michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, April 15, 2016
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 111
©2016 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
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City Council to talk new high-rise at meeting
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 70
LO: 39
Residents call for
Greg Merritt’s return
amid controversial
lease changes
By BRANDON SUMMERS-
MILLER
Daily Staff Reporter
Greg Merritt, senior associate
director of University Housing,
was indefinitely suspended from
his duties at Munger Graduate
Residences about a month ago
and the University of Michigan
has yet to release an official
statement regarding the reason his
suspension, despite student outcry.
Merritt’s
leave
came
after
he decided to honor residents’
nine-month leases, despite the
University’s announcement of its
plans to change 9-month leases
to 12-month leases, according to
residents and staff at Munger who
attended a town hall meeting for
the building on the issue.
This is the first year Munger
Graduate Residences have been
open to students — the hall
finished construction for the 2015-
2016 academic year at a cost of $155
million.
Following Merritt’s dismissal,
members
of
the
Munger
community have taken several
actions to express frustration
about
the
decision,
including
creating a survey disseminated
among the building. Results of
the survey were shared with The
Michigan Daily.
LSA junior Elizabeth Guthrie, a
staff member at Munger, wrote in
the survey that she was upset with
Merritt’s unexplained departure
because he was a valuable member
to both the Munger community
and the campus at large.
“As an undergraduate student
who has both worked with Greg
in Munger and as a first gen
undergraduate who has engaged
in meaningful discussions with
him at first gen meetings, I feel
upset believing that he may not
return,” Guthrie wrote. “There is
very little context given around
his exit; however, I really want to
support him in being re-instated.”
Group currently
represents 5.4
percent of total
student enrollment
By NISA KHAN
Daily Staff Reporter
Amid a push by the University
of Michigan’s administration to
create a campus-widestrategic
plan aimed at improving issues
of diversity on campus, Latino
and Latina members of the
University
community
said
in a series of interviews they
feel that despite an increase
of students identifying with
this group on campus, there is
more to be done to reach full
inclusion and equity.
The current makeup of
Latino students on campus
Hispanic students make up
5.4 percent of total student
enrollment,
which
breaks
down to 4.9 percent of the
undergraduate body and 6.6
percent of the graduate and
professional body, according
the
University’s
annual
enrollment
report.
Total
Hispanic
enrollment
has
increased by 0.75 percent since
2011. Hispanic students have
a slightly higher proportional
representation in the student
body
than
Black
students,
another
underrepresented
minority
group
alongside
Native Americans, Hawaiians
and those of mixed race.
Larry La Fountain-Stokes,
director of Latina/o Studies
at the University, said despite
increases in Latino and Latina
enrollment over the years, the
group still feels marginalized
on campus. He pointed to the
recent growth of the Latino
population
in
Michigan
as
a reason for the increase in
See LATINO, Page 3
See MUNGER, Page 3
Start by Believing
campaign
explores issues of
underreporting
By ISHI MORA
Daily Staff Reporter
University
of
Michigan
leaders
gathered
Thursday
to collaboratively explain the
underreporting of sexual assault
— both nationally and at the
University.
For Sexual Assault Awareness
Month,
the
University
of
Michigan Department of Public
Safety and Security and the
University
Health
System,
along with six other Washtenaw
County organizations, launched
the Start by Believing campaign
on campus, part of a national
public
awareness
initiative
created by End Violence Against
Women International.
Sexual assault is one of the
most underreported crimes in
the United States. According
to the Rape, Abuse and Incest
National Network, 68 percent of
assaults are never reported and
only 2 percent of rapists ever
spend time in prison.
The 2015 Campus Climate
Survey found that 22.5 percent
of female undergraduates at
the
University
of
Michigan
experienced
nonconsensual
touching, kissing or penetration,
yet in the same year only
172 incidents were reported,
according to the Office for
Institutional
Equity’s
second
annual
sexual
misconduct
report.
