The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Wednesday, October 3, 2017 — 3A

CAT MYKOLAJTCHUK/Daily

Business senior Kevin Yang plays the Charles Baird Carillon under Professor Jeremy Chesman on Ingalls Mall Tuesday afternoon.

KE E P CALM AND CARILLON

confrontation, as he feels the 
safety of minority students is 
paramount.

“As a university, we create 

spaces for dialogue, and sometimes 
that dialogue we find horrific and 
offensive,” Martin said. “But it 
doesn’t mean that that stuff has 
to stay up in these settings, and I 
think that’s something that would 
be effective.”

Martin 
said 
he 
agreed 

with those who commented 
on 
the 
University’s 
lack 
of 

communication on how they are 
handling ongoing issues. He also 
stressed the legality of the of the 
vandalism was not up for debate 
but also that it was logistically 
difficult to release details of an 

ongoing investigation.

“To be clear, I don’t want 

to have dialogues about what 
happened in West Quad,” he 
said. “What happened in West 
Quad was ridiculous. It almost 
certainly 
violated 
Michigan 

ethnic intimidation law, and 
DPSS continues to investigate 
that event and similar events. 
The challenge is that one can’t 
be entirely transparent about 
the investigation that’s going on. 
And all it takes is one person with 
a marker or one person with a 
poster and a roll of tape to create 
a lot of hurt.”

Students later asked him how 

seriously 
the 
administration 

was taking demands to rename 
the C.C. Little Science Building, 
whose name honors a former 
president of the University who 
was an outspoken advocate of 
eugenics.

“Very,” Martin said. “We, 

as a University, put a process 
in place a couple years ago for, 
‘How are we going to go about 
thinking about renaming or 
removing a name from one of 
our buildings?’ And that was 
a thoughtful process, that 
was an academic process with 
the idea of, ‘Let’s collect all 
the information, let’s make a 
reasoned decision.’ “

That 
information 
was 

collected by LSA students 
and faculty and compiled into 
a report. Martin said that 
report is now being reviewed 
by the President’s Advisory 
Committee 
on 
University 

History, which can revise or 
add to the report before a final 
decision is made by University 
President Mark Schlissel and 
the Board of Regents — likely 
within the next year.

“This is not some sort of, 

‘We’re gonna have a process 
so this thing goes away,’ and 
it just flies away,” he said. 
“There’s going to be very 
sustained engagement on this 
particular issue. We don’t 
know about timing, partly 
because we don’t know how 
long it’s going to take them to 
get the information they need 
to make a decision. My guess is 
this is something that will be 
resolved this academic year.”

LSA senior Ryan Gillcrist 

said despite the relatively poor 
attendance of the event, he 
appreciated the opportunity to 
directly connect with Martin 
in an informal setting.

“It’s always hard to get 

people to these types of events, 
even with free food, but it’s 
great to be able to ask him 
questions in person,” he said.

DEI
From Page 1A

just 
his 
wonderful 
parents,” 

Secchia said. “It was the fact that 
he grew up in a community that 
cares. Judging by the numbers, 
people still care.”

The audience was subsequently 

introduced to Brooks, White and 
moderator 
Gleaves 
Whitney, 

director of GVSU’s Hauenstein 
Center for Presidential Studies.

When 
asked 
about 
the 

relationship between character 
and leadership, Brooks recalled 
a time when he was passionately 
arguing 
policy 
with 
former 

President George W. Bush. He 
said though Bush was fuming at 
times, the president reminded 
himself that he was enjoying the 
argument because his staffers 
would never directly engage with 
him.

“You’re love-bombed all day 

by everybody,” Brooks said. “One 
of the big character challenges in 
being a leader is how do you deal 
with that love bomb and how does 
it not have an effect on you. And 
I have never seen anybody really 
immune.”

White argued seeing beyond 

what is said and looking at 
the 
speaker’s 
character 
can 

reintroduce civility in public 

discourse and revive engagement 
between 
people 
who 
have 

different views.

