Medical 
School 
Prof. 

Michelle 
Meade 
addressed 

common health and health-
care disparities and how to 
promote 
positive 
changes 

to 
the 
current 
health-care 

system for disabled people 
Wednesday night in Mason 
Hall. The event, sponsored by 
the Interprofessional Health 
Student Organization, drew a 
crowd of about 20 students.

Meade directs programs for 

the University of Michigan’s 
Rehabilitation 
Engineering 

Program, developing health-
management technologies for 
disabled individuals. 

Meade 
began 
her 

presentation by pointing out 
problems with defining the 
term “disability,” which differs 
depending on which area of 
academia or society people are 
processing the definition from.

“The actual definition of 

disability or having a disability 
depends on where you look,” 
she said. “In surveys and 
research, it generally is defined 
by limitations; in some policy, 
it’s defined by a lack of ability 
to work and then in clinical 
practice, it’s diagnosis.”

As 
opposed 
to 
health 

disparities, 
which 
revolve 

around medical treatment and 
the burden of the illness, health-
care disparities deal with how 
the disease is managed and 
what is done to assist those 

living with disability. Meade 
said those who are disabled 
have an equal amount of need 
for health care as non-disabled 
individuals, yet they do not get 
the treatment or health care 
they need.

“Despite 
having 
no 

differences in regards to aspects 
of health insurance or mutual 
care … you have increased need 
and decreased access (for the 
disabled),” she said.

In 
her 
paper 
“The 

intersection 
of 
disability 

and health care disparities: 
a 
conceptual 
framework,” 

Meade, along with University 
researchers Elham Mahmoudi 
and Shoou-Yih Daniel Lee, 
created a narrative flowchart 
to 
describe 
the 
factors 

contributing 
to 
the 
poor 

health care experienced by the 
disabled. Meade said certain 
elements contribute to health-

care disparities; more so for the 
disabled.

“It’s not ‘one-size-fits-all,’ 

” she said. “I think the easiest 
way to understand it, or for me 
to explain it, is that you can 
have the most wonderful doctor 
providing fantastic information 
… but if he’s speaking in English 
and the individual only speaks 
Spanish, there’s a mismatch 
in terms of needs, and that’s 

In the wake of controversial 

emails, the desecration of prayer 
space and other racially charged 
incidents, 
the 
Residential 

College held an open forum in 
the Keene Theater Wednesday 
night to debrief the campus 
climate. During this session, RC 
students, faculty and staff were 
all encouraged to express their 
thoughts on these recent events, 
and offer support to fellow 
Wolverines.

The 
community 
forum 

was 
run 
by 
members 
of 

the 
Residential 
College, 
an 

interdisciplinary 
liberal 
arts 

living community within LSA. 
Though 
few 
students 
were 

there, multiple faculty and staff 
members were present at the 
event. Administrators such as 
Jon Wells, the director of the RC, 
and Charlie Murphy, the director 
of academic services for the RC, 
sponsored the event.

The event was broken up into 

three sections that included 
reflections and small and large 
group discussions. People were 
invited to come and go as they 

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Thursday, February 23, 2017

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Vol. CXXVII, No. 36
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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 FORUM, Page 3

RC forum 
discusses 
‘U’ campus 
climate

CAMPUS LIFE

Students, faculty talk 
inclusion in residential 
learning communities

AMARA SHAIKH

For the Daily

EMMA RICHTER/Daily

Medical professor Michelle Meade discusses ways to improve healthcare for individuals with disabilities in Mason 
Hall on Wednesday evening.

Medical school prof. focuses research 
 

on healthcare inequity for the disabled

School of Kinesiology hosts discussion on health management technology

MATT HARMON
Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See RESEARCH, Page 3

LSA Student Government 

hosted a meeting Wednesday 
evening to discuss resolutions 
relating to the Sexual Assault 
and Awareness Center and 
increasing 
resources 
for 

transfer students.

The 
body 
passed 
a 

resolution 
co-sponsoring 

SAPAC’s Healthy Relationship 
Dialogues, aiming to create 
conversation 
and 
advocacy 

around sexual assault that 
occurs on campus. With the 
passing 
of 
this 
resolution, 

LSA SG will join the current 
list of co-sponsors for SAPAC, 
specifically by co-sponsoring 
and helping to advertise a series 
of dialogues toward the end of 
March to help raise awareness 
toward sexual assault.

