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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Thursday, November 3, 2016 — 3A

goes.”

So far, these efforts led by 

Aqel and 10 other students 
include 
hosting 
a 
film 

screening and organizing 
informational 
tables 
in 

University buildings such 
as Angell Hall and the 
Chemistry building. Aqel 
said these efforts aim to 
both increase awareness 
of the educational crisis 
in Syria and find students 
willing to sign the petition, 
which in turn strengthens 
their proposal to CSG.

“If 
this 
campaign 

continues 
to 
gather 

signatures, all of that, and 
even support from various 
student 
organizations, 

that will only make this 
call 
for 
scholarships 

much 
stronger,” 
Aqel 

said. “And then it’ll show 
administrators that it’s not 
just me or my team that are 
interested in this, it’s this 
diverse network of students 
that are very interested in 
this campaign.”

Public 
Health 
student 

Lilah 
Khoja 
is 
another 

organizer of the efforts at 
the University who works 
with the Karam Foundation, 
another Syrian nonprofit 
organization co-sponsoring 
Books 
Not 
Bombs. 

Khoja said the campaign 
resonated with her view 
of education as a human 
right, especially through 
the lens of her identity as a 
Syrian-American and her 
experience working with 
Syrian refugees.

“To 
ask 
elementary 

schoolers, ‘what do you 
want to do?’ and for them 
to say ‘well, what can I do? 
There’s nothing for me’ — 
that’s really why I feel very 
passionately about Books 
Not Bombs and why I think 
it’s so important to give this 
opportunity to those who 
really need it,” she said.

She said she felt the 

University has the potential 
to set an example for other 
public universities around 
the country.

“I think if (Books Not 

Bombs) is a success at the 
University 
of 
Michigan, 

that will just galvanize 
other students at other 
universities to push for 
the same thing on their 
campuses,” Khoja said.

Khoja also emphasized 

the 
importance 
of 
the 

apolitical nature of the 
campaign.

“Education is a human 

right, and so in a context 
of war where numerous 
crimes against humanity 
and war crimes are being 
carried out, education is 
really oftentimes the first 
thing to be attacked,” she 
said. “Because education 
is all about empowering 
people in communities, it’s 
important for a campaign 
like this to remain apolitical, 
so all communities in Syria 
can benefit from something 
like this, regardless of their 
ethnicity, regardless of their 
religion, of their sexual 
orientation.”

BOOKS
From Page 2A

a concentration of wealth with a 
select few people who control all 
of the policies and we don’t really 
talk about class in America. Like, 
everyone is middle-class, you hear 
it in political rhetoric, we avoid 
class, and I feel like it’s time to 
give it the attention it deserves.”

Lang said, when he was in 

college, there were academic 
conversations 
on 
racial 
and 

gender inequality, due to the 
movements surrounding them, 
but socioeconomic inequity was 
not talked about in the same 
fashion.

“I think that’s primarily due 

to the civil rights movements 
and primarily also due to the 
women’s movement of the late 
‘60s and early ‘70s,” he said. “So 
that was on the agenda, race and 
gender inequality, which were 
important topics at the time. But 
social class — or socioeconomic 
status as it’s called by some, I like 
to call it social class — wasn’t on 
the higher education agenda. 

Of course it was talked about 
in different departments, but it 
wasn’t a focus.”

However, Lang said he thinks 

the current election, among other 
personal experiences and issues 
important to students related to 
the political environment over 
the past few years, has piqued 
students’ interest on the topic of 
social class.

“I think the interest in social 

class 
studies 
relates 
to 
the 

political environment that we’ve 
seen, the political debates from 
both Republicans and Democrats, 
students’ lives as they’ve lived 
in different social classes before 
they’ve come here,” Lang said. 
“A lot of students who are here 
now grew up during the recession 
and 
they’ve 
probably 
heard 

a lot of different interesting 
conversations at home, stresses 
and strains, even that middle 
class 
parents 
and 
families 

experienced.”

Schandevel said she thought 

Sen. 
Bernie 
Sanders’ 
(I–Vt.) 

speeches during his campaign 
in the Democratic primary that 
highlighted low corporate taxes 

and the economic power of Wall 
Street helped spark conversations 
on 
social 
class 
inequality. 

Additionally, she noted that the 
support Republican presidential 
nominee Donald Trump receives 
from working-class Americans 
continues to bring the issues in 
the political sphere.

“People have been kind of 

honing in on the demographic 
and trying to figure them out,” 
Schandevel said. “There are a lot 
of subliminal conversations about 
class that aren’t explicitly about 
class.”

