improvement of job security for 
lecturers at the University.

Currently, full-time lecturers 

receive a minimum salary of 
$34,500 at the University of 
Michigan-Ann Arbor, $28,30 at the 
University of Michigan-Dearborn 
and $27,300 at the University of 
Michigan-Flint.

Frustrated with low salaries 

and pay rates for lecturers across 
the University’s campuses, LEO 
has continued to meet with 
University officials since October 
demanding a new contract before 
their current contract ends April 
20. During Thursday’s meeting, 
representatives 
called 
on 
the 

University administration to meet 
the demands of lecturers who fall 
at or below the poverty line.

Tony Hessenthaler, a Lecturer 

I in the Spanish Department, told 
The Daily prior to the meeting that 
he’s currently a father of three, and 
while he enjoys teaching, he doesn’t 
know if his current salary will be 
able to support his family, now with 
a newborn diagnosed with Down 
syndrome.

“For eight months out of the 

year, we are just right above the 
poverty line, which is shameful for 
University of Michigan full-time 
teaching position,” Hessenthaler 

said. “We have a newborn, she’s 
about five months old, and she 
has Down syndrome, which was 
a surprise when she was born. 
Luckily she’s in relatively good 
health, but now thinking long 
term I don’t know if I can make 
this a career. I would like it to be, 
but I don’t know if I can make this 
a long-term career and possibly 
find a way to help support her. 
I’ll be supporting her well into 
adulthood.”

Hessenthaler explained over 

80 percent of Lecturer I’s across 
all three campuses earn less than 
$50,000 a year. According to 
Hessenthaler, many departments 
pay new Lecturer I’s the minimum 
salary, 
giving 
small 
yearly 

increases. In regard to decisions 
from the regents, Hessenthaler 
said LEO wants action, not words.

“We don’t want their pity and 

we don’t want lip service, but we 
would really like their support in 
helping us talk to administration to 
make a big market adjustment for 
what lecturers should be making,” 
Hessenthaler said.

During the current bargaining 

session, Hessenthaler highlighted 
demands from LEO including 
salary increases, the ability for 
departments to use the title 
Teaching Professor instead of 
Lecturer, and a longevity bonus 
for career lecturers who have held 
their positions for extended periods 

and who might remain restricted 
by current contract wages.

“I really hope that with the 

regents’ support, lecturer support, 
tenure-track faculty support and 
student support that we can get 
these wages up to where they 
should be,” Hessenthaler said. 
“We’re not asking for golden 
parachute 
pension 
plans 
and 

health care that covers massages in 
chiropractors, we don’t need that 
stuff. We just need a living wage 
to get by, especially in Ann Arbor 
where the cost of living is relatively 
high to everywhere else in the 
area.”

As reported previously in The 

Daily, the median rent in Ann 
Arbor increased 14 percent from 
2010 to 2015, according to the U.S. 
Census Bureau, and currently sits 
at approximately $1,075 per month.

Katie Oppenheim, chair of the 

University 
Professional 
Nurse 

Council, also spoke on behalf of 
increasing wages and benefits for 
faculty. Oppenheim claimed as 
tuition rates rise, salaries have not 
risen at the same rate.

“Only through the power we 

get from collective bargaining can 
we counteract the markets built-in 
tendency to undervalue us in our 
work,” Oppenheim said. “And I will 
also add the University’s tendency 
to undervalue us in our work.”

Central Student Government 

President Anushka Sarkar, an 

LSA senior, addressed the regents 
during her CSG update. She 
presented the support of student 
governments across the three 
University campuses, highlighting 
all three bodies have passed 
resolutions in support of LEO and 
higher wages for lecturers.

“Student 
Government 

recognizes the vital role that 
lecturers play at the University, 
and call for higher wages, more job 
security, and healthcare coverage 
as conditions in the next contract 
for lecturer employees,” the U-M 
Dearborn Student Government 
Regents Report reads.

Richard Spencer
The topic of the University’s 

potential 
visit 
from 
white 

supremacist 
Richard 
Spencer 

was 
mentioned 
consistently 

throughout the remaining portion 
of the meeting by various students. 
Though the possible visit has been 
delayed until potentially spring or 
summer semester, students were 
concerned for the safety of minority 
students as well as frustrated with 
the administration’s overall lack 
of support for those targeted by 
Spencer’s messages.

