LEO occupies administration building as contract expires

ALEC COHEN / DAILY
Lecturers and LEO supporters march from the Michigan League to the Fleming Administration Building in support of the Lecturers Union April 6, 2018. 

On Friday afternoon, about 
30 members of the Lecturers’ 
Employee 
Organization 
occupied a floor of the Fleming 
Administration 
Building. 
Lecturers camped outside of 
University of Michigan Provost 
Martin 
Philbert’s 
office. 
Philbert was not present at 
the time. They also delivered 
handwritten 
messages 
from 
allies written in support of the 
union’s efforts to negotiate 
a 
new 
contract 
with 
the 
University.
LEO President Ian Robinson 
said when the union dropped 
off 
similar 
messages 
two 
weeks ago, Philbert responded 
through an associate and said 
“he wasn’t impressed by that.” 
Union members doubled their 

efforts, leaving more letters 
outside Philbert’s office.
“We came here to deliver 
messages to the provost,” he 
said. “We knew in advance, we 
had been told he wouldn’t be 
here, so we decided we would 
come here and just stay for a 
little just to demonstrate our 
seriousness because this is a 
very, very important matter. 
The term is coming to an end 
and this is the last day of the 
contract, but we’re not going 
away. 
We’re 
determined 
to 
make a breakthrough.”
Representing 
nearly 
1,700 
non-tenure-track 
faculty 
members across the University’s 
three 
campuses, 
LEO 
has 
prioritized 
higher 
wages, 
improved equity adjustments 
and 
enhanced 
benefits 
throughout 
the 
bargaining 
process, 
which 
began 
last 

semester and nearly resulted 
in a walkout earlier this month. 
Union members have blamed 
a lack of “political will” on the 
part 
of 
the 
administration, 
including 
the 
provost, 
for 
stalemates in negotiations.
University Provost Philbert 
did not respond to a request for 
a comment.
LEO’s 
current 
contract 
expires Friday, April 20, but 
the terms of that contract will 
remain in effect until either 
LEO or the University decides to 
end it. Should one of the parties 
involved announce that it no 
longer wants the contract to 
continue, the agreement would 
officially end 30 days later.
Robinson 
said 
several 
more bargaining sessions are 
scheduled before the current 
academic term ends on Monday, 
April 30.

“That’s 
an 
important 
deadline,” 
Robinson 
said. 
“If we don’t come up with 
an agreement that we can 
recommend to our members 
by that time, we can’t sign a 
tentative agreement under our 
LEO constitution until the fall 
when our members return. If we 
wanna get this thing resolved 
before fall, we have to do it by 
the end of this month.”
According 
to 
Robinson, 
LEO’s bargaining team can 
schedule more sessions with the 
University if necessary.
“I actually don’t believe we 
need a whole lot of meetings to 
resolve the remaining issues,” 
Robinson said. “Mainly, they’re 
just about amounts of money. 
Either you are willing to pay the 
money or you’re not, and if you 
are willing to pay it, it doesn’t 
take very long to figure out how 

to do that.”
Salary has been a particularly 
controversial issue throughout 
negotiations. 
Currently, 
the 
minimum starting salary for 
a lecturer is $34,500 in Ann 
Arbor, $28,300 in Dearborn 
and $27,300 in Flint. Union 
leadership 
called 
off 
a 
potential strike only after the 
administration 
offered 
an 
increase of more than $10,000 
to the starting salary in Ann 
Arbor and more than $8,700 in 
Flint and Dearborn.
In 
an 
email, 
University 
spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen 
wrote, 
“The 
university 
continues to bargain in good 
faith this afternoon and next 
week with LEO.”
Lecturers staged the sit-
in after holding a block party 
in Regents’ Plaza to thank 
students and other allies for 

their 
support. 
Some 
LEO 
members 
voiced 
concern 
that 
with 
students 
leaving 
campus, the union’s bargaining 
campaign could suffer a loss of 
momentum.
Margot 
Finn, 
a 
lecturer 
in 
American 
culture 
and 
University courses, said she 
hopes the support LEO has 
enjoyed 
from 
students 
and 
allies continues.
“It is hard to organize on 
college campuses because of the 
ebb and flow of the semesters,” 
Finn 
said. 
“I 
think 
LEO 
members will continue showing 
up and I think a lot of the 
community 
allies, 
especially 
tenure-track faculty, will. I’ve 
seen so much commitment from 
the students, and I hope that 
continues into the fall. It’s just 
hard to predict the future.”