So far, Schandevel said, student 

responses 
for 
her 
program 

have been generally positive. 
LSA 
Student 
Government 
is 

supporting the idea as well, and 
is sending out a survey next week 
to gauge interest in the discipline.

Schandevel said she and the 

team of other students working 
to create the major have primarily 
been meeting with faculty to 
discuss the new major this 
semester. Next semester, the team 
plans to focus on independent 
studies looking into the feasibility 
of the new curriculum.

“Three of us on the team are 

doing 
an 
independent 
study 

with our mentor at the School 
of Social Work, who is giving 
us credit to develop a proposal 
for the course, the capstone 
and then the proposal itself and 
throughout that process we’ll be 
working with faculty from across 
departments to develop these 
things,” Schandevel said. We’re 
going to write a letter and have 
faculty members sign it and so 
when we take it to the curriculum 
committee it’s a little bit more 
compelling.”

Ideally, Schandevel said the 

group would get a pilot course 
implemented by next year, which 
students in it would then evaluate 
at the end. She said they will 
conduct focus groups to see what 
the interest for a program is like 
to gain empirical data, and to 
determine if they have enough 
faculty support to introduce the 
proposal 
for 
implementation 

around 2018 or 2019.

Barry Checkoway, professor 

of social work and Schandevel’s 
mentor, said he met her after he 
wrote a “fan letter” to Schandevel 

for her column in The Michigan 
Daily on her initial impressions of 
social class at the University as a 
freshman.

The two have been discussing 

social class for the past year, and 
he supported the idea for the 
new program when she began 
speaking to him about it.

“I thought that social class 

is among the most important 
forces in American society, that 
there are almost no courses at the 
University of Michigan that focus 
on social class, and that if the 
University of Michigan is trying 
to recruit lower-income, first 
generation students, that there’s 
need for a course or courses that 
are responsive to them,” he said.

The program, according to 

the group, would potentially 
be housed in the Sociology 
Department. Lang said he thinks 
the Sociology Department would 
be a logical place for the program, 
though he said there has been 
discussion about housing it in the 
American Studies Department, 
too, or other departments.

“Historically, 
sociology 

has 
always 
studied 
social 

stratification and social class has 
always been part of that,” he said.

While it may be housed in 

the 
Sociology 
Department, 

Schandevel said ideally students 
could take related classes in 
any department because of the 
program’s 
interdisciplinary 

nature, noting many existing 
classes that touch on social class 
could be incorporated into the 
potential program. This would 
mean only an introductory course 
and a capstone project would 
have to be created to tie the 
disciplinary together.

Overall, Schandevel said she 

hopes the major can change 
students’ views on social class 
by studying the issue with more 
nuance.

“I grew up in a working-class 

background so I already have 
thought about these things and 
I want this to be available to 
students who haven’t thought 
about class in this way, so maybe 
students from an upper-middle 
class 
background 
could 
take 

these courses and go through this 
program and see the world in a 
different way,” she said.

MAJOR
From Page 1A

Black people differently.

In 
this 
study, 
Assari 

ultimately 
found 
that 
while 

negative perceptions of both 
neighborhood safety and quality 
predict mortality, these factors 
are better predictive of mortality 
for white people than Black 
people.

Similar research has been 

conducted by the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, 
which found that social, physical 
and economic characteristics of 
neighborhoods are increasingly 
recognized as having short- and 
long-term 
consequences 
for 

residents’ lifespan.

Assari noted that there are 

social 
factors 
contributing 

to Black resilience in poorer 
conditions, such as a history of 
oppression. 

As an example, he cited Flint, 

noting that traditionally, the 
poorer areas of the city were 
occupied by low-income Black 
people, more and more white 
people have been moving into 
the area in recent years. Assari 
connected this to his findings, 
saying poor neighborhood quality 
would have more negative effects 
on the newer, white residents. 
This is in part due to traditional 
community 
support 
systems 

Black people tend to have that 
reduce 
their 
neighborhood’s 

effects.

“In the community there 

are sources of support from 
community 
members, 
from 

religion, from connection to God 
which are known to be stronger 
for Blacks,” Assari said.

Assari also noted that an 

individual’s comparison with 
social 
networks 
can 
also 

influence his or her perceptions 
of a neighborhood environment, 
saying it should be considered 
in crafting policy aimed at 

improving neighborhood safety 
and quality.

“There 
might 
be 
certain 

populations 
that 
are 
more 

vulnerable 
to 
the 
same 

exposure,” 
Assari 
said. 
“So 

policies which do not consider 
these group differences may 
fail to reduce health disparities 
because, if you just universally 
promote safety and just ignore 
that safety is going to have 
differential effects for different 
groups, you would not be able to 
predict what (these policies are) 
going to do.

