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
From Page 1A

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

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
From Page 1A

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

