The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Monday, February 13, 2017 — 3A
terms as this sort of beacon of
liberty. It had a terminal port in
the Underground Railroad. It was
the birthplace of the Republican
Party. A number of its leading
politicians were committed to
reform and leading abolition.”
John Quist, professor of history
at
Shippensburg
University,
described Michigan Republican
voters as distrusting of former
Confederate
states
and
said
resident
Republicans
did
not
wanting them to rejoin the Union.
“Most Michigan Republicans
are affiliated with the party’s
radical wing,” Quist said. “The
Republicans
were
divided
into
moderates
and
radicals.
Radicals were the ones who not
only favored high standards for
readmission of the former states
of the Confederacy into the Union,
restrictions
on
Confederates
voting and holding office, but
radicals
also
favored
voting
and citizen rights for African
Americans.”
That year, the University also
took steps toward gender equality
in opting to admit women. Gayle
Rubin, professor of anthropology
and women’s studies, said the
decision was met with intense
debate, but ultimately resulted in
women being admitted into the
University. At this point in time,
only four women in the world had
doctorate degrees.
“The
formal
admission
of
female students to Michigan took
place in the late 19th century
after several years of acrimonious
debate, interrupted by the Civil
War,” Rubin said. “So, technically,
the admission of women took
place
during
Reconstruction.
According to the sources I’m
using, the first female student was
Madelon Stockwell, for whom the
dormitory I used to walk by was
named.”
Yet, despite its progressive
reputation, the state also had its
downfalls — Hershock explained
that Michigan was the site of many
lynchings and had a strong base for
the white-supremacist group the
Ku Klux Klan.
“Moreover,
in
spite
of
the
wonderful
and
positive
advancements
that
marked
Michigan’s Reconstruction era,
civil rights legacy, the state, like
every other part of the nation,
showed its dark underbelly in
issues of race and equality,”
Hershock
said.
“There
were
lynchings in Michigan, the KKK
became a powerful force in
Michigan in the 1920s and nearly
elected a man for the mayor of the
city of Detroit.”
Yet, Hershock believes the
University’s response to many
recent events is evidence of some
of the Reconstruction-era based
initiatives.
“The
University’s
strong
defense of affirmative action in the
case of Grutter vs. Bollinger and,
more recently, President (Mark)
Schlissel’s bold pronouncement in
response to the recent executive
orders, these are just a handful
of examples that speak to the
University’s
legacy,”
Hershock
said.
LSA junior Emma McGlashen
talked about how the issues the
panel discussed are still relevant
today.
She
mentioned
that
observing national history can
help answer modern questions of
equality and American identity.
“Our country is still embroiled
in a lot of those debates — what
does an ‘American’ look like and
how do they behave in relation to
other identities?” she said. “What
does ‘equality’ look like and how
do we go about reaching that
goal? I think because we’re still
fighting those fights, it’s useful to
look at our national history and
the political and legal precedent
for those arguments on a national
scale.”
BICENTENNIAL
From Page 1A
While
at
the
University,
Forringer-Beal studied women’s
studies
and
anthropology,
completing an honors thesis with
the assistance of Anthropology
Assistant Prof. Jason De León
about the migration experiences
of undocumented women as they
move from Central America to the
United States.
At Cambridge, she hopes to do
a comparative study between the
Trafficking
Victims
Protection
Act from the United States and the
Modern Slavery Act in the U.K. This
interest stems from her current
work at the National Human
Trafficking Hotline in Washington,
D.C., as well as her undergraduate
research and work with the Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center at the University.
As
for
after
Cambridge,
Forringer-Beal already has big
plans to use her educational
background. She wants to pursue a
law degree and a Ph.D. in sociology
so she can both practice law and do
academic work.
“I really want to be able to
interrogate the law and how
gender plays a part in the laws we
construct,” Forringer-Beal said.
The Cambridge program will
require intensive research, but
Forringer-Beal is no stranger to
the lab or the field. She began as
a research assistant to De León
as a senior in high school. Once
she entered college, Forringer-
Beal worked as an Undergraduate
Research Opportunity Program
student in his lab for two years,
then did an independent study in
the lab as a junior. The summer
before her senior year, she and De
León took a trip to Mexico, where
Forringer-Beal collected much of
the data for her senior honors thesis
in anthropology.
After watching her grow over
the past five years, De León said he
was thrilled to hear Forringer-Beal
had won the scholarship.
“She
was
always
someone
who was very interested in doing
research
and
being
involved
in social justice issues … and I
think there was a time where she
considered those things to be fairly
separate,” he said. “Eventually,
those worlds sort of collided, and
I think the work she’s planning on
doing in England is a reflection of
that growth and the combination of
those two interests.”
For students who might want to
pursue a similar path to Forringer-
Beal’s, De León stresses the
importance of research.
