Students 
blared 
various 

demands for accountability and 
administrative action after weeks 
of racist provocations on campus 
earlier this semester, but one 
question echoed throughout all 
the protests.

“What 
happens 
to 
racist 

students 
who 
get 
caught?” 

LSA senior Arlyn Reed asked 
at a de-stress event held by the 
Black Student Union last month 
to rounds of applause from the 
audience.

“(A University of Michigan) 

investigation just means it is 
going to be swept under the rug, 
and I actually want punishment 
for these people, because I want 
to feel safe on campus,” LSA 
freshman 
Madison 
Peterson 

echoed at a protest the next day.

Reed, a former Central Student 

Government 
representative, 

went on to propose a student 
sanctioning process — similar 
to one mandated by the sexual 
misconduct policy — in the 
face of an uptick in bias-related 
incidents. The Dean of Student’s 
Bias Response Team has logged 
52 bias incidents since this July, 
but students are correct to point 
out neither University Division 
of Public Safety and Security 
officers nor administrators have 
publicly released apprehensions 
of any perpetrators.

The role of OSCR and a 
changing statement

The catch to Reed’s proposal 

is that the institutional process, 
in large part, already exists. 
The Office of Student Conflict 
Resolution 
is 
tasked 
with 

enforcing the Statement of Student 
Rights 
and 
Responsibilities 

and litigates cases spanning 
from alcohol abuse to falsifying 
University 
documents. 
OSCR 

uses a spectrum of tools to 
address formal violations of the 
statement, 
including 
conflict 

resolution, 
restorative 
justice 

or 
adjudication. 
Informal 

workshops include the option for 
unconscious bias training.

OSCR director Erik Wessel 

said the unit has handled more 
than one case of bias this year. E. 
Royster Harper, the University’s 
vice president for student life, 
however, said in a September 
interview she was not aware 
of one bias investigation to her 
knowledge addressed through 
OSCR. The statement’s language 
is ambiguous, and does not have a 

clause expressly sanctioning bias 
or discrimination. 

While the statement gives 

students the right “to be treated 
fairly and with dignity regardless 
of race, color, national origin, 
age, marital status, sex, sexual 
orientation, 
gender 
identity, 

gender 
expression, 
disability, 

religion, 
height, 
weight, 
or 

veteran status,” the document 
does not task students with 
the 
reciprocal 
responsibility. 

The only clause broaching bias 
Former 
Michigan 
House 

Rep. Jeff Irwin is launching his 
campaign for Michigan Senate, 
running in the 18th District. State 
Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann 
Arbor, currently holds the seat, but 
is term limited and is unable to run 
again in 2018.

Irwin served in the House from 

2011 to 2016 in the 53rd District, 
which comprises the southern 
part of Ann Arbor and most of the 
University of Michigan’s campus. 
State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann 
Arbor, succeeded Irwin earlier this 
year.

Irwin, known for his strong 

advocacy for public education, 
plans to continue to push for 
increased 
funding 
for 
public 

education, as well as addressing 
the 
criminal 
justice 
system, 

environmental concerns and the 
issues in Flint, among other issues. 

“I want to fight for tangible 

improvements to the quality of life 
for the people in Michigan,” Irwin 
said. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, October 24, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 15
©2017 The Michigan Daily

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

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

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

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

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Jeff Irwin 
launches 
state senate 
campaign

GOVERNMENT

Seat currently held by State 
Sen. Rebekah Warren, who
is term limited in 2018

COLIN BERESFORD

Daily Staff Reporter

?

24

52
52

7
7
1
1

incidents reported to 
Bias Response team 
since July

unknown number of 
bias cases resolved 
by OSCR

cases of harassment 
resolved by OSCR in
2 years

year until revision 
process begins

OSCR
& Bias

DESIGN BY AVA WEINER

Students push for new amendment to 
Statement of Rights & Responsibilities

Recent incidents expose gaps in reporting and OSCR, lacking language on bias

RIYAH BASHA &
KEVIN BIGLIN
Daily News Editor & 
Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See OSCR, Page 3

The Detroit Connector, a bus 

service connecting Ann Arbor to 
Detroit, will now provide service 
seven days a week, instead of four, 
and open full-time service to the 
public Oct. 30.

