own self-monitoring in saying that
we need to stop the social activities
because of all this going on, and
that also frightens me because my
experience has been when we self-
correct, things are sometimes more
dangerous than we know.”
In addition, Harper spoke on
multicultural
fraternities
and
sororities, specifically surrounding
issues
of
police
presence.
In
October, The Daily reported a
disparity between the large amount
of Black and Latino fraternity police
citations and the low amount of
police activity at predominantly
white fraternities on MSU gameday
weekend.
Harper said the disparity is one
that mirrors national conversations
on overpolicing and concerns the
differences between Greek life
organizations and private homes.
“The same behavior in front of a
white Greek letter organization gets
an entirely different response than if
it’s a private home and there are lots
of students of color,” Harper said.
“That is an ongoing challenge for us
as a university and as a community
as we work with our students
because they notice the difference,
we notice the difference.”
Many students also feel a
lost
connection
between
the
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
planand Greek life. While Harper
explained the difficulties in finding
solutions to the issue, specifically
for those often “overpoliced and
underprotected,” she spoke of the
importance in continuing to engage
in
conversations
surrounding
the issue and in strengthening
relationships
between
different
communities.
“I think what public safety
officers are trying to do is to ensure
public safety,” Harper said. “I think
what students experience is, ‘But
your response to ensuring that is
different depending on how people
look,’ and that’s true — that’s the
national conversation. We just have
to continue to do this work.”
Student Life Support
In
terms
of
initiatives
undertaken by Student Life, Harper
first spoke on sexual assault, a topic
that has become especially relevant
as allegations are made against
men in power around the nation
and in Hollywood, as well as at
the University of Michigan. Most
recently, the trial of Larry Nassar,
a former Michigan State University
and USA Gymnastics doctor who
received 40 to 175 years for sex
abuse, has sparked a larger sexual
assault conversation among higher
education institutions.
At
the
University,
Harper
explained through strengthening
and improving staff at the Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center
and
Counseling
and
Psychological Services, the Student
Life
administration
has
been
working to change the dialogue
surrounding sexual assault, so that
rather than focusing all efforts on
the punishment of perpetrators,
more efforts are directed toward
increasing
and
advocating
for
the reporting process through
educational efforts.
“What we’re really talking about
is a culture change,” Harper said.
“The narrative has been around
punishment. ‘Why wasn’t the guy
punished, why wasn’t the guy
stopped, who knew when?’ What
we want to focus on is, certainly,
when it occurs [to] have a strong
adjudication process … But we
really want our efforts to be around
education and training.”
She explained the administration
has looked over assessment data
and surveys around sexual assault
at the University, researching the
reasons students may not report
incidents of sexual misconduct and
determining ways to strengthen
training
programs
so
as
to
encourage and improve reporting.
“We want to be effective in
repairing harm and adjudicating,
but the real goal for us is to not have
it happen, and when it does, to have
the kind of community where our
students will come forward, know
that they will be believed, and know
then that we will work to resolve in
a fair and equitable way what has
happened,” Harper said.
While
the
encouragement
of students to come forward
with
allegations
is
important,
Harper highlighted the duties of
those within her own office to
act on allegations and to ensure
investigations are handled properly.
“The President has been very
explicit with all of us that the buck
stops with us,” Harper said. “His
expectation is that staff in Student
Life are trained, that they are
reporting and that I am acting when
I hear something. That has always
been the expectation, but he sort of
turned up the volume.”
In explaining the efforts of the
Office of Student Life in improving
training and education, Harper
also emphasized giving voices
to survivors — something that
becomes especially important in
times when countless individuals
come forward. She expanded on
her commitment to ensuring all
students, staff and faculty recognize
their right to be present at the
University free of the possibility of
sexual assault and misconduct.
“Part of the reason why we have
to be so vigilant now is because
imagine you come out of high
school, you come to college, you
sort of learn in college (to) put up
with it — why wouldn’t you go into
a career and put up with it?” Harper
said. “So in some ways, we’re hoping
that if we are just focused and really
get this culture right, it will then
ricochet (as you go) into a career and
you say no.”
Spencer delays
On the topic of a potential visit
from white supremacist Richard
Spencer next semester and the
current
issues
surrounding
free speech on campus, Harper
addressed the removal request
of
biology
professor
John
Vandermeer’s “Black Lives Matter”
sign from his office window two
weeks ago.
Harper
acknowledged
the
University’s request to remove the
sign was a mistake. However, she
emphasized if it was purposeful, the
University would be contradicting
its own position on free speech —
especially since it is the basis for
allowing someone like Spencer on
campus.
