The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, March 8, 2017 — 3A

he said. “But it’s here and this 
is something that we’re dealing 
with.”

Recent raids have also occurred 

in Ypsilanti and Detroit.

Nicole Novak, University of 

Michigan postdoctoral fellow in 
the Population Studies Center, 
explained 
the 
similarities 

between current raids and a 2008 
raid that occurred in Postville, 
Iowa, which was at the time 
the largest raid to occur in U.S. 
history.

“That immigration raid (was) 

almost like an ethnic, city-specific 
or community-specific terrorist 
attack, because it had a lot of 
effects that we’re maybe seeing 
today,” she said. “People were 
trying to prepare for what might 
happen next.”

For many immigrants currently 

residing in the United States, the 
fear of being undocumented or 
of lacking citizenship status had 
never been as severe as it is now 
under the current administration. 
Because of this, many have 
taken measures to avoid being 
publicized by having their benefits 
canceled or by continuing to live 
without forms of identification.

University alum Maria Ibarra-

Frayre works for the Washtenaw 
County ID program where she 
helps serve those who do not 

have access to a form of state 
identification. Primarily, these 
services provide IDs to those who 
are undocumented, do not have 
a permanent address or do not 
have birth certificates. Recently, 
however, the fears of becoming 
identified have stopped many who 
would previously have tried to 
obtain this form of identification.

“People both are afraid to 

not have an identification and 
are afraid to get the ID because 
they’re afraid that this will put 
them in the database,” she said.

Panelists also spoke of the 

Deferred Action for Childhood 
Arrivals, a two-year renewable 
permission 
enacted 
under 

President 
Barack 
Obama 
in 

June 2012 for those who were 
between the ages of 15 and 31. 
The permanence of the act 
remains in question given the 
Trump administration’s stance 
on 
immigration. 
Panelists 

highlighted its importance in 
recent years, specifically when 
promoting a sense of togetherness 
with recent waves of immigration.

“Part of me wants to believe 

that the reason (Trump) has not 
rescinded DACA is because the 
Trump administration is afraid of 
people who have DACA,” she said. 
“It’s been such a huge movement 
of undocumented youth who have 
gotten up and really claimed their 
status in the U.S. and were able 
to speak out against everything 
that had been happening with 
immigration,” Ibarra-Frayre said.

Panelists 
explained 
these 

youth, however, are currently 
facing even greater fears in regard 
to their families and the questions 
as to whether new policies will 
end up moving them to different 
locations or separating them from 
their loved ones.

“They’re not sleeping at night, 

they’re not showing up to school, 
they’re just deathly afraid that 
their parents are going to be 
taken away from them,” Flores 
said. “The greatest impact is the 
uncertainty of how this is all 
going to unfold and the damage 
path that’s going to be as a result 
of it.”

Panelists concluded by urging 

audience members to become 
involved in their communities, to 
take part in local nonprofits and 
to network with others passionate 
about advocacy and awareness.

LSA junior Donny Hearn 

III, who attended the panel, 
said he has found these types of 
events to be especially important 
for students when it comes to 
engaging in movements they 
learn about and start to feel 
strongly about.

“Especially in a university it’s 

important to take what you learn 
in the classroom and recognize 
that it’s a real-life issue,” he said. 
“By reading actual faces and 
actual people you can connect 
things you hear on the news and 
so forth with academia and I 
think actually make some sort of 
push to change reality.”

PANEL
From Page 1A

J. Alex Halderman’s email, from 
which racist messages were sent to 
computer science and engineering 
undergraduate 
students. 
The 

emails sparked protests across 
campus in the following weeks, 
with many Black students decrying 
a pattern of inflammatory racist 
incidents.

“I grew up being taught that 

the skin I am in is beautiful, and 
that I am capable of success,” the 
op-ed reads. “The thought that I 
will soon be confronted by people 
espousing the opposite messages 
terrifies me.”

Gardner-Brown 
recognizes 

while events of this nature do not 
reflect the values of the University 
campus, they are happening there 
nonetheless.

“In short, for them, being Black 

at a PWI (predominantly white 
institution) is getting worse,” she 
wrote.

Gardner-Brown said in a phone 

interview she had initially planned 
on another topic for her Dialogue 
piece, but after coming across the 
emails on Twitter, she changed her 
mind.

