The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Friday, December 2, 2016 — 3

hours in an e-mail interview.

“I couldn’t speculate that (the 

ride increase was due to the fear 
from crime alerts),” he wrote. 
“The data doesn’t show that.”

Dolen wrote the new start time 

for SafeRide is a pilot and will be 
evaluated as it progresses.

“We 
will 
keep 
track 
of 

demand,” he wrote in an email 
interview. “Whether or not it 
will be permanent is still (to be 
determined).” 

According to Dolen, SafeRide 

currently has three operating 
vans. While the University is not 
looking into adding a fourth van, 
he wrote that three vans have 
been enough to cover student 
demand. SafeRide is generally 
requested a thousand times per 
month and increases during the 
month of November when the 
weather starts to get colder.

SafeRide 
is 
not 
the 
only 

transportation 
system 
the 

University offers. Ride Home 
also runs from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m., 
providing free shared taxis from 
the 
Shapiro 
Undergraduate 

Library. 
State 
Street 
Ride 

functions as another service, 
transporting 
students 
to 
the 

South State Street Commuter, 
and runs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. 
Monday through Friday.

Diane 
Brown, 
Division 
of 

Public 
Safety 
and 
Security 

spokeswoman, 
said 
SafeRide 

was derived from an earlier 
concept of SafeWalk, a campus 
accompaniment service for those 
who do not want to walk alone 
on campus at night, in the early 
2000s. The University began 
offering rides in the SafeWalk 
program in 2001. She said there 
is talk of reviving the program 
again for the upcoming months, 
but they are not finalized.

Students 
have 
also 
been 

planning 
programs 
similar 

to 
SafeWalk, 
independently 

organizing 
walking 
systems 

and providing support to others 
after hours. Emma Kaye, an LSA 
and Business senior, had been 
planning for a buddy system night 
since the beginning of the year 
in hopes of spreading awareness 
about the prevalence of sexual 
assault on campus.

However, she said her plans 

changed due to the crime alerts 
on campus and her sense of 
heightened 
xenophobia 
on 

campus following the election.

“Part way through (the week 

of elections) ... we started getting 
those crime alerts and they were 
talking about things going on 
campus,” she said. “I think that 
sparked something within us 
and in our volunteers as well. 
Obviously, it is a horrifying thing; 
we felt like it became more about 
safety in general on campus rather 
than only about sexual assault.”

Trump’s win sparked negative 

reactions from many University 
students over worries about his 
campaign rhetoric, with multiple 
student protests on campus in 
the weeks following his victory. 
University 
President 
Mark 

Schlissel appeared at one of the 
events, 
applauding 
University 

students 
for 
overwhelmingly 

supporting 
Democratic 

presidential 
nominee 
Hillary 

Clinton.

“Ninety 
percent 
of 
you 

rejected the kind of hate and the 
fractiousness and the longing for 
some kind of idealized version 
of 
a 
nonexistent 
yesterday 

that was expressed during the 
campaign,” Schlissel said during 
the November protest.

Kaye said she and three other 

friends launched a walking night 
a few weeks after the election. 
The volunteers, she explained, 
had 30-minute shifts and worked 
in teams of two, with both male 
and female students in the pair. 
On their first night, she said, the 

group walked about 25 students 
home, the majority of them 
female.

“One of the greatest responses 

we got was from a guy who came 
and volunteered and what he 
said encompassed everything we 
wanted from the night too,” she 
said. “He said, ‘Look, as a man, 
I don’t deal with this or feel this 
fear. I don’t feel afraid walking on 
this campus and with everything 
going on now and especially as 
a white male, I don’t feel that.’ 
And he said it was extremely 
eye-opening to see how much 
people needed this and to feel to 
understand what other people 
went through even if it is a little 
bit.”

Kaye said even a student who 

declined to be walked home 
volunteered to help other students 
and expressed his gratitude for 
the service.

“I didn’t expect the response 

that it got,” she said. “Probably 
one of the greatest experiences 
I have had in this University 
was having my friends and even 
these people I didn’t know really 
back this up and show a lot of 
support.”

The group’s hope was to start 

a culture of supporting other 
students, making it a norm to 
walk others home and check up 
on friends regularly.