“Anna is a really wonderful
example of (taking) advantage
of all the things Michigan has to
offer its undergraduate students,”
De León said. “(Students should)
get involved with independent
research really early on. UROP is
a great program to help students
fine-tune their interests. I think,
most times, students come to the
independent research too late, and
it’s kind of a crash course in senior
year. But if you get involved early
on, it’s only going to benefit you.”
Similarly, Forringer-Beal said
her research impacted the course
of her studies profoundly, primarily
because it interested her so much.
“Probably one of the most
impactful things for me was my
thesis research,” she said.
Forringer-Beal is the eighth
Gates
Cambridge
scholar
to
come from the University, and
University
students
frequently
win other prestigious fellowships
and scholarships as well. However,
most students, including Forringer-
Beal, have had to seek these
opportunities out for themselves.
SCHOLARSHIP
From Page 1A
said her motivation and reasoning
behind protesting the attempt
at defunding the organization
stems from what she describes as
corruption.
“They’re criminal,” de Soleil
said. “It’s a corrupt organization
and
if
you
Google
‘Planned
Parenthood crime’ you will come
up with 550 hits. We want the 550
million dollars plus of our taxpayer
money to go to, to be redirected, to
be shifted to other health clinics
that
do
comprehensive
care.
Defund, shift the money, end of
story.”
De Soleil commented that she,
along with the other protesters,
are not discouraged at all by the
sheer number of attendees of the
counter-rally.
“I feel energized,” de Soleil said.
“All over the United States there
are people standing for life and it
doesn’t matter to me the number.
To me we’re on the side of good and
that is protecting human beings
in the womb. So, yeah, I’m feeling
good.”
De Soleil also mentioned she
has marched with the University
of
Michigan’s
Sexual
Assault
Prevention and Awareness Center
and has taught self-defense classes
to college-aged women.
Students from the University
also came out in large numbers in
support of the abortion rights rally.
Law students Lauren Powell and
Rebecca Michael expressed their
motivation for supporting the rally
as people who have both relied
and used the services offered by
Planned Parenthood.
“They
kept
me
safe
and
healthy,” Michael said. “I actually
specifically
used
the
Planned
Parenthood in Ann Arbor both in
high school and in undergrad, so
I wanted to show support for the
organization that’s been so good to
me.”
Both students iterated the high
number of supporters of Planned
Parenthood
throughout
the
Law School and the University
community was encouraging.
“I would say the majority
of students, especially female
students that I talk to, are in
support of Planned Parenthood,”
Powell said.
PROTEST
From Page 1A
As a part of her keynote,
entitled “Mindful Brilliance: The
Deliberate,
Courageous
Path
to Purpose,” Taylor described
the foundation and creation of
the National CARES Mentoring
Movement
Taylor
described
her
inspiration
for
founding
the
National
CARES
Mentoring
Movement, and shared personal
stories of her experiences with
both
that
organization
and
Essence
magazine.
She
also
offered advice on becoming a
successful individual by talking
about what she values in life and
how she learns the most from her
failures, not her successes.
“(Life) is not a playground, but
it’s a school room,” Taylor said.
“We’re here to refine ourselves
and I haven’t learned so much
in my joy but in my pain, in my
sorrow, in my losses … When I was
wise enough to just stop and say,
‘Ok, what do I have to learn from
this?’ That’s where I really began
to develop.”
Furthermore, she repeatedly
reflected on the current nature
of the United States education
system and what she learned
from her groundwork with her
organization.
“How are we allowing a
system to measure our children’s
success who are living in poverty,
who come to school hungry,”
she said. “They’re measuring
with the same yardstick that
my lovely granddaughter, who’s
now at Spellman and graduated
from some lovely high school
somewhere
in
Johns
Creek,
Georgia with 35 clubs that they
could belong to, when the schools
(CARES mentors) are working
with don’t even have computers.”
EIC
From Page 1A
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another aspect of the program.
“The campus-wide plan is a set
of actions for today,” said University
President Mark Schlissel when the
plan launched in October. “We
cannot live up to our full potential
as a University unless everyone has
an equal opportunity to contribute
and to benefit.”
Now, several months into the
program, students are criticizing
the DEI plan for failing to create
a safe environment given recent
events.
Tuesday evening, hours after
racist and anti-Semitic emails
threatening Black and Jewish
students were sent to University
computer science and engineering
undergraduate students, several
students gathered for a midnight
protest in front of the president’s
house. Schlissel came outside to
meet the crowd.
Citing
incidents
of
racist
flyering,
protesters
chanted
“action, not emails,” referencing
the University’s digital statement in
response to the attacks, as opposed
to “action” on the ground.
Students protesters throughout
the year have been critical of DEI
initiatives, particularly of the 49
individual plans. Outside Schlissel’s
home, LSA junior Jenise Williams
emphasized the need for collective
action from the University.
