Matt Diamond
sonia shekar
jessica stewart
anna he
HUSSEIN HAKIM
to the seniors of the Michigan Daily Business Staff!
Thank you for your companionship, guidance,
and unwavering dedication to this paper.
Best of luck in your future endeavors!
Love, your TMD family
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, April 18, 2017 — 3
especially with depleting storage
space, ongoing efforts of digitization
and a desire to distinguish fact from
fiction — it seems these libraries
will continue to be strongholds of
history for students, faculty and
historians to come.
Though non-Bentley staff are
not allowed in the official storage
space of the archives, students,
researchers and alumni can sign
up online to request materials using
the online database Mirlyn. Once
the physical materials are brought
up from storage, they can only be
viewed at the library. Photographs
can
be
taken
of
authorized
materials, and placeholder cards are
given when there are multiple files
in order in an archive box.
My English 221 course, Literature
and Writing Outside the Classroom,
taught by Lecturer James Pinto,
traveled to the Bentley this semester
in search of old letters for analysis.
The class — centered around the art
and significance of letter writing —
was able to look at former students’
letters, letters from the civil war
and scrapbooks of letters from a
woman — Lulu B. Middleton —
affectionately named Aunt Lulu.
Bentley director since 2013,
Terrence McDonald said the most
significant and unique collections in
the library include a collection of the
work of architect Albert Kahn, who
designed and constructed many
prominent buildings — including
the Detroit News and Detroit Free
Press buildings, numerous Ford
Motor Co. plants nationwide, the
University’s Angell Hall, Ruthan
Natural History Museum and the
Clements library itself — books
written by University faculty and
staff and notebooks from students
who took courses taught by famed
philosopher John Dewey. These
collections attract historians and
students from about 60 courses
per year, in programs across the
University.
The Bentley takes in materials
that hold value for researchers and
students on information relating to
the University and state. Recently,
the archives have added materials
related to Detroit’s underground
magazines, and also showcase
a
number
of
student-made
scrapbooks from the late-19th and
early-20th centuries.
However, because of a recent
shift toward online research and
the University’s bicentennial, the
Bentley has taken a number of steps
for digitization and has contributed
many materials to the celebrations,
thought not all with ease.
“The digitization is challenging
in that it requires all of the expenses
of curation and storage of a paper
collection, and then adding onto
that the cost of digitization,”
McDonald said.
ARCHIVES
From Page 1
Forsythe, a computer science
major, said he originally created
the
program
to
assist
his
girlfriend, who had to handwrite
postcards for her job. Later, his
market became apparent when
watching students labor over
sending mail to representatives in
bulk. He then set on automating
the process in “five clicks.”
“I
was
in
the
(Shapiro
Undergraduate
Library)
in
January, right after the election,
and there were 50 some women
sitting in the back of the UGLi who
had literally printed out a big stack
of postcards and were writing
addresses of representatives on
the back,” he said.
WEBSITE
From Page 1
and drug use. Still, Black students
assert that their functions are
hyper-patrolled, to the extent that
every predominantly Black party
gets shut down by police officers.
AAPD Sgt. Thomas Hickey
leads
the
department’s
Community Engagement unit, and
emphasized “party patrol” officers
are indiscriminate in policing off-
campus parties, as officers only
respond to phone calls. Public
Policy junior Stephen Wallace took
issue, however, with the frequency
of
the
alleged
complaints,
especially as many students live
around other students.
“You ask them, ‘Why is our
party being shut down,’ or ‘What
can we have done differently,’
and it’s just like ‘Oh, people are
calling,’ ” Wallace said. “I just don’t
believe it’s all coincidence, I refuse
to believe every time we throw
a party someone just happens to
call.”
Many students point to the
vicious cycle of the imbalance:
Black student groups simply do not
leverage the institutional resources
on
campus
to
accommodate
and control activities like those
of older, predominantly white
fraternities and sororities. Nearly
every chapter affiliated with the
Interfraternity Council or the
Panhellenic Association has a long-
standing address registered with
their respective council — none
of the “Divine Nine” historically
Black chapters of the National
Pan-Hellenic Council, on the other
hand, have a long-term address on
campus. Black parties hosted at off-
campus locations, then, are rarely
registered with the University’s
Office of Greek Life.
“We cram the whole Black
community into a three-room
apartment,” Toxey quipped.
“Minorities don’t have enough
stuff for people on campus,”
agreed LSA senior Javon Shell.
“It’s rare for a frat like us, or let’s
say like Alpha or Que, would be in
the same house two years in a row.
We pretty much go house to house,
and call that house our house. We
don’t have big houses, we don’t
have these luxuries. But yet, every
time we try to have fun it gets shut
down. Literally every time.”
Shell, leader of historically
Black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi,
recalled an incident of aggression
with officers at the frat’s annual
Christmas in July party last
summer. Shell said KAP threw
the party in a white fraternity
house on Hill and State Streets
to account for the large crowd.
