President
Donald
Trump’s
administration rescinded federal
protections
for
transgender
students at public schools and
universities Wednesday night.
Such protections, encouraged by
former President Barack Obama,
allowed transgender students to
use the bathrooms of their gender
identities.
The Obama administration
issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to
public schools and universities in
April calling for gender identity to
be protected under Title IX. The
federal statute explicitly prohibits
discrimination “on the basis of
sex in education programs or
activities operated by recipients of
Federal financial assistance.”
The University of Michigan
complied
with
such
orders.
It currently provides several
options for transgender students.
Gender-inclusive
housing,
such as the Gender Inclusive
Living
Experience
in
East
Quad “ensure(s) that University
Housing is a supportive space for
residents of all gender identities
and
gender
expressions”
according to the Housing website.
Such housing includes private
bathrooms or dorm rooms close
to
gender-inclusive
bathroom
facilities.
In
May,
LGBT
Michigan
President Emily Kaufman, an LSA
junior and transgender woman,
emphasized the importance of
the Obama administration taking
steps to protect transgender
students,
given
the
negative
stereotypes they face.
She
said
the
University
administration could do more to
protect transgender students.
“The University is one of the
most liberal institutions in the
country, so there aren’t really
any problematic regulations that
I’m aware of that exist anymore,”
she said in May. “There’s more
things that could be done to
protect LGBT, particularly trans
people, that the University could
be doing.”
Kaufman said when she was
a freshman — early on in her
transition — she lived in Gender-
Inclusive Housing, but was not
allowed to use the women’s
restroom at East Quad Residence
Hall because her gender marker
was male. She said she would
sometimes have to walk around
the dorm to try to find a gender-
inclusive bathroom in which to
shower. However, she was able
to use the women’s bathroom
elsewhere on campus. Since then,
she said, things have changed.
In its first “Dear Colleague”
letter
dated
Wednesday,
the
Trump administration revoked
the Obama guidance, according
to CNN.
The letter pointed to the need
for more legal analysis of Title IX,
which the Obama administration
did not perform.
Additionally, a statement from
Attorney General Jeff Sessions,
also released Wednesday, said
the Departments of Justice and
Education withdrew the guidance
on the grounds that it did not
contain such analysis and that
The University of Michigan
administration
has
issued
a
formal
response
to
the
list
of
demands
issued
by
Students4Justice Thursday. The
group has previously organized
multiple sit-ins, started a petition
and proposed a list of demands
calling for the administration to
react.
The 35-page document went
through each claim and demand
that Students4Justice included
in
its
list.
Administrators
discussed
the
University’s
response to all the bias incidents
that Students4Justice alleged
they did not respond to.
According to an email sent
by Robert Sellers, vice provost
for equity and inclusion, to
Islamophobia Working Group,
the response letter sought to
describe the existing action on
campus and potential areas for
additional action in four broad
areas related to concerns raised
by Students4Justice.
The
administration
is
in the process of talking to
Students4Justice
and
other
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, February 24, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 37
©2016 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 LETTER, Page 3
‘U’ admin
responds to
student org
petition
CAMPUS LIFE
Students4Justice first
issued demands to the
University during the fall
ANNA HARITOS
Daily Staff Reporter
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
A sign marks the gender inclusive bathroom in Betsy Barbour residence hall.
Trump administration guidance on
transgender bathroom sparks backlash
Obama-era protections offered to transgender students reversed last Wednesday
JENNIFER MEER
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
Abortion
opponents
have
introduced three new pieces of
legislation in aims of furthering
their cause in the Michigan
legislature.
The first bill, which has been
introduced in both the State
House and the Senate, would
prevent the state government
from having contracts with any
agency that provides abortions.
This bill would affect agencies like
Planned Parenthood, the funding
of which is already threatened by
the possible defunding of former
President Barack Obama’s health
care law.
