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NEWS
Thursday, May 18, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Author H. Luke Shaefer presents
his research on challenges faced
by the impoverished community
Lecture hosted by
Institute of Social
Research meant to
impart experience
of living in poverty
By CHETALI JAIN
Daily Staff Reporter
H. Luke Shaefer, director of
Poverty Solutions at the Univer-
sity of Michigan and co-author of
acclaimed book “$2.00 a Day: Liv-
ing on Almost Nothing in Ameri-
ca,” spoke to University students
and faculty Tuesday afternoon
about the stratification of the poor
in the United States and the chal-
lenges faced by the extremely
impoverished.
The event, hosted by the Popu-
lation Studies Center at the Uni-
versity of Michigan’s Institute
for Social Research, was meant to
teach attendees about ISR and the
repercussions of living below the
poverty line.
According to Shaefer, since 1996,
there has been a steady rise in the
number of households with chil-
dren living in extreme poverty.
Furthermore, while the 2000s saw
an increase in the number of chil-
dren on public health care, those at
the very bottom of the income lad-
der were still slipping through the
cracks.
Rackham student Lanora John-
son, who is pursuing a doctorate
in sociology, said she attended the
talk to learn about the research
being done on low-income house-
holds. She also said she feels it is
important to convey the complex
topic of poverty in terms of data
and facts to reach a wider audience.
“It’s also good to hear…that it is
something that is cared about in a
place that seems in a lot of visual
ways very removed from (this)
kind of background,” Johnson said.
To gather information and fur-
ther context for his work, Shaefer
ventured into low-income neigh-
borhoods to see firsthand how poor
socioeconomic status affects the
people living there. He described
how this level of work led him to
experiences that data often does
not show.
“You encounter things that
aren’t really visible,” he said.
“There’s a lot that data misses…and
it explains what the families are
going through.”
He told a story of one such fam-
ily from Birmingham, Alabama
who endured hardships and legal
red tape in their search for a suit-
able home to settle down. The
mother was forced to uproot her
family when her sons were put in
danger due to the violence in their
neighborhood.
Through a whirlwind of unfor-
tunate events including being
turned away multiple times from
a shelter in Tennessee where she
was promised a room, her chil-
dren were taken into the welfare
system against her wishes. She is
now fighting to get them back.
Shaefer explained the mother
got a job and worked 30 to 35
hours a week, only to receive
a paycheck hundreds of dol-
lars less than she expected. The
Tennessee
state
government
had taken some of it to pay for
the child support and had also
charged her a 12 percent interest
rate.
AARON BAKER/Daily
Social Work professor H. Luke Shaefer presents on living in poverty in America
at the Institue of Social Research on Tuesday.
and Emily Lawsin, in which they
claim the University retaliated
against their attempts to report
discrimination
based
on
their
marriage and race.
Though Nadarajan encouraged
her to apply for promotion and
promised to support her promotion,
according to Modrak, he did not
keep his promise, and in fact
identified one of the external
reviewers
as
unsupportive
of
Modrak’s promotion, despite the
reviewer’s insistence otherwise.
Furthermore,
the
promotion
committee removed Modrak’s book
“Reframing Photography: Theory
and Practice” from consideration
in her promotion based on the fact
that they had already considered
it during her tenure promotion
in 2007 –– even though the book
wasn’t completed until 2010.
The aforementioned external
reviewer
Steven
McCarthy,
a
professor of graphic design at the
University of Minnesota, wrote
in a signed affidavit he found the
removal highly unusual.
“I was surprised to later learn
that Prof. Modrak’s important
contribution, her book Reframing
Photography: Theory and Practice,
was not considered in favor of
promotion at the University of
Michigan,” he wrote. “Excluding,
discounting
or
otherwise
not
evaluating
a
practitioner’s
complete body of work in this, the
ultimate decision toward career
advancement, is to my knowledge
unheard of in our field of work.”
In the affidavit, McCarthy also
confirmed his unequivocal support
for Modrak’s promotion.
“I concluded that her work did
clearly qualify for promotion, and
my letter said so,” he wrote. “My
letter as to Prof. Modrak was not
written in code or as mere courtesy;
it was my true opinion based
on my twenty-eight years as an
academic, the national standards
in the disciplines of art and design,
and norms within R1 research
universities.”
Modrak
said
McCarthy’s
experience
was
not
unique,
claiming Nadarajan ignored the
advice of every reviewer. Nadarajan
did not respond to multiple requests
for comment.
In addition to a grievance
committee, Modrak opened a case
with the University’s Office for
Institutional Equity on the denial of
her promotion, in which she said she
was obstructed.
“The OIE investigator refused to
question my witnesses in writing,
explaining that she had already
determined, before speaking with
them, that they would have no
relevant information,” she said.
In addition to concluding Hughes
brought bias into the promotion
process, the grievance board found
that the OIE investigation was
flawed, and that their arguments
against
Modrak’s
case
were
“tenuous and lacked true merit.”
Modrak is now seeking recourse
and sanctions for Hughes through
the Office of the Provost. Bringing
her case to Robert Sellers, Vice
Provost for Equity and Inclusion and
Chief Diversity Officer, Modrak said
Sellers seemed “concerned but said
that he could make no promises.”
Modrak’s dossier for promotion is
to be reviewed this summer by a new
Art & Design School committee, still
headed by Nadarajan.
When
asked
for
comment,
University
spokewoman
Kim
Broekhuizen declined, saying the
University “does not comment on
personnel matters.”
DISCRIMINATION
From Page 1
legislative session,” she said. “One
of the things that surprised most
people who read about it was a focus
in Washington state by Microsoft
on race and justice reform.”
Talks on Detroit
Business
Prof.
Jerry
Davis
facilitated another session titled
“The Revitalization of Detroit: A
Story of Commitment, Creativity
and Partnership,” which brought
together four panelists whose work
shapes rebuilding efforts in the city.
In his opening remarks, Jerry
Norcia, the Chief Operating Officer
of DTE Energy, discussed the role
of DTE in reshaping Detroit.
“When we talk about serving
with our energy, we’re first talking
about serving with the energy of
our employees,” he said. “It has a
double meaning for us. Without our
employees, we’re not able to serve.
When you think of our traditional
products — we serve with natural
gas, we serve with electricity, which
really continues to be the foundation
of progress in the communities we
live and serve.”
In a different vein, Susan Mosey,
Executive Director of Midtown
Detroit, Inc., a nonprofit planning
and development agency, noted
collaboration among several large
actors in the city. She said years ago
Detroit didn’t have a stable system
of community development finance
institutions — large national players
of capital that use foundation
dollars and other forms of funding
to provide affordable lending to
disadvantaged communities.
Several
large
foundations
including the Kresge Foundation
and
Ford
Foundation
helped
the city engage with a large
national
development
finance
institution called Capital Impact
Partners. Several other national
institutions got involved with the
city as well under the direction of
such foundations to spend their
investment and grant dollars in
Detroit.
Mosey
explained
Detroit
suddenly had a lot of money for
real estate and small business
development. She said without such
programs and collaboration, there
wouldn’t be a “viable” Detroit.
Whole Foods Market
On
Friday
afternoon,
the
series of speakers concluded with
thoughts on how to augment
positive
business
practices
by
Walter Robb, part of the Board of
Directors of Whole Foods Market.
He noted in many communities,
such as Detroit, people are hesitant
of corporations coming in and
attempting to change the culture
there.
“A lot of people in downtown
Detroit have had the experience of
corporations coming in and ripping
them off,” he said. “It was very
humbling to be a large company
realizing you have to start at square
one with the community.”
BUSINESS CONFERENCE
From Page 1
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