After admitting over 1,000 people
arrived at the venue, he said
police used unnecessary force and
roughness when shutting the party
down.
“Christmas in July was very
aggressive,” Shell said. “You could
tell they didn’t know how to handle
that many people — Black people
specifically — and the way they
handled it was so bad.”
Police from seven different
districts, he added, were called
to shut down the party. Though
University Police spokeswoman
Diane Brown told The Michigan
Daily in a December interview
that
police
from
multiple
jurisdictions are usually brought
in on game days to account for the
large amount of partying, she did
not say the same happens during
regular weekends or over the
summer.
According to a police report
detailing
the
party
attained
through a Freedom of Information
Act request, the officers on the
scene included the entire AAPD
night shift, all available units
from DPSS, at least four Michigan
State
Police
troopers,
one
Chelsea sergeant and a Pittsfield
Township officer. The Washtenaw
County Sheriff’s department also
redirected
Dexter
Township
squad cars to assist, but canceled
the order before their arrival. The
report states over 500 people were
in attendance and over 200 people
were on the road near Hill Street.
Though Shell said no major
altercations
occurred,
AAPD
Officer James Boylan provided
a written statement that he
observed a large fight breaking
out, then overheard radio traffic
that there had been gunshots
fired — though police later found
no evidence of guns at the party.
Nonetheless, Boylan deployed his
department to issue pepper spray
in areas where crowds were not
dispersing. Boylan wrote he was
“unsure how many people were
hit with the mace.”
Shell highlighted Christmas in
July as one prominent example of
AAPD unnecessarily monitoring
Black parties. KAP functions are
usually shut down by 1 a.m. or 2
a.m., he said, and police officers
enter date parties to check
identification and cups, and he
once finished cleaning up a party
at the University Sports Coliseum
only to find two squad cars still
idling in the parking lot.
“Not every event is going
to break into a fight,” he said.
“We don’t have that established
foundation that these other people
do have. And we can’t (often) get
venues like (the Sports Coliseum)
because we’re Black.”
LSA sophomore Gracie Dunn,
a member of the majority-white
Zeta Tau Alpha, wrote in an
email interview the Panhellenic
Association party registration
system ensures her contact with
the police — outside high-profile
daytime parties or tailgates —
remains limited.
“In the year and a half I’ve been
here, I haven’t been to one mixer
that’s gotten shut down,” she
wrote.
The Office of Greek Life
declined to comment on this story.
The police scrutiny isn’t limited
to the time and place the of event
itself: Black students say they’re
more likely to be stopped before,
after and even completely outside
the context of partying at all.
Wallace remembered a night
of his Welcome Week in 2014, he
was returning to his dorm on the
Hill from a friend’s house when
suddenly, a bright light stopped
him in his tracks. A DPSS officer
demanded Wallace put his arms
up and proceeded to violently
frisk him, even tugging on his
insulin monitor. The officer finally
stopped, and when Wallace asked
if he needed to show ID, the cop
refused.
“He said ‘you fit the description
for a gun crime in the area, but
there was no place on your body to
conceal a weapon,’ ” Wallace said.
“It was over the top.”
As with Toxey, DPSS dropped
the issue.
“There was no police report
filed,” he said. “I called for the
next couple of days … but there
was no follow up; nothing really
came of it. Almost like saying, ‘you
can go here, but never said you can
enjoy being here’ — that’s the way
it feels sometimes.”
III. Good Cop, Bad Cop
With
these
collective
experiences
and
memories,
it’s not a stretch to understand
why, as countless hashtags and
protests have exposed by 2017,
Black communities are reluctant
to place their trust in law
enforcement agencies. As Black
LSA junior Priscilla Huddleston
pointed out, students coming
from
predominantly
Black
communities arrive with very
different outlooks on relationships
with police forces.
“I have a trust for police officers
in Detroit that I don’t have here,”
she said of her hometown’s police
force, which was 62 percent Black
as of 2013. “You can’t protect who
you fear. You fear what you don’t
know.”
University Police Chief Robert
Neumann
doesn’t
shy
from
criticism about his force, and
admits he hasn’t been in close
contact with Black students on
campus. Both AAPD and DPSS
participated
in
two
annual
Pancakes & Policing dialogues put
on by the Black Student Union and
Students of Color of Rackham.
DPSS drew on the feedback
in part to craft its sub-plan on
diversity, equity and inclusion;
initiatives currently being piloted
include
division-wide
implicit
bias
training,
microagression
workshops and a plan to recruit
more diverse officers.
“I never had a sense (race
relations) were bad,” Neumann
said. “I can’t tell you about a
time where we’ve had a bad
relationships … but like to think
it’s
improving.
Better
than
average. If those questions are
unresolved, I’d like to know more
about that.”
Hickey,
however,
pushed
students to consider their own
stereotypes about police officers,
especially for those “transitory
citizens” coming from other
communities. He admitted the
pancake breakfast was the first
significant
dialogue
between
Black students and AAPD, but
claimed the department has
been practicing diversity and
de-escalation training “for years.”
