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Tuesday, November 15, 2016 — 3

accomplishments as provost.

“Our loss is most certainly 

Cornell’s gain,” he wrote.

In a University statement, 

Schlissel also said he will 
appoint an interim provost 
before the end of Fall semester, 
and organize a nationwide 
search 
for 
a 
permanent 

replacement by January.

University 
spokesperson 

Rick Fitzgerald said while 
the announcement came as a 
surprise to many University 
officials, 
he 
believes 
her 

appointment 
was 
a 
good 

decision for Cornell.

“She’s been a strong leader 

for academics and for the 
budget.” Fitzgerald said. “The 
provost at the University of 
Michigan 
has 
a 
somewhat 

unique role where the chief 
academic officer is also the 
chief budget officer. She 
balances 
her 
commitment 

to academics with being a 
good steward of the budget 
well, while keeping a college 
education 
affordable 
and 

blazing pathways with new 
academic initiatives. That’s 
quite a sweetspot.”

 
Cornell’s 
board 
of 

trustees 
unanimously 

approved Pollack’s selection 
Monday 
afternoon 
on 
a 

recommendation 
from 
the 

school’s 
presidential 
search 

committee, formed in April 
following the death of former 
Cornell president Elizabeth 
Garrett. 
Before 
Pollack’s 

appointment as provost at the 
University, she served as the 
associate chair for computer 
science and engineering in 
the University’s department 

of electrical engineering and 
computer 
science, 
as 
well 

as the dean of the School of 
Information.

In an interview with the 

Cornell Daily Sun, Pollack who 
will be Cornell’s second female 
president in its 184 years 
of existence, noted that the 
importance of her new job will 
transcend gender lines.

“The job of the president is 

to serve everyone. Not to be 

the female president, but the 
president.” Pollack said.

During her tenure at the 

University, Pollack has been 
an advocate for technological 
innovation and the use of 
data in the classroom. In 
a 
press 
release 
from 
the 

University 
in 
September 

2015, Pollack emphasized the 
importance of a $100 million 
University 
investment 
in 

data science, calling it the 
future of academia. Among 
other impacts, the investment 
created the Michigan Institute 
for Data Science.

“Data science has become a 

fourth approach to scientific 
discovery, 
in 
addition 
to 

experimentation, 
modeling 

and 
computation,” 
Pollack 

said. “To spur innovation while 
providing focus, the DSI will 
launch challenge initiatives in 
four critical interdisciplinary 
areas that build on our existing 
strengths 
in 
transportation 

research, 
health 
sciences, 

learning analytics and social 
science research.”

Also 
during 
her 
tenure, 

Pollack helped to spearhead 
the University’s Third Century 
Initiative, a plan to invest $50 
million dollars over five years 
in an effort to improve student 
learning. The initiative, which 
awards 
grant 
funding 
to 

University faculty, has helped 
to foster University-developed 
programs, such as School of 
Information professor Barry 
Fishman’s grading platform, 
Gradecraft.

Fitzgerald 
noted 
these 

initiatives will remain intact 
following her departure.

“At this point, the things that 

Provost Pollack has introduced 
have 
become 
significant 

University 
commitments.” 

Fitzgerald said. “They are 
moving forward, and I don’t 
see there being an interruption 
with an interim leader, or a 
leadership change.”

Pollack’s departure follows 

a 
pattern 
similar 
to 
her 

predecessor, 
Phil 
Hanlon, 

who also left his post at the 
University 
to 
assume 
the 

presidency 
of 
Dartmouth 

College. 

POLLACK
From Page 1

threatening behavior, as well as 
the present political climate in 
the United States, he encouraged 
students to resist.

“I don’t have the answers and 

it’s killing me,” Milan said. “I don’t 
know what to say. All I can tell you 
to do is to resist. Resistance looks 
a lot of different ways. Sometimes 
resistance looks like organizing 
your 
people 
and 
fighting 
… 

Sometimes resistance is taking a 
step back and saying I don’t have to 
fight, I don’t have to do this.”

Spectrum Center Director Will 

Sherry said Trans Awareness 
week has existed for at least the 
nine years he has worked at center 
noting it was well established at 
the time he joined. Though he 
has noticed changes throughout 
the existence of Trans Awareness 
Week, Sherry said overall he 
appreciates the consistency of 
support the week offers to students 
who often feel marginalized.

“It’s an opportunity for people 

who share non-binary and trans 
identities, to come together and 
be in a community that can often 
feel small and come together in 
spaces where you don’t feel so 
small,” he said. “That’s something 
I really appreciate personally and 
professionally about the week.”

