Thursday 
evening, 
the 

Defend 
Affirmative 
Action 

Party, eMerge and Movement, 
three of the four parties running 
for Central Student Government 
office, gathered in Hutchins 
Hall for the first presidential 
and vice presidential debate of 
the season.

Moderator 
Aaron 
Kall, 

the University of Michigan’s 
director 
of 
debate, 
asked 

candidates questions chosen 
from 
nearly 
100 
potential 

questions 
sent 
in 
online 

by 
University 
students. 

Presidential candidates were 
the first to take the floor.

The 
debate 
began 
with 

a 
question 
regarding 
the 

Leadership 
Engagement 

Scholarship and its $5 student 
fee discussed at a recent CSG 
meeting. 
While 
candidates 

did 
agree 
the 
scholarship 

itself is beneficial for students, 
LSA 
junior 
Evan 
Rosen, 

the 
Movement 
presidential 

candidate, 
emphasized 
the 

presence 
of 
bigger 
issues 

involving financial strains for 
students.

“The facts are that one in 

every five students that get 
accepted here don’t enroll at the 
University of Michigan because 
of financial reasons, and we 
were just ranked the number 
one least socioeconomic diverse 
public university in the nation,” 
he said. “It’s $5 here, but where 

does that end?”

Continuing with the theme 

of underrepresented students, 
candidates 
responded 
to 

a 
question 
regarding 
the 

University’s 
status 
as 
a 

sanctuary city, and whether or 
not they believe the University 
should be declared as such. All 
presidential 
candidates 
gave 

support 
for 
the 
University 

becoming a sanctuary city.

On the topic of improving 

campus 
climate, 
candidates 

each 
presented 
different 

approaches to advocating for 
underrepresented 
students 

and increasing awareness of 
diversity. LSA junior Anushka 
Sarkar, 
eMerge 
presidential 

candidate, gave four specific 
objectives she feels are crucial 
to improving campus climate.

The initiatives she listed 

included extending the Race 
and Ethnicity requirement to all 

colleges within the University, 
mandatory 
Intergroup 

Relations engagement for every 
incoming 
freshman, 
making 

the 
University 
a 
sanctuary 

campus and increasing minority 
enrollment.

“Rhetoric that implies that 

we have to go to Detroit to get 
students and to make sure they 
are qualified to apply to the 
University is condescending and 

About 35 people gathered 

on the steps of the Rackham 
Graduate 
School 
Thursday 

evening to hold a vigil for recent 
hate crimes — in particular, in 
remembrance of the murder 
of Indian immigrant Srinivas 
Kuchibhotla in Olathe, Kan.

Kuchibhotla was murdered in 

Kansas last month when a man 
named Adam Purinton shot him 
after supposedly yelling “get out 
of my country,” as reported in the 
New York Times. Purinton was 
apprehended and charged with 
premeditated murder.

Event co-organizer Brendan 

Wu, a University of Michigan 
alum, said they wanted to both 
commemorate 
Kuchibhotla, 

but also, more generally, bring 
attention to other victims of hate 
crimes in the United States.

“We wanted to mourn those 

deaths and, more broadly, we 
wanted to hold a vigil just to 
bring attention to victims of hate 
crimes, because they’ve been 
on the rise,” Wu said. “We just 
wanted to help unite people in 
their pain and build strength in 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, March 17, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

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Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 47
©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 HATE CRIMES, Page 3

Vigil brings 
attention to
victims of 
hate crimes

CAMPUS LIFE

The event was specifically 
mourning the death of 
Srinivas Kuchibholta 

CALEB CHADWELL

Daily Staff Reporter

JEREMY MITNICK/Daily

Candidates representing their parties running for Central Student Government discuss their positions on various 
campus issues at a debate in Hutchins Hall on Thursday. 

Candidates discuss campus climate, 
divestment, other topics at CSG debate

The debate was the first of the Central Student Government election season

JORDYN BAKER
Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See DEBATE, Page 3

The first of the University 

of 
Michigan’s 
Teach-Out 

Series will be released online 
on March 31 and will focus on 
how countries transition from 
democratic 
to 
authoritarian 

rule. University President Mark 
Schlissel announced this online 
Teach-Out Series on Monday at 
the Academic Innovation Forum 
hosted by the Office of Academic 
Innovation.

The format and name of the 

Teach-Out series were based on 
University’s tradition of teach-
ins, which were established in 
the 1960s and have continued 
to the present. However, it will 
be distributed as an edX course. 
In an email interview, James 
DeVaney, 
the 
associate 
vice 

provost for Academic Innovation, 
wrote the use of edX to promote 
the series is part of a goal to reach 
the largest audience possible.

