report, emphasized the importance
of community input.
“We cannot set aside the fact
that police cannot be expected to
police themselves. Right?” Wilson
asked, to loud applause from the
audience.
However, Nearly all of the
community members who spoke
criticized the resolution because
of insufficient power delegated
to citizens. Public Health student
Rebecca
Ahmad-Robinson,
a
member of the advocacy group
Ann Arbor to Ferguson, specifically
questioned the decision to allow the
mayor to select the review board.
“(The report) is lacking teeth
in a lot of ways,” she said. “The
language
has
been
changed
multiple times so that it looks more
like a watered down civilian review
board. We would seek to empower
the civilian oversight board to
participate in the hiring and firing
of police officers.”
The
commission
set
about writing the report last
November,
motivated
in
part
by the police shooting of Ann
Arbor resident Aura Rosser, and
the subsequent scrutiny of the
city’s
police
department
and
national
conversations
about
police brutality. Rosser’s name
was invoked multiple times by
community members during the
meeting, but Ypsilanti resident
Michelle Barney, a representative
of the NAACP, cautioned the
commission against leaning too
heavily on Rosser’s legacy as an
immediate motivation.
“You have been engaged in
a
make-nice
process,”
Barney
said. “You look like you’re doing
something so that we don’t have riots
in the streets, so that we don’t have
Ferguson, Chicago (or) Baltimore.”
Shirley Beckley, an Ann Arbor
resident and an organizer with Ann
Arbor to Ferguson, echoed that
mentioning Rosser cannot cover up
the recommendations’ shortfalls.
“You mention Aura’s name
several time in the opening, and
then propose a review and not
an oversight. Anything less than
community control of the police is
worse than nothing,” she said.
The evaluation of community
involvement on the resolution
shifted to a critique of the meeting’s
format itself. Though the agenda
only allowed for comments from
the public, speakers demanded
replies from commissioners as
well. The audience’s insistence
ultimately pushed Linda Winkler,
the vice-chair of the commission
and acting chair, to motion for time
specifically reserved for questions.
“This is important enough to
me as a Black community person
and a person who cares about this
town, that we have dialogue,”
Beckley said. “When you don’t
talk to us, it just makes us feel like
we’re not important, and this is
just something that you designed.
I know how hard Dwight Wilson
worked on this report. Don’t throw
us off like that because you’re
going to do nothing but anger us.
We’re trying to work with you.
I’m not going to sit here another
70 years and see this happen in my
community. Please talk to us.”
The resulting extra time for
discussion centered around the
commission’s concrete takeaways
from the forum and commissioners
emphasized
that
all
concerns
voiced will ultimately be passed
on for City Council’s consideration.
Though the report is only a set
of
nonbinding
considerations,
commissioners and community
members
agreed
that
the
commission, the community and
White, the incoming police chief,
need to engage in more discussion
before the report appears on the
council’s agenda.
COMMISSION
From Page 1A
2A — Thursday, December 10, 2015
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THREE THINGS YOU
SHOULD KNOW TODAY
Daily
Arts
Writer
Matthew Barnauskas
explore the new Star
Wars movie in this
Jedi-centric edition of The
B-Side.
>>SEE B-SIDE, PAGE 1B
2
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Valerie
Jenness talk
WHAT: A UC Irvine
criminology professor
will lecture on how prison
shapes gender through
the feminization of
transgender women.
WHO: Dept. of Sociology
WHEN: 3:10 p.m. to 4:40
p.m.
WHERE: 2239 Lane Hall
Film screening
WHAT: There will
be a screening of the
documentary “How
to Survive a Plague,”
chronicling the work
of AIDS activists at the
height of the epidemic.
WHO: The Spectrum
Center
WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
WHERE: East Quad,
Room 4123
Despite
efforts
from
the state government
barring refugees from
entering the state, a Syrian
family of six settled in
Dallas, Texas this week, the
Associated Press reported.
1
Beethoven
sonatas recital
WHAT: Detroit Prof.
Aaron Berofsky’s
Beethoven Sonata Class
will perform all of
Beetoven’s sonatas for
violin and piano.
WHO: School of Music,
Theatre & Dance
WHEN: 8 p.m.