LSA 
junior 
Nicholas 

Fadanelli, 
LSA 
SG 
general 

counsel, explained that many 
sexual 
assaults 
on 
campus 

may not be made public, and 
highlighted 
the 
importance 

of LSA SG’s role in creating 
conversations 
about 
these 

issues.

See LSA SG, Page 3

Resolution 
to increase
the funding 
for SAPAC 

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

LSA body also encourages
committee to further
support transfer students

JORDYN BAKER
Daily Staff Reporter

When 
posters 
promoting 

white supremacy were found 
covering the walls of University 
of Michigan buildings on multiple 
occasions 
last 
fall, 
students, 

including Art & Design senior 
Keysha Wall, tore them down. 
When Islamophobic messages 
were chalked on the Diag last 
spring, a group of Muslim students 
were some of the first to grab rags 
and buckets of water to wash the 
messages off themselves.

As bias incidents continue 

to 
occur 
across 
campus 

despite University-wide emails 
denouncing 
the 
actions 
of 

the 
perpetrators, 
students 

have started to question the 
effectiveness of the way the 
administration responds to the 
attacks. Many have also called 
out University President Mark 
Schlissel 
for 
not 
adequately 

affirming his support for what 
they believe is minority students 
on campus.

Wall, 
a 
member 
of 
the 

University’s chapter of By Any 
Means Necessary, expressed her 
disappointment in the University’s 
response to the posters targeting 
minority groups on campus that 
occurred earlier this year. She 
believes the perpetuation of bias-
related incidents is contingent 
on the lack of administrative 
pushback against hate speech.

“We can say that these attacks 

began with the racist and fascist 
fliers that started going up last 
semester,” she said. “Every time 
they went up, it was students, 
myself 
included, 
who 
tore 

them down. During this, the 
University’s official statement was 
that they would take no action 
against ‘free speech,’ although I 
think we can all agree that what 
those fliers were expressing was 
hate speech, not free speech. And 
so the fliers continued to be put 
up.”

Despite students’ expressions 

of anger regarding the chalkings 
and 
posters, 
the 
University 

legally could not remove either, 
as they were posted in areas 
meant for the dissemination 

Social justice 
groups call 
on Schlissel 
for action 

Falsely reported hate crimes raise 
marginalized students’ concerns

See ACTION, Page 3

DESIGN BY AVA WEINER/Daily

CAMPUS LIFE

Campus organizations highlight gap 
in responses to numerous incidents 

KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter

Critics demand consequences for victims while Muslim women fear backlash

Two of three hate crimes 

reported in the week following 
the 2016 presidential election at 
the University of Michigan were 
recently determined to be falsely 
reported to the Ann Arbor Police 
Department, and updates have 
raised concerns about backlash 
for marginalized students.

The first incident occurred on 

Nov. 11, when a student reported 
being approached by an unknown 

man who threatened to set her on 
fire if she didn’t remove her hijab. 
The incident became national 
news, with outlets like The 
Washington Post covering the 
report. The other reported crime 
occurred on Nov. 15, when a man 
allegedly scratched a woman’s 
face with a safety pin. AAPd 
deemed both incidents to have 
never occured. 

A student also reported being 

verbally assaulted and pushed 
down a hill on Nov. 12. While 
this report was verifiable, AAPD 
stated there was no evidence 

to determine a suspect, and the 
investigation 
has 
since 
been 

halted.

All three of these reports 

motivated significant activism on 
campus. Music, Theatre & Dance 
senior James Ross Kilmeade 
organized a protest that attracted 
more than 200 people in response 
to the first hate crime, and nearly 
150 people gathered on the Diag 
at an additional protest on Nov. 
18.

While the student involved 

in the Nov. 11 crime is not being 
charged for the false report, 

detectives 
have 
submitted 
a 

warrant request for criminal 
charges against the Ann Arbor 
resident involved in the safety pin 
incident.

Some 
community 
members 

have been dissatisfied with the 
reaction to the falsity of these 
reports, and have called for 
repercussions, as well as a level of 
action similar to events organized 
after the initial reports were 
made.

LSA junior Enrique Zalamea, 

president 
of 
the 
University’s 

ALEXIS RANKIN
Daily Staff Reporter

See HATE CRIMES, Page 3

