3-News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 — 3
NEWS BRIEFS
Former football
player receives
probation in sex
video case
Former University football
player Logan Tuley-Tillman
received a sentence of two years
probation from the Washtenaw
County courts on Monday, the
Detroit Free Press reported.
In February, Tuley-Tillman
pleaded guilty to two felonies, and
in exchange the court dropped
one count and allowed him to
be sentenced under the Holmes
Youthful Trainee Act, which
allows guilty pleas to be removed
from an individual’s record
after the probation period for
individuals between ages 17 and
24.
Tuley -Tillman plead guilty to
one charge of illegally capturing
or distributing an image of
an unclothed person and one
of committing a crime with a
computer. The second original
charge of capturing or distributing
an image of an unclothed person
was dropped as part of his deal.
On Sept. 7, after discovering
two short videos of herself, a
19-year-old woman went to the
University of Michigan’s Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center to file a complaint about
Tuley-Tillman, which resulted in
the case.
One day after first meeting with
police detectives on Sept. 9, Tuley-
Tillman was dismissed from the
University football team where he
played as an offensive lineman.
DTE plans to create
10-acre solar panel
field in Detroit
DTE Energy has announced
plans to develop a large field of
solar energy panels, spanning
10 acres, in Detroit, the Detroit
Free Press reported.
The projects aims to help
stabilize a particular Westside
neighborhood and to utilize
public property which currently
lies vacant.
DTE plans to build the solar
array on a city-owned site south
of the I-96 freeway at Greenfield
Road. The area is currently
known as O’Shea Playground,
but was decomissioned by the
city’s recreation department
in 2011. Since that time, the
lot has been stripped and has
experienced fire damage.
The neighborhood
surrounding the area has
suffered population loss and
effects from neglected homes
over the past several years. City
officials partnering with DTE
on the project said they hope the
solar array will act as a catalyst
to improve the neighborhood.
The city also plans on
using federal funds for the
demolition of nearby blighted
homes and to train residents for
environmentally friendly jobs
focused on reusing the area.
The Detroit City Council still
has to approve the deal before
any work can begin.
Engineering prof.
chosen to lead
ADVANCE
program
Jennifer Linderman,
associate dean for graduate
education in the College of
Engineering, was named the
new director of ADVANCE, a
University program aimed at
promoting diversity and faculty
success.
Linderman will take over
the position starting Sept. 1,
replacing the founding director
Abigail Stewart. Stewart will
return to her role as a faculty
member.
In a press release, Linderman
said she was excited to lead a
program she had been involved
in as a faculty member.
“I am deeply honored to be
selected to lead this program
that is so important to the
recruitment, retention and
development of faculty leaders,”
she said.
—LYDIA MURRAY
with terms generally considered
offensive or ones that groups
like racial minorities, women
and transgender people.
Southern has often received
scrutiny and criticism due to
her radical opinions on many
controversial topics, such as a
Youtube video “Why I am Not a
Feminist” she uploaded in April
2015, which has nearly 882,000
views.
She began her remarks by
discussing
her
experience
at a march to combat rape
culture, called a Slut Walk.
After holding a sign that read,
“There is no rape culture in
the West,” she said she was
harassed, yelled at and had her
sign taken away, which she said
was indicative of the way free
speech is restricted, both in the
United States and Canada.
“It’s
just
so
unfortunate
that we actually have to do
this speech in general, that
free speech actually has to be
defended, that it’s something
that we can’t just take for
granted,” she said.
Southern also discussed the
role social media plays with
regard to free speech, noting
the countless times she has
been banned from Twitter for
her comments about gender and
sexuality. She recently created
the hashtag #TheTriggering
to deliberately post offensive
comments
to
Twitter
in
the
name
of
free
speech,
accordingto Reason magazine.
“Our
generation
has
a
complete and total disregard
for speech rights, and it is
destroying
our
freedoms,”
Southern said. “Our education
systems have simply no room
for diversity of opinion …
Having ideas is not dangerous,
being offensive is not harmful,
and it should never be declared
illegal, ever.”
LSA
sophomore
John
Pillinger said he attended the
event to support the importance
of having free speech.
Pillinger said he encountered
issues with free speech before
on campus when he advertised
a
lecture
featuring
Milo
Yiannopoulos, a controversial
British
journalist,
at
the
University
of
Michigan
to
his residence hall. Pillinger
said other students in his
hall scrutinized and reacted
negatively to his support of
Yiannopoulos.
“We’re here at a liberal
arts university and our whole
experience
is
about
being
exposed to new ideas and not
having to shut up,” Pillinger
said.
LSA senior Alfred Cerrone,
a member of Young Americans
for Liberty, said he attended
the
event
due
to
having
witnessed aggressions against
free speech on campus.
“Free speech is the most
important right that we’re
guaranteed in this country,”
Cerrone
said.
“It’s
very
hypocritical when people label
things as hateful and they don’t
get you a chance to explain
their opinion, especially when
their
opinion
differs
from
theirs.”
SPEECH
From Page 1
to be an alternative to sites like
RateMyProfessor.com.
