The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Thursday, February 2, 2017 — 3A
faculty held a dialogue on the
ban later in the day featuring
immigration
lawyers
and
University of Michigan faculty.
Though
no
specific
plan
for the protection of students
with refugee status has been
released by the administration,
as requested by a petition
signed by more than 1,400
students, faculty and staff,
the
International
Center
issued
a
statement
with
recommendations for students
who may be impacted.
Echoing sentiments from a
statement made by University
President
Mark
Schlissel,
Derue stated that there was
still considerable uncertainty
around the implications of the
executive order but reaffirmed
solidarity and support, as well
as a commitment to keeping
the Business School a safe and
diverse environment.
“We are from the U.S.,
we are from Iran, we are
from Somalia,” Derue said,
mentioning two of the seven
majority-Muslim
countries
from which entry into the
United
States
has
been
suspended.
“We
are
all
global citizens, and we will
demonstrate an unwavering
commitment to a diverse and
equitable community where
we can all come together, live
together and work together.”
First-year
MBA
student
Rachel
DeLeon
helped
organize the event and told
the Daily that the purpose
of #OneRoss was to support
fellow students affected by the
executive order.
“We have classmates that
are going to be affected by
this,” Deleon said. “We want to
represent love and support for
(them).”
In an email sent to the Ross
student body, Won included
a
personal
statement
from
Business
graduate
student
Banafsheh Bagheri, an Iranian-
Canadian whose travel has
been severely restricted.
“If I left the country, I may
have to say goodbye to Ross,
I may have to say goodbye to
the career I have been working
so hard on, I may have to say
goodbye to the future I’m
building for myself,” Bagheri
said. “Not being able to leave
the country means that I won’t
be able to see my family, that
they won’t be able to visit me.”
In
the
evening,
the
Ross
Student
Government
Association organized an open
panel
to
address
concerns
and
questions
from
the
community.
Approximately
100 people attended the panel
which included immigration
lawyers as well as University of
Michigan officials and faculty.
The panel advised students,
faculty and staff on travel
plans and how to address the
swift change in immigration
policy.
Panelists
included
Michael Carlin, an Ann Arbor
area immigration attorney and
University
officials
Donica
Varner, from the Office of the
Vice President and General
Counsel, and Scott Manley
from the International Center.
The panel began by informing
the audience on the definition
and scope of an executive order
and what this particular order
means for University students.
The
panel
discussed
how
the order essentially revokes
existing visas and may have
residual
effects,
disrupting
travel plans for those affected
into the summer.
The
main
message
to
anyone
from
the
listed
countries was not to leave the
United States, but instead,
the
panel
emphasized
vigilance regardless of where
students are from. The panel
advised travelers to have an
immigration attorney on call
and told students to carry all
forms of documentation that
they could — even a transcript.
“We speak to CBP (Customs
and
Border
Protection)
officials on a weekly basis and
sometimes all they are looking
for is that you’re a degree-
seeking
student
in
good
standing,” Manley said.
Panelists also outlined the
logistical grievances of the
order.
“Individuals that had to
enforce this at the point of
entry had no clue,” Varner
said. “The confusion and chaos
has been in the roll out.”
Later, the room was opened
for discussion and the audience
could ask specific questions
in an effort to quell their
uncertainties.
Though
the
panelists could provide helpful
advice to some, a common
answer was: “I do not know.”
Business
senior
Michael
Yashaya, president of the Ross
Student Government Bachelor
of
Business
Administration
Council, explained how the
immediate implementation of
the order was dealt with by the
SGA.
“The
nature
of
how
everything was executed left
us with very little time, but we
wanted to make sure that any
student who had any questions
could attend a forum where
those concerns were able to
be voiced in front of experts,”
Yashaya said.
Some students in the audience
declined to be interviewed by
the Daily, citing an email that
told them to direct all media
questions to University officials
and the personal nature of the
effects the executive order has.
Business graduate student
Ricardo
Dancuart
was
concerned about the state of
affairs but expressed thanks
to the community for all of its
support.
“I am not from a country
that is having a problem right
now, but I am from South
America and maybe today I’m
all right, but I don’t know if
tomorrow there’s going to be
a problem,” Dancuart said.
“There has been a lot of support
from the community, not only
from the dean but also from
other students. Even from my
classmates there were some
very nice messages going on.
That was a very good gesture
from the University and its
students.”
ROSS
From Page 1A
“It turns out that there
are a lot of people around
here making games,” Yarger
said. “They are this beautiful
combination of engineering,
art, music, design and writing,
but we noticed a problem.