LEAH GRAHAM
Daily Staff Reporter

Greene and Baer of MVision 
win CSG executive positions

Public Policy junior Daniel 
Greene and LSA sophomore 
Izzy Baer will serve as 
the 2018-19 University of 
Michigan Central Student 
Government president and 
vice president, respectively, 
according to election results 
released late Friday evening. 
Representatives running on 
their ticket, MVision, also 
won a plurality of seats in 
the assembly.
Greene 
and 
Baer 
defeated the second-place 
MomentUM party executive 
candidates, 
Engineering 
junior A.J. Ashman and LSA 
junior Charlie Bingham, by 
a margin of 1,512 votes— 
more than 77 percent more 
votes.
Business 
junior 
Arathi 
Sabada and LSA sophomore 
Marianne Drysdale of the 
True Blue party came in 
third 
with 
1,464 
votes. 
Reggie Bee, a corgi known 
around 
the 
University 
campus, 
finished 
fourth 
with 1,403 votes, eMpower 
— headed by Public Health 
senior Lloyd Lyons and LSA 
sophomore Frank Guzman 
— tallied 771 votes and LSA 
junior Sujay Shetty and Law 
student Matthew Williams 
of aMplify came in sixth. 
Student turnout measured 
at 23.9 percent, an increase 
from last year’s 17.9 percent.
Friday’s results are still 
unofficial, as the body’s 

election commission has yet 
to certify results. 
Reggie Bee, the corgi, 
placed 
fourth. 
However, 
he 
is 
ineligible 
to 
hold 
office and was disqualified. 
Controversy 
grew 
on 
social media meme pages 
about whether votes were 
wasted on Reggie, with the 
popular 
dog’s 
Facebook 
page even urging students 
to cast ballots for eligible 

candidates.
The 
MVision 
platform 
focused 
on 
increasing 
resources 
for 
Counseling 
and Psychological Services 
and 
the 
Sexual 
Assault 
Prevention and Awareness 
Center. Greene and Baer 
expressed that these goals, 
and the entirety of their 
platform, 
was 
rooted 
in 
direct experience. In the 
same vein, the two hope to 

bring attention and support 
to 
those 
experiencing 
oppression 
from 
their 
“invisible 
identities.” 
During the campaign, the 
ticket also advocated for 
monthly 
town 
halls 
and 
open dialogues in response 
to immediate “high impact” 
events on campus.
Prior 
to 
running 
for 
executive 
office, 
Greene 
and Baer both served in 
representative roles in CSG, 
with Baer acting as the 
assembly’s vice speaker in 
the winter semester. 
Greene said he thought 
there were many valuable 
ideas 
in 
other 
party’s 
platforms which he would 
work to include in his own 
agenda as president.
“I think that what I’m 
doing in this coming week 
is 
bridging 
relationships 
with the other candidates 
and parties. I want to make 
sure that their voices aren’t 
lost,” Greene said. “They 
bring a lot of institutional 
knowledge and opportunity 
and phenomenal platform 
points that, although they 
weren’t a part of necessarily 
the 
MVision 
platform, 
they 
definitely 
speak 
to 
student concerns on our 
campus, 
and 
regardless 
of what platform I ran on, 
those 
parties 
and 
those 
candidates brought ideas to 
the table that should not be 
dismissed based upon the 
election victory.”