“I think we might want to be in 

that place where we can disagree 
with someone’s particular policy 
… but we can see and value their 
character,” White said. 

Perhaps the most pertinent 

question 
to 
students 
in 

the audience was the role 
universities 
should 
play 
in 

building 
character. 
While 

lamenting the loss of “in loco 
parentis” 
after 
the 
student 

movements 
in 
the 
1960s, 

particularly surrounding civil 
rights and issues of racism on 
campus, White recommended 
students read biographies of 
great historical figures to explore 
their moral development.

“(Biographies 
are) 
very 

different from just doing a survey 
class in American history or 
European history,” White said. 
“We need to watch the formation 
of character in individuals and 
lift that up as models for young 
men and women.”

Brooks concurred, observing 

that students these days have 
an abundance of what he called 
“résumé words” — traits that 
make them attractive to employers 
— they lack in eulogy words such 
as “honorable”, “courageous” and 
“capable of great love that truly 

shows character.”

“We give (students) a series of 

empty boxes, partly because we’ve 
grown up in a culture … where the 
emphasis is all about liberation 
and emancipation,” Brooks said. 
“People get lost in their freedom, 
and they just don’t know how to 
bind (themselves), and I think 
that’s a national failure, not just a 
university failure.”

Ann Arbor resident Judith 

Reiter said she was glad that, in 
a political atmosphere that at 
times seems to reward dishonest 
individuals, well-read men like 
Brooks and White shared her 
belief in morality.

“I feel so strongly in the 

importance of morality and 
responsibility and leadership, and 
to have my feelings supported by 
people as verbal and incredible 
was very heartening,” Reiter said.

Others were critical of the 

speakers’ views. Public Policy 
student Kristina Kaupa pointed 
out that though the event title 
evoked the abrasive personality 
of the incumbent president, the 
speakers seldom referred to 
him. Brooks and White tended 
to focus on the moral character 
of presidents like Lincoln, Grant, 
Truman and the two Bushes.

“I was surprised that we didn’t 

spend more time talking about 
the current presidency and a 

little shocked that they weren’t 
more willing to engage with 
that conversation,” Kaupa said. 
“They still didn’t really challenge 
the character of the current 
presidency or even talk about the 
character of Hillary Clinton as a 
potential alternative.”

Kaupa also found issue with 

the speakers’ praise of the effects 
of mothers on sons. She said this 
implied women cannot have 
strong moral character because 
daughters tend to get along with 
their fathers better instead of 
their mothers. 

“In 
my 
own 
personal 

experience, the strong women 
in my life never had an easy 
relationship with their mother,” 
Kaupa said. “It takes a strong 
woman to raise a strong woman, 
and those personalities do not 
always match.”

Public Policy student Jackson 

Voss criticized what he perceived 
as the speakers’ assumption 
that young people do not know 
anything about character.

“That’s a weird opinion to have 

because it’s not our generation 
that’s exhibiting all the bad 
character in government,” Voss 
said. “It’s not people our age that 
tend to be the problem.”

POLICY
From Page 1A

organizations and individuals 
in order to gauge potential 
support of the amendment.

Rich 
Studley, 
president 

and CEO of the Michigan 
Chamber of Commerce, issued 
a statement explaining the vote 
and describing how the reform, 
though still under discussion, 
might 
improve 
internal 

workings of the legislature.

“This 
government 

reform 
effort 
could 
focus 

on revising term limits and 
other changes to improve the 
effectiveness, 
accountability 

and transparency of the state 
legislature. The specifics of 
this government accountability 
proposal 
remain 
to 
be 

determined. 
Chamber 
staff 

will report back to the Board of 
Directors in January 2018,” he 
wrote.

While 
38 
state 
senators 

currently represent Michigan, 
because of rigid term limits, 26 
will not have the opportunity 
for re-election in 2018. Within 
Michigan’s 110 House seats, 24 
will be available for change in 
candidacy, allowing for a 21.8 
percent turnover rate — the 
second highest among all state 
Houses.

