The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, October 27, 2017— 3A
approximately
500
Michigan
high
schools
the
Office
of
Undergraduate
Admissions
conducts, the University has spent
“a significant amount” on digital
advertising, Ishop said. This has
come in the form of targeting
underrepresented
communities
in the state via Twitter, Facebook
and email — and she says it’s been
effective so far.
“We know that for emails
we’ve sent to prospective in-state
students, we’ve had a 43 percent
open rate, 20 percent click rate
on GBG content — those are good
numbers,” she said. “43 and 20
percent, those are good numbers
considering how often students
open their email.”
And despite ranking last in
social mobility earlier this year, the
University appears to have made
progress in terms of increasing
socioeconomic and racial diversity.
The recently released summary of
enrollment at the University shows
an increase in the percentages of
underrepresented minorities, first-
generation college students and
students eligible for Pell Grants
from the incoming freshman class
of 2013 to the incoming class of
2017. Since last year, however, the
percentage of underrepresented
minorities in the freshman class
only increased 0.1 percent and the
percentage of students eligible for
Pell Grants decreased 1.4 percent.
Still, though, there are other
factors
hindering
racial
and
socioeconomic diversity at the
University left unaddressed by
the guarantee. Even with tuition
covered, the cost of living in Ann
Arbor — which is high and getting
higher — can be enough to deter
students from coming.
Public Policy junior Drea Somers
said she doesn’t fully understand
the decision to not include housing
costs in the guarantee.
“I think it would be wonderful
if the Go Blue Guarantee at least
included some kind of dorming
or housing situation,” she said.
“Especially if you don’t even live
in the metro Detroit area, if you
can’t afford tuition, why would
you be able to afford housing in
Ann Arbor? I always look at them
like, ‘Well, why exclude it?’ And I
understand that there are financial
barriers, but it’s also still a barrier
to those students’ education.”
Ishop pointed out that while
the Go Blue Guarantee only
concerns tuition, there’s still more
financial aid potentially available
to students struggling with living
costs.
“We also put a great deal of
resources, as you think about that
zero to $65,000, that packaging,
for many of those students is
not only just for tuition, but a
lot of those students would be
receiving aid up to full cost of
attendance or close to full cost of
attendance,” she said. “Certainly
we all understand that there are
difficult choices that have to be
made — they have to find housing
and they’re living that life of
having to adjust to somewhat of a
wealthy community in Ann Arbor,
but we’re certainly providing
financial aid to be able to meet the
demonstrated need at the cost of
living for the University.”
But
in
addition
to
those
additional
financial
barriers,
being a new student and part of an
underrepresented class at a large
university can be intimidating.
Graduating from a high school
class of 30, Bennington said she
experienced
that
disruption
coming to college too, which was
why she wanted to arrange the
orientation for her students at the
University.
“Going
downstate
to
a
university was culture shock, it
was really scary,” she said. “And
when we scheduled these kids
for this tour, that’s what we were
trying to get them acclimated to —
the city life, and letting them get
that exposure before just jumping
into a semester as a freshman,
where they’re more likely to drop
out because they were just too
overwhelmed.”
And it’s more than just culture
shock, Nunn said — the University
can often make underrepresented
students
feel
invisible
and
unrecognized.
“The University of Michigan
was founded on land given to
it, in some ways, by the tribes
of Michigan,” he said. “There’s
no buildings named for native
folks on campus — the C.C. Little
debate about, ‘What do we rename
C.C. Little?’ Well, we should
probably recognize how we were
founded in some ways. What
does that say to native students,
prospective native students about
the University of Michigan? And I
don’t think it says that we’re being
inclusive — even if we’re trying
to.”
GUARANTEE
From Page 1A
personally choose the winner
due to the high quantity of high
quality student projects.
“The University of Michigan’s
200th year has given us this
wonderful
opportunity
to
look back on our history with
purpose, to examine our impact
on society and to consider how
our university has continued to
evolve,” Schlissel said.
Moderator
Jeff
Sorensen,
director for social innovation
and
co-founder
of
optiMize,
then announced the five finalists
and
gave
each
team
leader
the
opportunity
to
receive
criticism and answer questions
from the judges. He also noted
the
advantages
a
University
of Michigan education gives
students.
“A U-M education is all about
following
your
passions
and
finding your career path and
taking an initiative to make
a positive impact in society,”
Sorensen said. “We have all of
that here tonight.”
Sabin thanked the participants
for their work and for teaching
and impressing her with the
visions
of
the
future
they
demonstrated.
“Thank you for bringing these
visions to the table,” Sabin said.
“I think that one of the things
that I was most impressed by
across all of the projects was the
level of real collaboration across
disciplinary boundaries. That’s
not always easy to do.”
