The 
Senate 
Advisory 

Committee 
on 
University 

Affairs met Monday evening 
to discuss working rights 
of 
graduate 
students 
on 

visas 
and 
the 
University 

of 
Michigan’s 
policy 
on 

transgender bathroom rights.

The committee was joined 

by 
Interim 
Provost 
Paul 

Courant 
and 
John 
Ware, 

president of the Graduate 
Employees’ Organization at 
the University, who reached 
out to SACUA for support 
in 
the 
GEO’s 
fight 
for 

increased working rights. The 
conversation began with a 
statement from Ware, asking 
for support from SACUA in his 
organization’s 
negotiations 

with Human Resources at the 
University for a new three-
year contract.

The 
GEO’s 
principal 

concern has to do with the 
number of hours graduate 
student 
instructors 
are 

permitted 
to 
work 
each 

week. As Ware explained to 
SACUA, students on certain 
visas — including the F-1 visa, 
which 30 percent of graduate 
students are on — can work 
a maximum of 20 paid hours 
per week during the academic 
term.

“The important issue is 

the fluctuations,” Ware said. 
“Typically, how that happens 
is there’s some more intense 

period of work during the 
term. For example, there’s 
an exam, some assignment 
due, and there’s a desire 
for that to be graded and 
turned around quickly, so 
there’s some work to do in 
the week following that. And 
that presents a problem for 
international GSIs, because 
our current contract allows 
their supervisors to ask them 
to work in a way which puts 

them in violation of their 
visas.”

According to Ware, the 

GEO would like this 20-hour 
restriction to be applied to all 
GSIs, not only those on visas. 
The committee broke into a 
discussion of whether it was 
fair to extend the regulation 
to all GSIs. David Wright, 
SACUA member and Ross 
School of Business professor, 
began 
by 
expressing 
his 

worries about the policy.

“I’m 
always 
a 
little 

concerned when we impose 
a 
regulation 
on 
everyone 

that only affects 30 percent,” 
Wright said. “By definition, 
we’ll be putting a constraint 
on the 70 percent which can’t 
work in their favor, because 
unregulated is always better 
than regulated.”

Ware responded to Wright’s 

In recent years, researchers 

have discovered certain genetic 
mutations 
are 
now 
linked 

with serious diseases in men, 
including prostate cancer. These 
genetic mutations, referred to 
as BRCA1 and BRCA2, were 
previously 
thought 
solely 
to 

increase a patient’s risk of breast 
cancer. This recent discovery has 
prompted doctors at Michigan 
Medicine, formerly the University 
of Michigan Health System, and 
specifically urological surgeon 
Todd Morgan, to develop the 
Prostate Cancer Risk Clinic — the 
first of its kind.

In 2012, the U.S. Preventive 

Services Task Force, a group 
of national experts that gives 
recommendations about clinical 
preventive 
services, 
gave 

the 
existing 
prostate 
cancer 

screening a grade D.

“The 
U.S. 
Preventive 

Services Task Force (USPSTF) 
recommends against prostate-
specific 
antigen 
(PSA)-based 

screening for prostate cancer,” 
the 
recommendation 
read, 

advising against the blood test 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, March 7, 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. 39
©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 CENTER, Page 3

First clinic 
for prostate 
cancer to 
open at UM 

RESEARCH

Center will more regularly 
screen male patients for 
genetic predispositions

ERIN DOHERTY
Daily Staff Reporter

MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily

SACUA members are joined by Rob Sellers, Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, in the 
Fleming Administration Building on Monday.

SACUA implements new transgender 
bathroom policy, outlines GEO demand

Committee agrees all students can use bathroom of their gender identity 

MAYA GOLDMAN

Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See BATHROOM, Page 3

Last week, the Mackinac 

Center for Public Policy filed a 
lawsuit against the University 
of 
Michigan 
regarding 
the 

state’s Freedom of Information 
Act, claiming the University 
failed to provide the documents 
requested within due time.

On Nov. 16, Derek Draplin, 

a reporter with the Mackinac 
Center’s 
Michigan 
Capitol 

Confidential media outlet, issued 
the request on behalf of the 
nonprofit Michigan corporation 
to release University President 
Mark 
Schlissel’s 
emails 

containing the word “Trump” 
from July 1 to Nov. 16 of 2016. 

In the aftermath of the 

presidential election, Schlissel 
released a statement endorsing 
University-sponsored 
events 

that aimed to provide resources 
and information for students 
who felt heavily impacted by 
the election results to gather 
and share ideas. One event was 
a vigil at which Schlissel spoke, 
encouraging advocacy among 
those who did not support the 
election results.

See LAWSUIT, Page 3

Mackinac
Center sues 
for delayed
FOIA reply

ADMINISTRATION

Claims University failed 
to respond to requests in 
due time, seeks penalties

DYLAN LACROIX
Daily Staff Reporter

Students, professors evaluate LSA Race 

and Ethnicity course requirement 

DESIGN BY NOAH SHERBIN

Faculty look to adjust R&E classes to address post-election political climate, review occurred in earliest days of presidential campaign

LSA junior Ryan Gillcrist, 

academic 
affairs 
committee 

chair 
for 
LSA 
Student 

Government, has taken three 
Race 
and 
Ethnicity 
classes 

before this semester, but he said 
the one he is enrolled in right 
now feels a little different than 
the others.

“When I took classes first 

year and second year … I mainly 
thought about issues of racism 

and intolerance in the context 
of the courses themselves,” 
Gillcrist said. “But I think 
that, especially in this political 
climate, I’ve started to think of 
the classes more in the context 
of the present.”

The current national and 

campus climate in wake of 
actions by President Donald 
Trump which have draw focus 
on issues relating to race and 
ethnicity. Both this semester 
and last, the University of 
Michigan has faced racist and 
anti-Semitic 
posters 
across 

campus and emails sent to 
students in multiple academic 
programs. Before, anti-Muslim 
chalkings covered the Diag.

In response to these issues, 

many students and faculty think 
the LSA Race and Ethnicity 
requirement — which has its 
roots in helping to solve similar 
situations — plays an important 
role in easing political tensions 
on campus this semester.

“I wonder what would’ve 

been going on if this was 
happening a year later.” 

Created in 1990 in response 

to demands from the student 
group Black Action Movement 
III, the Race and Ethnicity 
requirement 
has 
long 
been 

used to address complex social 
issues at the University. Since 
its conception, all LSA students 
have been required to take 
at least one R&E class before 
graduating, although many, like 
Gillcrist, end up taking several.

The 
requirement 
was 

reviewed for the second time 
in its history during the 2015-
2016 school year. The review 
committee, 
led 
by 
Angela 

Dillard, LSA associate dean of 
undergraduate education, took a 
critical look at the requirement 
and the way it contributes 
to students’ education. The 
committee 
made 
several 

recommendations, 
including 

smaller discussion sections for 
large R&E lectures.

“We 
periodically 
review 

all our degree requirements,” 
Dillard said. “For years, R&E 
has kind of been on the list 
of things to do. I had a huge 
interest in it, and the time 
seemed right.”

The 
review 
of 
the 

requirement 
occurred 
in 

the 
earliest 
days 
of 
the 

presidential campaign, before 
the 
University 
community 

knew how the outcome of the 
election would impact issues of 
race and ethnicity on campus. 
However, 
review 
committee 

member Holly Peters-Golden 
— who teaches Introduction to 
Anthropology 101, one of the 
most popular classes students 
take to fulfill the requirement 
— 
does 
not 
believe 
the 

MAYA GOLDMAN

Daily Staff Reporter

See REQUIREMENT, Page 3