The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
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

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com