LSA senior Darian Razdar is 

currently a member of the Stop 
Spencer Coalition on campus. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, February 16, 2018 — 3

After 
brief 
discussion, 
the 

conversation’s focus quickly shifted 
to whether conservative thoughts 
are attacked on campus. Arm is 
the co-chairman of the American 
Enterprise Institute’s Michigan 
Executive Council, a public policy 
think tank responsible for bringing 
controversial 
social 
scientist 

Charles Murray to campus earlier 
this year. Arm stressed how 
professors are given the ability to 
“teach policy as if it’s a matter of 
fact” and said academically, he has 
faced adverse consequences for his 
conservative views. 

“Grade retribution problems 

exist,” he said. 

Continuing, 
Arm 
criticized 

the degree to which professors 
expressed their personal political 
opinions 
in 
the 
classroom, 

especially 
during 
the 
2016 

presidential election. 

“You had University professors 

openly endorsing one candidate … 
in their classrooms and pushing 
their agenda,” Arm said. 

Arm said he thought the 

most effective mechanism in 
combatting controversial speakers 
like Spencer on campus was not by 
denying them a place to speak but 
by not showing up to their event. 

Alvarez refuted Arm’s claim, 

questioning the legitimacy of 
the narrative that conservative 
viewpoints were being attacked 
in the classroom, saying instead 
they were being challenged as 
all ideas should be in a university 
setting, and alluded to the issue of 
conservative victimization. 

“This kind of narrative of 

conservative 
victimization 
is 

actually feeding the very thing 
we are trying to fight against, 
and … gives dangerous people 
a protective blanket to come in 
here with their violent supporters 
under the banner of free speech,” 
he said. 

Alvarez 
continued, 
saying 

Spencer’s 
potential 
presence 

would inevitably attract other 
white 
supremacists 
and 
hate 

groups to campus, creating a 
dangerous environment. 

Johnson 
soon 
sparked 
a 

discussion 
regarding 
Murray’s 

talk at the University in October. 
Murray is a libertarian political 
scientist whose controversial book 
“The Bell Curve”, which draws 

connections between race and 
intelligence, is denounced by many 
other academics as racist. 

Along with AEI, Arm thought 

hosting Murray on campus would 
bring students from both sides 
of the aisle together and begin a 
dialogue. Instead, Arm claimed 
protesters at the event made a 
deliberate effort to shun Murray 
by turning off the lights during his 
speech and projecting the words 
“White Supremacist” on the wall 
behind the speaker. Arm saw the 
events that transpired as evidence 
of the attack on conservative 
views on the University’s campus. 
The day after the event, the New 
York Times published an op-ed 
authored by Arm of his response to 
the protesters. 

Alvarez, who was a leading 

protester at the event, refuted the 
claim that protesters inhibited 
Murray 
from 
expressing 
his 

ideas. However, Alvarez stressed 
while protesters gave Murray 
an opportunity to speak, it was 
important to shed light on the 
absurdity of Murray’s viewpoints. 

“Murray’s pseudo-scholarship 

has been rebutted and defamed for 
decades,” Alvarez said. 

LSA junior Anna Horton later 

said she identified with Arm’s 
struggle to express conservative 
views in the classroom. 

“I can say from a recent 

discussion with a professor that 
our views are not necessarily 
welcomed,” she said.

Anthony Borden, a founding 

member of Progressives at EMU, 
discussed 
his 
concerns 
with 

Spencer and other controversial 
conservative speakers coming to 
speak on campus.

“If you are inciting violence, 

your free speech should not be 
protected,” he said. 

An audience member inquired 

about the intersection — or lack 
thereof — between freedom of 
speech, social media and fake 
news. Johnson mentioned his 
disdain for the phrase “fake news.”

“I hate the term fake news, 

because if it’s fake, it’s not news,” 
Johnson said.

Sparr added that in current 

climate, it is important to be 
cognizant of the media audiences 
consume. 

increase to the starting salary in 
2019, $750 in 2020 and $500 in 
2021. The deal also included a 1.5 
percent annual raise for lecturers 
in Ann Arbor, but not those in 
Dearborn or Flint.

