be an ambassador for the 
importance 
of 
faculty 
governance,” 
Beatty 
told 
the assembly. “People aren’t 
always aware of what we do, 
so thank you for being here 
and for standing up for faculty 
governance.”
Later, 
the 
assembly 
discussed 
potential 
improvements to their current 
execution of meetings and 
potential 
guests 
to 
invite 
to their future assemblies. 
Members noted a disconnect 
between the administration 
and 
the 
Senate 
Assembly, 
except when the University 
needs the faculty in times of 
crisis.
David 
Potter, 
secretary 
of the Faculty Senate and a 
professor 
at 
U-M 
Ann 
Arbor, cited the instances 
of white nationalist Richard 
Spencer’s efforts to speak on 
the University’s Ann Arbor 
campus 
earlier 
this 
year, 

stressing the importance of 
collaboration 
between 
the 
University 
administration 
and Senate Faculty to unite 
in these instances instead of 
divide.
“I think that the ideal is 
to create a dialogue between 
faculty and the administration 

through these organs of the 
Senate, without waiting for 
a crisis to take place,” Potter 
said. “The University works 
better when they’re actually 

listening to the community.”
The 
meeting 
continued 
with the introductions of two 
resolutions. Sarah Lippert, an 
associate professor at U-M 
Flint, proposed a resolution 
to create a permanent tri-
campus committee within the 
Senate Assembly. Within the 
three campuses, differences 
in interpretations of various 
policy documents and a lack 
of communication between 
each campus present issues 
in terms of relaying accurate 
information to all faculty. 
The committee will serve 
as a central repository for 
all 
policy 
documents 
and 
resources 
across 
campuses 
and standardize explanations 
of 
such 
documents 
to 
prevent 
confusion 
and 
miscommunication within the 
entire University.
As stated in the resolution, 
if 
passed, 
the 
committee 
will aim “to consider points 
of interest... such as those 
that relate to the relationship 
between the three campuses 
or 
policies 
across 
the 

institution.”
“One of the needs that 
the 
tri-campus 
task 
force 
identified was that it would 
be really helpful to have a 
permanent group that people 
could refer to when there are 
interpretation issues,” Lippert 
said. “It would be a committee 
that looks at things relevant to 
faculty across the institution, 
not at local governance below 
that.”
An ad hoc Tri Campus 
Taskforce 
already 
exists 
in 
faculty 
governance 
after the Senate Advisory 
Committee 
on 
University 
Affairs 
voted 
to 
reinstate 
the body last fall, hoping 
to improve communication 
between the three campuses. 
In April, members of Flint’s 
Faculty Council penned a 
letter opposing the creation 
of a standing Tri Campus 
taskforce due to a lack of 
clarity on the proposed body’s 
jurisdiction. 
The meeting closed with 
another resolution introduced 
to the assembly, touching 

on current issues regarding 
quorum and the allowance 
of electronic voting during 
Senate Assembly meetings. 
Scott 
Masten, 
rules 
chair 
and professor at the Ross 
School of Business, mentioned 
that since 2004, there have 
only been quorums at three 
Faculty Senate meetings. The 
meetings in which quorum 
was reached occurred only 
during meetings related to 
tenure, course evaluations and 
other issues closely related to 
the faculty. Quorum for the 
Faculty Senate is 100 out of 
the 3,000 total members.
This 
continued 
lack 
of 
participation is partially due 
to the fact that most faculty 
confuses the Faculty Senate 
with the Senate Assembly, 
a 
much 
smaller 
body 
of 
University representatives.
“Most faculty don’t know 
they’re on the Senate,” Masten 
said. “People don’t understand 
that they’re actually Senate 
members.”

take a long time to discompose 
and harm surrounding areas for 
longer periods of time.
Steglitz said a do-not-eat foam 
warning for the Huron River 
would be issued soon.
We’ve 
provided 
some 
communication to council on the 
issue of foam in the river recently, 
and that is something that is going 
to be coming out in the next couple 
days, is there will be a do-not-eat 
the foam amended to the existing 
fish 
advisory 
notifications,” 
Steglitz said.
PFAS 
levels 
in 
Michigan’s 
public drinking water systems 
are not regulated, and while 
there is a federally designated 
“health advisory level” of PFAS 
in drinking water of 70 parts-per-
trillion, it is not an enforceable 
guideline, 
meaning 
there 
is 
no 
court-mandated 
cleanup 
standards cities and governments 
have to follow.
City Council’s meeting also 
included discussions on other 
topics including a proposal for the 
formation of a police oversight 
board, which was debated during 
a work session at City Hall in 
March. Since then, City Council 
has 
fielded 
recommendations 
from 
citizens 
about 
the 
organization and content of the 
board. Members of the citizen task 
force that drafted the proposal 
argued recommendations made 
by Lazarus would undermine the 
oversight board’s independence. 
Councilmember 
Sumi 
Kailasapathy, 
D-Ward 
1, 
said 
she and fellow Councilmembers 