Federal,
state
and
local
government
currently
provide
Planned Parenthood with over 40
percent of its funding, though no
federal government funding can go
toward funding abortions because
of an amendment passed in 1976.
Currently, the state contracts
Planned Parenthood to provide
various other health care services
besides abortions. LSA junior Ella
Webb, president of Students for
Choice, said since government
funding
doesn’t
go
toward
See BILLS, Page 3
Pro-life bill
introduced
in MI state
legislature
GOVERNMENT
Proposed laws include
provisions to require
licensure for abortions
CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
The
University’s
Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion plan — a
five-year effort to create a more
diverse and inclusive campus — is
comprised of 49 unique unit plans
for this purpose, though does not
include a provision that designates
paid DEI positions within any
of the University’s colleges or
departments.
This
semester,
University of Michigan graduate
students have been taking action
against carrying out diversity
education and labor without
compensation. However, many
believe their plans are running
into an administrative wall.
Last December, the Graduate
Employees’
Organization,
the
labor union representing graduate
student instructors and staff
assistants, submitted a proposal
to Academic Human Resources
calling
for
unionized
DEI
positions for graduate students.
The proposal was rejected this
month.
In response, GEO launched an
online petition, advocating for
paid diversity labor in 19 colleges
on campus, so students, faculty
and staff will be better equipped
to mold the University into an
institution that values diversity
labor. As of Wednesday evening,
600 University affiliates have
signed the petition.
GEO is currently bargaining for
a new contract with the University,
as its old agreement expires this
May. University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald wrote in an email
statement the University regards
the request to create new DEI
positions for graduate students
to be inappropriate for the
current
contract
negotiations,
as the process only affects GEO
members.
“The negotiations now under
way are focused on the contract
for the current membership of
GEO, which is mostly GSIs who
teach,” he wrote. “We are happy
to discuss these types of positions,
but it would need to be outside of
the GEO contract talks.”
Student activists working to
promote DEI on campus have
GSIs seek
payment for
work on DEI
initiatives
Students react to lack of middle
class financial aid offered by UM
See GSI, Page 3
DESIGN BY AVA WEINER
ADMINISTRATION
Graduate students have been taking action
against unpaid diversity education labor
MADELEINE GERSON
Daily Staff Reporter
Funding remains a concern for middle-income students both in and out of state
LSA junior Joshua Rabotnick
moved from Los Angeles in August
2016 to attend the University of
Michigan, but cannot afford the
tuition bill without loans.
LSA freshman Andrea Perez,
an in-state student, is in the same
situation
as
Rabotnick.
Two
families, both in the middle-class
income level, struggle to pay for a
degree from the University.
Despite a report from the Equality
of Opportunity Project saying the
median family income for a student
at the University is $154,000, in
the same report the University
was ranked last in economic social
mobility of 25 highly selective public
universities.
With students facing debt after
graduation and daunting social
mobility statistics, students and
University
representatives
are
concerned middle-class families
will have a hard time paying for a
University education.
Back home, Rabotnick’s father
used to own a successful business.
However, during the 2008 economic
recession, Rabotnick’s family lost
the business and subsequently lost a
large source of its consistent income.
To regain future economic stability,
his father opened nursing school the
year Rabotnick transferred to the
University.
“I transferred in as a junior,”
Rabotnick said. “I now work as an
EMT for the ambulance company
out here, Huron Valley Ambulance,
but because I worked so much
throughout community college, the
way it worked in 911 is we worked
24-hour shifts and we could stack
them, so I worked 48, 72 hours over
a weekend, then be in school all
week.”
Rabotnick
made
too
much
money while working in L.A. to
be classified as a dependent on his
parents’ tax forms. However, the
Free Application for Federal Student
Aid does not consider Rabotnick to
be an independent student, rather
the
University
then
considers
Rabotnick to be a dependent and
takes his parents’ earnings into
account when allocating financial
aid.
MATT HARMON
Daily Staff Reporter
See AID, Page 3
See BATHROOM, Page 3