University 
of 
Michigan 

students have been organizing 
protests and demonstrations in 
the last two weeks after a slew 
of anti-Latino and anti-Black 
incidents. The Daily sat down 
with 
University 
president 

Mark Schlissel to talk students’ 
reactions, his responses and 
administrators’ actions moving 
forward.

Schlissel 
said 
focusing 

on the lack of success in 
catching racist perpetrators 
is 
“not 
productive.” 
The 

administration will be rolling 
out an online tracker of bias 
incidents 
in 
the 
coming 

weeks—though he said he has 
not caught wind of many good 
policy proposals yet. Schlissel’s 
main priority remains building 
a community of support for 
students. 

The Michigan Daily: How 

have you been processing this 
month’s 
events? 
Yesterday 

was the one-year anniversary 
of the (racist) flyers from last 
year, and it feels like events are 
repeating themselves, but then 
again, this energy feels unique 
this year.

President Mark Schlissel: 

There’s a cumulative effect 
here, right? These episodes 
in the last week or two aren’t 
the first ever, and they’re 
not the first since I’ve been 
here. You know, it seems like 
their frequency and intensity 
are 
increasing 
if 
anything 

else. I think it has the entire 
community on edge, including 
me and my leadership teams; 
we’re trying to find a way 
to send messages of support 
and attempt to identify the 
perpetrators of these various 
episodes, but also help people 
stay on task, stay on the reason 
everyone’s here is to learn and 
to progress in your lives, and 
not have the time stolen away 
from you by evil-doers.

TMD: On those messages of 

support, you know one of the 
first demands we often hear 
from students is for you, for a 
statement —

Schlissel: — I don’t think 

there’s any ambiguity about 
how I feel about these episodes. 
The responses to every one 
of them have been consistent: 
that racism, bigotry — any 
forms of attack on a person and 
who they are, their heritage — 
they’re unacceptable, they’re 
not part of our community, 
they’re not who we are.

The fact that after each one 

of these episodes it becomes 
an issue about whether (I’m) 
tweeting 
or 
emailing 
or 

Facebooking or whatever form 
of media people pay attention 
to, and that becomes the issue 

… whether I respond in one 
hour or four hours, or whether 
I respond with a tweet or an 
email, I don’t think that’s the 
real issue. I don’t think anyone 
should wonder whether or not 
the president is against racism. 

I 
think 
we 
are 
letting 

ourselves get distracted from 
the 
real 
challenge, 
which 

is supporting one another; 
making sure that if we see 
something, we say something, 
so we might actually have a 
chance 
of 
catching 
people 

doing some of these bad things; 
and most importantly trying to 
put these hurtful and hateful 
events in a context that allows 
us not to let the bad guys 
rob us of our opportunity to 
accomplish what we want to 
here at the University.

TMD: 
Speaking 
of 
this 

“small group of people,” the 
University has a history of 
progressive activism, and a 
very high profile in the national 
higher education landscape. 
It seems to have developed 
something of a target on its 
back. How do you mitigate 
that?

Schlissel: I don’t think you 

can. I think that part of being 
a prominent university, taking 
clear 
positions 
on 
things, 

having large numbers of very 
successful graduates out there 
in the world, being on TV all 
the time, being in the media 
all the time means that what 
happens here gets noticed. 
That’s the sort of other side 
of this double-edged sword of 
being famous and prominent. … 
It’s because of our prominence 
that 
provocateurs 
realize 

they can use us as a platform 
that the national media will 
pay attention to, to spread 
their 
terrible, 
thoughtless, 

degrading, awful ideas. They’re 
using us.

TMD: I know you spoke 

with Dana Greene, who was 
kneeling in the Diag, and with 
a lot of protesters and students 
in the last week. What kind of 
conversations have you been 
having, and what have you 
been hearing?

Schlissel: A lot of what I try 

to do is listen and understand 
what 
they’re 
experiencing 

to make sure I understand 
it as best as I can, and then 
to offer words of support 
and 
encouragement 
to 
let 

the people who are directly 
affected — because really all of 
us are being directly affected 
in one way or another — know 
that this does not represent our 
value system.

I 

The city of Ann Arbor has 

officially named Brad O’Furey 
and Sgt. Dawn Murphy as this 
year’s LGBTQ liaisons.

The position, created last year 

by Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher 
Taylor, is a volunteer role that 
serves to help answer questions 
and provide a safe community for 
Ann Arbor’s LGBTQ population. 
While no specific incidents led to 
the creation of the position, Taylor 
told the Daily last August it was 
the result of a recommendation 
from the city’s Human Rights 
Commission.

“Ann Arbor has an active 

human 
rights 
commission 

that focuses very carefully on 
LGBTQ rights,” Taylor said. 
“They recommend that there 
be such a position, and we were 
delighted to create one.”

