A Data-Driven World: Potentials and Pitfalls
Wednesday, Oct. 11 | Rackham Auditorium & Michigan League
Announcing the
2017 MIDAS Symposium
Keynote Speaker
1:30 p.m., Rackham Auditorium
Cathy O’Neil, author, “Weapons of Math
Destruction: How Big Data Increases
Inequality and Threatens Democracy”
Also featuring...
• Daniela Witten, Assoc. Prof. of Statis-
tics and Biostatistics, Univ. of Washington
• James Pennebaker, Professor of
Psychology, Univ. of Texas
• Francesca Dominici, Professor
of Biostatistics, Harvard
• Nadya Bliss, Director, Global Se-
curity Initiative, Arizona State Univ.
• MIDAS-supported U-M researchers
in learning analytics, transpor-
tation, health science and social
science
• Student poster competition
• Industry panel
• Reception and open house
For agenda and to register:
midas.umich.edu/2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, October 6, 2017 — 3A
JOHN YAEGER/Daily
Brothers of the Theta Xi fraternity participate in the annual Defend
The Diag to protect the Diag and raise awareness for Multiple
Sclerosis Wednesday.
DE FE ND THE DIAG
Pollay said. “Some of the garages
(students) may be familiar with,
like Maynard … much of the
rooftop
already
has
fencing,
so that won’t take very long to
complete. And Forest has a unique
design … so it’s harder to look over
the edges.”
Pollay estimated the entire
construction
will
take
three
months.
In
the
meantime,
Republic Parking, the entity that
operates the garages on behalf of
the city, will add additional staff
members to monitor rooftops. The
DDA also allocated an additional
$250,000 for this staffing and any
further fencing needs, though
Pollay said she was still unsure
exactly how much security will
cost at the moment.
“We’ll start collecting those
costs once we have an estimate
from (Republic Parking); we don’t
have that yet,” Pollay said. “That’s
why the project budget is larger
than the proposal for the fencing
to allow for a lot of latitude for the
cost of staffing.”
Though plans to install fences
on garage rooftops have been in
the works in Ann Arbor since
last year, high costs delayed
the project. City Administrator
Howard Lazarus said the initial
bid for permanent fencing would
have cost Ann Arbor $1 million.
Though the DDA is still looking
for permanent fencing, it decided
to install the chain-link fencing as
an interim measure.
“The DDA went out for a bid
on a permanent installation, and
the price they got back was far in
excess of what they budgeted,”
Lazarus said. “They chose to
reject the bids and then tried to
rebid it. The difference now is that
they are looking at a very small-
opening chain-link fence, which
is an interim solution, not the
decorative fencing that they have
initially designed and picked.”
City
Councilmember
Chuck
Warpehoski, D-Ward 5, added
that not only were costs higher,
but there was also a lack of
fencing contractors due to massive
amounts of construction in the
region.
“It was a much higher cost and
lower response from the fencing
companies than we expected,”
Warpehoski said. “And the reason,
we’ve heard, is the building of
Little Caesar’s Arena … with that
project, all the workforce for
projects like these in Southeast
Michigan already had their hands
full.”
Some of the falls were ruled
suicides; research shows installing
physical structures like these
chain-link fences can help in
preventing impulsive action.
In
an
email,
Todd
Sevig,
Counseling
and
Psychological
Services director, wrote CAPS
aims to strengthen ties both
within and outside the University
of Michigan, a kind of multi-
dimensional support that is crucial
to ensure no one falls through the
net.
“We
at
CAPS
are
always
looking to strengthen our work
around student mental health —
our focus of the last few years has
been to devote time, attention,
and resources to cutting edge
clinical and outreach tools for
suicide prevention,” Sevig wrote.
“Improving mental health really
does take all of us, working
together, in our different roles, to
change the story.”
FENCES
From Page 1A
sign their name in support and
enroll as a member of Faculty
for Justice. As of Thursday
afternoon, the petition gathered
nearly 400 signatures.
The three faculty members
behind
the
letter,
associate
Philosophy
professor
Meena
Krishnamurthy,
associate
History
professor
Amanda
Armstrong-Price and Antoine
Traisnel,
an
associate
Comparative
Literature
professor, led the creation of the
group and Thursday’s picketing
across their departments.
Armstrong said it was equally
important to raise awareness
about
C.C.
Little,
support
student activism and stand in
solidarity with student actions
and concerns.
“We
came
together
with
some other faculty members
because we felt that there
should be more of a concerted
response and show of solidarity
on campus towards students
organizing against racism on
campus,” Armstrong said.
The
picketing
was
an
important first step for Faculty
for Justice.