“We
want
actual
action,”
Williams said. “My parents were
here 30 years ago fighting for the
same things … and (now) I didn’t
want my sister to come here because
of the shit I deal with here.”
Chief Diversity Officer Rob
Sellers, vice provost for equity and
inclusion, oversees the execution of
the DEI plan. He said he lamented,
however, that the plan cannot
prevent individual racist attacks.
“If DEI is held up to keeping any
individual or groups of individuals
from acting in these particular
ways, and (for) that matter, if
that’s the same expectation for
President Schlissel, then it’s natural
for people to feel like nothing is
happening,” he said. “But I think
it’s quite frankly not reasonable to
have that expectation.”
Sellers added in a time when
so many are concerned about the
University in relation to a tense
national
political
climate,
he
doesn’t want people to blame DEI
for specific events, such as the
emails.
“We have a whole lot of incidents
that are sparks, and these sparks
are being thrown on a floor that
is full of gasoline and so these
fires are raging,” he said. “(We)
cannot prevent the sparks. What
the DEI is trying to do is create an
environment where those sparks
do not lead to explosions and fires.
The fact of the matter is it’s going to
take a while before we see all of the
changes.”
In the days following the emails
last week, campus community
members
expressed
further
concern about the gap between
the
University’s
response
to
inflammatory attacks and student
needs.
Postdoctoral
fellow
Austin
McCoy, who studies racial justice,
is a graduate student instructor.
He spent his class on Wednesday
discussing the emails and cited the
DEI efforts to diversify campus,
in addition to increased student
activism, as reasons for these
racially-charged attacks.
In response to a statement
from
the
University’s
Office
of Public Affairs and Internal
Communications announcing a
joint investigation into the emails
between the Division of Public
Safety and Security and the FBI,
McCoy suggested the University
often handles such incidents with a
predictable routine.
“From
the
administration,
I anticipate them sending out
probably an email and saying that
they condemn the acts and then
that they’re investigating, but other
than that, I don’t know what else
the administration plans to do,” he
said.
Though neither Schlissel nor
Sellers released a statement directly
in response to the racist emails,
LSA seniors David Schafer and
Micah Griggs, the president and
vice president of Central Student
Government,
respectively,
sent
a campus-wide email Thursday
condemning the acts. Next steps
to be taken, according to the email
message, include tweeting out new
developments from DPSS and the
Office of Public Affairs, continuing
to update media outlets and
returning calls from parents.
In tweets to Schlissel, McCoy
offered
suggestions
from
his
students. He said students only
ever see what he described as
reactionary
DEI,
emails
and
diversity statements — and it seems
to them that someone will need
to get hurt before Schlissel takes
action.
Engineering
senior
Greg
McMurtry,
president
of
the
University’s chapter of the National
Society of Black Engineers, said
administrators need to follow up
with students who have voiced
concerns to tell them what actions
have been taken and ask if they are
working.
Sellers, however, pointed to
positive changes through DEI that
students may not be aware of.
According to Sellers, DEI has
allowed
for
the
consolidation
of the Division of Student Life’s
Bias Response Team. In the past,
faculty, staff and students had
to look to different resources to
receive support following a bias
incident, but the BRT now employs
a group of professional staff who
respond to all targeted community
members. In addition to helping
victims navigate the appropriate
long-term responses, the team aims
to provide emotional and mental
support.
“We’ve coordinated those efforts
so everything comes into a central
repository,” Sellers said. “The Bias
Response Team is going to respond
regardless, because it has members
of each of those groups that are
working together.”
Other
accomplishments
of
DEI, according to Sellers, are new
courses for faculty to learn how
to appropriately address campus
climate issues in the classroom.
These courses, created in tandem
with University Human Resources,
cover
topics
ranging
from
intercultural awareness to basic
skills for fostering diversity, equity
and inclusion.
Sellers
said
students
have
expressed concerns about faculty
not addressing issues in their
classes, but faculty have struggled
with not knowing how to start the
discussions.
“Where the DEI can be helpful is
to provide more of that professional
development so that we as a
community are more resilient to
these attacks,” he said.
According to Sellers, the goal of
DEI is to minimize the impact, and
not necessarily the occurrence, of
attacks so as to enhance the security
and educational experience of
vulnerable students.
“I think it is reasonable for us
to have the expectation that we do
everything that we can to minimize
the impact and not allow it to
deter us from a much larger goal
of institutional change, opening
up greater opportunities for more
folks who have historically not had
those opportunities,” he said.
Though students often object to
the lack of community voices sought
in the planning process, Sellers said
one strength of DEI is that it was
designed to be flexible and open to
suggestions and in order to better
serve the community.
DEI
From Page 1A
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