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Monday, February 7, 2018 — 3A
E NTRE PRE NEUR SHIP AT ROSS
Elmira Bayrasli, a professor and an entrepreneurship expert, discusses the impact entrepreneurship has on the economies of low and middle-
income countries at the Ross School of Business Tuesday.
BRIAN AUSTIN KOSASIH/Daily
and for the most part everyone
was galvanized to be like ‘Oh,
we need to do something about
this.’”
In fact, not long after the
lecture
had
commenced,
course
instructor Burcu Tasoluk
emailed the students informing
them of P&G’s reaction to
the students’ questions and
behavior during the lecture.
The email, obtained by The
Daily,
noted
hosting
guest
speakers is a privilege and
presents an opportunity to
hear
valuable
information
from business professionals.
It also referenced the Ross
Student Code of Conduct and
Statement
of
Community
Values, encouraging students
to adhere to the prescribed
guidelines for behavior.
“(We)
received
correspondence
from
P&G
following
Monday’s
lecture
indicating
disappointment
with students’ inappropriate
questions
during
the
Q&A
and their conduct thereafter
(including on social media),”
the email read. “Such behavior
is disrespectful to the speaker,
and reflects poorly on us,
Ross, and the University of
Michigan.”
When students next attended
class, they were informed of
P&G’s response to the guest
lecture
and
instructed
to
form an action plan on how
to remedy the relationship
with P&G. Students broke into
groups and brainstormed ways
to reach out to P&G.
The
main
goal
of
the
action plan as outlined in the
marketing class was to “reflect
acknowledgment,
ownership,
and accountability of what
happened.” A small task force
of students wrote an apology
letter to the P&G guest lecturer.
According
to
Business
junior Connor Baechler, the
incident negatively impacted
students who wanted to start
careers or internships with
P&G. However, the recent Tide
Pod memes had such a wide
reach that Baechler thought
the questions were almost
inevitable.
“On
one
hand,
it
is
disappointing
that
current
Ross students would disrespect
a Ross alum during a serious
presentation,
even
if
it
appeared to many that the
presenter was not flustered
by the inappropriate student
responses,” Baechler told The
Daily in an email interview.
“Furthermore,
P&G
is
a
crucial
recruiting
partner
for Ross and its status as
a top business school, and
the company expects strong
candidates from the school in
return. I feel especially sorry
for any Ross students who are
actively interested in starting
their careers at P&G... (but)
from another perspective, the
timing of such a presentation
(for a Tide product!) could not
have been worse, with all the
memes and spoofs about the
‘Tide Pod Challenge’ floating
around social media. I do
not think P&G executives or
Ross
administrators
could
understand how prevalent the
joke had become to any college
student, not just Ross.”
Carolyn
Yoon,
Business
professor of marketing and
course
coordinator,
stated
the Business School will use
this situation as a case study
and
learning
opportunity
for
students
tasked
with
maintaining
professional
relationships in the future.
“What
happened
in
the
marketing course that day
is not indicative of who our
students are or our culture,
and P&G understands that,”
Yoon said. “We look forward
to maintaining our partnership
with P&G, as well as our many
other corporate partners.”
that’s been going on, I think
this is an easy way to start
getting
involved
and
for
survivors to take the first steps
in sharing their stories,” Cohen
said. “It’s a great way to have a
platform that’s comfortable for
the survivors — that’s on their
own terms — which is very
important in our society right
now.”
Bouse-Eaton
and
Cohen
emphasized their role was
to facilitate conversation on
all levels — especially for
college students. Bouse-Eaton
identified a lack of awareness
as
a
primary
obstacle
to
making progress with sexual
violence in society.
“I hope that it opens people’s
minds if they haven’t thought
about
this
issue
before,”
Bouse-Eaton said. “I hope it
helps survivors in the room
feel more comfortable coming
forward, or at least know that
they are not alone in their
struggle, and that there are
people here to support them,
whether that’s a peer educator,
a friend in their chapter, a
boyfriend, a girlfriend, etc.”
To some extent, there has
been progress toward this goal.
This is the first Speak Out at
the University since the advent
of the #MeToo movement,
which
has
encouraged
survivors to share their stories
on social media since late
last year. The movement has
brought with it one of the most
significant ongoing national
conversations
about
sexual
violence in decades.
The event also carried a
certain additional weight for
Michigan
residents.
Larry
Nassar, a former Michigan
State
University
and
USA
Gymnastics
doctor,
was
handed a third sentence of
40 to 125 years in prison on
Monday,
following
three
weeks of closely watched court
hearings in which victims
of his sexual abuse publicly
testified about his actions.
Perhaps partially catalyzed
by
the
Nassar
sentencing,
the #MeToo movement and
other public events over the
last
several
years,
Bouse-
Eaton said she has seen more
survivors come out to share
their stories with each event.
“It is such a widespread
problem, but it’s one that we
haven’t been talking about
for a long time,” Bouse-Eaton
said. “I feel like every year,
it’s gaining momentum; people
are feeling more comfortable
saying, ‘Me too.’”
One attendee, who asked
to remain anonymous, went
to the event for this purpose
— to support a platform for
survivors.
