partner’s social media passwords 
and looking through a partner’s 
cellphone records to see who they 
are texting or calling.

Lead author of the study Lauren 

Reed was a doctoral student in 
the 
University’s 
 
Psychology 

Department when the study began 
and said she was interested in the 
ways that new forms of media, 
such as the Internet, cellphones, 
texting and social media sites 
impact dating relationships and 
shape dating violence.

“What we do is we ask teens and 

college students about what they 
do in relationships and then we 
also look at how is this associated 
with other things,” Reed said. 
“If you’re engaging in an activity 
that makes your partner feel 
uncomfortable or unsafe, or if 
it’s one of many behaviors that 
you’re engaging in that control or 
manipulate or threaten or harass 
your partner, then those are some 
problematic behaviors that could 
be abusive.”

According to a 2011 Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention 
nationwide survey, 23 percent of 
females and 14 percent of males 
who have experienced a sexual 
assault, act of physical violence or 
cyber-stalking from an intimate 
partner first experienced one 
of these forms of relationship 
violence between 11 and 17 years 
of age.

The CDC reported that for the 

person experiencing the abuse, 
certain types of violence can lead 
to engaging in alcohol and drug 
abuse, reporting symptoms of 
depression and increased anxiety 
and ultimately having greater risk 
to be on the receiving end of these 
abusive behaviors during college 
years.

Richard Tolman, School of 

Social Work professor, said from 
his previous workregarding forms 
of dating violence, including non-
digital abuse, it was clear the 
increasing use of social media and 
the Internet to control a romantic 
partner was becoming a major 
aspect of relationship abuse. 

“It was unusual to use media 

that way (in the past),” Tolman 
said. “Now with the dawn of the 
digital age — not the dawn any 
longer — pretty much everybody 
has that kind of surveillance 
monitoring technology available 
to them in their pocket on a 
smartphone. Eighth graders on 
up have access to this kind of 
technology that was once the 
province 
of 
mega-controlling 

abusive partners.”

The survey of teens was done 

in response to a UM survey 
done by Reed, she said, which 
included questions about common 
controlling behaviors such as 
monitoring a romantic partner and 
looking at a partner’s cellphone or 
computers without their consent.

In both the University survey 

and the high school student 
survey, researchers included a 
measure of attachment insecurity, 
which was linked to executing 
electronically abusive behaviors, 
Tolman said.

The high school student study 

surveyed 703 high school students 
from ninth grade to 12th grade and 
focused on more electronically 
intrusive behaviors than did the 
University survey, according to 
Reed.

“The reason that we did it in 

both age groups is that we wanted 
to know if these findings were 
consistent across age groups,” 
Reed said. “High school students 
(are) having their first dating 
experience, they’re new to dating, 
they might be more influenced by 
these digital media, so we wanted 

to replicate our college student 
survey in the high school. We 
had a better, more comprehensive 
measure of electronic intrusion 
than we did in the college survey, 
but we found still pretty consistent 
results across age groups.”

Reed said ultimately, these 

findings are indicative of what she 
calls a “cycle of anxiety.”

Insecurely 
attached 
high 

school and college students are 
more likely to engage in electronic 
intrusion in their relationships, 
Reed said. Seeing a photo or post 
on social media could trigger their 
anxiety, leading to increased use of 
electronically intruding behaviors 
in an attempt to alleviate their 
anxiety.

“The more you look and the 

more you intrude in your partner’s 
privacy, probably the more anxiety 
you’re going to have,” Reed said.

The question arises as to where 

the line is between normal social 
media and technology use in a 
relationship, and digital abuse, 
both researchers said.

“I don’t think we know enough 

to say where the exact line 
is,” Tolman said. “Part of that 
depends on the perceptions of 
the people involved to be sure. 
Unquestionably, there is some 
version of this that is normative. 
(However) 
saying 
that 
it’s 

normative doesn’t mean it is 
good or positive, it may be that 
it’s something that just about 
everybody does a little bit of.”

Social media use today is often 

an acceptable way to check in 
with one’s partner, Tolman said. 
However, when social media use 
becomes a pervasive behavior 
that continuously proves harmful 
to a partner and begins to define 
that relationship, it can cause 
psychological damage.

He added that was important, 

particularly 
for 
insecurely 

attached individuals, to know 

their 
personal 
boundaries 
as 

well as what their partners are 
comfortable with in terms of 
checking social media and other 
forms of technology to check in on 
a relationship.

“The 
findings 
from 
the 

study hint that … there may be 
aspects of times of insecurities 
that somebody brings into a 
relationship that could add to their 
increasing this activity in a way 
that could be problematic to the 
relationship,” Tolman said. 

Some previous findings have 

indicated that it is possible that 
young men and young women 
have behavioral and emotional 
differences in the way that they 
use and interpret social media. 
However, in this most recent 
study, Tolman said few differences 
were observed.

