On Tuesday, University of
Michigan
Central
Student
Government will vote on its
divestment resolution. Tensions
have been ramping up, as it has
in mid-Novembers over the
past decade. The resolution
aims to gain support from CSG
on divestment from companies
operating
in
Israel
due
to
possible human rights violations
of Palestinians.
This
year’s
iteration
of
the resolution has not been
without conflict. Last week,
an
investigative
committee
within CSG was convened to
review “improper use of CSG
materials” by a member of the
executive team stating CSG did
not support the #UMDivest
movement.
According to the ethics
committee’s
reports,
the
undisclosed member of CSG’s
executive committee sent an
email to a recipient outlining
CSG’s
supposed
opposal
to
the movement. According to
allegations, the member then
had a conversation with another
student stating CSG’s opposition
to divestment. A Facebook post
also discussed anti-divestment
sentiment in the body, this time
in relation to the assembly’s
diversity.
The
post
claimed
the
individual
stated
there
are “not enough white men”
and “Jewish people” on the
assembly; however, a self-survey
distributed within CSG last year
found a member of the body
was most likely to be a wealthy,
white heterosexual male.
History of the resolution
Students Allied for Freedom
and Equality — a group of
“student activists organized to
promote social justice, human
rights,
liberation,
equality,
and self-determination for the
Palestinian people” — brought
the resolution in its current form
in 2014, in what remains the
high-water mark for the campus
movement. After first reads
in mid-March, the assembly
voted to indefinitely postpone
a decision on the resolution.
AFE members and allies held a
weeklong sit-in in CSG’s Union
chambers to force a vote — but
the resolution ended up failing
in a secret ballot vote 25-9.
SAFE’s arguments center
around alleged human rights
violations
by
companies
supporting
Israeli
military
activities and operations. This
year’s resolution names Boeing,
Hewlett Packard and United
Technologies as “companies that
supply weapons and equipment
to Israel’s illegal occupation
of Palestinian territories in
violation of international human
rights law” through actions
such as checkpoints and civilian
casualties.
Divestment is rare. Since
1817, the University has divested
just twice — first in 1978 from
apartheid
in
South
Africa
and later in 2000 from the
tobacco industry. Yet before
any resolution even reached the
floor of any student government
on
any
of
the
University’s
campuses,
former
University
president Mary Sue Coleman
expressed in 2002 the University
would not be divesting from
Israel. In a 2005 statement
describing
the
University’s
investment
portfolio,
then-
Chief
Financial
Officer
Timothy
Slottow
remarked
the
University’s
endowment
is profit-driven, veering away
from
political
persuasions.
SAFE draws upon the precedent
of South Africa, tobacco in its
resolutions,
arguing
human
rights violations are antithetical
to the University’s commitment
to “invest in socially responsible
companies.”
Institutions like Columbia
and
Harvard
had
already
established endowment ethical
advisory review committees. In
the last decade, Northwestern
University, the University of
Wisconsin
at
Madison,
the
University of Minnesota and
the University of California-
Berkeley have passed resolutions
calling for divestment. Student
governing bodies at the Ohio
State
University,
meanwhile,
spoke out against divestment
where the resolutions failed to
pass.
On
this
campus,
the
resolution’s
proponents
and
critics seem to reach an annual
impasse on core issues such as
identity, inclusion and the role
of dialogue. Students on both
sides wonder if this year will be
any different.
The divide between sides
Historically, the divestment
movement
has
been
characterized as divisive; critics
argue SAFE seeks to break
apart the student body rather
than bring it together. In an
interview with The Daily, two
SAFE members — who wish
to remain anonymous due to
targeting
of
pro-Palestinian
activists online — decried the
“divisive” argument as one used
to quell Palestinians’ concerns.
“This
argument
has
historically
been
used
silence
marginalized
voices,
historically in the country and
not just on campuses,” one of
the
students
said.
“Voicing
someone’s concerns about literal
human rights violations should
not be a divisive point.”
During last year’s resolution,
one SAFE member asked, “How
is
helping
Palestinians
on
your campus hurting Jewish
students?”
Earlier
this
month,
SAFE released a “Statement
of
Solidarity
to
Support
Divestment”
in
2017.
More
than 30 student organizations
— many of which are social
justice-oriented — signed the
statement, including the Black
Student Union, Jewish Voice
for Peace, the executive board
of
United
Asian
American
The
Senate
Advisory
Committee on University Affairs
convened
Monday
afternoon
to
discuss
amending
the
Statement of Student Rights and
Responsibilities — a University
of Michigan document written
by and for students that outlines
University standards and norms
of behavior — making tuition
more affordable for students and
increasing the faculty’s role in
diversity, equity and inclusion.
