The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, November 21, 2017— 3
council members. Jack Eaton,
D-Ward 4, and Jane Lumm,
I-Ward
2,
argued
against
the postponement and the
project itself, saying the only
reason to postpone would be
to avoid the controversy, not
for the developers to make any
changes to their plans.
“It’s the wrong direction for
the opportunity that we have
here as stewards of the future
of our city,” Anne Bannister,
D-Ward 1, said amid cheers
from the crowd against the
development.
Ultimately,
the
council
decided
to
postpone
the
decision
once
again
in
hopes of a compromise with
developers. Ron Mucha, a
developer from Morningside,
said
the
company
would
take the next two weeks to
revise the site conditions by
modifying the architectural
expression, building materials
and zoning conditions.
“We owe it to ourselves and
the community to see,” stated
Mayor Christopher Taylor in
support of the postponement.
Amid
the
controversy
regarding
downtown
development,
council
members glossed over a water
treatment plan in response to
a recent water line rupture.
Members were hopeful for
a repair by Tuesday, but
discussed plans to alert the
community
and
implement
plans
for
voluntary
water
restrictions during the repair,
as well as future ideas about
a building a new water line
further down the road.
DEVELOPMENT
From Page 1
violence
transgender
people
face, which is something she
hopes to change.
“Transgender
Day
of
Remembrance
is
really
important
for
me
as
a
transgender woman because
it’s the only day that is really
dedicated to remembering the
lives lost,” she said.
The
vigil
is
especially
significant
this
year,
as
Kaufman said 2017 marks the
deadliest year on record for
transgender individuals, with
25 transgender people murdered
in the United States and 350
worldwide. These victims were
disproportionately transgender
people of color at 84 percent.
Three of these murders took
place in Texas, where there
is no statewide law banning
discrimination based on gender
identity as a hate crime.
Kaufman, along with several
other board members from
LGBT+ Michigan, read the
names and stories of the 25
individuals
who
lost
their
lives in the United States this
year and expressed their belief
that each “rest in power.”
Kaufman
explained
many
of these individuals, among
these
47-year-old
Stephanie
Montez and 41-year-old Mesha
Caldwell, were misgendered in
initial reports, which Kaufman
she
said
is
the
“ultimate
disrespect.”
Ally Steinfeld, a 17-year-
old
transgender
teen
from
Missouri,
was
killed
in
September of this year. Her
story was especially striking to
Kaufman.
“The way in which my little
sister
Ally
was
murdered
galvanized
me
to
take
action,” Kaufman said. “Her
murder made me furious and
heartbroken. I realized I had to
do this kind of event after that.”
Those who attended the vigil
included LGBTQ individuals
and allies, all of whom hoped to
bring awareness to transphobia
prevalent
in
society
and
to
advocate
for
the
trans
community.
LSA
sophomore
Rachel
Arone said she attended the
event to stand up as an advocate
for transgender individuals.
“I have some very close
friends who are trans and who
have suffered from the rampant
transphobia in our society,” she
said. “I want to do anything I
can to support and be present
as someone who has a voice
when so many trans voices are
silenced.”
LSA
sophomore
Christine
MacKenzie
also
attended
the vigil in support of the
transgender community.
“I’ve known several trans
people during the process of
their transition,” she said. “I’ve
learned about their struggles
mentally,
physically
and
societally, and it is so important
to be there in support even if
(transphobia) doesn’t affect you
directly.”
Kaufman
concluded
the
vigil with a reading from her
book, “From Death to Life,” a
collection of poems about her
experience as a transgender
woman. She told those in
attendance to look toward the
future to continue making a
difference.
“I want people to come
out every day and call out
transphobia when they see it,
to stand up for our civil rights
and our liberties so we are
treated with some semblance of
equality in society,” she said. “I
want everyone here who is not
trans to remember the names
that were said tonight and to
understand that the work that
we do does not end tonight. It
starts today.”
VIGIL
From Page 1
“The University of Michigan’s
faculty vary on a number of
different
dimensions,”
Sellers
said to begin his presentation.
“Overall, faculty report positive
experiences.”
Despite the overall feeling of
satisfaction, there are disparities
among the responses.