“It’s not that this one night was 

going to solve it,” she said. “It’s 
not. It was hoping to show that 
this is a problem. And even if a 
couple of people started asking if 
they want to be walked home and 
even to strangers, I would think 
that would be a success.”

She noted frustrations with 

current University services like 
SafeRide, saying she believed it 
to be a useful resource but, in 
her experience, there was a 30- 
to 40-minute wait time, leading 
some students to avoid the 
service.

Dolen 
wrote 
there 
is 
an 

application for SafeRide that was 

launched this fall that could aid 
the frustration of waiting for the 
ride. The app will also suggest 
other ways to get home that could 
be faster than the SafeRide.

“Another piece that we are 

just getting launched (in the 
application) is when you choose a 
ride it will also let you know when 
the next bus would be arriving 
and if it may be closer to you,” 
Dolen wrote. “So if the SafeRide 
van can’t be there in 15 minutes, 
there might be a bus and the bus 
stop would be just outside if you 
were to stay in Shapiro. There 
might be a bus getting there in 
10 minutes and it is going pretty 
close to the same location.”

Evelyn 
Alsultany, 
associate 

professor of Arab and Muslim 
American Studies, is the head of 
the Islamophobia Working Group, 
another organization on campus 
aiming to make the walk home 
more comfortable for students. 
The group is currently building a 
way to have specialized walking 
systems for Muslim students, 
as many felt Islamophobia on 
campus after the female student 
wearing the hijab was threatened.

“After the recent hate crimes, 

we updated the resource list 
to include information on safe 
rides 
since 
many 
students 

are fearful of walking alone 
on campus, especially female 
students who wear the hijab,” 
Alsultany wrote in an email. “The 
Muslim Students’ Association is 
facilitating a system of walking 
in pairs and groups, especially at 
night.”

LSA junior Haleemah Aqel, 

part of the Islamophobia Working 
Group’s 
student 
initiative, 

said she is working with the 
Muslim 
Students’ 
Association 

representatives 
to 
create 
a 

walking system for those who feel 
unsafe walking home at night.

“We sent out reminders after 

the first crime alert like, ‘Hey, 
remember not to walk home at 
night. Make sure you are always 

walking home with a buddy,’ ” she 
said.

The MSA’s Facebook page 

currently has a list of phone 
numbers of students willing to 
walk people home.

“I am definitely hoping this is 

something we can keep for the 
future,” Aqel said. “I know that a 
lot of these initiatives have come 
out of aftermath of the election. 
But I think in general, safety 
should be considered. Whatever 
the politics and climate around 
our (campus) is, safety should 
always be something. Because 
who knows what could happen? 
Because this could be a great 
system for the future, maybe 10 
years from now.”

Aqel said overall, the crime 

alerts were a sad reminder about 
the general sentiment toward 
Muslims in the United States.

“It’s sad to say I am not 

surprised that happened because 
of the climate not only on 
campus but in the U.S.,” she said. 
“Xenophobia is such a prevalent 
issue 
in 
our 
society. 
These 

instances are so ‘Wow I can’t 
believe this,’ but at the same time 
I can. It was bound to happen.”

Another 
organized 
effort 

to 
create 
walking 
systems, 

Wolverine 
Guard, 
has 
also 

launched in the past weeks and 
has a list of phone numbers 
on Facebook similar to MSA’s 
approach.

Faculty 
have 
also 
gotten 

involved — a team of faculty 
recently launched Teamworks, 
a Canvas site that provides 
resources 
and 
support 
for 

students.

Anne Berg, assistant director 

of undergraduate studies and 
the organizer of Teamworks, 
said the site was created after a 
graduate student told her some 
of her students wouldn’t come to 
class the Friday after the election 
because they were too scared 
to be on campus. Berg said she 
attended post-election events to 

hear from students as well.

“I went to the meeting that 

Dean 
Martin 
organized 
for 

students and spoke with a bunch 
of students there, on the Monday 
after the election,” Berg said. 
“And many said that they were 
terrified walking around campus 
— that was just after the woman 
was threatened. … People were 
really, really raw in general.”