EVAWI is a nonprofit founded
in 2003 by Sergeant Joanne
Archambault,
a
retired
San
Diego Police Department officer,
to improve criminal justice and
community response to gender-
based violence. The organization
provides training and technical
assistance for law enforcement
agencies investigating sexual
assault and domestic violence
cases.
According
to
Detective
Margie Pillsbury, head officer of
the University Police’s Special
Victims Unit, the discrepancy
between
real
and
reported
cases can be attributed to the
neurobiology behind trauma and
sexual assault. Many victims
of
traumatic
events
cannot
think rationally during and
immediately after the event due to
cellular damage in neurological
circuits. The temporary damage
helps the brain manage with
potentially
life-threatening
events like rape, but it inhibits
their
ability
to
logically
explain
the
circumstances.
For this reason many people,
including
law
enforcement
officers, dismiss rape survivors’
stories
as
nonsensical
and
incomprehensible.
This
is
secondary victimization, which
discourages the victim from
pursuing the issue further.
Barbara Niess-May, executive
director of SafeHouse Center,
said misconceptions about the
justice system can also influence
the decision of whether to file a
report or not.
See CAMPAIGN, Page 3
Contendors for
administrator
position speak on
former experiences
By BRIAN KUANG
Daily Staff Reporter
The four candidates for the
position of Ann Arbor city
administrator discussed their
backgrounds and approaches to
management — particularly the
management of relationships
between
local
communities
and universities in large college
towns — during a meet-and-
greet event Thursday evening.
The city has been seeking a
replacement for Steve Powers,
the previous city administrator,
after he left to be city manager
of Salem, Ore. last October.
Tom Crawford, the city’s chief
financial officer, has served as
interim manager since Powers’
departure. The four finalists
— Thomas Couch of Georgia,
Paul
Fetherston
of
North
Carolina, Howard Lazarus of
Texas and Christian Sigman of
Ohio — were chosen through
a nationwide search and will
be
publicly
interviewed
by
City Council Saturday before a
hiring decision is made.
All
four
candidates
emphasized their experience
working in local government
in large college communities,
and said the presence of a large
research university such as the
University of Michigan presents
See CITY, Page 3
Humor and musical
performances draw
more than 300
students
By ALEXA ST. JOHN
Daily Staff Reporter
Music from popular artists —
including Beyoncé and Rihanna
— blared in the Rogel Ballroom
of the Michigan Union Thursday
night while more than 300
students gathered to view a live
recording of BuzzFeed’s popular
podcast “Another Round” with
Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton.
Nigatu
and
Clayton,
both
journalists, spoke on a wide range
of social issues regarding race and
gender stereotypes and social
problems.
The event, sponsored primarily
by the School of Social Work’s
People of Color Collective, blended
both humor and seriousness in
discussions about race, gender
and culture both on campus and
nationwide. Other sponsors of
the event included the Office
of the Vice Provost for Equity,
Inclusion and Academic Affairs,
the Department of Afroamerican
and African American Studies,
the Women’s Studies Department
and the Spectrum Center.
Raina
LaGrand,
master’s
student in the School of Social
Work and the School of Public
Health, as well as a member of the
People of Color Collective, said in
opening remarks that the event
provided a much-needed platform
for students of color on campus to
be engaged.
“We want people of color to feel
supported, to feel like they have a
healing space, to feel like they can
have a co-intentional learning
space,” LaGrand said.
In an interview after the event,
LaGrand
said
the
Collective
believes the podcast brings a new
lens to the political realm.
“A lot of us are personally
in love with the show — their
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Heben Nigatu talks with co-host Tracy Clayton at a live recording of the Buzzfeed podcast ‘Another Round’, sponsored
by the School of Social Work’s People of Color Collective in the Michigan Union Thursday.
See BUZZFEED, Page 3
ADMINISTRATION
For Latino students, several
paths to upping ‘U’ diversity
Suspension
of Munger
head sparks
questions
Ann Arbor orgs
join to address
sexual assault
CAMPUS LIFE
Candidates
for city exec.
talk A2 ties
to University
ANN ARBOR
Buzzfeed journalists discuss
stereotypes at live taping