Though the Academic Human 

Resources Office handles the 
collective bargaining process, 
LEO decided to make its case 
before the board as well, who, 
according 
to 
the 
Michigan 

Constitution of 1963, have 
“general supervision” of the 
University and “the control and 

direction of all expenditures 
from the institution’s funds.” 
In an interview with The Daily 
earlier this month, University 
spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said 
the administration was working 
toward securing “a contract 
that is economically fair to the 
lecturers and fiscally responsible 
for the University.”

“The 
University 
has 

approached and prepared for 
this round of negotiations very 
much in the same way it has 
with the other LEO negotiations 
since 2004,” he said, referring to 
the first contract the University 
signed with the union. “This 
includes 
many 
hours 
and 

levels of internal consultation 
with leaders at UM-Dearborn, 
UM-Flint and across the schools 
and colleges on the Ann Arbor.”

According to Robinson, LEO’s 

first contract, which improved 
internal procedures for handling 
employee dismissal and raised 
the minimum salary for entry-
level lecturers, was “a quantum 
leap.”

“It 
was 
a 
major 
change 

compared to where we had been 
before, not only in terms of wages 
and salary, but also in terms of 
job security,” he said. “However, 
after that first contract, I would 
say the University pushed back 
hard and it became difficult for 

us to make much headway.”

At the board meeting, LEO 

members looked to make up 
lost 
ground, 
sharing 
their 

perspectives on the ongoing 
bargaining 
process 
and 

protesting 
what 
they 
said 

are 
stagnating 
wages, while 

allies and students expressed 
solidarity. 
Central 
Student 

Government President Anushka 
Sarkar, an LSA senior, read a 
statement signed by the student 
body presidents from each of the 
University campuses.

“Lecturers deserve to be paid 

a fair living wage, commensurate 
with their experience and the 
revenue lecturers generate for 

the 
University 
of 
Michigan, 

job security and health care 
coverage,” Sarkar said.

In 2016, lecturers accounted 

for $462 million in tuition 
revenue, based on number of 
credit hours taught, while the 
University spent $85 million 
on their salaries and benefits. 
Lecturers 
argued 
the 
$377 

million surplus should be used 
to meet the demands central to 
their bargaining platform.

Unlike 
LEO 
members, 

Thompson is tenure-track faculty 
and currently a Visiting Scholar 
in the Charles Warren Center for 
Studies in American History at 
Harvard University, but she said 

it was important to her to return 
to Ann Arbor to speak on LEO’s 
behalf before the board.

“I think one of the things 

you’ll hear from the University 
administration is that they’re 
paying what the market will 
bear,” she said. “That is, we 
should hire lecturers at the 
lowest price we can get away 
with and treat them as a casual 
and indeed replaceable academic 
labor force. In my opinion, this is 
no way to run a great university 
— to run any university.”

The board did not offer any 

response to the testimony offered 
by LEO members and their 
supporters during the meeting.

5.8 percent Asian American, 3.5 
percent Black/African American, 
4.8 percent Hispanic/Latino, 4.3 
percent multiracial and 4.6 percent 
unknown. The University’s overall 
student population is 65 percent 
white, 15 percent Asian American, 
5 percent Black/African American, 
6 
percent 
Hispanic/Latino, 
1 

percent Native American and 10 
percent unknown.

Edevbie said it took him some 

time to adjust to the predominately 
white community.

“For the first time in a while, 

I was just surrounded by people 
who didn’t necessarily look like me 
or had the same background as me, 
and that was a bit of an adjustment 
for me personally,” Edevbie said.

Edevbie also serves as the 

Central 
Student 
Government 

representative for the Kinesiology 
School. He says he tries to make 
himself as available to Kinesiology 
students as possible and apply 
what he learns from them to his 
work in CSG.

“I take my role in CSG really 

seriously,” Edevbie said. “The fact 
that I’m representing students 
from the University of Michigan 
as a whole but specifically the 
school of Kinesiology, I try to 
make myself as a resource … I try 
to absorb the different experiences 
of my classmates and people in my 
classes because I think it’s also 
important for me to learn about 
and recognize their backgrounds.”

Kinesiology 
junior 
Cydney 

Rogers grew up as an athlete and 
fan of the University’s sports teams. 
She first began studying athletic 
training but switched to health and 
fitness. Since she changed majors, 
it has become harder for her to 
connect with her peers.

