will come from student fees, but
contributions were also made by
the Office of Student Life, funds
generated by parking permits
and
the
University
Athletic
Department.
“There’s about $80 million
allocated to this project,” Rullman
said. “I say somewhere in the
neighborhood of half of that is
going to fixing the plumbing
which was put in in 1919.”
Jan van den Kieboom, founder
and
principal
of
Workshop
Architects, said the Union was
built for a smaller student body
with different interests, and no
longer reflects the University
culture.
LSA junior Maddie Levine said
the Union is meant to be a hub for
students and would like to see
better food and shopping options
as well as study spaces.
“This isn’t a place I would bring
people now because I don’t think
there’s anything special or unique
about it,” she said.
CSG said they would also like
to see improvements to their
chambers.
“This is supposed to be a
community space,” Charlton said.
“If we were to open up the room to
community members, they would
have difficulty fitting in here —
this space is not conducive to that.”
Public Policy junior Thomas
Hislop said there should be more
meeting spaces for the various
organizations on campus.
“We feel like there should be
spaces for the organizations that
already exist,” Hislop said.
Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs
Boynton said CSG and MESA
have
partnered
on
several
initiatives, and noted the office is
for everyone and not exclusively
for communities of color. Shee
said the program is launching
new initiatives regarding walk-in
advising for students who want
to launch new programs of their
own.
Boynton
also
touched
on
the recent Race and Ethnicity
Requirement forum hosted by
LSA student government, and said
talking across differences is a core
capacity students will need in the
professional world.
“I just looked at a report that
talked about inclusive leadership,”
Boynton said. “The report was
from six countries and Fortune
500 companies, and they really
said that in order to be innovative
and successful, you need people
who have culturally competent
skills.”
Boynton
spoke
about
the
upcoming changes in the works
for MESA.
“What
we’ve
piloted
this
semester are race and ethnicity
workshops because it is important,
relevant, a critical skill to talk
about race, and we think it’s a skill
people want to learn,” she said.
Resolutions
Central Student Government
passed
three
resolutions
unanimously Tuesday, one which
amended operating procedures
to change how assembly member
absences are counted.
Public
Policy
junior
Joe
Ambrose said he was disappointed
by the lack of attendance at the last
CSG meeting and the number of
abstentions during the voting on a
proposed resolution.
resolution calling on the city to
recognize the indigenous Odawa,
Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Wyandot
tribes who lived on what is now the
University’s campus.
“We really think that that’s an
important part of the proposal,
talking about the land grant
connection and how that land was
a gift from the indigenous people
here with the hope that their
children would be educated there,”
Gaillard said.
Gaillard said Warpehoski spoke
at NASA meetings with the aim of
involving the student group in the
process. Though Gaillard initially
was surprised a councilmember
wanted the help of a student group
in crafting the resolution, he said
NASA was ultimately happy to help.
Councilmember
Zachary
Ackerman
(D–Ward
3),
an
LSA senior, said Michigan was
historically home to native people
who were disenfranchised and
mistreated, and changing the
name of the holiday is a small step
to honor those individuals.
“I think Ann Arbor should be a
progressive leader, and one way in
which we can do that is to in some
small way right a historic wrong of
our nation,” Ackerman said.
Ackerman said he was surprised
action hadn’t been taken already.
“I was shocked to hear that
Councilmember
Briere
had
brought up that this was brought
to the table in decades previous
and that no action had been taken,”
Ackerman said. “I’m glad that we
can correct that now.”
Councilmember
Chip
Smith
(D–Ward 5) said the resolution was
long overdue and though he was
not on City Council when the first
resolution was proposed, he would
have supported it.
“I think what’s changed is a
better
cultural
understanding
of some of the insensitivities of
some of these traditions that
we’ve established,” he said. “I
just think that the times have
changed pretty significantly in
the last 20 years and I think the
time was right to do this.”
Warpehoski said the feedback
he received from the resolution
was overwhelmingly positive, and
though he was prepared for some
pushback, the unanimous vote did
not come as a surprise.
“I think we all share a hope that
this is more than just a changing
on the name on the calendar, but
it becomes an opportunity for a
deeper community conversation
about what’s happening with
indigenous
communities,”
Warpehoski
said.
“It
is
a
stereotype that Indians are only
in history books for many people
and one of my goals is that
through the education effort that
groups like the Native American
Student Associations are doing
they will get a chance to say yes,
they’re still here.”
