steady income can make all the
difference for low-income and
financially insecure students,”
Schandevel wrote in an email
interview. “Having information
about job opportunities on and
off campus, work-study, need-
and
merit-based
scholarships
and paid internships would be
incredibly useful.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, January 26, 2018 — 3
The University of Michigan’s
Central Student Government
released a Campus Affordability
Guide Saturday and has since
received backlash from many
members of the student body.
The online publication was
widely touted as a “guide to
cost-effective
living
at
the
University,” and lists a few
dozen tips for students to cut
down on costs in the face of
rising living costs.
Suggestions such as cutting
down
on
housekeeping
services, laundry delivery or
limiting
impulse
purchases
left
low-income
students
incredulous.
In a Facebook post that has
been shared 27 times as of
Thursday evening, LSA senior
Zoe Proegler expressed her
dissatisfaction with the way
CSG approached affordability
on campus.
“We all know Ann Arbor is
expensive,”
Proegler
wrote.
“Guides like this, which lecture
to lower income students about
how rich people think poor
people can change a couple
habits (or lightbulbs?) and not
be poor anymore, do not help.
Rather, they’re a slap in the
face to people who fight every
day to be here.”
A 2016 demographic self-
survey
conducted
by
CSG
in 2016 found 74.4 percent
of its members come from
households
that
earn
over
$100,000 a year, and 37.2
percent
have
household
incomes
of
over
$250,000.
According to a recent report,
the
University
ranks
last
in economic mobility when
compared to other top-ranked
public universities.
“It was really immediate,
the way that it hit me —
something about the tone being
off,” Proegler later said in an
interview. “As I was reading it, it
didn’t seem like something that
had really taken into account
the problems of students who
are
experiencing
absolute
issues with accessibility and
affordability. It didn’t read like
something that would actually
be working towards improving
accessibility for students who
need it, and for CSG to push it
that way was upsetting.”
Proegler brought up the
specific points mentioned in
the article, some of which
she felt were out of touch and
potentially dangerous to the
students who would benefit
most from this guide.
“It comes up twice in those
first 50 points that students
should get rid of cleaning or
laundry service subscriptions
in order to save money,” she
said. “That, to me, doesn’t
sound
like
they’re
really
addressing students who they
intended to be targeting with
that. The whole guide seemed
to put CSG at a disadvantage in
communicating what they were
trying to do. There’s no way
you can explain to somebody
what a balance transfer is in
two sentences. And to attempt
to do so, is I think, grossly
negligent.”
In a comment on Proegler’s
Facebook
post,
CSG
Vice
President Nadine Jawad wrote
she
thought
the
numerous
comments critiquing the guide
misrepresented her years spent
working with Ann Arbor City
Council members, students and
programs, such as the Ginsberg
Center, in order to present
options for students to live in
Ann Arbor on a budget.
“As the director of this
guide,
and
as
a
first-gen
student who struggles with
finances and costs here, this is
a misrepresentative portrayal
of two years of compiling
research,” Jawad wrote. “My
advocacy on affordable housing
started with a journey through
15+ meetings with Ann Arbor
commissioners
and
council
members as well as several
meetings with U-M Housing.
CSG actually helped institute a
student advisory board to City
Council last winter as a result
of some of this research. This
guide is a compilation of notes,
but doesn’t erase the fear of
prices in an ever-increasingly
expensive city that doesn’t feel
like someone like me can fit in or
afford. SES and inaccessibility
to low-income students isn’t a
joke and is worthy of more than
a string of FB comments. This
is a first proactive step I, and
many others, took to starting to
change something. I appreciate
the feedback and this is a
revolving document.”
A
CSG
senior
cabinet
member, who asked to remain
anonymous,
was
concerned
most of the suggestions —
which included points such as
buying items in bulk or selling
a vehicle — were not addressing
the real issues that students
face
with
affordability
on
campus.