“I felt I need to write something 

about this,” Gardner-Brown said. 
“I was happy I got it out of my 
system, but at the same time I 
was hesitant to show the world, 
to write something so critical of 
the University before I even got a 
chance on campus.”

Alone in the Crowd
Affirmative 
action 
was 

dissolved at the University in 2006, 
when Gardner-Brown was still in 
elementary school. It was then she 
became aware of the prevalence 

of racial tension at the University, 
even among students for whom 
acceptance was a dream come 
true. When speaking with Black 
students on campus for her piece, 
she learned it was a complicated 
dynamic.

“Now don’t get me wrong, they 

love the campus, they love the 
educational experience,” Gardner-
Brown said. “However, when put 
in terms of the culture in terms of 
the segregation on campus, I have 
not met a single Black person or a 
single person of color who has told 
me they were able to feel safe all 
of the time. Their classmates are 
ignorant of issues that Black people 
are subject to. They are positive 
about campus as a whole, but not 
the racial tension.”

Engineering graduate student 

Aeriel Murphy is a member of 
Movement of Under-represented 
Sisters in Engineering and Science. 
Her high school and undergraduate 
experiences 
at 
the 
University 

of Alabama, she said, were very 
different than those Gardner-
Brown experienced.

“I think that her points are valid, 

but I just want her to know, if you 
go to Michigan State it’s still going 
to be a very similar story,” Murphy 
said. “Really, no matter where you 
go there’s going to be this feeling of 
uncertainty, a feeling of weariness. 
In Alabama, you didn’t have it 
in emails, you had it in people 
screaming at you on your way to 
the football games.”

When 
selecting 
a 
college, 

she advises, it is important for 
incoming minority students to do 
their homework in person.

“When students are visiting 

schools, ask if you can chat with 
students of color,” she said. “If the 
school is like, we don’t really have 

any, that’s a sign,” she said. “If you 
go to school, and you have a tour 
guide, more than likely they won’t 
be of your race.”

Elizabeth James, faculty adviser 

for the Black Student Union, said 
as an alum and current employee 
at the University, she believes the 
mental health of Black students on 
campus is a crucial issue.

“When I read the article, the 

first thing that popped in my head 
was the more things change the 
more they stay the same,” she 
said. “No matter where you are 
in the country you’re going to be 
combatting some of these issues.”

Trelawny 
Boynton, 
director 

of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, 
wrote in an email interview she 
appreciates 
when 
current 
or 

prospective students share their 
concerns about the University as 
well as their hopes.

“The 
transition 
to 
a 
new 

community, especially a college 
community, can be challenging 
for students,” Boynton wrote. 
“It can be academic, social and/
or personal, and it will show up 
differently for each of us.”

James echoed these sentiments, 

and said she related to what 
Gardner-Brown wrote.

“That’s showing she has all 

the makings of a true academic,” 
she said. “She is doing the type of 
critical thinking that shows she has 
what it takes to make it here.”

Numbers Don’t Lie
Racial 
inequalities 
at 
the 

University are well-documented, 
especially 
since 
the 
#BBUM 

Twitter 
campaign 
garnered 

national attention in Nov. 2013. In 
2015, the ratio of Black to white 
students across the University 
measured 1,801 to 24,517, according 
to the Office of the Registrar.

That disparity — the difference 

of 4.1 percent against 56.2 — is 
difficult to conceptualize. In LSA, 
the largest college at the University 
with 19,338 students, the ratio was 
961 to 11,649 — not even one Black 
student to every thousand white. 
Broken down, there were 607 Black 
female students listed to 6,355 
white female students. For men, 
the ratio decreases to 354 to 5,294 
white male students.

This fall, the University boasted 

bolstered 
enrollment 
numbers, 

which in turn affected diversity 
numbers. The University indicated 
in a press release it had reviewed 
and processed 55,500 applications 
for the current freshman class, a 
7-percent increase from the last 
class’s 51,761. Black enrollment, 
however, still dropped from 5.1 
percent in 2015 to 4.6 percent for 
the class of 2020.

It has been found that simply 

increasing the number of students 
who enter the University cannot 
solve the problem of inequity and 
can, in fact, create new problems. 
In 2014, the University overshot 
the 
targeted 
freshman 
class 

size of 6,000 by a margin of 505 
that overburdened housing and 
instructional resources.

