 

attention to Missouri and the 
shortcomings at this University, I 
think something will come out of 
it,” he said. “It has to.”

3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, November 12, 2015 — 3A

TEACH-IN
From Page 1A

ACA
From Page 1A

the 
president’s 
resignation. 

Members 
of 
the 
Missouri 

football team said they would not 
engage in any football-related 
activities until the president 
stepped down.

On the Diag on Wednesday 

evening, organizers read various 
posts on social media that 
followed Wolfe and Loftin’s 
announcement, 
including 

one from a Yik Yak user who 
posted they would shoot any 
Black students on the Missouri 
campus. There were also reports 
of unlicensed vehicles circling 
Black students in parking lots at 
Mizzou.

Cortes said she was outraged 

at the University of Missouri’s 
lack of response to threats 
toward Black students on the 
campus.

“Black 
students 
at 
the 

University of Missouri have 
continuously 
experienced 

racism 
and 
discrimination 

on campus, as many other 
institutions of higher education 
have, ” she said. “As stated by a 
Missouri student, the University 
of Missouri administration has 
continued to overshadow the 
racism and violence toward 
students of color with well 
written 
PR 
statements 
and 

movements and initiatives that 
never tackle the issue.”

She added that she was 

disappointed 
that 
professors 

at the University’s School of 
Social Work weren’t providing 
a 
platform 
for 
students 
to 

discuss issues brought to light by 
demonstrations in Missouri. The 
University is currently in the 
midst of aweek-long diversity 
summit 
intended 
to 
garner 

input from the community as 
administrators craft a campus-
wide strategic plan to improve 
equity and inclusion on campus. 

Social Work student Khalid 

Bowens echoed Cortes’ remarks, 
saying he has noticed a lack of 
response from some University 

faculty members.

“I’m tired of teachers sitting 

in my classrooms telling me that 
things that are going on within 
Black America does not matter 
in this classroom because yes the 
fuck it does.” he said. “Because 
I’m in this classroom, this is my 
life and this is what I have to go 
through.”

Engineering and LSA senior 

Will Royster, a Central Student 
Government 
presidential 

candidate for the 2015-2016 
academic year, said both the 
Black 
Student 
Union 
and 

members of By Any Means 
Necessary 
have 
coordinated 

similar efforts in past years, but 
demonstrations at the University 
of Missouri show more effective 
ways to get University officials 
to respond to concerns raised by 
Black students.

In Missouri, the threat of 

football players striking could 
have impacted revenue from 
cancelled games. If the team 
missed its Saturday game against 
Brigham 
Young 
University, 

Missouri would have lost $1 
million due to an agreement 
signed by both schools last year.

“With this Missouri incident, 

we 
saw 
the 
solution,” 
he 

said. “We talk Black politics, 
but everybody talks money; 
everybody talks green dollars.”

He also said that Blacks 

students should build coalitions 
with other multiethnic students.

“Multiethnic people, y’all go 

through some of the same shit 
we go through,” he said. “We 
need to build coalitions. We need 
to support each other. This shit 
is intersectional all day.”

Several other demonstrators 

offered 
remarks 
during 
the 

event, 
drawing 
on 
personal 

experiences 
of 
racism 
and 

navigating 
a 
predominately 

white campus as a student of 
color. One student quoted Martin 
Luther King Jr., and called 
on those in the community to 
remain active in times of moral 
crisis.

Another 
attendee 
on 
the 

Diag said users replied to a 

video of the demonstration she 
posted on Twitter comparing 
demonstrators to “chimpanzee’s 
mating” and something they 
“saw on Discovery Channel.”

“This is what people look at 

us today as: animals,” she said. 
“They don’t see the injustice in 
this world, they don’t open their 
eyes to see what’s really going 
on.”

LSA freshman Jason Young 

said in his remarks that he felt 
devalued and unappreciated at 
the University.

“My presence is not desired 

here,” he said. “But what does 
this ‘M’ mean? If this a symbol 
of hatred and it’s saying that I’m 
not welcome here, what does 
it mean? It hurts me to think 
that I came to this college to be 
accepted and to just learn and 
instead, I’m seen as this oddity.”

Bowens 
echoed 
Young’s 

remarks, and said he’s tired of 
being treated as the token Black 
student in his classes.

“I’m tired of sitting in a 

classroom with Black students 
who look at me like I’m supposed 
to educate them,” he said. “Don’t 
look at me as your token Black 
student to tell you about the 
Black experience because we all 
have Black experiences. Look at 
all these Black faces here tonight 
and I can tell you we all live 
different lives.”

