DINNE RTIME

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, September 26, 2017— 3

Max Kuang/Daily

Zingerman’s Deli hosts a paella party cookout Sunday.

was taking place in response to 
the racist graffiti written on his 
brother’s door in West Quad, but 
also to protest the name of the 
building, C.C. Little.

“We’re here today because my 

brother Travon, they targeted him 
because of his ethnicity. We’re here 
today because they stopped us from 
trying to learn so we’re … trying to 
study,” Felten said. “Another reason 
we shut down C.C. Little is because 
it’s a racist institution. It’s racist.”

The name C.C. Little has been 

hotly debated in recent months at 
the University. Earlier this month, 
a group of University professors 
and a student submitted an official 
request to change the name of the 
building.

“How would if you were going 

to say, if you were Jewish, and you 
say, ‘I’m going to Adolf Hitler bus 

stop.’ That’s not cool,” Felten said. 
“For Black people, this is not cool 
because if our great grandparents 
had to deal with him, we wouldn’t 
be here right now.”

Students attempting to board the 

bus lined up at the C.C. Little station 
en masse, waiting for a bus to take 
them to North Campus.

Postdoctoral 
fellow 
Austin 

McCoy, a veteran organizer and 
attendee at the blockade, said the 
students waiting for the bus were 
what made the protest so effective 
in spreading the cause of #BBUM 
and #SchlisselWya to the entire 
campus.

“I think (the halting of the bus 

routes) is part of the lesson: to 
get other students who may not 
be thinking about issues of racial 
inequality 
to 
understand 
how 

racism inconveniences Black people, 
especially on campus,” McCoy said.

While most MBuses and city 

buses could not gain access to the 
road, the protesters cleared the way 

for an ambulance halfway through 
the demonstration.

Felten discussed the number of 

Black students at the University 
and how he sees it as a problem, 
especially in a country with a much 
higher proportion of Black people.

“There’s not a lot of us here. We 

can go all day walking on campus 
and not see another Black person,” 
Felten said. “This doesn’t really 
affect us on a physical level but 
psychologically this does affect us 
and hurt us.”

Studying on campus can be 

difficult, Felten said, when there are 
so few students that look like him.

“You don’t want to study in a 

space with people that don’t look 
like you,” Felten said. “I don’t feel 
safe going to Shapiro because I don’t 
know how a white person might 
perceive me. They might just have 
the gut to say the N-word to me, but 
I’m going to stay strong. I’m here for 
a reason, I have a purpose in life.”

North Campus buses such as 

the Bursley-Baits bus changed 
their routes to pick up students on 
Church Street instead of North 
University Avenue so students could 
still get to class, but these students 
still felt Travon’s message and the 
point of the demonstration.

Engineering senior Dulce Rios 

was waiting at C.C. Little at the 
time of the protest for a bus to take 
her to North Campus. After talking 
with the Daily, she found out there 
wouldn’t be a bus coming to the 
C.C. Little stop.

“I mean, I think the point 

of protest is to disrupt other 
people’s daily lives, right?” Rios 
said. “Because they’re protesting 
because their daily lives are 
disrupted so I think they’re being 
pretty effective if you ask me.”

Other students waiting for 

buses weren’t as receptive to the 
action that disrupted bus routes. 

Engineering 
sophomore 

Bogdan Manga was waiting for a 
bus at the time of the protest to get 

to a class on North Campus.

“I respect what they’re doing 

but I don’t think the academic 
process 
should 
be 
impeded 

because I want to go to class,” 
Manga said. “I’m fine, I’m not mad 
or anything.”

Along with the ambulance 

and a few buses, the protesters 
also allowed LeRoy Whipple, the 
owner and operator of the Whips 
Dog Days hot dog stand, to pass 
through and set up his cart in 
front of the Chemistry Building. 
He said the protesters are allowed 
to demonstrate and would hold up 
city buses as well.

“They have the right,” Whipple 

said. “It’s definitely going to hold 
the bus systems up and put them 
behind schedule. The AATA, the 
ones that run through the city, 
they can’t get through here, so 
that’s going to impact the city 
too.”

About 
10:45 
am, 
students 

at the C.C. Little crosswalk 

stood up from their homework, 
gathered themselves in a circle 
and chanted and sang. After the 
main demonstrators dispersed, 
representatives 
were 
sent 
to 

relieve the allies blocking the 
major intersections with the 
police from their posts, signifying 
the end of the demonstration.

Stearns said the purpose of 

the protest was not to sit with no 
purpose and cause stress for those 
trying to use the buses. He said 
the constant roadblocks keeping 
students from classes and doing 
homework, such as the name tag 
incident, is what Black students at 
the University experience every 
day.