“We hope to reach the broadest 

representation of society with 
each of our Teach-Outs,” he 
wrote. “We are reaching out to 
learners through social media, 
our partnership with edX, and 

See TEACH OUT, Page 3

First teach 
out event 
slated for 
March 31

ACADEMICS

SNRE prof. Arun Agrawal 
will discuss authoritarian 
governments globally

EMILY MIILLER
Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan’s 

Dearborn campus hosted the 
year’s second Board of Regents 
Meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Central to the meeting were 

talks 
of 
renovations 
to 
the 

Michigan Union and divestment 
from Israel — a topic that was not 
on the agenda. All regents were in 
attendance except Regent Denise 
Ilitch (D), who phoned in.

Union renovations
The 
regents 
unanimously 

approved 
the 
estimated 

$85,200,000 budget proposal for 
the Michigan Union Renovation 
Project 
during 
the 
financial 

segment of the agenda. The 
construction project itself was 
approved at the July 2016 meeting.

Originally constructed in 1919, 

the Union has been a University 
landmark for many generations 
of students and faculty. The 
building’s 
infrastructural 

renovations include the general 

improvement of Union facilities, 
such as electrical and mechanical 
work, as well as architectural 
restoration.

Larger 
projects 
in 
design 

schematics involve the enclosure 
of the courtyard for a student 
space, improved accessibility for 
compliance with the Americans 
with 
Disabilities 
Act, 
the 

construction of gender-neutral 
bathrooms, new CAPS expansion 
and new student organization 
space. 

Charles Lewis, senior vice 

president of Integrated Design 
Solutions, the company being 
used for the planning of the 
renovations, 
presented 
a 

slideshow outlining the blueprints 
and graphics, showcasing what 
the new Union will look like after 
the renovations are completed in 
an estimated three years.

One 
component 
Lewis 

presented that received some 
questions from Regent Katherine 
White (D) and other regents was 
the physical renovation to the 
North Entrance, on the side of the 
Union. The current schematics 

UM Regents 
cover Union 
renovations 
in Dearborn

Refugees, panelists give insight into 
Michigan’s role in refugee crisis 

See REGENTS, Page 3

KEVIN ZHENG/Daily

LSA senior Tina al-Khersan and Oman, a former refugee who works with Access in Detroit to assist refugees new to their communities, present at the “What We 
Carried: A Glimpse into the Refugee Crisis” at the UMMA on Thursday. 

ADMINISTRATION

At monthly meeting, the University body 
also discussed Palestinian-Israeli tensions

JEN MEER &

MATT HARMON
Daily Staff Reporters

Over 100 students and community members gather at UMMA to share experiences 

The words of Nigerian author 

Chimamanda 
Ngozi 
Adichie, 

“nobody is ever just a refugee, 
nobody is just ever a single thing,” 
were referenced more than once 
during the Michigan Refugee 
Assistance Program’s capstone 
event: “What We Carried: A 
Glimpse Into the Refugee Crisis.”

MRAP 
works 
alongside 
a 

nearby 
refugee 
resettlement 

service, Jewish Family services, 

Samaritas 
and 
the 
Detroit 

Mayor’s 
Office 
to 
connect 

University of Michigan students 
with opportunities for working 
with and on behalf of refugees.

Over 
100 
students 
and 

community members gathered 
inside the University of Michigan 
Museum of Art on Thursday night 
to listen as former refugees shared 
their stories of resettlement, 
and professionals in the refugee 
sector 
provided 
their 
own 

unique insights into the current 
humanitarian crisis.

“What We Carried” was based 

on the collaborative storytelling 
project 
of 
photographer 
Jim 

Lommasson, 
who 
sought 
to 

preserve the identities of displaced 
Syrian and Iraqi refugees through 
the objects they chose to bring 
from their destroyed homes.

Lommasson said he began 

his project after an Iraqi woman 
living in Portland asked him, 
“I thank America for removing 
Saddam Hussein, but did you 
have to destroy my entire country 
to do that?” From there, the 
photographer began to capture 
images of the personal items 

refugees took from their homes in 
order to tell a story.

Lommasson noted that, though 

people often point to photography 
as an attempt to humanize its 
subjects, it is not the refugees who 
need to be humanized.

“The things that I photograph 

were sometimes kind of exotic, as 
we would expect, but sometimes 
there were Barbie dolls, things 
that we wouldn’t expect, but it 
sends a message that we’re all 
alive,” he said. “You don’t need 
to be humanized, you’re already 

KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter

See REFUGEES, Page 3

