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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