WHERE: Walgreen Drama
Center, Stamps Auditorium
Chicago Mayor Rahm
Emanual
apologized
for the 2014 shooting of
Laquan McDonald, the
Chicago Tribune reported
Wednesday.
Protestors
gathered downtown to call
for the mayor’s resignation.
3
Interviewing
workshop
WHAT: The Career
Center, in partnership
with the LSA Psychology
Department, will review
common interview
questions and share tips on
how to prepare.
WHO: The Career Center
WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
WHERE: East Hall, Room
Fossil Fuel
lecture
WHAT: Students in the
EARTH/ENVIRON
380 class will lecture on
whether the University can
become independant from
fossil fuels.
WHO: Program in the
Enviornment
WHEN: 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
WHERE: North Quad,
Room 2435
TUESDAY:
Campus Voices
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Photos of the Week
WEDNESDAY:
In Other Ivory Towers
MONDAY:
This Week in History
Latina/o
Studies talk
WHAT: Arlene Dávila will
give a lecture titiled “El
Mall: The Spatial and Class
Politics of Shopping Malls in
Latin America.”
WHO: Screen Arts and
Cultures
WHEN: 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
WHERE: Haven Hall,
Room 3512
Gov. Rick Snyder (R) tweeted
Detroit has more work to do.
“One year after Detroit’s exit from
bankruptcy, we have seen what
the power of working together
can do #ComebackCity”
— @onetoughnerd
“Here Today. Gone Tomorrow. Maybe
Not Quite Tomorrow. But They’ll Be
Gone Soon! Upcoming Job & Internship
Deadlines.”
-@careercenter
The Career Center gently reminded
students of approaching job and
internship deadlines at semester’s end.
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.
University students take to Yik Yak
to discuss the realities of finals.
“Tonight I’m not doing
homework that isn’t due to-
morrow. It was due yesterday.”
- @YikYakApp
FOLLOW US!
#TMD
@michigandaily
“
“
APPETIZING APPLES
MARINA ROSS/Daily
Ypsilanti resident Claire Milldrum makes caramel
apples at Kilwins on Wednesday.
Music recital
WHAT: The School of
Music, Theatre & Dance will
host a free wind chamber
music recital.
WHO: The School of Music,
Theatre and Dance
WHEN: 8 p.m.
WHERE: Earl V. Moore
Building, Britton Recital
Hall
‘Conjuring the
Caribbean’
WHAT: Part of a week-
long symposium on Carib-
bean tourism, histories
and gender identities.
WHO: Arts at Michigan
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
WHERE: Duderstadt
Center Media Union,
Video Studio
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FILE PHOTO/Daily
Protesters demonstrate outside of the Supreme Court during the Fisher v. University of Texas case on Oct. 10, 2012.
Law School, challenged in Grutter
v. Bollinger, was constitutional.
However, Michigan voters in 2006
opted to ban the use of race in
admissions via a statewide ballot
initiative.
Richard Primus, a University
professor of constitutional law, said
what is currently being presented
to the court for consideration is
hardly different than what was
discussed back in 2012.
“As a substantive matter, there’s
very little in this oral argument
that didn’t already exist in the
paper record,” he said. “People will
over-evaluate the oral argument
for signals, but most of the time,
at least much of the time, that is a
mistake.”
Substantively, oral arguments
are a forum in which the justices
question the counsel of both sides
of a case. Primus said in cases that
are overwhelmingly technical or
nuanced, oral arguments can be
very informative for justices, but
it is less so here since this is the
second time the court is hearing
this case.
“Oral argument is least likely to
change an outcome in a case like
this one,” he said. “Every judge
has a well-developed sense of
these ideas and a well-developed
set of views about these ideas. The
information has been thoroughly
digested and re-digested. They’re
not going to (use the) argument to
learn new things.”
Justice Elena Kagan has recused
herself from the case, and the
court’s four more conservative
justices are expected to side with
Fisher. Of the four remaining
justices, three are expected to side
with the University of Texas and
Justice Anthony Kennedy will
likely be the swing vote.
In
oral
arguments,
Justice
Antonin Scalia, one of the four
conservative justices, referred to
some beliefs which questioned the
place of some minority student
beneficiaries of affirmative action
at public universities during the
oral arguments.