Jack Eaton, D-Ward 4, and Anne 
Bannister, D-Ward 1, would bring 
forward the task force’s proposal 
at the next City Council meeting 
Oct. 1. Kailasapathy said it was 
“what the residents want from 
us.”
“I take it as my duty to put 
forward the ordinance written 
out by the task force,” she said.
City 
Council 
also 
passed 
a 
resolution 
setting 
aside 
$351,670 for a comprehensive 
transportation plan update from 
Sam Schwartz Engineering DPC. 
The plan would ask Sam Schwartz 
Engineering DPC to recommend 
implementation 
methods 
for 
multimodal 
transportation 
systems with the hopes of zero 
fatalities on the road.
Councilmember 
Zachary 
Ackerman, D-Ward 3, supported 
the resolution.
“For those of you have driven 
in Ann Arbor at the rush hours 
may use the term gridlock from 
time to time,” he said. “I actually 
found out that the term gridlock 
was first coined by the consultant 
we’re hiring. He for many years 
was a senior traffic planner for 
the city of New York, bringing a 
lot of traffic congestion solutions 
to 
neighborhoods, 
improving 
quality of life, as well as taking 
an incredibly progressive and 
forward-thinking approach to his 
practice, as to how do we deal with 
pedestrians and cyclists in our 
public right of way to ensure that 
they are safe when surrounded by 
cars.”
Eaton 
voted 
against 
the 
resolution, arguing it was “an 
inappropriate use” of money.
“This is $351,000 we could 
be using for actual pedestrian 
improvements, on street lighting, 
on 
(rapid 
flashing 
beacons), 
signage at some of the roundabouts 
that are poorly marked at best for 
pedestrians,” he said.

The Michigan Daily — www.michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, September 18, 2018 — 3

RECL AIMING R ACIST NAMES

“Most faculty 
don’t know 
they’re on 
the Senate.
People don’t 
understand that 
they’re actually...
members” 

“Separate from 
the project, 
the university 
is pursuing 
renewable 
energy options” 

ALICE LIU/Daily
LSA professor Matthew Countryman speaks on issues of free speech and hate speech at a panel and discussion session hosted by A/PIA studies and WeListen at Hatcher Graduate Library 
Monday evening. 

legal right to block websites, 
to throttle online services or 
censor online content.”
Rosenworcel 
emphasized 
the importance of the non-
discriminatory protections of 
net neutrality, which ensured 
broadband 
providers 
could 
not treat the traffic on their 
networks differently based on 
source or content. In order to 
illustrate the meaning of non-
discrimination 
protections, 
Rosenworcel 
compared 
old telephone networks to 
internet providers.
“Think 
back 
to 
the 
basic 
telephone 
network,” 
Rosenworcel said. “It is a 
given that if you went to a 
wired phone on a wall, you 
could call whoever you want. 
The telephone company can’t 
decide you can’t call that 
person, nor can they go in 
and edit your conversation. In 
other words, you have a non-
discriminatory right to make 

that phone call — it’s up to 
you.”
To provide insight to the 
other side of the aisle, Bernard 
asked Rosenworcel to provide 
a “steel man” instead of a 
“straw man” argument for her 
opposition.
“We want our broadband 
providers to experiment and 
come up with package plans 
that 
serve 
everyone, 
and 
making revenue from online 
platforms is an important 
part of that mix, or setting 
up services that only allow 
people to reach small portions 
of the internet could create 
more and different packages,” 
Rosenworcel said. “We want 
them to have that freedom to 
experiment.”
Though 
Rosenworcel 
provided the statement, she 
quickly 
added 
she 
could 
refute what she had just said. 
Rosenworcel said her support 
of net neutrality protections 
would be questionable if the 
broadband provider market 
was competitive, but that is 
currently not the case.

“I believe you need less 
oversight 
if 
you 
have 
a 
competitive 
marketplace,” 
Rosenworcel 
said. 
“Competitive 
marketplaces 
are 
themselves 
the 
best 
regulator of activity. But when 
you look at the broadband 
provider 
marketplace, 
according 
to 
the 
FCC’s 
own data, about half of the 
American public does not 
have a choice of broadband 
provider.”
Opponents to net neutrality 
claim the protections hamper 
business 
and 
innovation. 
However, Rosenworcel insists the 
opposite is true. Since broadband 
providers are no longer legally 
obligated to treat their internet 
traffic 
equally, 
Rosenworcel 
said 
small 
businesses 
could 
experience adverse effects.
“They have the right to 
go to any entrepreneur or 
creator that wants to put 
something online, and say, 
‘Hey if you want to reach that 
customer, you have to pay us a 
toll,’” Rosenworcel said.
As an engineer possibly 