African-Americans
are
five
times more likely, and Latinos four
and a half times more likely, than
white faculty members to report
they have been discriminated
against in the past 12 months.
Many other groups reported
being discriminated against as
well. Fifty percent of women on
the tenure track, and 33 percent
of women on the nontenure track
report experiencing at least one
discriminatory event. Twenty-two
percent of those with disabilities
on the tenure track and 25 percent
of those with disabilities not on
the tenure track reported being
discriminated against as well.
“The goal is not for the data
to sit up in my office, but for the
data to be of value to the larger
University community,” Sellers
said.
Earlier in the meeting, the
Senate Assembly met in small
groups to discuss the importance
of diversity, equity and inclusion
relevant to their teaching or
service, and what the University
can do to promote the values
throughout the community.
Research librarians Bob Fraser
from University of Michigan at
Dearborn and Laura Friesen from
University of Michigan at Flint
joined pharmacology professor
John Traynor to speak about
the difficulty of uniting students
from different backgrounds —
especially considering the lack
of diversity of the Ann Arbor
campus.
“Ten percent of your student
population is in the top 1 percent
economically,” Fraser pointed out.
“Most of our students here are
students of privilege. So thinking
of ways to help them empathize
with other, they’ve never had to
run against that before.”
The members also discussed
the
Go
Blue
Guarantee,
acknowledging that even with
financial
aid,
many
eligible
students do not apply to the
University.
“It is still difficult for people
from that background to come to
this Michigan,” Traynor said. “I’m
not saying they’re not trying.”
Ultimately, the group agreed
on the importance of students
interacting
with
peers
from
different backgrounds.
“How do we get to the place
wherein we get people to be more
empathetic, more understanding
and
more
caring
with
one
another?” Fraser asked.
“There’s been various versions
of forcing it (and) it hasn’t worked
before,” Friesen and Traynor
agreed.
FACULTY
From Page 1
remarks. He discussed the
importance of remembering
those that who been killed, as
well as protecting and honoring
those who are still alive. At
the University, approximately
1 percent of the student body
identifies
as
transgender
or
gender
nonconforming,
according to results from the
diversity, equity and inclusion
campus climate survey.
“Our
individual
and
collective work must honor and
deeply listen to the realities
of
people’s
experiences
navigating
and
confronting
violence
that’s
continually
perpetuated through actions
and systems and structures,”
Sherry said. “It’s essential
to recognize the lives that
have been taken and it’s also
incredibly important to honor
those that are here in the face
of violence every day.”
Social Work student Alex
Kime
expressed
the
same
sentiment.
“Even though it’s incredibly
important to honor those that
we lose, more honor should
be
paid
and
recognized
to
the
trans
and
gender
nonconforming
folks
that
are still alive,” Kime said.
“There can be this dangerous
foregrounding of all queerness
as a sight of tragedy or as
something that is inextricably
and already ruined in some
way.”
After his opening remarks,
Sherry introduced LSA senior
Emily Kaufman, president of
LGBT Michigan, who talked
about the challenges she faces
every day as a trans woman.
“I tell people that I don’t think
I’ll make it out of my twenties
without
personally
knowing
a transgender woman who is
murdered,” Kaufman said.
Next
to
speak
was
Information student Vidhya
Aravind. She had two sets of
remarks, one aimed toward
her transgender peers and
one in which she addressed
everyone. In her remarks for
everyone, she named days she
would rather celebrate rather
than the Transgender Day
of Remembrance, including
“trans day of doing literally
anything else because we all
already know that trans people
die all the time,” and “trans
day of giving a shit about
us while we’re still alive.”
Aravind received laughter and
support from attendees after
her remarks.
After
Aravind
spoke,
two students and members
of
the
LGBTQ
community
read the known names of
each transgender and gender
nonbinary person to have died
in the world in the past year.
After each name was read, the
audience was asked to repeat the
phrase “rest in power” to signify
the deaths that occurred in a
socially unjust way. After all the
names were read — which took
half an hour in sum — attendees
paused for a moment of silence.
Rackham
student
LaVelle
Ridley, who was on the planning
committee for the event, gave
closing remarks. She stressed
the importance of remembering
transgender
issues
are
intersectional.
