Art professor confronts
spousal discrimination
Speakers at
conference
accentuate
principled
businesses
Grievance board
investigating claims
found promotion
process was biased
By ANDREW HIYAMA
Summer Daily News Editor
A University of Michigan faculty
member in the School of Art &
Design said she was the subject
of discrimination based on her
gender and status as a spousal
hire throughout the process of
consideration for promoting her
from associate to full professor
in 2016. A University grievance
board investigating Associate Prof.
Rebekah Modrak’s claims has
concluded the promotion process
was unfair, and it identified a
“climate of bias toward members
of the Dual Career Program” in the
Art & Design School.
Though Modrak, the spouse of
Art & Design Prof. Nick Tobier,
is not currently pressing charges,
Sarah Prescott, her attorney, says
it’s an option they will pursue
should the University fail to address
their claims.
“We have a lot of affection for
the University, and we want it to
do the right thing without having
to be forced,” Prescott said. “So
that’s something that’s definitely an
option to go forward. It’s something
that we’ve really stepped back from,
and we’re trying to exhaust any
other opportunities or avenues first.
The answer is not yet.”
Modrak would likely bring the
suit under the Michigan Elliot-
Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976,
which
prohibits
discrimination
based on “religion, race, color,
national origin, age, sex, height,
weight, familial status, or marital
status,”
in
employment
and
education, among other areas.
Modrak was hired through the
University’s Dual Career Program,
which is managed by the Office
of the Provost. The program is
mainly used as a recruiting tool for
faculty, providing spouses of faculty
members an inside track for the
hiring process themselves.
“Having long recognized dual
career partner assistance as a
crucial element in recruiting and
retaining
its
excellent
faculty,
the University of Michigan has
developed one of the strongest dual
career programs in the country,”
the Office of the Provost’s website
reads.
However, some don’t share
the Office’s opinion. According
to a statement from Modrak
corroborated by a signed affidavit
from a colleague, Art & Design Prof.
Holly Hughes, at a 2012 meeting
regarding the dual-career hiring
of a woman to associate professor,
said
the
woman
“should
be
embarrassed” to be a spousal hire.
When Hughes was later placed
on
the
committee
reviewing
Modrak’s case for promotion by Art
& Design Dean Gunalan Nadarajan,
Modrak
raised
concerns
with
Nadarajan about Hughes’s ability to
remain unbiased in reviewing her
case. Nadarajan, whose wife, Irina
Aristarkhova, was the associate
professor Hughes said should be
embarrassed to be a spousal hire,
did not find merit with Modrak’s
concerns, and Hughes remained on
the committee.
Modrak’s case closely mirrors
the case of Profs. Scott Kurashige
DESIGN BY: MICHELLE PHILLIPS
ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Ann Arbor, MI
Weekly Summer Edition
michigandaily.com
INDEX
Vol. CXXVV, No. 73 | © 2017 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
NEWS ....................................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS ......................................
CLASSIFIEDS.........................
MiC.........................................
SPORTS................................
NEWS
Social research
Poverty Solutions Director
discusses research on chal-
lenges of the impoverished.
>> SEE PAGE 3
NEWS
Deer cull
City Council considers
defunding the controversial
initiative.
>> SEE PAGE 2
OPINION
Dating in college
“Dating on tinder violated all
the rules of the traditional
romantic code...”
>> SEE PAGE 4
ARTS
Film: ‘The Wall’
A look at Doug Liman’s
unconventional war
movie.
>> SEE PAGE 7
SPORTS
Sereno’s sweep
The senior claimed Big Ten
titles in both the 10,000
and 5,000 meters.
>> SEE PAGE 11
inside
2
4
6
8
9
10
Faculty and business
leaders talked topics
ranging from data to
personal experiences
By JENNIFER MEER &
KAELA THEUT
Summer Daily News Editors
The
fourth
annual
Positive
Business Conference took place at
Ross School of Business Thursday
and Friday. The conference engaged
approximately
400
local
and
national entrepreneurs in lectures
and interactive sessions presented
by executives of the nation’s leading
companies such as Microsoft to
encourage passion and positivity in
the business environment.
Microsoft Philanthropies
On
Thursday
Mary
Snapp,
President of Microsoft Philanthropies
— a group that heads the technology
giant’s
philanthropic
initiatives,
imparting technology and talent,
among other assets, to external
organizations around the world —
discussed the role of philanthropy in
Microsoft’s culture.
“The Microsoft mission stated is
to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve
more,” she said. “Unless we address
these issues of income inequality
and job disruption at this particular
inflection point, we will come
nowhere close to meeting the mission
of the company. It is important for
us.”
Additionally, Snapp emphasized
the importance of companies being
involved in their communities— she
used their work in Washington state
as an example.
“Recently we came out with a
five-pronged strategy for the last
GOVERNMENT
See DISCRIMINATION, Page 3
See BUSINESS CONFERENCE, Page 3