LSA senior Anushka Sarkar,
Central
Student
Government
president, served as a guest
speaker and discussed amending
the statement to include biased
motivated
misconduct
as
a
violation of University behavior.
The section regarding bullying
and harassment violations does
not explicitly state that biased
and prejudice motivation against
another
student
results
in
heightened sanctions, according
to Sarkar.
“Under the statement, there’s
no codification that says that if
a student stalks another person
or hazes another person and it’s
bias-motivated — you hazed a
person because they were Black,
you hazed a person because they
were gay — that you would receive
heightened sanctions for that,”
Sarkar said. “Myself and a lot of
students find that to be wrong and
that is something that should be
codified in documents.”
Sarkar proposed amending the
document to add “Violation V,”
which clarifies bias-motivated
misconduct language.
“Bias-motivated
misconduct
is a violation of community
behaviors,
including
but
not
limited to characteristics such as
race, gender, sexual orientation,
gender expression,” Sarkar said.
Sarkar
also
announced
a
second amendment that will
outline the measures that will be
taken if a student is in violation of
bias-motivated misconduct.
“Should a student be found
of having committed an act
against another person with
bias or prejudice motivation that
their sanctions be heightened
automatically,” she said.
The
purpose
of
these
amendments is to deter students
from committing bias-motivated
acts, as they will know there
will be heightened sanctions as a
consequence. The level to which
sanctions will be heightened will
be treated on a case-by-case basis
up to the discretion of the Office of
Student Conflict Resolution, and
each of these cases will result in
two separate charges, according
to Sarkar.
“The goal here is to set the
precedence in our governing
documents that action that is
taken against another person in
a malevolent way with biased or
Z Nicolazzo addressed a crowd
of approximately 100 Monday
night at the School of Social Work
as part of Transgender Awareness
Week. Nicolazzo, who uses the
gender-neutral pronouns ze and
hir, is an assistant professor in
the Adult and Higher Education
program, and a faculty associate
in the Center for the Study of
Women, Gender and Sexuality at
Northern Illinois University.
Nicolazzo’s
dissertation
consisted of an ethnographic
study
in
which
ze
worked
with
transgender
students
to
understand
their
college
experience;
hir
work
was
published as a book — “Trans* in
College: Transgender Students’
Strategies for Navigating Campus
Life and the Institutional Politics
of Inclusion” — which served as
the primary focus of the talk.
Speaking
of
hir
own
experience, Nicolazzo explained
hir coming out narrative is
different from what is often
considered as the normative
narrative for transpeople.
“Oftentimes,
we
think
michigandaily.com
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 30
©2017 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
See AWARENESS, Page 3
Professor
discusses
being trans
in college
CAMPUS LIFE
Transgender Awareness
Week to explore identity,
gender norms, narratives
JENNIFER MEER
Daily Staff Writer
ALICE LIU/Daily
The Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs discusses campus issues in the Fleming Administration Build-
ing Monday afternoon.
SACUA talks changes to Statement of
Student Rights and Responsibilities
Faculty members discuss graduate student tuition, DEI bias reporting
ALEX COTT
Daily Staff Writer
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
In an email sent to all students
Monday
afternoon,
Central
Student Government announced
it will continue a program from
the previous administration to
encourage students to participate
in Bystander Intervention training.
This initiative, a program CSG
piloted under past-President David
Schafer last year, will require any
student
organization
wishing
to claim more than $1,000 a
semester in funding from the CSG
Student
Organization
Funding
Commission to have at least two of
their authorized signers complete
a Bystander Intervention course.
The trainings, facilitated by Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center’s Bystander Intervention
and
Community
Engagement
program and Wolverine Wellness,
aim to bring issues of sexual abuse,
as well as drug and alcohol abuse,
into the open. They are focused
on empowering people who might
witness incidences of misconduct
to intervene and change campus
culture surrounding these issues.
CSG body,
SAPAC to
incentivize
trainings
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Efforts encourage student
participation in Bystander
Intervention initiative
MAYA GOLDMAN
Daily Staff Writer
The question of divestment:
recounting a tense history at U-M
MAZIE HYAMS/Daily
University students protest during CSG on the Diag in favor of divestment November 8.
CSG votes today on resolution concerning alleged rights violations against Palestinians
JORDYN BAKER &
DYLAN LACROIX
Daily Staff Reporters
See DIVEST, Page 3
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
See STATEMENT, Page 3