“I
had
generally
known
(the guide) was coming; it
was something that had been
in the works for a while, but
most people hadn’t really seen
the content of it,” he said. “I
thought it was a good idea at
first, trying to make campus
more affordable is something
I’m very passionate about, but
I think this is a tonality issue.
Reading through the pages, the
suggestions seemed so glib and
out of touch. I think the set of
college students with a maid
is incredibly small already and
is not low-income students.
It came across less as though
it was intended to be aimed
towards low-income students
and more as a guide for fairly
wealthy students.”
He also pointed out the
guide was lengthy and filled
with redundant material.
“It’s 80 pages long,” he said.
“A lot of this is just hugely
extraneous material that’s not
relevant and is just taking up
space. We’re all busy students —
low-income students more than
most of us. I don’t have time to
read an 84-page pamphlet in
detail. I’m doubtful that kids
who are working two plus jobs
to put themselves through
college are able to do that.”
Public Policy junior Lauren
Schandevel said she would
have
appreciated
a
more
detailed focus on employment
opportunities
and
ways
to
balance
work
and
study
schedules.
“I was so surprised to find
that
there
was
almost
no
mention
of
employment
in
the guide — after all, having a
Michigan
Medicine
physician Mark Hoeltzel is
under investigation by a state
licensing
board
for
sexual
misconduct, according to a
statement
from
Michigan
Medicine
CEO
Marschall
Runge,
executive
vice
president of Medical Affairs
for the University of Michigan.
Michigan
Medicine
was
notified of the investigation
in
early
December
and
immediately removed Hoeltzel,
a
pediatric
rheumatologist,
from patient care duties. He
has not been allowed to return
to work, and his employment
with Michigan Medicine has
since been terminated.
Runge
wrote
Michigan
Medicine reported Hoeltzel to
law enforcement officials right
away, and is cooperating with
the investigation, which is
already underway. An outside
professional has been hired to
review the matter.
“These are very disturbing
and serious allegations, and
we have reached out to our
patients to inform them of
the situation, offer resources
and provide them with a way
to report any concerns,” the
statement reads.
The
Michigan
Medicine
community was notified of
the situation this morning
in an email sent by Michelle
Daniel,
assistant
professor
of Emergency Medicine. She
urged medical students to do
everything possible to attend
the meeting, as they would be
divulging information about a
former faculty member.
“We will be holding an
urgent meeting today from
12:30-12:45 in West Lecture
Hall,” Daniel wrote in the
email. “We have important
information to share about a
former faculty member. We
understand that some of you
are in your Step Study period,
and others are at clinical sites
away from the main campus.
If you are on campus, please
make every effort to attend.
Your faculty should release you
for this time period.”
A letter was sent to all of
Hoeltzel’s patients by Michigan
Medicine, explaining Hoeltzel
was under investigation for
sexual misconduct and their
child would be transferred to a
different doctor.
“Your
child
is
our
top
priority,”
the
letter
states.
“We
understand
that
this
information will be disturbing
and a cause for concern.”
According to ClickOnDetroit,
Hoeltzel was first accused
of misconduct in 2004. He
exchanged
“flirtatious”
messages with an 11-year-old
girl he had examined at a U-M
arthritis camp.
The hospital sent Hoeltzel
to a “boundaries course” as a
result.
No
additional
complaints
were filed against Hoeltzel
until December, when the state
licensing board notified the
hospital of the investigation.
In
response
to
the
bias
incidents that have taken place
on the University of Michigan
campus, the Dean of Students
office is launching the Response,
Education
and
Awareness
Community Taskforce (REACT)
with Respect initiative. The task
force will work along the Expect
Respect campaign, as well as
the Bias Response Team, to
create a more inclusive campus
environment through workshops,
peer support services and more.
Students who sign up for the
initiative can be trained in one of
two areas: preventative planning
or bias incident training, and
will learn how to handle issues
involving identity, bias, and social
and restorative justice ideas.