“Despite what you may think
of ratemyprofessor.com, every
time I ask my class if they use it,
all the hands go up,” Evrard said.
The course evaluation tool
does not currently use faculty-
specific data, but starting in fall
2016, instructor-focused data
is set to be released. The goal,
Evrard said, is to offer in-house
data to students who want to
know more about the classes
they are signing up for.
“ART 2.0 is a reboot,” Evrard
said. “It’s a reboot that comes in
under the direction of the Digital
Innovation
Greenhouse
and
partly is motivated by the desire
to go beyond the 20th-century
experience.”
SACUA
Chair
Silke-Maria
Weineck said she was concerned
with the tool providing extensive
course
evaluation
material,
noting earlier faculty concerns.
“We’ve just spent about a year
hashing out data and creating
committees to see how to do
this,” Weineck said.
Kinesiology
Prof.
Stefan
Szymanski said he is worried
about faculty information being
made available to other fellow
faculty members because he fears
that not every faculty member
at the University has their
colleagues’ best interests at heart.
“Among people of goodwill,
there are never problems really,”
Szymanski said. “But sadly, we
are not 100 percent goodwill.”
SACUA
proposed
several
modifications for ART 2.0 to
Evrard, including making data
only available to faculty for the
courses they teach. SACUA also
suggested that only questions
recommended by the body for the
course evaluations be included
on the tool.
Along with evaluations, the
committee also discussed the
new sexual misconduct policy
for students, announced last
week and slated to be publically
released on April 6. Weineck said
though the new policy featured
an
appeals
committee
for
students who want to appeal the
charge against them, this same
benefit has not been provided to
faculty.
Over the past year, SACUA
has expressed multiple concerns
about the process by which
faculty
are
investigated
for
sexual
misconduct
issues,
releasing a report last year
that charged the University’s
procedures lacked due process.
In the fall, the University said it
would make several changes to
the policy for faculty in response
to the concerns.
“Faculty should be able to
appeal the report and not just the
sanctions,” Weineck said.
The addition of an appeals
committee for faculty violations
is set to be discussed more
in-depth at the upcoming Faculty
Senate meeting — a gathering
of
the
entirety
of
faculty
governance — April 18.
SACUA
From Page 1
HALEY MCLAUGHIN/Daily
Physics Prof. Gus Evrard discusses the launching of Art 2.0, an online tool offering data about course enrollment, at
the SACUA meeting in the Fleming Building Monday.
HALEY MCLAUGHIN/Daily
Newsday columnist Cathy Young discusses her opinions regarding free speech restriction in the League Monday.
dish, and Kuih Bingka, mini
tapioca cakes. Organizers also
prepared Milo Ais, an iced
chocolate and malt powder
drink.
LSA
sophomore
Mariam
Hjaige said she attended the
show to gain insight on a new
culture and learn more about
what
diversity
means
on
campus.
“There are a lot of culture
shows that happen on campus,
and I try to go to as many as I
can,” she said. “We live on such
a diverse campus that I feel like
it would be wrong if I didn’t go
to these events because I have
this opportunity to learn about
these different cultures.”
MSA president Ili Anuar, an
LSA junior, said she hoped the
event inspired other students
to learn more about Malaysian
heritage and history.
“We’ve been thinking about
opening up more — we’ve never
promoted our organization in
Festifall or anything, so we
feel like it’s really important
to put ourselves out there and
make it easier for Malaysians
to find us,” she said. “I think
the Malaysian Culture Night
is really important because
it helps us bond, and it helps
promote our culture to the
community.”
MALAYSIA
From Page 2
China
and
Vietnam.
Currier
pointed to an example of the
positive impact students have
made on monitoring in countries
such as Honduras to inspire
student activism on campus and
around the country.
In 2008, Currier said, Russell
Athletic had a factory in Honduras,
but chose to source elsewhere
after native workers formed a
union. She alleged that workers
found
themselves
blacklisted,
uncompensated and unemployable
as a result of the move.
USAS mobilized a delegation
of students in response to the
changes to help workers protest,
with the aim of having campus
groups pressure their universities
to hold Russell accountable while
workers organized in Honduras.
Ultimately, Currier said students
led to contracts being cut at 110
universities
over
a
two-year
period, costing the brand over $50
million.
“The workers won because
our campaign was so effective,”
Currier said. “Student pressure
is so important, they not only
reopened the factory and allowed
workers to have their union,
but they signed a binding union
agreement to allow seven other
factories in Honduras to form
unions.”
During
the
event,
Supalai
shared
her
own
personal
experience with worker abuse
and unsafe working conditions.
At the Thai factory Eagle Speed,
she served as the president of the
labor union that formed when the
factory exploited its employees.
She charged that workers were
subject to dangerous conditions
and poor hours from 8 a.m. to
midnight after Nike threatened to
pull its business from Eagle Speed
if they failed to meet a stricter
deadline at a lesser cost.
As
well,
she
said
when
employees were unable to fulfill
these expectations, Nike failed
to pay the factory and, in turn,
workers did not receive wages for
more than two months. Any sign
of protest was met with threats of
termination.