Students who were putting
their hearts and souls in
their games, they get played
at the showcase at the end
of the semester, and then
disappeared. They end up
up in some dusty hard drive
somewhere.”
The cabinet for the arcade
was purchased and donated
by
University
alum
Todd
Newman, with funding for
internal work provided by
the Departmental Computing
Organization of EECS.
The current games hosted
on the system consist of three
competitive action racers and
two tricky puzzles, though
there
are
more
to
come,
according to Yarger, who, in
addition to developing the
system, is its sole curator.
“Making a game for an
arcade
is
actually
quite
different than a computer or
system,” Yarger said. “I go
around to the Game Jams and
showcases and find games
that could be adapted to our
system, but are also popular,
the ones people want to play.”
Besides offering a break
in
between
classes,
the
system
has
also
sparked
the imagination of students
around campus. Engineering
senior Antonio Fernandez is
looking forward to discovering
what additions could be made
to the current system.
“(I’d like to see) some kind of
virtual reality, maybe gloves,
so that you could move the
characters without using the
buttons or sticks,” Fernandez
said.
Engineering junior Thomas
Bartlett, is the developer of
“Agent O’Hare,” one of the
games available to play in the
cabinet, is excited about his
game reaching the public.
“Prior to putting the game
in the MichiGames cabinet,
the only people who had really
played it were the other sleep-
deprived developers at the
Game Jam event,” Bartlett
said.
“Having
the
game
available to the whole public
anytime seemed like a great
way to make sure our hard
work wasn’t for nothing.”
ARCADE
From Page 1A
Florida
elementary
schools
have
similar
failure
rates.
Take
away
privately
run
charters, and there are eight,
take away schools for children
with disabilities or behavioral
problems, and there are six,
take away a non-traditional
early learning center, and look
what’s left. The five elementary
schools in Pinellas county’s
Black neighborhoods.”
To
supplement
the
educational data, they found
violence in the schools has
also been on the rise. They
continually
heard
stories
from
parents
stating
that
their children were having
difficulty learning because
of violence and disruption
in the classroom, hallways
and overall school climate.
One mother described to the
reporters the degree to which
her daughter was bullied in
school.
“She ended up laying down
in the car pickup line in the
path of oncoming cars and
telling the teacher that she
didn’t want to live anymore,”
LaForgia said. “We found
that children at these schools
have been shoved, slapped,
punched or kicked more than
7,500 times since 2010. The
equivalent of eight times a
day, every day, for five years
straight.”
They found the inclusion
of personal stories like these
to be crucial in crafting a
distinctive account of the
incidents
students
and
parents face on a day-to-day
basis. Gartner was at the head
of
interviewing
people
to
validate data, and found the
statements she received to be
extremely helpful.
“The human storytelling
we did for ‘Failure Factories’
went a long way, I think, in
turning that data and these
policy decisions into realities
that played out for real people
struggling to get their kids not
even an amazing education,
but an adequate education,”
Gartner said.
Since
the
time
of
the
investigation, several policy
changes have been made at
all levels of the educational
system. At the district level,
an eight-person team was
hired to oversee the schools
in the district, re-interviews
have been held for all teachers
and a minority achievement
officer has been hired. They
also
reduced
the
allowed
number of days that students
can be suspended and opened
centers for these suspended
students to receive tutors and
counseling. At the federal
level,
the
Department
of
Education
opened
a
civil
rights investigation into the
district.
“Arne
Duncan,
the
Secretary of Education, and
his
successor
John
King
came
down
to
Campbell
Park
Elementary,”
Gartner
said. “They spoke there and
put a lot of pressure on the
superintendent. They called
what had been done there
‘education malpractice’ and a
‘mandated disaster.’ ”
Education junior Gabrielle
Rubinstein
attended
the
discussion and highlighted the
importance of understanding
the issues that affect schools
around the country.
“This
specific
situation
that they’re talking about is
something that is happening
all over, and I was really
interested
in
hearing
the
journalistic perspective of it,”
Rubinstein said. “Usually you
don’t hear about that because
there are many sides that come
to issues with education, so
it’s important to hear all sides
to find out the real truth.”
Abbie Stull, also a junior in
the School of Education, found
the panel to be informative in
relation to the process of the
investigation.
“The overview that they
gave at the beginning was very
helpful to understanding the
entire process that they went
through,” she said. “I thought
it was just great overall; it
talked a lot about education in
that school specifically, and I
felt that I learned a lot about
that situation.”
The Livingston Lectures
will
host
its
next
event,
“Leaks,
Whistleblowers
and Big Data: Collaborative
Journalism Across Borders”
Feb.