Racial profiling, he insisted, is
not an issue in Ann Arbor.
“What did you do that brought
unfair treatment on?” he said he’d
ask students. “Because an officer
would lose their job over racial
profiling. That hasn’t happened
here. If you’re saying that because
it happened in another city … it’s
not going to happen here.”
Hickey pressed further, at
times questioning the credibility
of students’ accounts.
“When you have a student
that’s underage and intoxicated, a
large majority of them are mean
or aggressive, but sober, they’re
the nicest person and apologetic,”
he said. “If you’re throwing
alcohol into the mix, you’re not
making good choices. If police did
100 percent of what you wanted
them to do, would the problem go
away?”
He agreed, though, community
relations between AAPD and
students in general could stand to
be improved. Efforts to establish
a civilian review board have
stalled, as a $200,000 audit of the
department is still underway.
“If students don’t reach out, we
can’t get this clarified,” Hickey
said. “I’ve been aware of race
relations my whole life. How do
you think this makes me feel?
We continue to battle negative
perceptions. We have to step up
our game in areas other police
officers don’t even touch.”
James,
who
was
stopped
years ago by an AAPD officer
who couldn’t believe she worked
at the University, suggested the
dialogue for city officers move
beyond annual breakfasts.
“I see AAPD trying — but
I don’t think just one or two
officers can,” she said. “When
you have this many people saying
the same things, it’s a systemic
problem.”
IV. Between Two Worlds
Add in the racist flyers, the
threatening
emails
and
the
ever-dwindling Black student
body population, and a fractious
campus becomes even more
divided
by
disproportionate
policing.
Whether
students
experience
police
aggression
firsthand or secondhand, the
result for many is arguably the
same. An already alienated Black
community
sequesters
itself
even further from seemingly
unwelcoming spaces.
Black
students
even
stop
themselves from seeking the
outlets most students would
otherwise avail themselves of.
According to a self-survey by the
Black Student Union, 34 percent
of students feel uncomfortable
approaching officers in uniform.
“I shouldn’t have this distrust
or this disdain in my heart every
time I see someone in a uniform,
but due to what’s going on, due
to how they police our events
and police us on this campus, I
don’t have much of a choice in the
matter in how I see the police,”
Wallace said.
Huddleston,
one
of
the
only Black members of the
cheerleading team, said she’s
turned heads at predominantly
white parties she’s attended for
being “too loud.” Shell looks back
on his Black friends who pledged
IFC frats, and laments their
separation from the larger Black
community.
James, however, related the
more jarring story as proof of the
toll on Black students’ mental
health. As she entered a Haven
Hall elevator two weeks ago with
three of her Black students in
DAAS — an academic space — the
two white people already in the
elevator appeared unsettled. No
more than a minute later, they all
exited, one remarking to James,
“we’ll take the stairs.”
“I want to believe this place is
for me, but … it does get to prey
upon you,” James said. “So why
not stay safe? I feel safer around
other people of color.”
Many
of
the
University’s
DEI efforts hinge on successful
collaboration between students
of all races and ethnicities. With
a strategic plan that largely fails
to engage with the implications
of disparate law enforcement
begs the question: If Black
students don’t feel comfortable
around white students because
predominantly white institutions
are not yet attuned to Black
needs, who can break the cycle?
How much of the burden should,
or can, be placed on the students
themselves?
Toxey is slower to smile in
public these days, and entire
cohorts of Black students subject
to overpolicing aren’t far behind
him.
Hickey—with
the
full
force of AAPD’s three-person
Community
Engagement
department behind him—wound
up asking the question at the
heart of the matter.
POLICE
From Page 1
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housing shortage in Ann Arbor.
“If I vote no on this, would
I be willing to sit on the phone
Tuesday and call people on the
Housing Commission, on the
waitlist and say, ‘we’re down on
money on affordable housing
and I couldn’t help you guys’?”
Warpehoski said. “I couldn’t
imagine doing that.”
However,
public
polling
has shown majority support
for a public space. A 2013 Park
Advisory
Commission
survey
showed that 76.2 percent of
respondents
thought
Ann
Arbor would benefit from more
downtown open spaces, like a
park or town square, and 41.5
percent of respondents chose the
Library Lot as the best place to
build such a space.
Last year, the Ann Arbor
Committee for the Community
Commons delivered a petition
to put the future of the lot to the
November election ballot, but it
fell just short of a few hundred
signatures because of technical
mistakes.
The
crowd
became
increasingly
restless as councilmembers urged
compromise and attempted to
quell concerns about floor-area
ratio, as an Internal Revenue
Service
audit
of
the
Build
America Bonds was issued to
create the parking space under
the Library Lot, and other salient
details.
The tension reached a tipping
point
when
Councilmember
Julie
Grand
(D–Ward
3)
charged
that
anti-high
rise
advocates were ignoring the
realities
of
compromise
and
resisting stubbornly against a
democratically decided process.
LIBRARY LOT
From Page 1
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