LSA junior Anna Tushman
took an AP economics in high
school and loved it. She came
to the University of Michigan
expecting to major in math but
decided to take Econ 101 and
found herself fascinated by its
rational, logical thought process.
Her 101 class had a fair mixture
of women and men, but as she
progressed through the major,
she found the number of female
students in her classes leveling
off. Out of boredom one day in her
econometrics discussion section,
she counted the students in the
class and saw there were four
male students to every one female.
This drop off holds true when
considering the numbers. More
than half of the student body
of LSA consists of women. Yet,
according to data kept by the LSA
Economics Department, women
are 39 percent of the students
taking introductory economics
courses. Women then account for
about a third of the Econ major.
The disparity isn’t unique to
the University — the Committee
on the Status of Women in
the
Economics
Profession
in
the
American
Economics
Association did a study surveying
126
economic
departments
nationwide, finding while women
make up 33 percent of first-year
students, they make up only 13
percent of full, tenured professors
as of 2016.
While STEM fields also have
trouble attracting women to their
classes, intro level courses in the
Physics Department have a higher
representation of women than
in the Economics Department,
according to Betsey Stevenson,
associate
public
policy
and
economics professor.
“It is sort of striking that
physics is doing a better job of
getting women into introductory
physics than economics is in
introductory
economics
at
Michigan,” Stevenson said. “There
are questions to be asked of why is
it that the University of Michigan
has such a low gender share. But
they’re not easy answers.”
LSA
sophomore
Madeleine
Danes said a key reason many
of her female friends stopped
taking economic classes after the
intro course was because of lower
grades.
“Some
of
them
dropped
because they didn’t do well,”
Danes said. “If you don’t do well
in those introductory classes, you
might be discouraged.”
Tushman
echoed
this
sentiment,
saying
when
she
does poorly on a test, she feels
discouraged and less confident
in her abilities, especially when
she reads about the difficulties
women face in the economic field.
She doesn’t think men absorb
their failures in the same kind of
way.
“Women tend to internalize
things more,” Tushman said. “I
don’t want to make that a sweeping
generalization, but I know I do it.
It’s easy to get discouraged when
In its second meeting of the
semester, the University Council
assembled
Monday
night
to
discuss student break reform, an
anti-Semitism training and the Big
Ten Voting Challenge.
Public Policy senior Ben Keller,
senior policy advisor to LSA senior
Anushka Sarkar, the University
of Michigan’s Central Student
Government
president,
began
the meeting with presenting a
reform for the way that exams are
administered at the University,
with the implementation of a
“reading day” policy. This action
would prevent professors from
scheduling exams on the day
immediately
preceding
and
following a scheduled break.
According to Keller, the reading
day policy would primarily benefit
the mental health of students so
they would not have to dedicate a
substantial amount of time over
shorter breaks studying for exams.
Additionally, this is often stressful
for out-of-state students who often
need to travel home and suffer
from further shortened time off
from classes.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 60
©2018 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 COUNCIL, Page 3
‘U’ Council
talks new
exam time
restriction
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Proposed reading period
around break times may
benefit student wellness
KATHERINA SOURINE
Daily Staff Reporter
Women in Economics
The entry of women into PhD programs was 31% in 2016.
Women are 39% of introductory economics courses at the University of Michigan.
Women are about a third of economics majors at the University of Michigan.
In introductory economics textbooks, women, as compared to men, are
mentioned 6% of the time as a real business
AMANDA CRISCI/Daily
Female faculty, students in Economics
confront disparities in hiring, classes
Steep drop-off in enrollment after intro classes create gender imbalance in department
ELIZABETH LAWRENCE
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See ECONOMICS, Page 3
At
its
meeting
Monday
afternoon,
the
University
of
Michigan’s
Senate
Assembly
discussed the Senate Advisory
Committee on Undergraduate
Affairs’
statement
that
was
released on the Faculty Senate
website under the tab on the site
entitled Faculty Against Hate,
which outlined the Faculty’s
position against acts of hatred
and bigotry on campus. Senate
Assembly chair Robert Ortega
asked for comments or concerns
regarding the statement.
“The Faculty stand with our
students, staff, administration
and broader Michigan community
in deploring those who seek to
inspire violence and division
against and within our society,”
the statement reads. “Acts that
promote hate, prejudice, racism,
bigotry, and discrimination are
reprehensible.”
