freshmen hailed from in-state
in the fall of 2017. This is an 8%
drop from in-state freshmen
enrollment in the fall of 2013.
The decision of whether to
pursue more national enrollment
or continue emphasizing in-state
enrollment remains an issue for
public universities across the
country, as the article reports
11 flagship universities that had
incoming freshman classes in
2016 with over half of students
being out-of-state.
Kedra Ishop, vice provost
for Enrollment Management,
explained in an email interview
that the Office of Enrollment
Management works to keep a
majority in-state freshman class
while also representing interests
coming from the national and
international scene.
Ishop
stated
high
school
populations in the state of
Michigan are declining, and,
likewise, the number of in-state
applications remain lower than
those from out-of-state students,
with one-third of applicants
coming from in-state and two-
thirds from out-of-state. She
explained
applications
have
increased 120 percent since
2010, with a record number of
applications in 2017. Yet the
number of students admitted
remains nearly the same. Because
of this, seats for admission have
become especially competitive,
with in-state students having
twice the admit rate as out-of-
state and international students.
“Generally
speaking,
residency
determines
the
pool in which the applicants
compete,” Ishop wrote. “Among
the many qualities of a U-M
education is the opportunity to
experience a college education
with students from different
areas of the state of Michigan,
all counties of the United States,
and over 150 countries of the
world.
Educational
diversity
is
important
for
the
21st
century educated student who
is preparing to go out into the
world to lead.”
LSA sophomore Alexandra
Niforos, an in-state student,
agreed in-state versus out-of-
state factors aren’t limiting to
the University’s diverse aspect,
as
both
resident
and
non-
resident students bring different
backgrounds to the table.
“Michigan is pretty diverse
in what backgrounds people
can come from because they
can come anywhere from rural
Michigan to central Detroit,”
Niforos said. “Everyone has a
different background, but maybe
bringing perspectives from other
states, other school districts,
other educational standards.”
When
considering
the
financial aspect of enrollment,
however,
both
Conrad
and
Niforos agreed the discrepancy
between in-state and out-of-
state tuition cannot go unnoticed
and expressed concerns that
many students remain unaware
of exactly where their tuition
dollars are being spent.
student body won’t be as wealthy
as the student body here. It’ll be
as homogenous in terms of racial
demographics, but I anticipate the
politics might be less progressive.
TMD: Take us through your
journey here. Nine years ago, you
weren’t as involved when you
were beginning your Ph.D., then
moving to the front lines with the
megaphone in your hand after
#BBUM and Aura Rosser, and
now you’re more in the classroom,
taking an academic or advisory
approach. What was that like for
you?
McCoy:
I
was
always
interested in getting involved,
but didn’t know where to go or
what to participate in. There
was organizing and protests,
but I didn’t see as much of it. I
remember a professor asking me
when I first got here like, “Austin,
where are all the protests?” and I
didn’t have an answer in my first
month in Ann Arbor. I focused
more on trying to fulfill our
requirements.
In
the
summer
of
2013,
when George Zimmerman was
acquitted for killing Trayvon
Martin, I was extremely upset,
and it was one of the few times
in the last few years I’ve cried.
One of those nights where I cried
myself to sleep thinking about
it. But it also moved me to get
involved in issues pertaining to
racism.
That fall, a friend of mine
named Garrett Felber, who was a
Ph.D. student in the Department
of American Culture, asked if
I wanted to co-write an op-ed
for The Daily about affirmative
action and the history of Black
student protest. He pitched is as
relevant given the week before
there had been a silent protest on
the Diag around a lack of diversity
and I said sure. That was October,
and a few months later, #BBUM
went viral. That was the same
night the Black Student Union,
We are Michigan and A New
Trotter had a mass meeting.
That was the first time I’d been
in a room where there was an
overwhelming majority of Black
students. The days and weeks
before, Garrett and I had been
talking about what we could do
as graduate students. So after that
meeting, me, him, and a Latina
Ph.D. student named Tatiana
Cruz,
began
organizing.
We
created the United Coalition for
Racial Justice, the point of which
was to support #BBUM, but we
also wanted to do an overnight
teach-in. The organizing for the
speak-out for racial justice the
following year was the first time
I had gotten involved on campus.
TMD: You’ve always been
someone to invest in students
and their organizing, wants and
needs, and strategies. Where does
that come from for you?