20
in
the
Rackham
Amphitheatre.
POLICY
From Page 1A
was ordered to push through
and finish the Dakota Access
Pipeline.
According
to
reports, protests have been
concentrated near Lake Oahe,
a segment of the Missouri
River, in recent days. Many
University
students
have
spoken out against the pipeline.
Facilitator
Noor
Ahmad,
an LSA senior, outlined the
history of ecofeminism for
the group. The movement, she
said, began in the late 70s and
early 80s in academic spheres
and centers around the brief
that in order to push back
against
female
oppression,
combating climate change and
environmental decay is an
important step.
The
workshop
began
by
comparing
the
relationship
between the female gender
and environmental issues such
as fracking and oil pipelines.
Detroit resident Lane Lewis
said
these
infrastructures
resemble the pressure put on
women to continually provide
for the world.
“There’s a lack of language
for our responsibility to the
earth, and even that ‘mother’
language is frustrating to me
because it suggests a maternal
giving and giving and giving
and giving,” Lewis said. “I
think that it’s important that
we realize it’s not an unlimited
resource.”
Engineering
graduate
student
Josh
Woods
said
Americans should not sacrifice
technological advancement on
the whole when attempting
to
combat
environmental
damages.
“I find that whole talk
about
consent
and
giving
agency to the earth, it seems
like muddling of the waters
a little bit,” Woods said. “I
wouldn’t want that to hamper
any advancement on any level
unless it’s going to pollute the
waters with something like
Standing Rock.”
The
discussion
migrated
to climate change and its
effect on women all across the
world. Issues such as lack of
representation in politics and
negative health effects were
also brought up.
According to the United
Nations
Framework
Convention on Climate Change
website,
“Women’s
unequal
participation
in
decision-
making processes and labour
markets compound inequalities
and often prevent women from
fully contributing to climate-
related
planning,
policy-
making and implementation.”
Rackham
student
Teona
Williams said while she was
conducting research in Kenya,
she noticed first-hand how
women will be affected by
climate change because of
their work on farms around the
world.
“I was researching in Kenya
where there’s mostly women
farmers but they don’t own
the land. They don’t own
the product they produce,”
Williams said. “They physically
are close to the land. Then we
think of things like climate
change and that’s why they’re
going to face the brunt of those
impact because they are doing
that natural labor.”
The night concluded with a
guided meditation session.
FEMINISM
From Page 1A
We are all global
citizens, and we
will demonstrate
an unwavering
commitment
to a diverse
and equitable
community
The human
storytelling we
did for ‘Failure
Factories’ went a
long way, I think,
in turning that
data and these
policy decisions
into realities
“The textbook that’s used
in the Arabic program, as well
as 96 percent of the Arabic
programs around the country
... it’s politically charged,” she
said. “By the end of the first
semester, you’re able to say, ‘My
grandfather was a general in
the army, my mother is a human
rights lawyer who specialized in
the Middle East’ but you can’t
say, ‘My cat is orange.”
Makki, the main author of
the resolution, is the daughter
of Lebanese immigrants. She
believes the textbook needs to
be replaced, and pointed out the
seemingly backward order in
which the book teaches Arabic
vocabulary.
“The problem isn’t the words;
the words are not bad in essence,”
she said. “The problem is that
you’re learning to say (United
Nations and army general) before
you learn how to say the colors,
and the days of the week, and the
months of the year; things that
you would need if you were to go
to an Arabic-speaking country
and try to get around or try to
communicate with people. You
would need to know how to say
these basic vocabulary words,
which is how other languages
at this university are taught. It’s
making it seem like if you were to
go to the Arabic world, you would
probably talk about politics more
than you would ask someone if
they want to get lunch.”
Makki also takes issue with
the
website
corresponding
with the textbook, which she
says portrays Arabs in a very
stereotypical light.
“There’s an online component
where you watch videos and the
characters in it are represented
in a very Orientalist way, where
the women who are college-aged
are not allowed to leave their
house,” she said. “They only have
aspirations to be stay-at-home
moms.”
While Makki acknowledges
many students take Arabic with
intentions of using the skill for
political purposes, she believes
there should be a separate class
for students wishing to expand
their
political
vocabulary.
This way, people like Makki
who simply want to learn the
language for the sake of learning
the language don’t have to
be subjected to the political
“framework” that is being forced
upon them with the current
textbook.
Fadanelli
also
pointed
to
the form of the language that
it teaches. It instructs students
on the formal structure of the
LSA SG
From Page 1A
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