The five finalists were: an
original massive open online
course
developed
between
Education professor Michaela
Zint and students to be used as
a student-led digital curriculum
to analyze climate change, an
imagined University campus on
Mars, mobile learning labs, a
crowd-sourced studying tool and
a virtual reality campus.
Business junior Scarlett Ong
felt optimistic about continuing
her project, the crowd-sourced
studying tool called Fathom,
and encouraging students to
take the leap when it comes to
entrepreneurial projects.
BICENTENNIAL
From Page 1A
First-generation
students
also
make up 12.4 percent of the
freshman class. A First Generation
Student Gateway, replete with a
study lounge, meeting area and
information hub, opened earlier
this month to serve the needs
of this student population.
The
guarantee
and
demographic increases come
after a report by the Equality
of Opportunity Project, which
ranked
the
University
last
behind
other
prestigious
public colleges in the category
of social mobility. One in 100
students
at
the
University
are from the top 1 percent of
income distribution.
The out-of-state portion of
the student body increased
by
1
percent.
Out-of-state
students make up 49.3 percent
of the student body, while
in-state students comprise 50.6
percent.
The University has shown
increased enrollment over five
years among underrepresented
minorities,
first-generation
students
and
low-income
students — but the total share
of the student body only increased
by 0.1 percent since last fall.
Underrepresented
minorities
constitute 12.8 percent of the
undergraduate student body, in
comparison to 22.3 percent of the
undergraduate student body at
Michigan State University.
In a statement to the University
Record, Kedra Ishop, vice provost
for enrollment management, noted
the gradual increase in minority
student enrollment over the past
five years. Out of 6,847 freshmen
students
arriving
on
campus
this fall, 906 underrepresented
minorities make up 13.9 percent
of the class, an increase from 10.6
percent in 2013.
Broken down by demographics,
Black student enrollment in the
class of 2022 decreased marginally;
Hispanic enrollment increased
by close to 1 percent; the Native
population doubled to 0.17 percent
of the class; and Asian enrollment
dipped by 2.5 percent.
However,
Ishop
further
emphasized the importance of
continuing to work toward greater
diversity on campus.
“We continue to be committed
to, while challenged by, achieving
greater
racial
and
ethnic
diversity in our student body
in
our
restrictive
admissions
environment,” she said.
Furthermore, the fall 2017
freshmen class consists of 1,017
students receiving federal Pell
Grants — about 15.6 percent of
the freshmen class, up from 14.5
percent in the fall 2013 class.
Enrollment grew this fall with
a 7.9 percent increase in applicants
from the previous year and topping
out at 59,886 received applications.
DIVERSITY
From Page 1A
— home of the Knight-Wallace
journalism fellows — along with
the Communication Studies and
English Language and Literature
departments and the Ford School of
Public Policy.
In
a
one-on-one
interview
with The Daily prior to the
event,
Fahrenthold
highlighted
the importance of speaking on
the
University’s
campus
—
a
traditionally
liberal-leaning
campus that voted primarily for
democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton — about journalistic
integrity
and
distinguishing
between fake news and legitimate
reporting.
TMD: I want to talk about this
relevance to Ann Arbor and the
idea of fake news and getting to the
student base. We’re a traditionally
liberal area and a majority of
our students ended up voting for
Hillary Clinton, so why is this issue
so significant to this campus in
particular?
Fahrenthold:
I
think
it’s
important for people to understand
how do you cover news in the age of
Trump. Just because people don’t
like Trump doesn’t necessarily
mean that they’re that informed
about him. I’d rather have people
— even people who like him and
don’t like him — have them be
informed about what he’s doing,
what his administration is doing.
Both because it’s better if we’re all
informed but also because if you
care about politics, you care about
policy, just hating Donald Trump
doesn’t really change anything and
so you have to understand what’s
going on within his administration
to know where you might have an
impact.
TMD:
Coming
from
The
Michigan Daily, we have a huge
student journalist base here despite
not having a journalism school,
which is really interesting. What
would some advice that you have
for student journalists be regarding
covering these types of things,
especially in this pretty tumultuous
climate?
Fahrenthold: I think that it’s
important to get beyond … takes, this
idea of analysis as journalism. There
are some points when analysis is
helpful, but I think in a lot of cases
it’s easier than reporting and a lot
of people fall back on it, especially
when covering politics of any kind
— campus politics, national politics
— it’s easier to fall back on what you
think is happening or when you’ve
analyzed the situation rather than
reporting what’s actually going on.
I think especially in the modern
news environment, with so many
news sources, what readers want
— not only what readers need but
what readers want — is news, facts,
a better understanding of what’s
actually happening.
TMD: Do you have any tips on
how to cover events — such as the
ones we’ve seen on campus in terms
of racist flyering or other incidents
like that — in a way that ensures
accuracy, speed in terms of breaking
news, but also fair representation?