LSA 
senior 
Felix 
Boratyn, 

co-chair 
of 
the 
student 

organization TransForm, which 
conducts activist and support 
work for transgender students on 
campus and helped organize the 
week, said Milan’s perspective on 
resistance resonated with him. He 

added that the election has made 
this week even more meaningful.

“This 
week 
has 
definitely 

become more important to me,” 
Boratyn said. “A lot of people are 
mourning right now the results 
of the election and knowing what 
those results are going to mean for 
a lot of people. Part of trans week is 
celebration but part of trans week 
is mourning trans women who 
have died and violence towards 
trans people, a combination of 
everything.”

LSA 
senior 
Ini 
Ubong, 

co-chair of TransForm, said they 
appreciated Milan’s discussion of 
how he defines his masculinity, 
and think it is a message of hope 
for other transgender students.

“It’s uplifting to hear he did it, 

he got here, to a point where he 
can come and be a speaker at our 
school so there’s still kind of hope, 
I guess,” they said. “It brings a 
message of hope and a feeling that 
I’m not alone in the way that I feel.”

Ubong said Trans Awareness 

Week aims to both support 
transgender students and educate 
non-transgender 
students, 

especially in light of the high 
number of murders of transgender 
women in 2016. To date, 20 
transgender indviduals have been 
murdered in the United States 
according to the Human Rights 
Campaign.

“My hope is that it brings the 

trans community together and 
also it provides education for other 
people,” Ubong said. “My hope for 
Trans Awareness Week is that we 
focus on the transgender people 
that are most marginalized, I think 
that’s transgender Black women.”

AWARENESS
From Page 1

alt-right 
posters 
which 
have 

been 
posted 
around 
campus 

intermittently since earlier this fall, 
targeting Muslim, Black, LGBTQ 
and 
female 
students. 
Posters 

promoting white supremacy and 
calling for students to report 
undocumented immigrants were 
found on campus early Monday 
morning, alongside phrases such as 
“Make America Great Again.”

“We’re 
here 
for 
(Muslims) 

as a fellow minority, another 
marginalized group of people,” 
Wallace 
said. 
“I 
hope 
that 

President Schlissel does address 
the hateful flyers that have been 
posted up. I think that more needs 
to be done to investigate who 
is posting these flyers, because 
people have been posting these 
going back to September … and it 
seems like nothing is being done to 
stop them.”

Over the past week, many in 

the University community have 
responded to the election by 
hosting and attending vigils and 
protests. A unity march with 
hundreds of Ann Arbor families 
also occurred Sunday afternoon, 
aiming to promote peace and 
support for all communities.

LSA sophomore Rami Ebrahim, 

social justice and activism chair 

for MSA who helped organize the 
prayer gathering, said he hopes 
to see further action from the 
administration aside from crime 
reports and emails, such as specific 
safety initiatives.

“There’s a tense climate on 

campus, especially for Muslim 
students, and especially for more 
identifiable Muslim students — 
especially the women,” Ebrahim 
said. “We wanted to show that … 
some of the things happening on 
campus are not representative 
of the student body or are 
representative of all of the country 
in general.” 

LSA junior Yara Gayar, another 

attendee at the event, took a slightly 
different position, saying she was 
happy with the diverse turnout 
of students and members of the 
community at Monday’s event, 
and with administrative response 
following the election.

“I like that professors are 

addressing the students’ safety and 
respect of differences,” Gayar said. 
 

Much like Ali, LSA junior Hina 

Jaffer stressed the significance of 
the event in building new alliances.

“The 
silver 
lining 
to 
this 

whole thing is that, all of these 
marginalized communities have 
come together and built all these 
alliances that otherwise weren’t 
really strong, weren’t really there,” 
Jaffer said. 

PRAYER
From Page 1

if she did not comply. In a second 
incident over the weekend, a student 
left his apartment to go to class and 
came home to a swastika drawn on 
his apartment door. 

 The Rock was also discovered 

painted with “Fuck America” and 
“Kill them All” over drawings of the 
Republican and Democratic Party 
logos last week.

 Ethnic intimidation, which is a 

felony offense and often refered to as 
a hate crime, is defined by Michigan 
law as “specific intent to intimidate 
or harass another person because 
of that person’s race, color, religion, 
gender or national origin, and does 
any of the following: causes physical 
contact with another person; or 
damages, destroys or defaces any 
real or personal property of another 
person.” 