Roshanak Mehdipanah, an 

assistant professor of health 
behavior and health education, 
was not directly involved in 
the 
study, 
but 
highlighted 

Assari’s findings in terms of 
her research, which primarily 
focuses on urban health equity.

Mehdipanah 
said 
both 

one’s 
physical 
environment 

— 
including 
infrastructure, 

housing, public transportation 
and physical access to healthy 
food sources — and social 
factors — such as access to 
clinics, employment programs 
or 
employment 
rates, 

education 
opportunities 
and 

demographics — all contribute 
to one’s perception of their 
neighborhood’s 
safety 
and 

quality.

She noted that in many poorer 

neighborhoods, there is a lack 
of investment that leads to 
physical neighborhood issues 
around safety, lack of resources 
and higher vacancy, all of which 
then contribute to social factors.

“Because 
there’s 
this 

disinvestment, 
resources 

begin dropping out too, so you 
don’t have as many outlets — 
for example, for employment 
opportunities — and so it’s 
this cycle of one contributing 
to the other in creating those 
inequalities between these types 
of neighborhoods,” Mehdipanah 
said.

NEIGHBORHOOD
From Page 1A

Over the past few days, both 

campaigns 
have 
stopped 
in 

Michigan in the last week left on 
the trail. In addition to Sanders’ 
rally, Trump stopped in Warren 
and Grand Rapids on Monday, his 
children Ivanka Trump and Donald 
Trump Jr. rallied in Troy and 
Detroit Wednesday and a Clinton 
rally is scheduled for Detroit on 
Friday.

Support in the state and at the 

University of Michigan has leaned 
in favor of Clinton for most of the 
general election season. The most 
recent 
RealClearPolitics 
polling 

average shows Clinton leading by 
6.4 points, and the most recent 
Michigan Daily election sample 
survey showed Clinton with 70.3 
percent of student support and 
Trump with 13.1 percent.

In his remarks, Sanders stressed 

the importance of voter turnout 
and encouraged students to vote, 
as young people traditionally have 
the lowest voter turnout rates. 
Additionally, he mentioned the 
accusations Democrats have made 
against the Republican National 
Committee for voter intimidation 
efforts targeting minorities.

“We’ve got to do everything we 

can to get more people voting, more 
people engaged in the process,” 
Sanders said. “I want this country to 
have a vibrant democracy.”

The Clinton campaign has also 

stressed the importance of higher 

education 
reform 
throughout 

the campaign season. After she 
accepted the nomination, Clinton 
and Sanders collaborated to update 
Clinton’s New College Compact 
to include tuition-free college for 
families earning less than $125,000 
per year. While the feasibility of 
these plans has been questioned by 
some institutions, higher education 
reform is a popular topic among 
students. 

On Wednesday, Sanders stressed 

that more jobs require a college 
degree than in previous decades, 
meaning higher education must 
be provided at little to no cost for 
maximum employment equity.

“When we talk about public 

education, it is not good enough 
to say kindergarten through 12th 
grade,” he said. “The world has 
changed and education has got to 
change. When we talk about public 
education, it must be making public 
colleges and universities tuition 
free.”

Western Michigan University 

sophomore Mara Minott said she 
plans to vote for Clinton because 
she believes she will best help all 
citizens.

“It was really a moving speech 

that makes you think about what is 
going on in our country,” she said. 
“For African Americans I think 
(Clinton is) for everybody and it’s 
not as if you are this color you get 
looked upon more highly than 
someone — it’s equal. For me, I was 
like, ‘I can be down with that.’ ”

In his remarks, Sanders also 

asked the audience to consider each 
candidate’s stance on the issues 

rather than consider the candidates 
as individuals.

Both candidates have relatively 

high unfavorability ratings, leading 
many voters to feel dissatisfied with 
their two major party options in the 
election.

“There are a lot of people in 

Michigan and a lot of people in 
Vermont who don’t like Donald 
Trump and who don’t like Hillary 
Clinton,” he said. “I am asking you to 
go beyond personality. Take a hard 
look at the issues that are impacting 
the middle class and impact this 
country, and on every issue you will 
find Hillary Clinton’s position far, 
far superior to Donald Trump’s.”

Paul Clements, WMU professor 

and 
6th 
district 
Democratic 

Congressional candidate, in his 
introduction of Sanders praised 
the senator to the crowd for the 
grassroots movement he created 
during the primary election.

