Yavilah McCoy, an African-

American Jewish activist and 
educator, spoke to a diverse 
group of about 60 students on 
Thursday evening at the Trotter 
Multicultural 
Center 
about 

her experiences as an activist 
and holding multiple identities, 
particularly in a changing political 
and social climate.

The event, called “Holding 

Racial 
Justice, 
Equity 
and 

Intersectionality in 2017,” was 
hosted jointly by the Black Student 
Union, University of Michigan 
Hillel and NOiR Runway Fashion.

McCoy 
is 
the 
CEO 
of 

Dimensions 
Educational 

Consulting, 
a 
company 
that 

promotes diversity education in 
institutions, and the founder of 
Ayecha, a nonprofit that advocates 
for Jews of Color in the United 
States.

McCoy invoked her diverse 

experiences 
in 
advocating 

coalition 
to 
the 
audience, 

something she said is important 
to build in the face of hate and 
racism.

“I want to dedicate this 

discussion about how we can 
hold social justice and equity 
and 
intersectionality 
across 

lines of difference,” McCoy said. 
“What I came prepared to do 
was to talk to you about the ways 
which race, religion and gender 
have intersected in my lived 
experience, and given me very 
powerful reasons to stand and 

deliver in the name of equity and 
justice.”

She described her experience 

of holding multiple identities 
as a practice of having multiple 
perspectives, 
both 
of 
which 

are situations have different 
privileges 
and 
face 
different 

oppressions. 
Communicating 

personal truths across different 
communities, McCoy explained, 
is crucial in building coalitions in 
justice advocacy.

For the organizers of the event, 

this message comes 

at a crucial time on the University 
of Michigan’s campus.

“There’s been tensions in both 

(African-American and Jewish) 
communities, 
with 
different 

students 
enacting 
violence 

in different ways against our 
communities,” said BSU member 
Jesse Love, an LSA sophomore. 
“We felt that it was important 
to build a sense of connections 
between our organizations, in a 
time where our communities are 
being attacked in very similar 

ways.”

Late 
last 
week, 
three 

anonymous emails were sent to 
engineering students with anti-
Semitic and racist messages. The 
sending of the emails spurred 
students 
to 
protestoutside 

University 
President 
Mark 

Schlissel’s house to call for 
increased institutional responses 
to racially-charged incidents.

McCoy noted the first step in 

fighting for justice was to listen, 

In an effort to fund the 

restructuring of Michigan’s 
deteriorating 
roads 
and 

bridges, a new state tax on 
gasoline will place Michigan in 
the nation’s top five for highest 
gas tax rates. There have been 
mixed 
reactions, 
however, 

since the implementation of 
the tax.

The tax took effect Jan. 1 and 

increased the tax on unleaded 
gasoline from 19 cents to 26.3 
cents per gallon. Tax revenue 
will go toward an investment 
in Michigan’s transportation 
infrastructure and will add 
about $455 million a year to 
the budget, according to the 
Detroit News.

The Republican-backed plan 

is the first gas tax increase in 
20 years, and is a part of a $1.2 
billion 
package 
announced 

last November. The package 
passed narrowly, though Gov. 
Rick Snyder promised benefits 
that would go beyond repaired 
roads.

“It’s not just about asking 

for more revenue,” Snyder 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, February 17, 2017

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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 32
©2017 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 TAX, Page 3

Opposition
over gas tax 
aiming to fix 
public roads 

GOVERNMENT

Tax revenue to go toward 
an investment in State 
infrastructure, transport

CARLY RYAN

Daily News Reporter

Activist and CEO Yavilah McCoy talks 
holding multiple identities at Trotter

Event jointly hosted by BSU, Hillel, and NOiR Runway Fashion draws crowd of 60

ALON SAMUEL
Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See TROTTER, Page 3
Ann Arbor City Councilmember 

Zachary Ackerman (D–Ward 3) 
announced in a Facebook post he 
will be running for re-election in 
2017, earlier today.

Ackerman, 
a 
University 
of 

Michigan 
alum, 
became 
the 

youngest councilmember in over 
20 years when he won the 2015 
general election with 90.68 percent 
of the vote while he was still a 
student.

The 2017 election will be the last 

municipal election in an odd year, 
as a result of a successful November 
ballot proposal extending City 
Council term limits from two 
to four years. Councilmembers 
elected in 2017 will serve a three-
year term, making their next 
election year even.

As of the time of publication, no 

one else has announced candidacy 
for the Ward 3 seat.