Some 
students 
connected 

events at the University of 
Missouri to the 2014 killings of 
unarmed Black men in Ferguson, 
Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y. In 
his remarks, LSA sophomore 
Theo Nobles, recounted his 
experience his freshman year 
and feelings of shock when these 
events broke.

“I was in my dorm room at 

Mary Markley Hall with my 
roommate, and we just sat 
and looked at each other and 
thought, this is the world we live 
in,” he said. “A man can get killed 
in cold blood and his murderer 
can just walk away.”

Nobles said being a Black 

man at a predominantly white 
institution has caused him to 

be looked down upon by peers. 
It was understood, Nobles said, 
that as a Black man, he would be 
treated differently.

“From the get-go, you are 

looked at as beneath,” he said. 
“From the get-go, you are looked 
at as a future criminal, a future 
statistic. I get asked why I 
decided to go to a predominantly 
white 
institution, 
not 
a 

historically Black college, every 
day. I’m sure people at Missouri 
that look like me get asked the 
same thing.”

Upon request for interview, 

some 
white 
demonstrators 

declined to comment for the 
purpose of elevating the Black 
perspective on the issue. White 
demonstrators 
also 
allowed 

Black community members to 
stand at the front the group 
during the march to the Diag.

In an interview with The 

Michigan Daily after the event, 
LSA junior Julia Wang, who 
attended the demonstration, said 
she believes giving minorities a 
platform to express themselves 
is an integral part of the process 
toward change.

“It’s a really important event 

to come to as someone who falls 
into the minority category but 
may not always feel the effects of 
it as an Asian woman,” she said. 
“I think really important that 
that platform is available and we 
let those people speak and hear 
the other side.”

She also said she was shocked 

that issues affecting the Black 
community on campus are often 
not discussed.

“Every time I come, hearing 

people’s voices and hearing their 
stories about how they’re treated 
makes me shocked,” she said. “It 
makes me feel very lucky, but in 
the worst way possible. No one 
deserves to feel that way, no one 
deserves to be treated that way, 
and it’s horrifying that this is the 
only way I hear about it.”

A 
community 
prayer 
for 

the 
University 
of 
Missouri 

is 
scheduled 
to 
take 
place 

Thursday night on the Diag.

MIZZOU
From Page 1A

said. “The University doesn’t 
really encourage giving us time 
off to celebrate it, so people are 
busy or it gets overshadowed, 
amongst other things.”

The holiday is often celebrated 

by lighting lamps around the 
house and receiving blessings 
from elders. Like many holidays, 
food is also a key part of the 
celebration.

Shah said hosting a celebration 

like Diwali at the University is an 
important way of reflecting the 
campus’ diverse community.

“It is often found that we are 

not well represented in many 
ways, and in order to show 
how are lives are more similar 
than different it’s important 
that we share our celebrations 
with a community that may not 
necessarily know what Diwali 
is all about,” she said. “It’s 
important to allay any fears 
or misrepresentations of the 
festival as well.”

Kadhiresan said this is the 

first Diwali she is spending 
without connecting with her 
family in some way.

“I was actually talking to 

my mom this morning and she 
was really missing us,” she said. 
“It’s the first year we’re not 
completely together. I really 
wish I could be with my family 

at this time because it’s the same 
thing as other people being with 
their families for Christmas or 
for Ramadan. It would be nice to 
be able to go home and see them.”

While 
she 
understands 

that 
the 
University 
cannot 

accommodate 
every 
religious 

holiday with time off, Kadhiresan 
said 
the 
University 
should 

acknowledge the large Indian 
Hindu population on campus.

“It’s 
actually 
kind 
of 

disappointing,” she said. “But I 
think it’s kind of the tradition in 
American school systems to not 
really give days off for Diwali. 
It would probably be possible to 
coordinate one long weekend off 
for Diwali.”

LSA freshman Ayla Ahmed 

and Engineering freshman Arthi 
Nadhan said while they enjoyed 
the event at North Quad, they did 
not feel it accurately represented 
the festival.

“I thought there could have 

been more light, personally,” 
Ahmed said.

Nadhan, who had performed 

at the event as a part of Michigan 
Sahana, said she also was looking 
forward to seeing more lights 
at the event, since Diwali is 
considered the festival of lights.

“I actually knew a lot about 

the holiday, since I celebrate it at 
home,” Nadhan said. “But it was 
nice seeing that people came and 
celebrated it here.”

DIWALI
From Page 1A

TMD STORY SLAM

FRIDAY, NOV. 20

7-9 P.M.

420 MAYNARD ST. 