“I wanted to be in a space
where you can hear people
share their stories because
I don’t think they’re shared
enough,” the attendee said.
“And I think it’s important to
have spaces where you can be
emotional. Sometimes it feels
like you don’t have enough time
to do that on this campus.”
The
attendee
also
underscored the importance
of spreading awareness and
thinking about how one might
be facilitating sexual violence
as a bystander.
Despite the gravity of the
subject matter, Bouse-Eaton
expressed
her
hope
and
confidence that the event —
and the work of survivors,
allies and leaders — would lead
to positive change.
“It’s not really an event
that you tell people to get
excited for because it’s very
emotional and upsetting for a
lot of people, but it’s also very
powerful and life-changing,”
Bouse-Eaton said. “And we tell
people every year: It’s not fun,
but it’s important.”
PODS
From Page 1A
SPEAK
From Page 1A
receiving a grant from her alma
mater, Stanford University. She
detailed visiting a British castle
in Ghana, and how its prominent
structure hid its dark history
of British officers abuse of their
Ghanaian wives and other local
people.
“It’s the only time, I think,
in my life where I felt like this
space might be haunted,” Gyasi
explained. “Where I felt like
something is happening here that I
wanted to explore further.”
The experience stuck with her,
and ultimately motivated her to
begin her project.
Levy-Hussen said she was
captivated by the structure of the
novel.
“What really resonates for me
was the structure of the novel
itself,” she said. “It was structured
as this intergenerational family
tree.”
While Gyasi said she initially
intended
on
highlighting
the
experiences
of
four
people
in
two
different
generations,
she
ultimately
realized
the
importance of time and wanted
to emphasize it in her writing.
Therefore, she decided to write
about the family over the course
of eight generations, showing
how successive generations were
affected by the experiences of their
ancestors.
Gyasi said she used the structure
to emphasize the effects of slavery,
and that slavery continued long
past the civil war.
“In many ways, this novel felt to
me like a response to people who
say things like, ‘Slavery happened
a
million
years
ago,’”
Gyasi
explained.
She then discussed how Aish, a
character in the novel born after
the Civil War, was essentially
treated as a slave while working
as a sharecropper because of the
deficiencies of Reconstruction and
the unjustifiable implementation
of Jim Crow laws in the south.
held in West Quad, with around 25
people in attendance.
The presentation was divided
into three segments: Richard
Spencer
and
the
ethnostate,
Zionism as a political tactic, and
the myth of Israel being the only
democracy in the Middle East.
Each section was separated by
10 minute breaks for questions.
Ultimately, SAFE attempted to
prove Israel is the kind of model
ethnostate
Spencer
strives
to
create.
The
presenters
began
by
identifying and defining some
key terms, including “Zionism”
and “ethnostate.” One of the
presenters, an LSA junior who
requested to remain anonymous to
avoid potential harm in associating
her name with these views online,
gave the definitions. However, she
also recognized the plurality of
definitions people may have for
these terms.
“Zionism has a lot of different
meanings for a lot of people, but
this is the working definition for
the purposes of this presentation:
a moderate political ideology that
supports a Jewish nation state,” she
said. “An ethnostate is a political
state that is populated by and run
in the interest of an ethnic group.”
The presentation then moved on
to highlighting some of Spencer’s
quotes and interviews that show
him pointing to Israel as an
example of an ethnostate, while
at the same time exhibiting anti-
Semitism. One of the clips was an
interview with Spencer and an
Israeli reporter, where Spencer
defends his supporters’ chants of
anti-Jewish slogans, while at the
same time praising Zionism.
In the second section, another
presenter who also wished to
remain anonymous due to safety
concerns, talked about restrictions
placed on Ethiopian Jews in
trying
to
obtain
citizenship,
and the lack of recognition of
international
refugees
within
the Israeli government. He used
this as evidence for the Israeli
government’s aversion to non-
white Jews.
“They want to keep the state
of Israel to look a certain way and
to have a certain demographic
population,” the presenter said.
“They don’t want people who are
not white Jews to live in their
community.”
The third section discussed the
idea of Israel as an apartheid state,
citing
various
discriminations
Palestinians
face,
including
eviction
from
their
homes.
The presenter also referenced
discriminations
specifically
against Palestinian women, such as
harrassment for wearing religious
clothing.
During
the
question-and-
answer periods between sections,
there
were
multiple
debates
between audience members and
the presenters. These discussions
centered around topics such as the
difference between Spencer and a
typical Zionist, and the difference
between criticizing Israel and
criticizing the Israeli government.
One presenter clarified SAFE’s
goal was to condemn Israel’s
policies, but not to discredit the
entire country.
Jake Ehrlich, a second-year
student at the school of Social
Work and a member of the Jewish
Communal Leadership program,
said he came to the teach-in to
understand how people felt about
the issue.
“I thought it was fruitful, I
was hoping the content would
be focused more on specific
intersections on anti-Semitism,
philo-semitism, Spencer and the
alt-right,” Erlich said. “I think
it sort of slid into more general
topics, which is fine but was a little
misleading.”
