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
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, January 24, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

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