Bias
incidents
have
been
steadily increasing on campus in
the last two years. A new response
log published last fall reported 80
incidents last semester alone.
Julio
Cardona,
interim
Assistant
Dean
of
Students,
currently
manages
the
Bias
Incident Prevention and Response
team and the Expect Respect
Campaign.
Cardona
further
explained the development of
REACT with Respect initiative,
pointing out it was created at the
request of members from the
student body.
“It is a pilot program that was
created in response to students
last year expressing the desire
to be more actively involved in
preventing
bias
incidents
on
campus, and also finding ways
that they can support the work of
the Expect Respect campaign,”
Cardona said. “This year we
decided to pilot the program with
a few students just to see how
then in the future we can continue
expanding it out.”
Cardona also discussed the
goals of the initiative: offering
students who have faced bias
situations support and resources
to
report
the
incident,
and
implementing
preventative
measures in collaboration with the
Expect Respect campaign.
“This is really almost like
a
student
organization
that
is supporting and acting as
an advising group,” he said.
“(However it is) also providing
peer support to students that may
need to file a bias incident report
with Student Life, but don’t know
how to, or may feel that there is
a sense of retaliation if they do
… Also it’s helping to do more
preventative events, so tabling,
flyering, chalking the Diag to
tell people about what we do, but
then also programming around
the Expect Respect campaign
through doing workshops, and
meeting with other students orgs
to discuss all of our initiatives.”
REACT with Respect and the
Expect Respect campaign are both
parts of the Diversity, Equality
and Inclusion Plan implemented
by the University in 2016. Cardona
highlighted the ways that REACT
with Respect paralleled different
aspects of the DEI both in regards
to the campus-wide plan and the
Student Life plan.
“This pilot program aligns
directly to Strategy Two of the
U-M campus-wide strategic plan,
and that strategy is to, ‘Recruit,
maintain and support a diverse
community,’” Cardona said. “Then
also specifically to Student Life’s
DEI strategic plan of increasing
the
capacity
of
student
life
programs devoted to supporting
student experiencing bias and
improving campus climate.”
Cardona ended by explaining
the
importance
of
ensuring
students’ voices are heard so the
University can take action in areas
that actually need it, not just ones
presumed by the administration.
“We really want the students’
voice and their ideas represented
in all of our work,” Cardona said.
“If we need to update the Expect
Respect webpage we’ll ensure
that students thoughts and ideas
are incorporated in it, so that way
we address the current needs
of students. Especially if we’re
going to share resources that are
about reporting a bias incident, we
want to make sure that the type
of resources we provide students
are currently aligned to what they
need, and not what we assume
they need.”
The program is still in its
beginning phase, and searching
for student participants. Megan
Zabik is an LSA sophomore
considering joining REACT with
Respect.
“It sounds really interesting to
me because I think the University
needs more initiative like that.
I hope that it can help create a
more understanding culture at the
University of Michigan,” Zabik
said. “The national culture isn’t
very inclusive and I feel like it’s
reflected at this University for
sure, and it needs to change. The
administration should have more
initiatives like this, and I hope to
support it with my involvement.”
Student task force to address bias
CSG budgeting guide ‘out of touch,’ students say
REACT with Respect initiative to receive complaints, offer support services
Suggestions included eliminating services like housekeeping, laundry delivery miss experiences of low-income students
AMARA SHAIKH
Daily Staff Reporter
MAYA GOLDMAN
Daily News Editor
RHEA CHEETI
Daily Staff Reporter
‘U’ physician
faces sexual
misconduct
accusations
Pediatrician exchanged “flirtatious”
emails with 11-year-old patient in 2004
ROSEANNE CHAO/Daily
A public lecture by
JOHANNA
HANINK
Associate Professor of Classics
Brown University and
Former editor, Michigan Daily
JANUARY 29
4:10 p.m.
Classics Library
2175 Angell Hall
For more information
call 734.615.6667
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com