Author speaks on role of
White House Chief of Staff
Lauded filmmaker
explains duties of the
“gatekeeper” to the
federal government
By JENNIFER MEER
Summer Managing News Editor
On Tuesday night, Chris
Whipple — an acclaimed filmmaker
of pictures such as The Spymasters,
author
and
Emmy
Award-
winning producer — presented the
importance of the White House
Chief of Staff, a role he describes
as the second most powerful
job in government, to a crowd of
approximately 200 at the Gerald R.
Ford Library.
Central to his discussion was his
2017 book “The Gatekeepers: How
the White House Chiefs of Staff
Define Every Presidency,” which
includes conversations with all 17
living chiefs of staff and two former
presidents. He also referenced
and showed clips from his 2013
documentary
“The
Presidents’
Gatekeepers,”
which
similarly
features chiefs discussing the past
nine presidential administrations,
approximately 50 years of office.
The Chief of Staff is sometimes
referred to as the “gatekeeper”
— the individual who decides
who can enter the Oval Office,
communicates
often
with
the
president and works as a secretary
of sorts. His tasks include advising
the president and negotiating with
Congress, among others; the role is
seen as the highest-ranked position
in the White House.
Whipple explained, the job of
White House Chief of Staff as it
exists today was created by H. R.
Haldeman — a chief of staff under
then-President
Richard
Nixon,
who served 18 months in prison
for conspiracy in the Watergate
scandal.
“Haldeman is a fascinating
character because, on the one
hand, he failed to speak truth to
Richard Nixon for the Watergate
cover infamously, and yet ultimate
successors will tell you he created
a
template
for
the
modern,
empowered White House Chief of
Staff,” he said.
Whipple said every president
learns, often the hard way, he
cannot govern effectively without
empowering a White House Chief
of Staff to execute his agenda and
tell him what he doesn’t want to
hear. He explained that today,
President Donald J. Trump does not
seem to be aware of this fact.
“Modern
history
is
littered
with the wreckage of presidencies
that did not understand that,” he
said. “It’s a lesson that our current
president, oblivious to history,
either has not learned or has chosen
to ignore.”
From the Watergate scandal
to the Iran-Contra scandal to the
Monica Lewinski scandal, the
Chief of Staff makes the difference
between success and disaster,
he explained. He elaborated that
though the Nixon White House
neared disaster, it could have been
worse if it were not for Haldeman
who often “talked Nixon off the
ledge” — strongly advising the
president against acts that seemed
inappropriate.
ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Ann Arbor, MI
Weekly Summer Edition
michigandaily.com
INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 76 | © 2017 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
NEWS ....................................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS ......................................
CLASSIFIEDS.........................
MiC.........................................
SPORTS................................
NEWS
Climate accord
University community
responds to withdrawal
from the Paris Agreement.
>> SEE PAGE 3
NEWS
African American
Festival
Local community gathers
in downtown Ann Arbor
for music and dancing.
>> SEE PAGE 2
OPINION
Sustainability
“DEI should not be the
only way we address racial
inequality...”
>> SEE PAGE 4
ARTS
Festival Recap:
Boston Calling
showcases A-list
musicians
>> SEE PAGE 7
SPORTS
Season in Review:
Baseball
Michigan won its most
games since 2008.
>> SEE PAGE 11
inside
2
4
6
8
9
10
Panel goals were to
identify problems and
inequities within the
Medical School
By ALON SAMUEL
Daily Staff Reporter
Close to 200 attendees filled
the Kahn Auditorium of the
Biomedical
Science
Research
Building Wednesday morning for
a symposium titled “Strategies
to Empower Women to Achieve
Academic
Success,”
which
examined
gender
gaps
and
inequities in the medical academic
world, as well as strategies to
overcome them.
Beginning with two keynote
speakers and followed by a panel
discussion and focus groups, the
symposium
aimed
to
identify
problems and inequities in the
University of Michigan Medical
School as well as the field in general
and develop workable strategies
to tackle them, according to Eva
Feldman, director of the Taubman
Medical Research Institute.
“We
want
to
have
clear
deliverables from today,” Feldman
said. “I hope as a first step, this is
the first conversation of many, but
the content of this conversation
is not going to end when we leave
this room at 11 o’clock, but rather
it’s going to be carried forward in a
very systematic way.”
Keynote speaker Dr. Reshma
Jagsi, director of the Center for
Bioethics and Social Sciences in
Medicine,
presented
research
on the gender gaps in academic
RESEARCH
See WHITE HOUSE, Page 3
See GENDER BIAS, Page 3
COURTESY OF JENNIFER MEER
Filmaker Chris Whipple discusses the role of the White House Chief of Staff at the Gerald R. Ford Library on Tuesday.
Symposium
offers ways
to address
gender bias
in medicine