“Among
our
faculty
and
colleagues there is a demand for
having a more concerted effort
for supporting students who
protest and act against racism
and white supremacy,” Traisnel
said. “We felt that often we left
our departments to be in charge
of writing statements and we
didn’t know how to respond
ourselves, so we decided to
create this group, Faculty for
Justice.”
“The goal is in many ways to
let students take the lead and
we want to act in solidarity with
them,” Krishnamurthy said.
Education
professor
Debi
Khasnabis joined the picketing,
passing out flyers to students as
they passed by. Khasnabis said
she teaches her students about
the importance of creating safe,
inclusive environments for K-12
students, and believes the same
should be done for students at
the University.
“I don’t think it’s right for
our students to feel unsafe,” she
said.
Some
students
passing
through
the
faculty-lined
walkway
in
the
building
continued walking, while others
stopped to discuss the issue.
LSA
freshman
Vishal
John was impressed by the
involvement of the faculty and
viewed their willingness to
speak out as an encouraging
response.
“Based off recent events that
have been happening on campus
I think it’s important to address
these issues,” John said. “I think
it’s good that they’re actually
talking about these subjects
instead of avoiding them or
remaining silent.”
BUILDING
From Page 1A
community.”
He further emphasized the
importance of the University
recognizing
the
ME/NA
community in connection with
achieving the goals delineated
within the DEI plan.
“For the University, the ability
to ascertain who identifies with
the ME/NA community is a
necessary step in developing
programs and interventions to
address any disparities and to
achieve the DEI goals,” he wrote.
“Knowing that we live in a state
with the largest concentration of
ME/NA individuals outside of the
Middle East, we have a regional
responsibility
to
implement
the ME/NA racial category to
support the large population of
students.”
In
a
September
interview
with
the
Daily,
Elharake
expressed optimism regarding
new University Provost Martin
Philbert’s
hire
in
terms
of
implementing
DEI
initiatives
across campus. He also noted
Philbert had been receptive of
Elharake’s ideas in precursory
meetings.
“I think it’s a critical time
here for Michigan, especially
politically, globally and I’m just
looking forward to the role that
he’s going to play for students
on campus,” Elharake said in
September. “He’s kind of the go-to
person when it comes to (this
ethnicity
addition)
especially
with figuring out the logistics of
it and in reality, us educating him
on the Middle Eastern/North
African student population here
at Michigan.”
Professor diversity training
In the wake of the dozens of
recent incidents of racism on
campus, one initiative within
DEI now of special importance
is
providing
faculty
with
training that enables them to
communicate and engage with
students in a way that makes the
classroom environment feel safer
and more inclusive for minority
students.
LSA Dean Andrew Martin
said it was especially important
to train faculty in fields that
are not inherently conducive to
conversations about race or social
inclusion.
“One of the things that’s
challenging, particularly given
the pace of the events and the
things that are happening, it
might be a little bit easier to
talk about some of these issues
in a political science course or
a history class or a course in
American culture, but how do
you talk to students about racial
hatred in a physics class or a
mathematics class?” Martin said.
The University already had
some
infrastructure
at
its
disposal for faculty education,
such as the Center for Research
on Learning and Teaching, but
it has also created several new
diversity workshops on inclusive
teaching
and
is
providing
additional support specifically
for faculty teaching “Race and
Ethnicity” courses.
Diversity training is required
for certain subsects of the faculty,
such as new graduate student
instructors
and
new
tenure-
track professors, as well as senior
faculty who want to be on faculty
hiring committees.
Fiona Lee, a professor of
Psychology
and
LSA’s
first
associate dean of DEI, said she
had personally experienced how
serious the college was about
mandated
diversity
training.
Before she became associate
dean, she was part of a faculty
hiring committee from which
Martin had excluded one of the
most senior faculty members
because they hadn’t attended a
diversity workshop.
“I was very irritated with you,
because this person’s expertise is
integral to this hiring initiative,
and we said, ‘How can we exclude
this person from this committee
when they are a person who
really knows the most about the
position?’ “ she said. “But Dean
Martin says, ‘No means no.’ So
there are strong expectations.”
The next year, Martin said, all
professors participated.
Between
new
faculty
and
faculty senior enough to be on
hiring
committees,
however,
there are many faculty not
required to participate in any
type
of
diversity
workshop.
Angela Dillard, LSA associate
dean of undergraduate education,
said that’s because they would
rather
incentivize
faculty
to
participate of their own accord
rather than forcing them, which
could generate ill will.
According
to
Lee,
approximately
1,500
faculty
members participated in at least
one such workshop last year, out
of about 4,000 faculty total.
Diversifying faculty
The lack of faculty of color is
another issue receiving particular
scrutiny in the implementation
of the DEI plan. From 2011 to
2016, there was no change in the
percentage of tenured faculty
who
were
underrepresented
minorities.