The Board of Regents crafted 

a plan to curb enrollment, such 
as 
reducing 
early 
admissions 

offers, hiring its first associate 
vice 
president 
for 
enrollment 

management and increased use 
of wait-listing. As a result, the 
number of freshmen entering 
campus decreased to 6,071 the 
following year.

“I believe that diversifying 

those primarily white campuses 
is crucial,” Gardner-Brown said. 
“That’s a part of the reason why I 
was so excited. Even the fact that 

I’m going to be one of the people 
that help change the campus. 
Honestly, people think the civil 
rights era was so long ago but it 
really wasn’t.”

Outside Ivory Towers
James said while recent events at 

the University were heartbreaking, 
she believed students responded 
with resilience. Though she does 
not believe the recent racially 
charged events were perpetrated 
by 
members 
of 
the 
campus 

community, she feels they are an 
unfortunate but necessary method 
of character building for Black 
students.

“You can’t escape outside,” she 

said. “It’s going to be there when 
you leave these ivory towers,” 
she said. “But when you leave 
Michigan, you have more in your 
portfolio that will assist you. It 
strengthens your spirit and your 
perspective so that you can say in 
any workplace in America, ‘I’m 
enough.’ Because you’ve had to first 
say it here.”

James said her mother, who 

attended the University during 
the height of the Jim Crow era, 
furnished her with advice that 
continues to be relevant today. 
Though she experienced more 
covert racism in the southern 
institutions 
she 
attended 

previously, James’s mother was 
met with a different type of 
discrimination 
that 
ultimately 

prepared 
her 
for 
the 
larger 

community.

Boynton 
said 
her 
advice 

for 
incoming 
students 
from 

minority 
backgrounds 
should 

avail themselves to the support 
systems at the University, such 
as a resident adviser in the 
residence hall, various student 
organizations and offices like 

MESA to support their transition.

“We are thrilled that she’s 

been accepted and look forward 
to meeting her and the incoming 
class,” Boynton wrote. 

Frontline Diversity Work
Gardner-Brown, 
who 
aims 

to pursue a global health major 
while at the University, said 
though she still has anxieties she 
is excited to matriculate with the 
class of 2021.

“I don’t think that people 

should not have opinions,” she 
said. “I just think that every 
opinion should be valued and I 
just don’t think that’s the case 
on campus and I would like to be 
part of changing that.”

James calls the phenomenon 

frontline diversity work — closing 
the 
space 
between 
differing 

groups increases the potential 
for progress. She referenced the 
success of a joint Shabbat dinner 
between Hillel and the Black 
Student Union.

“I was really proud of them,” 

she said. “That’s stepping out of 
your comfort zone, and really 
taking a look at another culture. 
We have to find a way to reach out 
and talk to one another. You can’t 
do it if everybody in the room is 
the same — you just can’t.”

Murphy said regardless of 

how much preparation incoming 
students have when transferring 
to 
a 
predominantly 
white 

institution, there will always be 
culture shock.

“The environment of support is 

going to be completely different,” 
she said. “As a student, as she goes 
out into the real world — you’re 
not going to meet people who look 
like you. You are going to work in 
an environment in which people 
are racist.”

APPLICANT
From Page 1A

nationwide have used. Colleges 
like Michigan State University 
have also set up food pantries that 
offer different food distribution 
methods in an attempt to address 
the problem, but many have 
found it difficult to cope with the 
increasing demand.

Regents at the University of 

California also recently launched 
a Global Food Initiative with 
a Food Access and Security 
Subcommittee, which includes 
measures such as vouchers for 
campus dining, expanding food 
pantry access and improving 
communication about resources. 
Students at Columbia University 
created an app called Swipes that 
connects people with meal plans 
to “receivers,” allowing them to 
use complimentary swipes to let 
other students into dining halls. 
Universities such as UW-Madison, 
New York University, Emory 
College and others have adopted 
similar policies.

“I sat down with several 

different student organizations 
that were working on this and we 

had this idea of a partnership with 
dining,” Sabada said. “We looked 
into some other school programs 
and this was the result of what 
we found worked best with the 
infrastructure we have here.”