“There are those who contend
that it does not benefit African
Americans to get them into the
University of Texas where they
will not do well, as opposed to
having them go to a less — a slower-
track school where they do well,”
he said, according to the transcript
of the oral arguments. “One of the
briefs pointed out that most of the
Black scientists in this country
don’t come from schools like the
University of Texas.”
Scalia continued that African-
American
students
come
to
colleges from “lesser schools,” and
arrive at college to find the classes
are too hard for them.
“I’m just not impressed by the
fact that the University of Texas
may have fewer (African-American
students),” he said. “Maybe it ought
to have fewer. And maybe some —
you know, when you take more, the
number of Blacks, really competent
Blacks, admitted to lesser schools
turns out to be less.”
Gregory G. Garre, legal counsel
for the University of Texas, said
the court had previously rejected
that sentiment.
“If you look at the academic
performance of holistic minority
admits versus the top 10 percent
admits, over time, they fare better,”
he said. “And, frankly, I don’t think
the solution to the problems with
student body diversity can be to
set up a system in which not only
are minorities going to separate
schools, they’re going to inferior
schools.”
The University’s Black Student
Union did not respond to an
interview request.
Citing his judicial record, media
outlets and academics speculate
Kennedy will join the conservative
four in a ruling against the
University of Texas, but Primus
said that may be too speculative.
In speaking about the utility of the
oral argument, he noted Kennedy
could also opt to send the case back
to the Fifth Circuit.
“If there’s anything in the oral
argument that’s fodder for further
prediction, it’s the possibility that
Justice Kennedy, once again, might
like to find a technical way out,”
he said. “In his questioning of
Fisher’s counsel, he talked about
the possibility of sending the thing
back to the district court. Later, he
seemed to back off that a little bit.”
However, in the event of a tie
vote, with Kennedy joining the
liberal justices and siding with the
University of Texas, the previous
Fifth Circuit ruling will prevail.
Media outlets and academics
have also been speculating what
the court’s decision — due in June
or early July — could look like, and
what could be the implications of
outlawing the race in admissions.
Some have suggested that
universities may turn to other
forms of affirmative action, such
as class-based or socioeconomic-
based methods.
Primus said the adoption of
class-based systems opens another
can of worms, but that the potential
effects of such programs to achieve
racial diversity could affect the
outcome of the case at hand.
“The more Justice Kennedy
thinks that race-blind, class-
based affirmative action can
produce racial diversity, the more
likely he is to rule against the
University (of Texas) in this case,”
he said. “The more he recognizes
that such means don’t produce
that result, the more likely he is to
rule for the university.”
Ann Lin, a professor of public
policy at the University, said
Fisher’s argument is that 10 percent
plans — whereby the top 10 percent
of high school graduating classes
are guaranteed admission to a state
university — like the one at the
University of Texas, are preferable
to holistic review processes that
use factors including race.
“That approach is one that
schools like Michigan have always
rejected — rejected them because
top 10 plans only create (racial)
diversity if you have extreme
segregation in your state … this
works in Texas because Texas is
one of the most segregated states
in the nation,” she said. “But, it
doesn’t work if either you have
diverse school bodies in which the
top 10 percent of the school doesn’t
reflect the diversity of the school,
and it also doesn’t work if you have
pockets of racial segregation in
which the high schools are also of
different sizes.”
To
that
end,
Primus
said
proponents of affirmative action
might rationally fear that Kennedy
will rule with Fisher against race-
based affirmative action, and that
the court’s decision will fail to
specify the circumstances under
which universities are allowed
to conduct holistic review, even
without the use of race.
“The reason in that circumstance
that universities might not be able
to do holistic review would be the
claim that they could do percentage
plans instead,” he said. “And then
the whole game would be about
arguing that a given university,
given its local demographics, or its
size or its mission, was not well-
suited for the use of a percentage
plan.”
Lin said holistic plans allow
institutions like the University to
be aware of race in admissions,
even
if
they
don’t
explicitly
consider it, and to achieve a broad
definition of diversity. She said
schools can use other parameters,
such as first-generation status,
which are correlated with race to
reach this diversity.
“If
you
have
a
broader
definition of diversity, including
diversity of skills and talents and
socioeconomic status, you cannot
get it from a top 10 percent plan,”
she said.
SCOTUS
From Page 1A