Michigan
gubernatorial
candidate
Abdul
El-Sayed
discussed his candidacy and
platform to more than 150
students
and
community
members at the Ford School of
Public Policy Monday night.
The event, hosted by the
University of Michigan’s chapter
of College Democrats, allowed
students to ask questions and
hear the story of the 32-year-
old University alum and Rhodes
scholar.
As
the
son
of
Egyptian
immigrants, El-Sayed recognized
the unlikeliness of his candidacy.
However, he stressed that his
background of coming from a
biracial family reflects the goals
he has for Michigan to become
more inclusive.
“This is the American family I
grew up in,” El-Sayed said. “We
didn’t always agree. The one
thing we could agree upon was
our future, that we could believe
in this society regardless of
background.”
Opposite to what some have
said about his campaign, El-Sayed
said his background and religious
differences won’t hinder him,
but will hopefully inspire a more
diverse government.
“If you’re not going to vote
for me because I’m Muslim, you
weren’t going to vote for me
anyway,” he said.
The idea of more diverse
representation
was
reflected
by LSA junior Ali Safawi, also a
member of the Michigan Daily
edit
board,
who
introduced
El-Sayed for the event.
“When you have a name like
Ali, you get the feeling the politics
isn’t for you, certainly less so than
if your name was Bill or Craig,”
Safawi said. “So I was very excited
to hear that Dr. El-Sayed was
running.”
El-Sayed
also
said
his
background as the former director
of the Detroit Department of
Health and Wellness Promotion
will have a large impact on his
candidacy, as it gave him a more
intimate and open look into public
health — an issue he intends to
stress in his campaign. He said his
unconventional background will
help Michigan stray from “politics
as usual,” which he believes is a
mindset that hasn’t been working.
“It’s not just public health that
suffers when you run government
as a business,” he added. “It’s also
things like public education.”
In an interview, El-Sayed
said millennials will have a
large impact on this campaign,
much like the 2016 presidential
campaign,
“Nobody has as large a stake
in our future as students do,”
El-Sayed said. “They have been
very involved in my campaign and
its message that we have to take
A
panel
discussion
addressing
xenophobia
under
President
Donald
Trump’s administration was
held
Monday
afternoon
in
the University of Michigan
International
Institute,
where
action
against
microaggressions and social
threats were among the most
highlighted topics.
The
panel,
which
more
than 50 students and faculty
attended, opened with Ann
Arbor
City
Councilmember
Chuck Warpehoski (D–Ward
5), director of the Interfaith
Council
for
Peace
and
Justice, who led with a call
to action against xenophobia
not only in the rejection of
visible hate crimes, but of
microaggressions as well.
“I’ve seen the importance
that these social affirmations
of values can have for people
who are under attack,” he said.
Warpehoski’s
sentiments
and
the
panel’s
title
—
“Xenophobia in the Age of
Trump: The Roots, Context
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 44
©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 PANEL, Page 3
Panel talks
Trump era,
issues with
xenophobia
GOVERNMENT
Professors outline history
of “otherizing” in America,
bipartisan racial priming
KATHERINA SOURINE
For the Daily
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks in the Ford School on Monday.
Michigan gubernatorial candidate,
alum Abdul El-Sayed pitches campaign
College Democrats hosts former Detroit Health Director and University alum
CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See EL-SAYED, Page 3
The
Senate
Advisory
Committee on University Affairs
met on Monday afternoon to
discuss the bathroom policy for
transgender students it passed
last week, hoping to expand
the resolution. The board also
welcomed Cynthia Wilbanks,
the University of Michigan’s
vice president of government
relations, to discuss the Freedom
of Information Act.
Last meeting, the board passed
a bathroom policy that allows
for members of the community
to use the bathrooms they feel
match their gender identity.
SACUA derived its policy from
the one in place at Oberlin
College, but modified it slightly
to include its own wording, while
still capturing the essence of the
other college’s policy. For this
meeting, the members expanded
their discussion to pinpoint more
ways they could further provide
for the LGBTQ community.