Specifically, 19 Republicans 

and seven Democrats will be 
forced to vacate their seats 
in the state Senate, while 13 
Democrats and 11 Republicans 
will do the same in the state 
House.

While term limits do face 

opposition among some policy 
makers, 
Patrick 
Anderson, 

author 
of 
the 
1992 
term 

limits 
amendment, 
argued 

that 
term 
limits 
provide 

generational 
representation 

and allow frequent waves of 
new legislators to address the 
needs of a changing society. 

He also stated “a vast majority 
of citizens are not interested 
in fixing a portion of the state 
constitution that is not broken.” 

“The basic message citizens 

have given their government for 
200 years now has been to have 
a Legislature full of people who 
represent citizens,” Anderson 
told The Detroit News. “To do 
that effectively, you want to 
make sure that those legislators 
are periodically drawn from 
the citizenry, and term limits 
ensures that.”

At the heart of the debate is the 

controversy as to whether term 
limits encourage lawmakers to 
vote in agreement with desires 
of their constituents or if their 
votes face more persuasion 
from special interest groups 
within the legislature. 

Engineering 
sophomore 

Lincoln Merrill, publicity chair 
for the University of Michigan’s 
College Republicans, stated he 
feels term limits are beneficial 

and they should not change in 
the state of Michigan.

“I think that term limits 

should be instituted in every 
state legislature and every 
state and in the national 
legislature,” he said. “You’ve 
seen 
the 
backlash 
against 

the establishment and the 
career-sort of politicians that’s 
happened in the past year, 
and it just goes to show a lot 
of the people who are in office 
nationally for decades and 
decades at a time, this doesn’t 
go for all of them, but there’s a 
possibility that they’re just in it 
for the job and the money and 
power, and they don’t necessarily 
have your good in mind. With 
regards to Michigan in general, I 
don’t think they should change it 
at all … I think it’s a good amount 
of time where you can get 
something done, (and) you can 
move on after that.”

College Democrats did not 

respond for a comment.

LEGISLATURE
From Page 1A

superiority 
of 
race, 
directly 

addressing the “myths” of the 
“The Bell Curve.”

“Over the past 100 years, 

following 
a 
longer 
trend 

of 
scientific 
racism, 
some 

researchers 
have 
sought 
to 

demonstrate that there is a 
quantifiable correlation between 
racial group and mental ability, 
and 
that 
IQ 
(intelligence 

quotient) is a singular and innate 
biological trait,” the statement 
read. “This has never been 
proven. Nevertheless, it is one of 
the oldest cards in the racist deck, 
dating back to the early 1900s 
when the modern intelligence 
test was invented.”

After Murray’s visit to the 

University 
was 
announced, 

Public Policy student Jackson 
Voss, chair of the Ford School of 
Public Policy’s Student Affairs 
Committee, made a post as 
the Public Policy School’s SAC 
denouncing the event. In an 
interview Tuesday, he urged 
other student leaders and student 
government figures to do the 
same.

“I think that for me and 

for others the way that I have 
started to think about it is that 
we actually do serve a public-
facing role,” Voss said. “I think 
it’s our responsibility to make 
statements about things that are 
happening, especially things that 
are happening to our classmates 
and to the people we say were 
representing in these meetings 
and in our advocacy and in our 
activities.”

Voss 
said 
he 
strives 
to 

remain bipartisan in his role 
as a student leader but believes 
the ideas Murray promotes are 
problematic, not partisan.

“He put on this public persona, 

but the truth is the ideas he 
prescribes to and promotes are 
explicitly 
white 
supremacist, 

or anti-women,” he said. “He is 
pretty forthright with it, believes 
that white men are intellectually, 
socially, psychologically, superior 
to other groups of people, and 
that is the definition of being a 
white supremacist.”

If the University’s chapter 

of College Republicans want to 
distance themselves from white 
supremacists, Voss argues they 
must take direct action.