3-News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 — 3A
COLUMBUS
From Page 1A
by summarizing the book’s three
themes: first, that Detroit is not
unique; second, that there’s a
need to change perceptions of
the city’s economic situation;
and third, that a forward-focused
outlook is important.
To introduce the first theme,
he used Dallas, Texas, as a case
study for showing Detroit is not
totally unique in its challenges.
He referenced chapters written by
Margaret Dewar, a professor in the
University’s Urban and Regional
Planning Program.
“They point out the empirical
benefits of studying Detroit and
that empirical lessons we draw
from Detroit are generalizable in
other urban contexts,” he said.
Dewar, who spoke on the panel,
said placing Detroit in the context
of other cities was important for
learning something from the
city’s challenges.
“Detroit is an extreme case
— what good does an extreme
case do when it is an outlier?” she
said. “When it is placed against
knowledge in certain ways, then
you can get new insights that add
to that knowledge.”
Kirkpatrick cited his experience
working in Dallas on a New Cities
Foundation initiative, which pairs
up city officials with faculty and
student researchers to address
urban issues facing the city.
“An observer might reasonably
assume that those two cities would
face fundamentally different types
of challenges,” he said. “But in
my work at SMU … the thing I’ve
taken is the stunning overlap in the
challenges facing Dallas and the
challenges facing Detroit.”
Those similarities, he added,
include issues like segregation and
concentrated patterns of blight.
Beyond acknowledging Detroit’s
challenges, Kirkpatrick said it was
also important to think about how
those challenges were created, and
what they mean for the city today.
He said that mindset entails
“rereading the past that brought
us to the point of crisis and then
reinterpreting where we are now,
and reinterpreting the possible
paths forward for the city and for
urban communities.”
Kirkpatrick said several chapters
in the book, including “Framing
Detroit” by Jamie Peck, a professor
and research chair of urban and
regional political economy at the
University of British Columbia,
and “Market Discipline” by John
Gallagher, a Detroit Free Press
reporter, speak to this point.
“The real villain in this story is
not the people of Detroit — they
are victims,” Kirkpatrick said.
“Rather, the real structural causes
for Jamie Peck are austerity, fiscal
federalism,
and
imposition
of
market discipline.”
Austerity refers to the fiscal
policy
practice
of
reducing
expenditures, often sharply, to
respond to budget deficits. Fiscal
federalism, a similar concept,
considers which functions of
government should be centralized
at the federal level and which
should be devolved to the states.
Market discipline is related to
how the transparency and risk
attached to a specific endeavor
are communicated.
David Fasenfest, Wayne State
University assistant professor of
sociology, said much of Detroit’s
decline can be tied to structural
market forces, such as the decline
in the automobile industry.
Kirkpatrick closed by asking the
panel a question: How is Detroit
doing now? Panelists cited both
positives and negatives of the city
in response, saying it depended on
which part of Detroit you were in.
While some areas like Midtown
are growing, with long waitlists for
apartments, other neighborhoods
are still receding and continuing
to face issues of foreclosure or
gentrification, Gallagher said.
“We have a long way to go, but
it does feel different to me in the
last three years than in the last 25,”
Gallagher said. “We are in the front
end of it.”
DETROIT
From Page 1A
CSG
From Page 1A
state. In the last two years, 200
Syrian refugees have settled in
Michigan, a number second to only
California and Texas.
“It’s hard to watch our elected
officials taking it out on the most
vulnerable people, while forgetting
that these refugees are the first
victims of these terrorists,” she said.
University alum Sanja Savic-
Berhamovic, who sought asylum
in Denmark from the Bosnian War,
said she saw several parallels with
her experience and the current
experience of Syrian refugees.
“We came from a civilized
country … and it was very
humiliating to be in a position
where we’re sleeping in tents and
people are coming and taking
our pictures like we’re in a zoo,”
Savic-Berhamovic said. “What’s
important is that (refugees) feel
like they’re understood.”
Arguments over policies, all
three panelists agreed, tend to
drown out important discussions
of accommodation.
“Silence has become the norm
for (refugees),” panelist Najah
Bazzy said. “They’re afraid of the
regime they came from as well as
the politics of their host country.
Practitioners
are
powerful
in
helping the refugees feel secure.”