In direct response to the SAFE
event,
students
at
Michigan
Hillel organized an “alternative
conversation” with Heidi Budaj,
the regional director of the Anti-
Defamation League, a civil rights
organization that combats anti-
Semitism
and
discrimination.
More than 80 students gathered
at Weill Hall Tuesday night for the
talk.
Budaj
also
said
white
supremacist
Richard
Spencer’s
request to speak on campus in part
prompted her lecture.
“The
other
catalyst
as
to
why I’m here tonight is because
Richard Spencer declared that
he is a Zionist,” Budaj said.
“Unfortunately some students on
campus seize upon that and are
letting that divide minority groups
on campus when they should be
working together.”
Budaj’s
lecture,
“Alt-Right
Rising:
The
New
White
Supremacists”
was
held
immediately after SAFE’s event.
Budaj rejected Spencer’s alignment
with Zionism.
“He
equated
some
of
his
ideologies with there being a
Jewish state, but he is ignoring
diversity that exists throughout
the state of Israel when he made
that
statement,”
Budaj
said.
“Anything that he says is certainly
not espoused by the Jewish
community and Zionists are not
looking for support from someone
like that.”
LSA senior Sarah Parkes helped
organize Budaj’s talk.
“I was upset with some of
the events that were happening
on campus that were equating
white supremacy with Zionism,”
Parkes said. “A group of students,
including myself, were really upset
and wanted to provide a space for
those with a gut feeling that the
event that SAFE was putting on
was a bit anti-Semitic.”
Members of SAFE attended the
Hillel event after their own talk, at
times criticizing Israel’s treatment
of Palestinians. One student, who
asked not to be named, said Hillel
originally planned Budaj’s talk to
overlap with SAFE’s event, and
criticized the lack of dialogue.
“SAFE moved their event earlier
because we wanted to have this
discussion and we didn’t want
to be in two separate rooms, so
that’s why some folks came to our
talk and we came to this one,” the
SAFE member said. “I’m surprised
that that wasn’t brought up, That
was the literal intention behind the
talk.”
The student said she took
further issue with the talk because
of the way it was initially pitched.
Originally, the event was titled
“Equating Zionism with Nazism: A
Modern Form of Anti-Semitism,”
but Budaj’s discussion went in
a
different
direction,
instead
examining the re-invention and
subsequent ascent of the alt-right.
Budaj said Spencer, who coined
the term alt-right and is the face
of
the
so-called
identitarian
movement, represents a “suit and
tie” faction of white supremacism,
one that is less overt and more
subtle.
eMerge emphasized boosting
representation of marginalized
communities through student
government. Ward, said, however,
she often felt alienated as a Black
woman on the assembly.
“It’s been evident that [students
of color] have historically been
silenced due to efforts of other
members,” Ward said. “I can
personally attest to this, as I’ve
had my own alarming experience
with this, proving it’s true.”
Following
the
meeting,
Speaker Alexandra Contis, an
LSA Senior, addressed Ward’s
resignation in an email statement
to The Daily, citing interpersonal
conflict between both parties.
Contis said she alerted the
Division of Public Security and
Safety after a text message she
received from Ward.
“The
morning
after
the
November 28 Assembly meeting
in which Lauren Ward and I had
a heated exchange, I received a
threatening text message from
Lauren,” Contis wrote. “Because
of the nature of the text and
because I was in a university
building at the time, DPSS was
called on my behalf.”
The Daily could not confirm
a corresponding report on the
DPSS crime log before or after
Nov. 29. CSG communications
director Cassie Fields, an LSA
senior, provided The Daily with
the alleged texts Ward sent
Contis.
With elections for next year’s
CSG officers and representatives
commencing this semester, much
of the meeting addressed current
problems regarding the election
process and the need to make
changes
promptly.
Proposed
changes would clarify ambiguity
in the assembly’s constitution.
Kinesiology junior Okpalefe
Edevbie
emphasized
the
importance of ensuring CSG
elections reflect the values and
reputation of the organization.
“It’s important as an assembly
that we start having an open,
honest, discussion about CSG
elections,” Edevbie said. “The
behavior I’ve witnessed falls short
of the integrity and character
of this institution, and it’s not
representative of the values and
ideas of this assembly.”
LSA
sophomores
Sierra
Stephens and Isabel Baer then
presented a resolution to support
mandatory consent and mutual
respect training for incoming
University
theatre
and
film
students. Stephens said drama,
film
and
theatre
students
encounter
many
classroom
experiences in which they may
feel discomfort or non-consensual
activity,
which
reinforces
the need for supplementary
training in order to avoid sexual
misconduct between students.
“It is unacceptable for a student
to feel uncomfortable or unsafe
in their learning environment,”
Baer said. “We pride ourselves on
being a community of scholars,
but it’s impossible to learn in an
environment without respect or
consent.”
The
assembly
concluded
the meeting by proposing an
emergency meeting to vote on
amendments regarding revisions
of the election code, helping to
ensure a smooth election process
in the coming months. The
emergency meeting is scheduled
for Wednesday.
HOMEGOING
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TEACH-INS
From Page 1A
ASSEMBLY
From Page 1A