Fahrenthold: The really valuable
service that newspapers provide
in that situation is to explain more
about — I think it’s hard for student
journalists who live among other
students,
and
because
student
journalists are so informed it’s hard
to put yourself in the mindset of,
what would my reader not know
about this? What are the questions
my reader would have?
For
more
of
the
exclusive
interview with David Fahrenthold,
watch our video interview.
Lynette
Clemetson,
director
of
the
Knight-Wallace
House,
introduced Fahrenthold to a full
Mendelssohn Theatre, noting the
significance of informing the public
of news.
“Even though we work with
journalists directly, we also take
— as central to our mission —
engaging in the public in journalism,
demystifying the work of journalism
and making sure people understand
the vital role that journalism plays
in our democracy and the absolute
necessity
of
press
freedom,”
Clemetson
said.
“It’s
a
very
important time to get young people
engaged in journalism.”
During his talk, Fahrenthold —
who has been at the Post for 17 years
— discussed the challenges he faced
throughout his career in political
journalism.
“One of the true handicaps I have
as a journalist is I’m an optimist.
This is a huge handicap because it
means things always sneak up on
me,” Fahrenthold said. “In (the case
of Trump), I was prepared for the
answer.”
Fahrenthold
discussed
the
lessons he learned while covering
inconsistencies in Trump’s claims
of philanthropy, including allowing
the public to engage with open
reporting, as he did via Twitter.
“Once
you’ve
taken
your
reporting as far as it can go under
traditional methods as I had, the
next step is open your reporting
up,” Fahrenthold said. “Stretch
your reporting as far as traditional
reporting will let you.”
Throughout
his
experiences
investigating the Donald J. Trump
Foundation, Fahrenthold said he
was able to learn how to create a
thread for readers to follow — rather
than making them responsible for
knowing the context — particularly
in changing expectations of news on
social media. In a tumultuous time of
reporting, Fahrenthold highlighted
maintaining perspective.
“The one thing in all of this that
I try to keep in mind is I try to adapt
my reporting to the era of Trump,”
Fahrenthold said. “The thing that
I’ve tried to keep of all the time is
the idea that we have to reject as
journalists this image you get from
Trump and Steve Bannon and other
people, that we and the media and
Donald Trump are at war with one
another.”
He also described the significance
of news media as speakers of truth
and fact.
“The thing that gives us meaning
and
value
is
our
credibility,”
Fahrenthold said.
Following the talk, Fahrenthold
took questions from the audience,
which was comprised of students
from the University and local high
schools, faculty and community
members. One question, submitted
from Skyline High School students,
asked about journalism as a career
and journalism education.
“(Being a journalist) is a license
to follow your curiosity and follow
your outrage,” Fahrenthold said.
“The most important education in
journalism is to go out and do it.”
Others asked about Fahrenthold’s
experience playing a role in the
reveal of the Access Hollywood
video.
One
of
the
challenges
Fahrenthold faced was publishing
the crude content heard in the video
in a print publication. However, he
said he didn’t write the story with
malicious intent. The story has since
become the Washington Post’s most
read ever.
“I knew the story was going to
be well-read and people were going
to be interested in it,” Fahrenthold
admitted. “I didn’t write it thinking,
‘I’m going to take out Donald
Trump.’ ”
Others questioned his methods
regarding using Twitter to find
sources.
“I have to verify it the way
I would verify anything else,”
Fahrenthold said. “You can’t give up
the gatekeeper role.”
In terms of those who disregard
news they don’t agree with as “fake,”
Fahrenthold
emphasized
that
evidence, finding underlying tactics
to engage different types of viewers
in the story and taking advantage of
the skills a university can provide
will prove valuable in ones career.
“It’s enormously damaging that
we have a president and a party
who is using the platform of the
presidency to say that news he
doesn’t like is fake,” Fahrenthold
said. “Our role as journalists is to
recognize that people that think
that news is fake — we may have one
chance to impress them. … We have
to think of them as consumers and
you have to do things in your stories
and your broadcasts to show people
why what you do is better and more
trustworthy.”
After the event, LSA junior
Megan Graham said she felt
inspired after hearing about the
work Fahrenthold did during the
campaign.
“It was really encouraging to
hear him talk about his work and all
the important events that he’s been
able — things about Trump and his
campaign — that he’s able to talk
about and bring to light,” Graham
said. “I would have liked to hear
more specific stories about how —
specific things that he’s covered —
because I thought that was really
interesting and it brings everything
back to the ground and how this
affects our lives and our country as
a whole.”
LSA senior Jason Rumsey said
hearing Fahrenthold speak was
an
interesting
opportunity
to
apply what he had learned in his
communications classes at the
University.