In an interview with The Daily
in February, Tabbye Chavous,
director
of
the
University’s
National Center for Institutional
Diversity, said there would be a
noticeable increase in faculty of
color within the next year.
“This fall will likely have an
appreciable difference on our
faculty. This hiring initiative
will change, within one year, the
composition of the people who
will be providing the educational
experiences to our students,”
Chavous said. “That’s just one
example, but it’s an example of
something that is pretty short-
term in terms of the outcomes of
those efforts.”
As part of their Diversifying
Academia
program,
LSA
is
funding
several
postdoctoral
fellowships
to
attract
young
academics with demonstrated
interest in and commitment to
diversity, chief among them the
LSA
Collegiate
Postdoctoral
Fellowship Program.
“This is one of the things that’s
really core to Fiona’s portfolio,”
Martin said. “The LSA Collegiate
Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
is a program designed to help
increase the diversity of our
faculty. This is a program that
will bring in 10 new faculty to our
campus every year, so hopefully
50 over the next five, and I have
every expectation to believe that
it will continue after that.”
In its first year, Lee said, the
program received 762 applicants,
hiring seven new faculty members
out of that pool –– all of whom
are underrepresented minorities.
This year, they received 936
applications, from which they
will make up to 13 new hires.
While the fellowship does not
put its fellows on a tenure track,
the idea is that many of them
eventually will get there, Martin
said.
Lee
DEI
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against
these
and
the
countless
other
acts
of
racists
and
xenophobic
actions that have taken place
on OUR campus and across
the country,” he wrote. “I am
turning to you, to students,
to staff, to faculty. I ask you,
who are we now? … Who are
we if we allow our African
American, Latinx, Muslim,
LGBTQ communities, etc.
to feel alone as they solely
constantly
combat
these
acts?”
The
Michigan
Daily
sat down with Greene to
hear about his experiences
kneeling on the Diag, his
thoughts on campus climate
and his hopes for Saturday’s
protest.
This interview was edited
for length and clarity.
The
Michigan
Daily:
What were your thoughts on
campus climate before last
Monday?
Greene: I thought it was
terrible. It just really struck
me because I just remember
being a freshman here — it
wasn’t that long ago. I had
some negative experiences
but nothing as avert and
obvious — blatant racism —
like incoming freshmen have
to experience. I couldn’t
imagine coming back to my
dorm room as a freshman
like two weeks, three weeks
in and see racist slurs across
my door.
I am trying to get my feet
wet and figure out college
life and who my friends are
and what to study and, next
I know, I am organizing a
protest because somebody
decided they wanted to
call me derogatory racial
slurs. And so, I remember
thinking,
“Well,
these
things are going to happen.
Toughen
it
up,
because
that’s what I had to do.”
Then I just remember, no —
students shouldn’t have to
do that. “Oh, I have to deal
with students being racist
to me or seeing racist flyers
on campus or whatever” —
no, people should be able
to walk around campus in
their own skin and be their
authentic selves and not
have to worry about that.
But yet, we do. And that is
just unacceptable.
I always hate to bring it
back to this event but it is
just like a fact — at least for
me — that once President
Trump came to the scene
as not only a candidate, but
as president, that’s when
things started to change.
I am not going to say what
we thought no longer exists
because we always knew
(racism) was there. But it
used to be unacceptable to
do or say or act on. But now
it has become acceptable.
Just a few weeks ago,
Latino students who were
just excited to be here
painted the Rock with their
culture and their names and
next thing you know, there’s
another set of racial slurs
attacking Latino students
with “Make America Great”
attached to it. So essentially
doing it in President Donald
Trump’s name.
If I am a freshman or an
undergraduate student or
just anybody in general, how
am I supposed to exist in
this space, where not only
do I feel like my own student
body doesn’t support me,
but then my country doesn’t
support me? The President
of United States basically
sanctioned this behavior.
He put the rubber stamp on
this behavior. People can
disagree with me on this or
not — that’s their right to.
But that is my belief.
TMD:
What
do
you
think
the
University
—
administration,
teachers,
students — are doing wrong
in regards to campus climate
and bias incidents?
Greene: For me, there
isn’t any one policy or
something
that
isn’t
in
the books that should be
written there that is going
to change what students
on this campus, faculty,
staff, etc., are feeling. For
me, it’s bigger than that.
It’s, what do we allow to
happen?
When
you
see
racist flyers on campus, how
many people walk past them
without ripping them down?
Or when you see somebody
painted something racist on
the Rock, how many people
do not paint over? We allow
these things to happen and
that’s why they continue to
come here.
GREENE
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