“We have to remember that
also indigenous American trans
women, disabled trans women,
non-Western
trans
women,
women from the global south,
such as Brazil, and incarcerated
trans women also face high rates
of death and violence,” LaVelle
said.
She concluded her remarks
with a call to action and a quote
from scholar Sarah Langley.
“Our task is to move from
sympathy to responsibility,
from complicity to reflectivity,
from witnessing to action. It is
not enough to simply honor the
memory of the dead; we must
transform the practices of the
living,” LaVelle finished.
REMEMBRANCE
From Page 1
American
population.
The
same case study reports the
number of Michigan residents
who claim an Arab ancestry has
almost tripled since 1980.
LSA senior Jad Elharake,
one of the main organizers of
the campaign, sent a petition
to University faculty and staff
a few days ago outlining the
movement and his reasons why
the identity category should
be added. He said a number of
campus communities illustrate
campus-wide support for the
initiative.
“(The ME/NA community) is
a community on campus that’s
not being recognized and not
being
acknowledged
really,
especially
when
you
don’t
have a checkbox on University
documents,”
Elharake
said.
“Us not having this checkbox
removes
a
lot
of
potential
support for us and really puts us
behind compared to many other
communities on campu,s and so
this is what it means to us and
why it’s so critical.”
Sally Howell, the director of
the Center for Arab American
Studies
at
U-M
Dearborn,
supports
the
campaign
and
said the high proportion of
Arab-American
students
at
the
Dearborn
campus
and
surrounding cities cannot be
accurately measured without a
ME/NA identity checkbox.
“We don’t want to count Arab
Americans or Middle Eastern
Americans just so we can know
how many there are but this is a
community that has, for the last
20 years roughly, been treated
differently
by
our
society,
been thought of different and
represented differently in the
media and treated differently
by
the
U.S.
government,”
Howell said. “Therefore, their
experiences of citizenship and
the lives of our students on
campus, they’ve experienced
the world a little bit differently
than other people so we need
to know what the issues they’re
facing are. We need to know
how well they’re doing as a
community.”
According to a USA Today
Diversity
Index
report,
the
odds of selecting two Michigan
residents randomly and having
them be of different ethnic
or
racial
backgrounds
will
jump from 39 percent to 60
percent by 2060. Faced with
these reports and the already
large concentration of Arab
Americans
in
Michigan,
Elharake said, after talking with
alumni, the ME/NA identity
category
conversation
has
been circulated among ME/NA
communities at the University
for years now.
“This has been a conversation
for over a decade and it’s been, in a
sense, every year it’s been pushed
off and pushed off and pushed off,
and we don’t have time for that
anymore,” Elharake said. “Enough
is enough and this is the time for it.”
Elharake said he plans to bring
the petitions from students, faculty
and speakers to the next Board of
Regents meeting on Dec. 7.
Howell said she has seen large
amounts of support from students,
faculty and administration at the
Dearborn campus for the initiative.
She said the issue is not a question
of whether the checkbox should be
added but, rather, how to go about
implementing it.
“I’ve
seen
the
interest,”
Howell
said.
“The
students
seem to understand the issue
and how important it is across
the spectrum of different kinds
of
student
organizations
and
students representing different
populations on campus. There’s
just overwhelming support for
the idea.”
ME/NA
From Page 1
Studies, who serves on the
Environmental
Protection
Agency’s
Environmental
Economics Advisory Committee.
Charles Woodson, who is
another honoree, but who will not
be in attendance, played football
for the University from 1995
to 1997 and won the Heisman
Trophy. He played 18 seasons
for the NFL and established his
namesake foundation to support
research
at
the
University’s
C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital
and Von Voigtlander Women’s
Hospital.
COMMENCEMENT
From Page 2
president of the Michigan
Animal
Respect
Society,
participated in the march, and
told The Daily last winter he felt
the deer cull was unethical. He
wanted to see the city to explore
nonlethal options.
“Personally, I just think it’s
maybe wrong or rash to make
this decision,” Brodkey said. “I
feel like we’re taking it into our
own hands and playing God in
this position and saying, ‘Hey,
we need to massacre 100 deer
for who knows what reason?’”