“We found that attachment and 

insecurity predicted perpetration 
of electronic intrusion similarly 
for boys and girls,” he said. “But 
we did find that, in our study, 
girls reported more perpetration 
of electronic intrusion than boys 
did.”

He added that this might 

simply be because females are 
more likely to be more honest 
reporters of their digital activities. 
On the other hand, however, this 
electronic intrusion could be 
intended for positively preserving 
and maintaining a relationship.

“Although 
there 
are 
some 

positive uses of digital media in 
dating relationships, and it’s great 
way to build intimacy and bond 
between partners, for anxiously 
attached teenagers and college 
students, this might exacerbate 
their anxiety and lead to potential 
emotional abuse,” Reed said.

Ultimately, 
Tolman 
said 

the 
overuse 
and 
misuse 
of 

digital 
media 
in 
adolescence 

for the purpose of controlling 
relationships can be predictive of 

adult behavior, as has been seen in 
other forms of non-digital dating 
violence.

“The issue is not so much 

stopping 
or 
somehow 
trying 

to temper the amount of use, 
though that might be possible, 
but certainly teaching people 
about how to manage boundaries 
more effectively and more self-
management strategies and coping 

with this relational context that is 
now an everyday reality,” Tolman 
said. “It does signal a broader 
societal need, and certainly an 
individual need, for teaching 
people how to better manage 
these kind of relational issues 
when social media is involved, and 
when it’s not, too.”

3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, February 18, 2016 — 3A

ANXIETY
From Page 1A

country needs to go through 
on its own,” Cummings said. 
“We can help them get more 
for their money through the 
immunization process.”

Cummings 
explained 
the 

economic value of investing in 
immunizations, saying there is 
generally a positive return on 
such an investment.

“Economists at PATH and a 

number of groups have looked 
at the cost effectiveness of 
these 
vaccines,” 
Cummings 

said. “The metric that is most 
commonly used is disability-
adjusted life year. That is the 
measurement for the average 
amount of healthy years of life 
that are spared by a particular 
intervention.”

Cummings 
noted 
that 

distribution systems differ for 
lower income countries, Gavi 
is involved in providing the 
funding for vaccination, while 
UNICEF is focused on the 
distribution and procurement 
of vaccines.

After 
the 
event, 
Peiyu 

Yu, 
Public 
Policy 
senior, 

agreed 
that 
there 
is 
a 

significant economic benefit 
to 
vaccination, 
but 
raised 

concerns over how vaccines 
are implemented and received 
in foreign countries.

“I 
do 
not 
know 
what 

countries with a large aging 
population will do and if they 
are ready to cover term health 
costs,” Yu said. “The resistance 
of intervention is that some 
countries 
have 
a 
history 

of 
not 
welcoming 
Western 

intervention because of deep 
skepticism.”

Cummings also discussed 

the organization’s challenges, 
citing the expensive cost of new 
vaccines as well as the problem 
which 
arises 
as 
countries 

transition out of Gavi eligibility 
and become responsible for the 
cost of immunization.

With the rising costs of new 

and expensive vaccines, PATH 
is struggling to pay for the more 
costly medication, he said.

Furthermore, as countries 

gain wealth, they no longer 
meet the threshold to attain 
vaccinations 
through 
Gavi 

and must pay for vaccines 
themselves. The World Bank 
defines low-income countries 

as those which have a gross 
national income per capita of 
less than $1,045. To be eligible 
for aid from Gavi, the country 
has to have a GNI per capita of 
below $1,580.

Ari Shwayder, lecturer of 

business economics, said the 
challenge 
for 
transitional 

nations was significant.

“For me, the idea is that we 

have to think about new ways 
for getting the middle-income 
countries vaccines,” Shwayder 
said. “We need to work with 
manufactures 
to 
develop 

cheaper vaccines, to focus on 
the supply side.”

The 
World 
Health 

Organization 
estimates 

that 2.5 million deaths are 
prevented per year due to 
vaccines. 
Cummings 
said 

amid some resistance and 
controversy 
surrounding 

vaccines, 
their 
importance 

remains clear.

“I hope I have given you 

some appreciation for what 
impact vaccines have had in 
public health and in what 
terms vaccines have had in 
saving lives, and in doing so 
economically,” Cummings told 
the crowd.

PATH
From Page 1A

helps me make sure we are on 
the right track.”

Stabenow said since the 

time she attended college, the 
percentage of funding provided 
by the state to the University 
of Michigan has decreased 
from 70 to a percentage in 
the mid-20s. More recently, 
funding for higher education 
was cut by 15 percent in 2011. 
Overall, in recent years state 
funding for higher education 
has seen both cute — including 
a 15 percent one in 2011 
— and small increases. In 
Gov. Rick Snyder’s recently 
released budget proposal for 
the upcoming fiscal year, he 
recommended a 4.3 percent 
increase in higher education 
funding, which would bring 
the total funding back to pre-
2011 levels.