“He inspired me, like I know he 

inspired many of us here today, with 
a vision of what government of, by 
and for the people needs to be in the 
21st century,” he said.

WMU junior Erin Huggett said 

Clements, who appeared popular 
among the crowd from cheers and 
numerous , earned her support due 
to his ability to further Sanders’ 
goals on more local level.

“I knew once Bernie wasn’t able 

to make the primary election goals 
that he had that I would want to vote 
for someone who he backed and 
supported for our local election,” 
she said. “I think as the revolution 
goes on, it is important that we look 
at the local elections.”

SANDERS
From Page 1A

purple and greater and greater 
difficulty in states being able to 
find ways to work across partisan 
and even regional boundaries,” 
Rabe said.

To illustrate his point, Rabe 

cited the state of Washington, 
which in the 1980s and 1990s 
pushed forward numerous pieces 
of 
progressive 
environmental 

legislation but over the course of 
the last decade has struggled to 
pass any sort of bill. Currently, on 
the Washington ballot this year is 
a proposal known as Initiative 732 
that would place a tax on carbon 
and while the idea of a carbon tax 
has been adopted in countries like 
Canada, Rabe said he thinks the 
ballot proposal will be defeated.

“That will be defeated as we are 

at a point where there is almost an 
even split amongst the electorate,” 
Rabe said. “When you get this 
far into a campaign, the ‘no’ vote 
begins to take over. It is the first 
explicit test of whether or 
not that policy is credible in a 
larger system.”

Panelist 
Lisa 
Wozniak, 

the 
executive 
director 

of 
the 
Michigan 
League 

of 
Conservation 
Voters, 

a 
nonpartisan 
political 

organization 
dedicated 
to 

safeguarding the state’s land, 
air and water, highlighted 
the current state of policy in 
Michigan. Wozniak said since 
2008, a significant amount of 
environmental legislation has 
been proposed in the state 
legislature.

ENERGY
From Page 1A

Over the past few months, the 

Republican nominee has faced 
significant criticism on his attitude 
toward 
women. 
Last 
month, 

The Washington Post released a 
2005 tape of Trump in which he 
discussed touching women without 
their consent. Since the publication 
of the tape, multiple women have 
come forward to accuse Trump 
of sexually assaulting them. The 
Trump campaign has denied the 
women’s accounts.

However, 
in 
Troy, 
Ivanka 

Trump’s discussion of her father’s 
policies 
on 
women’s 
issues 

resonated for many in attendance, 
including a collection of local 
businesswomen 
who. 
attended 

the event. Michelle Fint, who is 
employed in the hotel industry and 
expressed support for Trump, said 
she was especially concerned about 
health benefits.

“My concern is primarily with 

women’s issues,” Fint said. “In 
particular, with the plight of 
single mothers. Some places have 
been forced to stop offering the 
same health benefits to those in 
that situation, which can really 
affect people’s future planning.”

Business issues were a frequent 

touchstone for Ivanka Trump, 
who also wove in concerns about 
child care and education, such as 
maternity leave — issues that she 
said are of particular concern for 
women in business.

“One of the areas that my 

father has felt strongly about is 
paid maternity leave,” Trump 
said, prompting a loud applause 
from the crowd. 

Despite 
the 
focus 
on 

women’s issues, some women in 
attendance, like Marian Sheridan, 

did not emphasize women’s issues 
as the most important issues of 
the election.

Prior to the event, Sheridan 

said she believed gender relations 
in the United States were already 
positive.

“We already have the best 

country in the world for gender 
relations,” Sheridan said. “I don’t 
see that as something that needs 
tinkering. I believe that it’s an 
example of how Democrats try to 
find issues with things.”

In her remarks, Ivanka Trump 

also 
discussed 
her 
father’s 

educational plan, in particular 
his proposal for the allocation 
of grants to the states to address 
educational standards, and his 
support for charter and magnet 
schools.

“My 
father 
will 
repeal 

Common 
Core 
when 
he 
is 

president,” Trump said. “He 
has a plan to provide grants 
to the states so that they can 
best address the needs of their 
schools. Additionally, he believes 
in school choice for students … 
There should be no one-size-fits-
all approach.”

Trump concluded the event by 

reaffirming her confidence in her 
father’s abilities to call upon his 
business leadership skills during 
his time in office, if elected.

“My father is someone who 

swings for the fences, but also 
executes,” Trump said. “And 
what you can count on is that he 
is not beholden to anyone but the 
American people.”

Some supporters also gathered 

outside of the event to express 
their sentiments about Trump. 

IVANKA
From Page 1A

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MichiganDaily.com