The 
bus 
service, 
which 

used to serve only University 
of Michigan staff, faculty and 
students, will include stops at the 
Central Campus Transit Center, 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan 

Detroit Center and, newly, at 
the University of Michigan at 
Dearborn campus. Service hours 
are also being expanded, with new 
hours on Fridays and Saturdays 
beginning at 7 a.m. and ending at 
1 a.m.

The bus was piloted in 2013 

after student demand was assessed 
via survey. The initial results of the 
survey indicated over 75 percent of 
possible riders were ‘very likely’ to 
use the service if it were provided. 
The bus was a free service with a 
suggested $5 donation, and Mcard 
holders were able to bring four 
guests on the trip per day. There 
was also a rudimentary reservation 
system for the bus rides in 2014.

See BUS, Page 3

Patron fee, 
rides added 
to Detroit
Connector

CAMPUS LIFE

A2 - Detroit bus service 
will open to the public 
and run 7 days a week

CARLY RYAN

Daily Staff Reporter

Fayrouz 
Saad, 
who 
is 

currently running for Congress 
in Michigan’s 11th District, says 
her political story started right in 
her dorm, freshman year at the 
University of Michigan.

As a Muslim and Arab 18-year-

old after the terrorist attacks 
on 9/11, Saad’s parents took her 
home from campus, wary of the 
discriminatory backlash against 
their identities.

But to Saad’s relief, waiting 

at her dorm was a collection 
of her roommates and friends, 
welcoming her home and ensuring 
her they would help combat hate. 
From that moment on, Saad knew 
she wanted to dedicate herself to 
protecting those values.

“It was just this really fine 

moment of humanism that was 
so very much what our country’s 
about 
and 
really 
profound 

experience that impacted me 
for the rest of my life,” Saad said. 
“That is America and that is what 
America should represent.”

Even today, Saad keeps up 

with events on the University 
of Michigan campus, and the 
racially charged incidents that 
have happened recently have only 
reiterated what she wants to fight 
against.

“It broke my heart when I heard 

about the racially charged hate 
crimes on campus because I don’t 
remember hearing about any of 
that even after 9/11. I remember 
quite the opposite,” Saad said. 
“That got me thinking about why 
I want to get in public service. I 
really want to protect ... our values. 
I want to fight for those values that 
I know we all believe in.”

Rep. 
Dave 
Trott, 

R-Birmingham, decided not to 
run in the 2018 congressional 
race, leaving no incumbent to run 
against, and making what used 
to be a clearly Republican leaning 
district more of a toss-up between 
new Republican and Democratic 
runners. 
College 
Republicans 

did not respond to requests for 
comment. 

Still, Saad said she has a long 

road ahead of her. If elected, she 
will be the first Muslim woman 
in Congress, setting a precedent 

Alum begins
historic run 
for House in
11th District 

Debate ensues over appropriate
gestures of kneeling, solidarity

GOVERNMENT

Newcomer Saad, a Democrat, would be 
first Muslim woman elected to Congress 

Councilmembers facing backlash for kneeling at last week’s meeting, defend their decisions

CARLY RYAN

Daily Staff Reporter

Aug. 26, 2016, San Francisco 

49ers 
quarterback 
Colin 

Kaepernick 
remained 
seated 

during the national anthem of a 
National Football League preseason 
game to protest the oppression of 
people of color and ongoing issues 
of police brutality in those 
communities. Over a year 
later and thousands of 
miles away from Levi’s 
Stadium, Councilmember 
Chuck 
Warpehoski, 

D-Ward 5, tweeted he 
would take a kneeduring 
the 
evening’s 
City 

Council meeting “out of 
respect for the aspiration that 
we be a nation ‘with liberty 
and justice for all.’”

Four of the 11 City Council 

members decided to follow in suit 
of Kaepernick — Jason Frenzel, 
Sumi Kailasapathy, Chip Smith and 
Warpehoski. During the council’s 
meeting, Kailasapathy explained 
her decision to kneel, wanting 
others to judge her patriotism “by 
her actions.” In an interview with 
CNN later in the week, she touched 
on about inclusion — citing her 
experiences as a refugee — and 
brought up police brutality with 
The New York Times on Thursday. 
 
