for the first time,” the complaint
read. “Indeed, in many cases, these
laws have resulted in a chilling
effect that has kept eligible young
voters in Michigan from voting
and registering to vote entirely
due to widespread confusion about
the laws’ requirements and legal
effects.”
Marc Elias, a partner at Perkins
Coie, is one of the plaintiff’s
lawyers. Elias, who served as
general counsel to Hillary Clinton’s
2016 presidential campaign, also
represented a group of college
students
in
Florida
in
their
successful suit to remove a ban on
early voting on college campuses. It
was the first time a judge ruled that
a policy constituted discrimination
under the 26th Amendment.
Ingham County Clerk Barb
Byrum supported the plaintiffs
in the suit, declaring in a press
release Michigan has “some of the
toughest and unnecessary voting
restrictions in the country.”
“These restrictions have had a
devastating impact on the ability
of students voters to exercise
their right to vote for more than a
decade,” Byrum wrote.
MSU student Eli Pales, president
of
MSU’s
College
Democrats,
addressed specific ways the suit
files believe the aforementioned
laws negatively impact voters on
their campus. Pales said the “First
Time/In-Person
Requirement”
directly inhibits students who
moved long distances to attend
MSU from voting in their home
precincts.
“This is obviously a huge
detriment to a lot of students who
registered at home, maybe at a
high school registration drive or
whatever it is, come to Michigan
State University and can’t vote
unless they drive home,” Pales
said. “Here at Michigan State
University, for the first year, you’re
not allowed to have a car on campus
which essentially means if you’re
registered at home and you need to
get home to vote, you need a parent
to come to the University, pick you
up, bring you back to vote, and then
drop you back off which would take
hours and hours of a parent’s day.”
Public
Policy
senior
Kellie
Lounds,
president
of
U-M’s
College Democrats, agreed, adding
that in addition to the logistical
hurdles the laws placed in the
way of student voters, they made
the
process
confusing,
which
ultimately discourages voting.
“I myself have encountered
complications while registering
voters in seeing other students
be unsure as to whether they
can actually register with their
campus addresses and what the
consequences of changing their
driver’s
license
address
are,”
Lounds wrote in an email to
The Daily. “It’s a fairly common
confusion and this law makes it
unnecessarily complex for students
to exercise their right to vote.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, September 4, 2018 — 3A
will be prepared for key senior
roles in a variety of governmental
institutions and public agencies,
in the non-public sector and in the
private sector as well.”
The 33-credit degree will be
open to individuals with five or
more years of experience in public
administration, government affairs,
the military or the nonprofit sector.
The Public Policy School has
developed new courses specifically
for this program, in addition, these
MPA students will enroll in courses
which are part of the school’s
current Master of Public Policy
program, including Economics for
Public Affairs and Leadership in
Public Affairs. In order to complete
the degree, students must also
complete a capstone project for a
client. The new program builds
upon the former Master of Public
Administration
by
combining
the previous degree’s focus on
analytical policy analysis with
new curriculums for public and
nonprofit entity management.
This
curriculum,
combined
with a faculty of experts in fields
ranging from economics to social
work, will focus on refining the
skills of professionals in the field
and prepare them for leadership
positions within and outside of the
government.
“The new degree program builds
upon the strengths of the Master
of Public Administration degree
while providing some new and
innovative learning opportunities
that are tailored to experienced
professionals,” Barr wrote. “We are
grateful to our alumni of the Master
of Public Administration degree for
their input as we develop this new
program.”
Paula
Lantz,
professor
and
associate dean for academic affairs
at the Public Policy School, said
the school decided to update their
program to strengthen it and
broaden their reach to domestic and
international students.
“The impetus behind this new
degree was the desire to strengthen
our reduced-credit master’s degree
offering for people with significant
work experience,” Lantz said. “We
are very excited about this new
degree offering, which we believe
will attract people with work
experience and an interest in public
affairs around the world.”
Lantz
explained
the
new
program has the potential to expand
into an executive learning format.
“Eventually we are going to
take this degree into an executive
format which will combine online
and in-person learning,” Lantz
said. “In the future, it will also be
in an executive format and will be
available to people working full-
time.”
Lantz said though this program
is one of at least seven other Master
of Public Administration degrees in
Michigan, the Public Policy School
will be the only Master of Public
Affairs in Michigan and one of few
in the country.
said Potts made reference to her
breasts, saying she was “blessed,”
and used the N-word. In an earlier
instance, when she was 14, Held
said Potts prohibited her father
from being present in the room
during a piercing, though nothing
else inappropriate occurred.