“If the taking down of the
sign was based on content then
we’re talking out of both sides
of our mouth because we have a
commitment to free speech, and it’s
everybody’s free speech,” Harper
said. “It’s Richard Spencer’s free
speech, and Black Lives Matters’s
free speech.”
Harper furthered this sentiment
and said the power of free speech
lies in the fact that it belongs to
everyone.
“There is a strong commitment,
there
is
an
unwavering
commitment to free speech, and
that’s everybody’s,” Harper said.
“That means that (Spencer) can
come, and I can protest his coming.
He can say swear words, and so
can I. That’s the power of the right
to speak. It applies to everyone.
Though
sometimes
we
would
rather not hear what the person
is saying because it’s so offensive
or racist or homophobic, they still
have the right to say it. (However,
Vandermeer) has the right the put
up the sign.”
She also warned of the danger
that not standing true to the idea
that everyone has the right to
voice their opinions can lead to
the University coming across as
insincere.
“There can’t be two standards
for free speech without us being
hypocritical as an institution,”
Harper said.
Harper also addressed the topic
of student housing and the added
financial
burden
it
continues
to place on students each year.
According to the U.S. Census
Bureau, Ann Arbor’s median rate
for rent increased 14 percent from
2010 to 2015 — lying at $1,075
as of the last survey. As the Vice
President of Student Life, Harper
is in charge of the Beyond the Diag
initiative, which helps students find
off-campus housing.
Harper explained while the
University
cannot
control
the
prices of off-campus entities, there
are discussions taking place about
refurbishing existing on-campus
housing options and even building
new ones altogether.
“One of the ways we’ve been
thinking about it is, is there
something we can do in terms of
additional housing for students, and
how do we repair and replace what
is here so students want to live on
campus and should we be thinking
about additional housing?” Harper
said. “We can control that cost in
a way that we can’t control the
market.”
HARPER
From Page 1
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 — 3
LSA senior Julia Berg, a
volunteer
co-coordinator
for
SAPAC’s
Bystander
Intervention and Community
Engagement
program,
said
the Lyft partnership was a
success in terms of helping
students and other members
of the community becoming
more aware of how to be better
bystanders.
“It was a cool partnership
we had with them, and we’re
hoping to keep using those
Lyft passes to demonstrate that
Lyft is still partnering with us
and that we can still be better
bystanders,” Berg said.
Berg was unsure of how often
SAPAC uses transportation on
an organizational level, but
thought they could perhaps use
the grant to collaborate with
other student organizations.
“Within BICE, we’ve done
a
lot
with
the
bystander
intervention part of our name,
and we’re working more on
the
community
engagement
part,” Berg said. “So hopefully
we can find ways to work with
other groups on campus that
could potentially use this as a
resource. Or maybe there’s some
sort of collaborative event that
could use this type of funding.”
Berg
also
said
she’d
be
interested in using the grant
to continue providing students
with late-night Lyft passes.
“We
didn’t
actually
give
out all of the passes we got
from Lyft, but we’re hoping to
give more out at workshops,”
Berg said. “If the funding
could be used in that capacity,
I think that would be a cool
opportunity.”
For
organizations
like
The
Detroit
Partnership,
a
University student group that
aims to get students involved
in the Detroit area, Lyft’s
grant
could
be
especially
helpful. Business senior Arjun
Kaushal,
finance
director
of The Detroit Partnership,
discussed the group’s reliance
on transportation to achieve
their mission. He said the group
mainly uses Zipcar to transport
students
for
their
weekly
programs and buses for their
major events.
Kaushal said Lyft’s program
is something the organization
would
probably
look
into,
but noted how quickly they
would run through the $1,000
due to how often they need
transportation.
“It’s obviously of interest
to us; it’s in our target space
as it’s targeting communities
in Ann Arbor and Detroit,”
Kaushal said. “In terms of the
$1,000, if I was going to use
Lyft to go to Detroit, one way
is around 50 bucks. For us, as
an organization, we’d use it up
pretty quickly.”
Kaushal
also
said
he
recognized
the
benefits
of
this grant and a continuing
partnership with Lyft.
“From what I hear, Lyft is
generally good about factoring
in social change and positive
change in their mission and
their
company’s
fabric,”
Kaushal
said.
“Functionally,
there’s definitely value to be
had there for us in getting our
members down to the city.”
In an email interview, Elliot
Darvick,
the
general
Lyft
manager of Detroit, said the
positive
drive
demonstrated
by students at the University
motivated Lyft to extend the
Community Grant Program to
Ann Arbor. He also expressed
his excitement in seeing what
these organizations will achieve
with the help of the grant.