Jim Kosteva, director of
Community Relations for the
University, on the other hand,
told The Daily in early 2017
that the cull was necessary
to preserve other aspects of
wildlife in the arboretum.
“The Nichols Arboretum,
which
is
expected
to
be
a
showcase
and
living
laboratory of diverse species,
has been unable to establish
many seedlings due to the
overgrazing of the deer herd,”
Kosteva wrote. “The University
has also incurred a significant
loss of landscape materials,
particularly on North Campus,
that have been consumed or
damaged by deer. Replacing
that material has required a
costly diversion of funds that
otherwise could support more
mission centered activities.”
According to MLive, this
year’s cull will be slightly
different from previous years,
as the city will also be reviewing
their fencing ordinance and
deer-crossing
signage
and
increasing their deer education
efforts.
Despite public opinion, the
cull presses on, and a statement
from the city last year regarding
park closings and the cull
assures safety of every being is
the city’s main concern.
“Safety is the city’s top
priority. … Information will be
provided when cull activities
are
completed,”
the
press
release states.
University alumni Patrick
Rabban
and
Chris
Asmar
came up the idea for their
app during their senior year
in college. They sought a way
to organize quotes and inside
jokes from friends, and thus,
“Echollection” was born.
Echollection is a social
media app that allows users to
store, organize and customize
quotes.
Users
can
attach
pictures and locations to their
quotes, all of which are stored
on their personal profiles. In
addition to organizing, users
can also “like,” share and
comment on other posts.
Although
Echollection
is categorized as a “social
networking” app in the Apple
Store, Rabban discussed how
the app functions more as a
resource or tool.
“Nearly every person I
know keeps a word document
or journal where they log all of
their favorite quotes, whether
it’s from a favorite author or a
family member,” Rabban said.
“The feature that sets us apart
is (that) you can create folders,
categories,
subcategories
for your “echoes,” and you
can even attach location and
images.”
Despite the app’s inception
in
2011,
development
on
Echollection began in 2015.
According
to
Raban,
the
co-founders have been busy
promoting the app on social
media outlets, planning launch
parties and networking while
maintaining full-timejobs.
The app is still new to
the industry, however. Beta
tester Salem Najjar mentioned
Echollection sets itself apart
by providing an organized
approach
to
remembering
special moments.
“I
thought
the
functionality was very good
and I felt that it had fulfilled
a need in the market, kind of
white space in the industry,”
Najjar said. “There should be
a way to track and remember
those quotes and memories in
the future because they had an
impact on us the moment we
first heard them.”
Sandra Kizy, another beta
tester, believes the app is great
for use on social media posts
centered around family or
friends.
“You hear quotes all the
time, and we all have our
phones so it’s so easy to put
it in,” Kizy said. “This is the
only app of its type that I’ve
seen, so that’s what makes it
unique, because it’s the only
app that I know of that stores
quotes.”
According
to
Rabban,
one of the most important
steps in developing an app
is forming a team of reliable
business
partners.
Rabban
suggested students looking to
create their own apps should
be cautious about whom they
choose to work with. Students
also should focus on the
simplest form of their idea
before introducing the app to
the market, he added.
Business
sophomore
Lucian Ramnarase said he
thinks the concept behind
Echollection
is
interesting
because people use quotes on
other social media platforms.
“If people want to see these
quotes to pick themselves up
and make them smile, they can
go to this app,” Ramnarase
said. “You know what you’re
going to get with this app, and
that’s a reason why I’d use it
and why I think other people
would use it.”
Currently
Rabban
and
Asmar are still working to
promote
Echollection
in
multiple forms.
“It’s one thing to capture
that
moment
and
phrase
in context with photo and
location, it’s another thing
looking back years down the
road we have created since
college that have gone ahead
and saved in there,” Rabban
said.
“Almost
unanimously
the response has been this is
a great idea and I can’t believe
nobody has done this before.”
Alumni develop app to store quotes and stories
CORY ZAYANCE
Daily Staff Reporter
Echollection is a social media app that allows users to attach pictures, locations and quotes to profiles
DEER CULL
From Page 2
Ten percent of
your student
population is in
the top 1 percent
economically