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administration rescinded federal 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

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

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