“I’m very involved in the body
modification
community
in
general, and I want that to be a very
safe place, and it’s not with this guy
being in business,” Held said. “So,
my biggest goal is I obviously don’t
want him to be piercing in Ann
Arbor or anywhere, so making
sure –– keeping tabs on where he
goes next is probably my biggest
thing that I wanna focus on.”
University doctorate student
Abby Lamb also said he brought
up
topics
she
considered
inappropriate
during
the
procedure.
“JC started out with polite,
normal small talk about my
work,” Lamb said. “But as soon
as he discovered I’m a genetics
researcher he started going on
about ‘the genetic correlation
between aggression and skin
pigment,’ which is complete non-
scientific nonsense peddled by
white supremacists to justify their
views.”
Lamb emphasized Potts put her
in a “creepy and uncomfortable
situation,”
where
she
didn’t
feel like she could respond to or
challenge his beliefs.
“He was in the process of
changing
my
piercing
when
this came up, and I didn’t feel
comfortable or safe objecting
while he was handling my facial
piercing,” Lamb explained. “He
basically took advantage of my
vulnerability and his position of
relative power to both mansplain
my field of research to me while
trying to preach that dark skinned
people are naturally violent.”
Following
the
viral
posts,
protesters showed up at Pangea
Piercing
with
printed
copies
of victim statements and signs
accusing Potts of being a Nazi. Potts
then posted a video statement to
Pangea Piercing’s official Youtube
channel defending his views and
announcing the business’s closing.
“I’ve talked about challenging
topics and for the ultra-sensitive
activist types, I’m sure that I
can sound like some ‘Trumpian’
figure,” Potts said in his statement.
“With a little twist and some
embellishment, it might finally be
the ‘actual racism’ that Ann Arbor
has been so desperately searching
for.”
Since Potts confirmed the
business would be closing, Jessica
Prozinski,
a
founder
of
the
grassroots activist organization
Stop Trump Ann Arbor, has talked
with people from local businesses
like Gamma Piercing and Eternal
Ink about opening a new piercing
gallery or tattoo parlor in the
space.
“Initially I was thinking it
would be cool if it was another
piercing place with an owner that
would be almost the reverse,”
Prozinski said. “Obviously we
don’t have the legal power to
decide what goes next there, but
socially we have a lot of power.”
Stop Trump Ann Arbor is
also proposing additions to the
Association
of
Professional
Piercers’ “Piercee’s Bill of Rights,”
which would assert that people
undergoing piercing procedures
have the right to not be sexualized
or otherwise objectified in the
piercing environment, and to have
a friend or relative present in the
same room during the piercing.
“The person I talked to was
shocked that J.C. discouraged
people from having somebody
come into the piercing room with
them, including, in at least two
cases, minor women,” Prozinski
said.
According to Potts, his own
career “is over.” In his video
statement,
however,
Potts
indicated
he
would
continue
posting videos to Youtube to
discuss the topics surrounding his
allegations.
“I’ve said quite a few times
that I wish we, as white people,
could ever have anything like
representation for our interests
that wasn’t Richard Spencer or
David Duke,” he said. “Well, my
career is over, so I will not be
bringing you any more piercing
content, but seeing as how I guess
some of these conversations need
to happen, then I guess we’ll be
probably checking in with more
videos in the future, just definitely
not on this channel.”
Prozinski said the video made
her worry Potts might try to turn
himself “into some sort of white
nationalist figure.”
Potts
has
also
threatened
legal action against some of the
customers who have made claims
against him, though Prozinski and
Held don’t believe the threats are
serious. Replying to the original
viral tweet, Held posted an eight-
second video sent to her by another
customer, in which Potts can
be heard saying, “A lot of really
powerful folks out there doing
what they can to convince white
folks not to breed. Okay? And if
they do, breed with a black man…”
In response, Potts tweeted,
“RELEASE THE REST OF THE
VIDEO OR LAWYER UP. This is
part of a 2 minute monologue that
I KNEW YOU WERE FILMING. I
remember you guys.”
Held
said
the
situation
reminded her of another in which
dozens of people accused Detroit-
area tattoo artist Alex Boyko of
sexual assault and harassment.
Boyko then filed a defamation suit
against another tattoo artist who
he said was responsible for the
flood of accusations.
Last month was not the first
time Potts’s behavior has been
called into question, however.
Yelp reviews dating back as
far as 2010 describe Potts as
“bizarrely rude,” “shady,” and
“intimidating,”
recommending
future customers avoid him.
Several reviews also indicate
customers experienced Potts as
being racist. In a review from
April 13, 2010, a customer wrote,
“... my best friend told me that
while she was there she heard
the owner and one of the piercers
guffawing over the fact that the
piercer had messed with a couple
of Indian women who had come
in recently.”
PANGEA
From Page 1A
MASTERS
From Page 1A
LAWSUIT
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