Bazzy, who is the founder
of
Zaman
International,
a
humanitarian
organization
based in Dearborn, added that
it is important for mental health
practitioners to understand the
context of the refugee’s situation in
providing care.
“There
are
educational,
economic, political and legal and
cultural factors,” Bazzy said. “We
need to offer safe (spaces) for them.”
Panelists urged attendees to
take action by vocalizing the
importance
of
providing
for
refugees, especially in light of
Snyder’s decision.
“Being vocal and joining groups
already working with refugees is
important … (and) social media
presence as well,” Alkhayet said.
Several student groups on
campus have said they plan to
implement
several
initiatives
in the future, including more
dialogues
for
CWSA
and
a
campaign,
led
by
Students
Allied for Freedom and Equality,
to petition Snyder to reopen
Michigan to Syrian refugees.
LSA senior Dana Basha, who
attended the event, emphasized
the importance of empathizing
with refugees.
“It is so simple to become
desensitized to the suffering that
so many of these refugees have
gone through, and look at them as
just another statistic or number,”
Basha said. “There is no doubt that
as Americans we can bring them
steps closer to that safety.”
REFUGEES
From Page 1A
is America and America was built
on new chances, and have not just
this discussion, but discussions
on increased access to education.
There’s a lot of intersectionality
when it comes to these issues. It’s
not just fight for 15.”
Public Policy junior Robert
Dickinson, who is president of the
United Students Against Sweat-
shops chapter on campus, said
because the Student Labor Coali-
tion is not an official group on
campus, he helped the organiza-
tion coordinate Tuesday’s event.
Dickinson said because he
gets paid $9 through working in
the dining halls, expenses such
as paying the rent can often be
difficult, especially in a city like
Ann Arbor.
“My parents don’t make a lot of
money, and they ask myself and
my sisters for money sometimes,
and it sucks having to say I don’t
have anything,” Dickinson said.
“It puts a lot of strains on relation-
ships with people who don’t worry
about money, because if people
want to go out to dinner, it’s not
really an option for me.”
An LSA senior didn’t want to
be identified due to the sensitive
nature of the topic, said her cam-
pus job in a University depart-
ment doesn’t pay enough to cover
the bills.
“As someone who does school
full time and a student worker,
there was a time when I was work-
ing a University job and then I had
to have three outside in addition to
that,” she said. “I’ve done an entire
school year working four jobs
before just to pay for my tuition
and pay for my bills, while I was
taking full-time classes — two
semesters of 16 credits and work-
ing four jobs at the same time.
Needless to say, my academics
suffered, and now that’s causing a
problem for my grad school apps,
because now I’m not as competi-
tive, because I’ve had to work my
whole education.”
LSA junior Rebecca Wren, a
member of the Student Labor
Coalition, said she is both a work-
ing-class and first-generation col-
lege student. Having grown up
watching her family work for low
wages, she said, she did not always
understand how hard they had to
work to make minimum wage.
“The last few years I lived in
an apartment, and that’s where it
really hits you really hard, because
there’s rent, and there’s bills, and
you’re responsible for yourself all
of a sudden,” Wren said.
Wren said she hopes to see at
least $15 an hour as the base pay
across campus. “I feel like it is
higher education’s role to make
changes and to reduce inequality
and they’re not doing it right now,”
she said.
WAGE
From Page 2A
PUBLIC SE RVICE
EMILIE FARRUGIA/Daily
Andrew Kim, the legislative director of the Macomb Civil Rights Commission, and state Rep. Stephanie Chang (D–
Detroit) discuss their experiences as Asian-American government leaders at the Asian Americans in Government
panel at Rackham Amphitheatre on Tuesday.
“I
just
really
wanted
to
express
some
disappointment
that I had about the turnout of
last week’s meeting, and I know
that we all have a lot of busy
schedules,” Ambrose said. “It
was our responsibility to educate
ourselves on the issue, and I was
really at a loss for words at how
many abstentions because it’s
really doing a disservice to those
who elected you.”
Public Policy junior Lucky
Lakshman Mulpuri said the low
attendance of CSG at assembly
meetings and their own events
reflects poorly on the body.
“I
don’t
feel
comfortable
clapping when a member who is
not even elected to the assembly,
but appointed, has to send out
repeated e-mails for assembly
members to participate,” Mulpuri
said.