“We’re not just doing this to 

be jerks or things of that nature,” 
Stearns said. “We have an end goal 
in mind. We’re really doing this so 
you can hear us, hear the issues 
that we have on this campus. This 
is what it’s like to study at the 
University of Michigan.”

BLOCKADE
From Page 1

feel like if it’s on State Street it’s 
just going to be like ‘Hey, I’m just 
walking into Mason Hall’ and 
you’re not really going to have 
those conversations. But people 
who actually walk here (now), 
then they’re going to want to talk.”

LSA senior Catherine Daoud 

attested 
to 
the 
increasing 

importance of wanting to talk, 
especially with a number of 
racially-charged 
incidents 

happening on and around campus 
in recent years, including racist 
writing that occurred as recently 
as last weekend.

“The students that come here 

to organize these protests, they 

utilize our space to write down 
their demands, write down what 
they want to be done,” Daoud said. 
“People will host meetings on how 
to tackle this racist incident or this 
racist remark that just occurred, 
or they will just come in and 
have discussions and have that 
dialogue that needs to be done.”

She added the move could have 

made protests like Monday’s even 
more centralized.

“The (protests) on the Diag, 

if we were closer, we would be 
having a dialogue discussion 
about it,” Daoud said.

The move, though, comes 

with logistical implications. The 
new building is slated to be in 
front of the Betsy Barbour and 
Helen Newberry residences, just 
north of the Kelsey Archaeology 
Museum, 
the 
LSA 
building 

and 
the 
Michigan 
Union. 

Construction has closed half of 
State Street’s southbound lane 
and the sidewalk.

Susan Pile, senior director of 

University Unions and Auxiliary 
Services, said she thinks the 
construction on State Street, 
though a disruption, has made 
minimal impact.

“I 
don’t 
think 
(the 

construction) will really have an 
impact on the Union,” she said. 
“It’s far enough down the street 
that we’re not anticipating it’ll have 
any impact on pedestrian flow 
and parking and that sort of thing 
because the street is still open and 
the sidewalk is open, just kind of 
across the street.”

The Office of Public Affairs 

declined to comment at the time 
of publication. 

TROTTER
From Page 1

of Michigan’s campus, especially 
to Greek life, I’ll go into a fraternity 
and say, ‘What is sexual assault?’ 
and a lot of them can’t tell me a 
definition of it because they’re 
unaware of certain things that fall 
into that category,” Snyder said. 
“Education is like the baseline of 
what we’re trying to do.”

Kelsey Snyder is the director 

of the Panhellenic peer educators 
who organize the Speak Out for 
Greek life that provides an open 
forum for survivors to share their 
stories.

“I am really proud of Kelsey 

stepping up and the role she’s 
played. As you’ve heard she’s gone 
to fraternities to talk to young 
men about this issue,” Gov. Snyder 
said. “I mean, that’s the kind of 
involvement we need.”

Some 
lawmakers 
were 

concerned when U.S. Secretary of 
Education Betsy DeVos issued new 
rules requiring a higher standard 
of evidence for sexual assault cases. 
Additionally, 
Trump 
recently 

removed a report of sexual violence 
from the White House website. 
The Obama-era report was often 
used as a resource for those doing 
research on sexual assault.

“I don’t have a fear and I hope 

it comes together well. I’ve talked 
to Betsy DeVos and I’ve shown 
her what we’ve done in the state 
and I told her we are a resource 

for whatever she may need,” Sue 
Snyder said. “I honestly don’t think 
it’s going to hurt. I think it will 
help.”

EMU sophomore Joheny Yanes 

agreed with Kelsey Snyder in that 
Campbell’s words hold a lot of 
weight.

“I think it is great to be able to 

listen to politicians’ words, but 
since Campbell is a researcher, she 
had like firsthand experience with 
survivors, and their stories are 
often the most moving,” Yanes said.

Many campus-level initiatives 

are taking place due to funding 
granted to the University by the 
state to prevent sexual assault –– 
Sue Snyder said Michigan is the 
only state which allocates general 
budget dollars to this effort. But 
additionally, the state legislature has 
introduced legislation with many 
of the same goals, largely due to 
the female representatives on 
the appropriations committee.

“We are making sure that 

survivors have access to their 
medical records when they do 
seek treatment and go through a 
rape kit,” Sue Snyder said.

State 
Rep. 
Kristy 
Pagan, 

D-Canton, said the legislation, 
known as the Sexual Assault 
Victims’ 
Medical 
Forensic 

Intervention and Treatment Act, 
will provide funding to medical 
care and forensics teams that 
work on sexual assault cases, 
while ensuring survivors have 
access to counseling.

Additionally, 
Rep. 
Debbie 

Dingell said they are working 

on funding a sexual assault kit 
tracking system that would 
allow survivors to know exactly 
where their kit is in the criminal 
justice process, whether it be 
the prosecutor’s office or a lab. If 
they are successful in allocating 
the funds, Michigan would be 
the first state in the country to 
provide kit tracking.