RIYAH BASHA & 
SOPHIE SHERRY
Managing News Editors

Revised sexual misconduct 
policy redefines harassment

The University of Michigan 
is 
updating 
their 
policy 
and 
procedures on Student Sexual 
and 
Gender-Based 
Misconduct 
and Other Forms of Interpersonal 
Violence in accordance with the 
policy’s annual review. E. Royster 
Harper, vice president for Student 
Life, announced the policy changes 
via email to students and faculty 
Thursday.
According to the email, the 
University is required to hold the 
annual review to consider existing 
policies and make revisions as 
needed. 
The 
University 
and 
representatives from the Office of 
Student Conflict Resolution, the 
Office for Institutional Equity, the 
Sexual Assault Prevention and 
Awareness Center and the Office 
of the Vice President and General 
Counsel conducted the review.
The definition of gender-based 
harassment will be changed to 
include the resolution of harassment 
cases that intersect with other 
federally protected identities such 
as race, national origin, disability 
or veteran status. The definition of 
intimate partner violence has been 
revised as well to emphasize that 
the University believes emotional 
abuse is a reoccurring behavior and 
not an isolated incident.
In an effort to improve the 
sanctioning process, cases that used 
to be heard by a voluntary board 
of OIE and OSCR-trained faculty, 
staff and student representatives 
will now be heard by professional 
OSCR staff. This approach will 
reportedly ensure professionals 

with significant training will be 
responsible for determining proper 
sanctions.
Rackham 
student 
Kamaria 
Porter, who currently serves on 
the 
sanctioning 
board, 
wrote 
in an email she understood the 
volunteer board may have been 
an unsustainable process due to 
competing schedules and the large 
time commitment of case review 
sessions.
“Being on the board is a huge, 
unpaid 
time 
commitment,” 
Porter wrote. “It includes reading 
sometimes hundreds of pages, 
deliberating for hours, and follow 
up emails. In addition, we had an 
8 hour training. Sometimes things 
come up and board members 
can’t be available. That model 
doesn’t seem sustainable in terms 
of securing volunteers who are 
already deeply involved in a 
professional job, serving as faculty, 
or pursuing a degree full time. 
Finally, the option of mediation 
between an accuser and the 
respondent is now available in cases 
of non-penetrative sexual assault.
Last week, OIE released its 
annual report on prohibited student 
conduct, 
which 
found 
sexual 
misconduct reports increased by 
40 percent from 2016.
In addition to Harper’s email, 
the University also released a 
statement in the University Record. 
Pamela Heatile, the University’s 
Title IX coordinator and senior 
director of OIE, said these policy 
revisions both make the document 
more comprehensible and assist in 
the resolution of gender and sexual 
misconduct cases.
“We are confident that these 

changes will make the policy and 
procedures clearer and easier to 
understand, while also addressing 
some important changes that are 
significant to the adjudication of 
these cases,” Heatlie said.
According 
to 
the 
U.S. 
Department of Education website, 
Title IX states, “No person shall, 
on the basis of sex, be excluded 
from participation in, be denied 
the benefits of, or be subjected 
to 
discrimination 
under 
any 
education program or activity 
receiving 
Federal 
financial 
assistance.” In accordance with 
Title IX, any applicable institution 
is required to hold a self-evaluation 
as a guarantee that the institution 
is actively working to eliminate 
gender-based discrimination.
In the past, the University 
has been investigated by the U.S. 
Department of Education for their 
handling of a sexual misconduct 
case in 2014. The University was 
later criticized by students for 
failing to release reports of the 
investigation.
In collaboration with the Obama 
administration, the DOE’s Office 
for Civil Rights released a “Dear 
Colleague” letter to universities 
in 2011 as a commitment to Title 
IX, which obligated universities to 
respond to sexual assault claims 
promptly. 
However, 
activists 
now fear much of the progress 
which was accomplished under 
former President Obama will be 
reversed by current U.S. Secretary 
of Education Betsy DeVos and the 
Trump administration.

RACHEL LEUNG
Daily Staff Reporter

Reggie Bee, a 
corgi known 
around the 
University 
campus finished 
fourth with 1,403 

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Fall 2018 — 1C
UNIVERSITY
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