“Knowing that U-M students
and the community surrounding
them are equally driven to
create a better world inspired
us to bring the grant program
to Ann Arbor,” Darvick wrote.
“I’m eager to see the great
work that organizations in our
community are able to do with
access to Lyft’s safe, reliable,
and convenient rides.”
The fallout from scandals of
sex abuse by disgraced doctor
Larry Nassar at Michigan State
University and as a member of
the USA Gymnastics medical
team
have
had
innumerable
ripple effects at the University
of Michigan. The Daily spoke to
women’s gymnastics coach Bev
Plocki, in her 29th season on
campus as one of the winningest
coaches in the country, about
this “moment of reckoning” for
her team and the gymnastics
community.
The Michigan Daily: How is
your team feeling, after the trial
and sentencing and survivors
coming forward?
Plocki: The reality of this
situation is that it’s so incredibly
widespread. Everyone on our
team, in our entire gymnastics
community has been affected by it.
Everybody knows at least someone
who has been a victim. We’re all
deeply saddened by what’s gone on
and what these victims have had to
say. We really hope, now, that since
it’s over and since — I don’t even
know what to call him, I certainly
won’t call him Dr. Nassar—he’ll be
gone for good, I hope everyone will
be able to move on and heal. It’s the
amount of support that is out there
that’s the light at the end of a really
dark tunnel. It has strengthened
the community and bond between
these athletes that are behind
everyone affected.
TMD: How do I know that what
happened at MSU won’t happen
here?
Plocki: I think that we’re doing
everything in our power … I mean
the reality of the answer is that
we can’t issue any guarantees. But
for myself personally, I have tried
very hard—and my athletes know
this—to create a culture of open
communication. They know my
cell phone is on 24 hours a day, it’s
by my bed, if they need me at two
o’clock in the morning, I’ll be there.
We’ve created that culture of
encouraging them to come forward
no matter what it is. My place is to
be there for them, to make them
feel safe, and to care. But I won’t
overstep my boundaries.
TMD: This is year 29 now for
you at the University, and many
of the survivors we heard at the
trial spoke about three decades of
abuse. What kinds of things have
you seen in your time here?
Plocki: I would never speak
publicly about anyone’s issue, but
I can tell you in 29 years, we’ve
dealt with a lot of things, from
personal tragedy to homesickness
to something that’s happened in
childhood or after. We can’t prevent
people
from
having
personal
traumatic events, especially if they
don’t have anything to do with
their time at the University. But we
have plans in place to help anybody
that comes forward, with anything
they might be dealing with.
TMD: Did you know him? How
well?
Plocki: Who didn’t know him?
I know he did his undergraduate
work here at Michigan, but beyond
that, I didn’t know him here. I
would not classify him as a friend,
but he was acquaintances with
everybody in our world. He was
all over the place, so you’d run
into him here, there, and he was
always a very friendly person. That
was part of his grooming, he was
very kind, giving, accommodating.
Other than seeing him in other
venues … It makes me very happy
to say we’ve never utilized his
services
or
referred
student-
athletes to him. We utilize our own
training staff.
TMD: Another
wrinkle
in
this story is Michigan State’s
involvement in the case, that
officials created a culture that
enabled this abuse and assault.
What kinds of conversations have
you been in among coaches, or in
the Big Ten?
Plocki: We’re in the middle
of our season, and so it’s not a
pleasant thing for anyone to pick
up the phone and speak about.
I can only speak to our policies
and procedures here, and it’s not
appropriate for me to speak for
anyone else. All I can really say
is that Mr. Nassar was a master
manipulator, and the number of
children and young women that he
fooled, the number of adults—be it
parents or colleagues—it amazes
me. I don’t know the specifics of
any of that, so I’m not comfortable
pointing fingers or placing blame.
state, and shape the subjectivity
of those that design, fabricate,
test, and ultimately use such
systems,” James said.
James
continued
by
describing her personal mission
in discovering her ancestry to
Jesse Scott Sammons, a public
figure in Charlottesville, Va.
towards the end of the 19th
century. His previous familial
homestead and cemetery were
in danger of being paved over
by a highway plan initiated
by the Virginia Department
of Transportation under the
principle of eminent domain.
After being traced to Sammons,
she
was
asked
by
local
historians to participate in the
battle to preserve the land and
its historical sites.
She described her initial
reluctance in becoming involved
with the project, not knowing
exactly what obligations she
owed the Sammons homestead,
or how culturally significant
this battle truly was.