“If 
Republicans 
and 

Conservatives and groups like 
AEI are generally concerned 
about these things then they 
need to prove it, by not bringing 
speakers like Charles Murray to 
campus,” he said.

Engineering 
sophomore 

Lincoln Merrill, publicity chair 
of College Republicans, says 
Republicans have been making 

an effort to distance themselves 
from the recent expressions of 
racism and white supremacy on 
campus.

“All of the posters that came 

out this morning, those people 
are ridiculous,” Merrill said. 
“We do not agree with them at 
all. With the Charles Murray 
event, we’re just trying to have an 
event.”

LSA 
senior 
Ben 
Decatur, 

co-chair 
of 
the 
American 

Enterprise Institute Executive 
Council at the University, wrote 
in an email the Murray event 
will 
continue 
as 
scheduled, 

adding that Murray was invited 
specifically to discuss the 2016 
election in the context of his book 
“Coming Apart.”

“Murray’s 2012 book ‘Coming 

Apart’ in many ways predicts the 
rise of a candidate like Trump,” 
Decatur said. “In the book, 
Murray demonstrates that a new 
upper class and a new lower class 
have diverged so far in behaviors 
that the upper class is completed 
isolated from the culture and 
struggles 
of 
less 
fortunate 

Americans.”

According 
to 
Decatur, 

Murray’s 
theories 
on 
race 

and mental ability are often 
misconstrued.

“As far as ‘The Bell Curve,’ 

Murray has denounced the ‘alt-
right’ as vile and any attempts 
to use his scholarship to justify 
this so called philosophy,” he 
said. “Murray, a libertarian, even 
opposed Trump in 2016.”

Voss said there has been talk 

of protesting the Murray event, 
though he does not know of any 
concrete plans at the moment. 
University 
spokesman 
Rick 

Fitzgerald said the sponsor’s 
organization has been working 
with the Center for Campus 
Involvement to ensure student 
safety is a priority.

“The student organizations 

sponsoring Charles Murray’s visit 
to campus have been working 
with the Center for Campus 
Involvement, part of Student 
Life, and the Palmer Commons 
event staff to plan for this event,” 
Fitzgerald wrote in an email. 
“This is the normal process for 
student groups that host high-
profile speakers on campus. Those 
plans are still being finalized and, 
as always, community safety is 
one of the critical elements being 
considered.”

Decatur invited students who 

oppose Murray to come to the 
event and engage in discussion 
with him.

“Dr. 
Murray 
will 
devote 

most of his time to hearing 
from audience members and we 
encourage students who disagree 
with Murray’s worldview to 
listen to him firsthand and 
respectfully and frankly engage 
with him during this event,” he 
said.

AUTHOR
From Page 1A

was an academic process with 
the idea of, ‘Let’s collect all 
the information, let’s make a 
reasoned decision.’ “

That 
information 
was 

collected 
by 
LSA 
students 

and 
faculty 
and 
compiled 

into a report. Martin said the 
report is now being reviewed 
by the President’s Advisory 
Committee 
on 
University 

History, which can revise or 
add to the report before a final 
decision is made by University 
President Mark Schlissel and 
the Board of Regents — likely 
within the next year.

“This is not some sort of, 

‘We’re gonna have a process 
so this thing goes away,’ and 

it just flies away,” he said. 
“There’s going to be very 
sustained engagement on this 
particular issue. We don’t know 
about timing, partly because 
we don’t know how long it’s 
going to take them to get the 
information they need to make 
a decision. My guess is this is 
something that will be resolved 
this academic year.”

LSA senior Ryan Gillcrist, 

who is also the LSA Student 
Government 
Vice 
President 

said despite the relatively poor 
attendance of the event, he 
appreciated the opportunity to 
directly connect with Martin 
in an informal setting.

“It’s always hard to get 

people to these types of events, 
even with free food, but it’s 
great to be able to ask him 
questions in person,” he said.

TOWN HALL
From Page 2A

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