and government official.

“I know he has a special

relationship where he is —
he’s the public health officer
for the entire nation, but he
also has to work with the
government,” she said.

Following this discussion,

the
panel
took
questions

from attendees. In response
to a question about universal
access to health care and
addiction treatment, panelist
Joneigh
Khaldun,
director

and health officer of Detroit
Health Services, said doctors
and communities need to
focus
on
meeting
people

where they are.

“I
think,
wherever
the

system, and I say system very
broadly, is reaching hands and
reaching people … How can

we support people wherever
they are so they can get access
to the treatment that they
need?” she said.

The lecture ended with a

performance of two original
songs from School of Music,
Theatre & Dance students,
which were written after
talking to families that had
been
directly
affected
by

the opioid crisis. After the
performance, Adams closed
the event with a message of
optimism.

“I’m
convinced
there

is hope,” Adams said. “In
Massachusetts, they turned
around their overdose rates,
and in Rhode Island, they
turned around their overdose
rates … How’d they do it? They
did it through collaboration
and partnerships.”

supervisors at Victors cafe,
University Housing and the
Dean of Students Office’s BRT.

The
University’s
Twitter

account posted an informational
flyer outlining the process of
reporting
bias
incidents
in

response to these reports.

Twitter Ads info and privacy
The event began with two

representatives from Counseling
and Psychological Services, who
provided
information
about

CAPS availability to all students,
and the importance of utilizing
these mental health resources in
any situation in which a student
feels necessary.

Brooke
Harris,
a

BRT
coordinator,
first

distinguished bias incidents
from
hate
crimes.
Harris

outlined how the Division of
Public Safety and Security
and the Ann Arbor Police
Department act as proper
authorities in handling hate
crimes, which pose a direct
physical threat. In contrast,
bias incidents more loosely
include
any
conduct
that

discriminates against anyone
based on identity without
immediate
danger.
These

occurrences are handled by
BRT.

Harris used the incident

in which racial slurs were
written on the West Quad
Residence Hall rooms of LSA
sophomore
Travon
Stearns

and other students last fall as
an example of an occurrence
handled by the BRT.

Evelyn
Galvan,
a
BRT

coordinator,
explained
the

logistical case management of
bias incidents and the hands-
on role of the team to help
students feel that they are part
of a supportive community on
campus. Galvan highlighted
the team’s goal to talk to the
offender in order to facilitate
an educational conversation,
while
also
striving
to

restore
harm
holistically

in the campus community,
rather than solely with the
individuals involved in that
incident.

Response
plans
to
bias

incidents
are
implemented

based on a meeting between a

team member, the reporter of
the incident and the impacted
persons.
Additionally,
to

ensure
transparency,
the

bias response team updates
a weekly log of incidents and
response actions.

“We want U-M to be a place

for students to grow and thrive
where they are,” Galvan said.

Later,
Thomas
Dickens,

manager for the Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion plan
program, highlighted CAPS
and bias incident data, citing
the fact that 39.5 percent
of the 4,446 student CAPS
requests were submitted by
students of color in relation to
bias incidents. He explained
how
students
have
an

expressed need to have a safe
space to learn without being
targeted for having visible
characteristics.

Dickens
and
the
other

facilitators emphasized the
importance
of
detailing

explicit information regarding
these incidents, when students
are comfortable, in order to
effectively
handle
specific

incidents and campus-wide
overarching problems.

“Any and all reports are

very important, if we start to
notice that there is a trend, a
significant amount of reports
from a certain class, dorm or
student
organization,
that

gives us indication that we
need to reach out there,”
Dickens said.

LSA junior Kayla McKinney,

secretary of the Black Student
Union, said she came to the
event to spread the information
about reporting bias incidents
to students in her community.
McKinney cited the recent
incident as an opportunity to
encourage more reporting of
bias incidents.

“We felt like it was important

to
send
representatives

here, so that way we can
take
this
information,

and provide it back to the
community, especially after
the Snapchat incident,” she
said. “People want to know
how bias reporting works,
what happens after. I’m the
secretary, so it’s my job to
form things like newsletters,
so I can send an email about
all the information I learned
here today.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, March 23, 2018 — 3

who in 2015 sent an email to
the University’s administration
bringing attention to attacks
against Arab students on campus.

“Jad Elharake … mentioned

in the email that someone had
posted comments on the Yemeni
Students’ Association account
that associated them with ISIS,”
she said.

The Islamophobia Working

Group was soon founded in
response to Islamophobic attacks
like these, and was constructed
by students, faculty and staff
hoping to improve the climate on
campus.

The
IWG
advocates
for

all
students
affected
by

Islamophobia — most of the
panelists focused on issues faced
by Arab students.

Alsultany then shifted the

event to a panel of four current
and former members of the
Islamophobia Working Group.
Elharake began by discussing

recent efforts by the #WeExist
campaign to implement a box
for Middle Eastern and North
African students on University
demographic surveys.

University
census
surveys

currently lack a box to indicate
that a student, faculty or staff
member is of Middle Eastern
or North African descent, and
current
U.S.
census
surveys

lack the same box. Without
the box, Elharake pointed out,
appropriate data pertaining to the
Arab community is impossible to
obtain.