“I’m
in
the
investigative
journalism
class,
the
written
reporting class, and so coming to an
event like this where you actually
had to try to use some of the things
that we’ve talked about not only in
that class but also in other comm
classes at the University (and) how
he used those to get to a story was
a quite interesting thing for me to
hear,” Rumsey said.
TRUMP
From Page 1A
graduate program in the country,
paid stipends should be a higher
priority.
“We
know
that,
legally,
(employers) do not have to pay
us,” Watson said. “We think
that that is a really low bar and
that as the number one school of
social work, we should be not just
skirting the lowest bar by a hair
but rather setting a standard for
the field that we should be paying
our interns because the work that
they do produces value and is
worth something other than our
experiential learning.”
In July, FLO received over 550
signatures from current MSW
students, Social Work alumni
and social workers currently in
the field for a petition calling for
fair compensation for their field
experience requirement.
FLO is claiming the lack of paid
positions for their field education
work
violates
the
National
Association of Social Worker’s
Code of Ethics, specifically the
Code’s advocacy for basic living
conditions and economic values
found in Article 6 of the document.
The
language
differences
between “internships” and “field
education”, according to Raycraft,
are
crucial
in
understanding
this division between students
and administration. Since the
field education positions count
for credits in an MSW student’s
semester,
these
positions
are
supposed to be completed in
the time that students would
be in another class without the
required field work. In this case,
Raycraft said MSW students are
not completing internships and
therefore are under different
requirements
that
take
into
account academic credits when
designing schedules for the benefit
of the student.
“There is a very clear distinction
between an internship and field
education and the Council on
Social Work Education regularly
works with the Department of
Labor Regulation to make sure
social work field education is legal
and aligned,” Raycraft said. “It’s
very different than an internship
… (field education) is about an
academic experience for a student.
It’s not about an employer’s actual
operations.”
Raycraft also provided data
obtained from the School of Social
Work, which found that more
than 85 percent of current MSW
students receive some form of
financial aid. The Social Work
School also reports more than
300 scholarships are available for
MSW students.
Social
Work
student
Kari
Nilsen sees field education and
internships in the same light and
said even with financial aid, non-
paying positions that are required
to graduate will leave students
in very large debt crises after
graduation.
“We are graduating with a lot
of debt and then the available
SOCIAL WORK
From Page 2A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
positions that we have are ranging
from $30,000 a year maybe up to
$45,000 if you find a good paying job,
so that discrepancy in debt and salary
coming out of a master’s program is
really, really difficult,” Nilsen said.
In the district court case O’Connor
v. Davis, Bridget O’Connor, a social
work major at Marymount College in
New York, was required to complete
200 hours of field work in her senior
year. She was placed at Rockland, a
mental hospital, for her field work
position in 1994 and worked with Dr.
James Davis under the supervision
of Lisa Punzone, a supervisor at the
hospital. O’Connor was continually
sexually harassed by Davis, who
called her “Miss Sexual Harassment”
and constantly discussed sexual
topics and made sexual jokes at
O’Connor. O’Connor reported these
actions to Punzone but Punzone
did not tell her supervisor, James
Wagner, about the sexual harassment
allegations until January 1995, and
Wagner also took no action.
O’Connor took her case to district
court and accused Rockland and
New York state of sexual harassment
in violation of Title VII Employment
Practices.
The
district
court
eventually sided with Rockland and
New York state, claiming O’Connor
was not within the boundaries of
Title VII because she was not an
employee, but rather completing a
field work internship.
In 1997, the U.S. Court of Appeals
affirmed the decision of the district
court and set precedent for interns
not being considered employees of
the firm they are working with.
Social
Work
student
Shelby
Andersen-Holt said this court case
takes rights from interns, who
she says are often completing the
same tasks as an employee, without
having to pay them. She sees the
Social Work School requirement as
an internship program and said the
number of available positions is being
prioritized over asking existing field
education positions to pay students
for their work, despite the surface
description of these positions as a
purely educational experience.
“The Field Office is under this
huge amount of pressure to find
placements for students and a lot of
times, what we’ve found and what
we’ve heard from other students
… the Field Office will prioritize
maintaining
relationships
with
placements over the well-being of
the individual student because if they
lose any of these placements, they
are at risk of not being able to make
it possible to meet the requirement,”
Andersen-Holt said.
Raycraft
said
the
positions
aren’t inherently paid because
they directly benefit the student’s
education and not the employer’s
workforce goals. She said these
positions take credits out of a
student’s course load so they
act as a class and an educational
experience, something one would
never be paid for normally.
“There are internships where
you go do it at an accounting
firm and you’re there to support
that accounting firm’s goals and
objectives and to meet some of
their objectives where ours (are)
academically based,” Raycraft said.
“It’s based on the student’s needs,
not on the employer’s needs.”
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com