McCoy: Part of this comes from
my own undergraduate years
at (The Ohio State University at
Mansfield), my hometown. The
student body there was a lot more
conservative, so it was me and a
few other people who would do
organizing
around
anti-racist
movements and against the Iraq
War. It was small things like
panels and writing letters to the
editors, anything that would raise
awareness. We had support from
a lot of professors and students,
but there were few people around
who I felt like I could talk to about
organizing.
I believe in understanding
when your role can change. I
don’t think one person should
always be out front, and I believe
that if you’re an organizer, part of
what you’re doing as an organizer
is facilitating. You help connect
people, and you support the
people who will be on the front
lines. It was once the organizing
around Aura Rosser began to
mature in 2015 — there were other
people who were stepping up like
Maryam Aziz who were doing
a phenomenal job. There were
other undergrads who would get
involved around that, or student
labor, and they began asking me
to do teach-ins. People would
come asking me to talk about
diversity or the history of Black
student protests or the history
of UCRJ … The more I did that,
the more people asked me to do
teach-ins, the more undergrads
would come to me asking about
organizing and balancing life and
school. It was a feedback loop. It’s
important to be there for students
as much as possible. In undergrad,
if I saw a professor I liked at an
event I organized, it was always
energizing and comforting. I’m
perfectly content with not being
the face of everything.
TMD: The balance of academic,
personal, political is hard. I know
this has been a difficult year for
you in many ways. How do you
think you’ve changed?
McCoy: On the one hand,
my life changed when I started
getting organizing with UCRJ.
Up until then, I was always
interested, but was also rather
content with finishing my Ph.D.,
graduating and leaving. Even
with UCRJ, I thought we’d just do
the speak-out and then be done.
When we did that and we were
successful, we began to get more
people asking what we’d do next.
There’s a next? And a we? Between
UCRJ and Aura Rosser, my life
totally changed. I went from being
a graduate student interested in
organizing to someone with a
profile. I would run into people
who knew who I was, and I didn’t
know who they were. Since then,
my life hasn’t been the same.
TMD: Is that hard? To have a
profile, the constant demands on
your time?
McCoy: The time, that can get
difficult. You want to help as many
people as possible. You want to do
everything, and sometimes you
feel like you can do everything. But
it gets to the point where you look
at your calendar and everything
there is speaking, meetings or
something
else
that’s
related
to politics. There’s less things I
have scheduled for finishing my
dissertation, or even myself. I
had less energy to do dissertation
work, let alone a social life.
One funny change is that I
just watch more TV because I’m
organizing all day. During UCRJ
and Ann Arbor to Ferguson I’d
be on campus all day and I’d get
back home like, I’m going to work.
But I’d turn on the TV and just
knock out. My mind and my body
were telling me that I couldn’t do
anything right now.
That was a common theme with
a lot of us here. Especially when it
came to #BlackLivesMatter and
the Aura Rosser killings, police
seemed to be killing someone
every month, no one got indicted,
and there was just a constant
cycle of vigils and actions. The
violence is literally a matter of life
and death, and that can happen
to everyone who’s a part of a
marginalized group anywhere.
Recognizing that reality raised
the stakes. And once the stakes
were raised that high, I felt like
I needed to be at every single
protest, protesting every time
something happened.
This past year, I knew this was
going to be my last year no matter
what, so it made more sense to
serve in an advisory capacity. You
can ask me to come speak and I
would do that, but I was forced
to
juggle
other
professional
obligations—I was away doing
interviews every week—but then
obviously with my mom passing,
you just can’t. Something like
that so personal happens that you
have no option but to reprioritize.
I had to grieve and be there for my
family.
TMD: In the beginning of
2016, it was Alton Sterling,
then Philando Castile, one after
another after another. There
were so many vigils, I wondered
if it was taking more from us
than it was putting back in. How
important are the protests?
McCoy:
The
vigils,
the
marches, going to City Council to
confront political leaders, those
things are very important. There
were die-ins on the Diag, in the
Law School after Baltimore and
Sandra Bland. Are we focusing
too much on reacting to the
various shootings abroad versus
Aura Rosser? Overlooking the fact
that a 40-year old Black woman
was shot right here in Ann Arbor,
the mayor hadn’t apologized, the
officer was never officially fired,
her family had to deal with that
trauma? There was a lot to focus
on here, and we understood
that. One the one hand, we
felt compelled to respond to
everything because other people
here on campus had a desire
to respond to Freddie Gray or
Sandra Bland and #SayHerName.
technology in life as well.
Kristine Konz, a clinical social
worker at the Depression Center,
started the talk by explaining just
how pervasive technology is and
how we have molded our lives
around it.