The RED Act incorporates 

portions of a bill proposed by 
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 
(D–Mass.) 
in 
2014, 
which 

would 
allow 
student 
loan 

borrowers to refinance high-
interest 
loans 
and 
create 

fixed interest rates for future 
borrowers, 
in 
contrast 
to 

the variable rates borrowers 
face now. U.S. Rep. Debbie 
Dingell (D–Dearborn) has also 
cosponsored a similar bill in 

Congress that would allow 
student loan refinancing.

The bill would additionally 

allow two years of tuition 
and fees to be waived for 
community 
college 
and 

technical school and increase 
the funding for federal Pell 
Grants. In his State of the 
Union address in January, 
President Barack Obama called 
for the former aspect of the 
current bill. 

Stabenow said these three 

main aspects of the bill are 
achievable if Congress can 
come together in a bipartisan 
effort.

“We basically have three 

things that we are doing that 
are very doable if we can get 
the 
bipartisan 
support 
we 

need,” she said.

Pamela Fowler, executive 

director 
of 
the 
office 
of 

financial aid at the University 
who was at the event, said in 
recent years the University has 
been increasing financial aid 
by an average of 12 percent, 
and students and prospective 
students need to be more aware 
of the resources available to 
them to help alleviate debt.

“Affordability is something I 

live personally every day,” she 
said. “How do we let people 
know that they can afford to 
come here? Once they see that 
they can afford to go here then 
the word will get out.”

Stabenow 
said 
outside 

groups, including the National 
Association of Realtors, have 
spoken up about the need to 
aid the student debt crisis, as 
it affects the overall economy. 
She added that providing that 
assistance 
depends 
on 
the 

government’s priorities, and 
higher 
education 
strongly 

influences the economy and 
should be better supported.

“It’s a question of priorities 

and 
how 
you 
grow 
the 

economy,” she said. “Higher 
education is an economic driver 
and we ought to be heavily 
supporting that at every level.”

Public Policy senior Max 

Lerner, chair of the University’s 
chapter of College Democrats 
who was also at the event, said 
he appreciates the support of 
Stabenow and other Democrats 
on this issue, as he does not see 
the same urgency within the 
Republican Party.

“It’s great to see Democrats 

and Sen. Stabenow are taking 
student issues and the college 
debt crisis very seriously,” he 
said. “Republicans clearly are 
not. Snyder is continuing to 
divest in public education and 
higher education and it really 
a shame as Michigan students 
are literally being priced out of 
a higher education because of 
this governor’s policies.”

“He is a white man in a higher 

position than me, and had just 
implied that that I was dispensable. 
I’m a woman of color with 
seemingly no real authority in 
that space,” she wrote, referencing 
a member of CSG’s executive 
committee. “Whose voice really 
matters here? I felt as though the 
LGBTQ community that I was 
advocating for had suddenly lost 
any voice that it may have ever had 
in CSG.”

CSG chief of staff, LSA junior 

Sean Pitt was integral in the 
restructuring of the commissions 
and 
conveyed 
the 
executive 

committee’s decision to combine 
commissions, which was in part 
the catalyst for the commision’s 
disbandment. At the beginning 
of the 2016 fall semester, CSG 
launched a complete restructuring 
of the body’s 19 commissions, 
cutting 11. Some of these former 
commissions were turned into sub-
commissions.

At a CSG meeting on Dec. 1, 

after the Michigan in Color piece 
had been published, CSG President 
Cooper 
Charlton 
called 
the 

resignation a misunderstanding but 
acknowledged the writer’s concerns 
about the power structure.

“The author of this article felt 

negatively about this proposal due 
to the power dynamic in the room,” 
Charlton said.

Charlton added there was further 

misunderstanding 
surrounding 

the measures of restorative justice 
that were agreed upon after the 
perceived microaggression.

“Because full information was 

not provided to the commission, 
negative 
sentiment 
towards 

the executive committee grew 
surrounded in the idea that the 
executive chose not to meet the 
requests for restorative justice,” 
Charlton said. “The sentiment that 
grew within this commission is 
founded on false information, and 
there is no evidence to support 
these claims.”

In interviews with The Michigan 

Daily, CSG representatives said 
the events of last semester were 
troubling and full of confusion.

LSA 
and 
Education 
senior 

Michael Chrzan, a School of 
Education representative, said in an 
email interview hearing there were 
issues with diversity in CSG spurred 
him to run during the mid-term 
elections last semester to reclaim 
his seat on the assembly. Following 
the incident, Chrzan contacted the 
commission members who had 
resigned to get their perspective.