“Now that I’m in health and 

fitness, maybe it’s because I 
switched into their major and I 
didn’t get to go through all the 
classes with them when they 
started off as freshmen, but it’s a 
little harder to communicate with 
students,” Rogers said.

Rogers, who is Black, says she 

hasn’t experienced issues with 
professors regarding her race, but 
she feels Kinesiology students do 
not try to reach out to different 
peers.

“Inside and outside of the class, 

students tend to be very cliquey,” 

Rogers said. “I know it’s like a 
young-adult type of thing, but 
they are really cliquey… maybe it’s 
because they vibe with each other 
off of freshman year.”

Other students have also noticed 

friend groups contributing to a 
lack of diversity in the Kinesiology 
School outside of the classroom.

Kinesiology freshman Maya 

Sankaran was inspired to study 
movement science after an ankle 
injury prompted her to receive 
physical therapy. Sankaran is 
biracial — Indian and white — 
and though she has not taken 
many Kinesiology courses yet, 
she has already noticed the lack of 
diversity within the Kinesiology 
community, specifically within the 
Kinesiology professional fraternity 
Phi Epsilon Kappa. 

“When I joined the Kinesiology 

frat… I think that’s when I started 
realizing that … there’s not that 
many people of color,” Sankaran 
said. “That was during one of the 
rushing processes for it. I go up to 
these different people and say hi 
to them and that might have been 
one way it identified in me, because 
I was one of the non-white people 
there. I didn’t look white.”

According to Sankaran, she was 

one of three people of color in her 
20-member pledge class.

Though Sankaran says she 

worries about how her race 
will be measured toward her 
qualifications in the job-searching 
process.

“I think when I meet someone, 

I don’t take into account their race 
or their gender, sex and what they 
might perceive in me because of 
mine,” Sankaran said. “It’s more of 
when our initial interactions begin 
that I’m starting to piece together 
who this person might be and how 
I might present myself. I think 
it might come into place during 
interviews for certain things, like 
if they’re trying to meet a diversity 
quota, that kind of crosses my 
mind. Will they take me just 
because I’m a person of color or if 
I’m a female?”

Some 
Kinesiology 
students 

hope 
to 
use 
their 
degrees 

specifically to address minority 
issues. Kinesiology junior Brianna 
Kennedy 
felt 
drawn 
toward 

athletic training and physical 
therapy as a senior in high school. 
She began a work-study job in the 
Department of Afroamerican and 
African Studies, inspiring her to 
seek a graduate degree in sports 

psychology, where she hopes to 
make the physical and mental 
health of Black women the focus of 
her work.

A 
Black 
woman 
herself, 

Kennedy has endured more than 
one instance of racism while at 
the University. At the beginning 
of this school year, when a man 
was arrested outside the Michigan 
Union 
for 
disorderly 
conduct 

after calling student protesters 
the n-word and getting in a fight 
with one, Kennedy consoled her 
friends who were present. Last 
year, a classmate in an English 
course, who she said was also 
African American, wrote the word 
“monkey” on her paper. She said 
the experience caused her mental 
distress, and she had to skip her 
classes and clinicals to process 
what had occurred.

“I texted my preceptors … I was 

like, ‘I’m really emotional right 
now so I can’t come,’ emailed 
La’Joya (Orr), called my mom, and 
I couldn’t end the day without 
notifying these people, so it was 
just a lot,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the classmate 

apologized, but she did not accept 
the apology.

“When I was sitting with my 

academic adviser, she was like, 
‘Well I talked with her and she 
didn’t really mean it that way. She 
just wants to apologize,’ and I was 
like, ‘I don’t want to talk to her 
ever again,’” Kennedy said. “I don’t 
feel the need to accept her apology 
because at 18, 19, 20, you should 
know.”

In addition to advising students 

academically, Orr said she also 
acts as a supporter for students in 
general.

“In terms of discussing campus 

issues, just day-to-day life, whether 
its academic related or not, I find 
that I tend to be that person more 
often than not,” Orr said.

To address the lack of diversity, 

the Kinesiology Diversity, Equity 
and Inclusion plan aims to create 
a more representative and fair 
environment for students, faculty 
and staff.

“Our DEI plan proposes some 

new programs and initiatives 
relative to diversity, equity, and 
inclusion,” the statement, written 
by DEI Director Ketra Armstrong, 
a professor for sport management, 
reads. 