“We shape (our) environment
and routines with devices,” Konz
said. “When (we’re) tired and bored,
(we) turn aimlessly to technology.
(People) ages 18-24 check (their)
phones 75 times per day.”
She explained how this addiction
to technology also significantly
impacts mental health as rates
of depression and anxiety have
increased by 70 percent in the past
25 years in young adults. An increase
in sleep problems, low self-esteem
and eating disorders have also been
noted with the growing presence of
technology in our lives.
This
phenomenon
has
also
been linked to the increase in
cyberbullying, doubling in the
last seven years, with increased
instances of self-harm, suicidal
ideation and, occasionally, suicidal
completion. Konz explained this
correlation by connecting more
time spent on social media to higher
rates of social isolation.
“(With) less face-to-face contact,
social circles become smaller, even
though more time is spent on social
media,” Konz said.
Konz also went on to describe
the consequences of social media
in particular. She discussed the
concept of information overload, too
many virtual friends to stay in touch
with and growing concerns over the
lack of privacy on social media.
“(You) become a target after
sharing personal data and employers
do watch (your profiles),” Konz said.
The seminar then went on
to highlight the positive impact
technology has had. Connecting
with people from around the
world,
easy
and
immediate
communication, real-time news and
a heightened access to information
were some of the benefits listed.
Konz ended the seminar on a
more positive note by prescribing
ways to counter the overbearing
influence technology has on
people. She advised to disconnect
from
technology
and
use
unscheduled time to check in
with yourself and essentially
become more in tune with your
surroundings.
“Take time to interact with
the world around, especially with
nature, people and pets,” Konz
said.
LSA sophomore Julia Lauer
explained how mindlessly using
social media has been linked to
a drop in overall well-being —
especially when it is being used
to passively consume others’
heavily-curated images and posts.
“Studies prove that simply
scrolling through social media,
passively, for 10 minutes can
decrease one’s mood and well-
being in the following hours,” she
said. “If you aren’t using social
media actively then you’re at risk
for putting yourself in a lower
mental state by exposing yourself
to an endless stream of others’
‘happiness.’
Definitely
taking
some time to realize this and
adjust your social media habits
to be an active user can help
someone practice better social
media engagement.”
Engineering junior Anna Learis,
senior editor of Mentality Magazine,
emphasized technology is actually
not inherently bad in relation to self-
care. However, it cannot take the
place of real-life practices.
“While
it’s
definitely
clear
that increased phone use, more
importantly,
increased
social
media use, is often harmful to one’s
self-esteem and well-being due
to comparing oneself to others, at
the same time this instant access
to technology can be extremely
helpful,”
Learis
said.
“From
meditation apps to apps that allow
you to text with a therapist, there are
so many new resources at people’s
fingertips
that
weren’t
there
before. I think utilizing self-care
resources like the apps and websites
I mentioned above are a great start,
but without incorporating real-life
self-care, there’s only so much that
virtual self-care can accomplish.”
waste sent to landfills by 40
percent by 2025 and has done
so by 3 percent.
The University has met its
goal of reducing chemical
applications
on
campus
landscapes by 40 percent and
protecting the Huron River
through stormwater control
strategies. The University
largely switched from using
synthetic
fertilizers
to
organic, which now account
for 75 percent of fertilizers
used by Grounds Services.
There
has
also
been
progress
made
toward
purchasing
20
percent
of
food
from
local
and
sustainable sources by 2025,
currently
purchasing
14
percent of food from these
sources.
Outside
of
its
stated
goals, Planet Blue has been
piloting programs such as
a composting program in
the Fleming Administration
Building, as well hosting
large-scale,
waste-free
events such as the MStaff200,
a bicentennial celebration
event, and the football game
against Rutgers University.
A few additional highlights
of the 2017 Sustainability
Progress
Report
include
the University reaching a
34 percent waste-diversion
rate, recycling more than
5,200 tons and composting
nearly 1,400 tons through
efforts across campus.
“The success of Planet
Blue would not be possible
without
a
universitywide
commitment
to
ensuring
that future generations will
inherit a sustainable and
verdant planet,” University
President
Mark
Schlissel
said in a University press
release.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, April 11, 2018 — 3A
IBRAHIM IJAZ/Daily
Children’s literature librarian Angie Oehrli speaks with a student in front of the display at the Seven Fantasy Classics for Children event in Hatcher Tuesday.
SEVE N FANTA SY CL A SSICS
PROGRESS
From Page 1A
AID
From Page 1A
LINKS
From Page 1A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
MCCOY
From Page 1A