“The idea of #WeExist is that

we did not exist before,” he said.

On Feb. 21, Elharake noted,

CSG passed a resolution in
support of the creation of an
ME/NA checkbox on University
surveys for students. Now efforts
have turned to implementation,
as the state of Michigan still lacks
a checkbox for people of Middle
Eastern
and
North
African

descent, and extending the same
recognition to faculty and staff.

Read more at
MichiganDaily.com

WORKING GROUP
From Page 1

administrators.
For
instance,

La Casa had a chance to speak
with the director of dining at the
University establishing a more
inclusive dining experience for
Latinx students through a new
bus tour program.

“From the meetings I have

attended — one was about dining
— and we had the director of
dining sit with us and talk about
how we can make dining more
inclusive and authentic and one
thing proposed was bus tours to
local restaurants in Detroit and
to local areas so students can try
the food and give feedback on
dining,” Sandoval said.

Additionally,
the

administration and La Casa
have started discussing outreach
programs directed at the needs
of the Latinx community.

Harper praised the efforts

of the students from La Casa,
and
appreciated
their
work

to establish a more inclusive
campus. She also pointed out
the administration’s willingness
to create new solutions for the
issues raised by La Casa’s list of
demands.

“It would be premature for

me to say this is where we are
because we are in the process
of figuring out together where
we are,” Harper said. “I think
that the Latinx Community has
raised some important issues.
That is one of the things really
I admire about our students
here that they will see a concern
and raise the issue, and what I
love about the administration
is that we are responsive. So we
are engaged in that discussion
dialogue process right now to
better understand and then to
figure out given what the needs
are what it is that we are able to
do.”

While progress is beginning

in areas of dining and outreach,
LSA
sophomore
Alexander

Mullen,
internal
director

of
La
Casa,
expressed
his

concern about meetings with
administration
being
rooted

more in conversation than in
creating actionable change.

“They definitely want to do

something,
but
when
we’re

actually meeting with these
offices and people who we are
meeting with, we don’t see a lot of
actual action items on the table,”
Mullen said. “It seems like they
want to just talk about the way
we feel and why this came about,
so it doesn’t seem like it’s a really
productive
meeting
entirely,

but it seems more like framing
future conversations.”

Mullen also touched on the

lack of urgency he felt coming
from
the
administration’s

alleged efforts to meet La Casa’s
demands.

“From
the
meetings
and

the tone of the meetings we
don’t really get that there’s a
big sense of urgency to meet
these demands and have them
worked on at all, especially with
the end of the year coming to a
close,” Mullen said. “I think one
strategy a lot of people seem to
be using is just kind of waiting
it out until the year is over and
then moving on to the next thing
for the next year.”

Another challenge La Casa

faced while dealing with the
administration is updating new
staff from different departments
on reasons behind creating a list
of demands. In this past year
alone, members of the Latinx
community have faced racial
bias through the defacement
of the Rock with anti-Latinx
statements and led a boycott
against Multi-Ethnic Student
Affairs for a lack of Latinx
representation.

Mullen said the frustrations

of having to explain the events of
the past year slows the process
of
establishing
measurable

change.

“One thing we’ve had happen

is that new staff have been
hired in a few offices so they’re
meeting with us coming in with

only a few months of experience
working with that department
or office,” Mullen said. “So it’s
just kind of like framing the
whole story, trying to get them to
understand the events that have
happened earlier in the year that
set the tone for the demands and
set the need for them.”

Representation is one of the

main areas Sandoval and Mullen
cite as not being acknowledged
by the administration. La Casa
feels that the staff, faculty
and
administrators
do
not

adequately reflect the student
body.

Mullen
explained
some

of
the
pushbacks
against

adequate representation comes
from
Proposal
2,
a
ballot

initiative aimed at stopping
discrimination based on race,
color, sex or religion in admission
to colleges, jobs and other
publicly-funded institutions —
outlawing
affirmative
action

at public institutions. He said
meetings with Sellers and other
diversity-focused faculty have
been more effective in starting
a push for more representation
but still drag compared to other
initiatives like the bus tours
program.

“A lot of obstacles come up

with Proposal 2, but we’ve been
meeting with people like Robert
Sellers who can help to affect
change in those kinds of hiring
practices
through
strategic

hiring practices,” Mullen said.
“We’ve been meeting with him
and other people who are in
charge of those kinds of issues.”

Sandoval
shared
Mullen’s

sentiment about the trickiness
of
gaining
more
Latinx

representation in administrative
positions. She also discussed
how the advisory board, which
was proposed in the list of
demands as a method to connect
Latinx students to University
President Mark Schlissel, could
help the University with this
issue.

“That’s always been a touchy,

tricky
topic,
but
we
have

been talking about that and
one specific proposal was the
advisory board and I feel like
that’s just one mechanism for
how students, staff, graduate
students who are Latinx can
give feedback directly to the
president in order to create
concrete change,” Sandoval said.
“Right now, that’s the one that
has been the trickiest, and the
one that has been lacking the
most.”