“However, the overall essence 

of the plan is for us to organically 
weave, 
infuse, 
embed, 
and 

integrate a consciousness and 
sensitivity to elements of diversity, 
equity, and inclusion into our 
existing culture — our ways of 
doing (our policies, practices, and 
procedures) and our ways of being 
(our teaching, learning, research, 
and service).”

Orr also recruits prospective 

Kinesiology 
students. 

While she says she strives to 
enhance diversity, be it racial, 
socioeconomic or ethinicity, she 
says changing the makeup of the 
student population is not as easy as 
it may seem.

“The University of Michigan 

doesn’t have any problems getting 
applications from students,” Orr 
said. “So it’s not like you’re trying 
to find people to apply for the sake 
of applying, because we don’t have 
that problem. But you can’t have 
better numbers if students aren’t 
applying or if students are being 
admitted and they don’t see a 
critical mass here. They don’t feel 
comfortable … it’s just not as easy as 
admitting more underrepresented 
students… students also need to 
feel that if they were to attend, 
that they would be in the inclusive 
environment.”

Orr also feels the issue with 

inclusivity has become even more 
prominent 
among 
prospective 

students, as racist incidents on 
campus have begun to pile up and 
become visible issues off campus.

“I usually tend to be on the road 

recruiting when there are issues 
going on on campus,” she said. “It 
pays to be truthful and I’m glad 
that I tend to be forthright with the 
state of campus, because these are 
students who either have siblings 
here or friends here and knew 
what was going on on campus and 
they’re like, ‘How am I going to be 
supported? Tell me why I should 
come.’”

When speaking with students, 

Orr gives advice on how to feel 
more included at the University. 
The one thing she tells them all 
is to seek out and identify allies — 
both those who look like them and 
those who don’t.

Sankaran hopes the Kinesiology 

School can show its students 
all career paths are possible, 
regardless of identity.

“I think it’s important to show 

that these career paths are open 
to 
everyone,” 
Sankaran 
said. 

“There’s no boundaries of who can 
participate in this and who can go 
for the same goals.”

hormone (cortisol). Based on 
these evidence, we predicted that 
air pollution may be related to 
unethical behavior by increasing 
anxiety.”

These 
results 
demonstrate 

costs associated with air pollution 
are 
higher 
than 
previously 

recorded. Public Health junior 
Faith Reynolds hopes research 
on the social ills of pollution can 
motivate behavioral and political 
change.

“We have known for so long 

that human actions and activity 
have harmful effects on our 
environment, but when it comes 
to affecting behavioral patterns 
it becomes more relevant to our 
everyday lives and decisions,” 
she said. “I really hope more 
work is done in this field and that 
it can motivate policymakers 
and especially polluters to make 
serious changes.”

Not 
only 
do 
the 
recent 

findings impact cities, they also 
have implications on university 
campuses. It is possible air 
pollutants 
could 
correlate 
to 

academic dishonesty in the same 
way they do with crime and 
cheating, Lee said.

“We haven’t tested whether 

students tend to cheat more 

on the days that were heavily 
polluted, 
but 
in 
general, 
I 

suspect that the overarching 
psychological mechanism would 
be the same,” she wrote. “I can 
imagine that students who work 
in the environment that is heavily 
polluted may be more prone to 
cheating.”

Previous studies had found 

subjects who asked to look at 
anxiety-inducing 
images 
of 

pollution before completing an 
unrelated task were more likely to 
cheat than other participants.

Deputy 
Assistant 
Dean 

Christine O’Neil handles LSA 
judiciary cases. While intrigued 
by the recent findings on pollution, 
she is already very familiar with 
the correlation between air quality 
and cheating.

“With the connection between 

pollution and anxiety, I don’t find 
it surprising that individuals in 
this study were more likely to 
cheat if exposed to pictures of 
pollution,” she wrote in an email. 
“We see many cases where the 
student didn’t set out to engage 
in academic misconduct but did 
so due to anxiety in the moment. 
While we have little control 
over pollution in the area, there 
are ways we can try to mitigate 
anxiety with students in order 
to reduce instances of academic 
misconduct.”

POLLUTION
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LEO
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KINESIOLOGY
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DEBATE
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Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
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REGENTS
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