“From 
my 
outsider 
view 

and someone who came into 
this discussion really late, I’d 
say personally it was a lack of 

transparency and communication 
on numerous levels,” Chrzan said.

Charlton said the restructuring 

was necessary to actualize the 
potential of these commissions, 
which hadn’t been seen in the past.

“Of the 19 commissions, only five 

of them were active, and by that 
I mean had communication with 
the executive team,” Charlton said. 
“Of those five, only three of them 
produced changes that students 
actually 
felt. 
Fourteen 
either 

didn’t do anything because they 
were vacant, didn’t have enough 
members to function or frankly 
just gave up halfway through the 
semester.”

However, though the inclusivity 

commission 
was 
disbanded, 

members of CSG said the body 
continued to make progress on 
issues of campus inclusivity. LSA 
sophomore Anushka Sarkar, CSG 
chief programming officer, said the 
initiatives they had been working 
on were implemented in other ways.

“Maybe there was a vacuum 

on paper, but the initiatives the 
commission was being tasked with 
fell to the executive committee or 
the other body members,” Sarkar 
said.

Chrzan wrote though he did 

not have much experience with 
the commissions prior to this 
semester, he was in support of their 
consolidation.

“That being said, I would argue 

the decision could have been made 
and communicated in a better way,” 
Chrzan wrote. “I know that some 
commissions were upset about the 
change and also upset about how 
it was communicated, specifically 
those in the Campus Inclusion 
Commission.”

Chrzan said he has seen more 

of the commissions and their work 
than he ever had before, but noted 
he attributed the change to the CSG 
chief of staff Sean Pitt, more than 
the new structure.

Issues of transparency, identity 

and power dynamics have also been 
raised by members of newMich 
and Your Michigan — two political 
platforms which have emerged 
in preparation for the upcoming 
March CSG election — in reactions 
to the commission’s walk-off.

Public Policy junior Thomas 

Hislop, a CSG representative and 
Your 
Michigan’s 
presidential 

candidate, said CSG relies heavily 
on its commissions to fulfill its 
directives on campus.

“People 
often 
forget 
that 

commissions are such a resource for 
us,” Hislop said. “I’m a deep believer 
in the power of these commissions, 
and I think Cooper’s administration 
did a really great job of redesigning 
those nine commissions that really 
do have a voice and a power so that 
they can go forward with their 
initiatives.” 

LSA 
junior 
David 
Schafer, 

a CSG representation heading 
newMICH’s executive ticket, said 
the events of last semester need to 
be a wake-up call for the assembly.

“What happened last semester, 

it’s entirely unfortunate. Anytime 
a student feels silenced, where 
their voice is not heard, regardless 
of the circumstances, we need to 
care about that and we need to do 
something about that,” Schafer 
said. “Of course when everyone 
on the commission resigned, that 
was not something you should look 
happily upon.”

Hislop voiced similar sentiments 

about the events surrounding the 
commission.

“Obviously it was unfortunate 

what 
happened 
last 
semester, 

and you know I know there was 
some frustration with how it was 
published as well,” Hislop said. 
“It was a really unfortunate event 
because that’s not what CSG is 
about, and I think the people 
behind Cooper, they do believe in 
the importance of inclusivity and 
diversity on this campus.”

CSG 
representative 
Micah 

Griggs, an LSA junior running for 
vice president with newMich, said 
their knowledge of the current 
power dynamics of the body sets 
them apart as a party.

“I think what’s unique here 

is that we realize the root of the 
problem when someone didn’t 
understand their power and their 
privilege in a certain situation,” 
Griggs said. “Having an IGR 
mandatory workshop can prevent 
those things from happening and 
work towards being more inclusive 
by understanding our identities and 
how they impact others.”

Intergroup 
Relations, 
a 

University 
program 
of 
social 

justice education, offers training 
to student organizations to create 
understanding of inequalities and 
the influence of diverse identities.

Sarkar, who is the campaign 

manager for newMich, said their 
platform includes plans for opt-in 
CSG newsletters and text alerts so 
that the student body is informed of 
what goes on behind closed doors.

“A commission chair resigning 

would definitely be an alert that 
would go out to people,” Sarkar said.

LSA junior Shamaila Ashraf, 

who is running on newMich ticket 
for the upcoming CSG election, 
said though she was not on the 
assembly at the time, she believed 
it displayed a lack of transparency 
and accountability on the side of the 
executive committee.

“Transparency 
in 
terms 
of 

what is CSG doing, what are these 
commissions? And then the other 
side, the accountability, who are we 
putting in those positions and how 
are they trained?” Ashraf said. 

Read more online at
michigandaily.com

STABENOW
From Page 1A

INCLUSION
From Page 1A