 Multiple administrators across 

campus, 
as 
well 
as 
students, 

condemned the first incident on 
Friday 
through 
messages 
and 

events over the weekend and urged 
students to support one another.

 Students gathered Saturday to 

protest the incident and express 
solidarity with students who have 
experienced anything similar.

 On Sunday, President Mark 

Schlissel wrote an email to the 
student body condemning hate 
crimes and hate speech. He also 
outlined resources for students who 
have experienced incidents such as 
these.

 University spokesperson Rick 

Fitzgerald said the investigation 
is ongoing, and refered back to the 
email Schlissel sent out Sunday.

 “Emotions are high all across 

the political spectrum. We hope all 
members of our community can 
agree that we must not stand silent 
while facing expressions of bigotry, 
discrimination or hate that have 
become part of our national political 
discourse,” the email read. “Only 
by speaking out against personal 
attacks, hate and threats can we 
move on to have the discussions that 
will be necessary for our campus and 
our nation to reach its full potential.”

CRIME
From Page 1

excitement),” Burns said. “This 
year I think we are seeing a 
little bit more of the renewed 
excitement.”

Fricker added that a tweet 

from Michigan football coach 
Jim 
Harbaugh 
about 
the 

Blood Battle had helped the 
advertising for donations.

BDU has also tried many 

different advertising methods, 

such 
as 
chalking, 
banners, 

quarter cards and tabling. E. 
Royster Harper, vice president 
for student life, also raised 
awareness 
about 
the 
event 

in an email to the University 
community. In addition, BDU 
is also rewarding the donors 
to encourage the community 
to donate blood. This year, all 
donors will get a Red Cross 
T-shirt and restaurant coupons 
like a buy-one-get-one free 
Chipotle coupon, as well as 
entering to win raffle prizes.

BLOOD
From Page 2

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

KEVIN ZHENG/Daily

Law School student Shannon Niznik discusses LGBTQ rights at the Michigan Union Monday. 

“The job of 
the president 

is to serve 
everyone.”

“They are moving 
forward, and I don’t 
see there being an 

interruption.”

surprise at Trump’s victory.

“At the time, nearly everyone 

thought 
Secretary 
Clinton 

would win the election,” he said 
during the discussion. “Just 
about every political pundit on 
the left and right agreed. Many 
members of our community had 
a difficult time getting back to 
the classroom and back to work 
after the loss. Many members of 
our community continue to feel 
unsafe on our own campus.”

Martin 
also 
emphasized 

that the dialogue was designed 
to welcome all people who 
have 
expressed 
feelings 
of 

marginalization in recent days, 
not just those who supported 
Democratic 
presidential 

nominee Hillary Clinton.

On Monday, a petition started 

by LSA sophomore Amanda 
Delekta circulated and garnered 
over 300 signatures. The petition 
condemned the administration 
and 
students’ 
responses 
to 

President-elect Donald Trump’s 
election.

“A lot of you as Trump 

supporters feel that you have 
been ignored at best, or swarmed 
at worst,” Martin said. “Some of 
you have been verbally assaulted 
or attacked, and I know that 
some of you feel the institution 
has not lived up to the ideals of 
open debate, and felt that you do 
not have a home on this campus 
either.”

After 
Martin’s 
remarks, 

members 
of 
Counseling 

and 
Psychological 
Services 

highlighted 
their 
office’s 

increased 
accessibility 
in 

response to the contentious 
election results.

Speaking to the crowd, CAPS 

Director Todd Sevig promoted a 
variety of approaches to achieving 
calm and comfort. In the leadup 
to the election season, CAPS 
organized an exhibit reminding 
students to care for themselves 
amid the stress of classes and the 
election.

“It’s important to note that 

the election has taken a toll 
psychologically,” 
Sevig 
said. 

“We are not here to say that if 
you are feeling strong emotions, 
then you need therapy. We are 
here to say that things that could 
be therapeutic and healing is 
important. There is no one way of 
coping or making sense of this is 
going to work for all of us.”

Following 
the 
remarks 
by 

Martin and CAPS personnel, the 
room was divided into smaller 
groups for discussion. At each 
table, an LSA faculty member 
moderated the discourse, asking 
questions and maintaining a calm 
tone. Participants were reminded 
to criticize ideas, not people.

After nearly 10 minutes of 

discussion, 
the 
large 
room 

reconvened to shared publicly 
what had been discussed in smaller 
groups. A microphone was passed 
around the room for the next hour, 
during which personal reactions 
and general commentary were 
shared in response to the election 
results last week.

AFTERMATH
From Page 1

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com