“Taking on the fight meant
embracing kinship with, and
connections to, persons and
troubling histories that have
haunted my family, Virginia,
and the United States, for more
than two centuries,” James
said.
James
revealed
after
a
lengthy struggle with legality
and
questionable
legitimacy
of the historical site, the battle
ended in her favor, the team of
historians and other ancestors
of the Sammons family. The
debate was reviewed by the
Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, which deemed
not only the Sammons cemetery
and homestead were historically
relevant, but also the remaining
27 acres were eligible to receive
federal protections.
Despite
this
success,
James questioned the overall
accomplishment
of
the
preservation and respect of the
history of people of color and
the losing battles in many other
Southern states.
“Whose history is deemed
important and what are the
criteria?” James said.
Rackham student Kathryn
Berringer
expressed
her
excitement for future talks
within the STeMS series and
said the opportunity to be a
part of this STS collaboration
can widen the scope of the
concentration and bring the
dialogue to other parts of
campus.
“The series and the program
itself provides a chance to bring
together
faculty,
graduate
students and undergrad from
around the University campus,
to
then
engage
with
the
speakers who are coming in and
speaking to questions relevant
to STS from many different
fields,” Berringer said.
be applying several research
methods, such as algorithmic
investigations
and
statistical
tests, to a comprehensive data
set
of
anonymous
workers’
compensation cases.
“What we want to do from that
data is try to learn what works
well and what doesn’t work well
using data science approaches,
so algorithmic approaches, for
learning what decisions are likely
to lead to somebody being able
to get back to work in a safe and
timely manner,” Denton said.
The research will use deep
reinforcement machine learning,
along
with
statistical
and
industrial operations methods, to
create a model for how a patient
can be treated for injury or illness
and when they can return to
work.
Rackham
student
Haozhu
Wang, who is leading the student
research
group
collaborating
on the project, said the wealth
of data the project has to work
from will benefit the project
immensely.
“This data set that we are
going to work with is really
kind of novel,” Wang said. “It’s
a huge data set which contains
the information of one million
patients … To my knowledge, this
is the largest data set by far (to be
analyzed by machine learning).”
Wang also noted this is some of
the first research using machine
reinforcement learning, which
investigates data sets through
trial-and-error as a human often
would, that looks at occupational
healthcare.
Peers
Health
CEO
Jon
Seymour said the focus on
return-to-work data is relatively
new in occupational health data
analysis as well.
“The focus of the data set
is
return-to-work,
which
is
specifically how to get patients
back to work from injuries and
illnesses,” Seymour said. “It’s
an important facet of medicine
that is often underappreciated
… Getting someone back to
work from an injury or illness is
equivalent to returning them to
their productive endeavors.”
Seymour said the decision to
work with University researchers
was based on the advanced
technological power, such as
Mcity and the highest amount
of research and development
spending out of all public U.S.
universities,
and
knowledge
available.
“Here,
these
technologies,
like artificial intelligence, are so
cutting edge that the more we
looked at it, the more we felt, to get
the most out of it, we needed an
academic component,” Seymour
said. “These technologies are the
ones that will eventually parallel
a self-driving car, (they will) be
able to actually interpret data and
develop a policy around what to
do in a given situation, and make
proactive recommendations to
doctors and other stakeholders.”
Denton reiterated Seymour’s
self-driving vehicles example,
saying
the
technology
and
research in artificial intelligence
can apply to the research and data
procedure the University and
Peers will be working on with
worker injuries through creating
the
deep
learning
research
networks that rely on artificial
intelligence to synthesize the
data.
“Self-driving
vehicles
are
trying to learn over time to
become more and more effective
using data they collect from
multiple sources, and in a way
that’s exactly what we’re trying
to do here with the data that
Peers is providing — many
different sources of data that we
bring together to build learning
algorithms to improve upon
decision making,” Denton said.
Seymour acknowledged there
is
considerable
commercial
interest going into this research
— Peers Health develops and
sells guidelines in the return-
to-work industry — and he said
he believes the research has the
potential to go even farther into
the health care field.
“The implications of what we’ll
learn here go beyond the niche
of occupational health care and
really extend broadly to general
health care, and potentially every
medical episode that goes on all
day, every day,” Seymour said.
INJURY
From Page 1
LYFT
From Page 1
MONUMENTS
From Page 1
Pervasive sexual assault is “black cloud”
over gymnastics, says ‘U’ women’s coach
Plocki supports survivors, but stays away from calling out structural issues in interview
RIYAH BASHA
Managing News Editor
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com