Moving
forward,
Mullen

hopes to see more urgency from
the University in implementing
La Casa’s demands. He also
expressed the importance of not
allowing the desire for change
to disappear moving into the
upcoming school year.

“I’d definitely like to see more

of a sense of urgency,” Mullen
said. “I feel like especially, as I
mentioned before, with the end
of the year coming up, I think
everyone is kind of winding
down … That burnout is kind of
dangerous to a movement like
this because it lets you think it’s
not important right now and we
can just leave it for next year.
If we just leave it for next year
that same energy and that same
momentum isn’t going to be
there.”

Sandoval echoed Mullen’s call

for establishing concrete change
and emphasized the need to
build a campus environment that
allows future Latinx students to
feel more included.

“Our point is to really make

sure that there is sustainable
change,” Sandoval said. “It’s
great that we are having these
meetings, but once I graduate
and once the other directors
graduate, how do we make sure
incoming freshman are able to
benefit from these discussions?
How can we ensure these
offices cater to their needs?
That they have a good dining
hall experience, that they have
a good housing experience, that
they really feel they belong.
These are the goals we are
striving towards.”

DEMANDS
From Page 1

IMPACT
From Page 2

BIAS
From Page 1

Black economic empowerment,’”
Naidoo said. “‘That’s actually
Black South enrichment that
only I am going to benefit from.’”

Naidoo
also
suggested

global security needed creative
maladjustment, in reference to
nuclear weapons and ongoing
commentary
from
President

Donald Trump on the state
of
nuclear
security.
Naidoo

pointed out several countries
view Trump and North Korean
leader Kim Jong-un similarly,
and believe the U.S. does not
necessarily have the right to
dictate which countries can
handle nuclear weapons.

“Why is it that the one country

in the world that has nuclear
weapons,
that
has
dropped

nuclear weapons, that has not
tried to say anything about
reducing nuclear weapons, what
moral basis do they have to say to
any other country in the world,
‘Thou shall not have nuclear
weapons?’” Naidoo said.

He continued to discuss the

convergence of climate change,
inequality
and
“affluenza.”

Naidoo defined “affluenza” as a
condition of believing happiness
can only be achieved through
material
goods
and
Naidoo

believes it is the biggest disease
plaguing people today. Naidoo
stressed the need for the U.S. to
address how it uses its power to
push for global justice, especially
as other countries’ perceptions of
the U.S. have dropped since the
election of Trump.

“I have to say that it’s quite

shocking, especially to people
who come from struggles against
racism and bigotry and so on, to
see a political leadership that
tolerates
white
supremacists

and
Nazism,”
Naidoo
said.

“And simply sees it as differing
opinions from others. Today,
many people in the world are
saying, ‘We can’t wait for the U.S.
anymore.’”

Naidoo then discussed climate

change and the disastrous effects
it is already having in Africa
through
damaged
resources

and the ability to make food. He
acknowledged
the
reluctance

of
many
people,
including

environmental
activists,
to

address the catastrophic effects
on humans.

“It’s
very
important
to

recognize that the climate crisis
is much deeper than many of
us are willing to acknowledge,”
Naidoo
said.
“Including,

surprisingly,
people
in
the

environmental movement.”

Stressing the importance of

recognizing the climate change
crisis, and the necessity for
policy change before effects
would become too disastrous for
humans, Naidoo said the human
race must recognize the grave
consequences of damaging the
planet beyond repair.

“We don’t have a plan B

because we don’t have a planet
B,” Naidoo said. “We have one
planet and we have to learn to
live on it as a human family.”

Naidoo ended his talk by

asking the audience to assess
their role in global justice and
change. He stressed the need for
students to use their education to
push for change.

“It’s an amazing thing to have

the power to understand and
analyze the world that education
has given you the opportunity
for,” Naidoo said. “And I think
you all have a moral obligation to
use that education for a general
public purpose.”

The talk was followed by a

question and answer session,
where Public Policy graduate
student and sophomore Larry
Sanders
and
Nadine
Jawad

respectively
read
anonymous

questions from the audience.

After the event, Rackham

student Eitan Paul emphasized
Naidoo’s discussion on coalitions
and how to push for change
today.

“I thought it was a very

inspiring address highlighting
a lot of really important global
issues,” Paul said. “And offering
ways to think about how we
can work together and form
coalitions to address the huge
challenges of today.”

Business
senior
Chelsea

Racelis spoke on how Naidoo’s
discussion may influence the way
she changes her own methods of
activism.

“Naidoo definitely changed

the
way
I
frame
climate

change
and
human
rights,”

Racelis said. “The fact that
he has been appointed as the
secretary general of Amnesty
International
as
a
climate

activist,
largely,
is
super

compelling. I think it’s going
to change how I do my human
rights advocacy, for sure.”

NAIDOO
From Page 1

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI /Daily

Benjamin McKean, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Ohio State University, speaks on the topic of “Populism,
Pluralism, and Ordinary People at Haven Hall Thursday.”

POPULISM , PLUR ALISM & PEOPLE