Supalai noted that in her case,
several Thai organizations and
the government all failed to
intervene on their behalf, and it
wasn’t until an external inspector
got involved that they began to
see results. Ultimately, 23 strikers
who were detained were released
and the factory apologized to
the employees, providing them
with a choice to resign with
compensation or to continue
working with Eagle Speed.
Supalai emphasized the need
for
independent
monitoring
organizations, saying she was
concerned about Nike’s current
policy that allows the company
to monitor its own operations.
“I would like to call for you
to put effort in this campaign to
call for the possibility of WRC
to be able to monitor Nike,”
Supalai said. “There’s a need
for a middle organization like
WRC to monitor Nike because
Nike doesn’t care about working
conditions.
In
my
opinion,
they’re
forming
their
own
organization to do this job just
because they want to hide behind
this organization.”
Currier
pointed
to
action
taken at other universities, such
as the University of Washington
and
Cornell
University,
that
have begun to demand various
factories
allow
independent
inspections of work conditions.
“The goal is that more students
know about this problem with
Nike and take action to force
the University to force Nike to
be accountable to independent
monitors,” Currier said. “And if
Nike doesn’t reverse this policy,
they shouldn’t be able to make
Michigan apparel in the fall.”
profession you enter into,” she
said. “It’s a global effort to be able
to take whatever skill you have
and be a part of the movement. It
doesn’t have to be rallying in the
streets.”
Her remarks largely centered
on her experiences with the
prominent national cases she’d
been involved in — the deaths of
Martin, Rice and Brown.
In
February
2012,
video
footage
showed
George
Zimmerman shooting 17-year-old
African-American high school
student, Trayvon Martin, while
he was walking, unarmed, in his
neighborhood in Florida. Martin
died as a result of the wound. At
the time, Zimmerman claimed
that he shot Trayvon out of self-
defense, despite being instructed
by a 911 operator he called about
Martin to not engage.
Rand said she learned about
the case before it garnered
national attention and informed
her students at the University
of Miami, which ultimately led
to the start of the now national
movement,
“I
am
Trayvon
Martin.”
“My students went home after
class that night, and the next
morning my students sent me
a video they had shot of them
saying, ‘I am Trayvon Martin,’
and teaching the public of what
happened to Trayvon Martin
through the lens of themselves,”
Rand said. “I got goosebumps. I
realized the lesson my students
learned was they understood that
the most powerful thing you can
do in any movement is to make
them see themselves as part of the
greater whole.”
Rand said the video soon went
viral, and eventually the local “I
am Trayvon Martin” movement
became a national movement and
then an international one.
“I invited them to meet with
the prosecutors and we created
posters,” Rand said. “Each of my
students addressed the press,
which was the launch of what
became the national movement.
It was amazing because within a
week, President Obama said ‘I am
Trayvon Martin.’ ”
Almost
two
months
after
the shooting, Zimmerman was
charged with the second-degree
murder
of
Trayvon
Martin.
Rand
counseled
the
Martin
family during criminal court
proceedings, which resulted in a
not guilty verdict for Zimmerman.
Rand said the news of the not
guilty verdict was a devastation.
“That night, I kept waiting
for the next announcement,” she
said. “I was so exhausted that
I couldn’t turn the TV off. I fell
asleep with the news on and all
I heard all night long was, ‘not
guilty, not guilty, not guilty.’ I
remember thinking I did not
want to get out of my bed. I did
not want that to be the reality of
my nation.”
However, she said she was
inspired to continue her work
after receiving a phone call from
Martin’s mother, who reminded
her of her duty to serve as a
civic leader to fight for equality.
Though
Zimmerman
wasn’t
sentenced, Rand said she thought
the case will have a lasting impact
on the nation.
“Even
though
there
was
not a guilty verdict, we gained
the momentum of the people,”
Rand said. “It opened national
discussions on race relations, gun
control and stand your ground
laws. It pulled the United Nations
in to look at our criminal system.”
BBUS member Lauren Ward,
a Business freshman, said she
thought Rand is a positive role
model with a valuable perspective
to offer students at the University.
“BBUS collaborated with the
Office of Greek Life this week
because the speaker of this
week, Jasmine Rand,” Ward
said. “She is a good example of
someone to look at, as a woman
in business and in a role of
such power, who can influence
students into thinking that they
can take on such high profile
cases and influence headlines.”
LSA senior Caira Cronin said
Rand’s speech was beneficial
to the audience and spread a
positive message that the Greek
community should reflect on
during diversity and inclusion
week.
“I
think
it’s
extremely
important to bring this to our
campus because we have had
negative media about Greek life
and privilege,” Cronin said. “It’s
important to bring speakers
to campus that are exposing
issues that impact everyone.”
As an attorney, professor
and activist, Rand said she
continues to take on large
numbers of cases to fight for
the protection of the rights of
young African-American men,
saying she was positive her
efforts would ultimately make
a difference.
“I am in a revolutionary state
of mind — politically correct is
for politicians,” Rand said. “I
bit my tongue with Trayvon.
I bit my tongue with Michael
Brown. Change will come.”
RAND
From Page 1
NIKE
From Page 1