In the press release announcing 

his re-election bid, Ackerman 
pointed to his successes as a 
councilmember in the areas of 
transportation — helping to develop 
a plan to repave several of the 
city’s major roads — and housing 

See CITY, Page 3

‘U’ alum 
announces 
bid for City
re-election

ANN ARBOR

Councilmember Zachary 
Ackerman stated his 
intent in Facebook post

ANDREW HIYAMA

Daily Staff Reporter

About 100 students gathered 

in Annenberg Auditorium to 
listen to a series of speakers 
address the topic of campus 
sexual assault as a part of a 
policy talk at the Ford School 
of Public Policy Thursday 
night.

William Axinn, a research 

professor at the University of 
Michigan Institute for Social 
Research, 
underscored 
the 

implications of his research, 
which focuses on gathering 
and analyzing statistics on 
sexual assault.

“I think you’ll see numbers 

that demonstrate that all of 
us are bystanders,” Axinn 
said. “And as a result, it can be 
pretty stressful to look at some 
of these numbers. I’m the data 
guy, but not the happy data 
guy.”

According to Axinn, 25 

percent of American women 
report they have been forced 
into 
sexual 
intercourse. 

However, women are almost 
three times more likely to 
experience this type of assault 
on university campuses.

At the University, Axinn’s 

research tries to quantify one 
of the most pervasive problems 
regarding 
sexual 
assault: 

underreporting. Of the sexual 
assaults in the last 12 months, 
only 46 percent of survivors 
tell anyone about their assault, 
and of those, only 3.6 percent 
report to an official resource 
at the University. 

In an attempt to mitigate 

some of these problems, he 
works 
with 
the 
National 

Survey of Family Growth, 
an organization that seeks 
to 
inform 
the 
discussion 

on 
sexual 
assault 
in 
the 

United States, to increase 
participation in surveys about 
sexual violence.

By 
using 
third-party 

facilitators and a non-web 
based poll, the latest survey 
conducted by the University 
got a 67 percent response rate, 
which is considered high in 

Panel talks 
methods to 
curb sexual 
assault cases

Students denounce ‘U’ response 
to recent events at Regents meeting

See SPEAKERS, Page 3

JEREMY MITNICK/Daily

President Mark Schlissel discusses University projects at the Regents meeting in the Fleming Administration Building on Thursday.

CAMPUS LIFE

A series of speakers addressed statistics, 
challenges faced in tackling the issue

NIKOLA JAKSIC

For the Daily

The Board also approved renovation projects and made faculty appointments

Public 
comments 
on 
the 

University 
of 
Michigan’s 

alleged 
response 
to 
anti-

Semitic acts on campus, the 
renovations 
to 
University 

recreational facilities and new 
administrative 
appointments 

led the conversation at the 
February Board of Regents 
meeting Thursday. 

The meeting marked the 

board’s first public convening 
in 2017. Regents Shauna Ryder 
Diggs (D), Mark Bernstein (D) 
and newly elected Ron Weiser 
(R) phoned into the meeting, 
while 
Regent 
Denise 
Ilitch 

(D) was not present in order 
attend the funeral of her father, 
prominent Detroit businessman 
Mike Ilitch. 

Response to anti-Semitic acts
In 
both 
public 
comment 

sessions 
of 
the 
meeting, 

students 
and 
community 

members criticized University 

President 
Mark 
Schlissel’s 

response to the racist and anti-
Semitic 
emails 
sent 
earlier 

this month. Engineering and 
computer science students were 
sent emails from a hacker posing 
as 
University 
faculty. 
The 

emails 
expressed 
anti-Black 

and anti-Semitic sentiments. 
Speakers conveyed the common 
sentiment that Schlissel did not 
respond to the threats toward 
African Americans and Jews on 
campus with enough force. 

Eugene Greenstein, former 

president 
of 
the 
Zionist 

Organization 
of 
America-

Michigan 
Region, 
said 
in 

the past, the University has 
routinely failed to condemn 
anti-Semitism 
on 
campus. 

Nearly all the speakers also 
brought 
up 
demonstrations 

put on by Palestinian student 
advocacy group Students Allied 
for Freedom and Equality as a 
part of #UMDivest, a movement 
calling on the University to 
divest 
from 
human 
rights 

violations in Israel.

“It’s three strikes and you’re 

MATT HARMON 

& JENNIFER MEER

Daily Staff Reporters

See REGENTS, Page 3

JEREMY MITNICK/DAILY

The Art and Science of Healing From Antiquity to the Renaissance exhibition investigating the history of modern medicine through early 

medical artifacts is displayed at Kelsey Museum of Arcaeology. The exhibition is on display through April 30.

THE HISTORY OF ME DICINE

