Members of the University
of
Michigan’s
Senate
Assembly passed a resolution
on Monday brought forth
by
the
Academic
Affairs
Advisory
Committee
regarding salary cuts as a
way to demote faculty. The
meeting was also a chance
for the assembly to hear
last remarks from outgoing
Provost
Martha
Pollack
and
initial
remarks
from
incoming
Interim
Provost
Paul Courant, a public policy
professor.
The
faculty
began
the
meeting by taking a closer
look at the AAAC resolution
written in December, which
condemns the University for
effectively demoting faculty
members by cutting their
salaries without due process
and calls for this to change.
The AAAC, after being
notified
of
several
cases
of these incidents at the
University,
decided
any
reduction of a tenured faculty
member’s salary qualifies as
a demotion, and entitles the
member to the due processes
the Board of Regents bylaw
outlines. None of the cases
were specified, but it was
noted that this problem was
most common in the Schools
of Medicine, Dentistry and
Pharmacy.
The Regents’ Bylaw 5.09
outlines
the
due
process
procedure for dismissal or
demotion, but the assembly
argued the document does not
specify what is considered a
demotion.
John Lehman, a Senate
Advisory
Committee
on
University Affairs member
and
professor
of
biology,
presented the resolution to
the
Senate
Assembly
and
urged them to vote in favor of
it. He mentioned that SACUA
members had debated the
resolution during their last
meeting, and decided to keep
the resolution’s definition of
demotion to only a pay cut
to limit technicalities and
confusion.
“We know well that there
are other methods invoked
by unit administrators that
some of you might regard
as constructive demotions,”
Lehman
said.
“Assigning
Of
Black
and
white
Americans,
sustained
depression that comes as a
result of being obese is most
common
in
white
women,
according to a new University
of Michigan study.
According to the Centers
for
Disease
Control
and
Prevention,
obesity
in
the
United States has become a
major public health concern
among all races and genders,
with more than one-third of all
adults affected.
Yet while previous research
indicated depression as result
of obesity was common among
all
races,
new
University
research
shows
between
the two races, obesity only
positively
correlates
with
depression for white women,
particularly those over the age
of 50.
The
study,
which
was
conducted by Shervin Assari,
a research investigator from
the
University
Department
of Psychiatry and the School
of Public Health, was aimed
michigandaily.com
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Tuesday, January 24, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 14
©2016 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
See RESEARCH, Page 2
Link found
in female
obesity and
depression
RESEARCH
‘U’ researcher discovers
high vulnerability among
white women over 50
RASHEED ABDULLAH
Daily Staff Reporter
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
SACUA chair William Schultz watches as Provost Martha Pollack opens a gift from the Faculty Senate Assembly in
commemoration of Pollack’s service to the University at Palmer Commons on Monday.
Senate Assembly passes resolution
defining faculty demotion procedure
Departing Provost Martha Pollack says goodbye to academic advisory committee
MAYA GOLDMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See ASSEMBLY, Page 3
The University of Michigan
President
Mark
Schlissel’s
Advisory
Committee
on
University
History
has
outlined a process to consider a
building name change request
due to students questioning
buildings named after those
who have not openly supported
civil rights or equality, as well
as the lack of buildings named
after women and minorities.
The
new
policy
comes
in light of the University’s
bicentennial, which celebrates
and examines the University’s
history. On campus, there are
few buildings named after
females and only one named
after an African American: the
Trotter Multicultural Center.
The policy also comes after
the
University’s
Board
of
Regents
approved
changing
the name of the Trotter Center
to the Bernstein-Bendit Hall
last Spring after Regent Mark
Bernstein (D) and his wife
Rachel Bendit offered a $3
million gift for the center.
Many students protested the
See BUILDING, Page 3
Building
renaming
procedure
approved
ADMINISTRATION
Schlissel outlines process
to rename popular campus
buildings amid backlash
CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
A GroupMe chat group
for
prospective
University
of
Michigan
freshmen
students became a hotbed of
controversy on Jan. 20 after
white individuals messaged
a racist slur and bigoted
comments
at
Black
and
minority group members.
According to screenshots
tweeted by a Black prospective
student Kennedy DuBose, a
white individual named Alex
Whitley commented “N----
RS ARE THE WORST YOU
KNOW” on the #Victors2021
group
chat.
In
an
email
interview with the Daily,
DuBose said she could not
speculate as to why Whitley,
who claimed to be an admitted
student, used the slur.
“Im (sic) not sure how the
feud started … I just came
back to the chat to ‘n---ers are
the worst,’ ” she wrote. “And
nobody addressed him. It was
out of the blue.”
When
other
members,
including Kennedy, started
calling
him
out
on
his
messages,
Whitley
and
a
few
sympathizers
began
personally attacking DuBose.
The
chat’s
administrators
eventually removed DuBose
and other Black individuals
from the chat, including some
who were not involved in the
debate, she said.
However,
University
spokeswoman
Kim
Broekhuizen said there is no
evidence that either of the
individuals in the chat are
affiliated with the University
whatsoever.
Whitley
did
not respond to an interview
request by the Daily.
“There are no students
— or recently admitted —
in our records by the name
Ashley Wellington or Alex
Whitley,” Broekhuizen said.
“We have no evidence that
these individuals have any
affiliation with the University
of Michigan.”
Rackham student Vikrant
Prospective
freshmen’s
racist texts
spur uproar
Activist Shaun King highlights
mixed post-election reactions
See GROUPME, Page 3
AARON BAKER/Daily
Shaun King, New York Daily News Columnist, speaks about the election and police brutality at Rackham on Monday.
CAMPUS LIFE
Individuals not affiliated with University
harass GroupMe for incoming freshmen
ISHI MORI
Daily Staff Reporter
Author speaks to sold out Rackham Auditorium as part of MLK day symposium event
Activist and author Shaun
King
sold
out
Rackham
Auditorium
Monday
night
for his speech exploring the
mixed reactions on campus
following the 2016 presidential
election. The event was hosted
by the Office of Academic
Multicultural Initiatives as part
of the annual Martin Luther
King Jr. Symposium.
Austin
McCoy,
a
Mellon
Humanities
Postdoctoral
Fellow at the University of
Michigan, opened by talking
about activist groups on campus
and
his
goal
to
empower
marginalized people. McCoy
ended by saying “Black Lives
Matter,” “Black Queer Lives
Matter” and other variations
of the slogan, receiving cheers
from the audience in response.
King then began his speech
by describing his hopes to
instill new perspectives in the
socially active audience.
“I am not necessarily here to
inspire, because I believe in a
lot of ways that you are already
inspired,” King said. “Tonight
I am here to really teach you a
lesson that will give you a new
lens through which to see the
world.”
King described what he felt
after viewing the video of Eric
Garner, a Black man strangled
by the police in New York in July
2014. The video, which showed
a
police
officer
strangling
Garner despite Garner telling
the officer he couldn’t breathe,
went viral, sparking protests
around the country.
“What I saw was Officer
Daniel
Pantaleo,
NYPD,
choking Eric Garner to death,”
King said, “It shook me.”
King came to understand the
killings of Garner and other
young Black men by the police
through the work of German
historian Leopold von Ranke,
who believed humanity was
not
steadily
progressing
as
most people believe, but rather
progress within humanity was
much more varied and went
COLIN BERESFORD
Daily Staff Reporter
See ACTIVIST, Page 3