Berg said she hopes Teamworks 

can stay in place for the long term. 
After presenting the idea to the 
administration, the site is set to 
be a trial run to see how students 
respond to it.

“(Students) said that something 

faculty monitored would give 
them a better sense of security 
because 
what 
students 
have 

done is quickly set up Facebook 
groups,” she said.

The Canvas site currently has 

30 members, most of whom are 
students.

Berg said building a community 

within Teamworks would help 
create 
a 
more 
comfortable 

space, adding that the team was 
interested in planning events 
to allow more networking. She 
added that she thought it was the 
job of students and faculty alike 
to keep both the walking system 
and the general climate of campus 
safe and supportive.

“I 
think 
what 
is 
really 

important 
in 
this 
political 

situation is that students of color, 
minority students, for whatever 
reason they feel, it is not upon 
them to stake their claims and 
be safe,” she said. “But rather it is 
for everyone on campus to make 
sure we are a community and we 
belong together. And the type of 
rhetoric and actions has no place 
in Michigan. I think there really 
is a responsibility of students who 
do feel safe and faculty as well 
to offer themselves as a resource 
and to be there and say, ‘This is 
our community and we are here 
to defend it. We won’t let this 
destroy us.’ ”

SAFE RIDE
From Page 1

7-percent enrollment for Latino 
students.”

The Black Student Union and 

Students4Justice both declined 
to comment.

Latina student organizations, 

like the Lambda Theta Alpha 
Latin 
sorority, 
expressed 

optimism due to the increase in 
Hispanic 
student 
enrollment. 

Roxana Taginya, an LSA junior 
affiliated with Lambda Theta 
Alpha, noted the importance 
of 
enrolling 
more 
Hispanic 

students each year to the Latino 
community

“Given my work with the 

Latin@ 
community 
here 
on 

campus, being able to see the 
enrollment numbers for incoming 
Latin@s increase has been really 
amazing,” Taginya wrote in an 
email interview. “I personally 
have done a lot of work to build 
the Latin@ community here on 
campus and I find that there is 
strength in numbers.”

However, 
Taginya, 
despite 

feeling 
optimistic 
about 
the 

class of 2020’s increased Latino 
student enrollment, wrote that 
she hopes the increasing trend 
will continue going forward.

“Seeing more Latin@s on 

campus 
means 
a 
stronger 

network and a larger community 
through 
which 
incoming 

students 
can 
feel 
welcome,” 

Taginya 
wrote. 
“However, 
I 

hope that this increase continues 
from year to year because I 
believe there is a lot of work to 
be done at this school in terms 
of diversity, equity, and inclusion 
and a greater presence from the 
Latin@ community would make 
a huge difference.”

Despite the mixed record 

of 
success 
in 
increasing 

representation 
for 
all 

demographics, Ishop said she 
thought the University’s efforts 
to improve economic diversity for 
the freshman class was reflected 
in enrollment figures.

“We are looking for diversity 

across all lines,” Ishop said. 
“This includes socioeconomic 
diversity as well. One of our 
goals is to make an education 
here accessible not just to the 
wealthiest students, but also 
to low and moderate income 
students. In order to achieve 
this, we put a lot of money into 
our financial aid departments so 
that cost — as much as we can 
control for — is not the reason 
why somebody who is accepted 
does not attend the University.”

For the class of 2020, the 

University increased budgeting 
for financial aid by 10.8 percent, 
according to a University press 
release, including a total of $170 
million 
allocated 
specifically 

for 
need-based 
financial 
aid 

packages.

One of the factors Ishop 

attributed to the improvement 
in 
economic 
diversity 
was 

the 
introduction 
of 
the 

HAIL scholarship, which is a 
scholarship designed for high-
achieving 
and 
low-income 

students from Michigan.

“The 
HAIL 
scholarship 

is a terrific example of our 
deliberate 
efforts 
to 
bring 

in 
people 
from 
different 

backgrounds 
and 
of 
our 

efforts to inform prospective 
applicants that a Michigan 
education can be affordable,” 
Ishop said. “And this wasn’t 
necessarily 
a 
policy-driven 

change, but more of a shift 
in messaging. We want high 
achieving students to know 
that you should still apply even 
if you are unsure of how to pay 
for college because cost should 
not be a factor. The University 
can help you need.”