Some members of the Assembly
raised concerns about the way the
first sentence was phrased, saying
it could be problematic for the
statement to read that the faculty
deplored anyone who inspired
See ASSEMBLY, Page 3
Assembly
discusses
statement
on bigotry
ACADEMICS
Senate Assembly also
talks academic success of
student-athletes at ‘U’
MOLLY NORRIS
Daily Staff Reporter
The City of Ann Arbor’s
Solid Waste Fund reportedly
decreased this year due to
other
Post
Employment
Benefits and the shutdown
of
the
Materials
Recovery
Facility,
which
resulted
in
higher recycling costs. Yet,
despite largely distorted fund
statuses during a meeting with
City Councilmembers and the
Environmental
Commission,
the City reports the fund is
currently at a healthy balance.
The
Solid
Waste
Plan
manages a system for recycling
collection, which is financially
supported by the Solid Waste
Fund,
an
enterprise
fund
operating in a business format.
According to Councilmember
Chip Smith, D-Ward 5, the 2013
to 2017 Solid Waste Resource
Plan does not adequately meet
the Council’s recycling and
solid
waste
goals;
moving
toward a financially sustainable
Zero Waste plan. As a result, the
city is in the process of drafting
a revised plan for 2018 and has
already released a Request for
Proposal.
“The plan does not adequately
identify or address steps to get
to zero waste,” Smith wrote in
an email interview. “We also
need to look at how we pay
for solid waste, recycling and
compost services.”
However,
miscommunication
between
the City Council and the
Environmental
Commission
raised concerns about the status
of the Solid Waste Fund. Based
on a staff report, Susan Hutton
spoke before the Council at last
month’s meeting and discussed
her concerns of drastic Solid
Waste Fund decreases and
understaffing.
“In 2015, the Solid Waste
Fund
balance
was
$15.1
million,” Hutton said. “In 2019,
the fund is projected to fall to
$3.2 million, a drop of almost
$12 million in four years. $5.2
million was spent on retirement
expenses, which was necessary.
Solid Waste
Fund steady
despite false
data reports
Schlissel: “I just can’t add to the
debate” on Larry Nassar, MSU
See WASTE, Page 2
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
President Schlissel discusses University actions regarding sexual assault and harassment in the wake of the #MeToo movement, protections for undocumented stu-
dents, and the University’s commitment to affordability at the Fleming building Monday.
ANN ARBOR
Miscommunication in fund balances
from staff reports cause confusion
ALEX COTT
Daily Staff Reporter
University president talks Nassar trial, DACA protections, free speech in interview
The
Daily
sat
down
with
University of Michigan President
Mark Schlissel to get his take on
sexual assault charges against
ex-USA gymnastics team doctor
Larry Nassar, ongoing negotiations
with white supremacist Richard
Spencer
and
protections
for
undocumented students on campus.
While he declined to comment
on specific methods by which
the Michigan State University
administration,
including
the
heavily criticized MSU President
Lou Anna Simon, can work to
take responsibility for the years
of abuse Nassar inflicted upon his
victims, Schlissel pivoted to how
his administration is attempting to
promote spaces in which survivors
of sexual assault feel safe to speak
out on campus.
Sexual
Assault
and
Misconduct: The Larry Nassar
Trial
Survivors of sexual assault and
harassment continue to make waves
around the country by coming
forward with impact statements
against
Nassar,
a
University
alum and former Michigan State
University doctor, at his sentencing
trial in Ingham County. Nassar pled
guilty to seven counts of first degree
sexual
misconduct
in
Ingham
County and three counts in Eaton
County, including sexual assault
and abuse of girls as young as six
years old.
Schlissel provided his sympathy
and
respect
for
survivors,
acknowledging the courage it takes
for survivors to come forward with
their testimonies.
“My heart goes out to what
appear to be hundreds of victims
of
a
corrupt
physician
who
committed multiple illegal acts
over an extended period of time,”
he said. “The young women in
particular who came forward to
tell their stories, which were very
personal and uniformly awful, in a
public setting and the media, (are)
brave people and my heart goes out
to them and I hope that they can
recover and heal from what sounds
like the worst experience I could
JORDYN BAKER &
AMARA SHAIKH
Daily Staff Reporters
See SCHLISSEL, Page 3