 

Smith had not planned to 

kneel before the evening, but 
upon entering the City Council 
chambers, 
Kailasapathy 

approached him and asked him 
to join her in protest.

“She is the only member of 

Council who’s a person of color, 
she’s a woman, she’s a refugee, she’s 
a naturalized citizen,” Smith said. 
“If she asks me to kneel in solidarity 

with her — for this absolutely, I 
didn’t give it a second thought.”

He later released a statement, 

stating he knelt to stand in solidarity 
with those who experience racism, 
sexism, classism and homophobia 
every day. 

Councilmember 
Graydon 

Krapohl, D-Ward 4, was one of 
the council members who chose to 
remain standing, citing disrespect 

to military service members. 

Kaepernick, 

however, 

switched 
from sitting 
to kneeling 
over a year 
ago 
after 

consulting 
with 
veterans 
on 
an 

appropriate 

action.

“Personally I didn’t think it was 

appropriate, that’s not something 
I would do; I would like people 
not to do it,” Krapohl said. “But I 
understand and respect the folks 

that do do it, that they feel that they 
have a message, something they 
want to say, and it’s their right to do 
it. From my perspective I’ve served 
30 years in the military and I think 
it’s disrespectful.”

Following 
the 
evening’s 

meeting, council members who 
knelt received criticism, echoing 
Krapohl’s 
sentiment 
that 
the 

gesture was disrespectful to the 
U.S. military. Others condemned 
the council’s “empty gesture,” 
noting a lack of political action in 
regard to issues of police brutality 
in the Ann Arbor community.

Austin McCoy, a postdoctoral 

fellow at the University, took to 
Twitter to call on City Council to 
do more to address racial inequality 

than kneel during the Pledge of 

Allegiance.

In an email interview with 

The Daily, McCoy explained 

his condemnation of the 
council’s actions centered 
largely 
around 
their 

failure 
to 
mention 

the fatal shooting of 
Aura Rosser in their 
reasoning for kneeling. 
Rosser, a Black woman, 

was shot by an Ann Arbor 

police officer in her home 

on Nov. 9, 2014 — her death 
sparked dozens of local protests 
and calls for police reform.

“The original intent 

of Colin Kaepernick’s protest was 
not just to highlight structural 
racism, but to call attention to police 
killings of African Americans,” 

McCoy wrote. “Failing to link that 
intent explicitly with Rosser’s death 
demonstrates a denial of local law 
enforcement’s role in contributing 
to the national trend of the police 
killings of African Americans. It 
also continues the troubling trend 
of rendering black women like 
Rosser invisible in conversations 
about racism and policing.”

More recently, the Ann Arbor 

Police Department came under fire 
for a violent arrest of local Black 
teen Ciaeem Slaton September at 
the Blake Transit Center. AAPD 
Police Chief Jim Baird wrote 
an email to the council that a 
personnel 
complaint 
is 
under 

review. Council members have not 
brought the arrest up at meetings 
in the last month.

McCoy 
noted 
City 
Council 

members have the ability to 
actually influence policy and if 
they care about racial inequality 
in policing, they should use their 
position to change local law.

“I think it is important for 

elected officials, and those in 
power, generally, to be more 
specific about how they plan 
on going about addressing the 
relationship 
between 
policing, 

structural racism and sexism, and 
poverty here in Ann Arbor,” McCoy 
said.

Last month Rackham student 

Dana Greene knelt on the block ‘M’ 
for 21 hours. While he appreciates 
the thought behind City Council 
members’ kneeling, he too believed 
as public officials, they can do more.

“The reason I protest and many 

other people protest is we feel like 
we don’t really have the ability to 
make progressive change outside 
of our ability to protest and so that’s 
why we decide to do it,” Greene 

SOPHIE SHERRY

Daily News Editor

ILLUSTRATION BY HANNAH MYERS

See KNEELING, Page 3
See ALUM, Page 3

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