ENROLLMENT
From Page 1

with Bernstein, quit his full-
time job at Dell and became a 
co-founder of LoftSmart.

Earlier 
this 
year, 
Kumar 

said the company received $1.7 
million in funding from venture 
capital firms, letting LoftSmart 
develop into an online platform 
in which students can complete 
the whole housing process in one 
place, including read reviews, 
apply for housing, get screened 
for credit and criminal history, 
sign a legally binding lease and 
submit a deposit.

Kumar 
said 
while 
the 

company 
initially 
gained 

traction at University of Virginia 
and colleges in Texas, it has 
seen increased usage in the Ann 
Arbor market since launching 
three months ago, with property 
reviews on the site growing from 
zero to about 500 in that time 
period.

“We’ve seen a lot of good 

traction at Michigan, actually,” 
Kumar said. “Landmark, the 
Zaragons, 411, ArborBlu and the 
Courtyards can all be booked; 
you can basically take care of 
that entire process through 
LoftSmart.”

Kumar said the company 

interviewed students from the 
University and heard horror 
stories about problematic leasing 
in Ann Arbor, including times 
when students had to pay extra 
fees, didn’t get their security 
deposits back or weren’t satisfied 
with their properties.

“Our first and main goal is to 

help be almost a representative 
for them and act as a third 
party where they can sign 
through us and really gain a 
sense of security, a sense of 
trustworthiness and definitely 
a sense of convenience,” Kumar 
said.

Currently, 
Kumar 
said, 

LoftSmart 
is 
focused 
on 

connecting 
students 
with 

apartments, but in the future, 
they are looking to expand into 
houses and also facilitate greater 

relationships 
between 

students and property managers.

“There 
are 
so 
many 

opportunities — the goal is to 
kind of take over that entire 
rental market in Ann Arbor, get 
not only apartments but also 
houses and any other rental 
units,” Kumar said. “We’d like 
to also help students manage the 
relationship with the property 
managers and allow for a lot 
more transparency.”

He added this philosophy 

ties in with the goal of making 
sure students who don’t have 
experience with signing leases 
aren’t being taken advantage of.

“The 
housing 
market 
for 

students 
is 
very 
interesting 

because you’re dealing with 
people that are newcomers to 
the market and there is a lot of 
room to kind of take advantage 
of them,” Kumar said. “We want 
to empower students to not only 
make better decisions but to 
ensure they are picking places 
that will take care of them.”

Business sophomore Connor 

Baechler, who recently secured 

a house for his off-campus 
living accommodation next year, 
said he could have benefited 
from a more straightforward 
relationship with the realtor and 
rental company.

During his search, Beachler 

said, he knocked on the door of 
the property he was interested in 
three separate times so he could 
talk to the current tenants about 
the property and what their 
relationship with the landlord 
was like.

“I had to go to the house I 

was interested in and speak 
with tenants,” Baechler said. 
“It would have been much more 
convenient had there been an 
easier way to reach out to them.”

Baechler said he had never 

heard of LoftSmart, but thinks 
it is an intriguing idea and might 
be inclined to utilize it in the 
future.

“If it catches on I’ll have more 

trust in a company like that, so 
I’d be curious to see how it plays 
out and the reputation they build 
here in Ann Arbor,” Baechler 
said.

multiple times throughout the 
talk that the tension between the 
two countries should be seen as a 
new normal.

“While 
regrettable, 
this 

negativity, I think, is to be 
expected,” he said. “We China 
specialists, or social scientists, 
should not be surprised by this, 
and moreover, I think it’s the new 
normal. We have to get used to it. 
This is the natural paradigm, not 
some sort of false, cooperative, 
harmonious paradigm.”

Shambaugh also discussed 

how Trump’s presidency will 

affect 
U.S.-China 
relations. 

Though Trump has called for 
increased tariffs on Chinese 
goods and the labeling of China 
as 
a 
currency 
manipulator, 

Shambaugh 
noted 
that 
the 

president-elect has offered little 
in terms of other foreign policy. 
Despite 
Trump’s 
isolationist 

rhetoric, he said he doubts 
the president-elect will walk 
away from a trade deal like the 
North American Free Trade 
Agreement, which Trump said 
he may do during his campaign.