LSA 
sophomore 
Skylar 

Burkhardt, who currently lives 
off-campus, acknowledged the 
lack of food resources on campus 
and brought up the fact that 
food insecurity is an issue a lot 
of students at the University deal 
with.

“I was in a program the other 

day where there was a simulation 
about 
food 
insecurities 
in 

developing countries, and a lot of 
people were very frustrated with 
it, and were talking about how they 
didn’t have to be demonstrated 
what food insecurity looks like, or 
what in general not having these 
privileges looks like because this 
is something they experience on 
a day-to-day basis.” Burkhardt 
said. “There is definitely a lack of 
cheap, healthy food resources in 
the downtown Ann Arbor area, so 
really if you’re living off-campus 
you have to drive or take a bus to 
get to these places.”

While Burkhardt admired the 

program and acknowledged it 
was a step in the right direction, 

she also felt it was a short-term 
solution to a much larger issue.

“It doesn’t seem like a very 

sustainable program, in that it’s not 
going to be solving their hunger in 
the future,” she said. “But I think 
as long as someone is getting the 
meal — it’s definitely a good cause 
to be working towards, and I 
think it’s really cool that they’re 
eliminating this disadvantage for 
the time being, but I’m curious to 
see if any long-term solutions will 
come up.”

Sabada also acknowledged the 

fact that the program wouldn’t 
be sustainable for the future, but 
added it is primarily being used 
to address immediate student 
concerns, as well as collects data so 
new initiatives can be launched in 
the future.

“We realize this program is not 

a long-term solution — it’s only 
six meals, and that doesn’t solve 
food insecurity on campus,” she 
said. “But we’re hoping to really 
meet that immediate need for 
students that are struggling now, 
helping them through this period 
and hopefully coming up with 
a program next semester that is 
more long-term and able to help 
students throughout the duration 
of their college career.”

MEAL PLAN
From Page 2A

rights leader; the Dalai Lama; and 
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a South 
African anti-apartheid activist.

Stevenson began by detailing 

his journey as a Harvard Law 
graduate through the Southern 
criminal justice system, defending 
inmates on death row in an era 
of unprecedented growth in the 
country’s 
incarceration 
rate. 

Stevenson 
stressed 
the 
racial 

disparities present in the system 

— specifically the high rates of 
incarceration in Black and Latino 
populations — and pushed for more 
frank discussions of the United 
States’s history of racism.

“The United States is the most 

punitive society in the world … 
we have a criminal justice system 
that treats you better if you’re rich 
and guilty than if you’re poor and 
innocent,” he said. “We have to talk 
about the fact that we are living in a 
post-genocide society. I don’t think 
(the United States) is shameful 
enough for what we have done 
wrong.”

Stevenson at times connected 

the themes of racial and class 
equality and social justice to the 
current political climate in the 
aftermath of the 2016 presidential 
election. During his talk, he noted 
the high support for President 
Donald Trump in his home state 
of Alabama.

“When 
people 
say, 
‘Make 

America great again,’ I want to 
know what decade we’re talking 
about,” Stevenson said, drawing 
exuberant applause from the 
crowd.

MEDAL
From Page 1A

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

“This 
University 
has 
a 

comprehensive history of civic 
engagement, but this dedication 
of citizenship is dependent on 
how the University prioritizes 
students’ ability to vote and 
participate in our democracy,” 
Galindez said. “As it stands, 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan 

discourages students from voting 
by prioritizing class over civic duty 
and 
dis-incentivizing 
students 

from working the polls.”

Engineering senior A.J. Ashman, 

co-author 
of 
the 
resolution 

advocating for the holiday, echoed 
this statement, adding it was unfair 
for the administration to force 
students to make difficult decisions 
about their civic engagement and 
education.

“Students are residents of Ann 

Arbor; they have the right to have 
their voices heard,” he said. “It’s 
borderline morally unjustifiable to 
have a system where students have 
to choose between going to class, 
getting their education and being 

involved in the decision of their 
country’s state of power.”

Rackham Rep. Andy Snow was 

skeptical of the idea, saying he 
talked to constituents and they 
were not very receptive to the 
idea because a holiday on Election 
Day would result in the loss of Fall 
Break, or at least a part of it.

“Have 
you 
actually 
asked 

students specifically if they prefer 
this to Fall Break?” he said to the 
body. 

CSG
From Page 1A

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