interested 
in 
government 
work, 
Business 
and 
Engineering 
sophomore 
Amulya 
Parmar 
found 
Rosenworcel’s 
comments 
on entrepreneurs especially 
important, 
as 
he 
himself 
started a small web-hosting 
business in high school.
“To me this net neutrality 
conversation is important,” 
Parmar said. “It epitomizes 
that I was, even as a high 
school student, able to build 
my own internet company.”
Gloria and Wayne Baker 
attended 
Rosenworcel’s 
policy 
talk 
because 
their 
hometown 
— 
Manchester, 
Michigan — recently voted 
overwhelmingly against an 
initiative to bring broadband 
internet to the community. 
Installing broadband internet 
would have charged residents 
based on how much land 
they own, so people with 
large 
farms 
generally 
did 
not support the initiative. 
The Bakers rely on satellite 
internet 
access, 
which 
is 
typically 
slower 
than 

broadband internet.
“People 
who 
had 
more 
money had access to pay for 
Wi-Fi as much as they wanted, 
and those people who had 
more money also had larger 
land, so they would have been 
charged more for it,” Gloria 
said.
Rosenworcel is known for 
coining the term “homework 
gap,” referring to the lack 
of internet access for many 
low-income 
and 
rural 
students to complete their 
schoolwork. 
Wayne 
said 
other Manchester residents 
suggested simply waiting for 
5G, a faster satellite internet 
service, instead of installing 
broadband internet. However, 
waiting for the upgrade could 
take years.
“The problem with that is 
5G is not tomorrow, it’s years 
and years away,” Wayne said. 
“So in the interim, what can 
people with young families 
do whose kids need to do 
homework and don’t have 
access to good internet speeds 
to do that?”

ATTENDANCE
From Page 1

RIVER
From Page 1

FCC
From Page 1

the word “slant” to present the 
band’s perspective, or slant, on 
life as people of color in the en-
tertainment industry. She reiter-
ated a question Tam brought up 
in his lecture the week before.
“The question he really put 
forward in his concert last 
week is ‘Shouldn’t a commu-
nity really have the right to 
name itself?’” Stillman said. 
The 
panelists’ 
presenta-
tions went beyond The Slants 
case with panelists discussing 
their own areas of specialty. 
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, 
an associate professor in the 

American Culture Department 
who specializes in LGBTQ and 
Hispanic 
Caribbean 
studies, 
spoke about examples of re-
claiming derogatory terms such 
as “queer.” Law professor Leon-
ard Niehoff discussed the legal 
complexities of the case. Beth-
any Hughes, an assistant pro-
fessor in the American Culture 
Department who focuses on 
Native American studies, talked 
about the infamous Washing-
ton Redskins football team.
The Redskins, Niehoff noted, 
are an example of a group ben-
efitting from the Supreme Court 
decision and are not reclaiming 
a hate term for empowerment 
purposes. 
Niehoff 
explained 
how other organizations too, 

like the Ku Klux Klan, could po-
tentially use this case to trade-
mark hate speech of their own.
“The 
First 
Amendment 
has a kind of fearful symme-
try to it,” Niehoff said. “What-
ever you get on one side, you 
get on the other side as well.”
Building on this idea, Mat-
thew Countryman, an associate 
professor of American Culture, 
noted how the meaning and 
intent of a disparaging word al-
ters based on which side is us-
ing it, specifically focusing on 
the use of the n-word in white 
and Black communities. He also 
discussed 
further 
complexi-
ties within the Black commu-
nity about whether the n-word 
should be used at all, recalling 

a debate between two great 
African-American thinkers dur-
ing his freshman year of college.
“I have this very distinct 
memory when I was a col-
lege freshman of... the African-
American literary community 
arguing about the word,” Coun-
tryman said. “(We argued) about 
whether or not it was evidence 
of the power of a kind of inter-
nalized self-hatred in the Black 
community or whether it was 
proof of a sense of masculine 
solidarity in those communi-
ties. It’s always a contested 
question, whether or not it’s 
possible to reclaim the word.”
Following the panelists’ pre-
sentations, WeListen split at-
tendees into dialogue groups 

to discuss the issue. LSA senior 
Eli Rachlin, a leader of WeL-
isten, talked about the impor-
tance of The Slants case and 
how he hopes the discussion 
will delve into deeper themes.
“It pertains in a lot of way 
to that Supreme Court case, 
but also in a broader sense 
just the idea of reclaim-
ing 
derogatory 
terms, 
which shows up in many 
situations,” 
Rachlin 
said.
LSA 
freshman 
Zhehao 
Tong said as an international 
student, he has much to learn 
about reclaiming hate terms. 

RECLAIMING
From Page 2

Read more at 
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