“I would highly doubt a Trump 

admin will walk away from 
these 
alliances,” 
Shambaugh 

said. “Isolationist rhetoric would 
meet resistance, if he wanted to 

pull away from Asia and NATO.”

Though Shambaugh noted 

multiple variables behind the 
increasing tensions between the 
United States and China, such as 
rising Chinese national identity 
and the United States’ position 
in the Asian-Pacific region, he 
ended his discussion on a lighter 
note.

“This is a transitional time; 

the relationship is categorized 
by 
rising 
competition 
and 

predominant 
competition, 

secondary cooperation but it’s 
not about to go off the cliff,” he 
said. “Since 1972, and through 
nine American presidents and 
eight Chinese leaders, this is 
not the first time we have had 

frictions. We have had them in 
the past, and the relationship has 
continued to endure and grow to 
both societies’ benefit.”

Rackham student Ding He 

said she felt the talk made a 
variety of perspectives on the 
U.S.-China relationship more 
clear.

“I think because I read a lot 

of articles about the relationship 
between America and China, so 
this one is like how the people 
from the policy committees 
think about the relationship,” 
He said. “So actually I’ve heard 
these kinds of opinions in China a 
lot, so this is just to confirm some 
of the ideas and information that 
I have taken from before.”

LOFTSMART
From Page 1

CHINA
From Page 1

asylum, or they can have had no 
persecution but they can prove 
that they have a well-founded 
fear of future persecution,” she 
said. “If they prove that they 
truly are at risk, that their fear 
is well-founded both subjectively 
and objectively that they will be 
persecuted if returned, they can 
receive asylum.”

In the United States, refugees 

can apply for asylum for both 
themselves 
and 
their 
family 

by filing a Form I-589, which 
prevents them from being forced 
to leave. Once an individual 
is granted asylum, they are 
permitted to work and live in the 
United States in the same way as 
a natural-born citizen.

Elizabeth Scruggs, a third-

year medical student who was 
the first author of the new 
study and is a member of the 
UM Asylum Collaborative, said 
based on their findings, medical 
examinations appear to be a 

key part of applying to another 
country. 
The 
UM 
Asylum 

Collaborative is a student-led 
initiative that “mobilizes health 
professionals to advocate for 
victims and survivors of human 
rights violations.”

“Our 
study, 
given 
that 

it’s 
qualitative, 
can’t 
make 

any 
definitive 
or 
statistical 

statement, 
but 
really 
every 

lawyer we’ve spoken to agreed 
that it’s a key or crucial piece of 
the application,” Scruggs said. 
“It’s 
something 
that 
should 

always be present, but often is 

not present simply because of 
lack of access, lack of resources 
or simply lack of a physician to 
perform the evaluation.”

Carr, though not a researcher 

in the study, said she agreed 
about 
the 
importance 
of 
a 

medical exam.

“If you’re doing a female 

genital mutilation case and you 
don’t have a medical affidavit 
from a doctor in the U.S. 
examining your client that says 
it’s happened to her, if that’s your 
claim of past persecution, you 
won’t win,” she said.

Even 
in 
cases 
where 
no 

physical proof of past abuse 
remains, a medical exam can 
greatly boost a refugee’s chances 
of 
being 
granted 
asylum, 

according to the study. Scruggs 
said psychological exams play an 
important role in corroborating 
a refugee’s story and assessing 
for the clinical findings of post-
traumatic stress disorder.

Most refugees aren’t afforded 

this 
chance, 
however, 
as 

obtaining a medical exam as a 
refugee can be very difficult.

“You’re not entitled to a 

lawyer,” Carr said. “If you are not 
represented by a lawyer, what 
you can bring forward might be 
pretty minimal, and if you’re 
represented by a lawyer or an 
NGO that has a ton of resources, 
then what they can cobble 
together will be fundamentally 
different. I would say that for 
the majority of clients who seek 
asylum, the majority of their 
evidence is their testimony.”

REFUGEES
From Page 1

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