SACUA
member
Robert
Ortega, associate professor of
social work, weighed in on the
bathroom policy and suggested
See SACUA, Page 3
Bathroom
policies, ‘U’
FOIA suit
discussed
ACADEMICS
Faculty modifies policy
to expand provisions for
transgender community
AARON DALAL
Daily Staff Reporter
Nearly 160 graduate student
employees
rallied
Monday
afternoon in support of proposals
to improve their contracts with
the University of Michigan, which
have hitherto been declined.
Protesters began in the Diag
before
marching
to
Palmer
Commons
for
the
Graduate
Employees’
Organization’s
biweekly bargaining session with
the University.
The GEO — the union that
represents
graduate
student
instructors and graduate student
staff assistants at the University —
has been in the midst of contract
negotiations
since
November.
Their proposals were declined
or not addressed sufficiently,
according to GEO members.
GEO President John Ware,
a physics Ph.D. student and
research assistant, said the rally
was organized in an effort to make
visible the continued struggles
graduate employees face.
“We’ve been at the table for
four months now and we’ve just
seen very little progress,” he
said. “We’re still a long way from
where we need to be, especially
on some of the core issues that we
really need to get us to equitable
and
inclusive
employment
for
graduate
employees.
We
think that’s really an integral
component of an equitable and
inclusive University.”
Ware
noted
the
small
bargaining
team
represents
universal concerns.
“The point we’re trying to
make out here is that it’s not just
the six dedicated volunteers that
sit at the bargaining table, that
these are issues that come from
the University community,” Ware
said. “They are widely felt and
people care about them and we’re
all watching.”
One of the central proposals
is to increase graduate employee
pay, because the cost of living in
Ann Arbor is higher than most
other Michigan cities and the
housing market for students is
very competitive.
“Two
percent
won’t
pay
Rally held in
advance of
GSI contract
negotiations
Schlissel announces new teach-out
courses for academic innovation
See RALLY, Page 3
JOSHUA HAN/Daily
University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel announces new methods for dialogue between University faculty and the public in the Michigan League on Monday.
ADMINISTRATION
More than 150 graduate students
marched to union bargaining meeting
JENNIFER MEER
Daily Staff Reporter
Program to cover fake news, authoritarianism and Affordable Care Act in current climate
The introduction of a Teach-Out
Series on topics ranging from “fake
news” to the rise of increasingly
authoritarian
governments
was
announced
by
University
of
Michigan President Mark Schlissel
at an Innovation Forum hosted by
the University’s Office of Academic
Innovation
on
Monday
night.
There are four “global community
learning” events scheduled so far
in the series to be hosted on the
edX platform — a digital education
company which aims to improve
education research at universities
worldwide.
The event was also a continuation
of Schlissel’s Academic Innovation
Initiative, which launched in fall
2016 in an effort to foster growth in
technology use to further classroom
learning.
At the beginning of the event,
Schlissel said he was excited
the University is hosting these
teach-outs, which are modeled
after the teach-ins that began at
the University starting in 1965 to
protest then-President Lyndon B.
Johnson’s military escalation in the
Vietnam War.
The
four
course
offerings
available through the edX platform
will cover: the transition from
democratic to authoritarian rule,
fake
news,
communication
of
scientific research, and the future
of the Affordable Care Act, former
President Barack Obama’s health
care law. These topics were selected
because of their relevance to
modern-day global politics — much
like the inspiration for the teach-ins
held at the University over 50 years
ago.
“Tonight’s event is keeping with
the University’s historic ideals as
we move forward into its third
century,” Schlissel said at the event
to an audience of over 100 attendees.
However, unlike the teach-ins
of the 1960s, which were in-person
lectures
given
in
university
classrooms, the online teach-outs,
according to Dean of Libraries
James Hilton, the vice provost for
TIM COHN &
EMILY MIILLER
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporter
See INNOVATION, Page 3