Campbell 
explained 
many 

victims of sexual assault refrain 
from disclosing the crime in fear 
that their inebriation during the 
assault would place blame on 
them or make them vulnerable 
to minor in possession offenses. 
State Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, 
R-Van Buren, however, said the 
women on the panel wanted to 
rid survivors of as many worries 
as possible.

“We amended the law so that 

minors who had been drinking 
and were getting a sexual 
assault exams would not be 
getting a minor in possession,” 
Schuitmaker 
said. 
“Sexual 

assault is the top priority of the 
situation and we didn’t want 
survivors to have any barriers.”

With the support of attendees 

and 
bipartisan 
political 

leaders, Dingell said the state 
and federal governments will 
continue advocating for the 
safety of college campuses and 
empowerment of survivors.

“I remember what it was 

like to be on college campus. 
I remember the shame, the 
trauma. We cannot go back,” she 
said. 

SUMMIT
From Page 1

here until my knees bleed, then 
that’s what I’m going to do.”

In a letter addressed to Schlissel 

that circulated around the Diag, 
Greene traced his experiences 
with racism in his five years on 
campus. 

“I have crossed the fountain 

in Ingalls Mall as an incoming 
freshman and as a graduate,” he 
wrote. “I have watched as anti-
Muslim, anti-Black, anti-Latinx, 
and 
anti-immigrant 
rhetoric 

has raced across our campus 
and across our country...I am no 
longer numb but instead I will 
use this moment in time to make 
a statement.” 

E. 
Royster 
Harper, 
vice 

president for student life, said she 
was proud of the students who 
were protesting that morning. 

“I think that (I am proud of), 

not only the student who chose 
to take a knee, but also all the 
students — how they feel about 
equality in our country and 
also at our University. I am just 
glad to be here to be in support 
and make sure everything goes 
well. I couldn’t be more pleased, 
actually,” she said.

She also touched upon how 

the University is responding to 
student concerns. 

 “I feel like we’ve been 

responsive in terms of showing 
up and talking to students,” she 
said. “I think that what we do in 

the next two weeks is not really 
the answer, it’s what we do after, 
because this is long-term work, 
and it’s work we’re going to have 
to do as a community. There’s 
nothing you can do short-term 
about a long term problem, and 
racism is a long-term problem. We 
all just have to keep working on it. 
So this gives me hope that we can 
do that together.”

Last year, Colin Kaepernick, 

former quarterback for the San 
Francisco 49ers, was the first 
professional athlete to take a 
knee during the national anthem 
to draw attention to anti-Black 
racism and police brutality in the 
United States. Trump blasted 
Kaepernick in a speech this 
weekend, telling owners to “get 
that son of a bitch off the field 
right now.” 

“What Colin Kaepernick did 

last year, taking a knee, wasn’t 
to disrespect the troops. In fact, 
I think I’m honoring the troops 
right now because they gave me 
the right to do this. My father 
served in the military, and … this 
isn’t disrespecting the flag, this 
is honoring it,” Greene said. “If 
Black people can get killed in this 
country and not get any justice for 
their lives, for their murder, then 
that’s disrespecting the flag.”

Following the white nationalist 

groups protesting the taking 
down of the statue of Robert E. 
Lee, a Confederate general, in 
Charlottesville, 
Va., 
President 

Trump blamed “all sides” for the 
violence that occurred, which 

received a great deal of backlash.

“If the president of the United 

States 
can 
equate 
peaceful 

protesters with KKK members and 
the alt-right, that is disrespecting 
the flag,” Greene explained. “This 
is not disrespecting the flag, and 
I’m doing this for every student 
on this campus that has ever felt 
like they didn’t belong here, any 
person in this country who felt 
like they didn’t belong here.”

In the morning, Greene said 

he was surprised Schlissel could 
not come to the Diag. Throughout 
the 
afternoon, 
administrators 

including E. Royster Harper, vice 
president for Student Life; Provost 
Martin Philbert; Dean of Students 
Laura Blake Jones; and Chief 
Diversity Officer Robert Sellers 
stood at the edge of the Diag. 

“I’ve been out here since 7 

o’clock, it’s damn near 90 degrees 
out here, the president of the 
campus ain’t even showed up. 
So how much is my life worth?” 
Greene said. “He can come out 
here, but that’s not going to send 
me home. That’s a start.”

Many ordered rounds of pizza 

to the protestors, and Counseling 
and 
Pyschological 
Services 

distributed yoga mats to those 
kneeling. 

Central Student Government 

President Anushka Sarkar, LSA 
senior, tweeted solidatory with 
students protesting. 

KNEELING
From Page 1

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com