O’Furey was the first person 

to take on the liaison role last 
year, and will reprise it this 
year. He is the immediate 
past president of the Jim 
Toy Community Center in 
Kerrytown and a longtime 
LGBTQ activist.

“With the volatile nature 

of the country today, I think 
it’s important the community 
should 
have 
their 
voices 

represented 
… 
especially 

with the increased number 
of 
transgender 
Americans 

who are underserved by these 
communities,” O’Furey said. 
“I have existing relationships 

with 
people 
in 
the 
city 

government — with the mayor, 
with City Council — so I felt that 
(this position) was a good use of 
my skills and my connections in 
the community to provide that 
voice to the community at large.”

O’Furey 
spent 
the 
past 

year working with the police 
department and the Human 
Rights 
Commission 
to 
help 

educate law enforcement officials 
on how to create a city that is safe 
and welcoming for marginalized 
folks.

“(I’ve been) creating a police 

department that is more educated 
on these issues and how to 

respond to harassment, what 
terms to use, asking folks what 
pronouns they want to use when 
dealing with the community,” he 
said.

The close connection to the 

police department last year is 
what led Sgt. Dawn Murphy to 
join O’Furey as a liaison this year. 
As a law enforcement official 
herself, Murphy is committed 
to bridging the gap between the 
department and the community, 
and helping the two groups learn 
from and about each other.

A video posted on the public 

University of Michigan campus-
area 
Snapchat 
story 
early 

Wednesday 
morning 
appears 

to show an unidentified man 
urinating on the Block ‘M’ in the 
Diag, and on the “Black Lives 
Matter” writing spray-painted 
around it. 

LSA senior Hoai An Pham 

shared the video on Facebook 
around noon on Wednesday, 
encouraging her audience to 
identify the man if they knew him.

“9 hours ago, this white male 

decided to go up to the M on the 
Diag and urinate on the Black 
Lives Matter words that are 
around it and then posted it on 
snapchat. Those words were put 
there in response to the racist 
hate crimes on campus,” she 
wrote. “Tell me again that we live 
in a post racial world. Please share 
widely.”

University 
of 
Michigan 

Division of Public Safety and 
Security 
spokeswoman 
Diane 

Brown said DPSS officers are 
currently 
investigating 
the 

incident.

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, September 28, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 99
©2017 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . B -S E C T I O N

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CROS SWO R D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

In interview, 
Schlissel puts 
support over 
new policy

Puerto Rican students anxious for 
family following Hurricane Maria

“‘We belong to the U.S., but we are not part 
of the U.S.’ … that’s a rough translation of a 
quote I’ve heard. It basically means that, 
yeah, if you say Puerto Rico, some people 
know it's part of the U.S. and some people 
don't … and some people don’t even 
recognize us as legitimate Americans."

— LSA senior Juan Fossas

DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS

ADMINSTRATION

University President admits there 
are no new policies currently planned

RIYAH BASHA & KAELA THEUT
Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporter

Community members organize fundraisers for island despite Trump admin. inaction

Extreme weather systems have 

devastated the western coasts 
of North and Central America. 
Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane 
Irma struck at the beginning 
of the month, followed by a 6.1 

magnitude earthquake in Mexico, 
and now a Category 5-turned-
Category-4 
Hurricane 
Maria. 

While all have left great damage 
in their paths, Maria has been 
arguably the most destructive, 
hitting Puerto Rico Wednesday 
morning, 
and 
continuing 
its 

course through the country for 
more than 24 hours.

The detrimental effects of 

Hurricane Maria have only added 
onto the economic crisis Puerto 
Rico has faced in the past decade, 
which was caused by debt and 
recession.

LSA senior Juan Fossas was 

born and raised in San Juan, 
Puerto Rico. His family has been 
confirmed as safe, 

yet his connection to them is 
extremely limited as only one of 
his extended family members has 
had working cell service.

“Thankfully my house is well 

built and concrete,” he said. “I 
knew my family would be fine, 
but it’s mainly the other people 
I’m worried about. My neighbors, 

KATHERINA SOURINE

Daily Staff Reporter 

Man defiles
Black Lives 
Matter sign 
on the Diag 

CRIME

Public urination posted on 
campus Snapchat story, 
DPSS opens investigation

ANDREW HIYAMA

Daily Staff Reporter

HAYLEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily

Students protest on their way to the “To Rename or to Remain” CC Little Dis-
cussion Panel in the League Tuesday. 

City officially names two new
LGBTQ community liasons

Brad O’Furey, Sgt. Dawn Murphy to help with education, rights

MAYA GOLDMAN

Daily Staff Reporter

The DIY B-Side 

Arts takes a look at the 

creative side of Ann Arbor 

and abroad in the latest 
edition of our magazine.

» B-SECTION

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See HURRICANE, Page 2A

RE NAME OR REM AIN?

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more online at 

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